international cinema – Page 5

CALL ME BY YOUR NAME [ITALY, USA, FRANCE], THU 12 APRIL, 8PM

By Jamiearchive, Season 18 films

Voted 2017 film of the year by The Guardian’s critics.

It’s the summer of 1983 in the north of Italy. Elio Perlman (Timothée Chalamet) is a precocious 17-year-old American who spends his days in his family’s 17th century villa lazily transcribing music and flirting with his friend Marzia (Esther Garrel). Oliver (Armie Hammer), a handsome graduate student working on his doctorate arrives as the annual summer intern tasked with helping Elio’s father (Michael Stuhlbarg), an eminent professor specializing in Greco-Roman culture.

Elio and Oliver discover a summer that will alter their lives forever.

Directed by Luca Guadagnino, written by James Ivory, and based on the novel by André Aciman.

Luca Guadagnino’s tale of budding gay romance in 1980s Italy is one of the most mesmerizing films of the year. – The Atlantic

This gorgeous gay love story seduces and overwhelms. ★★★★★ – The Guardian

Elle Decor Magazine feature on the Italian villa in the film.

looking like the film of 2017 – RTE

ravishing film-making and piercing wisdom – Los Angeles Times

some of the richest chemistry I’ve ever witnessed in a movie…sublime – Huffington Post

a knockout! casts a beautifully erotic, sensual spell – Entertainment Weekly

Read a New York Times article about Crema, Italy where the film was made.

Click here for official website.

Italy, USA, Brazil, France, 2018 | Languages English, Italian, French | 130 minutes | Cert: 15A

Director: Luca Guadagnino

Cast: Armie Hammer, Timothée Chalamet, Michael Stuhlbarg, Amira Casar, Esther Garrel, Victoire Du Bois

January 3, 2017

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IN BETWEEN [ISRAEL, FRANCE], THU 26 APRIL, 8PM

By Jamiearchive, Season 18 films

THIS FILM HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED TO THURSDAY 26 APRIL. THE ORIGINAL SCREENING DATE WAS 19 APRIL.

Three female flatmates in Tel Aviv fight the constraints of their Muslim faith and families in an inspiring directorial debut.

While films and TV series about the trials and tribulations of female friends living, loving, and working in a big city may be fairly common (‘Sex and the City’ and ‘Girls,’ to name two), Arab-Israeli writer-director Maysaloun Hamoud refreshes the genre’s tropes with her energetic feature.

Layla, Salma, and Nour – three Palestinian women with Israeli citizenship – share an apartment in the vibrant center of Tel Aviv. Despite being ‘independent’, each of them struggles with the restrictions imposed on their lives by a blinkered society

What makes this spiky dram/comedy so compelling are the Palestinian-Israeli protagonists, whose split lives have rarely been depicted on screen. These strong, modern, sexually active women, living away from their families and the weight of tradition, struggle to be true to themselves when confronting the expectations of others.

Director Maysaloun Hamoud on why her Palestinian film ‘In Between’ is universal.

A brave film befitting its brave depiction of women. ★★★★ – The Irish Times

It’s great fun, with a powerful sense of narrative. ★★★★ – The Times

Israel, France, 2016 | Language: Hebrew, Arabic | 103 minutes | Cert: CLUB

Director: Maysaloun Hamoud

Cast: Mouna Hawa, Shaden Kanboura, Sana Jammalie

January 2, 2017

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MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE [FRANCE], THU 26 OCTOBER, 8PM

By Jamiearchive, Season 17 films

The first-ever animated (stop motion) film shown by Cork Cine Club! Academy Award nominee, Best Animated Feature 2017.

“Here is a little miracle of gentleness, tenderness and intense, traditional Frenchness. It was an Oscar nominee for best animated feature earlier this year, losing out, probably unjustly, to Zootopia. The screenwriter Céline Sciamma [Girlhood] has adapted the 2002 novel Autobiography of a Courgette by Gilles Paris for this beguiling stop-motion animation. Director Claude Barras makes his feature debut.

The characters’ faces are big, almost like Charles Schulz’ Peanuts figures, and very expressive and subtle. It is the story of a little boy fond of kites who is interestingly named Icare but goes by his nickname: Courgette. A terrible accident means he is taken to a home in the country for orphaned kids, where everyone has a grim, secret story and the children’s growing awareness that no one really wants them manifests itself in all sorts of tough behaviour.

But after a rough start, Courgette makes friends with Simon and forms a tendresse for Camille. Meanwhile, the lonely, unhappy cop who dealt with Courgette’s case, Raymond, has taken a kindly interest in his continued welfare.

