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Film Screenings |
Film Group ProgrammeSPRING PROGRAMME 2012Established in October 1999, with the much valued collaboration of the Arts Picturehouse management. The aim of the U3AC Film Group is to show a wide range of the best in cinema from all nations, generations and genres. Our shows take place at The Arts Picturehouse every Tuesday during term time and normally start at 2pm. Members are welcome to attend our post screen discussions.
10 January The Iranian writer/director Asghar Farhadi presents us with a complex and fascinating drama in this story of a couple whose marriage is put under pressure by a network of personal and social faultlines. A Separation is a portrait of a fractured relationship and an examination of theocracy, domestic rule, and the politics of sex and class in Iran; a compelling and revealing film that doesn’t flinch from confronting the burdens of its young middle-class family.
17 January In the first of our Humphrey Bogart films the actor plays Dixon Steele, a cynical screenwriter suspected of murder. Gloria Grahame co-stars as Laurel Gray, a neighbour who falls under his spell. Beyond its surface story of murder and confused identity the film is a dark comment on Hollywood mores and the pitfalls of celebrity and near-celebrity. Although not as well known as his other work it is now being seen as one of Nicholas Ray’s key films that shows Bogart at his best; smooth, wisecracking but threatening.
24 January Woody Allen’s 41’s film is a gloriously entertaining romantic comedy, touching fantasy set among three epochs of the Parisian artistic milieu and pursuing some of Woody Allen’s favourite themes but with sufficient asperity to give a sting to the nostalgia it embraces. The joy of the music of Bechet and Reinhardt that fills the sound track, the beauty of the city, romantic nostalgia and humour of the world of art and artists are portrayed for the sheer pleasure both of the director himself and his audience.
31 January With glowing cinematography, by the great Sven Nykvist (famed for his many collaborations with Ingmar Bergman), Louis Malle brilliantly recreates the world of Storyville - New Orleans, during the last months of legal prostitution in that infamous red-light district where jazz was born. It is 1917, Nell’s bawdy house in New Orleans is home to a dozen prostitutes, several employees and various children. Hattie gives birth to a son while daughter Violet looks on; the business transacted in the house is part of Violet's normal childhood experience. Art photographer Bellocq starts taking pictures of the women, honest art studies, whilst avoiding sexual contact with them.
7 February Set in a shadowy, dreamlike Victorian Soho, Brecht's biting social satire and Kurt Weill's compelling music tell the story of Mack the Knife and Polly Peachum. G.W.Pabst, Germany’s foremost director of the 1930s, magnificently captures the world of the street singer, Ernst Busch and the cynicism of the era; his filming of his songs falling on deaf ears precisely captures the fascination of the Germans with the hypocrisy and corruption of the British. The hard-biting cynicism of governments, crooks, the bourgeoisie, misanthropy, and corruption is as stingingly appropriate today as it was in 1931. The leads are well cast and well executed as gangster Mack the Knife and his bride don't care whose feathers they ruffle. However, both take a backseat to Lotte Lenya's unforgettable portrayal of Pirate Jenny.
14 February ** NOTE STARTING TIME at 1pm Ishaan Awasthi is an eight-year-old whose world is filled with wonders that no one else seems to appreciate; colours, fish, dogs and kites are just not important in the world of adults, who are much more interested in things like homework, marks and neatness. And Ishaan just cannot seem to get anything right in class. When he gets into far more trouble than his parents can handle, he is packed off to a boarding school to 'be disciplined’.
21 February Van Dormael’s film is based on his belief that 'we become what we never thought we would become, and we end in a way we never thought we would end. Two babies are rescued from fire in their nursery; the one rich, the other not. The one conceives the idea that they had been switched at birth, and he can't help seeing that his unhappiness should be other’s. So, as his life is ending, he formulates a plan of revenge. Even as it pokes absurdity and meaninglessness in your face, Toto Le Heros offers plenty of reasons to live.
28 February ** NOTE STARTING TIME 1pm As well as being an acknowledged theatrical and operatic director in post war Italy, Visconti was also one of the fathers of neo realism in Italian cinema. La Terra Trema, his second feature film represents that period; commissioned by the Communist Party and using many non professional actors, the film recaptures a world that has long since ceased to exist in a story that takes place in Aci Trezza, a small fishing village on the east coast of Sicily. It tells about the exploitation of working-class fishermen, specifically that of the eldest son of a very traditional village family, the Valastros.
6 March The second of our Humphrey Bogart films is one of the most entertaining private eye films made in the immediate post war era. Adapted by William Faulkner and Leigh Brackett from Raymond Chandler’s novel The Big Sleep is a film of infinite interest. Bogart plays Philip Marlowe, called upon to investigate a case of blackmail. It's a long and winding trail of murder, gambling, and deceit that he follows. Much of the action takes place without dialogue, which is used sparingly but effectively. Performances all round are excellent although the smouldering chemistry between Bogart and Lauren Bacall dominates the film.
13 March Featuring a stellar cast including Rita Hayworth, Deborah Kerr, Burt Lancaster and David Niven this film adaptation of two short plays by Terence Rattigan was highly thought of when released in the 1950s. It observes the lives of several residents at a seaside hotel where the guests have their meals at separate tables. It's the off-season at the lonely Beauregard Hotel in Bournemouth, and only the long-term tenants are still in residence. Its scenario and the performance of Burt Lancaster gained special mention when it was nominated for Best Film at the Hollywood Oscars of 1958. |
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