Director: John Sturges. Written by William Roberts, Walter Newman, Walter Bernstein, based on the story by Akira Kurosawa. Cast: Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Horst Buchholz, James Coburn. |
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Director John Sturges’ gamble to remake Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai in a Mexican border town not only gave us a fantastic film, it launched the careers of a new breed of American action stars: Steve McQueen, James Coburn and Charles Bronson. More existential mercenaries than John Wayne-style heroes, they played to perfection their roles as gunslingers hired by a Mexican village to protect them from a group of slightly more unsavory bandits. Everything about this film is pure pleasure, from the sweeping widescreen cinematography, to the unforgettable music by Elmer Bernstein (whose scores include To Kill a Mockingbird, My Left Foot and Far From Heaven). |
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Written and directed by Woody Allen. Cast: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Shelley Duvall, Tony Roberts, Paul Simon. |
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The inevitable tone of disappointment that critics use when describing Woody Allen’s new movies can be explained by two words: Annie Hall. Laugh-out-loud funny, intellectually curious, sexy, wistful, and questioning of all things pretentious, Allen’s most perfect film is hard to live up to. Allen plays Alvy Singer, a standup comic whose romantic entanglements are less than ideal, until he meets the ditzty WASP princess to his Brooklyn Jewish nebbish. Diane Keaton is wonderfully fresh as a free spirit whose new love affair gives her the confidence to discover a different, authentic self. Incredibly, for a movie about quirky New Yorkers who like to talk, eat Chinese food, go to movies, and go to bed, Annie Hall beat out Star Wars for the 1977 Academy Award® for Best Picture. |
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Directed by Robert Wise & Jerome Robbins. Music by Leonard Bernstein, Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Cast: Natalie Wood, Rita Moreno, Russ Tamblyn, George Chakiris. |
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If you haven’t already planned a holiday getaway this weekend, we suggest rounding up family and friends for the thrilling experience that is West Side Story on Cinestudio’s giant Panavision® screen! The most successful Romeo and Juliet adaptation ever filmed is the result of Jerome Robbins’ viscerally kinetic choreography, and the brilliant collaboration of lyricist Stephen Sondheim and composer Leonard Bernstein, whose songs, including I Feel Pretty, America, and Maria became instant classics. The tenements of New York City’s (formerly) gritty Upper West Side are the backdrop for turf warfare between American-born Jets and Puerto Rican Sharks, whose mutual distrust tears apart two young lovers...a story as relevant today as in Shakespeare’s 16th century Verona. |
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Directed by Martin Scorsese. Screenplay by Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin, based on the book by Jake La Motta. Director of photography, Michael Chapman. Cast: Robert De Niro, Cathy Moriarty, Joe Pesci, Frank Vincent. |
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Some things will always remain unknowable - why, for example, did Ordinary People win the 1980 Academy Award® for Best Picture/Best Director over Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull, one of the best films of that or any decade? Luckily we can console ourselves with this radiant new print. Robert De Niro’s most intense performance starts with his amazing physical transformation into boxer Jake La Motta, a complex man who battles his demons in and outside the ring. The rest of the cast is great, too, with De Niro’s Goodfellas co-star Joe Pesci as La Motta’s put-upon brother, and a dreamily erotic Cathy Moriarty as Vicky LaMotta. |
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Written and directed by Claude Lelouch. Music by Alex Jaffray, with songs by Gilbert Bécaud. Cast: Audrey Dana, Dominique Pinon, Fanny Ardant, Cyrille Eldin. |
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Claude Lelouch, who defined romantic French movies with his classic A Man and a Woman, has not lost his touch for seductive images of pleasure. His new mystery begins with an intriguing twist: A Parisian woman (Audrey Dana), en route to her home village at the foot of the Alps, argues with her fiancé at a gas station. On what may turn out to be a dangerous whim, she picks up a stranger and tries to pass him off to her family as ‘Paul.’ While the stranger insinuates himself into her life, she tries to unlock his true identity: author, schoolteacher, or killer? Don’t miss the fresh performance by Fanny Ardant, the last great love of François Truffaut, who starred in his final film, Confidentially Yours. |
