Thursday, October 29, 2009

Katyn - Sunday 1st November 5pm

You'll probably have heard quite a lot about Katyn, next Sunday's film, already. Taking its name from the forest in which a terrible massacre of Polish officers took place during the Second World War, it's celebrated director Andrezj Wajda's homage to his father and father's fellow officers who were murdered at the time, his desire to set the record of history straight, and his ambition to craft a beautifully-shot drama to entertain an intelligent audience.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Fugitive Pieces - Sunday 25th October 5pm

Fugitive Pieces coming up on Sunday: our highly-literate membership seems to be well aware of the novel by Anne Michaels on which it's based - a prose-poem of a novel, they said. How to do poetry on the screen? Well, voice-overs is one answer, but come and see how successful you think
Canadian Jeremy Podeswa has been. Beautiful musical score, exceptional views of Greece, etc., etc...

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Cherry Blossoms - Sunday 18th October 5pm

Cherry Blossoms is an intriguing prospect: some of the weightier critics, realising that the director was paying tribute to Ozu’s Tokyo Story were slightly constrained in their praise when comparing the 2008 German story to the Japanese master’s work. But even they seemed impressed by Dorrie’s handling of the family relationships (yes, again!) and the development of the major character following the move from Germany to Japan. So 84% on ‘Rotten Tomatoes’ is a fair accolade. If you’d like to read more than you can find in the KFC brochure, notes are available on the film page – just don’t read Philip French’s piece if you want to avoid spoilers. But be assured that he liked it: ‘A quiet, very beautiful film about the duality of love and death.’

Thursday, October 08, 2009

Everlasting Moments - Sunday 11th October 5pm

Philip French, whom, you've probably realised by now, is one of our most trusted critics, gives Everlasting Moments a glowing review, which will stand as our film notes. In case you don't have time to read French's review, here a few snippets:
Everlasting Moments is a true masterpiece...There are wonderful moments in this beautiful, tender,truthful film...The acting all around is of the highest order and Maria Heiskanen's magnificent performance as Maria is a portrait of human goodness and decency, utterly lacking in sentimentality, sanctimony or self-conscious martyrdom.

Friday, October 02, 2009

sleep furiously - Sunday 4th October 5pm

Coming up for your delectation this Sunday, we have sleep furiously. The title is a quotation from Noam Chomsky, who in support of his linguistic theories offered "Colourless green ideas sleep furiously" as an example of a sentence that is nonsensical even though the grammar is perfectly correct. Why director Gideon Koppel chooses it is not so clear! To convince you that you really ought to come and see this film, you should the whole of the excellent review from Sight and Sound but you probably haven't got time to do that, so here is the the beginning and the end to whet your appetite:
'As an honest and moving portrait of a year in the life of a small rural community in mid Wales, Gideon Koppel's charming and naturalistic film beats its inspiration Dylan Thomas hands down, says John Banville.'
'Now more than ever we need films such as this: grave, measured, subtly comic and beautifully wrought, free of polemic and yet offering a new way of seeing that is as old as Arcady. sleep furiously is, simply, a masterpiece.'