Saturday January 7th at 5pm
The Debt
(USA 2011) 104 min. Helen Mirren, Sam Worthington, Tom Wilkinson. Dir. John Madden
The Debt is an espionage thriller that begins in 1997, as shocking news reaches three retired Mossad secret agents Rachel and Stefan about their former colleague David. All three have been venerated for decades by their country because of the mission that they undertook back in 1966, when the trio tracked down Nazi war criminal Vogel in East Berlin. Now, thirty years later, a man claiming to be the Nazi has surfaced in Ukraine and one of the former agents must go back undercover to seek out the truth… Bristling with dangers both corporeal and cerebral, The Debt is a superbly crafted espionage thriller packed with Israeli-Nazi score settling.
Original Version (English) with Spanish subtitles
Wednesday January 11th at 7pm
Beginners
(USA 2011) 117 min. Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Mélanie Laurent. Dir. Mike Mills
Beginners imaginatively explores the hilarity, confusion and surprises of love through the evolving consciousness of Oliver. Oliver meets the irreverent and unpredictable Anna (Mélanie Laurent of Inglourious Basterds) only months after his father Hal has passed away. This new love floods Oliver with memories of his father, who, following the death of his wife of 45 years, came out of the closet at age 75 to live a full, energized, and wonderfully tumultuous gay life. The upheavals of Hal’s new honesty, by turns funny and moving, brought father and son closer than they’d ever been able to be.
Original Version (English) with Spanish subtitles
Saturday January 14th 5pm
Mommie Dearest
(USA 1981) 129 min. Faye Dunaway, Diana Scarwid, Steve Forrest. Dir. Frank Perry
In honour of Faye Dunaway’s birthday Nerja Cine Club will be showing the film in which she gives arguably her best performance.
This is the outrageous and controversial story of legendary movie star Joan Crawford (Faye Dunaway) and her struggle with the dual role of fading actress and tormented mother. Mommie Dearest is based on the memoirs of Crawford’s adopted daughter Christina and provides an insight into the private Crawford, trying to survive in the cutthroat movie industry and so desperate to be a mother she adopted children when she was single. Largely from Christina’s viewpoint, we see Crawford’s succession of lovers and husbands, career ups and (mainly) downs, fantastic egotism, and dependence on and abusiveness toward her children.
Original Version (English) with Spanish subtitles
Wednesday January 18th 7pm
Arsenic and Old Lace
(USA 1944) 118 min. Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Raymond Massey, Peter Lorre, Edward Everett Horton. Dir: Frank Capra.
Today would be Cary Grant’s birthday and to celebrate the Nerja Cine Club are showing Arsenic and Old Lace, the big screen adaptation of Joseph Kesselring’s hit play. This hilarious classic tells the tale of drama critic Mortimer Brewster who discovers that his two beloved and apparently harmless aunts are in fact murderers who poison lonely gentlemen visitors.
Original Version (English) with Spanish subtitles
Saturday January 21st 5pm
The First Day of the Rest of Your Life
(France 2010) 114 min. Jaques Gamblin, Zabou Reitman, Deborah Francois. Dir. Remi Bezancon
Nominated for 9 French Academy Awards and a box office smash hit, The First Day Of The Rest Of Your Life is an uproarious, uplifting saga which shows you a family that’s just like any other… but in the most unexpected ways you can imagine.
Marie-Jeanne and Robert have three children: Albert, Raphaël and Fleur. Over the course of twelve eventful years, we see five key days as seen through the eyes of each one of these characters. Five days are crucial in these lonely, vibrant, frustrated, elated and triumphant live. Five days whose consequences reverberate through this eccentric family like thunder and lightening of a gathering storm. These five days are more important then any other day. After you’ve experienced them, nothing will ever be the same again.
Original Version (French) with English subtitles
Wednesday January 25th 7pm
The Help
(USA 2011) Emma Stone, Bryce Dallas Howard, Viola Davis. Dir. Tate Taylor
Based on the bestseller by Kathryn Stockett, The Help brings the novel to vivid life through the powerful performances of a phenomenal ensemble cast. Led by Emma Stone, Academy Award-nominated Viola Davis (Best Supporting Actress, Doubt), Octavia Spencer and Bryce Dallas Howard, The Help is an inspirational, courageous and empowering story about very different, extraordinary women in the 1960s South who build an unlikely friendship around a secret writing project — one that breaks society’s rules and puts them all at risk.
Filled with poignancy, humor and hope, the film is a timeless, universal and triumphant story about the ability to create change.
Original Version (English) with Spanish subtitles
Saturday January 28 5pm
To Be Or Not To Be
(USA 1942) 95 min. Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, Robert Stack Dir. Ernst Lubitsch
Ernst Lubitsch directs the 1942 political satire classic To Be or Not to Be, which marked the final screen appearance of comedienne Carole Lombard. In Warsaw at the beginning of WWII, Maria Tura (Lombard) and husband Joseph (Jack Benny) perform anti-Nazi plays with their theater troupe until they are forced to switch to Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
Lt. Stanislav Sobinski (Robert Stack) falls for Maria and meets up with her during Joseph’s famous “To Be or Not to Be” speech as Hamlet. When Stanislav is eventually dispatched for war, he implicates Maria with Professor Siletsky (Stanley Ridges), who has a secret plan to destroy the Warsaw resistance. The Polish theater troupe is then forced to use their theatrical skills to ensure their survival. Eventually, they turn to impersonating Nazi officers – and even Hitler himself – in order to outwit the enemy and keep the resistance safe from spies.
To Be or Not to Be opened to a controversial release in 1942, when the U.S. was still very much involved in WWII. Now it is regarded as one of the most profound, emotionally complex comedies ever made, covering a range of tones from satire to slapstick to shocking black humor.
Original Version (English) with Spanish subtitles
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