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Directed by Christopher Bell. Written by Christopher Bell, Alexander Buono and Tamsin Rawady. With: Christopher Bell, Carl Lewis, Barry Bonds. |
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If a really good documentary leaves viewers with more (and more interesting) questions than answers, then Bigger, Stronger, Faster fits the bill. Filmmaker Christopher Bell started off with the hot issue of the use of steroids and other illegal enhancements in sports. But things get really interesting when he delves into juicing within his own family in New York State, with two brothers chasing the illusion of hyper-masculinity (and pumped up visions of Arnold Schwarzenegger) - with devastating results. Making the personal political, Bell goes the extra step to explore the American dream of chemical self-improvement from Prozac to Viagra, and the damage of needing to win, from the infield to the fields of war. Sundance Film Festival Nomination for Grand Jury Prize. |
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Director: Anand Tucker. Screenplay by David Nicholls, based on the book by Blake Morrison. Cast: Colin Firth, Jim Broadbent, Juliet Stevenson, Gina McKee. |
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Long before Girl With a Pearl Earring and Mamma Mia!, Colin Firth was firmly established as the literary woman’s sex symbol, due in large part to his smoldering performance as Darcy in the 1995 BBC production of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Firth gets a chance to revisit his serious acting chops in a love story of a different sort: the sometime tortured, deeply elemental bond between a father and son. Firth is outstanding in the true story of a novelist who returns home to Yorkshire to see his ailing father, a formerly rakish local doctor played with gusto by Jim Broadbent (Moulin Rouge, Little Voice). Bittersweet and funny memories of his 1960s childhood return as Firth tries to accept his father - and the legacy of their imperfect relationship - while he is still alive. |
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Written and directed by Alex Gibney, based on the works of Hunter S. Thompson. Narrated by Johnny Depp. With: Hunter S. Thompson, George McGovern, Jann Wenner, Jimmy Buffett, Jimmy Carter. |
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Johnny Depp narrates the writings of Hunter S. Thompson in a documentary about the radically curious journalist whose reports from the home front during the tumultuous 1960s and 70s made him a counterculture hero. With clips of never-before-released home movies, audiotapes and passages from unpublished manuscripts, Gonzo gives us a clear view of a fearless outsider who enjoyed exposing the nakedness of emperors like, say, Richard M. Nixon. And without romanticizing Thompson’s over-the-top drug use or suicide, director Alex Gibney explores the reporter’s reckless love affair with living on the edge. Irreverent, unafraid of bucking the crowd, and dedicated to nailing hypocrites, we can only wish that Thompson was around today, no doubt blogging about what cable news refuses to ask. |
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Written, directed and narrated by Werner Herzog. Director of photography, Peter Zeitlinger. Music by Henry Kaiser and David Lindley. |
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Imagine a dreamlike tour of Antarctica that is part Baraka and part Into the Wild and you will get some idea of the awesome beauty of the new film by Werner Herzog. The endlessly curious director of Aguirre: The Wrath of God and Grizzly Man takes his camera beneath crystal shelves of blue ice, while getting into the heads of scientists dedicated to preserving the planet. Herzog captures the eerie majesty of creatures, including “not only those cute penguins,” but floating silvery jellyfish, furry clams, and graceful Wedell seals whose underwater calls rival the sounds of Philip Glass. Herzog dedicated the film to fellow cinephile Roger Ebert, telling him in an interview at www.rogerebert.com: “I knew I had fallen in love with the world when I was very young, and all my films are my witness.” |
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Written and directed by Jacques Nolot. Director of photography: Josée Deshaies. Cast: Jacques Nolot, Jean-Pol Dubois, Marc Rioufol, Bastien d’Asnières, Gaetano Weysen-Volli, Bruno Moneglia. |
