The Hunt (Vinterberg, 2012): BFI Southbank, Studio, 8.50pm
This movie, one of the best of 2012, is on an extended run from 3 to 14 March at BFI. Details here.
Time Out review:
What does it feel like to be wrongly accused of being a paedophile?
‘It gets into your bones… it gets into your soul,’ Lord McAlpine said
recently. In this nerve-shredding drama from Denmark, a good man’s life
is ripped apart by false allegations that he sexually abused a child. He
didn’t do it. The little girl fibbed (in the same way she might tell
the teacher her best friend gave her a Chinese burn). But her innocent
lie spreads like a virus, killing trust and goodness in a close-knit
small town.
This is lean, fast-paced storytelling from director and writer Thomas Vinterberg,
who made ‘Festen’ in 1998 (about a paedophile father who raped his
children). This has the same stripped back docu-drama style. Which
focuses our attention on the acting – and it’s flawless. We watch the
story play out in the reactions of everyone involved. As the only man
working at the nursery, the kids adore Lucas. After hearing the
allegations, a teacher watches him rough-play with some boys. We see the
scene through her eyes. It looks suspicious. It really does.
These
are all good people, and there’s a kind of moral puzzle here. We always
have to listen to children. Always. But what if your best friend was
accused? Would you believe him? At the other end of the scale, what kind
of world is it when a man can’t hold hands with a child who isn’t his
own – in case someone accuses him of being a paedo. What a knotty, frighteningly
real drama ‘The Hunt’ is. And – in the light of the Jimmy Savile case
and its fallout – what a very timely contribution to the issue it is.'
Cath Clarke
Here is the trailer.
Capital Celluloid 2013 - Day 72: Wed Mar 13
Babeldom (Bush, 2012): ICA, 6.30pm
This fascinating documentary is screening from March 8 to 14 at the ICA. Details here.
Here is the ICA's introduction to the film: In his debut feature film, award winning British experimental animator and filmmaker Paul Bush presents an elegy to urban life. Against the backdrop of a city of the future, a portrait is assembled from film shot in modern cities all around the world and collected from the most recent research in science, technology and architecture. This exceptional documentary is a one-of-a-kind poetic treaty discussing the concept of the city. The screening on 10 March will be followed by a Q&A with director Paul Bush. We are also showing a compilation of Paul Bush's short films at 4pm on 10 March.
Here is the trailer.
This fascinating documentary is screening from March 8 to 14 at the ICA. Details here.
Here is the ICA's introduction to the film: In his debut feature film, award winning British experimental animator and filmmaker Paul Bush presents an elegy to urban life. Against the backdrop of a city of the future, a portrait is assembled from film shot in modern cities all around the world and collected from the most recent research in science, technology and architecture. This exceptional documentary is a one-of-a-kind poetic treaty discussing the concept of the city. The screening on 10 March will be followed by a Q&A with director Paul Bush. We are also showing a compilation of Paul Bush's short films at 4pm on 10 March.
Here is the trailer.
Capital Celluloid 2013 - Day 71: Tue Mar 12
Hawks and Sparrows (Pasolini, 1966): BFI Southbank, NFT1 8.40pm
This film is screening as part of the Pier Paolo Pasolini season at the BFI.
Chicago Reader review:
'Pier Paolo Pasolini was a major theorist as well as a leader in the Italian avant-garde. This film, made in 1965 immediately after his famous (and notorious) The Gospel According to Saint Matthew, reveals the structuralist's fascination with the transplantation of myth, as Pasolini relates the tale of everyman, using Toto (Italy's most famous comic actor) as the father and Ninetto Davoli as his empty-headed son. There's also a talking crow that says things like “The age of Brecht and Rossellini is finished.”'
Don Druker
Here are the amazing opening titles.
This film is screening as part of the Pier Paolo Pasolini season at the BFI.
Chicago Reader review:
'Pier Paolo Pasolini was a major theorist as well as a leader in the Italian avant-garde. This film, made in 1965 immediately after his famous (and notorious) The Gospel According to Saint Matthew, reveals the structuralist's fascination with the transplantation of myth, as Pasolini relates the tale of everyman, using Toto (Italy's most famous comic actor) as the father and Ninetto Davoli as his empty-headed son. There's also a talking crow that says things like “The age of Brecht and Rossellini is finished.”'
