Regal Cinema Art Film Guide

Emilio Estevez & Martin Sheen discover greater meaning along

THE

WAY

NEW! Use your phone to watch theatrical trailers for featured films inside this issue.

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table of

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Higher Ground

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Restless

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Take Shelter

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The Debt

Director: Vera Farmiga

Director: Gus Van Sant

Director: Jeff Nichols

Director: John Madden

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The Skin I Live In

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Warrior

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The Way

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Film Previews

Director: Pedro Almodóvar

Director: Gavin O’Connor

Director: Emilio Estevez

A look over 35 upcoming releases

Higher Ground

Restless

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Film Guide Senior Staff Editor

Jonathan Douglas Creative Director

Rodney Griffin Designer

Rona Moss Advertising and Promotions

email: jdouglas@ regalcinemas.com

The Skin I Live In

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Warrior

The Regal Cinema Art Film Guide is a free national publication courtesy of Regal Entertainment Group, 7132 Regal Lane, Knoxville, TN 37918. To have your film featured, email jdouglas@regalcinemas.com

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directed by Vera Farmiga

I’m pressing on the upward way, New heights I’m gaining every day; Still praying as I’m onward bound, “Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”

I want to scale the utmost height And catch a gleam of glory bright; But still I’ll pray till heav’n I’ve found, “Lord plant my feet on higher ground.”

Lyrics to the hymn “Higher Ground,” written by Johnson Oatman, Jr. (Bible reference, Philippians 3:14)

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SYNOPSIS

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harting one woman’s spiritual journey through life while exploring and embracing her own humanity, Higher Ground is that rare film that is rich in ideas but also charged with emotion. As a child growing up in the 1960s, Corinne’s (Vera Farminga) defining feature is her sense of inadequacy. When she reaches high school, her home life begins to unravel, driving her into the arms of Ethan, a guitarist in a local band. An event propels them to join a small fundamentalist community where they find meaning and stability. But some of its more conservative tenets leave Corinne unsettled, driving her into a profound crisis of faith that turns her world upside down. Vera Farmiga gives yet another richly nuanced performance, but this time she unleashes her equally formidable talent behind the camera as well. She tackles complex issues with sophistication and graceful insight, crafting a moving story about the transformative powers of faith and doubt.

VERA FARMIGA: IN HER OWN WORDS Becoming a mother has changed me as an artist and storyteller. Now that I am asked so many questions by my children, I have never been more sure of not knowing the answers. I read Carolyn S. Briggs’ memoir, ‘This Dark World,’ and was touched by her testimony, its candor, humor and honesty about the very topic of “not knowing.” Her journey of selfdiscovery resonated with me on every level as a daughter, a sister, a wife, a friend and a mother.

I am also a sucker for a good love story. Our story follows a twenty-year span of all the love relationships in Corinne’s life. It stacks and studies the four tiers of love: agape, eros, philia and storge (unconditional love, romantic love, love of family and friends, fond affection). It was especially relevant and unique to me in the way it represents female friendship – as a refuge in harmony, not conflict or competition, as is often represented between women in film. While the men in the story are also full, rich characters, the story stresses that love between women is important. We see in each other the woman that we would love to be.

I thought this had the makings of an unusual and important film. The choices and truths it explores are universal: we’re all seekers, longing for meaning.

We all want a better sense of self. We all, on some level or another, experience moments full of doubt and questioning, feeling disappointed or disillusioned, in need of clarity. Why not throw all these notions up on the screen and see what sticks?

The film asks: is it possible for faith and doubt to coexist? What is a healthy soul? What holds us back from inner growth? Christianity is the “location” of the film, not the subject, concern, or issue. The film could have been set just as easily in a variety of faiths or cultures. I have a deep respect for all religions. I’m most familiar with Christianity. I did not want to make a film about the rights and wrongs of religion. I wanted to be reverent and respectful, and I did not want to infect the story with bias. It is about those moments in life where you lose sight of who you are, what you believe and where you are going. Those moments of stumbling. The film is about finding your footing, finding higher ground.

Higher Ground, from Sony Pictures Classics, will open this August.

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directed by Gus Van Sant

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nnabel Cotton (Mia Wasikowska) is a beautiful and charming terminal cancer patient with a deep felt love of life and the natural world. Enoch Brae (Henry Hopper) is a young man who has dropped out of the business of living after an accident claimed the life of his parents. When these two outsiders chance to meet at a funeral, they find an unexpected common ground in their unique experiences of the world. For Enoch, it includes his best friend Hiroshi (Ryõ Kase) who happens to be the ghost of a Kamikaze fighter pilot. For Annabel, it involves an admiration of Charles Darwin and an interest in how other creatures live. Upon learning of Annabel’s imminent early passing, Enoch offers to help her face her last days with an irreverent abandon, tempting fate, tradition and even death itself.

As their unique love for each other grows, so do the realities of the world that they have felt closing in on them. Daring, childlike and distinctly rare – these two bravely face what life has in store for them.

Fighting pain, anger and loss with youth, playfulness and originality, these two misfits turn the tables on life and play by their own rules. Their journey begins to collide with the unstoppable march of time, as the natural cycle of life comes to claim Annabel.

Directed by Gus Van Sant, Restless follows Annabel and Enoch’s complex and moving journey together as it culminates in their acceptance of themselves. The relationships they share with their friends, families and each other teach them their greatest lessons of all – that every end begets its own kind of rebirth, and love is deathless.

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION Young love has long been the stuff of great drama, from Shakespeare’s star-crossed Romeo and Juliet to the tear-jerking sentiment of Love Story. Now, from screenwriter Jason Lew and director Gus Van Sant comes a timeless and unique story that breathes new life into the old familiar tale. Restless tells the story of a young man hiding from his life and the vibrant young woman who brings him out of his shell. Echoing and

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evoking memorable film classics such as Hal Ashby’s Harold and Maude and recent indie hits such as Garden State, Restless aims for the head as well as the heart, offering rich characters and a deceptively simple story that will leave a lingering impression on film audiences.

Featuring newcomer Henry Hopper as shy and alienated teenager Enoch Brae, Restless takes place over the course of a cold American autumn. While nature heads towards a long slumber, young Henry makes his way through the world already frozen; devastated by the memory of his parents’ death in an automobile accident. Yet in the midst of his selfimposed exile, Enoch finds his worldview changing because of the presence of charming and intelligent Annabel Cotton, played by Mia Wasikowska.

