The blog and the Community

Hi all !!
Welcome to the Cinema-Club blog. We have decided to open this as our own web space and to invite all of you to participate actively in the organisation of the Welcoming Cinema Club.
You can enter and add all your opinions about the viewed movies and also make suggestions for the forthcoming. We hope that you will take the best out of it !!
See you at the screenings!

Tuesday 18 December 2012

Ae fond kiss (United Kingdom, 2004) 104´. 20/12/2012

 This drama named after a song by Robert Burns and directed by Ken Loach tells the story of Qasim Khan (Atta Yaqub). Qasim  is a Glaswegian DJ of Pakistani origin. His devout Muslim parents have arranged for him to marry his first cousin. Unfortunately, he has just fallen in love with his younger sister's music teacher, Roisin (Eva Birthistle). Not only she is 'goree', a white woman, she is also Irish and catholic, things that may not go down well with Casim's parents. They start a relationship but Qasim is torn between following his heart and being a good son.

The film won different awards, for example the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the Berlin International Festival.
"English-language East-West domestic dramas usually tip the scales in favor of modernity... But A Fond Kiss is equally sympathetic to each side". Stephen Holden. New York Times. 29/11/2004.
See the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRPNPUuGQEM
The song by Robert Burns: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByMgD1ErF4k

Thursday 13 December 2012

Only human (Spain/Argentina, 2004) 93´ 13/12/12

This film by Dominic Harari and Teresa Pelegri tells the story of a mismatched couple. Leni (Marian Aguilera) is a television reporter from a Jewish family in Spain. One weekend, Leni drops by her family's home for a visit, with her new boyfriend Rafi (Guillermo Toledo), a Palestinian college professor, in tow.

This movie won the award for the Best film at the 2004 Monte-Carlo Comedy Film Festival. Apart from that it was quite well received by the critics.
"Writer-directors Dominic Harari and Teresa Pelegri have penned an amusing script and, as directors, inject a delicate human texture into the story's intermixing of capricious zaniness, frank sensuality and Mideast politics." Desson Thomson. Washington Post. 15/02/2012.
See the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEbixHEVmWY

Monday 3 December 2012

The Four Horsmen. (UK 2011). 97´. 06/12/2012.

This Thursday, SEED (Sustainable Economy Education Developing) is going to collaborate with the Cinema Club. They will host The Four Horsemen.
This documentary has been directed by Ross Ashcroft and it lifts the lid on how the global economy really works. Living in the age of consequence unfettered growth and profit seeking have pushed humanity to the brink. Today's Four Horsemen - socially organised violence, debt, iniquity and poverty control all of our lives. They're gathering momentum, decimating communities and compromising future generations if they are not arrested the planet will gallop to a logical conclusion.
23 international thinkers, like Noam Chomsky or Joseph Stiglitz, come together and break their silence about how the world really works and why there is still hope in re-establishing a moral and just society. Four Horsemen is free from mainstream media propaganda, doesn't bash bankers, criticize politicians or get involved in conspiracy theories. The film ignites the debate about how we usher a new economic paradigm into the world which, globally, would dramatically improve the quality of life for billions.

More information about the film. http://www.fourhorsemenfilm.com/
Interview with the director:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H--0xHLOcQ&feature=BFa&list=SP07AE1842FAD6AC6E

Trailer:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLoB1eCJ93k
More information about SEED: http://seed-learning.blogspot.co.uk/p/seed-2012.html


                                                 

The Apartment (USA, 1960) 125´ 29/11/2012.

This comedy-drama by Billy Wilder starring Jack Lemmon, who plays the roll of C.C. Baxter. Baxter  is a lonely office druge for a national insurance corporation in a high-rise building in New York City. In order to climb the corporate ladder, Baxter allows four company managers, on different evenings of the week, to take turns borrowing his Upper West Side apartment for their various extramarital liaisons that are so noisy that his neighours assume he is bringing home different women every night.




The Apartment received 10 Academy Award nominations and won 5 Academy Awardsat the 1960 Academy Awards, including Best Director and Best Motion Picture. Nowadays it is considered a classic.
"A comedy of men's-room humours and water-cooler politics that now and then among the belly laughs says something serious and sad about the struggle for success, about what it often does to a man, and about the horribly small world of big business. " TIME Magazine. 18/02/2009.
See the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4OXm9-E8OQ



Never let me go. (UK 2010) 103´ 22/11/2012

This film was directed by Mark Romanek and it is based on a book by Kazuo Ishiguro. Never let me go tells the story of Kathy H (Carey Mulligan), Tommy (Andrew Garfield) and Ruth (Keira Knightley). During their childhood, they were educated at a mysterious boarding school. Kathy watches from afar as Ruth and Tommy fall in love, but fate has a greater threat in store for all of them.



