Film Banner 2013 Season

Center for the Arts Bonita Springs Presents 

2013-2014 Season of Films for Film Lovers 

Center for the Arts Cafe Theater, Promenade Bonita Bay, 26821 South Bay Drive, #114, Bonita Springs, FL

Tickets: $9  

  

Join us on Monday nights in our cozy space at the Promenade at Bonita Bay furnished with a large movie screen, comfortable chairs and tables to watch the best foreign and independent films. Wine, non-alcoholic beverages, snacks and popcorn are available. Be sure to join our lively film discussion after each film, led by a Film Society Chairman and a Film Society Member.  Film lovers can become a member of the Center for the Art's Film Society by purchasing ticket packages. These members enjoy advance notice of film events, screenings and schedule.This season we offer three "Dinner & Film Nights," that feature a true cultural immersion with great films, delectable food and wine.

  • Doors open at 6:30pm and films begin at 7:00pm
  • General admission $9 per person 
  • Advance reservations suggested
  • Credit cards, cash or checks accepted at the door
  • Money-saving ticket packages are available!                    

For tickets & information call the Center for the Arts today 239-495-8989 

Movie Tickets

Money Saving Film Series Ticket Packages 


  • *20 Films per person $130
  • *10 Films per person $70
  • *5 Films per person $40

*Package prices not available with Dinner & Film Nights
2013-2014 Season of Films for Film Lovers (Monday Nights)
Four Days in September

June 10, 2013

Four Days in September (1997) Brazil 


Fernando, a journalist, and his friend César join terrorist group MR8 in order to fight Brazilian dictatorial regime during the late sixties. Cesare, however, is wounded and captured during a bank hold up. Fernando then decides to kidnap the American ambassador in Brazil and ask for the release of fifteen political prisoners in exchange for his life.  Written by Salvatore Santangelo



The Wave

June 24, 2013

The Wave  (2008) Germany 


High school teacher, Rainer Wegner, may be popular with the students, but he's also unorthodox. He's forced to teach autocracy for the school's project week. He's less than enthusiastic at first, but the response of the students is surprising to say the least. He forces the students to become more invested in the prospect of self rule, and soon the class project has its own power and eerily starts to resemble Germany's past. Can Wegner and his class realize what's happening before the horrors start repeating themselves?

Click Here to Watch Trailer
July is "Staff Picks" Month
Station Agent

July 8, 2013 

The Station Agent (2003) US 

      

When his only friend and co-worker dies, a young man born with dwarfism moves to an abandoned train depot in rural New Jersey. Though he tries to maintain a life of solitude, he is soon entangled with an artist who is struggling with a personal tragedy and an overly friendly Cuban hot-dog vendor.

 

Click Here to Watch Trailer 

Water
July 22, 2013
Water (2005) Canada

In 1938, Gandhi's party is making inroads in women's rights. Chuyia, a married child living with her parents, becomes a widow. By tradition, she is unceremoniously left at a bare and impoverished widows' ashram, beside the Ganges during monsoon season. The ashram's leader pimps out Kalyani, a young and beautiful widow, for household funds. Narayan, a follower of Gandhi, falls in love with her. Can she break with tradition and religious teaching to marry him? The ashram's moral center is Shakuntala, deeply religious but conflicted about her fate. Can she protect Kalyani or Chuyia? Amid all this water, is rebirth possible or does tradition drown all?

August is "Psychological Drama" Month
Women On the Verge
August 12, 2013 
Women on the Verge (1988) Spain 

A woman's lover leaves her, and she tries to contact him to find out why he's left. She confronts his wife and son, who are as clueless as she. Meanwhile her girlfriend is afraid the police are looking for her because of her boyfriend's criminal activities. They talk to a female lawyer, who turns out to be the lover's new lover, and everyone's path keeps crossing each other's in a very complicated and confusing manner.

 

Click Here to Watch Trailer 

The Bothersome Man
August 26, 2013
The Bothersome Man (2006) Norway 
 

Forty-year-old Andreas arrives in a strange city with no memory of how he got there. He is presented with a job, an apartment - even a wife. But before long, Andreas notices that something is wrong. Andreas makes an attempt to escape the city, but he discovers there's no way out. Andreas meets Hugo, who has found a crack in a wall in his cellar. Beautiful music streams out from the crack. Maybe it leads to "the other side"? A plan for escape is hatched.

