Capital Celluloid 2013 - Day 163: Wed Jun 12

The Accused (Kaplan, 1988): Hackney Picturehouse, 6.30pm

This is the latest screening for the I Am Dora collective. Here is their introduction:
I am Dora, in partnership with City Screen, are pleased to announce their fifth edition.A subjective and personal study, I am Dora explores how and why women identify with one another and what this means when the identification is with a flawed or misunderstood character.

Part 5 is guest curated by British filmmaker Tinge Krishnan. Tinge is a BAFTA winning short filmmaker who made her feature debut in 2011 with Junkhearts, a London set psychological thriller. 

Tinge has chosen Jonathan Kaplan’s "The Accused", starring Jodie Foster who won her first best actress Academy award for her performance as Sarah Tobias, the target of a brutal gang rape. Praised at the time of release for it’s frank depiction of rape, it’s confronting portrayal of attitudes to female victims of sexual violence is still fiercely relevant.The film will be screened at the Hackney Picturehouse and will be followed by an onstage discussion between Tinge and I am Dora founder Jemma Desai. The event will be accompanied with limited run film notes, written by Tinge and Jemma, and designed by Claire Huss.

More information on the I Am Dora Facebook page here.

Chicago Reader review:
Something of a first, this is a serious movie about rape, and as such might be said to represent penance of a sort for the crude milking of antifeminist sentiments in the previous film of producers Sherry Lansing and Stanley R. Jaffe, Fatal Attraction. Sarah Tobias (Jodie Foster) is gang-raped in a bar, and deputy district attorney Katheryn Murphy (Kelly McGillis) agrees to take her case. A courtroom drama with certain faint echoes of Anatomy of a Murder and the more recent Nuts (the latter of which had the same screenwriter, Tom Topor), this attention holder explores such issues as the public's received ideas about rape and the question of ultimate responsibility without ever stacking the deck or being unduly preachy; and director Jonathan Kaplan, who previously gave an edge to Over the Edge, guides things along capably. Not a brilliant film, but an intelligent and thoughtful one that builds to an effective climax, with an exceptional performance by Foster. 
Jonathan Rosenbaum

Here is the trailer.

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