DO NOT PARK IN THE CHURCH PARKING LOT BEHIND THE THEATER, YOU WILL BE TOWED!
At 11:30pm on October 11, 1975, a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers changed television -- and culture -- forever. Directed by Jason Reitman and written by Gil Kenan & Reitman, Saturday Night is based on the true story of what happened behind the scenes in the 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live. Full of humor, chaos, and the magic of a revolution that almost wasn't, we count down the minutes in real time until we hear those famous words....
HEIGHTS 2024 CELEBRATION OF CINEMA
A young girl has disappeared on the island of Summerisle, and Sergeant Neil Howie (Edward Woodward) is sent to investigate. There, no one admits the girl ever existed, and worse, to the very conservative Sgt. Howie, the islanders engage in ritual paganism. But as his investigation widens, Sgt. Howie uncovers shocking truths about the islanders and their very charismatic leader, Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee). Derided upon its original release and then vanished, THE WICKER MAN almost immediately became a cult hit, and is one of the most disturbing and original horror films ever made.
DCP - Rialto Pictures.
Working with visionary author Arthur C. Clarke, Stanley Kubrick blew the world's mind with 2001: A Space Odyssey, considered by many to be one of the greatest films of all time. A strange black rectangle, the monolith, appears in pre-human times and helps apes discover tools... and violence: when it reappears on the moon in modern times, the monolith communicates the same messages to HAL, the artificial intelligence running the spacecraft. This special presentation is an "unrestored" 70mm print made from the original negative in 2018.
70mm print - Park Circus.
San Francisco was never so menacing in this, the first remake of the classic INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. Director Philip Kaufmann creates an atmosphere that is at once creepy and terrifying, and Brooke Adams, Leonard Nemoy (Spock!), Veronica Cartwright ("Alien') and the dear-departed Donald Sutherland are perfect as the first people trying desperately to save the world from killer seed pods from outer space. The perfect close to this year's Sci-Fi series also has one of the most incredible final scenes in cinema history. Don't miss this rare screening!
DCP - Park Circus
HEIGHTS 2024 CELEBRATION OF CINEMA
Brother and sister Rick and Patricia purchase Windward House, in Cornwall, England, as the perfect retreat where Rick can compose his music. But the house sold cheap, due to rumors that the woman who committed suicide within its boundaries still haunts it to this day. This moody and influential film--thought by some to be the first ghost film in which the ghosts are real creatures, not tricks--is at once despairing and frightening. Considered by Martin Scorsese and Guillermo del Toro to be one of the most frightening films of all time, The Uninvited is not to be missed.
35mm print - Universal Pictures.
HEIGHTS 2024 CELEBRATION OF CINEMA
BONUS SCREENING ADDED Tuesday October 29th, our Wednesday October 30th screening is sold out!
Arguably Kubrick's best, and perhaps most personal film, The Shining has influenced scores of horror films, and its technical achievements with the Steadicam changed cinema forever. The story of writer Jack Torrence, whose personal demons collide with the haunted Overlook Hotel, which he and his family have been hired to occupy over the winter, is at once a mind-bending trip and a terrifying, and moving, destruction of a man's world. So bizarre it has spawned countless conspiracy theories, including explaining the moon landing, The Shining can be watched, interpreted and reinterpreted numerous times.
DCP - Warner Bros.
In Salzburg in 1938, the lovely Maria (Julie Andrews), a former nun, becomes the governess for Captain Von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) and his seven children: Liesl, Friedrich, Louisa, Kurt, Brigitta, Marta, and Gretl. Oh, come on, everyone knows what happens next: they all sing, Maria marries Captain von Trapp. Nazis invade Austria, they flee, still singing, and everyone's deliriously happy. It's harder to make that work than you might think, and Robert Wise's fluid camerawork and crisp editing help make THE SOUND OF MUSIC a delight for everyone involved. This special screening is the 23rd annual benefit for the Groveland Food Shelf at the Heights, one of our favorite events every autumn.
The Groveland Food Shelf, which began in 1975, is supported by several downtown churches and many area grocery stores, restaurants and bakeries and currently serves 5,000 clients a month--twice as many as before the pandemic. Heights volunteer Randy Greene has organized these screenings for over two decades now!
