IN THEATRE


Cinestudio presents another Academy Award-films nominated for Best Picture, for everyone who hasn’t been able to see it in a real cinema! The Father also picked up nominations for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress for Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Coleman, who play a man struggling with dementia, and his frustrated but loving daughter. What stands out is French writer/director Florian Zeller’s choice to see the world through the father’s eyes. In refusing to limit Hopkins’s character to a victim, The Father asks questions of memories, consciousness and compassion that affect everyone.



Cinestudio is pleased to present one of the best films of 2020 on the big screen. Nominated for six Academy Awards, including the first for an Asian American woman for Best Picture and Best Actor. Yeun plays a Korean immigrant who moves his wife and two young children from Los Angeles to rural Arkansas, to grow and sell Korean vegetables though his wife Monica isn’t sure about the trailer home. For the children, it’s their grandmother who links an immigrant past to their life in the Ozarks.



Exhibition on Screen opens the doors to an extraordinary show in Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum, that brings together five of the Dutch artist’s iconic Sunflower paintings from London, Philadelphia, Tokyo, Munich and Amsterdam. Why was Van Gogh obsessed with the exotic sunflower, and how does each painting change from version to version? What were scientists able to discover when they analysed the works? All is revealed in this dazzling film, shown in high-definition on Cinestudio’s immersive screen.

 

 

 

 



The final performance of 43-year-old Chadwick Boseman is a powerful film based on a play by the great August Wilson. Viola Davis plays pioneering blues artist Ma Rainey, who struggled to for control in an industry run by white men. It is set in a 1920s Chicago recording studio where everyone’s desires are at odds: an ambitious cornet player (Boseman) wants to promote his songs, white producers want a hit, and Ma Rainey fights to keep Black culture alive and swinging.



Celebrate undergraduate short films at the World Premiere of the 10th Annual Trinity Film Festival! Every year, Trinity Film Festival offers undergraduates from around the world the opportunity to premiere their short films on the big screen for an audience of peers, professionals, and local filmgoers. This year we are happy to hold both an online as well as an in-person screening of these films.



Winner of the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, Promising Young Woman gleefully exposes rape culture and the harm that (some) men are capable of inflicting. Emerald Fennell’s funny, pastel-toned and provocative movie stars Carey Mulligan (Never Let Me Go) as Cassie, whose time in med school was derailed by a friend’s sexual assault. Burning with rage, she works in a coffee shop by day and picks up unsuspecting bros by night… to give them a taste of their own nasty medicine.



OUTFILM CT presents May’s Queer Thursdays electrifying selection: a neon fantasia of erotic discovery set in the rustic (and conservative) Catalan countryside warmed by an insinuating dry wind. Filmmaker Daniel Nolasco follows the yearnings of Sandro (Leandro Faria Lelo), a shy, hunky bear who spices up his life as a factory manager with explicit sexual encounters—both real and imagined.



HELD OVER – Winner of the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, Promising Young Woman gleefully exposes rape culture and the harm that (some) men are capable of inflicting. Emerald Fennell’s funny, pastel-toned and provocative movie stars Carey Mulligan (Never Let Me Go) as Cassie, whose time in med school was derailed by a friend’s sexual assault. Burning with rage, she works in a coffee shop by day and picks up unsuspecting bros by night… to give them a taste of their own nasty medicine.



The Human Voice. 2020 robbed moviegoers of so much, it also inspired some directors to experiment. Pedro Almodóvar responded with a fantastic short film based on Jean Cocteau’s monologue of a woman on the telephone with her faithless lover – now updated and starring a more independent Tilda Swinton. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. Even before remaking The Human Voice, Almodóvar was inspired by its rejected woman driven to despair in his 1988 classic movie. But in Madrid, angst morphs into comedy, as Carmen Maura tries to track down her lover. It’s a wild adventure including barbiturate-spiked gazpacho, accidental hookups with terrorists, and the possibilities of turning rivals into comrades.



Cinestudio kicks off its Summer of Cinema with a dazzling 4K restoration of a sun-saturated psychological thriller, directed by Jacques Deray, known as “the French Hitchcock.” The film opens with two lovers (equally gorgeous Alain Delon and Romy Schneider) on vacation in a villa in St. Tropez. Their languorous interlude is disrupted by the arrival of Schneider’s amorous ex (Maurice Ronet) and his 18-year old daughter, played by a touchingly young Jane Birkin.



Treat yourself to the spirit-recharging movie of the summer, with the brilliant songwriting of Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton). Just like West Side Story and Saturday Night Fever, The Heights was filmed in New York City, capturing all of its kinetic energy. The film follows two couples: Usnavi & Vanessa  played by Anthony Ramos and Melissa Barrera; and Benny (taxi dispatcher) & Nina, (Stanford student). But it’s the Heights’ Latino community –its music and stubborn belief in the American Dream – that touches the soul.



Truman & Tennessee celebrates the friendship of two American writers, mixing footage of Capote and Williams with excerpts from their revealing correspondence. Both authors grew up in the pre-WW II South, where being gay was hidden and dangerous. Nevertheless, they went on to write some of the 20th century’s best books (Breakfast at Tiffany’s), and plays (A Streetcar Named Desire) that are tinged with an appreciation for the misunderstood and the outcasts.



