In the month of September, Huntington’s Cinema Arts Centre will be hosting a selection of special events that include two wonderful author talks with stage and screen legend Charles Busch and CNN political analyst John Avlon, a fundraising screening of ‘Whip It’ for the Long Island Roller Rebels, a screening of the sci-fi classic ‘The Planet of the Apes’, a lecture on Mel Brooks, family classics like ‘Hook’ & ‘The Sandlot’, as well as screenings of cult classics such as ‘Being John Malkovich’, ‘Heathers’, ‘The Truman Show’, ‘Fight Club’, and ‘Donnie Darko’.
Presented by the CAC Youth Advisory Board
Heathers
Friday, September 1st at 9:30 PM
$15 Public | $10 Members
Veronica Sawyer (Winona Ryder) halfheartedly tries to be part of the “in crowd” at her high school. But when the cruel games of her school’s unstoppable trio of mean queen bees—all named Heather—become too much, Veronica gets together with rebel J.D. (Christian Slater) and plots to murder them and disguise the deaths as suicides. Dark, cynical, and subversive, Heathers gently applies a chainsaw to the conventions of the high school movie — changing the game for teen comedies to follow. (USA, 1988, 103 mins, R, English | Dir. Michael Lehmann)
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Cult Café
The Truman Show
25th Anniversary Screening
Saturday, September 2nd at 9:30 PM
$15 Public | $10 Members
He’s the star of the show, but he doesn’t know. Jim Carrey wowed critics and audiences alike as unwitting Truman Burbank in this marvel of a movie from director Peter Weir (Witness, Dead Poets Society) about a man whose life is a nonstop TV show. Truman doesn’t realize that his quaint hometown is a giant studio set run by a visionary producer/director/creator (Ed Harris), that folks living and working there are Hollywood actors, that even his incessantly bubbly wife is a contract player. Gradually, Truman gets wise. And what he does about his discovery will have you laughing, crying and cheering like few film stories ever have. (USA, 1998, 103 mins, PG, English | Dir. Peter Weir)
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Cinema for Kids!
Hook
Sunday, September 3rd at 12 PM
$12 Public | $7 Members | $5 Kids
A high-flying adventure from the magic of Steven Spielberg, Hook stars Robin Williams as a grown-up Peter Pan and Dustin Hoffman as the infamous Captain Hook. Joining the fun is Julia Roberts as Tinkerbell, Bob Hoskins as the pirate Smee, and Maggie Smith as Granny Wendy Darling, who must convince the middle-aged lawyer, Peter Banning, that he was once the legendary Peter Pan. And so the adventure begins anew, with Peter off to Neverland to save his two children from Captain Hook. Along the way, he rediscovers the power of imagination, of friendship, and of magic. A classic tale updated for children of all ages, Hook was nominated for five 1991 Academy Awards including best visual effects. (1991, USA, 142 mins, PG, English | Dir. Steven Spielberg)
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Movie Trivia Night
Monday, September 4th at 8:00 PM
$10 Public | $7 Members
50 questions based all around film, actors and actresses, awards, and everything else associated with the world of film. Challenge like-minded film fans in a battle of wits for cash and other prizes. You can form teams, so bring some friends and work together. Feel free to come alone and play solo as well!
1st Prize – $100 cash to the winning team!
