Hello everyone, and welcome to the new web-schedule for Boston independent films! Each week you will find the listings for independent film in the Boston area. In addition, we will announce the Chlotrudis Monday Night Movie of the Week here. Join Chlotrudis members as they see a new indie release each Monday Night. This week, join us at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, Monday, May 24, for the 7:45 p.m. show of Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee and Cigarettes. Seventeen years in the making, this film revolves around two of our favorite vices, coffee and cigarettes. And who can resist Cate Blanchett in a luscious dual role as herself and her cousin! And of course, Monday night is Chlotrudis night at the Coolidge. Show your membership card and get a discounted admission!
Coffee and Cigarettes
dir. Jim Jarmusch, w/Roberto Benigni, Steven Wright, Joie & Cinqu’ee, Steve Buscemi, Iggy Pop, Tom Waits, Alex Descas, Isaach de Bankol’Cate Blanchett, Meg White, Jack White, Alfred Molina, Steve Coogan, GZA, RZA, Bill Murray, Bill Rice, Taylor Mead, 1h36m
Mon, May 24
Legendary indie director Jim Jarmusch (GHOST DOG) brings together his favorite actors for a series of conversations over coffee and cigarettes. From smoky cafes to four star hotels, from coffee breaks to luncheon meetings, these people come together and discussing subjects as diverse as caffeine popsicles, Abbott and Costello, Elvis conspiracy theories, Paris in the twenties, and the use of nicotine as an insecticide. The series started in 1986, when the director brought together the wry comedian Steven Wright and Italian actor Roberto Benigni (then fairly unknown to American audiences, but about to break through as the co-star in Jarmusch’s DOWN BY LAW), for an improvised short of sipping, smoking and chatting. Over the years he continued to make shorts with his favorite actors and cultural icons, each film riffing on the same topics, but with a delightful new wrinkle. Steve Buscemi is a annoying waiter to Joie & Cinqu’ee (all of whom were then appearing in MYSTERY TRAIN); musicians Iggy Pop and Tom Waits meet in a bar, don’t seem to know each other very well, and have little to talk about; Bill Murray drinks coffee straight from the pot as the RZA and GZA (from rap group Wu-Tang Clan) drink tea and discuss healthy living; Cate Blanchett rips it up in a dual role as a movie star meeting her trashy doppelganger cousin; British actors Alfred Molina and Steve Coogan play themselves meeting for the first time, and hilariously vying for psychological dominance; and, in the most recent (and moving) installment, aging underground legends Bill Rice and Taylor Mead sip terrible vending machine coffee backstage at the opera and ruminate on the life they’ve left behind. The charm of COFFEE AND CIGARETTES is not only the eccentric characters, but also Jarmusch’s subtle humanity, using simple gestures, a couple of mundane props, and some conversation to show just how absorbing the obsessions, joys and addictions of life can be.
Official Site
The big news this week is over at the Coolidge Corner Theatre. Zhang Yimou is coming to town! That’s right, the heralded Chinese director of such films as Ju Dou, Raise the Red Lantern, To Live, and the upcoming Hero, will be in town to accept the first annual Coolidge Award. Tickets are only $25, $20 for Coolidge members, and Zhang will be on hand on Wednesday night to accept this honor. Unfortunately, the screening of Hero on Thursday night is sold out.
For a change, that’s not the only new release I’ll be trying to catch this week. Strayed is the latest film directed and co-written by Andr”in’Alice & Martin, Wild Reeds). This film also happens to feature the latest work by cinematographer Agn’Godard, who Chlotrudis members got a chance to meet this past March at the 10th Annual Chlotrudis Awards Ceremony. Look for an e-mail from me later in the week if you’d like to come along.
The Brattle Theatre has a special treat this weekend: the Exclusive Engagement of The Big Animal, a charming Polish film co-written by Krzysztof Kieslowski. Sunday Eye Opener attendees got a chance to see this film last fall. Do consider checking it out!
And plenty of great films are still at the theatre: Super Size Me at the Coolidge, and held over for another week at the Kendall is Guy Maddin’s The Saddest Music in the World.
