Fall 2010 - Ojai Film Society

Fall 2010
September – November
SCREENING
S
C
H
E
D
U
L
E
G e t Lo w
Winter ’s Bone
T h e Fa t h e r o f M y C h i l d r e n
Mademoiselle Chambon
The Girl Who Played With Fire
A Message from the President
Dear Movie Lovers,
Honorary
Board of Directors
Sergio Aragonés
Ted Danson
Lolita Davidovich
Larry Hagman
Greg Nava
Edward James Olmos
John Bennett Perry
Michael Shapiro
This July OFS reprised its music-themed film series that has been so
popular in past summers, and we expanded our fundraising
George J. Sandoval
programming into August with four more outstanding films. We also
President
made an appearance in Ojai’s Independence Day Parade with our
colorful OFS banner and our “Hollywood babes” riding in style in a VW bug convertible (see
photos page 7), courtesy of Steven Smith and Barber Volkswagen in Ventura.
As the dog days of summer wind down, the programming committee has chosen 11
extraordinary films for the fall season: operatic dramas, thrillers, comedies and contemporary
documentaries. These films are not only entertaining but provocative and challenging. We
look forward to another great season with your attendance and participation.
Due to an increase in operating costs the board of directors has decided on a modest
increase in the cost of admission. Beginning this September prices will be $10 for adults and
$7 for seniors and students. The cost of subscriptions for Year 2011 will be $135 for 36 films.
This breaks down to $3.75 per film, still a great entertainment value. Subscriptions for $50
are still available for the Fall Season with 11 films.
We encourage individuals and companies to become part of the OFS Underwriting Program
for $300 a year. Help keep independent film in Ojai and receive weekly name recognition.
Call our office or talk to one of the directors to join or to learn more about this program.
As you may know, the Hartleys have ended their involvement in the Ojai Theatre. We are
sorry to see them go and can’t thank them enough for bringing new life to this historic
building. Now we look forward to working once again with Khaled and Walid Al-Awar and
their staff. With them we will continue to provide an enjoyable movie-going experience.
Thank you for your continued support.
Ron Shelton
See you Sunday at the movies,
Mary Steenburgen
Peter Strauss
Anna Thomas
Guy Webster
Leone Webster
Robert Young
Lilly Young
David Zucker
George J. Sandoval, President
The Ojai Film Society thanks the following individuals and businesses for underwriting our films:
Ojai Film Society Underwriters
Bryant Street Health & Fitness
Ferguson Case Orr Paterson, Attorneys at Law
Roderick & Joyce Greene
Tony & Barbara Hirsch
Howard.Smith@Morgan Stanley.com
Dottie Loebl
Ojai Community Bank
Ojai Music Festival
Ojai Valley Directory, Ren & Victoria Adam
John & Stephanie Orr
Film Society Ticket Prices
$10.00 general admission
$ 7.00 seniors (65 & over) / students (with ID)
F R E E admission for 2010 OFS Subscribers
2 Ojai Film Society
Bill & Colleen Paterson
Erick & Gail Peterson
Ron & Linda Phillips
Joan Roberts, Coldwell Banker Property Shoppe
Renee & Randall Roth
Fred & Ila Rothenberg
George J. Sandoval & Gina Fontana
Christy Sebastian & John Kuney
Paula Spellman & Ken Crosby
Terry & Cricket Twichell
Anonymous (2)
The mission of the Ojai Film Society is to present
quality independent, classic and foreign films to
the Ojai Valley community and to assist aspiring
filmmakers.
Sundays – 4:30 p.m. at the Ojai Playhouse • 145 E. Ojai Ave. • OFS office: 805-646-8946 • www.ojaifilmsociety.org
Sept. 12, 2010 – “I Am Love”
Italy 2009 (2 hrs.) Rated R
Director Luca
Guadagnino’s
visually stunning
third film, I Am
Love, is a tragic
love story set in
Milan at the turn
of the millennium. Its epic grandiosity in
telling the story about the fall of a wealthy
bourgeoisie family recalls some of the iconic
work done by Italian master Luchino Visconti
(The Leopard, Death in Venice) and Douglas
Sirk’s (Mag nifice nt Obse ssio n) post-war
melodramas.
