Theatr Mwldan Film Society / Cymdeithas Ffilm Theatr Mwldan

Cert TBC

Christophe Van Rompaey | Belgium | 2008 | 102′

A working-class romantic comedy dealing with the obstacles, big and small, on the bumpy road to happiness – or the Flemish equivalent.  Matty is a no-nonsense, working class forty-one-year-old mother whose life is turned upside down after a minor collision with a Belgian truck transporting Italian lollipops. The 29-year-old redhead driver Johnny, although uneducated, balding a dozen years younger, with an alcohol problem, a criminal record and a fondness for cheesy lyrics, worms his way into Matty’s heart.
Comedi ramantaidd dosbarth gweithiol sy’n ymdrin â’r rhwystrau, mawr a bach, ar y ffordd i hapusrwydd – neu’r cyfystyr Fflemaidd. Mae Matty yn fam dim-dwli, dosbarth gweithiol, deugain ac un mlwydd oed, ond y mae ei bywyd yn troi ben i waered ar ôl damwain gyda lori Felgaidd sy’n cludo lolipops o’r Eidal. Mae gyrrwr y lori, Johnny y cochyn 29 mlwydd oed, er yn annysgedig, yn moeli, gyda phroblem alcohol a chofnod troseddol yn ogystal â hoffter am eiriau truenus, yn cael hyd i’r ffordd i’w chalon.

(12A) | Yôjirô Takita | Japan | 2008 | 131’ | Cast | Awards | Subtitles

Heartwarming and humourous, this Oscar-winning film has a lovely light touch as it reflects on the joys and wonder of life. After losing his job, Daigo Kobayashi moves back to his hometown to start over. He answers a classified ad entitled “Departures” believing it to be for a travel agency only to discover that the job is actually for a “Nokanshi”, someone who prepares bodies for entry into the next life. Whilst his wife despises his profession and urges him to get another job, Daigo tells her “Death is normal”. Acting as a gentle gatekeeper between life and death, between the deceased and their families, he begins to perfect the art of “Nokanshi”. A beautiful and sometimes comical journey with death, this becomes a moving celebration of life.

Ffilm yw hon sy’n adlewyrchu ar bleserau a rhyfeddodau bywyd. Mae Daigo yn cael swydd fel “Nokanshi” rhywun sy’n paratoi cyrff meirw ar gyfer y bywyd nesaf. Portread am farwolaeth, sydd weithiau’n ddigrif, ac sy’n troi’n ddathliad trawiadol o fywyd.

(15) | Michael Haneke | 2009 |144’ | Cast | Awards | Subtitles

Shot in sober black and white, with no musical score and told at a stately and deliberate pace, Haneke’s Palme d’Or-winning masterpiece about a children’s choir in a village in northern Germany just before World War I, is infused with an austere cruelty. Narrated at a distant reminiscence by the village schoolteacher at the time in question, the film focuses largely on the generation that would go on to embrace the tenets of national socialism, recounting a series of disturbing events that shatter the equanimity and repressed propriety of this seemingly model community. Haneke’s disturbingly brilliant and chilling parable examines the origin of every type of terrorism, be it of a political or religious nature.

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Ffilm ddu a gwyn, heb unrhyw sgôr cerddorol sydd wedi ei hadrodd yn bwrpasol bwyllog. Mae’r campwaith hwn yn troi o gwmpas côr plant yn yr Almaen ychydig cyn dechrau’r Rhyfel Byd Cyntaf, wedi ei thrwytho â chreulondeb llym. Mae ffilm Haneke yn archwilio gwreiddiau pob math o derfysgaeth, yn wleidyddol neu yn grefyddol.

“The White Ribbon has an absolute confidence and mastery of its own cinematic language, and the performances Haneke elicits from his first-rate cast, particularly the children, are eerily perfect.” The Guardian

(PG) | Martin Provost | 2008 | 126′ | Cast | Awards | Subtitles

The winner of seven French César Awards, including Best Film and Best Actress for Yolande Moreau, this is a generous, witty and illuminating portrait of the French ‘outsider’ artist Séraphine de Senlis, a simple and profoundly devout housekeeper who in 1905 at age 41, self-taught and with the instigation of her guardian angel, began painting brilliantly colorful canvases. In 1912 Wilhelm Uhde, a German art critic and collector discovered her paintings, leading to acclaimed shows in France, and at New York’s MOMA. Martin Provost’s poignant portrait of this now largely forgotten painter is a testament to the mysteries of creativity and the resilience of one woman’s spirit.

Portread o’r artist Ffrengig Séraphine de Senlis Yn wraig cadw tŷ cyffredin a phybyr, dysgodd ei hun i beintio ym 1905 yn 41 oed. Cafodd ei chynfasau llachar eu darganfod ym 1912 gan adolygydd celf a’u harddangos yn Ffrainc ac yn Efrog Newydd gyda chryn dipyn o lwyddiant. Stori deimladwy am ddirgelwch creadigedd ac ysbryd un wraig arbennig.

“Sublime… one of the most evocative films about an artist I’ve ever seen.” New York Magazine

(15) | Ang Lee | 2009 | 120’ | Cast | Awards

Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee’s new coming of age comedy features a standout ensemble cast and songs from a score of ’60s musical icons including The Grateful Dead, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane and Country Joe and the Fish. Based on the memoirs of Elliot Tiber, it stars Demetri Martin as Elliot, the man who inadvertently had a role in making 1969’s Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the famed happening it was, finding himself swept up in a generation-defining experience that would change his life – and popular culture – forever. This is a joyous voyage to a moment in time when everything seemed possible.

