January 13, 2012
Director: Andrea Arnold | Year: 2009 | Run Time: 123 minutes
Mia Williams is 15 years old and lives in a shabby apartment block with her mother and younger sister. Mia is a reckless and rebellious teenager who frequently argues with her mother and sister and has run afoul of the authorities at school, leading to her being suspended.
With plenty of time on her hands, Mia spends her days drinking when she can find alcohol and partying in a empty flat near her apartment. Joanne is a single mother, and she's begun dating a new man; when Joanne brings him home to meet the girls, Mia is immediately attracted to him, and it's soon clear Connor feels the same way about her.
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January 20, 2012
Director: Marcel Camus | Year: 1959 | Run Time: 107 minutes
In Rio, Orfeo is a trolley conductor and musician, engaged to Mira. During Carnival week, he sees Eurydice, who's fled her village in fear of a stalker; it's love at first sight.
Her cousin Sarafina, with whom she stays in Rio, is a friend of Orfeo and Mira, so the star-crossed lovers meet again. Later, during the revels, wearing Sarafina's costume, Eurydice dances a provocative samba with Orfeo. Not only is Mira enraged when her rival is unmasked, but she is being stalked by Death: Eurydice is in danger, pursued through noisy crowds and a morgue.
Can Orfeo conduct her to safety? Don't look back.
* Due to some booking conflicts, Black Orpheus will replace Lola.
January 27, 2012
Director: Ingmar Bergman | Year: 1982 | Run Time: 188 minutes
Through the eyes of ten-year-old Alexander, we witness the delights and conflicts of the Ekdahl family, a sprawling bourgeois clan in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Sweden.
Ingmar Bergman intended Fanny and Alexander as his swan song, and it is the legendary director’s warmest and most autobiographical film, a four-time Academy Award–winning triumph that combines his trademark melancholy and emotional intensity with immense joy and sensuality.
February 3, 2012
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Director: Julian Schnabel | Year: 2008 | Run Time: 112 minutes
Elle France editor Jean-Dominique Bauby, who, in 1995 at the age of 43, suffered a stroke that paralyzed his entire body, except his left eye.
Using that eye to blink out his memoir, Bauby eloquently described the aspects of his interior world, from the psychological torment of being trapped inside his body to his imagined stories from lands he'd only visited in his mind.
February 10, 2012
Run Tiger, Run / Till Death Do We Scare
Director: John Woo / Chia Yung Liu | Year: 1985 / 1986 | Run Time: 91 minutes / 91 minutes
Run Tiger, Run
After the death of his parents, four year-old Richie (Bin Bin) has been left in the charge of his rich and eccentric Grandpa Steak (Tsui Hark).
When his grandfather dies, he leaves his vast fortune to Richie, but if anything should happen to him, the money will of course go to the next of kin, who just happens to be his evil uncle James (Frank Hsu).
Till Death Do We Scare
Lau Kar-wing spins this restrained horror-comedy flick about a beautiful lass cursed with terrible luck.
Irene Leen (Olivia Cheng Man-ar) has the misfortune of having three husbands die on her wedding day. After consulting a slew of fortunetellers, she understandably vows never to marry again. The ghosts of her dead husbands, however, band together to end her loneliness and find her a mate.
Films presented courtesy of the Colin Geddes Collection at the University of Toronto Archives.
February 17, 2012
Director: Pedro Almodovar | Year: 1999 | Run Time: 101 minutes
Manuela, a nurse and single mother in her late thirties, must come to terms with the tragic loss of her only son, Esteban, when he is struck by a car.
In memory of her son, Manuela leaves Madrid and goes to Barcelona in search of Esteban's father, his namesake.
However, the man that she left behind eighteen years earlier when she was pregnant is now a transvestite named Lola. The search for a man with that name cannot be simple. And indeed it isn't.
February 24, 2012
Director: Steve Barron/Stuart Gordon/Jalil Jackson | Year: 1990/1990/1989 | Run Time: 93 mins/85 mins/82 mins
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
After prolonged exposure to radiation, four teenage turtles--Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo, and Donatello--have mutated into ninjas and have begun living in the sewers of a large city.
Under the guidance of a ninja master Splinter the Rat and television reporter April, the Turtles embark on a mission to run crime out of the city and battle the warlord Shredder. Can the turtles hold true to what they've learned and stay together as a brotherhood?
