Free French cinema--all over NYC--as FILMS ON THE GREEN returns for its eighth annual series

Films on the Green, New York City's favorite outdoor film festival -- of free French movies all summer long -- opens its eighth annual series this Friday evening, May 29, in Central Park with a landmark film that lifted a certain French sexpot named Brigitte Bardot (below and above, right, with a very young Jean-Louis Trintignant) to international acclaim, while taking her director, Roger Vadim, along for the ride -- for awhile.

Here's a film that should make clear to today's youth audience what something sexy looked like in the mid 1950s, when the poor old USA was getting damned little of it and so had to turn to France for a good turn-on. Interestingly enough, this film is now rated only PG -- which indicates, among other things, how very G-rated (if we'd actually had a rating system way back then) were most American films of the 1950s.

TrustMovies has a particular soft spot for the annual Films on the Green fest because he's been covering it since its inception: first, for the late, lamented Greencine.com, and then yearly on this blog. Each summer the festival -- hosted by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States, FACE Foundation and the City of New York Parks & Recreation -- chooses a wide array of films from various decades (this year's includes the 1930s, 50s, 60s, and post-Millennium, of quite varied content and styles that show off French cinema to fine advantage. The dates are Friday evenings, beginning May 29 through July 31, with a final screening on September 10. Locations range from Central Park to Riverside Park, Tompkins Square Park, Washington Square Park, Columbia University, and Transmitter Park (in Brooklyn).

All the screenings are absolutely free and viewers are invited to bring their own food and drink and enjoy an evening of film culture al fresco. This year's films includes classics like the Vadim and Duvivier's Pepe Le Moko, as well as one of the great French comedies of recent years -- Priceless (above) by the ever under-valued Pierre Salvadori -- plus three movies completely new to me that I can't wait to view: Goha (1958), La Derive (1963) and Zarafa (2012). And that's only little more than half of what's in store.There's a Rohmer (two photos up), Sandrine Bonnaire (below) in one of her best roles, and some first-class animation.

You can see the entire program below, along with the proper park locations and descriptions of the films via the press office of the French Embassy. Mark your calendar now, and don't miss a single screening. What with all the dry weather we've been having of late, there may not even occur any rain interference, as in some former years.

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FILMS ON THE GREEN 2015

FESTIVAL SCHEDULE WITH FILM DESCRIPTIONS

Friday, May 29 | 8:30 pm - Central Park (79th street and Fifth Avenue)
…AND GOD CREATED WOMAN (Et Dieu créa la Femme)
Directed by Roger Vadim with Brigitte Bardot, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Curt Jürgens
1956 | Romance | PG | 1h35
Juliette is a seductive young woman with an unbridled appetite for pleasure. She attracts the attention of all of St. Tropez, including the wealthy Eric Carradine, Antoine Tardieu, and his sweet yet naïve brother, Michel, who all fight for her indecisive heart.

Friday, June 5 | 8:30 pm - Washington Square Park

CARAMEL

By Nadine Labaki with Nadine Labaki, Yasmine Al Massri, Joanna Moukarzel

2007 | Comedy | PG | 1h35 | France-Lebanon

Presented in partnership with the Fondation Liban Cinéma

In a colorful and sensual Beirut beauty salon, five women meet regularly to talk and confide in each other. Between haircuts and caramel sugar waxes, the friends share intimate stories about men, sex, motherhood, and their personal liberation. 

Friday, June 12 | 8:30 pm - Washington Square Park
PÉPÉ LE MOKO
By Julien Duvivier with Jean Gabin, Mireille Balin, Marcel Dalio
1937 | Crime | UR | 1h33
The notorious Pépé le Moko is a wanted man. In the labyrinthine Casbah of Algiers, Pépé is safe from the clutches of the police. But his clandestine life is unveiled when Gaby, a Parisian playgirl, compels him to risk his life and leave his past behind.