Comedi dod i oed gyda cherddoriaeth y 60au yn gyfeiliant. Mae’r ffilm wedi seilio ar gofiannau Elliot Tiber, y dyn oedd a rhan mewn troi Gŵyl Woodstock 1969 yn ddigwyddiad enwog. Taith orfoleddus i adeg pan yr ystyriwyd pob dim yn bosibl.

(12A) | Shane Acker | 2009 | 79’ | Cast | Awards

9 may be computer animation, but it is definitely not just for children. Based on director/writer Shane Acker’s Oscar-nominated short film, 9 is the story of nine little clockwork ‘stitchpunk’ dolls who are the only remnants of life on earth after a catastrophic war between humans and machines. Produced by Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov, Acker brings a Pixar-worthy level of detail and depth to his world; every character, setting, and random object created with loving attention to its component parts and their varying textures, finding a lavish beauty in desolated ruins.

Er taw animeiddiad cyfrifiadurol yw 9, nid yw ar gyfer plant yn unig. Wedi seilio ar ffilm fer, mae’n stori am naw dol fach peirianwaith cloc, yr unig bethau sy’n goroesi yn dilyn rhyfel ddinistriol rhwng dynion a pheiriannau.

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Peter Strickland | 2009 | 85’ | (15) | Cast | Awards

British auteur Peter Strickland’s intriguing award-winning debut is a strikingly original, insistently gripping, faintly Dostoyevskian tale of violence and retribution set in the swooningly photographed Transylvanian countryside. This rural tragedy begins with a housewife being banished from her village when her husband discovers that he’s not the father of their nine-year-old son. Taking the boy with her in the family horse and cart, she journeys through the Carpathians on a mission to take revenge on the man who ruined her life, leaving a trail of devastation in her wake. It’s the kind of story that could be happening in the city, not the country, on concrete pavements and in the glare of neon rather than sylvan hillsides and golden sunsets, and is enhanced by a growling, clattering soundtrack of electronic music, murmuring voices and heightened natural sounds of wind, water, thunder and rustling vegetation.

Ffilm wreiddiol, afaelgar am drais a dial wedi ei gosod yng nghefn gwlad prydferth Transylvania. Caiff gwraig ei throi allan o’i phentref ar ôl i’w gŵr ddarganfod nad ef yw tad eu mab. Yn benderfynol o ddod o hyd i’r dyn a ddistrywiodd ei bywyd, mae’r fam a’i chrwt yn teithio trwy Fynyddoedd Carpathia er mwyn cael dial arno.

(15) Ramin Bahrani | 2008 | 91’ | Cast | Awards

On the lonely roads of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, two men forge an improbable friendship that will change both of their lives forever. Solo is a Senegalese cab driver working to provide a better life for his young family. William is a tough Southern good ol’ boy with a lifetime of regrets. One man’s American dream is just beginning, while the other’s is quickly winding down. But despite their differences, both men soon realize they need each other more than either is willing to admit. Through an unlikely but unforgettable friendship, this quietly serious and moving film deftly explores the passing of a generation, as well as the rapidly changing face of America.

Ffilm hyfryd am gyfeillgarwch annhebygol. Mae Solo yn yrrwr tacsi o Senegal sy’n gweithio i greu bywyd gwell i’w deulu ifanc. Mae William yn hen ŵr a’i fywyd yn llawn edifeirwch. Mae breuddwyd Americanaidd un yn dechrau, tra bod breuddwyd y llall yn gyflym dirwyn i ben.

(15) | Marco Bechis | Italy | Brazil | 2008 | 104’ | Cast | Awards

Marco Bechis avoids the usual clichés in his stunning portrait of a Brazilian tribe on the verge of extinction. In Mato Grosso do Sol tension is rising between the wealthy farming classes and the workers on their land – the indigenous Guarani-Kaiowá. When a suicide takes place it stirs up a rebellion in which both sides are forced to face each other, clashing both ideologically and physically. The real life Amerindian cast had never acted before, yet deliver emotionally engaging and thought provoking performances, shot and directed with sympathy, flair and vigor.

“writer-director-producer Marco Bechis’s absorbing story of struggle and survival carries its committed ethnographic and political passions lightly.” Time Out

(15) Andrea Arnold | UK | 2009 | 123’ | Cast | Awards

Newcomer Katie Jarvis excels as Mia, a tricky 15-year-old who has just one interest in life: urban dance. But the moves she practices are moody, introverted and subdued, rather like the dancer herself. One hot summer’s day her dysfunctional mother brings home a handsome stranger called Connor (Michael Fassbender) who promises to change everything and bring love into all their lives – but are things more complicated than they seem?. Powerfully acted, laugh out loud funny and profoundly moving, Fish Tank is film making of the highest calibre.

Mae Mia yn ferch anodd, 15 mlwydd oed, sydd ag ond un peth ar ei meddwl: dawns urban. Mae pethau’n newid gyda dyfodiad Connor, sy’n addo newid popeth, ond ydyw pethau’n fwy cymhleth na’r olwg gyntaf? Mae Fish Tank yn ddoniol, ac yn drawiadol a theimladwy iawn – dyma wneud ffilmiau o’r radd flaenaf.

“With a terrific performance by debutant Katie Jarvis, this gritty Essex drama shows that director Andrea Arnold is Ken Loach’s natural successor.” The Guardian