Movies & Screenings
Special Documentary Screening - The Old Home Comes Down
Written by Erin S on 10/10/2011
Sunday, November 13 at 2:00 p.m. - THE OLD HOME COMES DOWN; Rough-cut documentary
"A noble endeavor" - John Black Lee (after screening the promotional trailer for the film)
The Old Home Comes Down: Preserving The Past Versus Engineering A Future is a documentary film that specifically looks at the demolition trend, over the past decade, in Fairfield County. Interviews have been conducted with builders, preservationists, town officials and architects - including, Mid-Century modern architects John Johansen and John Black Lee.
This film is produced by Emmy-award winning New Canaan resident John Murphy. John has worked in the broadcast news industry (CNN, NBC) for over 20 years.
A Q&A with the John Murphy, Williams Earls, author of The Harvard Five in New Canaan, and Rob Purdy, Owner of Cambridge Builders Inc. of New Canaan will follow the screening.
Additional parking for evening and weekend Library programs on Thorndal Circle (behind Nielsen’s).
Friday Films in November
Friday, November 4 at 7:30 p.m. - Water for Elephants (2011) Starring Robert Pattinson, Reese Witherspoon, and Christoph Waltz; Rated PG-13; 120 minutes
During the Great Depression, Jacob, a penniless and recently-orphaned veterinary school student, parlays his expertise with animals into a job with a second-rate traveling circus. He falls in love with Marlena, one of the show's star performers, but their romance is complicated by Marlena's husband, the charismatic but unbalanced circus boss.
For more information, please watch the film's trailer.
Friday, November 11 at 7:30 p.m. - Barney's Version (2010) Starring Paul Giamatti, Rosamund Pike, and Dustin Hoffman; Rated R; 134 minutes.
Take a ride through the life and memories of Barney Panofsky, a hard-drinking, cigar-smoking, foulmouthed 65-year old hockey fanatic and television producer, as he reflects on his life's successes and (numerous) gaffes and failures as the final chapters of his own existence come sharply into focus.
For more information, please watch the film's trailer.
Friday, November 18 at 7:30 p.m. - Everything Must Go (2010) Starring Will Farrell, Rebecca Hall, Laura Dern; Rated R; 100 minutes.
Nick Halsey is having the worst day anyone could possibly have. He loses his job, his sobriety and his wife, finding all of his possessions on the front lawn of his old house with the locks changed. As he starts to live on his lawn, Nick’s AA sponsor steps in and suggests a yard sale as a way to make some money, let go and move on with his life.
For more information, please watch the film's trailer.
Friday, November 25 at 7:30 p.m. - Bill Cunningham New York (2010) Documentary; Not Rated; 84 minutes
Chronicles a man who is obsessively interested in only one thing,the pictures he takes that document the way people dress. The 80-year-old New York Times photographer has two columns in the paper's Style section, yet nobody knows who he is.
For more information, please watch the film's trailer.
All films are free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.
Additional parking for evening and weekend Library programs on Thorndal Circle (behind Nielsen's).
Friday Film - "Water for Elephants"
Written by Erin S on 10/10/2011
Friday, November 4 at 7:30 p.m. -- WATER FOR ELEPHANTS (2011) Starring Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon; Rated PG-13; 120 minutes
During the Great Depression, Jacob, a penniless and recently-orphaned veterinary school student, parlays his expertise with animals into a job with a second-rate traveling circus. He falls in love with Marlena, one of the show's star performers, but their romance is complicated by Marlena's husband, the charismatic but unbalanced circus boss.
For more information, please watch the film's trailer.
Click here for a complete list of Friday Films in November.
Additional parking for evening and weekend Library programs on Thorndal Circle (behind Nielsen’s).
