ODEON Cinema
piazza Strozzi 2, tel. 055/295051
Florence Korea Film FestUntil March 30
More than just a cinematic event, the Florence Korea Film Fest explores all aspects of Korean culture. Beyond the many movies worth catching, this week in particular is packed with exciting concurrent events: Caffe Florian is putting on ‘Florian Korean’ fun, including aperitivi with director Shim Sung-bo (7.30pm, March 28) and producer Lee Joon-dong (7pm, March 29). Le Murate is also hosting a New Media Art exhibition, organized in collaboration with the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea. To view the full program of events and film screenings, see the festival website.
March 9–13
INHERENT VICE
Paul Thomas Anderson’s adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s 2009 psychedelic-noirish novel. In 1970, drug-fuelled Los Angeles detective Larry “Doc” Sportello, reunited with his ex-girlfriend suddenly appearing out of nowhere, investigates a plot to kidnap a billionaire in a bizarre tangle of motives and passions. ‘Unfolds so organically, so gracefully and with such humanistic grace notes that even at its most preposterous, viewers will find themselves nodding along, sharing the buzz the filmmaker has so skillfully created’ (Washington Post). ‘Well-acted, intermittently compelling, often incoherent but always offbeat, Inherent Vice is a twisting story about twisted California stoners. Think of it as a film that’s meant to be experienced, more than fully understood’ (USA Today). ‘Take it from us—ignorance is bliss. The less you try to figure out Anderson’s rambling, mesmerising mystery, the better. Just relax and let this beautiful, haunting, hilarious, chaotic, irritating and possibly profound tragicomedy wash over you. There is nothing else out there like it’ (Empire). Copacetic!
March 14–19
FOXCATCHER
True story of wrestling champions the Schultz brothers and their relationship with sponsor John E. du Pont training for the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul. There’s murder in the mix. ‘The hypnotic and haunting Foxcatcher can prove its worth as one of the year’s very best films. Steve Carell, Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo give the performances of their lives’ (Rolling Stone). ‘It is a gripping film: horrible, scary and desperately sad’ (Guardian). ‘So skilled are both Carell and Tatum that the movie itself falls prey to the characters’ repression. Though never less than careful and clever, it’s also a stunted and fiercely unhappy piece of work, straining hard to deliver home truths about a commonweal that has beaten itself out of shape’ (New Yorker). ‘It’s hard to say exactly what’s at fault here: the performances are flawless—Carell fully justifies his unlikely casting, while Ruffalo is as dependable as ever—and the script is astute, intimate and at times shocking. But there’s just no real life in the film’ (Time Out London).
BRITISH INSTITUTE of Florence
Lungarno Guicciardini, 9
tel. 055/26778270
March 11 – 8pm
SUNRISE
F W Murnau’s fable of the threat posed to the idyllic marriage of a peasant couple by a vampish city seductress is technically ingenious and visually stunning. Made in the twilight of the Silent Era, it marked both an end and a beginning, being taken seriously and achieving legendary status almost immediately. Currently ranked no. 5 in the latest Sight and Sound poll of the Greatest Films of All Time. ‘F.W. Murnau’s “Sunrise” (1928) conquered time and gravity with a freedom that was startling to its first audiences. To see it today is to be astonished by the boldness of its visual experimentation… Murnau, raised in the dark shadows of expressionism, pushed his images as far as he could, forced them upon us, haunted us with them. The more you consider “Sunrise” the deeper it becomes—not because the story grows any more subtle, but because you realize the real subject is the horror beneath the surface’ (Roger Ebert).
March 25, 8pm
LA PASSION DE JEANNE D’ARC
Renée Falconetti gives one of the greatest performances ever committed to film in the story of the young girl who died for God and Country. Its cinematography and composition were so powerful that it brought the art of cinema persuasively to the attention of the world. Cinema never looked back. Currently rated no. 9 in the latest Sight and Sound poll. ‘Dreyer’s startling and innovative camerawork in The Passion of Joan of Arc creates visual imbalance… The pervasive use of variable distance close-ups… is claustrophobic… The odd angle shots of the street performers, prison guards, and judges further exaggerate their physical features, creating a sense of the grotesque—in essence, an external manifestation of their innate inhumanity. The Passion of Joan of Arc is a profoundly moving, indelible film of courage and perseverance, spirituality and conscience; a fitting tribute to the memory of the Maid of Orleans: a heroine, a martyr, a saint’ (Acquarello). ‘To modern audiences, raised on films where emotion is conveyed by dialogue and action more than by faces, a film like “The Passion of Joan of Arc” is an unsettling experience—so intimate we fear we will discover more secrets than we desire. Our sympathy is engaged so powerfully with Joan that Dreyer’s visual methods—his angles, his cutting, his closeups–don’t play like stylistic choices, but like the fragments of Joan’s experience’ (Roger Ebert).
*Dates and times may be subject to change. Check the websites above for up-to-date showtimes. The Florentine cannot be held responsible for program changes.
