Spring 2012 Film Series

Ojai Playhouse, 145 E Ojai Ave., Ojai
Sundays, 4:30 pm

Tickets Prices

$10    General Admission
$ 7     Seniors (65 and older) & Students (with ID)
FREE for 2012 Subscribers

2012 Spring-Fall Subscriptions Available: $100
(Please go to the Home Page to pay through PayPal.)

The Women on the 6th Floor  

April 8, 2012

France   2011  (1 hr., 44 min.)   Not Rated

It’s 1960s Paris. Jean Louis and Suzanne are a bourgeois couple living in a spacious apartment that has been in his family for generations. He is a staid stockbroker, while she spends her days in the pursuits favored by the idle rich. In the cramped and ill-tended sixth floor above their antique filled apartment resides a very different social class—immigrant maids from Spain. As in The Help, the maids and their employers live in alternate universes. This soon changes when a new maid, Maria, is hired to replace their long-suffering former maid.

     The Women on the Sixth Floor has something for everyone. The maids are a delightful collection of high-spirited women, each of whom has a story:  from the one who husbands her meager wages so that one day she can build her dream house in Spain, to the cynical, chain-smoking left-wing radical who has no use for the moneyed class. But it is Maria, whose elegant beauty is matched by her steely determination not to be treated as a household appliance, who is the center of the film. Her effect on her fellow maids and Jean Louis and his family will change everything.

    "The French...have been making funny and agreeable movie farces forever and seeing The Women on the 6th Floor makes you hope they’ll never stop"-Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

Director Rodrigo García’s Albert Nobbs—a long-treasured project of star, co-writer and co-producer Glenn Close—is a sweet and sensitive film. Albert Nobbs is a woman masquerading as a man so she can support herself in late-19th-century Dublin. Close, who was nominated for a 2012 Oscar for her role, gives a remarkable performance as the woman-turned-man who has found a kind of place as an impeccably groomed butler at Morrison’s Hotel.

    The film is about Albert’s gradual awakening to the world and to a dream she harbors. This slow dawning comes about through her new relationship with a house painter, Hubert Page. As they become friends and confidants Albert sees a possibility for happiness. She is drawn to the idea of a home, a fireside and someone to share it with. Her simple dream of opening a tobacconist shop takes on the addition of finding a wife to share it with.

    Glenn Close, who played the part on stage in 1982, brings a sweetness, vulnerability and fragility to the character. The affecting drama—and occasional comedy—of the film exerts an appeal that isn’t easy to describe, though some of it has to do with the great supporting cast. Albert Nobbs manages to be a tender and touching film.

    “[A] funny, sorrowful, richly layered and tremendously moving film.”-Rafer Guzman, Newsday

France’s official 2012 Academy Awards entry for Best Foreign Language Film, Declaration of War is a life-affirming and deeply moving film directed by Valérie Donzelli, who also co-wrote the script and co-stars with Jérémie Elkaim. With qualities akin to Francois Truffaut, the film follows newly in love Romeo and Juliette. Their romance unfolds in the bright city of Paris as they frolic and kiss passionately. They are free spirits who care little about the traditional ideas of work and marriage.

     Then, their son Adam is born and they must face the ultimate test when they discover he is very ill. Gathering friends and family together, they confront the ordeal as a form of warfare:  the needed strength to deal with doctors, hospitals and procedures. The changes in their lives brought by Adam's illness offer Romeo and Juliette a course in responsibility, patience and co-operation.

     The story is infused with unexpected verve using a host of cinematic techniques and top-drawer soundtracks. Donzelli and Elkaim give stellar and nuanced performances as the young couple who courageously do the best they can under fire. Declaration of War is their true story and the result is a film that will bring tears to your eyes, but will dazzle you with its contagious vitality for life.

    “Declaration of War feels very present, very alive. And it’s very much worth seeing.”-Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

In the ‘50s and ‘60s Marilyn Monroe was the quintessential sex goddess. She was also a bundle of insecurities that manifested itself in maddening movie set behavior. Her screen presence was magnetic but getting that type of performance was an exercise in constant frustration for everyone around her.

    In My Week With Marilyn, Marilyn (Michelle Williams) has arrived in England to film The Prince and the Showgirl, directed by the legendary Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh.) Nothing in Sir Laurence’s experience has prepared him for dealing with her mercurial personality. She won’t show up on time, doesn’t know her lines, and he is soon at his wits’ end. Enter Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne), a very proper young film apprentice who is given the job of minding Marilyn. It will be a week he will always remember.

    While My Week With Marilyn is ostensibly about Colin and Marilyn, it really centers on the struggles between Marilyn and Sir Laurence and is a showcase for two of the best performances of last year (Williams was nominated for an Academy Award.) It is also a fascinating and nuanced portrait of a pop culture icon whose talent was sadly, finally, overcome by her internal demons.

    “It took a toll on Marilyn Monroe to look effortlessly buoyant on camera. Michelle Williams lets us see why. It's a great, soulful performance."-Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

Germain (Gérard Depardieu) is a jack-of-all-trades in the small French town where he was born. He lives in a trailer behind his mother’s stone house. Through flashbacks we see how she and others taunted him when he was a child, destroying his self-esteem. Now in his 50s, grossly overweight and nearly illiterate, he’s considered the village idiot by some. The only bright spots in his life are his glorious garden and his amorous relationship with Annette, a lovely bus driver who adores him for his gentleness and kind heart.

    One afternoon in the park, Germain meets Margueritte (Gisèle Casadesus), a petite 95-year-old woman who is his complete opposite−delicate, articulate, intelligent and well read. It turns out they both love the pigeons that hang around the park bench. Germain has named them all. Margueritte loves books and, sensing her new friend is ashamed of his reading skills, begins reading Camus' The Plague to him. Their reading sessions continue and soon Germain is reading on his own. His world opens to the wonder and enchantment of books.

    Their friendship deepens as they are lifted by the camaraderie of experiencing literary masterworks together. When Margueritte’s children place her in a nursing home Germain is heart broken. The surprising and delightful ending brings this tender drama to a perfect close. My Afternoons With Margueritte celebrates the wisdom of both the heart and the mind.

Simin wants out of a country in which she sees no future. Her husband Nader refuses to leave, insisting he cannot abandon his Alzheimer’s-afflicted father. They both have valid claims but neither will give an inch. Simin leaves for her parents while Nader is left to take care of his father and their young daughter Termah.

    With Simin gone, Nader hires a home healthcare worker, Razieh, who, it turns out, has no experience in taking care of a nearly helpless man. She makes a mistake that could have proven fatal. When Nader gets home and finds out what happened, the two of them get into a rapidly escalating confrontation. Then something happens that will leave both of them at the not-so-tender mercies of an Iranian court.

    A Separation, this year’s Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film, is a brilliantly executed morality play chronicling what happens when otherwise decent people are led astray by ingrained cultural norms and a stubborn refusal to consider any point of view other than their own. As both a cautionary tale of the havoc wrought by self-righteousness and a window into contemporary Iranian society, writer/director Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation is filmmaking at its very best.

    “A Separation is a landmark film. There is no way you will able to get it out of your head."-Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

A charming romance involving a misbehaving young man who at the end brings forth a literary masterpiece, Young Goethe in Love explains how and why Goethe came to write The Sorrows of Young Werther, the autobiographical novel that made him an international literary sensation.

    But you needn't know a thing about Goethe or his works to enjoy this film. In 1772, Johann Goethe (Alexander Fehling) is a handsome and rebellious student who fails his bar exam. His domineering and wealthy father is dismayed when he learns of his son's yearning to be a poet. In order to instill more discipline and responsibility in him, his father gets Goethe a job as a lowly county clerk in a small German town. There he is befriended by another clerk, Jerusalem, who is ridiculed by his peers for his slow work habits. Their friendship leads to a number of humorous events. At a dance Goethe has a surprising encounter with Lotte, a beautiful young lady with a wild tangle of red hair.

    Goethe is smitten and she becomes his muse. Borrow an idea or two from Cyrano de Bergerac (unaware, Goethe and his mentor Albert are both smitten by Lotte; later Goethe serves as Albert’s unofficial coach for Lotte’s hand), then throw in some of Shakespeare in Love’s frolicking energy and you have a delightful afternoon at the movies.

In Darkness

June 3, 2012

Poland   2011   (2 hrs. 25 min.)   Rated R
Special Start Time 4pm

Lvov, Poland, 1942. As World War II rages, the Nazis occupy the city. Its Jewish residents desperately search for a hiding place to avoid liquidation. By chance, enter Leopold Socha, the most unlikely of heroes. By day he’s a sewer inspector; by night, a burglar. Socha has no love for the Nazis and no feeling for the Jews. But, for a price, he agrees to hide a group of Jews in the sewer system he knows quite well. For their part, the Jews don’t like Socha either, but they go along with the arrangement.

    For over a year the survival story plays out, mostly below ground, occasionally above. Socha discovers that “his Jews” are not interchangeable; they are individuals with human frailties and flaws, like him. And, with his own life and theirs in the balance, he rises to the occasion.
    Inspired by a true story and directed by Agnieszka Holland (Europa, Europa), In Darkness was nominated for numerous awards, including the 2012 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the St. Louis Film Festival’s Audience Favorite Award.

    “Like few other movies, In Darkness gets at the mania of those who would risk everything to save others. Socha is bewildered by the man he has become, and exultant, too. He astonishes himself─and us.”─Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor

Jiro Dreams of Sushi

June 10, 2012

USA   2011   (1 hr., 21 min.)   Rated PG

Outwardly the restaurant Sukiyabashi Jiro does not dazzle. Ten seats, located in a Tokyo subway station. Yet this place regularly receives Michelin’s coveted 3-star rating. Prospective diners wait months for reservations. Ultimately they pay upwards of $300 U.S. for—sushi. No appetizers, no dessert. They leave delighted.