“It was the beautiful love story that interested me,” explains Van Sant. “It’s a love story that is about a new relationship formed outside the family at a time that it is impossible for the family members to face the sadness of losing a loved one.”

Enoch Brae is at the center of this relationship story and he is played by Henry Hopper (son of the late actor-writer-director Dennis Hopper). “I felt strongly connected with him. It was nice to see this guy go from being stuck to coming out the other side okay. I think he’s really brave.”

The younger Hopper had been seeking to act in films, but was looking for just the right project – something that spoke to him and his sensibilities.

“I wanted a project that I felt passionately about,” he says. “When I read the screenplay, I was emotionally struck by the characters and their situations. It deals with being a young person in a very refreshing way. It’s about the youthful meanderings, progression, the learning to grow with another person. That’s what makes it compelling.”

The relationship between Enoch and Annabel is complicate. He is struggling to comprehend his place in the world, when he meets a girl unlike any

other – a girl full of life, but possibly nearing the end of it. The honesty with which Lew portrays these characters is what drew the actors to the roles. “I never want to write characters that are just symbols,” Lew says. “I want to give them a whole life. Being on set and watching my screenplay come to life was like waking up from a dream and all of a sudden the dream is in your room. I’ve lived with these characters for years and to meet them was a very strange and wonderful thing.”

“Annabel sees something in Enoch that he’s not aware of,” Henry Hopper continues. “She sees him for the unique person that he is. Despite how heavy their experiences are, together they find a playful way of approaching things.

She changes his whole approach to life.”

“The best way I can describe Annabel is that she’s full of life,” says Mia Wasikowska. “Despite everything, she has an amazing capacity to love life. She finds beauty in very small, simple things. Enoch has been deeply affected by what’s happened to him and I think when they meet each other, they bring out the best aspects of each other. Their relationship is very special in that they teach each other and help each other not to be afraid. They are the missing puzzle piece in each other’s lives. Even though the story of Annie and Enoch spans such a small amount of time, from the beginning they have a close bond.”

One of Van Sant’s directorial techniques – borrowed from director Terrence Malick, and which Van Sant first experimented with on Milk – is to direct the actors to perform the scene silently, without

dialogue, with the actors moving through their lines internally, expressing their emotions with their eyes and faces. “Every single shot we did, we did a silent take,” says Hopper. “The idea is to get the actors to feel the energy between each other and go with the rhythm of the scene. Doing the silent take brings so much to light – stuff that you don’t realize or understand when you’re speaking over it.”

“Silent takes are useful when you realize that the words aren’t needed to explain the scene,” explains Van Sant. “There are other reasons – it helps us in editing to have that footage - but I have been shooting them because usually, somewhere, you need to let the silence tell the story.”

“I’ve been a huge fan of Gus for years, so I was really excited to work with him,” Wasikowska continues. “He runs such a cool, low-key set – there’s no fuss. There’s no celebrity culture. It’s just a bunch of talented people coming together to make something they love, something really special.”

The passion and commitment of every member of the production team is evident in Restless, which offers completely unique characters who help each other with the secrets of love in the face of loss, managing to be as bittersweet, surprising, and precious as life itself.

Restless, from Sony Pictures Classics, will open this September.

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written & directed by Jeff Nichols

SYNOPSIS Curtis LaForche (Michael Shannon) lives in a small Ohio town with his wife Samantha (Jessica Chastain) and six-year-old daughter Hannah, who is deaf. Curtis makes a modest living as a crew chief for a sand-mining company. Samantha is a stay-at-home mother and part-time seamstress who supplements their income by selling handmade wares at the flea market each weekend.

Money is tight and navigating Hannah’s healthcare and special needs education is a constant struggle. Despite that, Curtis and Samantha are very much in love and their family is a happy one.

Then Curtis begins having terrifying dreams about an encroaching, apocalyptic storm. He chooses to keep the disturbance to himself, channeling his anxiety into the obsessive building of a storm shelter in their backyard. His seemingly inexplicable behavior concerns and confounds Samantha and provokes intolerance among co-workers, friends and neighbors. But the resulting strain on his marriage and tension within the community doesn’t compare to Curtis’ private fear of what his dreams may truly signify.

Faced with the proposition that his disturbing visions signal disaster of one kind or another, Curtis confides in Samantha, testing the power of their bond against the highest possible stakes.

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A LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR — Jeff Nichols Anxiety is born out of having something to lose.

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hen I began writing Take Shelter in the summer of 2008, I was in the middle of my first year of marriage. Although both my career and personal life were on a positive track, I had a nagging feeling that the world at large was heading for harder times. This freefloating anxiety was part economic, part just growing up, but it mainly came from the fact that I finally had things in my life that I didn’t want to lose. All of these feelings filtered directly into the characters of this film.

Take Shelter follows Curtis LaForche, a working class husband and father, as he deals with the panic that arises from a series of terrifying dreams. For Curtis, these dreams are either harbingers of a supernatural storm, or early symptoms of something he’s feared his entire life. Curtis’ strongest, most immediate reaction is to protect his family, his wife Samantha and their six-year-old daughter Hannah. The question for Curtis becomes, what is he protecting them from, the storm or himself?

I wrote Take Shelter because I believed there was a feeling out in the world that was palpable. It was an anxiety that was very real in my life and I had the notion it was very real in the lives of other Americans as well as other people around the world. This film was a way for me to talk about that fear and that anxiety.

I hope there is an answer to this feeling by the end of the film. I believe there is and it’s the reason that this wonderful group of people came together to help me make Take Shelter.

Take Shelter won the Cannes Film Festival’s Grand Prize in this year’s Critics Week competition and will be released by Sony Pictures Classics this September.

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directed by John Madden

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ven the best secret agents carry a debt from a past mission. Rachel Singer must now face up to hers.

Filmed on location in Tel Aviv, the UK, and Budapest, the espionage thriller The Debt is directed by Academy Award® nominee John Madden (Shakespeare in Love).

The screenplay, by Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman and Peter Straughan, is adapted from the 2007 Israeli film Ha-Hov [The Debt].

