Jackson Free Press

"The Artist," this year's Academy Award winner for the really big awards of Best Picture, Director and Actor, started out as an art-house offering. Quite understandably, its makers did not believe that a black-and-white silent film with a funny little dog would appeal to a mainstream audience. But the originality of the film, the quality of the performances and the brilliant marketing strategy of the Weinstein brothers caused this film to cross from a niche market to popular success. 

Art-house cinema exists because of those brave creative souls who seek to unabashedly express themselves on celluloid or a digital medium. The typical restraints of big budgets and wanting to please everyone—granny to baby—aren't issues when someone is following their passion and fulfilling a dream on a micro, if not nonexistent, budget. Beyond any expectations you may have, Jackson has an art-house cinema series. The Russell C. Davis Planetarium (201 E. Pascagoula St., 601-960-1550) screens fabulous films in the heart of downtown every Sunday, and the March line-up includes a medley of cinematic diversions:

"Balibo," directed by Robert Connolly, is based on a true story that didn't reach the international community when it occurred in 1975, and it throws a powerful political punch against government cover-ups. The film depicts the last days of five Australian journalists—Greg Shackleton (Damon Gameau), Tony Stewart (Mark Winter), Gary Cunningham (Gyton Grantley), Brian Peters (Thomas Wright) and Malcolm Rennie (Nathan Phillips)—whom Indonesian forces murdered while they were reporting on the impending invasion of East Timor. Roger East (Anthony LaPaglia), a former war correspondent turned freelance journalist, investigates their disappearance and uncovers violent atrocities by the Indonesian government and ugly inaction by the Australian government.

"The Skin I Live In," which was an official selection at the Cannes Film Festival last year and stars Antonio Banderas and Elena Anaya, is an inventive melodramatic cocktail that only someone with the chutzpah of Spanish director Pedro Almodovar would dare try. The movie shakes up different parts of common Almodovar themes of betrayal, loneliness and sexual identity and adds a kick of sci-fi bordering on horror. The story, twisted and original, concerns Dr. Robert Ledgard (Banderas), an eminent plastic surgeon and university researcher who is literally molding a young woman named Vera (Anaya) into his dead wife's image. The cuckoo doctor is a Frankenstein creator seeking to dominate women and eliminate male interference because of his own tortured background. Everyone suffers, but there is a comic glee in the excessiveness of the tragedy.

The Bolshoi Ballet takes center stage in "Le Corsaire," which was originally choreographed by Marius Petipa in 1899 and recently revived and refreshed by Alexei Ratmansky and Yury Burlak. The story involves battling pirates, girls sold into slavery and a love affair between Medora, a young Greek girl, and Conrad, a dashing pirate. However, the story is secondary to the exuberant showmanship and incredible talents of a world-class ballet company. According to dance critic Sarah Crompton of The Daily Telegraph, Petipa created "this spectacle of largesse and refinement to allow lots of lovely young women in short tutus to unfurl their legs in front of an audience of rich patrons. Its three acts run for (hours), ... throwing in everything but the kitchen sink in its attempt to delight and titillate." More than a hundred years later, "Le Corsaire" continues to enchant audiences with the timeless delight of long-legged lovelies running around half-clad.

Opera and cinema converge in "La Boheme," which pairs one of the most beloved operas of all times with exquisite vocalists—Fiorenza Cedolins as Mimi, Christopher Maltman as Marcello and Ramón Vargas as Rodolfo—performing at Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu Opera. The inspiration for the Broadway musical "Rent," Puccini's opera explores the fragile nature of happiness in a world of poverty, cold and disease. Within everyday life, stuffed with dreams and disappointments, Mimi and Rodolfo find love. And love is definitely something to sing about.

For more information on what's showing at Art House Cinema in Jackson, visit http://www.msfilm.org.