| |  In This Issue:March 2010What's New on DVDDanton (1983)Drama/Foreign. Brainy/Fast-paced/Intense. Color. 136 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By Andrzej Wajda. Starring Gerard Depardieu and Wojciech Pszoniak. Having fled communist rule in Poland in 1982, Wajda found a creative outlet for his own sense of outrage in exile, directing this captivating political drama about the abuses of leadership in ... Read More > | |  |
Il Divo (2008)Drama/Foreign. Fast-paced/Offbeat/Witty. Color. 110 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By Paolo Sorrentino. Starring Tony Servillo and Anna Bonaiuto. The furthest thing from a respectful, politically correct biopic, Sorrentino's kinetically edited, go-for-broke, almost operatic feat of visual imagination and historical reconstruction takes a slyly ... Read More > | |  |
Last Year at Marienbad (1961)Drama/Foreign. Brainy/Offbeat/Scenic. Black & White. 94 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By Alain Resnais. Starring Giorgio Albertazzi and Delphine Seyrig. A luxuriantly stylish, almost uncannily hypnotic drama, Resnais's groundbreaking "Marienbad" (written by novelist Alain Robbe-Grillet) plays a kind of cinematic game with the viewer, loading ... Read More > | |  |
Lorna's Silence (2009)Drama/Foreign. Intense. Color. 105 mins. Rated R. Directed By Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. Starring Jeremie Renier and Arta Dobroshi. A gripping drama by the world-renowned Dardenne brothers, "Lorna's Silence" tracks the crisis of conscience Lorna experiences when she begins to see the drug-addicted stranger she lives with and ... Read More > | |  |
Miss Mend (1926)Action/Adventure/Foreign/Longer Films/Film Series/Collections/Silents. Brainy/Farr-cical/Fast-paced/Offbeat. Black & White. 285 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By Boris Barnet and Fyodor Otsep. Starring Boris Barnet and Natalya Glan. Don't miss this fascinating, one-of-a-kind film experiment (available for the first time), where Soviet authorities authorized Barnet to portray the West as they saw it, in the process utilizing the ... Read More > | |  |
O'Horten (2008)Comedy/Drama/Foreign. Offbeat/Scenic/Witty. Color. 90 mins. Rated PG-13. Directed By Bent Hamer. Starring Baard Owe and Espen Skjonberg. Bent Hamer's wonderfully droll "O'Horten" tracks the unusual nighttime adventures of a mild-mannered train conductor coming to terms with the banality of his existence. He visits his mother in an ... Read More > | |  |
The Belles of St. Trinian's (1954)Comedy. Farr-cical/Witty. Black & White. 86 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By Frank Launder. Starring Alastair Sim, George Cole and Joyce Grenfell. A nutty British comedy based on characters created by renowned English cartoonist Ronald Searle, Frank Launder's "Belles" is farce with a capital "F." In a delicious dual role, the great comic actor ... Read More > | |  |
The Cove (2009)Documentary. Brainy/Moving. Color. 92 mins. Rated PG-13. Directed By Louie Psihoyos. Gorgeous, nerve-wracking, and extraordinarily shocking, "The Cove" is a work of heroic documentary filmmaking, as Psihoyos trails O'Barry on his (illegal and dangerous) quest to observe the mass ... Read More > | |  |
The Hurt Locker (2009)Action/Adventure/War/Westerns. Intense/Spine-tingling. Color. 131 mins. Rated R. Directed By Kathryn Bigelow. Starring Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty. A tense, visceral, and technically accomplished action film, Bigelow's "Hurt Locker" is a nail biter based on the experiences of embedded journalist Mark Boal. Both a heart-racing, incredibly ... Read More > | |  |
Une Femme Mariee (1964)Drama/Foreign/Romance. Brainy/Offbeat/Witty. Black & White. 96 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By Jean-Luc Godard. Starring Philippe Leroy, Bernard Noel and Macha Meril. Like a series of cut-up Polaroids stitched together into an episodic film, Godard's visually adventurous frolic is divided into mini-vignettes, chapters, and lovely documentary digressions (the ... Read More > | |  |