The story begins in 1997, as shocking news reaches retired Mossad secret agents Rachel (played by Academy-Award winner Helen Mirren) and Stephan (twotime Academy Award® nominee Tom Wilkinson) about their former colleague David (Ciarán Hinds of the upcoming Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy). All three have been venerated for decades by Israel because of the secret mission that they embarked on for their country back in 1965-1966, when the trio (portrayed, respectively,

by Jessica Chastain [The Tree of

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Life, The Help], Marton Csokas [The Lord of the Rings, Dream House], and Sam Worthington [Avatar, Clash of the Titans]) tracked down Nazi war criminal Dieter Vogel (Jesper Christensen of Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace), the feared Surgeon of Birkenau, in East Berlin. While Rachel found herself grappling with romantic feelings during the mission, the net around Vogel was tightened by using her as bait.

At great risk, and at considerable personal cost, the team’s mission was accomplished – or was it?

The suspense builds in and across two different time periods, with startling action and surprising revelations that compel Rachel to take matters into her own hands.

Producer Kris Thykier observes, “With the script’s intelligence and depth of character, I saw a return to the 1970s thrillers that I had grown up on, like Three Days of the Condor and Marathon Man.” The filmmakers needed an actress of a certain age to embody Rachel

Singer in 1997. She would have to be someone capable of conveying the uncertainty that haunts her and embracing the physical challenges.

With those prerequisites, Thykier states, “Who else could it be but Helen Mirren? We’d always thought of her for this role.”

John Madden notes, “Helen is an actress at the top of her game and she likes to test herself. She is fearless. Helen responded immediately to the challenge of this material.

“Here’s a role which required her to intimate the wounds and the corrosive effect of events suppressed over 30 years. The tension and pain of a decision made long ago are evident. She literally bears a scar from what happened back then. All this has to come across amidst the pace and excitement of a thriller.”

Mirren comments, “Having learned to live with compromise, Rachel is finally realizing that it doesn’t always work. She is not a person

who reveals much to anyone, not even to the daughter who has written a book about her and her colleagues. Rachel has buried her true emotions and has existed for many years on a superficial level, not confronting the depth of her real feelings about things. She finds she has to do that and much more.”

For that “much more,” Mirren rose to the occasion, learning the basic moves of krav maga, the renowned tactical defense skill that is rooted in hand-to-hand combat. Krav maga is the official self-defense system of the Israeli Defense Forces.

With their latter-day Rachel set, the filmmakers turned to casting the younger incarnation. Rising

does all of her own fighting and stunts in the film,” Madden reveals.

Sam Worthington portrays David, the idealistic but conflicted Mossad agent who is drawn to Rachel almost immediately.

Long before his star-making role in Avatar, Madden had spotted Worthington in the Australian independent feature Somersault.

“Sam has this attractive, masculine, powerful presence but he also has a vulnerability,” comments the director. “I felt that he could capture the contrasts of David.”

Worthington was intrigued by the character’s moral conviction and emotional burdens. “David is a man who lost his entire family in

“John completely sold me on his vision of these three people who confront a monster but are then haunted for decades. This makes for quite a thriller, but the core of The Debt is the notion of living with repercussions for decades.”

Madden concludes, “This is a thriller that keeps tightening the knot, with a sense that panic is just barely being held at bay.

“The film’s title has multiple layers: historical, political and personal.

The Debt asks questions that we face daily; ‘What would I have done in this situation?’ ‘How would I have behaved in those circumstances?’ ‘What is the price I would – or will – pay?’”

star Jessica Chastain remarks, “When I first read the script, I didn’t even see it as a thriller. To me, it was a drama and a love story. It was so good that I felt, ‘I have to be in this movie.’”

Impressing the filmmakers with her grasp of the character, Chastain got the plum part.

“She is magnetic to watch,” says Madden. “She elicits an emotional involvement from the viewer. There’s no equivocation in the choices she makes and emotionally she is absolutely clear.

“Helen has exactly that same quality. You can see the tiniest change of mood flutter across her face. That kind of transparency is rare and it’s a gift. The baton of Rachel passes effortlessly from one actress to the other.”

Chastain trained with a krav maga expert four times a week for four months in Los Angeles before coming to London for rehearsal with her fellow actors. As a result, “she

the Holocaust and is consistently questioning his own worth,” the actor states. “He dedicates himself to being an effective Mossad agent, as he feels he has the weight of a nation on him. With this mission, David’s idealism becomes at risk and he doesn’t know how to handle that.

Focus Features releases The Debt in theaters nationwide on Wednesday, August 31 Scan this tag to watch the official movie trailer.

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El Cigarral and it’s protected by stone walls and a high barred gate. Through one of the mansion’s windows, also barred, we can make out a female figure in motion. Once we are inside the room, the woman seems to be naked as she carries out a series of complicated yoga positions. In the close-ups we discover that she isn’t naked. She is totally covered by a flesh coloured body stocking that clings to her like a second skin. In the kitchen, Marilia, the housekeeper, prepares the woman’s breakfast which she then sends up in a dumb waiter that opens directly onto the room.

From the outset, El Cigarral is portrayed as a prison in the midst of nature. An isolated place, inaccessible to eyes on the outside. The first actions that show us Vera, the captive woman concentrating on her yoga positions, and Marilia, her jailer, seem strangely routine, lacking in any tension. But life in El Cigarral wasn’t always so peaceful.

In her six years of enforced reclusion, Vera has lost, among other things, the most extensive part of the human body, her own skin. Literally, she has shed her skin along the way.

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ver since his wife was burned in a car crash, Dr. Robert Ledgard (Antonio Banderas), an eminent plastic surgeon, has been interested in creating a new skin with which he could have saved her. After twelve years, he manages to cultivate a skin that is a real shield against every assault.

In addition to years of study and experimentation, Robert needed a further three things: no scruples, an accomplice and a human guinea pig. Scruples were never a problem. Marilia, the woman who looked after him from the day he was born, is his most faithful accomplice. And as for the human guinea pig...

ABOUT THE SKIN I LIVE IN There are irreversible processes, roads of no return, one way journeys. The Skin I Live In tells the story of one of those processes. The protagonist travels one of those roads against her will. She is forced violently to set out on journey from which she cannot return. Her Kafkaesque story is the result of a sentence handed out by a jury made up of just one person, her worst enemy.

The verdict, therefore, is a form of extreme revenge.

The Skin I Live In tells the story of that revenge.