Don Druker
Here are the amazing opening titles.
Capital Celluloid 2013 - Day 70: Mon Mar 11
Sweet Smell of Success (Mackendrick, 1957): BFI Southbank NFT 2 6.10pm
The film is also being shown at the BFI on Sat 9 and Sun 10 March. Details here.
This is screening as part of the Passport to Cinema season and is introduced by the excellent Philip Kemp. A colleague of mine simply said "It has everything" when she watched this movie for the first time and it is one of those rare instances when script, acting, mise-en-scene, cinematography and soundtrack combine to create a true classic.
Time Out review:
'A film noir from the Ealing funny man? But Mackendrick's involvement with cosy British humour was always less innocent than it looked: remember the anti-social wit of The Man in the White Suit, or the cruel cynicism of The Ladykillers? Sweet Smell of Success was the director's American debut, a rat trap of a film in which a vicious NY gossip hustler (Curtis) grovels for his 'Mr Big' (Lancaster), a monster newspaper columnist who is incestuously obsessed with destroying his kid sister's romance... and a figure as evil and memorable as Orson Welles in The Third Man or Mitchum in The Night of the Hunter. The dark streets gleam with the sweat of fear; Elmer Bernstein's limpid jazz score (courtesy of Chico Hamilton) whispers corruption in the Big City. The screen was rarely so dark or cruel.'
Anyone interested in reading more about this classy piece of film making is urged to seek out this BFI monograph written by James Naremore.
Here's an introduction to the movie from the Criterion team.
The film is also being shown at the BFI on Sat 9 and Sun 10 March. Details here.
This is screening as part of the Passport to Cinema season and is introduced by the excellent Philip Kemp. A colleague of mine simply said "It has everything" when she watched this movie for the first time and it is one of those rare instances when script, acting, mise-en-scene, cinematography and soundtrack combine to create a true classic.
Time Out review:
'A film noir from the Ealing funny man? But Mackendrick's involvement with cosy British humour was always less innocent than it looked: remember the anti-social wit of The Man in the White Suit, or the cruel cynicism of The Ladykillers? Sweet Smell of Success was the director's American debut, a rat trap of a film in which a vicious NY gossip hustler (Curtis) grovels for his 'Mr Big' (Lancaster), a monster newspaper columnist who is incestuously obsessed with destroying his kid sister's romance... and a figure as evil and memorable as Orson Welles in The Third Man or Mitchum in The Night of the Hunter. The dark streets gleam with the sweat of fear; Elmer Bernstein's limpid jazz score (courtesy of Chico Hamilton) whispers corruption in the Big City. The screen was rarely so dark or cruel.'
Anyone interested in reading more about this classy piece of film making is urged to seek out this BFI monograph written by James Naremore.
Here's an introduction to the movie from the Criterion team.
Capital Celluloid 2013 - Day 69: Sun Mar 10
The Intruder (Corman, 1962): Cinema Museum, Kennington, London. 2.30pm
Here's a great idea - a season of Star Trek double bills, pairing instalments of the major film franchise with individual projects featuring the show’s original seven leading actors. Today it's Star Trek (1979) plus this great pic from maverick director Roger Corman.
Time out review:
'Raw-edged and startling, scripted by Charles Beaumont from his own novel based on real-life rabble-rouser John Kasper, Corman's film about Southern desegregation was shot on location in Missouri in a mere three weeks, with threats and obstruction from white locals mirroring the fictional action. Adam Cramer (Shatner, mesmerising) represents an organisation which seeks to stop the process of educational desegregation and thus frustrate plans of the 'Communist front headed by Jews' to 'mongrelise' society. Cramer is an insidious outsider whose impassioned speeches rouse the populace; the result is heightened Klu Klux Klan activity, attacks on black families and a liberal white newspaper editor, a near-hanging. Complex characterisation is sacrificed in the interests of representing the broad socio-political issues. Emotions intensify in accord with searing summer temperatures; visuals emphasise the economic disparities, memorably in shots of the black ghetto and of Cramer in his pristine white suit. Chilling, and especially at the moment Cramer delivers his battle-cry, 'This is just the beginning', painfully prophetic.'
