July 1, 2005

Traverse City Flim Festival Schedule

The Assassination of Richard Nixon
      Directed by Niels Mueller
      USA-Mexico, drama, 2004, Rated R, 95 minutes
      Sean Penn as Sam is down on his luck. He refuses to accept his marriage is over. He can't hold down a job. No one understands. So, Sam comes up with a plan. A good one. Now all he needs is a plane. (Loosely based on the actions of real person, Sam Byck, 1974.)
     
The Ax
      From Academy Award winning director Costa-Gavras
      France, comedy, 2005, Not Rated, 122 minutes
      The paper mill where Bruno (Jose Garcia) works merges, and he gets the proverbial ax. Two years later, Bruno is still unemployed. When the perfect job opens up, Bruno decides to do his own "downsizing," systematically eliminating his competition.
     
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
      Directed and written by Sijie Dai
      France-China, biography, 2002, Not Rated, 110 minutes
      In the early 1970s during China's Cultural Revolution, two young men get sent to a remote mountain commune for "re-education." They meet a simple, beautiful village girl who can't read or write, and set out to educate her using a box of banned French novels.
     
The Baxter
      Directed and written by Michael Showalter
      USA, comedy, 2005, PG-13, 91 minutes
      You're at the altar with your bride-to-be (Elizabeth Banks). The church door bursts open. Her ex-beau (Justin Theroux) runs down the aisle, professing his love. She races into his arms. Everyone cheers wildly, including your own parents and your gay wedding planner. You're a "Baxter," a loser, the guy who never gets the girl - especially if you let the perfect girl (Dawson Creek's Michelle Williams) drive away.
     
Broken Flowers
      Written and directed by Jim Jarmusch
      USA, comedy, 2005, Not Rated, 105 minutes
      An anonymous pink letter propels perennial ladies' man Don (Bill Murray) on a cross-country trip in search of a son he possibly fathered. Aided by amateur sleuth Winston (Jeffrey Wright), Don becomes a "stalker in a Taurus," surprising a string of old lovers (Sharon Stone, Frances Conway, Jessica Lange and Tilda Swinton) in order to find the letter's mysterious author.
     
Czech Dream
      Directed and written by Vit Klusak and Filip Remunda
      Czech Republic. documentary, 2004, Not Rated, 90 minutes
      Two young filmmakers lure 4,000 would-be customers to an empty field under the guise of enticing them to the grand opening of "The Czech Dream Hypermarket."

Downfall
      Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel
      Germany-Italy, drama, 2004, Rated R,156 minutes
      Nominee Best Foreign Language film 2005 Academy Awards
      A film about the final days in Hitler's Berlin bunker, with Bruno Ganz as Hitler in this story as told by stenographer Traudi Junge (Alexandra Maria Lara).
     
The Edukators
      Directed by Hans Weingartner
      Germany, drama, 2004, Rated R, 127 minutes
      You arrive at your beautiful home in your expensive car. As you walk inside, you notice all your furniture has been piled artistically in the middle of the floor. Everything's been moved. Yet nothing's been destroyed or stolen. The Edukators have come to call.
     
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
      Directed and written by Alex Gibney
      USA, documentary, 2005, Not Rated, 110 minutes
      Enron captures the story of how arrogance and immorality transformed a stable natural gas company into a national symbol of corporate greed.
     
A Good Woman
      Directed by Mike Barker
      International, comedy, 2004, Rated PG, 93 minutes
      Seduction leads to scandal on the Amalfi Coast in the decadent 1930s. Golden couple Meg and Robert Windermere (Scarlett Johansson, Mark Umbers) relax and enjoy the views. Then seductress Mrs. Erlynne (Helen Hunt) arrives and immediately sets her gold-digging sights on Robert. But not to worry, the devastated Meg has several suitors (Tom Wilkinson, Stephen Campbell Moore) more than ready to help her move on.
     
Grizzly Man
      Directed by Werner Herzog
      USA, documentary, 2005, Rated R, 103 minutes
      The great German filmmaker explores the boundary between prey and predator in his documentary about amateur grizzly enthusiast Timothy Treadwell. From an Alaskan wilderness camp, Treadwell shot over 100 hours of film, which Herzog incorporated into this tale leading to the horrific deaths of Treadwell and girlfriend Amie Huguenard by one of the very creatures he loved too well.

Gunner Palace
      Directed by Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker
      USA, documentary, Rated PG-13, 85 minutes
      Iraq. U.S. soldiers: a.k.a. "The Gunners" - 400 of them live in the most volatile section of Baghdad. Their barracks: Uday Hussein's bombed-out pleasure palace. Filmmaker Tucker lived two months with "The Gunners" and with unlimited access, shows their day-to-day lives: executing raids, dodging roadside bombs, swimming in the palace pool or putting on the palace green.
     
Home of the Brave
      Directed by Paola di Florio
      USA, documentary, 2004, Not Rated, 75 minutes
      In 1965, Detroiter Viola Gregg Liuzzo, 39-year-old mother of five and wife of a Teamster boss, traveled to Montgomery, Alabama to participate in a Voters' Rights March. She was brutally murdered. The accused KKK members were acquitted. Di Florio re-examines the events that led up to her death, exposes the FBI's role and introduces us to her family, who still want answers - after 40 years.
     
