Winner, Best Actor, Golden Globe

"Every detail of Jeff Bridges' performance in Crazy Heart is so delicious you want to sop it up with buttermilk biscuits.” Slate, Dana Stevens

The critical hosannas have flown fast and furious (but the line above that includes buttermilk biscuits gets my vote) since Crazy Heart’s release date was moved from Spring 2010 to a December Oscar-qualifying release. It’s not difficult to understand why--Jeff Bridges is not only assured a nomination for his role as Bad Blake, a battered and bruised Country singer who is running on empty, but is the odds on favorite to finally nab a golden statue, a feat that seems impossible if he hasn’t managed yet--from his breakthrough role in The Last Picture Show, to everyone’s favorite stoner, The Dude in The Big Lebowski, Bridges presence can be mercurial (think Thunderbolt and Lightfoot) or unbearably poignant (Fearless, The Fisher King, among others).

When Maggie Gyllenhaal’s reporter Jean shows up, she brings with her the threat of a second chance of love for Bad (or is it a third or forth? His weariness suggests this is the last chance, regardless). They fall, hard and believably, for each other, and continue a long distance romance while he tours (to ever more depressing venues).  It’s not until an injury on the road forces Bad to confront his voracious appetites for drink and drugs, and his need for Jean. Whatever country clichés might be conjured up with this brief abstract blow away when Jeff Bridges inhabits this character, sings his songs (written for him by the great T-Bone Burnett), and drills down to the honest truth of this man. Bridges receives excellent support from Robert Duvall, Gyllenhaal and a surprise turn in by Colin Farrell as popular country singer Tommy Sweet.

Fifteen years ago, Junpei, the youngest son of a Yokoyama family died while rescuing a boy from drowning. On the anniversary of his death, the remaining siblings visit the quaint home of their parents with their families in tow. Over the course of a beautiful day, new relatives become acquainted telling stories and squabbling over sizzling tempura. Recalling the delicate splendor of Yasujiro Ozu's Tokyo Story, Koreeda shows complete mastery of his characters while revealing the complex dynamics of an ultimately loving family with humor and warmth.

Now in its 6^th year, Pickford Film Center’s Guerilla Film Project is a popular 3-day film competition for high school students, attracting budding young filmmakers from around the state. This screening will feature the final films produced by all the student teams who will have just spent 65 hours writing, producing and editing their films. For more information or to apply to Guerilla Film Project contact:

Guerilla Director Terri Krantz, guerilla@pickfordfilmcenter.org

Bette Davis Series Part 2
Fasten your seatbelts: It's the consummate back-stabbing backstage story, a poisoned valentine written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. An aging star (Bette Davis) takes an adoring young actress (Anne Baxter) under her wing. Big mistake. It may be the most biting example of hard-boiled wit ever to come out of Hollywood, and it's stylishly performed at a breakneck pace by an expert cast (Nominated for 14 Oscars, Won 6, including Best Picture). (TV Guide).

Murder in the Snow is the Opening Night film for this year's Bellingham Human Rights Film Festival. The Himalaya range, “the roof of the world,” is the setting for spectacular mountaineering – and the desperate flight of refugees from Tibet.  The two are dramatically intertwined in this unforgettable film, one that speaks to the resilience of the human spirit, while raising disturbing moral questions.

Opening Night Reception:  between showings @ Allied Arts  - 1418 Cornwall Ave.

Celebrating its 10th year, BHRFF continues to bring viewers informative and inspirational films illustrating the struggles for justice and equality across the globe. Festival continues February 19-27, at the Fairhaven College Auditorium. More info: FACEBOOK “Bellingham human rights”.

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Fairhaven College

In true ‘B’ movie fashion, a team of explorers, headed by John Agar and Hugh Beaumont, descend into an Asian mountain's depths and discover a race of albinos living in complete darkness, complete with a race of mole people used as slaves. When the albinos give our heroes a hard time, the mole folks emerge and lend a helping hand. Heroine Cynthia Patrick, unlike her pallid mountain-dwelling brethren, has a touch of melanin in her, and thus seems not to have been within the mountain for as long as the rest of her race. Fabulously ridiculous special effects and a blowhard professor expounding on the scientific facts of the case make for one hilarious good time.

2009’s opening night at La Scala, conducted by Daniel Barenboim! Young Georges Bizet, who died soon after the first run of Carmen, never enjoyed the success and fame of his creation. Carmen wasn’t initially well received, but became and still is one of the most famous and most popular works in the opera repertoire.

Brown Paper Tickets

The 2nd film in our Jacques Tati Festival! The Tati comedies, featuring his beloved comic creation M. Hulot, are some of the crowning achievements of humor and sound in cinema. Almost silent films (especially the first two), these are films to be treasured on the big screen, and now in High Definition for the first time. - Michael

BY MATT ZOLLER SEITZ

When you first see Monsieur Hulot, the whimsical wanderer played by Jacques Tati in the classic French comedy Mon oncle, it takes a moment to realize just how big he is—a two-meter slab of trenchcoat and fedora, his lips perpetually pressed around the stem of a black pipe. He is often seen from the back—a gangly giant observing life’s oddities, curious, perhaps bewildered, but not disapproving. Despite his size and his intense awareness of his environment, he moves with lightfooted grace, personalizing the world around him in a series of small, charming, seemingly offhand gestures. Early in the film, he opens a window in his flat and hears a bird chirp for a split second. Intrigued, he opens and closes the window until he figures out precisely why and when the bird chirps: at a certain point on its axis, the windowpane reflects a beam of sunlight onto the bird’s nest, making it think that morning has come. Pleased by his discovery, Hulot wedges the window in sun-reflective position so that the bird may sing indefinitely.