See you at the movies!
Playing this week, May 20-26
Brattle Theatre, Cambridge
Ozu: a Celebration
Early Spring (Thu.)
Exclusive Area Premiere! Screenplay by Krzystztof Kieslowski!
The Big Animal (Fri – Sun.)
Special Engagement
NYC Midnight Movie Making Madness (Sat.)
Von Sternberg: Dietrich & Beyond – Co-Presented with the Goethe Institut:
Shanghai Express (Mon.)
Morocco (Mon.)
Sex & Death & God: Controversy on Screen:
Henry & June (Tue.)
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (Tue.)
Recent Raves (Chlotrudis Discount Honored!)
City of God (Wed.)
Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline
Coffee and Cigarettes (starts Fri.)
The Rage in Placid Lake (starts Fri.)
Morlang (starts Fri.)
Super Size Me
Goodbye Lenin (Thu.)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Thu.)
Power Trip (Thu.)
My Architect (Thu.)
Spike & Mike’s Festival of Twisted Animation (Fri. & Sat.)
Once Upon a Time in China 4 (Sat.)
SPECIAL PROGRAMS
Zhang Yimou Retrospective Screening: The Turandot Project (Mon.)
COOLIDGE GALA AWARDS CEREMONY
HONORING ZHANG YIMOU (Wed.)
Harvard Film Archive, Cambridge
Beautiful Music: Michel Legrand on Film
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Fri. & Sat.)
The Young Girls of Rochefort (Fri. & Wed.)
Lola (Sat.)
Atlantic City (Sun.)
The Thomas Crown Affair (Sun.)
F for Fake (Mon.)
Eva (Tue.)
The Go-Between (Tue.)
Bay of the Angels (Wed.)
Masterworks of Modern Cinema
And Life Goes On (Mon.)
Hollywood Hits Theatre, Danvers
— starting Friday —
Bon Voyage
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Connie & Carla
Good-bye Lenin!
Godsend
Landmark Theatres
Kendall Square, Cambridge
Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer
Strayed Cinematography by Agn’Godard!
Games People Play: New York
With All Deliberate Speed (Thu.)
The Saddest Music in the World
Young Adam (Thu.)
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring
Bon Voyage
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Good Bye, Lenin!
The Triplets of Belleville (Thu.) *Nominated for a Best Movie Chlotrudis Award!
Monty Python’s Life of Brian
Embassy Cinema, Waltham
Strayed Cinematography by Agn’Godard!
Super Size Me
I’m Not Scared
Good Bye, Lenin!
Intermission (Thu.)
Touching the Void
Troy (Just for you Diane!)
Loews Theatres
Copley Place, Boston
Super Size Me (starts Fri.)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Martin & Orloff
Connie & Carla
Still We Believe: The Boston Red Sox Movie (starts Fri.)
The Passion of the Christ
Intermission (Thu.)
Harvard Square, Cambridge
Coffee and Cigarettes
Super Size Me
I’m Not Scared
Kill Bill vol. 2
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
French Nouveaux Cineastes
Try to Remember (Thu. & Sun.)
Seaside (Wed.)
Since Otar Left (Wed.)
The 20th Annual Boston Gay & Lesbian Film/Video Festival
Cowboys and Angels (Thu.)
No Secret Anymore: The Times of Del Martin & Phyllis Lyon (Fri.)
Women’s Short Films (Fri.)
Tipping the Velvet (Sat.)
Don’t You Worry, It Will Probably Pass (Sat.)
Father & Son (Sat.)
Eating Out (Sat.)
Put the Camera on Me (Sun.)
Straight-Jacket (Sun.)
Art on Film
Louvre City (Thu.)
Pavel Jur’k: New Wave Master Rediscovered
Case for a Rookie Hangman (Sat.)
Every Young Man (Sun.)
Cinema Tropical
Bajo California: El limite del tiempo (Thu.)
Te Busco (Sun.)
Youth Films
Animated Artifacts
The Newburyport Screening Room, Newburyport
Goodbye Lenin! (Thu.)
My Architect (starts Fri.)
Michael R. Colford
Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film, President