CineMatinee at the Fountain
A potpourri of movies, past and present, often with an
emphasis on life in the West—which could mean the new West, the old West,
or anything in between—the CineMatinee series is designed to offer area
residents a brief tutelage in various types and genres of film.
At least one film a month for this series will have a ‘New Mexico
Connection’, drawing from the vast pool of movies made in the state or
perhaps featuring a star/story from New
Mexico talent.
All screenings begin at 1.30 PM, unless otherwise noted.
Admission is $4, or $1 for Mesilla Valley Film Society members.
For more information, please call (575) 524-8287 or (575) 522-0286.
The Fountain Theatre is located at 2469 Calle de Guadalupe, one block south
of the plaza
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
May 3- Santitos (2000, rated R, 100 minutes, in Spanish w/subtitles)
A holy innocent walks through the halls of sin driven by foggy logic and the faith of a saint in Santitos, a hilarious Mexican comedy of Catholicism, religious visions and wrestling stars.
"Thank goodness I forgot the Easy-Off," she declares when St. Jude appears in her oven to inform her that her deceased daughter is actually alive.
Following vague clues about "La Casa Rosa" (the pink house), she embarks on a journey that takes her through a series of brothels (graduating from housekeeper to star attraction), through Tijuana to America, and into a coin-operated sex club in the very jaws of sin in Los Angeles.
Alejandro Springall's cheerfully absurd odyssey, produced by filmmaker John Sayles, stays just this side of lampooning the veneration of saints and heeding the call of questionable visions. Esperanza keeps up a one-sided conversation up with the Lord and phones home juicy confessions to her soap-opera addicted priest, who is skeptical but riveted as her stories become more outrageous than his favorite show.
It's remarkably bright, funny and sweet for a film that wades through so much sleaze, as Esperanza follows her visions.
The innocent energy of Heredia's spirited performance keeps the film from sinking into a morass of sleaze especially after Esperanza soon gets her own guardian angel -- a sweet, seductive masked Mexican wrestler named the Angel of Justice.
Springall's greatest achievement in Santitos is carving out a colorful world where every dark corner is brightened by Esperanza's spiritual cleansings. Like a naive, madcap modern saint blowing a fresh breeze through halls stale with sin, her faith and charity keeps her innocent through her trials.
Screening before Santitos will be the 10 minute short film, The Tehuacan Project, a narrative documentary about two Lucia and Jesus, both deaf from childhood disease, who find their way to Tehuacan, Mexico, in hopes of finding a cure at Mexico’s first school for the deaf. Narrated by Adrien Brody. Executive producer is Brad Pitt.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
May 10- Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973, 122 minutes-director’s cut, rated R & featuring live music by James Michael before the screening, beginning at approximately 1 PM)
Mr. Garrett was killed 100 years ago this year, and to denote that very historic local event, we offer a special screening of this
film, directed by Sam Peckinpah (The Wild Bunch, Ballad of Cable Hogue).
A former friend betrays a legendary outlaw in Peckinpah's final Western. Holed up in Fort Sumner with his gang between cattle rustlings,
Billy the Kid (Kris Kristofferson) ignores the advice of comrade-turned-lawman Pat Garrett (James Coburn) to escape to Mexico, and he winds
up in jail in Lincoln, New Mexico. After Billy theatrically escapes, inspiring enigmatic Lincoln resident Alias (Bob Dylan) to join him, the
governor and cattle baron John Chisum requisition Garrett to form a posse and hunt him down. Rather than flee to Mexico when he can, Billy heads back to Fort Sumner, meeting his final destiny at the hands of his friend Pat, who, two decades later, is forced to face the consequences of his own Faustian pact with progress.