Carey Mulligan won the award for the Best Actress at The British Independent Award. The film was well accepted by the film critics.
"Lovely and melancholy, poignant and chilling, Never Let Me Go is an old school sci-fi dystopia with lovely, wistful performances that never quite overcome the fatalism that hangs over the whole affair." Roger Moore. Orlando Sentinel. 06/10/2010.




Tuesday 13 November 2012

In a better world (Denmark, 2010) 118´. 15/11/2012

This film by Susanne Bier tells the story of Anton (Mikael Persbrandt), a Swedish doctor who commutes between his home in Denmark and his work in a Sudanese refugee camp. Anton is struggling with the possibility of divorcing his wife, Marianne (Trine Dyrholm). They have two young sons, the older one being 12-year-old Elias (Markus Rygaard).
Elias starts a friendship with Christian (William Jøhnk Juels Nielsen), who has just moved from London with his father and has his own problems, his mother recently died from cancer.
 
 In a better world was selected as one of the final five nominees and won as the Danish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards. It has been also well-acclaimed by critics.
"Bier, when she allows herself, loves the peripheral as much as the portentous. She understands that an image can tell more than words, more than even 1,000." Nigel Andrews. Financial Times. 18/08/2011.

See the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPuqCFOgeFc

The Pledge (USA 2001) 124´ 08/11/2012

The Pledge is a 2001 American mystery film directed by Sean Penn. The film features an ensemble cast, with Jack Nicholson, Aaron Eckhart, Helen Mirren, Robin Wright Penn, Vanessa Redgrave, Sam Shepard, Mickey Rourke, and Benicio del Toro.
It is based on Friedrich Dürrenmatt's 1958 novella Das Versprechen: Requiem auf den Kriminalroman. Dürrenmatt wrote The Pledge to refine the theme he originally developed in the screenplay for the 1958 film Es gescha am hellichten ^Tag (It Happened in Broad Daylight).
The film tells the story of Jerry Black (Jack Nicholson) a homicide detective, undertakes one last case on the day of his retirement. An eight year old girl has been found murdered in the snow-covered mountains of Mexico and her mother begs Black to unravel the mystery of her daughter's death. With the help of local waitress Lori and her young daughter Chrissy, Black embarks on an unpredictable and riveting hunt for the killer where things are not always as they seem...
Sean Penn was nominated for the Palme D´or at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, and a lot of film critic have rated this movie as a good one.
"Not a pleasant film, but it is deeply, scarily rewarding". Stephen Holden. New York Times. 19/01/2001.

Wednesday 31 October 2012

The Changeling (Canada 1980) 124´ 01/11/2012

This film was dierected by Peter Medak and tells the story of Dr. Russell (George C. Scott) a composer living in New York City who moves cross-country to Washington State following the deaths of his wife and daughter in a traffic accident while on a winter vacation in upstate New York. In suburban Seattle, Russell rents a large, old and eerie Victorian-era mansion and begins piecing his life back together. However, Dr. Russell soon discovers that he has unexpected company in his new home, the ghost of a murdered child.

The Changeling won the first ever Genie Award for Best Canadian film. When Martin Scorsese was asked to make a list of the films that he considered the scariest ones, he chose, among others, The Changeling.
See the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTzgXVosQOU

Wednesday 24 October 2012

Moolaadé (Burkina Faso 2004) 120' 25/10/2012

This film was directed by the the Senegalese writer and director Ousmane Sembène. It tells the story of Colle (Fatoumata Coulibaly), the second of her husband's three wives. She is the most intelligent, humorous, charming, and is also loved most by her husband, a temperate enlightened man. Her nubile daughter, Amasatou, has got engaged, although she had not undergone female genital cutting, which is considered a prerequisite for marriage by the local tradition. Collé opposes this practise. This has led the elders in the village, men as well as women, to despise her daughter. Amasatou herself unceasingly requests to have her genitals cut to secure her social status and marriagability, but Collé remains unmoved. She is willing to protect not only her daughter from the life-threatening genital cutting but also four little girls who joined her to escape this practise. Collé pulls up a symbolic witchcraft, the colorful rope Moolaadé, across the gate of the family's premises. Moolaadé (pulaar word that means protection, the right to asylum) interdicts the old women, who carry out the practise and who have been searching for the girls, from entering the house.
See full size image


















As this month it is the Month of the Black History, in the Cinema Club we have decided to screened this movie. You will see in Colle the powerful woman that the Senegalese writer Leopold Senghor, father of the negritud, described in his poem Black Woman
Naked woman, black woman.

Clothed with your colour which is life,


with your form which is beauty!

In your shadow I have grown up; the

gentleness of your hands was laid over my eyes.

And now, high up on the sun-baked

pass, at the heart of summer, at the heart of noon,

I come upon you, my Promised Land,

And your beauty strikes me to the heart

like the flash of an eagle.

