What I’m Seeing This Week: I think I’m going to go with The Widow Clicquot at Cinemapolis, but I might audible to Trap at the Regal Ithaca Mall.
Also in Theaters: I haven’t seen been to a movie theater since last week’s post, so Twisters remains my favorite new movie in Ithaca that I’ve already seen and I once again also recommend Inside Out 2. Both films are at the Regal. Among new releases not already mentioned which I haven’t seen, the ones which intrigue me the most are Kneecap and Touch, which are both at Cinemapolis, and Cuckoo, which is there and at the Regal. “Ithaca-raised” filmmaker Nicholas Geisler will present three short films at Cinemapolis tonight as part of a program called “An Evening with Salt Cellar Films” that I unfortunately won’t yet be back in town for (I’m writing this from Ontario). There’s a free community screening of a short film called Restoring Joy at Cinemapolis on Monday. Your best bet for repertory fare is the 1962 epic Lawrence of Arabia, which all movie lovers should see on the big screen at least once, and which plays the Regal on Sunday and Monday. You can also catch Cool Hand Luke at Cinemapolis on Sunday.
Home Video: I recently worked my way through the “The Dirty Stories of Jean Eustache” collection on The Criterion Channel. Eustache’s The Mother and the Whore has lived large in my imagination as potentially one of the greatest films I’d never seen for many years and while I *respect* it immensely after two viewings–especially the acting by leads Jean-Pierre Léaud, Françoise Lebrun, and Bernadette Lafont–and agree that it’s an essential watch for anyone who presumes to understand the French New Wave, I confess to feeling a bit underwhelmed. I seem to be in the minority here, and if you find yourself disagreeing with me you’ll definitely want to check out Eustache’s follow-up My Little Loves, which stars Martin Loeb as a boy who could plausibly grow up to be Léaud’s character in Mother, as well. I much prefer The Pig, which I recommended in this space last month, though. I was also impressed by Santa Claus Has Blue Eyes, a short featuring Léaud as a handsy Père Noël who is right up there with Percy Helton’s drunk in Miracle on 34th Street and Artie Lange’s guy who smells like beef and cheese in Elf as my favorite cinematic “bad Santas,” and The Virgin of Pessac, a fascinating “meanwhile, in a nearby small town . . . ” documentary about the May, 1968 protests in France. The other titles I definitely recommend are A Dirty Story, a reenactment of a man (Michael Lonsdale) telling a Peeping Tom story shot in 35mm followed by a documentary depiction of the person (Jean-Noël Picq, who appeared in both Mother and Little Loves) who supposedly actually lived the event recounting the same tale shot in 16mm which is greater than its two constituent parts, and the 1982 César Award-winning short Alix’s Pictures.
Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts can be found here.
The Prodigal Cinephile 