July 14: Films, Not Flicks

When it comes to artistic works, there are the tastes of most people. Then there are my tastes. Sometimes they're one and the same. I'm most definitely not a snob. At least I hope not. But often, too, there's a wide gap between the mass commercial appetite and my own. This is true in music and in plays and in books. And in movies. That's why I won't be going to "Transformers 37: Revenge of the Avenging Revengers" when it's released in July 2021 - though I have no doubt that it will make loads of money and probably star a still-very-sexy Megan Fox. Just not my particular thing. Not that I don't enjoy well-done box office hits. I plan to see "Public Enemies" sometime this week, in part because a friend has a small role. (My friend informs me that Johnny Depp is a warm, down-to-earth guy, by the way. Just a little nice insider gossip for a change ... )

For movie fans with tastes like mine, and there are many of us, the trick is finding the films you really want to see. One of the few movie houses with a reliable rotation of high-quality independent and foreign films is Cinema Paradiso in Fort Lauderdale. In fact, it's the only theater in Broward County dedicated entirely to arthouse cinema.

I was there on Friday to catch a documentary that wasn't shown anywhere else around the county, to my knowledge. I went with a friend and we both enjoyed the movie a lot, leaving with a sense of having been enriched by the experience. That's the kind of theater that Cinema Paradiso is, one that celebrates the film as a form of art. As it happens, this year is its 10^th season. Cinema Paradiso is operated by the Broward County Film Society and will be the base again this autumn for the annual Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival. The arthouse really is a gem for our community, a wonderful place for locals and tourists alike to get cool on a hot summer day while savoring some of the world's best movies, past and present. A case in point is Cinema Paradiso's July 20 showing of one of my all-time favorite movies by my absolute all-time favorite director: "2001: A Space Odyssey," Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece. It will be shown that day to commemorate the 40^th anniversary of humanity's first walk on the moon. Now that's very hip and I hope to be there for it. And for a lot more great flicks, uh films, in the years to come.