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Home , Bill Murray, Grant Heslov, Imogen Poots, Jean de Florette, Ruba Nadda, Yaron Zilberman

THE NB FILM CO­OP PRESENTS THE MONDAY NIGHT FILM SERIES SCHEDULE FOR JANUARY­APRIL, 2013

Half‐year memberships (Jan – April 2013) are $20 regular and $12 (students, seniors, NB film co‐op members)

General Admission is $7.00

Website and info: www.nbfilmcoop.com/fs

January 7, 7:30pm at Tilley Hall, UNB Campus

MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN

Director: Deepa Mehta Cast: Satya Bhabha, Shahana Goswami, Rajat Kapoor Runtime: 148 minutes Country: Canada, Year: 2012 Language: English, Hindi with English subtitles

A Gala Presentation at the 2012 International Film Festival®, this momentous collaboration between Academy Award®–nominated director Deepa Mehta (the trilogy Fire, Earth and Water, Heaven on Earth) and celebrated novelist Salman Rushdie is an epic saga that spans borders, generations, wars and fragile peace as it chronicles a pivotal time in India’s history.

Rushdie’s inspired adaptation of his own Booker Prize–winning novel follows the destinies of a pair of children born at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, the very instant that India claimed its independence from Great Britain—and which, in Rushdie’s brilliant magic realist conceit, endows the children born on the same night as their country’s liberation with supernatural abilities ranging from flight to invisibility, with those born closest to midnight possessing the most powerful gift. “Handcuffed to history,” and switched at birth by a nurse in a Bombay hospital, Saleem Sinai (Satya Bhabha), the son of a poor single mother, and Shiva (Siddharth), scion of a wealthy family, are condemned to live out the fate intended for the other. Imbued with mysterious telepathic powers, their lives become strangely intertwined and inextricably linked to their country’s careening journey through the tumultuous twentieth century.

An irreverent epic of Shakespearean proportions, shot through with moments of arresting intimacy, Midnight’s Children is a production of truly impressive scope, featuring state‐of‐the‐art computer graphics, impressive production design by the director’s brother Dilip Mehta, and sixty‐two locations. A luxurious feast of a film brimming with romance, spectacle, intrigue, sly social commentary and uplifting optimism, Midnight’s Children is as vast and beguiling as the great country to which it pays homage.

January 14, 7:30pm at Tilley Hall, UNB Campus

THE MASTER

Director: Cast: , , Amy Adams, Laura Dern Run Time: 138 minutes Country: USA Year: 2012 Language: English

In just five feature films, Paul Thomas Anderson has commanded a position at the very pinnacle of American cinema. His work is debated, studied and adored for its narrative innovation, its dynamism, and most of all for its sheer cinema. To watch the work of Paul Thomas Anderson is to watch movies at their most alive.

For The Master, he has chosen a provocative premise which he pursues with patience rather than sensationalism. In an arresting return to the big screen, Joaquin Phoenix plays a troubled soldier in post–World War II America. Stripped of every common civility, he rages through life like an animal, unable to keep a job, to attract a woman, to live in his own skin. By chance one night he jumps on board a docked ship and stows away as it sets sail. He soon discovers that the ship belongs to one Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman), the charismatic founder of a new religion. With his wife (Amy Adams), Dodd probes the unconscious minds of his subjects, driving them to reveal hidden vulnerabilities. The cerebral Dodd and his feral stowaway appear to be complete opposites, but they strike up a surprising friendship. In scenes of sometimes shocking soul‐baring, the two forge a primal bond — until the disciple begins to question his master.

Like all of Anderson’s films to date, The Master is a study of masculine power: the risks men take, the control they seek, the wars they wage with one another. The context of a twentieth‐century, man‐made religion is a potent one, allowing Anderson to illuminate new aspects of his recurring themes. Hoffman, Phoenix and Adams give the film the depth only great actors can bring, and the spare score by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood (who also scored Anderson’s There Will Be Blood) amplifies the film’s ability to unsettle.

So too does Anderson’s decision to use the cinephile’s ultimate visual palette — 70mm film. Flying in the face of the rapid shift to digital cinema, The Master was filmed in that high‐resolution widescreen format, and will be presented in 70mm at the Festival. The effect is cumulative, and ultimately shattering.