The first images in the film are of a mansion surrounded by trees, an idyllic place. It’s called

Skin is the frontier that separates us from others. It determines the race to which we belong, it reflects our emotions and our roots, whether biological or geographical. Many times it reflects the state of the soul, but skin isn’t the soul. Although Vera has changed her skin, she hasn’t lost her identity. (Identity and its invulnerability is another of the film’s themes). In any case, the loss of one’s skin is atrocious! This is only one of the many losses that leave Vera on the verge of death, by her own desire or in the operating theatre, at the hands of Dr. Robert. But she is a born survivor and after many difficulties, she decides that “she has to learn to live within her skin”, even if it is a skin imposed by Dr. Robert. Once she has accepted her second skin, Vera makes the second most important decision in order to survive: she’ll learn to wait.

Elías Canetti, in his notes on “The Enemy of Death” (a title that defines very well Vera’s attitude to life) from his “Book of Dead People”, writes: “…the uninterrupted pacing of a tiger behind the bars of its cage so that it won’t miss the single, fleeting instant of salvation.”

Curiously, that brief instant to which Canetti refers comes to Vera in the form of a tiger, or rather, a man wearing a tiger costume.

One day, during Carnival, a man in a tiger costume manages to get to the hermetically sealed door of

` directed by Pedro Almodovar

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THE IN

the room where Vera is held captive. This incident breaks the impasse in which the three residents of El Cigarral have been living. Paradoxically, given the customs of Carnival, this is the moment when the characters remove their masks and the final tragedy casts its black shadow without any of them being able to do anything to prevent it.

Elena Anaya, Marisa Paredes, Jan Cornet, Roberto Álamo, Blanca Suárez, Eduard Fernández, Susi Sánchez, Bárbara Lennie and José Luis Gómez.

The Skin I Live In, from Sony Pictures Classics, will open this October.

A NOTE FROM PEDRO ALMODOVAR A story of these characteristics made me think of Luis Buñuel, Alfred Hitchcock, all of Fritz Lang’s films (from the gothic to the noir). I also thought of the pop aesthetic of Hammer horror, or the more psychedelic, kitsch style of the Italian giallo (Dario Argento, Mario Bava, Umberto Lenzi or Lucio Fulci) and of course the lyricism of Georges Franju in Eyes Without a Face. After evaluating all these references, I realized

that none of them fit with what I needed for The Skin I Live In. For some months I thought seriously about making a silent film, in black and white, with captions which showed descriptions and dialogue.

And paying tribute to Fritz Lang and Murnau. After doubting for months, I decided to go my own way and let myself be carried along by intuition After all, it’s what I’ve always done, without the shadow of the maestros of the genre (among other reasons because I don’t know to what genre this film belongs) and renouncing my own cinematic memory. I only knew that I had to impose an austere narrative, free of visual rhetoric and not at all gory, even though a lot of blood has been spilled in the ellipses that we don’t see. It isn’t the first time I’ve started from this premise before shooting, but I think that The Skin I Live In is the film where I have got closest to it.

I’ve been accompanied on this journey by José Luis Alcaine, the director of photography, to whom I didn’t explain what I wanted but rather what I didn’t want, and he knew how to give the photography the density, the glow and the darkness that suited it best. The musician Alberto Iglesias, the only artist I know without an ego, tireless, versatile and patient, is capable of looking in one direction and then looking in the opposite direction if I wasn’t satisfied, always subject to the dictates of the story and my way of feeling it. The actors who generous and precise, despite the obvious discomfort of some of their scenes. I’ll name them all: Antonio Banderas,

SKIN I LIVE

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directed by Gavin O’Connor

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ising stars Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton command the screen as two estranged brothers facing the fight of a lifetime in Lionsgate’s Warrior, a moving, inspirational action drama from acclaimed director Gavin O’Connor.

What Do You Fight For? That is the central question of director Gavin O’Connor’s Warrior. The movie is an intense glimpse into the world of a sport never before shown like this on film. More than that though, it’s an intense glimpse into a family’s journey from brokenness to reparation, and into the hearts of two brothers – one fighting for his country, the other for his family – both tapping into immense stores of vigor and courage.

The start of the film finds Tommy Conlon (Tom Hardy) back in the orbit of a broken family he’d given up on years ago. When he and his mother escaped his abusive father Paddy (Nick Nolte), his brother Brendan (Joel Edgerton) stayed behind to be close to his high school girlfriend Tess (Jennifer Morrison), to whom he is now married. Though Paddy and Tommy have made a patchy truce in order to train together once again, communication between the brothers is nonexistent when they both make a surprise ascent up the rungs of the nationally televised Sparta tournament.

The matches, explains O’Connor, are the backdrop to “a story about two brothers on a collision course who have to deal with their past in the present day, in a cage, communicating with their fists to rectify a very painful situation.”

That kind of artful storytelling is exactly what lends the movie an appeal beyond sport-specific fans or even general sports fans.

Although Warrior offers a glimpse

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into the world of the sport, it was made for a general audience, a huge portion of which will no doubt be completely unfamiliar with it. Not a problem, as O’Connor explains, “If you don’t know it technically, you’re going to get it emotionally, because every fight has a story. And the dynamic of the story within each fight is very clear.

It’s as simple as, ‘I’m rooting for him and I know that if his hand goes up, he won. If the other guy taps, that guy lost.’” A viewer may not understand arm bars and grappling techniques, but it doesn’t matter because they understand the stakes of each fight. The fighting is contextualized and dramatized very clearly.

While making the movie meant to capture so many specifics of a rarelyportrayed sport and sports culture, the obvious question would be how to cast the film–with real fighters who would be trained to act, or with professional actors who would be taught to fight. For O’Connor, there was no question. The emotional complexity of the roles demanded experienced actors. Convinced that a traditional actor-director rapport and a common language of film was key and that with enough commitment, actors with natural athleticism could be trained to look like authentic fighters on screen, O’Connor set out to cast the film’s two pivotal roles.

Finding an actor with an absolutely unique balance of opposite qualities to play Tommy Conlon, a character who does some unlikeable things and who is often unpleasant but whose core goodness and vulnerability must be ever-apparent to the audience, was the key to the film first and foremost. O’Connor had read close to 200 actors for the part when after an initial phone conversation, he arranged for an in-person meeting with Tom

Hardy. “It wasn’t a traditional audition” explains Hardy, who was confident in the dramatic essence of the character but had fierce initial doubts about whether he could “close the gap” presented by the accent transformation, physical transformation, and cultural transformations the role required.

After sharing his concerns with O’Connor, the two settled on a powwow in the United States to do some reading, development and analysis, and hopefully arm Hardy with a fully rounded character. That experience turned out to be more in-depth than O’Connor ever imagined. He recounts, “(Hardy) showed up at my house at midnight on a Sunday, unannounced.

