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CVAG Winter 2010 Film Series
The film dates are: January 6, January 20, February 10, February 24, March 10 & March 24 Purchase your passes & tickets at the Comox Valley Art Gallery. They are in high demand so purchase them early. No reservations allowed. A series pass for all six films is $60. Individual tickets are $10 each. All screenings are at the Rialto Theatre, 2665 Cliffe Ave, Courtenay (at Driftwood Mall). All screenings are on WEDNESDAYS at 7:00 pm. Please note: Films are subject to change. Call us at 338-6211 for more information Special Screening: Wednesday, April 14, 2010 at 7pm - THE LAST STATION This film is NOT part of the Winter 2010 Film series and is NOT included in the Film Pass. Tickets are $10 each |
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BROKEN EMBRACES Wednesday, January 6, 2010 Dec 30/09 50 MORE TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE FOR THIS FILM. Available at the CVAG Gallery Gift Shop, on a first come first serve basis. Director: Pedro Almodóvar Cast: Penélope Cruz, Lluís Homar, Blanca Portillo, José Luis Gómez, Rubén Ochandiano, Tamar Novas Year: 2009 Runtime: 128 minutes Country: Spain Language: Spanish with English subtitles Reviews, Official Site At the centre of this affecting feature sits a blind screenwriter and former director who has abandoned his real name, Mateo Blanco, for a pseudonym, Harry Caine, the first sign of the double life he leads. Harry’s current reality conceals a fascinating past, which Almodóvar spends much of his film detailing. The plot is propelled by the arrival of a brash young man, hot on the heels of news that the producer of Mateo’s film “Girls and Suitcases” has died. The film marked a defining period in Mateo’s life, as both he and his producer had fallen madly in love with a girl who was cast in the project. The simmering Lena had turned both of their worlds inside out. She became the love of Mateo’s life while simultaneously leading a double life with the film’s producer. But it is the young man on his doorstep that intrigues and troubles the now blind Harry. Who is he? Almodóvar skilfully and effortlessly uncovers the secrets of everyone’s various pasts in this steamy, scheming and oh-so-romantic melodrama. Penélope Cruz continues to broaden her palette as a dramatic and comedic actress, turning the coquettish Lena into a fully rounded and completely sympathetic schemer, while Lluís Homar, best known for his role in Bad Education, is both dignified and skittish in the double role of Harry/Mateo. Almodóvar’s witty, well-written screenplay provides the intricate canvas on which this very Spanish dance of life and death is played out. |
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PROM NIGHT IN
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 January 8, 2010 70 MORE TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE FOR THIS FILM. Available at the CVAG Gallery Gift Shop, on a first come first serve basis. Director: Paul Saltzman Year: 2008 Runtime: 90 minutes Country: Canada Language: English Reviews, Official Site In 1997, Academy Award winning actor, Morgan Freeman, who lives in the Charleston, Mississippi community, offered to fund the first-ever integrated Senior Prom in the history of Charleston's one high school. His offer was ignored. In 2008, Morgan offered again... the East Tallahatchie County School Board accepted. In this town of 2,300 people, its high school of 415 black and white students has, to this day, always had separate proms: one black, one white prom. Our film follows the Charleston High senior class of 2008 preparing and attending their historic, first integrated prom, in the context of strong emotions, traditions, and conflict inherent in race relations in the community, and in the deep south. Some of the white parents maintained their whites-only prom. Written by Paul Saltzman (Director) |
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COOKING WITH STELLA Wednesday, February 10, 2010 February 3, 2010 100 MORE TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE FOR THIS FILM. Available at the CVAG Gallery Gift Shop, on a first come first serve basis. Director: Dilip Mehta Cast: Don McKeller, Lisa Ray, Seema Biswas, Shriya Saran Year: 2009 Runtime: 103 minutes Country: Canada Language: English, Hindi Official Site Transplanting the upstairs-downstairs comedy to New Delhi, Dilip Mehta has crafted a delightful feature debut scripted in collaboration with his acclaimed sister Deepa (Water, Heaven on Earth). Featuring charming turns from Don McKellar (Where the Truth Lies, Blindness) and Lisa Ray (Water, Defendor) and a standout performance by Seema Biswas (Water), Cooking with Stella is great fun to watch as it offers a glimpse of how Canadians live in India’s capital. As head housekeeper at a diplomatic residence in New Delhi, Stella (Biswas) serves up delectable dishes to a succession of Ottawa civil servants. But while she sets a divine table, some of her other activities are less above board – she skims inflated bills to pad her modest salary and raids her employers' pantry