IN BRIEF
THURSDAY 4/3
TUESDAY 4/8
THE GODFATHER: PART II
7 p.m. Market Street Cinema. $8.
The “Godfather” movies never really fit the New Hollywood narrative very comfortably — they’re stuffy, white-elephant, prestige dramas, classically constructed and a little humorless. They are beautiful though, especially the second
one, which pays tribute (to put it charitably) to the visual breakthroughs of Bertolucci’s “The Conformist,” and brings to life the grimy old New York that Luc Sante wrote about in “Low Life.” There are more interesting movies on the same subject and milieu (e.g. “Once Upon a Time in America”) and even better Fran-
cis Ford Coppola movies (“The Conversation”), but there’s a lot to enjoy about this thing, even in the margins (note the rare and awesome Lee Strasberg performance as the cold-hearted and shirtless Miami kingpin Hyman Roth). Also, I’ve never seen it on a big screen, and that’s what Market Street is offering.
The Porter Fund will host a gala at the Governor’s Mansion to honor Charles Portis with its Lifetime Achievement Award, featuring readings by authors Roy Blount Jr., Roy Reed and Jay Jennings, 6 p.m., $200. Pianist Jura Margulis will give a free lecture and concert at the University of Arkansas’s Ozark Hall, 5 p.m., and the Natural State Brass Band will play at Maumelle High School at 7:30, $5, a benefit for the Maumelle High School Band program. Little Rock’s Collin vs. Adam and Whale Fire will play at the Afterthought at 9 p.m., $5, and The Frontier Circus will be at White Water Tavern with Riverbottom Debutante at 9:30 p.m., $5.
FRIDAY 4/4 The Arkansas Men and Women’s College Basketball All-Star Game will be held at Summit Arena, at 3:30 p.m. (also 3:30 p.m. Saturday), $8-$18. The Ron Robinson Theater will present “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom,” the 2013 biopic starring Idris Elba as Nelson Mendela, 7 p.m. April 4-6, $5. The Old State House Museum will open its free production of “The Bridgegroom of Blowing Rock,” a play by Catherine Trieschmann performed by Torn Kite Theatre Company, at 7:30 p.m. (other performances will be 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 5, and 2 p.m. Sunday, April 6). The Weekend Theater’s production of “Tuesdays With Morrie” will also open at 7:30 p.m., with other performances at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 5, and 2:30 p.m., Sunday, April 6, $12-$16. L.A. NOISE: John Wiese will be at White Water Tavern with Bonnie Montgomery and The Bloodless Cooties Tuesday.
SATURDAY 4/5 TUESDAY 4/8
JOHN WIESE
9:30 p.m. White Water Tavern.
“I deal in actual sounds,” John Wiese once told the L.A. Times. “Often, these will have a lot of trajectory of their own and define their own path.” A composer and noise musician, Weise has dealt in his own
chaotic brand of “actual sounds” since the late ’90s, touring and recording with his projects LHD and Sissy Spacek, and with a diverse orbit of often better-known groups looking to borrow his distinctive sonic tool-kit, like Wolf Eyes, Yellow Swans, No Age and Sun O))), who I once saw nearly
shatter a collection of stained glass windows in an Athens, Ga., chapel by force of volume alone (the fire alarm went off and no one even noticed). Wiese is a little brilliant and maybe dangerous, and he’ll share a bill with Bonnie Montgomery and The Bloodless Cooties.
“The 400 Blows” officially announced the arrival of the French New Wave, “Breathless” gave it personality. With its sloppy, barely explored manhunt plot, makeshift tracking shots and seemingly arbitrary edits (within single takes, giving it that idiosyncratic, jittery feel), the film was something new in a way that
divided audiences and thrilled aspiring filmmakers. It’s hardly representative of Godard’s approach, as he never really made another film like it, but it’s taken on a cultural-historical life of its own as a cinematic landmark, admired for its radical direction, D.I.Y. ethos and fashion, among other reasons.
WEDNESDAY 4/9
“BREATHLESS”
7:30 p.m. Vino’s. Donations.
Splice Microcinema, the new underground film series to be held in Vino’s back room, is starting out strong with its opening night pick, the first in a set of four early Jean-Luc Godard films (screened in 16mm). If Truffaut’s
The Arkansas Orchid Society and SWROGA Show and Sale, a free event featuring a raffle, silent auction and orchid sale, will be at the Benton Event Center beginning at noon and at 11 a.m. Sunday, April 6. Gallery 360 will present “Burning Bright,” a reading by poet Jessica Otto at 7 p.m. Local garage punk band Bombay Harambee will play White Water Tavern with Teenagers and Pagiins, 9 p.m. Buttery and Irie Soul will be at the Afterthought at 9 p.m., $10, and Consumers will be at Juanita’s with Becoming Elephants and Burning the Past, 10 p.m., $10.
WEDNESDAY 4/9 Arkansas Times Musicians Showcase finalist John Willis will perform at South on Main as part of its free Local Live series, 7:30 p.m. The Slackers will play at Juanita’s at 9 p.m. with Chinese Dub Embassy and Brown Soul Shoes, $15. www.arktimes.com
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