16th Annual Aspen Film Academy Screenings
Aspen, CO
December 21, 2007 - January 2, 2008
Package Information
For all-inclusive event packages, including lodging, airfare, rental cars, or
anything else you may require, call one of our local vacation experts at
888.649.5982, or e-mail
info@stayaspensnowmass.com to have a customized quote sent to you via e-mail.
Overview
As the Oscar ™ race heats up, December is now synonymous with the release of the
year’s most critically acclaimed, most eagerly anticipated movies. Since 1992
Aspen Film has been adding celluloid excitement to Aspen’s winter holidays with
a slate of the hottest films headlined by top directors and stars. Open to everyone,
this two-week extravaganza offers a sneak peek at some of the films everyone will
be talking about come the Academy Awards®.
Venue
All films screen at Harris Concert Hall (located adjacent to the Benedict Music Tent) or at the Wheeler Opera House (located in downtown Aspen). Doors open 30 minutes before show time
More information on Aspen Film Academy Screenings
Ticket Information
| Rate: |
General Admission $12
Members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences should contact 970.925.6882 x 101 |
| When on Sale: |
December 8, 2006 |
| Phone Orders: |
970.920.5770 |
| On-line Orders: |
www.wheeleroperahouse.com |
| Advanced Walk-in Orders: |
Wheeler Box Office 320 East Hyman or at
the Harris Concert Hall 960 N 3rd St. |
| Business Hours: |
10:00 am - 6:00 pm |
Tickets available at the door, subject to availability. If advance tickets sellout, a waitlist begins 30 minutes before
show time.
Transportation & Parking
Free parking available at North Third & Gillespie St. There is also a Free RFTA Cross Town Shuttle.
Please call 970.925.8484 for bus information.
Schedule of Films
December, 21st |
December, 22nd |
December, 23rd |
December, 24th |
December, 25th |
December, 26th |
December, 27th |
December, 28th |
December, 29th |
December, 30th |
December, 31st |
January, 1st |
January, 2nd
| 5:30 pm |
123 minutes |
The Great Debaters |
| 8:30 pm |
91 minutes |
Juno |
| 5:30 pm |
93 minutes |
Margot at the Wedding |
| 8:30 pm |
140 minutes |
La Vie en Rose |
| 5:30 pm |
85 minutes |
Grace is Gone |
| 8:00 pm |
158 minutes |
Lust, Caution |
| 5:30 pm |
133 minutes |
Across the Universe |
| 5:30 pm |
86 minutes |
Sleuth |
| 8:00 pm |
125 minutes |
Youth Without Youth |
| 5:30 pm |
113 minutes |
The Savages |
| 8:15 pm |
158 minutes |
There Will be Blood |
| 5:30 pm |
108 minutes |
Casandra's Dream |
| 8:15 pm |
98 minutes |
The Orphanage |
| 8:15 pm |
110 minutes |
Starting Out in the Evening |
| 3:00 pm |
149 minutes |
Into the Wild |
| 6:15 pm |
95 minutes |
Atonement |
| 5:30 pm |
112 minutes |
4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days |
| 8:15 pm |
135 minutes |
I'm Not There |
Film Description
-
The Great Debaters
- Denzel Washington directs.
Washington, Forest Whitaker star.
Academy Award-winner Denzel Washington takes his second turn behind the camera, and co-stars with Oscar winner Forest Whitaker, in The Great Debaters, a real-life tale of underdog triumph. The film chronicles the improbable journey of the Wiley College debate team, coached by the brilliant African-American poet and professor Melvin B. Tolson. Against the backdrop of the mid-1930s Jim Crow South, Tolson teaches his students at the historically black east Texas school how to harness the power of words to challenge the social mores of the time. Their successive wins culminate in a groundbreaking invitation to debate Harvard, the national champions. This powerful film akes a rare look at the prologue to an era of unprecedented change, as many of the debaters under Tolson’s tutelage became leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. (USA, 123 min. Not yet rated* Print courtesy of MGM & The Weinstein Co.)
