Directed by Aki Kaurismäki  [2011]
France,Finland / Color / French with English Subtitles
93 min; Not Rated

In this warmhearted portrait of the French harbor city that gives the film its name, fate throws young African refugee Idrissa (Blondin Miguel) into the path of Marcel Marx (André Wilms), a well-spoken bohemian who works as a shoeshiner. With innate optimism and the unwavering support of his community, Marcel stands up to officials doggedly pursuing the boy for deportation. A political fairy tale that exists somewhere between the reality of contemporary France and the classic cinema of Jean-Pierre Melville and Marcel Carné, Le Havre is a charming, deadpan delight.

“Buster Keaton isn’t dead, he’s alive and well in Finland … If the name Aki Kaurismäki doesn’t mean anything to you, it should, and Le Havre may be the film to make it happen.”
- Kenneth Turan, The Los Angeles Times

“Grade: A! A perfect, deadpan, impishly optimistic fairy tale.”
- Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly

“A stylized and sentimental fairy tale about the way the world might be … Aki Kaurismäki has become a major inheritor of the comic-humanist tradition of Charlie Chaplin, Jean Renoir and Jacques Tati.”
- A.O. Scott, The New York Times

“Four stars! There is nothing cynical or cheap about it, it tells a good story with clear eyes and a level gaze, and it just plain makes you feel good.”
- Roger Ebert, The Chicago Sun-Times

“A gem! I left the theater thinking yes, there is a God who occasionally performs miracles.”
- Former NYC Mayor Ed Koch, The Westchester Guardian

“Subversively funny.”
- Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal

“Three and-a-half stars! A utopian dream of a comedy.”
- Michael Phillips, The Chicago Tribune

“Exquisite! One of the most enjoyable pictures of the year.”
- Andrew O’Hehir, Salon

“Recommended! One of Aki Kaurismäki’s warmest, most engaging films.”
- Mark Jenkins, NPR

Aki Kaurismäki, born in 1957, grew up in “the age terrorized by television,” and has tried and managed to stick to the inseparable realities of the real world and the “deep screen” that only 35 mm film – light against electronic machinations, the beauty of artisanal tradition against technological overkill – makes possible. He has never used any other material, least of all video, and is very proud for having continued the tradition of “real cinema.”

His minimalist style is all his own (and that of the great cinematographer of all his films, Timo Salminen); he never entered the Finnish Film School (as he was suspected to be “too cynical”). At the same time, his films are full of allusions, but always invisible ones, parts of a constant dialogue wherein particles of film culture reveal realities of human environment, society and psyche: as it is now, and as it was during the tender years of Aki’s childhood.

PULP FICTION [1994]
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
USA / Color / English
Rated R; 154 min

Outrageously violent, time-twisting, and in love with language, Pulp Fiction was widely considered the most influential American movie of the 1990s. Director and co-screenwriter Quentin Tarantino synthesized such seemingly disparate traditions as the syncopated language of David Mamet; the serious violence of American gangster movies, crime movies, and films noirs mixed up with the wacky violence of cartoons, video games, and Japanese animation; and the fragmented story-telling structures of such experimental classics as Citizen Kane, Rashomon, and La jetée.

The Oscar-winning script by Tarantino and Roger Avary intertwines three stories, featuring Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta, in the role that single-handedly reignited his career, as hit men who have philosophical interchanges on such topics as the French names for American fast food products; Bruce Willis as a boxer out of a 1940s B-movie; and such other stalwarts as Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Christopher Walken, Eric Stoltz, Ving Rhames, and Uma Thurman, whose dance sequence with Travolta proved an instant classic.

• Quentin Tarantino wrote two of the three stories before he wrote Reservoir Dogs and True Romance. After the success of those films, he decided to write a third story, intending to have each segment directed by a different person.
• Quentin Tarantino wrote the role of Jules specifically for Samuel L. Jackson, however it was almost given to Paul Calderon after a great audition. When Jackson heard this, he flew to Los Angeles and auditioned again to secure the role. Calderon ended up with a small role as Paul.
• Jules’s character was originally written to have a gigantic afro, but a crewmember obtained a variety of afro wigs and one jheri curl wig. Quentin Tarantino had never thought about a jheri curl wig, but Samuel L. Jackson tried it on, Tarantino liked it, and it was kept.
• The shot of Vincent plunging the syringe into Mia’s chest was filmed by having John Travolta pull the needle out, then running the film backwards.
• The marquee where Butch boxes advertises the following fights: “Coolidge vs Wilson” and “Vossler vs Martinez”. The first is a reference to United States Presidents Calvin Coolidge and Woodrow Wilson, the second is a reference to Russell Vossler and Jerry Martinez, who are two friends of Tarantino’s from when he worked in a video store.
• When Vincent calls Lance on his cell phone, Lance is eating a bowl of Fruit Brute, a cereal from the older monster cereal family. Fruit Brute (which, along with Yummy Mummy, Frankenberry, Boo Berry, and Count Chocula, make up the monster cereals) was later discontinued, along with “Yummy Mummy.” Quentin Tarantino has held onto a box and drops it into scenes from time to time. It appeared in Reservoir Dogs, too.
• Knoxville, Tennessee, where Butch was meeting his connection and where his great-grandfather bought the gold watch, is also Quentin Tarantino’s birthplace.
• The role of Vincent Vega was written for Michael Madsen, who played the character’s brother, Vic Vega, in Reservoir Dogs, but he couldn’t do the film due to scheduling conflicts for another film.
• The word “fuck” is used 265 times.

Directed by Céline Danhier [2010]
USA / Color / English
Not rated; 95 min

BLANK CITY tells the long-overdue tale of a disparate crew of renegade filmmakers who emerged from an economically bankrupt and dangerous moment in New York history. From the late 1970′s through the mid 80′s, when the city was still a wasteland of cheap rent and cheap drugs, these directors crafted daring works that would go on to profoundly influence the development of independent film as we know it today.

BLANK CITY weaves together an oral history of the “No Wave Cinema” and “Cinema of Transgression” movements through compelling interviews with the luminaries who began it all. Featured players include acclaimed directors Jim Jarmusch and John Waters, actor-writer-director Steve Buscemi, Blondie’s Debbie Harry, hip-hop legend Fab 5 Freddy, Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, photographer Richard Kern as well as Amos Poe, James Nares, Eric Mitchell, Susan Seidelman, Beth B, Scott B, Charlie Ahearn and Nick Zedd. Fittingly, the soundtrack includes: Patti Smith, Television, Richard Hell & The Voidoids, The Contortions, The Bush Tetras, Sonic Youth and many more.

