THE 3RD MAN--Varsity Calendar
LA MARIE DU PORT--Grand Illusion
RUNAWAY BRIDE--Metro, Pacific Place, others
AT THE CIRCUS--Little Theatre
BLADE RUNNER--Fremont Friday Outdoors
CHILDREN'S FILM SERIES--Grand Illusion
FINAL RINSE--Grand Illusion
THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH--Little Theatre
LINDA'S SUMMER MOVIES--Linda's Tavern
PRESTON STURGES MINI-FEST--Seattle Art
Museum
PRIVATE CONFESSIONS--Varsity Calendar
THREE DOLLAR BILL BENEFIT--Urban Press
Parking Lot
WEBFLICKS--911 Media Arts
YEAR 2000 DOUBLE FEATURE--Grand Illusion
August 6--Mystery Men, The Dinner Game, My Life So Far, The Iron Giant, The Thomas Crown Affair, Trick, Cabaret Balkan, The Adopted Son, The Sixth Sense
August 13--The 13th Warrior, Bowfinger, I Stand Alone, Brokedown Palace, Detroit Rock City
THE 3RD MAN--A newly restored, 35mm, uncut British version of Welles' 1949 Cannes winner is about a pulp author who stumbles upon a murder and conspiracy theory. Fri-Thurs July 30-Aug 5 at (Sat-Sun 12, 2:20), 4:40, 7, 9:20. Reviewed this issue. Varsity Calendar
ALASKA: SPIRIT OF THE WILD--More of a nature documentary than a ghost story. Omnidome
AMAZON--Follow an ethnobotanist through the lush rainforests of the Andes and along the rough-and-tumble Amazon River! Learn about exotic animals, medicinal plants, and Indian shamanism! Amazon's IMAX quality and the Omnidome screen vs. a back issue of National Geographic... you decide. Omnidome
AMERICAN PIE--The story should be familiar to anyone who came of age in the '80s: Four high school seniors make a pact to lose their virginity before they graduate. Jim (Jason Biggs) is a chronic masturbator who must suffer through embarrassing sex education lectures from his dad (Eugene Levy); Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas) has been dating Vicky (Tara Reid) for a while, but hasn't had sex with her yet; Oz (Chris Klein) is a lacrosse-playing jock who's told he needs to be more sensitive, so he joins the chorus; and Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) is a sophisticate who's not above planting a little gossip in order to improve his chances with the ladies. Basically, it's Porky's, but updated to include a pro-female orgasm message. (Andy Spletzer) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Metro, Oak Tree, Pacific Place 11
ARLINGTON ROAD--A paranoid academic (Jeff Bridges) believes his architect neighbor (Tim Robbins) has an elaborate plan to blow up a government building. Guess what? He's right, but nobody believes him (indeed the very condition and definition of being paranoid). Visually, the film is at times stunning (especially the opening of the movie), but dramatically, the leads are severely mismatched. (Charles Mudede) Meridian 16, Metro, Redmond Town Center
AT THE CIRCUS--Put the banter and holler of the Marx Brothers together with the inevitable flurry of three-ring activity that only a circus can produce, and you'll surely chuckle at the results. Blammo, the notoriously drunken clown, will introduce Friday night's 7:30 screening. Thurs-Sun July 29-Aug 1 at 5:30, 7:30, 9:30. Little Theatre
AUSTIN POWERS: THE SPY WHO SHAGGED ME--A big, sloppy comedy chock full of nonsense jokes, sexual innuendo, and scatological humor. Plot doesn't matter as much as each successive comedy bit, which is probably why people who laughed during the show came out feeling cheated. Personally, I liked it in much the same way I enjoy those "blooper" shows on TV, light and stupid entertainment to be enjoyed and then discarded. (Andy Spletzer) Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16, Redmond Town Center, Varsity
AUTUMN TALE--The French frequently suffer from a reputation for melodrama or romanticism, but Eric Rohmer's films manage to overturn these traps by seeming to follow real people, flamesaws and all. Throughout his series of films based on the seasons--of which Autumn Tale is the season finale--he has shown simple stories of rumpled and neurotic French people in search of basic answers and good wine. Set in the sun-washed CĂ´te du Rhone countryside, the film follows winemaker Magali's (BĂ©atrice Romand) passive search for love, and the choices made for her by the two women in her life. But the storyline is not so direct. Like love, it turns corners and stumbles; it lingers too long on useless images and arguments. Here the characters, and Rohmer's fine ear for dialogue and silence, hold one's interest. Eric Rohmer is in the autumn of his own life, and Autumn Tale makes an excellent introduction to the work of an artist whose winter fast approaches. (Traci Vogel) Broadway Market
