Janu Nakts (St. John's Night) is a traditional Latvian celebration during which family and friends gather to build bonfires, barbecue, drink and generally have a good time. According to legend, lovers and those who would like to fall in love, can search the woods for the "magic fern" on this night. This magic fern serves as the focus and pivotal point of the six stories in "Midsummer Madness" It is also a metaphor for the film's underlying theme - finding love. "MIDSUMMER MADNESS " is reflected in the recurring element of the magic fern, a metaphor (both in the film and in real life) for love. The question posed by the film is: can a search for love ever be successful? Each story deals with this question. An answer is provided at the film's conclusion in a humorous and unforgettable way: we see the legendary fern, glowing magically in a meadow. It exists after all! Then a cow ambles along and eats it. The deeper message, which is not obvious to the audience, is therefore: Yes, a search for love can be successful, though we are generally unaware of how to deal with it.
Cast: Maria de Medeiros, Dominique Pinon, Orlando Wells, Tobias Moretti, Chulpan Khamatova, Gundars Abolins, Aurelija Anuzīte, Janis Blums, Birgit Minichmayr
Directed by Alexander Hahn
Abe Dale (Nathan Fillion) has a good job and a loving family - until one day his family is murdered in front of his eyes and in broad daylight by a man named Henry Caine (Craig Fairbrass) who then kills himself. Haunted by guilt for not being able to save his family, Abe attempts suicide and nearly succeeds- but he resists being drawn to a 'bright white light' before dying and survives. But shortly afterwards he starts noticing white glows around people and learns these glows mean these people are about to die unless he saves them. Abe uses his new gift to it's full advantage and saves many lives- but he then learns that 'if you save a life, you are responsible for it' and as he goes digging deeper into the motives behind his family's killing and the full extent of his new-found powers, it takes him on a terrifying and apocalyptic journey into hell from which there will be no escape.
Casting: Nathan Fillion, Katee Sackhoff, Ed Anders, Joshua Ballard, Kendall Cross
Directed by Patrick Lussier
Script: Matt Venne
Producer: Shawn Williamson
English language with latvian and russian subtitles.
From two-time Academy Award® winning director Milos Forman and three-time Academy Award® winning producer Saul Zaentz, 'Goya's Ghosts' is a sweeping historical epic, told through the eyes of celebrated Spanish painter Francisco Goya (STELLAN SKARSGARD). Set against the backdrop of political turmoil at the end of the Spanish Inquisition and start of the invasion of Spain by Napoleon's army, the film captures the essence and beauty of Goya's work which is best known for both the colorful depictions of the royal court and its people, and his grim depictions of the brutality of war and life in 18th century Spain. JAVIER BARDEM is Brother Lorenzo, an enigmatic, cunning member of the Inquisition's inner circle who becomes infatuated with Goya's teenage muse, Ines (NATALIE PORTMAN), when she is falsely accused of heresy and sent to prison.
Casting: Natalie Portman, Javier Bardem, Stellan Skarsgård, Randy Quaid, Blanca Portillo
Directed by Milos Forman
Script: Milos Forman, Jean-Claude Carri?re
Producer: Saul Zaentz
English language with latvian and russian subtitles.
Four directors trying to capture simple, yet quintessential experiences of a single individual in different periods of his life - childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age. The four loosely related segments form a single interwoven narrative, where each one of the depicted events provides reference points for the others.
Cast: Igors Suhoverhovs, Kārlis Spravņiks, Ints Teterovskis, Liubomiras Lauciavicius
Directed by Jānis Kalējs, Gatis Šmits, Jānis Putniņš, Anna Viduleja
Matt Damon returns as the trained assassin Jason Bourne for the latest showdown in "The Bourne Ultimatum." In the follow-up to 2002's "The Bourne Identity" and 2004's "The Bourne Supremacy"--the smash hits that have earned over $500 million at the global box office--acclaimed director Paul Greengrass ("United 93," "The Bourne Supremacy") joins returning cast members Julia Stiles and Joan Allen and new additions David Strathairn and Paddy Considine.
All he wanted was to disappear. Instead, Jason Bourne is now hunted by the people who made him what he is. Having lost his memory and the one person he loved, he is undeterred by the barrage of bullets and a new generation of highly-trained killers. Bourne has only one objective: to go back to the beginning and find out who he was.
Now, in the new chapter of this espionage series, Bourne will hunt down his past in order to find a future. He must travel from Moscow, Paris, Madrid and London to Tangier and New York City as he continues his quest to find the real Jason Bourne--all the while trying to outmaneuver the scores of cops, federal officers and Interpol agents with him in their crosshairs.
