SIFF Cinema is set for the Grand Opening of its new screening facility at Seattle Center as well as the reopening of the Lower Queen Anne neighborhood triplex, the Uptown. Various events are for SIFF donors and members only, but the general public is welcome to scope out the new film center near Republican & Warren on Sunday, October 23, 12 noon to 5 p.m.
Two blocks west, at the Uptown, it's a mixed bag. It is to be hoped that the first three days' events are somebody's idea of a bad joke and not a harbinger of the new/old cinemas' identity: singalongs of Hedwig and the Angry Inch (8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 20), Purple Rain (9:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21), and Grease (5 & 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 22).
Then come five days—Oct. 23-27—of classic films that played the Uptown at some point during its 84 years. This is a nice idea and a neighborhood-friendly event: admission is free upon presentation of a same-day receipt from any Queen Anne–area business ... or, if you want merely to make a beeline for the theater, $5 will get you in. The schedule includes one or more movies from each decade from the Thirties on—though, consistent with that level of cultural acuity we have learned to expect from SIFF programming, nothing at all from the most distinctive chapter in the theater's history, the arthouse years of the mid-to-late Sixties.
Here's the lineup:
SUNDAY, Oct. 23
12 noon – Twentieth Century (1934), the Howard Hawks picture often credited with launching the screwball comedy era. John Barrymore delivers an exultant parody of himself as well as Broadway impresarios à la Jed Harris, and Carole Lombard belatedly finds her footing as a star. Intriguingly, Hawks shoots some of it as dark as his Scarface.
1 p.m. – West Side Story (1961)
2 p.m. – Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1974)
3 p.m. – Singin’ in the Rain (1952), still one of the best movies ever made about Hollywood
5 p.m. – West Side Story
6 p.m. – Monty Python and the Holy Grail
7 p.m. – Singin’ in the Rain
MONDAY, Oct. 24
5 p.m. – The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), Wes Anderson's pixilated, deadpan Bildungsroman of a fey Manhattan clan, featuring Gene Hackman's last great performance and Anjelica Huston, Gwyneth Paltrow, Luke and Owen Wilson, Ben Stiller, Bill Murray, and narration by Alec Baldwin
6 p.m. – Pee Wee's Big Adventure (1985), the inspired teaming of Mr. Herman and director Tim Burton
7 p.m. – Citizen Kane (1941), 70 years young; ever see it on a big screen?
8 p.m. – Annie Hall (1977), the Woody Allen movie that did Star Wars out of the Oscar
9 p.m. – L.A. Confidential (1997), in which smog-free 1953 sunlight seems to fall on the corrupt blossom that is James Ellroy's Southern California; photographed by Michael Mann's DP of choice, Dante Spinotti (though the director and co-screenwriter here is Curtis Hanson)
TUESDAY, Oct. 25
5 p.m. – Annie Hall
6 p.m. – Singin’ in the Rain
7 p.m. – The Godfather (1972)
8 p.m. – Pee Wee's Big Adventure
9 p.m. – Monty Python and the Holy Grail
WEDNESDAY, Oct. 26
5 p.m. – Pee Wee's Big Adventure
6 p.m. – Twentieth Century
7 p.m. – L.A. Confidential
8 p.m. – The Royal Tenenbaums
9 p.m. – Citizen Kane
THURSDAY, Oct. 27
6 p.m. – West Side Story
7 p.m. – The Godfather
8 p.m. – Bob and the Monster Film and Concert
—RTJ
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