BIG DADDY--Adam Sandler plays Sonny Koufax, a smart guy with a dumb life, who finds himself very attached to the five-year-old son of his roommate Kevin (Jon Stewart), who doesn't believe the kid is his. When Kevin goes on an extended business trip to China, Sonny basically adopts the kid, while everybody around him thinks he should give him up to a foster family. After many pee jokes, puke gags, and the ever-popular "bachelor using the kid to pick up women" ploy, the movie rolls to its predictable ending. While no one expects Big Daddy to be anything remotely resembling Citizen Kane, the film feels like about two minutes of preparation went into it. Of course, no matter what flaws the movie may have, I still love Adam Sandler. (Kathleen Wilson) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Metro, Oak Tree, Pacific Place 11
BLADE RUNNER--Fremont's second al fresco cinema series takes place underneath the Aurora Bridge. All films will be presented with digital projection and sound. This week, catch Ridley Scott's vision of 21st century L.A. in his dark & moody flick, Blade Runner (1982). A must for classic sci-fi buffs. With Harrison Ford and Daryl Hannah. Fri July 30 at dusk, $5. Fremont Friday Outdoors
*THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT--If the desert is a place for delirium, the forest is the place for panic, and panic is exactly what this stunning and extremely unsettling new film is all about--panic charged by the fear of the unseen, of unreason, of the monster lurking behind the trees, the spirits among the leaves, the dead under the stones, the souls in the river. The premise for the film is this: In 1994, while shooting a documentary on the myth of "The Blair Witch," three film students mysteriously disappeared in the woods. The missing trio included director Heather Donahue (who, like the rest of the cast, uses her real name in the film), sound engineer Michael Williams, and cameraman Joshua Leonard. A year later, their video and film cameras, along with the footage, are found in the basement of an abandoned home, and the footage has been put together into the film you are watching. The Blair Witch Project is effective not only because of the woods, but because the film seems real. Too real, even. (Charles Mudede) Neptune
BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB--While scoring Wim Wenders' 1997 film The End of Violence, Ry Cooder gave him a copy of a tape he made with the Cuban "super-group," the Buena Vista Social Club. Wenders was instantly won over. When Cooder returned to produce another album, Wenders came with him, and brought a film crew along for the ride. With no script to follow, the story unfolds naturally. The camera leisurely cruises the streets of Havana, picking up bits and pieces. A story develops that mirrors the let's-put-on-a-show scenario of the Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland films, with a triumphant climax at Carnegie Hall. Winner of this year's Golden Space Needle for Best Documentary. (Gillian G. Gaar) Broadway Market
*CHILDREN'S FILM SERIES--The Grand Illusion's Children's Summer Film Series continues with The End of the Golden Weather, a charming new film from New Zealand (Thurs July 29 at 11 am, 1), then a program of local short films (BlueCoated Story, Running Out of Time, and Progress) with the directors/cast members (some in costume!) in attendance (Tues & Thurs Aug 3, 5 at 11am, 1). $3.50 kids/$5 grown-ups. Grand Illusion
DEEP BLUE SEA--Director Renny Harlin tries to remake Jaws, but with "smart sharks" and a lot of them. Starring Samuel L. Jackson, and co-starring LL Cool J as "Shark Chum." Pacific Place 11
DROP DEAD GORGEOUS--Drop Dead Gorgeous really, really wants to inherit the audience for smart comedies like There's Something about Mary--so much so that the writer even includes a Developmentally Disabled Adult to laugh at. When the movie's only "big laugh" falls on his head, the viewer really starts to sympathize with political correctness. It is coy and cloying "big hair satire" at its worst, with nary a color consultant in view. Where oh where is Jose Eberhart? (Traci Vogel) Grand Alderwood, Metro, Uptown
THE ERUPTION OF MOUNT ST. HELENS--The mountain blew up in 1980, and has been blowing up on film ever since. Omnidome
EVEREST--The first IMAX footage ever shot on top of the world. Pacific Science Center
