French director’s quirky drama hits the Kingsway
Eugène Green’s odd film follows an architect’s quest for inspiration in Italy
La Sapienza An intellectually lively and visually sumptuous drama about an architect’s quest for inspiration in Italy, La Sapienza is the latest in a series of unabashedly idiosyncratic films by French director Eugène Green. It also becomes the first of Green’s five features to get a theatrical run in Toronto when it opens this weekend.
The sheer oddness of Green’s filmmaking style is one probable reason that his movies were little seen in North America until La Sapienza became a favourite on the festival circuit last year (including a stop at TIFF). Typically uttering their lines while gazing directly into the camera, his actors are stiff enough to make the famously stone-faced performers in Robert Bresson’s films seem like they’re auditioning for a Mexican telenovela. Full of allusions to literature, art and opera, Green’s work can also be dauntingly high-minded even by art house standards.
Yet his films are just as remarkable for their droll humour and La Sapienza is no exception once the viewer grows accustomed to its many quirks. Stunning views of the Baroque masterpieces of 17th-century architect Francesco Borromini provide another entry point.
La Sapienza opens Friday at the Kingsway Theatre. Unexpected An American dramedy that earned a warm reception at Sundance and opens in Toronto this weekend, Unexpected offers Cobie Smulders another chance to play a different kind of character than the one that kept her busy on How I Met Your Mother. The Vancouver native and part-time S.H.I.E.L.D. member stars as a Chicago high school teacher who experiences an unplanned pregnancy at the same time as one of her prize students. The fact that Smulders hap- pened to be pregnant when the film was shot inevitably adds a sense of verisimilitude to this maternity-minded effort by director Kris Swanberg. Unexpected opens Friday at the Carlton and hits VOD and iTunes this week. Outdoor screenings TIFF in Your Park launches the weekly lineup of outdoor screenings with the Chinese hit Breakup Buddies at Scarborough’s Chester Le Park on Friday. The Christie Pits Film Festival opts for the company of one of the city’s most notorious criminals via a sunset showing of Edwin Boyd: Citizen Gangster on Sunday. Then on Tuesday, Dreamgirls plays the Yonge-Dundas Square’s City Cinema program. The admirably Toronto-centric selections on Wednesday include Stories We Tell (Harbourfront Centre’s Free Flicks at the WestJet Stage), Watermark (TIFF in the Park at David Pecaut Stage) and Guidance (Open Roof Festival at 99 Sudbury St.).
The Wednesday screening of Boyz N the Hood at the Regent Park Film Festival’s Under the Stars program and TIFF’s rather kid-friendlier Thursday showing of Song of the Sea at North York’s Earl Bales Park cap off the list of alfresco options. Healey’s Hideaway A new documentary by director Eve Kinizo, Healey’s Hideaway delves into the history of the blues hot spot at the corner of Queen and Bathurst, where Jeff Healey often played host before the guitarist’s untimely death in 2008. Kinizo joins many of Healey’s friends, loved ones and fellow players for Q&A sessions after this weekend’s screenings at the Carlton on Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 4 p.m. Sentimental Education at MDFF MDFF continues its invaluable series of world-cinema titles that are new to Toronto with a recent effort by Brazilian master Julio Bressane. A competition entry at the Locarno festival in 2013, Sentimental Education is an experimental and unabashedly theatrical feature that weaves the myth of Endymion into the story of a schoolmistress who’s consumed by her lust for a younger man.
A worthy challenge for local cinephiles, Bressane’s film makes its Canadian premiere on Wednesday at 8 p.m. at Cinecycle (129 Spadina Ave., rear). It’s preceded by Champi
onship, a 2013 short by Toronto filmmaker and film historian Stephen Broomer. Rogue Nation preview with Q&A The latest instalment of the Mission:
Impossible franchise isn’t out until July 31, but impatient moviegoers can get a jump on the action in Rogue
Nation at a special preview on Monday at 8:30 p.m. at the Scotiabank Theatre and Cineplex Cinemas Queensway & VIP.
Along with a post-screening streaming Q&A with Tom Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie, the event includes poster and lanyard giveaways. Alas, it’s strictly BYOSAG (Bring Your Own Secret Agent Gadgets). In brief A portrait of cycling world legend Giuseppe Marinoni, Marinoni: The Fire in the Frame plays the Carlton Friday to Sunday.
TIFF’s all-time Canada Top Ten series of free screenings continues with Jean-Claude Lauzon’s surreal coming-of-age story Léolo on Saturday at 12:45 p.m.
The tasty Hot Docs fave Deli Man returns for the first of two encore screenings at the Bloor on Sunday at 4 p.m.
The Royal’s Robots vs. Unicorns celebrates Jim Henson’s weirdest creation when The Dark Crystal plays Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. jandersonesque@gmail.com