 

Click Here to Watch Trailer 

September is "Romance & Adventure" Month
In July
September 9, 2013
In July (2000) Germany    

Daniel is a young teacher, who in contrast to everyone else plans to stay in Hamburg for the summer. Juli, a girl at the flea-market, wants to get known to Daniel and manages to sell him a Mayan ring with a sun on it, foretelling him that he will meet a girl with a sun. One day later Daniel is already on his way across Europe. It seems the prophecy came true somehow.

 
A Heart in Winter

September 23, 2013 

A Heart in Winter (1992) France  


Beautiful violin virtuoso Camille has two obsessions: the music of Ravel, and a friend of her husband's who crafts violins. But his heart seems to be as cold as her playing is passionate.
 
October is "Love of the Arts" Month
Mao's Last Dancer

October 7, 2013  

Mao's Last Dance (2009) Australia 

 

A drama based on the autobiography by Li Cunxin. At the age of 11, Li was plucked from a poor Chinese village by Madame Mao's cultural delegates and taken to Beijing to study ballet. In 1979, during a cultural exchange to Texas, he falls in love with an American woman. Two years later, he manages to defect and goes on to perform as a principal dancer for the Houston Ballet and as  principal artist with the Australian Ballet.

 

 

Click Here to Watch Trailer
Il Postino

October 14, 2013  

Il Postino (1994) Italy

 

Pablo Neruda, the famous Chilean poet, is exiled to a small island for political reasons. On the island, the unemployed son of a poor fisherman is hired as an extra postman due to the huge increase in mail that this causes. Il Postino is to hand-deliver the celebrity's mail to him. Though poorly educated, the postman learns to love poetry and eventually befriends Neruda. While struggling to grow and express himself more fully, he falls in love and needs Neruda's help and guidance.

 
Cherry Blossoms

October 21, 2013   

Cherry Blossoms (2008) Germany

   

When Trudi learns that her husband Rudi is dangerously ill, she suggests visiting their children in Berlin without telling him the truth. As Franzi and Karl don't care much about their parents, Trudi and Rudi go to the Baltic Sea, where Trudi suddenly dies. Rudi is thrown out of gear, even more so when he learns that his wife aspired to live a totally different life in Japan.

 

Click Here to Watch Trailer 

November is "Childhood Adventures" Month
Butterfly

November 11, 2013    

The Butterfly (2002)  France

   

Julien, an aging widower, is a passionate butterfly collector.  Elsa, an eight-year-old girl, with her mother, a very young woman named Isabelle, just moved into his apartment building.  The mother is usually away, leaving her daughter alone for long periods of time, and Elsa starts visiting Julien.


The Italian

November 18, 2013   

The Italian (2005) Russia

   

Vanya is a six-year old orphan living in a rundown orphanage in a remote Russian village.  For Vanya and the other children, life is without hope, unless, of course, they are adopted by wealthy foreigners.  For Vanya, hope comes in the form of an Italian couple.  But while arrangements are made an incident occurs when the mother of another child appears, seeking her son.  Vanya wonders what would happen if his own mother reappeared, and he was living in Italy.  With the assistance of older children, he begins a journey across country to find his mother.  

The Kid with a Bike

November 25, 2013  

The Kid with a Bike (2011) Belgium

    

Abandoned by his father, a young boy is left in a state-run youth farm. In a random act of kindness, the town hairdresser agrees to foster him on weekends.

 

 



Click Here to Watch Trailer
December is "Biographical Films" Month
Seraphine

December 2, 2013 

Seraphine (2008) France

     

This extraordinary biographical film tells the dramatic story of French painter Seraphine de Senlis.  The tale starts in 1914 when a known German art collector and critic Wilhelm Uhde accidentally finds out that his servant woman is an amateur artiste painting in naive but highly innovative and original style.  And doing so because she had a vision of a divine being who told her to paint pictures.  Where does genius end and madness begin?  Or are they just two sides of the same phenomenon? 

 

Click Here to Watch Trailer
Miss Potter

December 9. 2013    

Miss Potter (2006) UK 

    

The story of Beatrix Potter, the author of the beloved and best-selling children's book, "The Tale of Peter Rabbit", and her struggle for love, happiness and success.

