127 hours - adventure/biography - Danny Boyle
Rotten Tomatoes: 93 Metacritc: 82
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlhLOWTnVoQ" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlhLOWTnVoQ
Filmmaker Danny Boyle adapts the true-life story of Aron Ralston with this Fox Searchlight production detailing the hiker's harrowing quest for survival after losing an arm to a fallen rock and the grueling five-day ordeal that finally ended with his rescue. James Franco steps into the role of the unfortunate climber.
Another Year - comedy/drama - Mike Leigh
RT: 90 MC: 77
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDVJwhj5EgA" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDVJwhj5EgA
British filmmaker Mike Leigh delivers another emotionally honest portrait of ordinary people trying to make sense of their lives in this comedy drama. Tom (Jim Broadbent) and Gerri (Ruth Sheen) are a couple who are drifting past middle age into their sixties; he's a geologist and she's a psychotherapist. Tom and Gerri have a stable and happy marriage and a grown son, Joe (Oliver Maltman), an activist lawyer who hasn't settled down yet, much to his mother's chagrin. One of Gerri's co-workers and close friends is Mary (Lesley Manville), who puts up a facade of desperate good cheer despite the fact she's been very lonely since her husband left her and has been drowning her anxieties in wine. Gerri has unsuccessfully tried to fix Mary up with Tom's sloppy but good natured pal Ken (Peter Wight), and she's startled when Mary begins openly flirting with Joe, more than 20 years her junior. Mary's troubles only grow worse when she stops by Tom and Gerri's place only to be introduced to Katie (Karina Fernandez), Joe's new girlfriend. Another Year received its world premiere at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.
Barney's Version – drama - Richard Lewis
RT: 76 MC: 64
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCufeuu21pw" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCufeuu21pw
This seriocomic adaptation of Mordecai Richler's award-winning 1997 novel stars Paul Giamatti as Barney Panofsky, who meets the great love of his life, Miriam (Rosamund Pike), at the most inopportune time imaginable: his marriage to his second wife (Minnie Driver), a wealthy Jewish Princess and compulsive shopper. Narrated by Barney as a confessional, the film covers thirty years of his unusual journey - from his first marriage to the chronically unfaithful free spirit Clara (Rachelle LeFevre) and their life in Italy together, through his third marriage to Miriam, with whom he has two children. Standing in the wings is Barney's father, Izzy (Dustin Hoffman), who continues to stick by him, as his loyal right-hand-man. Through it all, Barney experiences numerous highs and lows, but manages to consistently surprise everyone with unforeseen acts of altruism and kindness that turn him into the quintessential modern hero.
Bhutto – documentary - Duane Bachman
RT: 86 MC: 68
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKU6gCTpe3g&feature=related" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKU6gCTpe3g&feature=related
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was the founder of the People's Party of Pakistan and the patriarch of one of the nation's most powerful political dynasties, and when he fell from power after a spell as Pakistan's first democratically elected prime minister, he made a surprising decision -- he groomed his daughter Benazir Bhutto to move into Pakistan's political arena rather than his son. Benazir was bright (she studied at Harvard and Oxford), personable, and had a campaigner's instincts, but it was anyone's guess how successful any woman could be in a Muslim nation where the authority of women was still questioned. In 1988, Benazir was voted prime minister of Pakistan, but was removed from office in 1990 under allegations of corruption she insisted were politically motivated; she was voted back into office in 1993, but further scandals once again drove her from office in 1996, and she eventually fled the country despite her popularity with voters. In 2007, Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan, hoping to run for office and reassert the power of democracy at a time when Muslim fundamentalist leadership threatened to move political progress backward, but her assassination in December 2007 put an end to that dream. Filmmakers Jessica Hernandez and Johnny O'Hara tell the story of the first woman elected to lead a Muslim nation in the documentary Bhutto, which explores the history of Pakistani politics, Benazir's relationship with her controversial family, the scandals that surrounded her, and her tragic death. Bhutto received its North American premiere at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.
