Home The Washington Diplomat April 2015 Films – April 2015

Films – April 2015

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English

Khmer

Farsi

Italian

French

Mandarin

Georgian

Spanish

English

 5 to 7

Directed by Victor Levin

(U.S., 2015, 95 min.)

An aspiring novelist has an extramarital affair with a French diplomat’s wife (English and French).

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Opens Fri., April 24

 

’71

Directed by Yann Demange

(U.K., 2014, 99 min.)

Set in Northern Ireland during the early years of the Troubles, “’71” takes place over a single night in the life of a young British soldier accidentally abandoned by his unit following a riot on the streets of Belfast.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

 

Child 44

Directed by Daniel Espinosa

(Czech Republic/U.K./Romania/U.S., 2015, 137 min.)

A disgraced member of the military police investigates a series of nasty child murders during the Stalin-era Soviet Union.

Angelika Mosaic

Opens Fri., April 17

 

Clouds of Sils Maria

Directed by Olivier Assayas

(France/Switzerland/Germany/U.S./Belgium, 2014, 124 min.)

A veteran actress comes face-to-face with an uncomfortable reflection of herself when she agrees to take part in a revival of the play that launched her career 20 years earlier (English, French, German and Swiss-German).

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Opens Fri., April 17

 

Desert Dancer

Directed by Richard Raymond

(U.K., 2015, 98 min.)

Afshin Ghaffarian risks everything to start a dance company amidst his home country of Iran’s politically volatile climate and the nation’s ban on dancing.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Opens Fri., April 10

 

Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock ‘n’ Roll

Directed by John Pirozzi

(U.S./Cambodia/France, 2014, 105 min.)

During the ’60s and early ’70s, as the war in Vietnam threatened its borders, a new music scene emerged in Cambodia that took Western rock and roll and stood it on its head, creating a sound like no other. But as Cambodian society — young creative musicians in particular — embraced Western culture and flourished under its influence, the rest of the country was rapidly moving to war.

AFI Silver Theatre

Wed., April 29, 7 p.m.

 

Effie Gray

Directed by Richard Laxton

(U.K., 2014, 108 min.)

Set in the Victorian era, when neither divorce, nor gay marriage were an option, “Effie Gray” is the story of a young woman coming of age, finding her own voice in a world where women were expected to be seen but not heard.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Opens Fri., April 3

 

Ex Machina

Directed by Alex Garland

(U.K., 2015, 108 min.)

A young programmer is selected to participate in a breakthrough experiment in artificial intelligence by evaluating the human qualities of a breathtaking female A.I.

Theater TBA

Opens Fri., April 17

 

Gringo Trails

Directed by Pegi Vail

(U.S., 2014, 79 min.)

Are tourists destroying the planet or saving it? From the Bolivian jungle to the party beaches of Thailand, and from the deserts of Timbuktu to the breathtaking beauty of Bhutan, “Gringo Trails” traces stories over 30 years to show the long-term impact of tourism on cultures, economies and the environment.

Freer Gallery of Art

Sun., April 19, 2 p.m.

 

The Gunman

Directed by Pierre Morel

(Spain/U.K./France, 2015, 115 min.)

A sniper on a mercenary assassination team kills the minister of mines of the Congo. Returning to the Congo years later, he becomes the target of a hit squad himself.

Angelika Mosaic

 

Headlines of Destruction

(Je suis un sentimental)

Directed by John Berry

(France/Italy, 1955, 95 min.)

Eddie Constantine plays a callous journalist who discovers his conscience, while director John Berry slips in some class commentary between the wisecracks and action sequences (dubbed in English).

AFI Silver Theatre

Mon., April 13, 9:20 p.m.,

Wed., April 15, 9:20 p.m.

 

An Honest Liar

Directed by Tyler Measom and Justin Weinstein

(U.S./Spain/Italy/Canada, 2014, 92 min.)

A story of cons and deceptions enacted for both good and evil, “An Honest Liar” follows the life of James “The Amazing” Randi, a world-renowned magician, escape artist and master skeptic who has entertained and educated the world for over 50 years.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

 

The Hunting Ground

Directed by Kirby Dick

(U.S., 2015, 90 min.)

The statistics are staggering: One in five college women is sexually assaulted, yet only a fraction of these crimes are reported, and even fewer result in punishment for the perpetrators. Writer-director Kirby Dick chronicles the horrors faced by assault victims after they survive what they thought was the worst ordeal of their lives.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

 

Kill Me Three Times

Directed by Kriv Stenders

(U.S./Australia, 2015, 90 min.)