Naked woman, dark woman

Firm-fleshed ripe fruit, sombre raptures

of black wine, mouth making lyrical my mouth

Savannah stretching to clear horizons,

savannah shuddering beneath the East Wind's

eager caresses

Carved tom-tom, taut tom-tom, muttering

under the Conqueror's fingers

Your solemn contralto voice is the

spiritual song of the Beloved.

Naked woman, dark woman

Oil that no breath ruffles, calm oil on the

athlete's flanks, on the flanks of the Princes of Mali

Gazelle limbed in Paradise, pearls are stars on the

night of your skin.

Delights of the mind, the glinting of red

gold against your watered skin

Under the shadow of your hair, my care

is lightened by the neighbouring suns of your eyes.

Naked woman, black woman,

I sing your beauty that passes, the form

that I fix in the Eternal,

Before jealous fate turn you to ashes to
feed the roots of life.

The filn won Prix Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival in 2004. A part from that, it was well acclaimed by the critics.
"Sembene provides not only a fascinating glimpse into the culture of tropical Africa, but also a powerful account of the social turmoil which bubbles beneath the surface." Jamie Woolley. BBC. 31/05/2005.
See the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCgCZVPQk7s






Saturday 13 October 2012

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. (Australia, 1994) ) 99´ 11/10/2012

 
LGBT, an organisation that tries to support lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgender people who live in, work in and travel in Edinburgh, will host this Australian film.
This comedy-drama film was directed by Stephan Elliot and tells the story of Anthony "Tick" Belrose (Hugo Weaving), using the drag pseudonym of Mitzi Del Bra, is a Sydney-based drag queen who accepts an offer to perform his drag act at Lasseter's Hotel Casino Resort managed by a female friend named Marion (Sarah Chadwick) in Alice Springs, a remote town in central Australia. After persuading his friends and fellow performers, Bernadette Basinger (Terence Stamp), a recently bereaved transsexual woman, and Adam Whitely (Guy Pearce), a younger drag queen who goes under the drag name Felicia Jollygoodfellow, to join him, the three set out in a large tour bus which Adam christens "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" for a four-week run in the Australian Outback town.
In 1995, the film won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design at the 67th Academy Awards.was ranked at 7th on Logo's 50 Greatest Films with an LGBT theme, and 10th on AfterElton's Fifty Greatest Gay Movies list. Despite the fact that the film has been criticised for perceived racist and sexist stereotyping, it was noted for helping to bring Australian cinema to world attention and for its positive portrayal of LGBT individuals, helping to introduce LGBT themes to a mainstream audience. 
"It's often very funny, looks great and is played to perfection." David Parkinson. Empire Magazine. 01/01/2000.
See the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV-Zzasrky8
More information about LGBT: http://www.lgbthealth.org.uk/

Wednesday 3 October 2012

Hotel Rwanda. (USA, 2005) 121´ 04/10/2012

This film, that was directed by Terry George, is based on real life events in Rwanda during the spring of 1994. It stars Don Cheadle as hotelier Paul Rusesabagina, who attempts to rescue his fellow citizens from the ravages of Rwandan Civil War that brought hutus face to face with tutsis.


The film won the People´s Choice Award at 2004 Toronto Film Festival. It also received good reviews.
"The emotion comes from Don Cheadle's thrilling portrait of ordinary heroism, a performance that's matched only by the magnificent Sophie Okonedo as his wife Tatiana". Paul Arendt. BBC. 22/02/2005

See the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2vMvyQeb1U

Be awere that the film contains violent scenes.

Tuesday 25 September 2012

This is England. (United Kingdom, 2006) 27/09/2012

Largely based on director´s (Shane Meadows) own personal experience, the film tells the story of Shaun (Thomas Turgoose), a 11 year old kid growing up in the North of England. Set during the summer holidays of 1983. It follows his journay from a shaggy haired rufian grieving the loss of his father into a shaven headed thug whose anger and pain are embraced by the local skinhead fraternity.

The film was well acclaimed and it got several awards, for instance Alexander Korda for the Best Film at the British Academy Film Award.
"The writer-director brilliantly juxtaposes the personal and the political, bookending a stirring coming-of-age drama with the provocative opening and an equally affecting end sequence." Kevin Thomas. Los Ángeles Times. 02/08/2007.
See the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0jkv2bRFgQ

Babette´s Feast (Denmark, 1987) 20/09/2012

This Danish Film was directed by Gabriel Axel. It was based on a short story by Isak Dinisen (pen name of Karen Blixen) and tells the story of Babette Hersant (Stéphane Audran), a French woman who works for two pious sisters, Martina  (Birgette Federspiel) and Philippa (Bodil Kjer) in a small village on the remote western coast of Jutland in 19th-century. Sometime after their father´s death, the sisters decide to hold a dinner to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his birth. Babette experiences unexpected good fortune and implores the sisters to allow her to take charge of the preparetion of the meal.



