our betters is a 1933 american pre-code satirical comedy film directed by george cukor .

the screenplay by jane murfin and harry wagstaff gribble is based on the 1923 play of the same title by w. somerset maugham .

our betters

although the british upper class may be thought our betters in society , but they are certainly not our betters , and perhaps our equals , in morality .
our betters ( 1933 ) - - ( movie clip ) that ridiculous . . .
claire jullien as lady pearl grayston and julia course as elizabeth ( bessie ) saunders in our betters .
lifestyles of the rich and shameless are on display in asolo rep ' s
our betters .
looking for movie tickets ? enter your location to see which movie theaters are playing our betters near you .
from a canadian perspective ? well , our betters certainly needs a more rigorous treatment to seem relevant here and now .
our betters by w . somerset maugham , on now in a good production at the shaw festival , mocks the quaint belief that our own age is less moral than previous ones
starry night dinner 3 : celebrating the production of ' our betters ' - starry night dinner 3 : celebrating the production of our betters was themed to the 1920 ' s , with a suggested dress code described as elegant and distinguished . | your observer
the british atmosphere in our betters was nicely handled , though the movie was too stagey–there was no effort to open it up .
in retrospect , our betters stands as a crucial , personal work in cukor’s large oeuvre , bearing resemblance to other gay - inflected movies he would make .
starry night dinner 3 : celebrating the production of our betters was themed to the 1920 ' s , with a suggested dress code described as elegant and distinguished .
our betters may be minor maugham but it still has major rewards to those lucky enough to look for them in the right way in this smartly - crafted production .
bandit : hey ! we saw them first , they ' re our problem .
“our betters” runs through april 19 , at the fsu center for the performing arts , 5555 n . tamiami trail , sarasota . call 351 - 8000 or visit urltoken for more information .
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our betters is on at the shaw festival in niagara - on - the - lake , ont . , until oct . 27 and features ben sanders as lord bleane and julia course as elizabeth ( bessie ) saunders .
the title is meant to be ironic , by the way , if you couldn ' t already guess . newsflash : these upper - class twits are not our betters ! cue keanu reeves - style
whoaaaaaa .
bird : caw… ( our feathers are a little crumpled , but we ' re all right . )
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our betters , a satirical film about a free - spirited american social climber , was the only somerset maugham work ( play or book ) that george cukor directed for the big screen , despite their wish to work together , based on lifelong friendship .
lakeith stanfield and his sorry to bother you crew reveal their most soul - crushing jobs in our freewheeling interview .
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pavidus : we were saying that my masters ' spirits may be restored if we return to our homeland mountains awhile .
the shaw festival is marketing w . somerset maugham ' s our betters as
perfect for lovers of downton abbey .
the 1917 play does , after all , focus on down - at - the - heels english lords who marry rich american women for their fortunes .
wade bogert - o ' brien as fleming harvey and catherine mcgregor as princess flora della cercola appear in our betters at shaw festival ' in niagara - on - the - lake , ont . the snazzy play by w . somerset maugham is on until oct . 27 .
w . somerset maugham was clearly great fun at parties . and he was clearly paying attention . the evidence being “our betters , ” the latest offering at the asolo rep . maugham’s 1923 play masterfully distills his observations of upper class england at the dawn of the roaring twenties .
opening and no honeymoon for american pearl ( constance bennett ) , presumably innocent before marrying peer george ( alan mowbray ) , quickly revealed to be a heel , anita louise the younger sister , george cukor directing the 1933 rko production of w . somerset maugham ' s our betters .
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as our betters begins , the beautiful , innocent heiress bessie ( julia course , filling out a character that could easily be flat ) has arrived in london to spend time with her sister pearl ( claire jullien ) , who sailed across the ocean years ago to marry a lord and become a lady .
american bessie ( anita louise ) with push - back for fleming ( charles starrett ) , visiting london where her sister is socialite lady pearl ( constance bennett ) , instructing minion thornton ( grant mitchell ) on maneuvers , in george cukor ' s our betters , 1933 , from the somerset maugham play .
niagara - on - the - lake , ont . —if you’re tending to be scandalized lately by the supposedly loose morals of the world in which we live , take a deep breath and plunge into the decidedly louche society of our betters , which had a snazzy opening saturday afternoon at the shaw festival .
but the story’s not the whole story . the world on stage is : britain’s lost eden of upper - crusty creature comforts and class distinction . to contemporary anglophiles , “our betters” is a golden ticket to willy wonka’s chocolate factory . they pack the opening night audience , so my spider sense tells me .
american bessie ( anita louise ) with push - back for fleming ( charles starrett ) , visiting london where her sister is socialite lady pearl ( constance bennett ) , instructing minion thornton ( grant mitchell ) on maneuvers , in george cukor ' s our betters , 1933 , from the somerset maugham play . >
our betters is an adaptation of a drawing room play by w . somerset maugham , and boy does it retain its staginess . there are some fun moments , and constance bennett as the cunning , come - hither high society minx is the mvp , but it ' s 99 % talk - sleepy viewers beware .
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—our betters is in repertory at the royal george theatre , niagara - on - the - lake , through oct . 27 , major barbara at the royal george through oct . 19 , guys and dolls at the festival theatre through oct . 12 . call 1 - 800 - 511 - 7429 or visit urltoken for details and tickets .
yes , thanks to maugham’s comedy of bad manners , you can crash their exclusive parties and laugh with them and at them . laugh you will , make no mistake . “our betters” is a very funny play . so funny , it’s easy to miss the point — especially if you’re an anglophile with a golden ticket in your chocolaty hands .
while watching our betters , a george cukor - directed adaptation of a w . somerset maugham play , i felt like i was observing an alien race from above , with many of its members acting in ways—whether heartlessly bitchy , unbelievably self - delusional or otherwise—that seemed utterly foreign to my own experience of what i ' d consider normal human behavior .
you don’t have to be an american in britain — though it would probably help — to enjoy “our betters , ” somerset maugham’s rarely seen 1917 comedy with which kathleen turner makes her second chichester festival appearance of the summer ( following the solo show “tallulah ! ” ) . a quietly cutting satire of yanks who yearn to be english , [ … ]
there’s a quaint belief , expounded in newspaper columns and letters to editors , that our own age is significantly less moral than previous ones . almost any worthwhile piece of past literature , fact or fiction , will give the lie to that , even if morality is defined , as it generally and quaintly is , as sexual morality . our betters , a sardonically titled comedy by w . somerset maugham now on view in a good production at the shaw festival , is a case in point , suggesting that in this respect the only thing we’ve lost is hypocrisy .
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boar : oink oink oink… ( certainly we are not in a good way at the moment . it ' s like you just said , the shift in our environment is to blame ) .
aiming at getting peer recognition , cukor invited king vidor to a preview of our betters . vidor was one of the most respected directors at the time , having made the crowd and hallelujah . vidor complemented cukor , but also honestly conceded that he would never tackle a subject with so “little locomotion . ” vidor felt that the picture was static , but that cukor somehow had the faculty of keeping it interesting in spite of this obstacle .
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however , our betters was written by maugham for a british audience of his time and is about his time – a very particular moment in anglo - american relations , as it happens . though the play was ready for the stage in 1915 , the foreign office caused its premiere to be delayed for years out of concern that its depiction of americans abroad would make it difficult to persuade the united states to join the allied forces as an associated power .
we’re idealists . we openly discuss our positions and defend them with clinical objectivity in the spirit of pursuing knowledge . few conversations beside the obvious “hr ! ” complaint generating ones are really ever off the table and as such we all usually end up with a viewpoint that has been challenged . having this be accomplished in an environment that supports the discussion and debate for it’s ability to help define and challenge our own internal preconceived notions means we are able to learn from each other’s experiences . it betters us as critical thinkers , and let’s face it , when you leave a conversation on theoretical physics and pop back in at developmental psychology it’s never a dull day .