Cast: Matt Damon, Julia Stiles, Joan Allen, David Strathairn, Paddy Considine, Edgar Ramirez, Trevor St. John
Directed by Paul Greengrass
After his father's death, Kale (Shia LaBeouf) becomes sullen, withdrawn, and troubled - so much so that he finds himself under a court-ordered sentence of house arrest. His mother, Julie (Carrie-Anne Moss), works night and day to support herself and her son, only to be met with indifference and lethargy.
The walls of his house begin to close in on Kale. He becomes a voyeur as his interests turn outside the windows of his suburban home towards those of his neighbors, one of which Kale begins to suspect is a serial killer. But, are his suspicions merely the product of cabin fever and his overactive imagination?
Cast: Shia LaBeouf, Carrie-Anne Moss, David Morse, Sarah Roemer, Kurt David Anderson, Elyse Mirto
Directed by D.J. Caruso
A blonde actress is preparing for her biggest role yet, but when she finds herself falling for her co-star, she realizes that her life is beginning to mimic the fictional film that they're shooting. Adding to her confusion is the revelation that the current film is a remake of a doomed Polish production, 47, which was never finished due to an unspeakable tragedy.
Cast: Laura Dern, Jeremy Irons, Justin Theroux, Harry Dean Stanton
Directed by David Lynch
According to Marlene Dietrich, chanteuse Edith Piaf's voice was "the soul of Paris." This French drama explores the often troubled life of the singer as her fame took her from the City of Lights to America to the South of France. Abandoned by her mother, Piaf grew up in her grandmother's brothel and her father's circus, which is hardly the fun one might imagine. While singing on the streets of Paris as a teen, Piaf (played as an adult by Marion Cotillard, A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT) is discovered by club owner Louis Leplée (Gérard Depardieu), and this chance encounter changes the woman's life. Her powerful voice takes her all over the globe, but it can't guard her from the pain and suffering she can't avoid.
Cast: Marion Cotillard, Gérard Depardieu, Sylvie Testud, Pascal Greggory, Emmanuelle Seigner, Jean-Paul Rouve
Directed by Olivier Dahan
Russian legendary director Nikita Mihalkov presents the new historical epic about Distemper times in Russia, when, in 1612, people's home guard drove away Polish conquerors from the Kremlin and the legendary tsar dinasty of Romanovs was established... After tsar Boris Godunov's death, his widow and young heir Fyodor were killed. Russia went into chaos...
Cast: Mikhail Porechenkov, Artur Smolyaninov, Andrey Fedortsev, Alexander Baluev, Marat Basharov
Directed by Vladimir Khotinenko
The first film adaptation of Susan Cooper's acclaimed "The Dark Is Rising Sequence" tells the story of Will Stanton, a boy whose everyday life is turned upside down when he learns that he is the last of the "Old Ones," a group of immortal warriors who have dedicated their lives to fighting the forces of the Dark. As he uncovers a series of mysterious clues, some dating back to the founding of Britain and others going all the way back to biblical times, Will discovers that with the Dark once again rising, the future of the world rests in his hands.
Cast: Ian McShane, Frances Conroy, Christopher Eccleston, Alexander Ludwig, Jonathan Jackson, Amelia Warner, Gregory Smith, Emma Lockhart, Gary Entin, Edmond Entin, John Benjamin Hickey, Wendy Crewson
Directed by David Cunningham
"Stardust," based on the best-selling graphic novel by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess, takes audiences on an adventure that begins in a village in England and ends up in places that exist in an imaginary world. A young man named Tristan (Charlie Cox) tries to win the heart of Victoria (Sienna Miller), the beautiful but cold object of his desire, by going on a quest to retrieve a fallen star. His journey takes him to a mysterious and forbidden land beyond the walls of his village. On his odyssey, Tristan finds the star, which has transformed into a striking girl named Yvaine (Claire Danes).
Cast: Claire Danes, Charlie Cox, Sienna Miller, Ricky Gervais, Jason Flemyng, Peter O'Toole, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert De Niro, Ian McKellen (narrator)
Directed by Matthew Vaughn
Elle France editor Jean-Dominique Bauby, who, in 1995 at the age of 43, suffered a stroke that paralyzed his entire body, except his left eye. Using that eye to blink out his memoir, Bauby eloquently described the aspects of his interior world, from the psychological torment of being trapped inside his body to his imagined stories from lands he'd only visited in his mind.
Cast: Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner, Marie-Josée Croze, Anne Consigny
Directed by Julian Schnabel