March 2010
FILM
Menu of this month's listings, stories and columns '
UTEP Cinema Novo Art and Foreign Film Series — Union Cinema, Union Building East, First Floor. Film showings are at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, unless otherwise listed. Admission is $2 ($1 with UTEP, student or military ID). Free popcorn offered. Ticket sales at the door begin 30 minutes before showtime. Schedule subject to change. Information: Marina, 747-5481 or mmmonsisvais@utep.edu.
• March 5-6 — “The Lovely Bones.” Based on the best selling book by Alice Sebold, a 14-year-old girl from suburban Pennsylvania who is murdered by her neighbor, tells the story from Heaven, showing the lives of the people around her and how they have changed all while attempting to get someone to find her lost body.
• March 12-13 – “Nine.” Arrogant, self-centered movie director Guido Contini finds himself struggling to find meaning, purpose, and a script for his latest film endeavor. With only a week left before shooting begins, he desperately searches for answers and inspiration from his wife, his mistress, his muse and his mother. As his chaotic profession steadily destroys his personal life, Contini must find a balance between creating art and succumbing to its obsessive demands.
The “Will Rock You Film” Series, celebrating rock-music themed or inspired films is March 26-27. See separate listing.
Film Salon — The Film Salon at Trinity First United Methodist Church, 801 N. Mesa (at Yandell), continues its series highlighting the career of Carol Lombard with Ben Hecht’s “Nothing Sacred” at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 6, in Resler Hall. Admission is free. Nursery available with two-day advance reservation. Information: 533-2674 or filmsalon.org.
“Nothing Sacred” follows small-town girl Lombard, who may or may not be dying of radium poisoning, as she’s catapulted to media stardom thanks to the melodramatic reportage of sensationalist New York newspaperman Fredrick March.
The series concludes with her final film, Ernst Lubitsch’s 1942 classic, “To Be or Not To Be,” April 3.
‘Feel Good Women Films’ — The film series in celebration of UTEP’s Women’s History Month, runs 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday, March 11, in the Women’s Resource Center, UTEP Union West, Room 112. Films include “Whip It,” “Soul Food,” “Diary of a Mad Black Woman,” “A League of Their Own” and “The Women.” Admission is free. Information: 747-5291.
‘One Peace at a Time’ — The film, featuring music of The Band, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and others, will be presented by the Las Cruces Friends of the Department of Peace at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 13, at the Fountain Theater. AQ&A session follows. The film also deals with various solutions to world problems. Admission is free, but donation welcome to support both the film and the Department of Peace conference in Albuquerque in June. Information: (575) 541-9093
Pax Christi Film Series — The series presents “Real Women Have curves” at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 14 at Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services’ Mother Teresa Center, 2400 E. Yandell (between Piedras and Cotton). Actress America Ferrera plays Ana, a first generation Mexican-American teenager. Hosted by Pax Christi El Paso and the Peace & Justice Ministry of the Catholic Diocese of El Paso. Admission is free, donations welcome. Information: 532-0527 or 497-0384.
MVFS Short film contest — The Mesilla Valley Film Society seeks very short films (90 seconds or less) through March 15 for the Mesilla Valley Short Film Festival. Films must include a message about turning off cell phone and no texting during movies, and be funny with no offensive language, images or violence. One entry per filmmaker; no age limits. Entries must be playable on DVD. Two winner will be rewarded a $50 cash prize, plus tickets. Winning entries will be played for one week with Fountain Theatre’s main feature. Drop off entries at Fountain Theatre, or mail to MVFS, PO Drawer Z, Mesilla N.M. 88046. Information: (575) 522-0286 or nedludd@hotmail.com.
‘We Will Rock You’ Music Film Series — UTEP Cinema Novo presents its 3rdannual music film series March 26-27 at the UTEP Union Cinema. Admission is $2 ($1 for UTEP faculty, staff, military and students with valid ID). Free popcorn offered. Ticket sales at the door begin 30 minutes before showtime. Information: Marina, 747-5481 or mmmonsisvais@utep.edu.
Friday schedule:
• 5:30 p.m. “Sid and Nancy.” Morbid biographical story of Sid Vicious, bassist with British punk group the Sex Pistols, and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen.
• 8 p.m. “Gimme Shelter.” The film documentary of the Rolling Stones first tour of the United States in three years.
Saturday schedule:
• 4 p.m. “Stop Making Sense.” In this concert film, the Talking Heads, led by frontman David Byrne, hardly talk, don’t stop and always make sense.
