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The fall series, sponsored by the LCCC Film Society, begins on Friday, August 30 with “Amour” a French film in which retired piano players and teachers Georges and Anne live in a comfortable apartment in Paris, enjoying life in their eighties – until Anne has a stroke that paralyzes her right side. “Amour” won the 2012 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
Patrons, except LCCC students/faculty/staff with valid ID, must purchase an annual membership in the LCCC Film Society for $3 each, which is good through the end of the 2013-2014 Film Series. The admission price for each film is $6 with the membership card. In addition to tickets to individual shows, anytime tickets are available for $6 each and may be used at any film from now through the end of the 2013-2014 film series.
The Stocker Arts Center box office is open Mondays through Fridays from 12-6 p.m. and one-and-one-half-hours before ticketed events, including films. For more information, call the box office at (440) 366-4040 or go to www.stockerartscenter.com
The Stocker Arts Center Film Series is truly an alternative cinema, as most of these films have not played in Lorain County and are often not readily available on video. Audiences have the opportunity to sample the gourmet flavor of prize-winning foreign films, and the exciting energy and originality of contemporary independent American and international cinema.
The Stocker film series focuses on relationships, moral and social issues, cultural and religious diversity, and universal emotions and aspirations, including humor, disappointment and tragedy that make up the human animal.
Below is a listing of films in the LCCC Stocker Arts Center Film Society’s Fall 2013 Film Series. The 2014 Winter/Spring series will be announced in December 2013.
11 FLOWERS
Friday, September 6 – 7:30 p.m.
2012 (PG) 110 min. China/Subtitles
Director: Xiaoshuai Wang
Cast: Liu Wenquing, Yen Ni, Wang Jinchun
Eleven-year-old Wang Han lives with his family in a remote village in Guizhou province. Life is tough, but they make the most of what little they have. When Wang is selected to lead his school through their daily gymnastic regimen, his teacher recommends that he wear a clean, new shirt in honor of this important position – a request that forces his family to make a great sacrifice. But one afternoon, soon after Wang is given the precious shirt, he encounters a desperate, wounded man, who takes it from him. The man is on the run, wanted by the authorities for murder. In no time the fates of Wang and the fugitive are intertwined. Beautifully performed by a troupe of child actors, and vividly creating a sense of time and place, 11 FLOWERS is a delicate and moving film about growing up in a time of great upheaval.
PROMISED LAND
Friday, September 20 – 7:30 p.m.
2013 (R) 106 min. U.S.A.
Director: Gus Van Sant
Cast: Matt Damon, Frances McDormand, Hal Holbrook, John Krasinski
PROMISED LAND is the new contemporary drama directed by Gus Van Sant. Matt Damon plays Steve Butler, an ace corporate salesman who is sent along with his partner, Sue Thomason, to close a key rural town in his company’s expansion plans. With the town having been hit hard by the economic decline of recent years, the two outsiders see the local citizens as likely to accept their company’s offer for drilling rights to their properties as much-needed relief. What seems like an easy job for the duo becomes complicated by the objection of a respected schoolteacher with support from a grassroots campaign led by another man, as well as the interest of a local woman. PROMISED LAND explores America at the crossroads where big business and the strength of small-town community converge. This movie is not about the environmental devastation caused by fracking. It’s about the predatory practices used by industry to gain access to our backyards and how communities lose their way and are torn apart.
STARBUCK
Friday, October 4 – 7:30 p.m.
2012 (R) 109 min. Canada/subtitles
Director: Ken Scott
Cast: Patrick Huard, Julie Le Breton, Antoine Bertrand
Patrick Huard stars as David Wozniak, a 42-year old lovable but perpetual screw up who finally decides to take control of his life. A habitual sperm donor in his youth, he discovers that he’s the biological father of 533 children, and 142 of them are trying to force the fertility clinic to reveal the true identity of the prolific donor code-name Starbuck. The film also stars Julie Le Breton, as David’s long suffering girlfriend who suddenly finds herself pregnant and understandably reluctant to share parenthood with the unreliable David. Antoine Bertrand plays David’s longtime friend, Paul, an attorney who takes on his case while trying to disabuse him of the joys of parenthood. Director Ken Scott turns a unique idea into a terrific movie that’s both funny and touching. This is a feel-good film that is hilarious, witty, and heart-warming with a great performance from Patrick Huard.
QUARTET
Friday, October 11 – 7:30 p.m.
2012 (PG-13) 97 min. United Kingdom
Director: Dustin Hoffman
Cast: Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Billy Connolly, Michael Gambon, Pauline Collins
Beecham House is abuzz. The rumor circling the halls is that the home for retired musicians is soon to play host to a new resident. Word is, it’s a star. For Reginald Paget (Tom Courtenay), Wilfred Bon (Billy Connolly) and Cecily Robson (Pauline Collins) this sort of talk is par for the course at the gossipy home. But they’re in for a special shock when the new arrival turns out to be none other than their former singing partner, Jean Horton (Maggie Smith). Her subsequent career as a star soloist, and the ego that accompanied it, split up their long friendship and ended her marriage to Reggie, who takes the news of her arrival particularly hard. Can the passage of time heal old wounds? And will the famous quartet be able to patch up their differences in time for Beecham House’s gala concert?
RUST AND BONE
Friday, October 14 – 7:30 p.m.
