Cape May Winter Cinema Cafe

The Cape May New Jersey State Film Festival begins its 2004 Cinema Cafés with “Sunday Afternoon at the Movies” -- a 6-week series of film screenings at the Savannah Key Ballroom in the Marquis de Lafayette Hotel, 501 Beach Drive, Cape May.

Foreign Films

The third season of Cinema Cafés will be screening classic foreign films that highlight the best examples of international cinema in a casual atmosphere where the audience can discuss the films with Ron Rollet, Festival Artistic Director, and Joe Stinson, noted Hollywood screenwriter.

The series will kick off with “La Strada,” Federico Fellini’s 1954 masterpiece and the first film that brought him international acclaim. Starring Anthony Quinn as Zampano, a traveling strongman circus performer, and Giulietta Masina as Gelsomina, a child-like waif indentured to Zampano, “La Strada” is a moving, human film that is both harshly realistic and richly symbolic.

Coffee and desserts will be available for purchase as well as drinks. Local restaurants will be offering Cinema Café ticket holders discounts for dinner (not including alcohol, tax and gratuity) following the screenings. Whoever attends the most screenings will receive a Cape May NJS Film Festival T-shirt and hat.

• Other films in this series will include Roman Polanski’s striking first film “Knife in the Water;”
• Satyajit Ray’s “Pather Panchali,” a remarkable film experience and the first of his unforgettable "Apu Trilogy;"
• Fritz Lang’s haunting “M” starring Peter Lorre, a film which laid the foundation for all subsequent horror films;
• Akira Kurosawa’s “Rashômon” which tells a story four times through different characters and won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival;
• and “The Vanishing,” by Dutch filmmaker George Sluizer, a movie only those with ice in their veins can ever forget.
  

Time and Place

The showings begin at 2 PM at the Savannah Key Ballroom, Marquis de Lafayette Hotel, 501 Beach Drive, Cape May. Tickets are available at the door and there is no need for reservations. Suggested admission is $10 for adults, $5 for seniors and students. Series passes, which can be purchased at the first showing, are $50 for all 6 screenings.