“What would have happened if this had been allowed a seat at the table?” The unanswerable question by Questlove (DJ, producer, drummer for The Roots) is about the Harlem Cultural Festival in 1969. Blown away by the forgotten footage, Questlove made a film celebrating performers including Stevie Wonder, Sly and the Family Stone, Max Roach, and Nina Simone –  not to mention Mahalia Jackson and Mavis Staples in a heartrending tribute to Martin Luther King Jr.



Morgan Ingari’s first film is a bittersweet comedy that lives in the sweet spot of the zeitgeist. Molly Bernard (Younger) plays a 20-something Brooklynite who feels less successful with each friend’s marriage or step up the career ladder. Drowning her insecurity at a local bar, she becomes friendly with an older gay man who desperately want to be a father. And while surrogacy seems to be the solution, misunderstandings threaten their beautiful dream.



 

 

The first narrative film by documentarian Heidi Ewing (Jesus Camp) is based on the true-life journey of a Mexican chef with the dream of bringing his unique style of cooking to New York City. The film opens with Iván Garcia (Armando Espitia) as a young man in homophobic Puebla, cleaning tables and planning his escape. Falling head over heels for a grad student named Gerardo (Christian Vazquez), Garcia is torn by his quest, and the risk of never seeing Gerardo again. “With mouthwatering close-ups of the food Ivan lovingly prepares, Ewing’s film, for all its painful conflicts, never stints on the lyrical pleasures of life.” Ann Hornaday, Washington Post



Don’t be surprised to see Nicholas Cage receive his second Academy Awards Best Actor win for the indie film Pig, and a comeback performance is understated, funny and raw. As a former Portland chef, Cage finds solace from his wife’s death in truffle hunting with the help of his companion, Pig. When Pig is abducted, Cage leaves the forest to search for him in Portland’s restaurant subculture. More atmospheric mystery than thriller, Pig celebrates artistic authenticity over making a quick buck. NYT Critic’s Pick.



You would think that Academy Award-winning filmmaker Morgan Neville would find little in common between his latest subjects: the minister and children’s TV host Fred Rogers (Won’t You Be My Neighbor?); and Anthony Bourdain, the acerbic icon who traveled the world in search of culture, history and food. But according to Neville, both men fought to “show people our common humanity.” This unflinching look at Bourdain reverberates with his presence, in his own voice and in the way he indelibly impacted the world around him.



Just released in cinemas, Moffie is a devastating look back at the apartheid nation of South Africa in 1981. Soft-spoken 16-year-old Nicholas Van der Swart (Kai Luke Brummer) is serving two years of compulsory military service on the Angolan border. For Nicholas, the experience is life-changing, as he explores his sexuality with a fellow soldier. But challenging the strict status quo makes it clear – that racism, toxic masculinity and homophobia go hand in hand.

 



The best of the summer’s epics draws its enchantment from a 14th Century poem. In King Arthur’s magical world, the impulsive Gawain accepts a challenge from a creature known as the Green Knight. Gawain (a superb Dev Patel) may land the first blow, but in one year the same injury will be dealt to him. For twelve months, Gawain travels a beautiful, unpredictable medieval Britain preparing to face what may be his own death.



After winning the Best Director prize at this years Cannes Film Festival, the new film by French director Leos Carax (Holy Motors) makes its Cinestudio debut! Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard, star – and sing – in a musical scored by alt-pop group, Sparks. Driver plays an edgy comic who loves his opera singer wife (Cotillard), but is corrosively jealous of her rapturous audiences. But thoughts of A Star Is Born disappear as Carax introduces the couple’s child: a puppet with a unique voice of her own… “An anti-La La Land with dashes of Pinocchio…is a grand experiment!” –Ed Cotton, The Times UK 



Cinestudio presents the summer’s shiny new entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with dazzling action and a complex origin story. It opens with the abduction of an American “family” of undercover Russian spies, including young “sisters” Natasha and Yelena. Abductor General Dreykov’ nefarious plan is to train Natasha and Yelena (Florence Pugh) to join his elite corps of lethal Widows. 21 years later and Natasha (Scarlett Johansson) has become the ultimate assassin. However, instead of crushing the decadent West, she seeks revenge on the man who split up the only family she has known. “It’s worth seeing on a big screen, not just once but twice!” – Randy Myers, Mercury News.



Queer Thursday’s September selection is the 20th Anniversary (!) screening of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. The ultimate cult movie begins in East Germany, as genderqueer rocker Hedwig – whose reassignment surgery went very wrong – moves to Kansas to kickstart her dreams. Hedwig is flying – until her protégé (Michael Pitt), steals her songs and finds stardom. But when Hedwig performs in Times Square and reveals his true identity, it’s a victory for everyone with the courage to stand and be counted.



The best mystery of 2021 is also its unlikeliest: Andreas Koefoed’s documentary about a painting believed to be a lost masterpiece by Leonardo DaVinci. At a New Orleans auction, two art dealers buy a painting and bring it to restorer Dianne Modestini. Uncovering many layers, she is amazed to find a portrait of Christ with a distinct resemblance to the Mona Lisa. Authenticated by London’s National Gallery and hung in the Louvre, it is called a miracle…until skeptics find clues that all is not as it seems.



