No 1: Christmas in August (Hur Jin-ho, 1988): BFI Southbank, NFT2, 6pm
This 35mm presentation is part of the Golden Age of Korean Films season at BFI Southbank. The screening of Christmas in August on Wednesday 4 December 20:55 NFT1 will be introduced by Michael Leader and Jake Cunningham, authors of Film Korea: The Ghibliotheque Guide to the World of Korean Cinema.
Time Out review:
A likeable, understated movie about facing up to death, from a first
time director. Jung-Won (Han, Korea's coolest young actor) is a pro
photographer with his own shop in a suburb of Seoul; only he and his
immediate relatives know that he has just a few months to live. Nothing
'dramatic' happens. He runs into his childhood sweetheart and regrets
that her life hasn't worked out better. He goes to a friend's funeral.
He makes a point of seeing other old friends. And he develops a slightly
abrasive friendship with a young woman traffic warden, which leaves her
wanting to know him better and not understanding why he isn't 'there'
for her. Hur conjures up quotidian rhythms very plausibly, and draws
fine performances from his whole cast. It was the last film shot by the
great Yoo Young-Kil, to whose memory it's dedicated.
Tony Rayns
Here (and above) is an extract.
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No2: It's A Wonderful Life (Capra, 1946): Mildmay Club, 7pm
This is a 16mm presentation from the folks at Cine-real.
Chicago Reader review:
The
film Frank Capra was born to make. This 1946 release marked his return
to features after four years of turning out propaganda films for the
government, and Capra poured his heart and soul into it. James Stewart
stars as a small-town nobody, on the brink of suicide, who believes his
life is worthless. Guardian angel Henry Travers shows him how wrong he
is by letting Stewart see what would have happened had he never been
born. Wonderfully drawn and acted by a superb cast (Donna Reed, Beulah
Bondi, Thomas Mitchell, Lionel Barrymore, Gloria Grahame) and told with a
sense of image and metaphor (the use of water is especially elegant)
that appears in no other Capra film. The epiphany of movie sentiment and
a transcendent experience.
Dave Kehr
Here (and above) is the trailer.
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