Heights Theater
The Twin Cities classic cinema experience
Established 1926
DO NOT PARK IN THE CHURCH PARKING LOT BEHIND THE THEATER, YOU WILL BE TOWED!
SUMMER CAMP
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Summer Camp tells the story of Nora (Keaton), Ginny (Bates), and Mary (Woodard), who have been best friends since being inseparable at summer camp. As the years have passed, they have seen each other less and less, so when the chance to reunite for a summer camp reunion arises, they all take it, some begrudgingly and others excitedly. Each of their lives might not be where they had imagined, but one thing is for sure - Nora, Ginny, and Mary need each other, and summer camp reminds them why.
THE GETAWAY
None
ALL SEATS $12.00
McQueen is D McCoy, a criminal mastermind four years into a ten-year sentence. When his wife, Carol (Ali McGraw), visits, he tells her to do what she can to get him sprung - so she agrees to get Doc to help with a half-million-dollar heist organized by corrupt businessman (and parole board member) Jack Beynon (Ben Johnson). Nothing goes as planned, the bodies fall, and Doc and Carol make a beeline for Mexico to save their skins. Director Sam Peckinpah captured the intense chemistry of real-life couple McQueen and McGraw all the while keeping the stunning brutality of Jim Thompson's source novel.
DCP - Warner Bros.
ARTIE SHAW: TIME IS ALL YOU'VE GOT
June 10, 2024, 7 p.m.
ALL SEATS $15.00
Director BRIGITTE BERMAN in person, Q & A to follow screening! New 4K restoration!
"Beware of what you wish for - you may be so unfortunate as to get it." - Artie Shaw. This critically acclaimed documentary - newly restored - tells the story of Artie Shaw, legendary jazz clarinetist, with interviews of the 75-year-old about his life. Born in 1910 in New York City, Shaw leaves home to tour as a musician at the age of 16 and slowly rises to national prominence, becoming as famous for his eight marriages as for his musical skill, which earns him comparisons to Benny Goodman. Shaw discusses his musical and cinematic career, his retirement in 1954 and his many interests, from writing to fishing.
DCP - Rialto Pictures.
THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR
June 13, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
ALL SEATS $12.00
Thomas Crown (McQueen) is probably the coolest millionaire ever. Suave, a sportsman and man-about-town, he's also the brains behind a stunning heist that nets him and his compatriots (who never discover their leader) a sweet couple million. Enter Vicki Anderson (Faye Dunaway), a sharp insurance investigator hungry for the 10% commission to bring the culprits to justice. When she meets Crown, sparks fly and soon Vicki begins to question her motives. THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR was a massive hit, which, along with BULLITT that same year, cemented McQueen's status as the king of the box office.
DCP - Park Circus
HEIGHTS 2024 CELEBRATION OF CINEMA
85TH ANNIVERSARY SCREENING!
THE WIZARD OF OZ in 35MM TECHNICOLOR
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ALL SEATS $15.00
BONUS SCREENING ADDED TUESDAY JUNE 18th, our Monday June 17th screening is sold out
35MM TECHNICOLOR DYE-TRANSFER PRINT!!
One of the greatest motion pictures of all-time is one of our most popular events and sells out year after year. As always, we're screening the rare 35mm Technicolor Dye Transfer print, whose astounding colors must be seen to be believed. Has there ever been a more essential piece of movie magic than the journey of Dorothy and Toto? Never. And the lush Technicolor makes the colors so rich it's like seeing a painting.
Want to know more about the Technicolor Dye-Transfer process Click here.
THE GREAT ESCAPE
June 20, 2024, 7 p.m.
ALL SEATS $12.00
1942, behind enemy lines. A cunning group of Allied POWs have escaped from camps one too many times, and so they're rounded up and kept under lock and key by the brutal Colonel von Luger, who threatens instant death for anyone who dares try again. Does that stop them? What do you think? Despite being a star-studded ensemble picture, Steve McQueen steals the film as Captain Virgil Hilt, the irreverent American who loves motorcycles.
