A Movie Sampler for Stragglers
Look, first of all, if you are reading this column because you're actually looking for a movie to go to this weekend, well, have a clue pal, because you should be going to Yale. If you don't understand football for some obscure reason like a 20-year case of autism or you're from some foreign country where they don't play it, then take a short stroll over to Lamont and peruse the Sports Illustrated How-to book of Football. No one's asking you to wear a raccoon coat or wave a pennant or anything for crissake. Just go. You'll thank me later.
But if you don't, you might as well go see Citizen Kane at the Brattle Theater, even if it will be the fifth time you've seen it. More film critics than you could list consider this thinly veiled story of the career of Randolph Hearst the finest film ever made in America. The cinematography is so innovated and magnificent that describing it is an invitation to platitudes. Made by wonder-kid Orson Welles while he was still in his early 20's, Citizen Kane both secured its maker a reputation as a film genius and made him an industry pariah for pursuing the taboo topic. In the title role, Welles is terrific and it is just impossible to reconcile the image of him as the megalomaniac Kane with that of the ursine talk-show regular and Californian wine salesman.
At the Carpenter Center this weekend, Center Screen presents the truly remarkable film, Workers '80. Chronicling the crucial negotiations in Gdansk in August 1980, this documentary makes fascinating use of facial expressions counterpoised with the tense bargaining sessions. Watch Lech Walesa outmaneuver slick party bureaucrats. Any brief exploration of the themes does not do justice to the movement or the movie. Just see it.
In its fall series of presentations, the Boston Film/Video Foundation is screening Thursday night at Huntington Hall at MIT the premiere of John Lindquist Photographer of the Dance by Boston filmmakers Bob Brodsky and Toni Treadway. The film concerns the 42-year career of the staff photographer of the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, and is part of a benefit program for Jacob's Pillow and the Film/Video Foundation. The program also includes a performance by Lotte Goslar and her Pantomime Circus. Tickets are $10 for students.
The Omen at the Science Center is the film in which Gregory Peck proved that he too could stoop as low as any other good actor. With Lee Remick and some kid with three 6's on his scalp, The Omen did provide Hollywood with some rather ingenious ways of killing priests, photographers and nannies as it depicted the story of the son of Satan and his early years as a young rake.