Swedish Cinemascope

Sergio Leone aside, Lasse Hallstrom’s ABBA: THE MOVIE is one of the best damn uses of the 2.35 : 1 aspect ratio ever. I hope I’m not spoiling the first reel of the film, but the movie opens with a few fairly static pillarbox shots of the Austrailian outback and a conversation in a radio station office. And then BAMN, we explode into full cinemascope and four channel sound as Abba are flying to Australia for the tour of a lifetime.

Look at this photo! Could they be any more lovely? Framed perfectly in a white light, bringing cheer Down Under. I’ve always thought Abba was fun, but this movie made me love them unconditionally, and without irony. You can’t see this on video, so don’t even think of missing this rare screening.

33 1/3 #10: Sign o’ the Times

While browsing the net in attempts to track down all you Prince fans out there in Seattle, I came across this interesting book about SIGN O’ THE TIMES, which in case you’re wondering we’re showing this weekend at NWFF, written by Seattle’s own Michaelangelo Matos. He apparently recently (as in March) did a reading for the book for which you can find an interesting article here. Come see the film, listen to the record, and then pick up Matos’ book to get a little bit more backrground on this historic moment in contemporary music.

Believe it or not, you have yet to see all the photos from The Mashup

More wild and woolly images here.

Thanks, Andy Smull!

Happy Mondays are here!

Announcing HAPPY MONDAYS featuring half-price admission to all regularly priced screenings on Monday evenings.

What better way to save a buck (or four) and see a great movie?  Or, stay for two movies and essentially get one free.

General admission prices on Mondays will now be $4.25, children and seniors pay $3, and our members get in for a measly $2.50.

Spread the word about the best deal in town!

Race is the Place

Looking forward to the Third Eye screening August 7, Vanishing Ruins: Visions of Detroit, I have been thinking about my hometown becoming a theme park for the current generation of post-industrial urban archeologists.  It is awe-inspiring to see the vast spectacle of waste left behind, abandoned by this dying civilization.

Real people used to populate the neighborhoods and work in the buildings that are now empty and boarded up.  Detroit was one of the largest cities in the nation with a population of 2,000,000.  It had a booming economy that coursed through the veins of the rest of the nation.

These films have no responsibility for giving an explanation of what happened, what tragedy befell this town.  I say, a way to view these films is to see the wasted landscape of Detroit as the most recent battlefield in the Civil War.  See in this film evidence that capitalism holds no mercy or nostalgia, even for itself.  See in this film a mirror for corrupt leadership.  See this rubble as the length whites will go to when race is the issue.  And Seattleites, take to heart the message that the value of real estate is relative.

Make plans to see these films.