Tuesday 16 March, 7-9pm, Brambletye Hotel

This is a very important meeting and we’d be delighted to see as many people there as possible; if you turn up, we’ll even buy you a drink!

As you know, we have extended our activities considerably over the last few years, and are delighted at the amount of support we have from you all. Now, we’re keen to know how you see the future of the film society in the village. What are we doing right? What could we change? What else can we do? More films for children? A film festival?

All of these things are possible, but we will need more hands to enable us to deliver them. One’s involvement doesn’t have to be huge: indeed, there are some jobs that need doing that could easily take just half an hour a month, so do come along for a couple of hours to help us plot the future of the Forest Row community cinema to help ensure it is a fun, sustainable and vibrant part of the village.

We’ll also bring along materials from other film societies, film festivals and distributors, so you can see the range of films available. We can talk a bit about some of the practicalities of running a community cinema.

But don’t be put off. Even if you’re not sure if you can commit to doing anything, we’d still like to see you; turning up and letting us know your thoughts is also really valuable, and we want Tuesday evening to be fun and interesting too.

We look forward to seeing you

We were delighted to welcome Jacqueline Chell of the British Federation of Film Societies to our screening on Wednesday. We were screening The End of the Line, the recent film about overfishing and the state of the world’s fisheries, as one of our documentary events programmed by Transition Forest Row. The film was booked via the BFFS block booking scheme, so it was great to have Jaq there for one of the films BFFS distributes. She outlined the wide range of activities that the BFFS undertakes, and reminded us of the incredible size of the community cinema network, with maybe 500 organisations like us around the country.

The BFFS also organise the annual Film Society of the Year awards, so we took the opportunity of a photo of Brad receiving the award, for the benefit of everyone who wasn’t at the awards ceremony back in September. Our award submission is available on the BFFS site when we were the Featured Exhibitor, if you want to read a bit more about the range of things we have been doing in the last few years.

Silent films continued to be made in Japan through to about 1936, even though recorded sound had been joined with film a decade earlier. Like many other Japanese directors Mikio Naruse crafted Yogoto No Yume (Nightly Dreams; also released as Every Night Dreams) in 1933 as a silent, which enabled him to continue to practise his sensitive and moving art without the constraints of the new technology. In a little over an hour, the film presents the story of Omitsu, a young woman working in bar and struggling to bring up her young son on her own. With grace and hope amidst the poverty, she is surprised and initially hostile when her husband Mizuhara reappears, and rejoins the family unit.

Though he has a clear affection for his son, and repeatedly expresses his desire for Omitsu to leave her job and the milieu in which she works, Mizuhara is unable to find work of his own and emerges as a feckless and somewhat dissolute man, not quite able to bear his responsibilities.

Nightly Dreams is a particularly beautiful account of what feels like a very real and personal human drama. With its social realist look, outdoor scenes, fluid editing and deep focus it is also a very modern film, which reminds you how sophisticated film-making already could be in this period. Even if some of the cutting is at times just a bit too hurried and, for me, the ending too sudden and abrupt, the close-ups of Omitsu weeping with her son, and the subtle way Naruse passes the gaze from husband to wife underscore the delicate touch the director brought, and the remarkable performances he achieved with his actors.

Given the gentle intelligence of the film, it was unfortunate that the screening at the Barbican Centre in London last night didn’t have the music to match. It certainly had the resources: the London Symphony Orchestra performed the new score by Nitin Sawhney, but the colours were wrong and the thumping rhythms hugely distracting. I suspect mine is a minority view: most of the audience responded very positively, but I was left with a feeling that the score was just too insensitive to the film and to the context of early cinema. In a piece in the Guardian last week Nitin Sawhney wrote “Scoring for silent film is a very different experience from conventional film scoring. Then, you need to serve the wishes of the film director and suspend your own ego, to a point.”[1] Though I’d like to hear the score re-worked as a orchestral suite, on this occasion there was a bit too much ego and not enough Naruse.

