MUSE Film Series
Download the 2009 Winter-Spring MUSE Schedule (PDF).
What’s playing
About the MUSE Film Series
Since 1998, MUSE has been a program of the Peterborough Museum & Archives made possible through a partnership with the Toronto International Film Festival Circuit Group.
Films are unrated. MUSE is programmed for a mature audience. Though all film titles are confirmed, alterations in the distribution schedule sometimes result in last minute screening changes. Check with the Museum for details.
View MUSE schedules from past seasons.
Where MUSE Screens
MUSE screens at Galaxy Cinema, 320 Water Street, Peterborough. Both on-street and underground parking with direct access to the Cinema are available. Galaxy has wide screen viewing with Dolby digital sound, armchair stadium seating and excellent sight lines.
Ticket Information
MUSE tickets may be purchased through Peterborough Museum & Archives, 705.743.5180. Visa, AmEx & MasterCard accepted. Sorry, no returns or refunds.
Series Season Pass: a season’s pass enables the patron to see all films in the season.
Rush Tickets: individual/rush tickets ($10) are available at the door for each screening, one hour prior to showtime (front section seating)
What’s playing: 2009 Winter & Spring
1 - OUTSOURCED
JAN 18 @ 4 pm / JAN 19 @ 7 pm
Director: Josh Jeffcoat
Cast: Josh Hamilton,
Ayesha Dharker, Asif Basra,
Matt Smith
Year: 2008
Runtime: 103 minutes
Country: USA
English language
Outsourced is a smart comedy looking at the effect of cultural difference on work, friendship and love, and the global economy’s impact on national and personal identity. Todd, an American middle manager is outsourced to an Indian call centre, training a new set of employees that he has trouble relating to. Todd has no sense of himself as an American and does not react well to Indian culture. His employees in turn are politely aghast at Todd’s disconnection from his own culture, traditions and family.
"I was resisting India. Once I gave in, I did much better” is Todd’s eventual epiphany. Change can be negative, positive or simply neutral, and what matters is how one reacts to it. Todd eventually finds his India. Through this film, individuals everywhere are pitted against the global economy, a force that shatters tradition. The key to survival is adaptability, a quality demonstrated by everyone outsourced.
2 - I'VE LOVED YOU SO LONG
FEB 8 @ 4 pm / FEB 9 @ 7 pm
Director: Philippe Claudel
Cast: Kristin Scott Thomas, Frédéric Pierrot,
Claire Johnston
Year: 2008
Runtime: 117 minutes
Country: France
French/English subtitles
I’ve Loved You So Long which won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the 2008 Berlin International Film Festival, is the touching debut of writer-director Philippe Claudel. The film tells the profoundly moving story of two sisters rediscovering their relationship after years of separation. Immediately following release from prison after serving a 15-year sentence for committing an inexplicable crime, Juliette reunites with her estranged sister. As Juliette struggles to overcome her demons she finds it increasingly difficult to adapt to her newfound life.
Scott Thomas delivers a commanding performance that underscores the dynamic relationship of the two siblings. Claudel interweaves flashes of dry humour and moments of uplifting warm-heartedness with extremely smart dialogue, offering additional complexity to a stunning film.
3 - LEMON TREE
FEB 22 @4 pm / FEB 23 @ 7 pm
Director: Eran Riklis
Cast: Hiam Abbass,
Doron Tavory, Ali Suliman,
Rona Lipaz-Michael
Year: 2008
Runtime: 106 minutes
Country: Israel
Language: Hebrew, Arabic / English subtitles
Lemon Tree is set in the centre of a politically volatile region of the Middle East yet finds a way of melding politics with human emotion. Salma, a Palestinian widow has farmed her lemon grove by the Israel-West Bank border for decades. When an Israeli defence minister moves into her neighbourhood, security forces determine the lemon trees pose a threat and must be removed. Resolved to fight for her livelihood, Salma fights the issue all the way to the Israeli Supreme Court. As legal and political battles rage, the Security Minister’s wife, fighting her own person battles, slowly forms a friendship with Salma, eroding the tensions between their two nations.
