Corrections or additions?
This article by Pete Mladineo was published in U.S. 1 Newspaper
on April 29, 1998. All rights reserved.
Film
Princeton and Philadelphia have a few things in common:
Ivy League schools, historic sites, and Paul Robeson. The athlete,
singer, actor, and sometime movie star (he withdrew from movies for
political reasons) was born in Princeton in 1898 and died in Philadelphia
in 1976.
Something that Princeton and Philadelphia don’t share, though, is
a place that actively shows international films. Princeton’s only
art house — the Montgomery Cinema — pretty much stopped showing
international films in 1996. But in Philadelphia, the foreign flicks
come hard and fast. This year’s Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema
opens on Wednesday, April 29, at the Annenberg Center with a party
and screening of "TwentyFourSeven," Shane Meadows’ meditation
on self-control starring Bob Hoskins.
It will also showcase Robeson’s work on the screen, commemorating
his hundredth birthday. They are each screened at the International
House, 3701 Chestnut Street. "Body & Soul" plays on Monday,
May 4, at 7:30 p.m. "The Emperor Jones" is screened on Saturday,
May 9, at 1:15 p.m., and "Jericho" plays on Sunday, May 3,
at 7 p.m.
Foreign flicks come to New Jersey for the Rutgers Film Co-Op’s New
Jersey International Film Festival, which begins in New Brunswick
on Friday, May 29. The Philadelphia fest is larger, and more international
than the New Jersey up-and-comer. In 12 short days there are 29 full-length
foreign films screening in Philadelphia (that’s not counting the independent
shorts or the American flicks), while New Brunswick’s festival shows
18 films not made in the U.S.A.
Philadelphia’s foreign films hail from such places as Chile, the Netherlands,
Honk Kong, Tibet, Bosnia, Ireland, and Romania. Human rights gets
a mini-spotlight at this year’s festival. For instance, "Frozen,"
an independent film by anonymous director Wu Ming, was smuggled out
of China. It’s about a performance artist in Beijing who makes his
own suicide his final work (Wednesday, May 6, at 9:15 p.m, or Thursday,
May 7, 8:15 p.m. at the Ritz at the Bourse). "Chile, Obstinate
Memory," Patricio Guzman’s film about Chilean amnesia, screens
on Wednesday, May 6, 5:30 p.m. and Thursday, May 7, 10:30 p.m. at
the Ritz at the Bourse.
This year’s fest will also showcase works of independent film and
video makers in the Philadelphia area, as well as spotlight Good Machine,
the U.S. company that produced titles such as "The Ice Storm,"
"The Wedding Banquet," "The Brothers McMullen," and
"The Sticky Fingers of Time." There will also be an homage
to Robert Lepage, the Quebecois director of "Needles and Opium,"
"Seven Streams," and "Elsinore."
Film critic Roger Ebert (of Siskel & Ebert) will provide an analysis
of the movie he considers to be the best of all time: Martin Scorsese’s
"Raging Bull," starring Al Pacino. This begins with a full
showing of the movie on Thursday, April 30, 6 p.m., at the International
House, and continues with three frame-by-frame discussions of the
film, led by Ebert, on consecutive days. The closing event is a Cajun
music concert by the Savoy-Smith Band, on Saturday, May 9, at 9 p.m.,
at the International House.
29 through Sunday, May 10. Single tickets cost $7; five-packs are
$30; and an all-festival pass is $125. For advance tickets call the
UpStages box office at 215-569-9700. Call the hotline at 800-969-7392,
or check its website, http://www.libertynet.org/ihouse.
Kresge Auditorium, Princeton University, 609-683-1101. In the Company
of Men , April 29, 7:30 p.m.
Top Of Page
Mainstream Flicks
Confirm titles with theaters.
misanthrope, lays on the charm, wins best actor. Helen Hunt, waitress,
falls, wins best actress. Mercer, Regal.
Mercer, Regal.
for Meg Ryan, cardiothoracic surgeon. Mercer, Montgomery, Regal.
meets bereaved Mork in Oscar-winning screenplay by Damon and Ben Affleck.
MarketFair, Regal.
and Olivia Newton-John comes back for a reprise in the ’90s. Whoa.
Mercer, Regal.
but put this writer to sleep. With Danny DeVito. East Windsor.
life with Gary Oldman, William Hurt, and Mimi Rogers. MarketFair,
Montgomery, Regal.
really bad team. Phillies? MarketFair, Regal.
dad to autistic savant Alec Baldwin. Mercer, Regal.
Lane and Lee Evans. East Windsor.
framed at the morgue. MarketFair.
truth in cross-country epic; with Gina Rowlands, Cheech Marin, and
Buddy Hackett. Mercer, Regal.
Royal Couple in the screen version of Joe Klein’s political parody.
MarketFair, Regal.
Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, and David Arquette. Mercer, Regal.
With Natasha Henstridge, Michael Madsen, and Marg Helgenberger. MarketFair.
Mob boss, to un-kidnap their sister. Mercer, Regal.
plays the jungle hunk. Mercer, Regal.
Nights" Wahlberg. Mercer, Regal.
with Jeff Bridges as a California beach bum. East Windsor.
a cast of Lilliputians. East Windsor.
entreats gay roomie, Paul Rudd, to raise kids. Garden, MarketFair,
Regal.
Lemon become inlaws. MarketFair, Montgomery, Regal.
on. Mercer.
No: It’s David Mamet’s modern day mystery about a plot to burgle a
corporate secret formula. Garden, Montgomery.
Drew Barrymore, Billy Idol, and the Miami Vice look. East Windsor.
director for Cameron’s teenybopper masterpiece. MarketFair, Montgomery,
Regal.
menage a trois with Heather Graham and Natasha Gregson Wagner.
MarketFair.
"schools" wet t-shirt teens. East Windsor, MarketFair.
— Peter J. Mladineo
Top Of Page
Venues
East Windsor Cinemas, Routes 130 & 571, East Windsor.
609-443-9295. $3 shows; $2.50 matinees.
Garden Theater, 160 Nassau Street, Princeton, 609-683-7595.
Kendall Park Cinemas, Route 27, Kendall Park, 732-422-2444.
Loews Theaters, Route 1 South, New Brunswick, 732-846-9200.
Stadium-seating multiplex.
MarketFair-UA, Route 1 South, 609-520-8700.
Mercer Mall General Cinemas, Route 1 and Province Line
Road, Lawrence, 609-452-2868. $7.25.
Montgomery Center Theater, Routes 206 and 518, Rocky
Hill, 609-924-7444.
Regal Cinemas Town Center, 319 Route 130 North, East
Windsor, 609-371-8470. Stadium-seating, 15-screen megaplex.
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