The Third Man & Citizen Kane

Posted by Alice Roper, Saturday 3rd March @ 9:27pm

THE THIRD MAN (Carol Reed, 1949) (Magdalen Auditorium, 7:30pm Monday 5th Mar)

It is post-war Vienna, and Harry Lime is dead. This is what confronts American author Holly Martins when he arrives to meet Lime, and unravelling the mystery surrounding his demise takes us on a tour not only of the darkened doorways of the ravaged city, but far below it though the cavernous sewers, and far above it in a ferris wheel. Here we learn what Lime really was, and we see the biting cynicism of a man fallen to corruption and greed. Screenplay by Graham Greene, directed by Carol Reed, this is a strikingly atmospheric study of friendship and betrayal, set against the shadowy backdrop of the Viennese underworld and the black market. Orson Welles is at his finest as the enigmatic Lime, making him a cinematic icon despite limited screen time. Exquisitely shot and beautifully scripted, this well exploits the combined genius of Reed and Greene, but perhaps most memorable is the inimitable and audacious soundtrack: the zither music of Anton Karas. That, if nothing else, confirms this film as something quite exceptional.

Claire Kirwin (Magdalen FilmSoc Committee)

CITIZEN KANE (Orson Welles, 1941) (Magdalen Auditorium, 9:30pm Monday 5th Mar )

Consistently topping 'Greatest movie' lists, Citizen Kane is as iconic as cinema gets. The film opens in Xanadu, the vast estate of media tycoon Charles Foster Kane, who is on his deathbed. We hear his last word - "Rosebud" – and then follow a reporter seeking to uncover the meaning of this dying sigh. Kane's extraordinary life is recounted through the memories of those who knew him and his character is pieced together from these fragmentary flashbacks. But who or what was Rosebud? And can one word explain a man's life?

Citizen Kane is famous for all sorts of reasons - the groundbreaking cinematographic effects; the controversy surrounding its attempted suppression by real-life magnate William Randolph Hearst who believed the character of Kane to be based on him; and, of course, the ending - Rosebud. If you've seen it, you'll want to see it again, and if you haven't seen it, you should.

Claire Kirwin (Magdalen FilmSoc Committee)

Children of Men

Posted by Alice Roper, Saturday 3rd March @ 9:25pm

CHILDREN OF MEN (Alfonso Cuarón, 2006) (Magdalen Auditorium, 7:30pm Sunday 4th Mar)

Alfonso Cuarón's Children of Men deftly updates the 1992 PD James novel of the same name for the modern audience. It presents a clear and chilling vision of the near future, a world where women have inexplicably lost the ability to reproduce. Without children there is no future and society begins to tear apart at the seams. Thankfully Alfonso Cuarón decides to keep the explanations about how we find ourselves in this situation to a minimum which does a lot to add to the mood of the film. Backed up by a stellar cast including Clive Owen, Julianne Moore and Michael Caine, the film manages to make for a genuinely engaging human drama in the midst of what could be called an action thriller; on top of this Cuarón still finds the time to make a number of somewhat oblique comments on contemporary society, particularly with regards to asylum, and the relationship between government and its people. It is undoubtedly one of the best films of 2006, definitely one to watch.

Anton Baker (Magdalen FilmSoc President)

As ever our Sunday screenings include free wine/juice.

Merci Docteur Rey & Bad Education

Posted by Alice Roper, Saturday 24th February @ 8:49pm

Monday Week 7, 26 February 2007, 7:30pm + 9:15pm

"If it was a drink, it would be pink champagne" ~ Le Monde
Get rid of winter blues with this hilarious and bizarre murder-comedy from Merchant Ivory productions. Rent boys, hash brownies, opera, a neurotic actress who thinks she's Vanessa Redgrave, and a dead psychoanalyst - Merci Dr. Rey is a madcap trip through the boulevards and backstreets of Paris, populated by bumbling policemen. The (gloriously unlikely) plot follows Thomas, a young man who trawls the gay personal ads looking for love. Or sex. Or whatever. What he finds, in a sequences of outrageous coincidences, is his father, his father's (hot, young, male) murderer, a deluded but charming actress, and her psychoanalyst. Overseeing the lot is Thomas's American opera-singer mother (played by Dianne Wiest) - a true diva - in Paris to sing Turandot. Naturally, hilarity ensues.

