Arthouse Movies Spring- 2013

Untouchables

Showing Tues. January 22nd

Dir: Eric Toledano, Olivier Nakache 2011 France 112 mins Cert: 15A

Starring: François Cluzet, Omar Sy, Anne LeNy, Audrey Fleurot, Clotilde Mollet, Alba Gaïa Bellugi, Cyril Mendy and Christian Americ.

Language: French

Move over Jean Dujardin and The Artist: France’s most talked-about performance and film this year comes in the shape of this comedy that’s become the country’s second-biggest box-office hit of all time with its portrait of friendship across the racial and economic divide. Paralyzed from the neck down after an accident, gloomy millionaire Philippe (François Cluzet, Tell No One) finds little in life worth living for, until the arrival of his new assistant, Driss (Omar Sy), a Senegalese rowdy from the downtrodden banlieues. Not quite on doctor’s orders, Driss takes Philippe as far out of his comfort zone as possible and into a world he never knew existed—or rather always tried to avoid. A slapstick, gleefully incorrect throwback to ’80s culture-clash comedies like Trading Places, only played out across contemporary France’s ever-palpable racial and class tensions, Untouchable hit a nerve with French audiences, critics hailing it as a cultural milestone and Liberation asking, “Is this the new Amélie?” - Jason Sanders / San FranciscoInternational Film Festival 2012

Winner - Grand Prix, Tokyo International Film Festival 2011
Winner - Audience Award, San Francisco International Film Festival 2012
Winner - Audience Award, Nashville Film Festival 2012

The Master

Showing Tues. January 29th

Dir: Paul Thomas Anderson 2012 USA 132 mins Cert: 16

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Jesse Plemons, Laura Dern, Jillian Bell, Rami Malek, Kevin J. O'Connor, W. Earl Brown, Ambyr Childers, Fiona Dourif and Lena Endre

Language: English

One of the most anticipated films of the year, Paul Thomas Anderson’s tale of an aimless WWII veteran (Joaquin Phoenix) who befriends the charismatic founder of a new religion (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a provocative study of male camaraderie, deception, and hubris.

In just five feature films, Paul Thomas Anderson has commanded a position at the very pinnacle of American cinema. His work is debated, studied and adored for its narrative innovation, its dynamism, and most of all for its sheer cinema. To watch the work of Paul Thomas Anderson is to watch movies at their most alive. - TorontoInternational Film Festival 2012

Winner - Paul Thomas Anderson, Best Director, VeniceFilm Festival 2012

Rust and Bone De rouille et d'os

Showing Tues. February 5th

Dir: David & Stephane Foenkinos France 2011 108 mins Cert: 12
Starring: Audrey Tsutou, Francois Damiens, Bruno Todeschini, Melanie Bernie,
Language: French

.One of the biggest box office hits of the year in France and a sensation at Cannes, Rust and Bone is the new film from the director of A Prophet, a powerful and emotionally raw love story starring Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose) and acclaimed Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts. Broke drifter and back-street boxer Ali dreams of making it big in the martial arts while scrambling to make a living for himself and his young son. Taking work as a nightclub bouncer, he meets Stéphanie, who works as a killer-whale trainer at an amusement park, commanding the beasts with an ease absent from her relationships. After Stéphanie suffers a terrible accident, the unlikely pair fall into a tender, tentative courtship. - LeedsInternational Film Festival 2012

Winner - Best Film, LondonFilm Festival 2012

The Hunt Jagten

Showing Tues. Fedruary 12th

Dir: Thomas Vinterberg 2012 Denmark 111 mins Cert: 15A

Starring: Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Annika Wedderkopp, Lasse Fogelstrom, Susse Wold, Anne Louise Hassing, Lars Ranthe, Alexandra Rapaport

Language: Danish

Lucas is a 40-year-old primary school assistant in small-town Swedenand is popular with children and staff alike. When one day a child makes an untrue claim about his behaviour, the accusation blazes, unstoppable, with inhabitants quick to lose reason. As we witness the community disintegrate, audiences too begin to wonder about what we have seen, and the myriad relationships presented to us.

Shot in a confident, pared-down style, this is widely heralded as a return to Festen-like form for director Vinterberg, and features a series of knock-your-socks-off exchanges between actors Mads Mikkelsen as Lucas and Thomas Bo Larsen as the girl’s father and Lucas’ best friend. Powerful, resonant stuff. - Independent Cinema Office

Winner - Best Actor, CannesFilm Festival 2012

About Elly Darbareye Elly

Showing Tues. February 19th

Dir: Asghar Farhadi 2009 Iran 109 mins Cert: CLUB

Starring: Golshifteh Farahani, Taraneh Alidoosti, Marila Zare'i, Rana Azadvar, Shahab Hosseini, Saber Abbar

Language: Persian

With the return of their friend Ahmad from Germany, a group of old college pals (two married couples and a brother and sister, along with three young kids) decide to reunite for a weekend outing by the Caspian Sea. The fun starts right away as they quickly catch on to the plan of lively Sepideh, who has brought along Elly, her daughter's kindergarten teacher, in hopes of setting her up with recently divorced Ahmad. But seemingly trivial lies, which start accumulating from the moment the group arrives at the seashore, suddenly swing round and come back full force when Elly disappears in a troubling incident. - Tribeca Film Festival

Winner – Silver Bear, BerlinFilm Festival
Winner – Best Narrative Feature, Tribeca Film Festival

Searching For Sugar Man

Showing Tues. February 26th

Dir: Malik Bendjelloul 2012 UK 85 mins Cert: CLUB

Starring: Steve Segerman, Dennis Coffey, Mike Theodore, Dan Dimaggio, Jerome Ferretti, Steve Rowland, Willem Möller, Craig Bartholomew-Strydrom, Ilse Assmann, Berry Gordon Jr., Steve M. Harris, Robbie Mann, Clarence Avant, Eva Rodriguez, Rodriguez.