Friday, June 19 | 8:30 pm - Tompkins Square Park

PRICELESS (Hors de Prix)

By Pierre Salvadori with Audrey Tautou, Gad Elmaleh

2006 | Comedy | PG-13 | 1h46 

Irène, an attractive young woman, is on vacation at a French Riviera resort with Jacques, an older and very wealthy man. One night, while celebrating her birthday alone, she meets the handsome and intriguing Jean, who claims to be a millionaire and ad-venturer. However, unbeknownst to 

Irène, Jean isn’t everything he appears to be… 

Friday, June 26 | 8:30 pm - Tompkins Square Park
ZARAFA by
Rémi Bezançon & Jean-Christophe Lie
2012 | Animation | Ages 7 & up | 1h18
Presented in partnership with the Poitou-Charentes Region and the New York International Children’s Film Festival. Beneath a baobab tree, an old man tells the story of Maki, a young boy who crosses the desert with his giraffe and a Bedouin nomad named Hassan. During the epic journey from Africa to Paris, which takes them through Alexandria and the bustling port of Marseilles, Maki and his companions meet countless exotic characters.

Friday, July 10 | 8:30 pm - River-side Park, Pier I

GOHA

By Jacques Baratier with Omar Sharif, Claudia Cardinale, Daniel Emilfork 

1958 | Drama | UR | 1h21 | France-Tunisia

Goha, a poor, ignorant, and naïve boy, wanders around with his donkey all day long in a small Tunisian town. Taj El-Ulum, a wise old man who is respected and admired by all, soon remarries and chooses the pretty Fulla. But, bored 

in her new home, the young bride falls in love with Goha, and to no surprise, chaos ensues.

Friday, July 17 | 8:30 pm - Riverside Park, Pier I
QUEEN TO PLAY (Joueuse)
By Caroline Bottaro with Sandrine Bonnaire, Kevin Kline
2009 | Drama | UR | 1h37
Presented in partnership with the Collectivité Territoriale de Corse, Institut Français and Corsica Pôle Tournages.
The lovely, repressed and quietly intelligent chambermaid Hélène comes upon a couple engaging in an intense chess match, and discovers she has a knack for the game. This obsession–much to the chagrin of her family– leads her to seek the clandestine tutelage of a reclusive American doctor, a liaison that radically transforms both of their lackluster lives.

Friday, July 24 | 8:30 pm - Transmitter Park

LA DÉRIVE

By Paula Delsol with Jacqueline Vandal, Pierre Barouh, Paulette Dubost

1963 | Romance | UR | 1h30 

Jacquie, a beautiful young girl, returns home in the South of France. There, she regretfully re-assimilates to a life with her childhood friends, stay-at-home mother and unhappily married sister. She drifts from lover to lover in the process of shredding the social conventions that dictate a life of submission and resignation.

Friday, July 31 | 8:30 pm - Transmitter Park
LA COLLECTIONNEUSE
By Eric Rohmer with Patrick Bauchau, Haydée Politoff, Daniel Pommereulle
1967 | Romance | UR | 1h29
Adrien, a bombastic, womanizing art dealer and Daniel, his painter friend, go to a seventeenth-century villa on the French Riviera for a relaxing summer getaway. But their idyll is disturbed by the presence of the bohemian temptress Haydée.

Thurs., Sept. 10 | 7:30 pm - Columbia University
THE RABBI’S CAT (Le Chat du Rabbin)
By Joann Sfar & Antoine Delesvaux
2011 | Animation | UR | 1h29
Presented in partnership with the Columbia Maison Française.
Algiers, 1920s: Rabbi Sfar has more than one problem. His beautiful daughter Zlabya is transforming into a teenager, and even worse, his parrot-killing cat has just started talking. The Rabbi’s life grows all the more complicated when a box arrives from Russia with a painter inside. Ultimately Rabbi Sfar ends up on a quest for a hidden tribe and its mythical city of origin in Africa.

Here's where to go for more information:

www.Frenchculture.org - @franceinnyc - facebook.com/frenchculture

You can also follow Films on the Green via 

Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram and Pinterest 

#filmsonthegreen 

Korea's back -- with another series of free films at the Tribeca Cinemas in January and February

The Korean Cultural Service 

again presents FREE films from Korea, 

every other Tuesday evening, 

beginning January 14.

