Agora
Directed by Alejandro Amenabar
Spain 2010
127 minutes
Rated PG (not recommended for young children)
Following his Best Foreign Film Oscar for The Sea Inside, Mr Amenabar takes us to the ancient city of Alexandria, where Hypathia the renowned mathematician conducts lessons. Hypathia and other teachers and philosophers are trapped in Alexandria’s library, surrounded by the warring pagan and Christian factions. Agora draws obvious parallels to contemporary philosophers and thinkers endangered by religious extremists and conflicting armies. Somehow, the military and the holy fanatics missed that lesson. Rachel Wiesz gives a commanding performance as Hypathia.
(Aug 20-23)

Babies
Directed by Thomas Balmes
France 2010
79 minutes
Rated G
Forget the faithful, marching penguins. Babies is quite possibly the aawwww cutest documentary film ever made. French filmmaker Thomas Balmes travels the globe to record the first glorious year in the lives of four babies: Hattie (San Francisco), Ponijao (Namibia), Bayarjargal (Mongolia) and Mari (Tokyo). Geographical and cultural differences are obvious, but so are the similarities of observation, curiosity, crying-out or the need to be cuddled. Babies is a In English, Japanese and Mongolian with subtitles. How can we not recommend Babies? (July 9-22)

Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky
Directed by Jan Kounen
France 2010
118 minutes
Rated TBA
We enter into the passionate, intense and (not always) private affairs of Igor and Coco. Following the riotous response to the 1913 premiere of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, as choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky, the composer finds himself adrift, without commissions, and unable to provide for his family. The highly-successful Coco invites Igor and family to her country villa to rest and restore his creative energies. But the household is tossed asunder when their passions merge. This is a lush, sensual, and at times harsh portrait of two artists exploring each other while expanding their artistic horizons. Anna Mouglalis and Mads Mikkelsen are great in the title roles. French with subtitles. (Aug 13-19)

8 1/2
(Otto E Mezzo)
Directed by Federico Fellini
Italy 1963
138 minutes
Rated PG
A definite highlight of this summer’s program is the re-release of Fellini’s 1963 Oscar-winner (Best Foreign Film). Starring Claudia Cardinale, Anouk Aimee, and Marcello Mastroianni as a frustrated film director, torn between his wife, his mistress and the demands of his upcoming film shoot, and escaping into memories daydreams and fantasies. A perennial favourite on Best Film Lists, usually in the Top Ten, 8 1/2 is essential Fellini, shot for the screen and meant to be viewed with others, in a theatre. The Maestro’s work influenced cinema and style for years to come, let’s pay a little respect and watch the film as it was meant to be seen, on the movie screen. Italian with subtitles. (Aug 20-24)

Exit Through The Gift Shop
A Banksy film
USA/UK 2010
85 minutes
Rated 14A (coarse language)
Exit Through The Gift Shop is a canny exploration, a skewed portrait and a compulsively watchable film about art and commerce. Hooded and obscured by shadows, the elusive British street-artist Banksy, explains the film’s origins. Beginning with Thierry Guetta, a French clothing dealer in Los Angeles, who insinuates himself into the lives of street artists like LA’s Shephard Fairey and eventually, Banksy. Thierry was a compulsive videographer, taping almost everything he saw. His hours of video are a concise, street-level chronicle of the rise in popularity and influence of street art. By the film’s end, the lines between sidewalk and gallery have been spray-bombed, and arguments over art vs commerce are covered over by stencilled commentaries. Recommended. (July 13-15 & Aug 8-12)

Get Him to the Greek
Directed by Nicholas Stoller
USA 2010
109 minutes
Rated 14A (coarse language, sexual content, substance abuse)
Following in the hilarious, flip flop footsteps of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, director Nicholas Stoller has again tapped into the comic genius of Russell Brand and Jonah Hill in this zany, substance-ingesting road movie that also begs comparisons to The Hangover. Lowly record company geek Aaron Green (Hill) is sent to London, charged with the task of delivering rip-snortingly-wasted rock star, Aldous Snow (Brand) to his gig at the Greek Theatre in LA. Who needs CGI and 3D glasses when the comedy is this dizzying? Warning: the stunts are performed by trained professionals. Do not try them at home. (July 30-Aug 1)

