Cyprus Mail 13 June 2023 - by Eleni Philippou
RIALTO THEATRE OUTDOOR SUMMER CINEMA
SEK Parking behind Rialto Theatre, Limassol
18-28 June - 9pm
Presale tickets €8. Tel: 7777-7745. www.rialto.com.cy
With summer in the air Rialto Theatre this month brings back another edition of its Summer Cinema, offering cinematic experiences under the starry sky. A large cinema screen will be set up in the neighourhood’s SEK parking area, inviting cinephiles to moments of cinema magic.
Five films will be screened on June 18, 21, 23, 25 and 28, all in their original language with Greek and English subtitles, providing a variety of different cinematic experiences. Screenings will start at 9pm, and tickets are available at the theatre box office or online.
Opening the Summer Cinema season on Sunday is a French film from the cartoonist of beloved Petit Nicolas Jean-Jacques Sempé. Raoul Taburin tells a fascinating story of friendship and love, suitable for families. In an idyllic village in the French Alps, Raoul Taburin, the owner of the local bicycle shop, has a well-hidden secret. A film about love, friendship, kindness, difficulties and obstacles, fears and insecurities – in other words, the ‘training wheels’ of the bicycle riding life’s ups and downs.
A Japanese film will follow on June 21 made by the acclaimed Japanese humanistic director Kore-eda Hirokazu. Winner of Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or and Japan’s official entry for the Academy Awards’ Best International Film, Shoplifters gives an alternative view of the stolen moments in life and cinema. After one of their shoplifting sessions, a father and his son come across a little girl shivering in the freezing cold. At first reluctant to shelter the girl, the wife agrees to take care of her after learning of the hardships she faces. Although the family is struggling financially, they seem to live happily together until an unforeseen incident reveals hidden secrets, testing the bonds that unite them.
A bittersweet, cynical comedy, awarded at Tribecca Film Festival will be screened on June 23 titled My Wonderful Wanda. Thirty-five-year-old Polish Wanda looks after Joseph (70), a stroke-hit patriarch, at his family villa by the lake. She is there for him around the clock and also helps his wife Elsa (75). The youngest son, Gregi (28), likes her very much. The work is poorly paid but Wanda needs the money for her own family in Poland. Since everyone lives under one roof, Wanda gets an intimate view of their family life. So intimate that Wanda unexpectedly becomes pregnant.
The next film screening on June 25 stars Cate Blanchett in the role of Lydia Tár, the conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, a woman at the peak of her career. Having conquered every prize, distinction and position possible, she is about to record Mahler’s Fifth Symphony live and, at the same time, release her autobiography. Dynamic and demanding, challenging and unrepentant, competitive and egocentric, Lydia has the charm of a real genius who is well aware of the magnitude and value of her talent. She has constructed herself, her life, success and views around music, living a well-protected life with her partner and young daughter in their majestically minimal house in Berlin and her exquisite office in the Philharmonic – if and when she is not travelling around the world with her devoted assistant who has her own ambitions.
The final outdoor film screening presents Lola and the Sea, a Belgian film about 18-year-old transgender Lola who learns that she can finally have surgery just as her mother, who is her only financial support, passes away. Abiding by her mother’s last wishes, Lola and her father, who are permanently in conflict and have not seen each other for two years, embark on a journey all the way to the Belgian coast. They soon realise that the outcome of the journey may not be the one they were expecting.
