Friday, January  9
Special Screening
Tickets: $15, or $12 for members of Rivertown or Riverspace
6:00 PM to 7:00 PM, lobby reception with cash bar. 7:30 PM, screening.
Q&A with Ellen Kuras, Thavisouk Phrasavath,
and music composer Howard Shore, after the film

THE BETRAYAL (NERAKHOON)
Directed by Ellen Kuras
Co-directed by Thavisouk Phrasavath
USA, 2008, 96 minutes, documentary, in English and Lao with English subtitles, unrated
Official site

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Filmed over the course of 23 years, The Betrayal (Nerakhoon) presents the epic journey  of Thavisouk Phrasavath and his family from war-torn Laos to the hardships of immigrant life on the mean streets of New York. It is an astonishing tale of perseverance.  Director Ellen Kuras is a three-time best cinematography honoree at the Sundance Film Festival and an advisory board member of Rivertown Film.

“A work of visual art. Remarkable.” – A.O. Scott, The New York Times

“Lyrical, expansive, unbearably beautiful.” – David Edelstein, New York Magazine

“A moving, lyrical, 23-years-in-the-making epic of a Laotian family uprooted to the U.S in the aftermath of the Vietnam War—an impressive and original fusion of the political and the personal.” – David Ansen, Newsweek

“Ellen Kuras brings an affecting personal dimension to a sprawling sociopolitical narrative, intimately detailing how the agendas designed to advance the interests of nations can destroy individual lives.” – Scott Foundas, Variety

“Directed by the exceptional cinematographer Ellen Kuras, this decades-long story of how a Laotian family coped with life in the United States is both exquisitely beautiful and emotionally compelling.” – Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

Wednesday, January 14 – 1:00 PM and 7:30 PM
HAPPY-GO-LUCKY
Directed by Mike Leigh
With Sally Hawkins, Eddie Marsan, Alexis Zegerman
UK, 2008, 118 minutes, rated R for language
Official site

Poppy, a seemingly irrepressible and upbeat, glass-is-half-full Londoner, glides through her days determined not to let much get her down. Her quest for happiness is also a question of faith. As Poppy deals with the ups and downs in her life, including the verbal abuse inflicted upon her weekly by her rage-filled driving instructor Scott, a tender portrait of a very human being emerges.

A Screenwriters Perspective: Discussion after the film.

“As Poppy is tested (not just by Scott but by other intrusions of cruelty), we begin to see that this is not a life of whimsy but a design for living that’s deep and hard-won. Hawkins is so effervescent that after the film ended, I worried about her—it must have been sad to have to leave Poppy behind.” – David Edelstein, New York Magazine

“Won’t break your heart – it will make it soar.” – Ann Hornaday, Washington Post

“Leigh and his actors work mysterious magic in Happy-Go-Lucky. This is a movie about hitting the groove of everyday life and, nearly miraculously, getting music out of it.” – Stephanie Zacharck, Salon.com

“The London universe Leigh creates (employing his trademark improv techniques to unite his ensemble, many of whom make their film debuts) isn't so much a reality as a hope, and an invitation to find joy and grace in everyday moments.”  – Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly

“That's not to say that Leigh's earlier films, works like Life Is Sweet, Naked and the more recent Vera Drake and Secrets & Lies (both of which earned multiple Oscar nominations) were lacking in either humor or happiness. But no one with Poppy's particular kind of effervescent presence has been on offer in Leigh's world or, for that matter, anywhere. Played by Sally Hawkins in a performance that won the Silver Bear for best actress at the Berlin Film Festival, Poppy practically defines irrepressible.”
– Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

Wednesday, January  21 – 7:30 PM
A CHRISTMAS TALE
Directed by Arnaud Desplechin
With Catherine Deneuve, Jean-Paul Roussillon, Mathieu Amalric, Chiara Mastroianni
France, 2008, 150 minutes, in French with English subtitles, not rated
Official site

The reunion of a big, dysfunctional family is turned on its ear when the complicated Vuillard offspring and their assorted mates and children gather for Christmas, and are confronted by the gap between the things we do and the reasons we do them. An exhilarating exploration of failure and emotional warfare, which turn out to be synonymous with generosity and love.