Get Low
Directed by Aaron Schneider
USA 2010
100 minutes
Rated TBA
Felix Bush announces that it’s time for him to ‘get low’. But before he’s dead and buried, he wants to plan his own funeral and be at the party. With the help of funeral director Frank Quinn (Bill Murray), Felix plans his own farewell gathering. But the problem is that gruff, reclusive old Felix is the most feared, misunderstood, mistrusted and just plain disliked man in all the surrounding counties. Undaunted by the ideas or feelings of others, Felix presses on with his plans which will force him to confront the ghosts of his past. Lucas Black and Sissy Spacek offer strong support but the film belongs to Robert Duvall, his Felix Bush joins a list of storied characters as portrayed by one of America’s best screen actors. Recommended. (Aug 27-Sept 2)

Ghost Writer
Directed by Roman Polanski
France/Germany/UK 2010
128 minutes
Rated PG (mature theme, language may offend)
Robert Harris has adapted his own bestselling novel about a fictional, former British prime minister, Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan) who hires a young writer, simply called the Ghost (Ewan McGregor), to write his political memoirs. The Ghost is suddenly beset with unnerving, and sometimes violent intrusions and personal threats that raise questions about the previous ghost writer’s untimely death. Curiosity is piqued by parallels to Tony Blair, and the possible involvement of covert US agencies, but it is the directors’ skill with suspenseful storytelling (with comparisons to Hitchcock!) and a superb cast that also includes, Kim Cattrall, Tom Wilkinson and Olivia Williams, that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Recommended and certainly so for those drawn to political thrillers. (July 10-12)

The Girl Who Played with Fire
(Flickam som lekte med elden)
Directed by Daniel Alfredson
Sweden 2010
130 minutes
Rated TBA
The Millennium Trilogy has become the biggest Swedish export since Volvo or Ikea and in this adaptation of the second novel in the bestselling series, Blomkvist continues his investigations into corporate corruption, while Salander evades an international police dragnet designed to silence her knowledge of high level political wrongdoings and government malfeasance. And all the while, the disturbing truths of Lisbeth’s fiery past are gradually revealed, exposing further atrocities. Wow, great stuff! These are compelling books that make for exciting cinema. Recommended. (July 16-29)

Harry Brown
Directed by Daniel Barber
UK 2010
97 minutes
Rated 18A (coarse language, substance abuse, brutal violence)
At 77-years-old, Sir Michael Caine delivers one of his strongest performances as Harry Brown, a retired veteran of the Royal Marines, who lives alone in his East End London flat. Harry is unconcerned with the drug dealing and petty crime in his neighbourhood, until he is personally confronted. When the police prove ineffective and condescending to the old gent, Harry calls upon his military training to dispense with the criminals who threaten to destroy his home and harm his friends. While the going gets a little rough (and violent) at times, Mr Caine makes Harry Brown worth it. (July 23-26)

House
Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi
Japan 1977
87 minutes
Rated TBA
In our continuing quest for old classics and uncovered gems of film history, we are pleased to host three nights of House, as part of Janus Films’ (the New York-based theatrical arm of Criterion DVD Classics) Canadian tour. Mr Obayashi’s 1977 debut film is an unforgettable collage of mind bending styles and cinematic techniques, swirling in a psychedelic blend of avant-garde, horror and fantasy. The story involves teenaged Gorgeous (named for her pleasant smile and demeanour), and six friends who travel to the remote house of Gorgeous’ aunt. Yes, it is a house that hosts the most bizarre activities. But plot soon falls aside to a constant swirling kaleidoscope of hallucinogenic images. Don’t miss this one of a kind cinema experience. For more background, checkout the Manohla Dargis review at nytimes.com/movies or midnighteye.com. In Japanese with subtitles. (Aug 2-4)

