HOME - Highlights

FILM - THE FALL (R) 117 Min.

Limited 5-day engagement!

A little blessing in disguise. This fantastical story with stunning visuals begins in a hospital on the outskirts of 1920s Los Angeles. An injured stuntman spins a yarn for a fellow patient – a little girl with a broken arm – about five mythical heroes. The stuntman’s fractured state of mind and the girl’s vivid imagination conspire to blur the line between fantasy and reality in what one viewer called Director Tarsem Singh’s, “love letter to cinema.” Original, thought-provoking and brimming with visual surprises, The Fall will leave you thinking about it for days afterward. 

Fri. Aug. 29 at 7 p.m.; Sat. Aug. 30 at 3:30 (matinee) and 7:30 p.m.; Sun. Aug. 31 at 3:30 (matinee) and 6:30 p.m.; Mon. Sept. 1 at 7 p.m.; Tues. Sept. 2 at 7 p.m.

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FILM - GONZO: THE LIFE AND WORK OF DR. HUNTER S. THOMPSON (R) 118 Min.

Limited 4-day engagement!

“I wouldn't recommend sex, drugs or insanity for everyone, but they've always worked for me.” Anyone who lived through the ‘60s will want to see -- no, must see -- this movie. It’s a paean to the drug-and-alcohol-fueled man who penned “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” a tome that may not have shaped a generation, but certainly captured the craziness and confusion of the times. Thompson hated Nixon, spent time with the then-notorious Hell’s Angels, wrote in a first-person narrative style that blended facts and fiction to engage his readers (dubbed Gonzo journalism in 1970) and was recently more noted for his long and carefully planned suicide (a shot to the head) at age 68. Alex Gibney, one of today’s best and most prolific documentary filmmakers, focuses on the good doctor’s heyday, from 1965 to 1975 and includes never-before-seen home movies, audiotapes and passages from unpublished manuscripts. Some of the people who speak most highly of Thompson on camera are Billy Carter, George McGovern, and longtime Republican presidential adviser Pat Buchanan, as well as writer Tom Woolf and Thompson's editors at Rolling Stone, for which he did his best periodical pieces, the notable ones turned into books.

Fri. Sept. 5 at 7 p.m.; Sun. Sept. 7 at 3:30 (matinee) and 6:30 p.m.; Mon. Sept. 8 at 7 p.m.; Tues. Sept. 9 at 7 p.m.

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FILM - SKETCHES OF FRANK GEHRY (PG-13) 83 Min.

One night only!

A look at the life and work of the renown architect. Join the Sierra Valley Chapter of AIA (www.aiasv.org) Thursday, Sept. 11, for SKETCHES OF FRANK GEHRY, the third film of four in its 2008 architecture film festival. Based on the life and career of architect Frank Gehry (1929 - ), this documentary by close friend Sydney Pollack visits four buildings (the Vitra Museum in Germany, Maggie’s Centre, the Guggenheim in Bilbao and the Disney Concert Hall in L.A.). Not only is Gehry a gifted and visionary architect, brings a sculptor and artist’s sensibility to his work. Friends, artists, critics and curators comment.

The film will be preceded by a dessert and coffee bar reception in the lobby of The State at 6 p.m.

Sponsored by the Modesto Art Museum (www.modestoartmuseum.org), the Modesto Film Society (www.modestofilm.org) and The State Theatre.

Thursday, September 11, 2008. Doors at 6 p.m.; presentation at 7 p.m.; film at 7:30 p.m.
General admission tickets are $8. and include the pre-film reception at 6 p.m.

The mission of the AIA Sierra Valley Architecture Film Festival is to promote and celebrate the architectural profession as both an art and a science through the use of the moving image to heighten public awareness and understanding of the value of architects and their contribution to society, and to support and educate the members of the profession.

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The State Theatre is in the process of developing programming for 2008 and we would love to hear your opinions!

Email us your ideas, suggestions and requests today!

Our box office is open Monday through Friday from 12-3 p.m. and one hour prior to all events.

It's a new chapter in the State Theatre's continued renaissance and revitalization! Click here to view a photographic journal of the exciting changes being made at Modesto's historic 71 year-old State Theatre.

“For 50 cents, we took the middle-class man out of his home and gave him an environment that only the Church had given him before.”
S. Charles Lee, Original Architect of The State Theatre