CinemaDope: Afternoon Delight

Originally published in www.valleyadvocate.com (Thursday, February 23, 2012 By Jack Brown).

The joys of the matinee

Who doesn’t love a matinee? In the summer, it’s the ideal respite from the sun and heat—a couple of hours spent in the dark with an escapist adventure and a cold drink the size of an infant and I’m a new man, ready to walk out the doors to sweat anew. And against common logic, winter matinees are even better—not because they get you out of the weather, but because, when they return you to the outside world, there is still light in the day. In the depths of our darkest months that can feel like a kind of miracle.

So there is cause for celebration this week in Brattleboro, where the town’s historic Latchis Theatre is beginning a new program of matinee screenings on Monday afternoons. Theater manager Darren Goldsmith notes that demand has been high for more matinees—the cinema had already been showing them in the summer and during the holidays—and that the theater felt “ready to give it a try.” To quench the people’s cinematic thirst, the Latchis will screen all four of its regularly scheduled films at the new 4 p.m. showing.

It helps that Brattleboro has become something of a movie town, with the Latchis as its nexus. Next month, the theater will once again host screenings for the annual Women’s Film Festival, now in its 21st year, and it has also branched out to host opera screenings and the community film night BrattFlicks. But it is the everyday crowd that provides the lifeblood of the scene: the Latchis has sold over 40,000 tickets since July, despite being closed for almost two months following the floods brought by Tropical Storm Irene.

The upcoming slate was unavailable at press time, but current and planned offerings include Oscar hopefuls The Artist and Hugo as well as the Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away) penned animated feature The Secret World of Arrietty. For schedule updates and more information, visit latchis.com or ring the box office at (802) 246-1500.

Head south to Northampton’s Pleasant Street Theater, and you’ll find Michelle Williams lighting up the screen as a film icon in My Week with Marilyn. Set in the summer of 1956, the film explores a tiny bit of Hollywood history, during which a young Marilyn Monroe traveled to England to film The Prince and The Showgirl with Sir Laurence Olivier. Newly married to American playwright Arthur Miller (Dougray Scott), the beautiful star also caught the eye of 23-year-old Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne), who was trying to break into the film business as an assistant on the set.

The film is the account of the pair’s “lost week” following Miller’s departure from England. While Miller was gone, Clark escorted Monroe around the British countryside, providing a relief from the pressures and occupations of her Hollywood life. As directed by Simon Curtis, the film has met with a mixed reception, but Williams is an extraordinary actress who manages to bring something new to someone we all thought we knew.

Also this week: It’s back—Tommy Wiseau’s film The Room is either one of the worst movies ever made or one of the craziest, most deadpan black comedies in the history of film. Either way, it’s an experience so unforgettable that it returns to the Midnight Movie Series at Pleasant Street for the second time in three months. Catch it this Friday, and be sure to save the rest of your weekend for trying to make sense of what you’ve just seen.

Jack Brown can be reached at cinemadope@gmail.com.

Latchis set to work on ceiling and seats

Thursday February 16, 2012 Brattleboro Reformer

By HOWARD WEISS-TISMAN / Reformer Staff

BRATTLEBORO—Ever since purchasing the Latchis Theater in 2003, there has been something hanging over the heads of the volunteers who work for the Brattleboro Arts Initiative, now Latchis Arts: The theater’s decaying ceiling.

Water stains cover the ceiling in the main theater at the Latchis. (Zachary P. Stephens/Reformer)

The theater’s seats have long been a sore spot as well, especially when a patron’s buttocks are in them. So now, nine years after saving the theater and establishing it as the premier site for film and live music in southeastern Vermont, Latchis Arts is ready to take care of that ceiling and those seats. Today, from 5 to 6 p.m., members of Latchis Arts, and of the organization’s seats and ceiling campaign committee, will be in the main theater to talk about the project.

The seats in the main theater at the Latchis Theater have been drastically worn over the years. (Zachary P. Stephens /Reformer)

Latchis Arts needs to raise about $550,000 to replace the seats and refurbish the well-known ceiling, which features the signs of the Zodiac, but has been marred with stains for years. The campaign to raise the money for the project was supposed to kick off this summer, but flood damage from Tropical Storm Irene closed the theater for about a month, and delayed the capital campaign while the group dried out. The seats are original equipment from when the theater first opened in 1938. The theater and seats committee says the renovations will honor the historic elements of the theater, and the decorative aisle markers will be sent out for refurbishment. Tonight’s information session is also a chance for fans of the Latchis to weigh in on the ongoing project and offer suggestions as the plan moves forward. Howard Weiss-Tisman can be reached at hwtisman@reformer.com or 802-254-2311, ext. 279.