2024 Spring Films

 MARCH 4 ANATOMY OF A FALL (France)

Exciting news! We have just confirmed that our opening film on Monday March 4th will be the multi-award winning (Cannes, Golden Globes, BAFTA to name a few), multi Oscar-nominated (Best Picture, Directing, Actress in a Lead Role, Film Editing and Writing (original screenplay) ANATOMY OF A FALL.

The much-lauded winner of this year's Palme d'Or, director Justines Triet's fourth feature has cemented her status as one of today's great film-making talents. Unfolding over two-and-a-half hours like a compulsively readable novel, the riveting ANATOMY OF A FALL is both a dissection of an intimate relationship, and of the judiciary process.

Taut, suspenseful, and thrilling until the final moment, ANATOMY OF A FALL progresses like a heady puzzle that tackles the messiness of existence and the often-elusive nature of truth itself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTrsp5BMloA

MARCH 18 BETTER DAYS (Canada)  Director: Joan Carr-Wiggin

99 minutes

 

Better Days is a comedy that explores starting over after the death of a loved one, with a notable cast led by Sonja Smits and Alix Sideris. Directed by Joan Carr-Wiggin, the film showcases her distinctive approach to film making.  

 

After her husband of over thirty years dies, Kate has no idea what to do next. Vodka can only solve so many problems. She befriends three lonely teenagers who share her husband’s love of Halloween costumes, and together the four of them try to figure out what they want from life. But her disapproving son and daughter, shocked by her behaviour, insist she go back to being the woman she was – just as she’s discovering the woman she might become. A delightful comedy about starting over before it’s too late.

 

 

APRIL 1 THE MONK AND THE GUN (Bhutan, France, Taiwan) 

 

Director: Pawo Choyning Dorji

Dzongkha and English with English subtitles

107 minutes

 

Set in 2006, when the Kingdom of Bhutan began its transition to democracy, this playful ensemble drama is a poignant parable about the impossibility of embracing modernity without reckoning with the past.

 

Following the adventures of monks, villagers, urbanites, and one hapless foreigner, this big-hearted ensemble drama captures that moment of transition in all its strangeness and wonder as the king abdicates.

 

As Bhutan has never experienced an election, government officials stage a mock election as a training exercise — though even registering folks to vote is a challenge in regions where people don’t know their birthdates!

 

“A droll, shrewdly satirical fable, in which Western values crash against a seemingly intransigent (but potentially more enlightened) South Asian culture.” - Variety

 

"unassumingly profound, and hilariously endearing" - Film Companion

 

Bhutan's entry for Best International Film at the 2024 Academy Awards

 

 

APRIL 15 PERFECT DAYS (Japan)

This is Japan's entry for the 2024 Academy Awards, and directed by master director WIM WENDERS. It has already won a number of awards. This film was highly recommended by Jamaal as being the perfect fit for Film Circuit audiences. I'm seeing it all over the arthouse cinema circuit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzZBbX5A1FA

April 29th: THE CRIME IS MINE (France)

Director: François Ozon

French with English subtitles

102 minutes

THE CRIME IS MINE marks a return to comedy for prolific French director Francois Ozon who spent many of the last few years creating dramas like “Summer of 85” and “Frantz.” Reuniting with his "8 Women" star Isabelle Huppert and the dynamic Nadia Tereszkiewicz and Rebecca Marder, Ozon creates a fantasy world of gorgeous 1930s gowns, Art Deco luxury, and of course, a corrupt court and gullible public that’s thrown into a frenzy by our protagonist Madeleine’s supposed crime.

Ozon, who also wrote the film, whips up a frothy story of murder, romance, blackmail, girl power, and a little bit of old French film history. It’s an escapist sort of frivolity that delights in bad behavior, decadent costumes and lavish sets, like a farcical version of “Chicago” minus the musical numbers.

Cinematographer Manuel Dacosse works within a palette of macaroons, from eye-catching pastels to delicious mauves and teals, under golden tones of light that evoke a sense of the romantic past between Ozon’s screwball comedy beats.