News

Hey there Everyone!

It’s off to the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge for this week’s Monday Night at the Movies! Join us for the 7:30 screening of THE NOMI SONG, a documentary about 80’s New Wave Underground icon Klaus Nomi. It is hard to limit this film to being called a documentary, it is rather a non-fiction film; maybe even an oral history. It is also visually engaging, partly because Nomi himself was so visual. Watch for a message over the weekend about meeting for dinner beforehand.

THE NOMI SONG

Looks like an alien, sings like a diva ‘ Klaus Nomi was one of 1980’s most profoundly bizarre appearances. He was a cult figure in the New Wave Underground scene who sang pop music like opera and brought opera to club audiences. He was a performer with a ‘look’ so strong, that his first audiences went wild before he even opened his mouth. On the verge of international fame as a singer, he instead became one of the first prominent artists to die of AIDS. But the reaction Nomi provoked was so strong, htat he is still unforgettable’ even 20 years after his death.
Director: Andrew Horn
Featuring: Klaus Nomi, Ann Magnuson, David Bowie

This week we’re thrilled to feature this provocative new documentary that covers an unseen aspect of the U.S. war in Iraq. GUNNER PALACE reveals the complex realities of the situation in Iraq not seen on the nightly news. Told first-hand by U.S. troops, GUNNER PALACE presents a thought provoking portrait of a dangerous and chaotic war that is personal, highly emotional, sometimes disturbing, surprisingly amusing … and thoroughly fascinating. Filmmaker Michael Tucker, who lived with 2/3 Field Artillery, a.k.a. “The Gunners” for two months, captures the lives and humanity of these soldiers whose barracks are the bombed-out pleasure palace of Uday Hussein (nicknamed Gunner Palace), situated in the heart of the most volatile section of Baghdad. With total access to all operations and activities, Tucker’s insider footage provides a rare look at the day-to-day lives of these soldiers on the ground — whether swimming in Uday’s pool and playing golf on his putting green or executing raids on suspected terrorists, enduring roadside bombs, mortar attacks, RPGs and snipers.

The Harvard Film Archive welcomes the astounding Korean director Im Kwon-taek to Cambridge on Friday and Saturday night this week. On Friday the HFA will screen his 2001 film CHUNHYANG which blends Korean opera and a lush romantic epic of the 18th century. On Saturday night the director will present his 2003 biopic CHIHWASEON. Winner of the Cannes Film Festival’s Best Director award, CHIHWASEON is a vivid portrait of the turbulent life and times of Korea’s greatest artist. Don’t miss this terrific opportunity to see these amazing films with the director present.

As you know we’re building up to the 11th Annual Chlotrudis Awards Ceremony. Held at the Brattle Theatre on Sunday, March 20, 5:00 p.m. this year’s special guest is Lucas Belvaux, writer/director/star of 2004’s multiple nominee, THE TRILOGY. Also in attendance this year is John O’Brien, director of this year’s Buried Treasure nominee NOSEY PARKER This year that action starts early as the Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film and the Brattle Theatre present the latest film by last year’s “Body of Work” winner Daniel MacIvor. WILBY WONDERFUL is a terrific ensemble comedy with lovely, moving moments about an isolated community on an island off the coast of Eastern Canada. The film will be screened on Friday and Saturday, and we’re currently in talks with writer/director/actor Daniel MacIvor to be on hand for one of the screenings. More info coming soon.

See you at the movies!

Playing this week, March 4 – 10.

Brattle Theatre, Cambridge
Area Premiere!
The Nomi Song (Fri. – Thu.)
Sunday Eye-Opener
Gunner Palace
For Corners Films Presents
Change the Subject (Thu.)

Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline
Hotel Rwanda
Million Dollar Baby
Watermarks
Midnite Madness
Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior (Fri. & Sat.)
Wizard People Dear Reader Unauthorized, alternate audio to Harry Potter performed live by comedian Brad Neely! (Sat.)
Coolidge Award retrospective of cinematographer Vittorio Storaro
Last Tango in Paris (Mon.)
Coolidge Award Seminar
Shadows & Light: the Art of Cinematography with instructor Peter Flynn (Wed.)

FEI Theatres Capitol Theatres, Arlington
Hosue of Flying Daggers Nominated for a Best Cinematography Chlotrudis Award!
Finding Neverland
Kinsey Nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Chlotrudis Award!
Being Julia

FEI Theatres Somerville Theatres, Somerville
Kinsey Nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Chlotrudis Award!
Finding Neverland
Bombay Cinema Presents
Black (Fri. – Sun.)
House of Flying Daggers Nominated for a Best Cinematography Chlotrudis Award! (Mon. – Thu.)

Harvard Film Archive, Cambridge
Im Kwon-taek: Three Films
Chunhyang Director Present! (Fri.)
Chihwaseon Director Present! (Sat.)
Sopyonje (Mon.)
An Evening with Julie Mallozzi
Monkey Dance Director Present! (Sun.)
Masters of Animation – The Dreaming Mind
La Piccola Russia (Sun.)
Pas de Deux (Sun.)
The Trap (Sun.)
Street of Crocodiles (Sun.)
Rhinoceros (Sun.)
Tale of Tales (Sun.)
Black and White on Screen
Within Our Gates (Mon.)
Fashion in Film
Notebook on Cities and Clothes (Tue.)
Realist Escapes: Two by Dominique Cabrera
Tomorrow and Tomorrow (Tue.)
Frames of Mind
Rear Window (Wed.)
Philosophy and Film: Deleuze
Foolish Wives (Wed.)

Hollywood Hits Theatre, Danvers
Sideways Nominated for FOUR Chlotrudis Awards, including Best Cast!
Million Dollar Baby (ineligible)

Landmark Theatres
Kendall Square, Cambridge
The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill
Nobody Knows
Bride & Prejudice
Inside Deep Throat
Born into Brothels
Bad Education Nominated for Best Actor and Best Movie Chlotrudis Awards!
Sideways Nominated for FOUR Chlotrudis Awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay!
Hotel Rwanda
William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (ineligible)

Embassy Cinema, Waltham
Bride & Prejudice
The Jacket
Born into Brothels
Sideways Nominated for FOUR Chlotrudis Awards, including Best Supporting Actress!
The Sea Inside
Closer (ineligible)
Million Dollar Baby (ineligible) (ineligible)

Loew’s Harvard Square, Cambridge
A Very Long Engagement
Closer (ineligible)
Million Dollar Baby (ineligible)

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Angolan Cinema
Hollow City (Fri.)
Maurice Pialat Retrospective
Loulou (Fri.)
We Will Not Grow Old Together (Sat.)
Malian Cinema
Kabala (Sat.)
Algerian Cinema
Daughter of Keltoum (Sat.)
Rachida (Sun. & Thu.)
Uruguayan Cinema
Whisky (Sun. & Thu.)
International Women’s Day Film Festival
Shouting Silent (Tue.)
The Three Khmer Flowers (Tue.)
Afghanistan Unveiled (Tue.)
Cinema Tropical
Loco Fever (Thu.)