“A movie that is almost indecently satisfying and at the same time elusive, at once intellectually lofty — marked by allusions to Emerson, Shakespeare and Seamus Heaney as well as Nietzsche — and as earthy as the passionate provincial family that is its heart and cosmos and reason for being.” – A.O. Scott, The New York Times

“What results is a captivating portrait of the most gorgeously fractious dysfunctional family. All the love and hostility, warmth and mistrust that inevitably flow from family functions is on display, as is the often maddening, always inexplicable complexity of the human nature we all share.” – Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

“Desplechin is an inspired impurist. His Christmas Tale is untidy, overstuffed and delicious: a genuine holiday feast.” – David Ansen, Newsweek

Wednesday, January 28 – 7:30 PM
A SECRET
Directed by Claude MillerClaude Miller
With Ludivine Sagnier, Cecile De France, Patrick Bruel, Mathieu Amalric
France, 2007, 110 minutes, in French with English subtitles, not rated
Official site

The gist of this true, haunting story of repression and family tragedy is that secrets are rarely singular. What’s hidden from sight and excluded from discussion tends to multiply.  Young François harbors discomfiting emotions while growing up in 1950s Paris. As the brutal circumstances that lead to his parents’ marriage and his birth are revealed, so are the mysteries of history and family life.

“Nearly every melodramatic impulse has been suppressed in favor of a calm precision that serves both to intensify and delay the emotional impact of the film’s climactic disclosures.” – A.O. Scott, The New York Times

“That Nazi evil was so pervasive and widespread has yielded, over the decades, a steady stream of splendid films illuminating the myriad aspects of the Holocaust and, in turn, the equally myriad facets of human nature. Adapted by the veteran French director Claude Miller from Philippe Grimbert’s autobiographical novel, A Secret is one of the finest.
A complex, subtle telling of how a French Jewish teenager, François (Quentin Dubuis), in 1955 learns how his parents, Hannah (Ludivine Sagnier) and Maxime (Patrick Bruel), survived the occupation, the film explores the ironic and tragic workings of fate and of human character. In this sense, A Secret is a harrowing and wrenching coming-of-age story in which François wrestles with the question of identity.” – Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times

“Beautifully acted and exquisitely photographed, director 's superb drama, from Philippe Grimbert's autobiographical novel, is awash with the ripples created by unlived lives.” – Jami Bernard, New York Daily News

Wednesday, February 4 – 7:30 PM
LET THE RIGHT ONE IN
Directed by Tomas Alfredson
With Kare Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson
Sweden, 2008, 114 minutes, in Swedish with English subtitles, rated R for blood and gore
Official site

A lonely 12-year-old boy’s wish for a friend comes true when a girl his age moves in next door. Though he realizes that she is a vampire, their friendship is stronger than his fear. Friendship, rejection and loyalty are woven together into a disturbing, darkly atmospheric, yet unexpectedly tender tableau of adolescence. 

“A spectacularly moving and elegant movie, and to dismiss it into genre-hood, to mentally stuff it into the horror pigeonhole, is to overlook a remarkable film.” – John Anderson, Washington Post

“A delightful mix of high and low: It’s a genuine genre vampire picture; and it’s Swedish, winter-lit, Bergmanesque.” – David Edelstein, New York Magazine

“An ingenious mixture of satire, dead-end suburban realism and gory vampire fantasy. At this point in the history of the vampire movie, you just hope for new twists on old themes rather than something completely original, but Let the Right One In, the discovery of this year's Tribeca festival, arrives in theaters as a terrific Halloween surprise.” – Andrew O’Hehir, Salon.com

“Sometimes there is more to gore than meets the eye. Sometimes, in fact, what looks on the surface like a horror movie proves to be something far more intriguing. One case in point is the mesmerizing Swedish vampire movie Let the Right One In.” – David Ansen, Newsweek