EYES WIDE SHUT--Stanley Kubrick's last film contains an intact slice of a young couple's life (Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman): We see that they are beautiful and successful, that they are adored and desired by friends, and that they have an incredible apartment filled with tasteful art and furniture. In order to study this perfect relationship, as with the scientific research that tries to determine an atom's composition by destroying it, Kubrick destroys their relationship. It all starts with a stick of marijuana and her subsequent admission that she almost left him for a navy officer years ago. Upon hearing this, he loses all sense of ground and everything breaks apart. In Eyes Wide Shut Kubrick dissects marriage, and it is fascinating. (Charles Mudede) Factoria, Guild 45th, Oak Tree, Pacific Place, Redmond Town Center
*FINAL RINSE--The Grand Illusion hosts the World Theatrical Premiere of this rock-and-roll hair movie about a serial killer who stalks, slays, and then coifs big-haired rockers. With a cast that includes rock thespians Joey Ramone and Sebastian Bach, along with a killer performance by Batman's Frank Gorshin, the movie is spiked with musical acts that include the Last Hard Men (featuring Bach, Kelly Deal [of the Breeders], and Jimmy Flemion [of the Frogs]), Brooklyn's Biohazard, punk pioneers the Dictators, and the '80s hair band Slaughter. Directed like a fast-paced version of Douglas Sirk by the suave and handsome Robert Tucker, the silliness of the storyline belies the wit and cleverness of this unusual movie. Part spoof, part cop-thriller, part Russ Meyer, part Jack Webb, and part The Metal Years, Final Rinse turns out to be every bit as subversive as a good John Waters film. Fri-Sat July 30-31 at 11. (Robert Tucker) Grand Illusion
GASWORKS PARK OUTDOOR SUMMER SPECTACULAR--Fremont Outdoor Cinema will take a brief hiatus, and the festivities will shift on over to Gasworks Park for a few weeks. Every Fri-Sat night, through Aug 14. Fremont Outdoor Cinema
THE GENERAL'S DAUGHTER--Simon "Con Air" West's new "thriller" pretends to be about the importance of women to the armed forces. It features the graphic rape of a female captain, a brutal, fetishistic murder, and the idea that anything outside the missionary position can only be the result of emotional scarring. John Travolta spends his time questioning the kind of suspects who spill the beans after five minutes of scrutiny, and Madeleine Stowe is around to assure us that Travolta is heterosexual. (Steve Wiecking) Meridian 16, Redmond Town Center, Southcenter
THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH--The classic characters in Cecil B. DeMille's portrait of life under the Big Top gives a reality slap to the kid in all of us who thought circuses were just about cotton candy and sparkly elephants. Charlton Heston (as a hard-ass ringmaster), Jimmy Stewart (as a tortured man beneath a clown's painted smile), and Gloria Grahame (as the Ringling Bros. den mother) pops our fantasy balloons about what circus life is really like. Thurs-Sun Aug 5-8 at 5:30, 8:30. Little Theatre
THE HAUNTING--Digital ghosts aren't scary. That's one of the biggest problems with this "horror" film, along with major plot holes and questionable motivations, such as: Why is Liam Neeson doing an expensive fear study on just three people? And how come these hand-picked subjects don't seem extra scared when they're in the creepy house? Director Jan De Bont (Speed 2: Cruise Control) was obviously excited with the idea of making a haunted house movie, but he has no idea how to tell a ghost story. The performances are good (Lili Taylor is particularly good as the woman
who is calmly obsessed with the ghosts of the house, of course), but the whole mood is shot thanks to the inclusion of the dumb digital ghosts. For me, the best special effect was a curtain blowing in the wind. If only the rest of the film had that kind of simplistic restraint. (Andy Spletzer) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Meridian 16, Metro,
AN IDEAL HUSBAND--Just what we needed, another British period piece dealing with class issues. Yawn. Sir Robert Chiltern (Jeremy Northam) is an upstanding politician being blackmailed by Mrs. Cheveley (Julianne Moore). Meanwhile, a comedy of matchmaking is going on between secondary characters played by Minnie Driver and Rupert Everett. Everyone in the movie seems like they're play-acting at being high society folks. I'm sure that's fun for them, but it's no fun to watch. (Andy Spletzer) Harvard Exit, Seven Gables,
