DONATE
When: Wednesday evenings, January 18, February 1 & 22, March 14 & 28
Where: Westpark 8 Cinemas, 3735 Alton Parkway, Irvine
Time: Film at 7:00 p.m
Presented by screenwriter and psychologist Dr. Michael Berlin followed by a lively audience discussion
THE CONCERT— Wednesday, January 18
This French-made film is part farce, part Blues Brothers, and part heist genre. Andreï Filipov (Aleksei Guskov) is a once-acclaimed Russian orchestra conductor whose career was destroyed 30 years ago during the Brezhnev era. Now working as a janitor, he comes up with a scheme to reunite his old musician friends and travel to Paris and impersonate the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra. For deeply personal reasons, Andreï’s plan includes convincing the acclaimed French violinist Anne-Marie Jacquet (Mélanie Laurent, Inglourious Basterds) to play with his impostor orchestra. If they can overcome the hardships ahead, this very special concert will be a triumph indeed. (Russian and Hebrew with English subtitles)
NICKEY’S FAMILY— Wednesday, February 1
Nicky’s Family tells the story of Nicholas Winton, the nearly forgotten Englishman who organized the rescue of 669 Czech and Slovak children just before the outbreak of World War II. Winton, now 102 years old, did not speak of these events for more than half a century. His exploits would have been forgotten had not his wife, 50 years hence, discovered a suitcase in the attic filled with documents and transport plans. Winton has since been knighted by Queen Elizabeth and honored by the U.S. House of Representatives. Produced by the Czech and Slovak Republics, the film was named Best Documentary at the 2011 Montreal World Film Festival. (English)
THE DEBT — Wednesday, February 22
An American remake of a 2007 Israeli thriller, The Debt shuttles back and forth between a dim, creaky East Berlin apartment in 1965 and the sunshine of elite Tel Aviv a little more than 30 years later. The film examines how the truth of the past can be shaded and illuminated by the imperatives of the present, and it probes the ethical and psychological complications that can lie hidden beneath a story of simple heroism. Starring Helen Mirren, Jessica Chastain and Sam Worthington. (English)
SARAH’S KEY — Wednesday, March 14
Julia Jarmond, an American journalist married to a Frenchman, is commissioned to write an article about the notorious Vel d’Hiv round up, which took place in Paris, in 1942. She stumbles upon a family secret which will link her forever to the destiny of a young Jewish girl, Sarah. Julia learns that the apartment she and her husband Bertrand plan to move into was acquired by Bertrand’s family when its Jewish occupants were dispossessed and deported 60 years before. She resolves to find out what happened to the former occupants: Wladyslaw and Rywka Starzynski, parents of 10-year-old Sarah and four-year-old Michel. The more Julia discovers – especially about Sarah, the only member of the Starzynski family to survive – the more she uncovers about Bertrand’s family, about France and, finally, herself. (French and German with English subtitles)
MAHLER ON THE COUCH — Wednesday, March 28
In this delightful, artistically vigorous and occasionally loony fantasia about Vienna’s cultural elite 100 years ago, Gustav Mahler, the great Austrian composer and opera director, seeks out the one and only Sigmund Freud (owner of the couch) as Mahler is crazed over the betrayal of his wife, Alma, who has fallen for Walter Gropius, the architect who eventually will usher in modern architecture. A German-made who’s who of early 20th century Vienna. (German and French with English subtitles)