In this darkly comedic, suspenseful thriller, Simon Pegg is a mercurial assassin who discovers he isn’t the only person trying to kill the siren of a sun-drenched surfing town.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Opens Fri., April 10

 

Little Boy

Directed by Alejandro Monteverde

(U.S./Mexico, 2015)

In this heartwarming tale, a 7-year-old boy is willing to do whatever it takes to end World War II so he can bring his father home.

Theater TBA

Opens Fri., April 24

 

Night and the City

Directed by Jules Dassin

(U.K., 1950, 96 min.)

Often considered the quintessential film noir, this film’s “man-on-the-run” narrative and dark mood uses London’s Blitz-scarred cityscape to accentuate the film’s fatalism.

AFI Silver Theatre

Mon., April 6, 9:30 p.m.,

Wed., April 8, 9:30 p.m.

 

Pardon My French aka The Lady From Boston

Directed by Bernard Vorhaus

(France/U.S., 1951, 82 min.)

Part of a short cycle of dual-language Franco-American co-productions, this film features Merle Oberon as a New England schoolmarm who inherits a French chateau run as a home for displaced war orphans by a bohemian musician.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sat., April 4, 11:10 a.m.,

Sun., April 5, 11:10 a.m.

 

Queen and Country

Directed by John Boorman

(Ireland/France/Romania, 2015, 115 min.)

In John Boorman’s bittersweet sequel to his “Hope and Glory,” Bill Rohan is grown up and drafted into the army where he and his eccentric best mate, Percy, battle their snooty superiors on the base and look for love in town.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

 

The Tales of Hoffman

Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

(U.K., 1951, 133 min.)

In some ways an artistic “sequel” to “The Red Shoes,” this 1951 version of French composer Jacques Offenbach’s 1881 opera, in turn based on three stories by the late German author E.T.A. Hoffmann, is a pure opera, a film composed entirely of music, dance, color, light, rhythm and fancy.

AFI Silver Theatre

Opens Fri., April 3

 

The Victors

Directed by Carl Foreman

(U.S., 1963, 175 min.)

Following a World War II army platoon from the fighting in Italy to after the fall of Berlin, Carl Foreman emphasizes the human moments between the action to reflect a multivalent, multinational view of the conflict.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sun., April 5, 5:15 p.m.

 

The Water Diviner

Directed by Russell Crowe

(Australia/Turkey/U.S., 2014, 111 min.)

An Australian man travels to Turkey after the Battle of Gallipoli to try and locate his three missing sons. (English, Turkish, Greek and Russian).

Theater TBA

Opens Fri., April 24

 

Woman in Gold

Directed by Simon Curtis

(U.S./U.K., 2015, 109 min.)

Maria Altmann, an octogenarian Jewish refugee, takes on the government to recover artwork she believes rightfully belongs to her family.

Angelika Mosaic

The Avalon Theatre

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Opens Fri., April 3


Farsi

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

Directed by Ana Lily Amirpour

(U.S., 2014, 99 min.)

Ana Lily Amirpour’s acclaimed, award-winning debut feature, famously called “the first Iranian vampire Western,” signals the arrival of a cool and confident new cinematic talent. In the Iranian provincial town of Bad City, a place that reeks of death and loneliness, the townspeople are unaware they are being stalked by a lonesome, chador-clad vampire simply called “The Girl.”

AFI Silver Theatre

Mon., April 13, 9:30 p.m.,

Tue., April 14, 9:30 p.m.,

Wed., April 15, 9:30 p.m.

French

3 Hearts

(3 coeurs)

Directed by Benoît Jacquot

(France/Germany/Belgium, 2014, 106 min.)

A touching and tense drama about destiny, connections, and passion, “3 Hearts” presents a headily romantic look at a classic love triangle between a tax inspector, his new bride and her sister.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Opens Fri., April 10

 

Goodbye to Language 3D

(Adieu au langage)

Directed by Jean-Luc Godard

(Switzerland/France, 2014, 70 min.)

Winner of the Jury Prize at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, Jean-Luc Godard’s sensorially immersive experience employs verbal and visual poetry via 3D technology to mind-expanding effect.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

 

Georgian

Don’t Breathe

(La faille)

Directed by Nino Kirtadze

(France, 2014, 86 min.)

Forty-something Levan receives a vague prognosis following a routine medical exam. Advice pours in from all corners — his partner, his doctor, friends, strangers — but each opinion contradicts the other, and instead of helping Levan, he instead develops severe hypochondria (English and Georgian).

AFI Silver Theatre

Tue., April 14, 7 p.m.

 

The Pipeline Next Door

(Un dragon dans les eaux pures du Caucase)

Directed by Nino Kirtadze

(France, 2005, 90 min.)

