Cinema Sundays 2/21, "North Face"   Cinema Sundays Winter 2010 Series 47! Sunday February 21, 2010 Cinema Sundays at the Charles continues its 47th series on February 21st, with the Baltimore Premier of North Face (Norwand). Directed by Philipp Stolzl. Starring Benno Feurmann, Florian Lukas, Johanna Wokalek, Ulrich Tukur. 2010 Non Rated. Running time 126 minutes. Auf Deutsch mitten helpful Englisch Subtitlen. Synopsis A handful of men set aside their differences to conquer one of Europe's tallest mountains in this period drama inspired by a true story. In 1936, Nazi Germany is looking to shore up its reputation in the eyes of the world, and after a pair of German climbers died in an effort to climb the north face of the Eiger in the Swiss Alps, the state is looking to find another group who can succeed where the earlier team failed. Henry Arau (Ulrich Tukur), the publisher of one of Berlin's biggest newspapers, is a loyal son of the Third Reich, and when his editorial secretary, Luise Fellner (Johanna Wokalek), tells him she knows some climbers who would be willing to take on the Eiger, Tukur gives her a free hand to assemble a team and make this dream a reality. Close friends Toni Kurz (Benno Fuermann) and Andi Hinterstoisser (Florian Lukas) are serving in the German army when Fellner (who once dated Kurz) tries to persuade them to climb the Eiger; while Hinterstoisser is willing to take the risk in the name of patriotism, Kurz is cynical about the Third Reich and says he'll put his life on the line only for his own reasons and not to please Germany's leaders. Kurz and Hinterstoisser finally begin the climb in mid-summer, only to discover a pair of Austrians, Willy Angerer (Simon Schwarz) and Edi Rainer (Georg Friedrich), are now challenging them in a race to the top. NORDWAND (aka NORTH FACE) was an official selection at the 2008 Locarno Film Festival. Click on the following for trailer and official site. http://www.northfacethemovie.com/ Meine Damen und Herren! It looks as if, once again, we have a really great film for Sunday. I realize we’ve all had our fill of Winter and snow. However, North Face promises to be an adventure on an epic scale. Combining the politics of the Third Reich and a harrowing test of physical endurance with a bagel, good company and an excellent speaker! Wunderbar! Our speaker for this week is film critic Burt Shapiro. It’s a pleasure to welcome him back to Cinema Sundays. Now that Burt is a retired man of leisure having spent 25 years at WBJC reviewing films he has some time for us! I want to thank our speaker from last week Mike Giuliano for his usual expert job. Great insights and a wonderful discussion. Looking forward to seeing you on the 21st. Jonathan Palevsky Jpalevsky@aol.com If you’ve never been to Cinema Sundays before, see below for our stimulating, updated, yet official description. Precisely at 9:45 on a given Sunday morning, while birds chirp in the most musical manner, the doors at the Charles Theatre swing open to reveal a lobby replete with tasty bagels, hot coffee and friendly volunteers ready to serve them to you. All of our volunteers have been pre-tested for a complete lack of morning grouchiness and provide the nicest service…within reason! Guarded carefully by the enormous lobby penguin bagels, coffee and scintillating yet improvised conversation continues until 10:30. At precisely 10:30:07 some brief opening remarks by yours truly will be followed by a few remarks from our guest speaker who will never do either of two things. First he or she will never ever give away the plot of the film and second the speaker will not go on too long…especially if the film is one of those 2.5 h our Soviet era documentaries on the Romance of the Seven Tractor Drivers. Following a brief admonition not to talk during the film and a recommendation to sublet your cell phone to a starving student from the third world the screening will take place. Upon completion of the screening a robust question and answer session featuring our guest speaker will include your fascinating observations upon the recently screened movie. This flowery description barely describes the sublime joy and excitement which is Cinema Sundays. If there is a better way to spend Sunday mornings it simply hasn’t occurred to me….yet! Jonathan Palevsky Host of Cinema Sundays and completely reachable at JPalevsky@aol.com Please feel free to visit us at… Http://www.cinemasundays.com Tickets: $15 at the door. Or buy a mini-membership. 1711 N. Charles St. 410-727-3464 info: karenskicsc@comcast.net To unsu bscribe from The Charles Theatre Mailing List visit: http://www.thecharles.com/mailinglist/ To unsubscribe from The Charles Theatre Mailing List visit: http://www.thecharles.com/mailinglist/