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--Spellbound & L'Auberge Espagnole
Spellbound
"Two thumbs up!"--Ebert & Roeper. "Irresistible! America at its best."--Los Angeles Times. "Wonderful!"-- Entertainment Weekly. "A work of art! More suspenseful than any Hollywood thriller."--The New York Times. "Captivating!"--Esquire. "Excellent!"--People. "Entertaining!"--New York Magazine. "Charming! Packed with nailbiting suspense."--Premiere Magazine. 97 min., Rated G. Friday at 7PM, Saturday at 7PM, Sunday at 2PM, Monday at 6:30PM, Tuesday at 6:30PM, Wednesday at 6:30PM, and Thursday at 8:30PM
L'Auberge Espagnole
Last Shows! "Two thumbs up!" Ebert & Roeper "Director Cedric Klapisch lets Xavier's year abroad unfold with the right wandering touch of pleasure, nostalgia and wistful exploration." Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly "A love letter to the erotic pleasure of Barcelona" David Denby, The New Yorker. "Blissfully funny, terrifically intelligent and tender when you least expect it to be." Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal. 122 min., Rated R. Friday at 9PM, Saturday at 9PM, Sunday at 4PM, Monday at 8:30PM, Tuesday at 8:30PM, Wednesday at 8:30PM, Thursday at 6:15PM
Coming Soon: Spellbound Opens Friday, August 1st
One of the best "sports" documentaries of the year, "Spellbound" follows eight young people as they race towards the top--and only--prize in the world's toughest, most unforgiving challenge--the National Spelling Bee. Spelling is, in its quaint and uniquely American way, the great equalizer--if you can spell, nothing else matters. By the same token, it is the only competition with absolutely no second chances--one misspelled word anywhere along the way, and you are gone. From Emily, hailing from the pampered suburbs of Connecticut, to Ashley, child of the projects in D.C.; from Ted, born of a poor farm family in Missouri, to Harry, the lovable spaz from New Jersey, all eight youngsters are drawn from the diversity of this country--with an assortment of anxious parents as well. It's a true cross-section of America rarely captured so well in film. Each of the children is given screen time enough to impress us, not just with their talent but with their personalities. In addition, a parade of interesting side characters--from the faithful teacher-mentor to past champions--flesh out the straightforward story of pressure and the razor-thin margin between triumph and failure. The timelessness of this tale and the skill and love evident in its making rank "Spellbound" as a classic. As the finals wear on and contestants start to fall, the audience's hearts will be in their throats. The contest is intense and merciless, and we feel the pressure right alongside the parents. Expect a few tears shed at the emotionally cathartic finale. This is a documentary that will involve you, these are kids you will love, this is a picture of America at its most American. It's a powerful reminder that our future is in our children--and that the kids are all right. "Two thumbs up!"—Ebert & Roeper. "Irresistible!"--Los Angeles Times. "Wonderful!"-- Entertainment Weekly. "A work of art! More suspenseful than any Hollywood thriller."--The New York Times. 97 min., Rated G.
L'Auberge Espagnole
L'Auberge Espagnole is being presented as part of our Lesbian Gay Film Series
Cedric Klapisch takes the old cliches of culture clash, college roommate chaos and a young adult's education outside the confines of the classroom and turns them into a vision of the new European Union as communal household. We open with Parisian economics major Xavier (Romain Duris) running like a rat in a bureaucratic maze. Klapisch plays it for cutesy laughs, a zippy time-lapse slapstick, but this is the world Xavier has created for himself. The play-it-safe student with the carefully ordered life is headed straight for a corporate future. He'd just as soon stay comfortably on home soil, but on the advice of a finance professional he takes a year of study in Barcelona to learn the language and the economy. He has no idea of the education that awaits him. Klapisch is less concerned with the big life lessons in Xavier's first year of independence than the ease at which he most unexpectedly finds himself. After crashing on the couch of a couple of French newlyweds -- a garrulous brain surgeon and his elegant but so-poised-she's-petrified wife Anne-Sophie (Judith Godreche, who moves as if she's made of glass) -- he interviews for a spot in a dumpy apartment filled with attractive, ebullient, comfortably co-existing college kids from all over Europe. The chaotic, crazy household is the opposite of everything he's ever lived, and he loves it. Where so many odd-couple-type movies make a big deal about overcoming differences, this community finds its balance with an easy effortlessness. It's only when sour notes sound -- Xavier's equally well-ordered girlfriend (Audrey Tautou), who finds it "a major drag," and a boorish visiting Brit who apparently learned cultural sensitivity from Monty Python -- that the harmonies become apparent. Klapisch doesn't make a big deal of any of it. As in his breakthrough film "When the Cat's Away," his strength lies in his warm portraits of community and family relations and the quiet insights of his characters. Xavier's odyssey is really a journey to a person he never knew he was. 122 minutes, Rated R.
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Source: Cinema Center Listserv