Elegy
Frozen River
Monsieur Verdoux
The Duchess
Attention Patrons: All listed coming soon dates are subject to change.
|
|
Directed by Isabel Coixet
rated R, 1 hr 40 min
Visit the official site
Driven by Isabel Coixet’s visually assured and deeply observant direction, ELEGY charts the passionate relationship between a celebrated college professor and a young woman whose beauty both ravishes and destabilizes him. As their intimate connection transforms them—more than either could imagine—a charged sexual contest evolves into an indelible love story. With humanistic warmth, wry wit and erotic intensity, ELEGY explores the power of beauty to blind, to reveal and to transform.
DAVID KEPESH (Ben Kingsley) glories in the pursuit of adventurous female students but never lets any woman get too close. When gorgeous CONSUELA CASTILLO (Pénelope Cruz) enters his classroom, however, his protective veneer dissolves. Her raven-haired beauty both captivates and unsettles him.
Even if Kepesh declares her body a perfect work of art, Consuela is more than an object of desire. She has a strong sense of herself and an emotional intensity that challenges his preconceptions. Kepesh’s need for Consuela becomes an obsession, but ultimately his jealous fantasies of betrayal drive her away.
Shattered, Kepesh faces up to the ravages of time, immersing himself in work and confronting the loss of old friends. Then, two years later, Consuela comes back into his life—with an urgent, desperate request that will change everything.
|
| |
|
back to top |
|
|
Directed by Courtney Hunt
rated R, 1 hr 37 min
Visit the official site
A desperate single mother living in upstate New York resorts to smuggling illegal immigrants into the United States as a means of making ends meet in first-time feature director/screenwriter Courtney Hunt's emotionally wrenching drama, winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Dramatic Feature at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Ray Eddy is in an impossible position; it's two days before Christmas and her husband has suddenly disappeared with all of the family savings. Now, as the newly single mother of two realizes the futility of attempting to cover the house payments on her meager Yankee One Dollar Store wages, her children are forced to exist on a nutritionally devoid diet of popcorn and Tang. Deciding that her only hope for survival is to find a man who will support her and her children, Ray sets out to find a husband but instead makes the acquaintance of street-smart Mohawk Lila Littlewolf. Lila, too, has been struggling to keep her head above water amidst economic despair, and has recently stumbled across a rather unconventional solution to her dire financial situation. Lately, Lila has been earning a living by smuggling illegal immigrants into the U.S., but her tribal elders vehemently disapprove of the scheme and have recently attempted to stop it by forbidding the local auto dealers from selling her a car. As fate would have it, Ray's Dodge Spirit may just be the only thing the destitute mother can count on anymore, and as this unlikely pair gas up the tank for a daring dash across the iced-over St. Lawrence River, their fates become forever intertwined in ways that neither could have ever anticipated. |
| |
|
back to top |
|
|
Directed by Charlie Chaplin
rated NR, 2 hr 47 min
Visit the official site
"It is a masterpiece. See it."
- Andrew Sarris, New York Observer
"One of the cinema's immortal masterworks"
- Richard Brody, The New Yorker
Film maudit turned cult classic, Charlie Chaplin’s Monsieur Verdoux is now widely considered one of his best works, and his most political. Chaplin immodestly proclaimed it “the cleverest, most brilliant film of my career.” A Nominated for the 1948 Academy Award® for Best Screenplay, and originating from a true story, this self-described “comedy of murders” was based on an idea by Orson Welles, which Chaplin reportedly bought for five thousand dollars in a refusal to be directed by anyone but himself. Verdoux stars Chaplin as the moustachioed bluebeard in beret and cravat whose charming manners and good looks cloak a deep-seated, murderous hatred, festering since the loss of his longstanding job as a bank clerk. The film includes such unforgettable moments as Verdoux snipping roses in his garden while an incinerator rages behind him, and his infamous pre-guillotine salvo, an indictment of humanity’s cyclical follies. Plagued with censorship problems early on, and temporarily pulled from distribution in the US at the height of the Cold War Hollywood witch-hunts, Verdoux was initially vilified for its risqué societal critique. “Now it shapes up as Chaplin’s most startling, most invigorating movie; its icy temperature is positively bracing after the hot syrup of his earlier work.” (Time Out). “A mordant satire that exemplifies the fine line between comedy and tragedy, Verdoux transcends the borders of genre, and deserves to be seen multiple times, especially in this new 35mm print. It “has a Brechtian toughness and wit, but the style is soft, seductive, elegiac” (Dave Kehr). Quite simply, “you shouldn’t miss Monsieur Verdoux” (The New York Times).
- Andréa Picard, Cinematheque Ontario
|
| |
|
back to top |
|
|
Directed by Saul Dibb
rated PG-13, -
Visit the official site
Long before the concept existed, the Duchess of Devonshire, Georgiana Spencer (KEIRA KNIGHTLEY), was the original “It Girl.” Like her direct ancestor Princess Diana, she was ravishing, glamorous and adored by an entire country. Determined to be a player in the wider affairs of the world, she proved that she could out-gamble, out-drink and outwit most of the aristocratic men who surrounded her. She helped usher in sweeping changes to England as a leader of the forward-thinking Whig Party. But even as her power and popularity grew, she was haunted by the fact that the only man in England she seemingly could not seduce was her very own husband, the Duke (RALPH FIENNES). And when she tried to find her own way to be true to her heart and loyal to her duty, the resulting controversies and convoluted liaisons would leave all of London talking. THE DUCHESS is the story of an extraordinary woman who rose to fame by staying true to her passions in a world of protocol, gossip and social rules – and paid the price.
--© Paramount Vantage |
| |
|
back to top |
|
|