The Kids are All Right
Directed by Lisa Cholodenko
USA 2010
106 minutes
Rated 18A (coarse language, sexual content)
By all appearances, Nic (Annette Bening) and Jules (Julianne Moore) share a perfectly comfortable California life with their two teenage kids. But their domestic idyll get thrown for a loop when the kids, 18-year-old Joni (Mia Wasikowska) and 15-year-old Laser - Dude! it’s California - (Josh Hutcherson) decide to contact their sperm donor “dad”, Paul (Mark Ruffalo). Paul’s arrival makes things awkward, at first attracting the teenagers’ interest and gradually driving a wedge between Nic and Jules. Indeed, Paul becomes the catalyst as Nic, Jules, Laser and Joni confront each other on many unresolved issues, enroute to discovering what it really means “to be family”. With a smart script, well-developed characters and finely understated performances (some have started shining-up the Oscars), The Kids are All Right is a comedic drama of contemporary family values, capable of coaxing laughter and tears. Highly Recommended.
(July 30-Aug 12)

Letters to Juliet
Directed by Gary Winick
USA 2010
105 minutes
Rated PG
This unapologetic romance basks in the sun-dappled Tuscan hills, searching for true love. Fate would have it that while honeymooning in Verona, New Yorker Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) discovers a decades-old letter that was left below the balcony of Shakespeare’s most star-crossed lover, Juliet. Being a magazine fact checker, Sophie tracks down the letter’s writer, Claire, an elderly widow living in England. With her adult grandson in tow, Claire and Sophie scour the picturesque Italian countryside in search of Sophie’s long lost, one true love, Lorenzo (Franco Nero). Vanessa Redgrave is radiantly elegant as Claire and actually manages not to be upstaged by her gorgeous surroundings. Recommended for the hopeless romantics in the crowd. (July 2-8)

Mao’s Last Dancer
Directed by Bruce Beresford
Australia 2010
117 minutes
Rated PG (language may offend)
Mao’s Last Dancer is a glorious hybrid, blending the physical beauty of dance with history and politics. It is based on the autobiography of Li Cunxin, who was taken from his impoverished rural home to be trained for Madame Mao’s ballet in Beijing and indoctrinated to the Cultural Revolution. Through hard work and extraordinary determination, Li rises to the top of the academy and is chosen to join a cultural exchange trip to America. Li’s refusal to return to China ignites a diplomatic firestorm between the two nations, but the film’s greatest strengths are the dance scenes, as captured by veteran filmmaker, Bruce Beresford. A Must for dance fans! (July 27-29)

Micmacs
(Micmacs a tire-larigot)
Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet
France 2010
105 minutes
Rated 14A (violence, sexual content)
Amelie director Jeunet is back with another fabulous film. Dany boon stars as Bazil, the innocent victim of a random bullet from a drive-by shooting. He recovers from the incident but finds himself homeless and unable to work. But don’t despair for Bazil, (this is a Jeunet film) whose life picks-up upon meeting the ingenious junkman, Tire-Larigot and his merry gang of misfit friends (micmacs). In a colourful metaphor for society’s marginalized, the micmacs thrive on finding practical uses for things that others discard. Together, Bazil and the micmacs conjure a magical array of schemes and devices to exact sweet revenge upon the bullet-making arms dealers. And visually, the film is a gorgeous, picture postcard to the beauty of Paris. Micmacs is a charming cinematic delight! Most Highly Recommended. French with subtitles. (June 25-July 5)

Nine
Directed by Rob Marshall
USA/Italy 2009
118 minutes
Rated PG (mature theme)
Oscar-winning (for Chicago) director, Rob Marshall updates the 1982 Broadway musical focused on the life and loves of an Italian film director as captured in Federico Fellini’s film 8 1/2. If that sounds slightly confusing, think of it another way: This is one sexy musical, with eye-popping visuals and an amazing cast that features Daniel Day-Lewis, Judi Dench, Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard, Fergie, Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson and Sophia Loren. (Aug 25, 26)

