Movies & Screenings
Foreign Fridays, anyone?
Written by Barbara T. on 10/12/2010
Our Foreign Film Series begins on Friday, October 22! This year, we'll be showing films from Italy, Switzerland, Israel, Denmark, France, Korea, and one Spanish-language film from the U.S.
Friday, October 22 at 7:30 p.m. - MID-AUGUST LUNCH (2009) Starring Gianni Di Gregorio; Not rated; 75 minutes; In Italian with English subtitles
A middle-aged man living with his elderly mother finds the best way to pay for their debts is to take care of the building manager's mother during the biggest festival of the year. Soon he finds himself with not two but four mothers to keep fed and happy.
"Luminous...scenes of food preparation are mouthwatering..." -- New York Times
"A pleasant taste of Roman life!" -- Philadelphia Inquirer
As a hearty welcome for the opening of our 2010 Foreign Film Series, and a nod to the scrumptiousness of our opening film, please join us before the film for a wine and cheese reception! (Doors will open at 6:45 p.m.)
Friday, October 29 at 7:30 p.m. - HOME (2008) Starring Isabelle Huppert; Not rated; 97 minutes; From Switzerland, in French with English subtitles
A family's peaceful existence is threatened when a busy highway is opened only meters away from their isolated house in the middle of nowhere.
Friday, November 5 at 7:30 p.m. - AJAMI (2009) Not rated; 120 minutes; In Hebrew with English subtitles
Shakespearian in its scope and themes - revenge, loyalty, hope, and despair - Ajami draws us into the lives of two brothers fearing assassination, a young refugee working illegally to cover his mother's medical expenses, and a cop obsessed with finding his missing brother. Through this dramatic collision of different worlds, we witness cultural and religious tensions simmering beneath the surface and the tragic consequences of enemies living as neighbors.
Friday, November 12 at 7:30 p.m. - TERRIBLY HAPPY (2009) Not rated; 90 minutes; In Danish with English subtitles
Robert Hanson is a Copenhagen police officer who, following a nervous breakdown, is transferred to a small provincial town to take on the mysteriously vacated Marshall position and subsequently gets mixed up with a married femme fatale. Robert’s big city temperament makes it impossible for him to fit in, or understand the uncivilized, bizarre behavior displayed by the townspeople. Quickly spiraling downward into an intense fable reminiscent of the Coen Brothers’ this film displays a unique, often macabre vision of the darkest depths to which people will go to achieve a sense of security and belonging.
Friday, November 19 at 7:30 p.m. - SUMMER HOURS (2008) Starring Juliette Binoche, Charles Berling, and Jérémie Rénier; Not rated; 101 minutes; In French with English subtitles
The divergent paths of three forty-something siblings collide when their mother, heiress to her uncle’s exceptional 19th-century art collection, dies suddenly. Left to come to terms with themselves and their differences, Adrienne (Binoche), a successful New York designer, Frédéric (Berling), an economist and university professor in Paris, and Jérémie (Rénier), a dynamic businessman in China, confront the end of childhood, their shared memories, background and unique vision of the future.
Friday, November 26 at 7:30 p.m. - TREELESS MOUNTAIN (2008) Not rated; 89 minutes; In Korean with English subtitles
What is the nature of childhood resilience? Sisters Jin and Bin, ages 6 and 3, live with their mother. Jin likes school and does well. One day, their mother leaves the girls with their father's sister, a woman they do not know, to seek a reconciliation with their father. The girls scrub and clean for their aunt, a tippler who's often cranky and complaining. The girls earn a few coins for their work but they miss their mother and wait every day for her return.
Friday, December 3 at 7:30 p.m. - SUGAR (2008) Rated PG-13; 114 minutes; In Spanish with English subtitles
After seeing the movie Field of Dreams, Dominican baseball star Miguel 'Sugar' Santos hopes to break into the big leagues in the United States to earn money to support his impoverished family. His dreams may become a reality when he is recruited to play for a minor league team in the United States.
To watch the trailers for these films, click on the titles.
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).
Special Film Screening of "The Alternative Fix"
Written by Barbara T. on 10/11/2010
On Monday, October 25 at 2 p.m., we will be hosting a special screening of The Alternative Fix.
The past few years have seen an explosion in the popularity of complementary and alternative medicine. Under pressure from everyone from consumers to Congress, major hospitals and medical schools have embraced therapies that were once dismissed as quackery. But the question remains: Do these treatments actually work? The Alternative Fix, from PBS’s Frontline examines the controversy over complementary and alternative medical treatments. This film is not rated. Running time is 60 minutes.
