War between parents and children, artists and government censors, terrorists and investigators, factions within a nation and nations themselves – the Charlotte Film Society Saturday Night Cine Club’s July-December lineup will echo with battles wryly funny and sad, physical or spiritual or psychological.
Movies will be shown one day each month at 7:30 p.m. – a couple also have matinees – at Theatre Charlotte, 501 Queens Road, and speakers lead discussions afterward. What’s on tap?
July 28: “Cirkus Columbia.” Denis Tanovic (“No Man’s Land”) directed this tale of an exile, his girlfriend, his Mercedes, a lucky cat and a pocketful of cash – all of which end up in Bosnia in 1991, as the terrible conflict approaches. Speaker: Robert Reimer.
Aug. 25: “Hedgehog.” Moma Achache wrote and directed this French adaptation of Muriel Barbery’s novel “The Elegance of the Hedgehog,” about a girl who uses her father’s old camcorder to chronicle hypocrisy in adults and learns about life from her grumpy building concierge. Speaker: Roger Baumgarte. (There’s a matinee at 3 p.m.)
September: The CFS celebrates its 30th birthday with a members-only event. Details to be determined.
Oct. 20: “This is Not a Film.” Acclaimed Iranian Jafar Panahi (“The White Balloon,” “The Circle”) is under house arrest while appealing a sentence of six years in jail and a 20-year ban on filmmaking. He shot this clandestine documentary about his life partly on a camera phone and smuggled it to the Cannes film festival in a cake; he and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb are co-directors. Speaker: Sam Shapiro.
Nov. 17: “The Mill and the Cross.” Pieter Brueghel’s epic “The Way to Calvary” sets Christ’s Passion in Flanders under Spanish occupation in 1564, the year Brueghel painted it. The film focuses on a dozen characters from the painting, including Brueghel (Rutger Hauer), art collector Nicholas Jonghelinck (Michael York) and the Virgin Mary (Charlotte Rampling). Speaker: Richard Maschal. (There’s a matinee at 3 p.m.)
Dec. 1: “Seven Minutes in Heaven.” In this Israeli thriller, a bomb explodes in a Jerusalem bus, taking away a woman’s beau and her memory of events. As she tries to reconstruct her life, she begins to suffer from hallucinations and flashbacks. Speaker: Lawrence Toppman.
