First screening in Charlotte: James Franco as Allen Ginsberg

Good news for fans of the late beat poet Allen Ginsberg: The Charlotte Film Society is hosting two Feb. 19 screenings of "Howl," the 2010 movie about Ginsberg's legendary poem.

James Franco plays Ginsberg as he navigates the 1957 obscenity trial that followed the publication of "Howl."

Showing are at 4 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 19 at Theatre Charlotte, 501 Queens Road. Tickets are $5 for members, $8 for nonmembers. Cash only. UNC Charlotte's Chris Davis, a professor and poet, will lead after-film discussions.

Check out a trailer and more information at the Charlotte Film Society's website. And if you're trying to recall that famous poem, here are a few lines to jog your memory:


I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving
hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,
angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry
dynamo in the machinery of night,
who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking in the
supernatural darkness of cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities
contemplating jazz,....