Devoted fans of Danish TV series Borgen know how interesting it gets when women are in charge, and Wildland is written and directed by women, and Borgen’s Sidse Babett Knudsen is its charismatic star. In a very different role, Knudsen is Bodil, the cheerfully ruthless matriarch of a crime family consisting of her three equally dangerous sons. Into their world steps Bodil’s impressionable young niece. As she discovers the family business, she must decide: escape from their felonious reach, or join their adrenaline-fueled life?

 

 



Fresh from his amazing performance in the Oscar-nominated Sound of Metal, screenwriter/actor Riz Ahmed stars in a film loosely based on his own life. Ahmed plays British/Pakistani hip-hop artist Zed who’s on the verge of a big break in New York City when he comes down with a debilitating illness. Zed is forced to return home to Britain and his traditional Pakistani family – including a father (Alyy Khan) who is haunted by the past. “Ahmed is one of Britain’s most vital, risky actors.” Guy Lodge, Variety.



Don’t miss a special one-time screening of the drama, music, dancing, & comedy extravaganza that is Pitch Perfect on the big screen. In one corner it’s the uber-competitive Barden Bellas, Barden University’s female a cappella group. In the other corner, it’s every other team, as the Bellas battle for top spot on the way to the ICCA Finals.



As a writer (Taxi Driver) and director (First Reformed), Paul Schrader has brilliantly explored the search for redemption. His new psychological thriller stars Oscar Isaac (Ex Machina) as smalltime Las Vegas card counter William Tell, who survives by burying his experiences in the Iraq War. Cirk, however, is a young man (Tye Sheridan) who’s all about revenge: he’s come to Vegas to kill the Major at Abu Ghraib prison he blames for his father’s suicide. Determined to help Cirk start a new life, Tell enters the World Series of Poker in hopes of winning big, and overcoming demons of his own. “One of the best films of the year.” – Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun Times.



Martin Scorsese’s funny and brutal masterpiece returns to Cinestudio in a brand new 4k restoration. Ray Liotta stars as an Irish/Italian kid in NYC who dreams of being “somebody in a neighborhood of nobodies.” All he has to do is listen to his mafia mentors (the brilliant Joe Pesci, Robert DeNiro and Paul Sorvino) – and forget about morality. As Liotta’s wife, Lorraine Bracco (The Sopranos) is at his side from the high life to coked-out paranoia. “Anti-romantic, it nevertheless sweeps us into the allure of mob glamour — then slams us with its cost of admission.” – Jay Carr, Boston Globe.



Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Hitchcockian psychological drama is set in Kobe, just before Japan’s entry into World War II. Yusaku, an import/export businessman, is living a comfortable life with his pampered wife, Satoko. But his peace shatters when a childhood friend warns him that his international travel has aroused the suspicion of the military police. When Yusaku travels to Manchuria on business, he finds proof that Japan is testing biological weapons of war. As Yusaku and a newly-awakened Satoko try to expose Japan’s war crimes, they wonder at every turn who they can – and cannot – trust. Winner, Silver Lion for Best Director, Venice Film Festival.



Firebird is a true story of passion and paranoia set during the Cold War. Sergey Fetisov (Tom Prior, The Theory of Everything) is stationed at a Soviet-occupied Air Force base in Estonia, where his attraction to fighter pilot Roman Medveyev brings desire and fear. As a KGB investigation looms, their new love is complicated by Sergey’s entanglement with Luisa, a military secretary. As director Prior makes clear, the risks of being gay under Russian rule have not gone away.



Faro, the remote and isolated island where Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman created some of his greatest films, has always had a mystical pull on cineastes. That is certainly the case for an American filmmaking couple who spend the summer on Faro, hoping for the spark that inspired Bergman’s Persona, (the original) Scenes From a Marriage and more. Tony (Tim Roth) and Chris (Vicky Krieps) also hope their pilgrimage will bring new intimacy to their marriage. Spending time apart, Chris dreams up a film set on Faro about two young people (Mia Wasikowska and Anders Danielsen Lie) whose passion has everything she is missing. A stunning exploration of what it means to be a woman, an artist, and a devotee of a filmmaker whose life was far from perfect.



Maria Schrader’s bittersweet romantic comedy is like an AI update of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo: If you could create your perfect android partner, would you do it? Alma is a skeptical – and single – academic. When she agrees to a scientific experiment of living for three weeks with an android partner, things go south fast: over the top romantic gestures are not for her. But as the android adapts to her personality and needs, Alma asks herself if the perfect mate can be made to order – and if love can lessen the human condition of loneliness.



Six creatives and community activists from Connecticut travel the East Coast of the United States during the Covid-19 pandemic in search for answers through artistic expression amidst the 2020 presidential election and police brutality protests.



Journalist, filmmaker (Vows of Silence), and author Jason Berry will be present for the one night screening of his new documentary on the history and transcendent sounds of jazz funerals in New Orleans. The way into this little-known world is provided by two local icons. Deb ‘Big Red’ Cotton is a passionate chronicler of the bands that solemnly escort the dead to church, and joyfully lead them to the cemetery and rebirth. Dr. Michael White, educator and wailing clarinetist, digs into the past with recreations of the ring dances of enslaved Africans. Back in the present, a parade shooting turns into a search for the city’s soul.



