HEIGHTS 2023 CELEBRATION OF CINEMA

ROSEMARY'S BABY

Oct. 9, 2023, 7:30 p.m.

In the heart of New York City, in one of its most high-end apartments, lurks an evil that sent filmgoers into a frenzy fifty years ago. Rosemary's Baby captured America's attention in 1968, a horrifying distraction from one of the most turbulent years in our history. The story of Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow), who moves into The Bradford Apartments with her actor husband Guy (John Cassavetes), only to discover a nightmare world of suicide, cults, and Satanism. At once a disturbing look at motherhood and power, Rosemary's Baby is also simply one of the most entertaining scary movies ever made.

DCP - Paramount Pictures.

THE STING

April 10, 2023, 7:30 p.m.

When small time con men Luther (Robert Earl Jones), Kelly Hooker (Robert Redford) and the Erie Kid (Jack Kehoe) unknowingly spoil a money drop of noted Chicago numbers-runner Doyle Lonnegan, the boys are in trouble. And when Luther is murdered, a whole underground team of cons seeks revenge, turning to Shaw Gondorff to pull the wool over the gangster's eyes and fleece him for millions.

With an army of the best character actors in the business, set designs that captured the Depression perfectly, intertitles that harkened back to the silent era (and the Saturday Evening Post of days gone by) and a score of Scott Joplin rags that was was number one on the charts, THE STING took America by surprise... and by storm. Don't miss this 50th Anniversary screening!

DCP - Universal Pictures

LAUREL AND HARDY COMEDY FESTIVAL in 35MM

June 3, 2023, 1 p.m.

BONUS SCREENING ADDED Saturday June 3rd, our Sunday June 4th screening is SOLD OUT!

All new program! Presented in 35mm prints from The Library of Congress!

The enormously popular LAUREL AND HARDY FESTIVAL returns for what will undoubtedly be another sell-out screening. Five classic short films in one side-splitting afternoon: THE LAUREL - HARDY MURDER CASE (1930), BLOTTO! (1930), THEM THAR HILLS (1934), TIT FOR TAT (1935), and THICKER THAN WATER (1935). No matter if you're 9 or 90, the manic comedy of Laurel and Hardy is guaranteed to have you laughing.

CLUE

Sept. 25, 2023, 7:30 p.m.

THIS SCREENING IS SOLD OUT!

Like Murder by Death before it, Clue (loosely based on the board game) is a spot-on parody of classic murder mysteries, with a star-studded cast of the 80s best comic actors, and featuring not one but three endings (each included at our screening!) Six strangers appear at an old mansion, are given pseudonyms (Col. Mustard, Mrs. White, etc., from the game), and soon, chaos and hilarity ensue! Tim Curry cements the whole thing as the crazed butler, while Martin Mull, Madeline Kahn, Leslie Ann Warren, Christopher Lloyd and even the Go-Go's Jane Wiedlin make appearances. A flop in its day, Clue has since gone on to be a hilarious cult classic!

DCP - Paramount Pictures.

SAFETY LAST!

June 25, 2023, 7:30 p.m.

For its 100th anniversary, we are proud to present Harold Lloyd's silent comedy classic SAFETY LAST, with live accompaniment by EDWARD COPELAND on the Heights Mighty Wurlitzer!

Lloyd plays the hapless "Boy", a young man eager to make good a a department store so he can marry his "girl". From this slim premise, Lloyd fabricated a veritable hurricane of disaster, as our hero managed to irritate the police, climb 12-story buildings, and, in the most famous sequence, dangle from an enormous clock.

DOCTOR ZHIVAGO

July 16, 2022, 1 p.m.

DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, over three hours of Russian and Soviet history, of love and war, unfolding on massive sets with thousands of extras, is the type of blockbuster roadshow entertainment Hollywood just doesn't make any more. Omar Sharif is Yuri Zhivago, a doctor and secret poet, and Julie Christie is his life's love. The two are married to others, and their secret and torrid love affair unfolds against the tumult of the Russian Revolution. David Lean's epic production wasn't meant to be streamed on TV (no matter how big your TV is), so don't miss this sure to sell out program!

DCP - Warner Bros.

KING KONG in 35MM

July 31, 2023, 7:30 p.m.

You may think you know King Kong, but unless you've witnessed the breathtaking spectacle on the big screen, you haven't seen anything! The story of eponymous ape, who is captured and hauled to New York City, not only features startling special effects, but is a rousing and emotional story that will leave you shaken. King Kong has withstood CGI to emerge as one of the great special effects films in history. Don't miss this rare 35mm screening!

35mm print - Park Circus.