“The film is terrific. The screen version of Twilight may be the set of fangs everyone’s waiting for, at least among certain demographics, but I can’t imagine anyone older than 15, who cherishes vampire lore or not, failing to fall for this spectacularly assured, mournfully beautiful entertainment, one that mines an old myth for all sorts of insinuating new themes and variations.” – Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

Wednesday, February 11 – 7:30 PM
Black History Month screening
Sponsored by St. Thomas Aquinas College
MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA
Directed by Spike Lee
With Derek Luke, Laz Alonso, Omar Benson Miller, Michael Ealy
USA, 2008, 160 minutes, rated R for profanity, nudity and violence
Official site

A heartfelt answer to decades of films that erased African-American soldiers from World War II, and a poignant homage to their stories of personal sacrifices that were made to protect freedom. A filmmaker who often looks at relationships between blacks and between blacks and Italian Americans (for example, Do the Right Thing), here Lee tells the story of members of the all-black 92nd Division, caught behind enemy lines in Italy.

"Miracle at St. Anna contains richness, anger, history, sentiment, fantasy, reality, violence and life. Maybe too much. Better than too little. – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

“Lee can express more with a sweeping camera movement or an agitated edit than almost any other filmmaker working. One of the pleasures of Miracle is seeing a most imagistic filmmaker thinking visually.” – Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer

“A grounded, moving, human story. An earthy  inquiry into death, duty, friendship and honor. What we’ve always wanted from war movies.” – A.O. Scott, The New York Times

Wednesday, February 18 – 7:30 PM
Cosponsored by VCS Community Change Project,
Rockland Family Shelter, Rockland County Chapter of NOW
Meet the Filmmaker
HOUNDDOG
Directed by Deborah Kampmeier
With Dakota Fanning, Piper Laurie, David Morse, Robin Wright Penn
USA, 2008, 93 minutes, rated R for a disturbing sexual assault
Official site

A spirited young girl in 1950s rural Alabama struggles to rise above the repression that surrounds her. She finds comfort and safety, as well as a place to put her hurt and rage, in the music of Elvis Presley, but it will be her own voice that gives her the strength and courage to walk away from her past and into her future. Post-screening Q&A with the director.

“The movie is essentially an allegory—of subjugation and emancipation, of liberation through art… Fanning is a child actor with a grown-up soul, and every move, every breath, seems mysteriously right. Her Lewellen survives by going in and out of her shell, and when she’s out—at play, or bopping and singing—you’re torn between elation at her openness and the urge to cry out a warning.” – David Edelstein, New York Magazine

“The discovery here is the remarkable Dakota Fanning, opening the next stage in her career and doing it bravely, with presence, confidence and high spirits.” – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Wednesday, February  25 – 1:00 PM and 7:30 PM
I’VE LOVED YOU SO LONG
Directed by Philippe Claudel
With Kristin Scott Thomas, Elsa Zylberstein
France, 2008, 115 minutes, in French with English subtitles, rated R
Official site

For 15 years, Juliette has had no ties with her family who had rejected her. Although life once violently separated them, Lea, her younger sister, takes her into the home that she shares with her husband Luc, Luc’s father, and their two daughters.

“I've Loved You So Long is the kind of film America's moviemakers have all but given up on. An example of the French tradition of high-quality adult melodrama, conventional in technique but not story, this thoughtful, provocative film is slow developing because it's all about character, about the tricky, fragile relationships that make us human; about, if you really want to get down to it, the reclamation of a soul.” – Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

“In an entirely believable and matter-of-fact way, Mr. Claudel’s film makes a case for the psychological and ethical necessity of art.” – A.O. Scott, The New York Times

“Philippe Claudel’s direction is both probing and delicate, and Scott Thomas’s face, even immobile, keeps you watching, searching for hints of her character’s past, unable to blink for fear of missing something vital.” – David Edelstein, New York Magazine

“Subtle and smart. Kristen Scott Thomas is absolute perfection.” – Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal