“I sincerely believe that to see good films, and to see important films, is one of the most profoundly civilizing experiences that we can have as people.” -- Roger Ebert
The 2024 Cinema Tuesdays series will open on May 28 at the Santikos Northwest theater. Showtimes will be 7:30 each night. Watch this space for title announcements! Reservations for individual shows will be available in early May.
The 2024 Cinema Tuesdays series is made possible by Americus Diamond, Stevens Lighting, Wild Birds Unlimited Nature Shop, the City of San Antonio Department of Arts & Culture, and Pasha Mediterranean Grill.
The 2024 Schedule
May 28 – Lone Star
Shot on location in Eagle Pass and near Del Rio, John Sayles’s classic “Lone Star” is one of the essential Texas films. Chris Cooper stars as Sam, sheriff of a small border town, investigating the long-ago death of former sheriff Charlie Wade (played in flashback with calculating cruelty by Kris Kristofferson). Prescient when it was released in 1996, “Lone Star” depicts a more complicated version of life along the border and does something that the best films can do—it places us in someone else’s shoes, and it illustrates that when it comes to our own interconnectedness and family ties, there are ultimately no borders. 135 minutes, Rated R.
June 4 – The Godfather Part II
Expanding on the narrative of the 1972 classic, “The Godfather Part II” builds on the original “Godfather” story with its parallel storylines of young Vito Corleone’s beginnings in America, and his son Michael’s expansion of the Corleone family business—which we all know is hardly related to olive oil importing! Is “The Godfather Part II” a better film than the original “Godfather?” It’s certainly a tougher movie, following its protagonist through personal and moral tragedies as he pursues a unique interpretation of the American Dream. “The Godfather Part II” was the first sequel to win an Oscar for Best Picture; it won five other Academy Awards, including one for Robert De Niro as Best Supporting Actor. 202 minutes, Rated R.
June 11 – Horse Feathers
Having satirized gangster movies in “Monkey Business,” the four Marx Brothers loosed their lunatic antics onto college life in “Horse Feathers” in 1932. The plot (such as it is) finds Huxley College head, Prof. Wagstaff (Groucho Marx) trying to recruit professional players onto his college’s football team in an attempt to beat their rival, Darwin. The movie involves plenty of one-liners, gags, zany pratfalls, double-entendre, puns, and one of the more momentous football games ever captured on film! 68 minutes, Not Rated. BONUS! Before the main feature, we’ll enjoy a short one-reel picture, “Symphony in Black,” starring Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday.
June 18 – Bonnie and Clyde
Modern American cinema starts with “Bonnie and Clyde.” Director Arthur Penn drew upon the language of the French New Wave, and combined it with a violent realism and gallows humor that had never been seen in a Hollywood picture before. Trailers from 1967 headlined, “They’re young… they’re in love… THEY KILL PEOPLE.” Bonnie (Faye Dunaway) and Clyde (Warren Beatty) are indeed a handsome couple, and audiences can’t help falling and rooting for them as they robbed banks in 1930s Texas. But jollity turns on a dime to deathly serious once the bullets start flying. As Bonnie reads a poignant poem about their exploits, it’s clear how this one will end. 111 minutes, Rated R.
June 25 – Zoot Suit
A landmark of Chicano filmmaking, Luis Valdez’s “Zoot Suit” is a filmed adaption of his groundbreaking stage musical, a fictionalized version of a famous murder trial in 1940s California set against the Zoot Suit Riots in 1943 Los Angeles. Edward James Olmos commands the screen as “El Pachuco,” narrator of the story and a sort of Greek chorus, or conscience, to murder defendant Henry Reyes (Daniel Valdez). In adapting his stage play for the screen, Valdez occasionally opens up the action onto a wider canvas than the stage, but also never drops the artifice, so that we’re aware that everything exists in that dream-like theatrical state. It’s a fascinating movie! 103 minutes, Rated R.
July 2 – Superman
“You’ll believe a man can fly,” was the tagline for 1978’s “Superman: The Movie,” and it’s as much a testament to Christopher Reeve’s performance in this film as it is the Oscar-winning special effects that you leave the theater believing every word. Margot Kidder, Gene Hackman, and Marlon Brando also star in the superhero movie that started it all. As a special treat at this screening, we’ll welcome Ryan Steans (Blogger, The Signal Watch), an expert on all things Super, to guide us through the film and its place in Superman history with a special introduction and post-show conversation. 143 minutes, Rated PG.
July 9 – Oscar Shorts
This year’s Oscar Shorts program takes a break from the animated and live action shorts to present all five of the Oscar-nominated documentary shorts, many of which are joyously uplifting stories, like “Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó,” “The Barber of Little Rock,” and the winning short film, “The Last Repair Shop,” about a small instrument repair shop in Los Angeles and the students that benefit from their work, at no cost. 141 minutes, Not Rated.
