We closed our last season with the AGM, and as we held it before the screening everyone kept it pretty short. The good news is that we are still solvent, but the bad news is that we have been dependent on external grants to purchase the big ticket items like projector and sound system, and in the current age of austerity I do not think that the local auythority will look kindly on a grant application to upgrade/replace the kit.
We made money on most of our Thursday screenings, but for many of our Sunday screeenings the audience was solely committee members and family members. The other major source of revenue is the bar, and it is clear that our audience is generally thirsty. I was only half-joking when I suggested that we sould set ourselves up as a Wine Club that also screens films.
It's difficult to coerce people into attending, but we intend to harness the power of the internet to send out reminders to members - or at least to those of our members have email access - and also intend to run a raffle for our "free" introductory film. We agreed to have DVDs as prices and I volunteered to find something appropriate for the good folk of Highclere: after a quick trawl through Amazon I bought a box set of Billy Wilder films (including Some Like It Hot - which I saw many years ago on the big screen at the PPP while at Oxford) and another set starring Orson Welles (including The Third Man).
My plan is to blog for the full season and to intersperse updates on our progress with the notes that I prepare for each screening. Hopefully our choice of Up In The Air will get the season off to a good start.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Forthcoming Attractions
As the end of August approaches and the evenings draw in, it will soon be time for the Film Club to launch its 2010-2011 season.
Once again we've followed the strategy of starting the season with a "big" film that was both a commercial and critical success - in this case Up In The Air - and we'll be following this with regular screenings through to the end of April. For our Thursday screenings we've chosen a selection of (hopefully) popular films that will bring in a good audience, as we need to sell tickets to keep the Club solvent, and on Sundays we'll be screening an idiosyncratic mix of independent and foreign language films.
The full programme is as follows:
Thursday Screenings
Sunday Screenings
I must admit to not having seen any of these, so I'm looking forward to an enjoyable, interesting and - hopefully - profitable season.
Once again we've followed the strategy of starting the season with a "big" film that was both a commercial and critical success - in this case Up In The Air - and we'll be following this with regular screenings through to the end of April. For our Thursday screenings we've chosen a selection of (hopefully) popular films that will bring in a good audience, as we need to sell tickets to keep the Club solvent, and on Sundays we'll be screening an idiosyncratic mix of independent and foreign language films.
The full programme is as follows:
Thursday Screenings
- An Education
- A Single Man
- The Hurt Locker
- Gran Turino
- A Serious Man
- The Road
- Public Enemies
- The Wrestler
- The Sound of Music (honest!)
Sunday Screenings
- Waltz With Bashir
- 30 Days of Night
- Broken Embraces
- Inglourious Basterds
- The Hangover
- 35 Shots of Rum
- Home
- Moon
- Me and Oson Welles
- Bienvenue Chez Les Ch'tis
I must admit to not having seen any of these, so I'm looking forward to an enjoyable, interesting and - hopefully - profitable season.
Friday, July 9, 2010
SNOW WHITE: THE SEQUEL
Everyone agreed it had been a fairy tale wedding, and for a few years it had seemed that Snow White and the Prince were enjoying the happiest of marriages.
But time passed and things changed. There was no one single event that people could point to at the time to show that things were not well in the royal marriage – rather a slow steady accumulation of detail that made sense only in retrospect.
It had started with the joint appearances. From the time that they had announced their engagement it was clear that she was a real star and newspaper editors soon realised that a picture of her on the front page always led to an increase in sales. And Snow White herself was not above using the press for her own purposes: she had made a fortune by selling the story of her time in the woods with the seven dwarfs while at the same time hitting all seven of the dwarfs with a series of gagging writs and injunctions to ensure that her version of events was the only one in the public domain.
Of course Snow White and the Prince still made public appearances – it was part of the job description after all – but from now on all such appearances were strictly solo. Snow White continued to draw big crowds, and over time they grew even bigger, but the Prince, although he was always attended by a respectable audience, seldom managed to attract too much press attention.
Finally the news was broken to a world that already suspected what it now heard: Snow White and the Prince were living apart, although no one had yet mentioned a divorce.
Alone in her home in the country Snow White paced fretfully from room to room. She was missing the adulation that greeted here wherever she went and was in a bad mood. Deep in thought she suddenly found herself in a room she did not recognise. It was a large room, completely empty apart from a large cheval mirror with an ornate golden frame that stood in the centre of the room. She immediately recognised it as a magic mirror, and asked it the obvious question:
“Mirror, mirror on the stand,
Who is the fairest in the land?”
