This Friday August 13 at 9pm, the Mayfair proudly presents IP MAN, the incredible true story Bruce Lee’s master and his endurance during the Japanese occupation of China in the 1930s. The film plays August 13, 14 & 17. IP MAN 2, the exciting sequel co-starring Hong Kong film legend Sammo Hung, plays August 17! Don’t miss it!

Watch the IP MAN trailer

Shot in the sweltering summer of 1973, director Tobe Hooper and his small crew endured record high humidity and shot the picture in a farmhouse that wasn’t air-conditioned. Heat exhaustion nearly put actor Gunnar Hansen (Leatherface) out of commission if he wasn’t immediately hydrated by a fellow crewmember. In one scene, an actor willfully cut his finger to produce blood since the tube used for the stage blood wasn’t working.  In another violent scene,  one of the lead actors was instructed not to move in order to avoid being sliced by the chainsaw that was only within three inches of his face.

A small distributor named Bryanston, the company that distributed Deep Throat in 1972 and was also an enterprise run by the Peranio crime family, released the film in August 1974. This resulted in litigation brought forth by the filmmakers when they did not receive their cut of the box office profits.

The film was one of the most successful independent productions of it’s time. Before the advent of cable and home video, the film played theatrically for years. It was re-released by the then modest exploitation house New Line Cinema. Critics such as Rex Reed lauded the film but that didn’t mean local controversy wasn’t inevitable. According to wikipedia.org, “In February 1976, theatres in Ottawa, Canada were asked by the local authority to withdraw The Texas Chain Saw Massacre due to concern about increasing levels of violence being associated by the public with the film.”

But fans of Texas Chainsaw Massacre can rest assured that the local fear mongering connected with the film is no more and on Friday April 16 at 11:15pm, the Mayfair will be showing a rare 35mm print of TCM, uncut. So come by and purchase a ticket to a film that changed the *face* of horror films forever.

“Harry, I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don’t plan it. Don’t wait for it. Just let it happen. It could be a new shirt at the men’s store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot black coffee.” -Special Agent Dale Cooper, Twin Peaks TV Series.

As part of our David Lynch Film Festival this month, we are also selling his special organic house roast of Damn Fine Coffee for $20 a can. So when you drop by the Mayfair to see Dune (April 11 & 12) The Elephant Man (April 17 and 18) and Lost Highway (April 24 & 25) come into the candy bar and pick up the kind of coffee you can only get from the man who brought you Eraserhead.

As the can reads: “It’s all in the beans…and I’m just full of beans.”

For more info visit davidlynch.com/coffee

We also had some people show up who weren’t there for the show. They were there for the audience. Or more precisely, to save the audience members’ souls.

Paul Latour: purification, not punctuation

In the words of self-identified “street evangelist” Paul Latour:

“Saturday night’s ”cult classic” horror film at the Mayfair Theatre was ‘Night of the Living Dead’, produced in 1968. Murder, gore, bloodshed and cannibalism only begins to describe the kind of “entertainment” that was being offered. And, of course, people are still lining up to pay and view horrific merriment on the screen.

Kim and I thought this would be a good opportunity to preach the gospel to an organic congregation and hand out some tracts. It was an opportunity to tell people the truth as to what happens after people die and what Jesus did so that they may be granted eternal life in Heaven.”

You can read his entire post about the night and see a video of him in action in front of the theatre on his blog.

PS: the Mayfair’s manager, Mike Dubue, was originally a bit perturbed by the whole thing, but he’s calmed down considerably since. He and Paul may very well team up to form a Christian rock band in the near future. Stay tuned.

Eleven years ago I was very excited to go see a new non-Disney non-musical animated movie called The Iron Giant. Equal to thoughts that I had that it was going to be great, I also had a feeling that it would make no money. I was fairly confidant that it was going to be in the category of classic film not seen by many. Alas, I was correct. The Iron Giant was pretty much universally loved by every critic and movie-goer that saw it. Now if only more people had seen it. The picture cost Warner Bros $70 million to produce and made back about $23 million. The following year, Fox released another animated sci-fi epic Titan A.E. It also cost $70 million and made about $23 million in return. Hence the death bells rung at the concept for studios to attempt the art of classical animation as big screen entertainment.

Lorenzo di Bonaventura, president of Warner Bros. at the time, explained, “People always say to me, ‘Why don’t you make smarter family movies?’ The lesson is, every time you do, you get slaughtered.”

The film was directed by Brad Bird, who was coming off of a successful stint in television animation, where he helped to develop both The Simpsons and King of the Hill. Luckily, Brad Bird’s old friend and animation colleague John Lasseter was able to offer him a new gig, despite his latest effort not being box office gold. He and PIXAR went on to win Best Animated Film Oscars for both The Incredibles and Ratatouille.

Meanwhile, even the grand master of traditional animation was floundering. Disney made the somewhat shocking announcement that their 45th big screen animated movie, the 2004 cow starring feature Home on the Range, would be the the last non-CG cartoon that they would produce, and most of the animation staff was laid off.

In 2006, the Disney juggernaut acquired PIXAR. My first thought was “Oh no! Disney is going to ruin PIXAR!”. Then something great happened, a bunch of long time PIXAR staff members were given various high positions of power at Disney, and PIXAR was left alone. And what did they do when they took over the company? They said that there will be no more sub-par straight to video-store sequels of classics like Lady and the Tramp and Cinderella. They re-instigated the tradition of short animation in front of features (the first was the amazing Goofy cartoon How to Hook Up Your Home Theatre, which was in front of the not so amazing National Treasure 2). Their greatest move (and a somewhat ironic one), was when the CG geniuses at PIXAR re-hired the animation department that Disney had let go and re-opened the gates to old school cartoons at Disney.

The come-back effort took form as 2009′s The Princess and the Frog, a project from the directors of modern classics Aladdin and The Little Mermaid. An American fairy tale, featuring Broadway style songs, set in 1920′s New Orleans (I’m pretty sure the first 20th century fairy tale to be considered a Disney Classic). From a financial standpoint, the film did very well (almost $250 million worldwide). From an award standpoint , the film did very well (three Oscar nominations amongst other trophy’s). And most importantly (well…I guess to some the money part is the most important), it was good and people liked it.

So thanks to PIXAR, a genius like Brad Bird got a second chance at success. And the whole medium of classical animation on the big screen looks like it may have found a new lease on life.

Get the kids out of the house (or come without them) and catch both impressive pieces of animation as part of March Break matinees at the Mayfair.

The Princess and The Frog – March 17th and 18th at 1PM
The Iron Giant – March 19th and 20th at 1PM

The distributors of Street Trash (playing Friday, Feb . 5 at 11:15), however, came through with flying colours this month. We just received the vintage lobby cards below, and couldn’t wait to share them with you.

Enjoy!

Check out a bevvy of reviews, both positive and negative, at the Movie Review Query Engine.

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That’s part of what Martin Scorsese had to say in his speech at the Golden Globes about the importance of preserving old. You can hear and see the rest of what he had to say here:

Scorsese at the Golden Globes

it can be very difficult to find prints of older films, but we’re constantly on the lookout for classics and forgotten treasures. What old films would you like to see at the Mayfair?

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The website will also undergo some changes during that time, making it more interactive. In the meantime, if you’d like a more interactive venue to express your views, hopes, and dreams for the new Mayfair, please check out the theatre’s official Facebook group.