for her own "duty free" business. Each night, she impishly prays to the Virgin Mary to bless her crooked schemes. The arrival of Maya (Ray) and Michael (McKellar) initially disrupts Stella’s routine. To her surprise, the wife is the diplomat while the husband stays home to look after their baby daughter. Even more shocking, he has designs on her kitchen! When Michael, a trained chef, discovers Stella’s culinary talents, he asks her to be his guru and teach him the secrets of authentic Indian cooking. She warily agrees to this breach in master-servant protocol, and as the two begin whipping up mouthwatering curries and dosas together, her trepidation eventually turns to pleasure. Fans of Deepa Mehta’s Water might remember Biswas in a heart-wrenching dramatic role. She is every bit as good here, but utterly transformed – both commanding and coy, especially in her market and kitchen scenes with McKellar. A proud and complex Indian working in a Canadian enclave, her Stella redeems all deceptions with a radiant, irresistible smile. |
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A SERIOUS MAN Wednesday, February 24, 2010 February 16, 2010 120 MORE TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE FOR THIS FILM. Available at the CVAG Gallery Gift Shop, on a first come first serve basis. Directors: Joel & Ethan Coen Cast: Michael Stuhlbarg, Fred Melamed, Richard Kind, Aaron Wolf, Sari Wagner, Jessica McManus Year: 2009 Runtime: 105 minutes Country: USA, UK, France Language: English, Yiddish, Hebrew Reviews, Official Site Imaginatively exploring questions of faith, familial responsibility, delinquent behavior, dental phenomena, academia, mortality, Judaism and intersections thereof. A Serious Man is the new film from Academy Award-winning writer/directors Joel & Ethan Coen. A Serious Man is the story of an ordinary mans search for clarity in a universe where Jefferson Airplane is on the radio and F-Troop is on TV. It is 1967, and Larry Gopnik (Tony Award nominee Michael Stuhlbarg), a physics professor at a quiet Midwestern university, has just been informed by his wife Judith (Sari Lennick) that she is leaving him. She has fallen in love with one of his more pompous acquaintances, Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed), who seems to her a more substantial person than the feckless Larry. Larrys unemployable brother Arthur (Richard Kind) is sleeping on the couch, his son Danny (Aaron Wolff) is a discipline problem and a shirker at Hebrew school, and his daughter Sarah (Jessica McManus) is filching money from his wallet in order to save up for a nose job. While his wife and Sy Ableman blithely make new domestic arrangements, and his brother becomes more and more of a burden, an anonymous hostile letter-writer is trying to sabotage Larrys chances for tenure at the university. Also, a graduate student seems to be trying to bribe him for a passing grade while at the same time threatening to sue him for defamation. Plus, the beautiful woman next door torments him by sunbathing nude. Struggling for equilibrium, Larry seeks advice from three different rabbis. Can anyone help him cope with his afflictions and become a righteous person - a mensch - a serious man? |
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CREATION Wednesday, March 10, 2010 March 2, 2010 50 MORE TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE FOR THIS FILM. Available at the CVAG Gallery Gift Shop, on a first come first serve basis. Director: Jon Amiel Cast: Paul Bettany, Jennifer Connelly, Jeremy Northam, Toby Jones, Benedict Cumberbatch, Martha West Year: 2009 Runtime: 108 minutes Country: United Kingdom Language: English Reviews, Official Site Featuring riveting performances from real-life couple Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly, Creation – the opening night film at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival® – is a profoundly humanist rendering of the story of a man whose scientific ideas famously and irrevocably changed the world. It’s 1858 and Charles Darwin (Bettany, The Young Victoria, The Secret Life of Bees) has returned from his far-flung geological explorations on the HMS Beagle to settle into a quiet life in the British countryside. He begins to work on On the Origin of Species, destined to become perhaps the most widely read book of natural science. In it, he outlines his theory of evolution through natural selection, inspired by discoveries about the transmutation of species that dispelled the prevailing religious beliefs of the day. Rather than merely recount these well-known details of Darwin’s life, however, director Jon Amiel explores the hypothesis that history is written more by the inner workings of the human heart than by a strict adherence to scientific fact. Darwin and his religious, God-fearing wife, Emma (Connelly, Little Children, A Beautiful Mind), lost their first daughter, Annie (a feisty and charming Martha West), to illness when she was nine years old. Darwin fought to overcome his guilt and grief while trying to cope with his increasing estrangement from Emma, who in turn watched with sadness and horror as her husband grew more ill by the day and distanced himself from his four remaining children. An ongoing imaginary conversation between Darwin and daughter Annie provides the thematic and structural thread of Creation, as she leads her bereaved father to eventual catharsis so he can persevere with his now legendary work. Her unwavering commitment to her father’s revolutionary ideas is testament to our continued need to reconcile heart and brain, faith and science, love and the life we lead in its wake. |
