SEPTEMBER 2009 @ RBCFT

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

Ray Eddy is a New York “trailer mom” who is lured into the world of illegal immigrant smuggling when she meets a Mohawk girl, Lila, who lives on a reservation that straddles the US-Canadian border.

Broke after her husband takes off with the down-payment for their new home, Ray reluctantly teams up with Lila and the two begin making runs across the treacherous frozen St Lawrence River carrying illegal immigrants in the boot of Ray’s car.

Dustin Hoffman brings all his rumpled charm to bear on the role of loveable loser Harvey Shine, an aspiring jazz pianist whose life has hit the skids. Having been fired from his job as a jingle writer and overlooked at his daughter’s wedding, a chance meeting at Heathrow Airport with lonely Kate (Emma Thompson) spells good news for both of them, as they embark on a tentative friendship.

Warmly witty and surprisingly touching, ‘Last Chance Harvey’ is a treat for incurable romantics.

10.45am on Thursday 24th September

Burma VJ recounts the efforts of a small group of independent video journalists who risked torture and life in jail to ensure the truth behind the country’s 2007 political uprising was broadcast to the world. Led by hundreds of Buddhist monks, more than 100,000 people marched peacefully against the military junta that has held the country in an iron grip for 40 years, and that cracked down mercilessly on the protestors and the monks. Foreign TV crews were suddenly banned from the country, leaving undercover video journalists armed with small handy cams to capture the truth behind the events.

Consisting largely of material shot by undercover reporters during the protests, ‘Burma VJ’ follows the efforts of Joshua, the 27-year-old leader of the Democratic Voice of Burma, as he and a handful of others counter the propaganda of the military regime.

The heart-wrenching drama about a love that transcends time, based on the best-selling book by Audrey Niffenegger, tells the story of Henry (Eric Bana), a librarian with a rare genetic disease that causes him to involuntary time travel.

This adaptation retains the wonder and magic of the novel, and is guaranteed to leave even the most hardened soul with a quivering bottom lip by the credits.

1pm on Wednesday 30th September

Find out more about this film and view trailers at:
www.thetimetravelerswifemovie.com (opens into a new browser window)

Every so often the Cannes Film Festival screens a film that pushes the critics to their limits, with walk-outs and standing ovations in equal measure. This year it was the turn of enfant terrible Lars von Trier, whose latest is a psycho-sexual horror film which follows a grieving couple played by Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg as they retreat to their cabin in the woods.

No matter which viewpoint you end up subscribing to, you cannot ignore ‘Antichrist’. Part melodrama, part horror, part rumination on the nature of religion, it’s not an easy film to digest.

Plus short film about British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) decision making.

Film Club