Once again, I’m kicking things off with films from the vault at the ByTowne and the Mayfair.
I’m delighted to remind you that the ByTowne series of Hayao Miyazaki’s films continues now into June. Miyazaki’s most recent artistic coup was winning the Best Animated Feature Oscar for The Boy and the Heron.
First up, possibly his most beloved film—My Neighbor Totoro. This enchanting, ravishingly beautiful film is about two little girls who have moved with their father into the country to be nearer to their mother, who is in a sanatorium. The girls are enchanted with the ramshackle old house they’ve moved into, and even more enthralled when they discover the wondrous beings in the neighbouring forest, including the gentle giant Totoro. A must-see!
Next is Ponyo, a sweet tale suitable for anyone from five to 95 years old. A magical goldfish named Ponyo yearns to become human so she can join her new friend, a five-year-old boy named Sosuke. Of course, magic happens! This is the kind of animation for the young that puts anything by Disney in the shade.
Last in the ByTowne’s Miyazaki series this month is Howl’s Moving Castle, The film has all sorts of magnificent magic—a handsome sorcerer who can fly, a powerful vengeful witch, a young mortal woman who is turned into a 90-year-old crone, and of course the eponymous phantasmagorical castle on giant chicken legs!
Over at the Mayfair, there are three do-not-miss films! First is my favourite film by the Coen brothers (and one of my favourite films ever!)—The Big Lebowski. An opportunity to see this weird and wonderful classic as it should be seen—in an enthusiastic audience. The Dude abides!
Next, there’s my favourite Quentin Tarantino flick: Pulp Fiction. Is this the best work John Travolta, Samuel Jackson, Bruce Willis and Uma Thurman have ever done? Maybe. But I bet it’s the most fun they’ve ever had making a film.
And there’s a fundraiser screening of The Wizard of Oz for choral group Caelis Academy Ensemble. Naturally, it’s a sing-along featuring singers from the choir and you, the audience. Costumes are encouraged! Get out your ruby slippers and take the Yellow Brick Road to the Mayfair!
Back at the ByTowne, their Sunday Afternoon Classic this month is a delightful Ealing Studio comedy, The Lavender Hill Mob, starring Alec Guinness as a mild-mannered bank employee who engineers a big gold bullion heist.
For serious cineastes, there’s a restoration of Andrei Tarkovsky’s rarely screened Nostalghia. The reviewer Josh Larsen said, “Nostalghia is further evidence that Andrei Tarkovsky might not be a filmmaker but a sorcerer.”
Now let’s look at the new releases. All are at the ByTowne.
As my readers know, I’m a fan of Iranian films, so I’m recommending Terrestrial Verses. A series of vignettes portray Iranian society’s absurd cultural, religious and institutional structures and their effect on ordinary citizens.
From France, a documentary whose trailer always makes me smile: Sur l’Adamant (On the Adamant) invites us onto a large boat that’s permanently moored on the Seine in the heart of Paris. It’s a refuge for adults suffering from mental health disorders where they can find stability, community, hope and even joy.
Moving to the notorious Cabrini Green “project” in Chicago in 1992, in We Grown Now we meet two best friends–Malik and Eric–whose childish exuberance is being crushed by the tough environment they live in.
There are also three new Canadian films for your consideration.
The taut drama I Don’t Know Who You Are is screening for one night only, followed by a panel discussion. After he is sexually assaulted, Benjamin (Mark Clennon) must find the money for HIV-preventive treatment within the 72 hours when it’s most effective. He spends a frantic weekend approaching his so-called friends in Toronto, to little avail. Barry Hertz in the Globe and Mail lavished praise on the film and said it deserves to make Clennon a star.
From Quebec, On Earth As It Is In Heaven (Sur La Terre Comme au Ciel) is a drama about a different kind of outsider. Teenage sisters, Clara and Sarah, live with their parents in an evangelical Christian group in the country. When Sarah disappears, Clara runs away to Montreal to find her and bring her home. Needless to say, Sarah is the classic “fish out of water” as she discovers a world she’d never imagined existed.
The third Canadian film–The Movie Man–is a documentary about a unique man, Keith Stata. Starting with a single-screen cinema in the Ontario “cottage country” village of Kinmount, Stata built a multiplex (four screens!) and cinema memorabilia museum. After 40 years in the cinema business, he has to face the fact that, due to the pandemic, changing viewing habits and his dwindling health, he can’t continue. For everyone who has ever come out of a cinema elated with the experience they’ve just had, this film is for you!
Last on my list is a documentary, Occupied City, which has been receiving a lot of positive reviews. It’s from the acclaimed British director Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave) and is based on his wife’s book, Atlas of an Occupied City, Amsterdam 1940-1945. McQueen combines harrowing details about the Nazi Occupation at sites all over Amsterdam with details of the city’s pandemic years. This long (266 minutes) meditation on memory and time is said to be both devastating and life-affirming. At the ByTowne for one night only.
See you at the movies!
Dates, times and tickets for the ByTowne are at www.bytowne.ca. The ByTowne publishes its calendar at least three weeks in advance. Dates, times and tickets for the Mayfair are at www.mayfairtheatre.ca. The Mayfair usually publishes the coming week’s schedule midweek and adds to their “coming soon” list, so check their website and emails for the latest updates.
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