-
Juno
- Jason Reitman directs.
Ellen Page, Michael Cera star.
With his second feature, Juno, director Jason Reitman proves that his smash hit Thank You for Smoking was no fluke. Crackling with writer Diablo Cody’s smartaleck dialogue and the brisk pace of screwball comedy, Juno takes the typically morose tale of teen-age pregnancy and stands it on its head. When irrepressible 16-year-old Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page) can’t shake the plus sign out of her pregnancy test, she takes charge of her (and her unborn “sea monkey’s”) fate and picks out a likely childless couple from the Penny Saver personals. Dealing with things “way beyond her maturity level,” Juno, with her clueless boyfriend (Michael Cera) and bemused parents in tow, sets off on a surrogate motherhood adventure brimming with intelligence, energy and surprisingly heartwarming feeling. (USA, 91 min. PG-13 Print courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures.)
-
Margot at the Wedding
- Noah Baumbach directs.
Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jack Black star.
Noah Baumbach, both as a writer (The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou) and filmmaker (The Squid and the Whale), has proven himself a master dramatist of dysfunctional families. In Margot at the Wedding, he has crafted another pointedly observed, bracingly original winner. Margot (Nicole Kidman), a high-strung novelist, returns to her family home with her sensitive son (Zane Pais) for the wedding of her eternally defensive sister Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to a schlub named Malcolm (Jack Black). With brittle and darkly humorous yet moving performances, Kidman and Leigh egg each other on as their characters compulsively play everyone against each other, endangering already fragile emotional bonds. Beautifully written, acted and directed, Baumbach’s film is as psychologically acute as it is harrowingly funny. (USA, 93 min. R Print courtesy of Paramount Vantage.)
-
La Vie en Rose
- Olivier Dahan directs.
Marion Cotillard, Gérard Depardieu star.
A swirling, impressionistic portrait of one of France’s indelible icons, Olivier Dahan’s La Vie en Rose stars Marion Cotillard (A Very Long Engagement, A Good Year) in a blazing performance as the legendary singer Edith Piaf. Plucked from the mean streets of Paris’s Belleville district by nightclub owner Louis Leplée (Gérard Depardieu), Piaf’s magical voice carried her to the dazzling limelight of the world’s most famous concert halls. A bright star whose light burnt out too quickly, Piaf followed not a triumphal rise, but a tragic trajectory. A huge hit in France, La Vie en Rose skillfully jumps among pivotal moments, far-flung locales and extremes of mood and imagery as it indulges its heroine’s unquenchable thirst for life, love and experience. (France, 140 min. PG-13 Print courtesy of Picturehouse.)
-
Home of the Brave
- James Strouse directs.
John Cusack, Shélan O’Keefe, Gracie Bednarczyk star.
There was a time when Stanley Phillips (John Cusack) could see his entire life clearly. Dreaming of patriotic service, he was destined for a military career. But that’s not how things worked out. Now stuck in a boring job, he plays Mr. Mom to two young daughters while his wife serves in Iraq. Stanley’s very core is abruptly shaken by news from the front. Distraught and at a loss as to how to tell Heidi and Dawn, he spontaneously bundles them into the car and hits the road. Cusack’s achingly poignant performance forms the backbone of this Sundance Audience Award winner. In his feature debut, writer-director James Strouse has fashioned a decidedly unflashy but deeply affecting story for our times. Introducing young newcomers Gracie Bednarczyk and Shélan O’Keefe. (USA, 85 min. PG-13 Print courtesy of The Weinstein Co.)
-
Lust, Caution
- Ang Lee directs.
Tony Leung, Tang Wei star.
Filled with great beauty and danger, Lust, Caution might end up as the definitive film on pre-Revolution Shanghai - its decadence and brutality, its glamour and hidden debauchery. The ever-surprising Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) directs this erotic thriller, based on a short story by revered Chinese author Eileen Chang, about the high-stakes world of sexual obsession and anti-fascist resistance. Asian cinema icon Tony Leung and newcomer Tang Wei star, respectively, as a government operative and the woman assigned by her fellow freedom fighters to infiltrate his inner circle. Winner of the highest prize at the Venice Film Festival, this spellbinding tale is ultimately a consideration of the tenuous connections that bind us together as human beings. (USA/China/Taiwan, 158 min. NC-17 Print courtesy of Focus Features.)