·6 p.m. “Wattstax.” Documentary with a selection from a non-stop 7-hour musical event at Watts, the Los Angeles Coliseum, Aug.20, 1972 with groups Dramatics, Staple Singers, Rance Allen Group, Emotions, Bar Kays, Mel and Tim.
• 8 p.m. “Don’t Look Back.” Portrait of the artist Bob Dylan as a young man.
Holocaust Museum Cinema Sundays — El Paso Holocaust Museum and Study Center, 715 Oregon, hosts free showings of Holocaust, genocide and racism-related films at 2 p.m. the last Sunday of the month. Age 18 and younger not permitted without parent or guardian. The March 28 screening is the 1961 classic film “Judgment at Nuremberg.” Admission is free, but seating is limited. Information: 351-0048, ext. 24 or elpasoholocaustmuseum.org.
Fountain Theatre — 2469 Calle de Guadalupe, 1/2 block south of the plaza in Mesilla. The historic theater, operated by the Mesilla Valley Film Society, features films at 7:30 p.m. nightly, plus 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Foreign language films include subtitles. Admission: $7 ($6 seniors and students with ID; all seats for matinees; $5 society members and children); $5 on Wednesday. Information, schedule: (575) 524-8287 or mesillavalleyfilm.org.
• Feb 26-March 4 — “In Search of Beethoven.” Director Phil Grabsky traces the composer’s life from his youth in Bonn as the son of a court musician, through his heyday as the greatest virtuoso of early 19th-century Vienna.
• March 5-11 — “The Young Victoria.” Victoria and Albert are a couple with modern problems: She has to ask him to marry her, rules of the court; she makes more than he ever will, perks of the crown; she wears the crown in the family, luck of the draw. Rated PG.
• March 12-18 — “Me and Orson Welles.” British actor Christian McKay plays the man who would be Citizen Kane. Zac Efron as Richard Samuels is the audience’s eyes and ears into Welles’ world. Samuels blunders into a meeting with the then 22-year-old genius, wins a small role in the play, and falls under the spell of everything theatrical Welles builds with producing partner John Houseman. Rated PG-13.
• March 19-25 — “Broken Embraces.” Penélope Cruz plays Lena, a hooker-turned-actress. She falls for her director (Luís Homar), who uses makeup, wigs and wardrobe to morph her into sexual fantasies men can watch. Then a car crash ends Lena’s life and the director’s career until the unexpected occurs. Rated R.
• March 26-April 1 — “The Last Station.” Helen Mirren is a lusty, roaring wonder playing the long-suffering wife of Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy (Christopher Plummer). Countess Sofya, married to the old man for 48 years and the mother of his 13 children, is beside herself over her husband’s decision to will the rights to his great literary works not to her but to the Russian people. Rated R.
CinéMatinee Film Series — Films with western, rural or New Mexico themes (as well as other special selections) are shown at 1:30 p.m. Saturdays at the Fountain Theatre, 2469 Calle de Guadalupe, 1/2 block south of the plaza in Mesilla. Admission: $4 ($1 for Mesilla Valley Film Society members), unless otherwise listed. Information: (575) 524-8287 (leave message) or mesillavalleyfilm.org.
• March 6 — “Humble Pie” (2007). A terminally optimistic working class dreamer attempts to shed a few extra pounds, inspire others, and finally get his driver’s license so he can set out on the road to success. Rated PG-13.
• March 13 — “Amargosa” (2000). A look at then 76-year-old dancer and artist Marta Becket. When she was 43, she abandoned a rich New York art scene to forge an entirely new creative life in a tiny Death Valley ghost town. Thin, graceful, wizened and disarmingly down to earth, Becket is at work in the ornate Amargosa Opera House she restored. Not rated.
• March 20 — “Private Lives of Pippa Lee” (2009). Starring Robin Wright Penn and Santa Fe resident, Alan Arkin, this drama is about a woman in her prime who is happily married to legendary publisher Herbert Lee, 30 years her senior. When he turns 80 the couple moves out of their luxury home in New York and into a retirement village in Connecticut. The move is a catalyst for her to confront demons from her past. Rated R.
• March 27 — “Major Dundee” (1965). The 2005 restoration of Sam Peckinpah’s 1965 western. Dundee (Charlton Heston) is a vainglorious officer busted to the decidedly inglorious job of overseeing Confederate prisoners in a fort in 1864 New Mexico. Co-stars Richard Harris. Rated PG-13.