And to begin 2014… it's going wild!

Series One --  Wild Days: 

Coming of Age in 2014 

It’s a new year, which means it’s time for a whole new round of incredible free movies at Tribeca Cinemas – courtesy of your friends at The Korean Cultural Service of New York.

Starting January 14th, join the fun at the KCS' new series, Wild Days – which showcases four brand new coming-of-age films (including Korea’s official submission to the Academy Awards, Juvenile Offender): a cinematic quartet that varies between explosive, suspenseful, and downright sweet.

While, on the surface, super-spies and troubled teens don’t seem to have that much in common, the new series is all about finding yourself and making the most of your life – a concept that we think is the perfect way to kick off a new year. The series also teams KCS with a number of great new film distributors, while supporting the US theatrical releases of blockbuster Korean hits like COMMITMENT – currently playing in American cinemas. So bundle up this winter, gather your friends, and get ready for some of Korea’s finest new action, thrills, and drama – brought to you free, as always!

JANUARY 14 – COMMITMENT (2013) After his father’s botched espionage mission, North Korean Myung-hoon (CHOI Seung-hyun) and his young sister Hye-in (HAN Ye-ri) are sent to a labor prison camp. In order to save his sister’s life, Myung-hoon volunteers to become a spy and infiltrates the South as a teenage defector. While attending high school in the South, he meets another girl and rescues her when she is attacked. South Korean Intelligence soon discovers the plot and begins closing in on Myung-hoon, while his own government sends a vicious assassin to eliminate him. This special free screening COMMITMENT, which is currently in theaters, is courtesy of WellGo USA
.

JANUARY 28 – FRIEND: THE GREAT LEGACY (2013) With no memory of his father, Sung-Hoon (Kim Woo-Bin) was raised and surrounded by gangsters. As he grew up, he fell into a life of crime. Now imprisoned, his only hope for survival is Joon-Seok (Yu Oh-Seong), an unexpected role model. Feeling both admiration and jealousy towards charismatic Joon-Seok, a seventeen-year veteran of the penitentiary, Sung-Hoon’s friendship with him blossoms. Later, they find themselves freed from prison and joining Joon-Seok's gang, where Sung-hoon discovers that his mentor is somehow connected to his father's death.  This special free screening of FRIEND: THE GREAT LEGACY is courtesy of DreamWest Pictures.
 

FEBRUARY 11 – THE SUSPECT (2013) One of the hottest new action films from Korea, THE SUSPECT follows a North Korean spy (Gong Yoo), who is abandoned by his corrupt government and settles down in South Korea. Unfortunately for him, he becomes the prime suspect in the mysterious murder of a powerful CEO. The suspect, now hunted by a government that cannot believe his innocence, has to uncover the truth and save himself before the clock runs out! This special free screening of THE SUSPECT, which is currently in theaters, is courtesy of WellGo USA.

FEBRUARY 25 – JUVENILE OFFENDER (2012) Teenage Jang Ji-Gu (Seo Young-Joo) takes care of his ill grandfather while hanging out with other troubled kids. Abandoned by his parents at an early age, he suffers multiple run-ins with the law and is eventually sent to a detention center for juvenile offenders. One day, Jang Ji-Gu is surprised to learn that his long-forgotten mother (Lee Jung-Hyun) has unexpectedly come back for him. Discovering that his mother had him at a very young age and gave him up soon after his birth, Jang Ji-Gu struggles with repairing their relationship… but as this charming new blockbuster proves -- with love, anything is possible.

You can find the entire schedule by clicking here.

Note: The above is the KCS' public relations person's description of the four films. TrustMovies will have his own "take" on each film, prior to the appearance of that film, starting tomorrow with next week's very exciting and moving Commitment.  Stay tuned... 