The mirror responded immediately, its voice seeming to come from the centre of her reflection.
“You are. There’s no doubt at all.”
The voice was firm and the tone was deep.
Snow White felt reassured. What ever else was wrong in her life she was still the most beautiful woman in the kingdom.
It was not long after this that news broke of the Prince’s affair with one of the Ugly Sisters. Snow White had known about this almost from the start and had herself been involved in a series of relationships over the past few years. However the difference was that she had been discreet and so far not a word had leaked to the press. But now with the news of the Prince’s affair splashed across every front page she felt devalued: this news could fundamentally affect her position in the kingdom.
After hours of thought she decided to consult the mirror. This time there was an ominous pause before the mirror spoke, and its voice was hesitant:
“Um. You are. Definitely. No doubt at all.”
This threw her into a dreadful temper. She took off one of her shoes and threw it at the mirror. The glass immediately shattered into a thousand pieces, that lay like a frost of diamonds on the carpet.
Snow White spent days planning her come back campaign: a major television interview followed by a whole series of carefully stage-managed photo opportunities. These had the desired effect, but by the time they were over Snow White was exhausted. Her media adviser suggested that a period of withdrawal from the public eye might be beneficial, so Snow White decided to take a holiday.
It was while she was at the coast in a neighbouring kingdom that she met Aladdin. He had long since separated from his wife and now was part of a group of minor characters from fairy stories who lived hard and played hard.
Snow White thought it was love at first sight – again. Aladdin was very kind. He took her for rides on his magic carpet. After much prompting he even introduced her to his genii. But the press were not far behind them. And it was while trying to escape from the press that their carriage, driven by a drunken coachman overturned, and both Snow White and Aladdin were killed.
It was an accident of course, but Aladdin’s father could not accept it, seeing in it the dark hand of Jurisfiction. And so although Snow White was dead her story carried on, and conspiracy theorists everywhere lived happily ever after.
But time passed and things changed. There was no one single event that people could point to at the time to show that things were not well in the royal marriage – rather a slow steady accumulation of detail that made sense only in retrospect.
It had started with the joint appearances. From the time that they had announced their engagement it was clear that she was a real star and newspaper editors soon realised that a picture of her on the front page always led to an increase in sales. And Snow White herself was not above using the press for her own purposes: she had made a fortune by selling the story of her time in the woods with the seven dwarfs while at the same time hitting all seven of the dwarfs with a series of gagging writs and injunctions to ensure that her version of events was the only one in the public domain.
Of course Snow White and the Prince still made public appearances – it was part of the job description after all – but from now on all such appearances were strictly solo. Snow White continued to draw big crowds, and over time they grew even bigger, but the Prince, although he was always attended by a respectable audience, seldom managed to attract too much press attention.
Finally the news was broken to a world that already suspected what it now heard: Snow White and the Prince were living apart, although no one had yet mentioned a divorce.
Alone in her home in the country Snow White paced fretfully from room to room. She was missing the adulation that greeted here wherever she went and was in a bad mood. Deep in thought she suddenly found herself in a room she did not recognise. It was a large room, completely empty apart from a large cheval mirror with an ornate golden frame that stood in the centre of the room. She immediately recognised it as a magic mirror, and asked it the obvious question:
“Mirror, mirror on the stand,
Who is the fairest in the land?”
The mirror responded immediately, its voice seeming to come from the centre of her reflection.
“You are. There’s no doubt at all.”
The voice was firm and the tone was deep.
Snow White felt reassured. What ever else was wrong in her life she was still the most beautiful woman in the kingdom.
It was not long after this that news broke of the Prince’s affair with one of the Ugly Sisters. Snow White had known about this almost from the start and had herself been involved in a series of relationships over the past few years. However the difference was that she had been discreet and so far not a word had leaked to the press. But now with the news of the Prince’s affair splashed across every front page she felt devalued: this news could fundamentally affect her position in the kingdom.
After hours of thought she decided to consult the mirror. This time there was an ominous pause before the mirror spoke, and its voice was hesitant:
“Um. You are. Definitely. No doubt at all.”
This threw her into a dreadful temper. She took off one of her shoes and threw it at the mirror. The glass immediately shattered into a thousand pieces, that lay like a frost of diamonds on the carpet.
