Coming attractions

Here’s what to expect from Cinema Salon, both as website and film club:

Here online, I'll post in the next few days a composite review covering recent films such Monsieur Lazhar and The Master; then my near-complete retrospective of Paul Newman’s career; and finally, in time for the 8^th anniversary of this blog on New Year’s Day, a tour “Around the World in Eighty Films,” which will highlight my choices for the best of world cinema over the past decade.

At the Clark, I anticipate film club screenings most Fridays through the winter, January through March.  Many will coordinate with the official Clark film series running through those months, a series of Saturday matinees called “Widescreen Wonders,” six films in high-definition extra-wide formats, each of them a Best Picture Oscar-winner, cumulatively earning 47 Academy Awards.  So for example, when I am showing The Bridge on the River Kwai on Saturday, I’ll show two other David Lean films on Friday.  On alternate weeks, I will typically be showing double features highlighting foreign directors, recent and classic, such as the Dardennes brothers, Almodovar, Wong-Kar Wai, Kurosawa, Satyajit Ray, and Max Ophuls.  I haven’t yet consulted either the Clark’s calendar or my own, but will update programs as the schedule develops.

At Images Cinema, I plan to be available for post-film discussion after the 3:00 pm screening of Lincoln on Sunday, December 30.  I think the film is exceptionally good, Daniel Day-Lewis sublime, and I’ve just finished reading Team of Rivals, the Doris Kearns Goodwin book on which the film is based, as well as re-watching John Ford’s Young Mr. Lincoln and other cinematic portraits, so I will definitely be primed to talk about the subject.  And I’m eager to see the digital projection upgrade at Images.