Breaking News: Due to sound problems with the original screening, Cinema 10 is presenting a free screening of Terrance Malick's The Tree of Life, Thursday May 3rd, 6:45 pm at the Roxy in Potsdam.2/13 Benda Bilili!
(2010, Democratic Republic of the Congo/France, d. Renaud Barret/Florent de La Tullaye)
Ricky’s dream is to make Staff Benda Bilili the best music band in Kinshasa, Congo while Roger, a kid from the streets, wishes more than anything to join the ghetto stars who, tied to their wheelchairs, enlighten the city with music. Over a five year-span, from the initial rehearsals to their final triumph at worldwide music festivals, their song and dance performances bring joy and escape from a confining environment. “’Benda Bilili!’ earns its exclamation point. It's a feel-good movie that actually makes you feel good, a story that will have you shaking your head in astonishment and moving your feet to some unstoppable rhythms." (Kenneth Turan, The Los Angeles Times.) (85 min.; PG-13)
2/20 Road, Movie (2009, India/USA, d. Dev Benegal)
To escape his father’s hair oil business and the small city where he lives, restless young Vishnu jumps at the chance to drive an old truck (and traveling cinema) across the beautiful and barren deserts of Rajasthan to the sea, supposedly selling some hair oil as he goes. He picks up passengers along the way as Vishnu’s journey transforms itself into a life-long odyssey that will change each of the film’s characters. (95 min.; NR) 2/27 Le Havre (2011, Finland/France/Germany, d. Aki Kaurismäki) When shoeshine man Marcel Marx gives up his hopes of literary greatness to tend to his wife and favorite bar in Le Havre, France, he crosses paths with an African child emigre who needs help evading the police, lest he face deportation. The film delivers a pure comic taste of the essence of France, and has "a warm, quiet glow of reassurance in every frame," according to A. O. Scott (The New York Times). Roger Ebert (The Chicago Sun-Times) says Le Havre is "as lovable as a silent comedy... it just plain makes you feel good." (93 min.; NR) 3/5 Inside Job (2010, USA, d. Charles Ferguson)
Billed as “the film that cost $20,000,000,000,000 to make,” Inside Job, directed by Charles Ferguson (No End in Sight), provides a comprehensive analysis of the financial crisis of 2008, which nearly resulted in global financial collapse. “The result is a first-class documentary that's also a dedicated act of citizenship,” writes Mick LaSalle of The San Francisco Chronicle. Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post, concludes, “If you think you've absorbed all you could about subprime mortgages, credit default swaps and the arcana of elaborate derivatives, think again. Inside Job traces the history of the crisis and its implications with exceptional lucidity, rigor and righteous indignation.” (120 min.; PG-13)
3/19 The Skin I Live In/La piel que habito (2011, Spain, d. Pedro Almodóvar)
Director Pedro Almodóvar reunites with Antonio Banderas (Evita, Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down!) as Robert Ledgard, a more than slightly mad plastic surgeon who has invented a new kind of artificial skin. At the center of this "intoxicating, lush mystery" (Mahnola Dargis, The New York Times) is Vera, a beautiful young woman Ledgard is keeping captive in his mansion. Filled with unexpected plot twists and turns, Skin "forces us, time and again, to reconsider what we think we've just seen, and what we're sure we feel—not only about mere appearance, or fateful gender, but about who, under our skin, we truly are." (Joe Morganstern, The Wall Street Journal.) (117 min.; R)
(1973/2008/2011, USA, d. S. Laverents, J. Mack, H. Hill)
Three independent films, ranging from wildly experimental musical to innovative animation to moving eulogy, combine for this evening’s program. Multiple Sidosis is a self-reflexive masterpiece: Sid Laverents reprises the one-man band act he performed as a Vaudevillian in the 20s and 30s, with an hysterical multiple screen performance of the song “Nola.” Jodie Mack’s cut-out animation, Yard Work is Hard Work, is a tour de force of singing figures, producing a film of technical virtuosity and surprising depth. Animator Helen Hill was known for her enchanting, whimsical movies. After her sudden death, her husband completed The Florestine Collection, which tells the true story of an African American seamstress whose handmade dresses Hill found on a trash pile one Mardi Gras morning. (70 min.; NR)
4/2 Meek's Cutoff (2010, USA, d. Kelly Reichardt)
On the Oregon Trail in 1845, a small wagon train of pioneers begins to lose confidence in their frontier guide, Stephen Meek (Bruce Greenwood); the 'shortcut' he promised has led nowhere. Wits and instincts are tested as each passing day threatens to turn the trail bloody. Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain, My Week With Marilyn) is Emily Tetherow, one of the wives. Anne Hornaday (Washington Post) says this is "a masterpiece of American genre, a poetic tour de force whose power lies, not in pyrotechnics or posturing but an honesty every bit as forthright and gutsy as Emily Tetherow herself." (104 min.; PG)4/16 Weekend (2011, UK, d. Andrew Haigh)
“One of the truest, most beautiful movies ever made about two strangers” (Wesley Morris, The Boston Globe), Weekend moves from a one night stand when Russell picks up Glen, to something more. With beautifully presented and deeply developed characters, Weekend will keep you under the spell of this “smart, sensitive, perceptive film” (Roger Ebert, The Chicago Sun-Times.) (97 min.; NR) 4/23 Melancholia
(2011, Denmark/Sweden/France/Germany, d. Lars von Trier)
Critically acclaimed and controversial director Lars Von Trier here commands an A-List cast including Kirsten Dunst as the new bride Justine, Charlotte Gainsbourg as her sister Claire and Kiefer Sutherland as Claire's husband John. As a strange planet moves along a collision course for Earth, a family grasps for the last few resplendent moments of their daughter's wedding, during a reception at Claire and John's grand estate. For her performance as Justine, Kirsten Dunst received the Best Actress Award at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. The Daily Telegraph writes, "[the film] comes close to being a tragi-comic opera about the end of the world. . . [and] is so beautifully rendered that the film cements the quality of fairy tale that its palatial setting suggests." (136 min,; R) (2010, Portugal/Spain/France/Brazil; d. Manoel de Oliveira)
In a film Dennis West of Cineste called “daring and haunting,” a young Jewish photographer is called to a wealthy family estate to photograph a young bride who has inexplicably died on her wedding day. As he looks through the lens, she opens her eyes and smiles at him—or so he believes. This magical tale of romantic, otherworldly enchantment is the work of 101 year old writer-director, Manoel de Oliveira, whose career stretches back to 1942. It’s “a quiet, lovely ode to romance,” observes Mark Jenkins of The Washington Post. “In addition to being beguilingly disorienting, The Strange Case of Angelica is gorgeously composed and photographed.” (97 min.; NR)
Cinema 10 is made possible by
the New York State Council on the Arts,
with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. |
Here's what's playing at Cinema 10 this spring. We'll see you at the Roxy Theater (20 Main Street, Potsdam; 315-265-9630) on Mondays at 7:15 pm. |
