To all our Film Society members and supporters,
Our summer of wine and cheese thank you celebrations for members
continue with FIGHTING FOR LIFE next Tuesday, August 5th, so save the
date! Details below. We also have a few films ending on Thursday this
week to make room for exclusive engagements of new films, so be sure to
see films we've had around a while before they are gone.
The thoughtful film BRIDESHEAD REVISITED is the newest adaptation of a
popular novel staring EMMA THOMPSON and you can't see it anywhere but
with Salt Lake Film Society!
Utah Screenwriter Project Graduation Celebration!
Free and open to the public
Thursday, July 31 7:00 p.m.
Broadway Centre Cinemas
An exciting addition to this years writing graduation will be awarding
one writer with a Short Film Fellowship production grant from Fast Eddie
Productions. This grant will produce a short film based on the chosen
winners' full-length screenplay. The Fellowship short film will premiere
at a Salt Lake Film Society special session of Local Open Mic Nite. This
Short Film Fellowship, in addition to the Writers Fellowship will be
awarded during a reading and celebration of the program. Those
interested in applying to be participants in the 2009/2010 Utah
Screenwriters Project are urged to attend. We look forward to
celebrating the writer!
Kick off Labor Day Weekend with a bang!
Friday, August 29 at 6p.m. Dinner
8:30 p.m. Screening THE YEAR MY PARENTS WENT ON VACATION
Tickets available 746-2000 or reply to this email
Limited availability
How the Salt Lake Film Society was formed and saved the Tower Theater
with a mission to offer the best in independent film is a story few have
heard. Now is your opportunity to thank Paul and Kris, support film
organizations in Utah, and explore Brazilian film. Join us for dinner
and festivities at Tuchanos Brazilian Grill at the Gateway. The event
honors Paul and Kris along with Leigh von der Esch, Jared and Jerusha
Hess and Don Schain. Hosted by Salt Lake Film Center in cooperation with
the Film Society proceeds will go to support film in Utah. See the
invitation in PDF form in our appendix email this week!
Member Screening Exclusive!
Tuesday, August 5
7:30 p.m.
Wine and Cheese reception prior to the screening
FREE for members. Non - members $10 Temporary Member fee, 10% off new
memberships that night. Please join us for wine and cheese prior to the
screening.
FIGHTING FOR LIFE-"Fighting for Life" follows American military doctors,
nurses and medics on the front lines of the Iraq War, young wounded
soldiers and marines determined to survive and to heal, and students of
USU, the "best medical school no one's ever heard of," on their journey
toward becoming career military physicians.
This week!
BRIDESHEAD REVISITED A provocative and suspenseful drama starring
Matthew Goode and Emma Thompson that tells an evocative story of
forbidden love and the loss of innocence set in the pre-WWII era.
ROMAN POLANSKI: WANTED AND DESIRED An intelligent new doc examining the
public scandal and private tragedy which led to legendary director Roman
Polanski's sudden flight from the United States.
**** Chicago Tribune "a superb picture, sharp, open-minded, wised-up and
cinematically accomplished."
Opening at Tower...
SURFWISE A cool documentary about a doctor who quits his job and takes
up the nomadic life of a surfer with his wife and their nine children.
Held Over...
THE WACKNESS
Winner of the Audience Award this year at Sundance this dark comedy
centers around a young drug dealer and his psychiatrist (played
remarkably by Ben Kingsley) in New York City in the summer of '94.
ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD
Legendary filmmaker Werner Herzog directs this stunning portrait that
captures the rarely seen beauty of Antarctica.
**** Roger Ebert-- "It is a poem of oddness and beauty."
MONGOL
**** New York Times-- "Mongol is a big, ponderous epic, its beautifully
composed
landscape shots punctuated by thundering hooves and slow-motion battle
sequences...it is, among other things, a stubborn defense of
old-fashioned, grand-scale moviemaking."
PRICELESS-moves to the Tower
Ends Thursday 7/24...
UP THE YANGTZE
SAVAGE GRACE
BLIND MOUNTAIN
BIGGER, STRONGER, FASTER
THE VISITOR
Summer of 35mm has is in full swing!
Buy a summer of midnights for one low price of $15 for the young film
lover in your
family! Tickets available every Friday and Saturday night at the Tower!
Our lineup:
August:
SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
LABYRINTH
DR. STRANGELOVE
CLOCKWORK ORANGE
GOONIES
============================================================
QUICK LOOK at SHOWTIMES -
THIS WEEK:
Thru THU 7/31...
