Hello Film Lovers!
A couple of outstanding films that have been around for quite awhile are opening on the big screen in Boston this week. One is making a return engagement in a special director’s cut, and the other is finally getting the big American release it deserves. I’m going to try to catch both of them during their Boston runs, but for Monday night, the choice has to be Zhang Yimou’s HERO. If you see only a single film this year (and I know you’re not going to see just one film) it has to be HERO. This film just defies explanation in its power and beauty. The visual mastery HERO displays is beyond compare. Join us Monday, August 30, 7:30 p.m. at the Coolidge Corner Theatre for a feast for the senses: HERO.
Zhang Yimou’s HERO
dir. Zhang Yimou w/ Jet Li, Tony Leung, Chiu Wai, Maggie Cheung, Ziyi Zhang, in Mandarin w/subtitles, 1h36m
From this year’s first annual Coolidge Award winner, Chinese director Zhang Yimou, comes one of the most eagerly anticipated foreign films of the decade. HERO is an epic action film in the style of classic wuxia (martial arts literature), featuring such notable onscreen talent as Jet Li, Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung, Zhang Ziyi and Donnie Yen. It is a story of assassins and heroes – though which is which can be tough to determine – drenched in the history of China’s Qin dynasty. As a brutal warlord attempts to unite his divided country, the different kingdoms each send an assassin to put an end to the Qin King and his unstoppable army. But with a master like Yimou behind the camera, the film is more than just a series of action scenes. Lush primary colors define and separate the lyrical sections of the film, outstandingly captured by cinematographer Christopher Doyle (IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE). With flowing costume design, and a beautifully atmospheric score from the famed composer Tan Dun, HERO became an Oscar and Golden Globe nominee for Best Foreign Film, in addition to sweeping the Hong Kong Film Awards with an impressive seven wins. And while the film is filled with balletic fighting scenes, HERO’s heart truly lies in exploring the transcendent final stage of martial arts – where a warrior can sway an enemy not with violence, but with words.
The other film that’s returning to the big screen is across the river at the Brattle Theatre. It has a particular resonance with Chlotrudis members, and many of you may recall how it was cited as the top film of 2002 at the 9th Annual Chlotrudis Awards Ceremony. That film is DONNIE DARKO: THE DIRECTOR’S CUT. See the film that director Richard Kelly originally intended. This double-Chlotrudis Award winner (Best Actor, Jake Gyllenhall and Best Original Screenply, Richard Kelly) is one of the masterpieces of modern cinema. Not only is this a apocalyptic science fiction mind bender, it’s a note perfect homage to 80’s teen films as well. I hope to catch this some time this week as well.
The Boston Jewish Film Festival is busy this week as well. Check out a special preview screening of the new Israeli film BONJOUR, MONSIEUR SHLOMI co-presented with the Museum of Fine Arts on Thursday night. The film ROSENSTRASSE opens this week at the Kendall Square Theatre. The BJFF hosted a special preview screening of that film last week. And there’s one more chance to see the BJFF’s co-presentation of My Architect at the MFA on Saturday.
See you at the movies!
Playing this week, August 26 – September 1.
Brattle Theatre, Cambridge
Exclusive Area Premiere!
Last Life in the Universe (Thu.)
Donnie Darko: the Director’s Cut (Fri. – Wed.)
Midnight Cult Classics
Pink Flamingoes (Fri. & Sat.)
Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline
Hero (starts Fri.)
Vanity Fair (starts Wed. 9/1)
Maria Full of Grace
The Corporation
Tom Dowd and the Language of Music
Zatoichi, The Blind Swordsman (Thu.)
Teens on Screens! “Runaways”
Where the Day Takes You (Wed.)
Midnites! The Best of Ben Stiller
Royal Tennebaums (Fri. & Sat)
Midnites! Kung Fu!
Escape from Women’s Prison (Sat.)
Classic Summer Movies
Lawrence of Arabia FREE! for Coolidge Members! (Mon.)
Harvard Film Archive, Cambridge
No Screenings… See you in September!
Hollywood Hits Theatre, Danvers
Garden State
Maria Full of Grace (starts Fri.)
The Door in the Floor
De-Lovely
Napoleon Dynamite
Landmark Theatres
Kendall Square, Cambridge
Zhou Yu’s Train (starts Fri.)
Bang Rajan (starts Fri.)
Rosenstrasse (starts Fri.)
Open Water
Garden State
The Door in the Floor Maria Full of Grace
A Home at the End of the World
Napoleon Dynamite
The Corporation (Thu.)
Intimate Strangers (Thu.)
La Dolce Vita (Thu.)
Uncovered: The War in Iraq (Thu.)
Embassy Cinema, Waltham
Mean Creek (starts Fri.)
We Don’t Live Here Anymore
Maria Full of Grace
Garden State
Before Sunset
Napoleon Dynamite
Uncovered: The War in Iraq (Thu.)
Zatoichi, The Blind Swordsman (Thu.)
Loews Theatres Copley Place, Boston
Danny Deckchair (starts Fri.)
L. A. Twister (starts Fri.)
SuperBabies: Baby Geniuses 2 (starts Fri.)
Fahrenheit 9/11 (starts Fri.)
Uncovered: The War in Iraq
Maria Full of Grace
Riding Giants
Code 46 (Thu.)
Zatoichi, The Blind Swordsman
Before Sunset
De-Lovely
The Door in the Floor (Thu.)
Napoleon Dynamite
Harvard Square, Cambridge
Hero (starts Fri.)
Mean Creek (starts Fri.)
We Don’t Live Here Anymore
Fahrenheit 9/11
Zatoichi, The Blind Swordsman (Thu.)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Pre-release Screening
Bonjour, Monsieur Shlomi co-presented by the Boston Jewish Film Festival
The Extraordinary Mr. Barnet
Okraina (Thu.)
By the Bluest of Seas (Thu. & Sat.)
Alenka (Fri. & Sat.)
The House on Trubnaya Square (Sun.)
The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks (Sun.)
Irish Cinema
Goldfish Memory (Thu. – Sun. & Wed.)
Art on Film
My Architect (Sat.) co-presented by the Boston Jewish Film Festival
Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working with Time (Sun.)
Spanish Cinema
My Mother Likes Women (Wed.)
The Newburyport Screening Room, Newburyport
The Door in the Floor (Thu.)
The Story of the Weeping Camel (starts Fri.)
Boston Jewish Film Festival Events
Special Pre-release Screening
Bonjour, Monsieur Shlomi at the Museum of Fine Arts (Thu.)
Another Chance to see…
My Architect at the Museum of Fine Arts (Sat.)
Michael R. Colford
Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film, President