April 13, 2010

6:30 p.m.

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Ray Bradbury adapted his 1962 novel for Something Wicked This Way Comes, Director Jack Clayton's horror fantasy about a mysterious carnival that comes to a small, Norman Rockwell-esque Midwestern town. Jonathan Pryce plays the handsome but demonic proprietor of Dark's Pandemonium Carnival, who preys upon the vanities, the delusions, and the regrets of the townspeople by granting their wishes at the expense of their souls.  Jason Robards, as the meek librarian Charles Halloway, becomes his unlikely nemesis when his son Will, with his best friend Jim Nightshade, discovers the secret of Dark's nightmarish carnival.  It won the 1984 Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film and was nominated for five others including best music for James Horner and best supporting actor for Jonathan Pryce. The film was also nominated for Best Picture at the Hugo Awards. (95 min.)

May 11, 2010

6:30 p.m.

Rebecca

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock and produced by David O. Selznick, this 1940 psychological thriller was based on Daphne du Maurier's 1938 novel.  Joan Fontaine stars as a naive young woman who marries Maxim de Winter, an aristocratic widower played by Laurence Olivier.  When they return to his country home in Cornwall, England, Mrs. de Winter meets with a cold reception by the staff.  They are loyal to Maxim's first wife, Rebecca, who died under mysterious circumstances. Particularly cruel to her is the housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, who is obsessed with Rebecca and preserves her former bedroom as a shrine. The new Mrs. de Winter is nearly driven to madness as the presence of Rebecca starts to haunt her.  Rebecca won Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Cinematography. (130 min.)

William Hurt made his screen debut in this science fiction film based on Paddy Chaeffsky's book of the same name.  Hurt stars as Edward Jessup, a professor of abnormal psychology. In an attempt to understand schizophrenia, he undergoes sessions in a sensory deprivation tank, after taking hallucinogens. Not only does his mind alter, but along with it, his body, sliding through the evolutionary scale from modern man, to primitive man, to a primordial state of being.   Blair Brown plays his brilliant wife, whose devotion is just strong enough to bring him back from the most altered state imaginable.  The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Music and Best Sound. Hurt was nominated for a Golden Globe for New Star of the Year.  (102 min.)