As part of the HUSH HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE Rampling Event, The Bill Cosford Cinema is excited to bring Woody Allen's STARDUST MEMORIES back to the big screen on 35mm Film!  If you enjoyed MIDNIGHT IN PARIS or any of Allen's other films make sure you see this exclusive and special engagement of one of his most beloved and biographical films.  This presentation marks the beginning of a continued series -- COSFORD CLASSICS -- that is bringing classic films back to the cinema on celluloid.

"STARDUST MEMORIES is a marvelous films."
-Vincent Canby, NEW YORK TIMES

"Woody Allen's wittiest, most imaginative, most ambitious film."
-Bruce McCabe, BOSTON GLOBE

"I have two words for you - SEE IT!"
-Gene Shalit, NBC

Woody Allen's tenth film as writer/director, STARDUST MEMORIES opens with a scene reminiscent of the opening of 8 1/2 and continues to use that film for inspiration. Sandy Bates (Allen) sits in a train at a train station, the car filled with very unhappy looking people. In a train on another set of tracks, Bates sees a wonderful party going on. A beautiful woman blows him a kiss as the happy train pulls out of the station. Bates is a famous film director who has been invited to attend a festival of his work being held at the Stardust hotel. He attends the event, but is ceaselessly harassed by fans who accost him and repel him in equal measure. While consistently hearing the complaints from fans, critics, and even space aliens that his earlier comedies are superior to his dramatic work, Bates juggles a trio of women in his private life. His encounters during the course of the retrospective force Bates to take a long look at himself.

Directed by Woody Allen. Rated PG.
USA, 1980, 35mm Film, 88 minutes, Black + White, English.

Get ready for the next Cosford Class - Jean-Luc Godard's WEEKEND in February!

The end of the world is coming in MELANCHOLIA the latest opus from the polarizing Danish director Lars Von Trier.  Despite the public relations nightmare swirling around the film after the director’s unsavory comments at the Cannes Film Festival, the power of MELANCHOLIA has kept the film alive.  The second part of a proposed trilogy on depression – a follow-up to his horror hybrid ANTICHRIST – MELANCHOLIA is both mournful and transcendent.

“The mind-blowing MELANCHOLIA offers perhaps the gentlest depiction of annihilation one could imagine from any director, much less the Danish provocateur.”
-Peter Debruge, VARIETY

“Although MELANCHOLIA, by its very title, declares a mournful state of mind, the movie is, in fact, the work of a man whose slow emergence from personal crisis has resulted in a moving masterpiece, marked by an astonishing profundity of vision.”
-Lisa Schwarzbaum, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

“MELANCHOLIA is a remarkable mood piece with visuals to die for (excuse the pun), and a performance from Dunst that runs the color spectrum of emotions.”
-Steven Rea, PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

Merging family melodrama with a science-fiction apocalyptic disaster film, MELANCHOLIA charts the collision course of a planet heading toward earth during the marriage celebration of a young couple.  The threat of disaster is echoed by a dysfunctional dynamic between two sisters, Justine (Kirsten Dunst) and Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg), their spouses, Michael (Alexander Skarsgard) and John (Kiefer Sutherland), and their parents Gaby (Charlotte Rampling) and Dexter (John Hurt).  Breathtaking visuals, masterful direction, and superb acting elevate MELANCHOLIA from the standard disaster film and offer a unique vision of the world. 

MELANCHOLIA is back as part of our HUSH HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE Rampling Event, be sure to see THE MILL AND THE CROSS, THE LOOK, and Woody Allen's STARDUST MEMORIES as well!

Directed by Lars Von Trier.  Rated R.
Denmark/France/Germany/Sweden, 2011, Digital Projection, 135 minutes, Color, English.

The Kenneth Lattman Foundation Lecture Series returns with Celine Sciamma's tender and unique coming-of-age story TOMBOY.  At a time when bullying is an epidemic, TOMBOY is a brave and propitious exploration of gender identity and adolescence.  Following her first feature WATER LILIES, a film about girls coming-of-age, Sciamma complicates matters by focusing on a girl who wants to be a boy and offers a story that is surprisingly novel and heartbreakingly universal.  The delicacy, honesty, and candor of TOMBOY makes it a film not to be missed and one that everyone should see!

