Coming Attractions: The Winter Edition 2017

On Monday, November 6, 2017, in Landmark E Street’s theater #3, the DC Film Society hosted the winter edition of its biannual “Coming Attractions Trailer Night” program. The theater was near capacity and a buzz was in the air as Film Society Director Michael Kyrioglou started the show by giving the ground rules and introducing the evening hosts, the illustrious Tim Gordon and Travis Hopson. Gordon and Hopson, co-hosts of WETA’s Around Town, once again happily took center stage as they accepted their roles as officiants for the activities of the evening.

The Coming Attractions Trailer Night had served as an opportunity for cinema lovers to get together and enjoy themselves while taking a look at some of the features coming to theaters in the next six months. Historically, the attendees had proven themselves as being a great predictor of quality trailers and that night was the same. But, the evening’s light hearted festivities and debates about trailer quality quickly turned into an eerily accurate foretelling of the future for three particular films, The Current War, All The Money In The World and I Love You, Daddy.

The Current War, distributed by The Weinstein Group, is a movie starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Holland (Spider-Man: Homecoming) and Michael Shannon (Man of Steel, Nocturnal Animals) playing Thomas Edison, Samuel Insull and George Westinghouse respectively. The movie’s trailer teased an extremely interesting look at the race to be the one responsible for providing electricity to the nation.

All The Money In The World stars Michelle Williams as the daughter-in-law of billionaire John Paul Getty. This movie is a biographical drama of the events surrounding the kidnapping of Williams’ son John Paul III and the senior Getty’s refusal to pay ransom. In the trailer, Getty Sr. is played by Kevin Spacey.

As the lights rose after the playing of the segment of trailers containing these two movies, host Gordon remarked that we wouldn’t be seeing those movies any time soon because of the allegations surrounding Harvey Weinstein. As a result, War’s release date had already been postponed indefinitely. Many in the audience surmised that because of the recent allegations coming out regarding Spacey that All the Money, at the time scheduled for release on December 22, would suffer the same fate. *Note - In the days since the show, it has been announced that Christopher Plummer will replace Spacey in the film and the release date will not change.

In the next segment of films, Louis CK’s I Love You, Daddy played. Daddy showed young Chloe Grace Moretz, CK’s daughter, being romantically involved with the much older Leslie Goodwin, acted by John Malkovich. While many in the audience thought the movie ranged somewhere between a bit distasteful and downright inappropriate, the prophetic feelings of the crowd was chalked up to unfortunate placement of the trailer following the ones that were mentioned previously. I Love You, Daddy has also been postponed.

But the show must go on and the mood returned to its lightness following the serious discussions. Dark comedy Three Billboard Outside Ebbing, Missouri won best trailer of the night over the other category winners, Jumanji, Molly’s Game, Murder on the Orient Express, The Disaster Artist, the animated feature The Breadwinner and Black Panther (narrowly).

Three Billboards was not the only winner as raffle winners in the audience were treated to theater and movie passes, DVDs of movies, e.g., The Revenant and Sausage Party. Everyone else got their choice of Thor and/or Hela masks and a variety of mounted and unmounted movie posters like Patti Cakes, Thank You For Your Service, Thor: Ragnarok and American Made to name a few.

In summary, a great night was had by all. Thanks go out to The DC Film Society Coordinating Committee Members, Tim Gordon, Travis Hopson, Allied Integrated Marketing, Landmark Theaters, Filmfest DC and Women in Film & Video for making it all happen.

The Cinema Lounge

Adam's Rib Delves into Film Ensembles

Thelma: Q&A with Director Joachim Trier and Actresses Ellie Harboe (Thelma) and Kaya Wilkins (Anja)

By Ron Gordner, DC Film Society Member

Thelma is a film by Norwegian director Joachim Trier (Louder than Bombs, Reprise, and Oslo, August 31st), a co-production of Norway, Sweden, France, and Denmark. Thelma is a young woman who lives in rural Norway sheltered by her parents and is now going to the city and university. You may be reminded somewhat of Carrie or similar films. Her family suppresses her with fundamentalist religious beliefs and tries to keep her calm. She is agitated at times by her environment and then strange things happen and she realizes she has some strange powers over events and Nature. Her father Trond seems to almost fear her. Thelma is Norway’s submission for best foreign language Oscar film. This Q&A is from the international premiere in September 2017 at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). The film opens in the DC area on December 1.