Just a knock on the door and there’s Tom Hardy. He was supposed to go to a hotel, but instead stayed at my house for five days. He never left, so I got to know him very well and the qualities that he had as a human being were just right for the character.”

The next step was finding the right actor to play Tommy’s brother Brendan.

The brothers are almost psychological mirror images – where Tommy is full of surface rage that masks the decent person he really is, Brendan is very mature and thoughtful, but harbors a fierce fighting spirit at his core. With a black belt in karate and a famed Australian stunt coordinator for a brother, Joel Edgerton had the athletic background O’Connor was looking for, but he also had the key layers the role of Brendan required. O’Connor needed an actor who the audience could sense straight away had an abundance of integrity, and “integrity reeks off him.

You can’t fake that.” However, the role also demanded someone that the audience would believe had a past. “Brendan was a fighter when he was younger and he got into some trouble,” O’Connor elaborates. “But he’s evolved and become a man, a father, a great husband. Still, there’s something primal about him so you need to see in his eyes that he could have the capacity to regress,

to drink and throw a punch.” It’s a balance that O’Connor thinks today’s Australian actors exhibit more readily than their American contemporaries, an Aussie mystique of sorts.

Casting the role of Paddy didn’t require an international search. In fact, Gavin had to look no further than down his own street. The part of Paddy, a man very much in need of redemption, was actually written for O’Connor’s neighbor and friend Nick Nolte, who was originally cast in Pride and Glory, but had a last-minute scheduling conflict that prohibited his participation.

O’Connor and the film’s writer, Anthony Tambakis both grew up as enormous fans of Nolte’s work and vowed to write him a special part. O’Connor tells of humoring everyone on the production by “pretending to go through the lists” of suggestions for the role, all the while knowing that it should and hopefully would belong to Nolte in the end. “He’s a national treasure,” says O’Connor, “and I wanted to use him how he’s best and hoped the role would remind everyone what he’s capable of.”

At the end of the day, for all of the ‘stand in your seat and cheer’ infectious energy of the film’s climax, it’s the intimacy and truthfulness of the whole story that makes it really hit home.

Looking back at his personal filmmaking journey, director Gavin O’Connor reflects, “I would never have been able to make Warrior without having made my other films. They freed me to up the artistic and emotional ante, and though there’s a continuity, I think I found in myself a voice that is stronger and more concentrated. I have no idea how the film is going to be received commercially, but I do know artistically it’s been the most satisfying and fulfilling experience of my career.”

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T H E WAY written & directed by Emilio Estevez

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he Way” is a powerful and inspirational story about family, friends and the challenges we face while navigating this ever changing and complicated world. Martin Sheen plays Tom, an American doctor who comes to St. Jean Pied de Port, France to collect the remains of his adult son (played by Emilio Estevez), killed in the Pyrenees in a storm while walking The Camino de Santiago, also known as The Way of Saint James. Rather than return home, Tom decides embark on the historical pilgrimage to honor his son’s desire to finish the journey. What Tom doesn’t plan on is the profound impact the journey will have on him and his “California Bubble Life”.

an idyllic northern Spanish countryside. By following the yellow painted arrows marking the road, a pilgrim can expect to walk 12-15 miles a day to reach the next town for the night. At this pace, a pilgrim can reach the Cathedral de Santiago in 6 to 8 weeks time to attend the Pilgrims’ Mass held at noon each day. Some take more time, others less. Some choose to travel by bike and some have done the Camino on horseback.

Along the way travelers encounter albergues, refugios and casa rurals that cater specifically to the thousands of pilgrims of all ages that take this journey each year, immersing themselves in the local food, culture and history dedicated to this experience.

Inexperienced as a trekker, Tom soon discovers that he will not be alone on this journey. On “The Way,” Tom meets other pilgrims from around the world, each with their own “issues” and looking for greater meaning in their lives: a Dutchman (Yorick van Wageningen) a Canadian (Deborah Kara Unger) and an Irish writer (James Nesbitt) who is suffering from a bout of “writer’s block.”

Pilgrims walk the Camino for various reasons. Some to seek penance, others enlightenment, and still others for a sense of adventure, yet all progress toward the Cathedral in Santiago where it is believed the remains of the apostle St. James are held. Most pilgrims choose to carry a scallop shell with them to symbolize their journey in honor of St. James.

According to legend, scallop shells are said the have covered St. James’ body after it was found on the shores of the Galician coast. Another, perhaps more useful symbol is a walking stick to aid a weary pilgrim on his or her journey. Pilgrims also carry a Compostela, which is a passport that is stamped at each important stop highlighting the completion of the journey officially recognized with a special certificate at the passport office in Santiago.

From the unexpected and oftentimes amusing experiences along “The Way,” this unlikely quartet of misfits create an everlasting bond and Tom begins to learn what it means to be a citizen of the world again. Through Tom’s unresolved relationship with his son, he discovers the difference between “The life we live and the life we choose”.

The Way, written and directed by Emilio Estevez, was filmed entirely in Spain and France along the actual Camino de Santiago.

ABOUT THE WAY The Camino de Santiago or the Way of St. James is a spiritual journey that pilgrims of all faiths and backgrounds have traversed for a thousand years. The pilgrimage originally began at one’s doorstep, though modern trekkers today would find that rather difficult, particularly American pilgrims needing to cross the Atlantic. While there are a number of established routes leading to Santiago from all directions, the most popular is the Camino Française, which crosses the Pyrenees Mountains along the SpanishFrench border starting in St. Jean Pied de Port.

This Camino route covers 800 kilometers that traverses

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Regardless of whether a pilgrim’s journey begins for religious, spiritual or cultural reasons, the meditative nature of the Camino offers the perfect landscape in which to dedicate contemplation. Pilgrims follow the path amidst the villages, towns, rivers, mountains and fertile valleys that have changed the lives of millions of pilgrims who walked before them. This year of 2010, a holy year for St. James on July 25th, 200,000 people are expected to make this trek following these well-trodden footsteps of history, paving the way for the millions of footsteps to surely come after them.

WHY THE WAY It had always been Martin’s dream to walk the Camino de Santiago. After having the privilege of holding Mother Theresa’s hand, sitting with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican, visiting the holy shrine at Lourdes, and

making a film in Medugorje, his next wish regarding his faith was to visit the Cathedral de Santiago by way of its namesake pilgrimage. He was in the middle of his 7-year tenure playing U.S. president Jed Bartlett on the West Wing when he seized a tiny window of opportunity to realize his goal, at least in part.

