Suggest a film for 2012-13
28th November, 2011
What do you think we should screen next season? Every year we’re keen to get your input into our programming, and would like your input.
We’re looking for excellent, non-mainstream films that could attract a hundred people, so let us know your ideas and why you think it would be a good choice. Our programme is a mix of recent and classic films from all over the world, including some little-known films; we’re also on the look-out for great shorts as well, or films with some sort of local interest. As a rule, we don’t tend to show films that have been screened locally in the recent past, or which have have been on TV recently, though that’s not a hard and fast rule.
You may also like to look at the list of films that were suggested last year or for the 2009-10 season. We do keep reviewing the lists of previously-suggested films too; just because we haven’t shown them yet doesn’t mean we never will!
28th November, 2011 at 10:55 am
Suggestions from Marie-Claire, with links to the Movie Review Query Engine:
28th November, 2011 at 11:38 am
After the French weekend, Steffi and I thought an East European film weekend would be a good idea. A beautiful film that we both like is Karoly Makk’s Love (Szerelem), which you can read about in notcoming.com, and watch a clip:
28th November, 2011 at 11:51 am
Intouchables, French film by Eric Toledano
Kaos The Taviani Brothers
Burnt by the Sun by Nikita Mikhalkov
28th November, 2011 at 12:00 pm
The Artist by Michel Hazanavicius, avec Jean Dujardin, France 2011
La Dolce Vita, Fellini, Italy
L’important c’est d’aimer Andreij Zulawski with Romy Scheiner, France
28th November, 2011 at 12:07 pm
Polisse by Maiwen le Besco, France 2011
28th November, 2011 at 12:11 pm
Les Bien Aimés 2011 de Christophe Honore with Catherine Deneuve and Chiara Mastroianni her daughter
I suggest we do a Marcello Mastroianni weekend; he is such a great actor and all his films are masterpieces.
28th November, 2011 at 12:20 pm
Great suggestions. And what about Ma saison préférée (1993), directed by André Téchiné, and also starring Catherine Deneuve and Chiara Mastroianni, and with Daniel Auteuil?
28th November, 2011 at 3:18 pm
Films with a Pygmalion theme with introduction, could include: Vertigo or Lars and the Real Girl. Or one of several other options.
28th November, 2011 at 4:07 pm
yes Ma saison preferee ok and as Ken Russell just dies what about Women in Love or Tommy; he made lots of cult films although he was not so much loved by the critics!
28th November, 2011 at 4:22 pm
We were talking about doing some late night cult films when we were in the pub the other night. Here’s the trailer:
4th December, 2011 at 1:02 pm
yes I saw them all excellent!
Also I suggest we do a special MELIES silent week end as it is the 150 anniversary this year ( 2012)
Le voyage dans la Lune is a must!
4th December, 2011 at 11:02 pm
I suggest an animation weekend:
Yuri Norstein: Tale of tales, 1979 (clip)
Piit Pärn: Breakfast on the grass, 1987 (film)
Paul Fierlinger: Still life with animated dogs, 2001 (film)
Lutz Dammbeck: The tailor of Ulm, 1979 or: The moon 1975…
Jan Svankmeier: …
Other ideas for the new season:
Michelangelo Frammartino, Le quattro volte, 2010 (trailer)
Andrej Tarkovski, The Mirror, 1974 (trailer)
Mike Nichols: Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf?,1966 (trailer)
Michelangelo Antonioni (centenary, Sept. 2012): Blow up, 1966 [trailer] – or The Passenger, 1975 (trailer)
Milos Forman: Goya’s Ghosts, 2006 (trailer)