Director Joachim Trier and Thelma actresses Kaya Wilkins and Ellie Harboe.

Audience Question: What happened to Trond, was it necessary for him to die and did he die?
Joachim Trier: Making the film was somewhat myth-like and the whole idea of final will or revenge on the father was a theme. I come from a humanist feeling so this was a first time for me but I wanted it to also have heart. I can’t explain if it’s right or wrong.

Audience Question: What is the meaning of all the animals, birds, and snakes?
Joachim Trier: Part of the inspiration of the film was old Nordic or Norwegian story telling or folklore. The non-Christian Norway symbolized by the wind, snakes, birds and trees is shown. The serpent is symbolic also but it is a beautiful animal. I don’t make just symbols in films, but I admit it does have a bit of the realm of the witch in it. Do the actresses want to discuss the use of snakes? Some homage to George Romero films I think.
Ellie Harboe and Kaya Wilkins: I liked the snakes but not so much the rats.

TIFF Moderator: We had a George Romero film with snakes and we asked him if it was a Biblical reference to Satan or something evil. Romero said, "Oh it was just a snake that somehow crawled into the scene so we used it." (laughter)

Audience Question: What did the actresses find rewarding about the film and what was hard to do?
TIFF Moderator: This was your first films, right?
Ellie Harboe: Yes, it was rewarding and I liked the very complex characters and the script. It showed lots of different emotional ranges. It was great to work with Joachim who is supportive and open-minded.

Audience Question: Can you talk about the parents?
Joachim Trier: I thought early on we were creating a father-daughter love story or parent-child and the double-bind. She doesn’t need his affirmation in this hard edged family. How does she externalize her feelings? The actor was great, in real life he had just had his second child so it was challenging for him to be the distant cold father.

Audience Question: Do these kind of roles really create anxieties?
Ellie Harboe: Yes. I had some nightmares and woke up with nosebleeds at times. It was challenging to sometimes shoot at night and other times in the morning.
Joachim Trier: The actresses were very brave to externalize these extreme emotions. I also used some TRE therapy self-induced seizure like therapies used with soldiers to release the emotions after hard scenes.
Ellie Harboe: I used natural approaches and researched seizures in patients to make it look real.

Audience Question: Does Thelma’s revenge really liberate her or does she have additional powers to save, as well as, destroy things?
Joachim Trier: He is in terrible shape to try and bring him back..Someone suggested that to be in a sequel.

Audience Question: At the end is Anja really back or not?
Joachim Trier: I don’t think I can answer that. Is there a transcendence or balance or anxiety to recreate her? I hope that something good has happened but you can interpret it yourself.

Thelma opened in DC on December 1.

Wonder: Q&A with Director Stephen Chbosky and Novelist Raquel J. Palacio

By Ron Gordner, DC Film Society Member

A screening of Wonder (Stephen Chbosky, 2017) was held Wednesday, October 8, 2017 at Landmark's E Street Cinema with the film's director Stephen Chbosky and novelist Raquel J. Palacio present for Q&A. "Movie Mom" Nell Minow was the moderator.



August “Auggie” Pullman (Jacob Tremblay) is a boy who has been home schooled by his mother, Isabel (Julia Roberts) but is encouraged to become a fifth-grader at his local prep school, Beecher Prep, in North River Heights in Manhattan, New York City. He was born with an extremely rare medical facial malformation, called mandibulofacial dysostosis and cleft palate which has required many surgeries. His fear of being bullied or ridiculed at school is quickly verified on his first school day. The sympathetic father Nate (Owen Wilson) keeps up Auggie’s spirits but they must convince Auggie to remove his Astronaut helmet when entering school. He also has an older sister Vida (Izabela Vidovic) who must bear her own weight of being supportive and at times neglect when most of the family’s energies are directed to Auggie. He does make some friends at school, Jack and Summer, but that involves some bumps along the road also, especially during Halloween.

Nell Minow: Can you tell us where the idea came from?
Rachel Palacio: About ten years ago I was with my two sons and we went into an ice cream store and were near a little child who had a very significant Craniofacial difference, and my three year old son started to cry. To shield his reaction away from the little girl, I whisked him away. In many ways I regretted doing that and it got me to thinking about how people or children react to a world that really doesn’t face you back. I started writing about that night and Natalie Merchant’s song Wonder came on the radio that night and something just clicked for me. The song is so optimistic and full of hopefulness and joy that it worked for me and I started writing that night.