The Newburyport Screening Room, Newburyport
William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice

West Newton Cinema, West Newton
Hotel Rwanda
The Chorus
Finding Neverland
Kinsey Nominated for a Best Supporting Actor

Chlotrudis Award!
House of Flying Daggers Nominated for a Best Cinematography Chlotrudis Award!
Paper Clips
Being Julia
Vera Drake Nominated for FOUR Chlotrudis Awards, including Best Actress!
William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice
Paper Clips

UPCOMING EVENTS!

—————————–

Boston Jewish Film Festival

March 6 ‘ 24, Copresented with, and at, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston WHISKY, by Juan Pablo Rebella and Pablo Stoll (Uruguay/Argentinia/Germany/Spain, 2004, 94 min., Spanish with English
subtitles)

Sunday March 6, 1:30pm, with directors Juan Pablo Rebella and Pablo Stoll present Thursday, March 10, 8:00pm, Sunday, March 13, 3:45pm Thursday, March 24, 6:00pm

A multiple prize-winner at Cannes, this droll tale from Uruguay concerns Jacobo, the graying Jewish owner of a Montevideo sock factory, and his manager Marta, who have barely communicated with each other in their daily routine over the years. After a twenty-year absence, Jacobo’s younger brother Herman announces that he is returning to Montevideo to attend the unveiling of their mother’s headstone (a Jewish tradition observed one year after a funeral). Anticipating this visit, Jacobo asks Marta to “help out at home” and pose as his spouse.

Preceded by the short film AS FOLLOWS, by Uruguayan director Federico Veiroj, the irreverent story of a boy’s Bar Mitzvah and the religious rituals and family traditions it entails.

Tickets: $9 general admission; $8 seniors, students, members of the MFA and Boston Jewish Film Festival. To purchase tickets

in advance with a credit card, call 617.369.3306 or visit www.mfa.org/film. No phone orders for same-day screenings.

___________________________

Tuesday, March 15, 7pm, Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline TURN LEFT AT THE END OF THE WORLD with director Avi Nesher in person'(Israel/France, 2004, 110 minutes, English/Hebrew/French with English subtitles),

Charming, sexy, and comical, TURN LEFT AT THE END OF THE WORLD takes us back to 1969, when two Jewish immigrant families – one Indian, the other Moroccan – become unlikely neighbors in the middle of the Israeli desert. Each asserting its own identity, the families become involved in a culture war that touches on everything from laundry soap to cricket. Meanwhile, each family’s teenage daughter negotiates the landscape of the sexual revolution – as do older family members, who try to be discreet about their actions. In the process, Sara (Liraz Charhi) and Nicole (Garti Netta) break through their families’ resentments to forge a bond of friendship.’Presented with generous support from the Consulate General of Israel to New England.

Tickets: $15 general admission; $12 for seniors, students, members of the Coolidge Corner Theatre Foundation and Boston Jewish Film Festival.’To purchase tickets in advance with a credit card, visit http://www.coolidge.org and select Events. This screening of TURN LEFT AT THE END OF THE WORLD is generously supported by the Consulate General of Israel to New England.

Michael R. Colford
Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film, President

Hey there Movie Buffs!

Not too much opening this week, so it’s time to play catch up! Join us at the Kendall Square Cinema for some post-Oscar documentary fun: INSIDE DEEP THROAT! We’ll be catching the 7:40 p.m. screening, so there’ll be plenty of time for some dinner beforehand. I was hoping to catch this one at the Coolidge, but they haven’t opened it yet, and there really wasn’t much in the way of alternatives. See the documentary before the film it’s based on is re-released!

INSIDE DEEP THROAT examines the unanticipated lasting cultural impact generated by DEEP THROAT, a sexually explicit film first shown in a midtown Manhattan adult theatre in 1972 that quickly became the flashpoint for an unprecedented social and political firestorm. Generally considered the most profitable film of all time (produced for less than $25,000 but earning countless millions), the barely one-hour movie became compulsory viewing for millions of ordinary Americans and celebrities, as an individual’s fascination or repulsion identified his or her place in the cultural shifts of the time. Written and directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato (PARTY MONSTER, THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE).

Director: Fenton Bailey & Randy Barbato

Cast: Gerard Damiano, Erica Jong, Linda Lovelace (archive footage), Norman Mailer, Harry Reems, Gore Vidal, John Waters, David Winters

Korean cinema has really come into it’s own. At the same time, the Asian “hair horror” genre has taken the U.S. by storm, spawning American remakes left and right. A TALE OF TWO SISTERS is a Korean “hair horror” flick, that’s also a really fascinating family drama! If you missed this gem at last week’s Eye Opener… and I know a lot of you did, make sure you catch it during it’s run at the Kendall this week. In other Kendall related news, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s NOBODY KNOWS has been extended another week, and I can’t recommend it enough! Don’t miss your opportunity to catch this incredibly powerful film before it disappears from the big screen.

Of course the big cinematic event in Boston this week is the Brattle Theatre’s annual Oscar Party! Tickets are going like wildfire, so don’t waste a moment to reserve your spot for this gala event. The pre-party fundraiser gets you delicious food from Noir and Finale, an open bar, and some really incredibly silent auction items, along with a crowd decked out in indie chic and a red carpet.. all for only $50! Plus you’ll be supporting a terrific non-profit theatre. Members (and anyone who pays the 50 bucks for the pre-party) are also invited to hang out at the Brattle to watch the Oscars projected on the big screen. It’s not Chlotrudis Awards, but it is a lot of fun to watch Hollywood’s big show (and sometimes collectively make fun of it!) I can’t tell you how fun this event is, and lots of your Chlotrudis pals will be in the audience, so come on down! E-mail the Brattle at rsvp@brattlefilm.org to reserve your spot at the Oscars!

Because of the Oscar’s Gala event, the Sunday Eye Opener will be taking a break this weekend, so sleep in for a change! But check back here next week because Ned has already lined up the film, and it’s sure to be a much-discussed experience.

See you at the movies!

Playing this week, February 25 – March 3.

Brattle Theatre, Cambridge
10th Annual Bugs Bunny Film Festival!
All New Matinee Revue (Fri. – Sun.)
Recent Raves
Notre Musique (Fri. & Sat.)
In the Realms of the Unreal (Mon. & Tue.)
Dolls (Wed.)
Bright Future (Thu.)
The Brattle Film Foundation Presents
The Oscar Gala and Pre-Party! (Sun.)

Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline
Hotel Rwanda
Million Dollar Baby
Watermarks
Midnite Madness
TDB Records Presents The One A.M. Radio Show (Fri.)
Found Magazine PResents Found Video Show (Sat.)
Double Feature (Mon.)
Before Sunrise and Before Sunset
Balagan Presents
Abigail Child (Tue.)