Theme of the Month: Storm MoviesThey say that March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb. It seemed fitting to focus on extreme weather for early March since this newsletter was written by candlelight during a power outages as trees laden with heavy snow and ice toppled on power lines. With mid-Atlantic states still digging out of record snowfalls, it seems odd that our government is still debating Climate Change legislation. I Know Where I'm Going (1947)Romance. Moving/Witty. Black & White. 91 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By Emeric Pressburger and Michael Powell. Starring Roger Livesey and Wendy Hiller. This sweet, touching tale is beautifully realized on film, evoking the craggy, wild Scottish landscape and the hearty, rugged spirit of its people. Hiller is enchanting and Livesey equally strong as ... Read More > | |  |
Key Largo (1948)Action/Adventure. Intense/Spine-tingling. Black & White. 100 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By John Huston. Starring Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Based on Maxwell Anderson's play, Huston's "Key Largo" is a classic 1940s noir featuring taut direction and indelible performances from Bogart and Robinson as the menacing Rocco. In a cast that also ... Read More > | |  |
Swept Away (1975)Comedy/Drama/Romance. Intense/Moving/Scenic/Witty. Color. 119 mins. Rated R. Directed By Lina Wertmuller. Starring Giancarlo Giannini and Mariangela Melato. Okay, let's get one thing straight: the 2002 remake of this magnificent film, starring Madonna, was awful. But put that shipwreck out of mind: Wertmuller's provocative original is smarter, more ... Read More > | |  |
The Black Stallion (1979)Family. Moving/Scenic/Wholesome. Color. 118 mins. Rated G. Directed By Carroll Ballard. Starring Kelly Reno and Mickey Rooney. This fascinating adaptation of Walter Farley's children's classic depicts with uncommon intelligence and sensitivity the special bond that can develop between humans and animals. Avoiding ... Read More > | |  |
The Ice Storm (1997)Drama. Intense/Spine-tingling. Color. 113 mins. Rated R. Directed By Ang Lee. Starring Tobey Maguire, Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver and Joan Allen. Based on Rick Moody's novel, this perceptive adaptation by Ang Lee ("Brokeback Mountain") and screenwriter James Schamus effectively recaptures the bad hangover of the sixties drug-and-sex ... Read More > | |  |
The Wizard of Oz (1939)Cornerstone Titles/Family/Musicals. Tuneful/Wholesome. Color. 203 mins. Rated G. Directed By Victor Fleming. Starring Jack Haley, Ray Bolger, Burt Lahr, Margaret Hamilton and Judy Garland. What makes this quintessential fantasy musical the immortal spectacle it is has as much to do with the spirited songs (Garland's signature "Over the Rainbow" was nearly cut!) and heel-clicking dance ... Read More > | |  |
When The Levees Broke (2006)Documentary. Intense/Moving. Color. 256 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By Spike Lee. Originally aired on HBO, Lee's marathon "Requiem in
Four Acts" covers in grim, engrossing detail the storm, the surge
over the levees and resultant flood, the looting, the mass ... Read More > | |  |
Spotlight
• Check out "The 100 Greatest Train Movies" ranked and reviewed by John. To order your copy please visit Trains Magazine.
• It's Oscars Night at the Avon! On Sunday, March 7th, 7:30 p.m., come join host John Farr at the Avon Theatre in Stamford for a live simulcast of the Oscars. Call or email the Avon Theatre for details (lgreene@avontheatre.org) (203) 661-0321.
• April 9th – John introduces French actress Sylvie Testud before the screening of "Gamines" at the Opening Night of the Focus on French Cinema at SUNY Purchase sponsored by the Alliance Francaise of Greenwich, CT. See Focus on French Cinema for details.
• April 15th – Following the documentary "Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech" about First Amendment rights, John moderates a panel including prominent attorney and First Amendment authority, Martin Garbus and his daughter Liz Garbus, director of the movie.
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