News & AnnouncementsThe Third Man & Citizen KaneTHE 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 MenCHILDREN 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 EducationMonday Week 7, 26 February 2007, 7:30pm + 9:15pm "If it was a drink, it would be pink champagne" ~ Le Monde 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) VertigoGuided 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 CastleGRAVE 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) The Great DictatorTHE GREAT DICTATOR (Charles Chaplin, 1940) (Magdalen Auditorium, 7:30pm Sunday 18th Feb) Chaplin's first all-talking and the USA's first film prepared to deal with fascism, The Great Dictator is a biting and (in hindsight) painful parody of Hitler. Whilst popular when released some felt the slapstick portrayal of storm troopers to be inappropriate. Writing in the 60s Chaplin said he would not have been able to make such a film had he know of the extent of the Nazis' actions. However, in such a tense climate with the US neutral towards Germany, it was a courageous endeavour, independent of the Hollywood studios. Chaplin (a more sombre Charles this time) plays both a persecuted Jewish barber and Hynkel, dictator of Tomania. Whilst the film is perhaps clunky and unsophisticated at times, it is scattered with moments of genius and is the source of many famous scenes, such as Hynkel's ballet with the world. A piece of history and definitely worth seeing. Tim Murray Browne (Magdalen FilmSoc Committee) As ever our Sunday screenings include free wine/juice. The Great DictatorTHE GREAT DICTATOR (Charles Chaplin, 1940) (Magdalen Auditorium, 7:30pm Sunday 18th Feb) Chaplin's first all-talking and the USA's first film prepared to deal with fascism, The Great Dictator is a biting and (in hindsight) painful parody of Hitler. Whilst popular when released some felt the slapstick portrayal of storm troopers to be inappropriate. Writing in the 60s Chaplin said he would not have been able to make such a film had he know of the extent the Nazi's actions. However, in such a tense climate with the US neutral towards Germany, it was a courageous endeavour, independent of the Hollywood studios. Chaplin (a more sombre Charles this time) plays both a persecuted Jewish barber and Hynkel, dictator of Tomania. Whilst the film is perhaps clunky and unsophisticated at times, it is scattered with moments of genius and is the source of many famous scenes, such as Hynkel's ballet with the world. A piece of history and definitely worth seeing. Tim Murray Browne (Magdalen FilmSoc Committee) As ever our Sunday screenings include free wine/juice. SyrianaSYRIANA (Steven Gaghan, 2005) (Magdalen Auditorium, 7:30pm Sunday 11th Feb) Syriana was the less well-known of two acclaimed political thrillers starring George Clooney released last year, the other being the highly feted Good Night, and Good Luck. Directed by Traffic screenwriter Stephen Gaghan, Syriana has in common with that film and with Crash a complex structure of several interlinked plots, which portray the various difficulties surrounding a proposed merger between two US oil companies. Reforming Gulf prince Nasir (Alexander Siddig) wishes to make his oil-rich country less reliant on the US, to the displeasure of his Western connections. Clooney plays CIA agent Bob Barnes, sent to assassinate Nasir and thus bolster the region's US ties: his mission goes terribly wrong and he is made a CIA scapegoat. Meanwhile, lawyer Bennett Holiday (Jeffrey Wright), a rising star in his field, becomes increasingly aware of the shady business dealings surrounding the merger. 'Golden boy' energy analyst Brian Woodman (Matt Damon) is in talks to form a partnership with Nasir, but Bennett's boss is meanwhile scheming to undermine Nasir's position through appeals to his mercenary brother, Prince Meshal (Akbar Kurtha). Two Pakistani immigrants working for oil giant Connex become unemployed when Nasir forces Connex out of the country; they are gradually radicalized by a religious leader who tells them that the oil corporation is an exploitative force for evil, with violent consequences. Particularly in the final scenes, which unite these disparate plots in a striking climax, Syriana suggests powerfully the complexity of the Middle East's political troubles and the immensity of the obstacles to progress in the region. Alice Roper (Magdalen FilmSoc Committee) As ever our Sunday screenings include free wine/juice. Goodbye Lenin & DownfallGOODBYE LENIN (Wolfgang Becker, 2003) (Magdalen Auditorium, 7:00pm Monday 12th Feb) Die Deutsche Demokratische Republik lebt weiter — auf 79 qm! Charlene Kong (Magdalen FilmSoc Committee) DOWNFALL (Oliver Hirschbiegel, 2004) (Magdalen Auditorium, 9:15pm Monday 12th Feb) Downfall explores the final days of Hitler and the Third Reich, and the reactions of the Führer and his staff to their inevitable defeat. Bruno Ganz plays brilliantly the role of Adolf Hitler and succeeds in humanising this monstrous and iconic figure by realistically capturing the vacillation from one extreme of human emotion to another, as is natural for any person under such tremendous strains. The anxiety of those in the bunker is well reflected in the war raging above, and the film really draws the viewer into the horror of war through the terrifying and thunderous pounding of bomb explosions. The sound effects also reflect well the claustrophobic feeling of being trapped inside the bunker, unable to get away from the sound and feel of the bomb blasts. This is certainly one war film that is not to be missed, and may well provide you with a new way of thinking about Hitler and the Second World War. Charlene Kong (Magdalen FilmSoc Committee) SyrianaSYRIANA (Steven Gaghan, 2005) (Magdalen Auditorium, 7:30pm Sunday 11th Feb) Syriana was the less well-known of two acclaimed political thrillers starring George Clooney released last year, the other being the highly feted Good Night, and Good Luck. Directed by Traffic screenwriter Stephen Gaghan, Syriana has in common with that film and with Crash a complex structure of several interlinked plots, which portray the various difficulties surrounding a proposed merger between two US oil companies. Reforming Gulf prince Nasir (Alexander Siddig) wishes to make his oil-rich country less reliant on the US, to the displeasure of his Western connections. Clooney plays CIA agent Bob Barnes, sent to assassinate Nasir and thus bolster the region's US ties: his mission goes terribly wrong and he is made a CIA scapegoat. Meanwhile, lawyer Bennett Holiday (Jeffrey Wright), a rising star in his field, becomes increasingly aware of the shady business dealings surrounding the merger. 