classic and foreign flicks -- and indies, too

It's time to turn off TiVo and drive fast past Blockbusters. Montgomery County is reeling on up. At last, bona fide film junkies and everyone else can see the newest foreign and independent films close to home.

Seven days a week, the American Film Institute (AFI) Silver Theatre in Silver Spring and Landmark's Bethesda Row Cinema screen ranging from oldies like "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad World" to Tim Burton's "Big Fish." There's even a film group ­ Cinema Art Bethesda ­ that takes in a movie, then talks about it.

The wonder of it all is why now -- after old stalwarts like D.C.'s Biograph and Key closed their doors -- these theaters are flourishing.

We can attribute it to the baby boomers, theorizes Stan Levin, who heads discussion groups for Cinema Art Bethesda.

While independent theaters thrived in the 1960s, by the late '70s and '80s, boomers were looking for movies-for-the-entire-family or just staying home. Some two decades later, with the boomers' children out of the equation, oldtimers are waxing nostalgic over midnight showings of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show."

This audience embraces Landmark's Bethesda Row Cinema like an old college buddy. Landmark Theatre is the nation's largest art-house chain, with 56 theaters representing 196 screens in 14 states. As for AFI, it expanded from its Kennedy Center site to new glittery digs in the renovated Silver Theatre.

Of course, this movie madness is much more complicated than a bunch of aging boomers looking for something to pontificate over while sipping lattes. When AFI had an Iranian movie festival in December, the theater was bustling with expatriates excited to see films from their beloved homeland, notes AFI movie programmer Gabriel Wardell.

Like Italy after World War II, suppressed countries, such as Iran, Czechoslovakia and Poland, are beginning to express themselves through cinema. And they aren't alone. Bombay, India, sometimes labeled Ballywood, churns out scores of movies every year for its movie-obsessed nation.

All this moviemaking is exceedingly important to the Washington area's burgeoning immigrant population.

Wardell predicts the region's Latin American film market will expand even further.

Programmers like Wardell find it challenging to predict which movie will attract the flocks.

"People were coming out of the woodwork to see 'Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion,'" Wardell recalls. In this case, "It was the hip, young, politically active REM, Pearl Jam" crowd that pounced on the movie. He says that "The Real Old Testament," an obscure American film Wardell saw at a number of festivals, turned into a real crowd-pleaser.

In January, AFI plans to showcase movies by Polish filmmaker Krysztof Kieslowski, who some filmmakers compare to Ingmar Bergman and Federico Fellini.

But with all the "Lord of the Rings" and "Matrix" type movies out there, what's so special about foreign and independent movies?

"Foreign films tend to be ambiguous," Levine opines. "Hollywood holds its audience's hand. Europeans aren't afraid of topics. American movies are into car chases and fornication."

The extensive test marketing Hollywood does before releasing a movie really irks Levin. Plus, "We [federal government] don't subsidize the film industry."

Beverly Zeidenberg, who created the Montgomery County-based movie club Cinema Art Bethesda some seven years ago, is simply "disgusted with American shoot 'em up films."

The psychoanalyst lived in New York City for years, and saw there was more to movies than the pablum coming out of Hollywood. Foreign films offer "a slice of life," Zeidenberg states.

Now this isn't to say that Levin or Zeidenberg have given up seeing Hollywood blockbusters. Zeidenberg loved "Cold Mountain" and "Mystic River." They both saw "Something's Gotta Give" with Diane Keaton, and although it received glowing reviews, these movie buffs weren't fans. Zeidenberg calls it merely "OK," while Levin blasts it: "Not one moment rang true."

Of course, not everyone is so highbrow. In fact, Wardell believes the popularity of reality TV has helped foster an interest in documentary movies since "Reality TV shows actual people, not movie stars."

Maybe people are more open to a variety of movies, but isn't it easier to kick back and watch DVDs at home? With the advent of the VCR and home theater systems, many predicted that people wouldn't want to go to theaters for anything but first-run movies. Those dire predictions turned out to be unfounded.

Seeing a movie in a theater surrounded by an audience is the "value" people still need and want, Wardell concludes. While there is some merit to the claim that moviegoers go to the cinema to see first-run movies but not classics they can rent, computer age film preservation has saved the day.

Technological advances have made it possible to see pristine copies of old classics made from the original negatives. The movies "never looked so good," AFI programmer Michael Jeck observes. Suddenly the hype surrounding the premiere of one of these doctored classics is on a parr with Hollywood opening nights.

With AFI's mission to educate, it willingly shows controversial movies including the work of Adolph Hitler's filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, shown in a retrospective at AFI, after her death last year.

In the future, AFI might include the Mel Gibson movie "Passion" currently in production, along with more risqué older movies -- such as John Waters' "Pink Flamingo."

But even AFI has his limits.

"I wouldn't want to show any Jenna Jameson movies," says Wardell, referring to the well-known porn star.

It comes down to parking

Film folks don't want to simply see a movie; they also want to talk about it. Zeidenberg has been a movie junkie for years, viewing two or three, even four, movies a week. About seven years ago, she also attended monthly movie club shows and discussions in Georgetown, but what with paying the requisite $12 parking fee, this happy hobby was getting her down.

So what was she to do? She started a suburban movie club.

The idea came to her in July 1996. By September, her brainchild, Cinema Art Bethesda, was up and running. The group became a Sunday afternoon fixture at Bethesda's Cinema & Draft House until the theater closed for renovation.

Now members and the general public meet at Landmark's Bethesda Row Cinema 10 Sundays a year at 10 a.m. to eat bagels, watch a film and then discuss it. This Sunday, they will view "Respiro," the Cannes Film Festival winner.

Members are not wishy-washy about what they want to see.

The movie they talk about must be "provocative, have psychological depth" and offer "insight into a foreign culture," Zeidenberg explains. They "seldom have conventional happy endings," she adds.

While the film must be relatively new -- it can't be out on video -- these film buffs aren't interested in previews or premieres.

After the show, a member, who has already seen the film, directs the 30- to 45-minute discussion.

"It is open ended and not didactic," Zeidenberg says. "The audience is intelligent, and many are world travelers."

These film folks aren't interested in the thumbs up or down approach to movie reviewing.

After all, "that method takes all of 30 seconds," Levin points out. "My opinion is no better or worse. The question is: How does the filmmaker use the medium to tell his or her story?"

Regardless of the film's setting, it seems that someone in the audience has been to the region.

"We showed an Iranian film and a former American hostage [1983] was in the audience," Levin recalls.

For Zeidenberg, talking about movies with a posse of like-minded film friends has been "only a positive experience."

Well, not completely.

"People complain because we don't serve low-fat cream cheese with our bagels," Zeidenberg jokes.

Everyone's a critic.

For a calendar of events, contact AFI Silver Theatre, 8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring, at AFI.com/Silver. Call Landmark's Bethesda Row Cinema, 7235 Woodmont Ave., at 301-652-7273.

Cinema Art Bethesda will screen "Respiro" at 10 a.m. Sunday at Bethesda Row Cinema; call Beverly Zeidenberg, 301-365-3679, e-mail cinemabev1@aol.com or visit the Web site: members.aol.com/cinemabeth. Tickets are $13.