You gave:

• MONSIEUR LAZHAR 4.5 points out of 5.
• CARNAGE 4.5 points out of 5.
• RESTLESS 4.3 points out of 5.
• MARTHA MARCIE MAY MARLENE 3.6 points out of 5.
• A DANGEROUS METHOD 3.4 points out of 5.
• LIKE CRAZY 3.0 points out of 5.
• THE GUARD 4.3 points out of 5.
• CAFÉ DE FLORE 4.3 points out of 5.
• MY WEEK WITH MARILYN 4.4 points out of 5.
• MELANCHOLIA 2.8 points out of 5.
• FRENCH IMMERSION, 4.3 points out of 5.
• LE HAVRE 4.3 points out of 5.

Our season ends with the latest movie from the Dardenne Brothers, the critically acclaimed Belgian filmmaking team who make “naturalistic films about lower class life.”

THE KID WITH A BIKE won the Grand Prix at the 2011 Cannes Festival. It centers on 11-year-old Cyril, whose wayward father has left him at an orphanage with what turns out to be a false promise to return for him in a few weeks.

Desperate to reconnect with his dad, Cyril continually runs away from the boys’ home. One of these escapes leads to a chance encounter with Samantha, a single hairdresser who shows him a level of respect that is rare between adults and strange children.

THE KID WITH A BIKE is a classic sleeper. We fought to get it on our schedule last December–it was the last booking we confirmed–and reviews have since exploded with critical praise. In the March 10 New Yorker, Anthony Lane wrote:

In the opening shot, the son calls his father’s number and finds it cut off. He clings to the phone, as if that might forge a connection, then makes a furious break for freedom, sprinting through the grounds of the home, scaling the boundary fence, and clinging to it as his caretakers pull him back.

The last and most important cling happens comes as Cyril, having finally escaped, ducks into a medical center, crashes into a woman in the waiting room, and grabs at her, for want of anything better. Again, people try to drag him off, but the woman, far from panicking, says simply, “You can hold me, but not so tight.”

…The real reason to see THE KID WITH A BIKE is that it offers something changelessly rare and difficult: a credible portrait of goodness.

Don’t miss your only chance to see it on the big screen.

THE KID WITH A BIKE plays one show only, 7 p.m., Thursday, April 19, at the Empire Theatres Studio 10, 325 Prince Street, Sydney. Tickets $11, students $7.

You gave:

• CARNAGE 4.1 points out of 5.
• RESTLESS 4.3 points out of 5.
• MARTHA MARCIE MAY MARLENE 3.6 points out of 5.
• A DANGEROUS METHOD 3.4 points out of 5.
• LIKE CRAZY 3.0 points out of 5.
• THE GUARD 4.3 points out of 5.
• CAFÉ DE FLORE 4.3 points out of 5.
• MY WEEK WITH MARILYN 4.4 points out of 5.
• MELANCHOLIA 2.8 points out of 5.
• FRENCH IMMERSION, 4.3 points out of 5.
• LE HAVRE 4.3 points out of 5.

Bachir Lazhar, the title character of MONSIEUR LAZHAR, falls into that despised category, the substitute teacher. Worse, he’s a last-minute stand-in for a beloved teacher who died unexpectedly, under circumstances that were stressful for his students. And unbeknownst to him, initially at least, the school whose faculty Bachir has joined is, for various reasons, an institution in crisis.

What M. Lazhar’s pupils and fellow teachers don’t know is that the 55-year-old Algerian immigrant, newly arrived in Canada, is facing a personal crisis of his own that threatens to prematurely end his job at the school and his residence in Canada. A few early missteps deepen the cultural gap between Bachir and his class.

Written and directed by Quebec filmmaker Philippe Falardeau, MONSIEUR LAZHAR was Canada’s nominee for Best Foreign Film Oscar. Our follow film series organizer in St. John’s rates it, “one of the best movies you will see all year.”

“If only Canadian films had better distribution,” writes Noreen Golfman “We’d be talking about MONSIEUR LAZHAR in every coffee shop.”

Well, isn’t that just why we have an independent movie series in Cape Breton? Please join us for the second-to-last movie of our winter-spring season.

MONSIEUR LAZHAR plays one show only, 7 p.m., Thursday, April 12, at the Empire Theatres Studio 10, 325 Prince Street, Sydney. Tickets $11, students $7.

You gave:

• RESTLESS 4.3 points out of 5.
• MARTHA MARCIE MAY MARLENE 3.6 points out of 5.
• A DANGEROUS METHOD 3.4 points out of 5.
• LIKE CRAZY 3.0 points out of 5.
• THE GUARD 4.3 points out of 5.
• CAFÉ DE FLORE 4.3 points out of 5.
• MY WEEK WITH MARILYN 4.4 points out of 5.
• MELANCHOLIA 2.8 points out of 5.
• FRENCH IMMERSION, 4.3 points out of 5.
• LE HAVRE 4.3 points out of 5.