3 Great Films from Paramount Pictures February 24, 2012

Better Than "Best"
3 Great Films That Didn't Win An Oscar For Best Picture
-- But Maybe Should Have

All From Paramount Pictures, To Celebrate 100 Years of that Great American Movie Studio

At The Landmark Loew’s Jersey Theatre
54 Journal Square, Jersey City, NJ 07306
Tel. (201) 798-6055 Fax: (201) 798-4020 Web: www.loewsjersey.org

A Not-For-Profit Arts Center in a Landmark Movie Palace

All Titles Screened in 35mm on our BIG 50ft Wide Screen

Friday, February 24 8PM
"Ferris Bueller’s Day Off " Starring Mathew Broderick, Allan Ruck, Mia Sara, Jeffery Jones. Directed by John Hughes 1986, 103mins., Color
Every once in a while, a movie comes along that manages to speak so clearly and directly to its generation’s collective consciousness that it becomes a cultural touchstone. In this case, it is the generation that came to age in the 1980s. Teenaged Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) is a legend in his own time thanks to his uncanny skill at cutting classes and getting away with it. Intending to make one last grand duck-out before graduation, Ferris calls in sick, "borrows" a Ferrari, and embarks on a one-day bacchanal through the streets of Chicago. Dogging Ferris' trail at every turn is high-school principal Mr. Rooney (Jeffrey Jones), determined to catch Bueller in the act of class-cutting. Admittedly, this story could have amounted to a very slight, cartoon-like or tedious film. But Broderick imbues Ferris with just the right level of smirky, confident, collar-up attitude to make this teenage fantasy seem plausible. And there are enthusiastic, just-right turns from the supporting players as well, with Jones shining particularly in the role of the over-zealous high-school principal. Even some of the smaller roles are memorable: look for great cameos from Ben Stein and Charlie Sheen. Writer/director John Hughes usually tries to blend satire, slapstick, and social commentary, sometimes with mixed results. But the admixture actually works well here, making points about status, friendship, authority, and emotional neglect that not only resonate with anyone who's found him- or herself in that void between childhood and adulthood, but which also fit neatly around the film’s overall comic flow. So beyond its 80’s cult status, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” is goofy and slapstick, but also endearingly sweet and even philosophical – a nice little modern classic that can be enjoyed by everyone.
$7 for Adults, $5 for Seniors (65+) and Children (12 & younger).

Saturday, February 25, 6PM
"Double Indemnity" Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Edward G. Robinson. Directed by Billy Wilder. 1944, 107mins. B&W
Directed by Billy Wilder and adapted from a James M. Cain novel by Wilder and Raymond Chandler, “Double Indemnity” represents the high-water mark of 1940s film noir urban crime dramas in which a greedy, weak man is seduced and trapped by a cold, evil woman amidst the dark shadows and expressionist lighting of modern cities. Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) seduces insurance agent Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) into murdering her husband to collect his accident policy. The murder goes as planned, but after the couple's passion cools, each becomes suspicious of the other's motives. The plan is further complicated when Neff's boss Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson), a brilliant insurance investigator, takes over the investigation. Told in flashbacks from Neff's perspective, the film moves with ruthless determinism as each character meets what seems to be a preordained fate. Movie veterans Stanwyck, MacMurray, and Robinson give some of their best performances, and Wilder's cynical sensibility finds a perfect match in the story's unsentimental perspective, heightened by John Seitz's hard-edged cinematography. Double Indemnity ranks with the classics of mainstream Hollywood movie-making.
$7 for Adults, $5 for Seniors (65+) and Children (12 & younger).

Saturday, February 25 8:20PM
"Psycho" Starring Anthony Perkins & Janet Leigh. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. 1960, 120 mins., B&W
The infamous shower scene is now part of our collective cultural consciousness, so it’s easy to forget just how ground-breaking Psycho was in 1960. Perhaps no American movie before had been more direct and unapologetic about violence or served it up with such disorienting abruptness and even tongue-in-cheek wit. Fleeting nudity, a casual depiction of sex outside marriage, and a focus on the psychological subtext of a murderer’s personality were also shockingly new to the screen. Janet Leigh is bored by her menial job in a real estate office and frustrated in her romance with a hardware store manager. On a whim, she takes off one afternoon with $40,000 that she was supposed to deposit into her employer’s bank account. Thirty six hours later paranoia and exhaustion have started to set in, and Leigh decides to stop for the night at the Bates Motel, where nervous but personable innkeeper Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) cheerfully mentions that she's the first guest in weeks. He then regales her with odd stories about his mother. There's hardly a film fan alive who doesn't know what happens next, but in addition to the shower scene there are dozens of memorable bits throughout this film. With “Psycho”, director Alfred Hitchcock re-wrote the rules for what a thriller could and should be. But often, a groundbreaking film will seem disappointingly ordinary and tame when viewed years later in the wake of succeeding films that try to push boundaries even further. What is truly remarkable about Psycho is that 52 years later it is still genuinely terrifying, as much or more so than anything else ever seen on the screen.
$7 for Adults, $5 for Seniors (65+) and Children (12 & younger).

- - - Combo discounts available for multiple screenings in a weekend. - - -

**Film descriptions are compiled from various sources.

The Loew's Is Easy To Get To: The Loew's Jersey Theatre, at 54 Journal Square, Jersey City, NJ, is directly across JFK Boulevard from the JSQ PATH Center with trains to and from Lower and Midtown Manhattan and Newark's Penn Station, and is minutes from the NJ Turnpike, Rts 3 and 1&9 and the Holland & Lincoln Tunnels. We're easy to reach by car or mass transit from throughout the Metro Region.

Discount off-street parking is available in Square Ramp Garage adjoining the Loew's at the foot of Magnolia Avenue off of Tonnelle Avenue, behind the Loew's. Patrons must validate their parking ticket before leaving the Theatre.

What’s Special About Seeing A Movie At The Loew’s? The Landmark Loew’s Jersey Theatre is one of America’s grandest surviving Movie Palaces. We show movies the way they were meant to be seen: in a grandly ornate setting – on our BIG 50 ft wide screen! The Loew’s runs reel-to-reel -- not platter -- projection, which often allows us to screen an archival or studio vault print that is the best available copy of a movie title.

PLUS – Live organ entrance music (from the Loew’s magnificently restored pipe organ) before most screenings.

The Loew’s Jersey is managed by Friends of the Loew’s, Inc. as a non-profit, multi-discipline performing arts enter.

Classic Film Weekends are presented by Friends of the Loew’s, Inc.

The Landmark Loew’s Jersey Theatre receives support from the City of Jersey City, Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy and the Municipal Council, and the Hudson County Open Space Trust Fund, administered by the Hudson County Division of Planning, Thomas A. DeGise, County Executive, and the Board of Chosen Freeholders.