Made on shoestring budgets in collaboration with the pioneering musicians, visual artists, performers, and derelicts that ruled Downtown, the films surveyed in BLANK CITY are fitting documents of an exhilarating and unique cultural moment. This same legendary-but-fleeting period likewise birthed punk rock, hip-hop and Madonna, and brought New York City to the forefront of the international art world. Unlike the revered musical revolution of this era, this epoch of underground film has never before been chronicled.

BLANK CITY is a love letter to New York, a cultural portrait of Manhattan in the days before Reagan, big money, and gentrification forever altered the fabric of the city. Though a look back, the heart of BLANK CITY does not live in the past. In this new age of digital democracy, the maverick spirit of the New York Underground has risen again in emerging creative communities worldwide. The Do-It-Yourself ethos, audacious storytelling, and sense of urgency guiding “No Wave” and the “Cinema of Transgression” are more relevant and inspiring than ever.

“‘Blank City’ provides a vivid, vicarious tour…[Ms. Danhier] illuninates a hectic and fascinating place and time, bringing it back to life and tracing its continuing influence…”

“The point of ‘Blank City’ is neither to celebrate the ones who made it big nor to scold the sellouts. The movie aims, rather, to evoke a moment in as much detail and with as much insight as will fit into 95 minutes. In this it succeeds beautifully.”
Read more in the NYT

- A.O. Scott, New York Times

Directed by Heather D. Freeman [2011]
Not Rated; 18 min
Followed by Q & A with Director

Pennipotens (Capable of Flight) is an animated re-interpretation of the Flemish fairytale Black Caroline, White Caroline, first printed with illustrations by Edmund Dulac in 1916.

The original fairytale may be read here.

In the fairytale, a mother’s beautiful daughter is beloved by all, while her ugly daughter is shunned.  Heartbroken by the mistreatment of her ugly daughter, the mother decides to kill the beautiful daughter.  The ugly daughter loves her beautiful sister, and repeatedly foils her mother’s murderous attempts.  The imperiled daughter eventually escapes, and later the siblings are reunited and transformed.

The animation stresses the symbolism of the original fairytale. Influenced by Japanese shadow-puppets, the work uses digital cutout animation combined with hand drawn animation.

Pennipotens Production Blog: www.pennipotens.blogspot.com

Tonight’s screening is presented in partnership with The McColl Center for Visual Art.

• Best Animation at the 2011 Columbia Gorge International Film Festival (August 2011)
• Official Selection of the 2011 Atlanta Horror Film Festival (September 2011)
• Official Selection of the 2011 Atlanta Underground Film Festival (September 2011)
• Screened on KET, KET2 and KETKY as part of Reel Visions (September – October 2011)
• Gold Award for Experimental Animation at the Jamfest International Film Festival (October 2011)
• AIGO Award for Most Compelling Antagonist at the Jamfest International Film Festival (October 2011)
• Official Selection of the Offshoot Film Festival (October 2011)
• Official Selection of the 7th Annual River’s Edge International Film Festival (November 2011)

Heather Freeman received her undergraduate degree in Fine Arts and German Studies from Oberlin College in 1993.  In the Fall of 1998, she entered the MFA program at the Mason Gross School of the Arts of Rutgers University at New Brunswick, New Jersey concentrating in installation art.  While exploring the relationship between the history of science and metaphysics, Freeman’s medium of choice became single channel video and digital print.

After a brief flirtation with advertising, Freeman taught at Allegheny College and Youngstown State University.  She continued her research at the University of Kentucky as Assistant Professor of New Media in the College of Fine Arts.  In fall 2005 she became Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and Art History and the RCID PhD Program at Clemson University and spent a truly wonderful year with the Clemson Tigers.  In fall 2006 Freeman began her appointment as Assistant Professor of Electronic Media at the University of North Carolina – Charlotte in the Art Department.  Her work is regularly exhibited nationally and has appeared in international exhibitions in Canada, China, Cuba, Germany, Hungary, Sweden and Thailand.

More on Heather: www.epicant.com

Directed by Paul Verhoeven [1995]
USA / Color / English
Rated NC-17; 131 min.

“I’m gonna dance,” Nomi Malone (Elizabeth Berkley) insists in the opening scene of SHOWGIRLS, and dance she does. In this quasi-update of ALL ABOUT EVE, Nomi is a drifter whose sole ambition is to headline the “Goddess” topless dance show at the Stardust in Las Vegas.

Of course, even Nomi must pay her dues, and she does so at the Cheetah, grinding poles and lap dancing her way to a future. Fortunately, her roommate, Molly, works at the Stardust and invites Nomi to see the show, where she meets Crystal Conners (Gina Gershon, in the Bette Davis role), with whom she immediately forms a love/hate relationship. Nomi soon learns what she must do to get ahead, and the rest of the film documents her cat-like crawl up the showgirl ladder of success.

SHOWGIRLS was conceived as the first big-budget “adult” film since 1977′s CALIGULA, and the first such production to wear the NC-17 rating; its failure at the box-office discouraged further attempts at large-scale adult productions.

• The cover image for this movie is a remake of a famous photograph by Slovak photographer Tono Stano.
• Set an all-time RAZZIE Award record with 13 nominations (one or more in all 11 categories of the 1996 Awards). Its seven “wins” tie it with Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 as the second most dis-honored film in RAZZIE history (I Know Who Killed Me now holds the dubious distinction with eight “wins”).
• When the film swept The 16th Annual RAZZIE Awards, Paul Verhoeven turned up in person to accept Worst Director and Worst Picture. He was the first director to ever turn up to collect the Award.
• Elizabeth Berkley spends approximately 20 minutes, or 1/6 of the entire film, completely nude.
• Elizabeth Berkley regularly worked 16 hours a day in high heels, while filming the dance scenes.
• The only interior scenes that were actually filmed in Las Vegas are the first ones in which Nomi plays slot machines and at the Forum Shops/Spago in Caesar’s Palace.
• The name “Nomi Malone” came from Joe Eszterhas’s wife’s nickname, Nomi (her real name is Naomi). He chose “Malone” because he thought of Nomi as being “alone” in the world.
• Charlize Theron auditioned for the role of Nomi Malone.
• Sharon Stone auditioned for the role of Crystal Connors.