2nd Prize – Up to 4 CAC gift cards! (a value of $24 each)
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French Cinema
Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt
Tuesday, September 5th at 7:30 PM
$15 Public | $10 Members
Jean-Luc Godard’s subversive foray into commercial filmmaking is a star-studded Cinemascope epic. Contempt (Le Mépris) stars Michel Piccoli as a screenwriter torn between the demands of a proud European director (played by legendary director Fritz Lang), a crude and arrogant American producer (Jack Palance), and his disillusioned wife, Camille (Brigitte Bardot), as he attempts to doctor the script for a new film version of The Odyssey. Contempt is a brilliant study of marital breakdown, artistic compromise, and the cinematic process. (France & Italy, 1963, 102 mins, French, English, German, Italian | Dir. Jean-Luc Godard)
CAC 50th Anniversary Favorites
Life Is Beautiful
Wednesday, September 6th at 7:30 PM
$15 Public | $10 Members
Winner of the Grand Prix at the 1998 Cannes, as well as three Academy Awards, Life if Beautiful is a film about love and the indomitable human spirit as seen through the lens of the Holocaust. Guido is a charming Jewish waiter whose colorful imagination helps him to woo a beautiful schoolteacher. They soon start a family, but their idyllic world is threatened when Nazi soldiers force them into a concentration camp. Guido must now use his imagination again to save his family from an unthinkable fate. (Italy, 1997, 116 mins, Italian, German, English | Dir. Roberto Benigni)
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Film Noir Classics
Out of The Past
Thursday, September 7th at 7:30 PM
Hosted by Professor Foster Hirsch
$17 Public | $12 Members
In this definitive film noir, classic tough guys Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas square off in a complicated game of intrigue & duplicity. Jeff Markham (Mitchum) is an ex-private detective who gets pulled back into the racket by some old criminal associates and ends up pitted against big time crook Whit Sterling (Douglas). Hired to find Whit’s ex-girlfriend, femme fatale Kathie (Jane Greer), Markham soon finds himself enmeshed in a complex web of love, money and murder. (USA, 1947, 97 mins, English | Dir. Jacques Tourneur)
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Night Owl Cinema
Fight Club
Friday, September 8 at 9:30 PM
$15 Public | $10 Members
Unsatisfied with his work, his home and his life, an insomniac (Edward Norton) struggles to find meaning in his mundane existence. But a fateful encounter with the mysterious and anarchic Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) changes things, with the pair finding an escape through bare-knuckle brawls in an underground alliance of men known as Fight Club. Suddenly, the club he leads is growing – but can he maintain control? What is Tyler’s real agenda? And what does a woman named Marla Singer (Helena Bonham-Carter) have to do with it? A nameless yuppie insomniac (Edward Norton) and a glamorous soap salesman (Brad Pitt) process late 1990s angst through bare-knuckled therapy in David Fincher’s ultra-sleek adaptation of the novel by diesel-mechanic-turned-writer Chuck Palahniuk disappointed at the box office upon its release, when it was met with mixed reviews—labeling it everything from “cheerfully fascist” to “one sustained psychosexual ejaculation”—but it soon found a cult following. Nihilistic, uncompromising, downright hypocritical, and one of the most influential Hollywood films of the 1990s, Fight Club achieved the remarkably straight-faced feat of denouncing rampant consumerism through its use of celebrity actors and state-of-the-art style. (USA, 1999, 139 mins, R, English | Dir. David Fincher)
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Whip It
35mm Screening!
Fundraiser for the Long Island Roller Rebels!
Saturday, September 9th at 7 PM
$20 Public | $15 Members
Join the Long Island Roller Rebels for a special screening of Drew Barrymore‘s directorial debut, the 2009 roller derby cult classic, Whip It. Telling the story of a rebellious small-town Texas girl who comes of age in the bone-jarring world of women’s roller derby. Elliot Page (Juno) electrifies as the undersized, underaged teen who finds herself as ‘Babe Ruthless’–a pugnacious pixie on skates who discovers that her place in the world happens to be a roller rink. (USA, 2009, 111 mins, PG-13, English | Dir. Drew Barrymore)
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Sunday Schmooze
Populaire
Sunday, September 10th Bagels at 10 AM Film at 11AM
$20 Public | $15 Members
This candy-color romantic-comedy set in rural France in 1958, follows 21-year-old Rose. She is engaged to the son of the local mechanic, and seems destined for the drudgery-filled life of a housewife. But that’s not the life Rose longs for. When she travels to Lisieux in Normandy, where charismatic insurance agency boss Louis Echard is advertising for a secretary, she reveals a special gift: she can type at extraordinary speed. Her skill inspires Louis to coach her for a national speed-typing competition. (France, 2012, 111 mins, French, English, German | Dir. Régis Roinsard)
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Cinema for Kids
The Sandlot
Sunday, September 10th at 12 PM
$12 Public | $7 Members | $5 Kids
It’s the early 1960s and fifth-grader Scotty Smalls has just moved into town with his folks. Kids call him a dork–he can’t even throw a baseball. But that changes when the leader of the neighborhood gang recruits him to play on the nearby sandlot field. It’s the beginning of a magical summer of baseball, wild adventures, first kisses, and fearsome confrontations with the dreaded Beast and its owner who live behind the left field fence in this hilarious and warmhearted comedy. (1993, USA, 101 mins, PG, English | Dir. David Mickey Evans)