DCP - Walt Disney Pictures
HEIGHTS 2024 CELEBRATION OF CINEMA
Singin' In the Rain is one of our most popular events and sells out year after year! Considered by many to be one of the greatest screen musicals of all time, Singin' in the Rain is also a hilarious look at the chaos and turmoil that the switch from silents to talkies cast upon Hollywood in the late 1920's. Plus all that glorious TECHNICOLOR!
DCP - Warner Bros.
HEIGHTS 2024 CELEBRATION OF CINEMA
A scathing satire on the Cold War, Dr. Strangelove is also Stanley Kubrick's love-letter to the manic comic stylings of Peter Sellers. But Sellers isn't alone (even though he plays three roles): George C. Scott, Slim Pickins, Keenan Wynn, and Sterling Hayden all play against type and are absolutely hilarious.
35mm print - Sony Pictures.
HEIGHTS 2024 CELEBRATION OF CINEMA
Germany's answer to THE WIZARD OF OZ and THE THIEF OF BAGDAD, the lush Agfacolor extravaganza, MUNCHHAUSEN stars Hans Albers as the incredible lying hero, a man who has seemingly lived for over two centuries, and whose tall tales stretch the imagination (and the special effects budget). Filmed in wartime Germany to celebrate the famous UFA studios 25th anniversary, and meant to compete with Hollywood and divert the public from the war, MUNCHHAUSEN is an impressive adult fairytale replete with nudity and ribald jokes, scripted by banned writer Erich Kaster (who worked under a pseudonym) and starring Albers, one of the biggest stars of wartime Germany. MUNCHHAUSEN has gone on to become a post-war classic, rarely seen in Minnesota.
DCP - Kino Lorber and the F. W. Murnau Foundation.
BONUS matinee added Sunday December 1st @ 2:00pm!
70TH ANNIVERSARY SCREENING!
A Heights Theater tradition! One of our most popular events! An event that sells out year after year. You will not want to miss the perennial TECHNICOLOR favorite, WHITE CHRISTMAS, on the big screen!
Plus.....ON OUR STAGE! The big show starts with a special 20 minute concert by the wonderful MAUD HIXSON, singing a stocking full of your favorite holiday classics! Accompanied by Rick Carlson on the piano.
Also... A fantastic pre show concert by ED COPELAND and LOU HURVITZ at the Heights Mighty Wurlitzer!
WHITE CHRISTMAS FAQS
Q: I have an MPR 2 for 1 coupon, can I use these for White Christmas?
A: No, since this is a special event we do not accept any 2 for 1 coupons or other discounts.
Q: When does the singer start and when does the movie start and when do I need to be there?
A: The show, which starts with Maud Hixson performing at either 2:00pm or 7:00pm with the movie following immediately after her performance. So you need to be here at the ABSOLUTE LATEST by 2:00pm or 7:00pm because that is when the show officially starts and we do not seat after that.
Q: When does the organist start?
A: The organist will start playing 30 minutes before the start of the show.
Q: When do your doors open?
A: Our doors open an hour before the start of the shows and we encourage you to arrive early so you can get seated and have plenty of time to get refreshments and relax before the show. We have a pianist playing the lobby piano at 1:00pm and 6:00pm and the Organist starts to perform at 1:30pm and 6:30pm, so there is plenty to keep your and your guests entertained before the show starts.
Q: Is the seating reserved seating?
A: All the seating for these performances is not assigned and is general seating, so the earlier you arrive the better selection of seats you will have, ESPECIALLY IF YOU HAVE A LARGE GROUP. Your advance ticket purchase guarantees you a seat at the performance, but with a sold out show there may be a chance, especially if you arrive late, that you may not be able to sit with your guests, so arrive early as refunds are not given if you cannot sit together.
Q: Something has come up and now we are unable to attend, can we get a refund.
A: Refunds are not given on advance ticket sales.
COAL OR CANDY?: A 2024 CHRISTMAS!
A flop in its day, and one that destroyed Capra's production company, It's a Wonderful Life began to interest audiences again in the 1980s, and has since become a standard for holiday family viewing. George Bailey considers himself a failure: his Savings and Loan has lost a tremendous amount of money, and he has never achieved any "measurable" success, and so killing himself seems to be the only remaining option. From this grim premise comes one of the most evocative pictures about small town life, friendship and humility ever to grace the screen. Jimmy Stewart put in an outstanding performance that ranges from happy-go-lucky to serious to outright fury, a tour-de-force that would portend his work with Alfred Hitchock. If you haven't seen this on the big screen, be prepared: It's A Wonderful Life will leave you a grateful, tearful mess.
