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
2 hrs 18 mins plus one intermission
Tickets for the Opera are $22 general admission and $18 discounted.
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.