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The 2007 Season of the Town Hall Feature Film Seminar
 The 2007 season opened on Monday, November 20, 2006 with 10 ITEMS OR LESS. Morgan Freeman plays a major movie star whose pickiness with his projects accounts for a lengthy absence from the screen. While considering a role as a supermarket manager, he decides to do some field research at a small ethnic market on the very outskirts of Los Angeles. Finding himself stranded with no cell phone or transportation, he meets Vega, the feisty cashier who mans the store's express register. When she offers to drive him back to "civilization," this initially mismatched pair discovers common ground, with the star realizing that his love for people is what drew him to acting in the first place, and the cashier gaining the confidence to interview -- or as he terms it, to "audition" -- for a job that could change her life. Studio: THINKFilms. Cast: Morgan Freeman, Paz Vega, Bobby Cannavale, Anne Dudek and Jennifer Echols. Written and directed by Brad Siberling. Rated R. Running Time: 81 Minutes.
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Subsequent films were:
 Monday, December 18, 2006 – THE PAINTED VEIL.
Based on the classic novel by W. Somerset Maugham, The Painted Veil is a love story set in the 1920s that tells the story of a young English couple, Walter, a middle class doctor and Kitty, an upper-class woman, who get married for the wrong reasons and relocate to Shanghai, where she falls in love with someone else. When he uncovers her infidelity, in an act of vengeance, he accepts a job in a remote village in China ravaged by a deadly epidemic, and takes her along. Their journey brings meaning to their relationship and gives them purpose in one of the most remote and beautiful places on earth. Studio: Warner Independent Pictures. Cast: Edward Norton, Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber. Written by Ron Nyswaner, and directed by John Curran. Rated PG-13. Running Time: 124 minutes.
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M onday, February 5, 2007 - AMAZING GRACE: THE WILLIAM WILBERFORCE STORY.
A life-altering meeting with ex-slave Olaudauh Equiano inspires William Wilberforce, a firebrand politician known for his charm, wit and zeal, to confront the dehumanizing slave trade, an economic force so vital to the Establishment that it forces him into a fierce conflict with the most powerful people in the nation. Aided by a diverse coalition of allies, including former slave trader John Newton, passionate abolitionist Thomas Clarkson, and his spirited wife and political compatriot Barbara Spooner, Wilberforce begins a movement that would ultimately change history. Studio: Walden Media. Cast: Ioan Gruffudd, Romola Garai, Albert Finney and Rufus Sewell. Written by Steven Knight, and directed by Michael Apted. Rated PG. Running Time: 111 minutes.
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 Monday, February 19, 2007 – SERAPHIM FALLS
The film is set after the end of the American Civil War. Gideon is hidng in the American Rockies, contemplating a fire. A shot pierces the silence and hits Gideon, who is then convulsed in pain and quickly runs away, followed by his pursuers. Soon the audience learn why: Gideon is a hunted man. Colonel Morsman Carver, a Confederate officer, has hired several mountain men to kill Gideon to avenge a terrible wrong that he once committed. From the snowy peaks, the story descends into the savannahs - full of rapacious traders, vicious railway foremen and overly-welcoming mormon missionaries - and moves finally into the desert, where the two men challenge each other in the face of Mother Nature at her harshest, with surreal visitations to guide them to their final confrontation. Studio: Icon Films. Cast: Pierce Bronsan, Liam Neeson, Anjelica Huston and Angie Harmon. Wrtitten by Abby Everett Jacques, and directed by David von Ancken. Rated R. Running Time: 115
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M onday, March 5, 2007 FIRST SNOW Wound tight and cocky, Jimmy Starks is a smooth-talking salesman certain he’s on the verge of a big break. Even when his car stalls in the middle of nowhere, a roadside soothsayer assures him a windfall is on its way. But although Jimmy should be happy when his boss suddenly agrees to financially back his business venture, he starts to become paranoid instead. Studio: Yari Film Group Releasing. Cast: Guy Pearce, Piper Perabo, William Fichtner, J.K. Simmons and Shea Whigham. Written by Mark Fergus and Mark Ostby, and directed by Mark Fergus. Rated R. Running Time: 121 minutes.
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Monday, March 19, 2007 - THE LOOKOUT.  This intelligent crime drama is centered on Chris (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a once promising high school athlete whose life is turned upside down following a tragic accident. As he tries to maintain a normal life, he takes a job as a janitor at a bank where he ultimately finds himself caught up in a planned heist. Studio: Miramax Films. Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jeff Daniels, Matthew Goode, Isla Fisher and Carla Gugino. Written and directed by Scott Frank. Rated R. Running Time: 99 minutes.