January 21, 7:30pm at Tilley Hall, UNB Campus

INESCAPABLE

Director: Ruba Nadda Cast: , Marisa Tomei, , Oded Fehr, Saad Siddiqui Runtime: 90 minutes Canada /South Africa Year: 2012 Language: English, Arabic with English subtitles

Three years ago, director Ruba Nadda won over cinema‐goers around the world with the touching romance Cairo Time, a Film Circuit People’s Choice Award winner in 2009. This year, she reteams with her Cairo Time star Alexander Siddig for the highly anticipated political thriller Inescapable, which premiered as a Gala Presentation at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival®. Successful Syrian‐ Canadian businessman Adib (Siddig, Miral, Syriana) lives a comfortable life in Toronto with his loving wife and two college‐aged daughters. On a typical afternoon at work, he receives a devastating piece of news: while vacationing in Greece, his eldest daughter secretly took a detour to Damascus — and vanished. Frantic, Adib immediately makes plans to return to Syria after more than thirty years. As Adib places a series of covert phone calls and makes secret rendezvous with former contacts, it gradually becomes clear that he was once a major player in the Syrian resistance movement. Aided by the ex‐fiancée he left behind (Marisa Tomei, The Ides of March, The Wrestler) and a dubious Canadian embassy official (Joshua Jackson, TV’s Fringe, One Week), Adib wades through vague clues, government subterfuge, and a web of conspiracies that stand between him and his daughter. When the regime discovers his former identity and accuses his daughter of being a spy, Adib must once again take up arms and fight for what he holds most dear.

Nadda spent four years as a teenager living in Damascus, which surely inform her convincing evocation of the climate of paranoia that is cultivated by totalitarian regimes. Along with its chillingly authentic atmosphere, Inescapable poses a series of vital, ethically charged questions. What happens if the past won’t stay in the past? What desperate lengths could someone go to if their former life threatens the new life they’ve spent decades painstakingly building? Expertly building the tension to a fever pitch, Nadda withholds her answers until the final, nail‐biting minutes.

“An old‐fashioned nail‐biter set in the up‐tothe‐minute turmoil of Damascus.” — Johana Schneler, The Globe and Mail

January 28, 7:30pm at Tilley Hall, UNB Campus

THE WELL­DIGGER’S DAUGHTER

Director: Cast: Daniel Auteuil, Astrid Bergès‐Frisbey, Kad Merad Sabine Azema, Jean‐Pierre Darroussin, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Emile Cazenave, Marie‐ Anne Chazel Run Time: 105 minutes Country: France Year: 2011 Language: French with English Subtitles

Twenty‐five years after rising to international acclaim in Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring, Daniel Auteuil returns to the world of for his first work as director with this celebrated remake of the 1940s classic. Auteuil stars as the eponymous well‐digger Pascal, a widower living with his six daughters in the countryside at the start of World War I. His eldest, Patricia (the luminous Astrid Bergès‐Frisbey), has returned home from Paris to help raise her sisters, and Pascal dreams of marrying her off to his loyal assistant Felipe (Kad Merad). But when she's impregnated by a wealthy young pilot (Nicolas Duvauchelle) who promptly abandons her for the frontlines, Pascal is left to contend with the consequences. An exquisitely crafted, sun‐drenched melodrama, set to a score by Academy Award‐nominee Alexandre Desplat (The King's Speech), The Well‐Digger's Daughter captures all the warmth and humanist spirit of Pagnol's original work.

“In his directorial debut, famed actor Daniel Auteuil fills THE WELL‐DIGGER'S DAUGHTER with grand romance, light comedy and superb performances, making a "love story of surprising joy" ‐ (Minneapolis Star Tribune).

February 4, 7:30pm at Tilley Hall, UNB Campus

CELESTE AND JESSE FOREVER

Director: Benh Zeitlin Cast: ) , Andy Samberg Run Time: 90 minutes Country: USA Year: 2012 Language: English

Celeste (Rashida Jones) and Jesse (Andy Samberg) met in high school, married young and are growing apart. Now thirty, Celeste is the driven owner of her own media consulting firm, Jesse is once again unemployed and in no particular rush to do anything with his life. Celeste is convinced that divorcing Jesse is the right thing to do ‐‐ she is on her way up, he is on his way nowhere, and if they do it now instead of later, they can remain supportive friends.