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MARY AND MAX Wednesday, March 24, 2010 Dec 21/09 - THIS FILM IS SOLD OUT. We may be able to sell more tickets once we know what size of theatre we will have at the Rialto. Check back for further updates. Director: Adam Elliot Cast: Toni Collette, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Eric Bana, Bethany Whitmore, Barry Humphries Year: 2009 Runtime: 92 minutes Country: Australia Language: English Reviews, Official Site Slowly but surely, Mary and Max has been earning great praise and rewards on the festival circuit. It had its premiere at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, then went on to win the Crystal Bear – Special Mention at the 2009 Berlin International Film Festival, and has been touring internationally ever since. Mary Dinkle (voiced as a young girl by Bethany Whitmore and then by Toni Collette, Little Miss Sunshine, Nothing Is Private) is an awkward little girl raised in a working-class home and fed a bunch of creative stories by way of explaining some of the less-than-pristine habits kept by her family. She doesn’t have many friends so, almost on a whim, she decides to find someone in the phone book to contact by mail. Enter Max Horovitz (Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote, Doubt), a Jewish New Yorker who lives with a mild form of autism that keeps him home and away from an active social life – his lifestyle has also kept him obese for most of his life. Over the next twenty years, against all odds, Mary and Max not only stay in touch, but form a deep bond that carries them through many trying times in both their lives. Mere plot description does little justice to the utter originality of this film, from its quirky, offbeat tone to its sensuous, lavish visual look – it combines black-and-white and colour palettes seamlessly). Most of all, however, it’s the cleverly- wrought protagonists who draw one in with their compelling, often tragic stories and their desire to find a better life through the healing powers of friendship. |
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THE LAST STATION Wednesday, April 14, 2010 at 7pm January 11, 2010 100 MORE TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE FOR THIS FILM. Available at the CVAG Gallery Gift Shop, on a first come first serve basis. Director: Michael Hoffman Cast: Helen Mirren, James McAvoy, Paul Giamatti, Christopher Plummer Year: 2009 Runtime: 112 minutes Country: Germany, Russia, UK Language: English Reviews, Official Site After almost fifty years of marriage, the Countess Sofya (Helen Mirren), Leo Tolstoy’s (Christopher Plummer) devoted wife, passionate lover, muse and secretary - she’s copied out War and Peace six times…by hand! - suddenly finds her entire world turned upside down. In the name of his newly created religion, the great Russian novelist has renounced his noble title, his property and even his family in favor of poverty, vegetarianism and even celibacy. After she’s born him thirteen children! When Sofya then discovers that Tolstoy’s trusted disciple, Chertkov (Paul Giamatti) - whom she despises - may have secretly convinced her husband to sign a new will, leaving the rights to his iconic novels to the Russian people rather than his very own family, she is consumed by righteous outrage. This is the last straw. Using every bit of cunning, every trick of seduction in her considerable arsenal, she fights fiercely for what she believes is rightfully hers. The more extreme her behavior becomes, however, the more easily Chertkov is able to persuade Tolstoy of the damage she will do to his glorious legacy. Into this minefield wanders Tolstoy’s worshipful new assistant, the young, gullible Valentin (James McAvoy). In no time, he becomes a pawn, first of the scheming Chertkov and then of the wounded, vengeful Sofya as each plots to undermine the other’s gains. Complicating Valentin’s life even further is the overwhelming passion he feels for the beautiful, spirited Masha (Kerry Condon), a free thinking adherent of Tolstoy’s new religion whose unconventional attitudes about sex and love both compel and confuse him. Infatuated with Tolstoy’s notions of ideal love, but mystified by the Tolstoys’ rich and turbulent marriage, Valentin is ill equipped to deal with the complications of love in the real world. A tale of two romances, one beginning, one near its end, The Last Station is a complex, funny, rich and emotional story about the difficulty of living with love and the impossibility of living without it. |
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