With echoes of Fellini’s The Sweet Life (La Dolce Vita, 1960), the film The Great Beauty (La Grande Bellezza), shown at this year’s Cannes film festival, evokes cinematic admiration and makes one wish it would never end, while leading film critics tend to refer to it as the most momentous film of the festival.
Jep Gambardella (actor Toni Servillo) is an indolent and disenchanted 65-year-old writer and journalist, coasting on his sole successful novel published nearly fifty years ago. A grey-haired man of property, an intellectual and a lion of eccentric high society gatherings, he is the Rome’s king of the socialites, expert in courting in a gentlemanly manner and laudably extending condolences at funerals. Sounds cynic? It probably does. Yet, deep in the heart, Jep is a romantic idealist and dreamer, engulfed in the swirl of the great beauty filled with vacuity and vanity.
His penthouse suite overlooking the Coliseum is a regular place of gatherings for the bohemia and Rome’s elite. Jep finds himself to be an observer of a parade of the prominent and vacuous elite raging in never-ending parties and modern art performances he is a part of. Surrounded by a perpetual flurry, the man ponders why he did not write a second novel for several decades and tries to solve the agonising dilemma of his personal life.
Glorifying the beauty of the eternal city, the heady film is full of Fellini-esque grotesque, critique of high society vacuity, and almost caricatured party shots mixed with intellectual discussions. This certainly the most beautiful film opens in cinema theatres in Latvia already from 15 November.
Cast: Toni Servillo, Carlo Verden, Sabrina Ferilli, Carlo Buccirosso, Iaia Forte, Pamela Villoresi, Galatea Ranzi
Directed by Paolo Sorrentino
Italian language with latvian and russian subtitles.
David Aames has it all: wealth, good looks and gorgeous women on his arm. But just as he begins falling for the warmhearted Sofia, his face is horribly disfigured in a car accident. That's just the beginning of his troubles as the lines between illusion and reality, between life and death, are blurred.
A man with a low IQ has accomplished great things in his life and been present during significant historic events—in each case, far exceeding what anyone imagined he could do. But despite all he has achieved, his one true love eludes him.
College-bound romantic Daniel Bae and Jamaica-born pragmatist Natasha Kingsley meet—and fall for each other—over one magical day in New York City. They might never have met had fate not given them a little push. But will fate be enough to take these teens from star-crossed to lucky in love? Natasha is fighting against her family's deportation as fiercely as she's fighting her budding feelings for Daniel, who is working just as hard to convince her they are destined to be together.
Tessa Young's first day at a prestigious university. New faces, entourage, books, dormitories, university corridors promise a great start to the school year. The first acquaintance with roommate Stafa dismisses Tessa into the whirlpool of student life, in which: long nights and Hardin. ... In Hardin's embrace, she forgets about everything. Being together becomes one crazy adventure, but this beautiful story has a grim secret. When he comes to the surface, Tessa's life is as it was.
In Depression-era London, a now-grown Jane and Michael Banks, along with Michael's three children, are visited by the enigmatic Mary Poppins following a personal loss. Through her unique magical skills, and with the aid of her friend Jack, she helps the family rediscover the joy and wonder missing in their lives.
A passionate love story between two people of different backgrounds and temperaments, who are fatefully mismatched and yet condemned to each other. Set against the background of the Cold War in the 1950s in Poland, Berlin, Yugoslavia and Paris, the film depicts an impossible love story in impossible times...
Movie and Polish with subtitles in Latvian and Russian.
Beth is a young, ambitious New Yorker who is completely unlucky in love. However, on a whirlwind trip to Rome, she impulsively steals some coins from a reputed fountain of love, and is then aggressively pursued by a band of suitors.
Cast: Kristen Bell, Josh Duhamel, Danny DeVito, Anjelica Huston
Director: Mark Steven Johnson
Lucy Hill (Renee Zellweger) is an ambitious, up and coming executive living in Miami. She loves her shoes, she loves her cars and she loves climbing the corporate ladder. When she is offered a temporary assignment - in the middle of nowhere - to restructure a manufacturing plant, she jumps at the opportunity, knowing that a big promotion is close at hand. What begins as a straight forward job assignment becomes a life changing experience as Lucy discovers greater meaning in her life and most unexpectedly, the man of her dreams (Harry Connick, Jr.).
Casting: Renée Zellweger, Harry Connick, Jr., J.K. Simmons, Frances Conroy, Siobhan Fallon Hogan
Directed by Jonas Elmer
Script: Ken Rance, C. Jay Cox
Ollie Trinkie is a publicist, who has a great girlfriend, Gertrude, whom he marries and they are expecting a baby but while he is looking forward to being a father, he doesn't lighten his workload. Gertrude gives birth but dies in the process. Ollie doesn't live up to his responsibilities as a father. Eventually the strain and pressure of losing his wife and being a father gets to him and he has breakdown, which leads to his termination. So with nothing much to do he tries to be good father to his daughter, Gertie. He also meets a young woman name Maya, who likes him but he is still not over his wife.
Chris Brander (Ryan Reynolds) has it all -- money, good looks and a flashy job as an LA music executive. But things weren't always this way...
In high school Chris was shy and overweight. The bright spot in his life was his friendship with Jamie Palamino (Amy Smart), the hottest girl in high school. The two best buds were inseparable. But Chris harbored a secret -- he was hopelessly in love with Jamie. On the night of their graduation, Chris finally works up his courage and comes clean. A surprised Jamie tells Chris that she loves him too... like a brother. Then comes the dreaded "Just Friends" speech. Angry and humiliated, Chris storms off.
Ten years later, Chris has reinvented himself as a smooth talking lady killer, living large in Los Angeles. Circumstances bring him back to his home town and fate reconnects him with the "just friends" girl of his dreams. Suddenly, Chris has the chance to undo the past, but unbelievably, he finds it more difficult to romance Jamie than it was 10 years ago. Can one escape the clutches of the "friend zone?" Is it possible to go from "just friend" to boyfriend? Chris is about to find out the hard way.
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Amy Smart, Anna Faris, Chris Klein, Christopher Marquette, Julie Hagerty, Stephen Root, Maria Arce, James Bitonti
Directed by Roger Kumble
English language with latvian and russian subtitles.
Life seems to be looking up for shy and withdrawn Stephane (Gael Garcia Bernal) when he is coaxed to return to his childhood home with the promise of a job...in the mundane world of copy setting. Wildly creative, his fanciful and sometimes disturbing dream life constantly threatens to usurp his waking world.
Stephane is quickly drawn to his neighbor Stephanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg), whose imagination easily matches his own. As their relationship blossoms, the confidence Stephane exudes in his dreams begins bleeding over into his real life. Unable to bear the prospect of a waking world without Stephanie's love, and with no satisfying solutions coming out of his dream world, Stephane faces a dilemma, which the science of sleep may not help him solve.
Cast: Gael Garcia Bernal, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Alain Chabat, Miou-Miou
Directed by Michel Gondry