Film Forum & Rooftop Films partner with Socrates Sculpture Park Outdoor Cinema, for 8-Week Int'l Summer Fest to begin 7/3

Film Forum programmers Karen Cooper and Mike Maggiore have selected six of the eight films for the Socrates Sculpture Park Outdoor Cinema film festival this summer, with the other two coming via Dan Nuxoll and Mark Elijah Rosenberg of Rooftop Films. The series, to which admission is FREE, begins this Wednesday, July 3, and is presented by Socrates Sculpture Park and AT&T. The annual international festival, now celebrating its 15th anniversary, features open-air cinema, music, dance and food -- held in the 5-acre waterfront park in Long Island City, Queens.

Outdoor Cinema 2013 features eight weeks of movies shown under the stars, Wednesday evenings, July 3 through August 21. While New York City hosts many outdoor movie series, this festival distinguishes itself by its critically acclaimed, international array of titles. This summer's lineup includes work from Chad, the Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Mexico, Romania, South Korea, Turkey, and the United States. The films are presented in their original language with English subtitles. Each evening features regional cuisine from neighborhood restaurants and performances by local musicians and dancers that celebrate the culture of the film's country of origin.

This year's film subjects range from Richard Nixon (top) and pro baseball (Sugar, below) to a glorious father-son vacation on the coast of Mexico (above) and a new film from Romania (at left) which I beieve is having its U.S. premiere here under the stars. Pre-screening performances take place at 7:00pm and films begin at sunset (weather permitting). Admission to films and performances is free of charge. The evening's food and performance line-up is announced the week prior on the park's web site: www.socratessculpturepark.org. "All these years, notes Film Forum's Karen Cooper, "we've been committed to the 'hardtop,' but now we are pleased to be able to screen some of our favorites from around the world out-of-doors in this glorious park."

OUTDOOR CINEMA 2013 FILM SCHEDULE 

(The descriptions below come from the press release 

on this festival. Any additional comments 

by TrustMovies will appear in parentheses/italics.)

July 3: OUR NIXON (U.S.)
Throughout Richard Nixon's presidency, three of his top White House aides obsessively documented their experiences with Super 8 home movie cameras. Young, idealistic, and dedicated, they had no idea that a few years later they'd all be in prison. (Golly: I wonder why we can't say the same about members of this last Bush administration, not to mention all those bankers and Wall Streeters who helped cause our current recession? We once lived in a world that punished criminals. This movie ought to remind us, and how dreadfully, times have changed.) OUR NIXON is an all-archival documentary presenting those home movies for the first time, along with other rare footage, creating an intimate and complex portrait of the Nixon presidency as never seen before. 2013, 84 mins. Directed by Penny Lane. Not Rated. Courtesy of Cinedigm. Programmed by Rooftop Films. 

July 10: A SCREAMING MAN (Chad)
Ironically titled, this drama set in Chad follows the fortunes of Adam, a former swimming champion, now a 60-year-old "pool man" at a tourist hotel. Tensions between Adam and his grown son are exacerbated when the former loses his job to the younger man and his fragile world begins to crumble. The country's endless civil war plays a decisive role in defining the two men's psychic reality in this smart, subtle, and deeply moving story of modern Africa. Winner, Jury Prize, 2010 Cannes Film Festival. 2010, 92 mins. Written & Directed by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun. Not Rated. Programmed by Film Forum.

July 17: ALAMAR (Mexico)
A love story between father and son, man and nature, water and sky, ALAMAR is set in the turquoise waters of Banco Chinchorro in the Caribbean, home to thousands of species of fish. The film – somewhere between fiction and documentary – tells the story of a young boy whose divorced parents (Italian mother, Mexican father) make him a child of two worlds. A father transports his urban son to this natural paradise to teach him to dive for lobster and fish for barracuda, spending days on a tiny fishing boat and nights in a reed-roofed cabin that floats atop the water. (TM's earlier review and interview with the filmmaker can be found here.) 2009, 73 mins. Written & Directed by Pedro González-Rubio. Rated G.
Programmed by Film Forum.

