Home The Washington Diplomat September 2015 Films – September 2015

Films – September 2015

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English

Japanese

Farsi

Turkish

German

Swedish

Italian

English

Arcade Fire: The Reflektor Tapes

Directed by Kahlil Joseph
(Canada, 2015)

“The Reflektor Tapes” is a fascinating insight into the making of the international number-one album “Reflektor” by Canadian rock band Arcade Fire. The film re-contextualizes the album experience and the band’s creative journey, transporting the viewer into a kaleidoscopic sonic and visual landscape.

Angelika Mosaic
Opens Wed., Sept. 23

 

Grandma

Directed by Paul Weitz
(U.S., 2015, 79 min.)

Self-described misanthrope Elle has her protective bubble burst when her 18-year-old granddaughter, Sage, shows up needing help. The two of them go on a daylong journey that causes Elle to come to terms with her past and Sage to confront her future.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

 

The Inn of the Sixth Happiness

Directed by Mark Robson
(U.K., 1958, 158 min.)

Ingrid Bergman stars as real-life British missionary Gladys Aylward, who ventured into war-torn China in the 1930s to preach her Christian faith, became a pillar of her village community and ultimately led 100 orphans across a perilous mountain journey to safety.

AFI Silver Theatre
Sun., Sept. 6, 11 a.m.

 

Intermezzo: A Love Story

Directed by Gregory Ratoff
(U.S., 1939, 70 min.)

Virtuoso violinist Leslie Howard and talented piano teacher Ingrid Bergman make beautiful music together, but, despite a whirlwind love affair and boffo international tour, Howard finds himself pining for the wife and children he left behind.

AFI Silver Theatre
Sun., Sept. 6, 5:15 p.m.

 

Murder on the Orient Express

Directed by Sidney Lumet
(U.K., 1974, 128 min.)

When a widely despised international financier turns up dead aboard the Orient Express, Belgian detective Hercule Poirot has a veritable trainload of suspects to investigate in Agatha Christie’s most famous whodunit, which receives a first-class screen treatment from director Sidney Lumet and an all-star cast.

AFI Silver Theatre
Fri., Sept. 4, 11:30 a.m.

 

Silenced

Directed by James Spione
(U.S., 2014, 102 min.)

In this documentary, three former American federal employees share their experiences of the consequences they faced for whistleblowing in the age of the War on Terror: Justice Department lawyer Jesselyn Radack and former CIA analyst John Kiriakou, both of whom denounced the torture methods used in the Army and the CIA’s interrogations, along with former agent Thomas Drake, who made the NSA’s illegal recordings public.

Goethe-Institut
Mon., Sept. 28, 6:30 p.m.

 

Steak (R)evolution

Directed by Franck Ribière
(Multiple countries, 2014, 135 min.)

In this mouth-watering documentary, director Franck Ribière and his favorite butcher, Yves-Marie Le Bourdonnec, begin a worldwide chase for the world’s best steak. As they travel around the world in search of passionate cattle breeders, professional butchers, chefs, meat experts and steak houses, the duo explores how good and healthy red meat can be achieved (English and French).

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

 

Farsi

 

Statues of Tehran

Directed by Bahman Kiarostami
(Iran, 2008, 60 min.)

Bahman Kiarostami has produced numerous documentaries on the arts and post-revolutionary life in Iran. “Statues of Tehran” focuses on monuments and memory, tracing the history of two famous public sculptures and their inevitable neglect in the course of revolution, war and urban development (screens with “The Treasure Cave”).

Freer Gallery of Art
Sun., Sept. 13, 2 p.m.

 

The Treasure Cave

Directed by Bahman Kiarostami
(Iran, 2009, 42 min.)

“The Treasure Cave” centers on the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, considered the region’s most important repository of modern Western art. After the revolution, its collection was locked away and the building became a memorial to martyrs of the revolution and Iran-Iraq War (screens with (Statues of Tehran”).

Freer Gallery of Art
Sun., Sept. 13, 2 p.m.

German

The Family
(Die Familie)

Directed by Stefan Weinert
(Germany, 2013, 92 min.)