Special guest for the screening is Dwight Pitcaithley, former chief historian of the National Park Service.
New Mexico Museum of Space History — Alamogordo, N.M. The museum’s Tombaugh IMAX Dome Theater presents:
• “Molecules to the Max” (11 a.m., 1, 3 and 5 p.m. daily). The animated film takes the audience into the innermost workings of the cosmos through the adventures of an oxygen atom named Oxy and friends Hydro and Hydra.
• “Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag” (noon, 2 and 4 p.m. daily). Following a young F-15 fighter pilot through Red Flag, the final training phase before pilots are sent into actual combat, this giant screen film is the closest audiences will ever get to a ride in the world’s greatest fighter jet.
Tickets: $6 ($5.50 for seniors and military; $4.50 ages 4-12). Ages 3 and under free for all shows. Information: (877) 333-6589 or (575) 437-2840 or nmspacemuseum.org.
Jay’s Film Forecast — Film historian Jay Duncan prepared this list of top monthly “Coming Attractions” for movie fans, listed by studio and release date. Release dates are subject to change.
Feb. 26:
• Cop Out (Warner Bros.)—Bruce Willis, Tracy Morgan, Jason Lee. Directed by Kevin Smith.
• The Crazies (Overture Films) — Radha Mitchell, Timothy Olyphant, Danielle Panabaker. Directed by Breck Eisner.
• The Yellow Handkerchief (Samuel Goldwyn Co.) — Maria Bello, William Hurt, Kristen Stewart. Directed by Udayan Prasad.
March 5
• Alice in Wonderland (Disney) — Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter; directed by Tim Burton.
• Brooklyn’s Finest (Overture) — Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke; directed by Antoine Fuqua.
March 12
• Green Zone (Universal) — Matt Damon, Jason Isaacs, Greg Kinnear; directed by Paul Greengrass.
• Our Family Wedding (Fox Searchlight) — America Ferrera, Forest Whitaker, Carlos Mencia; directed by Rick Famuyiwa.
• Remember Me (Summit) — Robert Pattinson, Emile de Ravin, Pierce Brosnan; directed by Allen Coulter.
• She’s Out of My League (Paramount) — Jay Baruchel, Alice Eve, Krysten Ritter; directed by Jim Field Smith.
March 19
• The Bounty Hunter (Columbia) — Jennifer Aniston, Gerard Butler, Christine Baranski; directed by Andy Tennant.
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid (20th Century-Fox) — Zachary Gordon, Chloe Moretz, Steve Zahn; directed by Thor Freudenthal.
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Music Box Films) — Michael Nyqvist, Noomi Rapace, Ewa Froling; directed by Niels Arden Oplev.
• IMAX: Hubble 3D (Warner Bros.) — Narrated by Leonardo Di Caprio; directed by Toni Meyers. Documentary chronicling the efforts of 7 astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.
• Repo Men (Universal) — Jude Law, Alice Braga, Forest Whitaker; directed by Miguel Sapochnik.
• The Runaways (Apparition) — Kristen Stewart, Michael Shannon, Dakota Fanning; directed by Floria Sigismondi.
• Season of the Witch (Lionsgate) — Nicholas Cage, Claire Foy, Ron Perlman; directed by Dominic Sena.
March 26
• Clash of the Titans (Warner Bros.) — Sam Worthington, Ralph Fiennes, Liam Neeson; directed by Louis Leterrier. Remake of Ray Harryhausen’s final film from 1981.
• Greenberg (Focus) — Ben Stiller, Greta Gerwig, Jennifer Jason Leigh; directed by Noah Baumbach.
• Hot Tub Time Machine (MGM) — John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson; directed by Steve Pink.
• How to Train Your Dragon (Paramount) — CG Animation in 3D. Featuring the voices of Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Christopher Mintz-Plasse; directed by Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders.
• I Love You Phillip Morris (Consolidated Pictures) — Jim Carrey, Leslie Mann, Ewan McGregor; directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa.
DVD Releases
March 2
• 2012 / PG-13
• Where the Wild Things Are / PG
• Ponyo / G
March 9
• Planet 51 / PG
• Capitalism: A Love Story / R
• Precious / R
March 16
• The Princess and the Frog / G
• Astro Boy / PG
March 20
• The Twilight Saga: New Moon / PG-13
March 23
• Men Who Stare at Goats / R
• The Blind Side / PG-13
• Fantastic Mr. Fox / PG
March 30
• Sherlock Holmes / PG-13
El Paso Scene MONTHLY
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