Snow White spent days planning her come back campaign: a major television interview followed by a whole series of carefully stage-managed photo opportunities. These had the desired effect, but by the time they were over Snow White was exhausted. Her media adviser suggested that a period of withdrawal from the public eye might be beneficial, so Snow White decided to take a holiday.
It was while she was at the coast in a neighbouring kingdom that she met Aladdin. He had long since separated from his wife and now was part of a group of minor characters from fairy stories who lived hard and played hard.
Snow White thought it was love at first sight – again. Aladdin was very kind. He took her for rides on his magic carpet. After much prompting he even introduced her to his genii. But the press were not far behind them. And it was while trying to escape from the press that their carriage, driven by a drunken coachman overturned, and both Snow White and Aladdin were killed.
It was an accident of course, but Aladdin’s father could not accept it, seeing in it the dark hand of Jurisfiction. And so although Snow White was dead her story carried on, and conspiracy theorists everywhere lived happily ever after.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
The Boat That Rocked
These are the film notes for our final screening of the 2009/2010 season:
UK 2009 (135 minutes)
Director: Richard Curtis
Starring: Tom Sturridge, Bill Nighy, Rhys Ifans, Nick Frost and Kenneth
Branagh
Following his expulsion from school Carl (Tom Sturridge) arrives on Radio Rock, a pirate radio ship, to stay with the ship’s Captain Quentin (Bill Nighy) who is also his godfather and meets the disc jockeys who crew the ship. A government minister (Kenneth Branagh) takes offence at the ship’s output and creates the Marine Offences Act in order to close the station down. Quentin and the crew decide to defy the ban, but an attempt to move the ship causes its engines to explode and the ship sinks, but without any loss of life.
The story is based on the real life pirate radio station named Radio Caroline, which broadcast from international waters off the coast of South East England in the 1960s, although Richard Curtis (as both writer and director) was keen to point out that he did not intend to depict the real story of offshore broadcasting; rather he wrote the film solely for entertainment purposes.
Richard Curtis started his career as one of the writers on Not The Nine O’Clock News before creating the Blackadder series with Rowan Atkinson. He made his film breakthrough with his screenplay for Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) which became the highest grossing British film to date and which made Hugh Grant a global superstar. Curtis followed this with the screenplay for Notting Hill (1999) as well as collaborating with Helen Fielding on the screenplays for Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001) and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004), all of which starred Hugh Grant. In 2003 Curtis directed Love Actually from his own screenplay, once again starring Hugh Grant, and this time in a strangely prophetic role as a “posh boy” Prime Minister. In addition to Grant all the films included a regular group of British actors including Colin Firth, Rowan Atkinson and Bill Nighy in their casts.
In parallel with this successful film career Curtis also created The Vicar of Dibley, which ran from 1994 to 2007, as a vehicle for Dawn French. He followed this with the screenplay of the TV version of The No. 1 Ladies Detection Agency which he co-wrote with Anthony Minghella (who also acted as director) before returning to film with The Boat That Rocked in 2009. His most recent project is a story – Vincent and the Doctor - for the current series of Doctor Who which despite an amusing cameo role for Bill Nighy as an art critic lecturing on Van Gogh failed to reach the standards of recent stories about historical characters such as The Unquiet Dead (Dickens), The Shakespeare Code (Shakespeare – inevitably) or even The Unicorn and the Wasp (Agatha Christie).
Monday, May 17, 2010
Regeneration of the Prime Minister
During the election campaign there were many comments on the Labour Party's fascination with Doctor Who in its use of David Tennant to provide voiceovers for PEBs, and starring roles for Sean Pertwee (son of Jon) and Peter Davison.
However it is only now as the dust from the election finally settles that it's possible to see how Doctor Who provides a strange mirror to the rise and fall of the whole New Labour Project:
* The unexpected and triumphant return of the programme after many years off the screen.
* The replacement of the ninth Doctor by a Scottish successor.
* The return of several key characters from the first series as the final series from RTD reached its conclusion.
* The Tenth's Doctor's final words ("I don't want to go") sum up the amazing week of horse-trading followed the inconclusive result of the Generl Election.
* The casting of the youngest actor ever to play the Eleventh Doctor.
It only remains to be seen now how the Eleventh Doctor's relationship with his new companion will develop over the next five years. The good news so far is that the BBC has commissioned another series which will include a story by Neil Gaiman.