FEI Theatres Capitol Theatres, Arlington
Hosue of Flying Daggers Nominated for a Best Cinematography Chlotrudis Award!
Finding Neverland
Kinsey Nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Chlotrudis Award!
Being Julia

FEI Theatres Somerville Theatres, Somerville
House of Flying Daggers Nominated for a Best Cinematography Chlotrudis Award!
Finding Neverland
The Motorcycle Diaries (Sun. – Tue. & Thu.) Nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay Chlotrudis Award!
Bombay Cinema Presents
Black (Fri. – Sun.)

Harvard Film Archive, Cambridge
The Films of Hirokazu Koreeda
August Without Him (Fri.)
Lessons from a Calf and However (Fri.)
Heimatfilm
Black Farmer’s Girl (Sat.)
The Farmer’s Perjury (Sat.)
Deleuze: Philosophy and Film
Film and Variety (Sun.) Live piano accompaniment
Korean Cinema
The Housemaid (Mon.)
Black and White on Screen
Imitation of Life (Mon.)

Hollywood Hits Theatre, Danvers
Sideways Nominated for FOUR Chlotrudis Awards, including Best Cast!
Being Julia
Million Dollar Baby (ineligible)

Landmark Theatres
Kendall Square, Cambridge
A Tale of Two Sisters
Nobody Knows
Bride & Prejudice
Inside Deep Throat
Born into Brothels
Bad Education Nominated for Best Actor and Best Movie Chlotrudis Awards!
Sideways Nominated for FOUR Chlotrudis Awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay!
Hotel Rwanda
William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (ineligible)

Embassy Cinema, Waltham
Bride & Prejudice
Imaginary Heroes
A Very Long Engagement
Born into Brothels
Sideways Nominated for FOUR Chlotrudis Awards, including Best Supporting Actress!
The Sea Inside
Closer (ineligible)
Million Dollar Baby (ineligible) (ineligible)

Loew’s Harvard Square, Cambridge
A Very Long Engagement
Closer (ineligible)
Million Dollar Baby (ineligible)

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
African Film Festival
Agogo Eewo (Sat.)
Three Short African Films (Sat.)
Return to Kandahar (Sat. & Sun.)
Hollow City (Sun.)
Hong Kong Cinema
Days of Being Wild (Sat.)
Maurice Pialat Retrospective
Naked Childhood (Wed.)
The Mouth Agape (Thu.)

The Newburyport Screening Room, Newburyport
Bad Education Nominated for Best Actor and Best Movie Chlotrudis Awards!

West Newton Cinema, West Newton
Hotel Rwanda
The Chorus
Finding Neverland
Kinsey Nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Chlotrudis Award!
House of Flying Daggers Nominated for a Best Cinematography Chlotrudis Award!
Paper Clips
Being Julia
Vera Drake Nominated for FOUR Chlotrudis Awards, including Best Actress!
William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice
Paper Clips

UPCOMING EVENTS!

—————————–

BU CINEMATHEQUE RETURNS!

Thursday, February 24: AN EVENING WITH HIRAM MARTINEZ.
640 Comm.Ave., Room B-05, 7 pm.

Each year, the BU Cinematheque searches out one low-budget indie feature of excellence which can be a model and inspiration for university film production students. Hence, Four Dead Batteries, a complex, humane, and often hilarious story of the lives and screwed-up loves of a four-member New York improv comedy group. A prize-winner in 2004 at eight film festivals, Four Dead Batteries is written and directed by Hiram Martinez, a precociously talented 24-year-old college drop-out, who will speak at the BU screening. The official advertising tag-lines for this film: “From the guys who saw Rushmore and American Beauty.”

Wednesday, March 2: AN AFTERNOON WITH JONATHAN NOSSITER.
The BU College of Communication, 640 Comm.Ave., Room 217, 3:30 pm. (NOTE SPECIAL TIME AND PLACE.)

Nossiter, who won the Sundance Grand Prize for Sunday (1977), returns to documentary (the Quentin Crisp-featured RESIDENT ALIEN) for Mondovino, a very rare non-fiction official selection of the Cannes Film Festival. For this expansive, illuminating new work, snuck at BU prior to its Spring theatrical release, Nossiter traveled the world interviewing farmers, vintners, wine experts, taking note of the global war between small-time growers of fabulous wines pitted against corporations making bland product by the truck-load. In real life, Nossiter is also a trained sommelier, designing wine lists for fine New York restaurants.

Thursday, March 4: LOS ANGELES PLAYS ITSELF, 640 Comm. Ave, Room B-05, 6:30 pm. (NOTE EARLY TIME.)

It’s not on the Oscar radar, but Thom Anderson’s LOS ANGELES PLAYS ITSELF was winner of the Village Voice American Film Critics poll for the best documentary of 2004. It’s a 2 1/2 hour compilation of scenes from LA-set movies, many lost, odd, obscure, “a spectrum,” said BU film professor, Roy Grundmann, in a review, “from prestige melodramas to B-movie balderdash, from high-tech neo-noir to gay porn.” What does LA mean, as symbol, as topography, as background for films as diverse as LA Confidential, Chinatown, and Who Killed Roger Rabbit? A discussion afterward with Professor Grundmann, Boston Globe film critic, Ty Burr, and Gerald Peary, programmer for the BU Cinematheque. (LOS ANGELES PLAYS ITSELF will be shown theatrically at the Brattle March 25-27.)

Boston Jewish Film Festival

March 6 ‘ 24, Copresented with, and at, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston WHISKY, by Juan Pablo Rebella and Pablo Stoll (Uruguay/Argentinia/Germany/Spain, 2004, 94 min., Spanish with English
subtitles)

Sunday March 6, 1:30pm, with directors Juan Pablo Rebella and Pablo Stoll present Thursday, March 10, 8:00pm, Sunday, March 13, 3:45pm Thursday, March 24, 6:00pm

A multiple prize-winner at Cannes, this droll tale from Uruguay concerns Jacobo, the graying Jewish owner of a Montevideo sock factory, and his manager Marta, who have barely communicated with each other in their daily routine over the years. After a twenty-year absence, Jacobo’s younger brother Herman announces that he is returning to Montevideo to attend the unveiling of their mother’s headstone (a Jewish tradition observed one year after a funeral). Anticipating this visit, Jacobo asks Marta to “help out at home” and pose as his spouse.

Preceded by the short film AS FOLLOWS, by Uruguayan director Federico Veiroj, the irreverent story of a boy’s Bar Mitzvah and the religious rituals and family traditions it entails.

Tickets: $9 general admission; $8 seniors, students, members of the MFA and Boston Jewish Film Festival. To purchase tickets in advance with a credit card, call 617.369.3306 or visit www.mfa.org/film. No phone orders for same-day screenings.

___________________________

Tuesday, March 15, 7pm, Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline TURN LEFT AT THE END OF THE WORLD with director Avi Nesher in person'(Israel/France, 2004, 110 minutes, English/Hebrew/French with English subtitles),

Charming, sexy, and comical, TURN LEFT AT THE END OF THE WORLD takes us back to 1969, when two Jewish immigrant families – one Indian, the other Moroccan – become unlikely neighbors in the middle of the Israeli desert. Each asserting its own identity, the families become involved in a culture war that touches on everything from laundry soap to cricket. Meanwhile, each family’s teenage daughter negotiates the landscape of the sexual revolution – as do older family members, who try to be discreet about their actions. In the process, Sara (Liraz Charhi) and Nicole (Garti Netta) break through their families’
resentments to forge a bond of friendship.’Presented with generous support from the Consulate General of Israel to New England.

