American Cinematheque at the Aero Theatre - My French Film Festival presents: "EIGHT TIMES UP"

JULIE GAYET IN PERSON!

A special evening co-presented by Unifrance Films and Snag films to launch the second edition of My French Film Festival.

EIGHT TIMES UP (HUIT FOIS DEBOUT)

Discussion following with actress and co-producer Julie Gayet.

Writer and director Xabi Molia handles the heavy subject of unemployment with humor and poignancy as he explores the trials and tribulations of Elsa (Julie Gayet, winner of Best Actress at the 2010 Tokyo Film Festival) and her neighbor Mathieu (Denis Podalydes), both threatened with eviction and forced to face the job search head-on. As the two join forces to strategize their game plan but continue to inefficiently bounce from one interview to another, they find themselves drawn together in the process.

2010, UFO, 103min. In French with English subtitles.





Gayet has appeared in SHALL WE KISS and IMMACULATE (shown as part of COL-COA in 2008 and 2010, respectively) and co-starred alongside Dany Boon and Daniel Auteuil in Patrice's Leconte MY BEST FRIEND

My French Film Festival is an online film festival running from January 12 - February 1, organized by Unifrance Films and Snag films, with the support of TV5 Monde and the French Film and TV Office, French Embassy Los Angeles.

23rd Annual PALM SPRINGS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Featuring "Palm Springs Speaks French" - a day to celebrate French Language Cinema on Friday, January 6th

Film schedule will be posted on the Festival website December 23rd.
Tickets are available for purchase by the general public December 26th at www.psfilmfest.org

Santa Barbara International Film Festival

This year, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival presented by Lynda.com will feature "Cinema Nouveau," a competitive selection of 7-8 films by emerging French directors.

This section will spotlight new voices in French cinema and increase awareness for the cultural and cinematic importance of Francophone film.

The 27th Santa Barbara International Film Festival will take place from January 26th – February 5th and the official selections of films will be announced in early January.

For more information please visit www.sbiff.org.

The Getty Center presents:
Dream a Little Dream: Artists in Film

The myth of the artist has been a most popular theme for filmmakers since the dawn of cinema.
Filmmakers and audiences have long been fascinated by the making of art and the potential genius behind it. This film series depicts working artists in a way that complements, in moving form, the exhibition Images of the Artist.

Featuring:

Blood of a Poet and Testament of Orpheus

Jean Cocteau (1889–1963), one of the most versatile artists of the 20th century, explores the joys and hardships of being an artist in this double feature of the first and third films of his Orphic Trilogy. (France, 1930 and 1960).
Free but reservations required.
Parking $15; $10 after 5:00 p.m.

For Reservations Please call (310) 440-7300
OR Click HERE.

Image courtesy of Tamasa Distribution

New Beverly Cinema presents A François Truffaut double bill!

The Bride Wore Black
Wed, Thu & Fri: 7:30 pm • 1968, France/Italy, 35mm, 107 minutes • New 35mm print! • directed by François Truffaut; Screenplay François Truffaut and Jean-Louis Richard ; starring Jeanne Moreau, Julie Kohler, Michel Bouquet, Jean-Claude Brialy, Charles Denner, Claude Rich; in French with English subtitles

Mississippi Mermaid
Wed, Thu & Fri: 9:40 pm • 1969, France/Italy, 35mm, 123 minutes • written and directed by François Truffaut; based on the novel by Cornell Woolrich; starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, Catherine Deneuve, Nelly Borgeaud, Martine Ferrière, Marcel Berbert, Yves Drouhet; in French with English subtitles

AND in January 2012:
- New 35mm print of Jean-Luc Godard's EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF
January 18-19, 2012

- New prints of Eric Rohmer's SUMMER: FOUR ADVENTURES OF REINETTE AND MIRABELLE
January 25-26, 2012

American Cinematheque presents at the Aero and Egyptian Theatres:
CURSE AND KINK: A LUIS BUÑUEL RETROSPECTIVE

In 1929, Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel - then only as old as the century - gave the world an electrifying jolt. His short film "Un Chien Andalou," a Surrealist collaboration with artist Salvador Dalí, simultaneously hypnotized with mirthful dream logic and accosted the eye with sudden-impact images (the most famous of which, fittingly, is a severely accosted eye).

