New Releases at the Film Society

Starting Friday, April 5, this film will be screening in the Film Center Amphitheater at discount prices.

A group of Yokohama teens look to save their school's clubhouse from the wrecking ball in preparations for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

Q&As with director Janet Tobias and subjects Sonia Dodyk (1:45pm) and Chris Nicola (7:00pm) on Saturday, April 13, the 69th anniversary (to the day) of when they finally emerged from their hiding place in the Ukrainian cave!

A cave exploration in the Ukraine leads to the unearthing of a story of World War II survivors who once found shelter in the same cave.

Rodney Ascher’s wry and provocative Room 237 fuses fact and fiction through interviews with cultists and scholars, creating a kaleidoscopic deconstruction of Kubrick’s still-controversial classic.

Opens April 12!

Terrence Malick has concocted a deeply moving visual language intermingling love, nature and spirit—“all things work together for the good,” as one character in To the Wonder proclaims—that ranks among his most personal and heartfelt works.

Opens April 26!

On the beaches of Kenya they‘re known as "Sugar Mamas": European women who seek out African boys selling love to earn a living. Teresa, a 50-year-old Austrian and mother of a daughter entering puberty, travels to this vacation paradise. She goes from one Beach Boy to the next, from one disappointment to the next and finally she must recognize: On the beaches of Kenya love is a business.

Opens May 3!

The parties, the fashion idols, the windows, the shoppers, the buyers, and the quintessentially American dreams of New York's iconic Bergdorf Goodman come to life in Matthew Miele's ode to a realm where creativity and commerce reign equally supreme.

Opens May 10!

Judy Chaikin’s award-winning documentary brings to light the poignant, untold stories of female jazz and big band instrumentalists and their fascinating, groundbreaking journeys from the late 30s to the present day.

Opens May 22!

Featuring narration from the writer, himself, alongside stories from friends, family, and contemporaries, Plimpton! is a joyful celebration of a life lived fully, richly, and strangely.

Opens May 24!

Academy Award-winning director Alex Gibney's We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks details the creation of Julian Assange's controversial website, which facilitated the largest security breach in U.S. history.

Opens June 7!

Shakespeare's classic comedy is given a contemporary spin by beloved writer-director Joss Whedon. Shot in just 12 days, the story of sparring lovers Beatrice and Benedick offers a dark, sexy and occasionally absurd view of the intricate game that is love.

One of China’s foremost Sixth Generation directors, Wang Xiaoshuai (Beijing Bicycle, Shanghai Dreams) tells a striking, autobiographical coming-of-age tale set in the final days of China's Cultural Revolution in his new film 11 Flowers.

A Lower East Side couple await the end of the world in Abel Ferrara’s visceral imagining of the apocalypse, a haunting trance film and a mournful valentine to the director’s beloved New York.

Opens December 14! Star Alan Cumming in person for Q&A at 5:30pm screening on Saturday, December 15!

In the 1970s, a gay couple fights a biased legal system to keep custody of the abandoned mentally handicapped teenager that comes to live under their roof.

Opens December 21 for four days only!

After years in the U.S., Pedro returns home to his family in Mexico, but the lure of the north remains as strong as ever. A most impressive feature debut by Antonio Méndez Esparza.

This feature directorial debut of writer Nicholas Jarecki starring Richard Gere, Susan Sarandan, Tim Roth and Brit Marling is a taut and alluring suspense thriller about love, loyalty, and high finance.

Chaos breaks out in a small Maryland town after an ecological disaster occurs.

The year is 1984, and on the rural East Coast of New Zealand “Thriller” is changing kids’ lives. Inspired by the Oscar nominated Two Cars, One Night, Boy is the hilarious and heartfelt coming-of-age tale about heroes, magic and Michael Jackson.

Amidst financial crises and unprecedented public school budget cuts, Brooklyn Castle takes an intimate look at the challenges and triumphs facing members of a junior high school's champion chess team.

A banished hero of Rome allies with a sworn enemy to take his revenge on the city.

One week only!

Thirteen year-old Marta has recently moved back to southern Italy with her mother and older sister and struggles to find her place, restlessly testing the boundaries of an unfamiliar city and the catechism of the Catholic church. Official Selection: 49th New York Film Festival.

Exclusive one-week engagement in honor of the film's 40th Anniversary!

A surreal, virtually plotless series of dreams centered around six middle-class people and their consistently interrupted attempts to have a meal together.