-
Across the Universe
- Julie Taymor directs.
Evan Rachel Wood, Jim Sturgess star.
At once gritty, whimsical and highly theatrical, Across the Universe is an original movie musical from renowned director Julie Taymor (Frida, Titus, and the Broadway hit The Lion King) and writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais (The Commitments). Told through over 30 Beatles’ songs, this coming-of-age tale is set against the social and creative ferment of the 1960s. Star-crossed lovers Jude (Jim Sturgess) and Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), along with a group of friends and musicians, are swept up in the tumult, with Dr. Robert (Bono) and Mr. Kite (Eddie Izzard) as their guides. As they journey from innocence to awareness, Jude and Lucy are torn apart, forcing the young lovers - against all odds - to find their own way back to each other. (USA, 133 min. PG-13 Print courtesy of Sony Pictures Releasing.)
- The Bucket List
- Rob Reiner directs.
Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman star.
In this latest feature from Rob Reiner, three-time Oscar winner Jack Nicholson brings his inimitable charm and nonchalance to the role of corporate billionaire Edward Cole, while Oscar winner Morgan Freeman plays Carter Chambers, an auto mechanic who’s quietly put in a lifetime of hard work. The men are unlikely roommates when both are hospitalized on a cancer ward. But they soon discover common ground: a desire to spend their remaining time working through their wish lists of things to do before they “kick the bucket.” Through deft comic timing and unexpected insight, Reiner elevates the film from a routine road-trip buddy picture to the journey of a lifetime, tempering the inevitable pathos with a healthy dose of humor. Sean Hayes and Rob Morrow also star. (USA, 98 min. PG-13 Print courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)
-
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
- Julian Schnabel directs.
Mathieu Amalric, Marie-Josée Croze star.
By turns dreamlike, brave and breathtaking, this beautiful adaptation of Jean-Dominique Bauby’s affecting memoir is among filmmaker and artist Julian Schnabel’s finest works. At 43, Bauby, the rakishly successful editor of French Elle, suffered a massive stroke, powerless to move a muscle – except his left eyelid. Determined to escape the diving bell of his paralysis and free the butterflies of his imagination, he uses an alphabet devised by his dedicated therapists, one blink at a time, to form words, sentences and, finally, a life-affirming memoir. With Mathieu Amalric as Bauby and cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, Schnabel (who won the best director prize at Cannes), compellingly recreates Bauby’s subjective ordeal, blurring the lines between fantasy, memory, hallucination and consciousness. (France, 112 min. PG-13 Print courtesy of Miramax Films.)
-
Persepolis
- Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud direct.
Voices by Catherine Deneuve, Chiara Mastroianni.
Just as Pixar, Dreamworks and Disney seemed to have completed the transformation of feature-length animation into the digital age, along comes Persepolis. This gorgeously hand-drawn French production is based on the much-loved graphic novels of Iranian expatriate Marjane Satrapi, who turned her life as a spirited, free-thinking girl under Ayatollah Khomeini’s tyrannical theocracy into both high art and pop culture. Satrapi reveals the gripping, bittersweet and surprisingly funny female coming-of-age tale of her roller-coaster life in compact, elegant frames. With co-writer/director Vincent Paronnaud, Satrapi translates her bold visual style into an extraordinarily magical, daringly honest cinematic experience, at once excitingly accessible, darkly humorous and lyrically expressive. Featuring the voices of Catherine Deneuve and Chiara Mastroianni, this is France’s official Oscar submission. In French with English subtitles. (France, 95 min. PG-13 Print courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.)
-
Sleuth
- Kenneth Branagh directs.
Michael Caine, Jude Law star.
