Archive for the ‘Monthly Films’ Category

Perfect Days

Wed April 24th at 4:00pm and 7:00pm

Perfect Days is a 2023 co-production between Japan and Germany, directed by Wim Wenders. This Oscar-nominated Japanese drama gently excavates the life of a toilet cleaner, and the shadows that lurk inside.

The film competed for the Palme d’Or at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, where it premiered on 25 May and won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury and the Best Actor Award for Koji Yakusho. It was nominated for the Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards, becoming the first film not directed by a Japanese filmmaker to be nominated as the Japanese entry.

Directed by Wim Wenders

Written by Takuma Takasaki and Wim Wenders

Starring Koji Yakusho

Review: Time Magazine

“The more complex and threatening the greater world seems, the more we seek to patrol the borders of our own lives. If you spend any time at all on social media, or even if you don’t, you might feel as if you’re doing modern life all wrong if you’re not decluttering your house, editing your closet down to a single beige capsule, carving out meditation time in the middle of a stressful day. The pressure to live simply is almost unbearable.

The antidote is Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days, a movie as transcendent as a zephyr. The extraordinary Japanese actor Koji Yakusho plays Hirayama, whose life, it may seem at first, is defined by his job: he cleans public toilets in Tokyo, and every day he zips himself into a blue jumpsuit (The Tokyo Toilet is emblazoned across the back, jaunty as the name of a sports team), retrieves his keys and flip phone from a narrow shelf in the entryway of his compact apartment, and drives through the city making his rounds. To New Yorkers, in particular, the toilet facilities under Hirayama’s purview probably look pretty clean to begin with. Even so, he polishes mirrors to a sterling gleam, wipes down faucets and levers with care, and inspects a toilet’s underside with a small mirror to ensure he’s scrubbed every inch of it…”

The Monk and the Gun

April 3rd at 4:00pm and 7:00pm

An American who travels into Bhutan in search of a treasure crosses paths with a young monk who wanders through the serene mountains, instructed by his teacher to make things right again.

REVIEW

The Monk and the Gun Review: Bhutan’s Terrific Oscar Contender Offers Sly Critique of Western Influence

‘Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom’ director Pawo Choyning Dorji is back, using the first elections in one of the world’s youngest democracies to comment on what is lost as his country modernizes.

What would a monk want with a gun? Bringing wisdom and a streak of wry humor to his Bhutan-set sophomore feature, The Monk and the Gun, director Pawo Choyning Dorji teases any number of possible answers to that question over the course of a droll, shrewdly satirical fable, in which Western values crash against a seemingly intransigent (but potentially more enlightened) South Asian culture.

A gifted storyteller who keeps audiences guessing about his characters’ motives until the surprising moment everything comes together, Dorji was born in Bhutan, but attended university in Wisconsin. That uncommon mix of influences gives him a unique perspective on both his home country and the way the sparsely populated, slow-to-modernize kingdom is perceived by the outside world (Bhutan was basically the last corner of the world to get internet access). The director’s natural human-interest sensibility earned devoted fans and an unexpected Oscar nomination for his appealing 2019 debut, Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom.

2023-2024 Season

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The Lunenburg County Film Series is at the Bridgewater Cineplex.  More information about Seasons Passes shortly, or pay cash at the door. Ticket prices are $8.
Fall 2023 confirmed dates (all films are shown at 4:00 and 7:00pm)
Sept 6 – 4:00pm and 7:00pm – THE MIRACLE CLUB
Oct 4 – 4:00pm and 7:00pm – DALILAND
Nov 1 – 4:00pm and 7:00pm – BONES OF CROWS
Dec 6 – 4:00pm and 7:00pm – DRIVING MADELEINE
Jan 24 – 4:00pm and 7:00pm – FALLEN LEAVES
Feb 7 – 4:00pm and 7:00pm – ANATOMY OF A FALL
Feb 21 – 4:00pm and 7:00pm – MONSTER
Mar 6 – 4:00pm and 7:00pm – Flora and Son
Apr 3 – 4:00pm and 7:00pm – The Monk and the Gun
Apr 24 – 4:00pm and 7:00pm – Perfect Days