| |  In This Issue:September 2010What's New on DVDCairo Station (1958)Drama/Foreign. Intense/Offbeat. Color. 74 mins. Unrated. Directed By Youssef Chahine. Starring Youssef Chahine and Hind Rostom. Actor/Director Chahine's long-lost masterpiece (aka, "The Iron Gate") is finally available again, and time has not dulled its impact. Shot in the noir style, with a plot Hitchcock would have loved, ... Read More > | |  |
Clean (2004)Drama. Intense/Moving. Color. 111 mins. Rated R. Directed By Olivier Assayas. Starring Nick Nolte and Maggie Cheung. French director Olivier Assayas's ever-whirling camera has never captured drama so tender. From a scenario riddled to the core with cliché, he spins movie gold, producing a profoundly moving ... Read More > | |  |
Everlasting Moments (2008)Drama/Foreign. . Color. 131 mins. Unrated. Directed By Jan Troell. Starring Mikael Persbrandt, Jesper Christensen and Maria Heiskanen. Swedish master Jan Troell's Golden Globe-nominated historical epic balances the sweep of a changing era with the intimate moments in the life of one woman. Easily spanning nearly twenty years of ... Read More > | |  |
Lemon Tree (2008)Drama/Foreign. Intense/Moving. Color. 106 mins. Unrated. Directed By Eran Riklis. Starring Ali Suliman, Hiam Abbass and Rona Lipaz-Michael. Fascinating, affecting film from Eran Riklis cements Abass's standing as a first-rate screen actress (most of us first met her in "The Visitor" earlier this same year). Her Salma is a triumph of ... Read More > | |  |
North Face (2008)Action/Adventure/Foreign. Intense/Scenic/Spine-tingling. Color. 126 mins. Unrated. Directed By Phillip Stolzl. Starring Benno Furmann, Florian Lukas and Johanna Wokalek. Since their heyday in the 1930s, the mountain climbing action film (Bergefilme as they were dubbed) has largely gone dormant. Thankfully, "North Face" brings back the high stakes, high altitude ... Read More > | |  |
The Only Son / There Was A Father (1936)Drama/Foreign. Moving/Wholesome. Black & White. 82 mins. Unrated. Directed By Yasujiro Ozu . Starring Masao Hayama, Shinichi Himori, Chishu Ryu, Shûji Sano and Choko Iida. Ozu is one of the greatest filmmakers the world has ever produced, and with the release of these two films in a DVD box set his mastery only becomes clearer. From two ever-so-simple scenarios, he ... Read More > | |  |
The Sun (2005)Drama/Foreign. Brainy/Moving. Color. 110 mins. Unrated. Directed By Aleksandr Sokurov. Starring Issei Ogata, Robert Dawson and Kaori Momoi. The Sun provides the detailed (if only loosely accurate) character portraiture, voluptuous cinematography, and meticulous pacing we have come to expect from Sokurov's idiosyncratic biographies, while ... Read More > | |  |
Theme of the Month: Starting Fresh
For many of us, September is the month we begin something or somewhere new, a new job, a new school or a new stage of life. While these new beginnings can be causes of anxiety and stress, they are an unavoidable, inherent part of life. This month's movies include stories of people undergoing new beginnings. How the endings work out – well, you'll just have to watch and see!
Spotlight
• September 9th - At a private club in New York, John introduces a sneek preview of Kings of Pastry, a documentary directed by D.A. Pennebaker that follows three chefs competing in the prestigious Meilleur Ouvrier de France. The movie will be followed by a Q&A with Director Pennebaker.
• October 6th - John introduces the landmark documentary Chang directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack at a private club in Manhattan.
• October 19th - John interviews Nina Paley, director of the animated musical Sita Sings the Blues at a private event in New York City.
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