Base and beautiful, La Mala Educación is Almodovar's semi-autobiographical exploration of pre-pubescent love between two boys in the context of the corruptions of the catholic church. Years later, the two meet up as young men, and begin to make a film about their childhood. Artifice and acting are interwoven with reality, and characters are not who they say they are as Almodovar creates a world of deception, illusion, memory and fantasy. Gael Garcia Bernal, achingly desirable both in and out of drag, acts an actor, in layers of character which are gradually stripped away. Sex, lies, and cinema combine in this sublime and haunting masterpiece. Almodovar at his finest.

Claire Kirwin (Magdalen FilmSoc Committee)

Vertigo

Posted by Alice Roper, Saturday 24th February @ 8:36pm

Guided by the omnipresent theme of the spiral, Vertigo is one of film history's most splendidly coherent artistic achievements. Hitchcock is in top top form in this brooding suspense of a Pygmalion gone awry. James Stewart, victim of the eponymous condition, plays Scotty, a retired detective hired to follow the troubled Madeline (Kim Novak), the wife of a shipping tycoon who suspects that she is possessed by the spirit of her insane grandmother. Scotty's plunge into madness is irrevocably launched when, following her death, he stumbles upon a shopgirl who resembles Madeline; ruthless in his desire to recreate Madeline, he pursues the shopgirl and, in transforming her, stumbles upon the diabolical plot that had led to his own undoing. Kim Novak, ridiculous eyebrows and all, is amazing as both Madeline and the shopgirl, and Stewart is at the height of his skills balancing the highwire between understated nobility and barking madness. With visual tricks galore and a hypnotizing score by Hitchcock regular Bernard Hermann, Vertigo is a full-force exploration of obsession, desire, and loss – perhaps the best film ever made, it is not to be missed.

Hunter Vaughan (Magdalen FilmSoc Committee)

As ever our Sunday screenings include free wine/juice.

Grave of the Fireflies & Howl's Moving Castle

Posted by Alice Roper, Saturday 17th February @ 3:17pm

GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES (Isao Takahata, 1988) (Magdalen Auditorium, 7:30pm Monday 19th Feb)

In contrast to the jovial and fantastical nature of Howl's Moving Castle, Grave of the Fireflies may well be one of the most heart-rending and harrowing films that you will ever see. It tells the story of two orphaned children's struggle for survival in Japan towards the end of the Second World War. Death and misery envelops the entire length of the film, with the few brief joyful respites only lending poignancy to the eventual disaster that is to befall these two children. This is a haunting and unforgettable film which perhaps brings alive as far as possible the truly catastrophic effect of the Second World War.

Charlene Kong (Magdalen FilmSoc Committee)

HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE (Hayao Miyazaki, 2004) (Magdalen Auditorium, 9:15pm Monday 19th Feb)

Howl's Moving Castle is Miyazaki's most recent film and is in no way a poor follow-up to his much acclaimed Spirited Away. A young and timid girl, Sophie, is transformed into an old woman by the petty and heart-hardened Witch of the Waste. Sophie flees her former life and embarks on an enchanting journey of discovery where she meets Howl, the powerful but covertly cowardly wizard, in his castle moved by the comic fire-demon, Calcifer. This journey is one which both Sophie and Howl must travel in order to break away from their magical and personal constraints. It is a love story at heart, and one which Miyazaki has subtly weaved. He has certainly succeeded in creating another imaginative and highly entertaining film, and is one that can be watched and enjoyed many times over.

Charlene Kong (Magdalen FilmSoc Committee)