Biutiful – drama - Alejandro González Iñárritu
RT: 64 MC: 53
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_OrqZQV8p8" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_OrqZQV8p8
A man tries to reconcile his desire to be good with his lawless ways in this dark drama from Mexican auteur Alejandro González Iñárritu. Uxbal (Javier Bardem) is a man with a bright side and a dark side. Uxbal is a caring father who is strong but affectionate toward his two children, Ana (Hanaa Bouchaib) and Mateo (Guillermo Estrella), and he struggles to maintain a healthy relationship with their mother, Marambra (Maricel Álvarez), despite her problems with alcohol and instability. But Uxbal is also a criminal who oversees a small underground empire alongside fellow crime boss Hai (Taisheng Cheng) and Uxbal's impulsive brother, Tito (Eduard Fernández). Uxbal's dealings range from drugs to construction, but unlike his partners in crime, he tries to treat those around him with dignity even as he trades in human misery. Uxbal's precarious world begins to collapse when he's diagnosed with a serious illness and told he has only a few weeks left to live; he tries to put his affairs in order in the time he has left, but realizes that few around him have any sense of responsibility. Biutiful receives its world premiere at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.
Blue Valentine – drama - Derek Cianfrance
RT: 91 MC: 80
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYgr_iGATB4" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYgr_iGATB4
A relationship is charted from its promising beginning to its sad collapse in this independent drama from Derek Cianfrance. Dean (Ryan Gosling) meets Cindy (Michelle Williams) when they're in their late teens; he's working for a moving company, she's a college student visiting her elderly grandmother at a home for the elderly. Cindy is dating Bobby (Mike Vogel), her boyfriend from high school, but as she gets to know Dean better, a mutual attraction grows between them. Years later, Dean and Cindy are married and have a daughter, Frankie (Faith Wladyka), but they're clearly not as happy as they once were; Dean loves his daughter but feels distant from his wife, they have to look after an elderly relative (John Doman), and when Cindy bumps into Bobby while running errands, it's clear he still holds a grudge against her. Dean and Cindy go away for a weekend together at a hotel, but it doesn't take long for them to realize that the magic isn't coming back. Blue Valentine received its world premiere at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.
Cool It – Documentary - Ondi Timoner
RT: n/a MC: 61
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZR3gsY98VU&playnext=1&list=PL806AEDCD47CF04B2&index=11" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZR3gsY98VU&playnext=1&list=PL806AEDCD47CF04B2&index=11
Inspired by The Skeptical Environmentalist author Bjørn Lomborg's cautionary, nonfiction book of the same name, Dig! director Ondi Timoner's provocative documentary examines the intense debate over global warming and the developing technologies that could prove our saving grace should planet Earth truly begin to overheat.
A Film Unfinished – documentary - Yael Hersonski
RT: 94 MC: 87
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Khut0kKn-c8" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Khut0kKn-c8
In 1942, more than two years after Nazi troops herded Poland's Jews into a ghetto in Warsaw, where they were to be held until they were sent to extermination camps, a handful of cameramen were sent into the ghetto to shoot material that was intended for a German propaganda film. The images they captured ran the gamut from blasé scenes of day-to-day life to horrific moments of death and despair. The film was never completed, but after the war, the unedited footage, running roughly an hour, was discovered in a German archive. Yael Hersonski's documentary Shtikat Haarchion (aka A Film Unfinished) presents the surviving footage of the Warsaw ghetto in full for the first time; along with the archival images, Hersonski includes interviews with five survivors of the ghetto, who talk about what was captured on film and their lives under the Nazis, as well as a member of the camera crew who offers a perspective on the original intended slant of the film (which was, at least in part, meant to reveal the class differences between Jews of different economic status). A Film Unfinished received its world premiere at the 2010 Berlin International Film Festival.
Hemingway's Garden of Eden – drama - John Irvin
RT: 5 MC: 28
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9IvqPtqTKc" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9IvqPtqTKc
Penned between 1946 and 1961, Ernest Hemingway's novel The Garden of Eden remained incomplete at the time of its author's suicide, but finally appeared in 1986, as the second posthumously published Hemingway novel following the 1970 Islands in the Stream. As directed by John Irvin (Turtle Diary) and scripted by James Scott Linville, this screen adaptation faithfully adheres to the original story. The tale takes place in the 1920s, on the Côte d'Azur of the French Riviera, where David Bourne (Jack Huston), a youngish American writer, and his gorgeous wife, Catherine (Mena Suvari), spend a tranquil honeymoon. Tranquil, that is, until Catherine grows restless and dissatisfied, and brings into their midst Marita (Caterina Murino), an Italian girl to whom they both feel magnetically attracted. In seemingly no time at all, her sensual presence threatens to tear the marriage asunder.