1. Nitin Sawhney. “Yogoto No Yume as you have never heard it before.” The Guardian. Thursday 25 February 2010. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/feb/25/nitin-sawhney-yogoto-yume

Further Reading

William M. Drew. “Yogoto no Yume (Nightly Dreams)–Mikio Naruse’s Silent Masterpiece.” Gilda’s Blue Book of the Screen. 27 October 1997. http://www.gildasattic.com/Naruse.html

Chris Fujiwara. “Mikio Naruse: The Other Woman and the View from the Outside.” Film Comment,
September/October 2005. http://www.filmlinc.com/fcm/so05/naruse.htm

Alexander Jacoby. “Mikio Naruse.” Senses of Cinema, April 2003. http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/03/naruse.html

Keith Uhlich. “Every Night Dreams.” Slant Magazine. 12 March 2006. http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/every-night-dreams/2041

Reviewer: Brad Scott

Our screenings are now being included in the Guide, the Guardian’s weekly listings supplement. This is being fed by data from the Press Association, which also supplies numerous other listings sources, including Find any Film, the UK Film Council’s listings service. There are other local and national listings to which we submit our data (such as ents24.com and Global Datapoint, which provides the listings data for, among other things, Wozzon and Mumsnet), though we are a bit haphazard in doing so.

And, if you have an iphone, PDA or other electronic calendar device, don’t forget that you can get an iCal version of our programme to plug straight into it.

Do you know of any other places to which we could submit our listings? Let us know. Maybe you might even fancy helping us do so…

There is other equipment that we could usefully buy, including a short throw lens, but this now gives us a solid foundation for planning the next few years.

How do you think we should be best utilising our funds? Are you able to help us extend our activities over the coming years? Please do get in touch or add some comments below.

It was very exciting to be able to screen such a fantastic and powerful film in such a beautiful old building. The screen was right in front of the altar, and it sounded great too.

We had a reasonable crowd turn out, and afterwards everyone I spoke with was very positive about the film. Thanks to everyone at West Hoathly for organising it, and for asking us along.

Despite the weather, the film tonight will go ahead at 8pm as advertised. If you’re tired of being stuck indoors, head along to the village hall and catch this rather excellent German film released last year.

Telling the story of an elderly couple facing their mortality, their relationship with their children and of unrealised ambition, it is a beautiful and moving film which I’d thoroughly recommend. If you’ve ever seen Tokyo Story by the great Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu, you may also find some strong parallels, and indeed, it was partly filmed in Japan.

“Exquisitely made, this gentle, intelligent film is full of warm humour. … Cherry Blossoms invites us to slow down and discover the hidden layers of meaning in our own lives. It requires and solicits a certain generosity of spirit and an openness to experience, but what it offers in return is something remarkable.” (Eye for Film)

1. Film reminders direct to your mobile: This is an experimental service, and not as many people have signed up as for the email reminders, but I’m sure it could be very useful if you live your life on your mobile.
2. Film in Sussex: Listings of screenings at community cinemas, film societies and independent venues in Sussex, south Surrey, and west Kent. Covers much of the entire season to the end of May.
3. In Mainstream Cinema This Week: Listings of everything on at all other film venues, organised by distance from Forest Row.
4. Our favourite films: Even if you’ve only been to one of our screenings, send us your list of favourite films; it’s always interesting to see what everyone likes.
5. Films available: Lots of people ask “can you show X”? Well, this is a good place to start to see what we can most easily get hold of. If you want to suggest a film, trying picking something from one of these sources first.

