Tuesdays with Morrie Monday, Jan 2 2006

This true story about the love between a spiritual mentor and his pupil reminds us of the affection and gratitude that many of us still feel for the significant mentors of our past. It also plays out a fantasy many of us have entertained: what would it be like to look those people up again, tell them how much they meant to us, maybe even resume the mentorship? Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher, or a colleague. Someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, helped you see the world as a more profound place, gave you sound advice.
Mitch Albom had that second chance. He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man's life. Knowing he was dying, Morrie visited with Mitch in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final "class": lessons in how to live.
Tuesdays with Morrie is a magical chronicle of their time together.

>> back to overview

---

Nova - The Elegant Universe Monday, Jan 9 & Jan 16 2006

Part 1 & Part 2

One of the most ambitious and exciting a scientific theory ever posed-one that may be the long-sought "Theory of Everything"-gets a masterful and lavishly animated explanation that will excite scientists and non-scientists alike. Beginning with simple and clear explanations of major concepts of physics, including gravity, electromagnetism, and relativity, The Elegant Universe illuminates one of the most revolutionary theories in physics today.
Known as string theory or superstring theory, this startling idea proposes that the fundamental ingredients of nature are inconceivably tiny strands of energy, whose different modes of vibration underlie everything that happens in the universe. The theory attempts to unite the laws of the large-general relativity-and the laws of the small-quantum mechanics-breaking a conceptual logjam that has frustrated scientists for nearly a century.
If string theory proves correct, the universe we see obscures a reality that is far richer and more complex than anyone ever imagined-a universe with numerous hidden dimensions, a universe in which the fabric of space can rip and tear, a universe that may be but one of many parallel universes.
Join host Brian Greene, professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University and the best-selling author of The Elegant Universe, for this exciting and in-depth exploration of this groundbreaking new theory.

>> back to overview

---

The Straight Story Monday, Jan 23 2006

The Straight Story is based on a real event in the life of a real person - Alvin is not in the best of health - he has a bad hip that requires him to use two canes while walking and he has trouble with his vision. One day, Alvin receives a phone call from a family member informing him that his brother, Lyle (Harry Dean Stanton), whom he has not spoken to in 10 years, has suffered a stroke. Alvin decides that he must make the 320-mile trek to Mt. Zion, Wisconsin, and the only means of transportation available to him is his lawnmower. "I've got to go see Lyle, and I've got to make the trip on my own," he remarks. So, hitching a home-made trailer to a John Deere, he begins one of the most unusual road trips ever.
Lynch paces the film beautifully, allowing Alvin's character to be developed in such away that the climactic scene has a genuine emotional impact. The Straight Story moves slowly - which is actually perfect for a motion picture that concerns travel by lawnmower. Passing many types of scenery with autumn leaves and cornfields ready to be razed.

>> back to overview

Dead Poets Society Monday, Jan 30 2006

Academy Award(R)-winner Robin Williams delivers a brilliant performance in one of Hollywood's most compelling and thought-provoking motion pictures. Williams portrays passionate English professor John Keating who, in an age of crew cuts, sports coats, and cheerless conformity, inspires his students to live life to the fullest, exclaiming ... "Carpe Diem, lads! Seize the day. Make your lives extraordinary!" This charistmatic teacher's emotionally charged challenge is met by his students with irrepressible enthusiasm -- changing their lives forever. Williams is given plenty of latitude to work in his brand of improvisational humor. Must see.


>> back to overview

Green Fingers Monday, Feb 6 2006

A sweet and often touching tale taken from the real life story of prison gardeners competing at the renowned Hampton Court garden show. Ina a minimum security prison a few of it's inmates discover and nurture a love of gardening which ultimately leads them to enter a big time Horticultural event in England. GREENFINGERS was able to masterfully present a "true" story in a dramatic fashion without adornment and without pandering to the "happy ending" syndrome espoused by many American comedies. Yet the film leaves one feeling bubbly, elated. The reason is that the blend of elements - script and direction and acting, indeed the entire production - has the feel of being a "real" story, not some blended pap that studio executives conceive as filling a marketing slot. This film can not be too warmly recommended. It is all heart.