Jasujiro Ozu: Tokyo Story, 1953 (trailer)
Raoul Ruiz…
Robert Wiene, Das Cabinett des Dr. Caligari, (Lil Dagover’s 15.birthday), 1920 (clip)
Satyajit Ray: Apu trilogy, 1955-59
Patrice Leconte: The Girl on the Bridge, 1999 (clip)
Bernhard Wicki: Die Brücke (The Bridge), 1959 (trailer)
Guy Maddin, My Winnipeg, 2007 (trailer)
Chris Marker, La Jetée, 1962 (clip)
Michael Haneke: Das Schloß (The Castle), 1997
Andreas Dresen: Cloud 9, 2008 (trailer)
Ingmar Bergman: The Seventh Seal, 1957 (trailer), Wild Strawberries, 1960 (clip), Cries and Whispers, 1972 (trailer)
Another one for the Estern European weekend could be:
Heiner Carow: Die Legende von Paul und Paula (The Legend of Paul and Paula), 1973 – the most successful (and fairly unusual) film of the GDR) [clip]
4th December, 2011 at 11:06 pm
in terms of Pygmalion maybe:
Massimo Dallamano: The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1970 (with the young Helmut Berger)
6th December, 2011 at 11:22 pm
Another one for an Eastern European weekend: Marta Meszaros’ beautiful and moving Diary for my Children (1982), and interview with her in Senses of Cinema
8th December, 2011 at 5:44 pm
I see “The Ladykillers” is suggested, any of the other Ealing comedies would also be welcome. Perhaps something like “Titfield Thunderbolt” for an afternoon viewing would bring a good audience.
8th December, 2011 at 7:15 pm
We don’t suggest a new film, we suggest something else: please hang the screen in the Village Hall higher, e.g. about 50cm!
The Film Society quite often shows foreign films, which are not English spoken. Therefore the subtitles are very important. But you can hardly read them because of the people sitting in front of you.
Dear Brad, it’s wonderful, what you are doing in the Film Society!
8th December, 2011 at 7:36 pm
Thank you for your comment, and we would do it if we could, I promise. At the moment we have a line of sight problem from the projection box since there is a lighting bar in the way. One of the longer-term plans in the hall is to raise that. Once that happens we can raise the screen. One of the house lights near the projection box is also quite close to the line of sight to the screen so that may need to be raised as well.
For the moment, the only reliable way round this is to get there early and sit near the front (about 4-5 rows back should be perfect. Or bring a cushion.
8th December, 2011 at 7:58 pm
Dies Irae (Day of Wrath) Dreyer 1943 BFI (clip)
Pranzo di Ferragosto (Mid-August Lunch) Gianni di Gregorio 2008 BFI (trailer)
Goodbye Solo Ramin Bahrani 2008 BFFS (trailer)
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress Dai Sijie 2005 BFI (trailer)
Kekexili (Mountain Patrol) Lu Chuan 2004 BFFS (trailer)
The Maid Sebastian Silva Chili 2009 BFI (trailer)
Nostalgia for the Light Patricio Gusman Chili 2011
Whale Rider Niki Caro NZ 2002 Filmbank (trailer)
Nostalgia Tarkovsky 1983 BFI (trailer)
La Regle du Jeu Jean Renoir 1939 BFI (trailer)
Rosetta Luc & Jean-Pierre Dardenne 1999 BFI (trailer)
Fish Tank Andrea Arnold UK 2009 BFI (trailer)
Hamlet or King Lear Grigori Kozintsev Shostakovich’s music & adaptation by Pasternak
and also the already-mentioned “Ma Saison Preferee” and “Le Quattro Volte”
Bound to think of others!
10th December, 2011 at 6:58 pm
Suggested last night, Patricio Guzman’s Nostalgia for the Light, which has had fantastic reviews since it screened in Cannes in 2010, though still doesn’t have a UK distributor lined up. See Slant magazine and the Washington Post, for instance.
