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NEWS OF ATHENS' CINEMA SCENE
A Great Start: The Summer Classic Movie Series
got underway at Cine two weeks ago with a
sold-out Friday-night screening of Chocolat,
preceded by a rousing introduction by Tony
Eubanks. Tony has been appointed to head up
the newly formed board of the Athens Film
Arts Institute, the nonprofit organization
that will take over the theater's operations
starting in January. The summer movie series
is a benefit for the AFAI, which will need to
hire a director to replace Cine founder Brigitta
Hangartner when she moves to Illinois in early
2012, soon after the transition.
by Otto Preminger. When Brigitta asked if I'd
be interested in introducing it I immediately
agreed, despite not having seen it: I figured a
Lubitsch film that had never been available
on home video in the United States, even
if it didn't rise to the level of his best work,
couldn't be anything less than worthwhile. As
it turns out, it's one of Lubitsch's very best
movies, holding up strongly against his other
late-career masterpieces, Ninotchka, The Shop
Around the Corner and Heaven Can Wait. It
has all the warmth, charm and ineffable grace
of those films, along with the committed
Jennifer Jones in Ernst Lubitsch's Cluny Brown, opening July 22 as part of Cine's Summer Classic Movie Series.
Because of the AFAI's 501(c)3 status, Cine
memberships (as well as donations to the
foundation) will now be tax-deductible. The
IRS will also consider ticket sales "support,"
which must constitute at least one-third of
the organization's income in order for it to
remain a nonprofit. That doesn't mean the
AFAI won't still have to beat the bushes to
raise funds for Cine's operation, but it will
certainly help as the new group finds its legs
and establishes ’tself in the community. In
both his intro to Chocolat and his warmup for
presenter Patterson Hood at last Friday's series
screening of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre,
Tony stressed Cine's role as an invaluable
cultural asset to this community, a point with
which you won't find any argument here.
It's About the Movies: Sierra Madre was as
much fun as ever, and terrific to see on a
big screen—that's still playing through this
Thursday, July 21. But Chocolat was really a
pleasant surprise for me. I had remembered
it as a super-slick commercial entertain
ment with some light art-house pretensions.
That's still a fair characterization of it, I sup
pose, but it's only a partial one that doesn't
acknowledge how beautifully executed it
is. The script by Robert Nelson Jacobs from
Joanne Harris's novel has all its pieces exactly
in place, and Lasse Hallstrom's brisk direction
keeps it humming along with just the right
balance of sentimentality and good humor. It's
great at being a crowd-pleaser, which made it
an ideal choice for AFAI's series kickoff.
An even greater revelation, though, is the
film I'm presenting in the series, Cluny Brown.
It's the last picture completed by the peer
less Ernst Lubitsch, in 1946 before he died a
year later at only 65 while in production with
That Lady in Ermine, which had to be finished
characterizations and depth of emotion that
set them apart from his earlier, more breezily
continental comedies and musicals. Not that
Lubitsch had entirely abandoned the discreetly
naughty wit that was his trademark—there's
a vague but stirring running double enten
dre about plumbing that must simply have
stumped the censors.
Cluny Brown opens this Friday, july 22 in a
restored 35mm print; I'm introducing the early
evening screening [check www.athenscine.
com. for the specific showtime]
And Don't Forget: The next entry in the sum
mer classic series is pretty exciting, too: Josef
von Sternberg's The Blue Angel, the first of
his seven collaborations with Marlene Dietrich.
The 7 p.m. opening-night screening on Friday,
July 29 will be introduced by the immensely
talented Sanni Baumgartner, a wonderful
singer and multi-intrumentalist with a terrific
affinity for the kind of Berlin cabaret music
so iconically purveyed by Dietrich in this and
many other films. Don't miss it.
Adieu to iFilms, for Now: The ACC Library's
excellent iFilms series will be taking a hiatus
while the library auditorium undergoes reno
vations beginning in August, so this month's
final screenings are the last you'll see for
awhile. July 21 is Secrecy, a 2008 documen
tary that explores the role of government
secrecy in the age of the War on Terror. July
28 is Questioning Faith, a 2002 doc that con
tains director and seminarian Macky Alston's
personal reflections on how God car. allow
such suffering in the world. The free screen
ings are Thursdays at 7 p.m.; go to www.
clarke.public.lib.ga.us for more info.
Dave Marr film@flagpole.com
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