July 24: IN ANOTHER COUNTRY (South Korea)
French actress Isabelle Huppert stars (three times!) in this comedy/drama – a triptych set in a Korean seaside town. Huppert plays three different Annes – a successful film director on holiday with a Korean director and his wife; a married woman having an affair with a Korean man; and a recent divorcée whose husband left her for a Korean woman. Three breezy tales of love, lust, and misunderstandings, all peppered by the dimly jovial propositions of one persistent lifeguard. 2012, 89 mins. Written & Directed by Hong Sang-soo. Not Rated. Programmed by Film Forum. 

July 31: DOMESTIC (Romania)
Wonderfully surreal, painfully real – this is the story of children, adults, and animals that live together trying to have a better life, but sometimes death comes unexpectedly. In the bittersweet comedy Domestic, it is all about us – people who eat the animals that they love, and the animals that love people unconditionally. (With no U.S. distribution that I know of, this movie might not be seen again soon, or ever, so you might want to catch it now.) 2013, 82 mins. Directed by Adrian Sitaru. Not Rated.
Programmed by Rooftop Films.

August 7: SUGAR (U.S. / Dominican Republic) Miguel, a Dominican baseball pitcher from the small town of San Pedro De Macorís, single-mindedly focuses on training at a pro baseball academy – as so many in his country do – awaiting his chance to graduate to the minor leagues in the U.S., and to help pull his family out of poverty. At 19, he gets his break – a call-up to spring training for a team in Iowa – but what happens when his game falters? And were all the sacrifices worth it? A beautifully filmed, exquisitely acted drama from Brooklyn filmmakers, Boden & Fleck (HALF NELSON), that takes a bracing new look at a fractured American dream. 2008, 120 mins. Written & Directed by Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck. Rated R. Programmed by Film Forum.

August 14: THE GLEANERS AND I (France)
Considered "the grandmother of the New Wave" in France, Agnès Varda melds literary and documentary conventions with the politics of feminism and compassion, and a whimsical touch that is all her own. THE GLEANERS AND I, inspired in part by the Jean-François Millet painting, uses the subject of gleaning (the act of gathering leftovers) to create a warm and witty discourse on, among other things, the nature of consumerist society and the role of creativity in survival. 2000, 82 mins. Directed and narrated by Agnès Varda. Not Rated. Programmed by Film Forum.

August 21: THE EDGE OF HEAVEN (Germany/Turkey)
This drama from the German-born, Turkish-descended filmmaker explores the lives of six characters, including two young women: a Kurdish political activist wanted by the German authorities, and Lotte, a naïve German student who becomes sexually entangled with her. Fassbinder muse, Hanna Schygulla, plays Lotte's suspicious mother in this tale from a new Europe – one in which national boundaries are disappearing as quickly as traditional sexual norms. 2007, 122 mins. Written & Directed by Fatih Akin. Not Rated.
Programmed by Film Forum.

Rain Date: August 28

Socrates Sculpture Park is located at 
32-01 Vernon Blvd (at Broadway) in Long Island City. 

Queens Public Transportation to Socrates Sculpture Park: 
SUBWAY N or Q train to the Broadway stop in Queens and walk eight blocks west on Broadway (toward the East River) to the intersection of Vernon Boulevard. 
BUS Q103, Q104 to Broadway and Vernon Boulevard Q19A to Broadway and 21st Street.

Heads up! Last chance to catch one of the best unreleased movies of the year--FREE!

The below is re-post of TM's take on a film first seen at Rendez-vous with French Cinema this past March. I and many of my compatriots loved the movie and imagined that it would be picked up for U.S. distribution (films by Robert Guédiguian usually are). No such luck. But thanks to The Cultural Services of the French Embassy and its yearly program of Films on the Green, New Yorkers have at least one more chance to see the movie. It plays tomorrow night, Friday, June 8, at 8:30 (admission is free but get there early and bring food and drink) -- in Washington Square Park, just below the end of Fifth Avenue by that big faux French arch.

Enjoy!

It's not Hemingway. No, it's better than that. The great strength of writer/director Robert Guédiguian is how he tells his stories from so many points of view, not in some stylish, what-is-truth? Rashomon manner, but intuitively, organically, from the inside out and so that we come to see how the people involved on all sides of a given situation understand that situation and will gain or lose from it. With THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO, the filmmaker has outdone himself. (I can't think of a better film from him, in a raft of very good ones.)  Snows takes a layoff of workers in a shipyard as a starting point for exploring responsibility -- to oneself, one's family, friends, co-workers and even beyond.

