Sometimes it feels as if there just isn’t anything on. You might think it a problem relegated to the world of television, where—even with hundreds of channels at our fingertips—it occasionally seems that we’ve seen it all before, including the City Council reruns. But every year around this time, there also seems to be one of those weeks in the world of film. For our young 2011, this might be that week.
While exact screentimes weren’t available at press time, one of the few major features opening this weekend is Rabbit Hole, which comes to Amherst Cinema on Friday night—the latest from iconoclastic writer/director John Cameron Mitchell, who previously brought audiences the rollicking Hedwig and the Angry Inch and the frankly sexual Shortbus. Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart star as Becca and Howie Corbett in this more mainstream story about a couple dealing with the unexpected death of their son. Each finds their own way, reaching out to unlikely sources of support before circling back to each other, and then out again as they try to find their footing in an off-balance new world.
It marks a return of sorts for Kidman (who was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance); 20 years ago, she had a breakthrough role as a grieving mother in Dead Calm. But where that film was focused on death, Rabbit Hole chooses to look more closely at life after a death, and how it goes on whether you want it to or not.
But if Rabbit Hole is one of the few notable new features, fear not. The Valley always seems to have a few special screenings up its sleeve, and this week is no exception. Or maybe it is an exception, if only because of the sheer number of special shows; even for the fertile Valley, this week is strangely rich.
Music fans will not want to miss FELA!, a three-hour live broadcast from the National Theatre in London. Screening Thursday, Jan. 13 at Amherst Cinema ($24) and Memorial Hall in Shelburne Falls ($23/general, $8/students), the Broadway-born production is a look at the life and work of Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. With Fela Kuti’s music—a groundbreaking blend of jazz, funk, and African rhythms—and Bill T. Jones’ Tony-Award-winning choreography at its heart, the show tells the story of the Nigerian musician’s growth as both artist and activist in a country oppressed by corruption.
In Northampton, the Academy of Music continues its Meet Me at the Movies tribute to the Coen Brothers with O Brother, Where Art Thou? Their 2000 tip of the hat to two great storytellers—Homer and Preston Sturges—starred George Clooney as an escaped convict in a retelling of The Odyssey, this time set in the deep South of the 1930s. A blend of mythic literature and slapstick, it proved Clooney could do comedy, and was perhaps the last of the Coens’ great comedies—so far. Doors open at 1:30 on Sunday for the 2 p.m. show.
For a taste of what inspired the Coens, we return to Shelburne, where Pothole Pictures presents Preston Sturges’ screwball classic The Palm Beach Story at 7:30 on Friday and Saturday nights. Starring Joel McCrea—who also starred in Sullivan’s Travels, the film which inspired O Brother— as a down-on-his-luck inventor and Claudette Colbert as his wife, the film features a ping-pong plot that finds her divorcing him to marry a millionaire to help finance her husband’s next big idea. It’s a reminder of why so few films today deserve the screwball title.
And finally this week, two reminders of the Valley’s commitment to greater good. First up is King: Man of Peace in a Time of War, presented as part of the (take a breath) Northampton Committee To Stop the War in Iraq’s Peace and Justice Film Series. This free screening honors the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., and features interviews with Colin Powell and Hugh Hefner as well as archival footage of Dr. King from an appearance on the Mike Douglas Show in 1967.
And on Sunday at 4 p.m., In Transition screens at First Congregational Church in Amherst as part of a winter film series devoted to community responses to our global oil crisis, climate change and economic instability.
Who says there’s nothing to watch?
Jack Brown can be reached at cinemadope@gmail.com.
