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The 2008 Season of the Town Hall Feature Film Seminar
Monday, November 26, 2007 – LOOK (Vitagraph Films)
 Shot entirely from the point of view of the security cameras, Adam Rifkin's LOOK follows several interweaving storylines over the course of a random week in a random city. LOOK is a film about the things that people do when they don't know they're being watched. Based on the premise that everyone has secrets, LOOK takes us on a voyeuristic journey into the most personal parts of ordinary people's lives. Everyone is guilty of selective deception. We all hide aspects of our lives from those around us. It might be as benign as picking your nose in an empty elevator or perhaps something much darker. LOOK poses the question: Are we always alone when we think we are? LOOK tells five private stories which unfold before the prying eye of the covert camera to chilling effect. LOOK around you and wonder…who is watching? Cast: Jamie McShane, Spencer Redford, Hayes MacArthur, Nichelle Hines. Directed by: Adam Rifkin. Run Time: 93 minutes.
Rated R.
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Subsequent films were:
Monday, December 17, 2007 – THE ORPHANAGE (Picturehouse Films)
 Pan's Labyrinth director Guillermo Del Toro produces director Juan Antonio Bayona's gothic frightener about a long-abandoned orphanage with a particularly troubling past. As a child, young orphan Laura spent her formative years being cared for by the staff of a large orphanage located by the Spanish seaside. Those were some of the happiest years of Laura's life, and now, thirty-years later, the former charge returns to the
dilapidated institution with her husband Carlos and their seven-year old son Simon to
re-open the orphanage as a facility for disabled children. But something ominous haunts the darkened hallways of this silent, stately manor. When Simon's behavior begins to grow increasingly bizarre and malicious, Laura and Carlos start to suspect that the
mysterious surroundings have awoken something ominous in the young boy's
imagination. It's not long before Laura, too, is drawn into this disturbing web and the repressed memories of the past come flooding back in a terrifying torrent of tension and deeply disturbing revelations. Cast: Belen Rueda, Fernando Cayo, Roger Princep, Geraldine Chaplin. Written by: Sergio G. Sanchez, Directed by: Juan Antonio Bayona. Run Time: 105 Minutes.
Rated R
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Monday, February 11, 2008- THE DUCHESS OF LANGEAIS (IFC Films)
 Antoinette is the Duchess of Langeais, a married coquette who frequents the most extravagant balls in 1820's Paris during The Restoration, where hypocrisy and vanity reign. Upon the handsome general, Armand de Montriveau's first meeting with her, he realized it was true love from that moment on. Flattered by his attentions, the alluring Antoinette orchestrates a calculating game of seduction, but she repeatedly refuses Montriveau. Despite his sincere romantic declarations, Montriveau's passion remains unfulfilled. When the humiliated Montriveau eventually seeks his revenge, Antoinette's love awakens. But it may well be too late for the star-crossed lovers. Cast: Jeanne Balibar, Guillaume Depardieu, Michel Piccoli, Bulle Ogier
and Barbet Schroeder. Adapted by: Christine Laurent, Jacques Rivette and Pascal Bonitzer from the novella La Duchesse De Langeais by Honore De Balzac. Directed by: Jacques Rivette. Run Time: 137 minutes. Rated R. French with English subtitles
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Monday, February 25, 2008 – THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL (Sony Pictures Classics)
 Based on the best selling novel by Philippa Gregory, The Other Boleyn Girl is
an engrossing and sensual tale of intrigue, romance, and betrayal set against the backdrop of a defining moment in history. Two sisters, Anne (Natalie Portman) and Mary (Scarlett Johansson) Boleyn, are driven by their ambitious Father and Uncle to advance the family’s power and status by courting the affections of
the King of England (Eric Bana). Leaving behind the simplicity of country life, the girls are thrust into the dangerous and thrilling world of court life -- and
what began as a bid to help their family develops into a ruthless rivalry
between Anne and Mary for the love of the King. Cast: Natlie Portman, Scarlett Johansson,
Eric Bana, Kirstin Scott Thomas. Screenplay by: Peter Morgan. Directed by: Justin Chadwick. Run Time: 115 minutes. Rated PG-13
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Monday, March 10, 2008– UNDER THE SAME MOON (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
 Nine-year-old Carlos aka Carlitos is one of the countless children left behind by parents who come to the U.S. seeking a way to provide for their families. His mother, Rosario, has worked illegally as a domestic in Los Angeles for four years, sending money home to her son and mother to give them a chance at a better life. When the death of his grandmother leaves young Carlitos alone, he takes his fate into his own hands and heads north across the border to find his mother. As he journeys from his rural Mexican village to the L.A. barrio, Carlitos faces seemingly insurmountable obstacles with a steely determination and unfettered optimism that earn him the grudging respect and affection of a reluctant protector, a middle-aged migrant worker named Enrique. The unlikely pair finds its way from Tucson to East L.A., but the only clue Carlitos has to his mother’s whereabouts is her description of the street corner from which she has called him each Sunday for the last four years. Unaware that Rosario is only hours away from returning to Mexico to be with her son, Carlitos and Enrique desperately comb the vast unfamiliar city for a place he has seen only in his imagination. Cast: Kate De Castillo, Adrian Alonso, America Ferrera, Eugenio Derbez and Carmen Salinas. Screenplay by Liagh Villalobous. Directed by Patricia Riggen.