>> back to overview

 

Madadayo Monday, Feb 13 2006

Akira Kurosawa was 83 years old when he made this, his serenely glorious final film. Kurosawa's eyesight was failing, so Madadayo would be the master's farewell to filmmaking, and one can hardly imagine a more lovely and loving way to end one of the greatest careers in motion picture history. Based on the literary works of Japanese author Hyakken Uchida, the film presents Uchida as its central character (named only "The Professor"), and begins in war-torn Tokyo with the sensei's retirement from teaching in 1943. He is considered "solid gold" by his legacy of former students, who support their beloved teacher as he focuses on writing and throw annual birthday parties in his honor. Each year they ask "Maadha kai?" ("Are you ready?"), to which the aging professor responds, "Madadayo!" ("Not yet!"), acknowledging that he will die someday, but only when he's ready.
While Madadayo may not be autobiographical, the professor (played with charming grace by Tatsuo Matsumura) is clearly Kurosawa--a beloved master reflecting on life, continuing to teach, and expressing gratitude for a long and rewarding career that was "not yet" over. This is a calm and simple film of peaceful resolution, in which the only major crisis is the loss of a cat--an episode both heartbreaking and, finally, as life affirming as the professor's benevolent wisdom.


>> back to overview

 

The Color Purple Monday, Feb 20 2006

Whoppi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey, Danny Glover and Margaret Avery, will touch your heart and soul with their incredible performances in this very dramatic story. Sisters Celie and Nettie have each other to love, and it seems that each other, is all they have that is beautiful in the world. When they are torn apart by unfortunate circumstances they must face the world on their own. Celie(Goldberg) is the main focus. She is forced into a situation of an abusive marriage at the early age of 14 and life for her does not get any easier from there. For decades she hopes beyond hope to hear something of her sister Nettie who's last words to Celie were, "Only death can keep us apart!". Celie's character develops quite a strength over the years and she also forms a strong kinship with an unlikely source. It is a film that is unforgettable and once seen, will stay with you always.

>> back to overview

The Station Agent Monday, Feb 27 2006

A strong ensemble and director Tom McCarthy's sweetly low-key observations make Sundance fave The Station Agent a treat. The film revolves around a reserved, somber dwarf (Peter Dinklage, immortalized by his brilliant ticked-off tirade in Living in Oblivion), a train enthusiast who inherits a small depot in rural New Jersey. He makes friends, somewhat reluctantly, with a group of eccentric locals: the guy at the coffee stand (buoyant Bobby Cannavale), an artist (Patricia Clarkson, impeccable as usual), a librarian (Michelle Williams). A few of the plot strands feel forced, but whenever the actors are simply playing off each other with McCarthy's nicely understated dialogue--which is most of the time--it ambles along winningly. You'll also learn more than you ever thought you'd want to know about trains. The key is Dinklage's smoldering performance, one of those reminders that a single scowl is worth pages of conversation.


>> back to overview

---

Mr Holland's Opus Monday, March 6 2006

An earnest story of a music teacher's impact on those around him. Richard Dreyfuss plays an aspiring composer and musician who takes a job teaching music at a local high school to save money while he composes his music. But when his wife becomes pregnant, Glenn Holland must put aside his dreams and address the everyday realities of his life, from the melancholy and sometimes tragic fates of his students to the discovery that the son he cherishes is deaf. Building to a highly emotional climax in which the teacher sees the impact he's had on the world around him, Mr. Holland's Opus is a showcase for a fine Oscar-nominated performance by Dreyfuss and an engaging, heartwarming story.

---

Of Mice And Men Monday, March 13 2006

Clinging to each other in their loneliness and alienation, George and his simple-minded friend Lennie dream, as drifters will, of a place to call their own. But after they come to work on a ranch in the Salinas Valley their hopes, like "the best laid schemes o' mice an' men," begin to go awry. Two evocative, beautifully rendered portraits of "outsiders" struggling to understand their own unique places in the world.