THE GODFATHER

April 24, 2023, 7 p.m.

Arguably the most quoted film of all time, and certainly one of the best pictures ever made, The Godfather marked Brando's comeback after a series of box office disasters (and a reputation for being difficult.) Brando's performance won him his second Oscar, and helped make the film the highest grossing film of 1972. A classic by any standard.

DCP - Paramount Pictures.

THE GODFATHER, PART II

May 8, 2023, 7 p.m.

Serving as both sequel and prequel to the original, THE GODFATHER, PART II is the rare follow-up considered en par with the original, and the first sequel to win Best Picture. With two parallel stories - the rise of the young Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro) and the ascent of Michael (al Pacino) - THE GODFATHER, PART II is a complex web of intrigue, violence and betrayal. Winner of six Academy Awards.

DCP - Paramount Pictures.

STAR WARS: EPISODE V - THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

May 22, 2023, 7:30 p.m.

BONUS SCREENING ADDED Tuesday May 30th, our Monday May 22nd screening is sold out!

Had there ever been a more anticipated sequel than THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK? And one that not only met expectations, but exceeded them? Producer George Lucas hired relatively unknown director Irvin Kershner and paired him with screenwriters Lawrence Kasdan and Leigh Brackett (she helped write The Big Sleep), and the result is a film that is at once soap opera, cliffhanger, swashbuckler and sci-fi masterpiece. From its startling opening on the ice planet to Luke & company meeting the awesome Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams) in Cloud City, The Empire Strikes Back is one incredible set piece after another, and arguably the best Star Wars of them all.

DCP - Walt Disney Pictures

STAR WARS: EPISODE VI - RETURN OF THE JEDI

May 29, 2023, 7:30 p.m.

After a thrilling fight to save Han Solo (Harrison Ford) from the clutches of the evil Jabba the Hutt, Luke (Mark Hamill), Leia (Carrie Fisher) and the rest of the Rebel Alliance head to the forest moon of Endor, join up with the cuddly Ewoks, and set about trying to destroy the newest Death Star. The concluding film in this three-part series might just be the most emotionally involving of all the films, as Luke finally confronts Darth Vader, and urges him to join the side of good, and to be a real dad for once. Much less dark than its predecessor, "The Return of the Jedi" is a crowd-pleasing epic of the highest order.

DCP - Walt Disney Pictures

THE RULES OF THE GAME (La regle du jeu)

June 5, 2023, 7:30 p.m.

NEW RESTORATION!

Upstairs in a luxurious estate, a group of indifferent bourgeoisies gather for hunting, gossip, and backstabbing affairs. Downstairs, the help endure their own petty intrigue, and the two collide with devastating results. Renoir's astonishing comedy of manners was loathed in its time, banned by the Nazis, and had over 30 minutes removed in a desperate attempt to make it more palatable to audiences. When the full 106-minute cut was discovered in the mid 1950s, it screened at film festivals and has since influenced generations of filmmakers and screenwriters (perhaps most notably in Downton Abbey) and was named at the 13th greatest film of all-time in the 2022 Sight & Sound poll.

In French with English subtitles

DCP - Janus Films.

AIRPORT in 70MM

July 17, 2023, 7:30 p.m.

NEW 70MM PRINT!

AIRPORT ushered in the era of the modern blockbuster, and features an all star cast including Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, Jacqueline Bisset, Jean Seberg, George Kennedy, and Helen Hayes, who won an Oscar! All these stars descended on the Minneapolis - St. Paul International Airport to film the disaster movie to launch all disaster movies, which involves a bomb and a stowaway and a first class cabin the likes of which you will never see again on a modern airliner! You will not want to miss this all time classic, especially in eye-popping 70MM!

70mm print courtesy Universal Pictures.

TOP GUN

Aug. 14, 2023, 7:30 p.m.

"Ride into the...DANGER ZONE!" Tom Cruise's Maverick did just that, in this crazy story of Air Force pilots surreptitiously flying their Tomcat fighters against Soviet MiG's in this proxy war over the Indian Ocean. A whole crew of dudes nicknamed "Maverick", "Goose", "Viper", and, of course, "Iceman" (Val Kilmer) strut about and try to get dates or do daring stunts in their planes. Kelly McGillis was there to keep Cruise honest, and they made "Top Gun" 1986's biggest hit and the embodiment of Reagan's America. You've seen TOP GUN: MAVERICK, now check out the original!

DCP - Paramount Pictures

RUTHLESS PEOPLE IN 35MM

Aug. 28, 2023, 7:30 p.m.

