Attend: One Night Only
Darker Than Amber | Robert Clouse | USA | 1970 | 96 min»
Point Blank Cinema, Art In, 1444 East Washington Avenue, Thursday, April 13, 7:30pm
A new cinema group in Madison, Point Blank Cinema, aspires to establish a new 16mm film screening series at Art In on East Washington Avenue, starting this Thursday with Robert Clouse’s adaptation of John D. MacDonald’s Darker Than Amber.
It’s not easy to rebound from the rush of the Wisconsin Film Festival to focus attention back on what’s going on around town. But I want to call attention to the efforts of Point Blank Cinema to revive film screenings—on celluloid—outside of campus.
Garrett Ameigh explains that their mission at Point Blank Cinema is simply “providing another venue for revival cinema in Madison, and keeping the shared movie going experience alive.”
On Thursday, April 13, Point Blank Cinema will present Robert Clouse’s adaptation of John D. MacDonald’s novel, Darker Than Amber. The screening will take place at Art In, located at 1444 East Washington Avenue. According to the Facebook event page, they will screen a 16mm IB Technicolor print.
Ameigh pointed me to the program notes for Darker Than Amber from the Austin Film Society:
When Bruce Lee chose the little-known Robert Clouse to direct his Hollywood breakthrough Enter the Dragon, many were surprised. They, like practically everyone else, had not seen his previous film Darker than Amber, an adaptation of a John D. MacDonald series pulp novel. Tough guy Rod Taylor plays a brawny but sensitive salvage specialist in Florida who deals with murder, lost love, and a terrifying villain (William Smith) with whom he has a blood-curdling, and brilliantly rendered fight.
Previous Point Blank Cinema events include 35mm screenings of The Matrix (1999) and The Goonies (1985) at Market Square Cinemas last summer. Ameigh explains, “If I can get the funding together, I hope to do a series of 16mm screenings at the Art In.”
If you can’t make it to the screening this week, be sure to like the Point Blank Cinema Facebook page to get updates on their future events. We’ll do our best to include Point Blank Cinema in our Alternative Screening Calendar, as well.