Priceless 01:20, 4:20, 7:10*, 9:20 (* THU July 31 NO 7:10 PM show
INSTEAD USP Graduation Reading at 7 PM)
Up The Yangtze 01:10, 7:05**(**WED July 30 NO 7:05PM show)
Savage Grace 04:05, 9:30
Wackness 12:55, 3:00, 5:05, 7:10, 9:15
The Visitor 01:15, 4:25, 7:20, 9:35
Encounters at The End of The World 01:05, 4:10, 7:15, 9:25
Mongol 01:00, 4:00, 7:00, 9:40
Tower Theatre
Blind Mountain 4:30, 7:00
Bigger, Stronger, Faster 9:00
NEXT WEEK
FRI 8/1 - THU 8/7
Broadway
Wackness 01:10, 4:15, 7:20, 9:30
Brideshead Revisited 01:00, 02:00, 4:05, 5:00, 7:05, 8:00, 9:45
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired 01:15, 4:25, 7:20, 9:35
Encounters at The End of The World 01:05, 4:10, 7:15*, 9:25 (* TUE 8/5
NO 7:15 PM Show)
Fighting for Life 7:30 p.m. only on 8/5 for SLFS members
Mongol 12:55, 4:00, 7:00, 9:40
Tower Theatre
Surfwise (2:30 Fri thru Sun only) 4:30, 9:15**(** no 9:15 show on Tues 8/5)
Priceless 7:00***(*** no 7:00 show on Wed 8/6)
MIDNIGHT FRI 8/1 and SAT 8/2 Silence of The Lambs
=============================================================
TELL ME MORE...PLEASE!
(all star ratings are based on 4 star rating systems)
BRIDESHEAD REVISITED
Directed by: Julian Jarrold . Written by: Jeremy Brock, Andrew Davies,
Evelyn Waugh (novel) . Starring: Matthew Goode, Ben Whishaw, Hayley
Atwell, Emma Thompson, and Michael Gambon
A provocative and suspenseful drama, Brideshead Revisited tells an
evocative story of forbidden love and the loss of innocence set in the
pre-WWII era. In the film, Charles Ryder becomes entranced with the
noble Marchmain family, first through the charming and provocative
Sebastian Flyte, and then his sophisticated sister, Julia. The rise and
fall of Charles' infatuations reflect the decline of a decadent era in
England between the wars.
**** The Onion
It's rare to find a work that explores issues of faith without veering
into religious fundamentalism or militant atheism, which is reason
enough to revisit Brideshead one more time.
***1/2 Christian Science Monitor
It's a great piece of work in a movie that deserves to be seen even if
you swear undying allegiance to the BBC mini-series.
ROMAN POLANSKI: WANTED AND DESIRED
Directed by: Marina Zenovich
Reopening a case that has inspired curiosity, controversy, and confusion
for over three decades, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired is an
extensive exploration of the circumstances that led up to – and the
circus that followed – Polanski’s conviction for having unlawful sexual
intercourse with a minor. Zenovich had unprecedented access to several
of the key players in the case, including the lawyers representing the
case, the media covering it, and the unusually clear-eyed and candid
victim. Unearthing a trove of telling footage from the past, and
combining it with insightful interviews from today, she brings
comprehension and clarity to events long clouded by myth and
misconception. A thrilling examination of a case that became the
prototype for innumerable Hollywood courtroom scandals to follow, the
film becomes a brilliant discourse on the attraction/ repulsion that
defines celebrity culture in contemporary America.
**** Chicago Tribune
This is a superb picture, sharp, open-minded, wised-up and cinematically
accomplished.
***1/2 Variety
A mesmerizing portrait of the director as acclaimed artist and tortured
human being.
***1/2 Roger Ebert
SURFWISE
Directed by: Doug Pray
Like many American outsider adventurers, Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz set out
to realize a utopian dream. Abandoning a successful medical practice, he
sought self-fulfillment by taking up the nomadic life of a surfer. But
unlike other American searchers like Thoreau or Kerouac, Paskowitz took
his wife and nine children along for the ride, all 11 of them living in
a 24-foot camper. Together, they lived a life that would be unfathomable
to most, but enviable to anyone who ever relinquished their dreams to a
straight job. The Paskowitz Family proved that, though America may be
running out of frontiers, it hasn't run out of frontiersman.
**** The Onion
How can a freethinking father mandate his ideals without violating them?
[Director] Doug Pray covers it all, and movingly so.
***1/2 New York Times
Doug Pray’s wonderfully engaging look at love and family and the
relentless pursuit of happiness, personal meaning and perfect waves.