With a script by Rudolph Wurlitzer, Peckinpah uses the historical basis of Billy's death to eulogize the West dreamily yet violently, as it
is desecrated by corrupt capitalists. Both Pat and Billy know that their time is passing, as surely as Garrett's posse knows that they are
participating in a legend. Using familiar Western players like Jack Elam, L Q Jones, Slim Pickens and Katy Jurado, Peckinpah underscores the
West's existence as a media myth, and he even appears himself as a coffin maker. Just as Peckinpah's earlier The Wild Bunch (1969) invoked
the Vietnam War, the casting of Kristofferson and Dylan alluded to the chaotic late '60s/early '70s present. Also like The Wild Bunch, Pat
Garrett was truncated by its studio; the cuts did nothing to help its box office. Key scenes, particularly the framing story of Garrett's
fate, have since been restored to this pristine DVD version.
In this director's cut, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid stands as one of
Peckinpah's most beautiful and complex films, killing the Western myth even as he salutes it.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
May 17- Payday (1972, Rated R, 102 minutes)
A musician finds his life and his career jumping off the rails in this moody, intelligent drama. Maury Dann (Rip Torn)
is a singer and songwriter struggling to hold onto his footing as one of the top names in country & western music. This being 1972,
long before the Nashville sound had gone "mainstream," Dann has a new Cadillac and a small entourage to show for his efforts, but
most of his shows are one-nighters at beer-soaked honky tonks in the Deep South. Onstage Dann comes off as a soft-hearted good ol'
boy, but off the stand, Dann is a mean-spirited hell raiser with a nearly unquenchable appetite for booze, pills, and women. Over
the course of a seemingly typical day and a half, Dann steals a fan's girlfriend; ditches his longtime mistress, Mayleen; picks up a
naďve groupie, and gives her a crash course in life on the road; fires his guitar player (and best friend) and hires a starry-eyed
teenager as his replacement; tries to bribe a disc jockey with booze and free records; has a harrowing run-in with his speed-addicted
mother; discovers he's missed his son's birthday by four months; and, in cahoots with his manager, Clarence, fast-talks his loyal
driver, cook, and gofer, Chicago, into taking a possible murder rap.
While Payday earned excellent reviews (particularly for Rip Torn's superb performance as Maury Dann) and a handful of awards (Daryl
Duke's direction won him a citation from the National Association of Film Critics, while Don Carpenter's screenplay received a prize
from the Writer's Guild of America) the film's downbeat themes made it a tough sell. However, Payday has gained a cult following, and
more than one "outlaw" country star of the 1970s has tried to claim that the film was based on him.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
May 24- A Prairie Home Companion (2006, PG-13, 105 minutes)
In gleeful anticipation of finally having the opportunity to see a live version of this long-running NPR show in Las Cruces, we are pleased to
screen the film version of Garrison Keillor’s fine program. And with that in mind, we will be giving away a pair of tickets to the live show,
which will take place on May 31.
Not since Woody Allen's "Radio Days" has anyone created such a cinematic Valentine to the wonderfully imaginative medium of radio as "A Prairie
Home Companion." Garrison Keillor, impresario, creator and host of one of radios longest running programs -- 33 years and counting -- and director,
the late Robert Altman, are a match made in heaven. To these two Midwesterners, the region's dry, whimsical humor, unfailing politeness and straight-shooting sensibility are as natural as their own skins. There is no artifice or slickness here, just a native, keen intelligence that slyly hides behind homespun wit and verbal slapstick.
Filmed at St. Paul's Fitzgerald Theater in Keillor's home state of Minnesota, "Prairie" essentially puts a radio show much like "A Prairie Home
Companion" on film. Backstage, onstage and around the aging theater, the movie imagines a fateful final broadcast of a show that has been given
the axe by a soulless Texas corporation. (Keillor knows how to pick his villain's state, doesn't he?)
The central musical acts belong to Yolanda and Rhonda Johnson (Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin), the remaining members of what once was a four-sister
country music act, and Dusty and Lefty (Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly), singing cowboys and rivals in one-upsmanship.
Yolanda's daughter Lola (Lindsay Lohan) distracts herself from her mom's oft-told tales of the theatrical life by penning poems about suicide.