Paul Verhoeven is a Dutch film director, screenwriter, and producer who has made movies in both the Netherlands and the United States. Explicitly violent and/or sexual content and social satire are trademarks of both his drama and science fiction films.

He is best known for directing the American feature films RoboCop (1987), Total Recall (1990), Basic Instinct (1992), Starship Troopers (1997), and Hollow Man (2000). Turkish Delight (1973) received the award for Best Dutch Film of the Century at the Netherlands Film Festival.  His films altogether received a total of nine Academy Award nominations, mainly for editing and effects. Both RoboCopand Total Recall won an Academy Special Achievement Award. In contrast, his film Showgirls (1995) was poorly received and won seven Golden Raspberry Awards, but has become a cult film over time.

Directed by Constance Marks [2011]
USA / Color / English
Not Rated; 80 min

Beloved by children of all ages around the world, Elmo is an international icon. Few people know his creator, Kevin Clash, who dreamed of working with his idol, master puppeteer Jim Henson.  The film traces Kevin Clash’s rise from his modest beginnings in Baltimore to his current success as the man behind Elmo, one of the world’s most recognizable and adored characters.

Pivotal to the film is the exploration of Jim Henson’s meteoric rise, and Kevin’s ultimate achievement of his goal to become part of the Henson family of puppeteers. In addition to puppeteering Elmo, Mr. Clash is arguably the creative force behind today’s Sesame Street, producing, directing and traveling around the globe training other puppeteers.

Includes interviews with Frank Oz, Rosie O’Donnell, Whoopi Goldberg, Carroll Spinney, Joan Ganz Cooney, Marty Robinson, Fran Brill, and Bill Barretta.

“Being Elmo is a rare documentary that will delight viewers of all ages and cultures world wide for years to come. Being Elmo is one of the most sincere portraits of a creative genius who doesn’t get the recognition he deserves.”
- Jason Elsbury, SOUND ON SIGHT

“The documentary Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey, which should make Kevin Clash a household name, is an INSPIRING AND JOYOUS celebration of art, skill, determination and making kids happy.”
- Kyle Smith, NEW YORK POST

“Of all the fur-swathed celebrities at the Sundance Film Festival this year, none holds a candle to Elmo… The squeaky-voiced muppet moved fans to tears Sunday at the world premiere.”
- Julie Makinen, LOS ANGELES TIMES

“Production values are top-notch, particularly the cinematography by James Miller and Joel Goodman’s energetic, fanciful score. Being Elmo is a rare documentary that will connect across generations and cultures to delight viewers worldwide for years to come.”
- Justin Lowe, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

“Look for Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey to have a Michael Moore-style box-office-pumping effect.”
- Andrew Pridgen, SALT LAKE MAGAZINE

“THE ONE FILM THAT REALLY STOLE MY HEART AT SUNDANCE was Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey, the inspiring and heartwarming story of Kevin Clash, the voice and genius behind one of the world’s most iconic children’s personality.”
- Raffi Asdourian, THE FILM STAGE

“It is impossible to come out of this documentary about Kevin Clash, the man behind Elmo, without wanting to hug someone.”
- Jada Yuan, VULTURE/NEW YORK MAGAZINE

CONSTANCE MARKS (Director, Producer) Constance Marks is an award-winning independent documentary filmmaker. She is the founder and president of Constance Marks Productions, Inc., a documentary production company based in New York City.

Marks began her filmmaking career over 30 years ago as an assistant editor for the renowned Cinema Verite pioneers, David and Albert Maysles. Marks’ critically acclaimed films have been shown theatrically, broadcast widely, and garnered numerous awards. Her productions include Return to Appalachia which aired on PBS, Let’s Fall in Love: A Singles Weekend at the Concord Hotel. which was selected by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences as one of the outstanding documentaries of the year, and Green Chimneys – a full-length documentary feature film which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and aired on HBO.

Marks has produced numerous films focusing on important social issues including homelessness, the elderly, experimental charter schools and substance abuse recovery residences. Green Chimneys is available on Amazon and Netflix.

Directed by Ed Wood [1956]
USA / Black and White / English
Not rated; 78 min

With its incoherent plot, jaw-droppingly odd dialogue, inept acting, threadbare production design, and special effects so shoddy that they border on the surreal, PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE has often been called the worst movie ever made. But it’s an oddly endearing disaster; boasting genuine enthusiasm and undeniable charm, it is the work of people who loved movies and loved making them, even if they displayed little visible talent.

In PLAN 9, alien invaders attempt to conquer the world by raising the dead, starting with an old man dressed in a Dracula costume (Bela Lugosi, in a few minutes of left-over footage grafted into this film), his much-younger and well-proportioned wife (Maila “Vampira” Nurmi), and a remarkably overweight police officer (Tor Johnson). Often funny and consistently entertaining (if almost always for the wrong reasons), PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE is an anti-masterpiece if there ever was one, and as Criswell so brilliantly puts it, “Can you PROVE it didn’t happen?!?”

• Funded by a Baptist church. Several members of the cast let themselves be baptized.
• The film’s original title was “Grave Robbers from Outer Space”, but, supposedly, the Baptist ministers who financed the picture objected to it, so Ed Wood changed it to “Plan 9″.
• The aliens obligingly fly by the ABC, CBS and NBC buildings in Los Angeles.
• Bela Lugosi appears in footage shot just before his death, but with no script in mind.  Ed Wood wrote the script to accommodate all the footage shot in a cemetery and outside Tor Johnson’s house in the new production. Lugosi was doubled by Tom Mason, Wood’s wife’s chiropractor, who was significantly taller than Lugosi, and played the part with a cape covering his face.
• The scar worn by actor Tor Johnson had to be moved every day, as it caused severe skin irritation.
• One of the legends about the production of this film was that Ed Wood used everything from automobile hubcaps to pizza pans to pie tins and even paper plates as flying saucers. The truth is that he bought a number of children’s plastic model kits of flying saucers for use as props.

As a child, Ed Wood loved movies and eventually found a job as a cinema usher. He got his first movie camera at 17. After serving in WWII as a Marine, Wood indulged his love the bizarre by joining the freak show of a carnival. At times, he played the part of the bearded lady and created his own prosthetic breasts. During the 1950s, Wood began to write, produce, and act in a variety of low-budget science-fiction, horror, and cowboy films. To make ends meet, he also wrote pulp novels and horror stories.