Tilda Swinton turns in another remarkable
performance as Emma Recchi, the love-torn
Russian wife of an Italian patrician played by
a highly mannered Pippo Delbono.
Increasingly alienated by her matronly role as
wife, hostess and mother of three adult
children, Emma’s repressed passions find
their focus when her eldest son’s chef friend
is brought to the family home to prepare a
holiday dinner. Emma’s lust is fully unleashed
after he prepares a plate of his famous
prawns with ratatouille and the consequences
unfold with tragic force.
With its spare dialogue and plot, the
emotional core of the film is held together by
cinematographer Yorick Le Saux’s sumptuous
photography, John Adams’ gloriously
melodramatic score and the always luminous
Tilda Swinton, who learned to speak Italian
with a Russian accent for the role.
“I Am Love is an amazing film. It is deep,
rich, human. It is not about rich and poor, but
about old and new. It is about the ancient war
between tradition and feeling.”—Roger Ebert
Joan Roberts
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Sept. 19, 2010 – “Winter’s Bone”
USA 2010 (1 hr., 40 min.) Rated R
Ree Dolly
(Jennifer
Lawrence)
is only 17
when she
finds herself the head of the family. Her father
has put up the family home in the Missouri
Ozarks as security for bail, but then disappears.
Ree knows that if she can’t find him she and her
younger brother and sister will soon be
homeless. What she doesn’t know is that there
are forces at work in this isolated mountain
community that will turn her search for her
father into a dangerous quest.
Ree is willing to risk everything for her brother
and sister, and the spirit of this resilient and
resourceful young woman has been perfectly
captured by Lawrence. Director Debra Granik has
chosen the rest of the cast with equal care. All of
the characters, from Ree’s edgy, hard-bitten uncle
to the community matriarch, who could be
channeling Lady Macbeth, are vivid and authentic
screen creations.
Along with Granik’s impressive casting is the
equally impressive way she portrays this small
and forgotten corner of America. In many ways
the cold and brooding location is almost a
character in the film. It is a tribal culture where
meth has replaced moonshine, rusting cars and
appliances defile the mountain landscape and
violence always simmers below the surface. Part
Grapes of Wrath and part film noir, Winter’s Bone,
winner of the 2009 Sundance Grand Jury Prize for
Drama, is a true original.
Sept. 26, 2010
“The Girl Who Played With Fire”
Sweden 2009 (2 hrs., 9 min.) Rated R
The publishing
phenomenon,
Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy, has sold
40 million copies worldwide. The first film in
the series, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,
has grossed over $100 million worldwide, an
astounding accomplishment for a Swedishlanguage film. While both the books and the
films have many merits, none are more
compelling than one of crime fiction’s most
original creations—Lisbeth Salander (Nooni
Rapace), the twenty-something, bisexual,
Goth-clad, black belt computer genius.
As we left her in The Girl with the Dragon
Tattoo, Salander had used her hacking skills to
empty out a corporate criminal’s offshore
accounts of tens of millions of dollars. Her
financial future is assured but her past catches
up with her when she finds herself accused of
killing a journalist and his girlfriend who were
working on an expose of the Swedish sex trade.
In The Girl Who Playe d with Fire we see
Salander literally come back from the
grave. We learn why she spent much of her
youth in a mental hospital, why her
Russian-born father wants her killed, and
the connection between her father and the
Swedish Secret Service. Along the way she
has to elude the police, a motorcycle gang
that has her in its sights and a blond giant
immune to pain who is a perfect killing
machine. Watching Salander outwit them
all as she dispenses her own special brand
of justice is pure satisfaction.
Ojai Festival Women’s Committee
presents
November 20 & 21, 2010
Tour four eclectic Ojai Valley homes adorned with seasonal trimmings,
plus shop at the outdoor Holiday Marketplace for one-of-a-kind treasures!
