nwFilmCenter

Top Down: Summer + Outdoor + Movies

Join us five floors up on the panoramic rooftop of the new Hotel deLuxe's parking structure (SW 15th at Yamhill) for some starry nights of entertaining films, a little live music and spectacular city views. The screenings start around 9pm but the top goes down at 8, so come early and enjoy a bite to eat, an ice-cold beer or refreshing ice tea and the spectabuclar vistas. Feel free to bring your favorite chai, pad or blanket to sit on, but no pets or outsie food or beverage please. Special thanks to the Hotel deLuxe, Tazo Tea, Sierra Nevada Brewing and Willamette Week. Special Admission $5

Thu, Jul 20, 2006 at 9 PM	PORTLAND EXPOSé DIRECTOR: HAROLD SCHUSTER US During the 1950's, stories of big city and small town corruption were a B movie staple and even the Rose City provided inspiration. Loosely adapting the story of racketeer boss Big Jim Elkins and the vice probe that rocked the city for years, PORTLAND EXPOSé was ripped from the national headlines of the Kefauver investigations which featured a young Bobby Kennedy who decided to make the evil doings in Portland the opening salvo of U.S. Senate hearings on organized crime. Banned at the time by Oregon Theater owners, EXPOSé has little claim on the real facts (or great cinema) but its nostalgic vistas, local references and low-budget melodrama provide a curious, if not amusing, glimpse of Portland 50 years ago and the mob underworld that made it famous. ^ Top
Thu, Jul 27, 2006 at 9 PM	THE BELLBOY DIRECTOR: JERRY LEWIS US How can 50,000,000 Frenchmen be wrong? Lewis wears many mad caps in this wacky comedy that he wrote, directed (his first), co-produced and stars in-in two roles! The most apparent is that of Stanley, a bumbling bellboy who puts his heart and soul into his job at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami. Rarely communicating with words, Lewis reveals his gift for physical comedy as he makes his earnest rounds through the swanky hotel. Made with a small budget and minimal preparation, it's the film's spontaneity and seeming lack of intention that gives its off the wall charm. ^ Top
Thu, Aug 3, 2006 at 9 PM	FROM BEiJING WITH LOVE DIRECTOR: STEPHEN CHOW HONG KONG The James Bond spoof to end all others! Plenty of crazy gadgets, exhilarating action sequences, and a sexy double agent perfectly capture what everyone loves about 007 flicks. Stephen Chow plays Ling Ling Chai, a blundering super spy working in a butcher shop until the theft of one of China's most valuable treasures forces the Chinese government to put him back in action. Ling Ling Chai can handle the women and martinis, but when it comes to being a "secret agent man" he falls a bit short. FROM BEIJING WITH LOVE has the trademark hysterical comedy and first-rate action that made SHAOLIN SOCCCER and KUNG FU HUSTLE such huge successes and will have you rolling on the ground! ^ Top
Thu, Aug 10, 2006 at 9 PM	XANADU DIRECTOR: ROBERT GREENWALD US Sonny Malone is down on his luck, frustrated by the work-a-day world until Kira, (Olivia Newton John!), comes to Earth to inspire a partnership with a kindly rich gentleman (Gene Kelly!) and the building of a roller disco Xanadu. No need to point out literary allusions there. From the fantastical musical numbers to the roller-boogie dance sequences (thank you Kenny Ortega!) XANADU is an outrageous genre all its own. Never before or since has a film tried to blend the musical styling of the Glenn Miller Orchestra and the Electric Light Orchestra-you have to see as words fail the task. Yes, the film tanked in 1980-rolling in a few years behind disco mania-but with time on its side, it's grown to be a guilty-pleasure classic all its own. ^ Top
Thu, Aug 17, 2006 at 9 PM	COFFY DIRECTOR: JACK HILL US A heroic tale of a female protagonist, a beautiful, shotgun wielding Pam Grier (in her first leading role) out for vigilante justice against the city's drug lords. This film innocently explores 1970's racial and sexual politics. "A marriage between a soft-core skin flick and a blaxploitation movie; with a couple of new twists."-Roger Ebert, CHICAGO SUN TIMES. Something for everyone all in one film! This seminal '70s flick effortlessly mixes trashy fun (and nudity) with gritty reality and intelligent filmmaking-certainly enough to make you horror at the underworld of drugs, chuckle at the kitsch and inspire you to be the next Quentin Tarantino. ^ Top
Thu, Aug 24, 2006 at 9 PM	MALA NOCHE DIRECTOR: GUS VAN SANT US Gus Van Sant's first feature quickly impressed critics and marked a new voice in American cinema. Based on an autobiographical novella by Portland poet Walt Curtis, MALA NOCHE is set on the rainy streets of Portland. Walt (Tim Streeter) works in a convenience store selling beer and cigarettes to seedy neighborhood characters. He develops a crush on illegal immigrant, John, who, new to Portland, is willing to use Walt for food and lodging while rejecting his advances. "Original, offbeat films such as MALA NOCHE-the kind that reflect authentic lifestyles without glorification or stereotyping-come few and far between. It's always a pleasure to see them."-THE WASHINGTON POST. ^ Top
Thu, Aug 31, 2006 at 9 PM	TWO LANE BLACKTOP DIRECTOR: MONTE HELLMAN US A minimalist road movie about two men with enigmatic pasts searching for solace, or maybe just speed, TWO LANE BLACKTOP gives acclaim to the beautiful landscapes of the Southwest, unspoken machismo and existential obsession. Aimless young hot-rodders (James Taylor and Dennis Wilson) make their way across the country by betting their monstered-up '55 Chevy against all comers. Somewhere in New Mexico they encounter generationally-challenged Warren Oats sporting a brand new Pontiac GTO and an attitude. A hypnotic duel soon unfolds as men and machines blaze on the endless road to nowhere. They may never arrive, but they travel very, very fast. ^ Top