Today, Wood’s films like Plan 9 From Outer Space are both mocked and celebrated.  Wood’s legacy and cult following lives on with, for example, the University of Southern California holding an annual “Ed Wood Film Festival” for which students are charged with writing, filming, and editing an Ed Wood-esque short film based on a predetermined theme. His movies has been spoofed on Mystery Theater 3000 and many have been remade as pornographic movies. Additionally, many of his bizarre transvestite-themed sex novels have been republished.

Directed by Gereon Wetzel [2010]
Germany / Color / Catalan w/ English subtitles
Not Rated; 108 Minutes

Pictures are taken down and cutlery wrapped up in cellophane foil, as a delivery van is loaded with machines and boxes. In the tiny cove of Montjoi below, waves pound the beach. We are at El Bulli, witnessing the closing of probably the most famous restaurant in the world. No, it’s not forever, just until next season.

Each winter the restaurant closes, and Ferran Adrià, Oriol Castro and Eduard Xatruch cloister themselves in their experimental kitchen in Barcelona for half a year, to create their new menu for the following season.

“Creativity means not copying.” Ferran Adrià and his team have made Jacques Maximin’s aphorism the motto of their everyday pursuits. The film El Bulli – Cooking in Progress is the close observation of that quest – from initial experimentation to the premiere of the finished dish. In the course of that process, however, many an ingredient is examined in a totally new way. What novel product can one derive from the sweet potato?

Taste and texture are systematically analyzed: by boiling, roasting, frying, steaming – vacuumizing, spherifying, freeze-drying – and then, tasting. Ideas emerge, are discussed and, finally, all the results, whether good or bad, are thoroughly documented – on a laptop beside the cooking spoon.

After all, research means to examine closely, with an understanding of fundamental principles. And research means work, sometimes until exhaustion. Ideas don’t usually fall from the sky, they evolve in the diffuse realm between the intentional and the accidental, experience and the unfamiliar.

Then, come summer, everything changes. Within no time, a cold restaurant must be thrown into full gear – by a brigade of 35 new cooks from around the world, who here, on the Catalan Costa Brava, are entering uncharted culinary territory. Of course, not everyone is up to speed right out of the gate; and the previously so even-tempered Oriol is forced, now and then, to raise his voice to the group to drive home the strict and hierarchical structure.

Meanwhile, Ferran Adrià puts the finishing touches on the new dishes, which are already served on opening evening, in addition to the menu from the previous year. This is when the defining decisions are made: How will each dish look, how will it be served and, above all, in what order? Which filling goes inside the ravioli, whose pasta disintegrates as you dip it in water? And where do the small ice cubes go – with the tiny tangerines or the vacuumized champignon in hazelnut oil?

Even on opening evening, there’s a curious premiere – when a cocktail is served composed only of water, hazelnut oil and salt. In the experimental kitchen, it had already been tested by Eduard Xatruch, and the simple principle and silky sensation of oil in one’s mouth were just what had convinced Ferran. Yet later, during a course for the new cooks, he would ask himself in jest, “And what were they serving at El Bulli?” Only to instantly answer: “Water!” Great ideas are usually simple and autonomous, beyond what is known and familiar.

El Bulli is at once complex and simple, Ferran says. And perhaps there’s only one fitting answer to the question, “So what is the film El Bulli – Cooking in Progress about?” – “Water, oil and salt!”

A Primer on El Bulli

Synthesis of El Bulli Cusine

“CRITICS’ PICK! Fans of shows like Top Chef are well advised to check out this fascinating and artful look at the meticulous research-and-development process for the experimental dishes at El Bulli, where every unique dish came with plentiful bragging rights.”
- New York Magazine

“It’s cooking like you’ve never seen.”
- Charlotte Druckman, The Wall Street Journal

“For a foodie, the new film about Spain’s renowned El Bulli restaurant is a bit like an Angelina Jolie movie for a teenage boy… Food lovers can now salivate via celluloid. El Bulli: Cooking in Progress, a meticulous exploration of how this famously avant-garde eatery comes up with its insanely inventive creations…for those passionate about the artistry and indeed the science of cooking, it’s dangerously close to porn. There are some unintentionally very funny moments, like when two chefs go to the local market and ask for five single grapes for their testing – and three beans”
- Jocelyn Noveck, Associated Press

“By now there have been so many documentaries about restaurants that they form a film genre… But here now is El Bulli, which in some ways transcends them all, and poignantly serves as a memorial.”
- Stanley Kauffmann, The New Republic

“Molecular gastronomy rock star Ferran Adria’s Catalonian culinary paradise… the culinary impossible is realized one painstaking step at a time.”
- Karina Longworth, Village Voice

Gereon Wetzel was born in Bonn on 30. September 1972. After his M.A. in Archeology from Heidelberg University, worked for a year, as a language teacher in Barcelona, then as an archeologist at the Institute for Marine Archeology in Girona, Spain. From 2000 to 2006, completed the documentary filmmaking program at the University for Film and Television (HFF München) in Munich, where he currently lives and works as a freelance author and filmmaker. His other documentary credits include HOW TO MAKE A BOOK WITH STEIDL (2010), about the German publisher Gerhard Steidl; DIE REPRODUKTIONSKRISE (2008); CASTELLS (2006); and the short SPRECHPROBEN (2004).

Interview with Gereon Wetzel (director) and Anna Ginesti Rosell

Directed by Fritz Lang [1927] Germany
Composed and Arranged by Giorgio Moroder [1984] USA
Black and White / English Subtitles

Not Rated; 82 min.

Freder Fredersen (Gustav Frohlich) is the son of Joh Fredersen (Alfred Able), who reigns over the great city of Metropolis. Freder is surprised to discover his lifestyle has been built on the unseen but backbreaking labor of an entire class of unseen workers who tend the machines that make the city run–and he descends to the subterranean levels of Metropolis in an effort to understand their lives… and, not incidentally, to find the mysterious but beautiful woman Maria (Brigitta Helm) who has inspired his interest in the workers’ plight. But his father is concerned by both Freder’s interest and Maria’s activities among the workers, and he turns to scientist C.A. Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) for aid. Rotwang has created a robot, and he agrees to give it the likeness of Maria in order to undermine both Freder’s love for the girl and her own activities. But Rotwang has a hidden agenda of his own: once the robot has been unleashed, he will use her to destroy Metropolis and thereby exact revenge on Joh Fredersen for past transgressions against him.

