Kinosmith

Director: Frederick Wiseman

Documentary master Frederick Wiseman’s 38th film in a career that has spanned more than that number of years, turns his atten­tion to one of the world’s greatest ballet com­panies, the Paris Opera Ballet. John Davey’s camera roams the vast Palais Garnier, an opulent 19th century pile of a building: from its crystal chandelier-laden cor­ridors to its labyrinthine under­ground chambers, from its light-filled rehearsal studios to its lux­urious theater replete with 2,200 scarlet velvet seats and Marc Chagall ceiling. LA DANSE devotes most of its time to watching impossibly beau­tiful young men and women — among them Nicolas Le Riche, Marie-Agnès Gillot, and Agnès Letestu — rehearsing the cho­reo­graphy of Mats Ek, Wayne McGregor, Rudolf Nureyev and Pina Bausch. For bal­letomanes and the curious alike, LA DANSE serves up a scrump­tious meal of delect­able moments, one more glorious than the next, made even more precious by their eph­em­eral nature.

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Director: Nikolai Mullerschon

Baron Manfred von Richthofen is the most feared and cel­eb­rated pilot of the German air force in World War I. For him and his com­pan­ions, air “dog­fights” are events of a sporting nature, involving a tech­nical chal­lenge and hon­our­able conduct, ignoring the terrible extent of war. But after falling in love with the nurse Kate, Manfred realizes he is only being used for pro­pa­ganda means. Caught between his disgust for the war, and the respons­ib­ility for his fighter wing, von Richthofen sets out to fly again.

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Director: Amin Matalqa

• WINNER of Audience Award at Sundance Film Festival
• WINNER of Best Film at Seattle International Film Festival
• WINNER of Audience Award at Portland Film Festival
• Jordan’s official entry for the 81st Academy Awards (2009) In the category Best Foreign Language film.

An aging airport janitor who is mistaken for an airline pilot by a group of poor neigh­bor­hood children weaves fant­ast­ical stories to offer hope for a sad and some­times unchange­able reality.

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Director: Rune Denstad Langlo

• WINNER of Best New Narrative Director at the Tribeca Film Festival
• WINNER of the FIPRESCI Prize at Berlin International Film Festival

Following a nervous break­down, ski athlete Jomar has isolated himself in a lonely exist­ence as the guard of a ski park. When he learns that he might be the father of a child way up north, he sets out on a strange and poetic journey through Norway on a snow­mobile, with 5 litres of alcohol as his only pro­vi­sions. On this trip through amazing arctic land­scapes, Jomar seems to do everything in his power to avoid reaching his des­tin­a­tion. He meets other tender and confused souls, who will all con­tribute to push Jomar further along his reluctant journey toward the brighter side of life.

Official site (Norwegian)

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Director: Raoul Ruiz

Starring: John Malkovich, Saffron Burrows, Nikolai Kinski

A char­acter study and a med­it­a­tion on art in a time of opulence and syphilis. Gustave Klimt (1862-1918) lies in hospital, dying. In reveries, he recalls the early 1900s: it’s fin de siècle Vienna. At the World Exposition in Paris, Klimt meets Georges Méliès, who does a moving picture for him, and Klimt falls under the spell of a woman who may be Lea de Castro. We see Klimt in his studio; we meet his mother and sister, who suffer from mental illness. We watch Klimt the lib­ertine. On his deathbed and as a younger man, he imagines things as well: encoun­ters with min­is­ters and waiters and with women who are willing par­ti­cipants in his pleas­ures. Is this the source of art?

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Director: Terry Jones

Irreverent satire of Biblical films and reli­gious intol­er­ance focuses on Brian, a Jew in Roman-occupied Judea. After joining up with an anti-Roman polit­ical organ­iz­a­tion, Brian is mistaken for a prophet, and becomes a reluctant Messiah.

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Directors: Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam

Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a 1975 film written and per­formed by the comedy group Monty Python (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin), and directed by Gilliam and Jones. It was ini­tially con­ceived during a gap between the third and fourth seasons of their popular BBC tele­vi­sion series Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

In contrast to the group’s first film, And Now for Something Completely Different, which was a com­pil­a­tion of sketches from the tele­vi­sion series, Holy Grail was their first film composed of wholly original material. It gen­er­ally spoofs the legends of King Arthur’s quest to find the Holy Grail. The film was a success on its initial run and retains a large-scale cult fol­lowing today. Idle later used the film as the inspir­a­tion for the 2005 Tony Award-winning musical Spamalot.

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Director: Paul Morrison

In 1922, Madrid is wavering on the edge of change as tra­di­tional values are chal­lenged by the dan­gerous new influ­ences of Jazz, Freud and the avant-garde. Salvador Dali (Robert Pattinson) arrives at the uni­ver­sity; 18 years old and determ­ined to become a great artist. His bizarre blend of shyness and rampant exhib­i­tionism attracts the atten­tion of two of the university’s social elite – Federico García Lorca (Javier Beltrán) and Luis Buñuel (Matthew McNulty). Salvador is absorbed into their decadent group and for a time Salvador, Luis and Federico become a for­mid­able trio, the most ultra-modern group in Madrid. However as time passes, Salvador feels and increas­ingly strong pull towards the cha­ris­matic Federico – who is himself obli­vious of the atten­tions he is getting from his beau­tiful writer friend, Margarita. Finally, in the face of his friends’ pre­oc­cu­pa­tions – and Federico’s growing renown as a poet – Luis sets off for Paris in search of his own artistic success. Federico and Salvador spend the holiday in the seaside town of Cadaques. Both the idyllic sur­round­ings and the warmth of the Dali family sweep Federico off his feet. Salvador and he draw closer, sharing their deepest beliefs, inspir­a­tions and secrets, con­vinced that they have found a kind of friend­ship undreamt of by others. It is more than a meeting of the minds; it is a fusion of souls. And then one night, in the phos­phor­es­cent water, it becomes some­thing else…

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