Robin Hood
Directed by Ridley Scott
UK/USA 2010
139 minutes
Rated PG (violence)
In their first feature since the Oscar-winning Gladiator, Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe re-unite to tell the tale of Robin Hood’s rise from lowly archer in the King’s service, to the man of legend. The stellar supporting cast includes Max von Sydow, William Hurt, Mark Strong, Alan Doyle and Cate Blanchett as Maid Marion. (July 6-9)

The Secret in Their Eyes
(El Secreto de sus ojos)
Directed by Juan Jose Campanella
Argentina/Spain 2010
129 minutes
Rated TBA
Mr Campanella’s Oscar-winner (Best Foreign Film) is a complex, cerebral crime mystery and a romance that investigates an old crime and uncovers long-suppressed emotions. Recently retired court official Benjamin (Ricardo Darin), is writing a novel about a 30-year-old case of rape and murder. He is haunted by the details of the crime, memories of his old partner, Pablo and Irene, his attractive co-investigator. Through his work on the novel, Ben revisits locations and evidence surrounding the crime. Fuelled, as the title suggests, by the secrets in people’s eyes, he traces the remaining survivors, which may well lead to Irene. This film is well-written and performed, deserving of its numerous international kudos. Recommended. Spanish with subtitles (Aug 5-7)

Splice
Directed by Vincenzo Natali
Canada 2010
104 minutes
Rated 18A (sexual content, coarse language, violence)
Sarah Polley (Elsa) and Adrien Brody (Clive) star as a young married couple who work for a large pharma corporation, conducting research experiments with animal DNA. But their real, and secret, passion is splicing together the DNA from various non-human life forms. And as we’ve learned from Frankenstein to The Fly, it is highly dangerous and can be quite frightening when scientists mess with the forces of nature. Vincenzo Natali’s (Cube) latest cinematic creation boasts enough budget to give the film a polished sheen, and creatures as cool as they are creepy. Splice is thoughtful, slick and scary. (Aug 24-26)

This Movie is Broken
Directed by Bruce McDonald
Canada 2010
85 minutes
Rated TBA
The movie opens with Broken Social Scene taking the stage, and by the film’s end, we’ve got Brendan Canning, Kevin Drew, Leslie Feist, Amy Millan, Emily Haines, James Shaw, Jason Collett and a dozen more members of BSS ripping it up on a perfect summer night. Last July’s free concert at Harbourfront is the foundation for Bruce McDonald’s latest concert film project. It is also a portrait of young love on a carefree day and a musical valentine postcard to Toronto in the summer. Images of riding double on a bike along the Molson Indy racetrack, sleeping on a rooftop in Kensington, breakfast on a College St sidewalk patio and trying to score backstage passes, all serve to form a snapshot of the city, in what the director calls “a rock show romance”. Yes, this movie is broken, but in all the right places. Recommended. (Aug 13-19)

Winter’s Bone
Directed by Debra Granik
USA 2010
101 minutes
Rated 14A (coarse language,
substance abuse)
Winter’s Bone loudly announces the arrival of rising young star, Jennifer Lawrence. Last seen performing (and holding her own) alongside Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger in The Burning Plain, Ms Lawrence takes the lead role as Ree Dolly, a seventeen-year-old living in the Missouri Ozarks. Ree’s drug-dealing Papa has skipped bail, having used the family home as collateral and she must bring him back or lose the homestead. Searching for her father, Ree uncovers dark family secrets and her inquiries prompt guarded silence and violent reprisals. Director Debra Granik and her young star has created an exceptional piece of work that captures the strength and warmth of Dee’s heart, surrounded by a harsh and chilling world, in Winter’s Bone. (Aug 27-Sept 2)