The Great Neck Arts Center’s Furman Film Series is getting ready to kick off its winter season with a mix of independent and studio films that seem to reflect our economic times – three of the five films selected feature stories about work-related themes.
The festival, which features advance screenings of upcoming films, begins on Jan. 13 with “The Company Men,” a drama-comedy from the Weinstein Company with a focus relevant to the current financially uncertain times.
Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Costner and Rosemarie DeWitt are the featured players in a story about how three loyal corporate executives cope with their respective emotional reactions to losing their jobs. John Wells is the director, best known as executive producer of “The West Wing” and “ER.”
The second film in the four-movie set, to be screened on Jan. 27, is an independent release from Israel, “The Human Resources Manager,” a tragi-comedy about how the human resources manager of an industrial Israeli bakery deals with the public relations fallout from the death of one of the bakery’s workers in a suicide bombing. The movie won the audience award at the recent Locarno Film Festival and also was well received by film critics in Israel, winning awards for best director, best screenplay and best film at the 2010 Israeli Academy Awards.
It’s an example of the mix of movies the Great Neck Arts Center is trying to assemble to appeal to its audience, which has an ethnic mix of Jewish, Indian and Korean film-goers, according to Seran McPhillips, the Furman Film Series’ programmer and former vice president of acquisitions at Miramax.
“I’m going for kind of an anti-formulaic thing this time around,” McPhillips said. “This time it’s about both independent films and studio films.”
The third film in the series, “Cedar Rapids” from Fox Searchlight, stars Ed Helms (NBC’s “The Office” series) as a small-time insurance agent who attends an industry conference nand is drawn into a cycle of the ususal vices that attend such events by John C. Reilly and Sigourney Weaver. It will be shown on Feb. 10. It’s the handiwork of director Miguel Arteta (“The Good Girl” and “Chuck and Buck”).
“It’s interesting thematically. They’re all about jobs,” McPhillips said.
McPhillips, former vice president of acquisitions at Miramax Films, is still in discussions about the third movie in the winter season sequence for Feb. 24. He is making use of contacts he established during his eight years at Miramax to put together films that will present a combination of offerings that are on the verge of theatrical debuts, or as in the case of “The Human Resources Manager,” are likely to see limited release runs.
The gem in the fall series was “The King’s Speech,” featuring Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush in a movie that has created early Oscar buzz after its recent theatrical release.
The final film for the current season is “Ceremony,” starring Uma Thurman, Michael Angarano and Lee Pace, and directed by Max Winkler, the son of Henry Winkler. This film, screened at both the Toronto and Hamptons Film Festivals, is a romantic comedy about a wedding on the scale of the social functions in “The Great Gatsby” and was primarily shot on locations on Long Island. It’s from Magnolia Films, which produced the documentary “Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer,” about the mercurial fortunes of the former New York governor.
The main character in “Ceremony,” to be shown on March 10, is a delusional man who is on a mission to disrupt the grandiose marriage ceremony at the center of the film’s plot.
“For us it’s a perfect fit. It’s an up-and-coming director you want to support and it’s shot on Long Island,” McPhillips said. “It’s a combination that we really like.”
McPhillips said he’s aiming to make the Furman Film Series one that gets legs among movie buffs for its eclectic mix of offerings.
“We’re trying to make it more and more of a ‘buzz’ series,” McPhillips said.
All of the screenings in the Furman Film Series are at the Clearview Squire Cinemas, 115 Middle Neck Road, Great Neck. The films start at 7:30 p.m., with subscribers admitted at 7 p.m. and individual ticket-holders at 7:15 p.m.
Subscriptions for all five films in the series cost $75, or $65 for students and senior citizens. Individual tickets for each film are $20. Subscriptions or individual tickets can be ordered by calling 516-829-2570 or by going online at www.greatneckarts.org/Film.