Riding across Manhattan in a stretch limo in order to get a haircut, a 28-year-old billionaire asset manager's day devolves into an odyssey with a cast of characters that start to tear his world apart.

The wife of a British Judge is caught in a self-destructive love affair with a Royal Air Force pilot.

When a family of raccoons discover worms living underneath the sod in Jeff and Nealy's backyard, this pest problem begins a darkly comic and wild chain reaction of domestic tension, infidelity and murder.

Audrey Tautou returns with this touching portrait of a woman trying to put her life back together after the loss of her husband, including embarking on an unexpected affair with a co-worker. A charming adult fable about starting over.

Director Serge Bromberg in person at Sunday's 8:30pm screening!

Presented in its fully restored original 1902 colors (and featuring a new, kinetic soundtrack by AIR), Georges Méliès’ classic adventure tale A Trip to the Moon is now as beautiful as ever. Preceded by Extraordinary Voyage, a fascinating documentary that chronicles the recent restoration of A Trip to the Moon to its original 1902 colors. Special Amphitheater ticket prices.

Belgium-based trio Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon and Bruno Romy follow their acclaimed Iceberg and Rumba with another Tati-inspired, candy-colored romp: this time, a charmingly off-kilter adventure about a hotel clerk who falls in love with a wish-granting fairy. Official Selection: 2011 Cannes International Film Festival (Directors' Fortnight).

A documentary that follows six young dancers from around the world as they prepare for the Youth America Grand Prix, one of the most prestigious ballet competitions in the world.

Shot over a decade with unprecedented access, this documentary reveals the process of acclaimed photographer Gregory Crewdson and is as mesmerizing and riveting as the images he creates.

A successful businessman attempts to resurrect his life by purchasing and boarding a dilapidated sailboat.

An investigative documentary about the epidemic of rape of soldiers within the US military.

Keep the Lights On chronicles an emotionally and sexually charged journey of two men in New York City through love, friendship, and addiction.

Alma Mahler's affair with the young architect Walter Gropius sets in motion a marital drama that forces her husband Gustav Mahler to seek advice from Sigmund Freud. Mahler on the Couch was the Opening Night film of the 2011 New York Jewish Film Festival.

The film maudit of last year and in some critics’ estimation, one of the best, writer-director Kenneth Lonergan’s years-in-the-works second feature is a fascinating and often wrenching drama of moral crisis in post 9/11 New York.

A documentary on the life, music, and legacy of Bob Marley.

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, Monsieur Lazhar tells the poignant story of a Montreal middle school class shaken by the death of their well-liked teacher. Bachir Lazhar (Fellag), a 55-year-old Algerian immigrant, offers the school his services as a substitute teacher and is quickly hired. As he helps the children heal, he also learns to accept his own painful past. This moving film features exquisite performances by Fellag and a stunning ensemble of child actors.

Director Sally El Hosaini in person July 28!

A fateful turn of events forces a 14-year-old British Arab boy and his handsome older brother, a member of a local gang, to confront their inner demons in Sally El Hosaini’s gorgeous debut film.

A palpable sense of unease hangs over a single city block in the coastal city of Recife, Brazil. Home to prosperous families and the servants who work for them, the area is ruled by an aging patriarch and his sons. When a private security firm is reluctantly brought in to protect the residents from a recent spate of petty crime, it unleashes the fears, anxieties and resentments of a divided society still haunted by its troubled past. Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Neighboring Sounds is a thrilling debut by a major new voice in world cinema.

On the snow‐covered Arctic tundra, at the top of the world in Alaska, two teenagers try to get away with murder. Winner of Best First Feature award at the 2011 Berlinale.

In his exhilarating new film, German master Wim Wenders (Wings of Desire, The Buena Vista Social Club) shoots in 3D to capture the brilliantly inventive dance world of legendary choreographer Pina Bausch. Nominated for a 2012 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

A documentary that follows a billionaire couple who live in a 90,000-square-foot mansion inspired by Versailles, built on the success of the time-share industry.

Alex Karpovsky in person Friday at 7:00pm (Q&A) and Saturday at 10:00pm (Intro)!

A solipsistic filmmaker takes his independent film on tour. Hoping to escape the pain of his recent breakup, he stumbles into a twisting constellation of fear, sex, and tortured illumination. A tragicomedy about death and marriage, Red Flag unfurls across six sates, four broken souls, and one very elusive bird.

Alex Karpovsky in person Friday at 9:00pm (Intro) and Saturday at 8:00pm (Q&A)!