>> back to overview

---

The way Home Monday, March 20 2006

Quietly unfolding like a sweet and simple fable, The Way Home is a touching, award-winning film about the common bonds that emerge between distant generations. Directed with delicate compassion by Jyong-Hyang Lee, it's the first South Korean film to receive distribution by a major American studio, and begins when seven-year-old Sang-Woo is left with his mute, stooped-over grandmother in her ramshackle hut in a rural region far from the comforts of Seoul. While his single mother struggles to find a job, the selfish boy initially resents his elderly relative, who responds to his obstinate behavior with unconditional love. Slowly, the boy comes to respect and love his caring grandma in return...

You can find your life in a dance class!! 250 young adolescents, who have never danced before, and a lot of them come from the lower class in the society, some even exiled from other countries, will dance to the Stravinsky's "Le Sacre du Printemps". The new conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle, leads the project. He believes that the music, the classic music, is not only for people from higher class of the society, but belongs to all people. It is just like water and air, people need music to live.

>> back to overview

---

Rhythm Is It Monday, March 27 2006

You can find your life in a dance class!! 250 young adolescents, who have never danced before, and a lot of them come from the lower class in the society, some even exiled from other countries, will dance to the Stravinsky's "Le Sacre du Printemps". The new conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle, leads the project. He believes that the music, the classic music, is not only for people from higher class of the society, but belongs to all people. It is just like water and air, people need music to live. Through the dancing in a modern ballet, the adolescents find their power, their values that they have never had in their life.
(100 min)

>> back to overview

BIG Monday, April 3 2006

A perfect marriage of novel but incisive writing, acting, and direction, Big is the story of a 12-year-old boy who wishes he were older, and wakes up one morning as a 30-year-old man (Tom Hanks). The script by Gary Ross (Dave) and Anne Spielberg finds some unexpected ways of attacking obvious issues of sex, work, and childhood friendships, and in all of these things the accent is on classy humor and great sensitivity. Hanks is remarkable in the lead, at times hilarious (reacting to caviar just as a 12-year-old would) and at others deeply tender. Penny Marshall became a first-rate filmmaker with this 1988 work.
(104 min)

Samsara Monday, April 10 2006

A spiritual love-story set in the majestic landscape of Ladakh, Himalayas. Samsara is a quest; one man's struggle to find spiritual Enlightenment by renouncing the world. After three years of solitary meditation he is brought out of a deep trance and is taken back to his ancient monastery where he slowly recovers his strength. Unexpectedly he finds himself experiencing a surprising profound sexual awakening. For the first time Tashi begins to question the spiritual values of his monastic existence...
(138 min)
>> back to overview

>> back to overview

The Miracle Worker Monday, May 1 2006

The Miracle Worker is based on the stage play which is based on the true story of Helen Keller who was became deaf, blind and mute after an illness she contacted when she a baby and thought of by doctors as being retarded and that nothing could be done to help her so with really no way of communicating with anyone she was a very frustrated young girl and was kind of let by her parents to run wild and doctors and even some family members thought she should be sent away to an asylum but all that changes when Annie Sullivan comes to help Helen and teach her how to communicate and survive so she is not sent away.

Through an undying combination of caring, kindness, persistence, and unwavering toughness, Annie finally gets through to Helen.
By the film's final act we can see that Annie has taught Helen more than just the meaning of the words "water", "tree", and "key". Annie has taught her the meaning of the word "love" as well -- as we see demonstrated so well and tenderly in the very last moments of this motion picture.

The real-life story of Helen Keller is one of the most remarkable in history. After scarlet fever rendered her blind and deaf at the age of only 19 months, Helen would eventually learn to read (in multiple languages), and she would go on to write more than a dozen books! She also learned to speak. Helen even graduated (with honors) from Radcliffe College in 1904.

