Coming Home (1978) 8/24 5 & 8

MSMM
presents

Coming Home

Sunday August 24th at 5:00 pm & 8:00pm

Runtime: 2 hrs 11 mins

Synopsis: When Sally Hyde's (Jane Fonda) husband, a ramrod-straight marine captain, Bob Hyde (Bruce Dern), is sent to Vietnam, she leaves the isolated world of the officer's quarters and begins volunteer social work at the veterans hospital. There her unthinking support of the war and her blindness to its effects are challenged by meeting the crippled men struggling to recover, psychologically as well as physically, from their time in country. Many, like Luke Martin (Jon Voight), now a paraplegic, are embittered and full of unfocused, uncontrollable rage, which he takes out on the prim, controlled Sally. Interestingly, they went to the same large high school, but she was a pretty, popular cheerleader type and he was just a guy in the back of the class. Gradually, as she changes politically (always signaled by changes in hair and fashion) and he recovers emotionally, they become friends and then lovers. This causes a sexual awakening in Sally that furthers her transformation from a repressed wife to an independent woman. Then her husband comes home. Hal Ashby's film, with its classic rock soundtrack and lush photography by Haskell Wexler, submerged its politics in a warm nostalgia, although it was made just a few years after the war ended. Still, its theme of individual transformation, both political and sexual, struck a chord with baby boomer audiences who all felt, to varying degrees, that they had done the same thing.

Being There (1979) 8/31 5 & 8

MSMM
presents

Being There

Sunday August 31st 5:00pm and 8:00pm

Runtime: 2 hrs 10 mins

Synopsis: BEING THERE is based on Jerzy Kosinski's short comic novel about a simpleton, Chance (Peter Sellers), raised in isolation whose only education came from watching TV. When he's forced out of the house where he worked as a gardener by the death of the wealthy recluse who raised him from infancy, he's fortuitously struck by a limousine carrying Eve Rand (Shirley MacLaine), the wife of a wealthy industrialist. He's mistaken, because of his well-tailored suits, for a man of means and taken to dinner with her husband, Ben Rand (Melvyn Douglas). There, as Chauncy Gardner, his blank affect is taken for seriousness and his literal pronouncements about gardening for metaphoric economic predictions. Soon he's meeting the president (Jack Warden) and becoming a star on TV--where he's a natural. Kosinski was well known to be personally fascinated by the power of television. In BEING THERE, which he adapted for the screen himself, he presents a comic fable about a man whose entire sense of reality came from watching television. Sellers is marvelous as the always-deadpan cipher in whom everyone he meets sees whatever it is they need to see. Shirley MacLaine, Jack Warden, and Melvyn Douglas give outstanding performances in this biting satire directed by Hal Ashby.

Harold and Maude (1971) 8/17; 5 & 7

MSMM
presents

Harold and Maude

Sunday August 17th:
5:00pm and 7:00pm

The Academy of Music Theatre

Runtime: 1 hr 31 mins

Synopsis: In the days before home video, when access to anything but first-run Hollywood movies was limited to repertory houses and college film societies, Hal Ashby's HAROLD AND MAUDE achieved cult status and became a surprise hit. In a broad sense, the film is a simple love story about how opposites attract--only, this time around, he's 19 and she's 79. Harold, played with deadpan humor by Bud Cort (M*A*S*H), is under extreme pressure from his overbearing mother, Mrs. Chasen (Vivian Pickles, in a performance that is a sheer delight), to enter the dating world. Unfortunately, the shy and morose Harold would rather spend his time attending the funerals of complete strangers. It is at one of these where he meets Maude (Ruth Gordon), who has the spunk and energy of a teenager. Maude is convinced that Harold needs to come out of his shell and enjoy life, so she brings him into hers. The taboo relationship between Harold and Maude, created by screenwriter Colin Higgins, embodied the spirit of an experimental generation guided by the mantra "If it feels good, do it." The love affair between the film's two eccentrics remains one of Hollywood's most unexpected, but tender, romances. The soundtrack, with songs by Cat Stevens, provides an effective thematic bridge as Harold crosses from extended adolescence into manhood.

Rolling Stones Documentary Shine a Light by Martin Scorsese 9/5 6:30 & 9:00, 9/6 6:30

