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You will fall in love with writer Sholem Aleichem and primatologist Jane Goodall, if you haven’t already. The way you did with Bill Cunningham if you saw that movie here this past spring. They are true originals: light-hearted, deep-souled and brilliantly perceptive documenters of… well, we’re all primates, so let’s just be inclusive and say primate nature.
You might not fall in love with John Huston. Or if you do, you might be sorry. Lauren Bacall, who knew the type, described him as ”daring, unpredictable, maddening, mystifying and probably the most charming man on earth.” Trouble. Also an unsparing deconstructor of the brutality and opportunism that a hostile environment can breed. Here, as among the chimps, it’s survival of the fittest. But while Goodall’s vision of human evolution has compassion at it’s center, Huston’s survivors are shrewd, unflinching, cool. Meet Sam Spade.
A monument that captures Sholem Aleichem's style and wit, both brimming in his writing. He is also remembered in streets and schools that bear his name in Russia, Argentina, Australia and Israel. And an impact crater on the planet Mercury bears his name. For real.
SHOLEM ALEICHEM: LAUGHING IN THE DARKNESS starts 9/9. On 9/10, filmmaker Joseph Dorman joins us by Skype for an audience conversation. Dorman says of his subject: “I never get tired of talking about him. He’s an unqualified joy. It’s like a marriage where you find for the rest of your life why you fell in love in the first place. He’s great. How do you ever get tired of someone like him?… There’s a whole bookshelf of literature he created, with so much richness and depth…. He took Yiddish and transformed it into a rich literary language, in the way Shakespeare did with English.”
Aleichem’s first venture into writing was an alphabetic glossary of the epithets used by his stepmother. He went on to write the stories on which FIDDLER ON THE ROOF was based. He was often called “Yiddish Mark Twain.” Twain called himself the “American Sholem Aleichem.”
A monument that captures Sholem Aleichem’s style and wit, both brimming in his writing. He is also remembered in streets and schools that bear his name in Russia, Argentina, Australia and Israel. An impact crater on the planet Mercury also bears his name. For real.
"To be with Jane Goodall is like walking with Mahatma Ghandi." - Boston Globe
JANE’S JOURNEY opens 9/30. Jane Goodall needs no introduction. Her work in animal research and conservation is legendary. An inspiring portrait of the person behind the icon, this documentary features spectacular footage from her private collection. Here she is in a TED Talk, worth watching for her chimpanzee call alone.
“To be with Jane Goodall is like walking with Mahatma Ghandi.” – Boston Globe CAPTION
"All we've got is that maybe you love me and maybe I love you." - Sam Spade
On Monday 10/3 we’ll show THE MALTESE FALCON, John Huston’s instantly iconic directorial debut, considered by many to be the first Film Noir. Humphrey Bogart plays Sam Spade. Muscular, stylish, daring – forever a cinematic thrill. Jeffrey Meyers, author of the new Huston biography “Courage and Art,” joins us to introduce the film.
Zoe Wanamaker as Ranyevskaya in the Cherry Orchard from London's National Theatre. At the Lark 6/30 & 7/9.
Every young acting student has this conversation with a teacher at some point, on being assigned a Chekhov scene. You go off full of purpose, your little yellow Samuel French script in hand. The cover says “Uncle Vanya, A Comedy, by Anton Chekhov.” Or “The Three Sisters, A Comedy, by Anton Chekhov.” Or “The Cherry Orchard, A Comedy, by Anton Chekhov.” You read the play, read it again to see what you missed, go back and say, “Um – I don’t get how this is a comedy.” And the answer invariably comes back: “It’s the human comedy.”
Fast forward a decade or two, maybe you’ve had your heart broken, seen your ideals collide with reality, faced foreclosure – whatever. You’ve come out with a more nuanced, less grandiose idea of your place in the universe. And presto! You get it. It’s a comedy!
Chekhov was a doctor, and he treats his characters the way a good doctor treats patients – with an unsparing eye for disorders like pomposity, hypocrisy, and our tendency to waste our lives by sitting around worrying about whether we are wasting our lives. But also with tenderness and a non-judging, all-encompassing humor.
Just look at this face.
Then there’s Oscar Wilde, for a whole different (equally unsparing) take on human foolishness. This stuff is just flat-out hilarious, and no one has to tell you why. We are very happy to bring Broadway to our screen for the first time. I’m going to let the actors speak for themselves here. I’ll only say that Brian Bedford (brilliant classical actor) plays Lady Bracknell, in what is already being called a legendary performance.
