Center for the Arts : Homer NY

Free Admission & Snacks Available

Films Start At 7PM

Each title below is linked to more information about the movie.

January 25, 2008 - "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"
February 1, 2008 - "Roman Holiday"
February 15, 2008 - "Stage Coach"
February 29, 2008 - "To Kill A Mocking Bird"
March 14, 2008 - "The Lion in Winter"
March 28, 2008 - "Network"
April 11, 2008 - "Cabaret"

	“One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” (1975)- January 25, 2008 Only the second movie to ever win the ‘top 5’ Oscars, this movie is regarded as one of the greatest American films of all time - a $4.4 million dollar effort directed by Czech Milos Forman. Its allegorical theme is set in the world of an authentic mental hospital (Oregon State Hospital in Salem, Oregon), a place of rebellion exhibited by a energetic, flamboyant, wise-guy anti-hero against the Establishment, institutional authority and status-quo attitudes (personified by the patients' supervisory nurse). [Forman himself noted that the asylum was a metaphor for the Soviet Union (embodied as Nurse Ratched) and the desire to escape.] Expressing his basic human rights and impulses, the protagonist protests against heavy-handed rules about watching the World Series, and illegally stages both a fishing trip and a drinking party in the ward - leading to his own paralyzing lobotomy.
	“Roman Holiday” (1953)- February 1, 2008 A delightful, captivating fairy-tale romance shot entirely on location in Rome, and produced and directed by one of Hollywood's most skillful, distinguished, professional and eminent directors - William Wyler. The film's bittersweet story is a charming romantic-comedy, a kind of Cinderella tale in reverse (with an April-October romance). A runaway princess (Hepburn) rebels against her royal obligations and escapes the insulated confines of her royal prison to find a 'Prince Charming' commoner - an American reporter (Peck) covering the royal tour in Rome. The story was reportedly based on the real-life Italian adventures of British Princess Margaret.The film received a phenomenal ten Academy Award nominations for a comedy. It won a Best Actress Oscar for its under-experienced British (Belgium-born) actress named Audrey Hepburn - it was her first American film, although she had previously appeared in six European movies and on Broadway in an adaptation of Colette's Gigi.
	“Stage Coach” (1939)- February 15, 2008 A classic Western from film auteur John Ford. This film - his first sound Western - was a return to his most-acclaimed film genre after a thirteen year absence following Fox's Three Bad Men (1926) (and The Iron Horse (1924). This film debuted John Ford's favorite setting - the majestic Monument Valley of the Southwest - the first of seven films he made in the famed western valley. Ford's reputation was elevated considerably by this film - it was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Black and White Cinematography, Best Interior Decoration, and Best Film Editing, and won two awards for Best Supporting Actor (Thomas Mitchell) and Best Score (for its compilation of 17 American folk tunes of the 1880s). This revolutionary, influential film - a story of redemption - is considered a landmark quintessential film that elevated westerns from cheaply-made, low-grade, Saturday matinee "B" films to a serious adult genre - one with greater sophistication, richer Western archetypes and themes, in-depth and complex.
	“To Kill A Mocking Bird” (1962)- February 29, 2008 A much-loved, critically-acclaimed, classic trial film that exhibits a dramatic tour-de-force of acting, a portrayal of childhood innocence (told from a matured adult understanding), and a progressive, enlightened 60s message about racial prejudice, violence, moral tolerance and dignified courage. The Academy Award winning screenplay was faithfully adapted by screenwriter Horton Foote from the 1960 novel of the same name by Harper Lee - who had written a semi-autobiographical account of her small-town Southern life (Monroeville, Alabama), her widower father/attorney Amasa Lee, and its setting of racial unrest. Released in the early 60s, the timely film reflected the state of deep racial problems and social injustice that existed in the South. The film begins by portraying the innocence and world of play of a tomboyish six year-old girl named Scout (Mary Badham) and her ten year-old brother Jem (Phillip Alford), and their perceptions of their widower attorney father Atticus (Gregory Peck). They also fantasize about a 'boogeyman' recluse who inhabits a mysterious house in their neighborhood. They are abruptly brought out of their insulated and carefree world by their father's unpopular but courageous defense of a black man named Tom Robinson (Brock Peters) falsely accused of raping a Southern white woman. Although racism dooms the accused man, a prejudiced adult vengefully attacks the children on a dark night - they are unexpectedly delivered from real harm in the film's climax by the reclusive neighbor, "Boo" Radley. The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director (Robert Mulligan), Best Supporting Actress (Mary Badham, Best B/W Cinematography (Russell Harlan), and Best Music Score - Substantially Original (an evocative score by Elmer Bernstein). It was honored with three awards - Gregory Peck won a well-deserved Best Actor Award (his first Oscar win and fifth Oscar nomination) for his solid performance as a courageous Alabama lawyer, Horton Foote won the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar, and the team of Art Directors/Set Decorators also received the top honor.
