What I’m Seeing This Week: I’m excited to see Piccadilly, the latest installment in the “From Silent Film Star to American Icon: Celebrating Anna May Wong” film series I’ve written about a couple of times in this space, at Cornell Cinema on Thursday! It will be preceded by a lecture by Shirley J. Lim, Professor of History at Stony Brook University, and both events are free.
Also in Theaters: It might be a week or two before I’m able to catch Killers of the Flower Moon myself, but a new film from director Martin Scorsese is worth mentioning regardless. It is now playing Cinemapolis and the Regal Ithaca Mall. There are films directed by Alfred Hitchcock at two local theaters: The Birds screens at the Regal Ithaca Mall on Sunday and Monday in celebration of its 60th anniversary and Vertigo plays Cornell Cinema on Wednesday as part of their “The Greatest Films of All Time?” series. Speaking of which: Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, which according to the latest Sight and Sound critics’ poll is *the* GOAT, screens at Cornell Cinema on Saturday and Sunday. Finally, this week’s worthwhile Halloween fare includes 30th anniversary screenings of The Nightmare Before Christmas at the Regal Ithaca Mall starting on Friday and Evil Dead II at Cinemapolis on Tuesday.
Home Video: My oldest daughter recently started playing the violin and really seems to be taking to it, which inspired me to purchase a Blu-ray copy of Kino Classic’s release of A Heart in Winter. I’m happy to report that it’s every bit as good as I remembered, if not better! Daniel Auteuil’s Stéphane, like Thomas Schubert’s Leon from this year’s Afire, is frequently unpleasant, but obviously has the affection of characters who aren’t anyway, which makes him a compelling mystery. The rest of the cast, including André Dussollier and Emmanuelle Béart, is excellent as well, but what really makes this movie special are the detailed depictions of Stéphane’s work as a maker and repairer of string instruments. This is one of my very favorite thing about cinema–its capacity to open up a window into parts of the world which might otherwise remain invisible.
Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts can be found here.
The Prodigal Cinephile 