Jesse passively accepts this transition into friendship, even though he is still in love with her. As the reality of their separation sets in, Celeste slowly and painfully realizes she has been cavalier about their relationship, and her decision, which once seemed mature and progressive, now seems impulsive and selfish. But her timing with Jesse is less than fortuitous... ‐‐ (C) Sony Classics

“Engaging, sharply observed and refreshingly cliché‐averse relationship comedy‐ drama with a strong script and superb central performances” – The ViewLondon Review

February 11, 7:30pm at Tilley Hall, UNB Campus

ARGO

Director: Cast: Ben Affleck, , , , Victor Garber, , Clea Duvall Runtime: 120 minutes Country: USA Year: 2012 Language: English

Based on real events, the dramatic thriller “Argo” chronicles the life‐or‐death covert operation to rescue six Americans, which unfolded behind the scenes of the Iran hostage crisis, focusing on the little‐known role that the CIA and Hollywood played—information that was not declassified until many years after the event.

Academy Award® winner Ben Affleck (“The Town,” “Good Will Hunting”) directs and stars in the film, which is produced by Oscar® nominee Grant Heslov (“Good Night, and Good Luck.”), Affleck, and Oscar® winner (“Syriana”).

On November 4, 1979, as the Iranian revolution reaches its boiling point, militants storm the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking 52 Americans hostage.

But, in the midst of the chaos, six Americans manage to slip away and find refuge in the home of Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor. Knowing it is only a matter of time before the six are found out and likely killed, the Canadian and American governments ask the CIA to intervene. The CIA turns to their top “exfiltration” specialist, Tony Mendez, to come up with a plan to get the six Americans safely out of the country. A plan so incredible, it could only happen in the movies.

“An edge‐of‐your‐seat thriller not to be forgotten at Oscar time!” – Kam Williams AALBC.com

February 18, 7:30pm at Tilley Hall, UNB Campus

ANNA KARENINA

Director: Joe Wright Cast: Keira Knightley, Jude Law, Aaron Johnson, Matthew Macfadyen, , Emily Watson, Kelly MacDonald, Domhnall Gleeson Runtime: 130 minutes Country: United Kingdom/France Year: 2012 Language: English

Following the success of Atonement and Pride & Prejudice, director Joe Wright reunites with Keira Knightley for this lush and atmospheric adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s classic novel, which screened as a Special Presentation at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival®. Scripted by acclaimed British playwright Tom Stoppard (), Anna Karenina is a powerful and stylistically daring version of this epic love story about two people who defy the conventions of their age to follow the desires of their hearts.

Set against the richly textured canvas of late nineteenth‐century Russian high society, Anna Karenina chronicles the doomed affair between the sensuous and rebellious Anna (Knightley, A Dangerous Method, Last Night) and dashing army officer Count Vronsky (Aaron Johnson, Nowhere Boy, Albert Nobbs). Trapped in a loveless marriage to Count Karenin (Jude Law, Hugo, 360), a prominent government official twenty years her senior, Anna is flattered when she attracts the attention of the charismatic Vronsky. Although Anna initially rejects Vronsky’s advances, the couple’s powerful mutual attraction only intensifies. When Anna eventually succumbs to her desires, she soon finds herself torn between her happiness and the rigid demands of society.

In a brilliantly neo‐Brechtian twist, director Wright sets Anna and Vronsky’s tragic tale against a blatantly theatrical backdrop, with stagehands changing the sets as the starcrossed lovers play out their fateful romance.

Anchored by Knightley’s commanding performance, and featuring an impressive supporting cast that includes Emily Watson War Horse, Oranges and Sunshine), Kelly Macdonald (Boardwalk Empire, No Country for Old Men), Domhnall Gleeson (True Grit, Never Let Me Go) and Olivia Williams (An Education, the upcoming ), Anna Karenina is a dynamic and gorgeously rendered adaptation of the literary classic.

“Knightley embodies Anna as a girlish woman who has never felt erotic love; once smitten, she is raised to heavenly ecstasy before tumbling into the abyss of shame.” — Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine

February 25, 7:30pm at Tilley Hall, UNB Campus

HYDE PARK ON HUDSON

Director: Cast: Bill Murray, , Olivia Williams Runtime: 95 minutes Country: United Kingdom Year: 2012 Language: English

A Gala Presentation at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival®, Roger Michell’s scurrilously entertaining Hyde Park on Hudson details the historic pre‐war weekend in 1939 when ’s King George VI (last seen portrayed by in the Film Circuit favourite The King’s Speech) and Queen Consort Elizabeth came calling on U.S. president Franklin Delano Roosevelt at his upstate New York manor house — and when the president started to become especially close to his distant cousin Margaret “Daisy” Suckley.