Robot Jox
50 years after a nuclear war, the two superpowers handle territorial disputes in a different way. Each fields a giant robot to fight one-on-one battles in official matches, each piloted by a man inside, known as robot jox.
The contest for possession of Alaska will be fought by two of the best. The conscientious Achilles fights for the Americans. Opposing him is a Russian, Alexander, a ruthless and bloodthirsty adversary who has killed his previous nine American opponents. With a traitor feeding the Russians secret weapons information and new, genetically-engineered jox looking to take his place, Achilles faces obstacles at every turn in the hardest battle of his life.
Lady Terminator
A sexually rapacious Asian goddess, known as the "South Sea Queen" thrives off tearing off men's privates."Is there any man who can satisfy me?" she asks, even dares the audience. One brave guy decides to take that challenge, and pulls the snake from between her legs.
She vows vengeance on the hero's great-granddaughter and vanishes into the ocean. Years later, Tanya, a beautiful young anthropology student researching the legend goes scuba diving to find her underwater castle and is possessed by the bloodthirsty spirit of the Queen!
March 2, 2012
Director: Margaret Brown | Year: 2004 | Run Time: 99 minutes
As a musician, Townes Van Zandt was legendary--perhaps one of the greatest who ever lived, inspiring artists from Bob Dylan to Norah Jones to Steve Earle. As a man, a husband, and a father his life was as tragic and as beautiful as the songs he wrote.
Townes was an enigma to his family, pinned between a deep longing for home and the nomadic lifestyle that was necessary for his livelihood.
The film combines emotional interviews with friends and family with footage of rare performances, interviews and intimate portraits of Townes' life.
March 9, 2012
Director: Jacques Demy | Year: 1967 | Run Time: 120 mins
Delphine and Solange are twin sisters living in the French town of Rochefort. Delphine gives ballet lessons whilst Solange teaches music. Both are tired of their humdrum existence and hope to make names for themselves in Paris.
Their mother, Yvonne, has ended up running a café after walking out on her boyfriend 10 years ago on account of his bizarre name, Monsieur Dame. She does no know that the same Monsieur Dame has recently returned to Rochefort to run a music shop frequented by her daughter Solagne. Maxence, an artist-poet on his military service, arrives in the town and paints a portrait of his ideal woman, which turns out to be Delphine.
Meanwhile, Solange meets and instantly falls in love with an old friend of Monsieur Dame, the famous composer Andy Miller, although the two suddenly lose sight of each other. Will the happy pairs of lovers be united or will cruel fate keep them apart?
Presented in collaboration with Intitut Français and the French Consulate.
March 16, 2012
Director: Hiroshi Teshigahara | Year: 1964 | Run Time: TBA
An amateur entomologist searching for insects by the sea is trapped by local villagers into living with a mysterious woman who spends almost all her time preventing her home from being swallowed up by advancing sand dunes.
The woman and the trapped man begin a strange and erotic relationship that stretches over years, as the man's hope for escape dims.
Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Director Oscars, both impressive feats for an avant-garde film.
March 23, 2012
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Director: George Roy Hill | Year: 1969 | Run Time: 110 minutes
George Roy Hill's comically elegiac Western chronicles the mostly true tale of the outlaws' last months. Witty pals Butch and Sundance join the Gang in successfully robbing yet another train with their trademark non-lethal style.
After the pair rests at the home of Sundance's schoolmarm girlfriend, the Gang robs the same train, but this time, the railroad boss has hired the best trackers in the business to foil the crime.
March 30, 2012
Director: Mike Cahill | Year: 2011 | Run Time: 92 minutes
Rhoda Williams was driving in her car and listening to the radio when the DJ announced the discovery of Earth 2, which had just appeared from the other side of the sun. Gazing out her window at the newly discovered planet, Rhoda neglectfully careens into a minivan carrying a small family.
Everyone but the father is killed instantly, and Rhoda is sentenced to four years in prison. Upon emerging, the repentant reckless driver finds herself drawn to the lone survivor. Meanwhile, Rhoda learns of an essay contest to win a seat on a civilian space shuttle to Earth 2.
Perhaps, on that strangely familiar planet, an alternate version of herself exists -- one that has made different choices, and followed a different life path.