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somerset maugham ' s our betters was written during the first world war , but not staged until the 1920s . in the chichester programme part of the lord chamberlain ' s file on the play is reproduced : the censors of the time evidently considered it so worrying that many readers were recruited to give their opinion . now , it ' s difficult to imagine what the fuss was about . stories such as this about title - hunting american heiresses had been the stock of drawing - room dramas for 30 years before .
wade bogert - o’brien has often struck the excessive and surface note in his comic turns , but here , as the innocent abroad , fleming , who acts as our moral compass , he displays a sincerity and vulnerability that are incredibly appealing .
written at a time of stagnant trench war ( a fact panych ' s production ignores ) , when americans actually wanted to avoid
foreign entanglements ,
our betters now seems like an awfully short - sighted allegory fuelled by sneering resentment at needing a helping hand . no surprise that it has always been better received in britain than in the united states . indeed , it ' s one of many plays about americans to be praised by british critics and greeted by skepticism by american ones , recent examples being lucy prebble ' s enron and katori hall ' s the mountaintop .
you don’t have to be an american in britain — though it would probably help — to enjoy “our betters , ” somerset maugham’s rarely seen 1917 comedy with which kathleen turner makes her second chichester festival appearance of the summer ( following the solo show “tallulah ! ” ) . a quietly cutting satire of yanks who yearn to be english , the play is no less critical of these americans’ arrogant , self - absorbed hosts . it’s a sign of maugham’s magnanimity that american earnestness carries the day ( even if it took oscar wilde to demonstrate the lasting importance of being earnest ) .
the tv series downton abbey is set in the past but written for an audience of the present , appealing to our 21st - century sensibilities . like most period pieces , it is partly about now – or , at least , how we got to now .
pearl is a pretty good role for turner , whose ever - peculiar voice suits a crowd prone to borrowed , not easily placed accents . if there’s a faintly equine quality to her strutting ( shame , too , about a wig that resembles a giant brioche ) , the actress looks more comfortable here than she did with the not dissimilar depredations of jean cocteau’s “indiscretions . ” of the rest , little sister graubart is so irritating that one wants to bundle her back home at the first opportunity , while davenport’s doting arthur possesses the consummate veteran performer’s ease to make his infrequent appearances some of “our betters’ ” best .
silly upper - class romance mess . not particularly funny . pretense , cold love for titles , kept men , betrayals . the normal stuff from the ones that are ' our betters ' . so damn false ! the lady that steals the show is not the leading lady constance bennett , but instead violet kemble cooper as ' duchess minnie ' in her first movie role making the most of her time as the stupid rich woman who is very fond of her younger playboy lover . she was so cute with him . like he was her little baby spoiling him silly . and like a kid he sure liked playing . . . . . around .
you don ' t have to be an american in britain - - - though it would probably help - - - to enjoy
our betters ,
somerset maugham ' s rarely seen 1917 comedy with which kathleen turner makes her second chichester festival appearance of the summer ( following the solo show
tallulah !
) . a quietly cutting satire of yanks who yearn to be english , the play is no less critical of these americans ' arrogant , self - absorbed hosts . it ' s a sign of maugham ' s magnanimity that american earnestness carries the day ( even if it took oscar wilde to demonstrate the lasting importance of being earnest ) .
in “‘imagine dust with a capital letter’ : interpreting the social and cultural contexts for philip pullman’s transformation of dust , ” katharine cox shows that dust deserves more than a singular reading , that it is a “complex metaphor [ . . . ] achieved through a manipulation of our historic and contemporary ideas of attitudes toward dust” ( 127 ) , used to express a pantheistic universe . cox’s essay fills a gap in the study of “social implications and cultural history of dust” ( 127 ) , and offers both history and historiography of human attitudes toward dust . pullman’s dust represents as an industrial byproduct , a cause of disease , and our mortality .
there’s little especially lasting about “our betters” beyond its status as the kind of gently piquant curiosity on which chichester thrives . ( the play runs through sept . 27 in repertory with “divorce me , darling ! , ” the sandy wilson musical sequel to “the boyfriend . ” ) bessie saunders ( sheri graubart ) is newly arrived in london from chicago in order to follow older sister pearl , now lady grayston ( played by turner ) , in swapping u . s . cash for a u . k . title . while bessie’s cousin ( and childhood sweetheart ) fleming harvey ( charles edwards ) looks on in dismay , she is duly taken up by a circuit of posh schemers , presided over by pearl with the sang - froid of a society hostess whose life , we’re told , “is a work of art . ”
elisabeth eldridge’s essay , “constructions of the child , authority and authorship : the reception of c . s . lewis and philip pullman , ” explores public constructions of pullman and lewis as authors and how these constructions affect the authority of narration . too much is going on here to be contained in a concise essay ; eldridge’s initial deconstruction of “pullman’s” construction of “lewis” is muddier than this sentence . as it is , we are given no direct indication of how this section betters our understanding of the “public construction of these notions of author and text” ( 41 ) more than would reading pullman’s un - deconstructed quotes . despite these and other small issues , eldridge’s discussion of the relationships between these two authors , their constructed personae , and the power they exert over groups of potential readers is attention - worthy . steven barfield makes a good case in his essay , “‘dark materials to create more worlds’ : considering
medicine is about compassion for others , caring , and understanding but oftentimes that compassion can feel somewhat forced . whether it’s the receptionist that is forcing the kindness out because she’s having a bad day or it’s the clinician that is obviously more interested in their 3pm meeting over the patient in front of them . at castle we pride ourselves on being industry disruptors so instead of the canned photo snapshots and obviously copy and pasted inspirational quotes i tried to think of a more unique way to share what our lives outside of the office look like . it ' s easier to talk to the team on the other end of the line when an individual can identify the other person , which helps us provide a more compassionate and caring environment to all clients . besides conversations based solely upon the delicious properties of bacon i notice the top conversations within our senior staff communication chain tend to center around the outdoors . the staff are all avid outdoorsmen and women with daily conversations ranging from climbing and fishing to hiking and horsemanship . the team collectively loves to spend time out of reception when we can . our families rarely get uninterrupted time with the senior staff with the coordination effort required among the team so when we have the chance to cut away from problems we embrace it wholeheartedly .
castle holdings inc ( dba . castle medflight ) is in the business of providing and / or arranging air medical transportation services at the highest level of care for its patients . the mission of castle medflight is to perform these critical care missions in a camts and namta compliant manner that far exceeds our patients ' expectations . castle medflight utilizes the services of sole and exclusive faa f . a . r . part 135 vendors , such as starjet llc ( license number : upon request ) .
we’ve veterans . fellow veterans may understand that most of us were oddballs in the normal workforce , but here we’ve been able to create an environment that understands the unique problems of being a vet returning to the workforce . we also understand the need to feel as if we are making a change in the world again , to find our meanings and sense of purpose again . there’s also a number of emails from the office park to stop doing things like “drinking all of the communal coffee” and “rappelling from the rafters , ” but those are most likely one off incidents .
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as a satire of rich americans who buy their way into european society , the film version ( 1933 ) saved its hardest punches for the continental set . where the movie is concerned , the title appears to ironically indicate that , although the british upper crust may have superior manners , they are hardly
better
than americans in matters of morality . constance bennett stars as an american heiress who discovers that her titled british husband has married her only for her money . to maintain her family ? s newfound status and social connections , she attempts to maneuver her sister ( anita louise ) into another titled marriage , only to find that the sexual liaisons of the rich and royal present considerable stumbling blocks .
, had met
willie
maugham at that time . ten years later , after the two had established a close friendship , cukor was assigned by rko to direct the screen version of maugham ' s play . cukor had followed his friend , producer david o . selznick , to rko , as he would later to mgm when selznick went to that studio at the invitation of his father - in - law , louis b . mayer .
despite their friendship , selznick demanded that cukor stick to his ideas of economy and efficiency . after 14 days of work on
, the director received one of selznick ' s infamous memos , advising him that he was four days behind schedule because he had shot 44 . 6 minutes rather than the optimal 46 . 4 minutes . selznick insisted upon an average of 3 . 2 minutes of usable film per day .
, selznick engaged elsa maxwell , the former cabaret entertainer who had become a gossip columnist and professional party - giver , to advise on the film ? s costumes and general tone . maugham biographer bryan connon wrote that maxwell
claimed to be a dear friend of willie , but he regarded her as unutterably vulgar , though he thought of her as a useful bridge player .
maxwell could hardly have endeared herself to maugham and cukor , both homosexual , with her stated view that she
loathed
most gay men even though she often admired their literary and artistic accomplishments . in her autobiography ,
, she took three pages to explain her views , declaring that there should be one rule for homosexuals who were
rich in mind
and social ostracism for all others .
includes charles starrett , later to gain fame as
the durango kid
in b - westerns and serials .
screenplay : harry wagstaff gribble , jane murfin , from w . somerset maugham ? s play
cast : constance bennett ( lady pearl saunders grayston ) , violet kemble - cooper ( duchess minnie ) , phoebe foster ( princess flora ) , charles starrett ( fleming harvey ) , grant mitchell ( thornton clay ) , anita louise ( elizabeth
bessie
saunders ) , gilbert roland ( pepi d ' costa ) .
tcm celebrates the 100th anniversary of a musical legend with three nights of programming devoted to some of leonard bernstein ' s . . . more
leonard maltin classic movie guide , copyright 2005 , 2010 . used by arrangement with penguin group ( usa ) inc .
