Past list view

Changed date - to Thursday Nov 19 instead of on Friday Nov 20. Friday is Light-Up Night, and we can avoid the events and traffic conflicts.

The 3 Rivers Film Festival has a program of 13 short films that it will be showing at the Melwood Screening Room on Thursday, November 19. Here's a review of the program:

Space is devoted in the Film Festival each year for a competitive selection of shorts - a program for media artists to present work that allows them to creatively take risks, break new ground or challenge the viewer. This year we’ve selected 13 short films from more than 130 submissions from local, national and international artists. The categories are experimental, narrative, animation, and documentary. Prizes will be awarded (donated by Pittsburgh Filmmakers and Kodak) for first, second and third place. (Total program running time: 123 min)

The Wishing Bone - Kev Stock
I Can Speak Swedish - Charlene Loh & David Forster
The Banana House - Hanna Dobbz
Psalm Five Oh Four - Dominic Laing
Nello - Kristen Lauth Schaeffer
Heart of a Bee - Dean Ciocca
Vazaha - Ben Hernstrom
Hermeneutics in Outer Space - Sheila Ali
Skylight - David Baas
Red Flag - Sheila Curran Dennin
An Introduction to Physics - Caleb Foss
bird.land - Tess Allard
Food For America - Justin Crimone

You need to buy your ticket at the 3 Rivers Film Festival ticket site.

There weren't a lot of votes, but It Might Get Loud got 2 to the 1 for Afghan Star, so let's go to the 7:00 showing of It Might Get Loud at the Regent Square Theater. Afterwards, we could go to that same coffee shop, if you are interested.

Each second Friday of the month we will offer a choice between the two main Pittsburgh Filmmakers films (the one at the Harris and the one at the Regent Square), and we'll go to whichever one gets the more votes. The two choices for this month, Friday October 9, are Afghan Star at the Harris Theater and It Might Get Loud at the Regent Square Theater.

Here are reviews taken from the Pittsburgh Filmmakers web site:

Afghan Star: This “engrossing ” documentary follows an American-Idol style TV show in which 2,000 contestants compete for cash and a record deal – in Afghanistan. Three of them are women. Viewers vote for their favorite singers by mobile phone, a taste of democracy. But in a troubled country like this, even music is controversial. Considered sacrilegious by the Mujahideen and banned by the Taliban, music has come to symbolize freedom for the youth. When one young woman dances on stage, she threatens her own safety and the future of the show. With subtitles. (Havana Markin; Afghanistan; 2008; 87 min)

It Might Get Loud: “Does this sound like rock heaven? It is.” – Rolling Stone. From the Oscar-winning director of An Inconvenient Truth, comes a kind of multi-generational six-string summit of rock legends: The Edge (U2), Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), and Jack White (The White Stripes). They tell personal stories – in their own words – of how each developed a unique sound and style, and how their love affair with the electric guitar began. While they talk and play new music together, we get a rare peek at the deliberate and accidental occurrences of creativity, of how a song’s path travels from the brain, to the fingers, to the listener’s ears. Downright invigorating, this film will have you playing air guitar for weeks. (Davis Guggenheim; USA: 2009; 97 min)

The winner of our voting is In the Loop. However, the Filmmakers threw me for a loop because they scheduled 2 showings on Friday night instead of the 1 that I expected. Let's go to the 7:00 show, and then we will have time to go to a coffee shop or somewhere afterwards.

In our Second-Friday-of-the-month movie trip, we have a choice of two political / financial films - In the Loop, a farce about bungling British and American bureaucrats anticipating a war, and American Casino, an analysis of the subprime mortgage crisis. Here are reviews copied from the Pittsburgh Filmmakers site.

In the Loop: If this political farce about the road to war through the corridors of power weren't so hilarious, it would be horrifying. A hit at Sundance, it begins when a British cabinet minister says he thinks war is "unforeseeable," in a radio interview. He's then sent to Washington because, of course, America needs allies. Wickedly sardonic and filled with secrets, lies, leaks, plugs, faulty intelligence and walls, In the Loop leads us behind closed doors to reveal bungling bureaucrats entangled in petty rivalries, aides jockeying for favor, and the Keystone Cops of government. Writer-director Iannucci is an acclaimed comedy writer in England, known for such award-winning TV shows as "I'm Alan Partridge" and "The Thick of It." He encouraged his outstanding cast (featuring James Gandolfini, Tom Hollander, Steve Coogan and Mimi Kennedy) to use their sharp improvisation skills. (Armando Iannucci; UK; 1009; 106 min)

American Casino: We're not going to this one.

Between Seraphine and Summer Hours, there was no clear preference. So let's go see Seraphine. The tiebreaker? Seraphine shows through Aug 13, Summer hours goes a week longer through Aug 20, so we'll see the one that closes sooner.

For our August first-Friday movie, Seraphine is showing at the Regent Square Theater and Summer Hours is showing at the Harris Theater. If you are planning to come, when you respond please tell me your preference: 1) Seraphine, 2) Summer Hours, 3) either one is fine, or 4) something else. I'll announce the "winner" on Wednesday, August 5.

A review of Seraphine: A breath-taking film - and winner of 7 Cesars - Seraphine boasts a mesmerizing performance by Yolande Moreau in the title role. The designation of "outsider" artists includes (among other things) untrained masters who remained unknown while alive, or those whose mental illness existed alongside a significant artistic career. In this astonishing new film about French painter Seraphine Louis, we visit another outsider. In 1914, she's working as a maid and cook by day, and painting with expressionistic fury by night. Her oracular, phantasmagoric work is ignored until discovered by a respected art collector and dealer of "primitivists." Just as Seraphine’s paintings are hailed as exceptional, her precarious mental state (like Munch and Van Gogh) begins to slip. With subtitles. (Martin Provost; France; 2009; 122 min)

A review of Summer Hours: "A near perfect blend of humor and heartbreak, a lyrical masterwork... that rare summer movie – one that matters." --Rolling Stone. Writer-director Olivier Assayas' (Irma Vep) latest film -- one of the most celebrated films at the Toronto, AFI and New York Film Festivals -- features some of France’s finest performers, including the luminous Juliette Binoche. Three 40-something siblings’ busy lives crash when their mother, heiress to a spacious country estate and a magnificent art collection, dies at 75. But this beautiful film never turns into the expected family squabble over money or property; instead it follows the complicated business of appraising, auctioning, donating, and giving away the antique furniture and artworks. Each of them wrestles with their mother’s memory and their responsibility to the artists’ legacy. The real conflict is between the past, which must be honored, and the present, which must be lived. The film’s delicate balance of realism and poetry recalls Jean Renoir at his best. With subtitles. (Olivier Assayas; France; 2008; 102 min)