12th December, 2011 at 3:12 pm
I’d love to see this film locally:-
http://www.iamthedoc.com/thefilm/
Jane
19th December, 2011 at 10:54 am
In response to an email asking for more British films, here’s my list of possibles, though I suspect The Last of England or the Peter Greenaway would possibly decimate our audience…
Went the Day Well (Cavalcanti)
My Childhood (Douglas)
Tommy (Russell)
Almost anything by Powell & Pressburger
The Last of England (Jarman)
Fires were started (Jennings)
The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover (Greenaway)
Lawrence of Arabia (Lean)
Deep End (Skolimowski)
A Cottage on Dartmoor (Asquith)
Underground (Asquith)
Private Road (Platts-Mills)
Radio On (Petit)
Land and Freedom (Loach)
+ some Ealing comedies, Joseph Losey, Mike Leigh, Hitchcock
20th December, 2011 at 11:06 pm
There are lots of lists of films of the year being published at the moment, such as from the US magazine Film Comment, and R4′s The Film Programme. Of those two lists, the following are the ones that I’m most keen on:
Le Quattro Volte – Michelangelo Frammartino
A Separation – Asghar Farhadi (trailer)
Meek’s Cutoff – Kelly Reichardt (trailer)
Las Acacias – Pablo Giorgelli (trailer)
The Artist – Michel Hazanavicius (trailer)
Pina – Wim Wenders (trailer)
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia – Nuri Bilge Ceylan (trailer)
21st December, 2011 at 9:12 am
A film suggestion: Joanna Hogg’s multi-award winning ‘Unrelated‘. An extraordinary and wonderful British movie. Pitch perfect portrayal of British middle-class holidaying in Tuscany. Stays with me, long after watching.
30th December, 2011 at 11:48 am
Trawling around DVD stores and reading end of year lists (se Peter Bradshaw’s in the Guardian (and see his long list) adds these possibilities:
The Salt of Life
Archipelago
Mammuth
A Screaming Man
Uncle Boonmee who can recall his past lives
30th December, 2011 at 5:17 pm
and Cathie has just seen Intouchables in Nice and strongly recommended it. It has broken all French box office records so must be due for release here, though I can’t see a date for it yet.
1st January, 2012 at 2:01 am
A children s film suggestion: for the 3pm viewing, I recommend Pippi Longstocking from a series of children’s books by Swedish author Astrid Lindgren, and adapted into multiple films and television series.
I found a short clip from one of the films in Japanese on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arV0QAmkvxM&feature=related
10th January, 2012 at 1:54 pm
I think some recent foreign films would be great, I recently saw the film ‘I Saw the Devil‘ and thought it would be an excellent suggestion. [trailer]
22nd January, 2012 at 8:35 pm
Here’s the trailer for A Separation, which we MUST show:
22nd January, 2012 at 8:41 pm
The Hedgehog, based on Muriel Barbery’s best-selling novel scored very highly at the BFFS spring preview, is very good, and see also the interview with director Mona Achache:
26th January, 2012 at 6:42 pm
Tous au Larzac is an extraordinary Franch documentary! [trailer]
Les neiges du kilimandjaro Robert Guedidian [trailer]
Please no Bergman!!!
Les Intouchables Fantastic!
12th February, 2012 at 1:52 pm
Various remarkable films culled from reading through many issues of Sight & Sound. First, some lighter ones:
French Cancan (Renoir, 1954) Trailer
Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (Demy, 1968) Trailer
The Shop Around the Corner (Lubitsch, 1940) Trailer
Next, some vaguely mainstream ones and recent(ish) world cinema releases:
Jane Eyre (Cary Fukunaga, 2011) Trailer
Princess of Montpensier (Tavernier, 2010) Trailer
The Kid with the Bike (Dardennes, 2011) Trailer
Outside the Law (Rachid Bouchareb, 2010) Trailer
Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life (France, 2010) Trailer
Howl (USA, 2010) Trailer
and some brilliant older films:
Lola Montes (Ophuls, 1955) Trailer
The Burmese Harp (Ichikawa, 1956) Trailer
The Last Picture Show (Peter Bogdanovich, 1971) Trailer
A Blonde in Love (Milos Forman, 1965) Trailer, Sight & Sound review
and some less well-known:
Marketa Lazarova (Czech, 1967) Clip, more
Cria cuervos (Carlos Suara, 1976) Trailer
Before the Revolution (Bertolucci, 1964) Clip
and some slightly more marginal, perhaps:
A Useful Life (Uruguay, 2011) Trailer
Patience (After Sebald) (UK, 2011) Trailer
Cold Fever (Iceland, 1994)
Repo Man (Alex Cox, 1984) trailer
13th February, 2012 at 3:59 pm
The shop around the corne is fantastic i suggested it last year already it would please everyone it is a gem.
