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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 16, 1994)
ju st o u t ▼ d eco m b er 16, 1 9 9 4 ▼ 2 9 BRADLEY J. W O O D W O R T H Y ule E scape ATTORNEY No modern technology can replace the merits o f getting out and going to the movies 920 CROWN PLAZAS 1500 S.W. FIRST AVENUE PORTLAND. OREGON 97201 V by Kelly M. Bryan he holidays are hard on us all. Extra pressure, extra worry, extra stress— and all at a time when we are culturally programmed to feel as if we ought to be relaxed, cheerful and reveling in the bosom o f family bliss. Is that little cartoon ther mometer over your head reading a dangerous level? Is smoke coming out of your ears? Take heart. Portland is reputed to have more cinemas per capita than any other U.S. city. (Bookstores and coffee T mema outlets must be close to achieving this status.) So, whether you’re escaping the elements or the manic consumer melee of the season, you should have an ample array of films to turn to for shelter. C linton S treet T heater End-of-the-year events here include an evening o f short works by local filmmakers on Dec. 30 and 31 promisingly titled ‘‘Shoot Hollywood in the Head.’’ The headliner is the premier showing of an 18-minute video, Pathetic, produced and directed by Title Sritecha and M ichael LaR occo. The short, the pair’s first film, is a slacker- flavored look at fan tasy and reality. A young woman, Mi chael (Sarah Rosen- burg), is caught be tween the nagging, neurotic “wife” she has (played by Aire Norell), and the al luring, carefree sprite (Bianca Otero) that she spends most of h er tim e th in k in g about— unfortu nately, the latter is but a dream. The rela tionship between the tw o w om en d e to nates in slow motion as we watch: Michael is increasingly involved in her fantasy, which leads to the rising shrillness o f her love/hater. Stylishly acute camera angles and a certain flatness in the script contribute to an eerie geometric quality that pervades this portrayal of a Go Fish gone rotten. Sritecha comments that while there are many new queer films out there, there’s a lot more to say about queer relationships. “We wanted to move beyond girl meets girl,” she says. “We wanted to look at what happens next.” (Note: La Luna’s Queer Nite on Monday, Dec. 26, will benefit the makers o f Pathetic, to help with their post-production costs.) The other shorts in the program were unavailable for preview. They include The Cleansing Machine, directed by Pat Baum and photographed by John Campbell (he also shot My Own Private Idaho)-, and Patti Lew is’ film Virginia, wherein dancer/ actor Joe Morales (who died Oct. 7, 1994, from com plications o f A ID S) plays a “ w ashed-up starlet... caught in a slow downward spiral of booze, cigarettes and dime-store pearls.” And don’t forget the Ed Wood classics Glen or Glenda and Plan 9 front Outer Space playing Dec. 26 to Dec. 29. You get a discount on your ticket if you come in cos tume; an Angora sweater ought to suffice. Call the Clinton Street Theater (2522 SE Clinton St.) for show times and prices, 238-8899. C inema 21 The flyer proclaims “J.C. is coming for the holidays,” but this time it’s Hong Kong action hero Jackie Chan that’s here to save us. A smorgasbord o f C han’s rollicking, comic martial-arts adven tures (Drunken Master 2, Dragon Lord) is on screen until Dec. 22. On Friday, Dec. 23, a viewing o f the unforgettable Sunset Boulevard, with Gloria Swanson and W illiam Holden, is yours for donat ing one or two items o f nonperishable food, which will be given to Blanchet House. Opening C hrist mas Day is Latcho Drom (Safe Journey), a world- beat lover’s dream: a color-splashed, epic, dia logue-free anthology o f Gypsy music etched out by Gypsy musicians from India, Egypt, Turkey, Ro mania, Hungary, Slovakia, France and Spain. Call Cinema 21 (616N W 21st Ave.) for show times and prices, 223-4515. at la w (503) 273-9146 Free Initial Consultation SERVING THE LEGAL NEEDS OF OUR COMMUNITY IN THE FOLLOWING AREAS • ACC IDENTS & INJURIES (NO RECOVERY, NO FEE) • CRIMINALLAW&DUII • DIVORCE AND CUSTODY • • • • WILLS & ESTATES BUSINESS LAW AND LITIGATION REAL ESTATE LITIGATION IN ALLSTATE AND FEDERAL COURTS Turn your LIFE IN S U R A N C E into CASH, NOW, N orthwest F ilm C enter Your NEEDS must be met........................... NOW. Your DREAMS must be fulfilled................... NOW. The Film Center, thumbing its nose at the sentimentality o f the season, is offering a retro spective o f Alan Clarke films— gritty depictions o f the state o f the British union in the ’70s and ’80s. Clarke is a cohort of the likes o f Mike Leigh and Stephen Frears but is less well known in this country because his work was done for the BBC. He takes as his subject the people Margaret Thatcher would have liked to forget and explores topics that P W A ’S In lc rn a lio n a lly mum m % C a ll fo r FREE BROCHURE 800 / 487:1183 Ü ! ... mm lililí T&e 'lÍK d & iá ú Z K d Pi ft S ? «8 mW m Viatical Settlements Founding Member n M em ber N A PW A LET! i LL The ~S T P o r t l a n d G a y M e n ’s C h o r u s T presents are explosive as hand grenades. Contact (1985) and Elephant (1989) look at the situation in North ern Ireland: the first follows tense young British soldiers who must patrol the Irish countryside, the second presents 18 assassinations— without iden tifying victim or perpetrator. These films show Dec. 2 2 ;call the Northwest Film C enter(1219S W Park Ave.) for schedule and prices, 221-1156. A ct III Amid the abundance of movies that will open over the holidays at Act III theaters all over town are some intriguing possibilities: Robert Altm an’s send up o f the fashion industry Pret-a-Porter (Ready-to-Wear), with Sophia Loren, Lauren Bacall and a cast o f 30; Roman Polanski’s political thriller Death and the Maiden, with Sigourney W eaver and Ben Kingsley; G illian A rm strong’s Little Women, with W inona Ryder as Jo and Susan Sarandon as M armee; Queen Margot, a 16th-cen tury romance mixed with political and religious strife, starring Isabelle Adjani and Daniel Autcuil; Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, about Dorothy Parker and her comrades at the Algonquin Round Table, directed by Alan Rudolph and featuring Jennifer Jason Leigh, M atthew Broderick and Campbell Scott; and A Man o f No Importance, wherein Albert Finney plays an Irish bus conductor of uncertain sexuality who can’t get Oscar Wilde out of his head. For venues, times and prices call 225-5555 (you need a touch tone phone). 5th Annual Holiday Benefit Concert featuring Portland Lesbian Choir BRIDGES - A Vocal Ensemble Rose City Gay & Lesbian Freedom Band Sunday at 7 PM December 18, 1994 Northwest Service Center 1819 NW Everett Street Admission is free & donations benefit Esther’s Pantry HIV Day Center West Women’s Hotel Outside In Youth Services * a n n iv e rs a ry