This special film screening is part of our Health & Wellness Series, “A Picture of Health,” an extensive series of lectures, expert panels, computer workshops, and films.
For more information about our Health & Wellness Series, click here.
A Special Film Screening of “Food, Inc.”
Written by Barbara T. on 10/11/2010
On Monday, October 18 at 7 p.m., we will present a special screening of Food, Inc.
This Oscar-nominated documentary film lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry. A controversial film, “Food, Inc.” explains how our nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers, and our own environment. We have bigger, better, longer lasting food, but the consequences may often outweigh the benefits.
"Food, Inc. Is hard to shake, because days after you've seen it, you may find yourself eating something -- a cookie, a piece of poultry, cereal out of the box, a perfectly round waxen tomato -- and you'll realize that you have virtually no idea what it actually is."-- Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly"
Essential viewing" -- Gary Goldstein, The Los Angeles Times
This film is rated PG. Running time is 94 minutes.
This special film screening is part of our Health & Wellness Series, “A Picture of Health,” an extensive series of lectures, expert panels, computer workshops, and films. The schedule offers sessions on a variety of health issues, including nutrition, stress management, personal safety for children and teens, pain management, holistic medicine, sleep disorders, and medication management.To watch the trailer from the film, "Food, Inc.", click here. For more information about our Health & Wellness Series, click here.
Additional parking for evening and weekend Library programs on Thorndal Circle (behind Nielsen’s).
Special Film Screening - "Just Add SPICE: Parenting for Healthy, Happy Kids"
Written by Barbara T. on 10/11/2010
Special Health & Wellness Film Screening!
Monday, October 18th at 2 p.m. Just Add SPICE: Parenting for Happy, Healthy Kids
Follow four families as they attempt to instill healthy habits in their kids by using a set of proven positive parenting skills represented by the acronym SPICE (Structure, Praise, Inspire, Consistency, and Enjoy) - including how to deal with children who refuse to eat healthy foods and turn to sedentary forms of entertainment. This documentary is not rated. Running time is 90 minutes. (2010).
This special film screening is part of our Health & Wellness Series, “A Picture of Health,” an extensive series of lectures, expert panels, computer workshops, and films. The schedule offers sessions on a variety of health issues, including nutrition, stress management, personal safety for children and teens, pain management, holistic medicine, sleep disorders, and medication management.
To watch a preview of the documentary, please click here.
For the complete schedule of our Health & Wellness Series, click here.
Wednesday Matinees in October
Written by Barbara T. on 10/04/2010
What will you encounter at our October Wednesday Matinees? Nature and natural history. Adventure and myth. A moving memoir. And MUSIC! We'll begin our October matinees with The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World on October 6th and follow it on the 13th with Robin Hood (the new film starring Russell Crowe). Our final two films of the month have special meaning for very different reasons. On October 20th, in recognition of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, we'll be showing This Boy's Life, a well-crafted and memorable film, based on the memoirs of writer and literature professor Tobias Wolff, and then on October 27th, be here for The Sound of Music. For the past few weeks, Erica and I have been following the Oprah + The Sound of Music rumors. No longer rumors, but NEWS, on October 29th, Oprah will be reuniting the entire cast of The Sound of Music for the first time in 45 years! With that welcome news, we KNEW that we had to show the 1965 film here on the big screen!
Wednesday, October 6 at 2 p.m. -- THE BOTANY OF DESIRE (2009) With Michael Pollan; Rated PG; 120 minutes
The Botany of Desire brings Michael Pollan's best-selling book to the screen, showing how human desires are an essential, intricate part of natural history. Explore the natural history of four plants -- the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato -- and the corresponding human desires -- sweetness, intoxication, and controlling nature -- that link their destinies to our own.
This two-hour documentary begins in Michael Pollan's garden, and roams the world, from the potato fields of Idaho and Peru to the apple orchards of New England, from the medical marijuana hot house to the tulip markets of Amsterdam.
Wednesday, October 13 at 2 p.m. -- ROBIN HOOD (2010) Starring Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, and Mark Strong; Rated PG-13; 148 minutes
This film features the legendary figure known by generations as "Robin-Hood," whose exploits have endured in popular mythology and ignited the imagination of those who share this spirit of adventure and righteousness. In 13th Century England, Robin and his band of marauders confront corruption in a local village and lead an uprising against the crown that will forever alter the balance of world power. Whether thief or hero, one man from humble beginnings will become an eternal symbol of freedom for his people.
