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EUROPEAN UNION FILM SHOWCASE
CZECH REPUBLIC
2013 Oscar Selection, Czech Republic
THE DON JUANS [Donsajni]
Tue, Dec 17, 7:10; Sun, Dec 22, 3:40
An encore presentation of the latest film from Czech New
Wave great Jirí Menzel (CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS, I
SERVED THE KING OF ENGLAND), and a must-see for all
opera fans, as Menzel gently lampoons the opera world’s
eccentricities, egomania, abiding passions and workaday
realities. When a small-town opera company mounts a
production of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni,” passions run high both
on stage and behind the scenes. Overseeing the production
is the acclaimed director and inveterate Don Juan, Vítek (Jan
Hartl), who confides to the audience that he’s a great lover of
sopranos; opera, not so much.
DIR/SCR Jirí Menzel; SCR Tereza Brdecková; PROD
Adrian Sarbu. Czech Republic, 2013, color, 100 min. In Czech with English subtitles. NOT RATED
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DENMARK
THE KEEPER OF LOST CAUSES [Kvinden i buret]
Sat, Dec 7, 7:20; Thu, Dec 12, 7:10
From the first of Jussi Adler-Olsen’s best-selling “Department Q”
thrillers, director Mikkel Nørgaard (KLOWN, BORGEN) and
screenwriter Nikolaj Arcel (GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO,
A ROYAL AFFAIR) stylishly bring Detective Carl Mørck and his
team to the big screen. After being shot in the line of duty, Mørck
(Nikolaj Lie Kaas) is eager to get back on the beat, but instead
he’s sent to work in the dingy basement office of Department Q
administrating cold cases. Along with his assistant Assad (Fares
Fares – EASY MONEY, ZERO DARK THIRTY), Mørck revisits the
five-year-old “suicide” of a successful politician, only to find that
she might still be alive.
DIR Mikkel Nørgaard; SCR Nikolaj Arcel, from the novel by Jussi
Adler-Olsen; PROD Peter Aalbæk Jensen, Louise Vesth. Denmark/Germany/Sweden, 2013, color, 97
min. In Danish with English subtitles. NOT RATED
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ESTONIA
A LADY IN PARIS [Une Estonienne à Paris]
Sat, Dec 7, 1:10; Tue, Dec 10, 7:10
Screen legend Jeanne Moreau plays Frida, a curmudgeonly
Estonian ex-pat living in Paris who recently attempted suicide.
Anne (Laine Mägi) is the unfortunate woman charged with
being her caretaker. Herself an Estonian living abroad, Anne
quickly learns that prickly wisecracker Frida doesn’t want her
help and solely craves the attention of her much younger former
lover Stéphane (Patrick Pineau). Estonian filmmaker Ilmar Raag
(THE CLASS) gives Moreau her best role in years as the acid-
tongued Frida in this elegant dramedy of manners. Official
Selection, 2012 Locarno Film Festival.
DIR/SCR Ilmar Raag; SCR Agnès
Feuvre, Lise Macheboeuf; PROD Miléna Poylo, Gilles Sacuto, Riina Sildos. France/Estonia/Belgium,
2012, color, 94 min. In French and Estonian with English subtitles. NOT RATED
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FINLAND
2013 Oscar Selection, Finland
THE DISCIPLE [Lärjungen]
Mon, Dec 9, 7:10; Tue, Dec 10, 5:20
Q&A with filmmaker Ulrika Bengts, plus post-screening
reception sponsored by the Embassy of Finland, on Dec 9!
Finland, summer, 1939: Thirteen-year-old Karl is an eager-to-
please orphan, sent by the state to work at an isolated Baltic
island lighthouse. But the lighthouse master, Hasselbond, already
has a son groomed for the job and refuses his help. Hoping to
avoid returning to the orphanage, Karl works like a demon, and
an impressed Hasselbond cruelly begins to favor the new boy
over his own son. Ulrika Bengts (IRIS) mounts a handsome, detail-
rich period piece that delves into the more unruly and frightening
aspects of family psychology, showing that the “good old days”
were often anything but. Official Selection, 2013 Montreal
World Film Festival.
