***CRITIC’S CHOICE***
Tuesday, April 22: Sorcerer
released on Blu-Ray
Call local media retailers or order online!
William Friedkin’s masterpiece of
tension is finally released on Blu-Ray after long languishing in
limbo. A remake of the Henri-Georges Clouzot film The Wages of Fear
(itself an epic achievement), Friedkin’s movie takes an almost fatalist view of
four men who cannot go back home for various (and increasingly discomfiting)
reasons who agree to transport highly volatile nitroglycerin over 200 miles of
rocky and dangerous terrain. Featuring the definitive Roy Scheider’s
performance, alongside a pulsing Tangerine Dream score, the movie’s tension is
nearly unbearable for long stretches of time. He establishes how quickly and
violently an explosion can rip through the fabric of life at a moment’s notice
and then forces us to hold our breath for the rest of the film as we anticipate
the arrival of yet another. An absolute masterpiece that you should buy sight
unseen or happily gobble up if you’re of the select few who have previously
been privy to this masterwork.
Wednesday, April 23: Thin Ice
7:30 p.m. @ Charles Allis Art
Museum ($7/$5/free for adults/seniors and students/museum members)
No one program should have all
this (Tyrone) Power. Charles Allis kicks off its spring program that
celebrates the 100th birthday of Tyrone Power with this unique
variant on the movie musical starring Olympic champion ice skater, Sonja Heine.
There was a whole cottage industry back in the day based on placing people
whose fame was earned in another arena into the world of cinema, playing up
to their strengths. Films like this attempted to artfully graft ice dance
into its plot (which here surrounds Power’s prince in hiding falling in love
with the Henie character). The fun film captures a unique moment in Hollywood
stardom.
Thursday, April 24: Visitors
7 p.m. @ UWM Union Theatre (FREE!)
It’s now been 30 years since
the Godfrey Reggio/Phillip Glass pairing first started expanding our minds as
to the limits of cinema with their remarkable collaboration Koyaanisqatsi
and 10 years since their last pairing, so the news that they’ve gotten the
band back together should be exciting enough to warrant a viewing from any
serious cinema fan. Like all of his previous work, Godfrey takes us through
locations natural, physical and simulated in Visitors, giving us an inimitable
portrait of who and where we are as people at this point in time in our
history. Filled with sumptuous black and white cinematography, he’s crafted
another contemplative work of art in a world of crash-cutting and easily
digestible portions of media.
Friday, April 25 through Sunday,
April 27: The Italian Film Festival comes to Milwaukee
7 p.m. & 9 p.m. 4/25; 5 p.m.,
7 p.m. & 9:15 p.m. 4/26; and 5 p.m. & 7 p.m. 4/27 @ UWM Union Theatre
(FREE!)
Hot off the success of the Latin
American Film Series just a couple weeks prior, UWM is hosting another weekend
celebration of foreign cinema with this special Italian Film Festival, running
Friday through Sunday. Featuring the 2013 MFF selection Reality,
the festival showcases many genres from the comedic Long Live Freedom
(in which a disappeared politician is replaced with his twin brother fresh out
of the psych ward) all the way to the elegiac documentary The Venice
Syndrome that tackles how inhabitable tourism has made the gorgeous
city. A rare chance to immerse yourself in the works of another culture and one
that should be taken without hesitation!
Saturday, April 26: The Glass
Key
7 p.m. @ The Church in the City ($3)
Round out your week in cinema with
this 1942 Dashiell Hammett adaptation starring Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake.
While neither have necessarily persisted as widely remembered names in cinema
(although Ladd’s place is cemented by his work in Shane), they
were both strong performers when paired with the right material (just look to
the remarkable Sullivan’s Travels for Lake) and this tale of
political corruption and the twisted trail of murder it leaves behind might
just fit the bill.