Nell Minow: I recommend that all of you read the book which is terrific. There is also a kind of sequel, Auggie and Me which really isn’t a sequel, more a side work that questions or instructs what you know about Julian and some of the other characters in the book and from their perspective also. Stephen I understand that Jacob Tremblay from Room did spend time with children with these craniofacial issues to prepare for the role.
Stephen Chbosky: Yes. Our producers David and Todd and R.J. gave him time to work with My Face and other groups and Jacob wanted to make it as authentic as possible. Jacob went to an outing in Orlando for several days with groups and made some great friends. We had lots of families, kids and siblings there.

Nell Minow: I know you have worked with teens before on movies. How did you work with so many kids and get comfortable with them?
Stephen Chbosky: I have a couple of philosophies about making movies and let people know I hope they feel better than before their movie experience. It was kind of a Summer camp but I did want them to know their lines. So I fostered that trust, I looked for good actors but also good people. If a kid auditions well, meet the parents, and if the parents are a little crazy … that’s different. I wanted us to be one big family.
Rachel Palacio: Also Steve is great with the kids, they just adored him. He was like a giant teddy bear.

Nell Minow: What did the kids do when they weren’t on the set. Did they play, do homework?
Stephen Chbosky: They bowled and played games. We shot some in New York but most of the Summer scenes were shot in Vancouver, British Columbia which was great. Games, sports and lots of pizza.

Nell Minow: My Dad had a sibling with craniofacial issues, two generations ago and suffered from horrible treatment. I was so glad you addressed the role of the sibling who is often neglected in stories or in real life. How did you decide to include that part?
Rachel Palacio: I had a friend who had a brother who was autistic among other issues, and he was always the front and center of everything due to his special needs. This young woman as an adult was always so self-sufficient and never wanted to be the center of attention. I guess when I started writing Auggie, the parents were going to revolve around him, but I also thought about the sister. She adores her little brother but is on her own. About 40 pages into the manuscript I thought I am going to leave Auggie’s story for a bit and tell Vida’s story. She seemed as important to me as Auggie. That’s when I started the chapters by different perspectives from the other characters.
Nell Minow: I didn’t think that would be in the movie, so I was thrilled it was.
Stephen Chbosky: My favorite part of the book was the switch to Vida. I knew then as an author that this was now a great book and telling her story raised the level of the book and I think this 2012 book will be around for a long time as an admired novel. R.J. also said just yesterday that she had sent the manuscript to seven publishers; four said no; three said yes, but two of them said you have to get rid of the perspective titles and switch of point of view. So she picked the right publisher.

Nell Minow: We spend a lot of time telling our kids they are pretty or smart, but we don’t complement them much for being kind. I think that is a big take away from the book and film and what Mr. Brown says. Also after reading the book or seeing the movie, what conversations do you want them to have?
Rachel Palacio: I started writing Wonder when my older son was in the sixth grade. So he was going to middle school and for me it was heart-breaking and be a somewhat tough time of transitioning friends in an out of your child’s life. It’s a very tender moment in their life. They are between being a toddler and being a teenager. They start making their own decisions. Before that the teachers tell them where to sit, etc. but in middle school it’s the first time on a daily basis they are confronted with making decisions about who sit with, who are my friends, what jokes do I laugh at. Am I the cool kid, the smart kid, the jock, or popular kid? So I remember watching my son enter fifth grade and experience these issues. At that age we spend time asking if their homework is done, are they going to join clubs or sports teams, etc. and we forget to remind them to be kind. So I wanted an inspiration of the book to want kids to be or try to be kinder. I want people to take away from this, can you be the Summer or Jack, or are you a Julian and try to find someone and be kinder. There are lots of Julians out there.
Nell Minow: Even Julian has a back story we see a bit of also and we even have some sympathy for him.
Stephen Chbosky: Yes, are you more like Jack or Julian or someone else? Most of the greatness of the movie is R.J.’s book. I always see kids first day, but rarely or ever see the Mom’s first school day at home in the empty house. I wanted to show that and Julia did it so well. Wouldn’t it be nice if the kids also ask the parents how their day went without them, and were they lonely?