After attending a family reunion in Ireland in the summer of 2003 that celebrated his mother’s lineage, he had a moment of inspiration. He convinced a few family members to fly to Spain in honor of his father’s heritage as well by touring the Way of St. James toward Galicia, his father’s homeland.

Unfortunately, seven days was all Martin had before needing to return to work in Los Angeles. Knowing this wasn’t enough time to walk the Camino, he pushed forward presuming it was now or never.

Upon landing in Madrid, he rented a car with friends and family and set out on a northern path toward the nearest Camino town of Burgos to visit the famed Burgos Cathedral built in the 13th century. From there they hugged the Camino west as best as possible via major highways, detouring at important locations to walk a bit each day. By the end of their trip they arrived in time for the Pilgrim’s Mass at the Cathedral de Santiago. The beauty of the northern Spanish countryside proved too magical to experience in such a short period of time. Martin pledged to return one day soon for a proper pilgrimage toward Santiago.

In the film, a father unfortunately comes to understand his son’s life through his death and along the road finds himself as well. The main protagonist of the film is the conflict we each have within ourselves of choosing a life versus living a life. This greater question of finding oneself is a matter of acceptance and choice. Given the circumstances of our lives, how do we understand ourselves, our family and our friends, and the choices we make? Do we blindly go through life unaware of our actions and how they affect not only ourselves but others as well? What roles do our community, friendships and faith play in our decisions?

The Camino, by its nature, serves as the ultimate metaphor for life. Footsteps along a well-trodden path may be our guide, but do not shield us from the questions that most of our busy everyday lives prevent us from fully recognizing. The road offers very little to hide behind. The process of life is life along whichever road, path, Camino, or Way we find ourselves on. Our humanity toward ourselves and others, our history and our future is what defines us. Take the journey of life. Buen Camino!

Scan this tag to watch the official movie trailer.

ON THE WAY Through a series of ongoing conversations between Emilio and Martin, the two decided to create a tribute to Spain to rediscover the land where the Estevez family was rooted. The Camino de Santiago served as the perfect partner in their efforts.

And while Spain serves as the backdrop, the film’s primary theme of self-discovery belongs to everyone from all ages and backgrounds, as does the Camino, which has helped transform the lives of millions of pilgrims for centuries.

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COMING SOON IN THEATRES AUGUST 26

FROM IN THEATRES THIS FALL

FILMPREVIEWS

a quick look at upcoming alternative & independent films

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Director: Tom Tykwer From the director of Run, Lola, Run and The International comes a sexy romantic drama with a nod to classic Hollywood’s screwball comedies. Hanna and Simon, a couple in their early forties, live together in Berlin. With their 20th anniversary looming, they both become restless despite being truly and deeply in love. Unbeknownst to one another, they become acquainted with Adam, a younger man, and fall in love with him. Clearly not your typical 1930’s romp, this reinvention of those classic films with Tykwer’s sleek direction is a playful update: an intellectual study of a modern couple looking for redefinition in a world of absolutes.

5 DAYS OF WAR Director: Renny Harlin

Acclaimed director Renny Hariln brings us an action-packed international thriller.

Based on true events, this intense film is a vivid account of a renegade American journalist, his cameraman and a local woman caught behind enemy lines. They are determined to not only survive, but tell the world what is happening during the swift but devastating 5-day war between Russian and the Georgian Republic in 2008.

AMIGO

Director: John Sayles John Sayles’ fictionalized account of the Philippines-American War takes place at the turn of the century after two American privates killed three Filipino soldiers in a suburb of Manila. The incident turned into a bloody war that lasted two years as the Philippine Army used guerilla tactics to make up for being under-equipped to face the overwhelming American forces.

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FIL M PREVIEWS ANOTHER EARTH Director: Mike Cahill

Rhoda Williams, a bright young woman accepted into MIT’s astrophysics program, aspires to explore the cosmos. A brilliant composer, John Burroughs, has just reached the pinnacle of his profession and is about to have a second child. On the eve of the discovery of a duplicate Earth, tragedy strikes and the lives of these strangers become irrevocably intertwined.

THE ARTIST

Director: Michel Hazanavicius In 1927 Hollywood, George Valentin is a silent movie superstar. The advent of the talkies will sound the death knell for his career and see him fall into oblivion. For young extra Peppy Miller, it seems the sky’s the limit–major movie stardom awaits.

The Artist tells the story of their interlinked destinies.

BELLFLOWER

Director: Evan Glodell Woodrow and Aiden spend all of their free time building Mad Max inspired flamethrowers and weapons of mass destruction in preparation for a global apocalypse in which their imaginary gang “Mother Medusa” can emerge on top. But when Woodrow meets a charismatic young woman and falls hard in love, he and Aiden quickly integrate into a new group of friends, setting off on a journey of betrayal, love, hate, infidelity and extreme violence more devastating and fiery than any of their apocalyptic fantasies.

CARNAGE

Director: Roman Polanski Set in contemporary Brooklyn, New York, centers on two pairs of parents one of whose child has hurt the other at a public park, who meet to discuss the matter in a civilized manner. However, as the evening goes on, the parents become increasingly childish, resulting in the evening devolving into chaos.

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FIL M PREVIEWS CIRCUMSTANCE

Director: Maryam Keshavarz Set in contemporary Iran in the unseen world of Iranian youth culture, filled with underground parties, sex, drugs and defiance, Circumstance is the story of two vivacious young girls–wealthy Atafeh and orphaned Shireen–discovering their burgeoning sexuality and, like 16 year-old girls anywhere, struggling with their desires and the boundaries placed upon them by the world they were born into.

CONNECTED

Director: Tiffany Shlain Subtitled “An Autoblogography about Love, Death, & Technology,” Connected premiered to great acclaim in the documentary competition at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Tiffany Shlain’s vibrant and insightful documentary, explores the visible and invisible connections linking major issues of our time–the environment, consumption, population growth, technology, human rights, the global economy– while searching for her place in the world during a transformative time in her life.