The film received almost universally positive reviews and it won the Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards. It also won a BAFTA Film Award for the Best Not in English Language.
"Taking a longish tale, "Babette´s Feast, from Isak Dinisen´s last collection "Anecdotes of Destiny"  (1958), Gabriel Axel has made a  very handsome, very literary movie". Vicent Canby. New York Times. 01/10/1988.
See the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwp&v=fDbQ6ktcFPQ

Tuesday 26 June 2012

Departures (Japan 2008) 131´ 28/06/2012

This film was directed by Yōjirō Takita and tells the story of Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki), a cellist in Tokyo who loses his job when his orchestra is disbanded. This mishap makes him  move back to his hometown, Sakata, with his wife Mika (Ryōko Hirosue). There Daigo finds a job that involves preparing the dead.

It won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 81st Oscars in 2009 and the Japan Academy Prize for Picture of the Year at the 32nd Japan Academy Prize. Apart from that it has received good reviews.
"Even as it gently insists on the normalcy, the inevitability, the meaningfulness of mortality, it leaves you feeling so familiar with death you may want to wash your hands and change your clothes afterward." Philip Kennicott. Washington Post. (19/06/2009).
See the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtdENmR6jKw

Tuesday 5 June 2012

Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind (USA 2004) 109´ 07/06/2012

Michel Gondry directed this film that tells the story of Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) and Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet), a couple who decides to undergo a procedure to erase each other from their memories when their relationship turns sour, but it is only through the process of loss that they discover what they had to begin with.
 
The film has been well acclaimed by critics.
"Works marvel after marvel in expressing the bewildering beauty and existential horror of being trapped inside one's own addled mind, and in allegorising the self-preserving amnesia of a broken but hopeful heart." Jessica Winter. Time out. (26/01/2006)
See the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GiLxkDK8sI

Tuesday 29 May 2012

Midnight Express (USA 1978) 121´31/05/2012

Midnight Express was directed by Alan Parker and it is the harrowing story of Billy Hayes (Brad Davis), a young American tourist condemned to a Turkish prison for his futile attempt to struggel hashish out of the country. Made an example of by a corrupt legal system and a victim of ineffectual diplomacy, Hayes is sentenced to 30 years and must overcome ruthless brutality and his own descent into madness in order to survive.

The film won Academy Awards for Best Music, Original Score (Giorgio Moroder) and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Oliver Stone).
"A solid prison film that feels so real that if you heard a voiceover you'd swear it was a documentary". James Plath. Movie Metropolis. 19/07/2009.
See the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAY4aADKk08

Please be aware that the film contains strong sex and violence.

Wednesday 23 May 2012

Nights of Cabiria (Italy. 1957) 117´ 24/05/2012

This film, that is considered the Federico Fellini´s last foray into gritty neo-realism, tells the story of Cabiria (Giulietta Masina), a wide-eyed prostitute who earns her living in the unforgiving streets of a crumbling Rome. In a world of episodic adventures and strange encounters, the main character dreams with a better life.


Since its release, the film has been acclaimed and nowadays is a classic. It won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. Giulietta Massina got the Best Actress Award at Cannes Film Festival for her performance as Cabiria, one of the most unforgettable and endearing characters the history of the cinema.
"Through Masina's unforgettable performance, Cabiria will endure as long as anyone cares to watch transcendence projected on a screen". Kenneth Turan. Los Ángeles Times. 13/02/2001
See the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfy2GAppCSM&feature=endscreen

Tuesday 15 May 2012

The cuckoo (Russia 2002) 100´ 17/05/2012

THE CUCKOO, from Russian director Alexander Rogozhkin, is a seriously funny comedy about the universal human values that lie underneath both, language and culture. The film looks at the unexpected friendship between three people from different countries at the end of World War II. A Finn soldier, Veiko (Ville Khaapasalo), a Lapp woman, Anni (Anni-khristiina Juuso), and a Russian soldier, Ivan (Vicktor Bychkov), come very close together although they are unable to speak each other's languages. As expected, the "dialogues" are rather incoherent as the three characters continuously misinterpret each other, which is the main source of the funniest moments in the film. Beyond the language barriers however, they manage to communicate love peace and understanding to one another.
The film won a lot of prizes in different Independent Film Festivals, including Best Film and Director at the 2003 Europa Cinema in Viarego, Italy.
"Mr. Rogozhkin maintains a good sense of blood, dirt and sweat, human elements mingled together to keep the action rooted in some degree of reality." Dave Kher. New York Times. 10/07/2003
See the trailer:http://www.moviemaze.de/media/trailer/868,the-cuckoo.html

Tuesday 1 May 2012

Missing (United States 1982) 122´ 10/05/2012

This film by Costa Gavras is based on a true story. In the aftermath of the US-backed Chilean coup of 1973 that deposed leftist President Salvador Allende, the American journalist Charles Horman (John Shea) disappears. His wife (Sissy Spacek) and his father (Jack Lemmon) start a search to determine his fate, their efforts will meet with the duplicity by US embassy officials in Santiago.

