If you've never seen a movie at the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theatre on Wilshire, you really ought to look into it. Go here for details. The movies are normally around once a week. The prints are the best available (usually newly restored, beautiful-looking things), tickets are a mere $5.00, parking is free, and the film is always accompanied by at least one very good short film as well as interviews and appearances by filmmakers involved in the evening's film. It's such a nice evening. Check it out. The current series is Monday nights at 7:00p. Upcoming films include Judgment at Nuremberg, Doctor Zhivago, The Exorcist, Barry Lyndon, Network, Bonnie and Clyde, Chinatown and Mary Poppins.
This evening I saw Jack Cardiff's Sons and Lovers (based on the D.H. Lawrence novel). It was alright: mostly an okay adaptation. Some of the filmmaking is a little silly (closeups in odd places and way-too-sentimental scoring). But the movie has some really good performances too. Dame Wendy Hiller is a bit overdone as the hero's overbearing and controlling mother, but Trevor Howard is just right and heartbreaking as the father. Dean Stockwell (very attractive in his younger days) is fine. The British actress Mary Ure gives an excellent performance as Stockwell's love interest.
It's a film i wouldn't have seen for years if not for the Academy. That's another thing about the Academy's screenings: often I am able to see films I had no other way of seeing: movies not on DVD and unavailable at Hollywood Video.
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