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Future Programme |
| 8-9 Dec | For our next film, 42nd Street , a summary is on the home page. |
| 5-6 Jan 2009 | THE MARRIAGE
OF MARIA BRAUN (Die Ehe der Maria Braun), ,
Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1978, WGer, 119 mins  Hermann and Maria Braun are married during a bombing raid and he is immediately sent to the Russian front, there to disappear. After many years, he returns. How has she survived in the meantime? TOFG: “Knowing in advance that Fassbinder considers marriage to be the most insidious trap that mankind has devised for itself doesn't prepare you for The Marriage of Maria Braun ... at once Fassbinder's most conventional and elusive film.” RT: “Accessible, yet complex and ambiguous,” 4*. VFG: “The stark atmosphere, icy performances, and poignant revelations make it one of the most important films to emerge from Germany in the 1970s, and one of his best,” 1001 “The melodramatic premises in no way diminish the force of this remarkable film ... [which] speaks about the loss of the soul in a society exalting prosperity ... Fassbinder once again proves a master of the feminine portrait.” H1000: sets it high at no. 136. |
| 2-3 Feb | CINEMA PARADISO
(Nuovo Cinema Paradiso), Giuseppe
Tornatore, 1988, It/Fr, b/w and col. A successful director returns to his childhood village, where the cinema showed classic films during the war. RT: “... an unashamedly sentimental rite of passage picture and a charming reminder of the lost art of cinema-going”, 5*. EFG: “... the graceful, moving simplicity of one of cinema's great love songs to the cinema ... this is food for the weary soul”, 5*. H1000: “Philippe Noiret is magnificent as the grizzled projectionist ... beautifully detailed in its enjoyment of small-town life”, no. 120. 1001: “... enjoyable and heart-warming ”. 1001: “ ”. 1001: “ ”. Awards: Oscar Best Foreign Language Film. Cannes Grand Prize of the Jury. Lots of BAFTAs. Golden Globe Best Foreign Language Film. Others too numerous for these aging fingers to type. |
| 2-3 Mar | NASHVILLE, Robert
Altman, 1975, US. 161 mins. Just Country and Western music? Don't believe it! This is a 5*, totally absorbing film about beliefs and values, which influenced many directors. The bad news may be ... REQUESTED BUT NOT YET CONFIRMED, AS WE UNDERSTAND THAT THE PRINT MAY BE IN POOR CONDITION. WE ARE INVESTIGATING, BUT WE MAY HAVE TO FIND AN ALTERNATIVE. |
| 30-31 Mar | JULES ET JIM, Francois
Truffaut, 1961, Fr, 105 mins, b/w. Pre-WW I, two writers, German (or Austrian?) and French, meet the older Catherine (Jeanne Moreau) and form a threesome. How pedestrian and inadequate an explanation this is! Though some consider the film dated, it has huge charm, and Jeanne Moreau has never been better. Much requested. VFG: “Francois Truffaut's greatest achievement ... is a shrine to lovers who have known obsession and been destroyed by it ... Moreau [delivers] one of the most memorable performances in screen history”, 5*. RT: “... a virtuoso technical performance from François Truffaut ... The masterpiece of a genius”, 5*. EFG: “... this masterpiece ... ”, 5*. |
| 27-28 Apr | THE LIFE AND
DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP, Powell
and Pressburger, 1943, GB, 163 mins.  You will remember the astounding Black Narcissus, which this film does not not remotely resemble. Instead we have, originally inspired by the David Low cartoon character of Colonel Blimp, a portrayal of the life and honour of a not particularly bright British soldier. TOFG: “Roger Livesey gives us not just a great performance, but a man's whole life ... marked by an extraordinary generosity of spirit: in the history of British cinema there is nothing to touch it.” EFG: “Perhaps the greatest film ever made in Britain”, 5*. H1000: “... a curiously endearing film about the eccentricity of the British”. RT: “One of British cinema's undisputed masterpieces”, 5*. VFG: “... a warm and wise work ... a character study that lingers with the viewer long after it's over”, 4½*. 1001: “... one of the most ambitious and impressive achievements of not just Powell and Pressburger but in all of British cinema”. So it's not bad? |
| 25-26 May | MEMBER'S CHOICE, to be determined, as usual, by a draw at the AGM. Any member might win. |
| 22-23 Jun | tbd |
| 20-21 Jul | tbd |
| 17-18 Aug | tbd |
| (TOFG, VFG, 1001, EFG, H1000, RT, BN100, DP, NYFCC, DT, ...? What on earth do these acronyms mean?) | |
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© The Wells Film Society 2004-8 |