Moonstruck
A great cast meets a great screenplay and are directed with a perfect touch. The stars align as Loretta (Cher), a young widow, has resigned herself to marry Johnny Cammareri (Danny Aiello), a man she does not love… until she meets his younger brother (Nicolas Cage) and sparks fly.
OUTDOOR SCREENING
Thursday, Aug 13th (raindate Sunday Aug 16th)
7pm @Cucina in Woodstock 9pm MOONSTRUCK under the stars
Ticket – $45 Upstate Films Members / $50 others
… includes Cucina’s Summer House BBQ w/ lobster rolls, chicken, pasta. Eat at socially distanced picnic tables before the movie. Bring blanket or portable seating. Only 45 spaces available.
Please support this Upstate Films’ fundraising show.
TICKETS FOR THIS EVENT ARE SOLD OUT
Cher won Best Actress, the great Olympia Dukakis won Best Supporting Actress, and the writer, John Patrick Shanley, the Bard of the Bronx, took home an Oscar for Original Screenplay at the 1988 Academy Awards. Although Nicolas Cage didn’t win, he’s perfect in the role as younger brother Ronny. The film centers on Loretta Castorini (Cher), a Brooklyn bookkeeper who has agreed to marry the best friend of her late husband who died seven years earlier. While Johnny’s out of town visiting his sick mother who controls his life, Loretta hand delivers an invite to the upcoming wedding to her soon to be brother-in-law, Ronny (Nicolas Cage). Sparks fly and Loretta becomes involved with Ronny, who tries to persuade her to break up with Johnny: “Love don’t make things nice. It ruins your life. It ain’t perfect. The snowflakes are perfect. We’re here to love the wrong people and break our hearts.” Or at least meet him at the Met for a performance of La Boheme. As the title song declares, “When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that’s amore.”
PG / 102 mins / US / dir by Norman Jewison / 1987
“Reviews tend to make it sound like a madcap ethnic comedy, and that it is. But there is something more here, a certain bittersweet yearning that comes across as ineffably romantic, and a certain magical quality.” – Roger Ebert, The Chicago Sun-Times
Outdoor Screenings – Moving Pictures at Your Place?
Dear Filmgoers,
While our theaters in Rhinebeck and Woodstock remain closed, we’ve figured out how to take the show on the road with outdoor screenings. Since you can’t come to us, we’ll come to you. We provide a movie size 16’ x 9’ image on our new screen using our high-powered portable projector, plus plenty of sound with a pair of thumping loudspeakers, and even fresh hot popcorn with our moveable popcorn machine!
We’re ready when you are to liven up a summer evening with socially distanced cinema under the stars. If you are interested in hiring Upstate to make a house-call and run a high-quality, high-resolution movie screening for your private event for a maximum of 50 people, please reach out to us via email: [email protected]. (A portion of the fee is tax-deductible to the full extent of the law as Upstate Films is a 501c3)
We’ve all had the opportunity to watch movies at home via many modes including our Virtual Cinema offerings, but we truly miss that shared experience of watching movies together on the big screen.
As we enter the dog days of summer, we continue to look forward to our eventual reopening while closely monitoring events both local and national. Currently movie theaters are not on New York’s reopening schedule, so we remain in standby mode while we fundraise to keep Upstate afloat and to improve air quality control and filtering at the theaters.
And during this uncertain-unprecedented-challenging period, we have received donations from filmgoers & members alike who have shown their support by buying a gift card, updating your membership, or making a donation, no matter the amount? We thank you in advance.
Virtual Cinema continues this week, with a new documentary, REBUILDING PARADISE by Ron Howard about the devastating fires in California in 2018. Plus other films including JOHN LEWIS: GOOD TROUBLE about U.S. Congressman and American civil-rights icon, John Lewis. We know you have plenty of options for home streaming, but we appreciate every bit of support you offer as we continue to work on the confounding puzzle that is running an independent movie theater in 2020.
— the gang @ Upstate
Thelma Adams chats with film distributor/maven Richard Abramowitz
Wow! It’s nearly three months since we closed due to the pandemic. We’ve been presenting films in our Virtual Cinema. And we’re fortunate to have Thelma Adams, twice chair of the NY Film Critics Circle & novelist (The Last Woman Standing), talking with folks from the film world. Here she has an outdoor socially distanced chat with Richard Abramowitz who’s worn many hats in the film business during the past forty years. Currently Richard runs his own outfit, Abramorama that is the preeminent global theatrical distribution and rights management partner for music films and is recognized for the consistent high quality of its work on award winning films such as Ron Howard’s Grammy Award®-winning The Beatles: Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years. VIEW THE CHAT.