In 1981, 3-time Academy Award Winning composer Giorgio Moroder began a three-year endeavor to restore the science fiction classic, Metropolis. During this restoration Moroder made the controversial decision to give a film a new, contemporary score and added a pop music soundtrack featuring songs from some biggest pop and rock stars of the early MTV era including Pat Benatar, Billy Squier, Freddie Mercury, Bonnie Tyler, Adam Ant, Jon Anderson and more! In addition, to the new score, missing footage was re-edited into the film, intertitles were removed and replaced with subtitles and sound effects and color was added, creating an all new experience… and an all new film. For more than a quarter century, this version of the film has remained out of print, until now.

“For many of my generation, Moroder’s re-scored version provided our introduction to Fritz Lang’s silent science fiction classic….Moroder almost certainly got people to see Metropolis who would have never even considered watching a silent film…a fascinating companion piece to The Complete Metropolis and an excellent example of how music can drastically alter your reaction to a film. Whether you’re a fan of Metropolis or the trapped-in-amber ’80s time capsule soundtrack, this is a release to get excited about. For those of us who saw it back in ’84, it’ll be a nostalgic time machine trip back to an experience we thought we’d never get to have again.”
-Adam Jahnke, The Morton Report

Giorgio Moroder is one of the world’s best known, most active and innovative composers of film, dance, and other popular musical forms. Like so many other influential musicians of our time, Moroder has always maintained an abiding interest in visual as well as musical expression. Indeed, he was trained as an artist before he turned to playing and composing music. Mr. Moroder was recently inducted in the “Dance Music Hall of Fame,” and is the winner of 3 Oscars: “Top Gun,” “Flashdance,” and “Midnight Express”. He has also been honored with 4 Golden Globes, and 3 Grammies.

In addition to working with great talents such as David Bowie, Freddy Mercury, Barbra Streisand, Donna Summer, Elton John and Blondie, Giorgio wrote the theme songs “Reach Out” for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, “Hand in Hand” for the 1988 Seoul Olympics and “Forever Friends” for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.  Recently Giorgio had hits with Jessica Simpson and Beyonce.

Mr. Moroder’s entrepreneurial talents have accredited him honors in Filmmaking, Digital Artistry and the Production of the exotic Italian Super-Car, The “Cizeta Moroder,” and exquisite 16-cylinder sports car that set new records for Italian High-Performance Technology.

Directed by John Landis [1981]
USA / Color / English
Rated R; 97 min

John Landis blends the macabre with a wicked sense of humor in this contemporary take on the werewolf genre. While wandering the English moors on vacation, American college students David (David Naughton) and Jack (Griffin Dunne) are attacked by what appears to be a wolf… David survives but is plagued by strange nightmares that include visits from his dead friend Jack. David is also befriended by a beautiful nurse named Alex.  Upon his discharge from the hospital, Alex takes him in, and the two start up a romance.

But David is still plagued by nightmares.  Jack returns and warns him that they were attacked by a werewolf, and that David needs to kill himself to end the curse and free his victims from limbo.  Will David be able to stop the curse, or will he be saved by love?

One of many films to engage the werewolf mania of the 1980s, AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON won an Academy Award for Rick Bakers breathtaking special effects.

• All the songs in this film have the word “moon” in their titles.
• John Landis originally wanted three other songs to add to the soundtrack: Cat Stevens wouldn’t allow “Moonshadow” to be used because he had stopped allowing his secular music to be licensed for films following his conversion to Islam; Bob Dylan wouldn’t allow his version of “Blue Moon” to be used in an R-rated film, as he had just begun his brief conversion to Christianity; and Elvis Presley’s version of “Blue Moon” proved unavailable due to the ongoing lawsuits involving his estate.
• The legal disclaimer in the closing credits reads, “Any resemblance to any persons living, dead, or undead, is coincidental.” This was also placed at the end of anotherJohn Landis project: Thriller, which was reportedly inspired by (and held several allusions to) this film.
• At the close of the credits is a congratulatory message for the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana (as Lady Diana Spencer). It was included because during the scene when David is trying to get arrested, he shouts, “Prince Charles is gay!” The film was shot months before the preparations for the couple’s July 1981 wedding.
• Studio executives hoped John Landis would cast Dan Aykroyd in the role of David andJohn Belushi as Jack. John Landis refused.
• David Naughton was reportedly cast because John Landis had seen him in a television commercial for Dr. Pepper.
• The episode of The Muppet Show playing on the television during David’s nightmare sequence is indeed a real episode, but the portion shown was never shown in the US. This is why it was considered a fake episode and why Miss Piggy (Frank Oz) and Kermit the Frog (Jim Henson) are credited.
• Because of this film, makeup and industry technological contributions became recognized by the Academy Awards in 1981. Makeup artist Rick Baker was the first to receive an Oscar in the new category. William Tuttle was the first makeup effects artist to receive an Oscar (being an honorary one) for his work on 7 Faces of Dr. Lao.
• The final look of the werewolf beast was based on make-up creator Rick Baker’s dog Bosko.

A successful director, John Landis is best known for his comedies, which include National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978), The Blues Brothers (1980), and Trading Places (1983).  He started out his career in the mail room at Twentieth Century Fox and soon found other behind-the-scenes jobs, including working as a stuntman. His first effort as a director was the 1973 horror comedy Schlock, for which he wrote the screenplay. Landis also starred in it as the title character, a monster created by makeup artist Rick Baker.

For his next project, Landis directed the comedy Kentucky Fried Movie (1977), which featured a series of skits that spoofed a number of film genres and other forms of media. He went to direct his first big box office hit, National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978). Again working with Belushi, Landis directed The Blues Brothers(1980). The following year, Landis returned to the horror comedy genre with An American Werewolf in London (1981), which starred David Naughton. He had reteamed with Rick Baker for this gory story of two Americans attacked by a werewolf while on vacation.

The next two years were a challenging time for Landis.  While filming the Vietnam scenes for his segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), Vic Morrow and two child actors were killed after a helicopter crashed on top of them. Landis and several other members of the production were later charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection to these deaths. In the subsequent trial, they were all found not guilty.

While his reputation was somewhat sullied by the tragedy, Landis continued to find success on the big screen.  Branching out into television, Landis helped create the HBO comedy Dream On in the early 1990s. More recently, Landis has directed episodes of such television shows as Psych, Masters of Horror, and Fear Itself.

