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The 2003 Season of the Town Hall Feature Film Seminar
Opened Feb 10 with THE LIFE OF DAVID GALE. David Gale (Spacey) is a man who has tried hard to live by his principles but in a bizarre twist of fate, this devoted father/ popular professor was convicted of murdering fellow activist Constance Hallaway (Linney). With only three days before his scheduled execution, Gale agrees to give Pulitzer-hungry reporter Bitsey Bloom (Winslet) the exclusive interview she's been chasing. But Bitsey soon realizes that this assignment is more than she bargained for, and that a man's life is in her hands. Putting her own safety in jeopardy, she frantically races to piece together the shocking events surrounding Constance's death. Released by Universal Pictures and Intermedia Films. Rated R. Running time 2 hours and 10 minutes.
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Subse quent films were:
Feb 24 - SPIDER
This is a psychological thriller (not surprisingly) about a man (Fiennes), trying to piece his life back together, living in London's East End after his (premature) release from a mental institution. Writing in a journal, the man tries to discover the truth about his mysterious past and the death of his mother (Richardson), even as he still struggles with his fragile sanity. Spider was her nickname for him. Released by Sony Pictures Classics. Rated R. Running time 98 minutes
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March 10 - RETURNING MICKEY STERN
 On an exotic island close to the Big Apple, Mickey Stern (Joseph Bologna) is about to live out his past in someone else's future. Shot here on Long Island's own Fire Island, this story takes us from Mickey's boyhood to his teenage years, when he finds the island and falls in love with the wonderful Leah. Mickey's adolescent dream of playing for the New York Yankees does not pan out and he finds himself wanting to turn back time. Fifty years later he returns to Fire Island with his best friend Harry (Tom Bosley) and meets a woman who has a resemblance to his first love. An inviting and funny comedy about a man trying to right past wrongs with only one week to do it. Released by 2 Life! Films. Rated PG-13. Running Time: 91 minutes
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Marc h 24 - LOS LUNES AL SOL (Mondays in the Sun)
The story of six friends variously struggling to make ends meet in the wake of a shipyard closure several years earlier in a depressed northern Spanish coastal city. The portrait of their friendship contrasted with their family lives is ultimately poignant and bittersweet.
Released by Lions Gate Films. Rated R. Running time 113 minutes.
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April 7 - A MIGHTY WIND
 When folk icon Irving Steinbloom passed away, he left behind a legacy of music and a family of performers he shepherded to folk stardom. To celebrate a life spent submerged in folk, Irving's loving son Jonathan (Bob Balaban) has decided to put together a memorial concert featuring some of Steinbloom's best-loved musicians. There's Mitch (Eugene Levy) and Mickey (Catherine O'Hara), who were the epitome of young love until their partnership was torn apart by heartbreak; classic troubadours The Folksmen (Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer), whose records were endlessly entertaining for anyone able to punch a hole in the center to play them; and The New Main Street Singers (featuring John Michael Higgins, Jane Lynch and Parker Posey), the most meticulously color-coordinated neuftet ever to hit an amusement park. Now for one night only in New York City's Town Hall, these three groups will reunite and gather together to celebrate the music that almost made them famous. Released by Warner Bros. Pictures. Rated PG-13. Running Time: 90 minutes
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April 21  - CONFIDENCE
A master con man Jake Vig (Burns) swindles a few thousand dollars from an unsuspecting victim who turns out to be an accountant for a major crime kingpin (Hoffman). Unable to return the money, Jake and his crew offer to pull off a big con to repay their debt. Released by Lions Gate Films. Rating: R. Running time 98 Minutes. |
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May 5 - TOGETHER
Together is a coming-of-age tale woven together with the harmony and intensity of a complex musical orchestration. Xiaochun is a 13-year-old boy, a talented violinist who lives with his father in a small, provincial Chinese city. Shy and sensitive, music is his way of expressing his feelings. Xiaochun's sweet-natured father wants the best for him, so they move to immense, metropolitan Beijing so that Xiaochun can audition for a prestigious music school and take lessons that befit his talent. But Xiaochun's new world is unlike any he's known. He meets new and demanding teachers, discovers true friendship, falls in love for the first time, learns how painful love can be, and comes to understand the true meaning of music. With his world splitting in two and everyone telling him what they want for him, Xiaochun has to figure out what he wants for himself. -- © United Artists. Released by MGM/United Artists. Rated: PG. Running Time: 1 hour 15 minutes. |
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May 19  - RESPIRO
On Lampedusa, an island near western Sicily, rival boy gangs play roughly among seaside cliffs. Husbands go out to sea and wives work in the fish-packing plant. Pleasures are simple and fun is restricted to Saturday nights. The reality for all who live on Lampedusa is that island life can be as cruel as it is heartwarming, as suffocating as it is charming. Grazia is the affectionate, young mother of three children--a teenaged girl, Marinella, and two boys, Pasquale and Filippo. Vibrant and full of life, Grazia often sings along to the latest hit by Italian pop star Patti Pravo and enjoys finding ways to amuse herself and her children. But Grazia, much like the sea surrounding her island, can also be unpredictable and stormy. Her free-spirited attitude causes talk in the entire village. Grazia's husband, Pietro, lovingly stands by her in the face of small town gossip. © 2002 Sony Pictures Classics. Released by Sony Pictures Classics. Rated PG-13. Running time 90 minutes.
June 3 - T HE HEART OF ME
Based on Rosamond Lehman's book, The Echoing Grove. Upper crust England before, during, and after WWII provides the backdrop for The Heart of Me, a richly emotional drama about the seductive -- and destructive -- nature of passion. A classic romantic triangle, the film stars Helena Bonham Carter and Olivia Williams as sisters Dinah and Madeleine, and Paul Bettany as Rickie, Madeleine's husband, who finds himself drawn to his darkly beautiful, bohemian sister-in-law. Torn between two women, one who always plays by the rules and one who always breaks them. Over the years, the two sisters wage a fierce battle for his heart that exposes their vast differences as well as their surprising bonds. -- © ThinkFilm. Released by ThinkFilm. Rated R. Running time 90 minutes.
June 16 - AND NOW LADIES AND GENTLEMEN
 Valentinn (Jeremy Irons) is a criminal mastermind, but his exploits don't provide much in the way of satisfaction. Thus, he sets out on a one-man sailing trip around the world in a last attempt at finding meaning in his life. Meanwhile, in Morocco, a burned-out jazz singer named Jane (Patricia Kaas) is trying to forget a fizzled love affair. And so begins the journey of these two lost souls who are destined to cross paths. Released by Paramount Classics. Rated: PG-13. Running time 2 hours 13 minutes.
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