Hello Film Lovers!
Lots of new movies opening this weekend, but I’m all charged up about Michael Haneke’s new film TIME OF THE WOLF. As you may know, Haneke is responsible for the multi-Chlotrudis Award nominated film THE PIANO TEACHER, which won the Best Actress Award at the 9th Annual Chlotrudis Awards for Isabelle Huppert who also stars in WOLF. Join us at the Brattle Theatre for the 7:20 p.m. show! (I’m sure we’ll be getting together for dinner beforehand as well.)
TIME OF THE WOLF
(2003) dir Michael Haneke w/Isabelle Huppert, Anais Demoustier, Lucas Biscombe, Hakim Taleb, Olivier Gourmet, Beatrice Dalle, Patrice Chereau
With absolutely no exposition, director Michael Haneke (The Piano Teacher) creates a stunning story of a family thrust into a dangerous and unpredictable state. Anna (The Piano Teacher’s Huppert), her husband and their two children arrive at their country house for what seems like an innocent vacation but, as we soon discover, all is not as it seems. There is another family already inhabiting their house’ and the husband of this one has a rifle. Soon he is barraging Anna’s family with strange questions (how much food and water do they have with them, etc). And, suddenly, the encounter is over’ Anna’s husband is dead and she andher children have been forced out into the countryside with little of their possessions and no clear idea what to do next.
If this film was set in Iraq or some Baltic State, we would see it as a fact-based drama, but because this is clearly affluent, safe Western Europe it is initially perceived as impossible; science-fiction. But TIME OF THE WOLF is not a science-fiction film, insists its director, but an inverted portrait of the world as it appears to many. This is France as occupied territory’ or a country enmeshed in civil war’ or suffering from an epidemic’ where what is comfortable and familiar has been corrupted and turned on its head. Livestock burns in the town squares, the trains don’t run, the electricity is out, food is scarce and once friendly neighbors are now uneasy xenophobes while homeless strangers can become valuable allies.
Shot in an extremely beautiful naturalistic style, TIME OF THE WOLF unfolds in widescreen ‘ some of the most breathtaking sequences happen at night where all is black until a match is lit or dawn lightens the horizon. An unsettling and thought-provoking film that explores very dark themes but manages to avoid being nihilistic by hewing to what is true about the world: some people are bad but many people are good, desperation breeds strange bedfellows but strong bonds, and there is always room for hope.
Other new films opening this weekend include Richard Linklater’s BEFORE SUNSET, the sequel to his film BEFORE SUNRISE. This one has been getting critical raves, so I’m interested to see what people think. Isabelle Huppert shows up in another film that’s opening at the Kendall Square Theatre this week called LA VIE PROMISE. DE-LOVELY will appeal to some people in Chlotrudis. It’s a musical biopic of Cole Porter starring Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd. Helen Mirren fans may want to take note of THE CLEARING starring Robert Redford and Willem Dafoe along with Dame Mirren.
Finally, north of Boston film fans should try to catch THE MOTHER which is playing at both Hollywood Hits in Danvers, and the Newburyport Screening Room. It boasts a terrific screenplay, wonderful performances, and is sure to be a contender next January.
See you at the movies!
Playing this week, July 1 – 7.
Brattle Theatre, Cambridge
Exclusive Area Premiere!
From the Director of The Piano Teacher!
Time of the Wolf (starts Fri.)
Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline
Fahrenheit 9/11
Before Sunset (starts Fri.)
Provincetown International Film Festival Audience Award Winner for Best Documentary!
Howard Zinn: You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train
The Story of the Weeping Camel (Thu.)
Super Size Me (Thu.)
Kill Bill 1 & 2 (Fri. & Sat)
Kung Fu
Royal Warriors (Sat.)
Summertime Blues
Nina Simone: Love Sorceress with live pre-show blues concert from Paul White & Co. (Mon.)
Booksmith Reading with Penn Jillette (Wed.)
Harvard Film Archive, Cambridge
C is for Chekhov
Unlce Vanya (Thu. & Fri.)
An Unfinished Piece for a Player Piano (Thu. & Fri.)
D is for Depardieu
Mon Oncle D’Amerique (Sat. & Sun.)
Maitresse (Sat. & Sun.)
E is for Ealing
The Man in the White Suit (Mon. & Tue.)
The Titfield Thunderbolt (Mon. & Tue.)
Contemporary Hollywood Cinema
The Godfather
Hollywood Hits Theatre, Danvers
Napoleon Dynamite (starts Fri.)
The Story of the Weeping Camel (starts Fri.)
The Mother
Saved
Coffee and Cigarettes
Control Room
Super Size Me (Thu.)
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring (Thu.)
Still We Believe: The Red Sox Movie (Thu.)
Landmark Theatres
Kendall Square, Cambridge
La Vie Promise (starts Fri.)
America’s Heart and Soul (starts Fri.)
De-Lovely (starts Fri.)
The Story of the Weeping Camel
Napoleon Dynamite
Saved
Control Room
The Mother (Thu.)
Frankie and Johnny Are Married (Thu.)
Embassy Cinema, Waltham
America’s Heart and Soul (starts Fri.)
Before Sunset (starts Fri.)
The Story of the Weeping Camel
Napoleon Dynamite
Control Room
The Mother (Thu.)
Super Size Me
Loews Theatres
Copley Place, Boston
Saved (starts Fri.)
The Clearing (starts Fri.)
Napoleon Dynamite
Two Brothers
Control Room
Super Size Me
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Thu.)
Harvard Square, Cambridge
The Clearing (starts Fri.)
Before Sunset (starts Fri.)
Fahrenheit 9/11
Super Size Me (Thu.)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Lost Boys of Sudan (Fru. & Sat.)
Welcome to the Waks Family and My Brother’s Wedding (Thu.)
French Nouveaux Cineastes
Since Otar Left (Thu. – Sat.)
Hungarian Engagement
Hukkle (Sat.)
The Newburyport Screening Room, Newburyport
Young Adam (Thu.)
The Mother (starts Fri.)
Michael R. Colford
Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film, President