Buñuel's career in film would span the next half-century, jumping between countries of production as circumstance dictated. After making "Un Chien Andalou" and its feature-length playmate L'AGE D'OR in Europe, he fled the Spanish Civil War and sought refuge first briefly in Hollywood and then in Mexico, where his "Mexican period" in filmmaking began. There he produced alternately searing and satirical razor-sharp gems of class commentary such as THE YOUNG AND THE DAMNED (LOS OLVIDADOS), THE CRIMINAL LIFE OF ARCHIBALDO DE LA CRUZ and THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL.

The iconoclastic director would reside in Mexico for the rest of his life, but periodically returned to Europe for filming purposes, and ascended into the burgeoning arena of international cinema with one boundary-blowing hit after another: VIRIDIANA, DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID, BELLE DE JOUR, TRISTANA, THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE, PHANTOM OF LIBERTY and THAT OBSCURE OBJECT OF DESIRE. Fetish, religion, bourgeois society and socio-moral degradation occupy Buñuel cinema like slyly winking serpents, always wonderfully fanged but never overbearingly serious. These obsessions richly color his work, and his irreverent, gleefully ballsy treatment of taboos gives the Buñuel canon deliciously lasting appeal.

Series compiled by Beth Hanna. Program notes by Beth Hanna.

Luis Bunuel: Double Feature at the American Cinematheque

Double Feature:
Preceded by… "Un Chien Andalou," 1929, Transflux Films, 16 min. Writers: Salvador Dalí, Luis Buñuel. Director Luis Buñuel collaborated with artist Salvador Dalí for this groundbreaking short film, a resounding war-cry of Surrealism, which bleeds its arresting images (a slit eyeball, an ant-infested hand) into one dream-like tableau.


L'AGE D'OR, 1930, Kino International, 60 min. Writers: Salvador Dalí, Luis Buñuel. Wonderfully bizarre and spun together with the allusive dictates of dream logic, the second collaboration between Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí is a series of gleefully irreverent vignettes, the most sustained of which centers on Gaston Modot and Lya Lys, lovers attempting to consummate their passion but continuously stalled by some of Bunuel's favorite fixations - the church and the bourgeoisie! Featuring an infamous sequence in which Lys fellates the toe of a religious statue, L'AGE D'OR was banned from distribution for nearly 50 years after its initial release in 1930. With Surrealist founder Max Ernst. In French with English subtitles.




THE YOUNG AND THE DAMNED (LOS OLVIDADOS), 1950, Kino International, 85 min. Writers: Luis Alcoriza, Luis Buñuel. Having only directed a handful of for-hire Mexican films in the multiple-decade interim since L'AGE D'OR and LAND WITHOUT BREAD, Spanish refugee Luis Buñuel's 1950 return to iconoclastic form is this razor-sharp, no-holds-barred docudrama. Teenage delinquent Jaibo (Roberto Cobo), fresh out of a reformatory stint, returns to the savage streets of Mexico City to head up a gang of undesirables who beat up beggars, snatch purses and loiter about. But Jaibo has an insatiable itch in violent need of scratching - to settle the score with the stool-pigeon who put him away. "Sharp, swift and lethally compact, LOS OLVIDADOS is a celluloid switchblade swiped at the jugular of city living. A ferocious masterpiece... There isn't a single good shot in LOS OLVIDADOS. They're all perfect." - Nathan Lee, New York Sun "A masterwork!" - Pauline Kael. In Spanish with English subtitles.

Luis Bunuel: Double Feature at the American Cinematheque

BELLE DE JOUR, 1967, Janus Films, 101 min. Writers: Luis Buñuel and Jean-Claude Carrière. Housewife and glacial beauty Séverine (Catherine Deneuve), frigid at home with her doctor husband, instead indulges in private erotic fantasies that range from sadomasochistic to scatological. To realize her innermost sexual proclivities, Séverine becomes a prostitute at a local brothel, working only on weekday afternoons and taking on the moniker Belle de Jour. Forty-five years after its initial release, Luis Buñuel's subversive mega-classic is as boundary-pushing as ever, and has a deft mix of edge and lightness, underscored by Deneuve's nimbly cool performance. In French with English subtitles.




DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID, 1964, Rialto Pictures, 101 min. Writers: Luis Buñuel and Jean-Claude Carrière. Jeanne Moreau gives a keenly observant and morally ambiguous performance as Parisian maid Céléstine, transplanted to the French countryside to clean house at the manor of M. Monteil (a lusty, wolfish Michel Piccoli). What she discovers in her wintry bucolic surroundings is anything but staid country life - shoe fetishes, simmering anti-Semitism and a brutal rape and murder are all pieces of the unsettling debris that rises to the surface in Luis Buñuel's wicked, kinky take on the upstairs-downstairs genre. In French with English subtitles.