It is a lovely little film, coming in at a novella-size 66 minutes. I loved the home’s emotional wallchart, the Météo des Enfants, showing their mood swings from sunny to cloudy.” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

‘A beautifully balanced visual marvel…full of decency and kindness’. – ★★★★★ The Irish Times

‘A frank and affecting animation about abused youngsters finding strength through solidarity… this beautifully tender and empathetic film addresses kids and adults alike in clear and compassionate tones that span – and perhaps heal – generations…only the most hard-hearted viewer could fail to love these youngsters’. – ★★★★★ The Telegraph

MA VIE DE COURGETTE |Switzerland, France, 2017 | Language: French | 70 minutes | Cert: 12A

Director: Claude Barras

Cast: Gaspard Schlatter, Sixtine Murat, Paulin Jaccourd

A short Irish film, Breathe, [14 minutes] will be shown before the feature. A macho Traveller [John Connors] becomes increasingly concerned that his young son is soft. Director: James Doherty

December 14, 2016

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AFTER THE STORM [JAPAN], THU 9 NOVEMBER, 8PM

By Jamiearchive, Season 17 films

A hard-boiled family drama with a soft heart.

Dwelling on his past glory as a prize-winning author, Ryota wastes the money he makes as a private detective on gambling and can barely pay child support. After the death of his father, his aging mother and beautiful ex-wife seem to be moving on with their lives. Renewing contact with his initially distrusting family, Ryota struggles to take back control of his existence and to find a lasting place in the life of his young son – until a stormy summer night offers them a chance to truly bond again.

Dr. Till Weingärtner, Lecturer in Contemporary East Asian Studies (Japan) at University College Cork, will introduce the film.

There is such intelligence and delicacy in Koreeda’s film-making, such wit and understated humanity. – ★★★★ The Guardian

One of our best filmmaker’s best films. – ★★★★ Roger Ebert.com

An achingly beautiful ode to the quiet complexities of family life. – ★★★★ The Telegraph

Slow-paced, sad, rueful and sometimes warmly funny, After the Storm is one of the director Hirokazu Koreeda’s sturdiest, and most sensitive, constructions. – New York Times Critic’s Pick

96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

UMI YORI MO MADA FUKAKU |Japan, 2017 | Language: Japanese | 117 minutes | Cert: Club

Director: Hirokazu Koreeda

Cast: Abe Hiroshi, Maki Yoko, Yoshizawa Taiyo, Kiki Kilin, Lily Franky, Hashizume Isao

December 12, 2016

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CLASH [EGYPT], THU 16 NOVEMBER, 8PM

By Jamiearchive, Season 17 films

Mohamed Diab brings claustrophobic intimacy to a historic moment in this stunning thriller, set inside a police vehicle during Egypt’s 2013 street protests.

“The Egyptian revolution that dislodged Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and its chaotic aftermath continues to give us some fascinating films. Here is the latest, a rather amazing New Wave-style drama that combines claustrophobic intimacy with some logistically epic scene-setting.

The year is 2013, the army has just unseated Mohamed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, and pro-army and pro-MB factions clash on the streets. A reporter and photographer are arrested and thrown into the back of a police van, which is the sole camera setting; soon, other demonstrators from both sides are chucked in – along with, in one particularly chaotic scene, a lenient cop. They are crowded in there for hours in the boiling heat with no water and a plastic bottle to pee in. Through the grille-meshed window they get glimpses of the turmoil on the city streets.

At first, it looks like a no-budget movie with about a dozen people shot in a single location, but the director, Mohamed Diab, stages some spectacular riot scenes outside, which are all the more staggering for intruding on this enclosed space so unexpectedly.

The movie stunningly replicates that sense of inside and outside that must be felt by witnesses to any historic moment: the private debate, the enclosed conflict, and the theatre of confrontation unfolding beyond. What a dynamic piece of cinema.” – Peter Bradshaw The Guardian

‘Bravura film-making with a kick-in-the-gut message about chaos and cruelty.’ – Variety

‘Director Mohamed Diab won’t let us pick sides in this prize-winning drama which is thick with tension.’ – ★★★★ The Evening Standard

Click here to read an interview with the director.

ESHTEBAK | Egypt, 2017 | Language: Arabic | 97 minutes | Cert: CLUB

Director: Mohamed Diab

Cast: Nelly Karim, Hani Adel, El Sebaii Mohamed

Director Gavin FitzGerald will attend on the night, and introduce his short Irish documentary, The Truth About Irish Hip Hop, about the rise of hip hop in Ireland and the changing attitudes towards the once foreign art form. His 19 minute short film will be shown before the feature.

