Hey there Movie Buffs!
I’m very excited about next week’s Monday Night Movie of the Week, and I can guarantee that it’s at least a better film than this week’s BRIDE & PREJUDICE. NOBODY KNOWS. is the latest film by AFTER LIFE director Hirokazu Koreeda. Many of us caught this film in Toronto last September, and I am looking forward to seeing it again. Don’t be fooled if you’ve seen the preview, which makes it look like a syrupy bit of treacle. This one’s pretty bleak. It’s fairly different stylistically than AFTER LIFE as well, as it’s firmly based in reality, and in fact, based on a true story. Lead actor, fourteen-year-old Yagira Yuya even won the Best Actor Award last year at the Cannes Film Festival! Please join us for the 6:30 screening of NOBODY KNOWS at the Kendall Square Cinema on Monday, February 21. I’m hoping that a bunch of the Board of Directors will be joining us since we have a Board meeting that afternoon.
Four siblings live with their mother in a small apartment in Tokyo. All the children have different fathers and none of them have ever been to school. In fact, the very existence of three of the children has been hidden from the landlord. One day, the mother leaves behind a note, asking her twelve-year-old boy (Yagira Yuya, winner of the Best Actor Award at Cannes) to look after the others. Though abandoned, the children do their best to survive. But when they are forced to engage with the outside world, the fragile balance that has sustained them collapses. Written and directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda (AFTER LIFE, MABOROSI).
Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda
Cast: Y’agira, Ayu Kitaura, Hiei Kimura, Momoko Shimizu, Hanae Kan, You, Kazumi Kushida, Yukiko Okamoto, Sei Hiraizumi, Ryo Kase, Yuichi Kimura, Kenichi Endo, Susumu Terajima
Speaking of Kore-eda, you’ve got another chance to catch DISTANCE, one of his unreleased in the U.S. films, which is playing again Friday night, February 18, at the Harvard Film Archive. This dreamlike examination of a group of people who all have connections with victims of Japan’s seren gas subway tragedy is a challenging piece for fans of the filmmakers. I’m disappointed taht I will not be able to catch this film again after seeing it in 2002 at the Toronto Film Festival. It could definitely use a second viewing. Another HFA film that you might want to catch is Tuesday night’s screening of TARNATION. As you know, TARNATION is up for two Chlotrudis Awards, Best Documentary, and Best Director for Jonathan Caouette. This will probably be your last chance to catch up with it before voting!
I’m not sure what my schedule is like next week, but I’m hoping to catch the Eytan Fox’s new film WALK ON WATER at a special screening sponsored by the Boston Jewish Film Festival at the West Newton Cinema next Thursday. Director Eytan Fox will be present, and I would love to hear him speak. Something tells me that if I decide to go, I’d better get tickets soon, because this one’s sure to sell out.
We will certainly miss Ivy leading the discussion for this week’s Sunday Eye Opener, the latest in the Asian “hair-horror” genre, A TALE OF TWO SISTERS, but we’re thrilled to have Clinton McClung, Program Director for the Coolidge Corner Theatre, and Chlotrudis Board Treasurer, who will be filling in this week! It’s sure to be pretty lively. A TALE OF TWO SISTERS is our second film in two weeks from Korea, and as we saw last weekend, Korea is putting out some pretty challenging films! Chlotrudis members can pay $25 for the remainder of the series (which goes through early April… still quite a bargain!) or just pay $10 to drop in for a single day. But I will give you a little preview: we’re hoping to have a guest discussion leader on March 20 (Chlotrudis Day) who was an award winner last year! THAT’s an event you won’t want to miss!
See you at the movies!
Playing this week, February 18 – 24.
Brattle Theatre, Cambridge
10th Annual Bugs Bunny Film Festival!
All Bugs Revue (Fri., Sun., Tue., & Thu.)
The Best of the Rest (Sat., Mon., Wed.)
The Sunday Eye Opener
A Tale of Two Sisters (Sun.)
Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline
Hotel Rwanda
Million Dollar Baby
Watermarks
Midnite Madness
Live Burlesque Show: G-Spot Review (Fri.)