Cinestudio is pleased to announce the return of live ballet from the legendary Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow! Our last pre-pandemic live ballet was in February 2020), but happily the dancers are now back bringing their art to selected cinemas around the globe. Spartacus premiered at the Bolshoi in 1968, thrilling audiences with its tale of a group of slaves (including Spartacus and his love, Phrygia) who resist the cruelty of their Roman captors. The vigorous performances helped to usher in a new spotlight on superb male dancers, from Rudolf Nureyev to Mikhail Baryshnikov.



“Maybe these films are my way of blessing the child.” – Hayao Miyazaki). 20 years after its first release, no one can deny that Spirited Away is a one-of-a-kind masterpiece, enjoyed by all ages. The wildly imaginative tale – best seen on the big screen – begins as 10-year-old Chihiro gets separated from her gluttonous parents at an amusement park. Trapped in a magical bathhouse, Chihiro joins an enigmatic boy (Haku) to outsmart a funny, outrageous, and scary collection of creatures including a Stink spirit, a greedy witch, and the melancholy No-Face. It’s never been a better time to reconnect with Spirited Away’s reverence for the living, natural world. Winner, Oscar for Best Animated Feature.



Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice is turning 32 and his grisly yellow-haired, snaggle-toothed, profane beauty has been lovingly restored in 4k. After Barbara (Geena Davis) and Adam Maitland (Alec Baldwin) die in a car accident, they find themselves stuck haunting their country residence, unable to leave the house. When the unbearable Deetzes (Catherine O’Hara, Jeffrey Jones) and teen daughter Lydia (Winona Ryder) buy the home, the Maitlands attempt to scare them away without success. Their efforts attract Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton), a rambunctious spirit whose “help” quickly becomes dangerous for the Maitlands and innocent Lydia.



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Even after 51 years of showing films, some new movies still manage to surprise us! Take Lamb: set in isolated rural Iceland, it is a darkly funny story that is part family drama and part supernatural folk tale. Noomi Rapace (Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish Stieg Larsson films) and Hilmer Snaer play young sheep farmers grieving the loss of their child. When one of their ewes gives birth to a strange hybrid creature, they take her in and care for her as their own. Life feels idyllic until baby Ada’s Uncle Pétur comes to visit, bringing along the stark reality of the outside world… Winner of the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard Award, and the Palm Dog Grand Prix (for Panda.)



Since we had to cancel (sorry!) our October screening of Firebird, this hotly anticipated true story of passion and Cold War paranoia is now the choice for November’s Queer Thursdays. Sergey Fetisov (Tom Prior, The Theory of Everything) is stationed at a Soviet-occupied Air Force base in Estonia, where his attraction to fighter pilot Roman Medveyev brings desire and fear. As a KGB investigation looms, their new love is complicated by Sergey’s entanglement with Luisa, a military secretary. As director Prior makes clear, the risks of being gay under Russian rule have not gone away.



The thrill of creating something unlike anything you’ve done before animates this true story set in Medieval France. Director Ridley Scott (Blade Runner), and screenwriters Nicole Holofcener, Matt Damon, and Ben Affleck plunge into a lost world, where the rules of chivalry are clear but the truth is murky. A Knight (Damon) returns from battle to his wife’s accusation that she was raped by his Squire (Adam Driver). A duel is sanctioned, but as in Kurosawa’s Rashomon, events are told through differing perspectives: the betrayed Knight, the love-struck Squire, and the woman (Julie Comer of Killing Eve) who is looking for justice. “Scott’s most entertaining movie in decades!” – Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine. 



For anyone plagued by nightmares of giant alien sea creatures: Be forewarned. For everyone else, we’re confident you’re going to enjoy our Moonlight Movie! Without giving away too much, alien sea creatures (the Kaiju) erupt from the Pacific Ocean with a fury that makes Godzilla look tame. Luckily, humans have invented Jaegers, gigantic robots controlled by two pilots whose minds are melded together. All hopes rest on a veteran pilot (Idris Elba) and a rookie (Rinko Kikuchi) to win one for Team Earth. As directed by Guillermo de Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy) don’t be surprised to see imaginative filmmaking presiding over the mayhem. “Makes monster-walloping feel fun again!”Slate.com



While it’s entertaining to watch the many movies-tv-series-musicals on Diana, Princess of Wales, Spencer is the first to explore the young mother’s inner life. Over three days before Christmas, the British royals gather at Sandringham Estate. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles fade into the background as Diana – in an Oscar-worthy performance by Kristen Stewart – struggles to free herself and her sons from her family’s expectations. Chilean director Pablo Larraín and Stewart reveal a woman using bulimia to numb her unhappiness, until she realizes that it is up to her who she decides to be. The superb cast includes Timothy Spall (Secrets and Lies) and the delightful Sally Hawkins (Happy-Go-Lucky).