Directed by Terence Fisher [1961] UK / Color / English Not Rated; 91 min. Horror movie masters Hammer Studios only foray into the werewolf mythology, THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF is based on Guy Endore’s novel The Werewolf of Paris.   This is a story of sex, sadism and decadence, a curse produced from human evil. In Spain, Leon is born on Christmas day to a mute servant girl who was raped by a beggar. His mother dies giving birth and he is looked after by Don Alfredo. Young Leon’s development is marred by savage, violent behavior during the full moon. Upon adulthood, Leon’s (Oliver Reed) only relief from his murderous impulses comes from the love of Christina (Catherine Feller)… but he soon begins to fear that this cannot contain the beast within.

• The only werewolf movie made by Hammer Studios.
• Makeup-artist Roy Ashton based his makeup for this film on Jack P. Pierce’s makeup forThe Wolf Man.
• In an interview, Richard Wordsworth stated that in the original screenplay his beggar character was a werewolf. Hammer told him that the censor had problems with the notion of a werewolf/rapist, so out it went.

Terence Fisher was a film director who worked for Hammer Films. He was born in Maida Vale, a district of London, England. Fisher was one of the most prominent horror directors of the second half of the 20th century. He was the first to bring gothic horror alive in full colour, and the sexual overtones and explicit horror in his films, while mild by modern standards, were unprecedented in his day. His first major gothic horror film was The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), which launched Hammer’s long association with the genre and made British actors Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee leading horror stars of the era. He went on to film a number of adaptations of classic horror subjects, including Dracula (1958), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959) and The Mummy (1959). Given their subject matter and lurid approach, Fisher’s films, though commercially successful, were largely dismissed by critics during his career. It is only in recent years that Fisher has become recognised as an auteur in his own right. His films are characterised by a blend of fairy-tale, myth and sexuality. They draw heavily on Christian themes, and there is usually a hero who defeats the powers of darkness by a combination of faith in God and reason, in contrast to other characters, who are either blindly superstitious or bound by a cold, godless rationalism.

• TEEN WOLF is technically Michael J. Fox’s first leading man role but was released after the success of BACK TO THE FUTURE.
• Scott Howard’s (Michael J. Fox) house was located on the same block as 1955 George McFly’s and 1955 Lorraine Baines’s houses from BACK TO THE FUTURE. The Howard house in TEEN WOLF is the same house as Marty’s mother’s house (the Baines house) in 1955 BttF.
• Since this movie was released after BACK TO THE FUTUREin Brazil, “Teen Wolf” received the title “Garoto do Futuro” (“Boy from the Future”) there, even though the plot has nothing to do with time travel whatsoever.
• “Teen Wolf”, whose Italian title is “Voglia di Vincere” (“It wants to win”), was released in Italy shortly after BACK TO THE FUTURE. Due to this, the main character’s name Scott was changed to Marty, the same name as Michael J. Fox’s character in BttF.
• If the “teen” actors seem too old to be high school students, it’s no wonder. Scott is played by Michael J. Fox: age 23. Stiles is played by Jerry Levine: age 27. Chubby is played by Mark Holton: age 26. Mick is played by Mark Arnold: age 27.
• The character Stiles (Jerry Levine) wears a number of colorful shirts in this movie. They appear in the following order: 1. Yellow shirt that says “Life sucks then you die”, 2. Blue “Obnoxious: the movie”, 3. Black “What are you looking at Dicknose”, 4. Gray “Drunken State Florida”, 5. Pink – no text, 6. Gray – unreadable, 7. Black – unreadable, 8. Hawaiian shirt, 9. White – “Wolf Buddy” and 10. a white Teen Wolf shirt. Of all the shirts he wears, only one appears to have no text on it.
• When Scott sinks the final shot and wins the game at the end of the movie, he goes into the stands and hugs his father. Immediately behind actors Michael J. Fox and James Hampton, an extra (in a red sweater) can be seen with an unzipped fly. This incident later resulted in an Internet rumor that the extra is a man exposing himself. However, the unmatted full frame version of the film reveals that the extra is actually a woman.

Directed by Joe Dante [1981] USA / Color / English Rated R; 90 min.

After a traumatic experience at work, TV reporter Karen White (Dee Wallace) checks into a plush California resort called The Colony to rest. Yet, on her first night there, the howling outside her window leads her to suspect there’s more going on than meets the eye. Now she must discoverthe secret — if she can survive! Rife with in-jokes, horror film references and genuine scares, this John Sayles-penned howl fest is a werewolf classic.

Upon the death of his brother, Larry Talbot returns from America to his ancestral home in Wales. He visits a gypsy camp with village girl Jenny Williams, who is attacked by Bela, a gypsy who has turned into a werewolf. Larry kills the werewolf but is bitten during the fight. Bela’s mother tells him that this will cause him to become a werewolf at each full moon. Larry confesses his plight to his unbelieving father, Sir John, who then joins the villagers in a hunt for the wolf. Larry, transformed by the full moon, heads for the forest and a fateful meeting with both Sir John and Gwen.

Repo! The Genetic Opera
The near future an epidemic of organ failures devastates the planet. Out of the tragedy, Geneco emerges to provide organs for a profit. Unfortunately one outcome of the financ-ing options includes repossession by a skilled assassin. At the heart of this tragic musical is Shilo who has a rare blood disease and is kept locked up by her protective father who isn’t exactly what he seems.

Bad Moon Rising – Werewolf movies every Monday in October
This year The Light Factory celebrates Halloween by indulging in one of our favorite monsters – the werewolf.  Every Monday in October we’ll screen a hair-raising werewolf film.  With so many great homages to the legendary beast, it’s already got us wishing for more Mondays.  Screenings will be held at The Neighborhood Theatre at 7:30pm.  All screenings are FREE and open to the public.  More details to come!
Bad Moon Rising is a partnership between The Light Factory, The Neighborhood Theatre, Actor’s Theatre, and Visart Video.

Live Imitates Art
To celebrate our exhibition, The Night Time is the Right Time, we’ll host a film series of music documentaries and concert films, with live music after every screening.  Screens will be held the 2nd Wednesday of November 2011 – February 2012 at The Neighborhood Theatre.  Full schedule and more details to follow shortly.
Live Imitates Art  is a partnership between The Light Factory, The Neighborhood Theatre, Shuffle Magazine, and Visart Video.

This epic mythological adventure stars Harry Hamlin as Perseus, son of Zeus (Laurence Olivier), who embarks on a series of perilous quests in the hopes of rescuing Princess Andromeda (Judi Bowker) and winning the keys to the kingdom of Joppa. With winged horse Pegasus as his steed, Perseus must answer vexing riddles, capture the head of Medusa and slay a ravenous sea monster. Burgess Meredith and Ursula Andress co-star in this classic tale.