"TOMBOY reveals a side of pre-adolescence rarely (if ever) depicted on the big screen, yet it never feels like a curiosity piece."
-Jennie Punter, GLOBE AND MAIL

"Sciamma has wound back the clock to childhood to show us, with taste and sensitivity, something we have not seen before."
-Mick La Salle, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

"TOMBOY astutely explores the freedom, however brief, of being untethered tot he highly rule-bound world of gender codes."
-Melissa Anderson, VILLAGE VOICE

A French family with two daughters, 10-year-old Laure and 6-year-old Jeanne, moves to a new neighborhood.  With her Jean Seberg haircut and tomboy ways, Laure is immediately mistaken for a boy by the local kids and passes herself as Michael.  Sciamma's adept direction along with revelatory performances from her young cast, which recall Francois Truffaut's films about childhood, produce a film that manages to never hit a wrong note while exploring a hugely complex topic. Laure/Michael's story is one that has never really been told on film and will hopefully be one that captures the public's attention.

Please join us for a special presentation of TOMBOY - Thursday, January 26 at 7PM - followed by a discussion with Dr. Steve Butterman, Director of Women and Gender Studies at the University of Miami, and Dr. Gema Perez-Sanchez, Associate Professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures.

Puccini's operatic take on the Wild West is sprinkled with Hollywood glitz in this splashy production from the Netherlands Opera.  THE GIRL OF THE GOLDEN WEST stars blond bombshell soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek as cow girl Minnie.  Nikolaus Lehnhoff’s Hollywood-style production updates this Wild West story to the capitalist culture of Wall Street, perfectly reflecting Puccini’s innovatory spirit. In a new angle on the age-old love triangle theme, corrupt Sheriff Jack Rance (Lucio Gallo) and charismatic criminal Dick Johnson (Zoran Todorovich) vie for the love of glamorous blonde and devout Christian Minnie (Westbroek), finding herway in a man’s world. Carlo Rizzi’s idiomatic conducting draws excellent singing from the large cast and fine playing from The Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra.

Sung in Italian with English subtitles
Conducted by Carlo Rizzi
Directed by Nikolaus Lehnhoff
Starring Eva-Maria Westbroek & Lucio Gallo

For the first time ever, The Royal Opera presents the story of Cinderella as told in Massenet’s opera CENDRILLON. The production, new to the Royal Opera House, is by Laurent Pelly, whose previous work here has included the spectacularly successful La Fille du régiment, a heart-warming L’elisir d’amore and last Season’s stylish new Manon. Pelly brings his characteristic lightness of touch, wit and elegance to Massenet’s delightfully tuneful score against sets and costumes of fairytale charm. Joyce DiDonato takes the title role, with Alice Coote – just like the Principal Boy familiar from British pantomime – as her Prince Charming. And there has of course to be a fairy godmother, played by Eglise Guttiérez, in this version of a tale that gained particular popularity from the published fairytales of Frenchman Charles Perrault. Musical highlights include the fairy godmother’s airy coloratura, the orchestral dances of the ball, the March of the Princesses, and of course rapturous duets between the Prince and Cendrillon. French music specialist Bertrand de Billy is the conductor for an opera of radiance and charm.

Part action film, part art film, DRIVE is brutal and beautiful.  Winner of Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival, for Nicolas Winding Refn of the PUSHER trilogy, DRIVE is the perfect blend of Hollywood and European cinema.  The Cosford is pleased to bring this electric film back to the big screen for a limited engagement and predicts it to become a new cult classic.  Beautifully shot, succinctly spliced, and excellently acted, DRIVE is mesmerizing and adventurous.  

"Gosling and director Nicolas Winding Refn neatly manage the hat trick of paying homage to those wheelmen of yore while reinvigorating the genre with style, smarts and flashes of wit."
-Ann Hornaday, WASHINGTON POST

"The look is artfully stylized, influenced by classic film noir; the mood is dark; the performances nuanced; and the story unnervingly exciting."
-Claudia Puig, USA TODAY

"Gosling and this powerful film, which is ultimately about a moment of grace, deserve each other.  He's the medium's most graceful minimalist."
-Joe Morgenstern, WALL STREET JOURNAL

Ryan Gosling stars as a Los Angeles wheelman for hire, stunt driving for a movie productions by day and steering getaway vehicles for armed heists by night.  After a heist spins unpredictably out of control, Driver (Gosling) finds himself driving defense for the girl he loves, tailgated by a syndicate of deadly serious criminals.  But when he realizes that the gangsters are after more than the bag of cash in his trunk -- that they're coming straight for Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her son -- Driver is forced to shift gears and go on the offense.  

Make sure you make it to the special midnight screening - January 28 - it's the best way to see this modern neo-neon noir!

Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn.  Rated R.
USA, 2011, Digital Projection, 100 minutes, Color, English.

JOFFREY: MAVERICKS OF AMERICAN DANCE tells the story of this groundbreaking cultural treasure, known as the first truly American dance company.  Narrated by Mandy Patinkin, the film documents how The Joffrey Ballet revolutionized American ballet by daringly combining modern dance with traditional ballet technique, combining art with social statement and setting ballets to pop and rock music scores.