I Love You Philip Morris - comedy/drama - Glenn Ficarra
RT: 71 MC: 65
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01dljIcgiMw" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01dljIcgiMw
Bad Santa co-screenwriters Glenn Ficara and John Requa re-team for this fact-based black comedy starring Jim Carrey as a Texas police officer-turned-con man who makes the leap to white-collar criminal after being sent to prison and falling in love with his sensitive cellmate. Steve Russell (Carrey) is a small-town cop. Bored with his bland lifestyle, Russell turns to fraud as a means of shaking things up. Before long, Russell's criminal antics have landed him behind bars, where he encounters the charismatic Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor). Smitten, Russell devotes his entire life to being with Morris regardless of the consequences -- which could well include a life sentence.
The Illusionist – animation - Sylvain Chomet
RT: 86 MC: 81
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xrwh0rOJ0DI&feature=fvsr" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xrwh0rOJ0DI&feature=fvsr
A down-on-his-luck illusionist befriends a pretty admirer, and finds that his constant quest to impress her may be his ultimate downfall in this animated fable based on an original screenplay by Jacques Tati and directed by Sylvain Chomet. Now that the theaters and large performance venues have been taken over by rock bands and pop singers, the illusionist has been forced to ply his trade at small gatherings in bars, cafés, and basements in order earn a living. One day, while performing in a small Scottish pub located on a remote island which has only recently been wired for electricity, the illusionist encounters a young girl named Alice who is captivated by his otherworldly abilities. Alice believes the downtrodden performer possesses genuine supernatural powers, and agrees to accompany him on a trip to Edinburgh, where he's scheduled to perform at a modest, out-of-the-way theater. Her affection and enthusiasm inspire the illusionist, who in turn uses his talent to lavish her with a series of extravagant gifts. Unable to muster the courage to tell his starry-eyed admirer the truth about his trade, the illusionist continues giving until he's got nothing more to offer. This picture marked Chomet's first following the 2003 arthouse smash The Triplets of Belleville.
King's Speech – drama - Tom Hooper
RT: 95 MC: 88
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aS4hoOSlzo" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aS4hoOSlzo
Emmy Award-winning director Tom Hooper (John Adams) teams with screenwriter David Seidler (Tucker: A Man and His Dreams) to tell the story of King George VI. When his older brother abdicates the throne, nervous-mannered successor George "Bertie" VI (Colin Firth) reluctantly dons the crown. Though his stutter soon raises concerns about his leadership skills, King George VI eventually comes into his own with the help of unconventional speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush). Before long the king and Lionel have forged an unlikely bond, a bond that proves to have real strength when the United Kingdom is forced to flex its international might.
Leaving - foreign/drama - Catherine Corsini
RT: 78 MC: 53
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giTrVyWKIwQ" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giTrVyWKIwQ
A woman who has grown tired of her marriage falls into a relationship that leads her to a dangerous place in this drama from director Catherine Corsini. Suzanne (Kristin Scott Thomas) is in her mid-forties and married to Samuel (Yvan Attal), a successful doctor who is the father of their two teenage children (Alexandre Vidal and Daisy Broom). The love between Suzanne and Samuel is dead and their marriage is largely a matter of formalities, so to ease her boredom Suzanne has decided to resume her former career as a therapist. Samuel has agreed to foot the bill for building an office for Suzanne in their home, and he hires Ivan (Sergi López) to help with the work. Ivan is a ruggedly handsome illegal immigrant, and Suzanne is immediately attracted to him; she promptly jumps head-first into an affair with him, and while their hunger for one another is clearly just physical, she decides to leave her family behind to live with Ivan. Even though Samuel doesn't much care for Suzanne, he's furious at the notion of her leaving him for another man, leading to an ugly conflict between the husband, the wife, and the lover. Partir (aka Leaving) was an official selection at the 2009 BFI London Film Festival.
Made in Dagenham - comedy/drama - Nigel Cole
RT: 79 MC: 65
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ509hHkHO8" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ509hHkHO8
As produced by heavyweight Stephen Woolley (The Crying Game) and headlined by Sally Hawkins (Happy-Go-Lucky) and Bob Hoskins (The Long Good Friday), this period docudrama brings to life a pivotal event from British history. In 1968, women's rights took a broad leap forward when workers at the Ford Dagenham automobile plant -- buckling beneath deplorable working conditions rightly perceived as gender discrimination -- suddenly stormed out into the streets and began to strike in protest of the unfair treatment levied at them. Little could they have foreseen the ramifications that this courageous and noble act would engender in successive years. Christopher Smith directs.