THE WACKNESS
Written and directed by: Jonathan Levine . Starring: Josh Peck, Sir Ben
Kingsley, Method Man, Mary Kate Olsen, Olivia Thirlby, Famke Janssen,
and Aaron Yoo
The Wackness centers on a troubled high school student named Luke
Shapiro--a teenage pot dealer who forms a friendship with Dr. Jeffrey
Squires, a psychiatrist and kindred lost soul. When the doctor proposes
that Luke trade him weed for therapy sessions, the two begin to explore
both New York City and their own depression. ***1/2 Film Threat
If you have ever experienced the crushing effect of young love, you owe
it to yourself to check out this gem of a dark comedy.
*** USA Today
Both darkly funny and life-affirming, in an offbeat and offhanded way.
ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD
Directed by: Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog confirms his standing as poet laureate of men in extreme
situations with Encounters at the End of the World. In this visually
stunning exploration, Herzog travels to the Antarctic community of
McMurdo Station, headquarters of the National Science Foundation and
home to eleven hundred people during the austral summer (Oct-Feb). Over
the course of his journey, Herzog examines human nature and Mother
nature, juxtaposing breathtaking locations with the profound, surreal,
and sometimes absurd experiences of
the marine biologists, physicists, plumbers, and truck drivers who
choose to form a society as far away from society as one can get.
**** Roger Ebert
It is a poem of oddness and beauty.
**** New York Times
Like many of Mr. Herzog's movies, fiction and nonfiction, Encounters at
the End of the World itself has the quality of a dream: it's at once
vivid and vague, easy to grasp and somehow beyond reach.
BLIND MOUNTAIN
Written and directed by: Li Yang . Starring: Huang Lu, Yang You'an,
Zhang Yuling, Yunle He, Jia Yinggao, and Zhang Youping
Bax Xuemei is a young college graduate who yearns for a life as a
budding urban
capitalist but ends up drugged and sold as the bride of a rural brute.
Beaten and raped by her new husband with the help of his parents, she
tries desperately to escape but is trapped both by the closed culture
and by the very remote location of the village. Unlike other kidnapped
brides, she refuses to accept her fate even when she becomes pregnant,
but her repeated escape attempts lead only to continuing brutality and
betrayal.
***1/2 Los Angeles Times
This is a resolutely tough-minded, beautifully crafted film so
compelling as to make bearable watching the nearly unbearable.
*** New York Times
Blind Mountain is a reminder that art sometimes keeps the truth alive
far better than the news.
UP THE YANGTZE
Written and Directed by: Yung Chang
In China, it is simply known as 'The River.' But the Yangtze--and all of
the life that surrounds it--is undergoing an astonishing transformation
wrought by the largest hydroelectric project in history, the Three
Gorges Dam. Chinese-Canadian director Yung Chang returns to the
gorgeous, now-disappearing landscape of his grandfather's youth to trace
the surreal life of a "farewell cruise" that traverses the gargantuan
waterway. With a humanist gaze and wry wit Chang's Upstairs Downstairs
approach captures the microcosmic society of the luxury liner. Below
deck: a bewildered young girl trains as a dishwasher sent to work by her
peasant family, who is on the verge of relocation from the encroaching
floodwaters. Above deck: wealthy international tourists set sail to
catch a last glance of a country in dramatic flux. The teenage employees
who serve and entertain them--tagged with new Westernized names like
"Cindy" and "Jerry" by upper management--warily grasp at the prospect of
a better future. "Up the Yangtze" gives a human dimension to the
wrenching changes facing not only an increasingly globalized China, but
the world at large.
**** Variety
A gloriously cinematic documentay of epic, poetic sadness.
**** New York Times
An astonishing documentary of culture clash and the erasure of history
amid China's economic miracle.
**** San Francisco Chronicle
Remarkable.
MONGOL
Written and Directed by: Sergei Bodrov . Starring: Tadanobu Asano
Mongol illuminates the life and legend of Genghis Khan. Based on leading
scholarly accounts and Mongol delves into the dramatic and harrowing
early years of the ruler who was born as Temudgin in 1162. As it follows
Temudgin from his perilous childhood to the battle that sealed his
destiny, the film paints a multidimensional portrait of the future
conqueror, revealing him not as the evil brute of hoary stereotype, but
as an inspiring, fearless and visionary leader. Mongol shows us the
making of an extraordinary man, and the foundation on which so much of
his greatness rested: his relationship with his wife, Borte, his
lifelong love and most trusted advisor.
**** Variety
This Central Asia-set historical epic from Russian helmer Sergei Bodrov
("Nomad") boasts breathtaking landscapes, dazzling cinematography,
bloody battles and unique traditions.
**** New York Times
Mongol -- or, as I prefer to think of it, "Genghis Khan: The Early
Years" -- is a big, ponderous epic, its beautifully composed landscape
shots punctuated by thundering hooves and bloody, slow-motion battle
sequences.
