Last screening at 3:45pm Thurs
Starring Robert DuVall, Sissy Spacek and Bill Murray
For advance tickets visit www.movietickets.com
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First performance Live from Royal Opera House
Cosi Fan Tutte
Friday September 10th 2:00PM
Sunday September 12th 11:00AM prerecorded
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Sept 9th 8:30pm
See new release Leonard Cohen on our screen before the dvd is available for sale. SONGS FROM THE ROAD, a dozen of Cohen’s most famous songs from that world tour, the best of Cohen’s performances at auditoriums, arenas, and stadiums from Tel Aviv to London
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Special screenings of
BEHIND THE HEDGEROW
a look inside the private world of aristocratic Newport
September 7th-September 16th limited showtimes
HELD OVER FOR ANOTHER WEEK UNTIL SEPTEMBER 16TH. Filmmaker David Bettencourt will be at the theater for q and a on September 8th.
Admission $10, members $6
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EVERYBODY'S BUDDY
NEWPORT — Vincent A. “Buddy” Cianci Jr. took three steps from his limo parked in front of the Jane Pickens Theater when Charles Walsh spotted him from a bench in Eisenhower Park.
“Hey, Buddy!” the Newport resident yelled Thursday night. “Welcome back!”
Cianci stopped, pivoted and waved at Walsh. “It’s good to see him out and about,” Walsh said. “I didn’t know he was coming to town. It’s good to see him living his life. He’s paid his debt and should be able to enjoy his freedom.”
It’s clear Cianci is enjoying his freedom. He appeared at the Pickens as a fundraiser for the theater, which screened the Cherry Arnold documentary “Buddy: The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Notorious Mayor.”
Cianci likes the film and is willing to help Arnold, who was on hand Thursday night, in promoting it. Cianci schmoozed with folks who paid $50 for a pre-screening cocktail party, working the room — or the lobby in this case.
Sixty-five others paid $25 to see just the film.
Cianci served as Providence’s mayor from 1975-84 (interrupted by an assault conviction) and from 1991-02. He was convicted — wrongly, he maintains — in 2002 of conspiring to run a criminal enterprise in Providence City Hall and spent late 2002 to last summer in prison in Fort Dix, N.J.
“I think I may still take freedom for granted,” he said Thursday. “But I don’t take it for granted the way I once did, that’s for sure.”
The old story is that Cianci would appear at the opening of an envelope. Birthday party, wedding anniversary, backyard barbecue? Send him an invite.
“I think it was more that I would show up for the opening of a wound,” he said. “Actually, a lot of things I had to go to when I was mayor. Now I can pick and choose.”
At the Pickens, he greeted old friends, like retired U.S. Rep. Fernand St Germain,who lives in Newport. Cianci used to sport a variety of toupees. But he surrendered them in prison and has gone au naturel since his return.
“How do you like my hair?” Cianci asked the equally balding St Germain. “We can go to the same barber.”
Anne McCarver is an Oklahoma transplant who has lived in Newport for eight years. She’d heard about Cianci but had never met him.
“I thought it would be fun to see the movie, which I’ve never seen,” she said. “And they’re giving us copies of the DVD, and the best part is, we get to meet him.”
Al Conti’s met Cianci a few times. Conti is a professional actor and a retired Newport police detective. He and Cianci are somehow related through marriage.
“I wanted to come down and help out the arts,” Conti said. “I’ve always been a supporter of the Jane Pickens, and I get to come down and support the guy who calls me ‘cousin.’”
Proceeds from the fundraiser will go toward buying a new screen, possibly retractable, for the theater. Owner Kathy Staab said that would allow her to hold more live performances.
On Thursday, Cianci was the performer, even if he was only being himself. His profession is ostensibly talk-show host on WPRO-AM and political analyst on ABC6 TV. But his job is primarily being Buddy Cianci.
Arnold said Thursday’s appearance was the second with Cianci since his release. He attended the film’s DVD release party in Providence and joined Arnold for the question-and-answer session, as he did Thursday night.
“People seem to think we hang out a lot together,” she said. “But that’s not the case. But he’s been great with Q-and-A. He just kind of takes over.”
Outside the theater, Cianci posed for pictures and chatted with filmgoers and enjoyed the gorgeous Newport night. Drivers cruised past and honked their horns, one guy shouting, “Heyyyyy, Buddy” and a man walking his dog said, “Welcome back to Newport, Mayor Cianci.”
“This,” Arnold said, “happens wherever he goes.”
Cianci has strolled back into public life from what he calls “my vacation” as if he’d just gone to Cape Cod for a weekend. Talk shows, TV, speaking engagements — he appeared for free at the Pickens but gets paid for other gigs — are part of daily life, which begins at 6 a.m. when he rises for breakfast and to scan newspapers.
Cianci, 67, is ineligible to run for mayor of Providence in six years. He says he has no interest. These days he fires critical shots at current Mayor David N. Cicilline and other officials who fail to meet his standards.
Cianci now finds himself among a group with which he once tangled: media members. “Now I’m a huge fan of the First Amendment,” he said with a laugh. “It’s the greatest thing. Who knows? I might even consider going back into the Army to defend it.”
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