Saturday, October 13, 6:30 pmScreening and Award Presentation
Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center
Reception to follow at the Outdoor Art Club
SPOTLIGHT AND RECEPTION $60
SPOTLIGHT ONLY $25
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Jennifer Jason Leigh is an actress of remarkable depth and commitment; her fearless portrayals draw from and elicit the complexities and contradictions of the human condition. Her performances are insightful and intelligent, provocative and vulnerable—and always unpredictable: from her breakthrough role as the touchingly innocent teen Stacy in Fast Times at Ridgemont High to the tragic prostitute Tralala in Last Exit to Brooklyn, from the fast-talking, plucky undercover journalist Amy Archer in The Hudsucker Proxy to the exhilaratingly acerbic Dorothy Parker in Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle. Leigh is an actress who never shies from taking risks, with such characteristically brave performances as Sadie in Georgia (written by her mother, Barbara Turner), and as Sally, the disillusioned Hollywood actress in The Anniversary Party (which she co-wrote and co-directed with Alan Cumming). Her latest film, Noah Baumbach’s Margot at the Wedding, casts her as the about-to-be-married Pauline (deliciously cast opposite Nicole Kidman as her sister and Jack Black as her fiancé), yet another gem in a brilliant career that has brought some of contemporary cinema’s most compelling and memorable characters to the screen.
Please join us for the Spotlight program, featuring a conversation with Jennifer Jason Leigh, a screening of Margot at the Wedding and the presentation of the MVFF Award.
Our Spotlight celebration continues at the historic Outdoor Art Club. Amiee Alan Caterers will provide a stellar meal accompanied by Silver Oak and Twomey Cellars wines in this lovely century-old garden building.Click here for more information about our Mill Valley Film Festival Award.
Sponsored By:
Margot at the Wedding | US 2007 93 MINS
Director/Screenwriter Noah Baumbach Producer Scott Rudin
Cinematographer Harris Savides Editor Carol Littleton
Cast Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jack Black, John Turturro
Print Source Paramount Vantage
In a truly inspired feat of casting, Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Jason Leigh are estranged sisters with more in common than they'd care to admit. Simultaneously self-righteous and self-loathing, Margot (Kidman) and Pauline (Leigh) bring a wickedly wry humor and a mass of insecurities to a turbulent relationship that turns on a dime. After years apart, Margot decides to visit Pauline for Pauline's impending wedding to Malcolm (Jack Black, in fine disheveled form), an unemployed artist and musician of whom Margot clearly disapproves. As the sisters spar and personal secrets unravel, a storybook wedding seems an unlikely prospect. It doesn't help that the nasty next-door neighbors demand they chop down the old tree under which they plan to marry. As with The Squid and the Whale (MVFF 2005), writer-director Noah Baumbach paints an authentic, sardonic portrait of a family falling apart and fighting to put itself back together again. —Joanne Parsont
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