 

 

Click Here to Watch Trailer
Camille Claudel

December 16, 2013   

Camille Claudel (1988) France

    

Biography of Camille Claudel. Sister of writer Paul Claudel, her enthusiasm impresses already-famous sculptor Auguste Rodin. He hires her as an assistant, but soon Camille begins to sculpt for herself and for Rodin. She also becomes his mistress. But after a while, she would like to get out of his shadow.

 

 

January is "Love of Music" Month
Shall We Dance

January 6, 2014 

Shall We Dance (1996) Japan 

      

Shohei Sugiyama has attained all that he has wanted in life. But he is still depressed and unhappy. One day, he gathers up the courage to sign up for dancing lessons. He hopes they will rid his depression and help him get his life back together.

 

Kinky Boots

January 13, 2014  

Kinky Boots (2005) UK 

      

Charles may have grown up with his father in the family shoe business, but he never expected to take his father's place.  Yet, the untimely death of his father places him in that position, only to learn that Price & Sons Shoes is failing.  While in despair at his failed attempts to save the business, Charles meets the flamboyant drag queen cabaret singer, Lola.  A desperate and entertaining plan unfolds to save the business.


The Pianist

January 20, 2014   

The Pianist (2003) US 

 

A brilliant pianist, a Polish Jew, witnesses the restrictions Nazis place on Jews in the Polish capital, from restricted access to the building of the Warsaw ghetto. As his family is rounded up to be shipped off to the Nazi labor camps, he escapes deportation and eludes capture by living in the ruins of Warsaw.

 

 

February is "Wartime Behaviors" Month
The Cuckoo

February 3, 2014   

The Cuckoo (2002) Russia  

 

September of 1944, a few days before Finland went out of the Second World War. A chained to a rock Finnish sniper-kamikadze Veikko manages to set himself free. Ivan, a captain of the Soviet Army, arrested by the Front Secret Police 'Smersh', has a narrow escape. They are soldiers of two enemy armies. A Lapp woman Anni gives a shelter to both of them at her farm. For Anni they are not enemies, but just men.

 

The Violin

February 10, 2014   

The Violin (2005) Mexico  

 

In an unnamed Latin American country that closely resembles Mexico, the government fights a rural insurgency with torture, assault, rape, and murder. Soldiers descend on a town, cutting off the rebels from their cache of ammunition hidden in a field. A family of grandfather, son, and grandson are among the rebels in the hills. The grandfather, with his violin over his shoulder, tries to pass the checkpoint, ostensibly to tend his corn crop. The commanding officer lets him pass but insists on a daily music lesson. Can the old man ferry out the ammunition in his violin case under the soldiers' nose?

 

Paradise Now

February 17, 2014   

Paradise Now (2005) France  

 

In Nablas on the West Bank, Said and Khaled, who have volunteered to be suicide bombers, receive word it will be tomorrow - the cell's first operation in two years. They're shaven and shorn, in black suits to pose as settlers in Tel Aviv for a wedding. Something goes wrong at the crossing, they're separated, and the action is postponed, long enough for renewed questioning of what they're about to do.

 

March is "Love of Food & More" Month
Eat, Drink, Man, Woman

March 3, 2014   

Eat, Drink, Man, Woman (1994) Taiwan   

 

A senior chef lives with his three grown daughters; the middle one finds her future plans affected by unexpected events and the life changes of the other household members.

 

 

 

Babette's Feast

March 10, 2014   

Babette's Feast (1897) Denmark   

 

On the Danish coast during the nineteenth century two pious sisters, Filippa and Martine, are kind-hearted and devoted to their late father's ministries. Long ago, they both turned down the loves of their lives so that they could serve their father's vision. Years after their father has passed away they receive a visitor with a letter from Achille Papin, a French opera singer who fell in love with Filippa. The letter explains how he has sent Babette, the visitor, to them because her life was in jeopardy in France: both her husband and son had been killed. The two sisters agree to take Babette in and Babette promises to help them as a loyal servant. After fourteen years Babette wins 10,000 francs in a lottery. The sisters assume she'll be leaving them now, but her only request is that she be allowed to cook the dinner that will celebrate the 100th birthday of the two sisters' deceased father.

