Spanish, German and an old American film are showing in Kyiv cinemas this week.
SKIN I LIVE IN
Thriller/melodrama
Spain 2011
Language: Ukrainian
Directed by Pedro Almodovar
Starring Antonio Banderas, Elena Anaya
Drenched in visual and passionate rapture, this film is an exotic tale of how one man tries to create a perfect woman.
A wealthy plastic surgeon experiments with a woman in his upstairs bedroom/surgery replacing her skin with a synthetic material of perfect texture, quality and color. Both the captor and his captive are madly in love with each other, which helps to sideline the impacts of blood, scalpels and maniacal obsession.
Spanish director Pedro Almodovar is a genius of complicated plots, mind games and heart throbbing emotions. You’ll be drying your brain trying to guess who the patient is – the surgeon’s ex-wife who is believed to have died in a car accident or a new lover who the doctor wants to shape in his wife’s likeness? Almodovar has again created a masterpiece, don’t miss it.
GOETHE!
Historical Melodrama
Germany 2010
Language: German with Ukr subtitles
Directed by Philipp Stolzl
Starring Alexander Fehling, Miriam Stein
Before he pens his intricately philosophical “Faust,” Johann Goethe is a rather poor law student who prefers following the laws of nature to those invented by humans.
Fed up with his son’s poetic escapades, Goethe’s father arranges a job of a court clerk for him. But the routine of a court room turns out not so bad when the young poet meets charming Lotte. His curly muse, however, is betrothed to another man, which sets the 2010 production of “Goethe!” in a non-stop entertaining motion.
Think “Shakespeare in Love” not “Hamlet” when you buy tickets to this movie.
THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL
Science fiction
U.S. 1951
Language: Eng with Eng subtitles
Directed by Robert Wise
Starring Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal
In 1951, aliens were still patient with humans and thought about destroying them only after they deliver a warning message. A robot lands in a park not far from the White House to tell the president that people have gone too far with nuclear weapons and space exploration.
The extraterrestrial, of course, is not important enough to speak to the ever-busy world leaders, and so it decides to reach out to the scientists. No super weaponry or stunning transformations are used to convince the humans; the underlining motive of this post-war American movie is to show the power of communication. In modern cinema, of course, filmmakers won’t get away with a dooms day scenario unless there is a deadly strain of virus or an asteroid involved.
The contrast is so startling and the alien’s attempt to stop humans is so naïve, you’d want to go back in time.
KYIV
19 Chervonoarmiyska St., 234-7381
www.kievkino.com.ua
Goethe!
Thur, Oct. 6 at 8 p.m.
Skin I Live In
Fri, Oct. 30 – Wed, Oct. 5 at 7:30 p.m., 9:40 p.m.
MASTERCLASS CINEMA CLUB
16 Lavrska St., 594-1063
The Day the Earth Stood STill
Thur, Oct. 6 at 7 p.m.
