Invictus is based on events before and during the 1995 Rugby World Cup, hosted in South Africa. In his Oscar nominated performance, Morgan Freeman as Mandela, asks the national rugby team captain (Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominee Matt Damon) and his squad to do the impossible and win the World Cup.
“The Producers” written and directed by Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks’s directorial debut remains both a career high point and a classic show business farce. Hinging on a crafty plot premise, which in turn unleashes a joyously insane onstage spoof, The Producers is powered by a clutch of over-the-top performances, capped by the odd couple pairing of the late Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder, making his screen debut.
Mostel is Max Bialystock, a gone-to-seed Broadway producer who spends his days wheedling checks from his “investors,” elderly women for whom Bialystock is only too willing to provide company. When wide-eyed auditor Leo Bloom (Wilder) comes to check the books, he unwittingly inspires the wild-eyed Max to hatch a sure-fire plan: sell 25,000 percent of his next show, produce a deliberate flop, then abscond with the proceeds. Unfortunately for the producers (but fortunately for us), their candidate for failure is Springtime for Hitler, a Brooksian conceit that envisions what Goebbels might have accomplished with a little help from Busby Berkeley.
Detective Sherlock Holmes and his stalwart partner Watson engage in a battle of wits and brawn with a nemesis whose plot is a threat to all of England.
Films in Van Vorst is teaming up with the Van Vorst Park Association this month to present Julie & Julia by Nora Ephron. It’s open to all our neighbors here in the Van Vorst Area. Obviously it’s not quite the outdoor season yet so we’ll be using the Barrow Mansion at 83 Wayne Street–First Floor. It’s still free but this time no need to bring a chair we’ll have those–but bring your ideas for our 6th summer season. We’re also looking for volunteers and leads for donations!! Oh, and did we mention there will be beverages and snacks as well??? We can’t wait to see you all again!
Man on Wire winner of the 2008 Academy Award for Best Documentary directed by James Marsh. The film chronicles Philippe Petit‘s 1974 high-wire walk between the Twin Towers of New York’s World Trade Center. It is based on Philippe Petit’s book, To Reach the Clouds, recently released in paperback with the new title Man on Wire.