MSMM
presents

The Rolling Stones
Documentary
Shine a Light
by Martin Scorsese

Friday, Sept 5th at 6:30pm & 9:00pm
Saturday, Sept 6th at 6:30pm


The Academy of Music Theatre


Runtime: 2 hrs 2 mins

Theatrical Release: Apr 4, 2008 Limited

Box Office: $5,355,376

Synopsis: The music of the Rolling Stones has lit up the soundtrack to so many Martin Scorsese films ("Gimme Shelter" has appeared in no less than three of his features--GOODFELLAS, CASINO, and THE DEPARTED) that it's little surprise to find the director teaming up with the legendary rockers for this concert recording. SHINE A LIGHT begins with a few glimpses of the preparation that went into the recording of the show, which was staged over two nights at New York City's Beacon Theatre in 2006. Scorsese also includes some candid footage of the Stones doing a pre-show meet-and-greet with guests Bill and Hillary Clinton, which highlights some of the different personality traits in the band. Keith Richards and Ron Wood are the clowns, always goofing around; Mick Jagger is the consummate professional, always polite to a fault; Charlie Watts caries a real air of dignity, as befits someone who enjoys a dual career as a noted jazz musician. The bulk of the movie is dedicated to the multi-camera shoot at the Beacon, which captures the Stones playing some of their biggest hits and a few lesser-known numbers. Special guests such as Jack White, Buddy Guy, and Christina Aguilera are ushered on at various points in the show, and the concert footage is broken up by some amusing vintage footage of the band. By using so many cameras, Scorsese captures a side of the Stones that is rarely seen, such as Watts turning to camera and puffing out his cheeks and Richards offering encouraging words to Jack White as he exits the stage. SHINE A LIGHT provides a welcome glimpse into the Stones' world at this advanced stage in their career, and continues Scorsese's obsession (see also: NO DIRECTION HOME and THE LAST WALTZ) with documenting some of the most influential characters in rock & roll.

Portishead – Live at Roseland (1998) 9/6 9:00

MSMM
presents

Portishead: Live at Roseland

Saturday, Sept 6th at 9:00

British trip-hop group Portishead broke out during a mid-1990s wave of electronic innovation occurring in their hometown of Bristol. Their gloomy, jazzy sound managed to set them apart from Bristol contemporaries like techno pioneer Tricky and drum 'n bass guru Roni Size, and they soon gained a dedicated following.

Resoundingly haunting beats and the echoing choruses sung in Beth Gibbon's smoky voice are signatures of the Portishead sound.

In 1997, the band performed a one-off show with strings by the New York Philharmonic orchestra at ROSELAND in NEW YORK. It was filmed at that famous venue on July 24, 1997. The band performs 16 of their songs, including the hits "Numb" and "Sour Times." Imagine the quality of the sound at the Academy, an opera house.

The Academy of Music Theatre

Bound for Glory (1976)

MSMM
presents

Bound for Glory

Sunday August 10th: 5:00pm & 7:00 PM

Sunday Auteur Appreciation: Hal Ashby

Synopsis: Hal Ashby's film of Woody Guthrie's autobiography, BOUND FOR GLORY, recounts the protest singer's life starting when he's a young man with a wife and two children, trying to find work as a sign painter in the Dust Bowl-ravaged Texas of the 1930s. He leaves his wife, Mary (Melinda Dillon), with her family and, like thousands of others, rides the rails to California. Along the way he sees the brutal treatment of men by the railroad's hired thugs before being thrown into a hard life in the migrant workers camps of the San Fernando Valley. He begins to write songs about everything he's seen and joins Ozark Bule on the radio, not just singing about union organizing, but actually going to meetings and brawling with union-busting goons. When the radio station management, as a result of pressure from its advertisers, tells Woody--who's now attracting a following with his protest songs and ballads about the lives of oppressed people--that he can't do those songs, he gives up the radio program and decides to ride the rails to New York to seek a larger audience for his music. David Carradine, as Guthrie, does his own singing, giving an intimacy to the songs that might have been lost by dubbing. The award-winning cinematography by Haskell Wexler captures both the bleakness of the Great Depression and the beautiful grandeur of America, exactly what Guthrie expressed in his songs.

Ballet Russes (2005) 8/28, 8/30 6:30 & 8:30

MSMM
presents

Ballet Russes

August 29th & August 30th
6:30pm and 8:30pm

The Academy of Music Theatre

Rated: Not Rated

Runtime: 1 hr 58 mins

Theatrical Release: Oct 26, 2005 Limited


Synopsis: Unearthing a treasure trove of archival footage, filmmakers Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine have fashioned a dazzlingly entrancing ode to the revolutionary twentieth-century dance troupe known as the Ballets Russes. What began as a group of Russian refugees who never danced in Russia became not one but two rival dance troupes who fought the infamous "ballet battles" that consumed London society before World War II. BALLETS RUSSES maps the company's Diaghilev-era beginnings in turn-of-the-century Paris—when artists such as Nijinsky, Balanchine, Picasso, Miró, Matisse, and Stravinsky united in an unparalleled collaboration—to its halcyon days of the 1930s and '40s, when the Ballets Russes toured America, astonishing audiences schooled in vaudeville with artistry never before seen, to its demise in the 1950s and '60s when rising costs, rocketing egos, outside competition, and internal mismanagement ultimately brought this revered company to its knees. Directed with consummate invention and infused with juicy anecdotal interviews from many of the company's glamorous stars, BALLETS RUSSES treats modern audiences to a rare glimpse of the singularly remarkable merger of Russian, American, European, and Latin American dancers, choreographers, composers, and designers that transformed the face of ballet for generations to come. — Sundance Film Festival 2005