Missing won the Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay. The film also won the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival,  where Lemmon was awarded Best Actor for his performance.
"And the best scenes in MISSING (...) are the ones in which Spacek and Lemmon hack their way through a bureaucratic jungle in an attempt to get someone to make a simple statement of fact. Those scenes are masterful." Roger Ebert. Chicago Sun-Times. 23/10/2004.
See the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7rMVneWfto

Wednesday 25 April 2012

Hidden (France, 2005) 117´. 26/04/2012.

Michael Haneke directed Hidden. The film tells the story of Georges Laurent (Daniel Auteuil), a successful host of a French literary TV programme, who lives with his wife Anne ( Juliette Binoche), a book publisher, and their school-age son Pierrot (Lester Makedonsky). The quiet life of this Paris family is disturbed when they receive a series of surveillance tapes of their own residence from an anonymous source. This tapes show extended observation of their home's exterior from a static street camera that is never noticed. At first passive and harmless, but later accompanied by crude, disturbing crayon drawings, the tapes lead to questions about Georges' early life that disrupt both his work and marriage.


The film was a success. It won several prizes: Best Director at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival and Best European Actor at the 2005 European Film Awards among them. It was also highly acclaimed by the critics.
"Don't bother getting comfortable when you sit down for Michael Haneke's Hidden (Cache). Soon as this quietly terrifying film starts, the unease starts to fester." Matthew Leyland. BBC. 23/01/2006.
See the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w0J9myz14I

Tuesday 17 April 2012

Agora. (Spain 2006) 126´. 19/04/2012. Science Festival in Edinburgh.

"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."
A pale blue dot. Carl Sagan. 1994.

Being inspired by the TV serie Cosmos by the astrophysicist Carl Sagan, Alejandro Amenábar directed Agora. The biopic stars Rachel Weisz as Hypatia, a female mathematician, philosopher and astronomer in late 4th century Roman Egypt, a transforamtive and tumultuous period that was in many ways (cultural, social, religious and political) the end of the Ancient History.

File:Agoraposter09.jpg

The film was controversional.
"I went to see "Agora" expecting an epic with swords, sandals and sex. I found swords and sandals, some unexpected opinions about sex, and a great deal more. This is a movie about ideas, a drama based on the ancient war between science and superstition." Roger Ebert. Chicago Sun-Times. 22/07/2010.
See the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbuEhwselE0

Be ware that the film contains some violent scenes.

Thursday 12 April 2012

Caramel (Lebanon, 2007) 96´. 12/04/2012

A Beirut beauty salon serves as a microcosm of modern society of Lebanon. While single Layale (Nadine Labaki, who also is the director of the film) struggles with her growing attraction to a married man, Muslim Nisrine (Yasmine Al Masri) is going to be marry, and Rima (Joanna Moukarzel) wages a futile war against her lesbian instincts. As with many women who frequent the salon, Jamale (Gisèle Aouad)  does everything within her power to reverse the visible effects of aging. As Rose (Sihame Haddad) laments the fact that she has sacrificed her own happiness in order to care for her older sister.

The film won several awards, in San Sebastian Film Festival of 2007 it received Youth Award , TCM Audience Award and Sebastiane Award. On the other hand, it has had good reviews.
"It is sweet but not saccharine, an intimate film that doesn't stint on the desperation and anxiety that go along with the search for love." Kenneth Turan. Los Angeles Time. (01/02/2008).
See the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbKy__9g4MQ

Wednesday 4 April 2012

American History X (USA, 1998). 118´ 05/04/2012

Directed by Tony Kaye, the film tells the story of two brothers, Derek Vinyard (Edward Norton) and Daniel "Danny" Vinyard (Edward Furlong) of Venice Beach in Los Angeles, California. Both are intelligent and charismatic students. Their father, a firefighter, is murdered by a black drug dealer while trying to extinguish a fire in a South Central neighborhood of Los Angeles, and Derek is drawn into the neo-Nazi movement.


Edward Norton was nominated for an Academy Award for the Best Actor for his performance and the film received critical acclaim.
"Though its story elements are all too easily reduced to a simple outline, ''American History X'' has enough fiery acting and provocative bombast to make its impact felt. For one thing, its willingness to take on ugly political realities gives it a substantial raison d'etre. For another, it has been directed with a mixture of handsome photo-realism and visceral punch." Janet Maslin. New York Times. 01/01/2000
See the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXaZENPQrsw

Please be aware that this film contains sexual and violent images.


Tuesday 27 March 2012

The help. (USA, 2011) 146´ 29/03/2012

Directed by Tate Taylor and set in Mississippi during 1960´s, the film tells the story of Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan (Emma Stone), a young white women who moves back home after graduating from the university. There she gets fed up with the racist attitude of her circle of acquaintace, specially when one of them wants to present a proposed bill to provide separate bathrooms for black people. This incident encourages her to write a book about black maids who serve the white rich families.
In this aim, Skeeter has the support of Aibileen Clarck (Viola Davis), the black woman who brought up her when she was a child.

The film won several awards including The Oscar for Best Supporting Actress (Octavia Spencer).
"Airbrushed fairytale it may be, but The Help's account of the push for racial equality in 1960s Mississippi is rousingly effective" Xan Brooks. The Guardian. 27/10/2011.
Trailer:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbuKgzgeUIU

Tuesday 20 March 2012

Take my eyes. (Spain, 2003) 107´ 22/03/2012.

This Thursday, the film is going to be hosted by Shakti Women´s Aid. This organisation was founded in 1986 and tries to help minority ethnic women, children and young people who are experiencing or fleeing domestic abuse.
Take my eyes tells the story of Pilar (Laia Marull), who one night, fleeing her violent husband Antonio (Luis Tosar), leaves home with just a suitcase and her young son. Taking refuge in her sister's flat, she wavers in the face of her son's desire to see his father and the fact that she still loves her husband.
File:TakeMyEyes.jpg

It won seven Goyas Awards, including Best Film.
"Victimising Pilar for the sake of tension, the thriller elements threaten to overturn the drama. Fortunately, Bollain realises that this gripping film is intense enough without resorting to too many cheap tricks. Building on an electric performance from Marull and a terrifying turn from Toscar (whose raging eyes and too-taut facial muscles suggest a man who's capable of exploding at any moment), Take My Eyes hints at the inescapable complexities of loving an abuser." Jamie Russell. BBC Movies. 14/11/2004.
Read the full review in http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2004/11/09/take_my_eyes_2004_review.shtml
More information about Shakti Women´s Aid: http://www.shaktiedinburgh.co.uk/index.html

Wednesday 14 March 2012

The man who wasn´t there. (USA, 2001) 116´ 15/03/2012

It is a neo-noir film written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. Set it in and around Santa Rosa, California 1949, the movie follows Ed Crane (Billy Bob Thornton), a suburban barber, married to Doris (Frances Macdormand) a bookkeeper with a drinking problem. Doris' boss at Nirdlinger's, the local department store, is "Big Dave" Brewster (James Gandolfini)  a loud, boisterous man, who constantly brags about his combat adventures in the Pacific during the Second World War. Ed suspects that Doris and Big Dave are having an affair.
 File:The Man Who Wasnt There.jpg
"The ever astonishing Coen brothers say their film was inspired by the spirit of James M. Cain's novels about ill-fated dopes. But the Coens transcend Cain. If this were not such great American-vernacular moviemaking--hilarious yet hypnotic--one would be tempted to see something Greek in the tragedy that Ed never comprehends." Richard Shickel. TIME Magazine. (13/10/2009)
See the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htxvLcSnOU0

Tuesday 6 March 2012

Bandit queen (India, 1994) 120´. 08/03/2012

Directed by Shekhar Kapur, the film is based in the true story of legendary female warrior Phoolan Devi (rol played by Seema Biswas). Devi is married at age 11, abandoned by her husband when she resists his advances, and turned into a social outcast who, at one point, is gang-raped by the upper-caste men of one village. She later leads a band.

It won different prizes in India, including Best Actress in the National Film Award.
"An exciting movie that brings Devi's story to life with passion but without passing judgment." Richard Corliss. TIME Magazine. 01/01/2000.
See the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66uIVFb6ATA

Wednesday 29 February 2012

YOU CHOOSE 02/03/2012

This Thursday you are going to have the chance of choosing what to watch. There are two options.

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM. 100´ (United Kingdom, 1966)
This wild Stpehn Sondheim comedy about a raucous gaggle of ancient Romans is a flip, glib and sophisticated, yet rump-slappingly bawdy and fast-paced look at the seamy underside of classical Roma through hipster´s shades.
When a wily, witty, lying, lazy, cheating slave discovers that his master´s son is in love with the girl next-door - a virgin courtesan- he promises to help win her heart in exchange for his freedom. But the road to romance is blocked with stunning surprises, cunning disguises.

