Little Ashes is a romantic story about the young life and loves of artist Salvador Dalí (Robert Pattinson), filmmaker Luis Buñuel (Matthew McNulty), and writer Federico García Lorca (Javier Beltran).

In 1922, Madrid is wavering on the edge of change, as traditional values are challenged by the dangerous new influences of jazz, Freud, and the avant-garde. Salvador Dalí arrives at the university, 18 years old and determined to become a great artist. His bizarre blend of shyness and rampant exhibitionism attracts the attention of two of the university’s social elite: Federico García Lorca and Luis Buñuel. Salvador is absorbed into their decadent group and for a time Salvador, Luis, and Federico become a formidable trio, the most ultra-modern group in Madrid. However as time passes, Salvador feels an increasingly strong pull towards the charismatic Federico, who is himself oblivious of the attentions he is getting from his beautiful writer friend, Margarita. Federico and Salvador spend the holiday in the seaside town of Cadaques. Salvador and Federico draw closer, convinced that they have found a kind of friendship undreamt of by others. It is more than a meeting of the minds; it is a fusion of souls.

Admission is $6 for all University of Miami alumni, faculty, and staff; free for students. General admission is $8. The film screens at the Cosford Cinema on Friday, June 26 at 9:15 p.m.; Saturday, June 27 at 4 and 8:30 p.m.; and Sunday, June 28 at 6:15 pm. For more information, visit www.cosfordcinema.com.

Il Viaggio a Reims is Rossini’s last opera in the Italian language (all of his later works were in French). Commissioned to celebrate the coronation of French King Charles X in Reims in 1825, the work has been critically acclaimed as one of Rossini’s finest compositions. It is a demanding work, requiring 14 soloists (three sopranos, one contralto, two tenors, four baritones, and four basses).

The uniqueness and audacity of the opera is compounded by its plot, which concerns a group of people who plan excitedly for a “viaggio” (journey) to the city of Reims that at the end never happens. The true spirit of the opera is perfectly captured by this production from Teatro alla Scala. La Scala brings us the visionary production created years ago by the minds of one of Europe’s most influential and innovative directors, Italian Luca Ronconi (who directed Puccini’s Il Trittico, which Emerging Pictures brought to theatres in the last La Scala Opera Season) and of world renowned Italian architect Gae Aulenti, who created sets and costumes.

Since its creation back in 1984, this production has become the quintessential stage production of Il Viaggio a Reims, and finally American audiences will have the chance to experience it in this revival filmed in April 2009. Once again, Teatro alla Scala assembles a formidable cast of professionals, many of whom specialize in the Rossini repertoire, mastering beautifully the vocal range required by the composer’s music and the dynamic and fresh acting that characterize Rossini operas.

Admission is $6 for all University of Miami alumni, faculty, and staff; free for students. General admission is $8. The film screens at the Cosford Cinema on Saturday, June 27 at 1 p.m. and Sunday, June 28 at 1 p.m. For more information, visit www.cosfordcinema.com.

An audacious and inventive biopic of Italian parliamentarian (and “Senator for Life”) Giulio Andreotti illuminates, in great emotional detail, important events surrounding an early-1990s investigation in which the perpetual statesman was accused of having Mafia ties. The case was appealed and overturned several times, and Andreotti never served prison time, but it effectively marked the end of his centrist Christian Democratic party and forever changed the age-old relationship between the Mafia and the Italian government.

Toni Servillo plays Andreotti as an arrogant, deadpan Puck—an Italian Richard Nixon replete with easily mimicable physical tics and the conviction of his own rightness. In the film’s most memorable scene, Servillo allows his ironic veneer to crack just once, in a molten monologue where, spit flying, he justifies “perpetrating evil to guarantee good.” Paolo Sorrentino’s controlled and masterly storytelling won the 2008 Prix du Jury at Cannes.

Admission is $6 for all University of Miami alumni, faculty, and staff; free for students. General admission is $8. The film screens at the Cosford Cinema on Friday, June 26 at 7 p.m.; Saturday, June 27 at 6:15 p.m.; and Sunday, June 28 at 4 and 8:30 p.m. For more information, visit www.cosfordcinema.com.