Films & Schedules - Thursday, February 18, 2010

In this retelling of the tale of the wife-killing Bluebeard, Breillat reminds us all that the best fairytales are dark around the edges. The film intercuts between the stories of two pairs of sisters. The first is set in the 1950s and features a young girl who loves torturing her older sister with dramatic readings of the story of Bluebeard. In the second, set during the Renaissance, a young girl becomes engaged to Lord Bluebeard, despite the suspicious disappearances of his previous wives.

Following the death of their father, Anne and Marie-Catherine are cast from boarding school and sent back to their mother. With no money for dowry, younger sister Marie-Catherine agrees to wed the wealthy but notorious aristocrat Lord Bluebeard, whose previous wives have all suspiciously disappeared. Will Marie-Catherine be next? Both surprisingly straightforward and slyly subversive, Breillat’s telling of Charles Perrault’s lurid 18th-century fable teases out the class and gender conflicts present in the original, reminding us that the best fairy tales are tinged with perverse darkness. Using parallel storylines, Breillat intercuts the fairy tale itself with childhood scenes set in a safe, bourgeois home in the 1950s, where a young girl frightens her older sister, and herself, with repeated readings of the titillating Freudian tale.

Selected Filmography: 36 Fillette (87), Romance (99), Fat Girl (00), Sex Is Comedy (02), The Last Mistress (06).

Sponsored by TV5MONDE and with support from the Cultural Services of the French Embassy.

80 Minutes     Digital    

Interests: Narrative Feature, French Language, Literature.

Ignacio Carrillo, a retired musician, journeys to return his supposedly cursed accordion to his old teacher. Along the way, he picks up a teenage boy who dreams of becoming a wandering musician like Ignacio. This touching odd-couple story mixes the evocative landscapes of Colombia with the magic of its music to tell a timeless tale.

Ignacio Carrillo, old and retired, has spent his life traveling through the villages of Northern Colombia playing traditional songs on his accordion, a legendary instrument that was said to be cursed because it had supposedly been won in a musical duel with the devil himself. When his wife suddenly dies, he bitterly vows to never play again and decides to make one last journey—to return the accordion to the man who gave it to him, his teacher and mentor. Setting out on his donkey, he is set upon by a young teenager with romantic dreams of becoming a nomadic minstrel like Ignacio. Reluctant to take him along, Ignacio relents, but in the course of their journey tries to convince him that the life of a minstrel can only lead to solitude and sadness. This touching odd-couple story mixes the evocative landscapes of Colombia with the magic of its music to tell a timeless tale.

Filmography: The Wandering Shadows (02).

This year’s Colombian submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

117 Minutes    

Interests: Oscar Submissions, Narrative Feature, Global Classroom, Spanish Language, Latino, Music.

Before dying, Nora devises a plan to make José, her ex-husband, take care of her funeral during the height of Passover celebration. But despite her meticulousness, she misses something—a mysterious photograph left under the bed which leads to unexpected outcomes.

A divorcée plots to reunite family and friends on the eve of Passover in this affecting, understated comedy set in Mexico City’s close-knit Jewish community. José learns that Nora, the woman he was married to for 30 years and then divorced, has committed suicide. Forced to wait five days for the funeral to allow his son to be present and the rabbi to officiate, José in the meantime discovers that Nora had prepared all of the plans and food for a final Passover Seder. But Nora also left something else: a curious photograph that may unlock the mystery of her life and death for the family she left behind. As curmudgeonly José reluctantly prepares for the funeral, a colorful collection of characters assemble in Nora’s apartment, including disapproving rabbis, a devoted housekeeper, a half-blind aunt, and the couple’s grown son. Winner of Audience Awards at festivals in Morelia, Miami, and Moscow, Chenillo’s warm and witty tale speaks to audiences everywhere.

First Feature Film.

Sponsored by the Consulate of Mexico.

92 Minutes    

Interests: Narrative Feature, Spanish Language, Latino.

Set during the Qing Dynasty, The Warlords tells the story of the rise of General Pang, whose ascent is aided by two bandits who become his blood brothers. Almost inevitably, power breeds greed and hubris, and the brotherhood collapses in a spiral of resentment and betrayal.

“With a cast of thousands, spectacular battle scenes, Shakespearean-style rumination on the corrupting influence of power, and a story of love and loyalty played with dramatic intensity and martial arts fury, The Warlords reigns as the Asian super-production for the new millennium. All revolves around the tragic fate of General Pang (Jet Li), whose noble intention to bring peace and stability to late 19th-century Qing Dynasty China turns into vaunted ambition for personal power and glory. Pang is joined by two bandits who become his sworn blood brothers. Zhao (Andy Lau) and Jiang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) help Pang rise to power, carrying out impossible campaigns for the Qing court, defeating Taiping rebels, and conquering cities. Along the way, Pang becomes attracted to Zhao’s wife (Xu Jinglei), and massacres prisoners whom Zhao had promised to protect. Soon, the brotherhood collapses in a spiral of betrayal and death.”—San Francisco Film Festival.

Filmography: He’s a Woman She’s a Man (94), Comrades: Almost a Love Story (96), Perhaps Love (06).

126 Minutes    

Interests: Asian.

Set in Tunis during the Nazi occupation, The Wedding Song is the story of the powerful friendship between Nour, a Muslim, and Myriam, a Jew.