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It feels like a great privilege to observe an actor evolving on screen over time, especially when they portray a recurring character in a series of films (like Jean-Pierre Léaud’s Antoine Doinel). Filmmaker and actor Jacques Nolot stars in his fourth film as Pierre, a (now) 60 something gay man whose fortunes are fading with his beauty and youth. As played with elegance and wry humor by Nolot, the former Parisian hustler enjoys the irony of having to pay for ‘company,’ after he is shut out of an inheritance by the uptight family of his longtime protector. “I hope that Before I Forget will find its way to movie lovers stateside... one of the loveliest, most direct and most devastating pictures about aging that I’ve ever seen.” Stephanie Zacharek, Salon. |
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Written and directed by Guillermo del Toro, based on the Dark Horse comic by Mike Mignola. Director of photography, Guillermo Navarro. Music by Danny Elfman. Cast: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Jeffrey Tambour, Anna Walton, John Hurt. |
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Hellboy II is on fire with a highly combustible mix of pulp pop energy and the Miyazaki Hayao-on-acid imagination of director Guillermo de Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth and Cronos). Without the gravitas and social neurosis of those other superhero movies, Hellboy II is a purely enjoyable ride through the fan boy universe. Here, a demon raised by humans (the salmon-hued Ron Perlman) is free to take on a delightfully freakish Golden Army of angry elves, carnivorous tooth fairies, gargoyles, talking tumors, and a massive endangered plant bent on destroying lower Manhattan. “Hellboy is kind-of a klutz, and I love him for that.” - director Guillermo de Toro. |
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Directed by Tarsem Singh. Screenplay by Tarsem Singh, Dan Gilroy and Nico Soultanakis, based on the Bulgarian film “Yo Ho Ho.” Cast: Lee Pace, Justine Waddell, Catinca Untaru, Daniel Caltagirone. |
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Made by Himalayan-raised Tarsem Singh in 2006, buried by unimaginative distributors, saved from obscurity when Spike Jonze presented its 2008 release - The Fall was destined to be a fantasy classic even before it opened! In a 1915 Los Angeles hospital, an injured stunt man (Lee Pace) offers a intriguing pact to a young migrant girl on his ward (Catinca Untaru). As a reward for stealing him extra doses of morphine, he enchants her with Sheherazade-like tales about five unusual swashbucklers (including a feathered Charles Darwin) who try to rescue a princess from evil Governor Odious. As we see his colorful stories (shot in 18 countries) unfold, the girl’s own additions to the tales make them ever-more marvelous. “Dazzling and delirious... a celebration of cinema, of old-fashioned storytelling and globe-hopping spectacle.” Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer. |
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Directed by Martin Scorsese. Director of photography, Robert Richardson. With: The Rolling Stones, Martin Scorsese, Buddy Guy, Jack White, Christina Aguilera. |
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The Rolling Stones may have ceded their reputation as #1 enemies of the social order - Tom Wolfe famously wrote “The Beatles want to hold your hand, but the Stones want to burn down your town,” - but there’s still plenty of anarchy left in these soul survivors from London. Martin Scorsese scores his dream job as stage manager to the Stones, joined by Jack White, Buddy Guy and Christina Aguilera for an intimate concert in NYC’s Beacon Theater. How could the set list not be great, with 40 plus years of music from Jumpin’ Jack Flash to Tumbling Dice to Shattered? Don’t miss one of the last chances to see Shine a Light on the big screen, with Cinestudio’s supercharged Dolby sound system catching the magic of Keith Richards’ steady rock and drummer Charlie Watts’ jazz-inspired roll. |
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Director: Sarah Gavron. Screenplay by Laura Jones, based on the novel by Monica Ali. Cast: Tannishta Chatterjee, Satish Kaushik,Christopher Simpson. |
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Monica Ali, a British writer of Bengali origin, won Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists Award for what has been called the first novel written from inside the experience of British Bengali women. The fascinating film of Ali’s book begins as the eighteen-year-old Nazneen (Tannishta Chatterjee) is sent from her home in Bengladesh to the East End of London to enter into an arranged marriage with an older merchant. Bewildered by the contrast between London’s multicultural vibrancy and her isolation as a sheltered wife, Nazneen is tempted by the promised liberation of an affair with an increasingly politicized younger man. Poetic and sensuous, Brick Lane is a remarkable witness of an “invisible” immigrant Muslim woman’s journey of self-discovery. “a delicate tale of adultery, extremism, and awakening.” Sara Cardace, New York Magazine. |