2004 ACADEMY AWARD SHORT SUBJECT DOCUMENTARIES Annual Big Screen Gala! (Mon.)
Autism in a World
The Children of Leningradsky
Sister Rose’s Passion
Hardwood
Cheerleader
FEI Theatres Capitol Theatres, Arlington
Hosue of Flying Daggers Nominated for a Best Cinematography Chlotrudis Award!
Finding Neverland
Kinsey Nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Chlotrudis Award!
Being Julia
FEI Theatres Somerville Theatres, Somerville
Hosue of Flying Daggers Nominated for a Best Cinematography Chlotrudis Award!
Finding Neverland
The Motorcycle Diaries (Mon. & Thu.) Nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay Chlotrudis Award!
Bombay Cinema Presents
Black (Fri. – Sun.)
Harvard Film Archive, Cambridge
The Films of Hirokazu Koreeda
Distance (Fri.)
Heimatfilm
Lady Country Doctor (Fri.)
Malcolm X Remembered
Malolm X – Spike Lee (Sat.)
Malcolm X – Arnold Perl and Perfect Film (Mon.)
Deleuze: Philosophy and Film
The Passion of Joan of Arc (Sun.) Live piano accompaniment
Ordet (Sun.)
Fashion and Film
In the Mood for Love (Tue.)
Life Stories: Film & Autobiography
Tarnation (Tue.) Nominated for Best Director and Best Documentary Chlotrudis Awards!
Frames of Mind
Battleship Potempkin Live piano accompaniment (Wed.)
An Evening with Filmmaker Willem de Rooij (Thu.)
Hollywood Hits Theatre, Danvers
Finding Neverland
Sideways Nominated for FOUR Chlotrudis Awards, including Best Cast!
Being Julia
Million Dollar Baby (ineligible)
Landmark Theatres
Kendall Square, Cambridge
Nobody Knows
Imaginary Heroes
Bride & Prejudice
Inside Deep Throat
Born into Brothels
Bad Education Nominated for Best Actor and Best Movie Chlotrudis Awards!
Sideways Nominated for FOUR Chlotrudis Awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay!
Hotel Rwanda
William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (ineligible)
Embassy Cinema, Waltham
Born into Brothels
Imaginary Heroes
A Very Long Engagement
Born into Brothels
Sideways Nominated for FOUR Chlotrudis Awards, including Best Supporting Actress!
The Sea Inside
Closer (ineligible)
Million Dollar Baby (ineligible)
Loew’s Harvard Square, Cambridge
A Very Long Engagement
Closer (ineligible)
Million Dollar Baby (ineligible)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
African Film Festival
Soldiers of the Rock (Fri. & Sun.)
Return to Kandahar (Sat., Sun. & Thu.)
Daughter of Keltoum (Sat. & Thu.)
Dirt for Dinner (Sat.)
Three Short African Films (Sun.)
Agogo Eewo (Wed.)
Kabala
Hong Kong Cinema
Days of Being Wild (Fri. – Sun., Wed. & Thu.)
The Newburyport Screening Room, Newburyport
The Woodsman Nominated for a Best Actor Chlotrudis Award!
West Newton Cinema, West Newton
Hotel Rwanda
The Chorus
Finding Neverland
Kinsey Nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Chlotrudis Award!
Being Julia
Vera Drake Nominated for FOUR Chlotrudis Awards, including Best Actress!
William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice
Paper Clips
UPCOMING EVENTS!
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BU CINEMATHEQUE RETURNS!
Friday, February 18: AN EVENING WITH DENNIS LEHANE.
640 Comm. Ave., Room B-05, 7 pm
Dennis Lehane, a native Bostonian, is one of the most talented, and deservedly acclaimed, crime and mystery novelists in the world, known above all for Mystic River, his amazingly spooky tale of three boys growing up in the violent world of Southie. Lehane will introduce a showing of the much-praised 1993 Clint Eastwood adaptation of his book, and offer the inside story on the making of this Sean Penn-Tim Robbins-Kevin Bacon-starring movie. Following the screening, Lehane will read from his book: a section of note which didn’t make it to the screen.
Thursday, February 24: AN EVENING WITH HIRAM MARTINEZ.