Human Resources
      Directed by Laurent Cantet
      France, drama, 1999, Not Rated, 100 minutes
      Frank (Jalil Lespert) returns to his hometown after graduating from business school. He's hired as a management trainee at the same factory where his father (Jean-Claude Vallod) has worked for 30 years. Young Frank's plan to get input from the workers jeopardizes jobs in this class-conscious drama.
     
Italian for Beginners
      Directed by Lone Scherfig (uncredited)
      Denmark-Sweden, comedy, 2000, Rated R, 118 minutes
      A pastry chef, a hotel manager, a hairdresser, a restaurant manager, a pastor and a hotel cook - all strangers - sign up for an Italian class at the local community center. When their teacher unexpectedly "departs," the class becomes its own teacher, redefining the words family and romance.
     
Land of Plenty
      Directed by Wim Wenders
      USA-Germany, drama, 2004, not rated, 123 minutes
      Security-obsessed vigilante Paul (John Diehl) has a cause. A former Green Beret, Paul drives around downtown L.A. anxiously looking for terrorists, collecting evidence and talking on a headset. Back after 10 years abroad, Lana (Michelle Williams) also has a cause and takes a job at a homeless shelter.
     
Les Miserables
      Directed by Claude Lelouch
      France, drama, 1995, Rated R, 175 minutes
      Rich Jewish lawyer Ziman and family flee Nazi-occupied France with help of illiterate ex-boxer Henri Fortin (Jean Paul Belmondo) and his truck. On the run, the Zimans read aloud from Victor Hugo's 1862 novel. Similarities between their situation and the book's are poignant and immediate.
     
Mad Hot Ballroom
      Directed by Marilyn Agrelo
      USA, documentary, 2005, Rated PG, 105 minutes
      "Spellbound" meets "Strictly Ballroom" in one energetic parable about life, learning and dancing. Set in the world of a New York City ballroom dancing competition, it follows fifth graders from different boroughs and ethnic backgrounds as they learn to rumba, tango, foxtrot and swing.
     
Me and You and Everyone We Know
      Directed and written by Miranda July
      USA-UK, drama, 2005, Rated R, 90 minutes
      Christine (Miranda July) and her whimsical community of oddballs live in a world where life is magical, love is possible, and the art world is aloof.
     
Mondovino
      Directed and written by Jonathan Nossiter
      International, documentary, 2004, Rated PG-13, 135 minutes
      "Le vin est mort," declares wine grower Aime Grubert: "Wine is dead!" This funny documentary about the globalization of the wine industry and the homogenization of wine travels from Napa Valley to France, Italy and South America.
     
My Summer of Love
      Directed by Paul Pavlikovsky
      United Kingdom, drama, 2004, Rated R, 86 minutes
      It's a hot summer in Yorkshire. Mona (Nathalie Press) is a working class teen living with her overly-protective "born again" brother Phil (Paddy Considine). Tamsin is the rich teenager living at her family's country home after being suspended from school. Mona and Tamsin meet, become fast friends and then they fall in love.
     
11 de Septembre
      Directed by Youssef Chahine, Egypt; Amos Gitai, Israel; Alejandro Gonz lez I¤ rritu, Mexico; Shohei Imamura, Japan; Claude Lelouch, France; Ken Loach, UK; Samira Makhmalbaf, Iran; Mira Nair, India; Idrissa Ouedraogo, Burkina Faso; Sean Penn, USA; Danis Tanovic, Bosnia
      International, compilation, 2002, Not Rated, 134 minutes
      One film, 11 directors and 11 reactions. Ranking directors from around the world were each asked to make a film 11 minutes/9 seconds/1 frame long giving perspective to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. These diverse and personal shorts range from emotional to political.
     
The Talent Given Us
      Directed and written by Andrew Wagner
      USA, comedy-drama, 2004, Not Rated, 98 minutes
      70-year-olds, Judy and Allen, and their two daughters drive from New York to L.A. to see their loner son. But there's a catch. (Made for $30,000 with a two-man crew.)
     
Tarnation
      Directed and written by Jonathan Caouette
      USA, documentary, 2003, Not Rated, 88 minutes
      Created on an iMac, "Tarnation" is MTV meets masterpiece as Caouette documents his mother's battle with schizophrenia. Collecting material since he was 11 years old, he uses a multi-media palette of home movies, interviews, audio tapes and music to paint an edgy, honest portrait.
     
Time Out
      Directed by Laurent Cantet
      France, drama, 2002, Rated PG-13, 128 minutes
      Afraid to tell his family he's been fired, Vincent (Aurelian Recoing) pretends to head off to work each day. When questioned, Vincent tells his suspicious family about his new job with a UN agency. But he needs money to keep his pretense going, so he gets friends to invest in a phony company. Then someone who can use a man like Vincent recognizes him for what he is.
     
The Woodsman
      Directed by Nicole Kassell
      USA, drama, 2005, Rated R, 87 minutes
      Kevin Bacon plays Walter, a pedophile returning to Philadelphia after serving a 12-year prison term who fights doubts about himself and his ability to control his lingering desires.
     
At the Open Space: Free Films on the Bay
      Jaws
      Princess Bride
      Ferris Bueller's Day Off
      Casablanca