Jane Campion’s eighth film in 30 years is a triumph, a psychological thriller that is also a classic Western, with her native New Zealand standing in for1925 Montana. The first woman to win Cannes’ Palme d’Or (for The Piano), Campion directs Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game) in a star-making performance as a bullying rancher named Phil, who lives with his mild-mannered brother, George (Jesse Plemons). Tension grows when George brings home a new wife (Kirsten Dunst, Melancholia) and her artistic teenage son. In a sinister twist, Phil takes the young man under his wing, for motives that lie hidden in his past. A perfect must-see on the big screen!



With the winter season upon us, it’s an excellent time to make plans with family and friends to see Moscow’s famed Bolshoi Ballet’s Nutcracker at our December 19 matinee!  Tchaikovsky’s music and matchless the dancing bring this timeless fairytale for all ages to life. On Christmas Eve, a young girl named Marie receives a nutcracker from her godfather – or is he a wizard who brings the toys to life, including her handsome Nutcracker Prince? Marie and the Prince fly over a magical Christmas tree village…until Marie wakes up in her own bed. Was it all just a beautiful dream?



In what critics are calling Wes Anderson’s best movie since The Royal Tenenbaums, an eclectic group of old-style journalists work together in a charming French city that is very much like Paris. The film shows us what is involved in producing five pieces for a Kansas-based newspaper, in a clear love letter to journalism and the people who once gave over their lives to it, while finding their own voice. Generous, funny, and surprisingly (for Anderson) erotic, with a superb cast from Benicio de Toro to Timothee Chamalet to Frances McDormand and Bill Murray.



Exhibition on Screen returns to Cinestudio with exclusive access to a 2020 exhibition at London’s Royal Academy, bringing one man’s extraordinary collection to the big-screen in glorious high-definition. In the Europe of the 1880s, Impressionism was considered radical and an insult to the conservative art world. Artists including Monet, Gaugin, Morisot, Degas, and Renoir were ridiculed and left penniless because of their obsession with light and capturing ephemeral moments of everyday life. Then, a new breed of visionary collectors appeared to champion this extraordinary new art – foremost among them Danish businessman Wilhelm Hansen, who amassed an incredible collection of 156 paintings at Ordrupgaard, his gorgeous summer home outside of Copenhagen. From Ordrupgaard to the streets of bohemian Paris, this film invites you to discover exceptional examples of 19th-century French art.



Kenneth Branagh fans can easily list his diverse films, from Murder on the Orient Express to Hamlet to TV’s Wallander. But few knew that this versatile U.K. actor/director grew up in working class (loyalist) Belfast, only leaving at age 9 to escape the growing political unrest. Branagh tells this very personal story of childhood lost with affection, humor, and sharp realism. To Buddy, played by newcomer Jude Hill, his Pa (Jamie Dornan), is an absent figure often working in the U.K. It is his ethereal mother (Outlander’s Caitríona Balfe) and down-to-earth grandparents (Judi Dench and Ciarán Hinds) who do their best to protect an imaginative boy from the attractions – and dangers – of the city’s mean streets. Winner, Best Film Award, Toronto International Film Festival.



OutFilm CT’s Queer Thursdays presents the 25th Anniversary of Bound – one of the first movies to feature two lesbian characters who are gorgeous, smart, and embrace their sexuality! It is also the first film of the Wachowski brothers, who transitioned while creating a series of incredible movies including the Matrix series, Cloud Atlas and V For Vendetta. Gina Gershon thrills as Corky, a film-noir ex-con who falls hard for Violet, a seductive femme fatale played by Jennifer Tilly. Their passion is thwarted by Violet’s jealous ex, a gangster gleefully inhabited by Joe Pantoliano of The Sopranos. The women’s plan to outsmart the mob may be risky, but there is enough chemistry going on to make for a wild ride.



The hallmark of a great movie is its ability to continue to have meaning – even new meaning – within its well-loved familiarity. Every year, we discover a new facet of Frank Capra’s classic holiday film, finding messages of sacrifice, love, community and hope. After another year of a pandemic and uncertainty, it is the movie’s awareness of life’s fragility and the need to come together that shine through. In that tradition, we invite you to take family and friends to see It’s A Wonderful Life at Cinestudio. “More than just a holiday tradition, Capra’s film is a powerful vote for the hope and change we need.”- Roger Ebert, Great Movies



Cinestudio welcomes you to a New Year of unbeatable magic of movies on the big screen! Film aficionados young and mature are returning to cinemas, and what could be a better reward than Vittorio De Sica’s fantastical triumph? The great filmmaker’s follow-up to Bicycle Thieves is a comedy with a social conscience, set in a poverty-stricken town in post-World War II, Milan. A baby found in a vegetable patch and taken in by the villagers grows up to be the sunny, guileless Totó. (Francesco Golisano) Totó’s one treasure is an enchanted dove that can grant his wishes. But when oil is found beneath the town, should he wish for wealth or freedom? “Purest gold”– the New York Times.



We all lost a giant with the death of Stephen Sondheim, who the New York Times celebrated as “one of Broadway history’s top songwriting titans.” To ease the sting, we still have his incredible collection of work  (West Side Story, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd)  – and Follies, filmed live on London’s National Stage in 2017. Set in a crumbling hall (based on NYC’s Ziegfeld) that is set for demolition, it brings together two couples (and others) who performed there in between World Wars I and II. There is grit, there is passion, and disillusionment. Above all Follies is a tribute to the shows that filled Broadway with delight.



