Each month, Melanie Friesen invites a distinguished guest to Vancity Theatre’s Cinema Salon, in order to present his/her favourite film. After the screening, both audience and speaker have the opportunity to engage over drinks and snacks in the Vancity lounge. This month’s film is Michael Mann’s Heat.
Set in Los Angeles, Heat is a crime thriller – the ultimate cops and robbers film with the volatile cop (Al Pacino) going head-to-head against the cool robber (Robert De Niro). Cops and robbers need one another, inhabiting the same space with their own rules, satisfying identical urges through contrasting means. They are pulled to the “heat” of violent conflict, they relish victimizing the other guy, and they’re losers at personal relationships. Heat packs in powerful performances from a stellar supporting cast, a unique soundtrack, and camerawork that soars with a new spirit of film noir.
This month’s Cinema Salon is hosted by Canadian author and National Magazine Awards winner JJ Lee. Lee’s debut book, The Measure of a Man: The Story of a Father, a Son, and a Suit, was published in 2011 and shortlisted for a 2011 Governor General’s Award for non-fiction, a 2012 Charles Taylor Prize, and a Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize.
Lee contributes both fashion essays and art criticism for various media outlets including CBC Radio, the Vancouver Sun, the Georgia Straight, ELLE Canada and the National Post. Prior to the book’s publication, Lee worked as a broadcast journalist at CBC Radio where he originally prepared The Measure of a Man as a radio documentary on the social history of men’s suits for the program Ideas.
Vancity Cinema Salon with JJ Lee Presents Heat
Date: Tuesday, July 2, 7:30 pm
Venue: Vancity Theatre, 1181 Seymour Street, Vancouver
Tickets: $13.00; may be purchased online