Friday Film - "Barney's Version"
Written by Erin S on 10/09/2011
Friday, November 11 at 7:30 p.m. -- BARNEY'S VERSION (2010) Starring Paul Giamatti, Rosamund Pike, and Dustin Hoffman; Rated R; 134 minutes
Take a ride through the life and memories of Barney Panofsky, a hard-drinking, cigar-smoking, foulmouthed 65-year old hockey fanatic and television producer, as he reflects on his life's successes and (numerous) gaffes and failures as the final chapters of his own existence come sharply into focus.
For more information, please watch the film's trailer.
Click here for a complete list of Friday Films in November.
Additional parking for evening and weekend Library programs on Thorndal Circle (behind Nielsen’s).
This Month's Wednesday Matinee - Here's Lookin' at You, Kid
Written by Erin S on 10/05/2011
Wednesday, November 16 at 1:30 p.m. - CASABLANCA (1942) Starring Humphrey Bogart; Ingrid Bergman; Not Rated; 102 minutes
One of the most memorable of all film experiences, CASABLANCA is a true Hollywood legend. All the elements of the production—story, cast, photography, direction, and music—are woven expertly together to create a motion picture monument. Wartime refugees gather in Morocco to obtain scarce exit visas to Lisbon. The final airport sequence is an event not to be forgotten.
"Cinema par excellence . . . one of the outstanding entertainment experiences of cinema history." - Leslie Halliwell, Halliwell's Film and Video Guide
"A picture which makes the spine tingle and the heart take a leap . . . they have so combined sentiment, humor and pathos with taut melodrama and bristling intrigue that the result is a highly entertaining and even inspiring film." - The New York Times
Please note that our Wednesday matinee has an earlier start time. Please join us at 1:30 p.m.--a perfect post-lunch activity.
Friday Films in October
Friday, October 7 at 7:30 p.m. - Meek's Cutoff (2010) Starring Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, Paul Dano; Rated PG; 104 minutes
The year is 1845, the earliest days of the Oregon Trail, and a wagon team of three families has hired the mountain man Stephen Meek to guide them over the Cascade Mountains. Claiming to know a short cut, Meek leads the group on an unmarked path across the high plain desert, only to become lost in the dry rock and sage. Over the coming days, the emigrants must face the scourges of hunger, thirst and their own lack of faith in each other's instincts for survival. When a Native American wanderer crosses their path, the emigrants are torn between their trust in a guide who has proven himself unreliable and a man who has always been seen as the natural enemy.
For more information, please watch the film's trailer.
Friday, October 14 at 7:00 p.m. - Weekend One-Acts
In lieu of a Friday Night Film, Darien Library is proud to present for the second time “Weekend One-Acts,” a theatrical weekend featuring free performances of one-act plays from two esteemed American playwrights. We had to turn people away from last year's performance so you’ll want to arrive early this year. The program of two works includes Tennessee Williams’ I Can’t Imagine Tomorrow and David Ives’ Variations on the Death of Trotsky.
Friday, October 21 at 7:30 p.m. - The Trip (2010) Starring Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon, and Claire Keelan; Not Rated; 107 minutes
Steve Coogan has been asked by The Observer to tour the country's finest restaurants, but after his girlfriend backs out on him he must take his best friend and source of eternal aggravation, Rob Brydon.
For more information, please watch the film's trailer.
Friday, October 28 at 7:30 p.m. - Page One: Inside The New York Times (2011) Rated R; 92 minutes
Unprecedented access to the New York Times newsroom yields a complex view of the transformation of a media landscape fraught with both peril and opportunity.
For more information, please watch the film's trailer.
All films are free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.
Additional parking for evening and weekend Library programs on Thorndal Circle (behind Nielsen's).
Friday Film - "Page One"
Written by Erin S on 10/01/2011
Friday, October 28 at 7:30 p.m. -- PAGE ONE: INSIDE THE NEW YORK TIMES (2011) Documentary; Rated R; 92 minutes
In the tradition of great fly-on-the-wall documentaries, PAGE ONE: INSIDE THE NEW YORK TIMES deftly gains unprecedented access to The New York Times newsroom and the inner workings of the Media Desk. With the Internet surpassing print as our main news source and newspapers all over the country going bankrupt, PAGE ONE chronicles the transformation of the media industry at its time of greatest turmoil. Writers like Brian Stelter, Tim Arango and the salty but brilliant David Carr track print journalism’s metamorphosis even as their own paper struggles to stay vital and solvent. Meanwhile, their editors and publishers grapple with existential challenges from players like WikiLeaks, new platforms ranging from Twitter to tablet computers, and readers’ expectations that news online should be free.