Dance is one of the arts that we cannot do long without, if it is paused by pandemic or politics. To kick off the New Year, Cinestudio presents the Bolshoi Ballet’s LIVE transmission of George Balanchine’s Jewels. It is a brilliant and somewhat unusual choice as Balanchine, who trained in St. Petersburg’s classical technique, would eventually transform it. The ballet features three gems reflecting Balanchine’s most loved cities: Emeralds for the elegance of Paris, Rubies for the speed and modernity of New York City, and Diamonds for the glorious classics of St. Petersburg. And while Balanchine is known for the plotless ballet, there is breathtaking drama in every pas de deux.



Minyan is set in Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach in the 1980s. Sam Levine brings restless eroticism as David, a 17-year-old at war with his religious father. Which explains why he agrees to move into a new apartment with his grandfather (Ron Rifkin) on one condition: he’ll be the tenth man to make up a minyan – the minimum for Jewish communal prayer. David explores the pleasures NYC has to offer, including a very sexy (and available) bartender, in the brief moment between liberation and the coming devastation of AIDS.



Mid-pandemic, Penelope Cruz got a promise from her eight-time collaborator Pedro Almodóvar: “I am writing something for you.” What he wrote resulted in a masterpiece that is on most Top Ten lists and won Cruz the Best Actress prize at the Venice Film Festival. In a Madrid maternity ward, a photographer in her 30s (Cruz) and a frightened teenager (Milena Smit) come together as single women about to give birth. With Almodóvar at his best, women’s lives are informed by melodrama (their babies are inadvertently switched), and politics, as we discover that Cruz’ character working at one of Franco’s mass graves, searching for her great-grandfather’s bones. And, like many women around the world, a way to move towards understanding and forgiveness.



Excitement among film lovers exploded when actor Maggie Gyllenhaal announced she was directing her first film, a psychological thriller based on a novella by Elena Ferrante! On the gorgeous, seemingly serene Greek island of Spetses, middle-aged professor Leda (Coleman) finds her peace disturbed by a boisterous American family. When their little girl (and her mysterious doll) go missing, Leda saves the day to great acclaim. Why then does her new acceptance and budding friendship with the young mother (Dakota Johnson) send her spiraling deep into the past, her broken love affairs, and her fear that in raising children a woman becomes fundamentally altered? “A major achievement! – Richard Brody, The New Yorker. 



If you are a Shakespearean expert or if this is your initiation, you are in for an unforgettable night at the movies. In a daring leap of faith, director/writer Joel Coen’s first movie made without his brother/collaborator Ethan is a bold new vision of Shakespeare’s most revered tragedy. Set in a haunted Scotland, the drama is stripped down to the essentials, with a chilling connection to the wickedness of power-hungry people, no matter the era. Coen’s casting of Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand, two Oscar winners who happen to be among the best actors working today, makes The Tragedy of Macbeth a must-see experience on the big (movie) screen!



National Theatre Live is back, bringing the best of British theatre to select cinemas around the globe! Join us for a broadcast of a fantastical adaptation of Phillip Pullman book, set twelve years before his His Dark Materials trilogy. Storms are brewing as two young people and their dæmons find themselves at the center of a terrifying manhunt. In their care is the tiny child Lyra Belacqua, who will shape the fate of the future. As the waters rise, powerful adversaries conspire for mastery of Dust: salvation to some, infinite corruption to others. A rare opportunity for all ages to see live theatre on the big screen!



Sixty years after the trail-breaking musical thrilled audiences, Steven Spielberg’s daring remake is no less than a major triumph! While keeping Bernstein and Sondheim’s contributions, Spielberg added an ethnically accurate cast, and screenwriter Tony Kushner brought forward the city’s war between commerce and residents. First imagined in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the film sets two infatuated teens against the mistrust of their battling communities. The dynamic cast is bursting with talent, including star-in-waiting Rachel Zegler as Maria, and a devastating Ariana De Bose as Valentina (originally played by Rita Moreno). The 89-year-old Moreno makes a poignant return, singing “Somewhere” with her very real pain – and hope – exposed.



When André Leon Talley died on January 18th, the word most used to describe the 6’6″ fashion journalist known for dressing in capes and dishing with Tyra Banks was ‘fabulous’. Though fabulous he was, Kate Novak’s documentary reveals his hardscrabble childhood in North Carolina, his days at Brown University, and the racism and homophobia he encountered along the way. Vogue’s first African American creative editor, Talley was an advocate for diversity of color and sexual preference at every level of the fashion industry. And when you count among your personal clients everyone from to Mariah Carey to Michelle Obama, it’s a given that your inside stories and impeccable style will not be forgotten.



