Paramount Cinema, Wellington. Listings.
25 Courtenay Place, Po Box 6232 Wellington. Ph 384
4080. Fax 384 4408.www.paramount.co.nz
PROGRAMME 15th
FEBRUARY – 21st FEBRUARY Thu
15th Fri
16th Sat
17th Sun
18th Mon
19th Tue
20th Wed
21st
ANTENNA-A
programme of UK Music Videos 6.30pm
THE FOUNTAIN
(M) 103
minutes
1.45pm
6.20pm
8.15pm 1.45pm
6.20pm
8.15pm 1.45pm
6.20pm
8.15pm 7.15pm 1.45pm
6.20pm
8.15pm 1.45pm
8.30pm 1.45pm
6.20pm
8.15pm
THE
GOOD SHEPHERD (M) 174
minutes 1.50pm
8.35pm
1.20pm
8.35pm 1.20pm
8.35pm 1.00pm
6.50pm 1.20pm
8.35pm 1.20pm
8.35pm 1.20pm
8.35pm
A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION (PG) 110
minutes 1.30pm
6.00pm
8.00pm 1.30pm
6.00pm
8.00pm 1.30pm
6.00pm
8.00pm 12.40pm 1.30pm
6.00pm
8.00pm 1.30pm
6.00pm
8.00pm 1.30pm
6.00pm
8.00pm
DREAMGIRLS
(M) 138
minutes
3.30pm 3.30pm 3.30pm 3.30pm 3.30pm 3.30pm
BABEL
(R16) 144
minutes
6.10pm 6.10pm 6.10pm 6.10pm 6.10pm
THE
DEPARTED (R16) 158 minutes HURRY! MUST END
SOON! 3.40pm 3.40pm 3.40pm 3.40pm 3.40pm 3.40pm
BORAT
(R16) 91 minutes HURRY! MUST END
SOON! 4.50pm
4.20pm 4.20pm 2.40pm 4.20pm 4.20pm 4.20pm
FRINGE
’07
RANKLE PRODUCTIONS PRESENT:
SENSATIONAL
ZANDY’S TEA PARTY
LITTLE SHOP OF HORROS
REDUBBED
THE CHIT CHAT
LOUNGE
10.30pm
10.00pm
10.30pm
10.30pm
10.00pm
10.30pm
10.30pm
10.00pm
10.00pm
10.30pm
10.00pm
THE
FOUNTAIN Darren Aronofsky’s follow up to the harrowing
Requiem for a Dream has divided audiences and critics alike
since its premiere at Cannes in 2006. The film is both
demanding and dazzling as it entwines three love stories in
three very different times. In 16th century Spain a warrior
sets off for the other side of the world at the behest of
his queen, seeking the secret to immortality. In a time
similar to our own a brilliant doctor races against time to
find a cure for the brain tumour that is killing his wife.
And in a very distant future a spiritual astronaut, haunted
by the voice and image of a lost love, flies an
inconceivable spaceship towards a dying star that may house
the secret his temporal predecessors have been searching
for. The main protagonists in each of these stories are
played by Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz which is just the
beginning of the way Aronofsky weaves together the complex
tapestry of connections between the three stories.
THE GOOD SHEPHERD Robert DeNiro’s second outing as director is an ambitious attempt to tell the story of the formation and transformation of the CIA. It begins with the agency’s failed Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961 and then flashes back to the late 1930s when the Office of Strategic Services (the predecessor to the CIA) was formed. The history is filtered through the fictional story of Edward Wilson, and idealistic young Yale student who is pulled from the secret Skull & Bones society to spy on a suspected Nazi sympathizing professor. Wilson is an idealist, but there is something a little off about him; he says little and hides his emotions. Even in the presence of a the feisty, seductive Clover he is passive although he does dutifully marry her when she falls pregnant. Right after his marriage he joins the OSS and is whisked off to London, and later Berlin not to return until his son is almost seven. In tracing Edwards devolution from patriotic idealism to paranoid, isolated ruthlessness, the film follows the agency’s transformation. And the cost to the individual, Wilson, is both his family and his soul.