The film was nominated for a Golden Glove as "Best Motion Picture - Musical/Comedy" in 1967, and it won Oscar "Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment" that year.
"Perhaps the first modern film musical -- breaking with and even making sport of the theatrical artifice that had been bogging down the genre for nearly a decade". Ken Hake. Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) 21/07/2002.
See one of the scenes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPds0-hZ1tM&feature=endscreen

THE SEVENTH SEAL. 96´ (Sweden. 1957)

Maybe one of the most famous films by Ingmar Bergman, it tells the story about knight (Max von Sydow) who returns from the crusades to his plague-ridden homeland and engages Death (Bengkt Ekerot) in a game of chess. This leads the knight to ponder the question of whether or not God exists and about a possible afterlife.

The film won the Special Jury Prize at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival. Even, it has been regarded since its release as a masterpiece of cinematography, it was Ranked #8 in Empire magazines "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010.
"The Seventh Seal was always my favourite film, and I remember seeing it with a small audience at the old New Yorker Theatre. Who would have thought that the subject matter could yield such a pleasurable experience?" Woody Allen, "Through a Life Darkly," New York Times Book Review (1988).
See the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtkFei4wRjE

Tuesday 21 February 2012

THE IDIOTS. (Denmark, 1996) 117´ 23/02/ 2012

This week film on at the Tollcross Community centre at 6:15pm - 9:15pm is:

The idiots by Lars von Trier.

Set in present-day Denmark, it begins with a chance encounter between the timid Karen and a group of drop-outs engaged in a strange, informal experiment where they pretend to be mentally disabled. Initially shocked, Karen finds herself compelled to stay and eventually joins them in the experiment. However, as the group's acts of 'idiocy' grow more extreme, and the reality of the outside world becomes more intrusive, the border between liberation and self-destruction begins to blur.



The film is influenced by the realist Dogme 95 movement. This movement was an avant-garde filmmaking movement started in 1995 by the Danish directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, who created the "Dogme 95 Manifesto" and the "Vow of Chastity". These were rules to create filmmaking based on the traditional values of story, acting, and theme, and excluding the use of elaborate special effects or technology.[1] They were later joined by fellow Danish directors Kristian Levring and Søren Kragh-Jacobsen, forming the Dogme 95 Collective or the Dogme Brethren. Dogme is the Danish word for dogma.

The genre gained international appeal partly because of its accessibility. It sparked an interest in unknown filmmakers by suggesting that one can make a recognised film of a quality to gain recognition, without being dependent on commissions or huge Hollywood budgets. The directors used European government subsidies and television station funding instead. If you want to know more about Dogme 95 check: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogme_95

The idiots was nominated for Best Film, for instance Cannes or Valladolid, and won the FIPRESCI prize in Lodon Film Festival (1998).

The film provoked a storm of publicity and debates.

"The Idiots suggests that if Danish iconoclast Lars von Trier's filmsare getting tougher, they're also continuing to reward the patient". Kevin Thomas. Los Angeles Times. 14/02/2001.

See the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr1vPnJebgk

Tuesday 14 February 2012

The proposition (Australia, 2005). 100`. 16/02/2012

Directed by John Hillcoat, the film is set in Outback Australia of the 1880s, the movie follows the turn of events after the horrific rape and murder of a settler family by Charlie and his brothers. Guy Pearce stars as Charlie Burns who is offered a proposition by Captain Stanley (Ray Winstone), whereby he and his younger brother Mikey can go scot-free of the crime they have committed if Charlie kills his older brother Arthur, an outlaw that Captain Stanley is intent on bringing to justice. If Charlie fails to comply, Mikey will be hanged on Christmas Day. Rural Australia in the late nineteenth century: Capt. Stanley and his men capture two of the four Burns brothers, Charlie and Mike. Their gang is held responsible for attacking the Hopkins farm and and murdering the whole family. Arthur Burns, the eldest brother and the gangs mastermind, remains at large has and has retreated to a mountain hideout. Capt. Stanleys proposition to Charlie is to gain pardon and - more importantly - save his beloved younger brother Mike from the gallows by finding and killing Arthur within nine days.

The film was presented in the Toronto Film Festival (2005) and Sundance Film Festival (2006), its aesthetic has stuned public and press.
"This Australian western, written by the darkly moody musician and author Nick Cave, tells a story of murder in the outback that is as cruel as it is aesthetically flamboyant." Manohla Dargis.  New York Times. 4/05/2006.
"Why do you want to see this movie? Perhaps you don't. Perhaps, like Bloom, it will take you more than one try to face the carnage. But the director John Hillcoat, working from a screenplay by Nick Cave, has made a movie you cannot turn away from; it is so pitiless and uncompromising, so filled with pathos and disregarded innocence, that it is a record of those things we pray to be delivered from." Roger Ebert. Chicago Sun-Times. 19/05/2006.
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7V-CW_SUos 

Tuesday 7 February 2012

Waltz with Bashir (Israel, 2008). 87´. 09-02-2012

The film is based on the true story of the director Ari Folman, an Israeli army veteran who realises he can´t remember nothing of the 1982 Lebanon War in which he fought, the film charts his journey to uncover the secrets of the past. As he delves deep into the mystery, fragments of memory creep up in surreal images as the truth of what happened begins to unravel.

