Paramount Cinema Listings

25 Courtenay Place, Po Box 6232 Wellington. Ph 384 4080. Fax 384 4408.www.paramount.co.nz

PROGRAMME 1st MARCH – 7TH MARCH Thu
1st Fri
2nd Sat
3rd Sun
4th Mon
5th Tue
6th Wed
7th
THIRTEEN AT A TABLE (M) 103 minutes
THE MOST FUN FILM OF THE 2006 ITALIAN FILM FESTIVAL 4.45pm 4.45pm
6.30pm 4.45pm
6.30pm 2.40pm 6.10pm
6.10pm 4.45pm
6.30pm
THE FOUNTAIN (M) 103 minutes
4.30pm
8.15pm 4.30pm
8.15pm 4.30pm
8.15pm 7.15pm 4.15pm
8.15pm 4.15pm
8.15pm 4.30pm
8.15pm
THE GOOD SHEPHERD (M) 174 minutes 12.40pm
8.30pm 12.40pm
8.30pm
8.30pm 6.50pm 3.10pm
8.00pm 3.10pm
8.00pm 12.40pm
8.30pm
A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION (PG) 110 minutes 2.20pm
6.15pm 2.20pm
6.15pm 2.20pm
6.15pm 12.40pm 2.15pm
6.05pm 2.15pm
6.05pm 2.20pm
6.15pm
DREAMGIRLS (M) 138 minutes
WINNER: BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS JENNIFER HUDSON
3.40pm 3.40pm 3.40pm 3.50pm 3.40pm
BABEL (R16) 144 minutes
6.00pm 6.00pm 6.00pm 6.00pm
THE DEPARTED (R16) 158 minutes
WINNER OF FOUR ACADEMY AWARDS INCLUDING BEST PICTURE, DIRECTOR & ADAPTED SCREENPLAY. 2.00pm
8.20pm 2.00pm
8.20pm 2.00pm
8.20pm 1.20pm 1.10pm 1.10pm 2.00pm
8.20pm
BORAT (R16) 91 minutes LAST DAYS! 12.40pm
12.40pm 12.40pm 1.30pm 1.30pm 12.40pm
WELLINGTON FILM SOCIETY PRESENTS
THE BIG RED ONE (M) 158 minutes 6.15pm
FRINGE ’07
LIFE’S A DRAG

THE CHIT CHAT LOUNGE
10.30pm

10.00pm
10.30pm

10.00pm
10.30pm

10.00pm

10.00pm

10.30pm

10.00pm

THE FOUNTAIN Darren Aronofsky’s follow up to the harrowing Requiem for a Dream has divided audiences and critics alike since its premiere at Cannes in 2006. The film is both demanding and dazzling as it entwines three love stories in three very different times. In 16th century Spain a warrior sets off for the other side of the world at the behest of his queen, seeking the secret to immortality. In a time similar to our own a brilliant doctor races against time to find a cure for the brain tumour that is killing his wife. And in a very distant future a spiritual astronaut, haunted by the voice and image of a lost love, flies an inconceivable spaceship towards a dying star that may house the secret his temporal predecessors have been searching for. The main protagonists in each of these stories are played by Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz which is just the beginning of the way Aronofsky weaves together the complex tapestry of connections between the three stories.

13 AT A TABLE Take a family of 12, a Tuscan villa and a hot summer in 1964. Add beautiful Anna (Kasia Smutniak), a handsome cousin, a jealous sister, a bunch of youngsters just out of their teens, and you get the unforgettable flavour of ‘13 at a table’.Giulio (Giancarlo Giannini), one of those youngsters, now a divorced middle-aged man, returns to the family villa where he spent his childhood holidays with the entire family, in order to arrange for its sale, together with his brothers and cousins. The house brings back memories of his youth and the arrival of the beautiful Anna; who was relentlessly pursued by all his brothers but ultimately won over by him. The house that’s been a home to many, the walls that have witnessed the tide of three generations, are presented as just a costly toy that the family wants to be rid of. Overcome with emotions, and now aware of the significance of the property, Giulio decides to buy all his relatives' shares and move back to the villa with his family. The film travels back and forth between the present and the past as the story unravels as to how Giulio came to be where he is today. How only now he realizes what he has lost and what he needs to do to bring the family back into his life.