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Monday, April 9, 2007 - LONELY HEARTS.  Based on a true story – in the late 1940's, Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez were America's notorious Lonely Hearts Killers. Their lethal scam was simple; they would swindle and then viciously murder lovelorn war widows who would answer their personal ads in which Ray would describe himself as a sexy Latin Lover. Studio: I.D.P. Cast: John Travolta, James Gandolfini, Salma Hayek, Jared Leto, Laura Dern and Scott Caan. Written & Directed by Todd Robinson. Rated R. Running Time: 108 minutes.
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Monday, April 23, 2007 - SEPTEMBER DAWN.  A story set against the Mountain Meadows Massacre, the film is based upon the tragedy that occurred in Utah in 1857. The native Mormons murdered a group of settlers, traveling on wagons. All together, about 140 souls of men, women and children, were taken. Amidst this, two young lovers-to-be, one a Mormon and the other one of the doomed settlers from Arkansas, develop a relationship in an atmosphere of suspicion and rancor. Studio: Black Diamond Pictures. Cast: Jon Voight, Trent Ford, Tamara Hope and Lolita Davidovich. Written by Christopher Cain & Carole Whang Shutter, and directed by Christopher Cain. Rated R. Running Time: 110 Minutes
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Monday, May 7, 2007 - ANGEL-A.  A movie about Andre (Jamel Debbouze) who gets a second chance in life when he meets Angela (Rie Rasmussen), a tall, femme fatale whom he saves from a suicide bid in the Seine River. The two spend a memorable summer night in nearly deserted Paris where Angela exposes herself as a true angel, sent down to save Andre from himself. Studio: Sony Classic Pictures. Cast: Rie Rasmussen, Jamel Debbouze, Gilbert Melki and Serge Riaboukine. Written & Directed by Luc Besson. Rated R. Running Time: 91 Minutes
In French and Spanish with English subtitles
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Monday, May 21, 2007 - LA VIE EN ROSE.  From the streets of the cutthroat Belleville district of Paris to the dazzling limelight of New York’s glamorous concert halls, Edith Piaf’s life was a constant battle to sing and survive, to live and love. Raised in abject poverty, surrounded by hookers and pimps, Edith’s magical voice made her a star on both sides of the Atlantic. Her passionate romances and friendships with the greatest names of the period – Yves Montand, Jean Cocteau, Charles Aznavour, Marlene Deitrich, boxing world champion Marcel Cerdan – made her a household name as much as her memorable live performances and beautiful renditions of songs she made famous internationally, La Vie en Rose, Milord, Hymn to Love, Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien and many more. But in her audacious attempt to tame her tragic destiny, the “Little Sparrow” – as she was nicknamed – flew so high that she could not fail to burn her wings. Studio: New Line Cinema. Cast: Marion Cotillard, Clotide Courau, Jean-Paul Rouve, Sylvie Testud and Pascal Greggory. Written and directed by Oliver Dahan. Rated PG 13. Running Time: 144 minutes. In French with English subtitles
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Monday, June 4, 2007 – VITUS.  Vitus is a 12-year-old boy who almost seems to be from another planet--he has hearing like a bat, he plays piano like a virtuoso and studies encyclopedias. No wonder his parents begin to anticipate a brilliant future for him as a classical pianist. However, the daily pressure of hours of musical practice, his over-protective but well-meaning mother and his father's precarious financial situation lead the boy to seek refuge at his eccentric grandfather's house. Vitus and his grandfather's shared love of flying, mischief and adventure offers Vitus an opportunity at a normal childhood--something the burden of his talent had previously prevented him from. When Vitus employs a ruse pretending he's been robbed of his talent, his future as a piano virtuoso falls at risk. Studio: Sony Pictures Classics. Cast: Fabrizio Borsani, Teo Gheorghiu, Julika Jenkins, Urs Jucker and Bruno Ganz. Written by Lukas B. Suter and Fredi M. Murer, and directed by Fredi M. Murer. Rated PG. Running Time 120 minutes. In Swedish with English subtitles
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Monday, June 25, 2007 - JOSHUA. The tale of Brad and Abby C airn, perfect Manhattan parents in a perfect Manhattan apartment whose perfect life begins to crack after the birth of their second child Lily. Shortly after Lily arrives home, a dark side of prodigy son Joshua slowly begins to reveal itself. Studio: Fox Searchlight Pictures. Cast: Sam Rockwell, Vera Farmiga, Michael McKean and Dallas Roberts, Celia Weston. Written by David Gilbert and George Ratliff, and directed by George Ratliff. Rated R. Running Time: 105 minutes
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