Barry Lyndon, Days of Heaven, Sunrise May 20, 2011

Moving Images
3 Films That Are As Visually Stunning As They Are Dramatically Compelling

At The Landmark Loew’s Jersey Theatre
54 Journal Square, Jersey City, NJ 07306
Tel. (201) 798-6055 Fax: (201) 798-4020 Web: www.loewsjersey.org

A Not-For-Profit Arts Center in a Landmark Movie Palace

All Titles Screened in 35mm.

Friday, May 20 7:45PM
"Barry Lyndon" Starring Ryan O’Neal, Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee. Directed by Stanley Kubrick. 1975 184 mins. Color. Original MPAA Rating: PG.

Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's novel depicts the rise and fall of a sensitive Irish rogue in the British aristocracy. With a deliberate rhythm and intentionally muffled emotions, Kubrick orchestrates an absorbing, complex, and dryly witty tale packed with sex, violence, gambling, war, family feuds, romantic betrayals, love, death, and all the other things that make historical dramas so much fun. But as good as the script and sublimely subtle the acting is, the look of the film is what unquestionably raises Barry Lyndon into the realm of high art. Attempting to recreate both the aesthetic style of 18th century paintings and the physical look of the period, Kubrick, cinematographer John Alcott and production designer Ken Adam used authentic antique props and costumes to brilliant effect, and they lit their scenes with only natural sunlight or candles, for a look that no other movie has ever touched. The result is a film of singular visual style and beauty, and one of the richest and most evocative period pieces ever made.

$7 for Adults, $5 for Seniors (65+) and Children (12 & younger).

Saturday, May 21 6PM
"Days of Heaven" Starring Richard Gere, Brooke Adams, Sam Shepard, Linda Manz. Directed by Terrence Malick. 1978 95mins. Color. Original MPAA Rating: PG

Terrence Malick's follow-up to his acclaimed 1973 debut ‘Badlands’ confirmed his reputation as a visual poet and narrative iconoclast. Inspired by the work of silent master F.W. Murnau, and shot in natural light primarily during the "magic hour" before sunset, Malick's spectacular imagery largely takes the place of conventional exposition and excessive dialogue. In 1916, Chicago steelworker Bill (Richard Gere, stepping in for John Travolta) flees to Texas with his little sister Linda (Linda Manz) and girlfriend Abby (Brooke Adams) after fatally erupting at his boss. Along with other itinerant laborers, they work the harvest at a wealthy, though ailing, farmer's ranch. The farmer (playwright Sam Shepard) falls in love with Abby, and, believing her to be Bill's sister, asks the three to stay on at his elysian spread. Seeing it as his one chance to escape poverty, Bill urges Abby to marry the sick man – but marriage has more restorative powers, and the farmer more magnetism than Bill had anticipated. This tragic love triangle is told through brief, cryptic incidents as the expressive sequences of nature's radiance and brutality allude to the emotions brewing beneath the adults' cool surfaces, and child-observer Linda's jaded, distant voice-overs fill in the story. Ennio Morricone's delicate, dreamy score further complements the narrative restraint and sensory beauty. Despite great critical success, Days of Heaven failed to find an audience in 1978, and Malick took a 20-year sabbatical from directing before making The Thin Red Line (1998).

Malick has been called the reclusive genius of American cinema, who makes a critically acclaimed movie -- only to disappear from the director's chair for years. His next film -- and only his third since Days of Heaven -- The Tree of Life, will open on May 27.

$7 for Adults, $5 for Seniors (65+) and Children (12 & younger).

Saturday, May 21 8:15PM
"Sunrise" George O’Brien & Janet Gaynor. Directed by F.W. Murnau. 1927. 110mins. Silent. B&W. Unrated, but suitable for most audiences.

Considered by many to be the finest silent film ever made by a Hollywood studio, F.W. Murnau's Sunrise represents the art of the wordless cinema at its zenith, a movie of extraordinary visual beauty and emotional purity. Murnau’s graceful moving camera, expressive lighting, and superimpositions lyrically evoke the inner passion, pain, and romanticism that drive a love triangle among a simple country couple and a vamp-ish city woman. The streetscape and amusement park scenes that so effectively portray the dazzle and danger of the “big city” remain marvels of set design eighty four years later. The story is poignant and the acting sublime; indeed, Janet Gaynor won the first-ever Best Actress Oscar for her role in Sunrise, along with her part in another film, Seventh Heaven. But it is the extraordinary Expressionist look of the film, so carefully crafted by Murnau and his cinematographers, fellow German imports Charles Roser and Karl Struss, that lifts the film into the realm of lyricism. Murnau found something extraordinary in everyday scenes, yet his most extraordinary visions never lost faith with reality. Roser and Struss won the first Best Photography Oscar. Ironically, this apex of silent cinema came just as the deluge of synchronized sound (or more specifically, dialogue) was about to wash away the whole silent era. Indeed, the box office failure of Sunrise is in part attributed to the release of “The Jazz Singer”, which came just weeks after the premiere of Sunrise and weeks before it went into wider release. But the artistic impact of Sunrise survived to influence some of the most striking cinematography of the talkie era.

$8 for Adults, $6 for Seniors (65+) and Children (12 & younger).

- - - Combo discounts available for multiple screenings in a weekend. - - -

**Film descriptions are compiled from various sources.

The Loew's Is Easy To Get To: The Loew's Jersey Theatre, at 54 Journal Square, Jersey City, NJ, is directly across JFK Boulevard from the JSQ PATH Center with trains to and from Lower and Midtown Manhattan and Newark's Penn Station, and is minutes from the NJ Turnpike, Rts 3 and 1&9 and the Holland & Lincoln Tunnels. We're easy to reach by car or mass transit from throughout the Metro Region.

Discount off-street parking is available in Square Ramp Garage adjoining the Loew's at the foot of Magnolia Avenue off of Tonnelle Avenue, behind the Loew's. Patrons must validate their parking ticket before leaving the Theatre.

What’s Special About Seeing A Movie At The Loew’s? The Landmark Loew’s Jersey Theatre is one of America’s grandest surviving Movie Palaces. We show movies the way they were meant to be seen: in a grandly ornate setting – on our BIG 50 ft wide screen! The Loew’s runs reel-to-reel -- not platter -- projection, which often allows us to screen an archival or studio vault print that is the best available copy of a movie title.

PLUS – Live organ entrance music (from the Loew’s magnificently restored pipe organ) before most screenings.

The Loew’s Jersey is managed by Friends of the Loew’s, Inc. as a non-profit, multi-discipline performing arts center.

Classic Film Weekends are presented by Friends of the Loew’s, Inc.

The Landmark Loew’s Jersey Theatre receives support from the City of Jersey City, Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy and the Municipal Council, and the Hudson County Open Space Trust Fund, administered by the Hudson County Division of Planning, Thomas A. DeGise, County Executive, and the Board of Chosen Freeholders.

Official Website: http://www.loewsjersey.org