Shocking when it was first released, Shortbus still remains galaxies of propriety away from writer/director John Cameron Mitchell’s own Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Sofia Lin (Sook-Yin Lee) is a couples counsellor in New York City with a problem: she has never had an orgasm. Looking to free herself, she takes two patients – former child star James and former sex worker Jamie -to Shortbus, a weekly underground erotic salon. By connecting with the trans master of ceremonies, a compassionate dominatrix, and then joining in a (very) un-simulated orgy, James and Jamie approach the humor and connection in sex. But Sofia’s growing frustration has the power to darken every light in the city…



Denis Villeneuve’s thrilling new film version of Dune achieves the impossible: it is easy to follow for newcomers, and capturing the essence of Frank Herbert’s futuristic epic for fans. A war is threatening between two noble families over control of Arrakis, a desolate planet with a precious resource that extends lifespans and brain capacity. The House of Atreides sends a visionary young man (Chalamet) to gain control of Arrakis, by joining with the exploited workers and battle enemies including nightmare-inducing sand worms. Dune’s breathtaking desert landscape, demands to be seen in a cinema!



Guillermo de Toro, best known for his horror and fantasy movies from Pan’s Labyrinth to Hellboy, has taken an exciting new direction. His haunting version of the classic 1947 film explores American film noir’s dark portraits of poverty and greed. Bradley Cooper stars as Stanton Carlisle, a con man who joins a carnival that hires desperate men as “geeks,” willing to work for alcohol. But Carlisle soon learns a slick psychic act and runs off with his partner (Cate Blanchette). After success among the elite, the past and present threaten to drown Carlisle in an ocean of his own deceit. Four Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture.



Before the mid-90s, films based on classic lit were reverential and dull, with zero appeal to a new generation. Suddenly, there appeared a crop of young actors and sexy films, from Romeo + Juliet, to Shakespeare In Love, to this provocative take on Jane Austen’s best-loved novel, directed by Joe Wright (Atonement, Cyrano.) The five Bennet sisters are stuck on their (very muddy) family farm, with little chance for escape except by marriage, a genteel job, or scandal. But Elizabeth (the 20-year-old Keira Knightly) wants to protect her sisters from the machinations of matchmaking. Elizabeth herself feels immune to the callow young suitors they meet, particularly detesting a certain Mr. Darcy who is as arrogant as he is, well, interesting…



If you’ve been waiting for a romantic comedy out of Norway that is smart, playful, and actually features people under 30, then check out the new film being called the 21st century Pride and Prejudice (without Mr. Darcy saving the day). The Worst Person follows the ups and down of a young millennial in Oslo named Julie. Brilliantly played by Renata Reinsve, Julie falls in and out of love with Aksel, an older graphic artist; and Eivind, who shares her youthful confusion. Julie also veers humorously in her choice of careers (a doctor? photographer?), becoming a mother, and her still waiting-to-be-created identity. Winner, Best Actress Cannes Film Festival. Academy Awards nominations: Best Original Screenplay and Best International Film.



A front-runner for the Oscars’ International Film Award, Drive My Car is a haunting and profound adaptation of a short story by Haruki Murakami. Two years after his wife’s death, renowned middle-aged stage director Yusuke Kafuku, takes on the challenge of directing a multilingual production of Chekov’s Uncle Vanya in Hiroshima. The film brilliantly alternates between scenes of Yusuke dealing with the volatile cast and crew, and the interactions between the director and the taciturn young woman who drives him to and from work in a red Saab 900. Over time, the barriers between Yusuke and his driver crumble, as together they navigate a path of loss, acceptance, and peace.



This Late Show will not scare you out of your wits… we’ve had enough of that already, right? In the mythical Viking town of Berk, a teenager named Hiccup (whose Dad is the village chieftain) can only find acceptance if he learns how to train – and slay – a dragon. But after finding Toothless, a rare and vicious Night Fury injured in the woods, Hiccup schools his friends – including the fearless Astrid – that sometimes kindness can overcome brutality. “With messages about acceptance, respect and tolerance, HTTYD also brings valuable tools for battling dragons, should the need arise.” – Lisa Barnard, Toronto Star.



Writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson, (Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood) returns to his glory days in Encino, California for an affectionate and funny coming of age saga. It’s the 1970s, when optimism offered fantasies of stardom for many a California dreamer. A former child star played by Cooper Hoffman (Philip Seymour Hoffman’s son) is an awkward and goofy 15, who falls hard for Alana, a photographer’s assistant 10 years his elder. They drift in and out of each other’s orbits, hanging out and scheming up plans for a new waterbed company that just might make then rich… With the music of Nina Simone, Suzi Quatro, Paul McCartney, David Bowie and more.



Don’t miss the fourth of five International Feature Picture Oscar nominees to screen at Cinestudio (along with Flee, Drive My Car and The Worst Person in the World)! Italy’s selection is a usually personal memoir by Paolo Sorrentino (Youth, The Great Beauty). 1980s Naples is a vibrant but impoverished city, where every hope is tied to Argentinian star Diego Maradona, savior of the Naples football team. Young Fabletto revels in the excitement, and walks Naples’ narrow streets, suddenly aware of the erotic appeal of women. In European football, “The Hand of God” was an amazing play by Diego Maradona. In Sorrentino’s film, it also refers to the tragic event that instantly ends his boyhood. Only his profound love of movies has a chance of lifting him out of hopelessness.