The royal couple’s sojourn to Hyde Park on Hudson marks the first time that the British monarchy has ever made an official visit to the United States, and with war clouds on the horizon it is crucial that the soon‐to‐be allied nations fortify relations. Michell and screenwriter Richard Nelson playfully depict the recurring spasms of culture shock — hot dogs on the barbecue proving an especial source of horror for the royals — that serve to turn prying eyes away from the blossoming love between Daisy (Laura Linney, Kinsey, Love Actually) and FDR (Bill Murray, , Get Low). Meaningful silences, the proud display of a stamp collection, a tryst in a car — stolen moments accumulate as affinity becomes affection becomes an affair, while the chaos brewing on the European continent seems far, far away.

Well‐served by Nelson’s screenplay and Michell’s sensitive, assured direction, Linney is marvelous as Daisy, both outsider and confidant, an object of fixation and the soul of discretion. But the film’s biggest revelation is Murray, who does not suppress his inimitable persona so much as channel it into a remarkable evocation of this larger‐than‐life figure; the humour and sideways charm remain, but Murray holds himself differently, uncannily suggests Roosevelt’s unique, almost Cary Grant‐like cadence, and gives the impression of a man bearing great responsibility with beguiling grace.

“Bill Murray as Franklin D. Roosevelt? It takes a few minutes to get used to, but once he settles into the role of the 32nd president, the idiosyncratic comic actor does a wonderfully jaunty job of it.” — Tod McCarthy,

MARCH 4, NO FILM – MARCH BREAK

March 11, Monday, 7:30pm, Tilley Hall, UNB Campus

QUARTET

Director: Cast: Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Billy Connolly, Pauline Collins, Michael Gambon Run Time: 95 minutes Country: United Kingdom Year: 2012 Language: English

One of the most celebrated actors in world cinema, multiple nominee and two‐time Academy Award® winner Dustin Hoffman steps behind the camera for the first time with this charming adaptation of Ronald Harwood’s eponymous play. Having played a variety of roles spanning generations, from Willy Loman in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman to Jack Crabb in Little Big Man, it’s fitting that Hoffman’s first effort as director addresses the theme of aging, and does so with grace, gusto and wonderfully wry humour.

Quartet tells the story of retired opera singers and lifelong chums Wilf (Billy Connolly) and Reggie (Tom Courtenay) who, together with their former colleague Cissy (Pauline Collins), reside in the Beecham House retirement home. No ordinary residence, Beecham is host to an entirely musical clientele, from orchestra members to operatic luminaries. Each year on Giuseppe Verdi’s birthday, the residents arrange a concert to raise funds for their home. It is usually a smooth‐running, perfectly pleasant event, evoking warm memories of old times and grand traditions. Enter stage right Jean (Maggie Smith), Reggie’s ex and the fourth, most famous member of the former quartet. Having recently fallen on hard times, the aged diva checks into Beecham, and it’s not long until long‐buried grievances rise to the surface, rivalries resume, and plans begin to fall apart. Reconciliation is not on the program, but the show must go on — right?

Under Hoffman’s affectionate and attentive gaze, these marvellous veteran actors shine. Connolly is as wise‐cracking and boisterous as ever, while Smith is divine as a charismatic old tigress who can make one wither with the slightest glance. The music enchants and the banter is steady and playful. Beneath all the tensions and the fun there is a quiet fire, an urge to feel alive again, to use art as a way of raging against the dying of the light. This is a sweet, delightful and moving film—and an auspicious debut.

March 18, 7:30pm at Tilley Hall, UNB Campus

A LATE QUARTET

Director: Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, , , , Run Time: 106 minutes Country: USA Year: 2012 Language: English

A Gala Presentation at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival®, offers a scintillating look into a world of art rarely depicted on screen. First‐ time feature director Yaron Zilberman assembles a powerhouse cast — Christopher Walken (Seven Psychopaths, The Affair of the Necklace), Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master, Doubt), Catherine Keener (Please Give, Capote), Mark Ivanir (360), and rising young star Imogen Poots (Jane Eyre, Me and Orson Welles) — for this dramatically charged tale of an illustrious string quartet that is set to celebrate their twenty‐fifth season as an ensemble with an ambitious recital of Beethoven’s Late String Quartets.

