To-do: Week starting Thursday 21st April: American Graffiti + Two-Lane Blacktop, Alain Resnais, Incendies, Potiche, Thor, The Tempest, Arthur, Fast & Furious 5
Week starting Thursday 21st April
New releases this week:
Incendies is a Canadian film from director Denis Villeneuve about two siblings who search for the father they thought to be dead and the brother they knew not to exist following the death of their mother.
Potiche is a camp farce from Francois Ozon set in 1977 and depicting a submissive wife (Catherine Deneuve) who runs her husband’s umbrella factory after the workers revolt against their boss. Ozon said of his film, “I wanted to emphasize the underlying machismo that resurfaced during Sarkozy’s electoral campaign.”
Dharti is a Bollywood film about an airforce officer forced to return to his home village due to political intrigues. Expect violent action and dancing.
Festivals:
La Mirada Film Festival continues. Full program here. Running until April 26.
Short seasons:
The Melbourne Cinematheque presents a retrospective season on legendary French filmmaker Alain Resnais. The 3-week season opens with Hiroshima mon amour (1959) about a French actress who arrives in Hiroshima to make an anti-war film and has an affair with a Japanese architext; Night and Fog (1955) the famous short documentary reflecting on the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps that Francois Truffaut once called the “greatest film ever made”; and The War Is Over (1966) about a leftist exile who fought against the Franco regime in Spain and realises his cause will not prevail.
The Astor presents a driving-around-in-cars double feature with American Graffiti (1973) George Lucas’ nostalgic portrait of early 1960s teen culture and Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) the road movie from Monte Hellman starring musicians James Taylor and Dennis Wilson which Jonathan Rosenbaum found “pretty interesting”. At the Astor, April 24-30.
Heartbeats, a film about two friends’ obsession with a beautiful young man from hyped Canadian actor/director Xavier Dolan, continues its season at ACMI until May 1. Dolan’s feature debut I Killed My Mother is also screening at ACMI, April 25, 26, 28, 29 and May 1.
The Sleeping Beauty is Catherine Breillat’s follow-up to her 2009 fairytale adaptation Bluebeard. Playing for the last time at ACMI, April 24.
Second run:
CineCult303 presents Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991), the sequel to the 1989 science-fiction comedy starring Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter.
Also opening this week:
The Tempest is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s final play as directed by the female Baz Luhrmann (not a compliment), Julie Taymor.
Thor is another Marvel comics adaptation, this time about a guy with a beard and a magic hammer who probably has sex with Natalie Portman at some stage.
Arthur is a comedy starring Russell Brand, a remake of the 1981 film about a super-rich guy who falls in love with a female commoner. So basically the O.C. but with the genders reversed.
Fast and Furious 5 is a gay romance about two men whose life in the hyper-masculine world of the criminal underworld forces them to satisfy their mutual attraction through hi-octane car racing.
The Driver and the Mechanic from "Two-Lane Blacktop" at the Astor.