A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION For 30 years Garrison Kiellor’s quaint radio show has been broadcast to an audience of millions around the world. Altman has taken this mix of music, reflection and humour and made a life affirming, spirited film. It is the final broadcast of the show from the Fitzgerald Theatre; the building has been bought and will be demolished to make room for a car park. Kiellor plays a version of himself as the host who manages somehow to tie everything together.

THE DEPARTED Based on the hit Hong Kong actioner Infernal Affairs, Scorscese’s latest moves the action to South Boston where the state police are waging war on organized crime. An undercover cop is assigned to infiltrate the mob syndicate. Meanwhile a hardened young criminal has infiltrated the police department as an informer and is rising quickly through the ranks in the Specail Investigations Unit. Each man becomes consumed by his double life as they gather information about the operations they have penetrated. When it becomes clear to both police and gangsters that there is a mole in their midst, both men are in danger of being caught and exposed to the enemy. As they scramble to uncover each others identities, each man must save himself.

THE GOOD SHEPHERD Robert DeNiro’s second outing as director is an ambitious attempt to tell the story of the formation and transformation of the CIA. It begins with the agency’s failed Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961 and then flashes back to the late 1930s when the Office of Strategic Services (the predecessor to the CIA) was formed. The history is filtered through the fictional story of Edward Wilson, and idealistic young Yale student who is pulled from the secret Skull & Bones society to spy on a suspected Nazi sympathizing professor. Wilson is an idealist, but there is something a little off about him; he says little and hides his emotions. Even in the presence of a the feisty, seductive Clover he is passive although he does dutifully marry her when she falls pregnant. Right after his marriage he joins the OSS and is whisked off to London, and later Berlin not to return until his son is almost seven. In tracing Edwards devolution from patriotic idealism to paranoid, isolated ruthlessness, the film follows the agency’s transformation. And the cost to the individual, Wilson, is both his family and his soul.

BABEL For their follow up to Amores Perros and 21 Grams, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Guillermo Arriaga have made a sprawling epic of a film spanning three continents and shot in four languages. The film opens with a goat-herder in Morocco purchasing a high powered rifle to kill the jackals that are decimating his flock. When he gives the rifle to his two young sons it is inevitable that the gun will be put to some other use. Testing its range, the kids fire at a passing tour bus. In California a harried nanny desperately tries to find someone to look after her charges while she goes south of the border for her son’s wedding. Unable to, she decides to take the kids with her.
In Morocco these kids’ parents are on holiday when a bullet flies through their tour bus window, felling Susan, the kids mother. Meanwhile in Tokyo a foxy deaf mute with an anger problem fails to connect with her grief stricken father and flashes her privates in a crowded diner….

DREAMGIRLS Director Bill Condon proved with Chicago that he knew how to re-invent the stage musical for the big screen, and he does it once again with this adaptation of the 1981 show about the ascent of a Motown trio. Using a highly dynamic visual style, and setting the musical numbers firmly within the narrative context, Condon has created an emotionally charged film that mixes seamlessly the movie musical and the music bio-pic. Based loosely on the story of the Supremes, the film opens with a Detriot talent contest in which the Dreamettes are performing. A backstage wheeler-dealer manages to land them a gig singing backup for an established star. While on the road, the Dreamettes are made over as headliners and renamed the Dreams. The biggest change is making slimmer, prettier Deena the lead singer while pushing plump Effie into the background despite her obvious vocal prowess. This sets in motion the film’s most powerful conflict and emotional sparks fly…

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