Hello Film Lovers!
We hope some of you got out to the Coolidge Corner Theatre to see John Waters’ A DIRTY SHAME last week. It’s a film I will have to catch up with at a later date. Lots of films opening this week, but not much really catches my interest for the Monday Night at the Movies. This week join us at the Coolidge Corner Screening Room for THE INHERITANCE, a Dutch family drama. The screening begins at 7:30, and remember, Monday is Chlotrudis Night at the Coolidge. Show your membership card and receive a reduced ticket price!
INHERITANCE
A mesmerizing family drama from Denmark, THE INHERITANCE follows Christoffer, the heir to an industrial fortune. He has abandoned his family business and moved to Stockholm where he has started an idyllic life as a successful restaurateur married to a beautiful stage actress. But when his father suddenly commits suicide, Christoffer must return home and claim his inheritance. Unfortunately, the family business is now on the brink of bankruptcy and he must battle with a scheming brother-in-law and his domineering mother (the great Ghita Norby from Lars Von Trier’s THE KINGDOM). As Christoffer dives deeper into the machinations of the steel industry, he puts increasing distance between his wife and his old life, making it hard to distinguish which world he really belongs to. THE INHERITANCE is an accomplished film that features powerful performances. The second in realist director Per Fly’s planned trilogy depicting the layers of Danish society, the film was a huge hit in its native country, where it recently swept the Danish Oscars.
The Bratle Film Foundation and the Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film had a good crowd for this week’s Eye Opener opener. The film, JESUS, YOU KNOW met with pretty mixed reviews, but the discussion sure was lively. This week we continue in the documentary trend, but the film promises to be a lot more fun. INCIDENT AT LOCH NESS is reminiscent of LOST IN LA MANCHA in its chronicling of a film that was never completed. Here’s a brief synopsis:
In 2003 renowned filmmaker Werner Herzog set out to make a documentary about Scotland’s infamous Loch Ness monster. Herzog intended “to explore the origin and the necessity of the monster” rather than to look for the creature itself. Simultaneously, noted filmmaker John Bailey was directing a documentary about Herzog. Incident uses footage from both movies, as it chronicles the making (and unmaking) of Herzog’s never-completed feature. Unusual, controversial, and strangely humorous, the film raises many questions about where reality ends and fiction begins. It is also the portrait of a great adventurer on his most bizarre quest. Written and directed by Zak Penn.
The Sunday Eye Opener is a 10-week film/discussion series that features yet-to-be-released films in a casual, open format. Each week instructor Ivy Moylan will preface the film with some background on filmmaking, and follow up with a discussion of the film and the way it uses film conventions. Admission for the entire 10-week series is $50 for the general public, $25 for members of the Brattle or Chlotrudis, and a mere $10 for those who are members of both organizations.
Another film I’m going to try and catch this weekend is sure to be controversial. ANATOMY OF HELL is the latest bit of pornographic philosophy from French director Catherine Breillat. I’ve enjoyed Breillat’s last two films, SEX IS COMEDY and FAT GIRL, but some people loathe her extreme and sometimes blurred examinations of sexuality. ANATOMY OF HELL is not for the prudish: it is explicit and decidedly unsexy in its portrayal of sexuality. Interested parties can join me at the Brattle Theatre Sunday evening, October 3 for the 7:30 screening. Check in with me during the weekend if you’re planning on coming.
Newburyport gets it’s own film festival, and Chlotrudis member Ellen Robbins will be a frequent attendee. It’s the The Northern Lights Documentary Film Festival and it will be playing at three screens in Newburyport, including The Screening Room, The Tannery, and the Firehouse. Check out the website for the full schedule, or take a look below for the Screening Room shows. Contact Ellen Robbins if you’d like to join her!
See you at the movies!
Playing this week, October 1 – 7.
Brattle Theatre, Cambridge
Restored New 35mm Print!
The Leopard (Fri. – Sun.)
Exclusive Area Premiere!
Anatomy of Hell (Fri. – Sun.)
Sunday Eye Opener
Incident at Loch Ness(Sun.)
Film Noir 101
Maltese Falcon (Mon.)
Laura (Tue.)
Murder My Sweet (Wed.)
Double Indemnity (Thu.)
Phantom Lady (Thu.)
Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline
The Motorcycle Diaries
A Dirty Shame
The Inheritance
Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism
Midnites!
Donnie Darko: The Director’s Cut (Fri.)
Japanese Gore!
Living Hell (Fri. & Sat.)
Jet Li in Shaolin Temple 3 (Sat.)
Director’s Cut Benefit Screening
One in Eight: Janice’s Journey (Mon.)
New England Film and Video Festival opening night gala!
Stay Until Tomorrow (Thu.)
Harvard Film Archive, Cambridge
Haunted Visions: the Films of F.W. Murnau
Journey into the Night (Fri.) w/ live pianist!
The Haunted Castle (Fri.) w/ live pianist!
The Burning Soil (Sat.) w/ live pianist!
The Grand Duke’s Finances (Sat.) w/ live pianist!
Movie Love: Almod’ and His Inspirations
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Sun.)
Johnny Guitar (Sun.)
All About My Mother (Tue.)
All About Eve (Tue.)
Talk to Her (Wed.)
The Incredible Shrinking Man (Wed.)
Contemporary Hollywood Cinema
Shaft (Mon.)
Cin’ Fran’s
Zero for Conduct (Mon.)
Beau Travail (Mon.)
Hollywood Hits Theatre, Danvers
Hero
Vanity Fair
Bright Young Things
Criminal
Silver City
Garden State
The Door in the Floor
Napoleon Dynamite
Landmark Theatres
Kendall Square, Cambridge
The Motorcycle Diaries
Tying the Knot One Week Only!
