The Pickford Cinema

I've Loved You So Long (Coming Soon)

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 03:20:24 GMT

"Kristin Scott Thomas' performance in I've Loved You So Long is one of a small handful of highlights by which people will remember this year in movies. This is acting at its most exalted. This is film being used for its supreme purpose and function, to show us, moment by moment, the grand movements of a soul. If we're lucky, we get one or two gifts like this a year." Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

Sundance Film Festival Shorts: 2008 Edition (Starts Friday)

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 21:16:00 GMT

Selected by Sundance Institute programmers from the 83 short films screened at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, this lively program of nine shorts covers a variety of genres, styles and cultures.Pickford Film Center's presentation of this program is part of its participation in Sundance Institute Art House Project, a national alliance of theaters across the country supporting Sundance Institute's mission to discover and develop independent artists and audiences. Some subject matter is recommended for mature audiences. Program approximately 102 min.

Slumdog Millionaire (Now Showing)

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 02:24:36 GMT

Our #1 pick and a Grade-A audience hit at this year's Toronto fest, Slumdog is sweeping the nation with a well-deserved critical and popular response that will launch it well into the new year and perhaps the Oscars. Danny Boyle continues to illustrate his joy in jumping genres, going from science fiction in Sunshine, to children's film with Millions, to the depths of smacked out addiction in his breakout Trainspotting. A tie that binds them all is the wide river of humanity that flows through his films, and Slumdog is no exception.

Creature from the Black Lagoon-In 3D! (Starts Saturday, Jan 17)

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 22:59:21 GMT

January's Rocket Sci-Fi Matinee!

"1954 was a great year for monster movies. The giant bug film was introduced with Them! and the Land of the Rising Sun gave the world an international icon with the film Gojira (aka Godzilla, King of the Monsters). In 1954, Universal studios brought the movie going public Creature from the Black Lagoon. This film was a sensation and put the Gillman alongside Count Dracula, the Frankenstein monster, and the Mummy in the pantheon of classic Universal Monsters. The Creature is the greatest monster of a decade filled with monsters. He outshines his irradiated and overgrown brethren because there was the slightest bit of humanity in him. He lusts, he is cunning, and he feels pain. He is an animal on the brink of becoming something more. The Gillman's story is one of the finest fantasy films ever made. Creature from the Black Lagoon is a true motion picture masterpiece of the monstrous."

Speaking in Strings (Wednesday, Jan 21 Only!)

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 21:26:06 GMT

In coordination with Whatcom Symphony Orchestra, Pickford Film Center presents the award winning documentary, Speaking in Strings, in advance of Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg's appearance January 25.

Azur and Asmar (Starts Saturday, Jan 24)

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 22:30:23 GMT

Azur and Asmar is the story of two boys raised as brothers. Blonde, blue-eyed, white skinned Azur and black-haired, brown-eyed, dark-skinned Asmar are lovingly cared for by Asmar's gentle mother, who tells them magical stories of her faraway homeland and of beautiful, imprisoned Fairy Djinn waiting to be set free. Time passes, and one day Azur's father, the master of the house, provokes a brutal separation. Azur is sent away to study, while Asmar and his mother are driven out, homeless and penniless.

This Dust of Words (Starts Tuesday, Feb 17)

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 01:18:16 GMT

Thirty years after he last saw her, Stanford English professor John Felstiner finds mystery and wonder in the life of a former student, and in her death. This Dust of Words, whose title is taken from Elizabeth Wiltsee's Stanford honors' thesis, is both a meditation on the life of a gifted and fragile writer, who wound up living disconsolate on the church house steps; and of how the the parishioners of a small central California town managed to keep her alive, for a time. An elegy for a life lived differently - tragic, beautiful and haunting, right to the end.

It Came from Outer Space (Starts Saturday, Feb 21)

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 21:08:08 GMT

Adapted from a Ray Bradbury story, "It" has been called the 'grandaddy' of the 50's scare pictures, featuring Jack Arnold's brilliant 3D design-you can't experience movies like this at home! Amateur astronomer Carlson enjoys a quiet, peaceful life until he spots a mysterious object falling out of the sky. Investigating, he discovers a strange craft, but an avalanche buries it too quickly for him to share his find with anyone else. His neighbors scoff, but soon strangeness begins to seep into town, as some locals take to staring at the sun, speaking in a hypnotic monotone, and performing unusual errands, often involving electrical equipment. Then things get weird. A poetic, evocative film that paints a picture of an America not yet ready for friendly aliens (Adapted from A.V. Club).

Tarantula (Saturday, Mar 21 Only!)

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 21:13:06 GMT

While not a 3D feature, Jack Arnold continued to thrill audiences with classic monster movies-and Tarantula is one of his best. Filled with mad scientists, this is a true throwback to the 30's and 40's. And it's either gonna be foreigners (aliens) or scientists who get blamed for the ills of society! Once again, man is "dwarfed in an environment that has become alien to him. Certainly Arnold crafts a poetry out of the desert landscape, as he did in It Came from Outer Space. There is a sense of humanity alienated in the vastness of the landscape and geological time." (Slant). Poetry and very large spiders-what's not to like? Digital. *Please note: Tarantula is NOT in 3-D.