At the Movies: April 22 / 29

This week there are new flicks for Natalie Imbruglia and Dylan Moran. Next week Margaret and David will review Wolverine and the new film for Russell Crowe.

At the Movies airs 10pm Wednesdays on ABC1.

April 22:

A FILM WITH ME IN IT – directed by Ian Fitzgibbon, starring Dylan Moran. Mark (Mark Doherty) is having a bad day. A struggling actor, he’s just been through the ordeal of yet another fruitless audition for a bit part in a movie. With his long-suffering girlfriend about to walk out and his landlord ready to evict him he’s only got his best mate Pierce (Dylan Moran) and their joint ambition of writing a career-breaking film to sustain him. Life’s not easy, but things are about to get worse…much worse. And then someone dies and things get really bad.

THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS – direction and screenplay by Mark Herman. Set during World War II, a story seen through the innocent eyes of Bruno, the eight-year-old son of the commandant at a concentration camp, whose forbidden friendship with a Jewish boy on the other side of the camp fence has startling and unexpected consequences.

CLOSED FOR WINTER – this Australian film is the emotional and poetic story of Elise, a beautiful young woman haunted by a tragic event in her youth. Features Natalie Imbruglia in her first leading role. Margaret speaks with Natalie Imbruglia.

TULPAN -This Cannes-winning feature from Sergey Dvortsevoy focuses on a former sailor who dreams of having his own flock on the Kazakh steppes. All he needs is a wife and his own sheep. Having neither, Asa (Askhat Kuchinchirekov) heads out on a quest to find a woman. The director’s ability to find comedy in the darkest moments ensures Tulpan has subtlety and dimension despite its dreary setting. Margaret speaks with director, Sergey Dvortsevoy

On April 29, Margaret and David will review:

X MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE – the latest in the Wolverine movies starring Hugh Jackman and Liev Schreiber.

TENDERNESS – A policeman (Russell Crowe) works to figure out whether a violent teen murdered his family. Margaret speaks with director, John Polson.

SAMSON AND DELILAH – Australian film about two young kids in the Central Australian desert who when tragedy strikes, turn their backs on home and embark on a journey of survival. I/v with director Warwick Thornton and producer Kath Shelper.

PARIS 36 – takes place in the Spring of 1936 in a working-class district in the north of Paris, a neighbourhood that probably had a name once but that everyone now simply calls the Faubourg. Spring 1936 – in a working-class district in the north of Paris, a neighborhood that probably had a name once but that everyone now simply calls the Faubourg. At the top of the hill, a view over Paris to one side and, to the other, the burgeoning suburbs of the city. A small square, a few shops, lopsided buildings, cobbled streets and the peeling façade of the neighborhood music hall, the Chansonia.

In this blue-collar neighborhood, the triumphant election of the Popular Front government is greeted with enthusiasm and hopes for a brighter tomorrow, yet stirs up all kinds of extremism. Among the new government’s promises, the famous law on paid holidays that will allow numerous workers to see the sea for the first time.

In early May, three inhabitants of the Faubourg, show-business workers and close friends, do not share other people’s wild hopes, the Chansonia, the music hall that employed them, closed down four months earlier, leaving them all unemployed.

Pigoil (Gérard Jugnot), a stage-hand, thirty years with the Chansonia. Without a job, he could lose custody of his 12-year-old son, JOJO (Maxence Perrin)and have to give up his plans to take him to see the sea.

MILOU (Clovis Cornillac), a hotheaded electrician and a skirt-chaser. Symbol of the “workers aristocracy,” spokesman for every kind of demand, he is determinded to “change the world.” JACKY (Kad Merad), former sandwich man at the Chansonia. After carrying aroundthe names of stars on his sandwich board for years, Jacky has started dreamingthat he will be the king of the music hall himself one day.

Convinced that he has a talent for imitation, he continually seeks engagements that he never finds.

Supported by the locals who live to the rhythm of Monsieur TSF’s (Pierre Richard) radio, the three friends decide to take hold of their destiny: they try to force the hand of fate by occupying the Chansonia and producing the “hit” musical that will allow them to buy the place. Each one of them has different motives but they all share the same goal: finding new balance in their lives.

In addition to their lack of experience, they have to deal with the hostile antagonism of the neighborhood “godfather”, Galpiat (Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu), and come to terms with the arrival of a mysterious and attractive young singer, Douce (Nora arnezeder).

A crowd favourite in the recent Sydney French Film Festival.