Sundance in Ann Arbor, Polish films, and John Cusack saves the world

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Ann Arbor area pride! On Sunday, I briefly tuned in to the New England Patriots/Miami Dolphins football game — mostly, I think, to rid myself of the bitter taste of the Lions and the University of Michigan loss to Purdue. Watching the game made me happy and Ann Arbor proud! Both the Patriots and the Dolphins were led by former U-M quarterbacks — Tom Brady and Chad Henne. Sponsoring the broadcast was Domino’s Pizza (invented in Ypsilanti, headquartered in Ann Arbor) and Lipitor — discovered in Ann Arbor. “We live in a pretty remarkable town,” I thought.

Earlier in the week, the Sundance Film Festival provided Tree Town with another point of pride. Ann Arbor was chosen as an official site for the 2010 Sundance Film Festival! This means on January 28 at 7:30, a film and filmmaker will be flown from Sundance to Ann Arbor to premiere at the Michigan Theater. Much more about this special event will follow. Please know that tickets won’t go on sale until early December, but it’s just another reason to be proud of our town — truly one of the world’s great small cities!

The always outstanding annual Ann Arbor Polish Film Festival will take place on Saturday, November 14 and Sunday, November 15 at the Michigan and State theaters. Since its beginning in 1993, the festival has celebrated Polish cinema culture by exhibiting excellent films that are not typically in general distribution in the United States. The program of films includes feature-length narratives, documentaries and animated shorts. Everyone is welcome; all films are presented with English subtitles. For a detailed festival schedule and more information, visit the Ann Arbor Polish Film Festival web site.

New at the cineplex Two new films open at area cineplex theaters this week: “2012,” a worldwide disaster extravaganza, directed by Roland Emmerich, features John Cusack as an academic researcher who must save the world. This time, global disaster is brought on by the apocalyptic events predicted by the ancient Mayan calendar. John Cusack and his crack team of eggheads do their best to save human civilization. The early reviews of this film have not been kind: “Emmerich supposedly spent $260 million to give you the biggest experience for your ticket dollar and in this regard, he has succeeded tremendously, while, intentionally or otherwise, also delivering one of 2009’s best comedies,” writes Empire magazine. “Pirate Radio” is a lightweight but charming film with a great British cast: Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy and Nick Frost, to name a few, plus one great American star: Philip Seymour Hoffman. Set in the 1960s, when rock ‘n’ roll was banned from the British radios, the British passion for pop music was provided by powerful pirate radio stations set up on small ships in international waters — just outside the reach of the government’s authority. This provoked the BBC, which essentially had a governmental broadcast monopoly at the time, to aggressively and literally try to sink these rockin’ pirate radio ships. This comedy, loosely based on historical fact, features a band of rogue pop music DJs on a ship in the middle of Britain's North Sea, who promoted to their listeners the latest pop music and the youthful fervor of 1960s social changes. At the Michigan

Opening at the Michigan Theater on Sunday for a limited engagement is a different and much more dangerous dynamic of the 1960s fervor — “The Baader Meinhof Complex.” Andreas Baader and his compatriots are fighting a violent war against the German establishment. Done with murderous bomb attacks and other acts of terror these revolutionary criminals rocked the very foundation of the still-fragile German democracy. The aim of the Baader Meinhof gang’s objective was to create a more human society but by employing inhuman means they not only spread terror and bloodshed, they also lost their own humanity. “A taut, unnerving, forcefully unromantic film,” says The New York Times. Nominated for both an Oscar and a Golden Globe award.

“Gigi” continues the American Musical Series at the Michigan on Monday, November 16 at 7 p.m. This delightful turn-of-the-20th-century Cinderella story stars Leslie Caron and Louis Jourdan and the music and lyrics of Kander and Ebb ("Cabaret").

Skiers and ski film fans will not want to miss “Dynasty” on Wednesday, November 18 at 7 p.m. “Dynasty” is Warren Miller’s 60th film and it looks at the past, present and future of winter sports. Tickets are available at the Sun & Snow Sports web site. If you have not seen the Coen Brothers' “A Serious Man”; Audrey Tautou in “Coco Before Channel”; or “It Might Get Loud,” the documentary about three great rock guitarists from three generations — Jack Black, Jimmy Page and The Edge — see them soon. They will not be in our world-class little city much longer. See you at the movies!

Russ Collins is executive director of the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor. Tune in to the audio version of “Cinema Chat” on WEMU radio (89.1-FM) each Thursday at 7:40 AM and 5:40 PM, or listen to it online at WEMU's web site.