The events that spin outward from this layoff (above) are both expected and not, and how the pivotal, negative and lawless post-event changes everything -- but not just for the worse -- turns the film into one of the richest, most intelligent and moving experiences in all of this year's Rendez-vous. Guédiguian is a political filmmaker, and a left-leaning one, I believe. But he never shies from showing us the other side -- not the right-wing one -- but the side that takes our beloved shiboleths and turns them inside out, forcing us to struggle with right and wrong from new angles. Yet the filmmaker is also a supreme humanist who never allows a principle to trump a person. That's what makes his work such a joy: the people are deep and real, and the life around them is, too.

In Snows, that life is lived by husband & wife Michael & Marie-Claire -- the "greats" Jean-Pierre Darroussin (above, left) and Ariane Ascaride (above, right) -- oft-used by this filmmaker. We get to know them, their best friends, and their children (in all, including the elderly woman taken care of by Marie-Claire, we see four generations here). We also come to know one of those laid-off workers, Christophe -- played by one of France's fine, up-and-coming new stars Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet (below, center, of Love Songs: click and scroll down) and The Princess of Montpensier). How these people connect and what happens subsequently is the stuff of great storytelling.

Along the way, we meet everyone from a delightful waiter with an eye for Marie-Claire (the terrific Pierre Niney of this Rendez-vous' 18 Years Old and Rising) to Christophe's mom (played exceedingly well and nastily by Karole Rocher, who was also the mom in this Rendez-vous' Last Screening and the recently released Polisse: She's cornering the market on bad moms!). Ms Rocher has a scene with Ms Ascaride that had me so angry I wanted to slap her face and shout, "Then have your tubes tied, bitch!"  (Really, this is so unlike me.) But it's a stunner of a scene that, again, allows you to see things -- appallingly irresponsible as they are -- from the viewpoint of this exceedingly selfish woman who has managed to connect herself to some even worse men.

By the time The Snows of Kilmanjaro concludes, you'll have lived through a lot and come out of it with greater understanding of how our lives are shaped by so many opposing forces. It's a wise movie, and Guédiguian's a wise movie-maker.  Don't miss this one -- which as yet, shockingly, has no U.S. distributor so far as I know. Maybe some enterprising distributor will show up at Film on the Green in Washington Square Park tomorrow night -- Friday, June 8 -- at dusk, watch the film, note the audience response, and take a chance on it.  We can hope.  (Click here to view this year's entire Films on the Green program.)

Fifth annual FILMS ON THE GREEN festival spotlights free French films in NYC's parks

It's back -- and better than ever. This summer's edition of the annual FILMS ON THE GREEN festival, organized by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, begins next Friday, June 1. For the fifth consecutive year, Films on the Green will present French films in New York City parks in June and July, as well as a special screening at Columbia University in September. The 2012 Films on the Green Festival will feature 8 free French screenings all adapted from French and American Literature. Through an array of different cinematic genres – thriller, comedy, drama, romance and musical -- the 2012 line-up includes films adapted from a wide range of literary styles, from fairy tale (“Donkey Skin”) to poetry (“The Snows of Kilimanjaro”) and graphic novel (“Persepolis”) – and highlights how great French directors like François Truffaut, Jacques Demy or Costa-Gavras have adapted certain works of literature to film.

The series begins on Friday June 1st in Central Park with the screening of the comedy, OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies directed by the 2012 Oscar-winner (for The Artist) Michel Hazanavicius and featuring the two stars of that film: Bérénice Bejo (above, left) and additional Oscar-winning actor Jean Dujardin (above, right), who here plays a would-be James Bond who unfortunately possesses only a shred of the brain-power (but ten times the pomposity) of 007. Based on the series of novels “OSS 117” by French writer Jean Bruce (said to be the inspiration for the character of the famous Mr. Bond), the film provides an example of a literary (it's a bit of a stretch to call it that) adaptation from novel to screen.