July 15 – Pandora’s Box
One of the masters of early German cinema, G. W. Pabst had an innate talent for discovering actresses (including Greta Garbo). And perhaps none of his female stars shone brighter than Kansas native and onetime Ziegfeld girl Louise Brooks, whose legendary persona was defined by Pabst's lurid, controversial melodrama Pandora's Box. Sensationally modern, the film follows the downward spiral of the fiery, brash, yet innocent showgirl Lulu, whose sexual vivacity has a devastating effect on everyone she comes in contact with. Daring and stylish, Pandora's Box is one of silent cinema's great masterworks and a testament to Brooks's dazzling individuality. 141 minutes, Not Rated.
July 23 – Xanadu
“The concept was marvelous, but it just didn’t come off.” So spoke Gene Kelly in his only words on “Xanadu,” the 1980 movie musical that dared to combine old-school hoofing with roller disco and the sounds of Electric Light Orchestra. The movie, starring Kelly, Olivia Newton-John, and Michael Beck, inspired not only the inaugural Golden Raspberry Awards, but later a Broadway musical that was nominated for four Tony Awards. Fueled by nostalgia and a banging soundtrack, “Xanadu” has evolved into a cult classic. 96 minutes, Rated PG.
July 30 – Victims of Sin
Rarely screened in the United States and long due for rediscovery, Victims of Sin is famed Mexican director Emilio Fernández’s unique blend of film noir, melodrama, and musical. Acting- dancing sensation Ninón Sevilla plays Violeta, a cabaret performer who adopts the abandoned child of Rosa (Margarita Ceballos) and Rodolfo (Rodolfo Acosta), Violeta’s murderous pimp. Motherhood forces Violeta to give up her career, but the kindhearted club owner Santiago (Tito Junco) saves her from a life of poverty and prostitution—until Rodolfo, freed from prison, seeks to reclaim his son. Best known for the award-winning María Candelaria (1944) and The Pearl (1947), Fernández infuses Victims with impassioned songs and performances by Sevilla, an icon of Mexican cinema and a purveyor of African, Caribbean, and Cuban dance styles. 84 minutes, Not Rated.
August 6 – What’s Up, Doc?
Inspired by the screwball comedies of the 1930s, director Peter Bogdanovich followed up his Oscar-winning “The Last Picture Show” with this outrageous farce starring Ryan O’Neal as a nebbish professor of musical theory who gets mixed up with the charming Judy Maxwell (Barbra Streisand). The plot also involves four identical handbags, government agents, wealthy socialites, and one heck of a car chase through the streets of San Francisco. Don’t try too hard to sort it all out. Just enjoy the chemistry and the hilarious gags that come fast and furious! 94 minutes, Rated G.
August 13 – Mandabi
This second feature by Ousmane Sembène was the first movie ever made in the Wolof language—a major step toward the realization of the trailblazing Senegalese filmmaker’s dream of creating a cinema by, about, and for Africans. After jobless Ibrahima Dieng receives a money order for 25,000 francs from a nephew who works in Paris, news of his windfall quickly spreads among his neighbors, who flock to him for loans even as he finds his attempts to cash the order stymied in a maze of bureaucracy, and new troubles rain down on his head. One of Sembène’s most coruscatingly funny and indignant films, Mandabi—an adaptation of a novella by the director himself—is a bitterly ironic depiction of a society scarred by colonialism and plagued by corruption, greed, and poverty. 91 minutes, Not Rated.
August 20 – The Tales of Hoffmann
Enjoy this newly restored version of the 1951 Powell and Pressburger classic film “The Tales of Hoffmann,” based on the 1881 opera by Jacques Offenbach. An anthology of fantastic and romantic adventures, recounted by the fableist Hoffmann (Robert Rounseville) and featuring Moira Shearer (The Red Shoes), Ludmilla Tchérina, and Ann Ayars. The film has been singled out by both Martin Scorsese and George A. Romero as a major influence on their own work. 133 minutes, Not Rated.
August 27 – The New World (Extended Edition)
The founding of Jamestown in 1607 and love story between John Smith, Pocahontas, and John Rolfe is given a blissfully spiritual sheen by one of cinema’s most enigmatic and visionary directors, Terrence Malick, in “The New World.” Early settlers tentatively engage with the Powhatan as two cultures collide in this film that’s stunningly beautiful to look at, and thoughtfully written and edited. Starring Colin Farrell, Christian Bale, and Q’orianka Kilcher. TPR will be screening the 172-minute extended cut of the film. Rated PG-13.