Monday, August 1, 2011

back to 'the apartment'



Sometimes you look around and you don't like what the world has become, and you just need to go back to 1960, an imperfect but an easier-to-comprehend year.

The Heights Theater in the suburb of Columbia Heights is a very cool, totally retro movie theater. They even have a beautifully restored organ and an organist playing it before the film starts. At the moment, the theater is showing a series of films directed by Billy Wilder, and last night the movie was The Apartment, starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley Maclaine and winner of the Best Picture Oscar for 1960. It's a movie that I've seen multiple times, but I had only seen in on TV, never in a theater, so I talked Jerry and James into going to see it with me. Surprisingly, it was a nearly-full and appreciative audience and a fun evening.

James (remember, he is 18 years old) afterwards: "Wow, that was way better than I was expecting!", and it's now his new favorite black-and-white movie.

Also, the theme music from The Apartment is memorable. Back when I was a young piano student (circa 1960!) it was an "in" piece for all piano students. I still have the somewhat raggedy sheet music for it and I play it every week.

http://www.heightstheater.com

4 comments:

D. A. Dixon said...

I adore "The Apartment" and any (well most any) Wilder films. Are they doing "The Lost Weekend"? That would be worth the price of admission alone for the speech he has with Nate the bartender.

Howard said...

Dean: It doesn't look like "The Lost Weekend" is included...

(glad to find another "Apartment" fan)...

D. A. Dixon said...

Say it isn't so...well, "The Lost Weekend" is from 1940, I think. It's probably hard to find a print. Such a shame.

And, any former Film student worth his weight will love "The Apartment". :)

D. A. Dixon said...

Oh, and it's Nat the bartender. Here's the speech I was referring to:

Birnam: "It shrinks my liver, doesn't it, Nat? It pickles my kidneys, yeah. But what it does to the mind? It tosses the sandbags overboard so the balloon can soar. Suddenly I'm above the ordinary. I'm competent. I'm walking a tightrope over Niagara Falls. I'm one of the great ones. I'm Michaelangelo, molding the beard of Moses. I'm Van Gogh painting pure sunlight. I'm Horowitz, playing the Emperor Concerto. I'm John Barrymore before movies got him by the throat. I'm Jesse James and his two brothers, all three of them. I'm W. Shakespeare. And out there it's not Third Avenue any longer, it's the Nile. Nat, it's the Nile and down it moves the barge of Cleopatra."