For a brief moment in the 1980s, some of the most crass, sidesplitting comedies came to us from Walt Disney Pictures, and most of them starred Bette Midler. RUTHLESS PEOPLE, from the team that brought us "Airplane!", might be the crassest and funniest of them all. Sam Stone (Danny DeVito) married his wife, Barbara (Bette Midler) for her money, and is plotting to kill her for that inheritance. Enter Ken and Sandy Kessler (Judge Reinhold and Helen Slater), two hapless kidnappers, who've taken Barbara and want a big ransom, or they'll kill her. To their chagrin, Sam ignores them, Barbara might be the worst person they have ever met, and everything goes haywire. "Ruthless People" opened modestly, then spent the entire summer of 1986 sending audiences into an uproar, becoming Disney's highest grossing film of the year.

35mm print - Walt Disney Pictures

PINOCCHIO

Sept. 11, 2023, 7:30 p.m.

Disney's second feature-length animated film may rightly be considered their greatest, a triumph of animation and one of the most beautiful, moving and dark stories in their canon. Geppetto, an elderly toymaker, wishes he had a boy of his own. His prayers are answered with Pinocchio, a marionette whom the Blue Fairy brings to life. She assigns Jiminy Cricket to follow him and keep him from trouble. But the curious little puppet cannot help but fall into the clutches of various evildoers in their village, culminating in his escape from the terrifying Pleasure Island and into the mouth of the great whale, Monstro. This story has moved families for generations, and its score and song "When You Wish Upon a Star" both won Oscars. A timeless classic, not seen on Minnesota screens for decades.

DCP - Walt Disney Pictures

Dans la nuit (IN THE NIGHT)

Sept. 24, 2023, 7:30 p.m.

In a small, French mining town, a young couple is married, to the delight of friends and family. They are deeply in love, and set up house, barely able to separate from one another to work. But when a mining accident leaves the husband with a grotesque facial deformity (hidden under a silver mask), he rejects her, and the lonely woman falls in love with another. This simple summary can only fail to capture the utter majesty of this gorgeous production, which was hailed as a masterpiece by French filmmakers Jean Cocteau and Jean Renoir. Charles Vanel, who was famous as a French actor (Diabolique, The Wages of Fear), wrote, directed and starred in this wondrous masterpiece, lost to time. Released to incredible acclaim in France, its timing was awful - it came out a year after sound films were launched, and it vanished from public view, remaining Vanel's only directing credit. The Heights is proud to screen DANS LA NUIT'S Midwest premiere.

Featuring live accompaniment by Katie Condon. Condon is a pianist, percussionist, teacher, and composer based in Minneapolis, whose score for "The Fire Brigade" stunned Heights audiences in 2022.

DCP courtesy of Institut Lumiere

100 MEN AND A GIRL

Nov. 2, 2023, 7:30 p.m.

Deanna Durbin was once America's sweetheart, the girl who literally saved Universal Pictures from bankruptcy, and whose movies are now all but forgotten. This is a crying shame, because Heights' audiences have been utterly charmed whenever we've screened her movies. 100 MEN AND A GIRL, unavailable until now, is a delightful, charming and moving film that should be at the top of your moviegoing list for the year. Durbin plays Patsy, the daughter of the down-and-out trombone player, John Cardwell (Adolphe Menjou). John lies to Patsy that he's got a job with top conductor Leopold Stokowski (who plays himself). When Patsy finds out the truth, she's far from disappointed - instead, she cooks up a plan to land work for these 100 musicians and is determined to convince Stokowski to take them on. Durbin's emotional range is remarkable - only 16 at the time, she carries the picture with her wit and charm, her anger and frustration, her tears and her incredible voice. A star beyond compare, she would act for only 12 more years before retiring to France.

DCP - Universal Pictures.

GROSSE FREIHEIT NR. 7 (GREAT FREEDOM NO. 7)

Nov. 9, 2023, 7:30 p.m.

NEW AGFACOLOR RESTORATION!

Banned by the German government in its day, GREAT FREEDOM NO. 7, named after the main thoroughfare in the red-light district in Hamburg, is a rich and honest look at the life of the "singing sailor", Hannes Kroger (Hans Albers) whose love of the sea conflicts with his desires for a farm girl (played by the amazing Ilse Werner) who was his deceased brother's companion. But she is in love with another man, and the heartbreak of Hannes is palpable as he weighs his options. Now considered a classic of German cinema, this bracingly honest look at the lives of the lower classes infuriated the German high command, and it was banned until the Allied forces won the war. Don't miss this gorgeous Agfacolor restoration of this super rare film on the big screen!

In German with English subtitles

DCP - Kino Lorber and the F. W. Murnau Foundation.