The artist has been seen by a lot now so not worth it and not so good anyway.
Les demoiselles de Rochefort is a classic as well as Les parapluies de Cherbourg( more tragic) I adored Cria Cuervos at the time may I suggest Like water over chocolate a gemm as well.I think no Bergman Peter Greenaway yes all of them are good ….
18th February, 2012 at 10:31 am
Great suggestions among the many above. Here are a few more:
Some film suggestions – Patrick Crawford
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives 2010 Apichatpong Weerasethakul Thailand
The film centres on the last days in the life of its title character. Together with his loved ones – including the ghost of his dead wife and his lost son who has returned in a non-human form – Boonmee explores his past lives as he contemplates the reasons for his illness.
Almanya: Welcome to Germany
Who or what am I really: German or Turkish?” This is what six-year-old Cenk Yilmaz asks himself when neither his Turkish nor his German schoolmates choose him for their football team. To cheer him up a little, his 22-year-old cousin Canan tells him the story of her grandfather Hüseyin, who came to Germany in the early 1960s as a “guest worker” and later fetched his wife and children so they could be in “Almanya” with him. Much time has elapsed since then, and Germany has long since become the family’s home. One evening, during a big family gathering, Hüseyin surprises his loved ones with the news that he has bought a house in Turkey and wants to take everyone back “home” with him.
Albatross
Albatross is a 2011 British coming-of-age comedy drama film directed by Niall MacCormick and written by Tamzin Rafn. It stars Sebastian Koch, Julia Ormond, Felicity Jones and Jessica Brown-Findlay. The film’s premise revolves around a teenage aspiring writer entering the lives of a dysfunctional family living in the south coast of England. “Albatross” is a metaphor used to describe a constant and inescapable burden.[1]
The film was shot entirely on the Isle of Man with the support of the Island’s government. It is MacCormick’s feature film debut, having previously made his name in television. Also making her debut is screenwriter Tamzin Rafn. Rafn based the script on her own experiences as a rebellious teenager.
The Princess of Montpensier France 2010
The Princess of Montpensier (French: La princesse de Montpensier) is a 2010 French period romance film directed by Bertrand Tavernier, inspired by a short story anonymously published by Madame de La Fayette. It stars Mélanie Thierry in the title role, alongside Gaspard Ulliel, Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet, Lambert Wilson and Raphaël Personnaz. The story takes place in the French aristocracy during the Wars of Religion, and focuses on a young woman who is forced into marriage while passionately in love with another man.[1] The film competed at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival and was released in French cinemas on 3 November 2010.
Melancholia 2010 Denmark
Melancholia is a 2011 film written and directed by Lars von Trier, starring Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Kiefer Sutherland. The narrative revolves around two sisters during and shortly after the wedding party of one of them, while Earth is about to collide with an approaching rogue planet. The film prominently features music from Richard Wagner’s prelude to his opera Tristan und Isolde.
Trier’s initial inspiration for the film came from a depressive episode he suffered and the insight that depressed people remain calm in stressful situations. The film is a Danish production by Zentropa, with international co-producers in Sweden, France, Germany and Italy. Filming took place in Sweden.
The film premiered in May 2011 at the 64th Cannes Film Festival. Dunst received the festival’s Best Actress Award for her performance.
Norwegian Wood Japan 2011
Upon hearing the song “Norwegian Wood,” Toru (Matsuyama) remembers back to his life in the 1960s, when his friend Kizuki killed himself and he grew close to Naoko, Kizuki’s girlfriend. As the two try, in very different ways, to contend with their grief, Toru forms a bond with another woman, Midori.