Luis Bunuel: Double Feature at the American Cinematheque

THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL, 1962, Janus Films, 95 min. Writers: Luis Alcoriza, Luis Buñuel. A dinner gathering of wealthy Mexican sophisticates at a mansion devolves when the servants abandon their posts and the guests are inexplicably unable to leave the grand music room. As days wear on, facades and hierarchies dissolve and the upper-crust prisoners become increasingly uncouth and downright animalistic. Luis Buñuel's merciless takedown of social structures is at once haunting and riotous, and features international screen icon and VIRIDIANA star Silvia Pinal. "The great Spanish director Luis Buñuel traps us in the Surrealistic universe of THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL, his most bitter, most brilliant work since VIRIDIANA." – Roger Ebert. In Spanish with English subtitles. Print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.


THE CRIMINAL LIFE OF ARCHIBALDO DE LA CRUZ, 1955, 89 min. Writers: Luis Buñuel, Eduardo Ugarte. This pitch-black comedy from Luis Buñuel follows the thwarted best laid plans of Archibaldo de la Cruz (Ernesto Alonso), a privileged screwball living during the Mexican Revolution who believes his calling in life is to be a serial killer of women. Yet every woman he stalks either accidentally dies, suicides or is bumped off by someone else before he can get his satisfaction! A rarely screened gem, and in good company with THE YOUNG AND THE DAMNED, THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL and "Simon of the Desert" as Buñuel's finest Mexican films. With Miroslava. In Spanish with English subtitles. Please note that the rare archival print of THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL has edge and perf damage.

Luis Bunuel: Double Feature at the American Cinematheque

Preceded by… "Un Chien Andalou," 1929, Transflux Films, 16 min. Writers: Salvador Dalí, Luis Buñuel. Director Luis Buñuel collaborated with artist Salvador Dalí for this groundbreaking short film, a resounding war-cry of Surrealism, which bleeds its arresting images (a slit eyeball, an ant-infested hand) into one dream-like tableau.

THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE, 1972, Rialto Pictures, 102 min. Writers: Luis Buñuel and Jean-Claude Carrière. This later-era Luis Buñuel masterpiece and 1973 Best Foreign-Language Oscar winner is a return to the subversive director's Surrealist roots and a showcase for his scrumptiously satirical wit. A sextet of upper-class friends (Fernando Rey, Stéphane Audran, Delphine Seyrig and Jean-Pierre Cassel among them) attempt to dine together but are continually stalled by a streaming series of vaudevillian events, both real and dreamed. In French and Spanish with English subtitles.






VIRIDIANA, 1961, Janus Films, 90 min. Writers: Julio Alejandro, Luis Buñuel. One of director Luis Buñuel's most brilliant, scandalous films was banned in his homeland of Spain and almost had him arrested in Milan. A novice nun (Silvia Pinal) finds herself corrupted by her spectacularly nefarious uncle, Fernando Rey - until she turns the tables on her tio by installing a group of beggars and lepers in his rural mansion. Bunuel gradually, mischievously weaves a web of contradictory impulses: faith, charity and selflessness become inextricably bound up with lust, hypocrisy and greed in the schizophrenic universe of Old World Latin Catholicism. With longtime Buñuel friend Francisco Rabal. In Spanish with English subtitles.

PINA

Directed by: Wim Wenders
Choreography: Pina Bausch
Produced by: Neue Road Movies (Berlin)
Co-produced by: Eurowide (Paris)

PINA, the exhilarating new film from German master Wim Wenders (WINGS OF DESIRE, THE BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB and PARIS, TEXAS), was shot in 3D to capture the brilliantly inventive dance world of legendary choreographer Pina Bausch. Wenders had conceived with Bausch a dance film like none seen before, one which would take the fullest advantage yet of new 3D technology to put the viewer deep inside Bausch's playful, thrillingly unpredictable pieces. After her untimely death in 2009, Wenders continued with the project, turning it into the most exciting tribute he could imagine. Sensual and visually stunning, PINA uses 3D to remarkable effect, taking the audience into Bausch's work in her imaginative sets (a gliding monorail, a bare stage covered with chairs, a towering man-made waterfall) and powerfully rendering the beauty and sheer physicality of the dances and dancers of her Tanztheater Wuppertal ensemble. 103 minutes, Digital3D, A Sundance Selects release, rated PG.
In German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Mandarin with English subtitles

PINA is the Official German Oscar® entry in the Best Foreign Language Film category. The film is also eligible in the Oscar® Best Documentary Feature category and was recently included on the Academy's shortlist of 15 films for the award. PINA premiered to great acclaim at the Berlin Film Festival and has since played at the Telluride, Toronto and New York film festivals. The film recently won the Documentary Prix ARTE at the 2011 European Film Awards.


