Variety’s 2008 Screening Series Calendar
September
This schedule will be updated frequently, so please return to this website for details on new events as they are added.
New York Screening Series (Los Angeles)
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Burn After Reading ALREADY SCREENED Studio: Focus Features Director: Joel and Ethan Coen Cast: George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton Writer: Joel and Ethan Coen Q&A: Tilda Swinton At the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency in Arlington, Va., analyst Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) arrives for a top-secret meeting. Unfortunately for Cox, the secret is soon out: he is being ousted. Cox does not take the news particularly well and returns to his Georgetown home to work on his memoirs and his drinking, not necessarily in that order. His wife Katie (Tilda Swinton) is dismayed, though not particularly surprised; she is already well into an illicit affair with Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney), a married federal marshal, and sets about making plans to leave Cox for Harry. Elsewhere in the Washington, D.C. suburbs, and seemingly worlds apart, Hardbodies Fitness Centers employee Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand) can barely concentrate on her work. She is consumed with her life plan for extensive cosmetic surgery, and confides her mission to can-do colleague Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt). Linda is all but oblivious to the fact that the gym’s manager Ted Treffon (Richard Jenkins) pines for her even as she arranges dates via the Internet with other men. When a computer disc containing material for the CIA analyst’s memoirs accidentally falls into the hands of Linda and Chad, the duo are intent on exploiting their find. As Ted frets, “No good can come of this,” events spiral out of everyone’s and anyone’s control, in a cascading series of darkly hilarious encounters. Location: Sunshine 143 E Houston Street, New York, NY 10002 |
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Blindness ALREADY SCREENED Studio: Miramax Director: Fernando Meirelles Cast: Fernando Meirelles, Gael Garcia Bernal, Danny Glover and Mark Ruffalo Writer: Screenplay by Don McKellar, based on the novel by Jose Saramago Q&A: Participants include Fernando Meirelles, Gael Garcia Bernal, Danny Glover, Mark Ruffalo From Nobel Prize winning author Jose Saramago and acclaimed director Fernando Meirelles (The Constant Gardener, City of God) comes the compelling story of humanity in the grip of an epidemic of mysterious blindness. It is an unflinching exploration of human nature, both bad and good--people’s selfishness, opportunism, and indifference, but also their capacity for empathy, love and sheer perseverance. It begins in a flash, as one man is instantaneously struck blind while driving home from work, his whole world suddenly turned to an eerie, milky haze. One by one, each person he encounters – his wife, his doctor, even the seemingly good samaritan who gives him a lift home – will in due course suffer the same unsettling fate. As the contagion spreads, and panic and paranoia set in across the city, the newly blind victims of the “White Sickness” are rounded up and quarantined within a crumbling, abandoned mental asylum, where all semblance of ordinary life begins to break down. But inside the quarantined hospital, there is one secret eyewitness: one woman (four-time Academy Award® nominee Julianne Moore) who has not been affected but has pretended she is blind in order to stay beside her beloved husband (Mark Ruffalo). Armed with increasing courage and the will to survive, she will lead a makeshift family of seven people on a journey, through horror and love, depravity and beauty, warfare and wonder, to break out of the hospital and into the devastated city where they may be the only hope left. Their journey shines a light on both the dangerous fragility of society and the exhilarating spirit of humanity. It is brought to life by Academy Award® nominated director Fernando Meirelles from a screenplay by Tony Award winner Don McKellar, based on the international bestseller by Jose Saramago, and an ensemble cast that includes: Julianne Moore (Far From Heaven, The Hours), Mark Ruffalo (Zodiac, Reservation Road), Alice Braga (I Am Legend, City of God), Yusuke Iseya (Sukiyaki Western Django, Kakuto), Yoshino Kimura (Sukiyaki Western Django, Semishigure), Don McKellar (Monkey Warfare, Childstar), Maury Chaykin (Where the Truth Lies, Being Julia), with Danny Glover (Dreamgirls, The Color Purple), and Gael García Bernal (Babel, The Motorcycle Diaries, Y tu mamá también). Blindness is produced by Niv Fichman, Andrea Barata Ribeiro and Sonoko Sakai. The executive producers are Gail Egan, Simon Channing Williams, Tom Yoda, Akira Ishii and Victor Loewy. The co-producers are Bel Berlinck and Sari Friedland. Location: Sunshine 143 E Houston Street, New York, NY 10002 |
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Rachel Getting Married ALREADY SCREENED Studio: Sony Pictures Classics Director: Jonathan Demme Cast: Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt Writer: Jenny Lumet Q&A: Jonathan Demme and cast members When Kym (Anne Hathaway) returns to the Buchman family home for the wedding of her sister Rachel (Rosemarie Dewitt), she brings a long history of personal crisis, family conflict and tragedy along with her. The wedding couple’s abundant party of friends and relations have gathered for a joyful weekend of feasting, music and love, but Kym—with her biting one-liners and flair for bombshell drama—is a catalyst for long-simmering tensions in the family dynamic. Filled with the rich and eclectic characters that remain a hallmark of Jonathan Demme’s films, Rachel Getting Married paints a heartfelt, perceptive and sometimes hilarious family portrait. Director Demme, first-time writer Jenny Lumet, and the stellar acting ensemble leaven the drama of these difficult but compelling people with wry affection and generosity of spirit. Location: Sunshine 143 E Houston Street, New York, NY 10002 |