INSPECTOR GADGET--This movie is simply awful. I took my son (who is three) to the screening and even he lost interest. One hour into the film, he began begging me to take him home. He was right. Nothing in Inspector Gadget is good: the gadgets are stupid, the story is stupid, Matthew Broderick is awful, and his sidekick (the jive-talking car) is a lame attempt at imitating the magic of Eddie Murphy's dragon in Mulan. The biggest mistake of this sorry film, though, was in the roles of Gadget's dog and niece. In the regular Saturday show they work out all the crimes while the idiot inspector is elsewhere following the wrong fucking clues. Here, they are severely de-emphasized, while Gadget's boy-like desires for the scientist who created him (Joely Fisher) are over-emphasized. "I didn't like it!" my son said to his mother when we returned home, and that is the best review I have heard thus far. (Charles Mudede) Grand Alderwood, Metro, Oak Tree, Pacific Place 11,
INTO THE DEEP--An IMAX film in 3-D, putting you right into the aquarium. Pacific Science Center,
LA MARIE DU PORT--Marcel Carné directs Jean Gabin (Le Jour se Leve) in this scandal-tinged tale of an aging man who falls in love with his mistress' 18-year-old sister. Thurs-Fri July 30-Aug 5 at (Sat 1, 3), 5, 7, 9. Reviewed this issue. Grand Illusion,
LAKE PLACID--If, like me, you are the kind of monster movie fan whose spirit leaps at the thought of a movie featuring a giant crocodile, I can say this: Lake Placid is a movie featuring a giant crocodile. Maestro Steve Miner--responsible for Friday the 13th parts 2 and 3-D (the one where the eyeball pops out of the guy's head!)--is historically incapable of generating all but the most basic suspense. Here, he drops people in the water, tosses in a few musical stingers, then stirs. Meanwhile, the screenplay scribbled by David E. Kelley features the kind of absurd polarity between the sexes and casual sexism that I've come to expect from the man who has drugged the nation with Ally McBeal. (Steve Wiecking) Pacific Place 11,
LIMBO--John Sayles has always been concerned primarily with the depiction of place in his films. Sayles' "place" here is the last physical and emotional outpost of the American spirit: Alaska. Luminous cinematography by Haskell Wexler renders the land as a gilded promise, with golden light glancing in at acute angles, but the characterizations and heavy-handed plot fail to live up to this promise. (Jamie Hook) Uptown,
LINDA'S SUMMER MOVIES--The perfect summer evening activity: beer and a silly movie. This week for your Cold War pleasure, The 49th Man (1953), an action-packed romp with FBI agents, foreign spies, and plenty of atomic bomb parts. Wed Aug 4 at dusk, FREE. Linda's Tavern,
*MUPPETS FROM SPACE--Gonzo the Great has been the Muppets' resident daredevil for years, but like most orphans and at-risk youth, his bravery is most likely derived from a lack of a sense of self. As the movie begins, he is questioning his own existence. Despite living in a boarding house full of Muppet friends, he's feeling alone in the universe, and nobody has time for his problems. Then he starts receiving messages from space, or perhaps he's just going crazy: He sees cosmic fish and talking sandwiches when no one else does, and they tell him his alien family are coming to Earth. Somewhere along the line, the message transmogrifies from being about the loneliness of existence to the acceptance of being different and the various definitions of "family." If the ending isn't as satisfying as the set-up is interesting, well, who cares? It's still a bunch of Muppet fun. (Andy Spletzer) Metro, Uptown,
*MY SON THE FANATIC--Perhaps the biggest surprise is that, as the title suggests, the main character in the movie is the dad, not the son. This is not an exploration of the culture clash between father and son as much as a portrait of a man who's taken his life for granted, never realizing how far he's been drifting from his wife and son. Parvez (Om Puri) is a mild-mannered Pakistani taxi driver who's lived in England for 25 years. His main clients are the town's prostitutes and the travelers who use them. He has a particular fondness for Bettina (Hilary and Jackie's Rachel Griffiths), and as the movie begins he recommends her to a new visiting client (Stellan SkarsgĂĄrd). Meanwhile, his wife rightfully feels neglected by him, and his son rejects his godless hedonism by converting to Islam, which gives us the title. Of course, "work" and family life come into conflict, and the movie turns out to be one of the most interesting character studies since Affliction. (Andy Spletzer) Uptown,
NOTTING HILL--He's a shy, burned-in-the-past seller of travel books; she's a universally acclaimed and desired actress. Unfortunately, as too often happens in modern day romantic comedies, the men have been thought out to the last detail, but on the female side motivations are left hanging. Charming but empty. (Bruce Reid) Pacific Place 11, Redmond Town Center,