Language: English

Aspiring '70s folk rock musician Rodriguez never made it big. Despite critical praise, his albums bombed in the U.S., and he faded promptly into obscurity, leaving behind only urban legends of a gruesome onstage suicide. But somehow a bootleg copy of his album made its way to apartheid South Africa, where his antiestablishment message and distinctive sound resonated with the youth protest movement there, making Rodriguez an instant superstar. Decades later, two intrepid fans decide to investigate whatever happened to the mysterious rocker. While initially frustrated by a dearth of leads, they eventually trace his roots to 1970s Detroitand a producer named Mike Theodore, who drops a bombshell that completely changes the nature of their investigation. Truly stranger than fiction, this story of a Mexican-American folk singer from Detroit and his unforeseen success spans decades and continents, and is aptly unraveled to the soundtrack of Rodriguez' own haunting original songs. Ultimately the fans uncover a convoluted and unbelievable true story of success, obscurity, politics, and the power of music itself. - Cara Cusumano / Tribeca Film Festival 2012

Winner - Audience Award, Los AngelesFilm Festival 2012

Winner - Audience Award, Special Jury Award, Sundance Film Festival 2012

Winner - Audience Award, Tribeca Film Festival 2012

Love Amour

Showing Tues. March 5th

Dir: Michael Haneke 2012 France, Germany, Austria 127 mins Cert: 12A

Starring: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva, Isabelle Huppert, Alexandre Tharaud, William Shimell

Language: French

Winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannesthis year Amour tells of octogenarians Georges and Anne, retired classical music teachers, long married and still enjoying each other's company and life's simple pleasures. Their daughter, also a musician, lives in Londonwith her family. One day Anne has a mild stroke and Georges insists on looking after her but when a second one strikes, life as they knew it is over. In this poignant exploration of the power of love Haneke's direction and marvellous performances from two legendary French actors leave one breathless and deeply moved. - DubaiInternational Film Festival 2012

Winner – Palme D’Or, CannesFilm Festival 2012

A Simple Life Tao Jie

Showing Tues. March 12th

Dir: Ann Hui 2011 China 118 mins Cert: CLUB

Starring: Andy Lau, Deanie Ip, Qin Hailu

Language: Mandarin

With perfectly judged performances from Andy Lau and Deanie Ip, Ann Hui's moving film looks at the decades-long relationship between a man and his devoted family servant. Ip plays Ah Tao, who has worked for the Leung family for 60 years. For the past decade, the only member of the family left in Hong Kongis Roger, who works in the film industry. Having cared for Roger from childhood, Ah Tao suffers a stroke and asks to be admitted to a nursing home. There, she becomes part of a new family made up of colourful characters. All the while, as roles are reversed, Roger tenderly cares for her as she enters the final phase of her life. Based on a true story, A Simple Life delicately traces a decades-long bond with pathos and humour. - Sydney Film Festival 2012

Elema

Showing Tue. March 19th

Dir: Andrei Zvyagintsev 2011 Russia 109 mins Cert: CLUB

Starring: Andrey Smirnov, Nadezhda Markina, Elena Lyadova, Alexey Rozin

Language: Russian

Andrey Zvyagintsev’s new film is a sharp, bitterly comic story of crystalline clarity about the moral and spiritual corruption of present-day Russia. A middle-aged former nurse, Elena, exploited by the boorish layabout son of her first marriage, is married to a wealthy retired businessman Vladimir, who is despised by the idle, estranged daughter of his previous marriage. Vladimirwill do anything for his daughter, but will give nothing to Elena's family, who live in a cramped flat and need money so their lazy teenage son can get into university instead of going into the army. When Vladimirhas a heart attack at his gym, he decides he'll make a will leaving everything to his daughter. Elena has a better idea, the consequences of which account for the tensions and irony in the second half of the film. It's a gripping, resonant tale, and Nadezhda Markina is outstanding as Elena, and far more sympathetic than perhaps she should be. - Philip French / The Observer

Winner – Special Jury Prize, Un Certain Regard, CannesFilm Festival 2011

Beasts Of The Southern Wild

Showing Tues. March 26th

Dir: Benh Zeitlin 2012 USA 91 mins Cert: 12A

Starring: Quvenzhane Wallis, Dwight Henry

Language: English

In a forgotten wetland community cut off from the rest of the world by a sprawling levee, six year-old Hushpuppy exists virtually as an orphan. With her mother long gone and her beloved but wild-living father Wink rarely at home, Hushpuppy is left to her own devices and the company of semi-feral animals. She perceives the natural world to be a fragile web of living, breathing things, in which the entire universe depends on everything fitting together just right. Certainly the most remarkable feature debut of the year and a sensation at Sundance, Zeitlin’s visually stunning film approaches its quasi-mythical subject from a magical realist angle. It is a tribute to the courage and determination of the people of southern Louisianain the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. “I showed up for a two-month visit six years ago and I’m not going anywhere,” said the talented director, who as well as Terrence Malick and Emir Kusturica also admires Jan Švankmajer, with whom he worked for a while. - Karlovy VaryInternational Festival 2012