This week at Theatre N: 5 different movie choices.

I don't have time this week to do more than copy and paste the descriptions.  Probably better that way, anyway. 

L'Amour Fou
In French with English subtitles.  Friday at 8, Saturday at 5, Sunday at noon.  $5 & $7.  Theatre N's description:

"The public life of Yves Saint Laurent was as extravagant as it was decadent, as a design prodigy and then the grand coutourier of an fashion empire he influenced fifty years of style — but few are familiar with the private life of the legend. In Pierre Thoretton’s L’AMOUR FOU, Pierre Bergé, the man with which YSL shared four decades of his life and love, reflects on the equally extravagant history of their personal relationship. Framed around the 2009 auction of the priceless, elaborate art collection amassed by Yves and Pierre personally over several decades, this extraordinary documentary provides an unprecedented look at the life of a mythic personality, whose personal life matched his public for elegance, extravagance and passion.

An official selection of the Toronto and TriBeCa Film Festivals, L’AMOUR FOU is an un-missable film event for fans of documentary film and fashion die-hards alike."

Road To Nowhere
Friday at 1pm, Saturday at 2:15 & 8, Sunday at 6:30.  $5 & $7.  Theatre N's description:

There's a murky tenuous balance between reality and fiction; particularly when it involves a beautiful young woman, murder, a powerful politico, a missing fortune and suicide.

A passionate filmmaker, creating a film based upon a true crime, casts an unknown mysterious young woman bearing a disturbing resemblance to the femme fatale in the story. He finds himself unsuspectingly drawn into a complex web of haunting intrigue, obsessed with the woman, the crime, her possibly notorious past and the disturbing complexity between art and truth.

From the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina to Verona, Rome and London, new truths are revealed and clues to other crimes and passions, darker and even more complex are uncovered.

Toast
This film also had one showing last weekend.  One showing only this weekend, Friday at 3:30pm, $7.  Theatre N's description:

Nigel Slater is keen on cooking while his mother (Victoria Hamilton) is a poor cook with chronic asthma. As her illness worsens, so does Nigel's relationship with his father (Ken Stott). After Nigel's mother dies, his father begins to spend his evenings with newly divorced cleaner Mrs Potter (Helena Bonham Carter), whose signature lemon meringue pie is a hit with Mr Slater. The two embark on a relationship, and soon move to the country with Nigel, who dislikes his father's new partner.

Nigel finds solace in home economics classes at school, and uses his improved culinary skills to gain his father's affections, thus becoming Mrs Potter's rival. The excessive food causes Mr Slater to gain weight and become more temperamental. Nigel soon lands a job in the kitchen of his local pub to avoid Mrs Potter, and falls in love with the landlady's son; the relationship is cut short when the latter leaves town.

When Mr Slater dies, Nigel's mind is set as he packs a bag for London, leaving Mrs Potter behind, and arrives at The Savoy Hotel where he is offered a job as a chef.

Opera In Cinema: Macbeth, a Verdi opera
Performed at the Royal Opera House, London, England, on Monday, June 13, 2011.  Sung in Italian with English subtitles.  Shown with one intermission.  One showing only, Sunday at 2:30.  $20. 

In Our Name
One showing only, Saturday at noon.  $5.  Theatre N's description:

A sober portrait of a returning soldier who suffers from post-combat stress, "In Our Name" holds suspense without melodrama and features an outstanding performance as the British Army private by Joanne Froggatt. The actress, seen often on TV in series such as "Downton Abbey" (set for PBS in the New Year) and the BBC’s recent revival of Robin Hood, was named most promising newcomer at the recent British Independent Film Awards.
Froggatt plays a young medal-winning soldier named Suzy, who in the opening scenes returns with some trepidation from serving in the Middle East to her rundown estate in England’s North East.

Writer/director Brian Welsh, an established film editor, takes his time to show Suzy dealing with a heroine’s welcome by her family; the sexual hunger of husband Mark (Mel Raido), who is also in the army; and young daughter Cass (Chloe-Jayne Wilkinson), who is unhappy that her mother has been away so long.

Suzy’s traumatic state begins to show as the city’s urban decay starts to resemble bombed-out buildings and the sight of hooded teenaged boys huddling with nothing to do at night reminds her of men with guns and explosives.

Her increasing distance from her husband sparks frustration and aggression. The visit of one of her squad members, Paul (Andrew Knott), sends Mark into a jealous frenzy.

Welsh sets an even tone as the husband’s own deep trauma is revealed slowly as he harbors his memories of horrible deaths with considerable relish. Key scenes in a classroom when Suzy relates the death of a child and an encounter with a Muslim taxi driver set events in motion that lead to violence.

Froggatt conveys the woman’s preoccupation to suggest that whatever she’s looking at, she actually sees something entirely different. It’s a haunting performance aided by Sam Care’s patient cinematography and Stuart Earle’s music, which often hovers on one searing note, like the images in the woman’s mind.