CORIOLANUS

Director: Ralph Fiennes Caius Martius ‘Coriolanus’ ( Ralph Fiennes), a revered and feared Roman General is at odds with the city of Rome and his fellow citizens. Pushed by his controlling and ambitious mother Volumnia to seek the exalted and powerful position of Consul, he is loath to ingratiate himself with the masses whose votes he needs in order to secure the office. When the public refuses to support him, Coriolanus’s anger prompts a riot that culminates in his expulsion from Rome. The banished hero then allies himself with his sworn enemy Tullus Aufidius (Gerard Butler) to take his revenge on the city.

THE DESCENDANTS Director: Alexander Payne

From Alexander Payne, the creator of the Oscar®-winning Sideways, set in Hawaii, The Descendants is a sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic journey for Matt King (George Clooney) an indifferent husband and father of two girls, who is forced to re-examine his past and embrace his future when his wife suffers a boating accident off of Waikiki. The event leads to a rapprochement with his young daughters while Matt wrestles with a decision to sell the family’s land handed down from Hawaiian royalty and missionaries.

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FIL M PREVIEWS THE DEVIL'S DOUBLE Director: Lee Tamahori

Based on a gripping, unbelievable true story of money, power and opulent decadence, The Devil's Double takes a white-knuckle ride deep into the lawless playground of excess and violence known as Bagdad, 1987. Summoned from the frontline to Saddam Hussein’s palace, Iraqi army lieutenant Latif Yahia is thrust into the highest echelons of the “royal family” when he’s ordered to become the body double to Saddam’s son, the notorious “Black Prince” Uday Hussein, a reckless, sadistic party-boy with a rabid hunger for sex and brutality. With his and his family’s lives at stake, Latif must surrender his former self forever as he learns to walk, talk and act like Uday. But nothing could have prepared him for the horror of the Black Prince’s psychotic, drug-addled life of fast cars, easy women and impulsive violence.

THE FUTURE

Director: Miranda July In her follow-up to Me and You and Everyone We Know, internationally-acclaimed artist, author and filmmaker Miranda July returns with this story of a thirtysomething couple whose decision to adopt a cat changes their perspective on life, literally altering the course of time and testing their faith in themselves and each other.

A GOOD OLD FASHIONED ORGY Director: Pete Huyck, Alex Gregory

The story centers on a 30-year-old who is forced to grow up when his father decides to sell the family vacation home in the Hamptons, bringing an end to his tradition of throwing elaborate summer theme parties. Wanting to go out with a bang, he enlists his friends to throw one final party – an orgy.

THE GUARD

Director: John Michael McDonagh Sergeant Gerry Boyle is a small-town cop with a confrontational personality, a subversive sense of humor, a dying mother, a fondness for prostitutes, and absolutely no interest whatsoever in the international cocaine-smuggling ring that has brought FBI agent Wendell Everett to his door. However, despite the fact that Boyle seems more interested in mocking and undermining Everett than in actively working to solve the case, he finds that circumstances keep pulling him back into the thick of it.

HAPPY, HAPPY

Director: Anne Sewitsky Kaja is an optimistic and easygoing housewife–despite her loneliness and the fact that she lacks an intimate relationship with her husband. When Elisabeth and Sigve, who seem like the perfect husband and wife, move in next door, Kaja is thrilled by their sophistication. They’re beautiful, they have an adopted black son, and in their spare time, they sing in a choir. An indiscreet moment between Kaja and Sigve ignites a full-on affair, but just as her sexual liberation comes within reach, the inevitable truths and secrets tumble out–perhaps for the best.

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FIL M PREVIEWS THE HEDGEHOG

Director: Mona Achache Paloma Josse is an exceptionally intelligent 11-year-old who wants to end it all on her 12th birthday. Fascinated by art and philosophy, she documents her life and immediate circle, drawing trenchant and often hilarious observations on the world around her. But as her appointment with death approaches, Paloma finally meets some kindred spirits in her solitary concierge Renee Michel and an enigmatic and elegant neighbor Mr. Kakuro Ozu.

LIFE, ABOVE ALL Director: Oliver Schmitz

Just after the death of her newly-born sister, Chanda (12 years old), learns of a rumor that spreads like wildfire through her small, dust-ridden village near Johannesburg. It destroys her family and forces her mother to flee. Sensing that the gossip stems from prejudice and superstition, Chanda leaves home and school in search of her mother and the truth.

LIKE CRAZY

Director: Drake Doremus This is a film about the little moments. The ones we remember when we’re saying goodbye, or missing an embrace, or losing something we thought we had. It’s a film of collected moments; of love, happiness, heartbreak, success and failure.

It’s a film about how it feels to be in love; how beautiful, intense, addictive and debilitating love can be, but how necessary it is for us to experience as we get older and start sorting out our lives.

MACHINE GUN PREACHER Director: Marc Forster

Based on the true story, Machine Gun Preacher follows Sam Childers, a former drug-dealing criminal who finds faith leading him on a path to East Africa. Shocked by the mayhem in Sudan, Childers becomes a crusader for hundreds of refugee children. Inspired to create a safe haven for the multitudes fleeing enslavement by the brutal Lord’s Resistance Army, he restores peace to their lives and eventually his own.

MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE Director: T. Sean Durkin

This powerful psychological thriller stars Elizabeth Olsen as Martha, a young woman rapidly unraveling amidst her attempt to reclaim a normal life after fleeing from a cult and its charismatic leader. Seeking help from her estranged older sister Lucy and brother-in-law, Martha is unable and unwilling to reveal the truth about her disappearance. When her memories trigger a chilling paranoia that her former cult could still be pursuing her, the line between Martha’s reality and delusion begins to blur. fall 2011

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FIL M PREVIEWS THE MIGHTY MACS Director: Tim Chambers

It’s 1971. Cathy Rush is a woman ahead of her time and she’s about to embark on an adventure for the ages. Recently hired as the women's basketball coach of tiny Immaculata College, Cathy’s challenges are as imposing as the big-school teams her Macs will face. There is no gymnasium, no fan support and no money. To top it off, Cathy may not even have enough players for a team! Will the unrelenting drive of this first-year coach spur her rag-tag team to unexpected heights. Or will it create a wedge between the coach and everyone around her?

MY AFTERNOONS WITH MARGUERITTE Director: Jean Becker

Germain Chazes lives in a caravan at the bottom of his mother’s garden and is considered by most to be a happy fool. One day Marguerite, a very cultured old woman, introduces him to the world of books and words. As a result, his relationship with others and with himself completely changes.

