Director: Frederick Wiseman
Cast: The Paris Opera Ballet

"One of the finest dance films ever made. A feast for ballet lovers. Sumptuous in its length and graceful in its rhythm. Transfixes you with the inner workings of an institution.” - A.O. Scott, The New York Times 

Documentary master Frederick Wiseman’s 38th film turns his attention to one of the world’s greatest ballet companies, the Paris Opera Ballet. LA DANSE is a profile of all aspects of the ballet company, and shows how a ballet company functions from administration, technical support, and classes, to the rehearsal and/or performance of seven ballets: Paquita, The Nutcracker, Genus, Medea, The House of Bernarda Alba, Romeo and Juliet, and Orpheus and Eurydyce.  Featuring one of France's principal cultural institutions, the film looks at impossibly beautiful young men and women — among them Nicolas Le Riche, Marie-Agnès Gillot, and Agnès Letestu — rehearsing choreography, and offers breathtaking shots of the vast Palais Garnier. For balletomanes and the curious alike, LA DANSE serves up a scrumptious meal of delectable moments, one more glorious than the next, made even more precious by their ephemeral nature.

RATED NR

Official Site

Director: Michael Hoffman
Cast: Christopher Plummer, Helen Mirren, James McAvoy, Paul Giamatti, Anne-Marrie Duff
 
"The incomparable Helen Mirren is simply astounding. Christopher Plummer is her match. The sight of these two acting giants going at each other is a pure rowdy pleasure." - Rolling Stone

In 1910, famed novelist Leo Tolstoy (Christopher Plummer) and his wife Sofya (Helen Mirren) vehemently disagree over the rights to Tolstoy's literary legacy. Sofya believes her husband should bequeath them to her upon his death, while Tolstoy's chief disciple, Chertkov (Paul Giamatti), has nearly convinced the writer to sign the rights over to the Russian people. To this end, Chertkov inserts a spy into Tolstoy's household, who promptly falls for one of the novelist's daughters.

RATED R

Official Site

Director: Michael Haneke
Cast:  Leonie Benesch, Josef Bierbichler, Rainer Bock, Christian Friedel, Burghart Klaußner

Golden Globes Winner for Best Foreign Language Film!

“The White Ribbon is an unholy masterpiece. ★★★★★” - Evening Standard

“This grippingly sinister tale of an imploding family on the eve of the First World War is Michael Haneke's  best film yet. ★★★★★” - Telegraph
 
In a village in Protestant northern Germany on the eve of World War I, children and teenagers of a choir run by the village schoolteacher, and their families experience strange accidents that gradually take on the character of a punishment ritual. Who is behind it all? The schoolteacher observes, investigates, and little by little discovers the incredible truth. 

RATED R

Official Site

Director: Aaron Aites
Cast: Gylve "Fenriz" Nagell, Varg "Count Grishnackh" Vikernes, Jan Axel "Hellhammer" Blomberg, Kjetil "Frost" Haraldstad, Olve "Abbath" Eikemo, Harald "Demonaz" Naevdal, Harmony Korine, Bjarne Melgaard, Kristoffer "Garm" Rygg, Bard "Faust" Eithun

"Both enlightening and entertaining." - Decibel Magazine

"Morbidly fascinating..." - Variety

This documentary takes a fascinating look at the underground anti-consumerist metal scene that gained popularity in Norway in the 1990s. Led by the messages of bands from the black metal scene, members of the movement eventually followed alleged leader Varg Vikernes to commit such violent acts as burning churches all over the country. Encouraged by fabricated accounts of outlandish and even supernatural activity, members of the movement eventually turned fiction into reality, creating a firestorm of controversy and bringing the stuff of urban legends into the history books.

RATED NR

Official Site

Director: Andrea Arnold
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Griffiths, Katie Jarvis, Sydney Mary Nash, Harry Treadaway

"Powerful and poignant. The best British film of the year." - Total Film

A mother and daughter find themselves locked in an ugly battle over the same man in this drama from writer and director Andrea Arnold. Mia Williams (Katie Jarvis) is 15 years old and lives in a shabby apartment block with her mother, Joanne (Kierston Wareing), and younger sister, Tyler (Rebecca Griffiths). Mia is a reckless and rebellious teenager who frequently argues with her mother and sister and has run afoul of the authorities at school, leading to her being suspended. With plenty of time on her hands, Mia spends her days drinking when she can find alcohol and partying in a empty flat near her apartment. Joanne is a single mother, and she's begun dating a new man, Connor (Michael Fassbender); when Joanne brings him home to meet the girls, Mia is immediately attracted to him, and it's soon clear Connor feels the same way about her. Mia attempts to seduce Connor to take him away from her mother, and when she succeeds, Joanne's greatest anger is not with the man who has slept with her underaged daughter, but the girl who is now a rival for the affections of her lover. Fish Tank was an official selection at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.

RATED NR

Official Site

Director: Cherien Dabis
Cast: Nisreen Faour, Melkar Muallem, Hiam Abbass, Yussuf Abu-Warda, Alia Shawkat
 
"The film brings humor and warmth to the story of the Palestinian mother and son's rocky adjustment to life in America..." - Filmmaker

Muna (Nisreen Faour), a divorced Palestinian woman, leaves the West Bank with Fadi (Melkar Muallem), her teenaged son, to the city of Illinois. Both mother and son hope to start a new life in America but go through a difficult transition. Fadi must adapt to the hallways and classrooms of his new high school. And Muna must keep up with the pace cooking hamburgers at a local White Castle.

RATED PG-13

Official Site

Director: Phil Grabsky
Cast: Juliet Stevenson, David P. Dawson, Ronald Brautigam, Roger Norrington, Bayan Northcott
 
"It was so terrific I wept..." - The Mail on Sunday

Juliet Stevenson (Truly, Madly, Deeply) narrates this straightforward documentary account of the life of composer Ludwig von Beethoven, covering all the major highlights from his birth in 1770 through his death in 1827. Writer-director Phil Grabsky skirts around the option of dramatic period reenactments, and instead opts for an impressionistic approach. He builds much of the film around the basic foundational material of interviews and studio performances of the great man's work by artists including Ronald Brautigam, Emanuel Ax, and The Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Grabsky also offsets Stevenson's traditional chronicle of Beethoven's life with letters from the composer, read by David Dawson, that unveil an intense and almost belligerent side to the musical giant, leavened with offbeat humor.

RATED NR

Official Site