If you’ve grown up loving movies, and fantasize about having a career around film, you may pursue the coveted paths (director, actor, screenwriter, special effects artist, film critic), but find that the purest expression of this love is the most straightforward one: film programmer at a movie theater. With this job, you are responsible for picking the films that get shown to the public, a natural extension of every cinephile’s instinct to show all their favorite movies to everyone they know.
Photo courtesy of Neon.
Put it this way: it may not be a coincidence that Quentin Tarantino’s filmmaking output has slowed down since he bought the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles in 2010, and started taking a more hands-on role in its programming in 2014.
There are few entertainers out there with a more outspoken love for film than comedian/actor/writer Patton Oswalt. His memoir Silver Screen Fiend: Learning About Life from an Addiction to Film will resonate with anyone who’s found themselves keeping a journal of films they’ve seen, and agonizing over the star ratings. It’s a perfect fit, then, to have Oswalt come through Olympia’s Capitol Theater in November, presenting two films that have the Pacific Northwest coursing through their veins: 1971’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller and 2021’s Pig.
“Because Patton is such an enthusiastic and deeply passionate movie lover, we knew it made sense to invite him to the Capitol Theater for a programming residency of sorts,” says Olympia Film Society Director of Programming Rob Patrick. “If you have seen the comedian and author in the Criterion Closet, it’s easy to understand how painterly and hilarious he is when it comes to discussing movie history.
“Not only that, but Patton loves arthouse theaters as much as we do,” Patrick continues. “At the Olympia Film Society, we love guest curation. Everyone from Beatrice Loayza at The New York Times to Jonathan Marlow at Scarecrow Video in Seattle has programmed at the theater.”
According to Patrick, it was Oswalt’s idea to choose these two films, which depict the Pacific Northwest in two radically different times. In Robert Altman’s classic revisionist Western, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Warren Beatty moves into a mining town in 1900s Washington, trying his best to become a big shot in the middle of a boom period. Michael Sarnoski’s new classic, Pig, explores the fringes of modern day Portland, with Nicolas Cage starring as a reclusive former chef whose truffle pig gets stolen. Both films showcase the Pacific Northwest’s natural wonders as an overwhelming force that has to be bent to, not conquered; and both films have an elegiac atmosphere that hangs over them.
Oswalt will take part in onstage discussions following each film, delving more into their themes and providing his unique point of view. Oswalt’s gifts as a raconteur are perfectly matched for exploring two films so rich in detail that reward analysis, and that tantalizingly refrain from providing narrative road maps. Anyone who’s heard Oswalt discuss movies will know that his enthusiasm for the form crosses over from infectious into borderline evangelical.
For anyone looking for more cinematic dives into our part of the world, Patrick has a couple of suggestions that might float your boat.
“If asked to program a film set in the Pacific Northwest, I would pick Showing Up, simply because I’ve never seen someone eat out of a Tupperware container more convincingly than Michelle Williams,” says Patrick. “Stage Door, while not set in Washington state, features Lucille Ball as a Seattleite. That has to count for something.”
WHAT:
McCabe & Mrs. Miller and Pig and Post-Film Discussions with Patton Oswalt
WHEN:
McCabe & Mrs. Miller, 7 p.m., November 15
Pig, 7 p.m., November 16
WHERE:
Capitol Theater, 206 5th Ave SE, Olympia, WA 98501