Here is the trailer.
Here's a great idea - a season of Star Trek double bills, pairing instalments of the major film franchise with individual projects featuring the show’s original seven leading actors. Today it's Star Trek (1979) plus this great pic from maverick director Roger Corman.
Time out review:
'Raw-edged and startling, scripted by Charles Beaumont from his own novel based on real-life rabble-rouser John Kasper, Corman's film about Southern desegregation was shot on location in Missouri in a mere three weeks, with threats and obstruction from white locals mirroring the fictional action. Adam Cramer (Shatner, mesmerising) represents an organisation which seeks to stop the process of educational desegregation and thus frustrate plans of the 'Communist front headed by Jews' to 'mongrelise' society. Cramer is an insidious outsider whose impassioned speeches rouse the populace; the result is heightened Klu Klux Klan activity, attacks on black families and a liberal white newspaper editor, a near-hanging. Complex characterisation is sacrificed in the interests of representing the broad socio-political issues. Emotions intensify in accord with searing summer temperatures; visuals emphasise the economic disparities, memorably in shots of the black ghetto and of Cramer in his pristine white suit. Chilling, and especially at the moment Cramer delivers his battle-cry, 'This is just the beginning', painfully prophetic.'
Here is the trailer.
Capital Celluloid 2013 - Day 68: Sat Mar 9
Django (Corbucci, 1966): Rio Cinema, 11.30pm
Another great late-night treat at the Rio Cinema. Here's the main inspiration for Tarantino's Django Unchained. Whisper it quietly: this is a better film.
Chicago Reader review:
'Sergio Corbucci's 1966 spaghetti western definitely corners the market on mud imagery: its mysterious title hero wanders into town dragging a coffin after him through the grimy, rutted streets, and when he takes down one bad guy, the man not only dies but topples over into quicksand and gets sucked into the earth. The coffin contains Django's secret weapon, an early machine gun, and the movie must have set some sort of record in its time for shots fired, though it also has one of the most crazed and kinetic bar fights ever committed to celluloid. Django here is a blue-eyed northerner (Franco Nero); the character would mutate considerably in his zillion subsequent screen appearances, including his recent incarnation as the freed slave of Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained.'
JR Jones
Here is the trailer.
Another great late-night treat at the Rio Cinema. Here's the main inspiration for Tarantino's Django Unchained. Whisper it quietly: this is a better film.
Chicago Reader review:
'Sergio Corbucci's 1966 spaghetti western definitely corners the market on mud imagery: its mysterious title hero wanders into town dragging a coffin after him through the grimy, rutted streets, and when he takes down one bad guy, the man not only dies but topples over into quicksand and gets sucked into the earth. The coffin contains Django's secret weapon, an early machine gun, and the movie must have set some sort of record in its time for shots fired, though it also has one of the most crazed and kinetic bar fights ever committed to celluloid. Django here is a blue-eyed northerner (Franco Nero); the character would mutate considerably in his zillion subsequent screen appearances, including his recent incarnation as the freed slave of Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained.'
JR Jones
Here is the trailer.
Capital Celluloid 2013 - Day 67: Fri Mar 8
Death Line (Sherman, 1972): Phoenix Cinema, 11.00pm
The Cigarette Burns film club present one of their great midnight movie events. Details here.
The Cigarette Burns film club present one of their great midnight movie events. Details here.
Time Out review:
'One
of the great British horror films, Death Line is a classic example of
what Hellraiser director Clive Barker calls 'embracing the monstrous'.
The film's basic premise is a gruesome one: following a cave-in during
the construction of an underground tunnel in 1892, successive
generations of plague-ridden cannibals have survived and developed their
own subterranean culture. Forced out of hiding by the death of his
wife, the sole surviving cannibal begins abducting passengers from
Russell Square tube station. The disgust provoked by the corpse-filled
underground world inhabited by the cannibal is offset by the tenderness
with which he treats his dying wife, and by the unutterable sadness of
his lonely plight. The film's great achievement is in eliciting sympathy
for a creature whose residual capacity for human feeling amid such
terrible degradation is ultimately more moving than horrifying.'
Nigel Floyd
Here is the celebrated long take from this genuine British horror classic.
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