What to watch in cinemas this week | Dec. 5–11
A Different Man, The End, Oh, Canada, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Intersteller, and My Neighbor Totoro.
Each week I provide a somewhat-curated list of films to see in cinemas. Meant as more of a resource than weekly essay, you can refer to this series whenever you feel like going to the movies. Also, can check out previous weeks’ selections because those films might still be in theaters.
(Note: So far I’ve seen A Real Pain, Wicked, Gladiator II, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, and Maria at the cinemas while back in California. The Seed of the Sacred Fig and A Real Pain, both recommendations from previous In Cinemas, are great; but the others disappointed: Gladiator II is entertaining but lacks a cohesive story, Wicked looks weirdly desaturated (fatal mistake for a prequel to The Wizard of Oz) and the live-recording on-set singing didn’t work at all, and Maria was just mopey Angelina Jolie failing to give Maria Callas her rightful due. Still to see: Conclave, Here, Heretic, etc.
Recommendation of the week
A Different Man (Aaron Schimberg)
is something I recommended two months ago for its American release; now it’s coming to German Kinos. For the Americans: seek it out in theaters; if unavailable, I highly recommend streaming it.
A Different Man just won big at the Gotham Awards, beating out the juggernaut Anora. It might get some Academy Awards nominations, which rocks.
American releases
The End (Joshua Oppenheimer)
is an apocalyptic musical made by Joshua Oppenheimer, who hasn’t made a film since his two acclaimed documentaries, The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence. I don’t know much about The End or its critical reception, but the cast (Tilda Swinton, Michael Shannon, George MacKay, and Moses Ingram) is awesome.
Plot bio: A post-apocalyptic story about a rich family living in a salt mine converted into a luxurious home. The earth around them has apparently been destroyed, but their son has never seen the outside world. As a young girl appears at the entrance of the bunker, the balance of the family is threatened.
No German release date yet.
Oh, Canada (Paul Schrader)
is an autobiography by Paul Schrader, who, extremely generously to himself, has Richard Gere and Jacob Elordi portray him at older and younger ages.
Plot bio: Famed Canadian-American leftist documentary filmmaker Leonard Fife was one of sixty thousand draft evaders and deserters who fled to Canada to avoid serving in Vietnam. Now in his late seventies, Fife is dying of cancer in Montreal and has agreed to a final interview in which he is determined to bare all his secrets at last, to demythologize his mythologized life.
No German release date yet.
Re-releases
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy)
is being re-released with a 4k restoration for its 60th anniversary. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is one of my top ten films of all time, so I’ll be getting a ticket asap. Directed by Jacques Demy and starring Catherine Deneuve and Nino Castelnuovo, this French New Wave masterpiece is beautifully colored and every line of dialogue, yes every line, is sung. La La Land is directly influenced by The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, which both have very similar endings.
Plot bio: This simple romantic tragedy begins in 1957. Guy Foucher, a 20-year-old French auto mechanic, has fallen in love with 17-year-old Geneviève Emery, an employee in her widowed mother’s chic but financially embattled umbrella shop. On the evening before Guy is to leave for a two-year tour of combat in Algeria, he and Geneviève make love. She becomes pregnant and must choose between waiting for Guy’s return or accepting an offer of marriage from a wealthy diamond merchant.
Not sure when/if it hits German Kinos.
Interstellar (Christopher Nolan)
is finally coming to American cinemas, in IMAX, for its tenth anniversary. Not much to say about this; you may have forgotten how powerful this film is in a cinema, so you should get a refresher.
My Neighbor Totoro (Hayao Miyazaki)
is being released for the Studio Ghibli Fest 2024. This is my favorite of the Ghibli films, but that bar isn’t very high.
Plot bio: Two sisters move to the country with their father in order to be closer to their hospitalized mother, and discover the surrounding trees are inhabited by Totoros, magical spirits of the forest. When the youngest runs away from home, the older sister seeks help from the spirits to find her.
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