However it is only now as the dust from the election finally settles that it's possible to see how Doctor Who provides a strange mirror to the rise and fall of the whole New Labour Project:
* The unexpected and triumphant return of the programme after many years off the screen.
* The replacement of the ninth Doctor by a Scottish successor.
* The return of several key characters from the first series as the final series from RTD reached its conclusion.
* The Tenth's Doctor's final words ("I don't want to go") sum up the amazing week of horse-trading followed the inconclusive result of the Generl Election.
* The casting of the youngest actor ever to play the Eleventh Doctor.
It only remains to be seen now how the Eleventh Doctor's relationship with his new companion will develop over the next five years. The good news so far is that the BBC has commissioned another series which will include a story by Neil Gaiman.
Friday, April 30, 2010
The Soloist
These are my notes for the film we screened last night. It was the last film of the season and although it was good we had a pretty small audience. next year we plan to end the season before Easter.
The Soloist
USA 2009 (117 minutes)
Director: Joe Wright
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Robert Downey Jr. and Catherine Keener
Awards and Nominations
Four nominations including Best Actor nominations for both Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr.
While at the Juillard School Nathaniel Ayers (Foxx) developed schizophrenia and after becoming homeless is reduced to playing a two-stringed violin on the streets of downtown Los Angeles. Steve Lopez (Downey) is a journalist, and after meeting Ayers he decides to write a column about him and his homelessness. The column is a great success, and as Lopez continues both to write about Ayers and to help him he is forced to grapple with the complex issues of the thousands of mentally ill who live on the streets of Los Angeles.
With its subject matter the film seems to be a close companion to Shine (1996), which was based on the life of the pianist David Helfgott who spent years in institutions after a mental breakdown. However Philip French, somewhat idiosyncratically, links it to Marley & Me (2008) and Julia & Julia (2009) in that all three films started as newspaper columns which their authors then turned into books.
The film is based on a true story that Steve Lopez told in a series of columns that eventually became a book called The Soloist. Since the success of the book Lopez has maintained a relationship with Ayers and has become his mentor. But Lopez always saw Ayers as more than one individual with a story to tell:
“I was told early on that this was a rare opportunity to humanise thousands like him. This story took me into a whole world, a world so close... to City Hall. Without him, without the evolving drama of his life, nobody would have cared about the public policy of it.”
As his relationship with Ayers continued Lopez became both an expert and an advocate for mental health and homeless issues and speaks regularly on the lecture circuit.
After beginning his career in television Joe Wright made his name in the cinema with an adaptation of Pride and Prejudice (2005) which won him a BAFTA for Most Promising Newcomer and which starred Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennett. He worked with Knightley again on the multi-Oscar nominated Atonement (2007). The Soloist marked a clear change of direction and helped Wright escape from being seen as a director of prestige adaptations of literary classics. His current project is another change of direction: Hanna is a story about a teenage assassin from Easter Europe who escapes from her background when a French family take her in.
The Soloist
USA 2009 (117 minutes)
Director: Joe Wright
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Robert Downey Jr. and Catherine Keener
Awards and Nominations
Four nominations including Best Actor nominations for both Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr.
While at the Juillard School Nathaniel Ayers (Foxx) developed schizophrenia and after becoming homeless is reduced to playing a two-stringed violin on the streets of downtown Los Angeles. Steve Lopez (Downey) is a journalist, and after meeting Ayers he decides to write a column about him and his homelessness. The column is a great success, and as Lopez continues both to write about Ayers and to help him he is forced to grapple with the complex issues of the thousands of mentally ill who live on the streets of Los Angeles.
With its subject matter the film seems to be a close companion to Shine (1996), which was based on the life of the pianist David Helfgott who spent years in institutions after a mental breakdown. However Philip French, somewhat idiosyncratically, links it to Marley & Me (2008) and Julia & Julia (2009) in that all three films started as newspaper columns which their authors then turned into books.
The film is based on a true story that Steve Lopez told in a series of columns that eventually became a book called The Soloist. Since the success of the book Lopez has maintained a relationship with Ayers and has become his mentor. But Lopez always saw Ayers as more than one individual with a story to tell:
“I was told early on that this was a rare opportunity to humanise thousands like him. This story took me into a whole world, a world so close... to City Hall. Without him, without the evolving drama of his life, nobody would have cared about the public policy of it.”
As his relationship with Ayers continued Lopez became both an expert and an advocate for mental health and homeless issues and speaks regularly on the lecture circuit.
