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HIGHLIGHTS FREE OUTDOOR SCREENINGS PROGRAM AT MONTRÉAL WORLD FILM FESTIVALS

A cornucopia of acclaimed movies from Canada and around the globe will be screened free-of-charge nightly during the 12-day run of the 28th Montréal World Film Festival, August 26 – September 6.

The Cinema Under The Stars program, presented by Loto-Québec in association with the MWFF, will feature two hit films each night starting at 8:30 pm on the Esplanade of Place des Arts, Sainte-Catherine at Jeanne Mance. Only one film will be shown the last night.

Below is the schedule of screenings:

Thursday, August 26

8:30 pm
LES TRIPLETTES DE BELLEVILLE
France - Canada - Belgium 2004 / Colour / 79 min / English subtitles
Director: Sylvain Chomet.

An old woman battles the French Mafia to retrieve her godson, kidnapped while he is racing in the Tour de France. Madame Souza and her trusty dog Bruno cross the Atlantic in their quest and are befriended by an ancient singing group called the Belleville Triplets. Not your typical Disney animated film.

10:00 pm
LES RIPOUX
France 1984 / Colour/ 107 min / French
Director: Claude Zidi. Cast: Philippe Noiret, Thierry Lhermitte, Régine.

René, a thoroughly corrupt plainclothes policeman who has long ago thrown away the rulebook, takes bribes, lives with a prostitute and relaxes by playing the horses. A monkey wrench is thrown into René's scheme, however, when he is assigned a new partner, a rookie cop who knows all the rules.

Friday, August 27

8:30pm
SWIMMING POOL
La Piscine. France – U.K. 2003 / Colour / 98 min / English & French subtitles
Director: François Ozon. Cast: Charlotte Rampling, Ludivine Sagnier, Charles Dance.

Sarah (Rampling), a rigid and conservative, yet successful English mystery writer takes her publisher's (Dance) home in the south of France, where her interaction with his unusual daughter (Sagnier) sets off some touchy dynamics. A sensual thriller.

10:30pm
MONSOON WEDDING
Le Mariage des moussons. Inde – United States 2001 / Colour / 115 min /
French subtitles
Director: Mira Nair. Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Lillette Dubey, Shefali Shetty.

A story set in the modern upper-middle class of India, where telecommunications and a western lifestyle mix with old traditions. A stressed father, a bride-to-be with a secret, a smitten event planner, and relatives from around the world create much ado about the preparations for an arranged marriage.

Saturday, August 28

8:30pm
L’HISTOIRE D’ADÈLE H.
France 1975 / Colour / 98 min / English subtitles
Director: François Truffaut. Cast: Isabelle Adjani, Bruce Robinson, Sylvia Marriott.

Passionate drama of a young woman (the daughter of Victor Hugo) obsessed with a soldier who does not return her love. A François Truffaut film to rank with his best and the starring role that launched Isabelle Adjani's remarkable career.

10:20pm
FAME
La Fièvre des planches. United States 1980 / Colour / 133 min / French subtitles
Director: Alan Parker. Cast: Irene Cara, Paul McCrane, Barry Miller.

The dreams, aspirations, struggles, and failures of students at New York City's High School for the Performing Arts with Oscar-winning music (by Michael Gore) and song (by Gore and Dean Pitchford). Insight, creativity and lots of excitement.

Sunday, August 29

8:30pm
BABETTE’S FEAST
Babettes Gæstebud / Le Festin de Babette. Danemark 1989 / Colour / 103 min / French subtitles
Director: Gabriel Axel. Cast: Stéphane Audran, Birgitte Federspiel, Bodil Kjer.

Two beautiful young minister's daughters who pass up love and fame to remain in their small Danish village, grow old, using religion as a substitute for living life… and then take in a refugee Frenchwoman with a very special secret. An instant masterpiece that deservedly earned a Best Foreign Film Academy Award.

10:30pm
LE DÎNER DE CONS
France 1998 / Colour / 85 min / English subtitles
Director: Francis Veber. Cast: Thierry Lhermitte, Jacques Villeret, Catherine Frot.

Each week, Pierre and his friends organize what is billed as "un dîner de cons". Everyone brings the dumbest guy he could find as a guest. Pierre thinks his champ –François Pignon – will steal the show.

Monday, August 30

8:30pm
LES INVASIONS BARBARES
Canada 2003 / Colour / 112 min / English subtitles
Director: Denys Arcand. Cast: Rémy Girard, Stéphane Rousseau, Marie-Josée Croze.

When Rémy is hospitalized, his ex-wife calls their son home from London and Sebastien summons his dad’s old friends, relatives and former mistresses to cheer him up. Winner of the Oscar for best foreign language film, plus a slew of other prizes at home and abroad.

10:40pm
BAGDAD CAFÉ
RFA – United States 1987 / Colour / 92 min / French subtitles
Director: Percy Adlon. Cast: Marianne Sägebrecht, CCH Pounder, Jack Palance.

Percy Adlon's nearly plotless charmer has Marianne Sägebrecht stranded in the California desert, making friends with the kooky folks who hang out at Pounder's roadside cafe. Jack Palance provides a special treat portraying an ex-Hollywood set decorator who becomes obsessed with painting Sägebrecht's portrait.


Tuesday, August 31

8:30pm
MAMBO ITALIANO
Canada 2003 / Colour / 92 min / English with French subtitles
Director: Émile Gaudreault. Cast: Ginette Reno, Paul Sorvino, Luke Kirby. Angelo, the oddball son of Italian immigrants Gino and Maria, shocks his parents by moving out on his own without getting married, and shocks them further still when he reveals that he's gay. But his boyfriend, policeman Nino Paventi, isn't as ready to come out of the closet -- especially not to his busybody mother, Lina.

