Hey there, Film Lovers!
The dearth of new indies being released continues, but there is one new release that I think will be a lot of fun. Hot on the heels of ANATOMY OF HELL (although actually filmed beforehand) comes Catherine Breillat’s SEX IS COMEDY! This fascinating film is a narrative feature the details the difficulties of filming the seduction scene that makes up the central part of her previous film, FAT GIRL. Join in the fun (and as the title implies, sex IS comedy) at the Kendall Square Theatre on Monday, December 6, for the 7:20 p.m. screening of SEX IS COMEDY.
Controversial French director Catherine Breillat (FAT GIRL, ROMANCE) takes us into the world of Jeanne (Anne Parillaud, LA FEMME NIKITA), a film director struggling with a difficult sex scene between a young actress (Roxane Mesquida) and actor (Gr’ire Colin) who can’t stand each other. Aided by her loyal assistant Leo (Ashley Wanninger), Jeanne is hell-bent on getting the scene right without compromise. Inspired by her own filmmaking experiences, Breillat explores the mysteries and humor of social manipulations, sex and power within the confines of a feature film set. (Fully subtitled)
Director: Catherine Breillat
Cast: Anne Parillaud, Gr’ire Colin, Roxane Mesquida, Ashley Wanninger, Dominique Colladant, Bart Binnema, Yves Osmu, Elisabete Piecho, Francis Seleck, Diane Scapa, Ana Lorena, Claire Monatte, Arnaldo Junior, Elisabete Silva, J’Fragata
The Sunday Eye Opener returns this week for its penultimate screening of the year. Join Chlotrudis and Brattle members at the Brattle Theatre, Sunday, December 5, 11:00 a.m. for a preview screening and discussion about RECONSTRUCTION.
“It is all film, it is all a construction. But even so, it hurts.” Christoffer Boe’s first feature, RECONSTRUCTION, features this quote in voiceover early in the film and it sets the tone for this artfully arranged, gorgeously shot, literate romance. Two strangers’ eyes meet on a subway train and later the two reconnect in a Copenhagen bar. One is a young man, Alex, already in a relationship, the other is Aimee, a beautiful blonde who bears a striking resmblance to his current girlfriend (both women are played by the same actress). After Alex spends the night with Aimee he awakes to find that the world has changed during his tryst, and not just in perception. His apartment doesn’t exist, his girlfriend doesn’t seem to recognize him and, worse still, when he encounters Aimee again, her recollection of their meeting isn’t too strong either. This stunningly composed film from Dogme co-conspirator Boe won the coveted Camera d’Or for best debut feature at Cannes in 2003. It explores the uses and conventions of fiction and poses some interesting questions: Has Alex been drawn into an alternate universe? Has Aimee’s aging husband somehow turned his life upside down? Is he just an unusaully aware fictional character? Or, perhaps, are all of the above true? Just two more installments of this year’s Sunday Eye Opener, so don’t miss it! The Sunday Eye Opener series is a copresentation of the Brattle Film Foundation and the Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film. Both organizations are 501c3 nonprofits.
Brookline-based Ross McAlwee’s latest documentary, Bright Leaves opens this week at the Coolidge Corner Theatre. Director of the acclaimed SHERMAN’S MARCH, his story is highly personal–an exploration of his family history that follows the trail of an old cinema melodrama–and at the same time it is a study of the legacy of family, the sordid history of tobacco, and the nature of a MAN who finds he must chronicle everything on film. We’re proud to bring this film back for an extended run, but that also means we won’t have the benefit of the glowing reviews previously published. So, tell your friends not to miss this documentary treat!
Make sure you read all the way to the end of this news piece to find out about some of the great events planned by Gerald Peary’s BU Cinematheque and the Boston Jewish Film Festival. Also, if any of this month’s Monday Night Movies don’t appeal to you, head on down to the Boston Public Library who are running a FREE series of Werner Herzog films! With all our focus on foreign-language films lately, this might be a series that interests some of you. Each films begins at 6:00 p.m. and the first in the series, INVINCIBLE kicks off next Monday, December 6. Even during a slow movie week in Boston, there’s plenty going on!
See you at the movies!
Playing this week, December 3 – 9.
Brattle Theatre, Cambridge
Exclusive Area Premiere!
The Big Red One
Midnite Madness
Napoleon Dynamite (Fri. & Sat.)
Special Screenings!
Autism is a Word (Sun. & Mon.)
Sunday Eye Opener
Reconstrction
Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline
Kinsey
Sideways
Tarnation
Bright Leaves
Midnites!
Ghost World (Fri. & Sat.)
Actress Apocalypse (Sat.)
Special Screning (Wed.)
Adventures in Illegal Art with Mark Hosler of Negativland (Mon.)
Harvard Film Archive, Cambridge
Ingmar Bergman: Early Works
Frenzy (Fri.)
Prison (Fri.)
Port of Call (Sat.)