This movie has been nominated and won a lot of awards, among them the Golden Globe Award for the Best Foreign Language Film. It has also received good reviews.
"The animated documentary Waltz With Bashir is a memoir, a history lesson, a combat picture, a piece of investigative journalism and an altogether amazing film." A.O. Scott. New York Time (29-12-2008).
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylzO9vbEpPg.

Monday 30 January 2012

KAMIKAZE GIRLS (2004, Japan). 103´ 2/02/2012

Directed by  Tetsuya Nakashima, the film tells the story of Momoko, a self-absorbed dreamer who fantasizes about fleeing her backcountry home and living life in 18th century Versailles. When she unexpectedly meets a rebellious Ichigo, a rough-and-tumble biker chick, the two misfits from a unique friendship. The fact they are so different makes them an unlikely alliance, but friends they become.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvTxyok0j2o

Thursday 26 January 2012

RIO (2011. United States) 92´

A misfit macaw named Blu (voice of Jesse Eisenberg) takes flight from his Minnesota home and soars south on a quest to explore Rio de Janeiro in this animated adventure for the entire family. Along the way, he meets the last female blue macaw (voice of Anne Hathaway), and discovers what an amazing adventure life can truly be. RIO also features the voices of Leslie Mann, Jamie Foxx, George Lopez, will.i.am, and Rodrigo Santoro.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf6zeRwk5LE

Wednesday 18 January 2012

In the realm of the senses. (Japan/France. 1976). 105´. 19/01/2012

In 1936, in the midst of rising Japanese militarization, a former prostitute, Sada, goes to work as a maid in a brothel. The handsome owner of the house, Kichizo, soon begins to court her, and Sada eagerly returns his attentions. Their subsequent affair and constant lovemaking grow more and more intense, and their sexual obsession threatens to destroy them both.
Directed by Nagisa Oshima, the film has explicit sex scenes. It was edited and registered in France in order to avoid the strict Japanese censorship regulations. Despite this, some scenes were cut in Japan.

Wednesday 11 January 2012

12/1/2012 Route Irish (2010)

Route Irish (2010) 109 min A film directed by Ken Loach that tells the story of an ex-security contractor (euphemism for mercenary) who rejects the official version of his friend’s death and sets out to discover the truth by whatever means. Like all previous Ken Loach’s films, this work has also generated great controversy by illustrating how private security firms run amok in countries like Iraq and Afghanistan, while making fortunes. After receiving legal immunity privileges that effectively allowed them to shoot first and neglect to ask questions later, these private firms are known to have committed a great amount of abuse against both the Iraqi people and their own employees.




Loach rejects the supercharged style of film-making that a Hollywood kind of director might have employed. The keynotes are clarity and simplicity, even shouting confrontations and violence are shot in a calm, detached way. The film explore moral and ethical issues such as the wide use of torture by Iraq occupying armies and whether it is right that warfare should be gradually privatised without public debate which would mean those at the heart of warfare are only answerable to shareholders rather than a government.


More:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1528312/

Wednesday 4 January 2012

5th of January "The Social Network" (USA, 2010) 120 minutes



The Social Network is a 2010 American drama film directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin. Adapted from Ben Mezrich's 2009 book The Accidental Billionaires, the film portrays the founding of social networking website Facebook and the resulting lawsuits. It stars Jesse Eisenberg as founder Mark Zuckerberg, along with Andrew Garfield and Justin Timberlake as the other principals involved in the website's creation. Neither Zuckerberg nor any other Facebook staff were involved with the project, although Eduardo Saverin was a consultant for Mezrich's book.[3] The film was released in the United States by Columbia Pictures on October 1, 2010.
The film received widespread acclaim, with critics praising it for its editing, acting, score and screenplay. Some people, including Zuckerberg himself, criticized the film for its many inaccuracies. The Social Network appeared on 78 critics' top 10 list for 2010; of those critics 22 had the film in their number one spot. Rolling Stone's Peter Travers said "The Social Network is the movie of the year. But Fincher and Sorkin triumph by taking it further. Lacing their scathing wit with an aching sadness, they define the dark irony of the past decade." It received eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director (Fincher), and Best Actor (Eisenberg) and won three for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, and Best Film Editing. It also won the Best Motion Picture – Drama Golden Globe at the 68th Golden Globe Awards. The film also won Golden Globe awards for Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Original Score, making it the film with the most wins of the night.







More info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Social_Network
http://www.thesocialnetwork-movie.com/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1285016/