640 Comm.Ave., Room B-05, 7 pm.
Each year, the BU Cinematheque searches out one low-budget indie feature of excellence which can be a model and inspiration for university film production students. Hence, Four Dead Batteries, a complex, humane, and often hilarious story of the lives and screwed-up loves of a four-member New York improv comedy group. A prize-winner in 2004 at eight film festivals, Four Dead Batteries is written and directed by Hiram Martinez, a precociously talented 24-year-old college drop-out, who will speak at the BU screening. The official advertising tag-lines for this film: “From the guys who saw RUSHMORE and AMERICAN BEAUTY.”
Boston Jewish Film Festival
The Boston Jewish Film Festival is pleased to offer screenings of three new films from Israel and Uruguay, with filmmakers appearing at each:
Thursday, February 24, 7pm, West Newton Cinema.
WALK ON WATER, with director Eytan Fox in Person (Israel, 2004, 104 min., English/Hebrew/German w/ subtitles)
After presenting the Boston premiere of WALK ON WATER at our 2004 fall Gala, The Boston Jewish Film Festival is proud to bring the film back for a special sneak preview screening at the West Newton Cinema, with director Eytan Fox in person!’Fox is a leading filmmaker in Israel, and has been among the first to treat gay themes in film.’His film YOSSI AND JAGGER won the 2003 Boston Jewish Film Festival Audience Award for Best Feature Film.
Tickets are $12 in advance and for BJFF members, seniors, and students; $15 at the door. Call the Boston Jewish Film Festival at 617-244-9899 to purchase tickets in advance.
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March 6 ‘ 24, Copresented with, and at, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston WHISKY, by Juan Pablo Rebella and Pablo Stoll (Uruguay/Argentinia/Germany/Spain, 2004, 94 min., Spanish with English
subtitles)
Sunday March 6, 1:30pm, with directors Juan Pablo Rebella and Pablo Stoll present Thursday, March 10, 8:00pm, Sunday, March 13, 3:45pm Thursday, March 24, 6:00pm
A multiple prize-winner at Cannes, this droll tale from Uruguay concerns Jacobo, the graying Jewish owner of a Montevideo sock factory, and his manager Marta, who have barely communicated with each other in their daily routine over the years. After a twenty-year absence, Jacobo’s younger brother Herman announces that he is returning to Montevideo to attend the unveiling of their mother’s headstone (a Jewish tradition observed one year after a funeral). Anticipating this visit, Jacobo asks Marta to “help out at home” and pose as his spouse.
Preceded by the short film AS FOLLOWS, by Uruguayan director Federico Veiroj, the irreverent story of a boy’s Bar Mitzvah and the religious rituals and family traditions it entails.
Tickets: $9 general admission; $8 seniors, students, members of the MFA and Boston Jewish Film Festival. To purchase tickets in advance with a credit card, call 617.369.3306 or visit www.mfa.org/film. No phone orders for same-day screenings.
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Tuesday, March 15, 7pm, Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline TURN LEFT AT THE END OF THE WORLD with director Avi Nesher in person'(Israel/France, 2004, 110 minutes, English/Hebrew/French with English subtitles)
Charming, sexy, and comical, TURN LEFT AT THE END OF THE WORLD takes us back to 1969, when two Jewish immigrant families – one Indian, the other Moroccan – become unlikely neighbors in the middle of the Israeli desert. Each asserting its own identity, the families become involved in a culture war that touches on everything from laundry soap to cricket. Meanwhile, each family’s teenage daughter negotiates the landscape of the sexual revolution – as do older family members, who try to be discreet about their actions. In the process, Sara (Liraz Charhi) and Nicole (Garti Netta) break through their families’ resentments to forge a bond of friendship.’Presented with generous support from the Consulate General of Israel to New England.
Tickets: $15 general admission; $12 for seniors, students, members of the Coolidge Corner Theatre Foundation and Boston Jewish Film Festival.’To purchase tickets in advance with a credit card, visit http://www.coolidge.org and select Events
This screening of TURN LEFT AT THE END OF THE WORLD is generously supported by the Consulate General of Israel to New England.
Michael R. Colford
Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film, President