Happy Holidays, Film Lovers!
For the final Monday Night Movie of the Week for 2004, we’ll be heading to Brookline’s Coolidge Corner Theatre for the 7:25 p.m. screening of Pedro Almodovar’s BAD EDUCATION. Almodovar’s films have been growing in popularity among Chlotrudis members, and now he tackles the Catholic church. It’s sure to be irreverent, so please join us for this post-holiday film! And remember, present your Chlotrudis membership card at the box office and get the special discount!
Bad Education
dir. Pedro Almodovar w/ Gael Garc’Bernal, Fele Mart’z, Daniel Gim’z Cacho, Llu’Homar, 1hr 49mins
‘Four Stars! A movie so vividly constructed that its greatness lies outside mere words. BAD EDUCATION achieves surprising emotional truth… in the only place of worship and higher learning that matters to Almodovar: the movies.” ‘ Ty Burr, Boston Globe
Academy Award winning Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almod’ returns with BAD EDUCATION, an intimate take on the director’s own adolescence, as well as a no-holds-barred look at the issue of sexual misconduct in the Catholic Church – all told through a breathtakingly scintillating melodrama of Hitchcockian film noir. Enrique (Fele Mart’z) is a Spanish filmmaker who is handed a short story by his former lover, Ignacio (Gael Garc’Bernal from THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES), who comes to his office unexpectedly after disappearing sixteen years ago. The story is called “The Visit” and features a predatory transsexual femme fatale named Zahara (also played by Bernal), who was once a beautiful boy soprano. Then, he was deeply in love with another young boy, who he was separated from after being expelled from Catholic school. Zahara now performs a luscious stage act at a seedy nightclub, and one day the man who destroyed Zahara’s life re-enters the picture – Father Manolo, the priest who abused him as a child. Revenge is at hand. Ignacio thinks he would be perfect for the lead role in the film version of his story, and even though Enrique agrees to the project, he also doubts Ignacio’s motives. Soon it is revealed that his old childhood friend is not at all who he seems to be, and while shooting the film a surprise visitor – the real Father Manolo – reappears and reveals the truth behind “The Visit”. Filled with rich, vibrant color and an elegant and heartfelt score, Almodovar’s latest film is a visual and emotional masterpiece from a filmmaker whose storytelling talents have never been stronger.
As many of you know, the Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film have recently announced their Top 100 Foreign Language Films. Selections range from the 1930’s to a film that hasn’t even been released officially in the U.S. yet! The #14 film is Italian master Federico Fellini’s LA DOLCE VITA, and that film plays on Saturday, Monday and Tuesday at the Brattle Theatre. See it in all it’s restored 35 mm glory.
Another Chlotrudis favorite makes a return this week as Lone Scherfig’s WILBUR WANTS TO KILL HIMSELF screens Tuesday night at the Museum of Fine Arts. If you haven’t caught this bittersweet film yet, do yourself a favor and catch it. It’s sure to be in contention at this year’s Nominating Committee meeting.
Meanwhile Chlotrudis members, don’t forget to let me know (colford@chlotrudis.org) if you’d like me to pick you up a ticket to Hirokazu Koreeda’s NOBODY KNOWS at the Harvard Film Archive for the January 10, 2005 Monday Night at the Movie. Tickets are $12.00 and the director of AFTER LIFE (#5 on the Chlotrudis Top 100 Foreign-Language Films!) will be present! Tickets are bound to go fast, and I plan on picking up the groups next week.
See you at the movies!
Playing this week, December 24 – 30.
Brattle Theatre, Cambridge
La Dolce Vita (Sat., Mon. & Tue.) #14 on Chlotrudis Society’s Top 100 Foreign Language Films!
The Leopard (Sun.)
79th Anniversary Special
Stooge-O-Rama (Sun. – Thu.)
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Wed.)
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Thu.)
Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline
Bad Education
Sideways
Paper Clips
Tarnation (Sat. – Thu.)
FEI Theatres Capitol Theatres, Arlington
Being Julia
What the Bleep Do We Know
I Heart Huckabees (Sat. – Thu.)
FEI Theatres Somerville Theatres, Somerville
Garden State (Fri., Mon. – Thu.)
What the Beep Do We Know (Fri.)
I Heart Huckabees (Sat. – Thu.)