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american heiress pearl saunders marries lord george grayston but later sees him embracing his lover on their wedding day . she has his title and he has her money ; thereafter they are rarely seen together . pearl is accepted by the british aristocracy and is presented at court , but creates a scandal by wearing black . she encourages her younger sister , bessie , who idolizes her , to respond to the attentions of lord harry bleane despite bessie preferring american fleming harvey . pearl gives a weekend party at the grayston estate inviting close friends , including her lover , arthur fenwick ; her friend , duchess minnie and minnie ' s gigolo companion , pepi d ' costa ; as well as bessie , lord bleane and harvey . pepi , who had been meeting pearl on the sly , discretely suggests a rendezvous with her in the new teahouse on the property . both make some pretext to leave but are seen by minnie entering the teahouse . vindictive minnie pretends to have left her purse in the teahouse and sends bessie to fetch . . .
the £1 , 000 per year
settlement
given to pepi would equate to $ 4 , 237 at the time or over $ 80 , 000 per year in 2017 .
when pepi and minnie meet the day after his
indescretion
, in one shot he ' s lighting a cigarette and standing to the left of a table between himself and minnie . in the next closer shot , still lighting the cigarette , he ' s now standing to the right of the table and next to minnie . furthermore , the lighter suddenly changes from pepi ' s left hand to his right .
: you ' re my guiding star . my ideal ! i don ' t know what i ' d do if you failed me . i don ' t think i could live if i ever found you weren ' t what i think you are .
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the subject who is truly loyal to the chief magistrate will neither advise nor submit to arbitrary measures .
indeed , maugham ' s play is , at best , ambivalent toward americans – and implies that they should stay the heck away from europe for everyone ' s sake .
the plan is for bessie to follow suit and marry the kind , but bland lord bleane ( a sympathetically shy ben sanders ) , so she has broken off her engagement with a conventional american named fleming harvey ( a yearning wade bogert - o ' brien ) . maugham ' s script makes it clear that turning her back on a marriage devised at the age of 16 is an immoral mistake – and director morris panych ' s production of the play does not question this dubious dramatic position .
sister pearl , you see , has become a monster by ambitiously clawing her way to the top of london society . she has surrounded herself with a number of expats who , like her , also have conspicuously absent aristocratic husbands .
the duchesse de surennes ( laurie paton ) spends most of her time making a fool of herself with a young gigolo named tony ( charlie gallant ) . then there ' s the sympathetic princess della cercola ( catherine mcgregor ) , separated from an italian noble , and the galumphing , gay thornton clay ( neil barclay ) , who claims he is often mistaken for a native englishman even as he evinces a strong , virginian accent .
the play ' s plot follows this cartoonish crew from a party at pearl ' s white london flat to one at her black country house . ( ken macdonald ' s set , like panych ' s direction , is pretty but shadeless ; there are even two giant , indoor gargoyles unsubtly surveying the proceedings . )
pearl goes too far with her devil - may - care attitude this time , however , angering her friends and her lascivious sugar daddy , arthur fenwick , who is played for laughs that never come by a one - dimensional lorne kennedy . will she be able to right these relationships before they all return to london and her shame spreads ?
it ' s hard to really care in this tension - free production . panych ' s approach doesn ' t convince that there is either enduring comedic or dramatic value in maugham ' s moralistic tale . paton ' s duchesse is ridiculous even in the moments when there is promising pathos to mine , while jullien plays pearl as a woman with no redemptive qualities whatsoever . the entertainment factor is minimal – though the dresses , designed by charlotte dean , are gorgeous .
in a mildly misogynist way , maugham depicts these women who marry for titles as deplorable while painting the british male fortune - hunters as pleasant chaps . he also engages in plenty of what is called today slut - shaming .
maugham ' s message seems to be that everyone really ought to marry members of their own class and nationality , while his attitude toward the yanks vacillates unsophisticatedly between a distinct disgust for their lack of class and a romanticization of their apparently simple , industrious ways .
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the three musketeers ( 1935 ) - d ' artagnan vs . athos vs . cardinal guards
with : cast : kathleen turner ( lady grayston ) , rula lenska ( duchesse de surennes ) , barbara jefford ( principessa della cercola ) , stephen billington ( anthony paxton ) , nicholas caunter ( lord bleane ) , sheri graubart ( bessie saunders ) , nigel davenport ( arthur fenwick ) , charles edwards ( fleming harvey ) , william hootkins ( thornton clay ) , paul stewart , christian malcolm , stanley page .
pearl isn’t the only american reinventing herself . her romantic rival is the even more grandly titled duchesse de surennes ( rula lenska ) , whose frightfully callow 25 - year - old english paramour anthony paxton ( stephen billington ) pearl has the effrontery to seduce in the teahouse . watching from the sidelines are two other yanks , the principessa della cercola ( barbara jefford ) and thornton clay ( william hootkins ) , the latter a virginian embodiment of america’s burgeoning leisured class . among britons paying courtship are bessie’s intended , lord bleane ( nicholas caunter ) , and pearl’s aging benefactor , arthur fenwick ( nigel davenport ) , a so - called “sensualist” who may strike contemporary observers as too patronizing — he calls pearl “girlie” — for comfort .
as is the way of three - act plays of the period , the first two generally mark time : there’s not a lot of drama in whether fleming will learn to forsake “gee” in favor of the preferred “by jove . ” director michael rudman — himself an american long residing in england — could have done more to anticipate the snap that the play goes on to achieve . the bold ( if offstage ) second - act denouement notwithstanding , the play comes into its own in the final stretch , as maugham lays bare a house full of societal malcontents .
the double irony of the title turns out to have little to do with the triumph of american sincerity over the snobbery worshipped by the same idolaters ; instead , maugham was implying in the early decades of this century that the abiding virtues of “honor , decency and self - restraint” will win out over any social upstart’s attempts to better them .
production : chichester , england a chichester festival theater presentation of a play in three acts by w . somerset maugham . directed by michael rudman . sets and costumes , simon higlett .
crew : lighting , joe atkins ; sound , john a . leonard ; choreography , alexandra worrall . opened aug . 12 , 1997 , at the chichester festival theater . reviewed sept . 4 ; 1 , 374 seats ; 25 ( $ 40 ) top . running time : 3 hours .
with : cast : kathleen turner ( lady grayston ) , rula lenska ( duchesse de surennes ) , barbara jefford ( principessa della cercola ) , stephen billington ( anthony paxton ) , nicholas caunter ( lord bleane ) , sheri graubart ( bessie saunders ) , nigel davenport ( arthur fenwick ) , charles edwards ( fleming harvey ) , william hootkins ( thornton clay ) , paul stewart , christian malcolm , stanley page .
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at west point , 1857 , in the conceit of wally kline and . . .
father barry ( karl malden ) with a fiery sermon in the hold . . .
just the top of the
yankee doodle boy
number from george . . .
blob , the ( 1958 ) - - ( movie clip ) do . . .
jobless vin ( steve mcqueen ) blows his stake at the saloon , . . .
this is how they did it , the transition in which the . . .
2010 ( 1984 )  ( movie clip ) my god , . . .
12 angry men ( 1957 ) - - ( movie clip ) . . .
wounded zack ( gene evans ) and sidekick
short round
. . .
in the town for which the movie is named , sheriff shaw . . .
cop dave ( joe partridge ) puzzles over a series of women . . .
blinding plot speed as hildy ( pat o ' brien ) , who really is . . .
still from the opening scene , lord henry ( george sanders ) . . .
the movie debut of albert finney , at work in the raleigh . . .
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if this play were a personal ad , it might read : rich american women seeking financially strapped british men with titles . a hot topic ( i . e . downton abbey ) on both sides of the pond when this delightfully cheeky play was written in 1917 , the exchange of a “milady” for a large financial sum was all the rage . bessie saunders , 22 , pretty and the heiress to several million dollars , has come from america to stay with her sister pearl , aka lady grayston . pearl’s friends include a cougar duchess , a widowed princess and two fellows both besotted with bessie . but once bessie witnesses the scandalous habits of this less - than - virtuous society , the emotional cost of social climbing is revealed in this sexy , stylish and wildly witty look at europe’s posh set and the americans who crashed the party .