Paul Harris works at a small research facility on the outskirts of Boston. After a weekend tryst with a co-worker leaves him wanting more, his unreciprocated desires gradually mold into an acute infatuation. When Danielle takes interest in a new scientist at the laboratory, Paul's suppressed resentments and perverse delusions finally become unhinged, triggering a horrific course of events that mercilessly engulf a tortured past and fugitive present.

The theory of evolution and a re-write of American history are caught in the crosshairs when an unabashed Creationist seeks re-election as chairman of America's most influential Board of Education.

A Shakespeare competition in Southern California that counts Kevin Spacey, Sally Field and others as alumni engages a multicultural mix of students, from gangbangers to Catholic high school girls, in team perfomances of the Bard’s plays. Director Alex Rotaru follows these students, many living on the edge, and discovers that theater can help to save lives. Proof positive that arts education is a necessity in the U.S., not a luxury. A Cinema Guild Release.

The documentary investigates the history, process and workflow of both digital and photochemical film creation.

Directed by Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters) and featuring interviews and performances from the iconic musicians who recorded some of rock’s greatest albums at Sound City studio in Van Nuys, CA, this documentary doesn’t just tell the story of a real-life rock ’n’ roll shrine, it celebrates the human element of music as Grohl gathers some of rock's biggest artists to collaborate on a new album.

Opens December 14! Director Fisher Stevens in person at 7:20pm on Friday, December 14 and at 3:30pm on Sunday, December 16!

A pair of aging con men try to get the old gang back together for one last hurrah before one of the guys takes his last assignment -- to kill his comrade.

Closes December 6!

An unlikely friendship forms between 21 year-old Jane and the elderly Sadie after Jane discovers a hidden stash of money inside an object at Sadie's yard sale. Please be advised this film contains explicit sexual content.

Humanity's ascent is often measured by the speed of progress. But what if progress is actually spiraling us downwards, towards collapse?

When Margot (Michelle Williams) meets Daniel (Luke Kirby), their chemistry is intense and immediate. But Margot suppresses her sudden attraction; she is happily married to Lou (Seth Rogen), a cookbook writer. When Margot learns that Daniel lives across the street from them, the certainty about her domestic life shatters.

Told with stunning footage shot clandestinely over a two-year period, They Call it Myanmar provides an astonishing and intimate look inside the second most isolated country on the planet, and a people held hostage by a brutal and superstitious military regime for 48 years. A revealing talk with Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Su Kyi is interwoven with extensive interviews and interactions with Burmese people from all around this wildly diverse nation.

Niezsche’s long silence, and the carriage driver who seemingly brought it on, are the parallel themes of Béla Tarr’s Silver Bear winner from Berlin.

In Skoddeheimen, Norway, 15-year-old Alma is consumed by her hormones and fantasies that range from sweetly romantic images of Artur, the boyfriend she yearns for, to daydreams about practically everybody she lays eyes on.

Q&A with filmmakers Susan Froemke and Bob Eisenhardt!

Six years ago, visionary theater and film director Robert Lepage was invited by the Metropolitan Opera to take on the technical and aesthetic challenges of the Ring cycle, and Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Susan Froemke followed him on his quest. Wagner’s Dream examines Lepage’s artistic process, as well as the production team’s battles with the most ambitious staging in Met history, featuring a 90,000 pound computerized set known as “The Machine.”

One week only! New 35mm print!

This autobiographical film from French master Maurice Pialat (A nos amours) is the harrowing account of a relationship in breakdown starring Jean Yanne (who won the best actor award at Cannes for this role). Official Selection: New York Film Festival, 1972.

In pre-World War II France, a father is torn between his sense of honor and his deep love for his saintly daughter when she gets in trouble with the wealthy son of a shopkeeper.

An examination of a failure of justice in the case against the West Memphis Three.

Ten years after Yossi and Jagger, the tragic love story of two IDF officers serving in Lebanon, director Eytan Fox returns to find out what has happened with Yossi.

Iris invites her friend Jack to stay at her family's island getaway after the death of his brother. At their remote cabin, Jack's drunken encounter with Hannah, Iris' sister, kicks off a revealing stretch of days.

Producer Paul Mezy in person at 9:00pm screening on Friday, March 15!

A single mother, struggling with the loss of her son to Social Services, feels trapped in the quicksand of her south Texas life. When her path collides with a young girl from Mexico, she is pulled into a life-changing journey, forcing her to confront the cycle of her past.

The latest from Iranian master Abbas Kiarostami is a drama centered on the relationship of a young woman and old man in Tokyo.