Walt Disney Company’s 60th movie continues its commitment to girl power (since 1989’s The Little Mermaid), with characters who don’t need a Prince to rescue them. It keeps on giving with lush, magical animation, humor, and songs by Pulitzer-Prize winner Lin-Manuel Miranda. Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz) is a brainy and mostly-content girl, living in the green mountains of Columbia in her beautiful home, La Casa Madrigal. Mostly content because everyone in the family has discovered a superpower – except for her. One day, La Casa Madrigal starts crumbling, and Mirabel turns detective by investigating the hidden past, and why “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” – the ostracized Uncle whom Mirabel looks to for help.



Getting the chance to see a silent French film in a cinema is as a rare as rainbow in snow. Especially when it is accompanied by the transporting music of pianist Patrick Miller of Hartt School. Director Julien Duvivier (Pépé le Moko, Un Carnet de Bal) was strongly influenced by German surrealistic horror movies, which is seen in his story of a circus worker (Tramel) who is cheated out of his inheritance by his doppelganger. But the swindler is pursued by an ominous black hooded sect, culminating in a nail-biting chase on the Eiffel Tower – at the time, a mere 40 years old. Join us for an opening reception following the screening. 



Now recognized as one of the greatest directors of the 1950s, Henri-Georges Clouzot (Quai des orfèvres, The Wages of Fear) was originally vilified for telling stories about an unpredictable world where anyone can commit murder under the right circumstances. Inspired by master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock, the film looks at the murky loyalties at a decrepit boarding school, owned by a frail Venezuelan woman named Christina (Vera Clouzot). Her husband is the Headmaster, who not only bullies Christina and the students, but is having an affair with a teacher (played by the legendary Simone Signoret.) The two women come together to plan his murder, but even the best of plans have a way of going very wrong…



For the celebrated New Wave auteur Eric Rohmer, the third film of his Tales of the Four Seasons stands out as his “most personal.” Based on events from Rohmer’s youth, A Tale of Summer follows amateur musician Gaspard (Melvil Poupaud) to a seaside resort on the coast of Brittany. There, three women (Amanda Langlet, Gwenaëlle Simon, and Aurelia Nolin) each offer the possibility of romance, but Gaspard’s inability to commit to just one puts his chances at love in jeopardy. Rohmer’s tender and amusing look back at his youth illuminates the fleeting nature of desire and the random nature of our choices, lit up by the languid waves and sun-saturated beaches of summer.



Un film dramatique is a lively documentary that reveals the stories of the first class to attend the newly constructed Dora Maar middle school in a notorious banlieue outside Paris. Filmed over four years, 21 diverse middle schoolers are given cameras to record their daily lives at school and home. With a refreshingly uninhibited approach, Éric Baudelaire offers a new perspective on Islamophobia, assimilation and economic inequality that manages to be insightful and playful. As the students debate elections and the immigration crisis, they also seek to find an answer to the central questions: who are we, and how do we come together to create the future?



This riveting Cannes-selected drama explores the ethics of a relationship between a teenage ski prodigy and her predatory instructor, played by Jérémie Renier (L’Enfant). Noée Abita plays 15-year-old Lyz, who’s been accepted to an elite ski club in the French Alps, known for producing some of the country’s top athletes. Seeing something in his new recruit, ex-champion turned coach Fred decides to mold Lyz into his shining star. But under his influence, she must endure more than the physical pressure of the training. Controversial in France until recently, Slalom asks if Lyz – and other young athletes – have the strength to escape their mentor’s exploitation?



Stories of hatred and discrimination for children who feel they were born the wrong gender are starting to be replaced with new narratives in film of acceptance and understanding. Petite fille is the moving real-life story about Sasha, a delightful 7-year-old, born a biological boy, who has always known she is a girl. Sasha’s parents have come to embrace their daughter’s reality, moving to a traditional rural community in northeastern France, where they hope to find tolerance, if not acceptance. Realized with rare delicacy and intimacy, veteran documentarian Sébastien Lifshitz’s movie explores the emotional challenges, unexpected triumphs, and small moments in Sasha’s unfolding life



A young gang member is sentenced to spend time in MACA, an isolated prison in the Ivorian forest that is ruled by its inmates. Renamed Roman, he arrives with the rising of the red moon, just as inmates are calling for the traditional suicide of an ailing King, to be replaced by a new leader. Stalling for time, King Blackbeard picks the bewildered Roman as his new griot (storyteller). Learning that he will be killed if his story doesn’t go on until dawn, Roman retells the life of legendary outlaw “Zama King,” spinning out ever more fantastical, surreal details in hopes of survival.



It’s no surprise that after the voices for change in the 1960s that French films would find new techniques to tell us new stories. Writer and filmmaker Guy Dubord released this invigoratingly experimental movie six years after the publication of his book, The Society of the Spectacle. Dubord used the technique of ‘détournement’ hijacking images of the capitalist system to use against itself. The recently restored 2K DCP is a dizzying array of images of Hollywood movies, advertising, war, and protests crushed by the police. The result is an organized chaos that provides a devastating look at a world that remains dominated by image and power.



Set in an immigrant community in Québec, Antigone updates the timeless play by Sophocles to a story that is all too relevant: the shooting of an immigrant teenager by the police. Ricci stars as the boy’s fiercely loyal sister, who challenges every authority she encounters, willing to sacrifice everything for justice and love. Following the film lead actor Nahéma Ricci will be in attendance to lead a Q. & A.




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