Tickets: $15 general admission; $12 for seniors, students, members of the Coolidge Corner Theatre Foundation and Boston Jewish Film Festival.’To purchase tickets in advance with a credit card, visit http://www.coolidge.org and select Events

This screening of TURN LEFT AT THE END OF THE WORLD is generously supported by the Consulate General of Israel to New England.

Michael R. Colford
Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film, President

Hey there Movie Buffs!

I’m very excited about next week’s Monday Night Movie of the Week, and I can guarantee that it’s at least a better film than this week’s BRIDE & PREJUDICE. NOBODY KNOWS. is the latest film by AFTER LIFE director Hirokazu Koreeda. Many of us caught this film in Toronto last September, and I am looking forward to seeing it again. Don’t be fooled if you’ve seen the preview, which makes it look like a syrupy bit of treacle. This one’s pretty bleak. It’s fairly different stylistically than AFTER LIFE as well, as it’s firmly based in reality, and in fact, based on a true story. Lead actor, fourteen-year-old Yagira Yuya even won the Best Actor Award last year at the Cannes Film Festival! Please join us for the 6:30 screening of NOBODY KNOWS at the Kendall Square Cinema on Monday, February 21. I’m hoping that a bunch of the Board of Directors will be joining us since we have a Board meeting that afternoon.

Four siblings live with their mother in a small apartment in Tokyo. All the children have different fathers and none of them have ever been to school. In fact, the very existence of three of the children has been hidden from the landlord. One day, the mother leaves behind a note, asking her twelve-year-old boy (Yagira Yuya, winner of the Best Actor Award at Cannes) to look after the others. Though abandoned, the children do their best to survive. But when they are forced to engage with the outside world, the fragile balance that has sustained them collapses. Written and directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda (AFTER LIFE, MABOROSI).

Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda

Cast: Y’agira, Ayu Kitaura, Hiei Kimura, Momoko Shimizu, Hanae Kan, You, Kazumi Kushida, Yukiko Okamoto, Sei Hiraizumi, Ryo Kase, Yuichi Kimura, Kenichi Endo, Susumu Terajima

Speaking of Kore-eda, you’ve got another chance to catch DISTANCE, one of his unreleased in the U.S. films, which is playing again Friday night, February 18, at the Harvard Film Archive. This dreamlike examination of a group of people who all have connections with victims of Japan’s seren gas subway tragedy is a challenging piece for fans of the filmmakers. I’m disappointed taht I will not be able to catch this film again after seeing it in 2002 at the Toronto Film Festival. It could definitely use a second viewing. Another HFA film that you might want to catch is Tuesday night’s screening of TARNATION. As you know, TARNATION is up for two Chlotrudis Awards, Best Documentary, and Best Director for Jonathan Caouette. This will probably be your last chance to catch up with it before voting!

I’m not sure what my schedule is like next week, but I’m hoping to catch the Eytan Fox’s new film WALK ON WATER at a special screening sponsored by the Boston Jewish Film Festival at the West Newton Cinema next Thursday. Director Eytan Fox will be present, and I would love to hear him speak. Something tells me that if I decide to go, I’d better get tickets soon, because this one’s sure to sell out.

We will certainly miss Ivy leading the discussion for this week’s Sunday Eye Opener, the latest in the Asian “hair-horror” genre, A TALE OF TWO SISTERS, but we’re thrilled to have Clinton McClung, Program Director for the Coolidge Corner Theatre, and Chlotrudis Board Treasurer, who will be filling in this week! It’s sure to be pretty lively. A TALE OF TWO SISTERS is our second film in two weeks from Korea, and as we saw last weekend, Korea is putting out some pretty challenging films! Chlotrudis members can pay $25 for the remainder of the series (which goes through early April… still quite a bargain!) or just pay $10 to drop in for a single day. But I will give you a little preview: we’re hoping to have a guest discussion leader on March 20 (Chlotrudis Day) who was an award winner last year! THAT’s an event you won’t want to miss!

See you at the movies!

Playing this week, February 18 – 24.

Brattle Theatre, Cambridge
10th Annual Bugs Bunny Film Festival!
All Bugs Revue (Fri., Sun., Tue., & Thu.)
The Best of the Rest (Sat., Mon., Wed.)
The Sunday Eye Opener
A Tale of Two Sisters (Sun.)

Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline
Hotel Rwanda
Million Dollar Baby
Watermarks
Midnite Madness
Live Burlesque Show: G-Spot Review (Fri.)
2004 ACADEMY AWARD SHORT SUBJECT DOCUMENTARIES Annual Big Screen Gala! (Mon.)
Autism in a World
The Children of Leningradsky
Sister Rose’s Passion
Hardwood
Cheerleader

FEI Theatres Capitol Theatres, Arlington
Hosue of Flying Daggers Nominated for a Best Cinematography Chlotrudis Award!
Finding Neverland
Kinsey Nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Chlotrudis Award!
Being Julia

FEI Theatres Somerville Theatres, Somerville
Hosue of Flying Daggers Nominated for a Best Cinematography Chlotrudis Award!
Finding Neverland
The Motorcycle Diaries (Mon. & Thu.) Nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay Chlotrudis Award!
Bombay Cinema Presents
Black (Fri. – Sun.)

Harvard Film Archive, Cambridge
The Films of Hirokazu Koreeda
Distance (Fri.)
Heimatfilm
Lady Country Doctor (Fri.)
Malcolm X Remembered
Malolm X – Spike Lee (Sat.)
Malcolm X – Arnold Perl and Perfect Film (Mon.)
Deleuze: Philosophy and Film
The Passion of Joan of Arc (Sun.) Live piano accompaniment
Ordet (Sun.)
Fashion and Film
In the Mood for Love (Tue.)
Life Stories: Film & Autobiography
Tarnation (Tue.) Nominated for Best Director and Best Documentary Chlotrudis Awards!
Frames of Mind
Battleship Potempkin Live piano accompaniment (Wed.)
An Evening with Filmmaker Willem de Rooij (Thu.)

Hollywood Hits Theatre, Danvers
Finding Neverland
Sideways Nominated for FOUR Chlotrudis Awards, including Best Cast!
Being Julia
Million Dollar Baby (ineligible)

Landmark Theatres
Kendall Square, Cambridge
Nobody Knows
Imaginary Heroes
Bride & Prejudice
Inside Deep Throat
Born into Brothels
Bad Education Nominated for Best Actor and Best Movie Chlotrudis Awards!
Sideways Nominated for FOUR Chlotrudis Awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay!
Hotel Rwanda
William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (ineligible)

Embassy Cinema, Waltham
Born into Brothels
Imaginary Heroes
A Very Long Engagement
Born into Brothels
Sideways Nominated for FOUR Chlotrudis Awards, including Best Supporting Actress!
The Sea Inside
Closer (ineligible)
Million Dollar Baby (ineligible)

Loew’s Harvard Square, Cambridge
A Very Long Engagement
Closer (ineligible)
Million Dollar Baby (ineligible)

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
African Film Festival
Soldiers of the Rock (Fri. & Sun.)
Return to Kandahar (Sat., Sun. & Thu.)
Daughter of Keltoum (Sat. & Thu.)
Dirt for Dinner (Sat.)
Three Short African Films (Sun.)
Agogo Eewo (Wed.)
Kabala
Hong Kong Cinema
Days of Being Wild (Fri. – Sun., Wed. & Thu.)