DCP - Park Circus
STARTS FRIDAY JUNE 21.
THELMA
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The feature directorial debut of Josh Margolin, THELMA is a poignant action-comedy that gives veteran Oscar nominee June Squibb (NEBRASKA) her first leading role and features the final performance of trailblazing actor Richard Roundtree (SHAFT). Squibb, who did most of her own stunts in the film, plays Thelma Post, a feisty 93-year-old grandmother who gets conned by a phone scammer pretending to be her grandson (The White Lotus' Fred Hechinger) and sets out on a treacherous quest across Los Angeles, accompanied by an aging friend (Roundtree) and his motorized scooter, to reclaim what was taken from her. Parker Posey, Clark Gregg, and Malcolm McDowell also star.
ONCE UPON A TIME...IN HOLLYWOOD in 35MM
June 27, 2024, 7 p.m.
ALL SEATS $15.00
We're bringing back this ode to late 60s Hollywood on glorious 35mm, just as it should be seen, and just to highlight Damian Lewis' brief but memorable turn as Steve McQueen. The story of Rick Dalton and Cliff Booth's (Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, whose chemistry is amazing) attempts to revive Dalton's flagging career is really an excuse to pay homage to the Southern California world that Quentin Tarantino loved, and so do we.
35mm print - Sony Pictures.
HEIGHTS 2024 CELEBRATION OF CINEMA
95TH ANNIVERSARY SCREENING.
PANDORA'S BOX
June 30, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
ALL SEATS $12.00
NEW DIGITAL RESTORATION!
Lulu is a reckless young woman, the mistress of the respectable publisher, Ludwig, but very willing to have more men on the side - including Ludwig's attractive son, Alwa. Later, after she drives Ludwig's fiance away, he kills himself - and then Lulu pounces on his son. And now she beings her stunning descent, dragging Alwa with her in this devastating portrait of a young woman caught up in the ribald insanity of Weimar Germany. Louis Brooks is astonishing as Lulu, giving what many consider the greatest of all silent film performances.
DCP - Janus Films.
HEIGHTS 2024 CELEBRATION OF CINEMA
60TH ANNIVERSARY SCREENING.
A HARD DAY'S NIGHT
July 1, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
ALL SEATS $12.00
Originally planned by United Artists to be a quickie B movie to cash in on The Beatles popularity. A Hard Days Night emerged as a boldly contemporary rock n' roll comedy unleashing the fledgling Beatles into a maelstrom of screaming fans, paranoid producers, rabid press and troublesome family members. Maybe one of the greatest rock and roll movies ever made?
DCP - Janus Films.
WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?
July 3, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
ALL SEATS $12.00
Adapted from a play considered so shocking it could never be filmed, starring the ravishing Taylor deliberately made up to be frumpy and unappealing, and helmed by a young Broadway director making his cinema debut, WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? was thought to be a sure disaster. And, in a sense, it was--onscreen, that is, capturing perfectly the trainwreck of a marriage between Martha and George and the chaos of American life in one fell swoop. One of the most combative films in movie history, WOOLF features two of the greatest performances ever by Elizabeth Taylor (who won an Oscar) and Richard Burton (who didn't, but should have). Often overlooked are the amazing performances by Sandy Dennis (who won Best Supporting Actress) and George Segal (also nominated).
THE DRIVER'S SEAT (IDENTIKIT)
July 11, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
ALL SEATS $12.00
Lise has got problems. She abandons her home in northern Europe and heads to Rome for reasons unknown, where she wanders the city, slowly, slowly, slowly becoming more unhinged. She's seeking just the right man, the one who will help her meet the fate she has so long desired. Reeling from her divorce from Richard Burton, Taylor sought out this story, from a novel by Muriel Spark, and threw every emotion into her performance, which is truly astonishing. Never before screened in Minnesota, THE DRIVER'S SEAT should not be missed.