"A haunting elegy for choreographer Pina Bausch with a wondrously surreal evocation of her work. Takes unprecedented advantage of 3D." - Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal

"Ravishing. Mr. Wenders uses the 3-D format to capture the elusive essence of dance, not only perserving Ms. Bausch's art but also clarifying its intentions and making visible its inspirations. It is a reminder of the power film has to blur, or even render moot, the boundary between the literal and artificial." -A.O. Scott, The New York Times

"As an introduction to this great artist's work, you could hardly do better. The extra visual dimension lends a consistently mesmerizing clarity to the images." - Keith Uhlich, Time Out New York

Opens in Los Angeles on January 20, 2012

DECLARATION OF WAR

2011 CANNES FILM FESTIVAL - CRITICS WEEK OPENING NIGHT
2011 PARIS CINÉMA - JURY PRIZE, AUDIENCE AWARD, AND BLOGGERS AWARD
2011 CABOURG FILM FEST - GRAND PRIX
2011 RIO DE JANEIRO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
2011 PUSAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Director : Valérie Donzelli Screenplay: Valérie Donzelli, Jérémie Elkaïm - Producer: Edouard Weil - Cast: Valérie Donzelli, Jérémie Elkaïm, César Desseix, Gabriel Elkaïm

The opening night film at this year's Critics Week at the Cannes Film Festival, this exuberant and deeply moving film follows a new couple, Romeo (Jérémie Elkaïm) and Juliette (Valérie Donzelli), who must face the ultimate test when they discover their newborn child is very ill. Gathering their friends and family together, they confront this ordeal together as a form of warfare.

Donzelli infuses the story with unexpected verve using a host of cinematic techniques, music and heartbreaking performances that results in a film about a contemporary couple who surprises even themselves with their ability to fight not only for the life of their child but for each other. Drawing on the real life experiences of Donzelli and co-star/co-writer Elkaïm and what they went through when their own son fell ill, the film will bring tears to your eyes and dazzle you with its contagious vitality.

100 minutes, Sundance Selects release, Unrated. In French with English subtitles


A critical and box office hit at home, DECLARATION OF WAR is France's official entry for Best Foreign Language Film for the 2011 Academy Awards®. DECLARATION OF WAR, Donzelli's second feature, firmly establishes her as one of France's greatest new talents.


"A JOY TO WATCH. Plays like something Jacques Demy or Francois Truffaut might have cooked up together. Few viewers will fail to be moved and charmed by the tale of a couple energized and (at least) briefly united by every parent's worst nightmare." - Lee Marshall, Screen International

"Full of life and easy to relate to. Tells its heartfelt story in a lively and energetic style." - Boyd Van Hoeij, Variety "

This film deserves a champion -- its mere existence is fascinating, and its peak moments constitute some of the smartest character-based scenes in any film at Cannes this year." - Karina Longworth, LA Weekly

Opens in Los Angeles on January 27th, 2012
Landmark's Nuart Theatre, 11272 Santa Monica Boulevard, just west of the 405 Freeway, in West Los Angeles. Program information: 310-281-8223 www.landmarktheatres.com

Please discover this month Under The Milky Way releases
for the whole family on iTunes and register
with us at: http://register.underthemilkyway.com

4 Tintin movies!

Le secret de la Licorne & le trésor de Rackham le Rouge (The Secret of the Unicorn & Red Rackham's Treasure)
An animated feature directed by Stéphane Bernasconi Written by Hergé

The 2 adventures which inspired the Steven Spielberg movie! An antique model of an old sailing ship reveals a secret that could lead Tintin to an ancient treasure. With the help of the eccentric professor Calculus, Tintin, Snowy and Captain Haddock embark on a voyage to recover the sunken treasure of the legendary pirate, Red Rackham.









