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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

‘Castle Keep’ begins MAC matinee classic film series

Dan Webster

Above: The 1969 film "Castle Keep" will screen at 1 p.m. Thursday at the MAC. (Photo/Columbia Pictures)

After a long wait – thanks again, COVID-19 – film scholar Shaun O’l Higgins will resume his role as host of the Third Thursday Matinee Movie Classics series at the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture (MAC).

Higgins, a former executive at The Spokesman-Review and film presenter for Spokane Public Television, will introduce four upcoming films that explore an art-related format.

The first film, Sydney Pollack’s 1969 “Castle Keep,” will screen at 1 p.m. Thursday in the Eric A. Johnston Auditorium. Burt Lancaster stars as a World War II U.S. Army officer in charge of a detachment holed up in a Belgian castle that is threatened by approaching German forces.

“There are some deliberate and successful moments of comedy that do not undercut the seriousness of the war, but effectively accommodate the more absurd moments,” wrote a reviewer for The Hollywood Reporter.

Future films are:

November 18th: “Pollock,” a 2000 narrative film directed by and starring Ed Harris as the late abstract painter Jackson Pollock.

December 16th: “The Art of the Steal,” a 2009 documentary film about the fight over the art collection left by the late Albert C. Barnes.

January 20th: “F for Fake,” a 1973 docudrama co-directed by Orson Welles about art appreciation, art forgery and the machinations of art commerce.

All showings begin at 1 p.m. Admission is $7. Go here for more information.

Below: A scene from "Castle Keep."