While this milestone would seem to be cause for celebration, it soon becomes a catalyst for the members’ assorted personal traumas and reveals the tangled web of jealousy, envy, ambition, and deeply felt affection that binds the group together. Older than his colleagues, Peter (Walken), the group’s founding member, is diagnosed with a degenerative illness that forces him to confront the troubling question of who will succeed him, and what his legacy will be. The marriage between second violinist Robert (Hoffman) and violist Juliette (Keener) goes suddenly south when infidelity rears its head, while brilliant, headstrong and steel‐ willed first violinist Daniel (Ivanir), already engaged in a battle over first chair with Robert, brings tensions to a boil when he falls into the arms of Robert and Juliette’s beautiful young daughter Alexandra (Poots), who is a talented violinist in her own right.

As the film progresses gracefully through its own “movements,” we see how Peter’s illness brings these discordant elements painfully to the fore, as long repressed feelings and explosive emotions shatter the delicate harmony that has bound the group together for so long. As the ensemble’s aging patriarch, Walken has never been better, brilliantly etching Peter’s turbulent indecision and, finally, clear‐eyed resolve about the right path to take — even as, unbeknownst to him, the four‐ cornered universe that he has lovingly created begins to fly apart. Not to be outdone, the rest of the cast rise to Walken’s challenge, and director Zilberman (who cowrote the screenplay with Seth Grossman) never missteps, guiding us gracefully through those painful inevitabilities of aging and change that contrast so movingly with the timeless beauty of music.

“Though the stakes are high, the volume is pitched just right: The film and the performances retain a quiet, forceful elegance that’s perfectly in keeping with the Beethoven they’re playing.” ‐ Philip Crawley, The Globe and Mail

March 25, 7:30pm at Tilley Hall, UNB Campus

ZERO DARK THIRTY

Director: Kathryn Bigelow Cast: Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton, Run Time: 157 minutes Country: USA Year: 2013 Language: English

A chronicle of the decade‐long hunt for al‐Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden after the September 2001 attacks, and his death at the hands of the Navy S.E.A.L. Team 6 in May, 2011.

Maya is a CIA operative whose first experience is in the interrogation of prisoners following the Al Qaeda attacks on the U.S. of 11 September 2011. She is a reluctant participant in extreme duress applied to the detainees, but believes that the truth may only be obtained through such tactics. For several years, she is single‐minded in her pursuit of leads to uncover the whereabouts of Al Qaeda's leader, Osama Bin Laden.

Finally, in 2011, it appears that her work will pay off, and a U.S. Navy SEAL team is sent to kill or capture Bin Laden. But only Maya is confident Bin Laden is where she says he is.

“Swift, smart, relentless, Zero Dark Thirty compresses a decade of high‐stakes procedural into 157 minutes of pure momentum.” ‐ Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News

April 8, 7:30pm at Tilley Hall, UNB Campus

AMOUR

Director: Michael Haneke Cast: Jean‐Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva, Isabelle Huppert Run Time: 127 minutes Country: Austria/France/Germany Year: 2012 Language: French with English subtitles, English

Winner of the Palme d’Or at the 2012 and an Official Selection at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival®, master director Michael Haneke’s Amour draws on the extraordinary talents of two of the finest and most legendary performers in the history of French cinema — Jean‐Louis Trintignant (The Conformist, Trois couleurs: Rouge) and Emmanuelle Riva (Hiroshima mon amour) — to create a powerful and moving portrait of an elderly couple struggling with their mortality.

Ensconced in an apartment that fits them like an old glove and settled happily into their long‐established domestic routines, retired music teachers Anne and Georges Laurent have their comfortable world cataclysmically upended when Anne suddenly displays symptoms of a stroke. With Anne now partially paralyzed, Georges struggles to care for her at home, with each day bringing new, painful challenges. A visit from the couple’s dutiful daughter Eva (Isabelle Huppert, 8 Women, I Heart Huckabees) only further indicates how distant Georges and Anne’s lives now are from the rest of the world — a private realm that grows ever more solitary as Anne slips slowly, unbearably away.

It would have been easy with material such as this to slip into the conventions of a tearjerker, but Haneke unerringly steers clear of sentimentality, cliché or bathos. Humane, compassionate, and featuring exquisite performances from three of cinema’s greatest actors, Amour is a magisterial work from one of contemporary cinema’s most brilliant and fearless artists.

“Transfixing and extraordinarily touching, perhaps the most hauntingly honest movie about old age ever made.” —Owen Gleiberman,