2012 (R) 122 min. France/subtitles
Director: Jacques Audiard
Cast: Marion Cotillard, Matthias Schoenaerts, Armand Verdure, Celine Sallette
Ali finds himself with a five-year-old child on his hands. Sam is his son, but he hardly knows him. Homeless, penniless and friendless, Ali takes refuge with his sister Anna in Antibes, in the south of France. There things improve immediately. She puts them up in her garage; she takes the child under her wing and the weather is glorious. Ali, a man of formidable size and strength, gets a job as a bouncer in a nightclub. He comes to the aid of Stephanie during a nightclub brawl. Aloof and beautiful, Stephanie seems unattainable, but in his frank manner Ali leaves her his phone number anyway. Stephanie trains orca whales at Marineland. When a performance ends in tragedy, a call in the night again brings them together. When Ali sees her next, Stephanie is confined to a wheel chair, and left with few illusions. Ali’s direct, unpitying physicality becomes Stephanie’s lifeline, but Ali too is transformed by Stephanie’s tough resilience. And Stephanie comes alive again. As their stories intersect and diverge, they navigate a world where strength, beauty, youth and blood are commodities, but where trust, truth, loyalty and love cannot be bought and sold, and courage comes in many forms.
YOU WILL BE MY SON
Friday, November 1 – 7:30 p.m.
2013 (R) 100 min. France/subtitles
Director: Gilles Legrand
Cast: Niels Årestrup, Anne Marivin, Lorant Deutsch, Patrick Chesnais
A discussion will follow the film.
YOU WILL BE MY SON stars Niels Årestrup as Paul de Marseul, a prestigious wine-maker and owner of a renowned chateau and vineyard in Saint-Èmilion, who is disheartened by the notion of his son Martin taking over the family business. Martin does not seem to have inherited the qualities that Paul esteems in a wine-maker: persistence, creative insight and technical prowess matched with passion for the job and the product, and Paul frequently reminds him of this, whether explicitly or in subtle gestures. When Philippe appears at the vineyard, Paul leaps at the chance to name him as his successor, neglecting the wishes of his own son. The tension in this familial triangle comes to a head when an unexpected event changes everything. Like a fine wine, this drama is full-bodied and complex and provides a fascinating look at the matter of the transmission of knowledge, heritage and tradition in the world of wine.
RENOIR
Friday, November 8 – 7:30 p.m.
2012 (Not Rated) 111 min. France/subtitles
Director: Gilles Bourdos
Cast: Michel Bouquet, Christa Theret, Vincent Rottiers, Thomas Doret
Set on the French Riviera in the summer of 1915, Gilles Bourdos’ lushly atmospheric drama RENOIR tells the story of celebrated Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, in declining health at age 74, and his middle son Jean, who returns home to convalesce after being wounded in World War I. The elder Renoir is filled with a new, wholly unexpected energy when a young girl miraculously enters his world. Blazing with life, radiantly beautiful, Andrée will become his last model and the wellspring of a remarkable rejuvenation. At the same time, Jean also falls under the spell of the free-spirited young Andrée. Their beautiful home and majestic countryside grounds reverberate with familial intrigue, as both Renoirs, père et fils, become smitten with the enchanting and headstrong young muse.
WHAT MAISIE KNEW
Friday, November 15, 2013 – 7:30 p.m.
2013 (R) 98 min. U.S.A.
Director: Scott McGehee
Cast: Julianne Moore, Alexander Skarsgård, Onata Aprile, Steve Coogan, Joanna Vanderham
A discussion will follow the film.
An aging rock star and a contemporary art dealer, Susanna and Beale are too self-involved even to notice their neglect and inadequacy as parents; their fight for Maisie is just another battle in an epic war of personalities. As they raise the stakes by taking on inappropriate new partners, the ex-nanny Margo and the much younger bartender Lincoln, the shuffling of Maisie from household to household becomes more and more callous, the consequences more and more troubling. Always watchful, however, Maisie begins to understand that the path through this morass of adult childishness and selfish blindness will have to be of her own making. A contemporary reimagining of Henry James’ novel, WHAT MAISIE KNEW tells the story of a captivating little girl’s struggle for grace in the midst of her parents’ bitter custody battle. Told through the eyes of the title’s heroine, Maisie navigates this ever-widening turmoil with a six-year-old’s innocence, charm and generosity of spirit. This unforgettable film is a heart-breaking, but redemptive story of family, self-sacrifice, and the indelibility of one child’s love.
UNFINISHED SONG
Friday, November 22, 2013 – 7:30 p.m.
2013 (PG-13) 93 min. United Kingdom
Director: Paul Andrew Williams
Cast: Terence Stamp, Vanessa Redgrave, Gemma Arterton
A wonderfully, heart-warming story of a loving marriage between grumpy pensioner Arthur (Terence Stamp) and the ever-cheerful Marion (Vanessa Redgrave). Cantankerous but doting husband Arthur does not share his wife Marion’s passion for performing. While she is happy to sing her heart out with the unconventional local choir, Arthur would prefer to hide himself away and complain about how embarrassing it all is. But when heartbreak strikes, Arthur is forced to re-think his outlook on life. With the steady perseverance of choir director Elizabeth (Gemma Arterton), Arthur begins to find a way to come out of his shell and in the process forms a touching relationship with Elizabeth as well as a desire to build bridges with his estranged son James. Open your heart! Find your voice! This was the closing night film at the 2013 Cleveland International Film Festival.
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