Variety’s 2008 Screening Series Calendar
October
This schedule will be updated frequently, so please return to this website for details on new events as they are added.
Los Angeles Screening Series (New York)
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Synecdoche, New York ALREADY SCREENED Studio: Sony Pictures Classics Director: Charlie Kaufman Screenplay: Charlie Kaufman Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Samantha Morton, Michelle Williams, Catherine Keener Q&A: Director/Writer/Producer, Charlie Kaufman From Charlie Kaufman comes a visual and philosophic adventure, Synecdoche, New York. As he did with his groundbreaking scripts for Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Kaufman twists and subverts form and language as he delves into the mind of a man who, obsessed with his own mortality, sets out to construct a massive artistic enterprise that could give some meaning to his life. Theater director Caden Cotard (Hoffman) is mounting a new play. His life catering to suburban blue-hairs at the local regional theater in Schenectady, New York is looking bleak. His wife Adele (Keener) has left him to pursue her painting in Berlin, taking their young daughter Olive (Sadie Goldstein) with her. His therapist, Madeleine Gravis (Davis), is better at plugging her best-seller than she is at counseling him. A new relationship with the alluringly candid Hazel (Morton) has prematurely run aground. And a mysterious condition is systematically shutting down each of his autonomic functions, one by one. Worried about the transience of his life, he leaves his home behind. He gathers an ensemble cast into a warehouse in New York City, hoping to create a work of brutal honesty. He directs them in a celebration of the mundane, instructing each to live out their constructed lives in a growing mockup of the city outside. The years rapidly fold into each other, and Caden buries himself deeper into his masterpiece, but the textured tangle of real and theatrical relationships blurs the line between the world of the play and that of Caden’s own deteriorating reality. Location: ArcLight Hollywood 6360 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, 90028 |
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Happy-Go-Lucky ALREADY SCREENED Studio: Miramax Director: Mike Leigh Screenplay: Mike Leigh Cast: Sally Hawkins, Alexis Zegerman Q&A: Director Mike Leigh and Sally Hawkins Just how hard is it to be happy? In the effervescent new comedy from director Mike Leigh (Vera Drake, Secrets & Lies), Sally Hawkins stars as Poppy, an irrepressibly free-spirited school teacher who brings an infectious laugh and an unsinkable sense of optimism to every situation she encounters, offering us a touching, truthful and deeply life-affirming exploration of one of the most mysterious and often the most elusive of all human qualities: happiness. Poppy’s ability to maintain her perspective is tested as the story begins and her commuter bike is stolen. However, she enthusiastically signs up for driving lessons with Scott (Eddie Marsan), who turns out to be her nemesis – a fuming, uptight cynic. As the tension of their weekly lessons builds, Poppy encounters even more challenges to her positive state of mind: a fiery flamenco instructor, her bitter pregnant sister, a troubled homeless man and a young bully in her class, not to mention that she has also thrown out her back. How this affects not only Poppy’s world view but also the outlook of those around her begs the question “glass half full or half empty”? Shot in Mike Leigh’s renowned style in which the director and the actors create the characters in improv sessions before the cameras roll, Happy-Go-Lucky stars Sally Hawkins, Eddie Marsan, Alexis Zegerman, Sylvestra Le Touzel, Stanley Townsend, Kate O’Flynn, Caroline Martin, Oliver Maltman, Sarah Niles, Samuel Roukin, Karina Fernandez, Nonso Anozie, Sinéad Matthews, and Andrea Riseborough. The producer is Simon Channing Williams who has previously collaborated with Leigh on 11 films, including the Palme D’Or winner and Academy Award®-nominated Secrets & Lies and the Academy Award® nominated Topsy Turvy and Vera Drake. Also re-teaming with Leigh are Academy Award® nominated cinematographer Dick Pope, Academy Award®-winning editor Jim Clark, Academy Award® nominated costume designer Jacqueline Durran and composer Gary Yershon. Joining Leigh for the first time is production designer Mike Tildesley (The Constant Gardener, 28 Days Later). Location: ArcLight Hollywood 6360 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, 90028 |
