Bright Lights, Big City

It was March, and it was ten in the morning, back in the day, children, when the Ogden Theatre was still a wonderful film revival house. (I ought to know: I used to work there and still have the emotional Rocky Horror scars to prove it.) That's when I first...

By Susan Froyd

December 6, 2007

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It was March, and it was ten in the morning, back in the day, children, when the Ogden Theatre was still a wonderful film revival house. (I ought to know: I used to work there and still have the emotional Rocky Horror scars to prove it.) That's when I first saw Woody Allen's Manhattan, as the lucky attendee of a highly anticipated preview screening. It came on the heels of Annie Hall and Interiors, a pair of films that couldn't be more different and yet eerily the same; Manhattan, with its arty black-and-white urban pastiches and Gershwin-drenched soundtrack, was touted as the film in which all of Woody's wit, comic neuroses and art-house pretensions were to gel, and I was about to find out. Woody, you have to understand, was a cinematic monster in 1979.

Do as I did, and find out why: When Manhattan's beautiful new 35mm print screens this week at Starz FilmCenter, in Auraria's Tivoli Student Union, go inside the theater and sit down in the very center, thrumming with expectation, and let the silvery movie flicker all over you as the music rises and the opening credits go up. It's a wonderful ride from there. The revival opens today; for information and tickets, call 303-820-3456 or go to www.starzfilmcenter.com.
Dec. 7-13, 2007

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Susan Froyd started writing for Westword as the "Thrills" editor in 1992 and never quite left the fold. These days she still freelances for the paper in addition to walking her dogs, enjoying cheap ethnic food and reading voraciously. Sometimes she writes poetry.

Contact: Susan Froyd

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