The real highlight of this year's series, however, is the following week's film, to be shown in Washington Square Park, Greenwich Village, on Friday June 8th: The Snows of Kilimanjaro by one of the worlds most progressive filmmakers, Robert Guédiguan. Despite the film's title, forget Hemingway; this one's adapted from the Victor Hugo poem, “How Good are the Poor,” and it is a gem of movie-making. First shown in NYC last March, as part of the annual Rendez-vous with French Cinema series (my earlier review is here), the film ought have been immediately snapped up for U.S. release. Alas, no such luck, so if you want to see a remarkable movie about such important themes as family, love, employment, crime, justice, and what we owe our fellow man, this open air screening may be your only opportunity. Don't miss it. (The rest of this year's crop of films are easily available via DVD in the USA; this one, made just last year, is not.)

Friday June 15th will see the screening, also in Washington Square Park, of the famous family-movie, War of the Buttons (the 1961 version by Yves Robert), which was the first of four film adaptations of Louis Pergaud’s novel -- two of which arrived almost simultaneously last year in France, where they both did well at the box-office.

Screenings in Tompkins Square Park in the East Village will feature the dark thriller The Axe by acclaimed director Costa-Gavras, adapted from the bestselling novel by one of America's favorite authors, the late Donald Westlake, on Friday, June 22nd. This nifty little thriller with black comedic over- and under-tones tackles the western world's current employment crisis in a most intriguing fashion.

Also showing in Tompkins Square Park on Friday, June 29, will be one of Jacques Demy's most precious (in both senses of the word) films, the classic musical Donkey Skin based on the Charles Perrault fairy tale on Friday 28th. Next to Demy's one-of-a-kind musical The Young Girls of Rochefort, I think this is my favorite of all his work. It's enchanting, colorful and delightfully irreverent  -- oh, those horses! -- in a manner that nearly no one has managed before or since.

The festival continues in Riverside Park – Pier I, Upper West Side, on Friday July 6th with one of the great thrillers of our new millennium: Tell No One directed by Guillaume Canet from the novel starring François Cluzet (above, left), also known for his lead role in this year’s hit, Intouchables, makes a terrific everyman searching for his dead wife -- who's suddenly sending him emails.

Friday, July 13th, will serve up -- no, not a horror movie, although you could look it that way -- the black-and-white (with a bit of red now and then, and lots of luscious grays) animated film Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, which tells the story of Satrapi’s childhood in Iran and Austria. Tackling everything from fundamentalism to feminism to immigration, the movie is a surprisingly rich and thoughtful coming-of-age story.

The series will conclude on Thursday September 6th on the campus of Columbia University with an iconic film of La Nouvelle Vague, Jules and Jim by François Truffaut, presented in partnership with the Maison Française of Columbia University. If you've never seen this one, or haven't for a few years (or decades), now's your op.

All film screenings are held at dusk, and the films are in French with English subtitles, and are screened free of charge. A full film description is available by clicking on each film's title, above.

The youngest of the city's outdoor film festivals, Films on the Green is already a much-loved event of New York summers and is made possible with the cooperation of the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. Last year the festival reached over 3,000 viewers and, with the support of its official sponsors, Air France, BNP Paribas and TV5 Monde, the 2012 series has expanded to feature eight classic or contemporary French films in five different locations. DJs from New York University’s radio, WNYU 89.1 FM, will spin tunes before screenings.

Here's the FILMS ON THE GREEN schedule at a glance:

All screenings are held at dusk

June 1 - 8:30pm OSS 117: Cairo Nest of Spies, Central Park – Cedar Hill (79th St. & 5th Ave.)

June 8 - 8:30pm The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Washington Square Park

June 15 - 8:30pm War of the Buttons, Washington Square Park

June 22 - 8:30pm The Axe, Tompkins Square Park

June 29 - 8:30pm Donkey Skin, Tompkins Square Park
            (that's Catherine Deneuve, in the photo above)

July 6 - 8:30pm Tell No One, Riverside Park – Pier I (at 70th St)

July 13 - 8:30pm Persepolis, Riverside Park – Pier I (at 70th St)

September 6- 7:30pm Jules and Jim, Columbia University – Low Library Steps

For more information about Films on the Green, simply click here.