Nell Minow: Like in the ice cream store, what prevents us from being kind?
Stephen Chbosky: I think we need to be present even when we are hungry and stressed with life.
Rachel Palacio: I go to schools many times and we talk about kindness. The difference between Charlotte and Summer for example. Charlotte is not mean but she also doesn’t go out of her way to make friends with Auggie. She will say, "Hi Auggie," but never befriends him like Summer does. So active participation in kindness can be hard to do. People sometimes think kindness equates to weakness or vulnerability for some reason. It takes a lot of guts sometimes to be kind.

Nell Minow: I love the part where Summer sits with Auggie. It also means she is leaving the other table where they are trashing him. Anyone who has been to middle school knows about popularity.

Audience Question: Did you audition Julia Roberts?
Stephen Chbosky: No, Julia had read the book years ago and contacted R.J. and said if you ever get this book off the ground as a film I want to be in it. Owen Wilson was my idea. My brother knew him and knew he was a great father. They are stars but down deep she’s a girl from Georgia and he’s a boy from Texas so the instincts were always there. So two Southerners together worked great and he kept Julia laughing the whole time. Owen’s part was small but wanted to do it. It was a dream cast.

Audience Question: I use the book in my classes because I find it so inspirational.
Rachel Palacio: I published the book in 2012 and I still had my day job in publishing, and the first year I was travelling a lot to schools and organizations with the book; but two or three years later when I was still doing public presentations a time came when my younger son was eight and said, "Enough. I want you home too." I am going again to some schools.
Stephen Chbosky: She’s done a lot of educational things and workshops. I also talk to fifth graders sometimes.

Audience Question: I had problems actually finishing the book because it reminded me of my days in middle school and was also somewhat scared to see the movie to remind of that bad time, but now I’m glad because it has made me realize others had the same problems, thank you.
Rachel Palacio: I sat my kids down and said that this is the bottom when starting middle school and it only gets better. When I started writing I thought about the little girl in the ice cream store, but wrote about Auggie. I also thought he must have Treacher-Collins syndrome and some other issues.

Audience Question: Did you ever see the girl or mother again?
Rachel Palacio: No, I didn’t. My older son who was 12 at the time said, "Mom it happened so fast they may have not realized the situation." Probably those situations happen every day and sometimes don’t even register.

Audience Question: Are you working on another book or project?
Rachel Palacio: Yes it is kind of a graphic novel. Julian’s grandmother tells him in the book about her experience in World War II hiding as a young Jewish girl in occupied France. I know we are in Washington, but we have Nazis and others marching in the streets. I just remember that history repeats itself, I want to remind my readership a little about what happened only about 60 years ago. Again the act of kindness, tolerance, and getting along is here.

Nell Minow: Your background is as an illustrator and designer, right?
Rachel Palacio: Yes so I’ll be writing a graphic novel and illustrating at the same time.

Wonder opened in DC November 17 and is still in area theaters.

The BFI London Film Festival

By Ron Gordner and Jim McCaskill, DC Film Society Members

The 61st BFI London Film Festival was held October 4-15, 2017. There were 242 feature films and 125 shorts from 67 countries this year showing the global changes of the past year, and including films on immigration, the environment, action. Horror, women’s issues and many family and marital dramas. Festival director Clare Stewart said they had a very strong women’s presence this year, having 25% of the films with female directors. This was up from 20% last year representation of female directors’ films in the festival.

Categories or Sections of films included: Headline and Strand Galas, Special Presentations, Competitions, Love, Debate, Laugh, Debate, Thrill, Cult, Journey, Create, Family, Treasures, and Experimenta.

Screen talk programs were held with actors: Annette Bening, Cate Blanchett, and Jake Gylenhaal; directors: Takashi Miike, Guillermo del Toro, Lucretia Martel and David Fincher; and writer: Ian McEwan.

Usually conflicts are confined to action on the silver screen but not this year at the BFI London Film Festival. Days before the festival began the employees at Picturehouse Central asked for a pay raise. They were immediately fired which resulted in picket lines going up for the evening screenings. Several directors, including Ken Loach, refused to cross the picket line, in fact they joined the picketers.



The other conflict, one that will have major impact on other film festivals and awards, concerns the status of films only screened on streaming services and not in cinemas considered equal. Some services, such as Netflix, are not only buying films at festivals but also commissioning their own films. Will these films be ineligible for awards? The general public will not see them. A vexing question. Should commissioned films be shown in film festivals? Should they be considered along with cinema screened movies for accolades. An interesting quandary for the Academy Awards and the other honors.


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