HEIGHTS 2024 CELEBRATION OF CINEMA
20TH ANNIVERSARY SCREENING
NAPOLEON DYNAMITE
July 15, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
ALL SEATS $12.00
Romance! Intrigue! Politics! Is this the epic NAPOLEON? NO! It's the epically weird NAPOLEON DYNAMITE, unleashed on American audiences 20 years ago! Napoleon is a bumbling 16-year-old trying to endure high school in rural Idaho with his best friends Deb and Pedro. Learning to dance, falling in love, helping his friend win a school election, and even impressive horsemanship make Napoleon Dynamite one of the great heroes of the 21st Century.
DCP - Walt Disney Company
REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE
July 18, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
ALL SEATS $12.00
We will be screening John Huston's original sepia tinted color print of REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE, which is the way he intended it to be seen
On a U. S. Army post in the South, Major Weldon Penderton (Marlon Brando) and his wife Leonora (Taylor) are having troubles. He's always on edge, seemingly coming to a fine point while his wife, the daughter of a general, openly scornes him. Enter Private L.G. Williams (Robert Forster) a handsome and very strange man (read: he rides horses in the nude) who pushes Major Pemberton past his breaking point. John Huston's very bizarre film is a stifling tale of oppressed and beautiful people wrecked by expectations. Based on the equally strange novel by Carson McCullers.
85TH ANNIVERSARY SCREENING!
GONE WITH THE WIND
July 21, 2024, 1 p.m.
ALL SEATS $12.00
GONE WITH THE WIND is many things, the most epic of Hollywood films, arguably the most popular film ever released, and finally, an inaccurate fantasy of the Old South and the "Noble cause" of the Civil War. The enormously popular novel was bought by David O. Selznick, who almost literally moved heaven, and definitely moved earth, to bring the story of Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler, and their tempestuous love affair during the Civil War, to the silver screen. Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable were the iconic stars, forever cementing their place in cinema's firmament, and the film went on to win a then record 10 Academy Awards, and break every box office record, which still stands when adjusted for inflation. If you love GWTW, you will not want to miss this epic on the big screen!
DCP - Warner Bros.
SECRET CEREMONY
July 25, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
ALL SEATS $12.00
Leonora (Taylor) is a prostitute whose only daughter has drowned. Returning from the cemetery on a bus, she encounters Cenci (Mia Farrow) a willowy young girl who mistakes Leonora for her own mother, also dead. Soon, Leonora begins to assume the role of Cenci's mother, until Albert (Robert Mitchum), the girl's stepfather, enters the scene with some very unsettling ideas. The first of Taylor's collaborations with director Joseph Losey, SECRET CEREMONY is a movie so darned creepy we should be showing it over Halloween.
DCP - Universal Pictures.
HEIGHTS 2024 CELEBRATION OF CINEMA
70TH ANNIVERSARY SCREENING.
GODZILLA
July 29, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
ALL SEATS $12.00
We will be screening the original 1954 Japanese version, not the edited 1956 American release.
When a Japanese freighter is mysteriously destroyed off Odo Island, and the fishing there is suddenly reduced to nothing, the islanders demand an explanation. When it comes, it's a doozy...Godzilla, an ancient sea creature, awoken by underwater hydrogen bomb testing. He's mad, he's got all the power of a nuclear bomb, and he's ready to kick butt. Ishiro Honda's GODZILLA became an instant international masterpiece, spawning an enormous franchise that exists to this day. Don't miss the stunning original, unlike any of its newer incarnations.
In Japanese with English subtitles
DCP - Janus films.
BOOM!
July 31, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
ALL SEATS $12.00
BOOM! We have to open this description by pointing out that BOOM! is John Waters' favorite movie, one that he adores so much he shows it to first dates and won't continue the evening if they hate it. "The greatest failed art movie ever," he has said, with adoration. BOOM! is the story of Sissy Goforth (Taylor), an actress sequestered on a strange Mediterranean island, where she barks out her memoirs to a scared secretary. Soon, she's visited by Christopher Flanders (Richard Burton), a poet and, basically, the angel of death. Also visiting are Noel Coward, who plays the Witch of Capri, who likes to dine on small sea monsters. BOOM! has so much going for it: director Joseph Losey's lush and swooping camerawork, a bizarre and gorgeous set built by Universal on the Isola de Presa, the wacked-out script from a disastrous Tennessee Williams play, and Liz's costumes that make her look as radiant as the Mediterranean sun, not to mention her over-the-top performance. We love this movie, and think you will, too.
