Teachers, Creatures, and a Dreamy Double-Feature

Another newsletter coming your way on this nice Monday. This one will be a bit shorter as we’re preparing for a busy week ahead. We’re on the brink of my staff pick of Ernst Lubitsch’s To Be or Not To Be this upcoming Wednesday, August 6th (tickets), and I’m incredibly excited to see you all there. Then, just a few days later on Sunday, August 10th, we have our “dreamy double-feature” of Picnic at Hanging Rock and Heavenly Creatures with our friends at Good For Her Films. We’ll save our preview of Leila and the Wolves for the next newsletter, but we encourage you to go ahead and RSVP here.

To Be or Not To Be – Warner West

Before the release of The Great Dictator (1940), Lubitsch was working on a new anti-fascist romantic comedy that was originally titled Heil Darling. Lubitsch thought his film would allow him to critique Germany and fight back ideologically, while also potentially pushing America to finally intervene. Unfortunately, while The Great Dictator was a huge hit upon release, To Be or Not To Be was released just a few months after America had suffered actual tragedy so comedic takes on WWII was no longer deemed appropriate and the movie had mixed success. Regardless, it’s grown to become one of the most beloved comedies of the 1940s.

The film opens with Hitler walking the streets of Poland, a sight unseen to Western audiences despite happening in real life just across the ocean. Hitler states “Heil myself” and the director calls cut. Everything we’d been watching up to this point was a satirical comedy about WWII called Gestapo that a local Polish acting troupe was putting on as an act of resistance. Ten minutes later, the play has been cancelled by German censors: Lubitsch ironically almost called the film The Censor Forbids after UA originally prohibited the Shakespeare line as title. Another few minutes later and Germany invaded Poland because “there was no censor to stop them.” Lubitsch intentionally made the burning streetcorner look just like the titular “shop around the corner” of Matuschek and Company; Hitler isn’t just attacking the foreign concept of Poland that most Americans couldn’t picture, he was also attacking our beloved Jimmy Stewart as Kralik and Margaret Sullavan as Klara. Lubitsch was far from subtle here as he truly believed it was Hollywood’s duty to promote American intervention. He believed actors could fight Hitler, so he made a movie about it.

Others like Quentin Tarantino, Taika Watiti, and Mel Brooks will borrow from this text (Brooks will actually attempt to remake it, largely unsuccessfully) but they all make pale imitations of the original: a watered-down copy of a copy. After all, Lubitsch wasn’t making this movie with hindsight. Lubitsch started this script before America had entered the war as an attempt to push the US to join the war effort. By the time the movie was released, America had entered the war and Lubitsch was no longer asking for intervention, but he was instead commanding hate toward Nazis. His final action on the film was in post-production where he added scenes of Polish resistance with the narrated line “Hate and more hate was the only answer to Nazi terror.” In the year 2025, that sentiment may ring more true than ever, so I urge you to join me and others in RVA for a true anti-fascist film.

You can get your tickets here for Wednesday night’s 7:30PM screening at Studio Two Three. We’ll have a limited number of Ernst Lubitsch zines for sale, so swing by and grab one and say hello! He’s grown to be one of my favorite directors, and I’m excited to share him with you all. See you there!

Picnic at Hanging Rock/Heavenly Creatures

Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) dir. Peter Weir

A truly dreamy mystery that lacks clues, Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock is a difficult movie to describe. It’s about Victorian British imperialism coming into direct conflict with Australian nature. It’s about repressed women leaving the domestic space and finally finding freedom at Hanging Rock. It’s also about having a picnic with your pals.

Regardless of how you read it, this film takes the familiar and quickly makes it unfamiliar as the eerie vibes of the movie take over. It’s simultaneously twee and sinister at times as it morphs dreams into nightmares. If you’re a fan of Persona, Mulholland Drive, Three Women, or The Virgin Suicides, you’ll likely find yourself becoming a fan of Picnic at Hanging Rock as well.

This film will start at 5PM on Sunday, August 10th. Following the film, there will be a brief stretching and journaling break as well as some other fun activities to give the mind a rest! Then at 7:30 PM, we’ll start our second feature.

Heavenly Creatures (1994) dir. Peter Jackson

Before Titanic, before Yellowjackets, and before The Lord of the Rings, Kate Winslet, Melanie Lynskey, and Peter Jackson teamed up for one of the best collabs of 1994. Heavenly Creatures seems on its face to be a melodrama about adolescence and friendship, but it becomes a film about an escape from repression and the dangers that come from being too imaginative in an uncompromising society.

It’s shot like an early Peter Jackson horror film, is based on a true crime story, and has some real chemistry between our two leads in some of their earliest roles. Add in some beautiful scenery and a situationship and it makes a wonderful pairing with Picnic at Hanging Rock. Come through on Sunday, buy a poster, and see Heavenly Creatures in a rare screening of a tough-to-watch classic.

What We’re Into – August 5th Edition

Lewis Peterson

Lewis has been into:
-ashley clarke’s book Facing Blackness, about Spike Lee’s film Bamboozled, which has kickstarted a rewatch of 80’s and 90’s spike lee movies on my end
-cocteau twins, specifically their EP releases. just the perfect summer vibe
-canteloupes, watermelon, blackberries, and cherries-it’s the best time of the year for fruit
-twin peaks: the return- im on my 4th rewatch of the series since i watched it for the first time in 2022. it’s unbelievable how good it is
-Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, and Dead Man- two of Jim Jarmusch’s finest films
-ive also been really into kind of simple/basic food, like scrambled eggs or roasted chicken. in a world of nytimes recipes for caramelized miso gochujang butter noodles or whatever, it’s nice to just lean into the essentials and have an absolute banger of a dish. you cant go wrong with the classics yall. hmu sometime if you want a roast chicken and potato dinner

Warner West

Warner has been into:
-Ernst Lubitsch (predictably)
-The hit 2000s TV show LOST (just started rewatching S3)
-Fantasy Football
-Nicolas Cage (had a marathon over the weekend with friends)
-1980s Robert Altman; not great but there’s some heart in them.
-Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata. Join the RPL Book Club and read it with us!

What’s Up Next?

August 6th: To Be or Not To Be at 7:30PM at Studio Two Three.
August 10th: Dreamy Double-Feature: Picnic at Hanging Rock and Heavenly Creatures with Good For Her Films at Studio Two Three.
August 22nd: Leila and the Wolves at 7:30PM at Studio Two Three.