• A Generation (Andrzej Wajda, Poland, 1955)
• A Griot’s Story (Adam Rozanski, Nigeria, 2008, doc)
• Ahlaam (Mohamed Al-Daradji, UK/Iraq/Netherlands, 2006)
• The American Friend (Wim Wenders, Germany/France, 1977)
• The American Soldier (R. W Fassbinder, Germany, 1970)
• Beware of the Holy Whore (R. W Fassbinder, Germany, 1971)
• Bitter Moon (Roman Polanski, France/UK/US, 1992)
• The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant (R. W Fassbinder, Germany, 1972)
• La Boheme (Robert Dornhelm, Austria/Germany, 2008)
• Boogie (Radu Muntean, Romania, 2007)
• Blue Eyelids (Ernesto Contreras, Mexico, 2007)
• Buena Vista Social Club (Wim Wenders, Ger/USA/UK/France/Cuba, 1999)
• Burma VJ (Anders Østergaard, Denmark, 2008, Doc)
• Canal (Andrzej Wajda, Poland, 1957)
• Carambola (Kurt Hollander, Mexico, 2004)
• The Cement Garden (Andrew Birkin, Fra/Ger/UK, 1993)
• Chinese Roulette (R. W Fassbinder, Germany/France, 1976)
• Compassionate Sex (Laura Mañá, Spain, 2000)
• Conversations with my Gardener (Jean Becker, France, 2007)
• Dawn of the Dead (George. A. Romero, Italy/US, 1978)
• Dear Diary (Nanni Moretti, Italy/France, 1993)
• Les Diaboliques (Henri-George Clouzot, France, 1955)
• Disarm (Brian Liu, Mary Wareham, US, 2006, Doc)
• Effi Briest (R. W Fassbinder, Germany, 1974)
• The End of America (Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern, US, 2008, Doc)
• Europa, Europa (Agnieszka Holland, Ger/Fra/Pol, 1990)
• Fear of Fear (R. W Fassbinder, Germany, 1975)
• Flower Drum Song (Henry Koster, US, 1961)
• Football Days (David Serrano, Spain, 2003)
• Four Eyed Monsters (Susan Buice, Arin Crumley, US, 2005)
• Fox and his Friends (R. W Fassbinder, Germany, 1975)
• Gods of the Plague (R. W Fassbinder, Germany, 1970)
• The Hide (Marek Losey, UK, 2008)
• The House of the Spirits (Bille August, Port/Ger/Den/UK, 1993)
• How to Cook Your Life (Doris Dörrie, Germany, 2007, Doc)
• I Served the King of England (Jiri Menzel, Czech Rep/Slovakia, 2006)
• Iceman (Fred Schepisi, US, 1984)
• In the City of Sylvia (José Luis Guerín, Spain, 2007)
• Katzelmacher (R. W Fassbinder, Germany, 1969)
• King of New York (Abel Ferrara, Ita/US/UK, 1990)
• Kings of the Road (Wim Wenders, Germany, 1976)
• The Lost World of Mr. Hardy (Andy Heathcote, UK, 2008, Doc)
• Love is Colder than Death (R. W Fassbinder, Germany, 1969)
• The Merchant of Four Seasons (R. W Fassbinder, Germany, 1970)
• Molly’s Way (Emily Atef, Germany, 2005)
• Mother Kuster’s Trip to Heaven (R. W Fassbinder, Germany, 1975)
• Niklashauser Journey (R. W Fassbinder, Germany, 1970)
• Of Mice and Men (Lewis Milestone, US, 1939)
• Off the Grid: Life on the Mesa (Randy and Jeremy Stulberg, US, 2007, Doc)
• On the Edge of the Forest (E F Schumacher, Australia, 1977, Doc)
• Pig Business (Tracy Worcester, UK, 2009, Doc)
• Preparez vos Mouchoirs (Betrand Blier, France/Belgium, 1978)
• Return to Goree (Pierre-Yves Borgeaud, Swiss/Luxembourg, 2007)
• Rio das Mortes (R. W Fassbinder, Germany, 1971)
• Salaam Bombay! (Mira Nair, UK/India/France, 1988)
• Satan’s Brew (R. W Fassbinder, Germany, 1976)
• A Secret (Claude Miller, France, 2007)
• Sugar (Anna Boden/ Ryan Fleck, USA, 2008)
• A Touch of Class (Melvin Frank, UK, 1973)
• Under the Mud (Solon Papadopoulos, UK, 2007)
• Welcome (Philippe Lioret, France, 2009)
• When Trumpets Fade (John Irvin, US, 1998)
• Wings of Desire (Wim Wenders, Germany/France, 1987)
• Wrong Move (Wim Wenders, Germany, 1975)
• Zero Degrees (Akram Khan/ Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, UK, 2005)

What should we screen next season? We want your ideas. It may seem a bit early, since we’re barely three months into this season, but it is important that we start thinking about it now. It has been a bumper year for great films, so we’re potentially spoilt for choice. We’ve also finally tracked down the rights holder for Dreyer’s incredible Ordet (1955), so I think we can safely assume that that will be in the programme.

If you have any thoughts, you can suggest a film, and if you have a moment, do have a look at some of the film lists on our films available page. We’re also trawling through old BFI 16mm catalogues to see what rare gems we can find, and will add some more lists in due course.

Other films that have caught our eyes on the recent lists include:

• Welcome
• A Prophet
• The White Ribbon
• Departures
• Fish Tank
• Katalin Varga
• Orlando

but there is much to choose from, so let us know what you think would do well in Forest Row.

Several people have also been talking about doing even more films, whether as a festival or a more substantial season of films for children. These are all great ideas, and it would be wonderful to do them all but we will need a few more people to get involved if we want to deliver them. Choosing the films is the easy bit. As Ted Hope noted on Twitter this morning:

Cinema requires an audience. A movie shown in an empty room is not cinema. Spend as much time on bringing them as on what you show them

Great advice. Any takers?