“The African Queen” – Jun 26th

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, Jun 26th at 7:15p for The African Queen at the Brattle Theatre . Look for Dan wearing a multicolored shirt in the theatre lobby about 15 minutes before the film. As always, after the film we will descend on a local establishment for dinner/drinks/discussion.

East Africa during World War I: after British missionary Robert Morley dies in the wake of a German attack, his prissy spinster sister Rose (Hepburn) hitches a ride on the African Queen, a rundown riverboat operated by gin-sodden Canadian Charlie Allnut (Bogart) who later finds shes got a formidable agenda: whip up a few homemade torpedoes to get revenge on a German gunboat floating on a lake, with only a hair-raising ride down the rapids, an enemy fort, and Deutsch officer Theodore Bikels noose in the way. Shot on location in the Belgian Congo and Uganda by Technicolor specialist par excellence Jack Cardiff (The Red Shoes), THE AFRICAN QUEEN had its own set of off-camera adventures: Mrs. Bogie, Lauren Bacall, came along on the trip as probably the most glamorous waitress in the world; the boat sank in the river and had to be salvaged; Huston kept the camera turning when a hippo nearly capsized it during the final scene; and virtually the entire crew came down with dysentery, except for the strictly whiskey-imbibing Huston and Bogart. Oscar nominations to Hepburn, Huston, and screenplay with Bogart winning for Best Actor, beating out Fredric March, Montgomery Clift, and Marlon Brandos Stanley Kowalski. Seen for decades only in washed-out prints (the original 3-strip Technicolor negatives had long since shrunk), THE AFRICAN QUEEN, in this new 35mm restoration, once again looks magnificent, with deep, burnished browns and yellows and a level of detail that picks out every drop of sweat on Bogarts brow (Dave Kehr). Restored by ITV Global Entertainment and Paramount Pictures. notes adapted from the Film Forum, NYC

“Submarine” – Jun 19th

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, Jun 19th at 7:05p for Submarine at the Kendall Square Cinema . Look for Sean wearing a nametag in the theatre lobby about 15 minutes before the film. As always, after the film we will descend on a local establishment for dinner/drinks/discussion.

“Fifteen-year-old Oliver Tate (Craig Roberts) has two big ambitions: to save his parents’ marriage via carefully plotted intervention and to lose his virginity before his next birthday. Worried that his mom (Sally Hawkins) is having an affair with New Age weirdo Graham Purvis (Paddy Considine), Oliver monitors his parents’ sex life by charting the dimmer switch in their bedroom. He also forges suggestive love letters from his mom to dad. Meanwhile, Oliver attempts to woo his classmate, Jordana (Yasmin Paige), a self-professed pyromaniac who supervises his journal writingespecially the bits about her. When necessary, she orders him to cross things out. Based on Joe Dunthorne’s acclaimed novel, Submarine is a captivating coming-of-age story with an offbeat edge.”

“Nostalgia for the Light” – Jun 12th

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, Jun 12th at 7:30p for Nostalgia for the Light at the Brattle Theatre . Look for Sean wearing a nametag in the theatre lobby about 15 minutes before the film. As always, after the film we will descend on a local establishment for dinner/drinks/discussion.

For his new film, master director Patricio GuzmA!n (The Battle of Chile, The Pinochet Case) travels 10,000 feet above sea level to the driest place on earth, Chileas Atacama Desert. There, atop the mountains where the sky is so translucent that telescopes can see right to the boundaries of the universe, astronomers from all over the world gather to observe the stars. Meanwhile, at the base of the mountains, the harsh heat of the sun preserves secrets from the past: the remains of Pre-Columbian mummies; 19th-century explorers and miners; and the remains of political prisoners adisappeareda by the Chilean army in the 1970s. So it happens that, while astronomers examine the most distant and oldest galaxies above, women, surviving relatives of the disappeared, search below for the remains of their loved ones.

“The Tree of Life” – Jun 5th

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, Jun 5th at 7pm for The Tree of Life at the Kendall Square Cinema . Look for Sean wearing a nametag in the theatre lobby about 15 minutes before the film. As always, after the film we will descend on a local establishment for dinner/drinks/discussion.

From Terrence Malick, the acclaimed director of Badlands, Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line, comes The Tree of Life, an impressionistic story of a Midwestern family in the 1950s. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father (Brad Pitt). Jack (played as an adult by Sean Penn) finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith. Through Malick’s signature imagery, we see how both brute nature and spiritual grace shape not only our lives as individuals and families, but all life. Winner of the Palme d’Or (top honors) at this year’s Cannes International Film Festival.

“Midnight in Paris” – May 29th

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, May 29th at 7:20p for Midnight in Paris at the Coolidge Corner Theatre . Look for Howard wearing a nametag in the theatre lobby about 15 minutes before the film. As always, after the film we will descend on a local establishment for dinner/drinks/discussion.

Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams star as a young engaged couple traveling to Paris with her parents on a business trip in Woody Allen’s new romantic comedy. Once in Paris, however, this couple must confront the fact that perhaps the life that they are living is an illusion.

