Riverdale to show 5 ‘art house’ flicks
Because their box office receipts often aren’t reported on E! and some of their stars aren’t famous enough to get on TMZ, art theaters frequently don’t get the recognition they deserve. In one egregious recent example, on March 22, IndieWire erroneously reported that Little Rock didn’t have an art house cinema.
In reality, patrons of the Riverdale 10 VIP Cinema and the Ron Robinson Theater have been able to see indie films like My Scientology Movie, Step and The Little Hours that moviegoers in larger cities have had to wait to catch online or on cable.
If presenting movies that don’t feature superheroes, aim for adult viewers, have nonfiction content or that might force viewers to read subtitles weren’t a cause for rejoicing already, the Riverdale 10 is celebrating the second annual Art House Theater Day this Sunday. It’s joining theaters across the country from Columbia, S.C., and Salina, Kan., to New York, in acknowledging what art houses mean to people who love movies.
Riverdale 10 proprietor Matt Smith, who has been running theaters in Little Rock for 17 years, said introducing audiences to unfamiliar but worthy films has been both a passion and a day at the office. He also runs Silver Screen Cinema 8 in Cabot and the Hot Springs VIP Cinema. Nonetheless, his Little Rock auditoriums serve a special purpose.
“What I’ve always done with my Little Rock theater [the late Market Street Cinema] is play movies there that I wanted to champion and make sure they were screened in Arkansas,” he
says. “I’ve also played your standard Hollywood-released motion pictures. One of my goals was to play films that weren’t available in Arkansas.
“When the Arthouse Convergence (which is organizing Art House Theater Day) became a thing, I signed up when that was first created and became a member. That’s just something I’ve always done.”
That said, each theater will present its own content, and the Riverdale will show five unique offerings.
Revolting Rhymes (2016) 1:30 p.m.
Roald Dahl is best known for writing James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which introduced the world to confectioner Willy Wonka. While Dahl created some unforgettable tales of his own, he also liked reworking traditional fairy tales into his own uniquely warped sensibilities. In the two episodes presented this Sunday, Dahl’s verse and illustrator Quentin Blake’s designs (which graced the author’s books) retool Snow White and Little Red Riding Hood into something the Grimm Brothers might not recognize. The stellar voice cast for these cartoons features Dominic West (The Wire) as the Wolf, Rob Brydon (The Trip) in three roles and Rose Leslie from Game of Thrones as Snow White.
Stairway to Heaven aka A Matter of Life and Death (1946) 2:45 p.m.
Originally intended as a propaganda film to improve relations between the United Kingdom and the United States after World War II, Stairway to Heaven lives on as a romantic fantasy that combines amplified imagination with technical virtuosity. Thanks to breathtaking black-and-white and Technicolor photography from Jack Cardiff, who was the first cinematographer to earn a Lifetime Achievement Oscar, the creatively spun tale from writer-directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger still looks great 71 years later. The movie is essentially eye candy for those with brains and hearts.
David Niven plays a British airman, Peter Carter, who falls in love with June, an American radio operator (Kim Hunter, A Streetcar Named Desire, Planet of the Apes), as his bomber is about to crash off the coast of England. When the heaven-sent Conductor 71 (Marius Goring) gets lost in the perpetually foggy weather, Peter lands safely without a parachute and inadvertently causes both worlds to feud over his fate.
Powell, Pressburger and Cardiff also teamed up on The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes. Their work has influenced a variety of filmmakers, from Martin Scorsese to Wes Anderson. Stairway to Heaven is a wonderful introduction to their work and to classic movies in general. Thelma Schoonmaker, Scorsese’s editor and Powell’s widow, hosts a video introduction.
Titicut Follies (1967) 4:45 p.m.
Now 87, Oscar-winner Frederick Wiseman made his mark as one of the founders of documentary filmmaking. His movies generally avoid an all-knowing narrator telling viewers what to think of what they’re seeing and capture an astonishing intimacy with the people being filmed. They often seem oblivious to Wiseman’s cameras and microphones.
Oh, and it’s worth mentioning that his movies can still be provocative. His 1967 Titicut Follies is an unflinching account of life at the Bridgewater State Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Massachusetts. As one might expect, the patients were there for horrific crimes like child abuse, murder and even cannibalism, but the hospital kept them drugged and naked and kept them in nearly bare rooms.
For more than two decades after it was made, the movie had been available only for educational purposes because the hospital sued Wiseman for violating the “patients’ privacy,” even though he had obtained permission from the hospital and the patients’ families. The movie has recently undergone a 4K restoration, and Wiseman has recently worked on a ballet inspired by the film.
Speaking of Wes Anderson, some recent screenings have included the director moderating a Q&A with Wiseman. Lucky (2017) 7 p.m. Veteran character actor Harry Dean Stanton died last week at the age of 91. The Kentucky native’s name may not seem familiar, but you’ve probably seen him in hits like Ridley Scott’s Alien, Alex Cox’s Repo Man and Frank Darabont’s The Green Mile or in affecting indie films like
David Lynch’s The Straight Story and Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas. Working almost up until the day he left this earth, Stanton even appeared in episodes of the new season of Twin Peaks.
In Lucky, he plays a 90-year-old atheist sitting in a bar in an obscure town as he and others recount anecdotes about how they’ve reached this point. The other visitors to the bar include Lynch, Ron Livingston (Office Space), Ed Begley Jr., Tom Skerritt and Beth Grant. Lucky is the directorial debut of actor John Carroll Lynch, who has appeared in everything from Fargo and Gran Torino to Zodiac.
The Road Movie (2016) 9 p.m.
While the Moscow-set Die Hard sequel A Good Day to Die Hard was unwatchable, real Russian car chases and wrecks are infinitely exciting.
Most vehicles in that country have dashcams because law enforcement doesn’t always operate, um, legally and Russians have nearly twice the number of auto wrecks despite having one sixth the number of cars and trucks. The footage helps with insurance claims and provides Russian motorists with some protection against crooked cops.
Dmitrii Kalashnikov’s The Road Movie assembles a sort of poetic “greatest hits” of dashcam footage, from a meteor landing on earth to a fellow hanging for dear life on a windshield. Forest fires and other sights that might have missed a distracted driver’s attention show up here.
For more information go to Riverdale10.com or to arthouseconvergence.org/arthouseday/about.php.