Thirst (Sat.)
Illicit Interlude (Sun.)
Monika (Sun.)
Secrets of a Women (Tue.)
Sawdust and Tinsel (Wed.)
Contemporary Hollywood Cinema
Gladiator (Mon.)
Two by Laetitia Masson
For Sale (Mon.)
Film Architecture
The Belly of an Architect (Tue. & Wed.)
Hollywood Hits Theatre, Danvers
I Heart Huckabees
Being Julia
Sideways
The Motorcycle Diaries
Napoleon Dynamite
Landmark Theatres
Kendall Square, Cambridge
Sex is Comedy
WMD: Weapons of Mass Destruction Director present on Friday & Saturday!
Callas Forever
Short Cut to Nirvana: Kumbh Mela
Sideways
Kinsey
The Motorcycle Diaries
Embassy Cinema, Waltham
Closer
Sideways
The Motorcycle Diaries
What the #$*! Do We Know
Loews Theatres Copley Place, Boston
Kinsey
I Heart Huckabees
The Motorcycle Diaries
Garden State
Harvard Square, Cambridge
Closer
Finding Neverland
I Heart Huckabees
Ray (Not eligible, but co-starring Kerry Washington!)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The 11th Annual Boston Festival of Films and Music from Iran
Afghan Alphabet and Return to Kandahar (Fri.)
In Love with the Scarecrow (Fri.)
Here, a Shining Light (Sat.)
Canary (Sun.)
World AIDS Day
Living with Slim (Sat.)
New England Film Artists Present
Inside Out (Sat.)
Killing Silence (Sat.)
Israeli Cinema
Bonjour, Monsieur Shlomi (Thu. & Sun.)
Co-presented by The Boston Jewish Film Festival and the Goethe-Institut, Boston
Ringl and Pit (Wed.)
Cinema Tropica
Herod’s Law (Wed.)
The Newburyport Screening Room, Newburyport
Sideways
UPCOMING EVENTS!
Boston Jewish Film Festival
Upcoming Films (full descriptions follow below):
December 2, 2:30 pm and December 5, 10:30 am at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Two screenings remain of BONJOUR MONSIEUR SHLOMI, the new Israeli coming of age feature that was a hit at this year’s Boston Jewish Film Festival.’
December 8, 6pm, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston RINGL AND PIT, with director Juan Mandelbaum in person.
December 12 ‘ December 19, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston ANYA IN AND OUT OF FOCUS, with director Marian Marzynski in person. All films are co-presented with the MFA Film Program.
Boston Public Library
Werner Herzog Film Series
Mondays at 6 p.m. in the Rabb Lecture Hall – FREE!
Invincible Introduction by Herbert Golder, Assistant Director and an actor in the film. (Mon)
Aguirre, The Wrath of God (Dec. 13)
Fitzcarraldo (Dec. 20)
Cobra Verde (Dec. 27)
Gerald Peary’s BU Cinematheque
BU College of Communications, 640 Comm.Ave.
A Tribute to Budd Schulberg
The BU Cinematheque ends its fall series with the thrilling news that the acclaimed American novelist and screenwriter, Budd Schulberg, will spend several days on the BU campus, meeting with students and faculty and speaking about his cinema.
Mr.Schulberg’s appearance coincides with the 50th anniversary of ON THE WATERFRONT (1954), featuring his masterpiece screenplay for the Oscar-winning film starring Marlon Brando, and directed by Elia Kazan. Schulberg’s memoir, Talking Pictures, tells of his growing up in Hollywood, as the son of studio executive, B.P. Schulberg. Active in the Writers Guild, Budd Schulberg became famous as a writer of fiction, authoring, among other books,
What Makes Sammy Run, the definitive Hollywood novel, and The Disenchanted, inspired by his friendship with F.Scott Fitzgerald. Humphrey Bogart’s final picture, THE HARDER THEY FALL, is based on Schulberg’s boxing novel.
In two BU nights, we will show the superb 1950s films made from Budd Schulberg’s finest screenplays. Mr. Schulberg will speak at the Thursday evening A Face in the Crowd screening.
Thursday, Dec.2- Room B-05, 7 pm
A FACE IN THE CROWD (1957)-dir. Elia Kazan. Schulberg’s dark satire about the Faustian rise of a down-and-out heel (an astonishing Andy Griffith) into a powerhouse TV star is a prescient tale of media run amuck in America. With Walter Matthau, Patricial Neal, Lee Remick. (Budd Schulberg, in person)
Friday, Dec.3-Room B-05, 7 pm.
WIND ACROSS THE EVERGLADES (1958)-dir. Nicholas Ray. A rare, rare screening of Schulberg’s early ecology preachment, about a Florida game warden (folk singer, Burl Ives) who takes it on himself to rid the swamp of poachers. “A remarkable achievement, years ahead of its time”-Geoff Andrews, Time Out
Michael R. Colford
Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film, President