OdeonPiazza Strozzi, 2tel. 055/295051www.cinehall.it, www.odeon.intoscana.itFor showtimes, see the events listing.
May 24DARK SHADOWSAn imprisoned vampire, Barnabas Collins, is set free and returns to his ancestral home, where his dysfunctional descendants are in need of his protection. Tim Burton’s version of the 1960s TV series is a gothic horror soap opera peopled with monsters, witches, vampires, zombies and other creatures of the night.
May 25, 26, 27, 30; June 1, 2, 3EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSEOskar is convinced that his father, who died in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, has left a final message for him hidden somewhere in the city. His trek through the five boroughs brings its own sort of understanding of the way things are. ‘Best of all, von Sydow is absolutely wonderful, with the great veteran actor clearly relishing this very unusual role as he darts, skulks and, in a stealthy way, mugs across town. Without saying a thing, he dominates the middle part of the movie’ (Hollywood Reporter).
May 28. 29, 31MIRROR, MIRRORTarsem Singh’s legendary style is brought to the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in a reworking that has not pleased everyone. ‘Here, the familiar tale is retold with concessions to feminist self-determination and camp humor, bending the Grimm Brothers’ tale without infringing on its basic beauty’ (Village Voice). ‘Mirror Mirror is a sumptuous fantasy for the eyes and a pinball game for the mind, as story elements collide and roll around bumping into each other’ (Roger Ebert).
May 29SHORT CUTSUsing the short stories of Raymond Carver as inspiration, Robert Altman revisits the formula of his 1975 film Nashville, portraying various interlocking stories set against the backdrop of contemporary middle-class Los Angeles.‘This definitive “life goes on” movie does what Altman does best: juggle 22 characters, deftly switch moods, and offer complex warts-and-all characters whose lives seem to extend beyond the screen. Few movies attempt this; Fewer succeed’ (USA Today). ‘A cynical, sexist and shallow work from cinema’s premier misanthrope, Robert Altman, who here shows neither compassion for-nor insight into-the human condition’ (Washington Post).
The British InstituteLungarno Guicciardini 9tel. 055/267781www.britishinstitute.itFor showtimes, see the events listing.
The series All Things Shining is a retrospective of legendary American director Terrence Malick, who, in a career spanning four decades, has made only five films.
May 30THE NEW WORLD (2005)‘Malick’s lustrous retelling of Pocahontas’ story. Yet again he proves himself one of America’s most remarkable filmmakers, with a blend of stirring historical drama and moving love story that’s not only wondrously beautiful down to every perfectly executed detail, but imaginatively poetic and philosophically profound … Drawing not only upon the transcendentalist ideas of Emerson, Thoreau and Heidegger but nineteenth century Romantic landscape painting and Wagner (‘Das Rheingold’ is several times used to stunning effect), Malick mixes meticulously researched ethnographic detail with a real awareness of the mythic scope of his material. Eliciting subtly nuanced performances from a carefully chosen cast-15-year-old Kilcher is especially effective-and stunning, effects-lite images from Emmanuel Lubezki, Malick gives us a genuine American epic, timeless and given what time saw befall that paradise-tragic’ (Time Out).
June 6THE TREE OF LIFE (2011)‘It is a magnificent, toweringly ambitious and visionary work-brilliantly shot by Emmanuel Lubezki, passionately felt, and deeply serious in its address to the audience. The Tree of Life is about the inner crisis of a tormented man in his middle years and the terrible unchangeability of the past. As this man briefly forces himself to consider his own negligible place in the universe, the film gestures at the unimaginable reaches of geological and stellar time, depicting nothing less than the origins of the cosmos and man himself in a colossal Kubrickian symphony of images’ (Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian). ‘As you may well have already deduced, Terrence Malick’s new hyper-reverie is an entirely unique launch into the present-moment film-culture ether-an ambitious Rorschach blot that is almost exactly as pretentious and unwittingly absurd as it is inspired, evocative and gorgeous’ (Sight and Sound).
