MARCH 2012 @ RBCFT

March Quick View - click on film for full film details:

Thursday 1 (10.45 and 7.30) March

The Artist – Dir. Michel Hazanavicius
France and Belgium, 2011, 100min, PG

This beautiful silent comedy, filmed in black and white, this silent picture has been cleverly made by French Filmmakers in Hollywood. The play on silent film conventions and a superb score make this a film lover’s dream, and a warm tribute to the early days of silent cinema. In the story George Valentin is one of the biggest celebrities of the silent screen in 1920s Hollywood. While working the premiere of his new film, he accidentally bumps into a beautiful unknown, Peppy, and the ensuing photo op sets her on the path to unexpected fame.

At first, their shared stardom is bliss for them both, but with the advent of the ‘talkies’, George refuses to adapt and fades from the limelight, while Peppy enjoys a meteoric rise through the Hollywood firmament.

Golden Globes 2012 winner.

Coffee Club - 10.45am on Thursday 1st March

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Friday 2 (7.00), Monday 5 (6.30 ) and Thursday 8 (10.45 ) March

The Lady – Dir. Luc Besson
France and UK, 2011, 132min, 12A Contains moderate violence and bloody moments

Luc Besson takes on the inspiring true story of Burmese pro-democracy activist, leader and political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi (Michelle Yeoh) and the tenacious long distance bond she maintained with her British husband, Michael Aris (David Thewlis) while under house arrest for over a decade. The script was written over a period of three years by Rebecca Frayn while she conducted interviews with key figures in Aung San Suu Kyi’s entourage enabling her to reconstruct for the first time the story of the woman who is at the core of Burma’s democracy movement and a global heroine.

THE LADY is an epic love story about an extraordinary couple who sacrifice their happiness at great human cost for a higher cause.

Film Club, 6.30pm on Monday 5th March

Coffee Club - 10.45am on Thursday 8th March

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Saturday 3 (7.30), Tuesday 6 (1.30 and 7.30), Wednesday 7 (7.30) March

W.E. – Dir. Madonna
UK, 2011, 119min, 15

A two-tiered romantic drama focusing on the affair between King Edward VIII and American divorcée Wallis Simpson and a contemporary romance between a married woman and a Russian security guard. W.E. tells the story of two fragile but determined women - Wally Winthrop (Abbie Cornish) and Wallis Simpson - separated by more than six decades. But Wally's research, including several visits to the Sotheby's auction of the Windsor Estate, reveals that the couple's life together was not as perfect as she thought.

Weaving back and forth in time, W.E. intertwines Wally's journey of discovery in New York with the story of Wallis (Andrea Riseborough) and Edward (James D'Arcy), from the glamorous early days of their romance to the slow unraveling of their lives in the decades that followed.

Sneaky Cinema - 1.30pm on Tuesday 6th March

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Thursday 8 March 6.30

Killing Us Softly 4 – Dir. Sut Jhally
USA, 2010, 45min, certificate to be confirmed

In this bestselling update of her pioneering Killing Us Softly series, the first in more than a decade, Jean Kilbourne takes a fresh look at how advertising traffics in unhealthy and destructive ideals of femininity. Breaking down a range of new print and television advertisements, Kilbourne uncovers a systematic pattern of damaging gender stereotypes, unrealistic images, and regressive stories about female beauty and sexuality. By bringing Kilbourne’s groundbreaking analysis up to date, Killing Us Softly 4 challenges the audience to take advertising seriously, and to think critically about popular culture’s relationship to sexism, eating disorders, and gender violence.

This free screening is sponsored by the Domestic Abuse and Violence Against Women Partnership in order to mark International Women’s Day 2012.

There will be an opportunity for discussion after the film. Tea/coffee will be provided.

To book a place please contact Kate Barrick at kate.barrick@dumgal.gov.uk or on 01387 245190

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Friday 9 (7.30), Saturday 10 (7.30) and Wednesday 14 (1.00 ) March

The Decoy Bride – Dir. Sheree Folkson
UK, 2011, certificate to be confirmed

Lara Tyler is one of the most famous movie stars around, but all she wants to do is marry her fiance, writer James Arbor. Besieged by paparazzi, especially Marco Ballani who is obsessed with Lara, they escape to the tiny Scottish island of Hegg to try to wed in peace. However when the paparazzi tracks them down, and with the locals smelling a payday, Lara becomes upset and runs away. In desperation her management team decide to stage a fake wedding, hoping the paparazzi will fall for the scam and leave the island. Local girl Katie (Kelly MacDonald), who is nursing a broken heart, is recruited to pretend to be Lara. But is James really sure Lara is his true love?