805.646.2094
NOTE: All dialog in films from non-English-speaking countries will be presented in its original language accompanied by English subtitles.
www.ojaifestival.org
Fall 2010
3
Good Fixins Served with a Smile
Mon-Sat, Open 7am
Closed Wednesday
Sunday, 7am-2:30pm
In the Arcade
328 E. Ojai Ave.,Ojai
805-646-0207
Oct. 3, 2010 – “Micmacs”
France 2009 (1 hr., 45 min.) Rated R
Bazil,
played by
popular
French
comedian
Dany Boon, the hero of Jean Pierre Jeunet’s
new film Micmacs, is a mild-mannered fellow
with a big grudge. As a child he lost his father
to a land mine in the Moroccan desert. The
orphaned Bazil grows up to be an obsessive
movie buff. While working the night shift at a
video store and reciting Humphrey Bogart’s
French-dubbed dialog in The Big Sleep by
heart, a stray bullet pierces his forehead
nearly killing him.
Once out of the hospital, Bazil is befriended
by a crew of misfit junk collectors―the
Micmacs of the title. Bazil has traced the land
mine and the bullet to rival armaments
companies whose offices sit across from each
other in an industrial zone on the fringe of
Paris. He and his wacky friends set out on a
vengeance quest to monkey-wrench the
merchants of death, embarking on a David
and Goliath campaign of sabotage and
humiliation that is at once whimsically
prankish and deeply earnest.
Jeunet, still best known in this country for
Amélie, achieves a ruefully comical, elegant
and humanistic film in the tradition of Charlie
Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Jacques Tati. The
film has the air of a fable and an out-of-time
patina with Max Steiner music from The Big
Sleep and other early musical scores. The
complete French title, Micmacs à tire-larigot is
slang for “nonstop madness.” And it is.
Oct. 10, 2010 – “Please Give”
USA 2010 (1 hr., 30 min.) Rated R
STEVE BRANDT & CATHY BARNETT
FINE JEWELERS
“GEMS OF THE EARTH – DESIGNS OF THE HEART”
Custom Orders and Repairs
“Large Selection of Jewelry”
We Buy Gold
Open Tuesday - Saturday
Gem Quest Jewelers
108-B N. Signal St.
Ojai, Ca 93023
(805) 646-3836
Writer-director
Nicole Holofcener
(Frie n d s w ith
Mo n e y, 2006)
cleverly keeps the
emotions gurgling in this delightful film. Please
Give is a slice-of-life kind of movie that looks
at how we constantly must adjust ourselves as
we relate to the people around us.
Catherine Keener plays Kate, an antiques
dealer feeling increasingly guilty about her
vocation: buying up furniture from relatives of
the recently deceased and selling it for a large
profit to New York's status-obsessed uppermiddle class. Her feelings of unease at her
own comfortable existence are amplified every
time she runs into Rebecca (Rebecca Hall), a
radiology technician whose acid-tongued 90year-old grandmother Andra lives next door.
Kate and her business partner/husband Alex
(Oliver Platt) own the flat with a view to
expanding their home once granny passes on.
Adding to her guilt is that she enjoys “having”
but is affected by the “have-nots” sleeping on
the street outside her door.
Please Give, the official selection at both
the Sundance and Berlin film festivals, is a
gently humorous, warm film with wellwritten and well-acted characters. Holofcener
creates some of the most interesting female
characters in film today and Keener (in her
fourth Holofcener film role), who embodies
the director’s ideal woman, has become her
artistic alter ego.
“With her new film, the poignant and
funny Please Give, Holofcener is at the top of
her game.”―Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles
Times
Oct. 17, 2010 – “The Father of My Children”
France 2009 (1 hr., 50 min.) Not Rated
INDEPENDENT • ASSISTED LIVING
701 N. MONTGOMERY
OJAI, CA 93023
PHONE: 805.646.1446
FAX: 805.646.3720
RCFE Lic. #561700146
4 Ojai Film Society
There is something
startling about Mia
Hansen-Love’s
second feature film
about a self-styled
independent film producer whose life is
slowly and inexorably coming apart. While
The Father of My Children is ostensibly
about an independent film producer
attempting to maintain his fiscal solvency, it
is not a film about the film industry or even
art. It’s about love, self-definition and a
terrible choice made in a moment of quiet
despair that changes everyone’s life forever.