The Newburyport Screening Room, Newburyport
The Woodsman Nominated for a Best Actor Chlotrudis Award!

West Newton Cinema, West Newton
Hotel Rwanda
The Chorus
Finding Neverland
Kinsey Nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Chlotrudis Award!
Being Julia
Vera Drake Nominated for FOUR Chlotrudis Awards, including Best Actress!
William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice
Paper Clips

UPCOMING EVENTS!

—————————–

BU CINEMATHEQUE RETURNS!
Friday, February 18: AN EVENING WITH DENNIS LEHANE.
640 Comm. Ave., Room B-05, 7 pm

Dennis Lehane, a native Bostonian, is one of the most talented, and deservedly acclaimed, crime and mystery novelists in the world, known above all for Mystic River, his amazingly spooky tale of three boys growing up in the violent world of Southie. Lehane will introduce a showing of the much-praised 1993 Clint Eastwood adaptation of his book, and offer the inside story on the making of this Sean Penn-Tim Robbins-Kevin Bacon-starring movie. Following the screening, Lehane will read from his book: a section of note which didn’t make it to the screen.

Thursday, February 24: AN EVENING WITH HIRAM MARTINEZ.
640 Comm.Ave., Room B-05, 7 pm.

Each year, the BU Cinematheque searches out one low-budget indie feature of excellence which can be a model and inspiration for university film production students. Hence, Four Dead Batteries, a complex, humane, and often hilarious story of the lives and screwed-up loves of a four-member New York improv comedy group. A prize-winner in 2004 at eight film festivals, Four Dead Batteries is written and directed by Hiram Martinez, a precociously talented 24-year-old college drop-out, who will speak at the BU screening. The official advertising tag-lines for this film: “From the guys who saw RUSHMORE and AMERICAN BEAUTY.”

Boston Jewish Film Festival
The Boston Jewish Film Festival is pleased to offer screenings of three new films from Israel and Uruguay, with filmmakers appearing at each:

Thursday, February 24, 7pm, West Newton Cinema.
WALK ON WATER, with director Eytan Fox in Person (Israel, 2004, 104 min., English/Hebrew/German w/ subtitles)

After presenting the Boston premiere of WALK ON WATER at our 2004 fall Gala, The Boston Jewish Film Festival is proud to bring the film back for a special sneak preview screening at the West Newton Cinema, with director Eytan Fox in person!’Fox is a leading filmmaker in Israel, and has been among the first to treat gay themes in film.’His film YOSSI AND JAGGER won the 2003 Boston Jewish Film Festival Audience Award for Best Feature Film.

Tickets are $12 in advance and for BJFF members, seniors, and students; $15 at the door. Call the Boston Jewish Film Festival at 617-244-9899 to purchase tickets in advance.

___________________________

March 6 ‘ 24, Copresented with, and at, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston WHISKY, by Juan Pablo Rebella and Pablo Stoll (Uruguay/Argentinia/Germany/Spain, 2004, 94 min., Spanish with English
subtitles)

Sunday March 6, 1:30pm, with directors Juan Pablo Rebella and Pablo Stoll present Thursday, March 10, 8:00pm, Sunday, March 13, 3:45pm Thursday, March 24, 6:00pm

A multiple prize-winner at Cannes, this droll tale from Uruguay concerns Jacobo, the graying Jewish owner of a Montevideo sock factory, and his manager Marta, who have barely communicated with each other in their daily routine over the years. After a twenty-year absence, Jacobo’s younger brother Herman announces that he is returning to Montevideo to attend the unveiling of their mother’s headstone (a Jewish tradition observed one year after a funeral). Anticipating this visit, Jacobo asks Marta to “help out at home” and pose as his spouse.

Preceded by the short film AS FOLLOWS, by Uruguayan director Federico Veiroj, the irreverent story of a boy’s Bar Mitzvah and the religious rituals and family traditions it entails.

Tickets: $9 general admission; $8 seniors, students, members of the MFA and Boston Jewish Film Festival. To purchase tickets in advance with a credit card, call 617.369.3306 or visit www.mfa.org/film. No phone orders for same-day screenings.

___________________________

Tuesday, March 15, 7pm, Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline TURN LEFT AT THE END OF THE WORLD with director Avi Nesher in person'(Israel/France, 2004, 110 minutes, English/Hebrew/French with English subtitles)

Charming, sexy, and comical, TURN LEFT AT THE END OF THE WORLD takes us back to 1969, when two Jewish immigrant families – one Indian, the other Moroccan – become unlikely neighbors in the middle of the Israeli desert. Each asserting its own identity, the families become involved in a culture war that touches on everything from laundry soap to cricket. Meanwhile, each family’s teenage daughter negotiates the landscape of the sexual revolution – as do older family members, who try to be discreet about their actions. In the process, Sara (Liraz Charhi) and Nicole (Garti Netta) break through their families’ resentments to forge a bond of friendship.’Presented with generous support from the Consulate General of Israel to New England.

Tickets: $15 general admission; $12 for seniors, students, members of the Coolidge Corner Theatre Foundation and Boston Jewish Film Festival.’To purchase tickets in advance with a credit card, visit http://www.coolidge.org and select Events

This screening of TURN LEFT AT THE END OF THE WORLD is generously supported by the Consulate General of Israel to New England.

Michael R. Colford
Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film, President

Hey there Everyone!

A couple of good choices this week, how do you choose between a Bollywood Musical and a documentary about the most famous porn film in history? Well, I think INSIDE DEEP THROAT will be opening at the Coolidge soon, so we’ve elected to head over to the Kendall Square Cinema for the Monday Night at the Movies. The film is Gurinder Chadha’s BRIDE & PREJUDICE, 7:30 p.m. screening. Come on, it’s a remake of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice done Bollywood style (and it co-stars that sexy Naveen Andrews from THE ENGLISH PATIENT)! How can you resist?

In a cross-cultural setting spanning present-day India, London and America, director/co-writer Gurinder Chadha (BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM) reinvents Jane Austen’s comic love story Bollywood-style’with a riot of color and emotion, music and dance. In a modest Indian village, Mrs. Bakshi (Nadira Babbar) sets out to find husbands for her four beautiful daughters. Headstrong Lalita (Aishwarya Rai) announces she will only marry for love, but when she meets a wealthy American from California (Martin Henderson), sparks begin to fly, frustrating her mother’s attempts to marry her off to a nice Indian boy. Naveen Andrews co-stars.