We Need to Talk about Kevin 2011 UK
The mother of a teenage boy who went on a high-school killing spree tries to deal with her grief – and feelings of responsibility for her child’s actions.
In a Better World Denmark 2011
Anton is a doctor who commutes between his home in an idyllic town in Denmark, and his work at an African refugee camp. In these two very different worlds, he and his family are faced with conflicts that lead them to difficult choices between revenge and forgiveness. Anton and his wife Marianne, who have two young sons, are separated and struggling with the possibility of divorce. Their older, ten-year-old son Elias is being bullied at school, until he is defended by Christian, a new boy who has just moved from London with his father, Claus. Christian’s mother recently lost her battle with cancer, and Christian is greatly troubled by her death. Elias and Christian quickly form a strong bond, but when Christian involves Elias in a dangerous act of revenge with potentially tragic consequences, their friendship is tested and lives are put in danger. Ultimately, it is their parents who are left to help them come to terms with the complexity of human emotions, pain and empathy.
Pina 2011
A tribute to choreographer Pina Bausch.
Life Above All 2010
“Life, Above All” is an emotional and universal drama about a young girl (stunningly performed by first-time-actress Khomotso Manyaka) who fights the fear and shame that have poisoned her community. The film captures the enduring strength of loyalty and a courage powered by the heart. Directed by South African filmmaker Oliver Schmitz (“Mapantsula”, “Paris, je t’aime”), it is based on the international award winning novel “Chanda’s Secrets” by Allan Stratton.
Biutiful 2010
Biutiful is the story of Uxbal – a single father who struggles to reconcile fatherhood, love, spirituality, crime, guilt and mortality amid the dangerous underworld of modern Barcelona — all before his time is up. He must deal with his loving but unreliable, reckless, and bipolar wife (from whom he is separated and who poses a threat to the safety of their children), and a large group of illegal immigrants for whom he obtains material so that they may not be deported. In the middle of all of this, he is diagnosed with terminal cancer, which he tries to hide from his two children.
Oranges and Sunshine 2010 UK/Austalia 104 mins. Jim Loach Govt. policy towards children in care
The film tells the story of Margaret Humphreys, a social worker from Nottingham who uncovered the scandal of “home children”,[1] a scheme of forcibly relocating poor children from the UK to Australia and Canada.[2] Margaret reunites estranged families and brings worldwide attention to the cause. Deported children were promised oranges and sunshine but they got hard labour and life in institutions such as Keaney College in Bindoon, Western Australia.[3]
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn 1945 US
In Brooklyn circa 1912, the Nolans manage to enjoy life on pennies despite great poverty and Papa’s alcoholism. We come to know these people well through big and little troubles: Aunt Sissy’s scandalous succession of “husbands”; the removal of the one tree visible from their tenement; and young Francie’s desire to transfer to a better school…if irresponsible Papa can get his act together.
House of Mirth 2000 UK
Terence Davies’ The House of Mirth, is a tragic love story set against a background of wealth and social hypocrisy in turn of the century New York. Lily Bart is a ravishing socialite at the height of her success who quickly discovers the precariousness of her position when her beauty and charm starts attracting unwelcome interest and jealousy. Torn between her heart and her head, Lilly always seems to do the right thing at the wrong time. She seeks a wealthy husband and in trying to conform to social expectations, she misses her chance for real love with Lawrence Seldon.