Gregoire Canvel, played by LouisDominique de Lencquesaing with casual
charm and understated charisma, is a man
with a wife who loves him, three daughters
who pine for him, employees who admire
him and creditors who are closing in on him.
Hansen-Love’s deft direction of the family
scenes is one of the minor miracles of the
film. Their response to the unimaginable
tragedy when it unfolds is so under-played,
so gentle and terrifying, and ultimately so
real that it stays with you long after you have
left the theater. Winner of the Special Jury
Prize at Cannes in 2009, this is an involving
drama about the banality of tragedy and the
surprising resilience of life.
“The Fathe r o f My Childre n is a subtle
work on an exceedingly difficult subject.
It’s painful—and the pain is a type not
often explored on film with this delicacy, or
quite this calm.”—Amy Biancolli, San
Francisco Chro nicle
Sundays – 4:30 p.m. at the Ojai Playhouse • 145 E. Ojai Ave. • OFS office: 805-646-8946 • www.ojaifilmsociety.org
Oct. 24, 2010
“The Kids Are All Right”
USA 2010 (1 hr., 46 min.) Rated R
Nic and
J u l e s ,
impeccably played by Annette Bening and
Julianne Moore, are a lesbian couple with
two teenage children whose lives take an
abrupt turn when the children, Joni and
Laser, throw a very large rock into the
familial pond. Curious about their spermdonor father, they locate Paul (Mark Ruffalo.)
Paul charms them with his slacker
sensibilities and before long they have
invited him home for dinner. To Nic’s dismay
Paul quickly ingratiates himself with Jules
and the children and becomes the catalyst
for a family crisis.
Given the controversy over gay marriage,
it’s revealing to view the stresses and strains
of marriage and child rearing through the
lens of two gay parents. Nic and Jules bicker,
the children strain at the parental leash and
there are speed bumps on the road of life
which Nic and Jules handle with varying
degrees of success. Life in their suburban
home is no different than home life
anywhere else.
All of the performances in the film are
beyond reproach, from Bening’s take on
Nic’s steely personality to Ruffalo’s portrayal
of Paul’s shambling and counterfeit charm.
The Kids Are All Right is an artfully woven
tale of the ups and downs of family life in
which both the comedy and drama owe as
much to real life as the screenwriter’s pen.
“Witty, urbane and thoroughly
entertaining.”—Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles
Times
SAKURA OJAI
Teppan Yaki & Sushi
11:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. (M - F)
5:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. (7 days)
11400 N.Ventura Ave.
805-649-5555
Oct. 31, 2010
“Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work”
USA 2010 (1 hr., 24 min.) Rated R
Joan Rivers:
A Pie c e o f
Work covers a
year in the life
of the tireless comedian at age 75. Don’t be
surprised if you walk out of the theater
exhausted by all she fits into that time frame.
You’ll also walk out entertained, enlightened
and just a little sore from laughing.
This documentary reveals the rewards and
costs of compulsive celebrity. On stage Rivers
is one of the funniest, most daring, dirtiest
and most vulnerable standup comics ever. Off
stage she tells the truth as she sees it, even if
it reveals tawdry insights into her personal
life. But she is totally lacking in self-pity. She
discovered that her husband, Edgar, who
produced her Fox TV show, stole from her.
He committed suicide. She never forgave him
—for the suicide, not the stealing.
One of the most arresting aspects of the
film is her physical transformation over the
years through plastic surgery. Her surgery
bills must rival Michael Jackson’s. And she’s
far from through.
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work is the portrait
of a woman who will not accept defeat, will
not slow down―someone who must
constantly prove herself. What makes Joan
run? Bernard Shaw called it the “Life Force.”