Gil (Wilson) is a man who is comfortable with the basic pleasures of every-day life, but when he and his fiancee arrive in Paris, Inez (McAdams) is swept off her feet by the charm of the city, including a visit by an old acquaintance, Paul (Michael Sheen). As Gil becomes the curmudgeon of the group, not wanting to take part in the Parisian night-life, he ends up taking midnight strolls along the streets of Paris, alone, and finds a completely new twist on life. Wanting to find out where her fiance goes at night, Inez and her father hire a private detective, but when he goes missing after following Gil on one of his midnight strolls, is the marriage in trouble?

“Cave of Forgotten Dreams 3D” – May 22nd

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, May 22nd at 6:35p for Cave of Forgotten Dreams 3D at the AMC Boston Common 19 . Look for Sean wearing a nametag in the theatre lobby about 15 minutes before the film. As always, after the film we will descend on a local establishment for dinner/drinks/discussion.

Werner Herzog gains exclusive access to film inside the Chauvet caves of Southern France, capturing the oldest known pictorial creations of humankind in their astonishing natural setting.

“Incendies” – May 15th

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, May 15th at 7pm for Incendies at the Coolidge Corner Theatre . Look for Sean wearing a nametag in the theatre lobby about 15 minutes before the film. As always, after the film we will descend on a local establishment for dinner/drinks/discussion.

When notary Lebel (Remy Girard) sits down with Jeanne and Simon Marwan (Melissa Desormeaux Poulin, Maxim Gaudette) to read them their mother Nawals will (Lubna Azabal), the twins are stunned to receive a pair of envelopes one for the father they thought was dead and another for a brother they didnt know existed.

In this enigmatic inheritance, Jeanne sees the key to Nawals retreat into unexplained silence during the final weeks of her life. She immediately decides to go to the Middle East to dig into a family history of which she knows next to nothing.

Simon is unmoved by their mothers posthumous mind games. However, the love he has for his sister is strong, and he soon joins her in combing their ancestral homeland in search of a Nawal who is very different from the mother they knew.

With Lebels help, the twins piece together the story of the woman who brought them into the world, discovering a tragic fate as well as the courage of an exceptional woman.

An adaptation of Wajdi Mouawads hit play, INCENDIES is a deeply moving story that brings the extremism and violence of todays world to a starkly personal level, delivering a powerful and poetic testament to the uncanny power of the will to survive.

“Thor: 3D” – May 8th

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, May 8th at 7:30p for Thor: 3D at the AMC Boston Common 19 . Look for Sean wearing a nametag in the theatre lobby about 15 minutes before the film. As always, after the film we will descend on a local establishment for dinner/drinks/discussion.

“As the son of Odin (Anthony Hopkins), the king of the Norse gods, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is soon to inherit the throne of Asgard from his aging father. However, on the day that he is to be crowned, Thor reacts with brutality when the gods’ enemies , the Frost Giants, enter the palace in violation of their treaty. As punishment, Odin banishes Thor to Earth. While Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Thor’s brother, plots mischief in Asgard, Thor, now stripped of his powers, faces his greatest threat yet.”

“Another Earth” – May 1st

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, May 1st at 7:30pm for Another Earth at the Somerville Theatre . Look for Sean wearing a nametag in the theatre lobby about 15 minutes before the film. As always, after the film we will descend on a local establishment for dinner/drinks/discussion.

Rhoda Williams (co-writer Brit Marling) has just been accepted at MIT to study astrophysics and has her whole life ahead of her. John Burroughs (William Mapother, Ethan from Lost) is a noted composer about to have his second child with his loving wife. While the world is entranced by the discovery of a duplicate Earth, Rhoda’s and John’s lives become tragically intertwined.

The film is evocative of other recent, low-budget science fiction films like MOON, in that characters and storytelling take precedence over special effects. The relationship between the two leads is the focus, but the prospect of an alternate planet, potentially home to alternate selves, looms at the edges of the story. Like the best science fiction, ANOTHER EARTH uses a fantastical setting to ask questions that confront us in the here and now: Could a new world provide redemption? Or was that within us all along?

Note: This film is part of the Independent Film Festival of Boston 2011, and may sell out. If you are interested in coming please buy tickets in advance.

“The Conspirator” – Apr 24th

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, Apr 24th at 6:35p for The Conspirator at the Kendall Square Cinema . Look for Sean wearing a nametag in the theatre lobby about 15 minutes before the film. As always, after the film we will descend on a local establishment for dinner/drinks/discussion.

Robert Redford directs the riveting thriller The Conspirator, the powerful story of a woman who would do anything to protect her family, and the man who risked everything to save her. In the wake of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, seven men and one woman are arrested and charged with conspiring to kill the President, Vice President and Secretary of State. The lone woman charged, Mary Surratt (Robin Wright), owns a boarding house where John Wilkes Booth (Toby Kebbell) and others met and planned the simultaneous attacks. Against the ominous backdrop of post-Civil War Washington, newly-minted lawyer Frederick Aiken (James McAvoy), a 28-year-old Union war-hero, reluctantly agrees to defend Surratt before a military tribunal. Aiken realizes his client may be innocent and that she is being used as bait and hostage in order to capture the only conspirator to have escaped a massive manhunt, her own son, John (Johnny Simmons). As the nation turns against her, Surratt is forced to rely on Aiken to uncover the truth and save her life. Also starring Kevin Kline, Evan Rachel Wood and Colm Meaney.