Marwencol – documentary - Jeff Malmberg
RT: 92 MC: 82
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRsGGNiZ8OU" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRsGGNiZ8OU
After a night of drinking at a bar in his hometown of Kingston, NY, Mark Hogancamp got in a fistfight and was beaten so badly he went into a coma. When Hogancamp regained consciousness, he was diagnosed with brain damage and struggled to return to a normal life. As he tried to put his life back together, Hogancamp came up with an unusual hobby -- using G.I. Joe action figures and Barbie dolls, Hogancamp created an elaborate scale model community in his backyard that he calls Marwencol (named for three characters he's dubbed Mark, Wendy, and Colleen). Marwencol is supposed to be a village in Belgium during World War II, and the scene is full of intrigue and military violence; several of the characters also represent his friends and relatives, and one is based on a married neighbor with whom he's infatuated. Marwencol provides Hogancamp with a fantasy world he can retreat into as he deals with the realities of his life following the beating, but the parallels into his real life are troubling to some people he knows, and when a gallery in New York City offers to present Hogancamp's project as an art installation, he has to decide if he's really willing to share Marwencol with the world at large. Filmmaker Jeff Malmberg profiles Mark Hogancamp and the world he created from toys and his imagination in the documentary Marwencol, which received its world premiere at the 2010 South by Southwest Film Festival.
Mesrine: Killer Instinct - action/bio - Jean-Fracois Richet
RT: 83 MC: 70
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3TnmWfOvW0" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3TnmWfOvW0
"This tough and gritty French-language crime drama represents the premier installment in a two-part series of features on the life and doings of notorious Gallic hood Jacques Mesrine (1936-1979). Mesrine is played, in both installments, by actor Vincent Cassel, who reportedly underwent massive weight gain and weight loss to convincingly portray the volatile Mesrine at various periods of his life. Director Jean-François Richet begins in 1979, with Mesrine's uncommonly violent death, whereby he and a beautiful young woman are suddenly (and fatally) ambushed by Parisian police not far from Mesrine's place of birth. Richet then flashes back to the Franco-Algerian War of the late '50s and a brutal interrogation undergone by Mesrine. Following a military discharge, Mesrine returns to his parents' suburb of Clichy, where his dad has arranged a pathetic job for him in a lace-making factory. Never one to take humiliation lying down, Jacques perceives burglary, larceny, and racketeering as much-superior options and decides to pursue a life of crime via a ""business partnership"" with childhood buddy Paul (Gilles Lellouche), who works for mobster Guido (Gérard Depardieu). As the years pass, Jacques works his way up through the ranks of the underworld; via Paul, he also meets and falls hard for two women: Pigalle streetwalker Sarah (Florence Thomassin), and Sofia (Elena Anaya), a beautiful Spanish woman with whom he cohabitates after doing time in a French prison. Following a brief and unsuccessful attempt to ""go straight,"" Jacques reconnects with Guido, then finds it necessary to escape from France to Canada with his new mistress, Jeanne (Cécile De France). Unfortunately, another prison sentence is waiting for him there, replete with brutal solitary confinement, but the possibility of a daring escape beckons. The second half of the Mesrine saga, entitled Mesrine: L'Énnemi Public No. 1 for French release, followed immediately after and picks up where this installment wraps."
Mesrine: Public Enemy #1 - action/bio - Jean-Fracois Richet
RT: 83 MC: 72
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=armiLlbxwlY" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=armiLlbxwlY
The true story of one of Europe's most infamous and charismatic criminals comes to a close in this drama based on the life and crimes of Jacques Mesrine. Picking up where L'Instinct de Mort left off, L'Ennemi Public No. 1 begins as Mesrine (Vincent Cassel) returns to France after an exile in Canada. Teaming up with gunman Michel Ardouin (Samuel Le Bihan), Mesrine masterminds a series of armed robberies, and while he's able to stay one step ahead of the law most of the time, eventually he finds himself back in prison, where he makes friends with the clever François (Mathieu Amalric). With François' help, Mesrine breaks out of prison and becomes something of a celebrity, penning an autobiography, hob-nobbing with the wealthy and trying to paint himself as a political radical with the help of leftist spokesman Charlie (Gérard Lanvin). Mesrine also renews his relationship with his girlfriend, Sylvia (Ludivine Sagnier), but he also turns his back on some of his old friends and underestimates the determination of the French police to stop him once and for all. L'Ennemi Public No. 1 (aka Public Enemy No. 1, Part 2) went into release in late 2008, while the wildly successful L'Instinct de Mort was still playing in French theaters.
