This week brings us the American Independent Film Festival, an animation, a thriller, a new screening from F-Sides Cineclub, and a Jean-Pierre Melville retrospective.

American Independent Film Festival

The 7th American Independent Film Festival returns for its second part between June 23 – 25 at the Elvire Popesco Cinema, as well as at the Roaba de Cultura in Herastrau Park with a series of free outdoor screenings.

Opening the program at the Roaba de Cultura is the two-time Oscar-winning and five-time Grammy-winning beloved classic Breakfast at Tiffany’s (dir. Blake Edwards, 1961). The public will also have the chance to watch here two more recent American hits: Hail, Caesar! (dir. Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, 2016) and Rocketman (dir. Dexter Fletcher, 2019).

Screening at the Elvire Popesco Cinema are three must-see titles:

Asteroid City (dir. Wes Anderson), starring Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Tilda Swinton, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, and Steve Carell;

Tár (dir. Todd Field), starring Cate Blanchett as Lydia Tár, one of the finest composers and conductors in history;

Wendy (dir. Benh Zeitlin), a loose reinterpretation of the Peter Pan fairy tale.

Discover the full program on the AIFF website.

Elemental (dir. Peter Sohn)

The story is set in Element City, where Fire-, Water-, Earth-, and Air-residents live together without ever actually meeting. Since it would be too dangerous, the elements have separate neighbourhoods where they live only with their own kind.

Ember, a Fire young woman, works for the family business, and the days pass quietly. That is until she meets Wade, a Water element, and an unexpected friendship forms between them. Although Ember seems the more fiery of the two (both literally and figuratively), it’s Wade who encourages her to discover that the world is much more interesting if you dare to push the boundaries imposed by society.

The animation is inspired by the director’s experience growing up as the son of Korean immigrants in the US, a foreign place with an unknown language and different people. Fear of the unknown is one of the main themes explored in Elemental.

The film is playing in cinemas across the country.

Last Night of Amore / L’ultima notte di Amore (dir. Andrea Di Stefano)

On the night before his retirement, Franco Amore is called to investigate a crime scene where his best friend and long-time partner Dino has been killed during a diamond heist.

For 35 years, Franco has played by the rules, but on this last never-ending night, everything changes. L’ultima notte di Amore is a crime thriller that relies not on explosions and special effects but on a story that gradually unravels before the viewers through flashbacks and plot twists.

The film hits theatres on June 23.

Blind spot (dir. Claudia von Alemann, 1981)

F-Sides Cineclub is back with a new series of screenings, called Flip the Script. This week’s program introduces German director Claudia von Alemann’s debut feature, Blind Spot.

Elisabeth, a young German historian, leaves her husband and daughter at home and travels to Lyon, France on her own to do research about Flora Tristan, a 19th-century feminist writer. Armed with Tristan’s diary, the protagonist walks the same streets, enters the same places once frequented by Flora, and talks to strangers as her life slowly begins to intertwine with the life of the author.

Each film screened by F-Sides Cineclub this season receives a literary response from a Romanian female author at the invitation of writer and journalist Elena Vlădăreanu, founder of the “Sofia Nădejde” Awards. This week’s screening will be preceded by a reading by Irina Tacu, and followed by a Q&A with the author and Elena Vlădăreanu.

The event will take place Thursday, June 22, at 8:00 pm at the Elvire Popesco Cinema.

The Red Circle / Le cercle rouge (dir. Jean-Pierre Melville, 1970)

Mentor of the French New Wave, Jean-Pierre Melville has influenced new generations of filmmakers across the world such as Quentin Tarantino, Michael Mann, and Jim Jarmusch. The director is honoured with a retrospective at the Elvire Popesco Cinema, where every Sunday until July 16, the public has the unique opportunity to (re)discover his oeuvre on the big screen.

After 5 years in prison, master thief Corey (Alain Delon) celebrates his freedom with another heist. That’s how he encounters Vogel (Gian Maria Volontè), an escaped criminal. Corey teams up with him and Jansen (Yves Montand), an unscrupulous and alcoholic former policeman, for an elaborate robbery. Things get complicated when Mattei (Bourvil), the police officer in charge of Vogel, enters the scene and must now not only get him back but also stop the upcoming heist.

The screening will take place Sunday, June 25, at 1:00 pm at the Elvire Popesco Cinema.

Melissa Antonescu

Writer, photographer and videographer. For Films in Frame she writes news about the latest happenings in the film world and brings to the readers' attention the productions that can be seen at the cinema. When she's not writing articles, she's photographing people in a small studio or searching for new cake recipes.