Films & Schedules - F

Fish Tank is the story of an alienated Essex teenager whose life becomes even more complicated when her mom brings home a new boyfriend.

Winner of the Cannes Jury Prize for her first film, Red Road (PIFF 31), Arnold has won it again for her second, Fish Tank. Mia (Kate Jarvis), a sullen and volatile 15-year-old, lives with her single mother and little sister in a dreary working-class housing project in Essex. Ostracized at school and angry at the world, Mia’s only solace is her private passion for hip-hop dancing, which she practices incessantly. When her mother (Kierston Wareing) brings home a mysterious, charming stranger named Connor (Michael Fassbender, Hunger), who just might be the calming father figure the family needs, an emotional, if not sexual, chemistry between he and Mia soon adds a new dimension to a charged family atmosphere. One of Britain’s strongest new cinematic voices, Arnold reaffirms her talent for gripping, emotionally-charged realism, and for finding beautiful poetry in the bleakest of lives.

Filmography: Red Road (06).

122 Minutes    

Interests: Narrative Feature.

For the Love of Movies offers an insider’s view of the critics’ profession, with commentary from some of America’s best-regarded reviewers.

Boston Phoenix film critic Peary has crafted an entertaining and informative history of American film criticism from its raw beginnings before The Birth of a Nation to Bowsley Crowther’s 27-year reign at The New York Times; from the incendiary Pauline Kael-Andrew Sarris debates of the 60s and 70s right up to the current battle for audiences between youthful Web site populists and the veteran print establishment. Providing a unique insider’s view of the film critic’s profession are comments by some of America’s most influential film writers, including A.O. Scott (The New York Times), Lisa Schwarzbaum (Entertainment Weekly), Roger Ebert (The Chicago Sun-Times), as well as other legends like Sarris, Janet Maslin, and Jim Hoberman.

First Feature Film.

Joining Gerald Peary after the Sunday screening will be Portland film critics Shawn Levy, D.K. Holm, Aaron Mesh, Erik Henriksen, and Eric Snider.

Sponsored by OregonLive.com.

81 Minutes     Digital    

Interests: New Directors, Documentary Views, Art.

The life and career of opera star Mei Lenfeng is the subject of Chen Kaige's opulent period drama which traces Mei from childhood through his career-threatening refusal to perform during the occupation.

Chen Kaige’s opulent period drama tells the story of Mei Lanfang (1894–1961), a Peking opera singer of such virtuosity that his fame spread worldwide and his admirers included Charlie Chaplin and Sergei Eisenstein, who filmed him. Descended from an acting family, Mei was so popular he soon became a rival to veteran actor Swallow 13, and the two faced off in a musical “duel” from which Mei emerged the victor. His fame spread and in the late 1920s he even performed on Broadway. But when disaster struck with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, Mei’s refusal to sing in public under the occupation proved career threatening. Neatly conveying the fragile social position of opera performers of the early part of the last century, when they were regarded as little better than prostitutes, Chen offers an engaging portrait of Mei’s amazing talent.

Selected Filmography: King of the Children (87), Farewell My Concubine (93), Temptress Moon (96), The Promise (05).

Sponsored by Hotel deLuxe.

147 Minutes    

Interests: Oscar Submissions, Narrative Feature, Asian, History.