The all-star team of director Kenneth Branagh (Hamlet), screenwriter Harold Pinter (The French Lieutenant’s Woman) and actors Michael Caine and Jude Law boldly updates Sleuth, the 1972 classic tale of jealousy and revenge. Applying their prodigious talents, the foursome have extracted the original’s juicy plot and transported it to the 21st century, creating a fresh and wickedly delectable cinematic treat. This time around Oscar winner Caine stars as the richly successful author Andrew Wyke, whose wife has left him for a younger lover, Milo Tindle (Law, assuming Caine’s role in the earlier version.) Wyke invites the rival to his secluded mansion to discuss the affair. Upon Milo’s arrival, a convoluted game of deception ensues, and the men become locked in a devious, and deadly, duel of wits. (UK, 86 min. R Print courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.)
-
Youth Without Youth
- Francis Ford Coppola directs.
Tim Roth, Matt Damon star.
Francis Ford Coppola’s first feature in 10 years poses a tantalizing question: What if, without losing the hard-won wisdom of old age, you could go back and start over? Adapted from a novella by Romanian author Mircea Eliade, the film stars Tim Roth as Dominic Matei, an elderly linguistics professor who, after being struck by lightning, finds his youth miraculously restored but his lifelong memories still intact. His physical rejuvenation is accompanied by a highly evolved intellect, which attracts unwanted attention from Nazi scientists. Dominic, meanwhile, seizes the chance to complete his life’s work and revisit lost love. Shot largely in Romania, Coppola’s handsomely made meditation on the nature of chronology, language and identity spans an otherworldly blend of moods and genres. (USA/Germany/Italy/France/Romania, 125 min. R Print courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.)
-
The Savages
- Tamara Jenkins directs.
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Laura Linney, Philip Bosco star.
In her irreverent new drama, Tamara Jenkins (Slums of Beverly Hills) achieves a rare storytelling feat: making us laugh and cry at once. In what may evolve into a new genre, the coming-of-middle-age story, she has captured the misgivings and mixed emotions that can befall adult children faced with an aging parent. Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman deliver marvelously calibrated performances as siblings Wendy and Jon Savage, who are suddenly plucked from their self-absorbed lives and forced to care for a father (Philip Bosco) who never much bothered to care for them. Through sharp, witty dialogue and telling details, Jenkins avoids the slippery slope of melodrama and instead transforms an uncomfortable scenario into a brilliantly humane examination of family. (USA, 113 min. R Print courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures.)
-
There Will Be Blood
- Paul Thomas Anderson directs.
Daniel Day-Lewis, Dillon Freasier, Paul Dano star.
Boldly and magnificently strange, There Will Be Blood marks a significant departure In the work of writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson (Magnolia, Boogie Nights). Inspired by Upton Sinclair’s 1927 novel Oil!, Anderson has crafted a sprawling epic of family, religious faith and corruption, set on the incendiary frontier of California’s turn-of-the-century petroleum boom. Daniel Day-Lewis is superb as Daniel Plainview, an opportunistic misanthrope who moves with his son to a hardscrabble Western town purported to be gushing oil, with the hope of making enough money that he can seal himself off from the rest of the world. Set to an extraordinarily original score by Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, this riveting film chronicles one man’s descent into madness against the landscape of American progress. (USA, 158 min. R Print courtesy of Paramount Vantage.)
- Cassandra's Dream
- Woody Allen directs.
Ewan McGregor, Colin Farrell star.
The newest film from Woody Allen, one of our greatest cinematic storytellers, is a wonderfully vigorous rumination on lust, crime and identity. Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell star as two brothers in south London striving to eclipse their workingclass roots. When one of them falls in love with a young actress (newcomer Hayley Atwell), what begins as a spirited tale of ambition reverses into one of sinister noir. Overwhelmed by fear and desire, the brothers talk themselves into doing things they know are wrong and likely to end badly. Aided by an appropriately moody Philip Glass score, Allen winds the coil of suspense tighter and tighter, until the startlingly emotional conclusion. Tom Wilkinson and Sally Hawkins also star. (USA/UK, 108 min. PG-13 Print courtesy of The Weinstein Co.)