Excellent and insightful New York Times review here.
Now comes the really good stuff. Warning: off-color language. The actors, in full costume and character, performing text from Jersey Shore. Don’t say I never gave you anything.
Jersey Shore Gone Wilde part 1 ~ part 2 ~ part 3 ~ part 4 ~ part 5.
And, as if all that wasn’t enough, here’s the brilliant Stephen Fry (you may know him as part of the defunct British comedy duo, Fry and Laurie – yes, Dr. House – or from a thousand other things). Click here to read his musings on Wilde and Chekhov, and for recordings of him reading Wilde’s fairy tales and Chekhov’s short stories.
Opening April 8: BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK and ECONOMICS OF HAPPINESS.
Joanna Macy describes ECONOMICS OF HAPPINESS succinctly: “This film connects the dots between climate chaos, economic meltdown, and our own personal suffering–stress, loneliness, and depression. It presents the localization movement as a systemic alternative to corporate globalization, as well as a strategy that brings community and meaning to our lives.”
If you see this film and it inspires you – or if you are already inspired – to go local and live green, don’t bother with woodsy outposts or far-flung villages. You’re better off in the West Village, NYC, where Bill Cunningham can be seen keeping excellent balance on a ricketly old bike, in spite of the shifting weight of the giant camera hanging around his neck. New York City is the greenest place to live in the United States. But Bill isn’t following fads, however enlightened. He’s not even following fashion. His mission is to chronicle personal style, and he’s been doing it for decades for his “On The Street” and “Evening Hours” columns in the New York Times.
Mr. Cunningham doesn’t accept a penny in payment from the Times: “If you don’t take their money, they can’t tell you what to do.” This is not because he is independently wealthy. He lives in a tiny space, sleeps on a cot with a milk-crate for a bedside table surrounded by files containing the negatives to his millions of pictures, having been for 60 years a resident of the artists’ studios above Carnegie Hall (in recent years the artists have been evicted). On bike or at the swankiest soirees, Cunningham moves fluidly through the social strata.
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DADDY I DO, from filmmaker Cassie Jaye, will be shown at the Lark on December 8 at 8pm.
Following is a message from the Lark Theater Board of Directors, concerning the previously planned screening of Cassie Jaye’s film DADDY I DO.
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“On behalf of the entire Board of the Lark Theater, we want to apologize publicly to filmmaker Cassie Jaye and to our community for missteps made by us in the handling of her originally planned screening.
Last night, Ms. Jaye very graciously accepted our apology to her, which we very much appreciate.
We are pleased to announce that the invitation of our Executive Director, Bernice Baeza, to Ms. Jaye to screen DADDY I DO at the Lark has been accepted. Ms. Jaye will join us at the theater to discuss her film prior to the screening.
Even with the best of intentions, volunteers who serve on non-profit boards do not always keep a clear separation between their personal views and their role as directors. We are all trying, but are also learning as we go. Board member Chris Albinson will be taking over as Acting Chairman of the Lark Theater’s Board of Directors effective immediately. The Board will be reviewing its governance structure, roles and responsibilities.
We, as a community, have worked hard to bring what was a shuttered old theater back to life through countless hours of effort and donations. The Lark was restored to create a vibrant community cultural center. It has been an extraordinary accomplishment for the community and theater staff. The Lark programming has brought us quality first run and documentary films, family films and events, Sports on Screen, Live at the Met, National Theatre Live, book readings, live music concerts and comedy nights. It provides a space for lectures, parent education programs and fundraising events delivered by other nonprofits. The Lark is an important part of our cultural community and we appreciate the community’s generous support.
Cassie Jaye made a film about an important issue to inform, provoke thought, and most importantly, make life better for people. It is important that we have conversations about these and other issues in our society at the Lark.
We hope you will join us for one of the upcoming screenings of DADDY I DO.
Sincerely,
The Board of Directors of the Lark Theater”
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Welcome to the Lark Theater’s blog. The Lark Theater is an
independent, non-profit community film and culture center located in
historic downtown Larkspur, California, and serving Marin County and
the San Francisco Bay Area with a rich roster of first-run,
independent, foreign and classic films and a wide variety of cultural
events.
You can always check our website to see what’s playing. But here,
we’ll give you a little more background information on our films and
events, and hope as well to read your comments.