Wednesday, October 20 at 2 p.m. -- THIS BOY'S LIFE (1993) Starring Ellen Barkin, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Robert De Niro; Rated R; 115 minutes
Academy Award winner Robret De Niro creates another memorable performance as a colorful, yet strict suitor to the struggling and penniless divorcee Ellen Barkin and who has a profound effect on her teenage son.
Wednesday, October 27 at 2 p.m. -- THE SOUND OF MUSIC (Pictured above, left) (1965) Starring Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, and Eleanor Parker; Rated G; 175 minutes
In this true-life story, Julie Andrews lights up the screen as Maria, a spirited young woman who leaves the convent to bring love and music to the home of Captain von Trapp and his seven children.
Please join us every Wednesday at 2 p.m. for our Wednesday Matinee Films.
All films are free and open to the public.
Friday Nights at Darien Library
Written by Barbara T. on 09/27/2010
Friday Nights at Darien Library in October will include screenings of a romantic comedy and a documentary, and an evening of wonderful live theater. We are also preparing for our annual Foreign Film Series,which will begin in late October.
Friday, October 1st at 7:30 p.m. -- JUST WRIGHT (2010) Starring Queen Latifah, Common, Phylicia Rashad, and Pam Grier; Rated PG; 101 minutes.
Leslie Wright is a straight-shooting physical therapist who gets the gig of a lifetime working with injured NBA star Scott McKnight. Leslie not only whips Scott into shape, she helps take his game to the next level and all is going well, until Leslie finds herself falling for him. Oblivious to her growing affection, Scott only has eyes for Morgan, Leslie's sexy and seductive friend. With everything on the line, Leslie must take her best shot.
Friday, October 8th at 7:30 p.m. -- BABIES (2010) Documentary feature; Rated PG; 79 minutes
A visually stunning and joyful new film that simultaneously chronicles the lives of four of the world’s newest human inhabitants - in Mongolia, Namibia, San Francisco and Tokyo, respectively -- from first breath to first steps, on a journey at once universal and amazingly original.
On Friday, October 15th at 7:30 p.m., please join us for a special event at Darien Library - Weekend One-Acts, a theatrical weekend featuring free performances of one-act plays from three esteemed American playwrights. Plays from A.R. Gurney, Tennessee Williams, and Wendy Wasserstein will be performed. You'll find all the details right here.
These events are free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.
Our Foreign Film Series will begin on Friday, October 22nd. Please check back here soon for more information.
Film Screening: Good Night with the Sleep Doctor Michael Breus
Written by Erica B on 09/26/2010
Thursday, September 30th at 7 PM -- Good Night with the Sleep Doctor Michael Breus (2007) PBS Home Video; Not Rated; Run Time approximately 80 minutes.
Noted sleep expert Dr. Michael Breus explains how your genes, environment, job habitats, and physiology may be hampering your sleep and in turn dramatically affecting your waking life. Dr. Breus believes that the current state of sleep medicine is a relatively unexplored frontier in treating many of the problems of modern life. In this PBS special, he shows that getting the proper quality and qauntity of sleep can help rejuvinate your mind and body, increase your energy, help you lose weight, and even possibly take years off your appearance. Good Night with the Sleep Doctor Michael Breus offers good news and a plan for everyone looking for a path to health and wellness.
Michael J. Breus, PhD, is a diplomat of the American Board of Sleep Medicine. He eaned a master's degree and his doctorate from the University of Georgia and is board-certified in both clinical psychology and clinical sleep disorders and is the sleep expert for WebMD. He is also the author of Good Night: The Sleep Doctor's 4-Week Program to Better Sleep and Better Health.
This film screening is part of our Health & Wellness Series, A Picture of Health, an extensive series of lectures, expert panels, computer workshops, and films. For more information, click here.
Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Make Me A Match...
Written by Erica B on 09/26/2010
Please join us this September for the first of our two Classics Discussion Series selections for the fall.
Emma by Jane Austen
This might just be the ultimate romantic comedy, written by one of Britain's most beloved authors. Full of twists, turns, and lots and lots of meddling (and who doesn't love meddling?!), this novel tells the story of the lovely but completely mischevious Emma, a woman who is so intent on arranging happy relationships for her single friends that she is not at all concerned with finding the perfect man for herself. That is, until the moment she realizes that she may have fallen for someone, too! Austen's book, classic in its ability to stand the test of time, was the inspiration for the popular '90s flick, Clueless.
On Monday, September 27 at 2 PM, watch the enchanting, delightful, and critically acclaimed film that helped make Gwyneth Paltrow a movie star. (Run Time: 121 Minutes; Rated PG)
Then, on Thursday, September 30 at 3 PM, join us for afternoon tea in our Classics Room on the 2nd Floor. We'll discuss the movie, the book, the author, and the adaptations. Plus, we may meddle a little, too!
