Boondocks Is Back, with ‘Diva’ on March 19

The Boondocks Film Society is back after a six-month hiatus with a screening on Saturday, March 19, of Jean-Jacques Beineix’s cult classic, “Diva.”

Boondocks is run by Jeff Palfini as a sort of labor of film love. He selects iconic and cult films from the past half century or so and matches the film with a local venue.  Hayao Miyazaki’s 1992 anime film, “Porco Rosso,” about sky pirates, was shown at the Great Barrington airport; the John Cusack film “Better off Dead,” which includes a confrontation on a ski slope, was shown at Catamount Ski Area.

Anyone who remembers “Diva” will understand why it’s being shown at the Warner Theatre in Torrington, Conn.: This combination love story-crime thriller begins and ends in a gorgeously decrepit theater in Paris.

The film’s design is credited to Hilton McConnico, one of the most famous names in fashion and design of that period. A native of Texas, he spent most of his life in Paris and was the perfect visual maestro for a French film inspired by American (and Asian) culture.

The “Diva” screening will not be in the Warner’s ornate main theater, Jeff Palfini said; it will be in the smaller “black box” theater. That will give the Boondocks team more leeway to create little vignettes inspired by the film.

One such vignette will be a small stage where soprano Lisa Williamson will sing “Ebben? Ne Andro Lontano,” the aria from the opera “La Wally” that is the musical theme and the lynchpin of the film’s plot. In the film, it is sung by actress Wilhelminia Wiggins Fernandez, the opera great whose career had not yet launched when the film came out in 1981.

Fernandez made her debut in Paris and New York in 1982 in a production of “La Boheme,” as Musetta, with costars Placido Domingo and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa.

For the Boondocks event, soprano Williamson will also perform “Musetta’s Waltz” from “La Boheme.”

Craft cocktails are always a feature of Boondocks events; the bartender from Torrington’s Brinx will be the guest mixer on March 19.

The film features a memorable scene in which one character lovingly and lavishly creates a “tartine” sandwich, a French classic that involves a baguette and a lot of butter (and in this case, caviar and onions). For the screening at the Warner, Boondocks will partner with the popular Le Gamin in Sharon, Conn., to offer tartines (jambon et beurre as well as a vegetarian option) on fresh baguettes.

Palfini said that Boondocks Film Society is back in full swing, with screenings planned for every month of the year to come. Keep an eye out at www.boondocksfilmsociety.org for more details.

And to get a “taste” of the esthetic of “Diva,” go to YouTube and search for “Zen in the art of buttering bread.”

Tickets for “Diva” are $20 and can be purchased at https://boondocksfilmsociety.org/now-showing. Cocktail hour begins at 7 p.m., the musical performance begins at 7:45 p.m. and the film begins at 8 p.m.