BUFS

The Brock University Film Society returns for the Winter 2025 season this Thursday, January 16, and we’ve invited some of our favourite people for the occasion:  Julianne Moore, Tilda Swinton, and, el maestro himself, Pedro Almodóvar.

As longtime BUFS members will know, Almodóvar, the great Spanish director and master of the contemporary melodrama, has long been one of our preferred auteurs.  In fact, in some ways BUFS and Almodóvar have been running on parallel tracks since the beginning.  Although Almodóvar became a superstar of world cinema in the 1980s with films like the kinky Matador (1986) and the uproarious Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988), his career as a director began in 1974, a year before BUFS was launched.  So when BUFS made its glorious return in early 2022 after a pandemic-related hiatus of two years, in some ways it was only natural that it was with Almodóvar’s brilliant and poignant Parallel Mothers (2021) that we marked the occasion.

Now, at the age of 75, with 24 feature films under his belt (plus nearly as many short films) and some 50 years in the industry, Almodóvar is back with The Room Next Door, and although he’s once again produced the kind of highly stylized, yet deeply moving modern melodrama that is his specialty, this time around he’s attempted something entirely unprecedented:  he’s made an English language feature film.* Which is why instead of working with such muses as Carmen Maura, Rossy de Palma, and Penelope Cruz, here Almodóvar has cast Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton, two of the greatest actors of the last 40 years, in his starring roles.

The Room Next Door is a stirring end-of-life story about two old friends, Martha and Ingrid, who are reunited after many years when Martha (Swinton) is diagnosed with terminal cancer.  Martha has a favour to ask of Ingrid (Moore), and with that the two characters get pulled into a complicated and intricate web of intrigue.  John Turturro co-stars as Damian, a man both women dated at different times in the past.

Almodóvar won the Golden Lion, the top prize at the 2024 Venice Film Festival, for The Room Next Door.  Many critics have been similarly enthusiastic.  Peter Bradshaw, writing in The Guardian, described The Room Next Door as being, “as extravagant and engrossing and doggedly mysterious as anything [Almodóvar] has done recently, with luxuriously self-aware performances from Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton.”

*Almodóvar had previously made two English-language short films.

The Room Next Door screens Thursday, January 16, 2025 at 7 p.m. at the Film House in downtown St. Catharines. Tickets for all screenings are available at the Film House. General admission is $10 or $8 for Film House members, plus tax.

TICKETS

The Brock University Film Society (BUFS) has been bringing the best in independent and art house cinema to St. Catharines and the Niagara region for well over 40 years. The society is supported by the Department of Communication, Popular Culture and Film in the Faculty of Social Sciences at Brock.

BUFS screenings take place in the state-of-the-art facilities of the Film House inside the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre (250 Saint Paul Street). These screenings occur on Thursday nights at 7:00 p.m. throughout the school year, and they often feature introductions, short presentations, prize giveaways and other surprises.

“BUFS is a pillar of the Niagara cinephile scene, and it has been since 1975. BUFS screenings have a wonderful energy to them, one that comes from the combination of artful, thought-provoking films, eager, savvy audiences, and a premium theatre experience. This is film culture the way it was meant to be, with animated discussions continuing long after the credits roll, and spilling out onto the streets of St. Catharines.”

— Anthony Kinik, Film Professor

Tickets
Tickets are available at the Film House on the evening of screenings. General admission is $9.50 or $7.50 for Film House members / 13 and under.

Memberships are available through the Film House website.

Season
BUFS kicks off Thursday, Sept. 14, 2023. 

Prizes
Chance to win film-related prizes every BUFS screening.

Ratings
Ticket sales will be subject to enforcement of Ontario Film Review Board ratings. Please have photo identification ready.

Accessibility
BUFS is proud to be part of Brock’s university-wide commitment to provide facilities, programs, and services in a way that respects the dignity and independence of persons with disabilities. Learn more about accessibility at BUFS.

Contact
Anthony Kinik
Associate Professor
akinik@brocku.ca

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