Listings

Film

Tuesday Movie Nights-Wes Anderson Month

Date: 8 pm to 10 pm in March

Venue: La-Bas Bar, Jiaodaokou Bei Santiao #34, Gulou, Beijing

Here is the March film list for the Tuesday Movie Night. March is Wes Anderson Month.

Price: Free entry and free popcorn.

1. The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014): March 3

The film tells the adventures of Gustave H, a legendary concierge at a famous hotel from the fictional Republic of Zubrowka between the first and second World Wars, and Zero Moustafa, the lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend. Like the ship of The Life Aquatic or the townhouse of The Royal Tenenbaums, The Grand Budapest Hotel comes with its own ready-made theater and uniformed cast. From here, Anderson breaks out with verve on to trains, ski runs and cobbled streets to spin a wickedly funny tale that celebrates the final glory days of a dying world order. It's all given a bombastic lift by an Alexandre Desplat score which crescendos in organs and drums. Full of Anderson's visual signatures - cameras that swerve, quick zooms, speedy montages - it's familiar in style, refreshing in tone and one of Anderson's very best films.

2. Moonrise Kingdom (2012): March 10

Moonrise Kingdom opens with the camera gracefully panning sideways through the cross-section of a suburban home in 1960s New England, stopping occasionally, like a train pulling into station after station, to spy on members the family. We may as well be peering into a retro doll's house - and we are the kids about to play with the toys inside. This is an adult film, really, of course, with all the pleasures of seeing content start Bruce Willis as a soft-hearted local cop; briefly encountering Tilda Swinton as a uniformed care worker called Social Services; lapping up the ample Hank Williams on the soundtrack; and squirming at a school production of Benjamin Britten's Noye's Fludde. But you can imagine Moonrise Kingdom turning young kids on to cinema; it's so full of a joyous love for the medium and smart without being clever-clever. Its childishness, sense of innocence and eye for fun all make it a very easy film to love.

3. The Darjeeling Limited (2007): March 17

Wilson, Brody and Schwartzman are three brothers who embark on a journey through India a year after their father's death: They haven't seen each other since his funeral and Wilson, the older of the three and a dominating presence, hopes that a long train journey will bring them closer together as friends and as brothers. It's an Anderson movie from the off: the sound of The Kinks and the Stones mixed with the music of Satyajit Ray; the marriage of color, costume and production-design to create a vivid but heightened impression of the real world; and, of course, the presence of Wilson and Bill Murray - even if Murray appears cryptically for only a few minutes as "The Businessman".

4. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)

With a plan to exact revenge on a mythical shark that killed his partner, oceanographer Steve Zissou rallies a crew that includes his estranged wife, a journalist, and a man who may or may not be his son.

5. The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)

An estranged family of former child prodigies reunites when their father announces he is terminally ill. It exists in a bubble - Anderson's New York doesn't exist and never did - but the rarefied atmosphere is a bit of a blind; what sneaks up on you is how, in his deliciously roundabout way, Anderson wears irony on his sleeve to camouflage a deeper sincerity. At its heart, this is a comedy of unrequited love, melancholy and disappointment.

Recital

Violin Recital by Anja Bukovec

Date: March 7 - 10 am

Venue: Shanghai Oriental Art Center, 425 Dingxiang Lu

Price: 50-380 yuan

Violinist Anja Bukovec was born in Slovenia, where she started to learn violin with Professor Vildana Repee. At the age of 13, she continued her schooling at the Music Conservatorium. Two years later she passed the admittance exam with Professor Igor Ozim. Under his tutelage, she continued her studies in Vienna and at the School of Higher Musical Education in Keln where she graduated in 2001. Her debut album, Gemini, in 2007 became the first album of classical music in Slovenia.

Contact: 010-6854-1234