10:20pm
FELLINI ROMA
Italy – France 1972 / Colour / 119 min / French subtitles
Director: Federico Fellini.

Federico Fellini's impressionistic ode to the Eternal City of his youth, his adolescence, and the present – complete with bravura fantasy sequences and his usual carnival-of-life point of view.

Wednesday, September 1

8:30pm
LA GRANDE VADROUILLE
France 1966 / Colour / 120 min / French.
Director: Gérard Oury. Cast: Bourvil, Louis de Funès, Andréa Parisy. During World War II, two French civilians and a downed English bomber crew set out from Paris to cross the demarcation line between Nazi-occupied northern France and the South. From there they will be able to escape to England. First, they must avoid German troops – and the consequences of their own blunders.

10:40pm
PATHS OF GLORY/ Les Sentiers de la gloire
United States 1957 / B&W / 87 min / French subtitles
Director: Stanley Kubrick. Cast: Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, Adolphe Menjou.

During WWI, a French general orders his men on suicidal charge; when they fail, he picks three soldiers to be tried and executed for cowardice. Shattering study of the insanity of war has grown even more profound with the years; stunningly acted and directed. Kubrick adapted Humphrey Cobb's novel, which was based on fact.

Thursday, September 2

8:30pm
Le Coureur / Runner
Canada 1962 / B&W / 11 min / French
Director: Don Owen
JEUX DE LA XXIe OLYMPIADE
Games of the XXI Olympiad. Canada 1977 / Colour / 119 min / English subtitles
Director: Jean-Claude Labrecque.

The official film of the Montreal Olympic Games of 1976, produced with the brilliant documentary talent of the National Film Board of Canada, as supervised by director Jean-Claude Labrecque. A treasure trove of memories.

11:00pm
BEING JOHN MALKOVICH / Dans la peau de John Malkovich
United States 1999 / Colour / 113 min / French subtitles
Director: Spike Jonze. Cast: John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener. A puppeteer (John Cusack) discovers a door in his office that allows him to enter the mind and life of John Malkovich (John Malkovich) for 15 minutes. The puppeteer then tries to turn the portal into a small business. Writer Charlie Kaufman and director Spike Jonze supply a steady stream of dazzling inventions, twists and wicked paradoxes.

Friday, September 3

8:30pm
TANGO / Tango, no me dejes nunca.
Spain – Argentina 1998 / Colour / 115 min / French subtitles
Director: Carlos Saura. Cast: Miguel Ángel Solá, Cecilia Narova, Mia Maestro.

A film director is determined to make the ultimate tango film. Things become complicated when he falls in love with a beautiful and talented young dancer who is the girlfriend of the powerful and dangerous gangster, an investor in the picture. 10:40pm INNOCENCE Australia – Belgium 2000 / Colour / 95 min / French subtitles
Director: Paul Cox. Cast: Julia Blake, Charles Tingwell, Terry Norris. Andreas, a retired music teacher, discovers that his first love, Claire, lives in the same city that he does. Fifty years after they shared a passionate love affair in Belgium, they meet again. Knowing that time is precious, they embark on an affair as reckless, intense and tempestuous as when they were young lovers.

Saturday, September 4

8:30pm
Mahler et son inspiration
Canada 2004 / Couleur / 11 min.
Presented by l’Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal and produced in the studios of ARTV.

DEATH IN VENICE/ Morte a Venezia / Mort à Venise.
Italy – France 1971 / Colour / 130 min / French subtitles
Director: Luchino Visconti. Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Bjørn Andresen, Silvana Mangano.

Study of an artist, his loves, his homosexuality, and continuous search for beauty. Thomas Mann's slow-moving classic is splendidly brought to the screen. The music by Gustav Mahler (whom Bogarde is made up to resemble) is sublime.

11:00pm
HAIR
United States 1979 / Colour / 121 min / French subtitles
Director: Milos Forman. Cast: John Savage, Treat Williams, Beverly D’Angelo.

A musical riff on a young man's visit to New York two days before he is inducted in the Army. James Rado-Gerome Ragni-Galt MacDermot's hit musical play celebrated the 1960s as the Age of Aquarius and Forman's humanistic style and the free-spirited Twyla Tharp choreography turn the movie into an exuberant ballet.

Sunday, September 5

8:30pm
ASTÉRIX ET OBÉLIX CONTRE CÉSAR
France 1999 / Colour / 105 min / French.
Director: Claude Zidi. Cast: Christian Clavier, Gérard Depardieu, Roberto Benigni.

A special magic potion, prepared by the druid of Astérix and Obélix's village, gives incredible power to those who drink it. The Romans try to get Obélix and the druid into their hands in order to wipe the little village off the map, when the last potion of its stock has been used up. But the villagers have other plans...

10:30pm
PRINCESSE MONONOKÉ/ Mononoke-hime.
Japan 1997 / Colour / 134 min / French with English subtitles
Director: Hayao Miyazaki.

A classic quest parable about a young prince looking for a cure for his potentially fatal chemical curse brought on by the angry boar-god. His search brings him to remote, embattled forest and mining communities, where two fearless women head the opposing sides. A landmark feat of Japanese animation from the acknowledged master of the genre.


Monday, September 6

8:30pm
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY
Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo / Le Bon, la brute et le truand. Italy – Spain 1966 / Colour / 161 min / French subtitles
Director: Sergio Leone. Cast: Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Eli Wallach.

Third and best of Leone's "DOLLARS" trilogy, set during Civil War; three disparate low-lifes search for a Confederate government treasure chest, each possessing only partial whereabouts. Long, funny, and flamboyant, with a memorable Ennio Morricone score; the quintessential spaghetti Western.