Hooky Movie Nights 2017-2018
Find out more about Film Society Membership
Sept 23rd LION
Garth Davis; UK; 2016; 1 hour 58 minutes.
A five-year-old Indian boy gets lost on the streets of Calcutta, thousands of kilometers from home. He survives many challenges before being adopted by a couple in Australia. 25 years later, he sets out to find his lost family. A moving film based on an astonishing, true story.
Oct 7th MANCHESTER BY THE SEA
Kenneth Lonergan; USA; 2016; 2 hours 17 minutes.
A powerfully told story about a young man with a tragic past who is suddenly called upon to return to his home town and become his nephew’s guardian. This was one of last year’s most highly praised movies and though the subject matter is disturbing, there are many warm and comic moments. “Manchester By the Sea sings its lonely song with tremendous heart and soul “ – The Guardian.
Oct 21st RAMS
Grimur Harkonson; Iceland; 2015; I hour 33 minutes.
A hard-drinking Icelandic farmer and his estranged brother band together to save their flocks of sheep from authorities who want the animals destroyed.
“Switching from dour humour to humanist drama without seeming contrived, this is a master-class in combining character and landscape that is played with deceptive poignancy by the excellent leads” – Empire Magazine.
Nov 11th THE DRAUGHTSMAN’S CONTRACT
Peter Greenaway; UK 1982; I hour 48 minutes.
Set in a gorgeous country house and garden in 1694 and described as “a puzzle book for intellectual aesthetes’, this landmark film baffled audiences when it was first released but was nevertheless hugely appreciated for its unique style and atmosphere, and for the thrilling music by Michael Nyman.
Nov 25th MACBETH
Justin Kerzel; UK; 2015; I hour 35 minutes.
Michael Fassbinder and Marion Cotillard star in a stripped – down and compellingly cinematic interpretation of Shakespeare’s play in which Macbeth is portrayed as a victim of war trauma and his wife as a woman deranged after the loss of her child. “Though boldly and freely adapted, the screenplay retains the muscular poetry of Shakespeare, just less of it” – Washington Post.
Dec 9th MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL
Terry Gilliam; Terry Jones; UK; 1975; I hour 31 minutes.
Despite being made on a tiny budget, this was the film that bestowed international fame on the Python Team and the one many Python fanatics deem to be the best of them all. It’s anarchic, unhinged and quite brilliant. As Terry Gilliam said, “Ingmar Bergman is going to be jealous of this.” So, even if your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries, keep this date with the Knights who say ‘Ni!’ and discover how a sheep’s bladder may be employed to prevent earthquakes.
Jan 6th AQUARIUS
Kieber Mendonca ; Brazil; 2016; 2 hours 28 minutes.
This clever, nuanced drama, about a widow and retired music critic battling developers who seek to demolish her old seaside apartment in Recife, doubles as a political allegory concerning political corruption. “Wonderfully evocative of time and place, this considered assault on Brazil’s economic and ethical crises revolves around a majestic performance by Sonia Braga” – Empire Magazine.
Jan 20th PATERSON
Jim Jarmusch USA 2016 I hour 58 minutes
This delightful film follows eight typical days in the life of Paterson, a happily married bus driver who loves to write poetry in his spare time. That’s it. But Jim Jarnusch’s films are renowned for making nothing happen in fascinating ways and in Paterson this director’s eye for the mystery, comedy and tension underpinning a quotidian existence makes this film close to riveting. “In Jim Jarmusch’s new movie Paterson, there’s no major action day to day, but magic is constantly bleeding in from around the edges”- The Atlantic.
Feb 10th ENDLESS POETRY
Alejandra Jodorowsky; Chile/France; 2017; 2 hours 8 minutes.
Following our successful screening of The Dance of Reality last season, we’re delighted to present the second magical realist film in the 88 year old director’s autobiographical trilogy. Endless Poetry covers the period on Jodorowsky’s life when he left home to live a bohemian existence in the Chilean capital of Santiago before finally bidding a painful farewell to his father and leaving for Paris where he still lives. Stunning imagery. Epic choreography. Startling theatricality. Extraordinary.
Feb 24th CHILDHOOD OF A LEADER
Brady Corbet ; UK/France/Hungary; 2016; I hour 55 minutes.
Based on a story by Jean Paul Sartre and set in France in the aftermath of World War I, this spine – tingler of a film hinges on an unruly boy, who goes to battle with his authoritarian parents as his American father is helping negotiate the peace terms with Germany. The boy will grow up to be a fascist dictator and the film can be seen as an imagined exemplification of Wilhelm Reich’s argument that the family is the factory in which the state’s structure and ideology are moulded. “Family and fascism march in lock step in “The Childhood of a Leader. A visually sumptuous, slow-boil freak-out “- New York Times.
March 10th STRIKE!
Sergei Eisenstein; Soviet Union; 1935; I hour 35 minutes.
Once again we welcome Paul Shallcross who, on this occasion, will be talking about Eisenstein’s first full length film and accompanying its screening with his own original score. Don’t miss out on a great evening of film history!
March 24th GRADUATION
Cristian Mungiu; Romania; 2017; 2 hours 7 minutes.
A well-regarded surgeon in a Transylvanian town is determined that his daughter does well in her exams so that she can study in the ‘more civilised’ UK. When she is violently attacked, she is unable to sit the crucial exam and her father is ready to exert his influence in every possible way to get her the grades she needs. “A masterly, complex movie of psychological subtlety and moral weight, about the shabby choices people make as they claw their way up” – The Guardian.
April 7th NEVER ON SUNDAY
Jules Dassin; Greece/ US; 1960; I hour 31 minutes.
Melina Mercouri is wonderful in this entertaining, clever comedy about an American intellectual in Greece who becomes infatuated with a beautiful, exuberant prostitute and seeks to educate her. Sadly, he just ends up swigging Ouzo and throwing plates around like everybody else. The director intended this film to contain a message about the way America forces its values on other countries with no respect for the native culture, but audiences were too busy laughing to notice.
Find out more about Film Society Membership
