Hello, friends! 

The Phoenician Scheme continues this week with all of its Wes Anderson goodness as does Celine Song’s thoughtful romantic dramedy,  Materialists; Materialists ends on June 26, so catch it while you can!

We’ve also got several varied and wonderful events to fill out your cinematic week: 

Marking the final entry in this year’s Science on Screen series, E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial brings us back to 1982, when Steven Spielberg’s movie magic and knack for emotional truth made whole families weep in cinemas over the star-crossed friendship between a boy and a lost little alien who just wanted to get back home. And as a part of the Science on Screen series, we’re delighted to welcome to the Pickford Ashley Petronella, a STEM teacher at Whatcom Middle School, to give us a short, family-friendly introduction prior to the film; you can read a bit more about Ashley on the E.T. webpage here. 

Tickets are free and while they are currently all reserved, we *strongly* encourage you to add your name to our waitlist at the box office or just stop by the theater at showtime: for each of these Science on Screen events, we’ve always had extra, open seats and we’d love to fill the house! 

Join us on Saturday at 1:30 pm for this incredibly special film event. 

After a brief May hiatus, Alfred Hitchcock Presents is back this month with one of Hitchcock’s very best: Rear Window. Hailed as Hitchcock’s “first masterpiece” by noted Hitchcock scholar Robin Wood and beloved by moviegoers and other filmmakers alike (Francois Truffaut named Rear Window his favorite film, alongside Notorious), Hitchcock himself called Rear Window “the purest expression of a cinematic idea.” And it is the film, perhaps most, of all of Hitchcock’s films, that invites the audience into considering what cinema is and how it functions even while it sweeps us into the story, thrilling us with its masterfully built, nail-bitingly suspenseful narrative. 

The story follows Jeff (Jimmy Stewart), a news photographer, who’s been confined to a wheelchair after breaking a leg on a dangerous assignment, and who passes the hot, slow, sedentary summer days by watching his neighbors and fellow apartment dwellers out his window, making up stories about their lives and motivations based on what he observes. Passive watching turns to obsession, however, when Jeff believes he’s discovered a murder, and he tasks his nurse (an utterly delightful Thelma Ritter) and his girlfriend (a truly glorious Grace Kelly) to be his hands and feet in tracking down evidence. 

Like Jeff himself, the audience is confined in the film to a single, stationary POV for (almost) the entirety of the runtime: we watch everything play out exactly as Jeff does. His perspective is our perspective, and we become obsessive Peeping Toms, casting aside, with him, the dubious ethics of watching others’ private lives as we become more and more entranced with the drama. 

The film, ultimately, is an achievement of technical brilliance and of immense thematic richness, but it’s simultaneously so riveting, audiences inevitably forget the technicalities of the filmmaking and become a part of the story. In fact, when I taught the film at Whatcom Community College, I even had one student tell me that while watching the film, he’d become so immersed that when the film’s villain spots Jeff observing him, the student thought to himself, “Oh no! He saw me!”  Not, “Oh no! He saw Jeff!” but “He saw me!” And that is Hitchcock in a nutshell, mesmerizing filmmaker that he is, making his audiences forget they are watching a movie at all. 

Join us for this rare and wonderful big screen experience on Sunday at 1:00 pm! I’ll be on hand to offer a few introductory remarks.   

(Note: As our Sunday Hitchcock events have been selling out, we’ve added encores of each upcoming film, including this one. So if you miss the Sunday experience, there’s one additional chance to see Rear Window on Thursday evening, July 3.) 

Additionally, our Pride Month Drag Me to the Movies series, curated by Pickford projectionists, concludes this week with Torch Song Trilogy, written by (and starring) the great Harvey Fierstein. 

Brock Seaman, PFC projectionist, writes this of the film: "Torch Song Trilogy is one of those movies that sneaks up on you—in the best way. It’s funny, it’s emotional, it’s queer as hell, and it’s got Harvey Fierstein in full command as Arnold Beckoff, a drag queen in NYC trying to find love, deal with heartbreak, and survive his mother (played perfectly by Anne Bancroft). It’s based on Fierstein’s Tony Award-winning play (Best Play and Best Actor), and the film brings all that same heart and honesty to the screen. The film was a huge deal when it came out—one of the first stories to really center a gay character with depth, humor, and vulnerability. And it still holds up. If you’re into sharp one-liners, big feelings, and a little mascara with your emotional reckoning, this one’s for you.” 

Join us on Thursday at 11 am or 7:45 pm!   

Finally, I’ll have more to say about this one next week for its official Friday opening then, but we’ve also got a sneak preview of F1: The Movie on Thursday, June 26 at 8:10 pm. I went into this film with arms preemptively folded, having little patience for Brad Pitt’s stardom and, beyond the great 2010 documentary Senna, little interest in or knowledge of the F1 world. So color me shocked that I had a blast with F1: The Movie, and I think you will, too: it’s got a terrific score from Hans Zimmer; an absolutely stacked cast, including Javier Bardem, Damson Idris, Tobias Menzies, and the fabulous Kerry Condon; a pleasingly old-fashioned narrative that rips right along and gives us characters to chew on; and wonderfully heart pounding action scenes. Whether F1 will be as big a hit as director Joseph Kosinski’s previous film, Top Gun: Maverick, I’m not sure, but I, for one, enjoyed it more, and it is, as a friend of mine aptly noted, a “cozy summer movie throwback,” perfect for those who just want to have a good time at the movies as the weather turns to its warmest. 

See you at the movies, friends!

Melissa