A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION For 30 years Garrison
Kiellor’s quaint radio show has been broadcast to an
audience of millions around the world. Altman has taken
this mix of music, reflection and humour and made a life
affirming, spirited film. It is the final broadcast of the
show from the Fitzgerald Theatre; the building has been
bought and will be demolished to make room for a car park.
Kiellor plays a version of himself as the host who manages
somehow to tie everything together. Streep and Tomlin are
the remaining two sisters in what was once a four sister
act. Lohan is Streep’s daughter, a poet given to musings
on suicide. Woody Harrelson and John C Reilly play a cowboy
duo whose ditties include bad jokes and witty stories about
stolen Viagra shipments among other subjects. Kiellor’s
noir hero is brought to life as an ex- PI who is now in
charge of security for the Fitzgerald theatre. As played by
Kevin Klein, this down on his luck, accident prone schlubb
is the last person you would expect to attract the
attentions of a femme fatale, yet somehow he does. Virginia
Madsen plays the femme fatale who might actually be an
angel….It sounds strange and quaint and utterly
uncinematic, but in Altman’s hand it is charming,
engrossing and some of the best entertainment to be had in
years.
THE DEPARTED Based on the hit Hong Kong actioner
Infernal Affairs, Scorscese’s latest moves the action to
South Boston where the state police are waging war on
organized crime. An undercover cop is assigned to infiltrate
the mob syndicate. Meanwhile a hardened young criminal has
infiltrated the police department as an informer and is
rising quickly through the ranks in the Specail
Investigations Unit. Each man becomes consumed by his
double life as they gather information about the operations
they have penetrated. When it becomes clear to both police
and gangsters that there is a mole in their midst, both men
are in danger of being caught and exposed to the enemy. As
they scramble to uncover each others identities, each man
must save himself.
BABEL For their follow up to Amores
Perros and 21 Grams, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and
Guillermo Arriaga have made a sprawling epic of a film
spanning three continents and shot in four languages. The
film follows the theme on unintentional consequences as a
hunting rifle left in Morocco by a Japanese tourist wrecks
havoc around the globe. In doing so the film’s densely
packed simultaneous narratives touch on terrorism, illegal
immigration, personal isolation and misunderstanding, and
even a critique of American entitlement. The film opens
with a goat-herder in Morocco purchasing a high powered
rifle to kill the jackals that are decimating his flock.
When he gives the rifle to his two young sons it is
inevitable that the gun will be put to some other use.
Testing its range, the kids fire at a passing tour
bus.
In California a harried nanny desperately tries to
find someone to look after her charges while she goes south
of the border for her son’s wedding. Unable to, she
decides to take the kids with her.
In Morocco these
kids’ parents are on holiday when a bullet flies through
their tour bus window, felling Susan, the kids mother.
Meanwhile in Tokyo a foxy deaf mute with an anger problem
fails to connect with her grief stricken father and flashes
her privates in a crowded diner….
DREAMGIRLS Director Bill Condon proved with Chicago that he knew how to re-invent the stage musical for the big screen, and he does it once again with this adaptation of the 1981 show about the ascent of a Motown trio. Using a highly dynamic visual style, and setting the musical numbers firmly within the narrative context, Condon has created an emotionally charged film that mixes seamlessly the movie musical and the music bio-pic. Based loosely on the story of the Supremes, the film opens with a Detriot talent contest in which the Dreamettes are performing. A backstage wheeler-dealer manages to land them a gig singing backup for an established star. While on the road, the Dreamettes are made over as headliners and renamed the Dreams. The biggest change is making slimmer, prettier Deena the lead singer while pushing plump Effie into the background despite her obvious vocal prowess. This sets in motion the film’s most powerful conflict and emotional sparks fly…
Ends