A MovieNight repeat screening (about 12 years on?) revealed that Fabien Bielinsky’s fast-paced, twisty-turny crime thriller, Nine Queens, has not been slowed by the passage of time! In fact it might be argued that it’s stayed as fast, and some of us have slowed down which, in effect, makes it faster, relatively speaking (I was always pretty good at math).

Thanks to our stalwart MovieNight crew for coming to play on such a gorgeous spring evening.

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What a splendid way to introduce our new projector to MovieNight! Terence Mallick’s Days of Heaven was alive with cinematography so grand in scale that it seemed as though our screen might just burst. As Norris remarked some days later, “In magazines, newspapers, and film blogs. we’re used to seeing the same two or three magnificent stills from key landmarks in cinematography. In Days of Heaven, it feels like you see one every two minutes or so.”

Still, Mallick struggled to weave all this stunning footage into a cohesive story until he fell back on the idea of using a narrator (as he had done with Sissy Spacek in his previous masterpiece of Americana, Badlands). 17 year old Linda Mantz (pictured above) just improvised the whole narration. “They took me into a voice recording studio.”, remembers Manz, in a 2011 Village Voice interview. “No script, nothing, I just watched the movie and rambled on . . . I dunno, they took whatever dialogue they liked.”  Brilliant.

Richard Gere and Sam Sheppard looked so fresh and young, then aged 28 and 35, respectively. Is that why there were so many ladies at MovieNight? Hey… I’m not complaining!

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Thursday’s soft blanket of snow (hopefully the last this year, please?) put a bit of a damper on MovieNight attendance this week. Still, not a bad turn-out under the circumstances, and those who that ventured forth were rewarded with another treat from the Dardennes. Two Days, One Night is a frank, non-judgemental observation of society in this age ruled by the dollar, or in this case, the euro.

The protagonists in the brothers’ films have traditionally been played by unknowns, so the casting of Marion Coutilliard in the lead role came as something of a surprise. A pleasant surprise: her portrayal of a woman oscillating between emotional fragility and remarkable resilience was mesmerizing. Mdme. Biya (Coutilliard) was almost constantly in motion, almost always in a sporty tank top, almost always with her broad shoulders bound by clear plastic bra straps… a nice touch. Also new for Les freres… a feel-good ending. We like.

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