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Have You Got It Yet? The Story of Syd Barrett And Pink Floyd
Monday, September 11th at 7:30 PM
& Monday, September 25th at 7:30 PM
$15 Public | $10 Members
Cult icon, enigma, recluse… the life of Syd Barrett, founding member of Pink Floyd, is full of unanswered questions. Until now. Piecing together his comet-like rise to pop stardom, his creative and destructive impulses, breakdown, exit from the band and subsequent life alone, this feature length documentary is set against the social context of the explosive sixties. Directed by Storm Thorgerson (Hipgnosis) and award-winning director Roddy Bogawa, it features new interviews with Syd’s friends, lovers, family and band mates Roger Waters, David Gilmour, and Nick Mason. (UK, 94 mins, English | Dir. Roddy Bogawa & Storm Thorgerson)
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Comic Gems
City Lights
Wednesday, September 13th at 7 PM
Introduction by Glenn Andreiev
$15 Public | $10 Members
City Lights, the most cherished film by Charlie Chaplin, is also his ultimate Little Tramp chronicle. Reaching new heights in both physical comedy and dramatic poignancy, with this tale of a lovable vagrant falling for a blind woman who sells flowers on the street (a magical Virginia Cherrill). Though made after the advent of sound, Chaplin remained steadfast in his love for the expressive beauty of the pre-talkie form. The result was the epitome of his art and the crowning achievement of silent comedy. (USA, 1931, 86 mins, Silent with English intertitles | Dir. Charlie Chaplin)
This Just In! The love-hate relationship between Hollywood and the News Media
His Girl Friday
Hosted by Wallace Matthews former columnist for Newsday, the New York Post and ESPN
Thursday, September 14th at 7:30 PM
$15 Public | $10 Members
One of the fastest, funniest, and most quotable films ever, His Girl Friday stars Rosalind Russell as reporter Hildy Johnson – who is matched only by her conniving but charismatic editor and ex-husband, Walter (Cary Grant), who attempts to use every tick in the book to keep her from remarrying. When adapting Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s play The Front Page, Howard Hawks had the idea of turning reporter Hildy into a woman, and the result is an immortal mix of hard-boiled newsroom setting with ebullient remarriage comedy. (USA, 1940, 92 mins, English | Dir. Howard Hawks)
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Night Owl Cinema
The Crow
Friday, September 15th at 9:30 PM
$15 Public | $10 Members
Adapted from the underground comic series by James O’Barr, The Crow stars Brandon Lee as Eric Draven, a young musician who, along with his fiancé, is murdered on the eve of their Halloween wedding. Exactly one year after their deaths, Eric is risen from the grave by a mysterious crow to seek out his killers and force them to answer for their crimes. This cult masterpiece stands among the greatest comic book superhero films of all time, though it has been long overshadowed by the tragedy that befell lead, Brandon Lee, who died after an accident on set. (USA, 1994, 101 mins, R, English | Dir. Alex Proyas)
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Cult Cafe
Step Brothers
Saturday, September 16th at 9:30 PM
$15 Public | $10 Members
Brennan Huff (Will Ferrell), a sporadically employed thirty-nine-year-old who lives with his mother, Nancy (Mary Steenburgen). Dale Doback (John C. Reilly), a terminally unemployed forty-year-old who lives with his father, Robert (Richard Jenkins). When Robert and Nancy marry and move in together, Brennan and Dale are forced to live with each other as step brothers. As their narcissism and downright aggressive laziness threaten to tear the family apart, these two middle-aged, immature, overgrown boys will orchestrate an insane, elaborate plan to bring their parents back together. To pull it off, they must form an unlikely bond that maybe, just maybe, will finally get them out of the house. (USA, 2008, 98 mins. R, English | Dir. Adam McKay)
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Cinema for Kids
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
Sunday, September 17th at 12 PM
$12 Public | $7 Members | $5 Kids
Everyone’s favorite swashbuckling feline returns for a new adventure in the Shrek universe as Puss in Boots goes on a grand quest to find a magical Wishing Star. The long-awaited follow-up to the 2011 Academy Award nominated blockbuster, The Last Wish stars Oscar nominee Antonio Banderas returns as the voice of the notorious Puss in Boots as he embarks on an epic journey into the Black Forest to find the mythical Wishing Star and restore his lost lives. But with only one life left, Puss will have to humble himself and ask for help from his former partner and nemesis: the captivating Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek). (2022, USA, 102 mins, PG, English | Dir. Joel Crawford)
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Long Island LitFest presents
CNN’s John Avlon In-Person
Moderated by Margaret Hoover, PBS
Sunday, September 17th at 2 PM
Includes a copy of Lincoln and the Fight for Peace, audience Q&A and book signing
$40 Public | $35 Member
Join us for a very special in-person talk with CNN news anchor and award-winning columnist John Avlon, as he discusses his latest book, Lincoln and the Fight for Peace with his wife, Margaret Hoover, the host of PBS’ “Firing Line with Margaret Hoover,” a public affairs, multi-platform program.
