Film Series Continues With ‘Intouchables’
Showing at 6:30 pm Thursday, Nov. 10, will be “The Intouchables” (2011) by directors Oliver Nakache and Eric Toledano.
“The film was an enormous box-office hit in France, and indeed, it is easy to enjoy. Philippe (Francois Cluzet) is a millionaire who was paralyzed from the neck down in a para-gliding accident. Driss (Omar Sy) is a man out on parole for robbery, who applies for the job of Philippe’s caregiver only so he can be rejected and get a signature on his application for unemployment benefits. As Philippe interviews one boring job applicant after another, we begin to understand that he needs not only physical help but someone to cheer him up. Driss’ cheeky irreverence is refreshing, and Philippe astonishes him and his own household staff by offering him the job,” Roger Ebert wrote in a May 2012 movie review.
The international films shown at the higher ed center have won rave reviews.
Other films scheduled in the 2016 series are:
At 6:30 pm Thursday, Dec. 8 — “Theeb” (2014) by director Naji Abu Nowar.
At 6:30 pm Thursday, Jan. 12 — “Wild Tales” (2014) by director an Szifron.
“Few people remain who can testify as to what life was like inside a Nazi death camp, but something about ‘Son of Saul’ — a Holocaust movie unlike any other — feels intuitively true. It depicts a technological perversion, a death factory that, for its function, depends on an absence of emotion. ‘Son of Saul,’ a prohibitive favorite to win the best foreign language Oscar this year, presents horror with little drama. The opening sequence achieves the outer limits of film art. Movies simply don’t get more powerful than this,” reads a January 2016 movie review from The San Francisco Chronicle. Nemes, a first-time director, did go on to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Last fall, the series presented such films as “Ida” (2013), a Polish drama film directed by Paweł Pawlikowski; “Micmacs” (2009), a comedy from French writer and director Jean-Pierre Jeunet; “Leviathan” (2014), a drama from Russian writer and director Andrey Zvyagintsev; and “Where Do We Go Now?” (2011) from Lebanese director Nadine Labaki.
Other upcoming events at Southern Maryland Higher Education Center include an open house from 4 to 7 pm Nov. 2, 2016. Visit www.smhec.org for a schedule of classes being offered.
SMHEC is at 44219 Airport Road in California, MD 20619; 301-737-2500.
To learn more about the Southern Maryland Higher Education Center, visit their Leader Member page.