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by w . somerset maugham . directed by morris panych . until oct . 27 at the royal george theatre . 1 - 800 - 511 - shaw .
yes , we live in a universe of ice - cold adultery , courtesy of ashley madison , as well as random hookups that last no longer than the text messages one sends to arrange them , but we’ve got nothing on the characters in w . somerset maugham’s saga of love - for - a - price which was first produced in 1917 .
if you were an american girl from a rich family who didn’t quite make the varsity romantic team back home , fear not . you could go to europe , where men of various ages , appearances and social positions would be willing to brush a little continental stardust on your drab colonial hide .
sure , after a while , the marriages show the strain , lovers and booze help ease the boredom and before long , you’re caught up in a battle between appearance vs . reality , only reality doesn’t have a chance in this particular tables , ladders & chairs match played in the wwe of the heart .
maugham’s play was scandalous in its day and , to be honest , the behaviour of some of its character can still raise moral hackles today , as they bid for marriages like they were paintings at sotheby’s and then rush out back to the tea house to consummate a quickie that negates it all .
morris panych is quite the perfect director for a show like this , with his own personally patented sweet - and - sour sauce that no cantonese restaurant could ever match . add some stunning sets by ken macdonald , costumes to die over from charlotte dean , and alan brodie doing his typically suave lighting and you’ve got a most persuasive package .
what’s even better is that panych has a way of getting some fresh new performances out of shaw festival stalwarts .
claire jullien , is always cast as sweet heroines for whom “vanilla” might be too strong a word . here , as the amoral pearl , she’s been liberated as a woman with flashing eyes , a ravenous smile and a way of walking towards a man that stakes her claim on him . super work .
and laurie paton , who can easily recycle the same familiar performance when left unchallenged , here turns the aging , deluded minnie into someone very sad , very funny and very noble .
catherine mcgregor is fresh and spontaneous as the wounded flora , and julia course makes us follow empathetically the twisty moral journey of the not - yet - corrupted bessie .
neil barclay gives his customary avuncularity a new twist with a southern accent , charlie gallant has a wonderfully welcome wounded machismo as the glib tony , and lorne kennedy , as always , brings layers upon layers of craft and feeling to the aging sensualist fenwick .
is it a perfect piece of theatre ? no . in the desire to get things moving , panych has his company play the first act at such a breathless clip that you soon get snow blind and risk losing interest . and the third act takes a bit too long to reach all of its resolutions , but it’s worth the wait . not to mention the wondrous second act , where everything goes to hell in a perfectly crafted hand basket and we sit back in awe .
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american heiress pearl saunders marries lord george grayston but later sees him embracing his lover on their wedding day . she has his title and he has her money ; thereafter they are rarely seen together . pearl is accepted by the british aristocracy and is presented at court , but creates a scandal by wearing black . she encourages her younger sister , bessie , who idolizes her , to respond to the attentions of lord harry bleane despite bessie preferring american fleming harvey . pearl gives a weekend party at the grayston estate inviting close friends , including her lover , arthur fenwick ; her friend , duchess minnie and minnie ' s gigolo companion , pepi d ' costa ; as well as bessie , lord bleane and harvey . pepi , who had been meeting pearl on the sly , discretely suggests a rendezvous with her in the new teahouse on the property . both make some pretext to leave but are seen by minnie entering the teahouse . vindictive minnie pretends to have left her purse in the teahouse and sends bessie to fetch it . bessie finds the door locked but peeks through the window and is shocked by what she sees . minnie , fenwick , and bessie are outraged at the lovers ' ill - advised meeting , but pearl sets out to assuage their anger .
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button at the bottom of the page or learn more in the synopsis submission guide .
imagine cinderella as an expatriate american with enough cash to buy diamond slippers and prince charming as a broke brit with land and titles . now picture the two in a loveless marriage of convenience . it’s a fact - based fantasy . back in the 1920s , such marriages filled the social pages . they fill maugham’s play in various stages of formation , stability and decay .
the family plot ? bessie ( allie henkel ) an innocent american heiress / ingénue , is hanging out in london with her not - so - innocent expatriate sister , pearl ( katie cunningham ) , who more closely resembles iago’s meaner sister . pearl is no lady , but she’s a lady , having married the never - seen lord george grayston . pearl’s life is an endless party—a party paid for , not by the bankrupt lord , but by fenwick , her well - heeled american sugar daddy ( jonathan epstein ) . pearl schemes for bessie to follow her example and marry lord bleane ( matt andersen ) , a toff with the personality of a tennis racket . heeding pearl’s advice , bessie’s ended her engagement to her childhood sweetheart , a straight - arrow american named fleming ( buddy haardt ) . she’s made her choice , or has she ? second thoughts emerge . buyer’s remorse . will bessie marry fleming or the tennis racket — sorry — lord beane ?
there’s more to it — a complicated flow chart of gigolos , parasites and poseurs , money , marriages , divorces , and secondary and tertiary affairs . but bessie’s the heart of the story . will she marry a lord she doesn’t love or return to america with her childhood flame ? real love or fake nobility ? that is the question . if evelyn waugh were writing , the story it might end badly …
said anglophiles oooh and ahhh at first sight of lee savage’s sumptuous set design : a gilded hall of mirrors painted with a woman’s giant , pretty face set in cold , modernist disdain . ( a fine image for this empty , painted world . ) more joy ensues at the revelation of tracy dorman’s spot - on period costumes . when the play actually starts ( under michael donald edwards’ deft , “masterpiece theatre” style of direction ) , their joy is uncontained .
the source of all that joy feels more like a character study than a tightly plotted dramatic arc . maugham wanders — the second act feels like a series of one - liners in the mouths of his various characters . most are rotten to the core . but they’re all entertaining — and brilliantly acted by the fine repertory cast .
a lovely bunch of cocoanuts , eh ? the only thing missing is groucho .
hey , if you’d attended britain’s best parties , studied the worst people and took notes , you might come up with a cast of characters like that . maugham did . upper class yanks and brits behaving badly ! he came , he saw . and he put it on stage .
the play’s outrageous laughter tends to obscure maugham’s outrage . to spell it out ? america’s shameless nouveau riche are social climbers ; britain’s shameless aristocrats are selling england by the pound . it’s the world’s oldest profession on the one hand , the world’s oldest customer on the other . shame , shame .
that’s the moral , you see . do endeavor to restrain your laughter , if only momentarily . it might possibly set in .
it was cukor’s only attempt at bringing english high comedy to the screen , a form that was seldom successful with american actors , because they were not trained in vocal nuance .
the text should have been–but was not–performed in the noel coward tradition , a style in which the frivolous and minor detail is taken seriously by the players , but not by the viewers .
maugham’s play is darker than coward’s high comedies–a bitter expose of expatriate american women who marry british nobility for the title . in this , and other , works , maugham depicts women are ambitious , catty , and adulterous .
cukor thought that the material was too brittle for american viewers of the early 1930s , and in his direction softened maugham’s harsh attitude toward women . he achieved a varied tone that he will continue to perfect in future pictures , such as the 1939 the women .
some of the dialogue was witty and sparkling , and it moved fast , considering the over - abundance of conversation .


between two worlds ( sinhalese : ahasin wetei ) , is a 2009 sri lankan-french drama film written and directed by vimukthi jayasundara .

it was entered into the main competition at the 66th edition of the venice film festival .

between two worlds ( 2009 film )

between two worlds is quite a different film from the thing from another world .
director vimukthi jayasundara attends the ' between two worlds ' premiere held at the amc 3 during the 2009 toronto international film festival on september 15 , 2009 in toronto , canada .
programmer victoria moufawad - paul speaks at the ' between two worlds ' premiere held at the amc 3 during the 2009 toronto international film festival on september 15 , 2009 in toronto , canada .
there are no featured reviews for between two worlds ( ahasin wetei ) at this time .
director vimukthi jayasundara attends the ' between two worlds ' premiere held at the . . .
director vimukthi jayasundara and tiff programmer victoria moufawad - paul attend the ' between two worlds ' premiere held at the amc 3 during the 2009 toronto international film festival on september 15 , 2009 in toronto , canada .
programmer victoria moufawad - paul speaks at the ' between two worlds ' premiere held . . .
the characters in between two worlds try to unravel the mystery of how they ended up together on a ship at sea .
between two worlds will be screening as part of the south asian international film festival on sunday , october 31 , at 10 : 00pm . you can find further details here .
venice - - striking images and the suggestion that life is a series of random events that might be repeated make
between two worlds
intriguing .
riven with violence and haunted by the dead and the missing , “between two worlds” is a hallucinatory experience . the worlds in question could be a number of things — heaven and hell , peace and war , past and present ; but in a film this vivid and this oblique , the cumulative thrust of the images is what pulls us through .