HEIGHTS 2024 CELEBRATION OF CINEMA
AMERICAN GRAFFITI
Aug. 12, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
ALL SEATS $12.00
Before Star Wars, George Lucas tapped into a beleaguered America's urge for a more innocent time with American Graffiti. This warm and hilarious coming of age comedy invokes the music and the memories of falling in love and cruising Main Street in 1962.
DCP - Universal Pictures.
HEIGHTS 2024 CELEBRATION OF CINEMA
65TH ANNIVERSARY SCREENING.
IMITATION OF LIFE (1959)
Aug. 26, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
ALL SEATS $12.00
Douglas Sirk's Hollywood swan song is also rightfully regarded as his masterpiece, and a cutting indictment of racial and sexual mores that was years ahead of its time. The story of two women, Lora (Lana Turner), who seeks Broadway success, and her housekeeper Annie (Juanita Moore), who wants nothing more than love and security, IMITATION OF LIFE peels away the shiny veneer of the American Dream to reveal a heartless landscape of loneliness and discrimination.
DCP - Universal Pictures.
HEIGHTS 2024 CELEBRATION OF CINEMA
10TH ANNIVERSARY SCREENING.
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL
Sept. 16, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
ALL SEATS $12.00
A drab hotel owned by the charming Zero Moustafa is the basis for this story-within-a-story, as the older Zero recounts his life to a mysterious Author. The Grand Budapest Hotel, high in the mountains of Zubrowka, is the backdrop for the story of the great concierge Gustave H. Gustave ran a tight ship, and on this side seduced the old women of the hotel, one of whom may or may not have left him a priceless painting in her will. But her evil son doesn't like this, and so heists, romance, jailbreak, and other unbelievable plot twists, played by one of the most star-studded casts in modern cinema, make The Grand Budapest Hotel Anderson's most ambitious and successful film (by far). Nominated for nine and winner of four Academy Awards.
DCP - Walt Disney Co.
HEIGHTS 2024 CELEBRATION OF CINEMA
105TH ANNIVERSARY SCREENING!
DIE PUPPE - THE DOLL
Sept. 29, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
ALL SEATS $20.00
With live accompaniment by Jackie Beckey.
When Lancelot, the nephew of the Baron of Chanterelle, is told by his uncle that he must marry, he balks. He is not in the least bit interested in having little Lancelots running underfoot, and so when the Baron puts out a reward to local maidens to wed his nephew, the poor fellow flees! But then he gets an idea...in the forest lives a man whose mechanical dolls are so true to life they fool everyone. He'll marry one of them. But when the dollmaker's daughter falls for the timid Lancelot, she switches places with his doll of choice, with hilarious, and sexy, results. Ernst Lubitsch's THE DOLL (DIE PUPPE) is one of the funniest sex comedies ever made, a riotous look at love and marriage, and one of the director's most sophisticated films.
Presented in Partnership with Archives on Screen Twin Cities and Syncopated Silents
HEIGHTS 2024 CELEBRATION OF CINEMA
80TH ANNIVERSARY SCREENING.
ARSENIC AND OLD LACE in 35MM
Sept. 30, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
ALL SEATS $15.00
One of the most beloved dark comedies returns to the Heights! When Mortimer Brewster (Cary Grant) returns to his Brooklyn home to show off his new wife to his spinster aunts and oddball uncle, he figures nothing can go wrong, right? But when Mortimer's psychopathic brother shows up with a doctor (who just happens to be Peter Lorre) the body count rises and the laughs never cease.
35mm print - Park Circus.
HEIGHTS 2024 CELEBRATION OF CINEMA
50TH ANNIVERSARY SCREENING.
