Events for May, 2012
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Directed by Lynne Ramsay. 2011. R. 112 min. Oscilloscope. 35mm.
Fri, Apr 27 thru Thu, May 3 -- Roll over to view showtimes.
“Every parent’s nightmare” would be the evening news boilerplate description of “We Need to Talk About Kevin,” Lynne Ramsay’s disturbing movie about the mother of a child who goes on a killing spree at his high school. That trite phrase is accurate in an almost technical sense: Ms. Ramsay (who adapted Lionel Shriver’s novel with Rory Stewart Kinnear) follows a kind of dream logic in telling a chronologically splintered story, weaving patterns of associated images and sensations into an intense and claustrophobic web of fear. More»
Coriolanus
Directed by Ralph Fiennes. UK. 2011. R. 122 min. Weinstein Co. 35mm.
Fri, May 4 thru Wed, May 9 -- Roll over to view showtimes.
William Shakespeare’s Coriolanus is the story of a peerless soldier undone twice: first by an inability to stir any tenderness in his soul when he’s made a leader of men, then by a late-arriving overabundance of that tenderness. He’s only skilled at killing—bred for it by a patriotic mother, if not born to it—and lost when called upon to do anything else. As played by Ralph Fiennes in his own cinematic adaptation of the play, Coriolanus’ military genius makes him a figure of awe, but it’s his near-absence of empathy that makes him terrifying. More»
Vampire Circus
Directed by Robert William Young. UK. 1972. PG-13. 84 min. Criterion/Private Collector. 35mm.
- Fri, May 4, 10:00 pm
Go to the bottom of the post to read about a contest to win tickets to Vampire Circus! “Vampire Circus is a Hammer film. It’s got recycled sets, home counties woodland posing as mittel Europe, dodgy day-for-night shots, unconvincing gore and iffy vampire fangs (always with plenty of fillings showing) and dollops of nudity and sex which those in front of and behind the camera didn’t seem very comfortable with. About the only thing its hasn’t got are those Hammer stalwarts Cushing and Lee. But, for all this, Vampire Circus is still a perfectly entertaining, watchable film. More»
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Directed by Sam Wood. UK. 1939. NR. 114 min. Warner Bros. DVD.
- Sun, May 6, 2:00 pm
In 1939, the year that has since been named “The Movies’ Greatest Year,” Robert Donat won a well-deserved Academy Award for this fine portrayal of a shy, revered schoolmaster who devotes his all to “his boys.” (It should be noted that, by so doing, he bested the likes of Clark Gable in Gone With the Wind, Laurence Olivier in Wuthering Heights and James Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes To Washington. No small accomplishment, that!) More»
Nostalgia for the Light
Directed by Patricio Guzman. France. Subtitled. 2010. NR. 90 min. Icarus. 35mm.
- Sun, May 6, 4:30 pm
“Nostalgia for the Light won’t make you nostalgic for anything because it’s not like other documentaries you’ve seen. A film of rare visual poetry that’s simultaneously personal, political and philosophical, it’s a genuine art film that’s also unpretentious and easygoing. More»
Point Entertainment presents An Evening with Ottmar Liebert & Luna Negra
Tickets $25 - $39.50. Buy tickets online.
- Thu, May 10, 8:00 pm
Ottmar Liebert’s incredible global success on a musical level often seems like a simple outgrowth of his cultural background and powerful wanderlust in his formative years. 
Born in Cologne, Germany to Chinese-German father and Hungarian mother, he began playing guitar at 11, and traveled extensively through Europe and Asia intent on fully absorbing each musical tradition he encountered. More»
Point Entertainment presents The Rolling Stones & The Beatles feat: Satisfaction & The British Invasion Tribute
Tickets: $15 - $25. Buy tickets online.
- Fri, May 11, 8:00 pm
Imagine if you could go back in time and see The Rolling Stones and The Beatles on one bill. More»
Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview
Directed by Paul Sen. US. 2011. NR. 70 min. Magnolia. Blu ray.
Sat, May 12 thru Thu, May 17 -- Roll over to view showtimes.
In 1995, during the making of his TV series Triumph of the Nerds about the birth of the personal computer, Bob Cringely did a memorable hour-long interview with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who died in October, 2011. The film was shot 10 years after Jobs had left Apple following a bruising struggle with John Sculley, the CEO he brought into Apple. At the time of the interview Jobs was running Next, the niche computer company he had founded after leaving Apple and would later sell to his old company, enabling Jobs return to his Apple roots. More»
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Directed by Ronald Neame. UK. 1969. NR. 116 min. Fox. 35mm.