"Hosannas and hallelujahs for the new documentary on the Joffrey Ballet, that groundbreaking American experiment in ballet... JOFFREY: MAVERICKS OF AMERICAN DANCE... features lively, sometimes emotional interviews.... The film follows the burst of glory of the fledgling group in the '60s, as well as the devastating blows that almost pulled the company under later on."
-Wendy Perron, editor in chief of DANCE MAGAZINE

JOFFREY: MAVERICKS OF AMERICAN DANCE weaves a wealth of rare archival footage and photographs along with interviews featuring former and current Joffrey star dances, showing the full history of the Company from its founding to the present.  It describes how the Joffrey repeatedly resurrected itself after devastating financial and artistic setbacks and introduced cutting-edge choreographers such as Twyla Tharp, Laura Dean and Margo Sappington to larger audiences.

Join us for the January 28 Premiere at 1:30pm which screens simultaneously with the film's world premiere at the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York City, including a live-brodcast, interactive panel/Q+A with the director and talent from the Joffrey.

Directed by Bob Hercules.  Unrated.
USA, 2011, Digital Projection, 90 minutes, Color, English.

A single act of both compassion and arrogance leads to a war unlike any other -- and to the RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES. The Oscar-winning visual effects team that brought to life the worlds of AVATAR and LORD OF THE RINGS is breaking new ground, creating a CGI ape that delivers a dramatic performance of unprecedented emotion and intelligence, and epic battles on which rest the upended destinies of man and primate.

Directed by Rupert Wyatt.  Rated PG-13.
USA, 2011, Digital Projection, 105 minutes, Color, English.

With the support of the Kenneth Lattman Foundation, the Bill Cosford Cinema and Latin American Film Series are pleased to invite filmmakers Pamela Yates and Paco de Onis to discuss their latest film, GRANITO: HOW TO NAIL A DICTATOR.  On Thursday, February 2 at 7PM, as part of the Kenneth Lattman Foundation Lecture Series, GRANITO will be screened for its Miami Premiere followed by a Q+A with the filmmakers.

"GRANITO becomes both a humanitarian legal thriller and a quest to find justice through cinema."
-Aaron Hillis, VILLAGE VOICE

GRANITO is a story of destinies joined by Guatemala’s past, and how a documentary film intertwined with a nation’s turbulent history emerges as an active player in the present.  In GRANITO our characters sift for clues buried in archives of mind and place and historical memory, seeking to uncover a narrative that could unlock the past and settle matters of life and death in the present.  Each of the five main characters whose destinies collide in GRANITO are connected by the Guatemala of 1982, then engulfed in a war where a genocidal “scorched earth” campaign by the military exterminated nearly 200,000 Maya people.  Now, as if a watchful Maya god were weaving back together threads of a story unraveled by the passage of time, forgotten by most, our characters become integral to the overarching narrative of wrongs done and justice sought that have pieced together, each adding their granito – their tiny grain of sand, to the epic tale.

Join us February 2 at 7PM for the special premiere of GRANITO as part of the Kenneth Lattman Foundation Lecture Series including a Q+A with filmmakers Pamela Yates and Paco de Onis.

Directed by Pamela Yates.  Unrated.
Guatemala/USA, 2011, Digital Projection, 80 minutes, Color, English and Spanish with English Subtitles.

 

The Kenneth Lattman Foundation Lecture Series at the Bill Cosford Cinema features eight films build on innovative storytelling and created by some of the brightest filmmakers today.  The series brings audiences “back to the movie theater” to watch and discuss exceptional films together.  Each screening is followed by a discussion with University of Miami experts, distinguished industry VIPs, the audience and other guests who explore the scholarly, professional, and artistic merits of each film.   

This special event came to fruition through the generous support of Eliot and Shelley Abramson of the the Lattman Foundation, the Center for Latin American Studies, the Women and Gender Studies program, and the University of Miami School of Communication.

CONTAGION follows the rapid progress of a lethal airborne virus that kills within days.  As the fast-moving epidemic grows, the worldwide medical community races to find a cure and control the panic that spreads faster than the virus itself.  At the same time, ordinary people struggle to survive in a society coming apart.  One of the best way to get ready for the Oscar season is to see all these Academy Award winner and nominees dying from a deadly disease:  Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Elliott Gould, Jude Law, John Hawkes, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Kate Winslet and directed by winner Steven Soderbergh.

Directed by Steven Soderbergh.  
USA, 2011, 35mm Film, 106 minutes, Color, English.

Tickets are only $5 for CONTAGION!  Bring hand soap!