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I’ve Loved You So Long ALREADY SCREENED Studio: Sony Pictures Classics Director: Phillipe Claudel Screenplay: Phillipe Claudel Cast: Kristin Scott Thomas Q&A: Director Phillipe Claudel Léa (Elsa Zylberstein) and Juliette (Kristin Scott Thomas) are sisters. The film begins with Léa, the younger sister by fifteen years, picking Juliette up at the airport. We soon realize that the two sisters are almost complete strangers to each other. Juliette has just been released from prison after serving a long sentence. Léa was still a teenager when Juliette, a doctor, was convicted of the murder of her six-year-old son. Léa contacted Juliette when she was released and suggested that Juliette come to live with her. Juliette had no particular desire to see her sister again. Luc (Serge Hazanavicius), Léa’s husband, is quite reserved, almost hostile, about Juliette’s presence under their roof. Luc and Léa have two adopted Vietnamese daughters, who are 8 and 3 years old. Luc’s father, Papy Paul (Jean-Claude Arnaud) also lives in the house. He’s a charming old man who spends all of his time reading since a stroke deprived him of the power of speech. Life together isn’t easy to begin with. Juliette has to relearn certain basics. The world has moved on and she often seems confused. Although she may seem cold and distant, her attitude stems more from her being ill at ease. Helped by some, such as the kindly but tactless social worker and her open-hearted but depressed parole officer (Frédéric Pierrot) whose confidante she becomes, Juliette is also rejected by others, particularly employers who throw her out as soon as they find out what she did. Léa’s attitude is ambiguous. She avoids talking about Juliette’s terrible crime and time in prison at all costs. She wants nothing to blunt the happiness of their reunion and getting to know each other again. Luc mentions it reproachfully, as does Juliette in a different way. Gradually, the real Juliette emerges. She opens up to the world once more, thanks to her two nieces, with whom she becomes very close after being very stiff with them at the beginning, and Michel (Laurent Grevill), a friend of Léa’s, and Papy Paul, who, in a more symbolic way, knows what it’s like to be locked away. Juliette gets a job as a medical secretary at the local hospital on the condition that she never mentions she used to be a doctor. Her relationship with Léa becomes much stronger and more intimate. Even Luc succeeds in pushing his preconceptions to one side and seeing Juliette as his sister-in-law, not as a murderer. But a huge questions hangs over Juliette’s renaissance. Why did she do such a terrible thing fifteen years ago? For all the others, it’s a recurrent thought that they dare not put into words. And for Juliette, locked away in her secret, it’s a burden to bear, which holds her back from engaging in her life and believing that she too has the right to be happy. Location: ArcLight Hollywood 6360 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, 90028 |
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The Secret Life of Bees ALREADY SCREENED Studio: Fox Searchlight Director: Gina Prince-Bythewood Screenplay: Gina Prince-Bythewood Cast: Queen Latifah, Dakota Fanning, Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys Q&A: Dakota Fanning, Writer Gina Prince-Bythewood The Secret Life Of Bees, based on the New York Times best selling novel and set in South Carolina in 1964, is the moving tale of Lily Owens (Dakota Fanning, War Of The Worlds), a 14 year-old girl who is haunted by the memory of her late mother (Hilarie Burton, One Tree Hill). To escape her lonely life and troubled relationship with her father (Paul Bettany, The Da Vinci Code), Lily flees with Rosaleen (Academy® Award winner Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls), her caregiver and only friend, to a South Carolina town that holds the secret to her mother's past. Taken in by the intelligent and independent Boatwright sisters (Academy® Award nominated Queen Latifah, Chicago; Academy® Award nominated Sophie Okonedo, Hotel Rwanda; Alicia Keys, Smokin’ Aces), Lily finds solace in their mesmerizing world of beekeeping. The film also stars Nate Parker (The Great Debaters) & Tristan Wilds (The Wire), and is directed and adapted by Gina Prince-Bythewood (Love And Basketball). Location: ArcLight Hollywood 6360 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, 90028 |
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Vicky Cristina Barcelona ALREADY SCREENED Studio: The Weinstein Company Director: Woody Allen Screenplay: Woody Allen Cast: Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson Q&A: Rebecca Hall Two young American women, Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) come to Barcelona for a summer holiday. Vicky (Rebecca Hall) is sensible and engaged to be married; Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) is emotionally and sexually adventurous. In Barcelona, they’re drawn into a series of unconventional romantic entanglements with Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem), a charismatic painter, who is still involved with his tempestuous ex-wife Maria Elena (Penelope Cruz). Set against the luscious Mediterranean sensuality of Barcelona, Vicky Cristina Barcelona is Woody Allen’s funny and open-minded celebration of love in all its configurations. Location: ArcLight Hollywood 6360 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, 90028 |