**** Wall Street Journal
I don't know the Mongolian word for panache, but Mongol's got plenty of
it. The battle scenes are as notable for their clarity as their
intensity; we can follow the strategies, get a sense of who's losing and
who's winning. The physical production is sumptuous.
BIGGER, STRONGER, FASTER*
Written and Directed by: Christopher Bell
In America, we define ourselves in the superlative: we are the biggest,
strongest, fastest country in the world. We reward speed, size and above
all else: winning - at sport, at business and at war. Metaphorically we
are a nation on steroids. Is it any wonder that so many of our heroes
are on performance enhancing drugs? Blending comedy and pathos, Bigger,
Stronger, Faster* is a collision of pop culture and first-person
narrative, with a diverse cast including US Congressmen, professional
athletes, medical experts and everyday gym rats. At its heart, this is
the story of director Christopher Bell and his two brothers, who grew up
idolizing muscular giants like Hulk Hogan, Sylvester Stallone and Arnold
Schwarzenegger, and who went on to become members of the
steroid-subculture in an effort to realize their American dream. When
you discover that your heroes have all broken the rules, do you follow
the rules, or do you follow your heroes?
**** Entertainment Weekly
Bigger, Stronger, Faster is a portrait of a culture that claims to hate
steroids but may,
by now, be too pumped to do much about it.
**** Variety
More scrupulously reported than your average Michael Moore film but
every bit as
entertaining, Bigger, Stronger, Faster* is as commercial as
documentaries come.
***1/2 Roger Ebert
This movie is remarkable in that it seems to be interested only in facts.
PRICELESS
Directed by: Pierre Salvadori . Written by: Benoit Graffin Piere
Salvadori . Starring: Gad Elmaleh Audrey Tautou Marie-Christine Adam
Vernon Dobtcheff Jacques Spiesser Annelise Hesme.
Jean, a shy young bartender, is mistaken for a millionaire by a
beautiful, scheming opportunist named Irene. When Irene discovers his
true identity, she abandons him, only to find that love-struck Jean has
no intention of letting her get away. Jean's comical attempts to gain
her affections gradually evolve into setting himself up as a gigolo at a
luxury hotel, until Irene finally starts to warm to her persistent,
persuasive suitor. Against the wildly atmospheric backdrop of the south
of France, Pierre Salvadori directs this sexy and thoroughly charming
romantic comedy, which is a fresh reimagining of the
cinema classic Breakfast at Tiffany's. (Samuel Goldwyn Films)
****The Onion
Unlike Salvadori's previous comedy, 2003's "Après Vous," Priceless is
less preposterous, and more grounded in character.
****Oregonian
It's a fun and attractive ride.
****Los Angeles Times
A cynic is someone who knows the price of everything and the value of
nothing, or so the saying goes, but the unadulterated joy Irène takes in
throwing open the closet door to show Jean how this gold digging is done
is positively infectious.
THE VISITOR
Written and directed by: Thomas McCarthy . Starring: Richard Jenkins,
Oliver Bokelberg, Hiam Abbass, and Maggie Moore
In a world of 6 billion people, it takes only one to change your life.
In actor and filmmaker Tom McCarthy's follow-up to his award-winning
directorial debut "The Station Agent," we get to know Walter Vale, a
disillusioned Connecticut economics professor whose life is transformed
by a chance encounter in New York City. Through newfound connections
with virtual strangers, Walter is awakened to a new world and a new life.
**** Rolling Stone
A heartfelt human drama that sneaks up and floors you.
**** USA Today
It is one of the year's most intriguing dramas, with a quartet of
powerful performances.
**** New York Post
Best movie I've seen so far this year? Hands down, it's Tom McCarthy's
superb The Visitor, which turns Richard Jenkins, one of the best
character actors in the business, into a full-fledged star.
=============================================================
FILMS TO COME
In no particular release order
GONZO
AMERICAN TEEN
BAGHEAD
MY WINNEPEG
THE LAST MISTRESS
And many more....
Our staff here at the Salt Lake Film Society thanks all our supporters.
SLFS takes great care in hiring a staff that has a film history or
knowledge, so feel free to talk with any staff member about up coming
releases and our video collection at the Tower Theatre. They are a
wealth of knowledge and I'm happy to take all e-mail correspondence.
If you would like to volunteer for the Film Society events and earn
passes, please contact Amy Beth Leber at 801-746-0037
We thank you for your continuing support.
Tori Baker
Executive Director
Salt Lake Film Society...film festival all year long!
We do not sell any personal lists or information to any third
party...ever! If you would
like to be removed from this list, please reply to this e-mail. If you
could also let us
know why we lost you, we can better serve our community.
Salt Lake Film Society thanks Xmission for their donation of services.
--
Tori Baker
Executive Director
Salt Lake Film Society
tori_baker@???
(801) 364-1088