i attended the north american premiere of
between two worlds
at the 2009 toronto international film festival . i love foreign films and sri lanka is about as exotic as it gets , so i certainly wasn ' t expecting a popcorn movie . still , this one is a real puzzle which i never quite solved . the film is more an examination of the consequences of war than anything else - - in this case the bloody decades - long civil war in sri lanka . several story lines that don ' t necessarily intersect give the viewer plenty to ponder . but the strength of
between two worlds
is its lush cinematography . the stark contrast between the gorgeous landscape and the brutality being inflicted by man against man is disturbing .
landscape and memory flow one from the other in vimukthi jayasundara’s inscrutable sophomore feature , “between two worlds . ” more accessible than his almost perversely downbeat debut , “the forsaken land , ” “world’s” boasts stunning lensing , a painter’s eye for unexpected compositions and an accomplished feel for ambient sound , but jayasundara’s particular vision , reminiscent of the apichatpong weerasethakul school , remains opaque . champions will be vocal , though the film , caught between the worlds of the art gallery and the arthouse , will likely remain stuck in festival no - man’s land .
eventually , ann realizes that she has seen these people before . they were the ones in the vehicle hit by the bomb . suddenly both she and henry remember that they were in the process of dying just moments earlier . they are on a ship between two worlds – sailing to heaven and to hell .
vimukthi jayasundara ' s between two worlds is a mystical film . i say this without value added to the word
mystical .
this sri lankan production isa movie of mysticism and of the primal , but i ' l l be damned if i could tell you what it ' s about . the festival notes for the movie seem to struggle with the same problem :
i thought this was a fine film . apparently it is based on a 1924 play titled outward bound , which starred leslie howard . it was filmed in 1930 . in the original play and film version , the audience did not know the passengers were dead until the end of the performance . leonard maltin in his movie guide liked outward bound better than between two worlds . i will have to be on the lookout for that one now .
mireille enos — you may recognize her voice from shows like
big love ,
the catch
and
the killing
— reads us jones ' essay
a child of two worlds .
landscape and memory flow one from the other in vimukthi jayasundara’s inscrutable sophomore feature , “between two worlds . ” more accessible than his almost perversely downbeat debut , “the forsaken land , ” “world’s” boasts stunning lensing , a painter’s eye for unexpected compositions and an accomplished feel for ambient sound , but jayasundara’s particular vision , reminiscent of the apichatpong weerasethakul school , [ … ]
the next morning i got up and as i scanned the channel guides , i ran across this film beyond two worlds . i read the brief synopsis and looked at the cast . i was sold on it . i was already five minutes into the broadcast , but i figured i could catch up with it pretty fast .
like mr . jayasundara’s 2005 feature , “the forsaken land , ” “between two worlds” is deeply embedded in sri lanka’s devastating civil war and the societal fissures that have resulted . elements of folklore , myth and political symbolism speckle the story ( in one scene a man in a mickey mouse mask is mercilessly beaten in the middle of a street strewn with smashed television sets ) , and marauding rebels prowl on the margins .
much of the movie is like this - - elliptical to the point of frustration . this world and this man never cohere into anything other than pieces of an unfinished myth , told by two bored fishermen by the sea . it ' s beautiful to look at - - at times , stunningly so . but there are so many barriers between the audience and the film that it ' s unclear what the intent was . looking back at my experience watching it , i ' m not sure if that ' s simply an observation or a criticism given how unclear the filmmaker ' s goals were in the making of this movie . each movie should be judged based what it set out to do , but i ' m not sure i know what the road map was for between two worlds .
hearing is believing the star of this documentary is rachel flowers , who was born prematurely and went blind , but learned to play music and grew into a vibrant performer . the film follows two years in her family’s life .
production : les films hatari , unlimited , arte france cinema , film council prods . sri lanka
bronx gothic andrew rossi ( “page one : inside the new york times” ) directs this film version of okwui okpokwasili’s one - woman show — a dance and performance piece inspired by her upbringing in the bronx and centered on the rivalry between two girls on the cusp of adolescence . reviewing a production in 2014 , rachel saltz , writing in the times , called ms . okpokwasili “a magnetic performer . ”
this film is not currently playing on mubi but 30 other great films are . see what’s now showing
in 2009 , enos returned to the stage starring opposite annette bening , david arquette and julian sands in joanna murray - smith’s comedy
the female of the species
at the geffen playhouse . “mireille enos nearly steals the show as bening’s wonderfully distraught daughter , ” touted the hollywood reporter .
brittany farrell ( with megaphone ) in “whose streets ? ” the film is due out aug . 11 .
wild ill at ease with civilized life , ania ( lilith stangenberg ) forges what becomes an increasingly close and physical bond with a wolf . if festival reviews are any indication , the film is poised somewhere between a tall tale and a provocative social commentary . nicolette krebitz wrote and directed .
legion of brothers members of two united states special forces teams that were among the earliest american troops sent into afghanistan in 2001 recount their missions in this documentary .
ascent experience mount fuji — through a selection of 4 , 000 photographs snapped over 150 years . the dutch artist fiona tan has built this experimental film out of those stills . screenings at film forum in new york will be free .
unquestionably , the beauty of “between two worlds” lies in its parts rather than as a whole . jayasundara favors camera movements that mimic a slow - moving predator keeping a respectful distance , taking in the gorgeous , green - swathed mountains and lush tropical grasses . many of his images are striking and unexpected , such as a scene in which a choreographed group of men toss buckets of water out of the river in synchronized swoops of their arms . the soundscape reflects the living memory exuded from the soil , while deep cello bows and elongated bass notes add mournful , elegiac layers .
handsome devil two roommates ( fionn o’shea and nicholas galitzine ) , outcasts for different reasons , begin to warm to each other at a rugby - obsessed irish boarding school .
series organizer todd mason hosts more tuesday forgotten film reviews at his own blog and posts a complete list of participating blogs .
all eyez on me the contours and contradictions of the life of the rapper tupac shakur ( demetrius shipp jr . , in his first movie ) are recounted in a biopic scheduled to be released on his birthday . danai gurira plays tupac’s mother , a black panther , and jamal woolard is biggie smalls , a . k . a . the notorious b . i . g . , whom he played in the 2009 film “notorious . ” benny boom directed .
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans . it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
the survivalist a standout at the 2015 tribeca film festival , stephen fingleton’s debut feature is a terse portrait of life in a postapocalyptic wood . martin mccann is the title character , who lives alone and fends off all comers until two women ( mia goth and olwen fouéré ) turn up at his doorstep .
king arthur : legend of the sword after two revisionist takes on sherlock holmes , the director guy ritchie aims to show off the hipper side of king arthur , a character whose last major reboot was in a 2004 antoine fuqua film . an irreverent charlie hunnam plays the title role ; jude law is the pretender to arthur’s rightful throne .
score : a film music documentary going behind the scenes of how film scores are composed , this portrait of the craft features some of the most familiar “music by” credits in the business , including hans zimmer , john williams , danny elfman , quincy jones , rachel portman and thomas newman .
ripped after sampling a potent strain of marijuana said to be developed by the c . i . a . , two stoners ( faizon love and russell peters ) awaken 30 years later , in 2016 .
the layover stranded at the st . louis airport after a flight diversion , two friends ( alexandra daddario and kate upton ) vie for the affections of the same man ( matt barr ) . william h . macy , who is also in the film , directs this comedy from a script by david hornsby ( “it’s always sunny in philadelphia” ) and lance krall .
camera obscura suffering from post - traumatic stress disorder , a war photographer begins to see real premonitions of deaths in his pictures . it’s a horror film , naturally .
brave new jersey the residents of a small town in new jersey tune into orson welles’s 1938 “war of the worlds” broadcast — and like many who heard it live , they don’t realize that it’s theater . the fun cast includes anna camp , heather burns , dan bakkedahl and raymond j . barry .
imagine a map of the world . . . zoom in on the horn of africa . in between eritrea , ethiopia and somalia lies the country of djibouti . this small country has become the center of rachel pieh jones ' world , one that looks nothing like her minnesota roots .
this film from sri lanka combines some stunning cinematography and imagery to tell a story about the effects of the civil war that has ravaged the country . one young man , journeys from city to country to return to his home , encountering along the way an array of people , caught up in the situation . there is a sparse use of dialogue throughout and the film ' s narrative unfortunately is broken throughout , making it at times difficult to know what is happening . who was the young asian girl in the white van for instance , is never explained and why the main character keeps trying to kiss her . it is one of many odd scenes in the film , a film that…
lucky lucky , played by the film’s writer and director , bari king , is an undocumented immigrant who gets enmeshed in a crime web and has to fight his way out .