THE WICKER MAN
Oct. 14, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
ALL SEATS $12.00
A young girl has disappeared on the island of Summerisle, and Sergeant Neil Howie (Edward Woodward) is sent to investigate. There, no one admits the girl ever existed, and worse, to the very conservative Sgt. Howie, the islanders engage in ritual paganism. But as his investigation widens, Sgt. Howie uncovers shocking truths about the islanders and their very charismatic leader, Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee). Derided upon its original release and then vanished, THE WICKER MAN almost immediately became a cult hit, and is one of the most disturbing and original horror films ever made.
DCP - Rialto Pictures.
HEIGHTS 2024 CELEBRATION OF CINEMA
80TH ANNIVERSARY SCREENING.
THE UNINVITED in 35MM
Oct. 28, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
ALL SEATS $15.00
Brother and sister Rick and Patricia purchase Windward House, in Cornwall, England, as the perfect retreat where Rick can compose his music. But the house sold cheap, due to rumors that the woman who committed suicide within its boundaries still haunts it to this day. This moody and influential film--thought by some to be the first ghost film in which the ghosts are real creatures, not tricks--is at once despairing and frightening. Considered by Martin Scorsese and Guillermo del Toro to be one of the most frightening films of all time, The Uninvited is not to be missed.
35mm print - Universal Pictures.
HEIGHTS 2024 CELEBRATION OF CINEMA
THE SHINING
Oct. 30, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
ALL SEATS $12.00
Arguably Kubrick's best, and perhaps most personal film, The Shining has influenced scores of horror films, and its technical achievements with the Steadicam changed cinema forever. The story of writer Jack Torrence, whose personal demons collide with the haunted Overlook Hotel, which he and his family have been hired to occupy over the winter, is at once a mind-bending trip and a terrifying, and moving, destruction of a man's world. So bizarre it has spawned countless conspiracy theories, including explaining the moon landing, The Shining can be watched, interpreted and reinterpreted numerous times.
DCP - Warner Bros.
HEIGHTS 2024 CELEBRATION OF CINEMA
SINGIN' IN THE RAIN
Nov. 4, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
ALL SEATS $12.00
Singin' In the Rain is one of our most popular events and sells out year after year! Considered by many to be one of the greatest screen musicals of all time, Singin' in the Rain is also a hilarious look at the chaos and turmoil that the switch from silents to talkies cast upon Hollywood in the late 1920's. Plus all that glorious TECHNICOLOR!
DCP - Warner Bros.
HEIGHTS 2024 CELEBRATION OF CINEMA
60TH ANNIVERSARY SCREENING.
DR. STRANGELOVE in 35MM
Nov. 7, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
ALL SEATS $15.00
A scathing satire on the Cold War, Dr. Strangelove is also Stanley Kubrick's love-letter to the manic comic stylings of Peter Sellers. But Sellers isn't alone (even though he plays three roles): George C. Scott, Slim Pickins, Keenan Wynn, and Sterling Hayden all play against type and are absolutely hilarious.
35mm print - Sony Pictures.
HEIGHTS 2024 CELEBRATION OF CINEMA
MUNCHHAUSEN
Nov. 11, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
ALL SEATS $15.00
Germany's answer to THE WIZARD OF OZ and THE THIEF OF BAGDAD, the lush Agfacolor extravaganza, MUNCHHAUSEN stars Hans Albers as the incredible lying hero, a man who has seemingly lived for over two centuries, and whose tall tales stretch the imagination (and the special effects budget). Filmed in wartime Germany to celebrate the famous UFA studios 25th anniversary, and meant to compete with Hollywood and divert the public from the war, MUNCHHAUSEN is an impressive adult fairytale replete with nudity and ribald jokes, scripted by banned writer Erich Kaster (who worked under a pseudonym) and starring Albers, one of the biggest stars of wartime Germany. MUNCHHAUSEN has gone on to become a post-war classic, rarely seen in Minnesota.
DCP - Kino Lorber and the F. W. Murnau Foundation.