-
The Orphanage
- Juan Antonio Bayona directs.
Belén Rueda, Fernando Cayo star.
Produced by Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth) and a hit at the New York Film Festival, this smart, continuously surprising movie from first-time director Juan Antonio Bayona begins as a supernatural thriller, then veers into darker, more unsettling territory. Laura (Belén Rueda) and her husband, Carlos (Fernando Cayo), move into the orphanage where Laura was raised, with plans to convert it into a home for disabled children. But things go off track when their young son discovers a life-altering secret. Rueda gives an intensely physical, mesmerizing performance as a mother who desperately tries to save her child and reconcile her past. Spain’s official Oscar submission, this psychological horror story combines visual and narrative elegance with a visceral tension guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat. (Mexico/Spain, 98 min. R Print courtesy of Picturehouse.)
-
Starting OUt in the Evening
- Andrew Wagner directs.
Frank Langella, Lauren Ambrose, Lili Taylor star.
With quiet intensity, Andrew Wagner's smartly realized New York drama traces the relationship between Schiller (a superb Frank Langella) and Heather (a luminous Lauren Ambrose), a graduate student who wants to write her thesis about the elderly, reclusive novelist. While the erudite author initially rejects Heather’s brash entreaties for an interview, he eventually succumbs. What follows is a fascinating pas de deux brimming with conflicting ambitions and desires that compels each to make unexpected choices. Meanwhile, Schiller's daughter, Ariel (Lili Taylor), is nearing 40 and intent on having a child. Like her father, she invites a distraction that seems to divert her from her primary purpose. In this intelligently sensitive exploration of generational conflict, romantic complexity, and personal choice, the value of an examined life is put to the test for three characters at very different crossroads in their lives. (USA, 2007, 110 min. Courtesy of Roadside Attractions)
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Into the Wild
- Sean Penn directs.
Emile Hirsch, Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt star.
Fresh from college with a promising future ahead, 22-year-old Christopher McCandless (Emile Hirsch) walks out of his privileged life and into a quest. Along the way, he experiences adventure and encounters colorful characters who shape his understanding of life and whose lives he in turn changes. Ultimately, he tests himself by hitchhiking to Alaska, where everything he sees, learns and feels comes to a head in unexpected ways. Each strand of McCandless’s real life journey has been woven into director Sean Penn’s screen adaptation of the best-selling book by Jon Krakauer. With eloquent restraint, Penn shapes an unsettling epic, juxtaposing the vast splendor of wilderness against the intricate workings of the human soul. William Hurt, Marcia Gay Harden, Catherine Keener, Hal Holbrook and Vince Vaughn star. (USA, 149 min. R Print courtesy of Paramount Vantage.)
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Atonement
- Joe Wright directs.
Keira Knightley, James McAvoy star.
Ian McEwan’s critically acclaimed novel of romance and indiscretion is the basis for this second feature from Joe Wright (Pride and Prejudice). Set largely in 1930s and ’40s England, the starkly beautiful film examines the fallout from a wealthy adolescent girl’s false accusation against the son of a family servant – a spiteful moment that reverberates through several lives over many years. Screenwriter Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liaisons) deftly translates the book’s premise, preserving much of its metaphysical depth and all of its emotional power. A firstrate cast, including Keira Knightley and James McAvoy (The Last King of Scotland), captures the complexities of this poignant tale of youthful imprudence, as each character discovers in a unique way that the past can never completely be absolved. (UK, 122 min. R Print courtesy of Focus Features.)
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The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
- Andrew Dominik directs.
Brad Pitt, Mary-Louise Parker, Casey Affleck star.
His exploits synonymous with the mythology of the American West, Jesse James was both loathed and revered, even while he was still alive. This haunting and compelling reinterpretation of the myth explores the relationship between Jesse (Brad Pitt), as he enters the twilight of his outlaw career, and Robert Ford (Casey Affleck, Gone Baby Gone), a sycophantic would-be protégé who ultimately writes the last violent chapter of his hero’s cruelly violent life. New Zealand director Andrew Dominik bathes his gorgeous film in the golden hues of an imagined past. Much more than just another Western, this is a ravishing, magisterial, poetic epic that moves its characters toward their tragic destinies with the implacability of a Greek drama. (USA, 160 min. R Print courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)
-
The Darjeeling Limited
- Wes Anderson directs.
Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman star.
One year after the death of their father, three estranged brothers (Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman and Adrien Brody) board the Darjeeling Limited train and travel across India on a “spiritual journey.” Any actual enlightenment is nullified by their hilarious bickering and one-upsmanship. One mishap leads to another - and then, something happens. Wes Anderson (The Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore), is, as always, surprising, prodigiously inventive and masterful in his modulation of tones and emotions. A pageant, a vibrant portrait of a place and a people, an intricate look at sibling love and rivalry and, above all, a Wes Anderson film, The Darjeeling Limited is as pungently flavorful and unforgettable as the country in which it is set. Preceded by Hotel Chevalier, a short prequel in which Jack (Schwartzman) anxiously awaits the arrival of his soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend (Natalie Portman) in a Parisian hotel. (USA, Total time 104 min. R Prints courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures.)
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The Kite Runner
- Marc Forster directs.
Khalid Abdalla, Atossa Leoni, Shaun Toub star.
This highly anticipated screen adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s beloved bestseller is a profoundly emotional tale of friendship, family, devastating mistakes and redeeming love. Golden Globe–nominated director Marc Forster (Finding Neverland, Monster’s Ball) brings to life the story of Amir, a young Afghani who commits a fearful act of betrayal. Twenty years later, Amir returns to his homeland, now under the Taliban’s iron-fisted rule, to confront his past and take a daring chance to set things right. The film blends a remarkable group of non-actors from Afghanistan and Central Asia with an accomplished international cast. While preserving the original narrative’s emotional power and historical sweep, Forster brings a lyrical beauty and acute sense of humanity to this universally resonant story. (USA, 127 min. PG-13 Print courtesy of Paramount Classics.)
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4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
- Cristian Mungiu directs.
Anamaria Marinca, Laura Vasiliu star.
Winner of Cannes’ Palme d’Or, and Romania’s official Oscar submission, writerdirector Cristian Mungiu’s gripping film manages to be both profoundly humane and powerfully political. Set in the final year of Ceausescu’s dictatorship, the story follows a college student, Otilia (the remarkable Anamaria Marinca), as she attempts to help her roommate obtain an illegal abortion. Mungiu and cinematographer Oleg Mutu (The Death of Mr. Lazarescu) brilliantly visualize the dour look and sour, suspicion-tinged mood of 1980s Romania and masterfully craft a story as unnervingly suspenseful as an action thriller. As almost everything that can go wrong does for the loyal Otilia and her friend, Mungiu’s captivating filmmaking ensnares us as well, elevating 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days into an object lesson in the everyday nightmare of life under dictatorship. (Romania, 113 min. Not yet rated* Print courtesy of IFC First Take.)
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I'm Not There
- Todd Haynes directs.
Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere star.
In this highly unconventional portrayal of Bob Dylan, director Todd Haynes (Far from Heaven) has created a fictional re-imagining of the great troubadour’s career, as well as a Finnegan’s Wake-like meditation on 1960s film culture. Never comfortable playing one role in his life, Dylan has assumed multiple personalities during his career. To capture this chameleon-like nature, Haynes cast six actors as “avatars” of Dylan’s various personas: Cate Blanchett and Christian Bale (the “literal” Dylan), Richard Gere (Dylan as Western outlaw), Ben Whishaw (Dylan as Rimbaud), Marcus Carl Franklin (Dylan as Woody Guthrie) and Heath Ledger (the womanizing rock star burdened by his legacy). Lovingly suffused with Dylan’s music, I’m Not There brilliantly succeeds in conveying the kaleidoscopic complexity of one of our most elusive and gifted songwriters. (USA, 135 min. R Print courtesy of The Weinstein Co.)