Helen Adams Keller was born on June 27, 1880, in the small northern Alabama town of Tuscumbia. When she passed away (just weeks before her 88th birthday) on June 1, 1968, Helen was one of the most-admired women in the world, having become friends with ten U.S. Presidents and also having received honorary degrees from several different universities worldwide.
(166 min)

>> back to overview

>> back to overview

Dreamkeeper Monday, May 15 2006

The story of a resentful Lakota teenager (Eddie Spears) who reluctantly agrees to drive his wise old grandfather (August Schellenberg) from their South Dakota "rez" to an All-Nations Powwow in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Along the way, the tradition-bound elder serves as tribal "dreamkeeper" for his initially resistant grandson, who gradually realizes that his grandfather's stories--visualized through effects-laden reenactments involving all manner of magic and mystery--are essential in preserving the fading cultures of the Lakota and the several other tribes whose folklore depends on unbroken generations of oral tradition...
(120 min)

>> back to overview

The Saltmen of Tibet Monday, May 22 2006

Since time immemorial, nomadic herdsmen have lived in an extremely harsh environment on the plateau of the Himalayas, pasturing their yaks in the highest meadows of the world. Every spring, the men of the tribe set off with their robust pack animals on an arduous three-month journey to the salt lakes of northern Tibet. The film follows this traditional nomadic caravan, steeped in religious ritual but doomed by technological progress, as it sets off to the salt lakes to haul the "white gold" back to their native valleys. Shot under the most difficult of conditions, The Saltmen of Tibet brings the viewer as close as possible to the mysterious and religious experience of another world.
Shot under extreme conditions in one of the world's most remote and beautiful locations, THE SALTMEN OF TIBET documents the ancient traditions and daily rituals of a Tibetan nomadic community and transports us into a different realm; step by step we follow the unforgettable, annual three-month pilgrimage to the holy salt lakes of northern Tibet.
(110 min)

>> back to overview

Dersu Uzala Monday, May 29 2006

During an unusual chapter in the career of director Akira Kurosawa (Rashomon), the filmmaker went to Russia because he found working in his native Japan to be too difficult. The result was this striking 1975 near-epic based on the turn-of-the-century autobiographical novels of a military explorer (Yuri Solomin) who met and befriended a Goldi man in Russia's unmapped forests. Kurosawa traces the evolution of a deep and abiding bond between the two men, one civilized in the usual sense, the other at home in the sub-zero Siberian woods. There's no question that Dersu Uzala (the film is named for the Goldi character, played by Maxim Munzuk) has the muscular, imaginative look of a large-canvas Soviet Mosfilm from the 1970s. But in its energy and insight it is absolutely Kurosawa, from its implicit fascination with the meeting of opposite worlds to certain moments of tranquility and visual splendor. But nothing looks like Kurosawa more than a magnificent action sequence in which the co-heroes fight against time and exhaustion to stay alive in a wicked snowstorm. For fans of the late legend, this is a Kurosawa not to be missed
(140 min)

>> back to overview

>> back to overview

Memoirs of a Geisha  Monday, June 12 2006

In 1929 an impoverished nine-year-old named Chiyo from a fishing village is sold to a geisha house in Kyoto's Gion district and subjected to cruel treatment from the owners and the head geisha Hatsumomo. Her stunning beauty attracts the vindictive jealousy of Hatsumomo, until she is rescued by and taken under the wing of Hatsumomo's bitter rival, Mameha. Under Mameha's mentorship, Chiyo becomes the geisha named Sayuri, trained in all the artistic and social skills a geisha must master in order to survive in her society. As a renowned geisha she enters a society of wealth, privilege, and political intrigue. As World War II looms Japan and the geisha's world are forever changed by the onslaught of history.
A fascinating story, which traces a young girl's determination to free herself from the imprisonment of scullery maid to geisha, then from the imprisonment of geisha to a woman allowed to love.
(145 minutes)

>> back to overview

>> back to overview

>> back to overview

>> back to overview

>> back to overview

>> back to overview

>> back to overview