But rigorous journalism is thriving. PAGE ONE gives us an up-close look at the vibrant cross-cubicle debates and collaborations, tenacious jockeying for on-the-record quotes, and skillful page-one pitching that produce the “daily miracle” of a great news organization. What emerges is a nuanced portrait of journalists continuing to produce extraordinary work—under increasingly difficult circumstances.
At the heart of the film is the burning question on the minds of everyone who cares about a rigorous American press, Times lover or not: what will happen if the fast-moving future of media leaves behind the fact-based, original reporting that helps to define our society?
For more information, please watch the film's trailer.
For the schedule of Friday Night Films in October, please click here.
Additional parking for evening and weekend Library programs on Thorndal Circle (behind Nielsen’s).
"Bag It" Screening: Is Your Life too Plastic?
On Thursday, October 27 at 7 p.m., in an event co-sponsored by Choose to Reuse in Darien,we will be screening the documentary film Bag It.
Choose to Reuse in Darien seeks to eliminate single use plastic retail checkout bags in Darien.
BAG IT – Documentary feature; Not rated; 78 minutes
Americans use 60,000 plastic bags every five minutes, disposable bags that they throw away without much thought. But where is “away?” Where do the bags and other plastics end up, and at what cost to the environment, marine life and human health?
Bag It follows “everyman” Jeb Berrier as he navigates our plastic world. Jeb is not a radical environmentalist, but an average American who decides to take a closer look at our cultural love affair with plastics. Jeb’s journey in this documentary film starts with simple questions: Are plastic bags really necessary? What are plastic bags made from? What happens to plastic bags after they are discarded? What he learns quickly grows far beyond plastic bags.
To learn more about the film and to watch the trailer, please click here.
Refreshments will be served.
Additional parking for evening and weekend Library programs on Thorndal Circle (behind Nielsen’s)
Wednesday Matinee NOW AT 1:30 - The Magnificent Seven
Written by Erin S on 09/19/2011
Wednesday, October 19 at 1:30 p.m. - THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1960) Starring Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Charles Bronson, Eli Wallach, Robert Vaughn; Not Rated; 127 minutes
The Magnificent Seven is a powerful Western inspired by the Akira Kurosawa classic The Seven Samurai and moved from Japan to Mexico. The samurai have become a bunch of hard, scrappy gunmen, ideally played by a cast of the toughest actors anywhere.
Please note that our Wednesday matinee has an earlier start time. Please join us at 1:30 p.m.--a perfect post-lunch activity.
Friday Film - "The Greatest Movie Ever Sold"
Written by Barbara T. on 09/18/2011
Friday, September 23 at 7:30 p.m. -- THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER SOLD (2011) Documentary Feature from director Morgan Spurlock; Rated PG-13; 87 minutes
Morgan Spurlock brings a comedic documentary about branding, advertising, and product placement that is financed and made possible by brands, advertising, and product placement.
"Spurlock says he's not selling out, he's buying in. I'm buying into Spurlock. As ever, he makes you laugh till it hurts." -- Peter Travers - Rolling Stone
"Spurlock comes off like a new and improved Everyman, familiar but smarter and funnier than the average Joe." -- Claudia Puig, USA Today
"Even more amusing than 'Super Size Me,' the documentary that put Mr. Spurlock on the moviemaking map..." -- Stephen Holden - The New York Times
For more information, please watch the film's trailer.
For the schedule of Friday Night Films in September, please click here.
Additional parking for evening and weekend Library programs on Thorndal Circle (behind Nielsen’s).
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