Fashion, Food & Fun
Shall We Dance? - Friday Winter Movies @ NCMA
Who knew you could go to the
NC Museum of Art to watch the best of dance on the silver screen? Classic dance films will be shown every Friday night beginning this Friday, January 8th and ending Friday, April 1st.
The season's
"Shall We Dance Series" will have you twirling with Busby Berkeley's chorus girls, gliding with Astaire and Rogers, reflecting on Bob Fosse's career, tango and swing dance, and swirlling in a Dada dreamscape. The museum will provide special guest introductions, including the artistic director of the Carolina Ballet, and host a special swing dance lecture and demonstration.
Where in the NCMA? Friday movies will be shown in the newly renovated SECU Auditorium which features a hearing loop to provide improved accessibility for visitors with telecoils. The hearing loop is available for film screenings, lectures, and other programs in the auditorium.
Special Opening Event - A concert by mandolin virtuoso,
Tony Williamson and the opening
featured film,
The Third Man begins the best of dance series this Friday, January 8 at 7:30pm.
A new digital restoration of the 1949 British film noir The Third Man. Directed by Carol Reed and starring Orson Welles and Joseph Cotten, the film is set in Allied-occupied postwar Vienna. An American pulp-fiction writer played by Cotten discovers that his best childhood friend (Welles) has turned to the darkest corners of the black market.
A masterpiece of cinema, The Third Man is beloved for its original score composed and performed by Anton Karas on the zither. The theme music topped the international charts in 1950, and critic Roger Ebert wrote, "Has there ever been a film where the music more perfectly suited the action than in Carol Reed's The Third Man?"
Before the film screening, acclaimed mandolinist Tony Williamson performs the theme from The Third Man along with other selections.
Special Viennese beverages and treats will be available for purchase.
And the rest of the Winter Series.... 
42nd Street - Friday, January 15, 8pm
(1933) Directed by Lloyd Bacon. Warner Baxter, Bebe Daniels, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell. (89 min.) 35mm archive print from the Library of Congress.
THE classic movie musical, as winsome chorus girl Ruby Keeler takes the stage when the star breaks her ankle. Crackling with pre-Code naughtiness, blooming with Busby Berkeley's mad choreography, and awash in Warner Brothers' New Deal-era grit, this "remains the quintessential Depression spectacle" (New York Times). Shown with the Laurel and Hardy short Me and My Pal.
The Gay Divorcee - Friday, January 22, 8pm
(1934) Directed by Mark Sandrich. Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton. (107
min.) 35mm archive print from the Library of Congress.
A dancer is mistaken for a "correspondent" hired by a pert blonde to feign adultery to get her divorce. The rhapsodic Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, in their first starring film, swirl amid art deco glamour. Shown with a surprise comedy short.
The Tales of Hoffman - Friday, January 29, 8pm
(1951) Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Moira Shearer, Ludmilla Tcherina, Robert Helpmann, Leonide Massine. (133 min.) DCP restoration.
An uncanny ballerina, a slinky Venetian courtesan, and a gentle soprano flirting with death are the three lost loves of a poet. The team behind The Red Shoes brings an opera-ballet to the screen in scintillating Technicolor with a touch of the surreal and a rush of spectacle. A favorite of director Martin Scorsese, it "comes close to genius as a shock of pure cinema" (Time Out).
Introduced by Carolina Ballet Artistic Director Robert Weiss.
Kiss Me Kate - Friday, February 5, 8pm
(1953) Directed by George Sidney. Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel, Ann Miller. (109 min.) Blu-Ray.
Two egomaniacal Broadway stars, played by preening Howard Keel and Winston-Salem's trilling Kathryn Grayson, bicker through a musical version of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. Sadly, this brilliant Cole Porter musical won't screen in 3-D, so Ann Miller can't "tap into your lap," but you can imagine it!
All That Jazz - Friday, February 12, 8pm
(1979) Directed by Bob Fosse. Roy Scheider, Jessica Lange, Ann Reinking. (123 min.) DCP.
Bob Fosse's sprawling, frantic autobiography/meditation/rant is a razzle-dazzle musical about a driven perfectionist addicted to cigs, sex, speed, and booze. Nervy and jangling, Roy Scheider's take on Fosse's egomania results in one of the rare song-and-dance films devoid of optimism. "The best film I think I have ever seen" (Stanley Kubrick).