past life in 1977 , two israeli sisters ( nelly tagar and joy rieger ) are prompted to unravel their seemingly upright father’s past actions in holocaust - era poland . avi nesher , of the much lighter “the matchmaker” ( 2012 ) , directs .
three sri lankan filmmakers renowned for their internationally acclaimed films based on the sri lankan civil war , join in to make one film to express their views on post - war reality .
in 2014 , enos starred opposite ryan reynolds in the psychological thriller
the captive ,
directed by atom egoyan , which premiered at the cannes film festival . in addition , she had two other films released that year including
if i stay for mgm ,
opposite chole moretz , based on the best - selling young adult novel , as well as
sabotage ,
directed by david ayer , starring sam worthington , terrence howard and arnold schwarzenegger .
hounds of love it’s not a tribute to the kate bush album of the same title , but an australian thriller about a young woman ( ashleigh cummings ) who’s abducted by a serial - killer couple ( emma booth and stephen curry ) . the news media in perth have noted similarities between the plot and a real - life case .
the mummy want to feel old ? tom cruise is now beginning his fourth decade as an action star . want to feel a bit younger ? meet his new nemesis , a princess ( sofia boutella ) who has been mummified since ancient egypt , in the latest reboot of a concept that universal pictures has dined off since the boris karloff original in 1932 . annabelle wallis , russell crowe and jake johnson co - star . alex kurtzman ( a screenwriter on two “star trek” movies , two “transformers , ” one “amazing spider - man” and one “mission : impossible” ) directs .
jesús after committing an assault , a teenager ( nicolás durán ) in santiago is forced to confront his father ( alejandro goic ) in a film inspired by a real - life hate crime in chile in 2012 .
the house two parents ( amy poehler and will ferrell ) , unable to afford college tuition for their daughter ( ryan simpkins ) , turn their home into a casino . does what happens in the rec room stay in the rec room ? with allison tolman from “fargo” season 1 and jason mantzoukas .
dean demetri martin , a former fixture of “the daily show , ” directed , wrote and stars in this film , playing an illustrator who , after his mother’s death , works through a complicated relationship with his father ( kevin kline ) . from last year’s tribeca film festival , mike hale wrote in the new york times that mr . martin “delivers a winning combination of winsomeness and rue . ” gillian jacobs and mary steenburgen also star .
production : a les film hatari , unlimited , arte france cinema ( france ) / film council prods . sri lanka , anura silva ( sri lanka ) production , in association with poly - son post production , le fresnoy , 24 frames . ( international sales : artscope , paris . ) produced by michel klein , philippe avril . co - producers , michel reilhac , chandana aluthge , anura silva . directed , written by vimukthi jayasundara .
dawson city : frozen time in the silent era , the gold rush town of dawson city in the yukon was the last stop on the film - shipping circuit . the creative solutions used to dispose of flammable nitrate stock resulted in the inadvertent preservation of 500 films — forgotten reels were excavated in the 1970s . bill morrison ( the found - footage collage “decasia” ) uses those clips to tell a story that interweaves film history and a sociological history of dawson .
a buddhist monk on a spiritual quest . a student trying to test his limits . an organ dealer growing his business . a surgeon who heals by day and rapes women at night . the film interweaves . . . see full summary »
war for the planet of the apes the events of “dawn of the planet of the apes” ( 2014 ) didn’t exactly restore harmony between humans and their evolutionary relatives . it’s time for war , and fearsome leaders head both species’ armies . on the ape side , caesar ( andy serkis ) . on the human side , the colonel ( woody harrelson ) . matt reeves , who did standout work in the previous installment , directed .
the book of henry the director colin trevorrow takes a break between franchises — “jurassic world” and “star wars : episode ix” — with a drama about an 11 - year - old genius ( jaeden lieberher ) who , with his mother ( naomi watts ) , sets out to rescue the girl next door ( maddie ziegler ) , who seems to be abused by her stepfather ( dean norris ) . sarah silverman and jacob tremblay also star .
harmonium a prizewinner at cannes , koji fukada’s film captures the ripple effects on one family after the father ( kanji furutachi ) invites an acquaintance ( tadanobu asano ) , a recent ex - convict , to work with him in the garage next to his home .
megan leavey gabriela cowperthwaite ( the sea world exposé “blackfish” ) moves into dramatized features with this life - inspired movie about a marine corporal ( kate mara ) and the two tours of duty she did with a bomb - sniffing dog named rex . they were injured in an explosion and recuperated together . edie falco , ramón rodríguez and common are also in the cast .
captain underpants : the first epic movie after hypnotizing their school’s principal , two prankster students inadvertently turn him into captain underpants , the jockey - wearing superhero of the comics they’ve written . this animated feature is based on the long - running children’s book series by dav pilkey . kevin hart , ed helms , thomas middleditch , jordan peele and kristen schaal supply some of the voices .
born to an american father and french mother , enos was raised in houston where she attended schools for the dramatic arts . while studying acting during her third year at brigham young university , she was invited to join a two - month project at the classic stage company in new york city . she bought a one - way bus pass and the rest , as they say , is history .
what all of it adds up to is left to the viewer , but there ' s no question that while some bits are simply puzzling , there are many arresting episodes and the film echoes as a plaintive call for attention to the ongoing plight of the young people of sri lanka .
lemon this year’s designated sundance squirm comedy stars brett gelman ( who wrote the script with his wife , the film’s director , janicza bravo ) as a 40 - year - old drama teacher who alienates everyone around him . judy greer , michael cera and gillian jacobs endure his disagreeable behavior .
moscow never sleeps an irish filmmaker , johnny o’reilly , pays tribute to his adopted city of moscow with this ensemble film . the trailer at least paints a much sunnier view of the city than russian imports usually do . aleksey serebryakov ( the protagonist of “leviathan” ) is in the large cast .
beatriz at dinner a mexican massage therapist and healer ( salma hayek ) and a billionaire hotel owner ( john lithgow ) butt heads at a dinner party . this new collaboration between the director miguel arteta and the screenwriter mike white ( who previously worked together on “chuck & buck” and “the good girl” ) had more than a few critics at sundance sensing a commentary on donald j . trump . connie britton , david warshofsky , amy landecker and chloë sevigny are among the mortified faces around the table .
the woman who left ten years ago , the filipino director lav diaz was a forbidding figure , even among extreme cinephiles . at film festivals they would ask one another in hushed tones whether they really planned to see his nine - hour “death in the land of encantos . ” lately , mr . diaz seems to have widened his appeal , earning acclaim for his dostoyevsky - inspired “norte , the end of history” and for this new drama , which won the golden lion at the venice film festival in 2016 . at nearly four hours , it is also one of mr . diaz’s shortest films .
awakening the zodiac shane west and leslie bibb play a couple who find a 40 - year - old film reel that they believe was shot by the zodiac killer in california . they try to sleuth him out . this displeases the zodiac killer , who is probably a member of aarp by now .
afterimage the polish director andrzej wajda , who died at 90 in october , grappled one last time with his country’s history in his final film , a portrait of the painter wladyslaw strzeminski ( boguslaw linda ) , who pushed back against the postwar communist regime’s mandates for art and sacrificed his career as a result .
the wall in iraq , two american soldiers ( aaron taylor - johnson and john cena ) are trapped by an iraqi sniper . behind a crumbling wall , mr . taylor - johnson maintains radio contact with the man who almost — almost — has him in his sights . we’ll soon find out whether doug liman , the director of “the bourne identity” and “edge of tomorrow , ” is capable of drawing out suspense on a tighter scale .
unlocked in an espionage thriller from michael apted , noomi rapace plays a c . i . a . agent who is on the run and working to stop a terrorist attack in london . orlando bloom , michael douglas , toni collette and john malkovich are also in the film , but who knows whose side they’re on ?
manifesto those who can’t get enough of cate blanchett will find her here playing 13 roles . the words the characters recite are drawn from more than 50 manifestoes — most of them artistic declarations from the 20th century . the film was shown in installation form at the park avenue armory in december and january before heading to sundance .
in transit a founding figure of the direct - cinema movement , albert maysles died in 2015 , shortly before this film’s premiere . his last feature observes the passengers on amtrak’s empire builder route , which connects chicago and the pacific northwest . mr . maysles directed with lynn true , nelson walker , ben wu and david usui .
a family man a cutthroat headhunter ( gerard butler ) who’s competing with a colleague ( alison brie ) for a promotion finds his ambitions threatened when his son receives a cancer diagnosis . not to be confused with the brett ratner film “the family man , ” this drama also stars gretchen mol , willem dafoe and alfred molina .