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Written, directed, produced and music composed by Charles Chaplin, from an idea by Orson Welles. Cast: Charlie Chaplin, Mady Correll, Allison Roddan, Martha Raye. |
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When new 35mm prints of rarely-seen great movies like Monsieur Verdoux make their way to Cinestudio, it is always a special event. Perhaps Charlie Chaplin should have known that making a satiric comedy based on an idea by rabble rouser Orson Welles would cause trouble during the anti-Communist witch hunts. It’s doubtful he guessed that its subversive anti-capitalist message would lead to vicious condemnation and the pulling of its release after just a month. Chaplin (in a speaking role) plays a Parisian clerk laid off during the Great Depression, who bankrolls his lifestyle by marrying - and then killing - a series of wealthy women. His inflammatory defense? “Wars, conflict, it’s all business. One murder makes a villain. Millions a hero.” “It is a masterpiece. See it.” Andrew Sarris, New York Observer. |
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Directed by Andrew Stanton. Screenplay by Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon and Pete Docter. Directors of photography: Jeremy Lasky and Danielle Feinberg. With the voices of: Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin, Fred Willard, Sigourney Weaver. |
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If you’ve been putting off going to see Wall-E for the lack of an under-12 companion, wait no more! Like Fantasia and Iron Man, Pixar’s Wall-E is a big screen visual stunner that appeals to older kids and adults. Left alone on an Earth abandoned by humans when it was overrun by trash, a heroic little robot sifts through the eclectic detritus of our lives. Wall-E’s cosmic isolation ends with the arrival of Eve, a high-tech probe from the space station which is home to what is left of humanity. Falling in love, Wall-E chases Eve across a universe full of adventure and delight. “The best American film of the year to date” - Ty Burr, Boston Globe. |
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Directed by Guillaume Canet. Screenplay by Guillaume Canet and Philippe Lefebvre, based on the novel by Harlan Coben. Cast: François Cluzet, Marie-Josée Croze, André Dussollier, Kristin Scott Thomas, Nathalie Baye. |
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It’s not often that a new (French) thriller gets a rave by the New York Times’ Stephen Holden that not only calls it “pure, nasty fun,” but also compares it to Vertigo, The Big Sleep, and the films of David Lynch! Based on the best selling mystery by Harlan Coben, Tell No One stars François Cluzet as a mild-mannered pediatrician recovering from the murder of his wife eight years ago. But grief is put on hold when the police suddenly name him as a suspect - and, even more disturbing - he starts receiving email messages from someone who appears to be his living, breathing wife. A thrilling mystery that finds its conspiracies and subversion in the heady upper crust of French society. Winner of four César Awards: Best Actor, Best Director, Best Editing and Best Music (Mathieu Chedid). |
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Directed by John Crowley. Screenplay by Mark O’Rowe, based on the novel by Jonathan Trigell. Cast: Andrew Garfield, Peter Mullan, Katie Lyons, Taylor Doherty. |
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Celebrated Irish theater director John Crowley has crossed over to cinema with the same subtle and devastating touch he brought to his productions at Dublin’s Abbey Theatre and on Broadway. His second film (after Intermission) is based on a novel that explores Britain’s widely-publicized phenomenon of children killing other children. The movie begins when 24-year-old “Boy A” (Andrew Garfield, in a star-making performance) is released from a Manchester prison, fourteen years after taking part in the murder of a young girl. His tentative attempt to create a new life raises many provocative questions about identity, redemption, and the public’s desire for revenge. “We all know that humans are not good or evil. They are full of both and they have everything inside of them.” - actor Andrew Garfield. Winner, Special Jury Prize, 2008 Berlin Film Festival. |
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