DISAPPEARING ACT is back: Feast--FREE--on fine foreign films you've maybe missed

The annual presentation of Disappearing Act -- 25 contemporary films from 21 European countries -- makes its fourth appearance beginning tomorrow evening at Bohemian National Hall, at 6:30 (admission is free) with its yearly panel discussion of a topic on interest to film buffs involving European cinema. This year's topic is European contemporary cinema as taught as U.S. universities and colleges. The series continues through April 22, and the film program features an array of new European cinema, some films which are making their debut, others which have seen brief theatrical release but disappeared before a wider audience could be reached.

One such is the truly amazing Italian documentary The Mouth of The Wolf (photo above), but there are a number of gems among the program, all of which can be found here.  This yearly film feast, brought to us via the organization and persistence of Irena Kovarova, has become an indispensible part of the New York cultural scene for film, and this year looks like the best yet in terms of variety and quality.

The other important point to mention is that the entire series is shown free-of-charge, so film lovers really have no excuse to miss a program this inclusive, convenient and affordable. So don't. This year, the program is being shown variously at three different venues: Bohemian National Hall, the IFC Center and FIAF. Take a look at the entire schedule here, and make your choice(s).

More fun from South Korea: THE SECRET REUNION screens free at Tribeca Cinemas

Asian film fans -- hell: movie fans in general -- mark your calendar for this coming Wednesday, February 15, as one of the most fun films from South Korea in a long time, THE SECRET REUNION, screens free at the Tribeca Cinema, as part of the fortnightly Korean Movie Night series. This knock-out action/buddy movie concludes the trio of films directed by Jang Hun (this one's even co-written by him), whose work the Korean Cultural Center of New York has been featuring of late, and it certainly demonstrates that Hun (shown below) is adept at both the demands of the mainstream and sheer film-making prowess.

Much more conventional than last month's Rough Cut (click and scroll down), this one, too, is a kind of buddy movie in which the buds ought to be mortal enemies, except that decency and humanity manage to trump politics. That very funny, real and slightly chubby actor Song Kang-Ho (below, left, who seems to be in every third major movie from Korea that we see) plays a South Korean secret agent whose vanity and ego ("Don't call for back up!") screws up an operation set to net a notorious North Korean assassin. During this episode, which proves about as exciting, swift and bloody as any assassination you'll have seen, the assassin's young protege shows himself having difficulty with the ruthless tactics of his boss.

As played by the adorable and very sexy pop star Gang Dong-Won (above, right, and below), this character would seem to show us that North Koreans are a hell of a lot more disciplined and intelligent than the Southern variety, even if all that good stuff is put to bad use. The movie eventually turns into the odd-buddies film that puts our two guys -- a definite father/son thing is going on here -- in close quarters and watches them wiggle, as all sorts of themes, from immigration to gang warfare and Capitalism vs. Communism come into focus.

"Capitalism is about finding happiness by taking another's wealth. That's not a crime. OK?" explains/pleads the older man to the younger, in one of the movie's witty/funny exchanges. While you certainly will know where this film is headed, I think you'll find yourself surprised at how much fun getting there can be. How can we catch spies, the movie seem to ask, while showing mercy and compassion?

The finale takes us back to that opening section, where we're up to our necks in very bloody action once again. ("I can almost feel the bloodbath," notes our nasty, head assassin.) The actual ending is so wonderful -- and so completely fake -- that it could perfectly stand for as some kind of apotheosis of what Hollywood and its many imitators have been feeding us for years. If you're a sucker, as I am, for movies that show us life as it might be in a perfect world, you're going to love The Secret Reunion.

The movie plays this Wednesday, February 15, at 7pm at the Tribeca Cinema. Arrive early, as it's free, and seating is on a first-come/first-served basis.