FACES, PLACES – February 3rd

Showtimes 7 + 9:30 in room 1-306 at CNC.  

All ticket at the door: $8 regular; $7 student, senior, unemployed

February 3rd: Faces, Places
Directors: Agnès Varda, JR
FRANCE, 2017 French w/ English subtitles 89 minutes
With: Agnès Varda, JR

A treasure of global cinema, Agnès Varda makes films alive with curiosity and playful- ness. Now in her eighties, she remains the world’s most youthful filmmaker. Her latest nonfiction film is an inspired collaboration with JR, the mysterious French street artist. Like many of Varda’s works, Faces Places is a kind of travelogue in which the wonder of each locale visited is only as potent as the populace whose existence affects it.
Their plan is simple: Varda and JR roam from place to place in JR’s truck, which is decorated to resemble a camera. In each place they visit, they meet people — coal miners, cheese makers, a Herculean farmer — and JR creates immense monochromatic portraits of them. Our endearing duo then affixes these portraits to various edifices all over town, quite literally, merging faces with places. The landscape Varda and JR traverse becomes a visual record of their encounters.
Among Faces Places’ most amusing refrains is Varda’s annoyance at JR’s refusal to remove his sunglasses, which she says reminds her of Jean-Luc Godard in the ’60s. The contrast between Varda’s French New Wave cohort, who represents her tremendous six-decade legacy, and JR, who embodies her vibrant present, speaks volumes about the scope of this amazing auteur’s durability and persistence of vision.
“What emerges from them, and from the relation- ship between the 88-year-old filmmaker and the thirty-something photographer, is a poignant meditation on everything from self-revelation in the age of the selfie to change in rural France. This rich cross-generational exchange speaks to the persistence of French cinematic culture – Varda’s relationship with the pioneering filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard is a recurring theme – while the doc itself is a delight, subtle, touching and entertaining.”
– Kate Taylor, The Globe and Mail

TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKbjnLpxv70

LOVING VINCENT – January 27th

Showtimes 7 + 9:30 in room 1-306 at CNC.  

All ticket at the door: $8 regular; $7 student, senior, unemployed

January 27th: Loving Vincent
Directors: Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman
UNITED KINGDOM/POLAND, 2017 English 94 minutes
Principal Cast: Douglas Booth, Chris O’Dowd, Saoirse Ronan, Jerome Flynn

The world's first fully oil-painted animated feature film, Loving Vincent brings the art of Vincent van Gogh to life to recount the life story of this most mysterious, mythical, and tragic of great painters. Shot first as a live-action film, acted by a sterling cast — including Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn, The Grand Budapest Hotel), Chris O’Dowd (Molly’s Game, The Sapphires), Jerome Flynn (Game of Thrones), and stage actor Robert Gulaczyk as van Gogh — and then painted over frame by frame with oils, Loving Vincent is simply an extraordinary cinematic achievement.
This unexpected murder mystery follows in the aftermath of van Gogh’s death in July 1890. Armand Roulin (Douglas Booth; Mary Shelley, The Limehouse Golem), the son of an Arles postman (O’Dowd), is instructed by his father to deliver a newly discovered letter to Vincent’s brother, Theo, who had supported the painter emotionally and financially. Making his journey from Paris and then to Auvers-sur-Oise, the northern French town where Vincent died, Armand encounters various people (many subjects from famous van Gogh paintings) who provide contradictory anecdotes about the painter's death, suggesting it may not have been a suicide after all.
The artist’s intoxicating colours and thick, vibrant brushstrokes come to life in jaw-dropping detail, making this a film best seen on the big screen. The film took more than six years to complete, with about 125 artists diligently hand-painting over 65,000 frames. With the van Gogh Museum in the Netherlands, the ultimate authority on the artist, officially endorsing the film, this will be the most visually stunning and magical film your audiences will see this year.
“Loving Vincent may exist as a showcase for its technique, but it’s the sensitivity the film shows toward its subject that ultimately distinguishes this particular oeuvre from the countless bad copies that already litter the world’s flea markets .”
– Peter Debruge, Variety

TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gy0RVDM1sNA

BREATHE – January 20th

Showtimes 7 + 9:30 in room 1-306 at CNC.  

All ticket at the door: $8 regular; $7 student, senior, unemployed

January 20th: Breathe
Director: Andy Serkis
USA, 2017 English Run time 118 minutes
Principal Cast: Andrew Garfield, Claire Foy, Hugh Bonneville

After years of critical success as an actor, Andy Serkis (Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings) makes his directorial debut with Breathe, the inspiring biopic portrait of Robin Cavendish. After being diagnosed with polio at age 28, Cavendish served as a global advocate for people living with disabilities and assisted in the development of medical technologies that transformed the lives of paralyzed individuals everywhere.
Andrew Garfield (Hacksaw Ridge, 99 Homes) stars as Cavendish alongside Claire Foy (The Lady in the Van, TV’s The Crown) as devoted wife Diana Blacker in this heartwarming chronicle of a couple determined to break barriers for families facing physical challenges. Completely paralyzed from the neck down, Cavendish was put on a medical respirator but refused to be confined by his hospital bed. Against his doctors’ advice, he and Diana bravely set off on a worldwide quest with their son, Jonathan, to share their story. Not only was Cavendish a miracle of science for being one of the longest living polio survivors, but he was also a pioneer in the medical community for his innovating efforts to enhance mobility for the physically impaired. With the help of his friend, professor, and inventor Teddy Hall (Hugh Bonneville, The Monuments Men; TV’s Downton Abbey), Cavendish used himself as a guinea pig to test the first wheelchair with a built-in respirator. While he and Diana faced unique pressures in their relationship, their unwavering strength and spirit lies at the heart of this story.
Known for his performance capture roles in films like the The Hobbit and The Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Serkis daringly steps into a new genre in this brilliant, life-affirming love story about perseverance, courage, and human connection. Garfield master- fully pulls off a challenging performance, transforming physically and psychologically to capture Cavendish’s optimistic and resilient spirit. Written by two-time Academy Award nominee William Nicholson and pro- duced by Cavendish’s son, Breathe shares one of the most hopeful and awe-inspiring tales of the season.

TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y0t2n_8iTc