Director: Gurinder Chadha

Cast: Aishwarya Rai, Martin Henderson, Daniel Gillies, Naveen Andrews, Namrata Shirodkar, Indira Varma, Nadira Babbar, Anupam Kher, Meghna Kothari, Peeya Rai Chowdhary, Nitin Chandra Ganatra, Sonali Kulkarni

One film that I’m disappointed to have to miss next week is Hirozaku Koreeda’s DISTANCE, playing Wednesday and Friday at the Harvard Film Archive. I would go to the 9 p.m. show on Wednesday, but seeing as this incredibly dense and slow moving film runs over one hour and fourty minutes, I’m not sure I’d make it. And this is one that you need to be on your toes for. Now don’t let that frighten you off, it’s one intriguing film! Scot and I caught DISTANCE in Toronto in 2002, and despite an overwhelming feeling of frustration at it’s opaque narrative, we both decided ultimately that we really wanted to see it again. I was hoping this would be my chance, but it just doesn’t look like we’re going to make it. If anyone makes it, I’d love to hear what you think! And maybe now they’ll release it on DVD. And by the way, Saturday at the HFA, a early Koreeda film is playing entitled, WITHOUT MEMORY.

After a romantic weekend in CASABLANCA to celebrate Valentine’s Day, The Brattle Theatre is playing some nifty animated films. If anime if your thing, definitely check out one of Scot’s all-time favorites, GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES on Wednesday night, introduced by author Peter Carey. The Coolidge has got to get some new movies in the house, but if you missed Annette Bening in BEING JULIA, I recommend you catch it, even though she was squeezed out of the Best Actress Chlotrudis Award category.

Fans of Japanese film should check out the latest film by Takeshi Kitano (THE BLIND SWORDSMAN: ZAT’CHI) called DOLLS. Here’s another film that Scot caught in Toronto way back in 2002, and he was delighted by the intriguing premise. Part of each of a triptych of stories is told through elaborate marionettes, and the color design in this film is amazing. It plays over the weekend, and I’m disappointed that I’m going to miss this one too. I’m just too busy!

Fans of gritty crime novelist Dennis Lehane will NOT want to miss his intimate appearance at Gerry Peary’s BU Cinematheque! Get Mr. Lehane’s inside story of the making of MYSTIC RIVER for FREE on Friday (that’s tomorrow!) Check it out, he’s a very entertaining speaker!

See you at the movies!

Playing this week, February 11 – 17.

Brattle Theatre, Cambridge
Animation Celebration Area Premiere!
Tree of Palme (Fri. – Sun.)
Ghost in the Shell (Tue.)
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (Tue.)
An Evening with Peter Carey (Wed.)
Grave of the Fireflies (Wed.)
The Triplets of Belleville (Thu.)
Special St. Valentine’s Day Screenings
Casablanca (Sun. & Mon.)

Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline
Hotel Rwanda
House of Flying Daggers Nominated for a Best Cinematography Chlotrudis Award!
Being Julia
The Take
Paper Clips
Midnite Madness
Live Variety Show: MAKE MY WISH YOUR OWN (Fri.)
Special Valentine’s Day Screening
The Princess Bride

FEI Theatres Capitol Theatres, Arlington
Finding Neverland
Kinsey Nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Chlotrudis Award!
Being Julia

FEI Theatres Somerville Theatres, Somerville
Finding Neverland
The Motorcycle Diaries (Mon. – Thu.) Nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay Chlotrudis Award!
Bombay Cinema Presents
Black (Fri. – Sun.)

Harvard Film Archive, Cambridge
An Evening with Shyam Benegal
Netaji: The Last Hero (Fri.) Director Present! This Event is a Tsunami Relief Benefit!
Heimatfilm
High Up on the Mountain (Fri.)
The Films of Hirokazu Koreeda
Without Memory (Sat.)
Distance (Wed.)
Deleuze: Philosophy and Film
The General Line (Sun.) Live Musical Accompaniment!
L’Atalante (Sun.)
Korean Cinema
The Houseguest and My Mother (Mon.)
Black and White On Screen
Borderline (Mon.)
Fashion and Film
In the Mood for Love (Tue.)
Life Stories: Film & Autobiography
In This Life’s Body (Tue.)
Frames of Mind
Germany Year Zero (Wed.)

Hollywood Hits Theatre, Danvers
Finding Neverland
Sideways Nominated for FOUR Chlotrudis Awards, including Best Cast!
Being Julia
Million Dollar Baby (ineligible)

Landmark Theatres
Kendall Square, Cambridge
Travellers & Magicians
Bride & Prejudice
Inside Deep Throat
Born into Brothels
Bad Education Nominated for Best Actor and Best Movie Chlotrudis Awards!
House of Flying Daggers Nomianted for a Best Cinematography Chlotrudis Award!
Sideways Nominated for FOUR Chlotrudis Awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay!
Hotel Rwanda
William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (ineligible)

Embassy Cinema, Waltham
Born into Brothels
A Very Long Engagement
Bad Education Nominated for Best Actor and Best Movie Chlotrudis Awards!
Sideways Nominated for FOUR Chlotrudis Awards, including Best Supporting Actress!
The Sea Inside
Closer (ineligible)
Million Dollar Baby (ineligible)

Loew’s Harvard Square, Cambridge
A Very Long Engagement
Closer (ineligible)
Million Dollar Baby (ineligible)

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
African Film Festival
Mrs. Wheelbarrow (Fri.)
Cosmic Saturday (Sat.)
Moolaad’a> (Sat. & Sun.) Nominated for Best Movie & Best Actress Chlotrudis Awards!
Hollow City (Thu.)
Japanese Cinema
Dolls (Fri. – Sun.)
Art of Film
POPaganda: The Art and Crimes of Ron English (Sat.)
Psychoanalysis on Film
Empathy (Sun. & Thu.)
Afghanistan on Film
Return to Kandahar (Thu.)
Hong Kong Cinema
Days of Being Wild (Thu.)

The Newburyport Screening Room, Newburyport
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (Ineligible)

West Newton Cinema, West Newton
Hotel Rwanda
The Chorus
Finding Neverland
Kinsey Nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Chlotrudis Award!
Being Julia
Vera Drake Nominated for FOUR Chlotrudis Awards, including Best Actress!
William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice
Paper Clips

UPCOMING EVENTS!

—————————–

BU CINEMATHEQUE RETURNS!
Friday, February 18: AN EVENING WITH DENNIS LEHANE.
640 Comm. Ave., Room B-05, 7 pm

Dennis Lehane, a native Bostonian, is one of the most talented, and deservedly acclaimed, crime and mystery novelists in the world, known above all for Mystic River, his amazingly spooky tale of three boys growing up in the violent world of Southie. Lehane will introduce a showing of the much-praised 1993 Clint Eastwood adaptation of his book, and offer the inside story on the making of this Sean Penn-Tim Robbins-Kevin Bacon-starring movie. Following the screening, Lehane will read from his book: a section of note which didn’t make it to the screen.

Thursday, February 24: AN EVENING WITH HIRAM MARTINEZ.
640 Comm.Ave., Room B-05, 7 pm.

Each year, the BU Cinematheque searches out one low-budget indie feature of excellence which can be a model and inspiration for university film production students. Hence, Four Dead Batteries, a complex, humane, and often hilarious story of the lives and screwed-up loves of a four-member New York improv comedy group. A prize-winner in 2004 at eight film festivals, Four Dead Batteries is written and directed by Hiram Martinez, a precociously talented 24-year-old college drop-out, who will speak at the BU screening. The official advertising tag-lines for this film: “From the guys who saw Rushmore and American Beauty.”

Boston Jewish Film Festival
The Boston Jewish Film Festival is pleased to offer screenings of three new films from Israel and Uruguay, with filmmakers appearing at each:

Thursday, February 24, 7pm, West Newton Cinema.
WALK ON WATER, with director Eytan Fox in Person (Israel, 2004, 104 min., English/Hebrew/German w/ subtitles)

After presenting the Boston premiere of WALK ON WATER at our 2004 fall Gala, The Boston Jewish Film Festival is proud to bring the film back for a special sneak preview screening at the West Newton Cinema, with director Eytan Fox in person!’Fox is a leading filmmaker in Israel, and has been among the first to treat gay themes in film.’His film YOSSI AND JAGGER won the 2003 Boston Jewish Film Festival Audience Award for Best Feature Film.

Tickets are $12 in advance and for BJFF members, seniors, and students;
$15 at the door. Call the Boston Jewish Film Festival at 617-244-9899 to purchase tickets in advance.

___________________________

March 6 ‘ 24, Copresented with, and at, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston WHISKY, by Juan Pablo Rebella and Pablo Stoll (Uruguay/Argentinia/Germany/Spain, 2004, 94 min., Spanish with English
subtitles)

Sunday March 6, 1:30pm, with directors Juan Pablo Rebella and Pablo Stoll present Thursday, March 10, 8:00pm, Sunday, March 13, 3:45pm Thursday, March 24, 6:00pm

A multiple prize-winner at Cannes, this droll tale from Uruguay concerns Jacobo, the graying Jewish owner of a Montevideo sock factory, and his manager Marta, who have barely communicated with each other in their daily routine over the years. After a twenty-year absence, Jacobo’s younger brother Herman announces that he is returning to Montevideo to attend the unveiling of their mother’s headstone (a Jewish tradition observed one year after a funeral). Anticipating this visit, Jacobo asks Marta to “help out at home” and pose as his spouse.

Preceded by the short film AS FOLLOWS, by Uruguayan director Federico Veiroj, the irreverent story of a boy’s Bar Mitzvah and the religious rituals and family traditions it entails.

Tickets: $9 general admission; $8 seniors, students, members of the MFA and Boston Jewish Film Festival. To purchase tickets in advance with a credit card, call 617.369.3306 or visit www.mfa.org/film. No phone orders for same-day screenings.

___________________________

Tuesday, March 15, 7pm, Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline TURN LEFT AT THE END OF THE WORLD with director Avi Nesher in person'(Israel/France, 2004, 110 minutes, English/Hebrew/French with English subtitles),

Charming, sexy, and comical, TURN LEFT AT THE END OF THE WORLD takes us back to 1969, when two Jewish immigrant families – one Indian, the other Moroccan – become unlikely neighbors in the middle of the Israeli desert. Each asserting its own identity, the families become involved in a culture war that touches on everything from laundry soap to cricket. Meanwhile, each family’s teenage daughter negotiates the landscape of the sexual revolution – as do older family members, who try to be discreet about their actions. In the process, Sara (Liraz Charhi) and Nicole (Garti Netta) break through their families’
resentments to forge a bond of friendship.’Presented with generous support from the Consulate General of Israel to New England.

Tickets: $15 general admission; $12 for seniors, students, members of the Coolidge Corner Theatre Foundation and Boston Jewish Film Festival.’To purchase tickets in advance with a credit card, visit http://www.coolidge.org and select Events

This screening of TURN LEFT AT THE END OF THE WORLD is generously supported by the Consulate General of Israel to New England.

Michael R. Colford
Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film, President

Chlotrudis member Richard Alleman has two new book published by Broadway Books, a division of Random House, this month – New York: The Movie Lover’s Guide and Hollywood: The Movie Lover’s Guide. The books track over a hundred years of film history in America. In addition to the serious side of filmmaking, the books feature places where famous movie stars and moguls have lived, juicy scandals, and many locations where films were shot. The format of the books breaks up the respective cities – New York and Los Angeles – into distinct neighborhoods, tours of which a traveler or local film buff can easily work into a busy schedule. Manhattan chapters can be covered on foot but most of the other locations in and around New York require a car as do many of the chapters in the Hollywood book. Of course, one doesn’t really need to go to New York or LA. It’s fun just reading about everything from the rooftop studios in Manhattan where the first movies were made to the secret locations of classic and pop culture films shot on both coasts, not to mention looking at the archival and contemporary photographs Alleman has assembled to illustrate the text. Chlotrudis member Bruce Kingsley assisted Alleman in the research and writing of both volumes.

Both books can be found in the travel section of your favorite bookstore. They also appear on websites such as Amazon, TLA, Barnes & Noble, BookSense, and Walmart.

Hey there Everyone!

2004 was a great year for documentaries. Let’s see if 2005 can keep up the pace. The Brattle Theatre, known for playing strong documentary features, offers THE TAKE, a Canadian doc that focuses on Argentinian industry. Join us for at the Brattle Theatre for the 7:30 p.m. screening, Monday, February 7 for our Monday Night at the Movies, Avi Lewis’ THE TAKE. And if you’re itching to catch THE TAKE on Friday night, writer/producer Naomi Klein will be on hand at the 7:30 show!

This stirring new documentary focuses on Argentina’s radical new movement of occupied businesses: groups of workers who are claiming the country’s bankrupt workplaces and running them without bosses. Their call-to-arms: ‘Occupy! Resist! Produce!’ In suburban Buenos Aires, thirty unemployed auto-parts workers walk into their idle factory, roll out sleeping mats and refuse to leave. All they want is to re-start the silent machines. But this simple act ‘The Take ‘ has the power to turn the globalization debate on its head.

With THE TAKE, director Avi Lewis, one of Canada’s most outspoken journalists, and writer Naomi Klein, author of the international bestseller No Logo, champion a radical economic manifesto for the 21st century. But what shines through in the film is the simple drama of workers’ lives and their struggle: the demand for dignity and the searing injustice of dignity denied.

If you missed last week’s Monday Night at the Movies excursion to the Harvard Film Archive for Rodney Evans and his film, BROTHER TO BROTHER, it’s definitely worth a look. Especially if you go to the 7:20 p.m. screening either Friday or Saturday night, when writer/director Evans will be on hand to introduce the film and answer questions. Evans’ film is a poetic and powerful look at a young, black, contemporary artist struggling with issues of race and sexuality. What he finds is that the issues of the young artists who came to prominence during the Harlem Renaissance, like Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, were very similar to the ones he faces today. And if you say hello to Rodney, tell him the Chlotrudis Society sent you.