After beginning his career in television Joe Wright made his name in the cinema with an adaptation of Pride and Prejudice (2005) which won him a BAFTA for Most Promising Newcomer and which starred Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennett. He worked with Knightley again on the multi-Oscar nominated Atonement (2007). The Soloist marked a clear change of direction and helped Wright escape from being seen as a director of prestige adaptations of literary classics. His current project is another change of direction: Hanna is a story about a teenage assassin from Easter Europe who escapes from her background when a French family take her in.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
The White Ribbon
These are my notes for the film we are screening this Sunday - and this is the film I've been most looking forward to seeing all year. From everything I have read I do not expect to be disappointed.
The White Ribbon (Das weisse Band, Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte)
Austria 2009 (143 minutes)
Director: Michael Haneke
Starring: Stefan Arndt, Veit Heiduschka and Michael Katz
Awards and Nominations
Winner of Palme d’Or at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival
Winner of the 2009 Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film
Nominated for 2 Oscars, including Best Foreign Language Film
A further 15 wins and 30 nominations
A series of mysterious incidents occur in a Northern German village in the 12 months preceding the outbreak of the First World War. The pastor, doctor and baron rule over the women, children and peasant farmers of the village, but although they exercise stern discipline over the members of their own families - the pastor forces his children to wear the white ribbon of purity as a punishment for wrongdoings – they are unable to identify the perpetrators.
According to Haneke, the film is about “the origin of every type of terrorism, be it of political or religious nature”, but his film refuses to offer up easy answers or even resolve the events it portrays. The story is narrated by the local teacher, looking back in old age, who announces that these events “could perhaps clarify something that happened in this country”. It is not clear what motive the narrator has for remembering – or misremembering – the events: possibly after surviving two world wars and achieving some social standing in Germany his own hindsight is now questionable.
Michael Handke started his career on German television and came to international notice when The Piano Teacher/La Pianiste (2001) with Isabelle Huppert and Benoit Magimel won the Grand Prize at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, while its stars won the Best Actor and Actress awards. Handke won the same award at Cannes for Hidden/Caché (2005) which was also nominated for the Palme d’Or. The White Ribbon received its first screening at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival where it won both the Palme d’Or and the international film critics’ prize.
The Guardian included The White Ribbon at number five in its list of the best films of the noughties (sic) where Peter Bradshaw described it as:
"...a ghost story without a ghost, a whodunnit without a denouement, a historical parable without a lesson, and for two and a half hours this unforgettably disturbing and mysterious film leads its viewers alongside an abyss of anxiety."
The White Ribbon (Das weisse Band, Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte)
Austria 2009 (143 minutes)
Director: Michael Haneke
Starring: Stefan Arndt, Veit Heiduschka and Michael Katz
Awards and Nominations
Winner of Palme d’Or at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival
Winner of the 2009 Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film
Nominated for 2 Oscars, including Best Foreign Language Film
A further 15 wins and 30 nominations
A series of mysterious incidents occur in a Northern German village in the 12 months preceding the outbreak of the First World War. The pastor, doctor and baron rule over the women, children and peasant farmers of the village, but although they exercise stern discipline over the members of their own families - the pastor forces his children to wear the white ribbon of purity as a punishment for wrongdoings – they are unable to identify the perpetrators.
According to Haneke, the film is about “the origin of every type of terrorism, be it of political or religious nature”, but his film refuses to offer up easy answers or even resolve the events it portrays. The story is narrated by the local teacher, looking back in old age, who announces that these events “could perhaps clarify something that happened in this country”. It is not clear what motive the narrator has for remembering – or misremembering – the events: possibly after surviving two world wars and achieving some social standing in Germany his own hindsight is now questionable.
Michael Handke started his career on German television and came to international notice when The Piano Teacher/La Pianiste (2001) with Isabelle Huppert and Benoit Magimel won the Grand Prize at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, while its stars won the Best Actor and Actress awards. Handke won the same award at Cannes for Hidden/Caché (2005) which was also nominated for the Palme d’Or. The White Ribbon received its first screening at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival where it won both the Palme d’Or and the international film critics’ prize.
The Guardian included The White Ribbon at number five in its list of the best films of the noughties (sic) where Peter Bradshaw described it as:
"...a ghost story without a ghost, a whodunnit without a denouement, a historical parable without a lesson, and for two and a half hours this unforgettably disturbing and mysterious film leads its viewers alongside an abyss of anxiety."
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