CineMatinee at the Fountain
A unique blend 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- and ‘movies that missed us’- films that are notable but never had a lot of publicity- the
CineMatinee series is designed to show area residents that film is a form of art as well as entertainment! At least one film a
month for this series has 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.
Unless otherwise noted, screening time is 1.30 PM, and admission is $4 for everyone except film society members who are admitted for
$1. The theatre is located one half block of the Mesilla Plaza. For more information, please call 524-8287.
This month we will have three screenings that will include visiting filmmakers. Please note that the Sept 27 CineMatinee is a special event.
The Fountain Theatre is located at 2469 Calle de Guadalupe, one block south
of the plaza.
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October 4- Bonneville (2006, 90 minutes, rated PG)
It would be easy to dismiss "Bonneville" as a
‘born-to-be-mild’ version of "Thelma & Louise." It does feature women of a certain age cruising around the dusty American West in a
classic 1966 Pontiac convertible, getting into trouble while discovering hidden truths about their quiet lives. And maybe running into
a dangerously handsome gentleman.
The similarities end there.
For starters, two of the women are Mormons from Idaho. And there are three of them. And they're not on the run from Johnny Law, but
transporting the ashes of a dead husband for burial in Santa Barbara, Calif. You know from the outset no one's going screaming off
the edge of the Grand Canyon here.
And what a trio of actresses. Jessica Lange and Kathy Bates have won Oscars, and Joan Allen will someday. These women are finely
attuned to their instruments, and their give-and-take is so organic and unrehearsed you feel like you're sitting on the porch with
them while they jabber away.
Arvilla (Lange) is the widow. Her icy stepdaughter (Christine Baranski) barely waits until Joe's wake before demanding that her
father's ashes be returned to California, against his wish that they be scattered. And there's a none-too-subtle threat -- since
Joe never updated his will, the daughter will get the house and Arvilla will lose her home unless she gives in.
She recruits her best friends, Margene (Bates) and Carol (Allen), to make the trip with her. Ditching their plane tickets, they
resolve to make the trek in Joe's cherry Bonneville. Margene's a sassy and lonely widow, while Carol's caught up in the devoted
wife and mother thing.
The plot unfolds without many surprises. There's car trouble, bickering between Margene and Carol, and a quiet hitchhiker, and
Tom Skerritt turns up as a nicely creased truck driver with an amorous eye.
The appeal of this movie isn't about groundbreaking storytelling, but familiarity and an easy time spent with old friends. Just
as sometimes you crave macaroni and cheese over the latest nouveau creation, "Bonneville" is cinematic comfort food.
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Oct 11- Not Columbus Day- Third Edition, at which the Mesilla Valley Film Society reminds you that Columbus did
not ‘discover’ America- …this year featuring a new documentary film – Our Spirits Don’t Speak English.
Our Spirits Don't Speak English: Indian Boarding Schools (2008, 80 minutes) is a documentary that examines an educational
system that was designed to destroy Indian culture and tribal unity. When it began in 1879, the philosophy of the Indian boarding school
system was to ‘kill the Indian and save the man’, the mission statement of Captain Richard Henry Pratt, founder and superintendent of
Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania until 1904. Challenged by that philosophy, hundreds of students died, but
many survived to change the system and gain fame.
Jim Thorpe (Sauk and Fox), who was honored as the greatest athlete in the world by King Gustav of Sweden at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm,
is the iconic hero who survived the boarding school system. Grace Thorpe (Sauk and Fox), his daughter, in her last interview before she
passed away on April 4, 2008, discusses boarding school experiences in the new documentary. Thorpe may be the most famous hero that emerged
from the system, but all of the students were heroic.
They had to be heroes; they had to face the monster, which was the system which was set up to try to rob them of their culture,
their languages, their way of life, their foods, their clothing. The battle against and the victory over the boarding school monster is told
by educators, former and current students who were interviewed at Carlisle; Sherman Indian School, Riverside, Calif.; Sequoyah High School,
Tahlequah, Okla.; Anchorage, Alaska; and other locations.