Run time 109 minutes. Rated PG-13.
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Monday, March 24, 2008 - SHOTGUN STORIES (IFC Films)
 Shotgun Stories tracks a feud that erupts between two sets of half brothers following the death of their father. Set against the cotton fields and back roads of Southeast Arkansas, these brothers discover the lengths to which each will go to protect their family. Son Hayes never speaks of the scars on his back. The shotgun pellets left under his skin cause the men he works with to take bets on how he got them. His brothers, Boy and Kid Hayes, don't discuss it. His past, like these scars, is never far behind him. This stands true for the memory of his father, a man who never bothered to give his children proper names. Leaving Son, Boy and Kid when they were young with the memory of a violent drunk who never hesitated to put his own needs ahead of his family. The brothers were raised by their mother, a hateful woman, who blamed her children for the life she'd been left with and the man she could not keep. Cast:
Michael Shannon, Douglas Ligon, Barlow Jacobs, Michael Abbott Jr. and Travis Smith. Written & directed by: Jeff Nichols. Run Time: 92 minutes. Rated PG-13.
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Monday, April 14, 2008 - A PREVIOUS ENGAGEMENT (Buccaneer Productions)
 When Seattle-based librarian Julia Reynolds convinces her unadventurous, jigsaw obsessed husband Jack into a once-in-a-lifetime vacation on the Mediterranean island of Malta she has a secret agenda: a date made twenty-five years earlier with her first love Alex. But she’s stunned when the sexy Frenchman not only shows up but insists she’s his true love, even though he brought his latest young girlfriend along. When Alex storms Julia''s holiday villa shouting his love, fantasy becomes reality. With one last day in Malta, Julia must choose between the husband she never really knew and the man she''s dreamt of for twenty-five years. Cast:
Juliet Stevenson, Daniel Stern, Tcheky Karyo, Kate Miles, Valerie Mahaffey, Simon Woods, Derek Riddell, Claire Brosseau, and Elizabeth Whitemere. Written & directed by: Joan Carr-Wiggin. Run Time: 118 minutes. Rated Not rated yet.
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Monday, April 28, 2008 - NOISE (THINK Films)
 David Owen (Tim Robbins) loves living in NYC. However, he's slowly being driven insane by the constant barrage of sounds. Dubbing himself the "Rectifier," David goes out to reduce the amount of urban noise. First he goes after idiots who ignore their car alarms, but he slowly works his way up to the city's biggest offender – the mayor (William Hurt). Cast
Tim Robbins, Bridget Moynahan, William Baldwin & William Hurt.Written & directed by Henry Bean. Run Time 90 minutes. Rated Not rated yet.
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Monday, May 5, 2008 - SANGRE DE MI SANGRE (IFC Films)
Winner “Best Film” 2007 Sundance Film Festival
 All Pedro, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, wants to do is journey to NYC to meet his father, Diego. However, while on his journey, Pedro has all of his belongings stolen by Juan, who wants to get to NYC first to steal Diego's fortune. Pedro is aided on his trip by a street hustler and the pair race against time to get their first to stop Juan's evil plan. Cast
Jesús Ochoa, Armando Hernández, Jorge Adrián Espíndola and Paola Mendoza. Written & directed by Christopher Zalla. Run Time 110 minutes.
Not rated yet.Spanish with English Subtitles.
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Monday, May 19, 2008 - JANEM, JANEM (Dragoman Film)
 Nominated for FIVE Israeli Academy Awards
This psychological drama set in Israel during the Intifada follows Eldi, a middle-class school teacher and stressed-out combat veteran facing an acute mid-life crisis. Instead of taking his wife’s advice to visit Paris, he disappears, going incognito on a journey in his own country. In Tel Aviv, he joins the seamy underground world of paperless but colorful Turkish and Romanian foreign workers, pretending to be one of them. This identity quest with its dramatic twists and turns in a politically divided Israel is heartbreaking, compelling, and provocative. Cast Danny Rytenberg, Avital Dicker, Dor Zweigenbom,
and Galina Auzerner. Written & Directed by Haim Bouzaglo. Run Time 100 minutes. Rated Not rated yet. Hebrew with English subtitles
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Monday, June 2, 2008– THE PROMOTION (The Weinstein Company)
 Two mid-level Chicago supermarket employees--Doug and Richard, a
dubious new guy from Canada--compete ruthlessly for a coveted
managerial post at a new store location. Doug and Richard could not be more different, but going head-to-head in a contest of wits and will reveals how they have more in common than they once suspected.
Cast
John C. Reilly,
Seann William Scott,
Jenna Fischer,
Lili Taylor,
Fred Armisen and
Gil Bellows. Written & Directed by
Steve Conrad. Run Time
90 minutes. Rated
R.
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Monday, June 23, 2008 - TELL NO ONE (Sony Pictures)
 Pediatrician Alexandre Beck still grieves the murder of his beloved wife, Margot, eight years earlier. When two bodies are found near the scene of the crime, the police reopen the case and Alex becomes a suspect again. The mystery deepens when Alex receives an anonymous e-mail with a link to a video clip that seems to suggest Margot is somehow still alive and a message to "Tell No One."
Cast Kristin Scott-Thomas, François Cluzet, Marie-Josée Croze,
André Dussollier, Jean Rochefort and Marina Hands. Written & Directed by
Guillaume Canet. Run Time
125 minutes. Not Rated.French with English Subtitles
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