* Hola, est᳠sola?
Spain, 1995, Director: IcBollabr /> Sat, June 3, 12:30pm, Harvard Exit
Bolla sweet and unfashionable debut film takes a look at friendship, romance, and the generation gap. Nina and Trini are two girls in search of their fortune, and, if it happens to come along, a little love as well. The path to success isn't necessarily smooth, but the girl's warm, realistic friendship buoys them.—SIFF
Hometown Blue
France, 1999. Director: Stephane Brize
Sun, May 28, 6:30pm, Broadway Perf. Hall
Wed, May 31, 5pm, Broadway Perf. Hall
Poor Solange is a woman bogged down by her hateful job as a meter maid and an oblivious husband when all she really wants to do is sing. Unfortunately, she can't bring herself to go any further than her home karaoke machine. That is, until a surprise visit from her old school chum Maylene, now a successful Parisian weathergirl, awakens Solange from her quiet misery; she soon decides to take her destiny into her own hands.—SIFF
Honour of the House
Iceland, 1999. Director: Gudny Halldorsdottir
Thu, June 1, 7:15pm, Harvard Exit
Tue, June 6, 2:30pm, Pacific Place
Iceland's Oscar submission, this period piece tells the epic tale of two sisters, life-long rivals unable to find peace with one another. While the younger sister pursues education and romance in Copenhagen, the elder, fueled by frustration and discontent, sets out to destroy the other's happiness. Based on a story by the director's Nobel Laureate father.—SIFF
How the West Was Won
USA, 1962. Directors: John Ford, Henry Hathaway, George Marshall, and Richard Thorpe. Cast: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Caroll Baker, Carolyn Jones, Karl Malden, Gregory Peck, George Peppard, John Wayne, Richard Widmark, Spencer Tracy, and James Stewart
Fri, June 2, 8:30pm, Cinerama
Fri, June 2, 11am, Cinerama
Well, all you screen-history obsessive types, here's a chance to see honest-to-Pete three-camera Cinerama projection, complete with faint fuzzy vertical lines where the images don't quite jibe. Here's a chance to see not one but four competent directors do some of their most pedestrian work. Here's a chance to see American history the way they just don't make it any more: optimistic, imperial, from sea to shining sea. Better, if only because an hour shorter and miles less pretentious, is the two-hour 1952 travelogue This Is Cinerama, which introduced the process to the public. As if that weren't enough to gag on, for your special $15 admission you also get a look at the documentary Cinerama Adventure, tracing the utterly undistinguished history of Old Hollywood's most expensive and ambitious attempt to turn back the inexorable TV tide.—R.D.
* Human Resources
France, 1999. Director: Laurent Cantet
Mon, May 22, 9:30pm, Broadway Perf. Hall
Thu, May 25, 5pm, Harvard Exit
Only economics majors and rabid Francophiles will gain easy entry into this drama, which is so steadfastly realist that—as the title implies—it actually is about a human resources dilemma. Like most modern French companies, the suburban plant where a father and son work is destabilized by the government-mandated reduction to a 35-hour workweek. Fortunately, management trainee Franck (Jalil Lespert) is fresh out of business school and armed with ideas aimed to benefit the firm and the workers while maneuvering around the notoriously cagey union. On the downside, Franck's sad sack of a papa (Jean-Claude Vallod) has toiled at the plant for 30 years and doesn't want to stir up any trouble. First-time feature director Laurent Cantet admirably interweaves issues of work and family, but only after a prolonged build-up thick with economic theorizing.—R.A.M.
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