PRESTON STURGES MINI-FEST--SAM's six-week, Thursday night tribute to comic filmmaker Preston Sturges continues with 1942's The Palm Beach Story (July 29 at 7:30), which lands Claudette Colbert in a whirl of tropical adversity after abandoning her husband. Next week is 1944's The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (Thurs Aug 5 at 7:30), with WWII hottie Betty Hutton as a small town girl who finds herself pregnant the morning after a party for departing troops. An attempt at a quickie wedding spirals into madcap chaos. Call 625-8900 for more details. Seattle Art Museum,
PRIVATE CONFESSIONS--A middle-aged wife has an affair with a young theologian and, as a consequence, experiences and expresses a series of complex emotions during a series of conversations. Thurs July 29 at 4:20, 7, 9:35. Varsity Calendar,
THE RED VIOLIN--For their follow-up to the marvelous Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, director François Girard and his co-writer Don McKellar have fashioned another loosely structured ode to music, this time following a legendary violin as it passes through various (well, three or four) owners before it winds up in auction. Unfortunately, the stories shown (a miraculous prodigy, a fiery virtuoso's love woes, and a crackdown on Western music during China's cultural revolution) aren't particularly interesting, and if you know any violin lore already you'll wish they'd included variations on some of the instrument's wilder histories. (Bruce Reid) Broadway Market,
*RUN LOLA RUN--A young Berlin hipster named Lola has 20 minutes to find enough money to stop her boyfriend from being killed. As a friend once wrote, "This could only be a movie." Here, that's exactly the point. The young German filmmaker Tom Tykwer is so keenly aware that this is a movie, he tells the story three times, each with different but equally incredible twists, surprises, tangents, and endings--which is exactly what makes this movie fun to watch: It's a celebration of the "grand illusion" that is cinema. The playful and frivolous approach dilutes any serious content, which is fine when fluff can be this fun. (Charles Mudede) Harvard Exit,
RUNAWAY BRIDE--The super team of Julia Roberts, Richard Gere, and director Garry Marshall reunite in an attempt to equal the confounding success of their first collaboration Pretty Woman. Unfortunately, from South Park to The Wood, we've been having big trouble getting into press screenings of Paramount's summer movies, so we didn't even try this time--not that they care what a regional weekly newspaper thinks. Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Metro, Northgate, Pacific Place 11,
SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER, UNCUT--When four sweet little tykes sneak into an R-rated movie, they are so enthralled by the dirty language that they can't or won't stop repeating it, even in front of shocked school authorities or parents. This eventually leads to a war with Canada. This brilliant premise allows South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone to vent against the MPAA in their continued struggles against the NC-17 rating, while managing a deft end-run around critics who might complain about the cartoon's effect on children. But the same frat-boy short attention span that allows for some genuinely outrageous belly laughs also gets the better of them, and their few good ideas get buried amid much silliness and nasty sideswipes--not to mention too many dumb songs. And where's Jesus, that short-tempered, underachieving deity who's one of the TV show's brightest spots? (Bruce Reid) Meridian 16, Varsity,
STAR WARS: EPISODE I--What does it matter what we say? You'll see it anyway. The threadbare plot is nothing compared to the hype and nostalgia of the George Lucas marketing machine. Darth Vader as a boy, young Obi-Wan, computer generated characters, whatever. You'll see it anyway. (Jamie Hook) Cinerama, Factoria, Lewis & Clark, Oak Tree,
*SUMMER OF SAM--Spike Lee's latest is not at all about a mad killer who terrorizes New York City in the summer of 1977. Instead, it is about a marriage that collapses during that very turbulent New York summer. In a climate of fear and paranoia, a husband named Vinny (John Leguizamo) sleeps around. He does things with other women that he could never do with his wife, Dionna (Mira Sorvino), whom he treats as angelic, virgin-like, a mother worthy of only missionary sex in the dark. Needless to say, their marriage disintegrates. Meanwhile, Vinny's buddy Richie (Adrian Brody) has returned to the neighborhood, and he's also got urges of his own that he's busy not dealing with or talking about--namely, dancing in a male strip club. Spike Lee's art is most interesting when dealing with sex rather than race, which is why Summer of Sam is right up there with Girl 6 as one of his best. (Charles Mudede) City Centre, Metro