Lincoln and the Fight for Peace is a groundbreaking, revelatory history of Abraham Lincoln’s plan to secure a just and lasting peace after the Civil War—a vision that inspired future presidents as well as the world’s most famous peacemakers, including Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr. It is a story of war and peace, race and reconciliation.
John Avlon is a senior political analyst and anchor at CNN. He is an award-winning columnist and also the author of Independent Nation, Wingnuts, Washington’s Farewell. Previously, he was the editor-in-chief and managing director of The Daily Beast and served as chief speechwriter for the Mayor of New York during the attacks of 9/11. He lives with his wife Margaret Hoover and their two children in New York.
Our moderator, Margaret Hoover, host of PBS’ “Firing Line with Margaret Hoover,” is also a CNN contributor. Ms. Hoover has served in The White House under President George W. Bush, in the Department of Homeland Security, on Capitol Hill and on two presidential campaigns. She is the President of American Unity Fund, a political organization focused on achieving full freedom and equality for LGBT Americans. A bestselling author, her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Daily News, The Daily Beast, CNN.com and others.
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Sky Room Talk
The Seriously Funny Cinema of Mel Brooks
Hosted by Film Historian Glenn Andreiev
Monday, September 18th at 7:30 PM
$17 Public | $12 Members
Mel Brooks is easily our greatest master of satire. Since the 1950s this Brooklyn born funnyman had us laugh out-loud at the entertainment we love (without trashing what we love) and gave us the bravery to laugh at the tyrants we hate. Film Historian Glenn Andreiev presents a one-night talk on the great Mel – with laugh-filled clips of his work in television and film. “Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die.” – Mel Brooks
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Best of the Big Screen
Planet of The Apes
Tuesday, September 19th at 7 PM
Introduction by film historian Philip Harwood
$15 Public | $10 Members
Charlton Heston and Roddy McDowall star in this legendary science fiction masterpiece. Astronaut Taylor (Heston) crash lands on a planet ruled by highly intelligent apes who use a primitive race of humans for experimentation and sport. Soon Taylor finds himself among the hunted, with his life in the hands of a benevolent chimpanzee scientist (McDowall). This action-packed time-travel adventure was loosely-adapted from Pierre Boule’s 1963 science-fiction novel La Planète Des Singes (Monkey Planet), with a script developed by The Twilight Zone‘s Rod Serling and Michael Wilson. (USA, 1968, 112 mins, English | Dir. Franklin J. Schaffner)
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Cinema Arts Centre Preview Club – Fall Season 2023
Dates: September 21st | October 5th | October 26th
November 9th | November 30th | December 14th
Start Time is 7:00 PM
Full Fall Season Pass: $108 Public | $90 Members
As a member of the Cinema Arts Preview Club, you will attend special advance screenings of major new films prior to their New York release. The club features outstanding films from the festival circuit, always accompanied by discussions with guest speakers. Club members are invited to participate in the discussion. Films and guest speakers are a surprise until the night of the screening; you will be introduced to a wide range of high quality, discussion-provoking movies. The club is also a great social experience. Come early and schmooze. Members will fill out comment cards at each film, and the results and choice opinions will be read at the next film. The Cinema Arts Preview Club promises many unforgettable evenings this season and for years to come.
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In Person! The Legendary Charles Busch
Winner of The Sundance Best Performance Award For Die Mommie Die With His New Book Leading Lady: A Memoir Of A Most Unusual Boy
Friday, September 22nd, 7:30 PM
Featuring a screening of Die Mommie Die, interview, audience Q&A, and book signing reception with live music
Film & Discussion Only: $28 Public | $23 Members
Film, Discussion, & Copy of the Book: $43 Public | $38 Members
As his many fans know, Charles Busch is an award-winning actor, prolific Tony-nominated playwright, and groundbreaking theatrical drag legend, with a unique and hilariously satiric affinity to the stars and plots of Hollywood’s Golden Age. He wrote and starred in the play and film, Die Mommie Die, for which he won the Sundance Best Performance Award. His The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife played 777 performances on Broadway, garnishing an Outer Circle Critic’s award, a Tony nomination for Best Play, and is the longest running Broadway comedy of the past twenty-five years. Also record-breaking was his early, outrageous Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, one of the longest running plays in the history of Off-Broadway. He starred in the stage and film version of cult-favorite Psycho Beach Party, while other critically-acclaimed plays include The Divine Sister, The Lady in Question, and The Confession of Lily Dare. For two seasons he appeared as Nat Ginzburg in the HBO hit series OZ. He has also appeared as a guest programmer and in numerous documentaries for Turner Classic Movies, and has conducted master classes at NYU, Harvard, UCLA and Amherst College.
