CINEMATINEE, MAY 2008
A potpourri of movies, past and present, often with an emphasis on life in the west- which could mean the new west, the old west, or anything in between-the CineMatinee series is designed to show area residents that film is a form of art as well as entertainment! At least one film a month for this series has a ‘New Mexico Connection’, drawing from the vast pool of movies made in the state or perhaps featuring a star/story from New Mexico talent.
Unless otherwise noted, screening time is 1.30 PM, and admission is $4 for everyone except film society members who are admitted for $1. The theatre is located one half block of the Mesilla Plaza. For more information, please call (575) 524-8287 or 522-0286.
May 17- Payday (1972, Rated R, 102 minutes) A musician finds his life and his career jumping off the rails in this moody, intelligent drama. Maury Dann (Rip Torn) is a singer and songwriter struggling to hold onto his footing as one of the top names in country & western music.
This being 1972, long before the Nashville sound had gone "mainstream," Dann has a new Cadillac and a small entourage to show for his efforts, but most of his shows are one-nighters at beer-soaked honky tonks in the Deep South.
Onstage Dann comes off as a soft-hearted good ol' boy, but off the stand, Dann is a mean-spirited hell raiser with a nearly unquenchable appetite for booze, pills, and women. Over the course of a seemingly typical day and a half, Dann steals a fan's girlfriend; ditches his longtime mistress, Mayleen; picks up a naïve groupie, and gives her a crash course in life on the road; fires his guitar player (and best friend) and hires a starry-eyed teenager as his replacement; tries to bribe a disc jockey with booze and free records; has a harrowing run-in with his speed-addicted mother; discovers he's missed his son's birthday by four months; and, in cahoots with his manager, Clarence, fast-talks his loyal driver, cook, and gofer, Chicago, into taking a possible murder rap.
While Payday earned excellent reviews (particularly for Rip Torn's superb performance as Maury Dann) and a handful of awards (Daryl Duke's direction won him a citation from the National Association of Film Critics, while Don Carpenter's screenplay received a prize from the Writer's Guild of America) the film's downbeat themes made it a tough sell.
However, Payday has gained a cult following, and more than one "outlaw" country star of the 1970s has tried to claim that the film was based on him.