	“The Lion In Winter” (1968)- March 14, 2008 There's something terribly fascinating about the ruthless intrigue which takes place within a royal court. Think of the shifting allegiances in the recent Elizabeth or the diabolical conspiracies and ingenious assassinations of those ruthless Frenchmen in Queen Margot. Watching these cinematic treats is nothing short of delicious. Since revenge is a dish best served cold, it seems appropriate that the grand dame of these films takes place in the bleak midwinter of 1183, when the royal family has gathered for the Christmas holidays. The Lion in Winter deftly sets the stage. Powerful monarch Henry II, ferociously embodied by Peter O'Toole, has decided it is nigh time to decide which of his three sons will become his successor. He favors his youngest son, John (pouty Nigel Terry) whom he loves with all his heart. However, his iron-willed wife Eleanor has other plans for the eldest son, Richard the Lionhearted (young and hot tempered Anthony Hopkins). Since Eleanor is played by the magnificent, authoritative, and fiendishly clever Katharine Hepburn, the outcome will be a result of power, politics, and conflicting wills. Naturally, the allies shift and provide counterassaults. Stakes grow increasingly high as they play out their games until it no longer becomes a game at all. Screenwriter James Goldman effortlessly translates his play to film, keeping the rich and intricate dialogue without sacrificing the wonderfully intense drama. The element of royal intrigue, present and accounted for, takes a back seat to the emotional tug of war between Hepburn and O'Toole, where the issues of trust, love, and honor are at stake. Those issues become larger than their three squabbling, petty children -- and thus the film becomes more human. That's why this film is considered a classic, dwelling on the desire to thaw the human heart.
	“Network” (1976)- March 28, 2008 Network is director Sidney Lumet's brilliant criticism of the hollow, lurid wasteland of television journalism where entertainment value and short-term ratings were more crucial than quality. Paddy Chayefsky's black, prophetic, satirical commentary/criticism of corporate evil (in the tabloid-tainted television industry) is an insightful indictment of the rabid desire for ratings. Indignation toward the network executives by an unbalanced news-anchorman (Finch) ("I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore") is manipulated by ruthless VP programming boss (Dunaway) for further ratings. One of the film's posters correctly proclaimed: "Television will never be the same."The film had a total of ten Academy Award nominations with four wins. To the film's credit, five cast members were nominated for Oscars (and three won) - Best Actor (posthumously awarded to Peter Finch - Finch became the first and only post-humous winner of an acting Oscar in Academy history), Best Actress (Faye Dunaway), and Best Supporting Actress (Beatrice Straight)). The fourth win was for Chayefsky's Best Screenplay. The other six nominations were for Best Actor (William Holden), Best Cinematography (Owen Roizman), Best Director (Lumet's third directorial nomination without a win), Best Film Editing, Best Supporting Actor (Ned Beatty), and Best Picture.
	“Cabaret” (1972)- April 11, 2008 Set in a cabaret in sexually-charged, decadent, 1930s pre-war Berlin, one of the greatest musicals ever produced, adapted from the Kander-Ebb Broadway stage musical from John Van Druten's play (and movie) I Am a Camera, which, in turn, was based on Christopher Isherwood's Berlin Stories. Young, bisexual Englishman Brian Roberts (York) becomes involved with free-spirited, promiscuous Kit Kat Klub singer and American expatriate Sally Bowles (Minnelli in her first singing role on-screen). Unbeknownst to her, he also shares her with wealthy German baron playboy/homosexual Maximilian von Heune (Griem). The seedy and sleazy Kit Kat Klub is presided over by a sinister, leering, androgynous emcee/master of ceremonies (Grey). After Sally's abortion and the end of her affair, she sings: "Life is a cabaret, old chum, only a cabaret..." The show 'must go on' night after night as the monstrous Nazis come to power, anti-Jewish persecution and propaganda increases (the subplot of the love affair between Roberts' Jewish friends Fritz and Natalia) and the horror of war appears on the horizon. Academy Award Nominations: 10, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay. Academy Awards: 8, including Best Director, Best Actress--Liza Minnelli, Best Supporting Actor--Joel Grey, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Sound, Best Adapted Song Score, Best Film Editing.