Whatever it is, night after night she faces
audiences that know her age, her
problems―eye her plastic surgery―and she
wins them over because she’s so darn funny.
“A convulsively funny movie.”―The New
York Times
Ojai Film Festival
“Enriching the Human Spirit Through Film”
Thursday, November 4 – Sunday, November 7, 2010
The Ojai Film Festival, now in its 11th year,
continues its commitment to presenting the
best new independent films from around the
globe.
In addition to three days of screenings, the
festival will feature seminars on the art of
filmmaking and a Gala Awards Presentation.
As in the past, Thursday’s opening night
event will be a free community screening.
The Ojai Film Festival is proud to highlight
America’s rich cinematic heritage, while also
providing a showcase for today’s most
innovative and talented independent
filmmakers. Included in this year’s program
will be a wide variety of distinguished films
in many styles and genres, some from wellknown filmmakers, others from young artists
just beginning their careers. What they will
have in common is the capacity to entertain
and educate, move you to tears and fill you
with laughter, stimulate you to think and
perhaps, inspire you to action.
For information or to purchase tickets and
passes, please call (805) 640-1947 or visit us
on the Web at www.ojaifilmfestival.org
Volunteers and donations are welcome.
NOTE: All dialog in films from non-English-speaking countries will be presented in its original language accompanied by English subtitles.
Fall 2010
5
Nov. 14, 2010 – “The Tillman Story”
USA 2010 (1 hr., 34 min.) Rated R
Gourmet Coffee
Select Tea
Special Gifts
323 E. Matilija St. #105, Ojai
805-646-3138
Formerly Regal’s
Wine & Spirits
Tasting Room
• Local Wines
• Rare & Vintage Wines & Spirits
• Imported Meat & Cheeses
• Gourmet Foods
• Wine
655 E. Ojai Avenue • (805) 646 -1700
The old axiom
that “the first
casualty in war is
truth” is only the
starting point in this
fine documentary
about the famed
NFL safety who repudiated his seven-figure
football salary for the killing fields of
Afghanistan. While most people know about
the Army’s collusion in obscuring the true
circumstances of Pat Tillman’s friendly-fire
death, the brazen and bold-faced lies are
clear and startling.
On one level it may not surprise anyone
that the U.S. military and political leadership
did not want to give up its top recruiting
story for the “War on Terror.” But the
collusion of the press in propagating
government lies is more difficult to
understand and in many ways more
disturbing.
Politics aside, director Amir Bar-Lev paints a
more complete and complex portrait of Pat
Tillman than any of us have ever seen.
Tillman’s reading list ranged from Noam
Chomsky to the Book of Mormon and his
opinions changed as his experience grew.
What emerges is a man who is intelligent and
open to new ideas, not just a mouthpiece of
mindless patriotic fervor. The Tillman family’s
heroic persistence with the military is the only
real reason the truth was ever revealed—
heroism worthy of Pat’s sacrifice.
“This documentary succeeds triumphantly
on so many levels that its full impact doesn’t
hit you until you have time to register its
aftershocks.”—Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
Nov. 21, 2010
“Mademoiselle Chambon”
France 2009 (1 hr., 41 min.) Not Rated
Little does
Jean (Vincent
Lindon)
know when he accepts Veronique Chambon’s
invitation to speak to her class that his life is
about to change. But it’s no secret to us as we
watch Veronique’s face while Jean stands
before the class. We know feelings are
beginning to stir within her, but it will take
some time before Jean will feel the same
emotional pull.
Veronique, in an exquisite performance by
Sandrine Kiberlain, is a solitary woman who
believes life has passed her by. Jean’s
marriage has faded into a comfortable habit,
but he is a family man and is not looking for
an affair. However, he can’t get Veronique out
of his mind and his feelings for her crystallize
in one lyrical moment as he watches her play
the violin. Transfixed by both Veronique and
the music, Jean is soon wrestling with an
insoluble dilemma: What is he willing to
lose—his family or the opportunity to
experience a great love?
