The Pitch (May 1 – 7)

There is one film you won’t by finding opening this Friday…

from on high, in the tallest tower of Disney castle, Mickey Mouse has bellowed forth a royal decree that whilst not permit any theatre to open Avengers: Age of Ultron on the break for any period shy of a full three-week commitment.

Well I hope Walt’s ice is shifting in his cryogenic slumber, because restrictions like this make it difficult indeed for a single-screen community theatre to survive. So my little Mouseketeers it is looking like a May 22nd or 29th Avengers romp at Chez Civic. But let us not remorse, for now we have the latest from Dreamworks Studio, Home, and are doing our best to bring you Mad Max: Fury Road in an apocalyptic event on its break May 15th, and of course, we always serve up the best in international and independent cinema on Thursdays.

When Oh, a loveable misfit from another planet, lands on Earth and finds himself on the run from his own people, he forms an unlikely friendship with an adventurous girl named Tip who is on a quest of her own. Through a series of comic adventures with Tip, Oh comes to understand that being different and making mistakes is all part of being human. And while he changes her planet and she changes his world, they discover the true meaning of the word HOME (rated G).

I first saw Juliette Binoche in the 1988 film The Unbearable Lightness of Being, starring alongside Daniel Day Lewis. A beautiful and powerful story set around the events leading up to the Prague Spring. Binoche, who was 23 at the time, was captivating and full of life. Now at 50, Binoche stars in The Clouds of Sils Maria (rated PG) playing an actress, Maria Enders, who at the peak of her international career, is asked to perform in a revival of the play that made her famous twenty years ago. But back then she played the role of Sigrid, an alluring young girl who disarms and eventually drives her boss Helena to suicide. Now she is being asked to step into the other role, that of the older Helena. She departs with her assistant to rehearse in Sils Maria; a remote region of the Alps. A young Hollywood starlet with a penchant for scandal is to take on the role of Sigrid, and maria finds herself on the other side of the mirror, face to face with an ambiguously charming woman who is, in essence, an unsettling reflection of herself.

The Clouds of Sils Maria, may be yet another great performance in a long career of great performances by Binoche, but it was the performance delivered from Kristen Stewart, best known for the Twilight Series, that blew critics away, winning her a César Award, national film awards for France, for best supporting actress.

Continuing the fight against Ultron and anyone else who gets in our way,
Your Civic Theatre.

Coming Soon: Monkey Kingdom, While We’re Young, Timbuktu

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