Fans of Japanese film should consider heading to the Harvard Film Archive this Friday or Saturday, as they continue their series of The Films of Hirokazu Koreeda. There are two of Koreeda’s films to chose from this weekend. His glorious and moving AFTER LIFE scored the #5 spot on the recent Chlotrudis Society’s Top 101 Foreign-Language Films. MABOROSI is an earlier film that examines grief in a somber, introspective and beautiful film. If you haven’t seen them, do check them out.

Finally, we won’t really be mourning, but we do want to acknowledge passing of the LAST (yes, you read that right, the last) art-house cinema in Boston. The Lowe’s Theatre Copley Square started showing independent and foreign films when the Loew’s Boston Common opened a few years ago. While there wasn’t much to recommend about the Copley Place Theatre, I did recently grow to appreciate the fact that it was a mere 10-minute walk from our apartment in the South End. I will also remember it fondly as the theatre where I saw I’VE HEARD THE MERMAIDS SINGING, introduced by Patricia Rozema herself, way back in 1987 during the Boston Film Festival. So au revoir, Copley Place Theatre… and Boston, you better start thinking indie!

See you at the movies!

Playing this week, February 4 – 10.

Brattle Theatre, Cambridge
Area Premiere!
The Take

Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline
Bad Education Nominated for Best Actor and Best Movie Chlotrudis Awards!
Hotel Rwanda
Being Julia
The Take
Midnite Madness
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Fri. & Sat.)

FEI Theatres Capitol Theatres, Arlington
Finding Neverland
Kinsey Nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Chlotrudis Award!
Being Julia

FEI Theatres Somerville Theatres, Somerville
Finding Neverland
The Motorcycle Diaries (Mon. – Thu.) Nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay Chlotrudis Award!
Bombay Cinema Presents
Black (Fri. – Sun.)
Shabd (Fri. – Sun.)

Harvard Film Archive, Cambridge
The Films of Hirokazu Koreeda
After Life (Fri. & Sat.)
Maborosi (Fri. & Sat.)
An Evening with Kim Hong-Jun
Jungle Story & La Vie En Rose (Sun.) Director Present!
My Korean Cinema (Mon.) Director Present!
Black and White on Screen
Silent Shorts and Veiled Aristrocrats (incomplete print) (Mon.)
Fashion and Film
In the Mood for Love (Tue.)
Life Stories: Film & Autobiography
Frames of Mind
Lumiere Bros. Films (Wed.)
Heimatfilm
The Fisher Girl of Lake Constance (Wed.)

Hollywood Hits Theatre, Danvers
Finding Neverland
Sideways Nominated for FOUR Chlotrudis Awards, including Best Cast!
Being Julia
Million Dollar Baby (ineligible)

Landmark Theatres
Kendall Square, Cambridge
Brother to Brother Director present Friday & Saturday night!
The Sea Inside
Born into Brothels
Bad Education Nominated for Best Actor and Best Movie Chlotrudis Awards!
House of Flying Daggers Nomianted for a Best Cinematography Chlotrudis Award!
Sideways Nominated for FOUR Chlotrudis Awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay!
Hotel Rwanda
William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (ineligible)

Embassy Cinema, Waltham
Born into Brothels
A Very Long Engagement
Bad Education Nominated for Best Actor and Best Movie Chlotrudis Awards!
Sideways Nominated for FOUR Chlotrudis Awards, including Best Supporting Actress!
The Sea Inside
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (ineligible)
Closer (ineligible)
Million Dollar Baby (ineligible)

Loews Theatres Harvard Square, Cambridge
A Very Long Engagement
Closer (ineligible)
Million Dollar Baby (ineligible)

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
African Film Festival
Moolaad’a> (Fri. – Sun. & Thu.) Nominated for Best Movie & Best Actress Chlotrudis Awards!
Cinema Tropical
Bolivar I Am (Fri. & Sat.)
Art of Film
In the Realms of the Unreal (Sun. & Thu.)
POPaganda: The Art and Crimes of Ron English (Sat. & Sun.)
Psychoanalysis on Film
Empathy (Sun. & Thu.)
Japanese Cinema
Dolls (Thu.)

The Newburyport Screening Room, Newburyport
House of Flying Daggers Nomianted for a Best Cinematography Chlotrudis Award!

West Newton Cinema, West Newton
Hotel Rwanda
Beyond the Sea
Finding Neverland
Kinsey Nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Chlotrudis Award!
Being Julia
Motorcycle Diaries Nominated for a Best Adapted Screenplay Chlotrudis Award!
Vera Drake Nominated for FOUR Chlotrudis Awards, including Best Actress!
William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice
Paper Clips

UPCOMING EVENTS!

—————————–

BU CINEMATHEQUE RETURNS!
Thursday, February 10: AN EVENING WITH TOM NOONAN BU College of Communications,640 Comm.Ave., Room B-05 6:30 pm (NOTE EARLY STARTING TIME)

Tom Noonan is a New York-based actor-playwright-filmmaker who has supported his idiosyncratic personal projects by appearing in television series and disparate movies such as Heat, Last Action Hero, and Jim Jarmusch’s Mystery Train. His own movies — What Happened Was and The Wife — are intense, psychologically charged chamber dramas ripe with subtext. What Happened Was won Best Dramatic Film at the Sundance Film Festival. For his BU appearance, Noonan will conduct an informal actor workshop based on his work at New York’s Paradise Theatre, and he will show his 2004 feature, Wang Dang, many years in the making. Noonan describes this film as “an evening in the life of a visiting film professor as he entertains two co-eds at a seedy off-campus motel.”

Friday, February 18: AN EVENING WITH DENNIS LEHANE.
640 Comm. Ave., Room B-05, 7 pm

Dennis Lehane, a native Bostonian, is one of the most talented, and deservedly acclaimed, crime and mystery novelists in the world, known above all for Mystic River, his amazingly spooky tale of three boys growing up in the violent world of Southie. Lehane will introduce a showing of the much-praised 1993 Clint Eastwood adaptation of his book, and offer the inside story on the making of this Sean Penn-Tim Robbins-Kevin Bacon-starring movie. Following the screening, Lehane will read from his book: a section of note which didn’t make it to the screen.

Thursday, February 24: AN EVENING WITH HIRAM MARTINEZ.
640 Comm.Ave., Room B-05, 7 pm.

Each year, the BU Cinematheque searches out one low-budget indie feature of excellence which can be a model and inspiration for university film production students. Hence, Four Dead Batteries, a complex, humane, and often hilarious story of the lives and screwed-up loves of a four-member New York improv comedy group. A prize-winner in 2004 at eight film festivals, Four Dead Batteries is written and directed by Hiram Martinez, a precociously talented 24-year-old college drop-out, who will speak at the BU screening. The official advertising tag-lines for this film: “From the guys who saw Rushmore and American Beauty.”

Michael R. Colford
Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film, President