December 11, 2016

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THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE [FINLAND], THU 23 NOVEMBER, 8PM

By Jamiearchive, Season 17 films

Combines poignancy with torrents of laughter. ★★★★★ The Telegraph

Finland’s master of deadpan comedy, Aki Kaurismäki (Lights in the Dusk, Le Havre), returns with the story of an unlikely friendship between a Syrian asylum seeker and an elderly Finnish restaurant owner. Winner of the Berlin Silver Bear for Best Director, it’s a beautiful, timely film from one of the world’s leading auteurs.

Khaled (Sherwan Haji) arrives at the port of Helsinki concealed in a coal container, fleeing war-torn Syria to seek asylum in Finland. Dazed and frustrated by the monolithic administration he encounters at the detention centre, he makes a break for it and heads out onto the streets.

There he meets Wikström (Sakari Kuosmanen), a former shirt salesman who has recently left his alcoholic wife for a new life as a bachelor restaurateur. Together, they help each other to navigate the adversities they face in these unfamiliar and often baffling new worlds.

With hilarious sight gags, poker-faced one liners and a toe-tapping rockabilly soundtrack, Kaurismäki’s latest balances his unparalleled wit with a pressing critique of the unforgiving bureaucracy that greets vulnerable asylum seekers in modern-day Europe.

Humane and sincere, it’s proof of cinema’s power to tell stories that matter, with beauty and heart.

‘Finnish auteur Aki Kaurismäki’s film is filled with curious oddballs, but there are also many ethical connundrums to contend with.’ – ★★★★ The Irish Times

‘Finds the artist at the height of his powers… winsome, sweet, and often very funny.’ – Indiewire

Click here for website.

TOIVON TUOLLA PUOLEN |Finland, 2017 | Language: Finnish | 98 minutes | Cert: 12

Director: Aki Kaurismaki

Cast: Ville Virtanen, Kati Outinen, Tommi Korpela, Sakari Kuosmanen

Director Sinéad O’Loughlin will attend and introduce her short Irish film, Homecoming, about a young man’s struggles to find his place in life after returning to Ireland. A familiar face makes him wonder if things are about to change. Her 12-minute film will be shown before the feature.

December 10, 2016

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20TH CENTURY WOMEN [USA], THU 30 NOVEMBER, 8PM

By Jamiearchive, Season 17 films

Annette Bening stars as a single mother who recruits two women to help raise her son in this warm drama set in Southern California in the late 1970s.

“Director Mike Mills follows Beginners, his Oscar-winning study of the relationship between a son and his gay father, with another picture that takes as its jumping-off point the bond between parent and child. In the case of this late 70s-set cultural odyssey, the parent is gregarious, open-minded single mother Dorothea (the superb Annette Bening) and the child is Jamie (Lucas Jade Zumann), the teenage son she isn’t quite sure she can guide on his path to becoming a man.

To this end, she recruits the help of two other women to help raise him. Her lodger, Abbie (Greta Gerwig), is a photographer crowd surfing on the anger and energy of the new wave scene. And Julie (Elle Fanning) is Jamie’s best friend, a sullen beauty who is casually oblivious to the fact that he is in love with her.

But the 20th century is almost as important a character as the women. Mills weaves together a tapestry of social, cultural and political strands. In part of the extensive voiceover, delivered predominantly by Dorothea and Jamie, the boy talks of his last memory of his absent father – a birthday in 1974 – which deftly links mid-70s fashion trends (mirrored sunglasses) with news events (President Gerald Ford’s historic tumble down the steps of Air Force One) and with vomit on a carpet.

Mills makes reference to the experimental documentary Koyaanisqatsi with accelerated clips of teeming southern California life; he even includes a clip of Koyaanisqatsi itself to emphasise the parallel. Dorothea’s 1940s jazz rubs shoulders with Talking Heads and Black Flag; still photography mood boards give way to psyched-out, colour-saturated “film burn” effects, which nod to the California hippie hotbed that spawned the film’s other key character, William (Billy Crudup). There’s a certain arch self-awareness in the screenwriting that won’t appeal to everyone, but I loved the film for its scrapbook structure, its warmth and candour.” – Wendy Ide, The Guardian

‘Annette Bening is the pitch-perfect centerpiece.’ – Los Angeles Times

Click here to read feature article about the film in the Los Angeles Times.

USA, 2017 | Language: English | 118 minutes | Cert: 16

Writer/Director: Mike Mills

Cast: Annette Benning, Elle Fanning, Greta Gerwig, Lucas Jade Zumann

December 9, 2016

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