If this year’s I Am Love is romance as
grand opera, Made m o ise lle Cham bo n is
romance as chamber music. The film resists
the temptation to hurry the story along as it
builds slowly into a rueful and powerful tale
of love that never strikes a false note. This is
a film to savor.
“Made with the kind of sensitivity and
nuance that’s become an almost lost art.”—
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
Nov. 28, 2010 – “Get Low”
USA 2010 (1 hr., 43 min.) Rated PG-13
A
Special
Thanks
OFS thanks the following
businesses and
organizations for donating
door prizes for our Spring
and Summer 2010 films
Bonnie Lu’s Cafe
Ojai Coffee Roasting Co.
Leslie Bouche –
Heart to Mind Hypnotherapy
Ojai Music Festival
Ojai Royal Cleaners
Elise DePuydt
Ojai Valley Inn & Spa
Los Caporales Restaurant
The Ojai Retreat
6 Ojai Film Society
Get Low is
a genuine,
often hilarious
period piece
based on a
real-life legend who threw himself a funeral
party while still alive. Three pros: Robert
Duvall, Bill Murray and Sissy Spacek spin
pure gold from the Depression-era folk tale
set in the Tennessee backwoods. Director
Aaron Schneider is firmly in control as the
story toggles between solemnity and whimsy,
as any good front-porch yarn should.
Previously a cinematographer, Schneider
lights the film like a master.
Duvall is Felix Bush, a backwoods hermit
with a long scruffy beard who has spent 38
years alone on his farm in self-imposed
exile with his secrets. Time is catching up
to him though and he feels it in his chest.
Felix makes a rare visit to town with a wad
of cash in his pocket to visit Frank Quinn
(Bill Murray), the funeral director. He
explains to the undertaker just how he
wants to “get low” (slang for get buried.)
He wants to go out with a bang by having a
send-off party while still alive. When the
big day arrives secrets are revealed and old
wounds are healed.
Get Low is not so much about death as it
is about finding peace. Some wonderful
humor comes forth in the process, topped off
by Murray, who gets some of the best laughs.
Duvall keeps getting better with age and
could easily garner his seventh Oscar
nomination for his role.
Sundays – 4:30 p.m. at the Ojai Playhouse • 145 E. Ojai Ave. • OFS office: 805-646-8946 • www.ojaifilmsociety.org
George J. Sandoval, President
Randy Roth, Vice President
Anthony T. Hirsch, M.D., Treasurer
Christy Sebastian, Secretary
Ron Phillips, Past President
Andi Bloom
Corinne Bourdeau
Hon. Fred Bysshe
Connie Campbell
Phil Caruthers
Jim McEachen
Gillian McManus
Stephen Miller
Bill Paterson
Terry Twichell
Justin Zackham
Program Committee,
Jim McEachen & Bill Paterson
Photos by Tony Hirsch
Joan Roberts
Office Manager, Elise DePuydt
The Ojai Film Society wishes to thank the following people for writing and editing this season’s Screening Schedule:
Doug Adrianson, Connie Campbell, Elise DePuydt, Tony Hirsch, Jim McEachen, Bill Paterson, Ron Phillips and George Sandoval.
NOTE: All dialog in films from non-English-speaking countries will be presented in its original language accompanied by English subtitles.
Fall 2010
7
RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED
P.O. Box 545
Ojai, CA 93024
THIRD CLASS MAIL
U.S. POSTAGE PAID
NON-PROFIT
PERMIT #347
OJAI, CA
Screening Schedule design and
layout by e.D Brooks Design
NOTE: All dialog in films
from non-English-speaking
countries will be presented
in its original language
accompanied by English
subtitles.
Sundays, 4:30 p.m.
Ojai Playhouse
November 28
Get Low
November 21
Mademoiselle Chambon
November 14
The Tillman Story
November 4 - 7
Ojai Film Festival
October 31
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
October 24
The Kids Are All Right
October 17
The Father of My Children
October 10
Please Give
October 3
Micmacs
September 26
The Girl Who Played With Fire
September 19
Winter’s Bone
September 12
I Am Love
SCREENING SCHEDULE
FALL 2010