(And save the dates as our Classics Discussion Series continues in November with Breakfast at Tiffany's: Film screening - Monday, November 8 at 2 PM; Book discussion of Truman Capote's novella - Thursday, November 11 at 3 PM.)
The Art on View and of the Steal
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On Friday, September 17th, Art on View and Friday Night Films at Darien Library meet for the perfect artistic convergence.
The opening reception for UP CLOSE, photography by Blake Robinson, will be held in the Library's Art Gallery at 6:30 p.m. This Art on View exhibit will feature intimate portraits of people as well as macro-photographs of flowers and marbles. (The exhibit will run through October 25th.) Click here for more information.
Our film screening, that evening at 7:30 p.m., will be The Art of the Steal, about the greatest, most underhanded art theft since World War II. This gripping documentary chronicles the long and dramatic struggle for control of the Barnes Foundation, a private collection of art valued at more than $25 billion. (Click here for the Friday Night Films schedule for September.) (2009) Documentary; Not rated; 101 minutes
Please join us for this special art-full evening.
September Matinee Movies
Written by Barbara T. on 08/30/2010
We've got a little bit of studying and review to do this September. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, the sequel to 1987's Wall Street (pictured left), will open in theaters on September 24th. Have you seen the trailer? It looks great, but, hoo boy, do I need to refresh my memory! Michael Douglas as Gordon ("Greed is good") Gekko was a slimy villain - and we will become reacquainted with him upon his release from federal prison, where he's spent eight years. Has he changed? Has he softened? We'll have to wait until the 24th to find out, but in the meantime, refresh, refresh, refresh, when earlier that week, on the 22nd at 2 p.m., we'll be screening the 1987 blockbuster, Wall Street.
Wednesday, September 1st, at 2 p.m. -- THE LAST SONG (2010) Starring Miley Cyrus, Kelly Preston, and Greg Kinear; Rated PG; 107 minutes
This film is set in a small Southern beach town where an estranged father gets a chance to spend the summer with his reluctant teen-aged daughter, who’d rather be home in New York. He tries to reconnect with her through the only thing they have in common – music – in a story of family, friendship, secrets and salvation, along with first loves and second chances.
Wednesday, September 8th, at 2 p.m. -- THE WALL: A WORLD DIVIDED (2010) Documentary feature; Not rated; 60 minutes
Wednesday, September 15th, at 2 p.m. -- PRINCESS KAIULANI (2010) Starring Q'orianka Kilcher, Barry Pepper, and Will Patton' Rated PG; 130 minutes
Set against the dramatic island backdrop of Hawaii and based on the inspiring true story, this film is a breathtaking romance about an unlikely heroine and her unwavering fight to defend the independence of her people. In 1888, Hawaii was a paradise teetering on the brink of civil unrest. When the palace was overthrown, young Princess Kaiulani was sent to Victorian England where she underwent a harsh and testing education that equipped her with a sense of honor and duty. There, she also fell in love wih the spirited and rebellious young Englishman, Clive Davis. Emerging from her childhood and inspired by her blossoming romance, Kaiulani set sail for American to meet President Grover Cleveland to prove that she and her people were not the "barbarians" portrayed by the American press.
Wednesday, September 22nd, at 2 p.m. -- WALL STREET (pictured, above)
(1987) Starring Michael Douglas. Charlie Sheen, Daryl Hannah, Martin Sheen, Sean Young, and Terrence Stamp; Rated R; 126 minutes
In this riveting, behind-the-scenes look at big business in the 1980's, an ambitious young broker (Charlie Sheen) is lured into the illegal, lucrative world of corporate espionage when he is seduced by the power, status and financial wizardry of Wall Street legend Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas). But he soon discovers that the pursuit of overnight riches comes at a price that's too high to pay.
Wednesday, September 29th, at 2 p.m. -- ONDINE (2009) Starring Colin Farrell, Alicja Bachleda, and Stephen Rea; Rated PG-13; 111 minutes
An Irish fisherman named Syraceuse, rscues a beautiful woman he finds drifting in the sea. The woman, who calls herself Ondine, appears to be suffering from amnesia, and the two soon fall deeply in love. Meanwhile, Syraceuses's sickly young daughter begins to suspect that Ondine may be a mermaid-like sea nymph.
Wednesday Matinee Movies. Every Wednesday at 2 p.m.
All movies are free and open to the public.
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