Lady in the Dark - Friday, February 19, 8pm
(1944) Directed by Mitchell Leisen. Ginger Rogers, Ray Milland, Warner Baxter. (100 min.)
35mm print from Universal Film Archive.
Brittle Allure magazine editor Liza Elliott can't shake her malaise and reluctantly enters psychotherapy, triggering a series of bonkers Technicolor dreams, including appearing in the most expensive costume in Hollywood history. A patronizing shrink prods Liza to choose between work and home, and three men symbolizing money, love, and career.
Buck Privates - Friday, February 26, 7:30pm
(1941) Directed by Arthur Lubin. Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, the Andrews Sisters. (84 min.) 35mm print from Universal Film Archive.
A pre-Pearl Harbor slapstick propaganda charm offensive, overflowing with great '40s songs (the Andrews Sisters sing "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy") and championship swing dancing. The enigmatic friendship between former burlesque comics Bud and Lou spotlights their complex verbal jousting, and oh, yes, you'll learn how to shoot craps. Swing dance talk and demo by Adam Speen and Abigail Browning.
Why Be Good? - Friday, March 4, 8pm
(1929) Directed by William A. Seiter. Colleen Moore, Neil Hamilton, Bodil Rosing. (81 min.) DCP restoration. Silent, with live piano accompaniment by David Drazin.
Pert Kelly is the cat's pajamas, a go-getting shopgirl by day, a heedless flapper by night. When this carefree Charleston champ snags a millionaire, will the temptation to misbehave overwhelm her? This sparking Jazz Age comedy, now restored, was until recently a lost film.
Strictly Ballroom - Friday, March 11, 8pm
(1992) Written and directed by Baz Luhrmann. Paul Mercurio, Tara Morice, Bill Hunter. (94 min.) 35mm print from Park Circus Films.
Baz Luhrmann's first film evokes his rural Australian family's passion for ballroom dance in a zany mockumentary about an aspirant for the Pan-Pacific Grand Prix Amateur Championship. A maverick's forbidden steps blend with the flamenco fire of a bespectacled wallflower, but will the rebels triumph?
Shall We Dance - Friday, March 18, 8pm
(1996) Written and directed by Masayuki Suo. Koji Yakusho, Tamiyo Kusakari, Naoto Takenaka. (136 min.) In Japanese with English subtitles. 35mm print from Park Circus Films.
A buttoned-down salaryman gazes out his commuter train window at a wistful dancer and decides to try ballroom dancing, even though the touching and emotional display are considered shameful in Japan. He slowly discovers that self-expression is necessary for happiness.
Introduced by NCSU Japanese Studies professor John Mertz.
Cuban Fury - Friday, March 25, 8pm
(2014) Directed by James Griffiths. Nick Frost, Rashida Jones, Chris O' Dowd. (98 min.) DCP.
Portly cubicle drone Bruce has banked the fires of his passion for competitive salsa dancing. But challenged by a workplace bully, and his dawning feelings for the new boss, Bruce (Nick Frost) dons the ruffled satin shirt once more to a pulsing soundtrack of Latin superstars.
Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights - Friday, April 1, 8pm
(2004) Directed by Guy Ferland. Diego Luna, Romola Garai, Sela Ward, John Slattery. (86 min.) PG-13. 35mm print.
Poor Katey has to move to Havana and live with her family in a fancy hotel while her daddy flogs Fords to the locals. But it's November 1958, and revolution is brewing. She loves dancing with dreamy waiter Javier, but will Castro toss all the gringos out before they can compete in the Latin ballroom contest? "A pelvis-gyrating, ponytail-releasing, shirt-unbuttoning good time" (Chicago Tribune).
Dinner and a movie? The museum's restaurant, Iris is open Friday nights. Reservations encouraged: (919) 664-6838. Friday dinner is 5:30-10pm (last seating 8:30 pm)
private, and public collections. You may have seen one of her public art pieces, Her Raleigh bus design "Micro/Macro," or her Sir Wolfter Raleigh sculpture at the entry to the NC Museum of History.
at the International Fiber Art Triennial in Pittsburgh, PA in May 2016.
Baby It's FINALLY Cold Outside! ... Just in time for 
311 Gallery - Artist Studio Open House - Friday, January 8th 6:00pm to 9:00pm. Featuring the Art of Cheryl McCardle and Susan Stott-Miller.
