TulsaPeople / July 2010 / Get the Picture

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Get the Picture

Egyptian-themed movies and movie-going essentials

Friday nights at Philbrook
As you’ve probably heard by now, there’s a fantastic exhibit on view (through Sept. 12) at the Philbrook Museum of Art called “To Live Forever:
Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum” — definitely one of the not-to-be-missed happenings in T-Town this summer.

Ancient Egypt, therefore, is the “theme” of this year’s Summer Film Series at Philbrook, which occurs on Friday nights throughout this month in the museum’s Lower Garden. (The gate opens at 7:30 p.m.; the films begin at dusk. There’s a small fee for members and non-members alike. If it rains, they show the films indoors.)

So, if you plan to check it out, be sure to bring along some friends, lawn chairs, picnic baskets and/or bug spray. No prior knowledge of hieroglyphics necessary (although it probably wouldn’t hurt).

Here’s the schedule:

7/2 “The Mummy” A special-effects-driven blockbuster from 1999 with Brendan Fraser, and actually a remake of the likewise-titled 1930s film with Boris Karloff. Big-time adventure.
7/9 “Cleopatra” The 1934 classic, long on glamour and artistry, from director Cecil B. DeMille, with Claudette Colbert in the title role. It won the Oscar for Best Cinematography.
7/16 “Stargate” Kurt Russell and James Spader star in this 1994 sci-fi thriller, which assigns an extra-terrestrial scope and purpose to Egypt’s pyramids. Nerdsville. And terrific.
7/23 “The Mummy” As noted above, this is the 1932 original; Karloff is the wrapped-up monster in question. It’ll be preceded by The Three Stooges’ “We Want Our Mummy” (1939).
7/30 “The Prince of Egypt” This one is for Philbrook members only; no admission fee. It’s a 1998 animated film featuring the voices of Val Kilmer, Ralph Fiennes and Michelle Pfeiffer.

Both a movie lineup and a gold mine

Back in May, the folks at the Circle Cinema — bless ’em — began a great series of movie screenings called Essential Arthouse. It’s a run of some 15 different classic films — a checklist, really, for movie-lovers Established as well as Neophyte — that’s being presented over the next several months, with all of the films appearing onscreen for the first time in high definition.

These screenings (at the Circle Cinema, 10 S. Lewis Ave.) happen at 7:30 p.m. on the third Monday of each month. Below, I offer the all-killer-no-filler rundown for the remainder of the series. (Additional showtimes for each film will be announced as scheduled, and many of the films will feature introductory remarks by guest speakers. Click here for more information.)

The gang’s all here, as it were: Kurosawa, Fellini, Bergman, et al. These are movies that go for exposition over explosions, character over car chases. Movies with not just a plot and a point of view but also (gasp!) a message.

If movies matter to you in any personal or lasting or meaningful way; if movies sometimes stay with you, for whatever reason(s) — see as many of these as you can.

7/19 “Summertime” (1955) 

Directed by David Lean
8/16 “Black Orpheus” (1959) 


Directed by Marcel Camus
9/20 “Seven Samurai” (1954) 


Directed by Akira Kurosawa
10/18 “High and Low” (1963) 


Directed by Akira Kurosawa
11/15 “Rashomon” (1950) 


Directed by Akira Kurosawa
12/20 “Pygmalion” (1938) 


Directed by Anthony Asquith and Leslie Howard

2011

1/17 “La Strada” (1954) 


Directed by Federico Fellini
2/21 “The Seventh Seal” (1957)
Directed by Ingmar Bergman
3/21 “Wild Strawberries” (1957)
Directed by Ingmar Bergman
4/18 The 400 Blows (1959)
Directed by François Truffaut
5/16 “The Spirit of the Beehive” (1973)
 Directed by Víctor Erice
6/20 “Frankenstein” (1931)
 Directed by James Whale
7/18 “The Invisible Man” (1933) Directed by James Whale

Postgame: 24-Hour Video Race

In last February’s installment of this column, I previewed a then-forthcoming event, hosted annually (for the last five years) by Living Arts of Tulsa, called the 24-Hour Video Race. Among the 43 five-minute films that were written, shot, edited and successfully submitted per the rules of this race, winners were selected (at a public screening/evaluation Feb. 18) in the following categories: Student (18 and younger), College, Videophile (19 and older, non-student), Experimental and Animation. Judges’ Choice and Viewers’ Choice awards also were given.

I’m glad to announce that a DVD containing all the winning films from the 2010 24-Hour Video Race is being made accessible to the public in the Media Center of the Tulsa City-County Library’s Central Branch. My friend Myles Jaeschke, a media librarian with the TCCL — who also served as one of the judges at this year’s video race — tells me that this DVD will soon be placed “in the stacks” (that is, in circulation and available for checkout).

Scott Gregory hosts “All This Jazz” on Public Radio 89.5 KWGS, where he’s also the producer and editor of “Studio Tulsa.”