Partly filmed in Dumfries and Galloway (Caerlaverock Castle) and on the Isle of Mann and staring David Tennant, Kelly Macdonald and Alice Eve.

Bring a Baby - 1.00pm on Wednesday 14th March

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Monday 12 (6.30 ) and Tuesday 13 (7.00) March

J. Edgar – Dir. Clint Eastwood
USA, 2011, 137min, 15

J. Edgar explores the public and private life of one of the most powerful, controversial and enigmatic figures of the 20th century. As the face of law enforcement in America for almost fifty years, J. Edgar Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio) was feared and admired, reviled and revered. But behind closed doors, he held secrets that would have destroyed his image, his career and his life.

Film Club, 6.30pm on Monday 12th March

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Wednesday 14 (7.00) and Thursday 15 (10.45 and 7.00) March

Coriolanus – Dir. Ralph Fiennes
UK, 2011, 123min, 15 Shakespeare’s tale of rivalries, civil unrest and betrayal in

Ancient Rome is given a clever contemporary reworking by actor Ralph Fiennes in his first film as director. The play has been set in a modern Balkan-type state, with the action punctuated by cable news commentary. The Bard’s words have been lightly edited and skilfully adapted for a more contemporary phrasing, and the cinematography brings the action firmly up-to-date. Although modernised, Fiennes’ adaptation has been praised for its careful attention to the text.

Led by the Fiennes himself as Coriolanus, there is a first-rate cast including Vanessa Redgrave, Brian Cox and Gerard Butler.

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Friday 16 (7.30), Saturday 17 (7.30), Tuesday 20 (7.30), Wednesday 21 (7.30) and Thursday 22 (7.30) March

The Descendants – Dir. Alexander Payne
USA, 2011, 115min, 15

The Descendants is a sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic journey for Matt King (George Clooney) an indifferent husband and father of two girls, who is forced to re-examine his past and embrace his future when his wife suffers a water-skiing accident off of Waikiki. The event leads to a rapprochement with his young daughters while Matt wrestles with a decision to sell a vast plot of unspoiled land handed down from Hawaiian royalty and missionaries and the discovery that his wife held secrets he never imagined.

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Monday 19 (6.30 ) March

Acts Of Godfrey – Dir. Johnny Daukes
UK, 2012, 83min, certificate to be confirmed

Starring Simon Callow and written throughout in rhyming verse, ‘Acts of Godfrey’ is a unique and characteristically original debut from Johnny Daukes as a feature-film writer/director.

As a group assembles for a two-day sales course called ‘Win Only Win,’ Godfrey sets the tone by informing us that we have no control over our lives and are merely his pawns. We are introduced to the hapless alarm salesman Vic Timms, whom Godfrey announces he will pair up with the gorgeous and predatory estate agent Mary MacDalen. As night falls and drink is consumed, Godfrey makes Mary strike a wager that she can seduce Vic and the young boyband manager Jamie. The conference progresses, a web of connections between all the delegates is revealed and past actions crowd in on an increasingly suspenseful present. The next day however, brings a truly terrible surprise, a moment of unalloyed joy and a final twist that is literally devilish...

This Independent British film also has a very strong British cast. Joining Simon Callow are Harry Enfield and Calendar Girl’ Celia Emrie as well as Smack the Pony’s Doon Mackichan and Sea of Soul’s Iain Robertson.

Hosted by the RBCFT Film Club, British Director Johnny Daulkes will attend this film screening and participate in a question and answer session afterwards.

Film Club, 6.30pm on Monday 19th March

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Friday 23 (7.00) and Saturday 24 (7.00) March

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close – Dir. Stephen Daldry
USA, 2011, 129min, 12A Contains infrequent strong language and discriminatory terms

Under the direction of Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot, The Reader, The Hours) Oscar winners Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock unite for the first time in this moving post-9/11 drama. Adapted from the acclaimed bestseller by Jonathan Safran Foer, a story unfolds from inside the young mind of Oskar Schell, an inventive eleven-year-old New Yorker whose discovery of a key in his deceased father’s belongings sets him off on an urgent search across the city for the lock it will open.

