By Zee Grega
October 10th, 2008 @ 12:32 PM
film
- SIFF Cinema brings you a series of Shakespeare-themed films that starts off Friday with My Private Idaho, Gus Van Sant’s (in)famous film about two Portland hustlers played by Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix that was inspired by Henry IV. On Saturday check out the 1952 Cannes Film Festival winning film, Othello, directed by the legendary Orson Welles doubling with Welles’ Macbeth. Other films in the series include Richard III, Looking for Richard, Hamlet, Baz Luhrman’s vividly modern Romeo + Juliet and Tempest with John Cassavetes, Molly Ringwald, Raul Julia, Gena Rowlands and Susan Sarandon.
- Otto Preminger directed 1959’s Anatomy of a Murder, a brilliant courtroom drama nominated for no less than seven Academy Awards. James Stewart stars as a humble small-town lawyer who must defend his client (Ben Gazzara) against charges of first-degree murder for shooting a barkeeper who–allegedly–raped his wife (the lovely Lee Remick). A sharp-eyed look at the law, Anatomy of a Murder remains fresh and fascinating all these years later. Starts Friday at the Grand Illusion.
- Late night at the Grand Illuision: From the Pole to the Pulpit: Ron Ormond screens a series of fiery religious propaganda films from the 70s directed by Ron Ormond, director of “trash classics” like Teenage Bridge, Mesa of Lost Women, and The Monster and the Stripper.
- Late night at the Egyptian: Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction.
- Central Cinema offers up the timelySeattle premier of Boogieman, a look at long-time political operative Lee Atwater, tied to Reagan, both Bushes and now McCain.
- Northwest Film Forum brings you The Exiles, a groundbreaking 1961 film about young Indians in the big city. Also showing at NWFF: Secrecy, a documentary about the “seduction and power” of secrecy as it relates to national security and the public’s right to know. The ACLU of Washington will host a pre-screening reception on Friday night.
