Too Much Of A Muchness
As easy as it would be for me to expound upon all of the special offerings showing this month, The Orinda News is devoted to a variety of topics, not just film. Therefore, I strongly recommend visiting both orindamovies.com and internationalshowcase.org, where you will discover more details about the following films I wasn’t able to highlight.
Let’s go.
The International Film Showcase leads the pack with a film about filmmaking. Victor Erice, one of Spain’s most revered directors – absent from the cinema landscape for well over 30 years – returns with “Close Your Eyes.”
It’s primarily about the lead actor vanishing without a trace right in the middle of shooting a movie he was starring in. We spend much of the film’s three-hour run time getting to the bottom of the mystery. It premieres at the Orinda Theatre Sept. 13.
Next, we have a documentary about a legendary make-up artist whose work you have doubtless seen but were unaware of how influential he was. “Jack Pierce: The Maker of Monsters” will instantly overwhelm many of us with a creeping nostalgia as he designed the now iconic appearances of Frankenstein, the Mummy, the Wolfman and so many others.
Filled with clips and photos of this man’s peerless works, this is an exhaustive love letter to the man who was responsible for so many of our nightmares. As an added bonus, the director Strephon Taylor will be on hand for a Q & A after the show. It screens Sept. 14 at
noon.
Shortly after that for Free Movie Night we have one of England’s greatest actors and one of America’s premier sex symbols together in one movie. “The Prince and the Showgirl” stars Laurence Olivier, who also directed, and Marilyn Monroe. I almost don’t need to say anything more about this as I’m sure many of you can map out all the plot beats already.
Though one might dismiss this as an early dramedy, what should not be ignored is nearly everything else in this film – there’s a real effort to rise above this film’s star power and actually present a story with an underlying message about royalty and political power struggles. It shows Sept. 19 at 8:30 p.m.
And then there’s “The Adventures of Robin Hood,” starring Errol Flynn. I hardly need to say anything about this one because it’s so much a part of cinema history that I would only be repeating what so many others have said before me. Therefore, I urge you to find someone who has never seen it before and drag them to the Orinda Theatre on Sept. 24 at 1 p.m.
So now that I’ve overwhelmed you, all that remains is for me to encourage you to veer toward those wonderful images made of sound and light, for that’s where the reel magic lies.
