This Week in Rep Cinema: The Chocolate Farmer, Vivre Sa Vie, Phantom of the Paradise, Iron Sky, Written on the Wind

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This Week in Rep Cinema features second-run and classic film selections from cinemas such as the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema, The Fox, The Revue, The Royal, Toronto Underground Cinema, the Projection Booth, TIFF Bell Lightbox, and more.

While TIFF fans are frothing at the mouth with film selections from last week, it's bittersweet that September will mark the end of a mainstay of smaller Toronto film fare. With less than a month left before the closing of the National Film Board Mediatheque, that means there are only four more weeks of the amazing Free Favourites at Four program. This weekly series features NFB contemporary hits and beloved classics, from documentaries to animated films. It's just one of the many programs we'll be missing once the theatre is darkened come September.

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 8 / THE CHOCOLATE FARMER / NFB MEDIATHEQUE / 4PM
With environmental documentaries popping up faster than you can say "sustainability," The Chocolate Farmer stands out as a film that explores the multiple facets of the conversation, from changing trends to indigenous rites. The farmers in question are cacao farmers in Belize who are struggling against the new tide of farming initiatives in their industry, and contemplating their right to land and the right to carve out pieces of the world for profit. This screening is free.

THURSDAY AUGUST 9 / VIVRE SA VIE / TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX / 8:45PM
Vivre sa Vie, arguably one of Jean-Luc Godard's strongest films, is a series of 12 structured segments that tell the story of a Nana (Anna Karina) a young woman who left a husband and small child at home to make it as an actress in Paris. Nana eventually resigns herself to prostitution to pay the bills and finds herself falling deeply into the sex industry instead. Through meta-narrative conversations and imagery, Godard exposes the materialistic side of Paris and highlights the obsession with American pop culture that was rife in the city at the time. Tickets are $11 and can be purchased at the cinema.

FRIDAY AUGUST 10 / PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE / BLOOR HOT DOCS CINEMA / 11:30PM
Watch out Rocky Horror Picture Show, there's another late-night cult feature this week! Phantom of the Paradise is an oft-referenced but rarely screened Brian De Palma rock-musical inspired by The Phantom of the Opera, mixed in with a little Frankenstein and a bit of Faust. After an aspiring musician is beaten and framed by a satanic producer, he finds a way to infiltrate the producer's rock concert hall with the simple intention of raising a little bit of hell for revenge. Tickets are $11 and can be purchased at the cinema.

SATURDAY AUGUST 11 / IRON SKY / THE ROYAL / 7 & 9PM
This bizarre Finnish action-comedy has been teasing me all week until I finally caved and decided it deserved a feature. As far as I can tell, Iron Sky is a contemporary war-satire about a group of Nazi's who high-tailed it to the moon before the end of WWII and spent the last 70 years plotting their destructive return to Earth. When a moon-lander comes too close to their stockpile, the Nazi's decide to finally launch their attack and it's up to a lone astronaut to convince those on Earth that the far-fetched attack is really happening. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at the cinema.

SUNDAY AUGUST 12 / WRITTEN ON THE WIND / TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX / 1PM
Douglas Sirk introduces us to the original specimens of 'Spoiled American Heir/Heiresses Behaving Badly' in Written on the Wind in the form of a pair of rich siblings from an oil dynasty showing a frightening naivety when it comes to adult relationships. While one struggles with impotence, the other bubbles over with sexual intent and desire that could stop an oil derrick with one gaze. Despite their differences, both are Sirkian people-eaters who absorb their prey while destroying everything else around them. Tickets are $11 and can be purchased at the cinema.

ADDITIONAL SCREENINGS