There was a time not so long ago when writing a film column meant writing a column about movies. You might have your comedies and dramas, your documentaries and science fiction, but at the end of the day they were all movies. Nearly all drew from the same essential stylistic well, established mostly by a few directorial icons with a helping hand from our own collective subconscious. To paraphrase Potter Stewart’s famous ruling—itself about a film—we knew them when we saw them.
That’s not exactly the case anymore, as illustrated by three screenings taking place throughout the Valley this week. All three concern themselves with music, but despite being projected onto the usual silver screens at traditional cinemas, only one could be properly called a movie in the old sense.
That film is Swing, director Tony Gatlif’s (Latcho Drom) 2002 work about a young boy entranced by the virtuoso sounds of “jazz manouche,” the hard-driving guitar music that blends gypsy musical traditions with American jazz standards. Following his ears, young Max begins taking lessons from local Gypsy Miraldo (Tchavolo Schmitt, one of the music’s living icons). Soon after, his developing affection for a local girl named Swing leaves him torn between his new interests. Presented on June 17 at 7 p.m. by Amherst Cinema as a lead-up to the Django in June festival weekend concerts June 18 and 19 (full disclosure: my own band also performs at another point in the festival schedule), the event will be preceded by a live concert from French Gypsy jazz guitarist Aurelien Bouly.
On the following Wednesday in Shelburne Falls (also at Cinemark in Hadley), the tradition is expanded a bit with the Metropolitan Opera’s Encore series. The 6:30 p.m. show features Charles Gounod’s Romeo and Juliette in a libidinous take on Shakespeare’s most famous story. With the supernova soprano Anna Netrebko in the starring role and opera legend Pl?cido Domingo conducting, it promises to be a memorable evening.
It’s a similar show the night before, though, that really shows how our theater experience has changed with new technologies. That’s when local headbangers can congregate at Cinemark for the 7:30 screening of The Big Four: Anthrax, Megadeth, Metallica, Slayer, a four-hour concert event—you thought the opera was long—featuring some of the biggest names in metal. Playing together for the first time, the bands are part of a festival taking place in Bulgaria; the performances (along with behind the scenes footage and interviews) are being simulcast to movie theaters all over the country.
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Also this week: For those seeking a more traditional movie experience, Shelburne’s Memorial Hall will host local novelist Elinor Lipman for a screening and discussion of Then She Found Me, the 2007 film adapted from her hit book. Helen Hunt directs and stars as April Epner, a schoolteacher navigating some rocky midlife terrain. For more information, call (413) 625-2896.
Jack Brown can be reached at cinemadope@gmail.com.