Bombay Cinema Presents
Swades (Fri. – Sun.)
Harvard Film Archive, Cambridge
Happpy Holidays!
No Screenings
Hollywood Hits Theatre, Danvers
Kinsey
Finding Neverland
Sideways
Landmark Theatres
Kendall Square, Cambridge
Bad Education
House of Flying Daggers
The Sea Inside
On the Waterfront
Sideways
Kinsey
The Motorcycle Diaries
Embassy Cinema, Waltham
A Very Long Engagement
Bad Education
Sideways
House of Flying Daggers
Loews Theatres Copley Place, Boston
A Very Long Engagement
Kinsey
I Heart Huckabees
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Asian Cinevisions
Men Suddenly in Black (Sun., Wed., Thu.)
French Cinema
As If Nothing Happened (Sun., Wed., Thu.)
Our Music (Wed. & Thu.)
Cinema Tropical
To the Left of the Father (Sun., Wed., & Thu.)
Film Administrator Selects
Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself (Tue.)
The Newburyport Screening Room, Newburyport
Kinsey
West Newton Cinema, West Newton
Finding Neverland
Gloomy Sunday
Kinsey
Being Julia
Paper Clips
Vera Drake
Motorcycle Diaries
UPCOMING EVENTS!
Boston Jewish Film Festival
December 29 – January 16
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (see below for exact dates and times)
Jean-Luc Godard’s NOTRE MUSIQUE
(OUR MUSIC) (Switzerland/France, 2004, 80 min.) The latest work by the famed director, in three parts: hell, purgatory, and paradise. Inspired by Dante’s INFERNO, but a meditation on the contemporary world. Seen largely through the eyes of two women who converge on Sarajevo: a journalist of French-Jewish origins from Tel Aviv and a Russian Jew living in Israel.
FILM AND DISCUSSION WITH NOTED LOCAL AUTHORS, ACADEMICS, AND FILM CRITICS:
From 1959’s BREATHLESS (A BOUT DE SOUFFLE) to CONTEMPT (LE M’RIS, 1963) and WEEKEND (1967), French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard has had people talking.’Today, they are talking about his most recent work, NOTRE MUSIQUE (OUR MUSIC).’The International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) named it the best film of the year.’Actor Sarah Adler, who stars as Judith Lerner, was nominated for Best Actress for the European Film Awards of 2004.’
The Boston Jewish Film Festival and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston offer you the chance to see the film and discuss some of the questions it raises; we’ve invited authors, academics and journalists to lead audience discussion after each of the 12 screenings. The schedule of screenings and introducers follows:
Wed, Dec. 29, 8 pm
Introduced by Stanley Cavell, writer and emeritus professor of philosophy at Harvard University
Thurs, Dec 30, 6:15 pm
Introduced by John Gianvito, assistant professor, visual and media arts, Emerson College
Sun, Jan 2, 1:30 pm
Introduced by Tom Conley, professor of romance languages & literatures at Harvard University
Wed, Jan 5, 8 pm
Introduced by Peter Keough, film editor and critic, THE BOSTON PHOENIX
Fri, Jan 7, 4:30 pm
Introduced by Wesley Morris, film critic, THE BOSTON GLOBE
Sun, Jan 9, 12:10 pm
Introduced by Alfred Guzzetti, filmmaker and professor of visual arts, Harvard University
Wed, Jan 12, 6:30 pm
Introduced by Ty Burr, film critic, THE BOSTON GLOBE
Thurs, Jan 13, 2:30 pm
Introduced by Nancy Bauer, assistant professor, philosophy, Tufts University
Fri, Jan 14, 8:30 pm,
Introduced by Maryel Locke, co-editor, JEAN-LUC GODARD’S HAIL MARY:
WOMEN AND THE SACRED IN FILM
Sat, Jan 15, 12:20 pm
Introducer To Be Announced
Sun, Jan 16, 12:20 pm
Introducer To Be Announced
Sun, Jan 16, 4:00 pm
Introduced by Edward Baron Turk, professor, foreign languages and literature, MIT
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Boston Public Library
Werner Herzog Film Series
Mondays at 6 p.m. in the Rabb Lecture Hall – FREE!
Cobra Verde (Dec. 27)
Michael R. Colford
Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film, President