The Widow of Saint-Pierre
In 1849, in the Archipelago of Saint-Pierre et Miquelon, the drunken Ariel Neel Auguste and his partner Louis Ollivier kill for a futile motive (to see if he is fat or just big) the fishing boat captain Coupard. Nell, who stabbed the victim, is sentenced to die with his head severed in the guillotine while Louis is sentenced to hard labor. During the transportation to the prison under the custody of Captain Jean, there is an accident and Louis dies. While spending his days in the cell waiting for the guillotine and the executioner, Neel is invited by the captain’s wife Mrs. Pauline to help her in her garden and becomes her protégé. Later he has a process of rehabilitation helping the locals in minor works and becomes very popular in the island. When he saves the building Café du Nord and her owner from sinking in the sea, his popularity increases and nobody but the governor and politicians of the council wants his death…
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
In 1971 China, in the lingering grip of the cultural revolution, two university students, Luo and Ma, are sent to a mountain mining village as part of their re-education duty to purge them of their classical western oriented education. Amid the backbreaking work and stifling ignorance of the community, the two boys find that music, and the presence of the beautiful local young women are the only pleasant things in their miserable life. However, none compare to the young seamstress granddaughter of the local tailor. Stealing a departing student’s secret cache of forbidden books of classic western literature such as the works of Honore de Balzac, they set about to woo her and teach her things she had never imagined. In doing so, they start a journey that would profoundly change her perspective on her world and teach the boys about the power of literature and their own ability to change their world in truly revolutionary ways.
Sophie Scholl – The Final Days 2005 Germany
The Final Days is the true story of Germany’s most famous anti-Nazi heroine brought to life. Sophie Scholl is the fearless activist of the underground student resistance group, The White Rose. Using historical records of her incarceration, the film re-creates the last six days of Sophie Scholl’s life: a journey from arrest to interrogation, trial and sentence in 1943 Munich. Unwavering in her convictions and loyalty to her comrades, her cross-examination by the Gestapo quickly escalates into a searing test of wills as Scholl delivers a passionate call to freedom and personal responsibility that is both haunting and timeless.
Arsene Lupin 2004 France
As the daring thief Arsène Lupin (Duris) ransacks the homes of wealthy Parisians, the police, with a secret weapon in their arsenal, attempt to ferret him out.
The Night of the Sunflowers (La Noche De Los Girasoles) 2006 Spain
The body a teenage girl is discovered in a field of sunflowers. At the same time a travelling salesman watches the events unfold on television, whilst in the small village of Angosto the discovery of a prehistoric cave brings excitement and the arrival of an experienced geologist, his young fiancé and his assistant. The town police chief plans his retirement, while his deputy dreams of escaping the boredom of his marriage and his job… Through a series of shocking events, the lives of these people become entangled in a web of violence, betrayal and murder …
The Counterfeiters (Die Falscher) 2006 Germany
Master counterfeiter Salomon ‘Sally’ Sorowitsch, a Jew without morals, is arrested and sent to Mauthausen concentration camp, where he weasels through by offering his ‘artistic’ services. After transfer to Sachsenhausen he’s given an official alternative: taking ‘artistic’ charge of a cons teams assigned to produce perfect forgeries of allied banknotes for the Third Reich. Survivor Sally accepts, but conscience matters among the team prove no less dangerous then a sadistic jailer, which only the CO may keep in check.
Linha de Passe [Line of Passage] 2008 Brazil
In the periphery of São Paulo, the pregnant single mother Cleuza works as maid in the apartment of a middle-class family. Each of her sons has a different unknown father: the oldest, Dênis, has a baby son that lives with his mother and he works as motorcycle courier; Dinho is a converted Christian and works as attendant in a gas station; Dario is an aspirant soccer player that is getting older without the expected chance in a team; and the youngest, Reginaldo, is obsessed about finding his father who works as a bus driver, and spends most of his spare time traveling by bus. Along the months, each brother experiences new deceptions and expectations while the family fights to survive.
The Gospel According to St Matthew Pier Paolo Pasolini 1964
Along a rocky, barren coastline, Jesus begins teaching, primarily using parables. He attracts disciples; he’s stern, brusque, and demanding. He comes to bring a sword, not peace, he says. He’s in a hurry, moving from place to place near the Sea of Galilee, sometimes attracting a multitude, sometimes being driven away. His parables often take on the powers that be, so he and his teachings come to the attention of the Pharisees, the chief priests, and elders. They conspire to have him arrested, beaten, tried, and crucified, just as he prophesied to his followers. After he dies, he appears to his disciples and gives them final instructions.