a bass note of blood and toxicity — adultery and rape , dead cows and poisoned water — drives the film’s stirring score ( by lakshman joseph de saram ) and pulses beneath its lush canopy of trees . in this land , part dream and part nightmare , the scythed bodies of men in the undergrowth tell their own tale .
vincent - n - roxxy in an update of old noir themes , “vincent - n - roxxy” casts emile hirsch and zoë kravitz as a couple whom circumstances bring together and send on the lam . romance follows to some degree , but word from last year’s tribeca film festival suggests that violence dominates . zoey deutch co - stars .
realive the spanish director mateo gil ( who has collaborated with alejandro amenábar on scripts for films like “open your eyes” ) wrote and directed this science - fiction film about a man ( tom hughes ) with a terminal disease who is cryogenically frozen and then awakened in 2084 after 60 years of limbo . charlotte le bon and oona chaplin co - star .
this is borne out by later scenes which , at least in part , mirror elements from the story , but don ' t really resolve into any kind of theme . the constant report of gunfire can be heard in the distance , and the man seems to be on the run from it , but it ' s not clear if he thinks he ' s being pursued of if he ' s just afraid . he commits two acts of violence - - murder - - that we later see never happened .
the commune you wouldn’t know it from the high - society recriminations in his dogma 95 landmark , “the celebration , ” but the danish director thomas vinterberg was raised in a commune . although this 1970s - set film isn’t a memoir , it draws on that experience . trine dyrholm and ulrich thomsen play a couple who decide to start their own group - living arrangement .
diary of a wimpy kid : the long haul the wimpy kid grew up , so hollywood found a new one . in the fourth film based on jeff kinney’s popular books , greg ( now jason ian drucker ) goes on a family road trip . alicia silverstone and tom everett scott , also on their first outings in the wimpy - verse , play his parents .
the exception a nazi soldier ( jai courtney ) assigned to look after the exiled kaiser wilhelm ii ( christopher plummer ) has an affair with a maid ( lily james ) who is both jewish and a spy . eddie marsan ( as himmler ) and janet mcteer add to the intrigue . the director is david leveaux , a multiple tony nominee making his first film .
dunkirk christopher nolan trades the cerebral for the visceral with this epic - scale restaging of the 1940 military actions in dunkirk , france , which ended with the evacuation of more than 300 , 000 allied troops from the french port town but endured as a kind of rallying cry for the british . the cast includes kenneth branagh , cillian murphy , mark rylance , tom hardy , fionn whitehead and , in his film acting debut , harry styles , formerly of one direction . mr . nolan , perhaps hollywood’s most outspoken advocate for the continued use of celluloid , shot the movie in a mixture of 70 - millimeter imax and 65 - millimeter , the gold standards for movies designed to be seen big . it will show in select theaters on film .
written and directed by vimukthi jayasundara ; director of photography , channa deshapriya ; edited by gisèle rapp - meichler ; music by lakshman joseph de saram ; art direction by lal harendranath ; produced by michel klein and philippe avril ; released by artscope . at the roy and niuta titus theaters , museum of modern art . in sinhalese , with english subtitles . this film is not rated .
churchill brian cox may sound like a more natural fit for winston churchill than john lithgow did in “the crown , ” but can you picture john slattery ( roger sterling from “mad men” ) as dwight d . eisenhower ? both mr . cox and mr . slattery , plus miranda richardson as clementine churchill , play the famous figures in a film about the road to d - day .
stefan zweig : farewell to europe the work of the austrian writer stefan zweig has inspired many movies ( including “letter from an unknown woman” and “the grand budapest hotel” ) . so maybe it was inevitable that he would get a biopic of his own . this film , by maria schrader , focuses on the years 1936 to 1942 , when zweig ( josef hader ) lived in exile overseas .
wind river taylor sheridan , the screenwriter of “sicario” and “hell or high water , ” directs this murder mystery set on a remote , mountainous reservation in wyoming . jeremy renner is a game tracker who teams up with an ill - prepared ( yet consistently underestimated ) f . b . i . agent ( elizabeth olsen , in her second film of the week ) to find out whodunit .
fallen there are no more “twilight” books to adapt , but hollywood’s hunger for supernatural young - adult romances is eternal . so here is the first film from lauren kate’s best - selling series about a girl at a reform school ( hermione corfield ) who is watched over by a hunky angel ( jeremy irvine ) . lola kirke also stars . scott hicks ( who once made “shine” ) directs .
alien : covenant face huggers ! bloodthirsty anamorphic - melon - headed aliens ! katherine waterston in a very strange hairdo ! ridley scott again revisits the franchise that may be his most lasting legacy , with an entry set sometime after the events in “prometheus” ( 2012 ) but before those in “alien” ( 1979 ) . along with ms . waterston , billy crudup , amy seimetz , demián bichir , danny mcbride and carmen ejogo are among the space colonists in for a rude surprise , with michael fassbender returning from “prometheus” as an android ( or two ) .
a ghost story the director david lowery returns to indies after “pete’s dragon” with a film that’s more readily experienced than described ; perhaps it’s best just to say that critics were entranced at sundance . rooney mara and casey affleck ( both from his “ain’t them bodies saints” ) play a couple . there is a ghost ( a sheet with cutout eyes ) and a lengthy shot in which ms . mara eats almost a whole pie .
wonder woman after an appearance in “batman v superman : dawn of justice , ” in 2016 , that was effectively a trailer within a film , wonder woman ( gal gadot ) gets a long - teased movie of her own . patty jenkins ( “monster” ) directs this origin story , which finds the superheroine leaving her life as an amazon princess to fight in world war i . chris pine plays the pilot who rouses her to action .
the ornithologist the portuguese director joão pedro rodrigues ( “to die like a man” ) continues to defy classification with this story of a bird - watcher ( paul hamy ) who sets off downstream on an isolated river and , on his journey , encounters increasingly strange company . manohla dargis called the movie , inspired by the story of st . anthony , “the single most delightful and narratively adventurous movie i saw at toronto” during its film festival .
the last face sean penn directs this moony global wake - up call , which came in for a historic drubbing at the 2016 cannes film festival . ( even the opening title card — which needed a copy editor — was mocked . ) charlize theron and javier bardem star as the planet’s best - looking humanitarian aide workers , who have a steamy affair against a backdrop of war and strife in sierra leone , south sudan and liberia .
annabelle : creation a prequel to a spinoff : “annabelle” ( 2014 ) was an offshoot of “the conjuring” ( 2013 ) , and this film concerns events before “annabelle , ” with presumably no connection to “the conjuring 2” ( 2016 ) . got it ? “annabelle : creation” tells the story of how one evil doll came to haunt so many movies . talitha bateman , anthony lapaglia and miranda otto star . david f . sandberg ( “lights out” ) directs .
gotti john gotti , the crime boss and “first media don , ” was already the focus of a 1996 tv movie , in which he was played by armand assante . in this theatrical film , which covers 30 years in his life , john travolta assumes impersonation duties , as he did for robert shapiro . mr . travolta’s wife , kelly preston , plays gotti’s . the screenwriters are lem dobbs ( “the limey” ) and the character actor leo rossi .
i really enjoy doing these columns and seeing the variety of films that i have enjoyed or , in some cases , not enjoyed . every now and again i stumble across a film that i have never heard of but catches my interest . this week i had intended to review the thing from another world and give some background story about it and me . but after watching it the other night , i decided to go to sleep rather than immediately put my thoughts down on the computer .
i am so glad i did . first let’s look at the cast . the leads are paul henreid as henry bergner and eleanor parker as his wife anne . that’s a pretty decent start . i saw john garfield listed as tom prior , edmund gwenn as scrubby the steward , and sydney greenstreet as tim thompson . the pairing of henreid and greenstreet just a year after casablanca got my interest up . and there was a score from eric wolfgang korngold , which immediately makes any film worth watching .
the synopsis is honest : an unnamed man ( kaushalaya fernando ) does fall from the sky into the sea , only climb a wall and walk into the middle of some kind of urban civil war . the first 20 minutes or so are almost completely without dialog - - just a series of events , leading to the man getting a ride from the city into the countryside . the man is quiet , for the most part , and doesn ' t seem to have any clearly definable emotions . he wanders for a bit before an interlude with two fishermen introduce us to the story of a long - lost prince seeking his throne , and it ' s implied that this is who our lead might be .
abacus : small enough to jail steve james ( “hoop dreams” ) follows the legal travails of abacus federal savings bank , a pillar of the immigrant community in chinatown , that was charged in 2012 with mortgage fraud . ( it was acquitted in 2015 . ) although there’s a newsworthy hook — the film suggests that abacus was a scapegoat for larger banks after the financial crisis — the movie is primarily an affectionate look at the sung family , which runs the bank , and its resolve in the face of adversity .
