The Pitch (Dec. 11 – 17)

December 8, 2015
Alex Magnin
Events, Pitch

Some quality Thursday fare beyond Thursday before the dark side of the Force takes over the Civic screen for four-weeks.

Of course, we are super excited to be bringing in the much anticipated new Star Wars film, The Force Awakens on its release date, but what we aren’t so excited about is the 4-week commitment, where we can’t play anything else. In preparation for this content black out from Dec. 18 – Jan. 14, we are splitting two Thursday style films over the Oct. 11th weekend/Tuesday run as well Thursday for our film art enthusiasts.

The Golden Globe nominations are being released bright and early on Thursday, Dec. 10 at 5am our time, and this weekend’s films are sure to be among them. Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston plays top Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo (rated PG) who along with other artists were jailed and blacklisted for their political beliefs. With an all-star cast, including Helen Mirrin, Dianne Lane and John Goodman, Trumbo takes on Hollywood’s dark past. Of his character, Cranston told the CBC at the film’s premiere at TIFF “Trumbo was just a crazy, odd, complex, weird man but true to his word, you didn’t question what he felt or what he meant. You knew how he felt and how he meant. You will not be bored by Dalton Trumbo.”

As for other not boring personages of the Thursday variety, the mothers, the daughters, the rebels of the Suffragette (rated PG) movement in early 20th-century Britain storm The Civic screen. The life of working wife and mother Maud Watts (Carey Mulligan) is forever change when she joins a diverse group of women who fight for equality and the right to vote, galvanized by political activist Emmeline Pankhurst (Meryl Streep). Faced with increasing police action, Maud and her dedicated suffragettes must play a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse, risking their jobs, homes, family and lives for a just cause.

And just to make sure we can cram as much art and culture inside the week, The Civic presents another screen presentation of live dance from the Royal Ballet. Viscera / Afternoon of a Faun / Tchaikovsky Pas de deux / Carmen, A new narrative work from acclaimed dancer Carlos Acosta features brilliant short ballets by Liam Scarlett, Jerome Robbins and George Balanchine.

And finally the actual Thursday film. As we have already serviced, twice, the standard Thursday tastes, we would like to present another, more adventurous, distinctly Canadian, course in a our gastronomic weekly menu. For those already accustomed to the mind of Guy Maddin, (My Winnipeg, The Saddest Music in the World, Tales From Gimli Hospital etc), you have an idea of the depth he traverses the subconscious via a pallet of breathtaking film language and style that transforms the early silent film era into a cabinet, not unlike that of Dr. Caligari, that is a living thing continuously churning out bizarre images that haunt our Canadian psyche. A never-before-seen woodsman mysteriously appears aboard a submarine that’s been trapped deep under water for months with an unstable cargo. As the terrified crew make their way through the corridors of the doomed vessel, they find themselves on a voyage into the origins of their darkest fears. Playing like some glorious meeting between Italo Calvino, Sergei Eisenstein and a perverted six year-old child, The Forbidden Room (rated PG) is Maddin’s grand ode to lost cinema. Co-directed by Maddin’s long-time collaborator Evan Johnson and created with the help of master poet John Ashberry, the film features Mathieu Amalric, Udo Kier, Charlotte Rampling, Geraldine Chaplin, Roy Dupuis, Clara Furey, Louis Negin, Maria de Medeiros, Jacques Nolot, Adèle Haenel, Amira Casar & Elina Löwensohn as a cavalcade of misfits, thieves and lovers, all joined in the joyful delirium of the kaleidoscopic viewing experience.

Coming next: Star Wars: The Force Awakens

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