The special effects used to create the various creatures in the film were done by Ray Harryhausen who employed stop motion animation. Harryhausen was also co-producer of the film, and retired from filmmaking shortly after the movie was released, making this his last main feature film.

Warner Bros. released remake of CLASH OF THE TITANS in post converted 3D and starring Sam Worthington and Liam Neeson on April 2, 2010.  Though the remake has recieved mixed to negative reviews, a sequel is still in the works.

Directed by Brian Crano [2010]
USA / Color / English
Not Rated; 87 min

A BAG OF HAMMERS revolves around the friendship of two charming grifters, Ben and Alan, played by Jason Ritter and Jake Sandvig. Ben and Alan have built a successful though larcenous business, posing as car valets, only to steal the vehicles instead of parking them. Because of their less-than-ideal childhoods and a “job” that allows them to remain likeable boyish rogues well into their 20’s, their penchant for crime is almost forgivable.

However, everything changes when they meet a twelve-year-old boy named Kelsey. Neglected by his mother, Kelsey is drawn to Ben and Alan and they to him – eventually, Kelsey becomes part mascot, part protégé. His presence ultimately forces Alan and Ben to choose between a life of crime and fun (an extended childhood) and the opportunity to grow up and deal with the emotional consequences that come with it.

“First-time feature helmer Brian Crano maneuvers some tricky tonal shifts with impressive ease in “A Bag of Hammers,” a droll, quirky comedy with a pleasant amount of heart.”
- Variety 

“This is a movie that can’t quite decide whether it wants to be a madcap comedy or an intricate drama, and that turns out to be a very good thing. Most films marry their comedic and dramatic elements by watering down each to create a somewhat consistent tone. But A BAG OF HAMMERS repeatedly juxtaposes sharp, quick-cutting wisecracks with sober treatments of some truly heart-rending issues. The back-and-forth could give you whiplash in an inferior movie, but first-time director Brian Crano makes it work in spades. ”
- Paste Magazine (#9 of the 12 best films to see at SXSW)

A Bag of Hammers … is a well-made, engaging and emotionally honest indie film – a real rarity in a field where the films have been opting either for big time Fox Searchlight cheese or alienating mumblecore distance.
- BadAss Digest

A BAG OF HAMMERS Crano’s first feature film will premiere at the 2011 South By South West Film Festival.  Crano wrote BAG with co-writer Jake Sandvig.  The film stars Jason Ritter, Rebecca Hall, Chandler Canterbury, Carrie Preston, Todd Louiso, Gabriel Macht and Jake Sandvig.  BAG is being produced by Peter Friedlander, Lucy Barzun Donnelly and Jen Barrons.

RUBBER HEART Crano’s debut short film was an official selection at Palm Springs International Festival Of Short Films, then played another twenty four international festivals including: Los Angeles International Short Film Festival, New York City Short Film Festival (Audience Choice Award), Rio De Janeiro International Short Film Festival, Oslo International Film Festivals, London Short Film Festival, Washington D.C. Independent Film Festival, Swansea Film Festival (nominated Best International Short),  Latitude Festival, Brisbane International Film Festival and Venice International Short Film Festival.

OFFICIAL SELECTION Crano’s follow up short, stars Golden Globe nominee Rebecca Hall, Amanda Seyfried and Dominic Cooper; and premiered at Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films in August 2008.

SIMPLY PLIMPTON is also Crano’s brainchild. He writes and directs the cult web series, a fictionalized look at the life of regarded actress Martha Plimpton.

12th PREMISE Prior to making films, Crano was a playwright and actor.  His play 12th PREMISE played around the world at the Edinburgh Festival, workshopped on London’s West End and in New York, and ran in Los Angeles.

EDUCATION Crano earned his B.A. in Theatre in acting and playwrighting at UCLA and his post graduate degree in classical acting and text at the London Academy of Dramatic Art.  He was part of the Royal Court’s Young Writer’s Program.

REPRESENTATION Crano is represented by ICM and Brillstein Entertainment Partners.

An official selection of Cannes Critics Week and winner of the Special Jury Prize at SXSW, THE MYTH OF THE AMERICAN SLEEPOVER is a youthful and tender coming-of-age drama from first-time writer/director David Robert Mitchell. In the tradition of free-wheeling tributes to adolescence like DAZED & CONFUSED, the film follows four young people (a cast of brilliant young newcomers in their feature film debuts) on the last night of summer – their final night of freedom before the new school year starts. The teenagers cross paths as they explore the suburban wonderland they inhabit in search of love and adventure – chasing first kisses, elusive crushes, popularity and parties – and discover the quiet moments that will later resonate as the best in their youth. ACCLAIM “CRITICS PICK! critics pick! A lovely debut feature. What Mr. Mitchell gets splendidly right in this quiet, observant film, is the unsteady mixture of sophistication and naïveté that is central to the modern American teenage way of being in the world.” – A.O. Scott, The New York Times “The American debut film of the year, and an experience you must work into your summer calendar. A one-of-a-kind teen movie.” – Andrew O’Hehir, Salon “Heartbreaking, funny and lovingly told.” – Anthony Breznican, USA Today

AWARDS WINNER – Jury Prize for Best Ensemble Cast SXSW Film Festival 2010 WINNER – Prix du Jury Deauville American Film Festival 2010 WINNER – American Indie Newcomer Prize Munich International Film Festival 2010 WINNER – Best Narrative Feature Award New Orleans Film Festival 2010 OFFICIAL SELECTION – Critics Week Cannes Film Festival 2010

About WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY

Eccentric candy man Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder) prompts a worldwide frenzy when he announces that golden tickets hidden inside five of his delicious candy bars will admit their lucky holders into his top-secret confectionary. But does Wonka have an agenda hidden amid a world of Oompa Loompas and chocolate rivers? This fantasy based on Roald Dahl’s award-winning book was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Score in 1972.

The film was received well critically, but was a box office failure.  However, the film gained cult status through repeated television airings and home video sales.  Roald Dahl, however, did not like the film adaptation.  He was upset about plot changes, casting, and the emphasis on Wonka rather than Charlie.  Thus, Dahl did not allow the sequel, Charlie and the Glass Elevator, to be made into a film.