Even today, more than a quarter of a century after the collapse of East Germany, family members of those shot along the Berlin Wall continue to suffer the trauma of their loss. This documentary contrasts the statements of those affected with parallel entries in the Stasi files — formulated in a cold, bureaucratic German — and shows how the two sides collide.

Goethe-Institut
Mon., Sept. 21, 6:30 p.m.

 

The Lies of the Victors
(Die Lügen der Sieger)

Directed by Christoph Hochhäusler
(Germany, 2014, 112 min.)

Renowned journalist Fabian Groys is working at a political news magazine, researching a politically charged story about dubious government policies concerning the disabled in the army. The case of a veteran committing suicide leads him to a new story about toxic waste, which seems to be somehow connected. When he starts receiving anonymous threats, Groys realizes that some politicians and business leaders are trying to stop him from uncovering the story.

Goethe-Institut
Mon., Sept. 14, 6:30 p.m.

 

To Life

Directed by Uwe Janson
(Germany, 2014, 86 min.)

Sarcastic but warm-hearted Ruth, an aging Jewish cabaret singer, saw no other way out than suicide. Jonas, meanwhile, is driven by a secret, and is fleeing from his love and his future. She and Jonas begin to form a deep bond and age-old Jewish culture and music are brought into the light of day as she tells him the story of her own impossible, tragic love for a non-Jewish man in post-World War II Germany.

Washington DCJCC
Tue., Sept. 1, 7:30 p.m.

 

Italian

Banditi a Orgosolo

Directed by Vittorio De Seta
(Italy, 1961, 98 min.)

The shepherds of Sardinia have remained at the core of that island’s traditional society for thousands of years. This story of one rough-hewn shepherd wrongly accused of a crime and pursued by thuggish carabinieri picks up on the ancient theme in a starkly neorealist tale, sans melodramatic sentiments.

National Gallery of Art
Sun., Sept. 6, 2 p.m.

 

Bread, Love and Dreams
(Pane, amore e fantasia)

Directed by Luigi Comencini
(Italy, 1953, 90 min.)

In a mountain village near Abruzzi, marshal of carabinieri Vittorio De Sica — hoping to end his bachelorhood in the arms of the local midwife — has an eye for the feisty village beauty, though she, in turn, secretly yearns for his shy deputy.

National Gallery of Art
Sat., Sept. 19, 2:30 p.m.

I Magliari

Directed by Francesco Rosi
(Italy/France, 1959, 132 min.)

As “I Magliari” develops themes of the immigrant worker, organized crime, and Europe’s north-south problem, its narrative (set in Hamburg and Hannover, Germany) develops around a group of Italians selling inferior textiles to susceptible Germans at inflated prices (Italian and German).

National Gallery of Art
Sun., Sept. 6, 4 p.m.

The Passionate Thief
(Risate di gioia)

Directed by Mario Monicelli
(Italy, 1960, 106 min.)

“Miracolo! Miracolo!” bellows a desperate-to-be-noticed Anna Magnani, a mere extra amid cardboard sets on yet another Cinecittà spear-and-sandal epic. When the company breaks for New Year’s Eve, Magnani dons a blonde wig and spangled gown for the party, but ends up getting snubbed — and then the madness begins.

National Gallery of Art
Sun., Sept. 27, 4 p.m.

The Sign of Venus
(Il segno di Venere)

Directed by Dino Risi
(Italy, 1955, 100 min.)

The romantic adventures of two cousins from different backgrounds — one overly feminine (Sophia Loren) and the other overly plain (Franca Valeri) — engage the distinctive talents of several key Italian comic actors of the day.

National Gallery of Art
Sat., Sept. 5, 1 p.m.

Two Women
(La ciociara)

Directed by Vittorio De Sica
(Italy/France, 1960, 100 min.)

Fleeing to her native South from Rome and the Allied bombing, Sophia Loren and her daughter Eleonora Brown find friendship with the local intellectual Jean-Paul Belmondo, but soon discover which is worse — the retreating Germans or the advancing Allies (Italian and German).

National Gallery of Art
Sun., Sept. 13, 4 p.m.