Criticism by reformers during the late 19th and early 20th century led to a national investigation that resulted in the Meriam Report of 1928. In spite of a scathing indictment in one of the chapters, there was little change for many years. As outrageous and unforgivable as this system was, it is even more incredulous to discover that this failed policy was then introduced to Alaska in the 1940s with the same devastating results.
This is a story that must be told and not forgotten.
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Oct 18- The Wild Bunch (1969, 145 minutes, rated R, director’s cut)
Please note- The Wild Bunch has strong violence!
It's astonishing how harrowing ``The Wild Bunch'' is, nearly 40 years after it blasted its way onto the big screen to become maybe the
best Western ever made, the one that turned meanness into a haunting pictorial poetry and summed up the corruption of guilt, old age
and death in the American fantasy of the Old West.
The Wild Bunch is generally regarded as director Sam Peckinpah’s greatest achievement, this Western that is more of an anti-Western.
Though many other Westerns have sided with "noble" outlaws, this film totally defies any typical definition of the genre, giving us
outlaws and lawmen alike who demonstrate only casual awareness of any "Code of the West."
Pike Bishop (William Holden) is an outlaw who wants one last score. Dutch Engstrom (Ernest Borgnine) is the loyal second-in-command,
with Warren Oates and Ben Johnson as quarrelsome brothers Lyle and Tector Gorch. Edmond O’ Brien as Sykes is the oldest member of the
crew, while Angel (Jaime Sanchez) is on his first ride with the Bunch. This is a bunch, not a gang, with only fitful loyalties or purpose.
The law is no better. The railroad has pressed into service Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan), a former partner of Pike, who with the Sykes
are strangely the only "moral men" on either side. Following Thornton for the bounty--and whatever they can pick off dead bodies--are
a bunch (not a posse) of ill-trained "peckerwoods," most notably Strother Martin and L.Q. Jones, who give performances of a lifetime.
Not only is the doctrine of loyalty constantly strained in this film, but so is the Western’s usual deference to woman and children:
they are not protected and they are portrayed as unworthy of protection. The film opens with children curiously pitting ants against
scorpions. The ambush of the opening robbery catches a temperance parade in the cross-fire, leaving several citizens wounded and trampled.
When Angel sees the woman he idealized as the mistress of General Mapache (Emilio Fernandez), he shoots her, compromising the lives and
livelihood of the Bunch. The Western has generally been interested in preserving and/or restoring order to society–which is generally
associated with the domestic world of women and children. However The Wild Bunch neither seeks to improve society nor does it yearn for
a "better world." Though Pike and the Torch brothers both are looking for a last score that will allow them to retire, they have no
idea what kind of retirement that will be.
Certainly, the historical context of the Vietnam conflict is an essential subtext of the film. The only fully honorable characters of
the film are the Mexican villagers and resistance fighters, and when the Bunch makes their final stand it is prompted by malaise as much as honor.
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Oct 25- Speechless (1994, 99 minutes, rated PG-13, made in New Mexico)
Tired of the whole dysfunctional election process? Well, here is a delightful romantic comedy starring Michael Keaton and Geena Davis to
help you take your mind off the mudslinging and name calling- sort of…
Julia is an idealistic speechwriter for a liberal Democrat running for the Senate in New Mexico. One evening, while looking for
some sleeping pills in an all-night convenience store, she meets Kevin. They immediately hit it off. Then, Julia finds out that he is a
one-time comedy writer who has been hired by the Republican candidate to juice up his senatorial race….(from comedy writing to speech
writing…not much transition required here!)
How do you keep a love affair alive in the midst of a down-and-dirty political campaign when you are working for opposing camps? With great
difficulty and creative subterfuge, of course! Robert King's snappy screenplay gives Julia and Kevin plenty to work with as they trade barbs
and frantically try to deal with the many obstacles facing their relationship. Director Ron Underwood (City Slickers) keeps the film humming
along with one surprise after another.
Filmed in and around Las Vegas, NM, Speechless, for the most part, is entertainment, but carries a few pointed jabs at our political process.
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