Lemon Tree explores many complex issues pertaining to personal and political identity all of which takes a back seat to the human drama.
4 - THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS
MAR 8 @ 4pm / MAR 9 @ 7pm
Director: Mark Herman
Cast: Asa Butterfield,
Zac Mattoon O'Brien, Domonkos Németh
Year: 2008
Runtime: 94 minutes
Country: UK
Language: English
Based on the 2006 novel by John Boyne, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas relates a young German boy’s experience and perspective of the Holocaust. This deeply affecting film, masterfully directed by Mark Herman, tells an unlikely story of a friendship between two boys on different sides of a concentration camp fence. Eight-year-old Bruno, is the son of a Nazi Concentration Camp officer but lacks any notion of what that means. Lonely and curious, Bruno finds a boy his age named Shmuel behind a wire fence. Deeply ignorant of the truth of Shmuel’s circumstances, Bruno forms a friendship with him that leads to shocking revelations and a powerful and surprising conclusion.
5 - THE NECESSITIES OF LIFE
MAR 29 @ 4pm / MAR 30 @ 7pm
Director: Benoît Pilon
Cast: Natar Ungalaaq, Paul-Andrée Brasseur, Éveline Gélinas
Year: 2008
Runtime: 102 minutes
Country: CAN
English language
The Necessities of Life by writer Bernard Émond and director Benoit Pilon won the Special Grand Prize at the 2008 Montreal World Film Festival and has recently been selected as Canada’s official entry to the 2008 Academy Awards.
Set in the 1950s, the film recalls a time when there was little contact between mainstream Canadian society and Inuit culture. Tuberculosis was an epidemic, and many Inuit were forced to leave their homes in search of treatment. Tivii is brought to a sanatorium in Quebec City, removed from everything he knows, surrounded by a language he does not speak, and facing a future that is uncertain. He is befriended by a caring nurse and residents at the sanatorium.
The Necessities of Life covers vast terrain - the contrasting worlds of its characters, and the universal language of compassion. It is Ungalaaq’s exquisite performance that elevates this film to a poetic work.
6 - A NO HIT, NO RUN SUMMER
APR 19 @ 4pm / APR 20 @ 7pm
Director: Francis Leclerc
Cast: Patrice Robitaille,
Pierre-Luc Funk, Jacinthe Lague, Roy Dupuis
Year: 2008
Runtime: 104 minutes
Country: CAN
French / English subtitles
A No-Hit, No-Run Summer renders a deeply personal story of loss of childhood innocence and the transition into adulthood while simultaneously depicting Quebec’s own coming of age during the fabled summer of 1969.
Painted in hues of 1960s wood paneling and sepia-toned film stock, the film looks back lovingly and longingly to a time and place where possibilities seemed endless. In suburban Montreal, 12-year old Martin eagerly watches the Montreal Expos. When he does not make the local team, his father starts a team for all of the left-out kids. Buoyed by superb art direction – ‘69 was a beige-soaked year, often seen through a Super 8 camera – Leclerc brings Marc Robitaille’s celebrated novel to the big screen with tenderness and respect.
7 - THE STONE OF DESTINY
MAY 3 @ 4pm / MAY 4 @ 7pm
Director: Charles Martin Smith
Cast: Charlie Cox, Kate Mara, Billy Boyd, Robert Carlyle, Brenda Fricker
Year: 2008
Runtime: 96 minutes
Country: CAN
English language
The Stone of Destiny is a fast-paced and fascinating true story about an extraordinary caper, a rising nationalist tide and a crucial symbol of Scottish independence when a couple of Scottish friends took it upon themselves to steal back a symbol of their people.
In 1296, England's Edward I claimed Scotland's Stone of Scone and took it to London where it remained for centuries. That is, until Christmas Day 1950, when a group of Scottish students set out to reclaim the stone. The film recreates this historic heist with humorous charm, thrilling detail and a universal sense of patriotism. An adventure comedy that is as funny as it is hair-raising, Stone of Destiny provokes cheers. Director Charles Martin Smith's light touch and the theme of independence, both personal and political, transcends nationality. Stone of Destiny is about the symbols that connect a culture.
Updated May 22/09