DIR Ulrika Bengts; SCR Roland Fauser, Jimmy Karlsson; PROD Mats
Långbacka. Finland, 2013, color, 93 min. In Swedish with English subtitles. NOT RATED
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FRANCE
CYCLING WITH MOLIÈRE [Alceste à bicyclette]
Fri, Dec 6, 7:20; Sun, Dec 8, 5:30; Wed, Dec 11, 5:20
Philippe Le Guay (THE
WOMEN ON THE 6TH
FLOOR; THE COST OF
LIVING) reunites with star
Fabrice Luchini in this
inspired comic riff on the
acting profession, actorly
egos and the genius of
Molière. Gauthier Valence
(Lambert Wilson – OF
GODS AND MEN) has
become rich and famous playing a heroic brain surgeon on
TV, but longs to return to the stage. Seeking out reclusive stage
legend Serge Tanneur (Luchini) on the rainswept Ile de Ré,
Valence pitches the prickly thespian on his passion project: a
staging of Molière’s “The Misanthrope,” with the two actors
trading off the parts of the disruptive, pessimistic Alceste and
the kind-hearted, conciliatory Philinte nightly. Tanneur, a maniac
for Molière, cautiously agrees to rehearse with Valence, and
the two embark on a week of wildly inventive, occasionally
confrontational creative work. But who’s directing whom—and
will the show actually go on?
DIR/SCR Philippe Le Guay; PROD Anne-Dominique
Toussaint. France, 2013, color, 101 min. In French with English subtitles. NOT RATED
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AGE OF UPRISING: THE LEGEND OF
MICHAEL KOHLHAAS
Sat, Dec 7, 3:45; Tue, Dec 10, 9:15
In 16th century France, enterprising horse farmer Michael
Kohlhaas (Mads Mikkelsen) runs afoul of a venal baron,
who attempts to shake down the merchant as he crosses the
nobleman’s woods on the way to market. After events escalate,
causing great harm to Kohlhaas’s horses, farmhands and family,
he raises an army and wages a war against the baron, who
soon sues for peace. But with the clergy and courts adjudicating,
will Kohlhaas win the war and lose the peace? Arnaud de
Pallières’ adaptation of Heinrich von Kleist’s 1808 novella
explores a fault line between medievalism and modernity. With
Sergi López, Denis Lavant and Bruno Ganz.
DIR/SCR Arnaud des Pallières;
SCR Christelle Berthevas, from the novella by Heinrich von Kleist; PROD Serge Lalou. France/
Germany, 2013, color, 120 min. In French with English subtitles. NOT RATED
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LA MAISON DE LA RADIO
Sat, Dec 7, 6:15; Sun, Dec 8, 1:10
Celebrated documentarian Nicolas Philibert (TO BE AND TO
HAVE) goes inside the world of French Public Radio, where, from
pre-dawn to day’s end, the radio crackles across a variety of
channels with lively discussions on politics, literature and sports;
in-studio musical performances, interviews and quiz shows; not to
mention news, weather and traffic! Deftly edited and capturing
moments of sly observational humor, Philibert shows what is
usually only heard; and by giving on-air performances and
behind-the-scenes work equal footing, the film provides a Frederick
Wiseman-like appreciation for this great media institution. Official
Selection, 2013 Berlin Film Festival.
DIR/SCR Nicolas Philibert; PROD Serge Lalou.
France/Japan, 2013, color, 99 min. In French with English subtitles. NOT RATED
Courtesy of Nova TV
Courtesy of Danish Film Institute
Courtesy of Finnish Film Foundation
Courtesy of Pyramide
Courtesy of Strand Releasing
Courtesy of Music Box Films
THE DON JUANS
THE KEEPER OF LOST CAUSES
THE DISCIPLE
A LADY IN PARIS
AGE OF UPRISING: THE LEGEND OF MICHAEL KOHLHAAS