The Conformist Bernado Bertolucci 1970 Italy
This story opens in 1938 in Rome, where Marcello has just taken a job working for Mussollini and is courting a beautiful young woman who will make him even more of a conformist. Marcello is going to Paris on his honeymoon and his bosses have an assignment for him there. Look up an old professor who fled Italy when the fascists came into power. At the border of Italy and France, where Marcello and his bride have to change trains, his bosses give him a gun with a silencer. In a flashback to 1917, we learn why sex and violence are linked in Marcello’s mind.
L’Atalante Jean Vigo 1934 France
When Juliette marries Jean, she comes to live on his ship, on board of which are, besides the two of them, only a cabin boy and the strange old second mate Pere Jules. Soon bored by life on the river, she slips off to see the nightlife when they come to Paris. Angered by this, Jean sets off, leaving Juliette behind. Overcome by grief and longing for his wife, Jean falls into a depression and Pere Jules goes and tries to find Juliette.
Panther Panchali Satyajit Ray 1955 India
Sometime in the early years of the century, a boy, Apu, is born to a poor Brahmin family in a village in Bengal. The father, a poet and priest, cannot earn enough to keep his family going. Apu’s sister, Durga, is forever stealing guavas from the neighbour’s orchards. All these add to the daily struggles of the mother’s life, notwithstanding her constant bickering with old aunt who lives with the family.
Umbrellas of Cherburg Jaques Demy 1964
Jacques Demy’s 1964 masterpiece is a pop-art opera, or, to borrow the director’s own description, a film in song. This simple romantic tragedy begins in 1957. Guy Foucher (Nino Castelnuovo), a 20-year-old French auto mechanic, has fallen in love with 17-year-old Geneviève Emery (a luminous Catherine Deneuve), an employee in her widowed mother’s chic but financially embattled umbrella shop. On the evening before Guy is to leave for a two-year tour of combat in Algeria, he and Geneviève make love. She becomes pregnant and must choose between waiting for Guy’s return or accepting an offer of marriage from a wealthy diamond merchant. A completely sung movie, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is closest in form to a cinematic opera. Composer Michel Legrand composed the score, modeling it around the patterns of everyday conversation. Umbrellas was re-released in 1997
Gone To Earth
Hazel Woodus is a beautiful but innocent country girl who loves all the creatures around her, especially her pet fox cub. She is given a rough time by her father but can escape to run barefoot through the woods when her harsh life gets too much for her. It is there that she is found by the local squire, Jack Reddin, finds her and is struck by her beauty. The obvious conflict develops when the squire leads the local hunt and tries to kill Hazel’s pet fox. The title “Gone to Earth” is taken from the huntsmans cry when the target is no longer obtainable.
A New Statesman review claimed the restored film to be “One of the great British regional films” and, according to Powell’s cinematographer, Christopher Challis, “one of the most beautiful films ever to be shot of the English countryside”.
The Boy who Turned Yellow 1972 Powell
John and his class go on a school trip to the Tower of London. While he is there he loses his pet mouse and vows to return and find her later. Back in school, he is not very attentive and falls asleep during a lesson about electricity so his teacher sends him home. On the ‘tube’ there is a sudden flash, and John, the train and all of the passengers turn yellow. With the help of Nick (short for ‘Electronic’) John learns about electricity, invades the Tower of London and saves his pet mouse … or was it a dream. This is the Powell & Pressburger touch applied to children’s films.
The Third Man
Pulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, black-market opportunist Harry Lime.
Director: Carol Reed
Critics today have hailed the film as a masterpiece. Roger Ebert added the film to his “Great Movies” list and wrote, “Of all the movies that I have seen, this one most completely embodies the romance of going to the movies.” Gene Siskel remarked it was an “exemplary piece of moviemaking, highlighting the ruins of WWII and juxtaposing it with the characters’ own damaged histories”. James Berardinelli has also praised the film, calling the film a “must-see” for lovers of film noir.