The remake of WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, titled after the book, CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, was released in 2005, with Tim Burton as the director and Johnny Depp as the infamous Wonka.  Though the film enthusiastically received the blessing of the Roald Dahl estate, many audiences consider this film to be Burton’s second remake mistake (with the first being PLANET OF THE APES).  Let’s hope the director has better luck with his adaptation of DARK SHADOWS.

ABOUT ARMADILLO   Armadillo is an active military base, used to support tactical operations in Helmand, Afghanistan. It houses a mixture of 170 Danish and British soldiers in the ISAF (International Security Assistance Force), who are responsible for providing security to the surrounding area and eliminating any Taliban insurgency.   The first documentary ever chosen to compete in the International Critics’ Week at Cannes (where it won the grand prize), Janus Metz’s Armadillo follows a platoon of Danish soldiers on a six-month tour of Afghanistan in 2009.   Metz creates an unforgettable portrait of the reality of military life on the frontlines — with unprecedented access to the soldiers both in the camp and in the field. Documenting both the boredom and horror of warfare, Metz shows us the soldiers playing video games and laughing at pornography, struggling to communicate with unhappy civilians, and brutally killing a group of Taliban soldiers who are found hiding in a trench. The film avoids judgments for or against the war, and instead shows the soldiers struggling to maintain their humanity in a world filled with violence.   An intimate, visually stunning account of both the horror and growing cynicism of modern warfare, the film premiered at the top of the box office in Denmark, provoking a national debate over government policy and the rules of engagement.             Festival Highlights/Awards   Official Selection: Cannes (International Critics’ Week – Winner), Toronto, London (Grierson Award), DOC NYC Critical Acclaim   “An astonishing leap forward for nonfiction storytelling.” Eric Hynes, The Village Voice “A mesmerizing, beautiful and terrifying documentary that can stand among the greatest war movies ever made.” – Salon.com

The Poseidon, an ocean liner larger than the Queens Elizabeth and Mary combined, is charting its course on New Year’s Eve. Just after midnight, Captain Harrison (Leslie Nielsen) spots the mother of all tidal waves. It is the last thing that Harrison and practically everyone else onboard sees before drowning — the Poseidon is turned upside down, with only a handful of survivors. The ten lucky ones — including Mike Rogo (Ernest Borgnine), Linda Rogo (Stella Stevens), Acres (RODDY MCDOWALL), Belle Rosen (Shelley Winters), and Manny Rosen (Jack Albertson) — led by no-nonsense minister Frank Scott (Gene Hackman), desperately attempt to climb from the top of the ship (now submerged) to the bottom (now “the top”).

The film’s theme song, “The Morning After,” sung by Maureen McGovern, earned an Oscar. In addition, The Poseidon Adventure received the Special Achievement Award for Special Effects; L.B. Abbott and A.D. Flowers were the recipients. A sequel, Beyond the Poseidon Adventure, came out in 1979.

Sonny Malone (Michael Beck) is a talented artist who dreams of fame beyond his job, which is the uncreative task of painting larger versions of album covers for record-store window advertisements. As the film opens, Sonny is broke and on the verge of giving up his dream. Having quit his day job to try to make a living as a freelance artist, but having failed to make any money at it, Sonny returns to his old job at AirFlo Records. After some humorous run-ins with his imperious boss and nemesis, Simpson (James Sloyan), he resumes painting record covers. At work, Sonny is told to paint an album cover for a group called The Nine Sisters. The cover features a beautiful woman passing in front of an art deco auditorium (the Pan-Pacific Auditorium). This same woman collided with him earlier that day, kissed him, then roller-skated away, and Malone becomes obsessed with finding her. He finds her at the same (but now abandoned) auditorium. She identifies herself as Kira (Olivia Newton-John), but she will not tell him anything else about herself. Unbeknownst to Sonny, Kira is one of nine mysterious and beautiful women who literally sprang to life from a local mural in town near the beach. Sonny befriends a has-been big band orchestra leader-turned-construction mogul named Danny McGuire (Gene Kelly); Danny lost his muse in the 1940s (who is seen in a flashback scene to bear a startling resemblance to Kira); Sonny has not yet found his muse. Kira encourages the two men to form a partnership and open a nightclub at the old auditorium from the album cover. She falls in love with Sonny, and this presents a problem because she is actually an Olympian Muse (“Kira’s” real name is Terpsichore, and she is the Muse of dance.) The other eight women from the beginning of the film are her sisters and fellow goddesses, the Muses, and the mural is actually a portal of sorts and their point of entry to Earth.

Hodges Taylor Consultancy + Gallery Transamerica Square 401 North Tryon Street Charlotte, North Carolina  28202 DIRECTIONS & PARKING Hodges Taylor is located Transamerica Square, which has it’s own parking garage.  The parking garage is located between 7th and 8th Streets in the Transamerica building; enter from 7th street. From the parking deck, park on level P1 or P2 and use the “Bank of America” elevators.  Take elevator to ground level (L) and our entrance is courtyard side (we do not face Tryon Street). After 5:00 pm, patrons may park free with validation from Hodges Taylor. On Saturdays, parking is free in the deck and in metered spaces on Tryon and Church Street (one block behind Tryon Street). Click here for directions

Rich’s Tab!sdbasbew

Austrian-German co-production, Der Räuber (The Robber, 2010), based on the real events, tells the story about the long-distance runner, who could’ve lived a decent life, having a loving and caring girlfriend, a solid place to stay, and this extraordinary talent for long-distance running that he could’ve made a good living on, but instead, he additionally specializes and excels in bank robbing, becoming an addict of this unusual activity for no other obvious reason but for possible “beauty of a criminal campaign” and adrenaline rush received along. (He’s hinted times and again that he couldn’t have cared less about the stolen money itself, by jamming it into plastic bags, as if he was going to trash it.) One of those life stories that one cannot help but get unpleasantly amazed with how all the reasonable prerequisites for a good life, though inexplicably, yet seemingly so unnecessarily, get flushed down the drain, apparently faithfully presented in the movie with understandable, ergo acceptable lack of intention to ease the answers to the hard whys.

Following on from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”, this musical is set several years later in Brad and Janet Majors’ hometown – which has become a giant TV station; residents are either participants or viewers. They are married now, but their romance has fallen on the rocks. Ostensibly to fix their marriage, Brad is imprisoned on the program “Dentonvale” (the local mental hospital) while Janet is conscripted to become a new star. As Janet is entranced by the high life, she forgets Brad. Who is trying to woo her away?