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Captain Abu Raed ALREADY SCREENED Studio: Gigapix Studios Director: Amin Matalqa Screenplay: Amin Matalqa Cast: Nadim Sawalha, Rana Sultan, Hussein Al-Sous, Udey Al-Qiddissi, Ghandi Saber, Dina Ra’ad Yaghnam Q&A: Director Amin Matalqa Captain Abu Raed is a universal story of friendship, inspiration and heroism set in contemporary Jordan. Abu Raed is a lonely janitor at Amman’s International Airport. Never having realized his dreams of seeing the world, he experiences it vicariously through books and brief encounters with travelers. Finding a discarded Captain’s hat in the trash at work one day, he is followed by a neighborhood boy who spots him wearing it as he walks home. The next morning he wakes up to find a group of neighborhood children at his door, believing him to be an airline pilot. And thus the friendship begins. Happy for the company and attention, he takes the children to colorful places around the world through his fictional stories and inspires them to believe in their own ambitions. Murad, an angry outsider to the group, vindictively attacks Abu Raed and the sense of hope he instills in the children. In his quest to prove that Abu Raed is a liar and a fake, Murad begins to discover new possibilities in his life. Meanwhile, Abu Raed’s friendship with Nour, a real female pilot, begins to grow as she deals with her own set of pressures from life in modern Amman. Captain Abu Raed is the story of everyday people intersecting across social boundaries. It is a story of dreams, friendship, forgiveness, and sacrifice. Location: ArcLight Hollywood 6360 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, 90028 |
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Changeling ALREADY SCREENED Studio: Universal Director: Clint Eastwood Screenplay: J. Michael Straczynski Cast: Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, Jeffrey Donovan, Colm Feore, Amy Ryan, Michael Kelly Q&A: Screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski Clint Eastwood directs Angelina Jolie and John Malkovich in a provocative thriller based on actual events: Changeling. In the film, Christine Collins’ (Jolie) prayers are met when her kidnapped son is returned. But amidst the frenzy of the photo-op reunion, she realizes this child is not hers. Facing corrupt police and a skeptical public, she desperately hunts for answers, only to be confronted by a truth that will change her forever. Los Angeles, 1928: On a Saturday morning in a working-class suburb, Christine said goodbye to her son, Walter, and left for work. When she came home, she discovered he had vanished. A fruitless search ensues, and months later, a boy claiming to be the nine-year-old is returned. Dazed by the swirl of cops, reporters and her conflicted emotions, Christine allows him to stay overnight. But in her heart, she knows he is not Walter. As she pushes authorities to keep looking, she learns that in Prohibition-era L.A., women don’t challenge the system and live to tell their story. Slandered as delusional and unfit, Christine finds an ally in activist Reverend Briegleb (Malkovich), who helps her fight the city to look for her missing boy. Based on the actual incident that rocked California’s legal system, Changeling tells the shocking tale of a mother’s quest to find her son, and those who won’t stop until they silence her. Location: ArcLight Hollywood 6360 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, 90028 |
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The Visitor ALREADY SCREENED Studio: Overture Films Director: Tom McCarthy Screenplay: Tom McCarthy Cast: Richard Jenkins, Hiam Abbass, Haaz Sleiman, Danai Gurira Writer: Tom McCarthy Q&A: Director Tom McCarthy, producer Michael London, Richard Jenkins, Haaz Sleiman In a world of six billion people, it only takes one to change your life. In actor and filmmaker Tom McCarthy’s follow-up to his award winning directorial debut The Station Agent, Richard Jenkins (Six Feet Under) stars as a disillusioned Connecticut economics professor whose life is transformed by a chance encounter in New York City. Sixty-two-year-old Walter Vale (Jenkins) is sleepwalking through his life. Having lost his passion for teaching and writing, he fills the void by unsuccessfully trying to learn to play classical piano. When his college sends him to Manhattan to attend a conference, Walter is surprised to find a young couple has taken up residence in his apartment. Victims of a real estate scam, Tarek (Haaz Sleiman), a Syrian man, and Zainab (Danai Gurira), his Senegalese girlfriend, have nowhere else to go. In the first of a series of tests of the heart, Walter reluctantly allows the couple to stay with him. Touched by his kindness, Tarek, a talented musician, insists on teaching the aging academic to play the African drum. The instrument’s exuberant rhythms revitalize Walter’s faltering spirit and open his eyes to a vibrant world of local jazz clubs and Central Park drum circles. As the friendship between the two men deepens, the differences in culture, age and temperament fall away. After being stopped by police in the subway, Tarek is arrested as an undocumented citizen and held for deportation. As his situation turns desperate, Walter finds himself compelled to help his new friend with a passion he thought he had long ago lost. When Tarek’s beautiful mother Mouna (Hiam Abbass) arrives unexpectedly in search of her son, the professor’s personal commitment develops into an unlikely romance. And it’s through these new found connections with these virtual strangers that Walter is awakened to a new world and a new life. Location: ArcLight Hollywood 6360 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, 90028 |