soon , she will reprise her role as karin lane , the female lead opposite brad pitt , in the sequel to the blockbuster hit
world war z .
in addition , she has completed three indie feature films including
you were never here ,
a thriller in which she stars opposite sam shepard ,
behold my heart ,
opposite marisa tomei , charlie plummer and timothy olyphant , and
katie says goodbye
opposite olivia cooke , jim belushi , christopher abbott and mary steenburgen , which premiered at the toronto film festival in september .
it comes at night reviewing the domestic - discord drama “krisha , ” the debut feature of trey edward shults , last year , manohla dargis wrote that the film’s opening shot made it feel like a horror movie . mr . shults makes good on that promise with his second feature — an actual horror movie , in which a patriarch ( joel edgerton ) , determined to protect his wife and son from a threat outside , must decide what to do about another family that comes a - knockin’ . with riley keough , carmen ejogo and christopher abbott ( “james white” ) .
in 2013 , enos starred opposite colin firth and reese withersoon in the atom egoyan directed
devil ' s knot ,
which premiered at the 2013 toronto international film festival . she could also be seen in the warner bros . crime drama
gangster squad ,
for director ruben fleischer , starring josh brolin , ryan gosling , sean penn and emma stone . enos garnered praise for the warmth and emotion she brought to the role . the huffington post proclaimed “some of the best work comes from mireille enos as brolin’s wife…enos has genuine chemistry with not just brolin , but with gosling in their terrific scene together . ”
suddenly they are on a large ship with a group of people , mingling in the bar . they don’t recall how they got there nor does anyone else . the friendly steward helps people with drinks and conversation . the film sort of becomes a grant hotel at sea . you have the business executive mr . lingley ( george coulouris ) , the minister ( dennis king ) , the upper class couple who don’t know why they have to associate with the riffraff ( isobel elson and gilbert emory ) , the journalist ( garfield ) , the actress ( faye emerson ) , the housekeeper ( sara allgood ) and the sailor ( george tobias ) .
with no narrative arc , vimukthi jayasundara ' s tale of life in sri lanka follows a young man who falls from the sky into the sea , clambers onto the shore and survives dangerous encounters in a city filled with rioting people and then in the countryside where unseen authorities shoot on sight .
cinematographer channa deshapriya and production designer lal harendranath contribute to remarkably enigmatic sequences that might prove winning at festivals and could reach sympathetic international audiences as a cry for help for the young people of strife - torn sri lanka .
the urban scenes are realistic and terrifying : groups of men with clubs descend on anyone found alone , gunfire and explosions are constant , and streets are strewn with the wreckage from mayhem .
people that the young man encounters stay with him for a while but then disappear without explanation and are not heard from again . in the junglelike countryside , he sees incidents that he then learns happened a long time ago and commits acts of violence that prove never to have happened .
he finds a woman who apparently is his sister - in - law , and when she notices he has a damaged eye , she treats it with milk from her breast though she hasn ' t given birth . a little boy tends to a wounded bird but then climbs a tree and drops it into a large knothole in the trunk .
when a village ' s well is found to be poisoned , all the young men who have been hiding from the guns of the authorities emerge from the forest to bale the water away . the young man joins in , and their movements become a dance and a chant followed by a celebration that ends when armed men on horseback swoop down on them .
landscape and memory flow one from the other in vimukthi jayasundara ' s inscrutable sophomore feature .
with : with : thusitha laknath , kaushalya fernando , huang lu . ( sinhalese , english dialogue )
an opening montage of striking images , including a wonderful sequence of a man falling from the sky into water , settles into shots of a city laid waste by rioters . rajith ( thusitha laknath ) repeatedly kicks a man dressed as a mouse , then assists a young woman ( huang lu ) in getting out of the city . she prefers the pawing of their van driver to rajith’s unsuccessful attempts at molestation , and he’s left to wander the countryside . eventually he meets up with his sister - in - law ( kaushalya fernando ) , who bathes his eyes in her breast milk .
the impossibility of defining rajith’s character is actually refreshing , though thanks to a temporal round - robin , there’s no emotional investment , since no violent act has any lasting consequence except , perhaps , the curse of being repeated for eternity . obviously , traditional narration is not among the helmer’s interests : a story exchanged by a couple of fishermen , about a prince hiding in a tree trunk from the uncles he’s fated to kill , has a seemingly important but ultimately undefinable role , never quite integrating itself with the more interesting concept of the landscape as witness to both wonderful and horrible things .
as a mood poem of sorts on sri lanka , it’s decidedly more complex than “the forsaken land , ” acknowledging the nurturing forces even more than the destructive ones that have wracked the nation for decades .
with : with : thusitha laknath , kaushalya fernando , huang lu . ( sinhalese , english dialogue )
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the young man fell from the sky . communication relay burns . flee from the city and its commotion , return to nature . become part of another story . that of the legend of the prince . in the . . . see more »
the young man fell from the sky . communication relay burns . flee from the city and its commotion , return to nature . become part of another story . that of the legend of the prince . in the hope of a love , hiding behind the hollow in a tree . nothing magic is improbable . what happened yesterday , may happen again tomorrow . written by anonymous
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the young man fell from the sky . communication relay burns . flee from the city and its commotion , return to nature . become part of another story . that of the legend of the prince . in the . . . see full summary »
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weary residents ( soma , lata , piyasiri ) of a war - ravaged country drift through life .
sam an autistic person and his desire to live and achieve his dreams . challenges that he has to face from the society and from the family . overcoming all and living in his dream life .
set in a fishing village named kalpitiya , explores tradition and exploitation because of capitalism in this small village .
three friends embark on a journey to a land that was once forbidden but a sudden encounter forces them to return to yet another land of turmoil and terror .
in a forest , near a border , a young bengali and a european soldier attempt to get the better of one another . in calcutta , rahul , an architect who had gone off to build a career in dubai , . . . see full summary »
a story about a sri lankan matchmaker trying to find a partner for his own daughter .
in japanese - occupied hong kong , a school teacher and her would - be - fiancé link up with chinese guerrilla fighters , forging their own path to freedom .
during the first lebanon war in 1982 , a lone tank and a paratroopers platoon are dispatched to search a hostile town .
the young man fell from the sky . communication relay burns . flee from the city and its commotion , return to nature . become part of another story . that of the legend of the prince . in the hope of a love , hiding behind the hollow in a tree . nothing magic is improbable . what happened yesterday , may happen again tomorrow .
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thusitha laknath ' s character wanders a rural sri lankan landscape empty of adult men .
with : thusitha laknath ( rajith ) , kaushalya fernando ( kanthi ) and huang lu ( young chinese girl ) .
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[ director vimukthi ] jayasundara ' s war is a monster with no end , no present or past , entrapping its victims in a ceaseless loop .
the young man has fallen from the sky . the lines of communication are burned . to flee the city and its tumult , get back to nature . enter into another story . of the legend of the prince . in the hope of a love .
to hide in the hollow of the tree . nothing magical is improbable . what happened yesterday can reoccur tomorrow .
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director vimukthi jayasundara and tiff programmer victoria moufawad - paul attend the . . .
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a young man appears to fall from the sky , rescuing a foreign woman caught up in a violent conflict . the man flees from the city and returns to his village , where he finds both solace in a family member and threats of renewed violence . around him , we see the effects of a longstanding conflict on the people of the village . alongside this enigmatic series of events , is a mythical fable of a prince who took refuge in the hollow of a tree to escape deadly strife .
henry bergner is an austrian pianist turned soldier living in london . his hands are injured and he can no longer play . he and ann want to get to america but are having trouble securing exit visas . ( where have i heard something like that before ? ) distraught , he leaves the diplomatic office and returns home , where he seals the window and plays his favorite record .
ann has missed henry at the office but sees a group of people getting their documents and leaving . as they leave , there is an air raid and the fleeing car suffers a direct hit . everyone is killed instantly . she returns to their flat to find henry in the act of suicide and refuses to leave him . they drift off .
they realize that none of the others knows what is happening . the steward asks them to let everyone relax and enjoy the ride for the moment and not bring it up their conclusion . but there is tension in the room . prior , the journalist is washed up and unemployed , partly due to a series of articles he did on lingley , who is a capitalist at all costs and could be a president of the i’m for me first party . he gets what he wants no matter what the cost . the reverend is off on a trip to begin a new series of work for the betterment of his church . the actress is hanging with prior , but lingley is making a play . the sailor has just gotten word that he has become a new father . he’s heading home after having three ships torpedoed beneath him .