When Kevin, two days before his sixteenth birthday, goes on a horrific rampage, his mother Eva grapples with her own feelings of grief and responsibility. She confronts the ultimate taboo – did she ever love her son? And how much of what Kevin did was her fault?
In a remote village in Eastern Europe, around 1900, the young Motl Mendl is entranced by the flickering silent images on his father's cinematograph. Bankrolled by Jacob, the ebullient local timber merchant, and inspired by Anna, the girl sent to help him make moving pictures of their village, he stumbles on a revolutionary way of story-telling. Forty years on, Motl – now a famed American film director – looks back on his early life and confronts the cost of fulfilling his dreams.
QUESTION AND ANSWER EVENING WITH ROB HAMILL - THURSDAY 8TH MARCH AFTER 6.30PM SCREENING! Kiwi Olympian rower Rob Hamill goes to Cambodia to retrace the events that saw his brother, Kerry, caught, tortured and murdered by the Khmer Rouge in 1978. From documentarian Annie Goldson.
Headhunters is a thriller about Roger Brown, Norway's most successful headhunter. The unscrupulous Brown leads a life of excess and finances his extravagance by way of dangerous art thefts. When he meets the Dutchman Clas Greve he sees the chance to become financially independent and starts planning his biggest hit ever. But soon he runs into trouble – and it's not financial problems that are threatening to bring him down this time.
Colin Clark, an employee of Sir Laurence Olivier's, documents the tense interaction between Olivier and Marilyn Monroe during production of The Prince and the Showgirl.
Shakespeare's furiously paced comedy will be staged in a contemporary world into which walk three prohibited foreigners who see everything for the first time. Two sets of twins separated at birth collide in the same city without meeting for one crazy day, as multiple mistaken identities lead to confusion on a grand scale. And for no one more so than Antipholus of Syracuse and his servant Dromio who, in search of their brothers, arrive in a land entirely foreign to their distant home. A buzzing metropolis, to the outsiders it appears a place of wonderment and terror, where baffling gifts and unexplained hostilities abound.
Comedy drama from director John Madden (Shakespeare in Love), following a group of elderly Brits who decide to retire at the rundown Marigold Hotel in India. Stars British acting royalty Dame Judi Dench, Dame Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson and Penelope Wilton. "Enticed by advertisements for the newly restored Marigold Hotel and bolstered with visions of a life of leisure, they arrive to find the palace a shell of its former self. Though the dusty new environment is less luxurious than imagined, they are forever transformed by their shared experiences." (Official Synopsis) Starring Bill Nighy, Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson, Dev Patel, Judi Dench, Celia Imrie, Penelope Wilton, Ronald Pickup
Sometimes released as Service Entrance, this breezy upstairs/downstairs comedy has been a hit both at home and abroad. It's 1962. An uptight middle-class couple – Fabrice Luchini and Sandrine Kiberlain – are barely aware that the servants' quarters on an upper floor of their Paris apartment building are overflowing with refugees from Franco's Spain: the sisters and aunts and mothers and cousins of the legal occupant (Carmen Maura). After they hire one of them, the beautiful, mysterious, quietly challenging Maria, to be their housemaid, they are gradually made aware of their own unintentional insensitivity and are drawn out of their tired routines. Kiberlain's touching remoteness from the infectious gusto of the tenants brings a little edge to the film's comic fantasy, while Luchini has a ball as the stuffy fusspot rescued from himself by the chance to play godfather to a houseful of hot-blooded Spanish country girls.
FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL Dino the cat has two lives – that we know of. During the day he's best friend (and lizard catcher) to Zoe who lives with her mother Jeanne and nanny Claudine. Jeanne is the Paris Police Commissioner, which makes her a distracted mother, not least because she's on the trail of gang boss Victor Costa who murdered Zoe's dad. At night, Dino plays stealthy companion to cat burglar Nico, a daring Robin Hood of the rooftops. When Dino and Nico get caught up with the Costa gang, it takes the cat to put one and one together and purrsuade Jeanne and Zoe that the good-hearted crook is ideally placed to help them.
FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL When post-graduate student Barbara (Bourgoin) meets Nicolas (Pio Marmai) at the video store where he works, a romance blossoms over an exchange of DVDs and pick-up lines. Things move quickly and they decide to have a child together, only to discover that what seemed like a perfect little love story starts unravelling after the arrival of the baby.When the young family settles down into their Parisian apartment, their carefree lifestyle is quickly turned upside-down by a mixture of sleepless nights, nappies, and horrid arguments. The reality and pitfalls of child-bearing and rearing soon hits home, and despite the support of those around her, Barbara struggles to connect with her baby.Adapted from Eliette Abecassis' best-selling account of pregnancy and motherhood, A Happy Event is a charming story set against the romantic backdrop of Paris, accompanied by two very dynamic and loveable lead actors. As Bezancon explains, ―I hope A Happy Event will touch people because we all have parents, we all have a mother and a father and some people may even be fathers or mothers themselves.
FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL Romeo and Juliette are two young actors. They fall in love at first sight, move in together and make a baby. A love story and the founding of a home like millions of others. Except that their little boy, Adam, behaves abnormally. The young parents try hard to persuade themselves that everything is okay but, with the passing of time, they cannot delude themselves anymore : their son has problem. Their fears are unfortunately confirmed : Adam suffers from a malignant brain tumor. From now on, war is declared. A war against illness. A war against Death. A war against despair.
FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL In Paris, 1964, carefree young Madeleine (Ludivine Sagnier) steals a gorgeous pair of high heels, and whilst wearing them is mistaken for an escort- an error that signals the next direction her life will take. But she soon falls for and marries a suave Czech doctor Jaromil (Rasha Bukvic), leaving Paris for Praque. Thirty years later we follow Madeleine's daughter, Vera (Mastroianni), a lovely but reckless young woman whose romantic life is no simpler than that of her mother. She has a sometime-lover Clement (Louis Garrel) but on a trip to London falls for an American (Paul Schneider), a man who'll prove incapable of devoting himself to her. Meanwhile in Paris, a re-married Madeleine (Deneuve) has rekindled her love affair with Jaromil (now played by Milos Forman).Influenced by Jacques Demy but with style all his own, Honore has made a film of many delights, not least of which is the sight of Deneuve's character strolling through Paris, singing through tears and revisiting her reckless youth.
FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL One fateful hot afternoon the lives of four seemingly ordinary people intertwine, resulting in tragedy.
FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL For over one hundred years the Canavaro family has been devoted to rugby. Like everyone in the family, Jo Canavaro believes that rugby is a way for him to express his strength and virility. Thus, he can`t understand why his own 13 year-old son, Tom, isn`t crazy about rugby. Even worse, Tom is better at mathematics than he is on the field. After too many disappointments, Tom decides to give up rugby and to abandon his dream of joining the famous All Blacks. At the same time, his father decides to rebuild their village team in order to restore his family's honour. He will do everything he can to convince his son to play in the team.
FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL Alessandro teaches musicology at the university of Strasbourg. He is also a volunteer reader in hospitals. He shares his apartment with his daughter, 15-year-old Irina, and his anarchist brother Luigi. Life is not always rosy at Alessandro`s for three main reasons : he is a widower and has never really recovered from the death of his young wife ; his brother is some kind of parasite who refuses to sell his paintings to capitalist speculators and so to contribute to the cost of the household ; Irina, whom he has raised alone since she was five months old and always felt close to, is rapidly changing from little girl to teenager and wishes to be treated as such. One day, Florence, a beautiful young woman, gets into Alessandro`s life. Will he eventually take his chances with her? And will he manage to stop stifling Irina? And will he finally get on with Luigi?
Much like earlier Woody Allen flicks, The Art of Love criss-crosses a series of vignettes of everyday Parisian couples questioning what they really want in their lives. A long-wed couple's marriage is threatened when the wife finds herself lusting after every man she meets, a middle-aged suave businessman falls for his ditzy new neighbor, a young couple decide they should be able to sleep with other people, and a woman asks her best friend for a 'favour.
FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL It's summertime. Brothers Seth (16) and Zac ("13 and three quarters") have again been left to fend for themselves by their neglectful single mother at the family's cottage in the verdant and isolated Luxembourg countryside. Just like every holiday before, they've resigned themselves to another mundane summer, but things shift dramatically after they strike up a friendship with local kid Danny, and the most perilous – and greatest – journey of their lives begins. Together, as the boys scavenge for food, steal their grandfather's car and pursue harebrained schemes to make money, they find their bravado repeatedly punctured by the rigours of an adult world they cannot comprehend.
FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL What does the world look like through the eyes of Charlotte Rampling? She played the beautiful and worldly foil to Lynn Redgrave's Georgy Girl in London's swinging sixties, before Luchino Visconti brought her to Italy for The Damned. Her role in Liliana Cavani's The Night Porter spawned an international debate. She inspired Helmut Newton to take his first nude photographs. In New York she was Woody Allen's personification of the perfect woman. And as her film career continues well into its 5th decade, she endures as the classic 'object of desire'. Breaker of taboos, feminist, icon avant-gardist... to capture this woman's persona presents a challenge that succeeds remarkably, by being as unfettered and brave as the actress herself.
FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL Goodbye first love is a chronicle of the romance between Camille and Sullivan, which begins during their adolescence and ends in despair.
FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL House of Tolerance is a French drama film directed by Bertrand Bonello, set in a Parisian brothel in the early 20th Century.
FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL France, a single mother from the blighted industrial north, and Steve, a hotshot trader with a keen eye for the killer deal, are thrown together when he's looking for a cleaner and she's looking for a job. When Alban, Steve's 3-year-old son, arrives on the doorstep to stay with his dad, Steve might need more than a cleaner. And France might need some payback from the man who almost single-handedly shut down the factory where she worked.
FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL The children of Ballydowse and Carrickdowse engage in battles where they cut of the buttons, shoe-laces and underwear of their captured opponents. This is to get the boys in trouble with their parents. They go to battle in mass groups of dozens, throwing stones and cutting off their opponents buttons etc. And sometimes they go to battle completely naked and exposed. In one such scene about 30 boys return from a battle to celebrate victory at a barn-house only to find some girls waiting for them and they get very embarrassed at losing their privacy.
Adam is a rich industrialist, who aspires to a more cultured world. Spurred on by playful jibes that he is little more than a city suit living the capitalist's dream, this frustrated amateur opera singer decides to throw an opera in his lavish country retreat. Once his friends see him belting out the notes, he feels sure it will spell the end to their shallow taunts. In fact, it might even help him win the hand of a female conductor he has been pursuing whom - it just so happens - is the first to be recruited for his showpiece. The casting of Richard E Grant and Sarah Brightman (best known as a stage performer – in The Phantom Of The Opera and other musicals – and recording artist) help give the film an edge, which helps balance some of the more lightweight casting of other roles. Brightman especially has an easy warmth and grace. The set piece scenes of extracts of the opera are nicely staged, and impressively sung.
With its cataclysmic climax, the Met`s new Ring cycle, directed by Robert Lepage, comes to its resolution. Deborah Voigt stars as Brunnhilde and Gary Lehman is Siegfried-the star-crossed lovers doomed by fate. James Levine conducts.
Ever since his wife was burned in a car crash, Dr. Robert Ledgard, an eminent plastic surgeon, has been interested in creating a new skin with which he could have saved her. After twelve years, he manages to cultivate a skin that is a real shield against every assault.
Angela Meade takes center stage in Verdi`s thrilling early gem. Salvatore Licitra is her mismatched lover, and all-star Verdians Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Ferruccio Furlanetto round out the cast.
Surprise winner of Best Screenplay at Cannes 2011 has an equally surprising premise; the intense, professional rivalry between a pair of professors who also happen to be father and son. Footnote is the story of a great rivalry between father and son. Both eccentric professors have dedicated their lives to their work. The father seems a stubborn purist who fears the establishment. His son Uriel, appears to thrive on accolades, endlessly seeking recognition.
A couple, Nader and Simin, have opposite ideas of living abroad but both have the same opinions about divorce. Simin wants to go abroad for better opportunities for their daughter, Nader wants to stay and look after his father who is suffering from Alzheimers. Simin is determined to leave the country with their daughter. A Separation won 3 bear awards at the Berlin Film Festival 2011. 2 silver and one gold, the first ever movie to win 3 bears.
To come to my house, to call for what he likes, to turn me out of my own chair, to insult the family, to order his servants to get drunk, and then to tell me, "This house is mine, sir". By all that's impudent it makes me laugh. Hardcastle, a man of substance, looks forward to acquainting his daughter with his old pal's son with a view to marriage. But thanks to playboy Lumpkin, he's mistaken by his prospective son-in-law Marlow for an innkeeper, his daughter for the local barmaid. The good news is, while Marlow can barely speak to a woman of quality he's a charmer with those of a different stamp. And so, as Hardcastle's indignation intensifies, Miss Hardcastle's appreciation for her misguided suitor soars. Misdemeanours multiply, love blossoms, mayhem ensues.
From the director of The Cider House Rules and the writer of Slumdog Millionaire comes this political-spinning drama about Fred (Ewan McGregor), a government fisheries scientist asked to introduce British salmon to the Wadis of the Temen by an enthusiastic Arab. Based on the novel by Paul Torday. When the Sheik expresses how fly-fishing draws him closer to God, Fred feels compelled to grant his wish and attempts to bring the sport to the desert, despite the absurdity and implausibility of the concept. Enticed by the Sheik’s gorgeous legal representative (Emily Blunt), the team rise to the challenge, embarking on a journey of faith, love and fish.
The film takes place in South Africa around the time of Nelson Mandela's release from jail. It chronicles 14 year old John Milton's (Troye Sivan) first year at Michaelhouse, an elite boarding school for boys.
Shot in Europe and New Zealand, The most fun you can have dying tells the tale of young and charming Michael, who learns he has just a few months to live. Determined to have the time of his life, Michael "borrows" the money raised for his treatment and heads overseas.
Anna Netrebko’s dazzling portrayal of the tragic heroine in Laurent Pelly’s new production travels to the Met from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Piotr Beczala and Paulo Szot also star, with the Met’s Principal Guest Conductor Fabio Luisi on the podium.
Natalie Dessay will put on the red dress in Willy Decker’s stunning production, in her first Violetta at the Met. Matthew Polenzani sings Alfredo, Dmitri Hvorostovsky is Germont, and Principal Guest Conductor Fabio Luisi is on the podium.