David faces Goliath when a village of Georgian farmers takes on the BP oil corporation in this evenhanded, character-driven documentary exploring BP’s purchase of Georgian countryside to construct a 1,700-kilometer pipeline from Kazakhstan to the Black Sea (English, Georgian and Russian).

AFI Silver Theatre

Mon., April 13, 7 p.m.

 

Khmer

Angkor’s Children

Directed by Lauren Shaw

(U.S., 2014, 66 min.)

This film about Cambodia’s cultural and artistic renaissance is told through the voices of young Cambodian women who are part of the first generation born after the Khmer Rouge genocide that killed 2 million people, including 90 percent of the country’s artists and intellectuals.

Freer Gallery of Art

Sun., April 26, 2 p.m.

 

Italian

Black Souls

(Anime nere)

Directed by Francesco Munzi

(Italy/France, 2014, 103 min.)

This darkly elegant gangster drama centers on a former narcotics trafficker, now living peacefully as a shepherd, who is drawn back into his family’s drug-trade dynasty by his impetuous son.

Angelika Mosaic

Angelika Pop-Up

Opens Fri., April 17

 

Mandarin

Old Men

(Lao tou)

Directed by Lina Yang

(China, 1999, 94 min.)

In 1996, pioneering independent filmmaker Lina Yang moved into the Qing Ta district of Beijing, where she noticed a group of men that gathered every day at the curbside. Yang spent two years creating this expressive film about what occurs among men when their life’s work has ceased.

Freer Gallery of Art

Sun., April 12, 2 p.m.

 

Spanish

All the Women

(Todas la mujeres)

Directed by Mariano Barroso

(Spain, 2013, 90 min.)

A down-and-out veterinarian seeks advice from all of the most important women in his life — his lover, his ex-wife, his mother, his sister-in-law and his psychologist — after his scheme to steal five horses from his father-in-law falls apart.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sat., April 11, 7:45 p.m.

 

Arctic

(ärtico)

Directed by Gabriel Velázquez

(Spain, 2014, 78 min.)

Two young hustlers hit the streets every day to find ways to make ends meet, but beyond their everyday adventures, each desires something neither has (preceded by “Inside the Box” (Spain/U.S., 2013, 15 min.)).

AFI Silver Theatre

Fri., April 10, 10 p.m.

 

Beautiful Youth

(Hermosa juventud)

Directed by Jaime Rosales

(Spain, 2014, 102 min.)

Twentysomethings Natalia and Carlos are deeply in love, flat broke and have a baby on the way. With job prospects scarce to non-existent, the young couple are part of a lost generation whose limited means lead to diminished hopes, further distracted from their thwarted ambitions by ever-present and all-consuming technology.

AFI Silver Theatre

Fri., April 10, 8 p.m.

 

In a Foreign Land

(En tierra extraña)

Directed by Icíar Bollaín

(Spain, 2014, 73 min.)

Gloria is one of the 700,000 Spaniards who have left Spain since the economic crisis started. This documentary, by Spain’s highest-profile female director portrays the experience of intra-European exile.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sun., April 12, 7:30 p.m.

 

The Kid

(El Niño)

Directed by Daniel Monzón

(Spain, 2014, 136 min.)

This Spanish blockbuster tells the story of two teenagers on the one side, El Niño and El Compi, who want to enter the world of drug trafficking, and two police officers on the other who have been trying to eradicate the drug trafficking network in the Gibraltar Straits for years.

AFI Silver Theatre

Thu., April 9, 7:15 p.m.,

Sat., April 11, 5 p.m.

 

Magical Girl

Directed by Carlos Vemut

(Spain, 2014, 127 min.)

Luis is desperate to fulfill his terminally ill daughter’s last wish: to own the prohibitively expensive “Magical Girl Yukiko” dress from her favorite Japanese cartoon. Fate leads him to cross paths with an attractive young woman with mental disorders and with a teacher retired from everything but his troubled past.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sat., April 11, 9:45 p.m.

 

Open Windows

Directed by Nacho Vigalondo

(Spain/France/U.S., 2014, 100 min.)

Nick is excited to discover that he’s won a dinner date with his favorite actress, Jill Goddard. But when Jill refuses to honor the contest, Nick begins watching the unknowing star on her webcam, not realizing that this decision will put both himself and Jill at risk as they enter a terrifying world of cat-and-mouse where nothing — and no one — is as it seems (preceded by “Sequence” (U.S., 2013, 20 min.)).

AFI Silver Theatre

Sun., April 12, 9:30 p.m.