search articles:     from the issue of February 3, 2005         Vera Drake, Long Engagement screen at Ross Media Arts Center Mike Leigh is at the peak of his powers with Vera Drake, opening at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center on Feb. 4. Vera Drake is an impeccably designed, vividly inhabited story of a neighborhood good Samaritan secretly moonlighting as a humane abortionist in post-WWII London. The film features a peerless cast studded with Leigh repertory players and led by a revelatory turn from Imelda Staunton. Vera Drake is showing at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center from Feb. 4 through Feb. 17. Vera Drake is rated R for depiction of strong thematic material. From the director and star of Amelie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Audrey Tautou) comes a very different love story: A Very Long Engagement, based on the acclaimed novel by Sebastien Japrisot, adaptated by Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Guillaume Laurant, and opening at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center on Feb. 4. The film is set in France near the end of World War I in the deadly trenches of the Somme, in the gilded Parisian halls of power, and in the modest home of an indomitable provincial girl. It tells the story of this young woman's relentless, moving and sometimes comic search for her fiance, who has disappeared. He is one of five French soldiers believed to have been court-martialed under mysterious circumstances and pushed out of an Allied Forces trench into an almost-certain death in no-man's land. What follows is an investigation into the arbitrary nature of secrecy, the absurdity of war, and the enduring passion, intuition and tenacity of the human heart. A Very Long Engagement is showing at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center from Feb. 4-17. The film is is rated R for violence and sexuality. Show times for Vera Drake and A Very Long Engagement and are available at www.TheRoss.org or by calling the MRRMAC film information line at 472.5353. GO TO: ISSUE OF FEBRUARY 3 ARTS HEADLINES FOR FEBRUARY 3 Japanese swords on display at Lentz Gallery African baskets topic of Feb. 8 presentation Creative Movement Classes Offered on Saturdays Geske Lecture on Shakespeare on the plains Feb. 21 Jim Rice and Final Round headline Free at 6 Feb. 9 Lied hosts Magic School Bus Feb. 11 Sculptor Driscoll is Hixson-Lied visiting artist Shapiro book signing Feb. 24 UNL Pianists perform Feb. 5 Lincoln Symphony concert Vera Drake, Long Engagement screen at Ross Media Arts Center 731980S34218X