Guy Noir, a recurring character on Keillorr's show, is brought aboard here as the program's "security director." As the throwback detective,
Kevin Kline mixes Chandler-esque dialogue with more than a touch of Peter Seller's Inspector Clouseau. L.Q. Jones adds an interesting touch
as a backstage Romeo, whose intentions become clear later in the film.
The movie steadfastly sticks to its radio roots. The comic bits from Streep & Tomlin and Harrelson & Reilly are gems of off-the-cuff humor.
Keillor's droll lyrics and jingles for fictional sponsors poke good-natured fun.
As a character remarks, this radio show is the kind of program that died 50 years ago only someone forgot to tell the performers. Thank God for that.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
May 31- Coyote Waits (2003, 107 minutes, not rated, made in New Mexico)
Based on Tony Hillerman’s bestselling novel, Coyote Waits once again teams together Hillerman characters, Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn.
When gunshots ring out in a tragic roadside shooting, police officer Delbert Nez winds up dead. His close friend Officer Jim Chee (
Adam Beach) is the first on the scene, and upon spotting an elderly, drunken Navajo Shaman named Ashie Pinto with the murder weapon
tucked in his belt, he takes the man into custody as the prime suspect. Though Pinto does not confess to the crime, the case against
him is strong, and Detective Joe Leaphorn (Wes Studi) begins to look into the case at the behest of his wife, Emma (Sheila Tousey) —
who remains staunchly convinced that her relative was set up.
As Chee and Leaphorn investigate the case, they are troubled to discover a number of inconsistencies in the murder. How did Pinto get
to the scene of the crime when he has no means of transportation? And how could the elderly Pinto be the man that Officer Nez said he
apprehended as a vandal in his final communication to police headquarters? When their investigation leads Chee and Leaphorn to a local
trading post run by a shady man named John McGinnis (Keith Carradine), the case soon begins to come into focus as the body count rises
and the spirit of the coyote lurks in the shadows awaiting its next victim.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
June 7 Big Bad Love (2001, 111 minutes, rated R)
Based on a short story collection by Mississippi writer Larry Brown, Big Bad Love is a collage of the “hard country life”,
following the drunken routines of Vietnam veteran Leon Barlow (Arliss Howard).
Leon is a shiftless alcoholic, though obviously still a talented writer with his mixture of adjective clauses and ability to envelop
anyone around him into an environment he is describing. He’s separated from his wife (Debra Winger) with whom he had two children, and
he has difficulty playing the part of father, even as he tries to win back his ex-wife’s affections.
For his feature debut as director, Howard impressively mixes fantasy sequences with the depressing reality of pushing creativity as
hard as you can against a tide of guilt. These false images are not only enticing to watch in their extremity about desiring what you
can’t have but are also well-paced, following along with the increasing effects of the beer Leon can’t stop chugging. They compliment
the overall story in their unpredictability and specificity to his wily imagination, instead of creating easily recognizable dream images
that would be universal to the entire human race.
What is wonderfully rare about Big Bad Love is its use of the human penchant for failure. Most dramas set up overwhelming obstacles that are
cured miraculously or arguments that are suddenly forgotten, but Love doesn’t let anyone get away easily from the hurt they inflict on others,
no matter how accidental.
Big Bad Love is a respectable mix of piercing human frailty, the tricks your mind plays on you, and the unexpected blows to the ego that force
separation and reconciliation.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
June 14- The Ballad of Little Jo (1993, 2 hours, rated R)
Based on true events, Maggie Greenwald’s feminist western stars Suzy Amis as society
woman, Josephine Monaghan who, after bearing an illegitimate son is forced from her home on the east coast. Quickly realizing that, at the time,
the only two available options for women were wife or whore, Monaghan shortens her name to Jo, cuts her hair and poses as a man. Preparing for
her new life isn’t nearly as simple as cross-dressing—as a way of hiding her feminine appearance or to illustrate the way the times have scarred
her as a woman, Jo takes a knife and gives herself a long, noticeable scar on her cheek to complete the transformation. As Little Jo, she works
hard as a miner and sheepherder, always keeping the men at a distance in case they learn her true identity, although becoming friends with
misogynistic loner Ian McKellen until a brutal act separates them. Later, Jo takes to a kind Chinese man, a fellow outsider among the world
run by narrow-minded white men and takes him into her home and bed.