- Sun, May 13, 2:00 pm
Maggie Smith also won an Oscar for playing a charismatic educator, but one of a very different ilk than the gentle, unassuming Mr. Chips. As the title character in this fascinating film (based upon the stage-play of the novel by Muriel Sparks), Smith portrays an eccentric, inspiring teacher at an exclusive girls’ school in Edinburgh in the late 1930s, a woman with decidedly controversial leanings. More»
TEDxPhoenixvilleSalons
Tickets: $5. Buy tickets online.
- Tue, Apr 17, 7:00 pm
- Tue, May 15, 7:00 pm
- Tue, Jun 19, 7:00 pm
- Tue, Jul 17, 7:00 pm
- Tue, Aug 21, 7:00 pm
As we gear up for our third annual live TEDxPhoenixville event on October 6, 2012 we’d like to introduce you to the TED format and share some of our favorite TEDTalks with you. Join us each month for a different program of compelling and inspiring talks. Each evening’s program will consist of pre-recorded TEDTalks plus one live performance curated by our TEDxPhoenixville organizing committee. The salons will take place on the third Tuesday of the month April thru August in the Colonial Theatre’s third floor screening room. Seating is limited to 50 people. More»
Bully
Directed by Lee Hirsch. US. 2011. PG-13. 98 min. Weinstein Co. 35mm.
Fri, May 18 thru Thu, May 24 -- Roll over to view showtimes.
“The best social documents on film do more than show you what’s wrong in the world – they make it personal. Bully does that with a passion. Lee Hirsch’s film is a potent and provocative look at a problem that’s out of control, what with 13 million American kids a year being bullied, and some of them even taking their own lives. More»
The Room
Directed by Tommy Wiseau. US. 2003. R. 99 min. Wiseau Films. 35mm.
Sponsored by You've Got Geek
- Fri, May 18, 9:45 pm
“Tommy Wiseau’s The Room may be the first true successor to the Rocky Horror [midnight movie] throne. Since ending a two-week run at Laemmle’s Sunset 5 theater in Los Angeles in 2003, Wiseau’s self-distributed anti-gem has nurtured a cult following through once-a-month midnight screenings. And in the time since, as devotees continue to plumb the mysteries of its mesmerizing inanity, the audience has taken ownership of it: They throw spoons. They shout a repertoire of canned and spontaneous zingers at the screen. They reenact whole scenes in front of the theater. They toss the ol’ pigskin around. More»
The General
Directed by Clyde Bruckman. US. 1926. NR. 107 min. DVD. Tickets: $5 - $13.50. Buy tickets online.
Presented by Theatre Organ Society of the Delaware Valley
- Sat, May 19, 7:00 pm
Pre-Show starts at 7pm and the film starts at 7:30pm. It’s the American Civil War…Johnnie Gray loves The General (his train) and Annabelle Lee (his girl). When Union spies steal his beloved train – with his beloved lady on board - Johnnie springs into action. Will engineer Johnnie get his train back? Will lovelorn Johnnie get his girl back? This 1926 silent film comedy, starring Buster Keaton, is based on a Civil War event. Live musical score performed by Jim Riggs on the TOSDV Wurlitzer Pipe Organ. More»
To Sir with Love
Directed by James Clavell. UK. 1967. NR. 105 min. Sony. DVD.
- Sun, May 20, 2:00 pm
Turning from exclusive and proper upper-class British schools, but retaining a sense of the power of a charismatic teacher, To Sir With Love takes us into the slums of London and provides us with the joy of watching Sidney Poitier win over a tough group of white working-class students. More»
The Loving Story
Directed by Nancy Buirski. US. 2011. NR. 77 min. Icarus. DVD.
- Sun, May 20, 4:30 pm
“The improbably named Lovings, Mildred and Richard, make a compelling couple, and not just because she is half-black, half-Native American and he is good ol’ boy white. In a rich collection of 16-millimeter film, old news clips and still photographs, the Lovings don’t look like two people caught up in a cause, they seem like two people caught up in each other. The Lovings became civil rights activists by default: victims of the times, the color of their skin and a willful, wrongheaded judge in Virginia. By accident, more than design, they made history. More»
The Blackboard Jungle
Directed by Richard Brooks. US. 1955. NR. 101 min. Warner Bros. 35mm.
- Sun, May 27, 2:00 pm
A young Sidney Poitier also has a featured role in this earlier (1955) rendering of the theme of dedicated teachers dealing with delinquent kids in a tough school environment; only this time Poitier is a student in a violent New York City school, and Glenn Ford plays the role of the put-upon, earnest teacher. More»