DCP - Paramount Pictures.
COAL OR CANDY?: A 2024 CHRISTMAS!
Director Frank Perry's over-the-top biopic of Joan Crawford kinda ruined Faye Dunaway's career, but the film lives on as a camp classic, its many wacko lines and strange, overlit candy-colored set pieces the stuff of nightmares. And its awkward-to-the-max Christmas scene makes this a perfect choice for our Coal or Candy series.
DCP - Paramount Pictures.
Live on stage comedy with VHS!!
Joe Pickett (The Onion) and Nick Prueher (Late Show) have over 13,000 VHS tapes in their collection and have been taking viewers on a guided tour through their latest and greatest finds since 2004. To celebrate two decades of this VHS nonsense, Joe & Nick will serve up their all time greatest finds including the dumbest exercise videos, the craziest public access shows and updates with the most wonderful weirdos they've met along the way.
COAL OR CANDY?: A 2024 CHRISTMAS!
The Ekdahls are a large, boisterous family who run a local theater, full of love, imagination, and admiration for one another. But when father dies suddenly from a stroke, mother remarries a local widower, the Bishop Vergrus, whose only goal in life seems to be to instill a brutal, harsh discipline on this family. Bergman's raw and intense film is also a lush celebration of family life and triumph over adversity and is one of the most unheralded holiday films ever made. Nominated for six Oscars, it won four, a rarity at the time for a foreign language film.
DCP - Janus Films.
COAL OR CANDY?: A 2024 CHRISTMAS!
Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) is a low-level bureaucrat who dreams of soaring in the clouds above the futuristic, polluted, hyper-consumerist England in which he lives. When he gets caught up in a glitch that results in the state-sponsored death of an innocent man during the Christmas season, Lowry finds himself tumbling down a dystopian rabbit-hole from which he cannot emerge. From the mind of Monty Python's Terry Gilliam comes one of the most imaginative science-fiction films ever, at once a sweeping indictment of big government and foolhardy capitulation and a brilliant tale of innocence.
DCP - Universal Pictures.
COAL OR CANDY?: A 2024 CHRISTMAS!
BIG BUSINESS will feature live accompaniment by ED COPELAND on the Heights Mighty Wurlitzer!
Laurel & Hardy are mousetrap salesmen who travel to Switzerland for the simple reason that because the country has tons of cheese, it stands to reason there must be tons of mice. Ergo, mousetrap fortune. Spectacularly, they fail. Hilariously, they fail. With the classic Christmas silent short "Big Business", this screening will be sure to delight audiences from 9 to 90, and sure to sell out.
35mm prints - The Library of Congress.
COAL OR CANDY?: A 2024 CHRISTMAS!
A single mom, a depressed child, a drunken Santa and a city full of cynical souls, this should be the stuff of one bleak motion picture. But Miracle on 34th Street is as sweet a holiday confection as Hollywood ever produced, as a group of harried but good-hearted New Yorkers run headlong into a very real Santa Claus, who offers them hope and affection. Touching on themes of divorce, faith and even capitalism, Miracle is both candy and coal in abundance. Winner of 3 Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actor for Edmund Gwenn's Kris Kringle.
DCP - Walt Disney Pictures.
COAL OR CANDY?: A 2024 CHRISTMAS!
DIGITAL CINEMA PRESENTATION
On the day after Christmas, Mia (Emma Stone), a struggling actress, meets Seb (Ryan Gosling), a struggling jazz pianist, and the pair fall in and out and in and out of love, all the while navigating their perilous careers in modern day Los Angeles. La La Land charmed audiences worldwide and is a modern musical classic. Winner of the Academy Award for Best Director, Best Actress and Best Picture (for about five minutes).
DCP courtesy of Lionsgate
HOLIDAY INN has become a Heights New Year's Day tradition, and sells out every year! IRVING BERLIN wrote the evergreen score, which includes Easter Parade, Lets Start the New Year Right, Lazy and of course, White Christmas.
We will be screening the original "unedited" 1942 theatrical release version of HOLIDAY INN.
This special screening will also feature EDWARD COPELAND at the Heights Mighty Wurlitzer!
35mm print - Universal Pictures