Greenwald’s film is powerful and manages to educate viewers not only about
the ways that women were treated but also ethnic minorities without once becoming preachy. The film harkens to its title—for it is a ballad,
sparse and beautiful—sometimes you wish for more details in places but it tells you just what it wants and lets your mind fill in the rest.
You’re entranced by the musicality of it, by the film’s photography and the way the wide-open spaces help add to the characterization. Sometimes
you think you may be reading too much into it—that it’s really much simpler but perhaps that is just what Greenwald wants you to think.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
June 21- Bagdad Café (1995, 95 minutes, rated PG)
Back by popular demand! Bagdad Cafe, an unlikely comic hit when it came out in the late 1980s, has retained a cult appeal long past the point
where most films recede from moviegoers’ memories. How often does a German feature inspire an American television series? This one did.
With a quirky plot, strong acting, a haunting score and beautiful cinematography, it’s not hard to see why the movie remains popular. It’s a chick
flick that guys – smart guys, anyway – will like too.
The plot is straightforward: two women who are opposite in every imaginable way are brought together when each makes a break from her no-good
husband. Jasmin (Marianne Sagebrecht) is a plump German hausfrau. Brenda (CCH Pounder) is an African-American proprietor of a run-down truck
stop in the hot and dusty rural southwest of the U.S.A.: the Bagdad Gas and Oil Cafe. Jasmin is fastidious, buttoned up, and childless, while
Brenda is raucous, disorganized, and overburdened by her work and three children. They are thrown together when Jasmin walks up to Bagdad Café –
in the middle of nowhere – and asks Brenda for a room. They must somehow trust each other before they can learn from each other.
What makes this movie work is the contrast between the two female leads. While the hausfrau and the black single mother are recognizable cultural
types, in Bagdad Cafe they quickly become deeper characters than the first-glance stereotypes; their approach to their surroundings, and their
reaction to each other, are more complex and more amusing than any simple type the viewer might have in mind. Indeed, their misprision of each
other becomes the catalyst for development, as Jasmin learns to let it all hang out and Brenda learns to run a successful, efficient business.
But if viewers can suspend their disbelief at Jasmin’s magic tricks, they will forgive the unlikely plot and find Bagdad Cafe a charming and
------------------------------------------------------------------------
June 28- Make Haste to Live- (1954, 90 minutes, partially shot around Taos)
Make Haste to Live is an interesting low budget film noir about a family threatened by an abusive husband. Crystal Benson (Dorothy McGuire)
has been on the run for the last 18 years from her husband Steve Blackford (Stephen McNally), and is frightened at what he will now do to her
and her daughter if he catches up. The film opens with Crystal Benson's gangster husband, Steve Blackford, roaming around unseen in the shadows
of her house. She senses he is there, but as she roams the house looking for him she can't spot him. He has found her in a small New Mexico
town, even though she has a new identity, after spending 18 years in prison for supposedly murdering her. He is now out on parole.
Crystal makes a tape recording explaining her past, as she relates to when she was a 19-year-old and met a charming man at a dance. Her mother
warned her that Steve was a gangster, but she fell in love and married him despite. She soon was living in luxury, as her hubby was a collector
for the mob. When she found out through the newspaper headlines that her husband murdered a cop, she decides to run away from the mean-spirited
man. But he refuses to give her up. After a year or so passes Steve, who beat the murder rap, accidently sets off some explosives in his place.
This killed the lady he was spending the night with, but the cops think the unidentified woman is his wife and he killed her to stop her from
talking. He is sentenced for that murder, and she starts a new life for herself in Candlewood, (aka Taos) New Mexico, has his child, Randi (
Murphy), and becomes a successful newspaper publisher and respected citizen. But she has told no one of her past, and is deeply worried about
what others would think of her if they found out the truth.
This little seen film is fast-paced and well-acted, and offers some classic standards from the film noir gender.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