Encountering an eclectic assortment of people who are each survivors in their own way, he begins to uncover unseen links to the father he misses, to the mother who seems so far away from him and to the whole noisy, dangerous, discombobulating world around him.

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Monday 26 (6.30 ) March

Girl Model – Dir. Ashley Sabin and David Redmon
USA, Russia, Japan and France, 2011, 77min, certificate to be confirmed

A stark and intimate insight into the global modelling industry.

Despite a lack of obvious similarities between Siberia and Tokyo, a thriving model industry connects these distant regions. GIRL MODEL follows two protagonists involved in this industry: Ashley, a deeply ambivalent model scout who scours the Siberian countryside looking for fresh faces to send to the Japanese market, and one of her discoveries, Nadya, a thirteen year-old plucked from the Siberian countryside and dropped into the center of Tokyo with promises of a profitable career. After Ashley’s initial discovery of Nadya, the two rarely meet again, but their stories are inextricably bound. As Nadya’s optimism about rescuing her family from their financial difficulties grows, her dreams contrast against Ashley’s more jaded outlook about the industry’s corrosive influence.

Film Club, 6.30pm on Monday 26th March

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Tuesday 27 (7.30) and Wednesday 28 (7.30) March

Man on a Ledge – Dir. Asger Leth
USA, 2012, 102min, 12A Contains moderate violence and one use of strong language

An ex-cop and now wanted fugitive (Sam Worthington) threatens to jump to his death from a Manhattan hotel rooftop. The nearest New York Police officer immediately responds to a screaming woman and calls dispatch. More Officers arrive with SWAT and tactical command along with fire-fighters. The police then dispatches a female police psychologist (Elizabeth Banks) personally requested to talk him down from the ledge. However, things aren't as straightforward and clearcut as they appear to be and the longer they are on the ledge, the more she realizes that he might have an ulterior objective.

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Monday 29 (7.00) March

The Age of Stupid – Dir. Franny Armstrongh
UK, 2009, 92min, 12A Contains bleeped strong language and reality footage of death and injury

A documentary-drama-animation hybrid from Director Franny Armstrong and Oscar-winning Producer John Battsek Pete Postlethwaite (In The Name of the Father, Brassed Off, The Usual Suspects) stars as an old man living in the devastated world of 2055. Runaway climate change has ravaged the planet and Pete plays the founder of The Global Archive, a storage facility located in the (now melted) Arctic, preserving all of humanity’s achievements in the hope that the planet might one day be habitable again or that intelligent life may arrive and make use of all that we’ve achieved. He pulls together clips of “archive” news and documentary from 1950- 2008 to build a message showing what went wrong and why.

This screening of The Age of Stupid is being organised to mark Earth Hour.
Earth Hour is a global initiative held on March 31st at 8.30pm asking households and businesses to turn off their lights for an hour to raise awareness of the urgent need for us all to take action on climate change. Rather than switching off the projector lamp, the Film Theatre thought that we could make a valuable commitment to combating climate change by showing a film that stimulates learning and debate on environmental issues.

See www.wwfscotland.org.uk/earthhour for more details on Earth Hour.

The film will be introduced by Martha Halbert from Dumfries and Galloway Council’s Sustainable Development Team.

Teachers: If you would like to organise a screening of a film about climate change in your school accompanied by a short interactive discussion, please contact sustainable.development@dumgal.gov.co.uk

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Friday 30 (7.30) and Saturday 31 (7.30) March

Martha Marcy May Marlene – Dir. T. Sean Durkin
USA, 2011, 102min, 15

Durkin’s powerful first film stars Elizabeth Olsen as Martha a young woman who flees a deranged cult in rural New York and seeks refuge with her estranged sister Lucy. With no other family to lean on and unwilling to reveal the truth about her disappearance, Martha tries desperately to rebuild relations with her sister but her re-assimilation into ‘normal’ life is undermined by recurring flashbacks and paranoia, to the point where she begins to lose her grip on reality. With chillingly beautiful cinematography, this is a film that draws you in, rippling with a sense of threat building towards an unnerving conclusion.

Elizabeth Olsen gives a sensational performance in a gripping psychological thriller, from gifted first-time writer-director Sean Durkin. Peter Travers, Rolling Stone, October 2011

Winner of the Best Director prize at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival

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