Hey there, Film Lovers!
This week’s Monday Night Movie comes highly recommended by Ivy, who saw MOOLAADE in Toronto this year. We’re lucky that it scored a general release in the States, as not many African films are so lucky, especially when they deal with such a controversial subject. MOOLAADE director Ousmane Sembene made the fascinating FAAT KINE, which I did get to see a couple of years ago. Head to the Kendall Square Theatre on Monday night for the 7:10 screening of MOOLAADE. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to attend, but I hope to catch the film later in the week.
African cinema’s founding father Ousmane Sembene (Ceddo, Xala) offers a rousing polemic against the still-common practice of female circumcision. In a small village, four girls facing ritual “purification” flee to the home of Coll’Fatoumata Coulibaly), who has managed to shield her own daughter from mutilation. Because Coll’nvokes the time-honored custom of moolaad’sanctuary) to protect the fugitives, a stand-off ensues, pitting her against village traditionalists and endangering the prospective marriage of her daughter to the tribal throne’s heir-apparent. Winner of the Grand Prize in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. (Fully subtitled)
Director: Ousmane Sembene
Cast: Fatoumata Coulibaly, Maimouna H’ne Diarra, Salimata Traor’Dominique Ze’, Mah Compaor’Aminata Dao
It was the Sunday Eye Opener last week (when many of us were in New York City) but I certainly hope to catch RECONSTRUCTION this week when it begins it’s week-long run at the Brattle Theatre. I’ve heard fascinating and positive things about Dutch director Christoffer Boe’s startling debut, which won the Camera D’or (Best Debut Film) at Cannes. It’s such an intriguing film that Ivy has offerred free passes to anyone who attended the Sunday Eye Opener last week to come and see it again! I’m going to try and catch RECONSTRUCTION on Saturday night, so watch your e-mail boxes for an announcement. Hopefully you’ll be able to join me!
Speaking of the Sunday Eye Opener, join us on Sunday for the final installment of the Fall 2004 semester. I can’t reveal the title of the Sunday Eye Opener, but it’s not a new film. However, it is a great one, and very approrpriate given the time we’ve spent talking about foreign-language films lately. Drop me an e-mail and I’ll let you know what it is. The Sunday Eye Opener will be back again next year, so spread the word. There isn’t a better place to spend a Sunday morning and talk about movies!
I’m not a midnight kind of guy, but I must highly recommend (if you are) that you head to the Brattle Theatre this weekend for a rare theatrical screening of MOTHRA! People who know me, also know that Mothra is my favorite of the Godzilla pantheon of monsters. And no, she’s not just a giant moth… she’s an earth spirit, and don’t you forget it!
Hey, I need your help! Two big, much-anticipated films are opening in Boston NEXT week. I’d like your help selecting which we’ll see on Monday, December 20. Over at the Coolidge comes the much-anticipated film by Pedro Almodovar, BAD EDUCATION, starring Gael Garcia Bernal. At the Kendall, we have the gorgeous new film by Zhang Yimou, HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS, starring Zhang Zhiyi and Any Lau. Whichever films gets the most votes will be the Monday Night Movie on the 20th, the runner-up will take the December 27th Monday Night slot. Make your voice heard! Which film is the one we can’t wait to see?
See you at the movies!
Playing this week, December 10 – 16.
Brattle Theatre, Cambridge
Exclusive Area Premiere!
Reconstruction
Midnite Madness
Mothra (Fri. & Sat.)
Sunday Eye Opener
Reconstrction
Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline
Kinsey
Sideways
Tarnation
Bright Leaves
Midnites!
Bad Santa (Fri. & Sat.)
Robotrix (Sat.)
Off the Couch Special Presentation (Tue.)
Con Man
Balagan (Thu.)
Baghdad in No Particular Order
Harvard Film Archive, Cambridge
An Evening with Stephen Prina (Fri.)
Setting Up the Document: Artists Working in the Ethnographic Mode
Calcutta Intersection, Blues, Corn, and No (Fri.)
SouthEast Passage (Fri.)
Dommi i Colore (Sat.)
Thirst, Intervista, lak tat, and Teatro Amazonas (Sat.)
Never My Soul (Sat.)
The Third Memory, Blanche/Neige, Lucie, and Moi un Noir (Sun.)
Am’ca Central and Too Early/Too Late (Sun.)
Contemporary Hollywood Cinema
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Mon.)
Two by Laetitia Masson
Love Me (Mon.)
Film Architecture
Wings of Desire (Tue.)
Ingmar Bergman: Early Works
A Lesson in Love (Tue.)
Monika (Wed.)
Hollywood Hits Theatre, Danvers
I Heart Huckabees
Being Julia
Sideways
Napoleon Dynamite
Landmark Theatres
Kendall Square, Cambridge
Moolaad’a>
Testosterone
WMD: Weapons of Mass Destruction
Sex is Comedy
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
Ray (Not eligible, but co-starring Kerry Washington!)
Harvard Square, Cambridge
Closer
Finding Neverland
I Heart Huckabees
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Cinema Tropica
Herod’s Law (Fri. – Sun.)
The 11th Annual Boston Festival of Films and Music from Iran
20 Fingers (Fri. & Sat.)
Afghan Alphabet and Return to Kandahar (Sat.)
Here, a Shining Light (Sun.)
New England Film Artists Present
Anya In and Out of Focus (Sun. & Wed.)
Asian Cinevisions
The Hunter and the Hunted (Wed. & Thu.)
French Cinema
As If Nothing Happened (Thu.)
The Newburyport Screening Room, Newburyport
We Don’t Live Here Anymore
UPCOMING EVENTS!
Boston Jewish Film Festival
Upcoming Films (full descriptions follow below):
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!
Aguirre, The Wrath of God (Dec. 13)
Fitzcarraldo (Dec. 20)
Cobra Verde (Dec. 27)
Michael R. Colford
Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film, President