 

Japanese


Attack on Titan: Part 1

Directed by Shinji Higuchi
(Japan, 2014)

From Studio Toho, the masterminds behind the “Godzilla” franchise, comes this intense action film set in a deadly post-apocalyptic time 100 years after foreign titans first appeared on Earth. The film tells the story of a human civilization on the brink of collapse after being overrun by monstrous titans.

Angelika Mosaic
Opens Wed., Sept. 30

Ghost in the Shell

Directed by Mamoru Oshii
(Japan, 1995, 83 min.)

In 2029, the world is totally wired, interconnected by a single, all-pervasive computer grid. Maj. Motoko Kusanagi is a cyborg officer in Tokyo’s Section Nine security force, where she is charged with keeping the network free of hackers. Kusanagi is hunting for the master hacker known as the Puppet Master, but little does she suspect that the hacker is looking for her, too.

AFI Silver Theatre
Sat., Sept. 5, 11:30 p.m.

Wolf Children
(Ookami kodomo no Ame to Yuki)

Directed by Mamoru Hosoda
(Japan, 2012, 117 min.)

This epic cinematic achievement follows Hana, a woman who falls in love with a Wolf Man and gives birth to two half human, half wolf children. After the tragic death of her beloved, Hana seeks refuge in a rural town where she attempts to build a life for herself — and her children.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Fri., Sept. 18, 11:59 p.m.,
Sat., Sept. 19, 11:59 p.m.

 

Turkish

Are We OK?

Directed by Ҫağan Irmak
(Turkey, 2013, 92 min.)

Temmuz, a sculptor suffering from both creative block and heartbreak, has been seeing the face of a physically disabled young man in his dreams. One day in the park, he catches a glimpse of the man, Ihsan. After Temmuz befriends Ihsan and his family, Ihsan confides that he wants Temmuz to help him end his life.

Freer Gallery of Art
Fri., Sept. 18, 7 p.m.

Whisper If I Forget

Directed by Ҫağan Irmak
(Turkey, 2014, 123 min.)

Hatice, an aspiring singer in a conservative small town, runs away to Istanbul in the 1970s, stealing from her sister Hanife both the dashing musician son of a local politician and Hanife’s poems, which Hatice transforms into hit songs. After forty years without contact, Hatice, now an aging diva showing early signs of Alzheimer’s disease, visits Hanife, who has become an embittered spinster, to make amends and ask for her help.

Freer Gallery of Art
Sun., Sept. 20, 2 p.m.

 

Swedish

Autumn Sonata
(Höstsonaten)

Directed by Ingmar Bergman
(Sweden, 1978, 99 min.)

In a long-planned collaboration, Ingrid Bergman (in an Oscar-nominated performance) returned to Swedish cinema after 40 years for her last feature film role, as a concert pianist returning home to an anguished reunion with neglected daughter Liv Ullmann.

AFI Silver Theatre
Sat., Sept. 12, 2 p.m.

Intermezzo

Directed by Gustaf Molander
(Sweden, 1936, 93 min.)

Concert violinist Gösta Ekman falls madly in love with his daughter’s piano teacher, Ingrid Bergman, but once their passionate affair cools off, Ekman hears the home he left calling him back.

AFI Silver Theatre
Sun., Sept. 13, 1 p.m.

June Nights
(Juninatten)

Directed by Per Lindberg
(Sweden, 1940, 88 min.)

After an affair with a sailor ends in violence and scandal, Ingrid Bergman must leave her small town home, changing her name and moving to Stockholm, but the relentless press won’t leave her in peace.

AFI Silver Theatre
Sat., Sept. 12, 12 p.m.

Woman’s Face
(En kvinnas ansikte)

Directed by Gustaf Molander
(Sweden, 1938, 100 min.)

Disfigured by a childhood accident that has left her face scarred, Anna (Ingrid Bergman) has grown bitter and despondent, eventually falling into criminality. But taken in and given plastic surgery by the brilliant Dr. Wegert (Anders Henrikson), Anna gains a new lease on life.

AFI Silver Theatre
Sun., Sept. 13, 3 p.m.

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