Karin Albou returns to the themes of her first film, La Petite Jerusalem (PIFF 30), in The Wedding Song, mapping the intersection of Jewish and Arab cultures and exploring female sexuality. Unfolding against the backdrop of the German occupation of Tunis in 1942, this sensual and sexually frank story centers around two teen friends, Jewish Myriam and Muslim Nour, who have long desired the other’s life. Although far more interested in love than war, both girls find historical circumstances affecting their wedding plans. The occupying Nazis demand “reparation payments” from the Tunisian Jews, which Myriam’s impoverished mother cannot pay. Out of options, she promises Myriam’s hand to wealthy, older doctor Raoul. Meanwhile, Nour is happily betrothed to her handsome cousin Khaled, but her father postpones the wedding until Khaled gets a job. Unfortunately, Khaled finds work with the Germans, helping to round up Tunisian Jews.

Filmography: La Petite Jerusalem (06).

85 Minutes    

Interests: Narrative Feature, French Language, Jewish.

A darkly comic story of three generations of Polish women and the mysterious young man whose presence sparks a series of surprising events that change all of their lives.

Lankosz’s darkly comic film tells the story of three generations of women living together at the peak of Stalinist terror in 1950s Poland. In the middle of the capital, the foundations of the Palace of Culture are being raised. Sabina has just turned 30 and her mother is trying to find her a husband. Her grandmother has rated the candidates, yet Sabina isn’t interested in any of them. One day, under dramatic circumstances, she meets Bronislaw, a young man with the looks of a peasant movie star. Though Bronislaw is vulgar, Sabina can’t help but fall for him, and thus sets in motion a series of surprising events that will change the lives of all three women and reveal the darker side of their natures.

First Feature Film.

Winner of the Best Film and Audience Awards at the Gdynia Polish Film Festival and the FIPRESCI Critics Award at the Warsaw Film Festival. This year’s Polish submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

Sponsored by the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland, Los Angeles.

101 Minutes    

Interests: Oscar Submissions.

Charting the renowned jazz bassist’s life from his rural roots through his seminal collaborations with the legendary likes of Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane, Reto Caduff’s rollicking documentary affords the unassuming music icon the chance to take centre stage.

Music legends don’t come any more unassuming than Charlie Haden. Courtesy of Reto Caduff’s charming documentary, we discover that the affable jazz bassist’s underlying honesty and decency inform every note of his music. As Haden camps out in a studio to revisit the country music of his youth, he reflects on his rural roots and his debut crooning twangy ballads on the radio at the age of two. Through wondrous archival footage and enlightening interviews, Caduff leads us through the next six decades, detailing Haden’s seminal collaborations with legends like Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane, as well as his ongoing projects such as Quartet West and Liberation Music Orchestra. Just as Haden’s simple playing style masks an innate understanding of the complexities of melody and composition, so too does his placid exterior disguise a deep-seated passion that manifests itself in his art, relationships, and politics.

Filmography: Krokus (04), A Crude Awakening (06).

Sponsored by Consulate General of Switzerland, San Francisco.

84 Minutes     Digital    

Interests: Documentary Views, Music.

The Girl On The Train tells the true story of a young woman who claimed to be the victim of an anti-Semitic attack on a Paris suburban train.

A young woman, Jeanne (Émilie Dequenne), reports that skinheads attacked her, seemingly for being a Jew. The incident becomes a media sensation and attorney Samuel Bleistein (Michel Blanc), an old friend of Jeanne’s mother Louise (Catherine Deneuve), takes the case. The incident and its aftermath, drawn from real events, formed the core of Jean-Marie Besset’s play on which the film is based, but for Téchiné, the dramatic entanglements provide an opportunity to explore the complex family and social relationships that surround and define his characters. Notions of class, ethnicity, and who’s in and who’s out in contemporary France course through the film, offering a provocative reflection on the creation of identity at a time of ever-increasing social tension.

Selected Filmography: The Bronte Sisters (79), I Don’t Kiss (91), My Favorite Season (93), Alice and Martin (98), Changing Times (04), The Witness (07).

Sponsored by TV5MONDE and with support from the Cultural Services of the French Embassy.

110 Minutes     Digital    

Interests: Narrative Feature, French Language, Jewish.

This riveting, unusual documentary takes a tour of 20th century battlefields through the eyes of those who kept the soldiers fed and fighting: military cooks.

This riveting film opens the door to the secrets of little-known historians to show a dimension of war not found in textbooks or archives. Cooking History presents portraits of various army military cooks from all over Europe who have witnessed the European wars of the 20th century. Their recollections tap into a subjective view of historical events, one that diverges in some respects from conventional beliefs. They take us on a journey through pivotal dates, facts, declarations of war, battles, and peace agreements. The tales they tell convey a sense of life and death in the “war apparatus,” as well as a sense of hope, longing, and survival in the midst of destruction and despair. Kerekes’ look behind “great moments in time” introduces a fresh perspective on European history.

Filmography: About Three Days in Monastary Jasov (94), The Mary-Valery Bridge (00), 66 Seasons (03).

Special Jury Prize, Toronto Hot Docs.

Sponsored by KINK.FM.

88 Minutes     Digital    

Interests: Documentary Views, Narrative Feature, French Language, History.