Screen Machine

To-do: Week starting Thursday 7th April: Breillat’s The Sleeping Beauty, I Love You Phillip Morris, Heartbeats, I Killed My Mother, Five Easy Pieces, Eisenstein, Jarman, Powell and Pressburger

Week starting Thursday 7th April

New releases this week:

I Love You Phillip Morris is a comedy about a conman who falls in love during a stint in prison from directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa best known as the writers of Bad Santa. We gave it a positive review when it played at MIFF last year. Exclusively at Nova.

How I Ended This Summer is a thriller about the rocky relationship between two men living together in isolation for several years at a polar station. Winner of plaudits for artistic achievement and acting at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Justin Bieber: Never Say Never is the highly anticipated (really) documentary about the 17-year-old Canadian pop star who has become something of a whipping boy for bourgeois tastemakers.

Festivals:

Bringing awareness to the region of the world most neglected in contemporary world cinema discourse is the Windows on Europe Film Festival. At Cinema Nova, April 13-17. Program here.

Second run:

Heartbeats is a film about two friends’ obsession with a beautiful young man from the hyped Canadian actor/director Xavier Dolan. At ACMI, April 7 – May 1. Dolan’s feature debut I Killed My Mother is also screening at ACMI, Mondays and Tuesdays throughout April.

The Sleeping Beauty is Catherine Breillat’s follow-up to her 2009 fairytale adaptation Bluebeard. At ACMI, every Sunday until April 24.

Five Easy Pieces is a film about a one time musical prodigy, now oil rig worker who returns home after news that his father is dying. Starring Jack Nicholson in his earliest leading role and directed by Bob Rafelson (The Postman Always Rings Twice). At the Astor, April 10.

The Melbourne Cinematheque ends its 3-week retrospective of revolutionary film director Sergei Eisenstein. This week’s closing films are Strike (1924) and October (1937). At ACMI, April 13.

Glitterbug is a collage of Derek Jarman’s Super 8 footage from the 1970s and 80s with musical accompaniment from Brian Eno. At ACMI, April 7-10.

They’re a Weird Mob is one of the final collaborations of British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (The Red Shoes). It’s about an Italian immigrant who tries to make sense of the social rituals of Australia. At ACMI, April 9.

Also opening this week:

My Afternoons With Margueritte is a delightful film in which Gerard Depardieu eats baguettes with an old lady.

Sucker Punch is visionary auteur Zack Snyder’s sequel to the 2006 film Girls Gone Wild: Best of Girl Power.

Tortured beautiful youths in "Heartbeats". (Director Xavier Dolan on the left.)