 

Chocolat

March 17, 2014   

Chocolat (2000) UK   

 

A woman and her daughter open a chocolate shop in a small French village that shakes up the rigid morality of the community.

 

 

 

 

 

April is "Family/Friend Relationships"  Month
My Afternoons with margueritte

April 7, 2014   

My Afternoons with Margueritte (2010) France    

 

A few pigeons and a few books, such are the basic ingredients of this movie.  An illiterate and lonely man develops a deep friendship with a 94-year-old lady who lives in an old people's home.  This odd, but touching couple, played by Gerard Depardieu and Gisele Casadesus and  the colorful people in their village provide funny and touching performances.  

 

 

Enlightenment Guaranteed

April 14, 2014   

Enlightenment Guaranteed (1999) Germany    

 

Two very different brothers get together for a temporary stay in a Japanese Zen monastry. The trip from Germany to Japan brings up some unexpected quests they have to manage. Soon both really have to leave their ordinary lives behind and are on a voyage to self discovery.

 

 

   

 

Buddy

April 21, 2014   

Buddy (2003) Norway     

 

24-year-old Kristoffer, lives in Oslo with his friends Geir and Stig Inge. Geir likes to live dangerously, while Stig Inge is a more cautious and uncertain type. Kristoffer and Geir work as billboard hangers, and in his spare time Kristoffer makes a video diary with Geir and Stig Inge, containing foolish stunts. When Kristoffer's girlfriend, Elisabeth, leaves him, he falls to pieces. Then his videos are featured on Norway's most popular talk show, "God morgen Norge" on TV 2, and he becomes famous.

 

 

May is "Crime/Fun"  Month
Madeinusa

May 12, 2014   

Madeinusa (2006) Peru     

 

Madeinusa is a girl aged 14 with a sweet Indian face who lives in an isolated village in the Cordillera Blanca Mountain range of Peru. This strange place is characterized by its religious fervor. From Good Friday at three o'clock in the afternoon (the time of day when Christ died on the cross) to Easter Sunday, the whole village can do whatever it feels like.

 


The Wedding Banquet

May 26, 2014   

The Wedding Banquet (1993) Taiwan      

 

To satisfy his nagging parents, a gay landlord and a female tenant agree to a marriage of convenience, but his parents arrive to visit and things get out of control.

 


Dinner & Film Nights
Join us for a true cultural immersion with Dinner & A Film Night! Film and culture buffs will enjoy an international film, complemented by themed delectable food samplings and wine. So travel with us and experience a new landscape without ever having to leave home!
  • Doors open at 6:30pm and films begin at 7:00pm
  • General admission $25 per person includes: Film, Small Plate Samplings, Dessert & Popcorn 
  • Advance reservations suggested                 

For tickets & information call the Center for the Arts today 239-495-8989 

Cinema Paradisio

October 28, 2013 

Dinner & Film Night   

Cinema Paradisio (1988) Italy      

 

A famous film director remembers his childhood at the Cinema Paradiso where Alfredo, the projectionist, first brought about his love of films. He returns home to his Sicilian village for the first time after almost 30 years and is reminded of his first love, Elena, who disappeared from his life before he left for Rome.

 

  


The Chorus

January 27, 2014

Dinner & Film Night   

The Chorus (2004) France      

 

In 1949 Monsieau Clement, an assistant teacher, comes to a school for "difficult" boys. The School is run by a hard minded principal. The motto of the school being "Action - ReAction". This method obviously isn't working, as there are a lot of problems and problem children. Monsieau Clement tries to reach his boys, build trust and true order through music.


Jiro Dreams of Sushi

March 24, 2014   

Dinner & Film Night  

Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011) Japan      

 

In the basement of a Tokyo office building, 85 year old sushi master Jiro Ono works tirelessly in his world renowned restaurant, Sukiyabashi Jiro. As his son Yoshikazu faces the pressures of stepping into his father's shoes and taking over the legendary restaurant, Jiro relentlessly pursues his lifelong quest to create the perfect piece of sushi.

 


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Become a member and receive a free class

Those who join the Center for the Arts for the first time between May 1 and September 30 will receive a free 4-, 5-, or 6-week class to be used by December 31, 2013 . The Center for the Arts offers this benefit for first time members and it is for a limited time only.  Call the Center for the Arts at 239-495-8989 for more information.
Offer valid for first time members only.