Thelma Adams chats with Upstate Films about Pauline Kael
Despite being “shuttered” for the time being, we are presenting films in our Virtual Cinema. And now we’re even ready for our “close-up” as film critic. Steve Leiber, co-director of Upstate Films, had a chance recently to talk with Thelma Adams, twice chair of the NY Film Critics Circle & novelist (The Last Woman Standing), about the doyenne of film critics, Pauline Kael, the subject of WHAT SHE SAID: PAULINE KAEL, now playing in our Virtual Cinema. Read More
Welcome to the Upstate Films Virtual Cinema
Upstate Films is closed for the foreseeable future, but we still want to bring you some of the programming that we were planning on screening this spring. In partnership with select distributors, we are happy to bring you Virtual Screening Rooms. Purchase a ticket through one of the links offered on our website, and watch the movie in the comfort and safety of your own home.
Just as with a real ticket, the proceeds will be split between Upstate Films and the distributors. Your ticket allows you to watch the film for a specified period of time, and you'll be able to stream it on compatible streaming devices, your mobile device or your computer browser. Please see our Virtual Screening Room FAQ for more information.
On the morning of Nov. 8, 2018, a spark from a transmission line in Northern California, coupled with climate-impacted conditions aka global warming's aftershocks, quickly grew into a devastating firestorm that engulfed the picturesque city of Paradise, California. By the time what became known as the Camp Fire was extinguished, it had killed 85 people, displaced 50,000 residents and destroyed 95% of local structures. It was the deadliest U.S. fire in 100 years — and the worst ever in California’s history. From the moment the crisis began, Oscar-winning director RON HOWARD led a filmmaking team to the city and would go on to spend a year with Paradise residents, documenting their efforts to recover what was lost.- Chronicles John Lewis’ 60-plus years of social activism and legislative action on civil rights, voting rights, gun control, health-care reform and immigration.
- RUNNER depicts Guor Mading Maker’s difficult and triumphant journey from refugee to world-renowned athlete, told in intimate interviews with gorgeously animated flashbacks of Guor’s upbringing and culminating in a heart-wrenching reunion with his parents after a 20-year separation. His story is a distinctly inspirational one in which the indomitable human spirit emerges against all odds.
- “As willfully unconventional as a literary portrait could possibly be, director Josephine (Madeline’s Madeline) Decker’s take on Shirley Jackson is a thrillingly perverse example of what happens when the shackles of biopic formula are cast aside.” —The Guardian
- Combing stop-motion techniques, painting and photography, this exquisitely handcrafted animation feature tells the story of a girl who escapes a cult colony of religious fanatics during Chile’s darkest years under Pinochet.
- Based on the international bestseller by rock-star economist Thomas Piketty (which sold over three million copies worldwide and landed Piketty on Time's list of most influential people), this captivating documentary is an eye-opening journey through wealth and power...
- A dazzling, course correcting documentary that describes not only the life and craft of af Klint, but also the history of her rejection and rediscovery by the art world.
- A beguiling new documentary offering a tour of New York City through the lens of the passionate and often eccentric individuals who love, collect and sell vintage and antique books.
- In a remote Icelandic town, an off-duty police chief (a chilling Ingvar Sigurdsson, who received Cannes’ Critics’ Week award for Best Actor for his performance) begins to suspect a local man of having had an affair with his late wife, who died in a tragic accident two years earlier. Gradually his obsession for finding out the truth takes over his life and inevitably begins to endanger himself and his loved ones.
This is from Steve Leiber, one of the founders of Upstate Films…
“Once again it’s time to look in the mirror and then look out the window where I see my country founded on genocide of the native peoples and slavery and its aftermath (including prison labor allowed through the 13th amendment to the constitution). This continues to stomp on my fellow citizens… Decades since MLKing – since the Panthers – since Malcolm X – and still many, mostly people of color, are systematically swept aside as the rich get richer, the privileged get special treatment, and the many are left to grab for the scraps from the table. Race and class are inextricably connected. How to unravel this double discrimination and create a way more just society?”
In 2022 Upstate Films will celebrate its 50th anniversary. After nearly five decades of running Upstate, its co-founders and Executive Directors, Steve Leiber and DeDe Leiber, will soon be retiring. Upstate is now seeking a new Executive Director to whom they can “pass the reels” (actually, Upstate went digital in 2013).Please support our business sponsors.
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