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
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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
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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