TARZAN--Oddly enough, there's never been a cartoon feature film about the Lord of the Apes. Leave it to Disney to fill the gap. Initially, the film has an awkward start. Young Tarzan's friends are the usual too-cutesy comic sidekicks, and the father/son conflict is a bit too obvious--and trite. The adult Tarzan is another matter entirely. Tarzan's flights through the trees are an astonishing display of state-of-the-art animation; he doesn't so much swing through as surf the forest. When other humans enter the story, there's further emotional depth, and rather than bogging the whole thing down with numerous musical numbers, the characters hardly sing at all. The songs are largely performed by an off-screen narrator, Phil Collins. (Gillian G. Gaar) Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16, Metro, Redmond Town Center,
*THREE DOLLAR BILL BENEFIT--How 'bout a little early '80s nostalgia? Three Dollar Bill Cinema (the producers of the Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival) invites you to a benefit BBQ dinner and outdoor screening of the urban musical Fame-- "I'm gonna live forever...." Festivities include a Best Leg Warmer contest, and "celebrity BBQers"! Ticket price includes dinner and the movie, and there WILL be beer available. Sat July 31 at 7, $10. Advance tickets available at Rudy's Barbershops. Urban Press Parking Lot,
WEBFLICKS--It ain't just the information super-highway anymore--the Internet can also be the most exciting form of cinematic entertainment since VHS and Beta. Ignore scary terms like "digital media" and "hardware," and just focus on 911 Media's impressive collection of "WebFlicks," a batch of short, digitally distributed Internet films (ranging from documentaries to animation to narratives) that are shown with super-high-tech video projectors. Fri July 30 at 8, FREE. Reviewed this issue. 911 Media Arts,
THE WILD WILD WEST--Set just after the Civil War, President Grant is teaming up the action-packed West with inventor Artemis Gordon (Kevin Kline) to stop the mad inventor Dr. Loveless (an entertainingly hammy Kenneth Branagh). You see, Loveless is bitter that the South gave up so easily in the war, and he wants to disintegrate the "United" States. Once his giant mechanical spider is introduced the movie goes downhill, but it's too late to spoil the goodwill the first half has built up. This movie is not nearly as bad as everybody says it is. It's just summer fluff. (Andy Spletzer) Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16,
THE WOOD--A bunch of guys reminisce when one of them is about to get married. Meridian 16,
*XIU XIU: THE SENT DOWN GIRL--Set during the last days of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Xiu Xiu is about an intelligent, 16-year-old city girl who is banished to a rural outpost in order to learn the ways of simple folk. Her teacher is a rough, tough, and impotent herdsman (as legend has it, he lost his manhood to an enemy's sharp knife). Xiu Xiu (played superbly by newcomer Lu Lu) so badly wants to return to civilization that she begins to sleep with whoever promises that they can organize her return. It soon becomes clear to her and the impotent herdsman (who falls in love with her, but can do nothing to ease her suffering and growing humiliation), that she is stuck in this bleak world forever. This movie is exceptional, with a sense of beauty matched only by the immortal poems written by the exiled poets of the Tang Dynasty. Director Joan Chen (famous for her roles in Twin Peaks and The Last Emperor) has not one single sentimental bone for the ways of country folk, which helps make this one of the most lyrical and melancholy films to come out of China. (Charles Mudede) Broadway Market,
YEAR 2000 DOUBLE FEATURE--The millennium-themed series at the Grand Illusion continues with The Sanguinaires, in which a group of friends exile themselves on a remote island to avoid excessive New Year's Eve celebrations, and Life on Earth, about a filmmaker who returns to his native Mali to document life in the village in the year 2000. The two films play in one program. Thurs July 29 at 4:30, 7, 9:30. Grand Illusion,