    Emerson said, “An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man.” Jiro Ono, age 85, has spent 75 years perfecting sushi. His two sons are expected to carry on, a daunting task. By tradition, the elder will inherit the business. His true passion is flying, but tradition trumps passion. Meanwhile, the younger, perhaps to escape the shadow, opens his own sushi place.

    With camera work as ravishing and music as elegant as Sukiyabashi’s end product, director David Gelb explores every aspect of the institution:  fish mongers, apprentices, employees who burn out after one day and food critics. But the film is much more than a sushi procedural. The subtext is family, friendship, the work ethic and the quest for perfection.

    There is much more to Sukiyabashi Jiro than meets the eye, and to the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi. “At its simplest level, Jiro Dreams of Sushi is a portrait of a master. In its deeper layers, it explores what drives us to make things: Beautiful, jewel-like things, or things that delight our palate─or, in this case, both.”─Stephanie Zacherak, Movieline

Monsieur Lazhar

June 17, 2012

Canada   2011   (1 hr., 34 min.)   Rated PG-13

At a Montreal elementary school a teacher hangs herself in her classroom. Her dangling body is discovered by two of her students, Simon and Alice. The school goes into crisis mode:  grief counseling, repainting. A substitute teacher, an Algerian immigrant, Monsieur Lazhar (played by Algerian actor Mohamed Fellag), steps into the breach.

    Adapted from the one-man play by Évelyne de la Chenelière, Monsieur Lazhar follows the title character as he navigates the classroom and the broader French Canadian culture, both of them foreign to him. His journey plays out against his own personal background of danger and tragedy, compounded by his current immigration issues. Monsieur Lazhar’s story is interwoven with the relationship between Simon and Alice, which grows troubled in the wake of their former teacher’s suicide.

    Directed by Philippe Falardeau, Monsieur Lazhar won the Best Canadian Feature Film Award at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival. It was nominated for multiple Genie Awards (Canada’s Academy Award), as well as for the 2012 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

    “This isn’t just another tale of an idealistic teacher struggling with fractious students, such as The Class or To Sir, With Love. It’s a tapestry of fraught relationships, weaving issues of parental authority, social taboos and national boundaries. Empathy comes through understanding, but it’s not easily achieved. It never is.”─Peter Howell, Toronto Star

Carnage

June 24, 2012

France/Germany   2011   (1 hr., 20 min.)   Rated R

A Roman Polanski comedy? An oxymoron, right? Given Polanski’s film resume (Chinatown, Rosemary’s Baby, Repulsion, etc.), you would assume that the comedy must be dark indeed. And it is.

    A playground scuffle erupts between two young boys. The loser winds up needing dental work. The winner’s parents, the Cowans (Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz), visit the loser’s parents, the Longstreets (Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly), to calmly discuss the situation and set things right. Clear the air. Draft an agreed-upon statement. Maybe head off litigation. Have a full and frank exchange of views.

    More like an out-and-out donnybrook, as it turns out. Well, it seemed like a good idea, going in. But the Longstreets’ use of the descriptive “armed” applied to Cowans’s son on the fateful day charts a bad course for the evening. Add to this unpromising start the social and political differences between the couples, plus alcohol, and matters degenerate into a Bermuda Triangle of Interpersonal Relations. For the Cowans and Longstreets, not so good. For us, highly entertaining.

    The script is razor-sharp. Yasmina Reza, together with director Polanski, adapted her Olivier Prize-winning play, The Gods of Carnage. The acting, from four A-list performers, is uniformly, predictably, first-rate.

    “It’s hysterical in the best sense of the word, but it's also cunning, powerful, and brilliant… .”─Jeffrey Anderson, Combustible Celluloid

Undefeated

July 1, 2012

USA   2011   (1 hr., 53 min.)   Rated PG-13

     This year’s Oscar-winning documentary Undefeated breathes new life into the long-running cliché of the underdog sports team film genre. Manassas High in Memphis, Tennessee, may look sparkling new but it is in the middle of an urban wasteland. Discipline and teamwork are not the hallmarks of the Tigers. Leveraging their ill-stared reputation as chronic losers, they raise money for equipment by sharing part of the gate with high school powerhouses who use them as tackling dummies in pre-season games. But better days are on the horizon thanks to years of hard work by volunteer coach Bill Courtney.

     Undefeated is set in the world of football, but this is the backdrop not the subject. At heart the film is about what it takes to overcome adversity. Team members “Money,” “Chavis” and “O.C.” are all struggling in different ways to escape the confines of a world stacked against them. They could have no better ally in this quest than Coach Courtney. Despite every setback, and even when it would be easy to give up on some of them, he never quits. He is a gifted leader and they become young men who transcend the obstacles placed before them. Undefeated is inspirational filmmaking at its best.

    “If you can get through this dry-eyed you are made of sterner stuff than I am.”─Gary Thompson, Philadelphia Daily

NOTE: All dialog in films from non-English speaking countries will be presented in its original language accompanied by English subtitles.