Jellyfish (2008)

MSMM
presents
JELLYFISH

July 18th, 19th, 25th, 26th
6:30pm and 8:30pm

The Academy of Music Theatre

Rated: Not Rated

Runtime: 78 mins

Theatrical Release: Apr 4, 2008 Limited


Synopsis: Winner of the Camera d'Or at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, JELLYFISH (MEDUZOT) is a moving film that follows the travails of three women in modern-day Tel Aviv. Batya (Sarah Adler) is struggling to make ends meet, living in an apartment with a leaky ceiling and working for a wedding caterer, where she gets to serve happy people gathered together to celebrate the institution of marriage. One day on the beach, she sees a little redhaired girl (Nikol Leidman) suddenly walk out of the ocean, and Batya decides to look after the silent child when the police won't help find her parents. Keren (Noa Knoller) is a young woman who has just gotten married to Michael (Gera Adler), but she breaks her leg at the reception after being stuck in the bathroom, forcing them to cancel their Caribbean vacation and instead spend their honeymoon at an Israeli seaside hotel, where her husband starts becoming friendly with an older woman in the top-floor suite. And Joy (Ma-nenita De Latorre) is a Filipino guest worker who has come to Tel Aviv seeking employment as a caregiver to make money to send back to her son in the Philippines. Although she intended to take care of babies, she is instead assigned to elderly women, one of whom dies immediately and another who is bullheaded and outwardly nasty to her. As the three protagonists try to make their way in the world, their lives intersect in unusual and fascinating ways. JELLYFISH, directed by real-life partners and writers Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen and written by Geffen, is a touching, compelling drama about troubled families, parents and children, and loneliness. Instead of making any grand statements, it focuses on the little things in life that can make the difference between being happy and being miserable, keeping hope within grasp. Keret and Geffen, who also play small parts in the film, use water as a metaphor throughout the story: just as every ocean has its jellyfish, life can often sting, but it also can be beautiful.

Chris and Don: A Love Story (2008) 8/1, 8/3, 8/8, 8/9 6:30 & 8:30

MSMM
presents

CHRIS AND DON

August 1st, 3rd, 8th, 9th

6:30pm and 8:30pm

The Academy of Music Theatre

Rated: Not Rated

Runtime: 90 mins

Theatrical Release: Jun 13, 2008 Limited


Synopsis: A sleeper hit at the Telluride Film Festival, Chris & Don: A Love Story is the true-life story of the passionate three-decade relationship between British writer Christopher Isherwood (whose Berlin Stories was the basis for all incarnations of the much-beloved cabaret) and American portrait painter Don Bachardy, thirty years his junior. From Isherwood’s Kit-Kat-Club years in Weimar-era Germany (the inspiration for his most famous work) to the couple’s first meeting on the sun-kissed beaches of 1950s Malibu, their against-all-odds saga is brought to dazzling life by a treasure trove of multimedia. Bachardy’s contemporary reminiscences (in the Santa Monica home he shared with Isherwood until his death in 1986) artfully interact with archival footage, rare home movies (with glimpses of glitterati pals W.H. Auden, Igor Stravinsky and Tennessee Williams), reenactments, and, most sweetly, whimsical animations based on the cat-and-horse cartoons the pair used in their personal correspondence. With Isherwood’s status as an out-and-proud gay maverick, and Bachardy’s eventual artistic triumph away from the considerable shadow of his life partner, Chris & Don: A Love Story is above all a joyful celebration of a most extraordinary couple. --© Zeitgeist Films

Up the Yangtze 8/15, 8/16, 8/22 6:30 & 8:30

MSMM

presents

Up the Yangtze

August 15th, 16th, 22nd

6:30pm and 8:30pm

The Academy of Music Theatre

Up the Yangtze 2008

Rated: Not Rated

Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins


Synopsis: Upon completion, China’s mammoth Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River will be the largest hydroelectric power station in the world. Progress, though, comes at a price: the dam will displace more than a million residents and destroy numerous cultural and archaeological sites, upending a way of life. In Up the Yangtze, filmmaker Yung Chang sensitively examines the effects of this massive project on personal lives as he follows two young people, each one transformed by the construction.

Sixteen-year-old Yu Shui and her family are dismantling their tiny shack along the river’s edge to make way for rising waters. She longs to continue her education, but financial circumstances force her to work for Farewell Cruises, a company that ferries tourists to catch a glimpse of the river region before it’s too late. The irony of her employment becomes clear as the boat glides along the river, revealing a landscape changing at an alarming pace. Meanwhile, the journey’s significance is lost on her coworker Chen Bo Yu, whose good looks and English skills make him an ideal hire. He merely sees his job as an opportunity to make some money.

Beautifully photographed, the film provides a final snapshot of a rapidly disappearing cultural landscape. Juxtaposing the Yangtze’s stunning panorama with the reality of Yu Shui’s poignant story, Chang shows the tenuous balance between China’s rich cultural past and its modernized future. --© Sundance Film Festival