Bush’s Brain
Shaun of the Dead
A Dirty Shame
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
Garden State
Maria Full of Grace
Napoleon Dynamite
Embassy Cinema, Waltham
Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry
What the #$*! Do We Know
A Dirty Shame
The Last Shot
Silver City
Garden State
Before Sunset
Loews Theatres Copley Place, Boston
Merci Docteur Rey
Going Upriver: the Long War of John Kerry
Ghost in the Shell: Innocence
Head in the Clouds
Bright Young Things
The Yes Men
When Will I Be Loved
What the #$*! Do We Know
Vanity Fair
Maria Full of Grace
Before Sunset
Napoleon Dynamite
Harvard Square, Cambridge
The Last Shot
Going Upriver: the Long War of John Kerry
The Yes Men
What the #$*! Do We Know
Hero
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Films of F.W. Murnau
Nosferatu and Dragonflies, the Baby Cries (Fri. & Sat.)
The Last Laugh (Sat.)
Phantom (Thu.)
Sunrise: a Song for Two Humans (Thu.)
Tartuffe (Thu.)
City Girl (Thu.)
Sounds for Silents
Metropolis (Fri. & Sat.)
Russian Cinema: A Tribute to Lenfilm Studios
Katka’s Reinette Apples (Sat.)
House in the Snow Drifts (Sat.)
Pre-release Screening
Tarnation (Sun.)
The Newburyport Screening Room, Newburyport
The Northern Lights Documentary Film Festival
Touching the Game: The Story of the Cape Cod Baseball League Q&A with Filmmakers after the film (Fri.)
Where the Girls Are and Making Waves (Sat.)
Bad Boy Made Good (Sat.)
Each One Teach One and We Did It All Ourselves (Sat.)
Dominance and Terror: a Discussion with Noam Chomsky and Containment (Sun.)
Everyone is a Beatle and Entertaining Vietnam (Sun.)
4 Theatres and Robinson’s Red Raiders (Sun.)
Intimate Strangers (Sat. – Thu.)
Gerald Peary’s BU Cinematheque
Filmmakers discuss their films in an intimate setting… for FREE!
An Evening with Jerry Schatzberg (Fri.) Room B-05, 640 Comm. Ave.
Michael R. Colford
Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film, President
This week’s film is a documentary that’s sure to be thought-provoking. The kick-off film for this semester of the Eye Opener is a sneak preview of an uncommon documentary focusing on the idea of faith. Directed by Ulrich Seidl, JESUS YOU KNOW focuses on six faithful Catholics during their private conversations with God. The film shows the subjects in lengthy shots facing each person during these intimate moments. For more information on the director, read this 
Don’t miss the Brattle’s very special fundraising event taking place on Thursday, September 30. More than 50 artists from near and far have put their art where their hearts are, and donated some stunning works for 
This week there are two sessions of BU Cinematheque. On Monday, September 27 at 7 p.m. (if you were planning to skip the Chlotrudis Monday Night at the Movies) join Gerry for an evening with Joanthan Caouette. Caouette concludes his Boston press tour with a sneak screening at BU, just prior to its theatrical opening, of TARNATION, his smashing, edgy, brilliant, autobiographical mosaic which was the hit of Sundance in January and was called, by The Boston Phoenix, “the most impressive American movie at the Cannes Film Festival.” Caouette’s gay-themed cine-collage’-home movies, songs, telephone conversations, Hollywood clips tells of his (and his mother’s) valiant battle back from total dysfunction. Amazingly, the film was made and edited on a computer at a total cost of $218.
Finally, a third choice that is sure to be an intriguing and worthwhile film experience comes from Chlotrudis-winner John Sayles and his new political film, SILVER CITY. This would be this week’s choice for Monday Night Film, but it’s playing at Theatre’s I’d rather not go to. But if you don’t mind going to the Harvard Sq. Theatre, the Boston Common Theatre, or the Embassy in Waltham, I urge you to check out SILVER CITY.
But as anyone who knows about Chlotrudis knows, one of the big draws is the plethora of Canadian film that plays at the Festival. Chlotrudis friends and favorites, Don McKellar and Daniel MacIvor, both have new films at the festival. Both bring their second directorial efforts to TIFF. Don McKellar’s new film is called CHILDSTAR, in which an American, child, action star comes to Toronto to shoot his latest film. McKellar plays an experimental filmmaker who winds up being the star’s driver… then surrogate father as he becomes involved with his mother. As any fan of LAST NIGHT knows, McKellar is adept at combining quirky humor with powerful drama, and CHILDSTAR is sure to satisfay.
Daniel MacIvor impressed Chlotrudis audiences at this year’s 
If you really need to see an indie film released in 2004 this weekend, there are a couple of new releases. I really want to get excited about Mira Nair’s VANITY FAIR. Nair was last in the Chlotrudis eye with the sumptuous and delightful 
The other film that’s returning to the big screen is across the river at the Brattle Theatre. It has a particular resonance with Chlotrudis members, and many of you may recall how it was cited as the top film of 2002 at the 9th Annual Chlotrudis Awards Ceremony. That film is 
THE GIRL FROM MONDAY stars “Sport’s Night’s” Sabrina Lloyd (right), Tatiana Abracos, and Hartley-alum Bill Sage. Hal has called the film “a fake sci-fi about the way we live now.”
A much celebrated young writer, actor, and director, Wadlow’s films have shown in festivals throughout the world. TOWER OF BABBLE, a short film which he wrote, directed, and acted in, won prizes at several festivals in addition to CSIF’s. This inventive film featured three radically different storylines in different genres, each using the same dialogue.