There is mystery to Hulot, a sense that he lives mostly in his own world, occasionally adjusting the wider world to make it more livable—or at the very least, more reflective of his own eccentric desires. Mon oncle, arguably Tati’s best and most pleasing movie, is an illustration of the actor-filmmaker’s myopia—a myopia which afflicts everyone in the modern era to some degree, and which Tati brilliantly explored in meticulous physical comedies. The story of a young boy who prefers his absentminded uncle to his rich, acquisitive, gadget-obsessed parents, it presents a world in which characters are defined solely by their actions—actions that are often captured from a distance, in tableaus packed with people, structures, streets and vehicles, all working at cross-purposes yet somehow managing (just barely) to function.

Full essay here.

Based on a true story, North Face is a suspenseful adventure film about a competition to climb the most dangerous rock face in the Alps. Set in 1936, as Nazi propaganda urges the nation’s Alpinists to conquer the unclimbed north face of the Swiss massif — the Eiger — two reluctant German climbers begin their daring ascent.

The deserving winner of the top prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival, Michael Haneke's period political epic tells the lacerating saga of collective brutality and guilt in a northern German village two decades before Hitler would take power. The town is troubled by seemingly random acts of violence on animals, property and a few local children. What's happening? Who's to blame? Perhaps everyone, as we discover by following the lives of five prominent families. A kind of mashup of Our Town and Village of the Damned, the film is both draining and enthralling. Other movies don't even consider the enormity of a society's power to crush its people's best instincts. This one said: Don't look away. Look here” (Richard Corliss, Time).

Tickets for all Operas on sale at Brown Paper Tickets:


Or Call: 1-800-838-3006
Tickets Available DAY OF SHOW at The Pickford Cinema 

In honor of Puccini's 150th birthday, La Scala’s Il Tritico comes to stage and screen in a sumptuous production. Il Trittico (The Triptych) is the title to a collection of three one-act operas: Il Tabarro, is a dark and brooding tale of clandestine passion, full of violence and grit associated with verismo opera.  Suor Angelica starts with the deeply personal sacrifice of a nun and ends as a sublime tale of religious redemption. Gianni Schicchi is a gleefully comedic farce on greed and corruption that unfailingly sends its audience away with smiles on their faces. Performed at La Scala, March 2008.

Brown Paper Tickets

Sci-Fi classic watchers might notice shades of THEM! coloring this one, since insect mutations are a common theme of '50's sci-fi. Here, a gigantic praying mantis finds its Arctic home, destroyed by an earthquake, and it sweeps south toward New York City while scientists work feverishly to stop it. Today’s audiences will especially enjoy the sight of the mantis chewing up most of Washington DC before the end--it’s not exactly serious stuff here, but B-movie lovers will find much to enjoy.

Meet Filmmakers Randy Walker and Jennifer Shainin

“Truly independent films are made from the gut. One day I bought a filmmaker friend lunch. Instead of owing me lunch, why not make a film for that same money? We made a napkin contract with “rules” to follow. Now 50 lunchfilms have been commissioned (this is the second group of shorts to go on tour). Like a menu, the series has a wide variety of tastes and styles, from languid, real life documents to vibrant fiction to pure art. The metaphor here is it’s easy to support a filmmaker, do what you can. A little goes a long way.” Mike Plante

$29.51 made by Nick McCarthy. (aka "Chinese Box", 2009, 10 minutes)

$35.44 made by Kelly Sears. (aka "Jean", 2008, 3 minutes)

$43.43 made by David Fenster and David Nordstrom. (aka "The Call", 2009, 10 minutes)

$27.73 made by Randy Walker and Jennifer Shainin. (aka "Whiskeypriest 1", 2009, 16 minutes)

For all the filmmakers (and their lunch tabs), visit Lunchfilm.

Conductor: Marco Armiliato
Stage Director: Gilbert Deflo

Verdi’s Il Trovatore, or “the troubadour,” is the story of star-crossed lovers, mixed-up infants, and acts of vengeance. Count Di Luna and Manrico, the wandering minstrel or “troubadour” of the title, are rivals for Lady Leonora’s love. When Leonora declares her love for Manrico, the two men duel. Although Manrico has the chance to kill Di Luna, a mysterious force from within him stays his hand and allows Di Luna to live. And then things get really crazy. Performed December 22, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, Spain.

With Falstaff, Verdi bid a magnificent farewell to opera. He chose, however, a genre that he wasn’t familiar with: the comic opera. Verdi brought something new to opera at a time when his prior works had already become classics. This last Verdi opera was first played in front of an enthusiastic Milanese public and ended Verdi’s work on a happy note. Performed at Opéra Royal De Wallonie, Liège, Belgium.

Conductor: Riccardo Muti
Directed: Stephen Langridge

Verdi’s last tragic opera Otello, like Shakespeare’s play, is a shattering psychological drama. The new production for the Salzburg Festival is directed by Stephen Langridge, who in 2006 attracted attention with his production of Offenbach’s Bluebeard in Bregenz. Riccardo Muti, one of the best Verdi conductors of our time, is returning to Salzburg. Alongside to the Spanish baritone Carlos Álvarez as Jago, two rising international singers of the younger generation can be heard as Otello and Desdemona: the Latvian spinto tenor Aleksandrs Antonenko and the Russian soprano Marina Poplavskaya. Performed at Salzburg Festival 2008.