Voksne mennesker Dark Horse
Dagur Kári 2005 Iceland/Denmark (1st time; big screen)
An irresponsible graffiti artist falls for the crush of his best friend, a training soccer referee.
An offbeat, lingering comedy told in a series of Godardian episodes, each with their own chapter titles. Lovingly shot in black and white, it embraces its characters with admiration and a Jarmusch sentimentality. Rewarding.


Der Wald vor lauter Bäumen The Forest for the Trees
Mauren Ade 2005 Germany (1st time; big screen)
A young teacher arrives at a new school, desperate to make new friends. But her over-enthusiasm and lack of control over the pupils fail to bring happiness.
A tragic character study with an amazing final scene but a repetitive (perhaps necessarily so) narrative bogs it down.


The West Wittering Affair
David Scheinmann 2004, GB (1st time; big screen)
A man, proud of never having an affair, confesses to a therapist that he had sex with two different women on the same night; the therapist's girlfriend is one of them.
A fantastic, low-budget comedy which hits the strings both aesthetically and emotionally; it is a fresh, original piece on relationships, beautifully written, played and edited.


Queen Christina
Rouben Mamoulian 1933 US (1st time; big screen)
A young queen of protestant Sweden risks all for her love for a Catholic Spanish emissary.
Historical hokum and Garbo's finest hour; the camera loves her, and she loves being photographed, relishing the chance to shine as one of the most memorable female characters in cinema.


Luffarpetter Petter the Tramp
Erik A. Petschler 1922 Sweden (1st time; big screen)
The last remaining eight minutes of an early Garbo feature.
This comedy, now lost, features Garbo as a bathing beauty; encouraged by her performance, she successfully applied to the Royal Drama School in Stockholm, and thence to stardom.