MY WEEK WITH MARILYN Director: Simon Curtis

Colin Clark met Marilyn Monroe while working as a young assistant on Laurence Olivier’s The Prince and the Showgirl. When Marilyn experienced emotional difficulties during shooting, the 23-year-old third assistant director came to her aid and romance developed. But one week of honesty and fun was not enough to save the doomed star from self-destruction.

MYSTERIES OF LISBON Director: Raúl Ruiz

Based on a famous nineteenth-century Portuguese novel, Raul Ruiz’s Mysteries of Lisbon follows a jealous countess, a wealthy businessman and a young orphaned boy across Portugal, France, Italy and Brazil where they connect with a variety of mysterious individuals.

ONE DAY

Director: Lone Scherfig

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Adapted from the internationally praised bestselling novel, One Day charts an extraordinary relationship. Emma and Dexter meet on the night of their college graduation – July 15th, 1988. She is a working-class girl of principle and ambition who dreams of making the world a better place. He is a wealthy charmer who dreams that the world will be his playground. For the next two decades, every July 15th reveals to us how “Em” and “Dex” are faring, as their friendship ebbs and flows with the passing of the years. Through love and loss, heartbreak and success, hopes fulfilled and dreams shattered, they experience the grandeur of life. Somewhere along their journey, these two people realize that what they are searching and hoping for has been there for them all along.

FIL M PREVIEWS POINT BLANK

Director: Fred Cavaye Samuel is a happily married nurse working in a Paris hospital. When his very pregnant wife is kidnapped before his helpless eyes, everything falls apart. After being knocked unconscious, he comes to and his cell phone rings. He has three hours to get Sartet, a man under police surveillance, out of the hospital. Samuel quickly finds himself pitted against rival gangsters and trigger-happy police in a deadly race to save the lives of his wife and unborn child.

SON OF NO ONE Director: Dito Montiel

As a teenager in Queens, Jonathan White–the son of a cop killed in the line of duty–committed a horrible crime, only to be bailed out by a detective who was his father’s former partner. Sixteen years later, Jonathan, now a cop, is living a happy life with his wife and daughter in Long Island, when a newspaper publishes an anonymous letter describing the details of the his horrible secret, throwing his life into a tailspin.

TABLOID

Director: Errol Morris Thirty years before the antics of Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears were regular gossip fodder, Miss Wyoming Joyce McKinney made her mark as a tabloid staple ne plus ultra.

Morris follows the salacious adventures of this beauty queen with an IQ of 168 whose single-minded devotion to the man of her dreams leads her across the globe, into jail, and onto the front page. Joyce’s labyrinthine crusade for love takes her through a surreal world of kidnapping, manacled Mormons, risqué photography, magic underwear, and celestial sex–until her dream is finally realized in a cloning laboratory in Seoul, South Korea.

TANNER HALL

Directors: Francesca Gregorini & Tatiana von Furstenberg This film is a vivid peek into the private world of an all-girls boarding school. In a cozy but run-down New England town, the knot of adolescent complexity is unraveled through the coming-of-age stories of four teen-age girls.

TEXAS KILLING FIELDS Director: Ami Canaan Mann

Inspired by true events, this tense and haunting thriller follows a local homicide detective (Sam Worthington) in a small Texan town and his partner, a transplanted cop from New York City as they track a sadistic serial killer dumping his victims’ mutilated bodies in a nearby marsh locals call “The Killing Fields.” The killer changes the game and begins hunting the detectives, teasing them with possible clues at the crime scenes while always remaining one step ahead. When a familiar local girl, Anne, goes missing the detectives find themselves in a race against time to find the killer and save her life. fall 2011

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FIL M PREVIEWS THUNDER SOUL

Director: Mark Landsman Presented by Jamie Foxx, Thunder Soul follows the extraordinary alumni from Houston’s storied Kashmere High School Stage Band, who return home after 35 years to play a tribute concert for the 92-year-old “Prof,” their beloved band leader who broke the color barrier and transformed the school’s struggling jazz band into a world-class funk powerhouse in the early 1970s.

TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY Director: Tomas Alfredson

The feature adaptation of John Le Carre's seminal cold war best-seller, the film is set in the aftermath of the cold war and tells the thrilling tale of a spy-hunt within the highest echelons of the British Secret Intelligence Service.

THE TREE

Director: Julie Bertuccelli In the wake of her husband’s sudden death, Dawn and her four children are left to make sense of life without their father and spouse. But when eight-yearold Simone becomes convinced that her father is living in the enormous fig tree that towers over their house, the prosaic and the supernatural meet amongst its leafy branches.

WHISTLEBLOWER

Director: Larysa Kondracki This raw and dizzying political thriller tells the story of a female Nebraska police officer turned peacekeeper who uncovers a disturbing sex-trafficking underworld in Bosnia and its shocking connection to the UN. As Kathryn Bolkavac (Rachel Weisz) feverishly works to expose the scandal, the UN does its utmost to keep her quiet.

THE WOMEN ON THE 6TH FLOOR Director: Philippe Le Guay

It’s Paris, 1960. The ever-marvelous Fabrice Luchini stars as wealthy stockbroker Jean-Louis Jouvert, who lives a staid bourgeois existence with his perfectly presented socialite wife. But when the family’s maid abandons them, into the residence comes Maria: young, hardworking, and – Spanish! It doesn’t take long for the building to become enchanted by the new arrival.

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Michelle Williams

Kenneth Branagh

Eddie Redmayne

Judi Dench

In the early summer of 1956, 23-year-old Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne), just down from Oxford and determined to make his way in the film business, worked as a lowly assistant on the set of “The Prince and the Showgirl” – the film that famously united Sir Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh) and Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams), who was also on honeymoon with her new husband, the playwright Arthur Miller (Dougray Scott).

Nearly 40 years on, his diary account The Prince, the Showgirl and Me was published, but one week was missing and this was published some years later as My Week With Marilyn – this is the story of that week. When Arthur Miller leaves England, the coast is clear for Colin to introduce Marilyn to some of the pleasures of British life; an idyllic week in which he escorted a Monroe desperate to get away from her retinue of Hollywood hangerson and the pressures of work.

www.myweekwithmarilynmovie.com

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ARTIST Hollywood 1927. George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) is a silent movie superstar.

The advent of the talkies will sound the death knell for his career and see him fall into oblivion.

For young extra Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo), it seems the sky’s the limit – major movie stardom awaits. “The Artist” tells the story of their interlinked destinies.

Jean Dujardin BEST ACTOR CANNES 2011

fall 2009 www.theartistmovie.net

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