No

Friday, June 28, 6:30 p.m.
Saturday, June 29, 2 p.m.
Sunday, June 30, 2 p.m.
R

A shrewd young advertising executive gets recruited to help free Chile from the grip of Dictator Augusto Pinochet in this historical drama set during a defining chapter in the nation’s history. The year is 1988. Pinochet has ruled Chile without challenge for nearly two decades, but all of this could soon change as the international community pressures the despot to hold a national election that will decide whether he retains his position for another eight years. Should the citizens vote “Yes,” Pinochet will remain in power; should they vote “No,” the country will elect a new leader. Though the population remains convinced that the election is fixed, the chance to enact change through peaceful means is too powerful to resist. In order to succeed, the opposition recruits bright young ad exec René Saavedra (Gael García Bernal) to create the daily, 15-minute television spots that will help to ensure a “No” vote. But Saavedra knows that if the citizens stay home during the elections the “Yes” vote will certainly win, and focuses as much on getting cynical Chileans to the polls as he does promising them a brighter future. Meanwhile Lucho Guzmán (Alfredo Castro), Saavedra’s intimidating counterpart on the “Yes” campaign, does everything in his power to shut down the “No” vote. With the fate of an entire nation hanging in the balance of the outcome, however, Saavedra braves intimidation and death threats in order to ensure his country will be freed from the grip of tyranny.

“Mr. Larraín’s attention to historical detail—the kind of sweaters worn by people on the left, the slang, the fearful atmosphere, his innovative use of archival footage—is a reason he won the top prize at the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival in May.” –The New York Times

Directed by Pablo Larraín, 2012
118 minutes
Official Site
Spanish with English subtitles

Safety Last

Friday, July 5, 6:30 p.m.
Saturday, July 6, 2 p.m.
Sunday, July 7, 2 p.m.
NR

After Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, the silent film era’s “third genius” was Harold Lloyd, who stars in this Horatio Alger-style story of an average country boy trying to make good in the big city. The Boy (Lloyd) leaves his sweetheart, The Girl (Mildred Davis, later the real-life Mrs. Lloyd) in Great Bend while he pursues his fortune in a teeming metropolis. The Boy lands a job as a clerk at a fabric counter of DeVore’s, a huge department store, but he lies in his letters home to his beloved, pretending to be the store’s manager and spending his earnings on lavish gifts. The Boy’s roommate, The Pal (Bill Strother) makes money as a “human fly,” performing attention-getting stunts. Promised $1,000 by DeVore’s real manager if he can devise a publicity gimmick, The Boy convinces his friend to climb the 12-story establishment and split the winnings with him. On the day of the event, however, The Pal is busy dodging The Law (Noah Young), forcing The Boy to make the arduous climb solo. Dodging a variety of obstacles, The Boy climbs higher and higher, eventually dangling from the store’s clock tower, in the film’s most memorable image.

“Needs to be seen on a big screen with a full house … Lloyd was no YouTube comic, but a master of timing who calibrated each shot to the laughter and gasps of a large public, building crescendos as surely as any great composer.” –The New York Times

Directed by Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor, 1923
67 minutes
Official Site

Hannah Arendt

Friday, July 12, 6:30 p.m.
Saturday, July 13, 2 p.m.
Sunday, July 14, 2 p.m.
NR

The sublime Barbara Sukowa and director Margarethe von Trotta (Vision, Rosa Luxemburg) team up again for a brilliant new biopic of influential German-Jewish philosopher and political theorist Hannah Arendt. Arendt’s reporting on the 1961 trial of ex-Nazi Adolf Eichmann in The New Yorker—controversial both for her portrayal of Eichmann and the Jewish councils—introduced her now-famous concept of the “Banality of Evil.” Using footage from the actual Eichmann trial and weaving a narrative that spans three countries, von Trotta beautifully turns the often invisible passion of thought into immersive, dramatic cinema.

“Its climax, in which Arendt defends herself against critics, matches some of the great courtroom scenes in cinema and provides a stirring reminder that the labor of figuring out the world is necessary, difficult and sometimes genuinely heroic.” –The New York Times

Directed by Margarethe von Trotta, 2012
110 minutes
Official Site

Renoir

Friday, July 19, 6:30 p.m.
Saturday, July 20, 2 p.m.
Sunday, July 21, 2 p.m. Friday, July 26, 6:30 p.m.
Saturday, July 27, 2 p.m.
Sunday, July 28, 2 p.m.    
R

Set on the French Riviera in the summer of 1915, Gilles Bourdos’ lushly atmospheric drama Renoir tells the story of celebrated Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, in declining health at age 74, and his middle son Jean, who returns home to convalesce after being wounded in World War I. The elder Renoir is filled with a new, wholly unexpected energy when a young girl miraculously enters his world. Blazing with life, radiantly beautiful, Andrée will become his last model, and the wellspring of a remarkable rejuvenation. At the same time, Jean also falls under the spell of the free-spirited young Andrée. Their beautiful home and majestic countryside grounds reverberate with familial intrigue, as both Renoirs, père et fils, become smitten with the enchanting and headstrong young muse. Renoir locates a fascinating moment of change, one century’s way of thinking giving way to the next, and the passing of the torch from a great painter to the great filmmaker of such classics as Grand Illusion and Rules of the Game.

“While watching the movie, you may surrender to that unabashedly sensual vision, celebrated in every shot of Les Collettes’ gorgeous, seething landscape of windblown trees, grass and streams that reflect what Renoir calls ‘the fury running through my nerves.’” –The New York Times

Directed by Gilles Bourdos, 2012
111 minutes
Official Site

All members at the Contributing ($140) level and above are invited to attend the Sunday, July 21 screening of Renior for free. Become a Contributing member, or upgrade today, and you can attend one free screening of PMA Movies per month.