Nenette – documentary - Nicolas Philibert
RT: 60 MC: 62
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GgflSGVPbs&feature=related" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GgflSGVPbs&feature=related
Born in the jungles of Borneo, Nénette is a 40-year-old orangutan — and the oldest (and most beloved) inhabitant at the Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes in Paris. The latest film by legendary French documentarian Nicolas Philibert (To Be And To Have), Nénette is a captivating study of an enigmatic animal and our relationship to her.
Night Catches Us – drama - Tanya Hamilton
RT: 78 MC: 65
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgtAhGOLC-Y" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgtAhGOLC-Y
A man comes home to find some of the demons of his past waiting for him in this independent drama from writer and director Tanya Hamilton. Marcus (Anthony Mackie) was born and raised in Philadelphia, but hasn't been there for years when he comes back in 1976 to attend the funeral of his father, a local minister. Marcus came of age during the late '60s and was a member of the Black Panther Party when revolution and black power were hot topics in Philly's African-American community. After a key figure in the local Black Panther organization was assassinated, many suspected someone inside the group had informed on them to the police, and more than a few were certain Marcus was the rat as he walked out on the Panthers and left town shortly after the murder. As Marcus visits his old neighborhood, he has to deal with strained relationships in his family and the distrust of old friends convinced he betrayed a close friend; he also spends some time with Patricia (Kerry Washington), a fellow activist he used to love who was also married to the man Marcus is said to have betrayed. As Marcus wrestles with the shadows of another era, he's shadowed by Jimmy (Amari Cheatom), Patricia's disturbed and homeless cousin who still believes in the Panthers' cause. Featuring an original score by the Roots, Night Catches Us received its world premiere at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.
Orgasm Inc. – documentary - Liz Canner
RT: N/a MC: n/a
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZeHDKRa1y8" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZeHDKRa1y8
When independent filmmaker Liz Canner landed an unusual assignment -- editing a stack of porn films into a "highlight reel" for a pharmaceutical company -- she found the inspiration for this project, a documentary on "female sexual dysfunction" and the business that has sprung up behind it. "Female sexual dysfunction" is roughly defined as a woman's lack of desire for sexual contact and/or her inability to have an orgasm, and after Viagra made treating male impotence into a growth industry, a number of pharmaceutical firms are working to formulate a similar drug for women. But is "female sexual dysfunction" a real medical condition? Research has determined that 70% of women don't regularly reach orgasm through intercourse (usually due to inattention by their partners), and a lack of enthusiasm for lovemaking can stem from anything from a bad day at work to a husband's bad breath. Are drug companies attempting to convince women they need treatment for a malady that doesn't actually exist? Orgasm, Inc. takes a look at the disinformation that has been spread about female sexuality through the ages up to the present day, including a woman who collects antique vibrators and turn-of-the-century literature on "female hysteria," as well as behind-the-scenes footage of researchers attempting to formulate a female orgasm in pill form. Orgasm, Inc. was an official selection at the 2009 Hot Docs International Film Festival.
Phil Ochs: There but for Fortune – documentary - Kenneth Bowser
RT: 100 MC: 70
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbS4ruKw2OQ" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbS4ruKw2OQ
Documentary filmmaker Kenneth Bowser profiles American folk singer Phil Ochs, who rose to fame in the 1960s and whose hopeful, incisive ballads were written to inspire positive change in an era of profound social turbulence. Equally critical of the left and the right -- not to mention the politically apathetic -- Ochs penned countless songs and released seven albums, ultimately growing a sizable following thanks to his positive message and talent for songwriting. In 1976, following the deaths of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, and in the wake of the tragedy at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Ochs was so overcome with hopelessness that he turned to alcohol and ultimately committed suicide. He was just 35 years old. Though the FBI would later admit to singling Ochs out as a traitor for questioning American policy during wartime, this film aims to offer a comprehensive overview of a deeply complex artist through archival footage and interviews with such outspoken fans as Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, and Sean Penn.
Plastic Planet – documentary - Werner Boote
RT: n/a MC: n/a
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7X-J1DhfjE" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7X-J1DhfjE
Director Werner Boote takes an up close look at the plastics industry in order to explore whether the ubiquitous man-made material is a danger to human health. The grandson of a once-prominent plastics magnate, Boote became aware early on that the material we rely on to make our lives easy could also be poisoning our planet. Not only because a piece of plastic takes up to 500 years to deteriorate in the ground or water system, but also because studies indicate that frequent exposure can also lead to a variety of health problems in humans. In this film, Boote speaks with scientists, manufacturers, consumers, and government officials in 14 countries about the dangers of continued reliance on plastics, as well as alternatives that could lead to a cleaner world, and a healthier population.
