John Lithgow and Marisa Tomei in Ira Sach's Love Is Strange. Photo courtesy of Sony Classics.
[UPDATE: Ari Folman who was scheduled to come to New York cannot travel at this time and the Free Talk previously announced by the Film Society has been cancelled.]
Oscar-winner Marisa Tomei, Oscar-nominee John Lithgow, and filmmakers Ari Folman and Ira Sachs will take part in the Film Society of Lincoln Center's ongoing Free Talks series.
Sachs and co-screenwriter Mauricio Zacharias will be joined by Lithgow and Tomei to discuss their latest film, Love Is Strange. The drama follows New York couple Ben and George (Lithgow and Alfred Molina) who marry but are forced to separate after George loses his job, prompting the pair to stay separately with friends while they look for cheaper housing. The discussion will take place August 19. Sachs was recently presented with the Visionary Award at the opening night of NewFest: New York's LGBT Film Festival.
The following evening, Ari Folman (Waltz with Bashir) will discuss his upcoming film The Congress, starring Robin Wright and Harvey Keitel. The sci-fi animated drama centers on an aging out-of-work actress who accepts one last job, but faces un-intended consequences. The Congress will open at the Film Society on September 5.
Talks take place in the Amphitheater at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, 144 West 65th Street. Free tickets will be distributed at the box office on a first-come, first-served basis starting one hour prior to the conversations. Limit one complimentary ticket per person, subject to availability.
Ari Folman's The Congress.
Ira Sachs, director of Love Is Strange with stars John Lithgow and Marisa Tomei and co-screenwriter Mauricio Zacharias
Director Ira Sachs (Keep the Lights On, Forty Shades of Blue) will be joined by co-screenwriter Mauricio Zacharias and actors John Lithgow and Marisa Tomei to discuss their latest project. Love Is Strange blends the romance of New York City's streets and skyline with a delicate Chopin piano score to poignantly capture both the lightness and sorrows of this modern-day love story. After nearly four decades together, Ben (John Lithgow) and George (Alfred Molina) finally tie the knot in an idyllic wedding ceremony in Lower Manhattan. But when George loses his job soon after, the couple must sell their apartment and—victims of the relentless New York City real-estate market—temporarily live apart until they can find an affordable new home. While George moves in with two cops (Cheyenne Jackson and Manny Perez) who live downstairs, Ben lands in Brooklyn with his nephew (Darren Burrows), his wife (Marisa Tomei), and their temperamental teenage son (Charlie Tahan), with whom Ben shares a bunk bed. While struggling with the pain of separation, Ben and George are further challenged by the intergenerational tensions and capricious family dynamics of their new living arrangements. A Sony Pictures Classics release, opening theatrically on August 22.
Tuesday, August 19, 7:00pm
Ari Folman, director of The Congress [Cancelled. The film will open at the Film Society September 5 as scheduled.]
The Film Society will sit down with Ari Folman (director of the acclaimed, Oscar-nominated Waltz with Bashir) to discuss his highly anticipated new work, The Congress, which mixes live-action and psychedelic animation. The film premiered at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, and stars Robin Wright who plays an aging, out-of-work actress (named Robin Wright) who reluctantly accepts her final offer: preserving her digital image for future Hollywood productions over which she will have no control. Twenty years later, she enters a “restricted animated zone,” where she rocks the complacent film/pharmaceutical industry, and finds out, with the help of an animated character voiced by Jon Hamm, what it was she really signed away. This haunting and provocative film features strong performances by Harvey Keitel, Paul Giamatti, and Kodi Smit-McPhee as Wright’s young son. A 2014 New York Jewish Film Festival selection and a Drafthouse Films release, opening theatrically at the Film Society on September 5.
