The Gorge Cinema celebrates its 40th anniversary showcasing movies with a screening of what some consider the best film of all time, Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 thriller Vertigo, on Jan. 27 at 4pm.
Hitchcock’s seductive tale of a San Francisco detective, played by James Stewart, who falls for a friend’s wife (Kim Novak) while investigating her mysterious past.
Producer and host Thom Ernst, of TVO’s venerable Saturday Night at the Movies (SNAM) will be on hand at the screening, offering insight on Hitchcock’s masterpiece, which was voted by The British Film Institute to the top spot over Orson Welles’ 1941 masterpiece Citizen Kane.
Ernst was a frequent patron of the Gorge Cinema during his student days in Waterloo and considers the cinema one of the top five repertory cinemas in Ontario.
In his on-line blog he writes “As cinemas grow bigger, louder and flashier, (not a bad thing, but a thing) the tranquility of the repertory movie house takes on greater significance. Nostalgia is part of it, but there’s more. These are the community cathedrals, country churches for anyone who has experienced the kind of transformation, fleeting or lasting, that a good movie offers.
“It’s too much to call it a religious experience, though it might feel that way to some. Better to hold it as a cherished sanctuary, a place of refuge. No doubt that for the next generation of movie lovers, similar experiences can be had at the multiplexes – similar but not the same.”
Ernst’s appearance at the cinema will be one of his final as host of SNAM. Late last year, TVO executives announced that due to budget cuts, the publicly funded TV station would be making the very difficult decision to cancel Saturday Night at the Movies after 38 years and he recently called the visit “a suitable arena in which to wrap things up.”
For John Chalmers, owner of Gorge Cinema, the afternoon event will be a fitting tribute to both the film and Ernst’s role promoting great films.
“There’s a certain convoluted and delicious pleasure in having a 40-year-old cinema celebrate the best film of all time along with the host of the revered Saturday Night at the Movies. It’s going to be a memorable movie experience.”
Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 thriller Vertigo will appear at Gorge Cinema on Jan. 27 at 4pm.
Tickets are available in advance at the Gorge Cinema or by reservation through gorgecinema@gmail.com.