Somewhere – drama - Sofia Coppola
RT: 76 MC: 67
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVQtL8GQPFA" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVQtL8GQPFA
Roguish Hollywood star Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff) finds his debauched life of excess unexpectedly interrupted when his 11-year-old daughter (Elle Fanning) shows up at the Chateau Marmont Hotel for an unscheduled visit. Later, as father and daughter reconnect, Johnny begins to reassess his sordid lifestyle. Writer/director Sofia Coppola teams with brother Roman to produce a film executive produced by Francis Ford Coppola, and released by Focus Features.
Strange Case of Angelica – drama - Manoel de Oliveira
RT: 88 MC: n/a
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVwnpN8HRA4" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVwnpN8HRA4
In this stylish exercise in magic realism, Isaac (Ricardo Trepa) is a photographer who is contacted during a stormy night with an urgent assignment. Isaac is escorted to the estate of a wealthy family, where he's told of a recent tragedy -- the beautiful daughter of the household, Angelica (Pilar Lopez de Ayala), died shortly after her wedding, before her bridal portrait could be taken. Her parents want a final photograph of Angelica, and they've brought Isaac to their home to take the pictures. Angelica has been laid out on a sofa in the living room, still wearing her wedding gown, and as Isaac looks at her through his viewfinder, he's struck by her beauty and thinks she looks as if she's just sleeping. Isaac is so effected by Angelica that he quickly falls in love with her, and when he looks at her through his camera, she comes to life, with her spirit as lively as ever in the photos he prints though her body stubbornly stays lifeless. O Estranho Caso de Angelica (aka The Strange Case of Angelica) was the ninth directorial project in five years from filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira, a workload all the more remarkable given his age -- he was 101 years old when O Estranho Caso de Angelica made its debut at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.
The Other Woman - comedy/drama - Don Ross
RT: n/a MC: n/a
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzTLRdWKah8" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzTLRdWKah8
The story to this drama is about as original as its title. Nevertheless, the cast is first-rate. Eleanor Gates (Peggy Hyland) comes to Greenwich Village to study art. As her career takes off, she meets Harrington (Milton Sills), a man from back home. He is unhappily married -- his wife (Anna Lehr) is an uninteresting homebody. Their friendship warms into something more romantic and soon Harrington is never home. When the couple's baby dies, it seems like the marriage is headed for certain failure. But then Mrs. Harrington comes to Eleanor and asks her to paint a miniature of her dead infant. She also tells Eleanor the whole story about her unfaithful husband. Eleanor is horrified that she is the one causing Mrs. Harrington so much misery. While Harrington is out West on business, his wife discovers who the other woman is. She angrily denounces Eleanor, who proceeds to lecture her on the finer points of how to keep a husband. When Harrington returns, Eleanor sends him back to his wife. Then she leaves New York and returns to her sweetheart who has been waiting for her back home.
Vision: From the life of Hildegard von Bingen – drama - Margarethe von Trotta
RT: n/a MC: n/a
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEI1QrZINeg" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEI1QrZINeg
Margarethe von Trotta, one of the most celebrated female directors in the German cinema, pays homage to another remarkable woman in this screen biography of 12th century Renaissance woman Hildegard von Bingen. Hildegard (Barbara Sukowa) came to live at the Disibodenberg abbey when she was a youngster, and grew up under the watchful but compassionate eye of Jutta the Holy (Mareile Blendl). In her teens, Hildegard became a nun and was known among her peers for her generous nature and desire to help others; she developed a talent for formulating herbal medicine as well as gift for composing music, and after three decades she was selected to become a magistra at the abbey. Hildegard was born during a time when women were expected to serve and not to preach, but she fearlessly began speaking to others about her religious visions, which she used as a vehicle to share lessons in faith in a manner that circumvented the rules. Hildegard also fearlessly denounced the violent self-abasement that was common among holy men and women of her day, believing that a faith born of kindness and devotion was more valuable than that which came from fear and pain. While Hildegard won may friends through her work, she also gained more than a few enemies, and while some denounced her for not restricting herself to the traditional role of a woman in the church, others contended that her holy visions were not the work of the Lord, but of the Devil. Vision was an official selection at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival.
