| Valentine Films for Lovers
Some Films in this series will play at the Aero Theatre!
Join us for films that incorporate the euphoria and
exhilaration (as well as the occasionally painful consequences) of being in love,
including two versions of a Shakespeare classic – Franco Zeffirelli’s ROMEO
AND JULIET and Baz Luhrmann’s ROMEO + JULIET. We’ll also be screening
Luhrmann’s MOULIN ROUGE and a Bette Davis double feature (NOW, VOYAGER
and JEZEBEL). And at the Aero, FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, CASABLANCA, BREAKFAST AT
TIFFANY’S, ROMAN HOLIDAY, a Sneak Preview of TWO LOVERS (with Joaquin
Phoenix and Gwyneth Paltrow) and more!
Friday, February 13 – 7:30 PM
ROMEO AND JULIET, 1968,
Paramount, 138 min. A protégé of director Luchino Visconti, Franco Zeffirelli had
already directed another Shakespeare adaptation (THE TAMING OF THE SHREW with Richard
Burton and Elizabeth Taylor) a year earlier, and once again brought his obsessive devotion
to costume, set design and period detail to what many regard as his best movie. For the
first time on film, the Bard’s star-crossed lovers are actually played by teenagers
(the age range Shakespeare intended). Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey are
perfect, offering an innocence and youthful vitality that invigorates the proceedings to
genuine emotional heights. They are complimented by an excellent supporting cast,
including Michael York, John McEnery and
Milo O’Shea. Nominated for Best Picture and Best Director, the film won
Oscars for Best Cinematography (Pasqualino De Santis) and Best Costume Design (Danilo
Donati), but shamefully did not receive a nomination for its sublime Nino Rota score and
theme song, "A Time to Love." "They didn't merely look their parts, they
embodied them in the freshness of their personalities, and although neither was a trained
actor, they were fully equal to Shakespeare's dialogue for them." – Roger
Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times; "…a lovely, sensitive, friendly
popularization of the play -- the lovers, Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey, as young and
full of life as they ought to be…" – Renata Adler, The New York
Times More | Trailer
Saturday, February 14 – 7:30 PM
Double Feature:
MOULIN ROUGE, 2001, 20th Century
Fox, 127 min. Director Baz Luhrmann’s phantasmagorical musical has been hailed
as one of the most visually inventive and wildly kinetic films in recent memory for its
mixture of turn-of-the-century Parisian nightlife, late-20th-century pop music
(beautifully performed in the film by lovers Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor)
and astonishingly ornate production and costume design, courtesy of Catherine Martin. Trailer | Review
ROMEO + JULIET 1996, 20th
Century Fox, 120 min. Writer-director-producer Baz Luhrmann re-envisions the
bard’s star-crossed lovers as Gen X gangsters, played by Leonardo DiCaprio and
Claire Danes. The film’s retro-futuristic look, with guns standing in for
swords and Veracruz for the mythical Verona Beach, earned an Oscar nomination for
production designers Catherine Martin and Brigitte Boch. Co-written by Craig Pearce,
co-starring John Leguizamo, Paul Sorvino and Brian Dennehy, with
original music by Radiohead and others. Trailer | Official Site
Sunday, February 15 – 7:30 PM
Bette Davis Double Feature:
NOW, VOYAGER, 1942, Warner Bros., 117
min. Dir. Irving Rapper. "Don't ask for the moon --
we have the stars." In this classic Bette Davis soap opera, the great
actress plays a repressed spinster who finds love with Paul Henreid after
psychiatrist Claude Rains encourages her to stand up to her domineering
mother and to embrace life. Max Steiner's Oscar-winning score provides just the right
amount of operatic emphasis in this manipulative but undeniably effective, intelligent
Hollywood sudser. "…a highly narcotic, swoon-inducing romance in the Bette
Davis canon."—Jeremiah Kipp, Slant Magazine More
JEZEBEL, 1938, Warner Bros., 103
min. Bette Davis won an Oscar for her performance as a tempestuous Southern belle
torn between her prime suitor (George Brent) and the man she truly loves (Henry
Fonda). In addition to the top-notch performances, director William Wyler
provides some gorgeous set-pieces, from the fancy ball to which Davis wears her scandalous
red dress to an eerie New Orleans plagued by a yellow fever epidemic. More | Trailers |