Following the film screening and discussion, Charles Busch will be signing copies of his lauded new memoir, Leading Lady: A Memoir of a Most Unusual Boy – offered at half-price by special arrangement with the publisher! The reception will feature a live piano & vocals performance by Lydia Sabosto. Charles Busch will be interviewed by Dr. Jud Newborn, CAC Curator of Celebrity Events.
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Night Owl Cinema
Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart In The Land Of Demons
Friday, September 22nd at 9:30 PM
$15 Public | $10 Members
Balancing physical action with Buddhist musings on life and death, the most spiritual of the Lone Wolf and Cub films finds Ogami’s combat skills put to the test by five different warrior-messengers. The fifth installment in the legendary chanbara series, sees Ogami face off against the five warriors, who each hold 1/5th of his assassin fee and 1/5 of the information he needs to complete his mission is to kill a mad Daimyo before he destroys his clan. (Japan, 1973, 89 mins, NR, Japanese with English Subtitles | Dir. Kenji Misumi)
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Cult Café
Donnie Darko
Saturday, September 23rd at 9:30 PM
$15 Public | $10 Members
Richard Kelly’s horror-tinged drama about a troubled suburban kid (Jake Gyllenhaal in the role that put him on the map) plagued by apocalyptic visions supplied by a potentially imaginary friend is one of the true movie cult classics of the 21st century. Initially ignored, the film grew into a beloved film of teen alienation and human interconnectedness, a work of generational angst directed with remarkable fluidity and classical storytelling panache. With Jake Gyllenhaal, Holmes Osborne, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Daveigh Chase, Mary McDonnell, James Duval. (USA, 2001, 134 mins, R, English | Dir. Richard Kelly)
Cinema for Kids
Shrek 2
Sunday, September 24th at 12 PM
$12 Public | $7 Members | $5 Kids
Happily ever after never seemed so far far away when a trip to meet the in-laws turns into a hilariously twisted adventure for Shrek (Mike Myers) and Fiona (Cameron Diaz). With the help of his faithful Donkey (Eddie Murphy), Shrek takes on a potion-brewing Fairy Godmother, the pompous Prince Charming (Rupert Everett), and the ogre-killer, Puss In Boots (Antonio Banderas) who’s a pussycat at heart. (2004, USA, 93 mins, PG, English | Dir. Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury & Conrad Vernon)
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Anything But Silent
The Scarlet Letter
35mm Screening
With live accompaniment by Ben Model
Tuesday, September 26th at 7:30 PM
$17 Public | $12 Members
Adapted from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1850 novel, Victor Sjöström’s The Scarlet Letter stars silent film superstar Lillian Gish as Hester Prynne, a young Puritan woman in a loveless marriage to a much older man. During her husband’s long absence, she walks the woodland lanes with her pastor, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, and they soon fall in love. But when a child is born from their affair, she is condemned to wear the brand of Adulteress, suffering abuse and humiliation at the hands of her neighbors. (USA, 1926, 98 mins, Silent with English Intertitles | Dir. Victor Sjöström)
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Night Owl Cinema
Being John Malkovich
Friday, September 29th at 9:30 PM
$15 Public | $10 Members
Have you ever wanted to be someone else? Or, more specifically, have you ever wanted to crawl through a portal hidden in an anonymous office building and thereby enter the cerebral cortex of John Malkovich for fifteen minutes, before being spat out on the side of the New Jersey Turnpike? Director Spike Jonze and writer Charlie Kaufman’s surrealist cult-comedy follows Craig Schwartz (John Cusack) a struggling street puppeteer who accidentally discovers a door into the mind of John Malkovich. With his beautiful office mate Maxine (Catherine Keener) and his pet-obsessed wife (Cameron Diaz), they hatch a plan to let others into John’s brain for just $200 a trip. (USA, 1999, 112 mins, R, English | Dir. Spike Jonze)
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Cult Café
Maîtresse
Saturday, September 30th at 9:30 PM
$15 Public | $10 Members
A young provincial in search of adventure stumbles into the subterranean world of sadomasochism when he is implicated in a burglary of a Paris apartment. The apartment’s mistress runs a two-floor operation, all respectability above and a dungeon of punishment-seeking clients below. After the young man becomes her upstairs lover, she finds that the two levels of her carefully controlled existence begin to interfere with each other. Barbet Schroeder’s Maîtresse examines the line between fantasy and reality, decadence and deprivation, and the distance one will go for love. (France, 1976, 112 mins, NR, French | Dir. Barbet Schroeder)
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