In English:





In French:








Tintin et le lac aux requins (The Adventures of Tintin & The Mystery at the Shark Lake) An animated feature directed by Raymond Leblanc Written by Hergé and Michel Régnier

Shark lake: headquarters for a worldwide art theft operation... Professor Calculus: experimenting with new technology by the lake... Tintin: on holidays in the Vicinity... and Rastapopoulos behind it all... Will Calculus ever finish up? Will Tintin solve the mystery? Will the evil Rastapopoulos go free?







In English:





In French:






Le temple du soleil (Tintin and the Prisoners of the Sun) An animated feature directed by Raymond Leblanc Written by Hergé and Michel Régnier


Darkest Peru, lost tribes, a temple of the Sun... Professor Calculus kidnapped, Captain Haddock, the Thompson twins and Tintin condemned to death... How will they escape? And will they survive? Have faith! Tintin always comes through!!









In English:





In French:






L'Affaire Tournesol (The Calculus Affair) An animated feature directed by Ray Goossens Written by Hergé and Charles Shows


Mysterious events at Moulinsart! Exploding chandeliers, shattered glass, the mirror cracks... but Professsor Calculus is deep in nuclear physics and later in deep trouble! Kidnapped! Will Tintin and Haddock outwit the secret agents and find him? What is it all about? And where will it all end?








In English:





In French:






Asterix at the Olympic Games (Asterix aux Jeux Olympiques) A comedy directed by Frédéric Forestier, Thomas Langmann, written by Thomas Langmann, Olivier Dazat, Alexandre Charlot and Franck Magnier and starring Gérard Depardieu (Potiche, My Afternoon with Marguerite), Clovis Cornillac (Paris 36) and Benoît Poelvoorde (Romantics Anonymous, In His Hands)

In their new adventures, Asterix and Obelix come to the aid of their friend Alafolix, who must fight Brutus, Cesar's son, to win both the Olympic Games and the hand of beautiful Irina. But heinous Brutus is determined to beat the Gaul and take his father's place.
















Jacquou Jacquou le croquant An action drama directed by Laurent Boutonnat, written by Eugène Le Roy, starring Gaspard Ulliel (The Princess of Montpensier, Hannibal Rising), Marie-Josée Croze (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Tell No One) and Albert Dupontel (Irreversible)

1815. Jacquou, a young peasant from the Périgord region, lives happily with his parents. Because of a cruel and arrogant nobleman, the Count of Nansac, he becomes a miserable orphan. Thanks to true friends years Jacquou becomes a determined and attractive young man who transforms his vow of vengeance into a struggle against injustice.

I'M GLAD MY MOTHER IS ALIVE Directed by Claude Miller (A Secret, Little Lili, The Little Thief, Alias Betty) and Nathan Miller
Original Screenplay Alain Henry
Screenplay Claude Miller, Nathan Miller

Based on a true story, critically acclaimed French filmmaker Claude Miller (A Secret, Little Lili, The Little Thief, Alias Betty) and his son Nathan Miller explore childhood trauma and its consequences on adult life. Given up for adoption as a toddler, troubled teenager Thomas becomes obsessed with tracking down his birth mother. After years of searching Thomas finds her single, with a small child, living in a nearby suburb. Traumatized by years of emptiness and longing for his mother, he starts an ambiguous relationship with her (part courtship, part obsession) which slowly drives him to an act of madness. With striking performances and a shocking twist, I'M GLAD MY MOTHER IS ALIVE is hard to get out of your mind.

90 Minutes, Color, Widescreen, In French with English Subtitles, Not Rated: This Film Contains Mature Subject Matter

The critically acclaimed film opened with rave reviews in theatres on September 2nd.

"EXTRAORDINARY!"
- Time Out NY

"A SHOCKER!"
- The New York Times

"STELLAR PERFORMANCES!"
- The New York Post

"HYPNOTIC!"
- Film Journal

"A RICH STORY!" - TrustMovies.com
"STARK AND POWERFUL!" - Jeffrey Lyons, Lyons Den Radio

WINNER
BEST SCREENPLAY
MONTREAL WORLD FILM FESTIVAL

OFFICIAL SELECTION
VENICE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA (NEW YORK)

The film is scheduled to be released on DVD January 3rd and available at:
http://store.strandreleasing.com/scripts/default.asp, amazon.com, itunes.com, netflix.com, your favorite online or local video store, and on VOD with your cable provider.