'Golden boy' energy analyst Brian Woodman (Matt Damon) is in talks to form a partnership with Nasir, but Bennett's boss is meanwhile scheming to undermine Nasir's position through appeals to his mercenary brother, Prince Meshal (Akbar Kurtha). Two Pakistani immigrants working for oil giant Connex become unemployed when Nasir forces Connex out of the country; they are gradually radicalized by a religious leader who tells them that the oil corporation is an exploitative force for evil, with violent consequences. Particularly in the final scenes, which unite these disparate plots in a striking climax, Syriana suggests powerfully the complexity of the Middle East's political troubles and the immensity of the obstacles to progress in the region. Alice Roper (Magdalen FilmSoc Committee) Rosemary's Baby & Picnic at Hanging RockROSEMARY'S BABY (Roman Polanski, 1968) (Magdalen Auditorium, 7:30pm Monday 5th Feb) A supremely intelligent and convincing adaptation of Ira Levin's Satanist thriller. About a woman who believes herself impregnated by the Devil (in the guise of her husband), its main strength comes from Polanski's refusal to simplify matters: ambiguity is constant, in that we are never sure whether Farrow's paranoia about a witches' coven is grounded in reality or a figment of her frustrated imagination. Sexual politics, urban alienation, and a deeply pessimistic view of human interaction permeate the film, directed with a slow, careful build-up of pace and a precise sense of visual composition. Although it manages to be frightening, there is little gore or explicit violence; instead, what disturbs is the blurring of reality and nightmare, and the way Farrow is slowly transformed from a healthy, happily-married wife to a haunted, desperately confused shadow of her former self. Great performances, too, and a marvellously melancholy score by Krzysztof Komeda. (TimeOut) PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK (Peter Weir, 1975) (Magdalen Auditorium, 9:50pm Monday 5th Feb) Three girls and a teacher from an exclusive Australian academy unaccountably vanish while visiting a local beauty spot. Set in the Indian summer of the Victorian era, the film is dominated in turns by vague feelings of unease, barely controlled sexual hysteria, and a swooning lyricism. As for the mystery, we're left to conclude that it can only be explained in terms beyond human understanding. As such, the film is rooted in a tradition of sci-fi and horror cinema, depicting the school as a privileged elite, gradually contaminated and destroyed from within by its inability to understand the mystery which confronts it. But in the final count, nothing is satisfactorily resolved because tensions remain unexplored, while the atmospherically beautiful images merely entice and divert. The result is little more than a discreetly artistic horror film. (TimeOut) Hannah and Her Sisters & The Royal TenenbaumsHANNAH AND HER SISTERS (Woody Allen, 1986) (Magdalen Auditorium, 7:30pm Monday 29th Jan) Allen's previous three films (Zelig, Broadway Danny Rose,The Purple Rose of Cairo) were thin, clever sketches fleshed out with characteristic one-liners. Here he returns to the territory he knows best, Manhattan. Of the three sisters (this is very much Chekhov landscape), the youngest (Hershey) lives with a spiritual mentor (Von Sydow), an intellectual recluse who rails against the iniquities of modern culture. The middle one (Wiest) is a frantic urban neurotic, forever borrowing money to pursue her latest career whim. And the eldest (Farrow) is apparently the most stable, a successful actress and mother presiding over a warm family circle. All is not well, however; Farrow's husband (Caine) is pursuing an affair with the youngest sister; sibling rivalry is rife. Wandering in and out of this extended dissection of family love life is Allen himself, playing his familiar nebbish hypochondriac; when a medical crisis brings him uncomfortably close to death, he samples all the different religions, before turning to the Marx Brothers' films as evidence that life is to be enjoyed. It is an articulate, literate film, full of humanity and perception about its sometimes less-than-loveable characters, which nonetheless comes down on the side of the best things in life: the primacy of love and feeling, qualified hope, and the fragility of it all. It also returns to much of the humour from his 'early, funny' films; Allen seems finally to have found the ability to please not just everyone, but also himself. (TimeOut) THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS (Wes Anderson, 2001) (Magdalen Auditorium, 9:20pm Monday 29th Jan) Wittier, a lot more enjoyable and infinitely richer than the year's major Oscar contenders, this is clearly a blood brother to Anderson's Rushmore. The Tenenbaums are New York high society gone to seed. Scandalous Royal (Hackman) separated from wife Etheline (Huston) two decades ago, and after that kept his distance as his once prodigious offspring slumped. Business whizz Chas (Stiller) has become a paranoid neurotic; Richie (Wilson) is a tennis star whose career was sacrificed to love; adopted daughter Margot (Paltrow) is a closed book of a playwright. Financially embarrassed and claiming a dying man's last rights, Royal returns to put his house in order. The milieu is reminiscent of Preston Sturges' screwball fancies from the early 1940s - albeit scored to '70s rock. Anderson's unusually pronounced literary influences include Salinger, Edith Wharton and the New Yorker magazine, and the film sometimes resembles a cartoon from that august publication's glory days: an elegantly composed caricature given the finishing touch with an immaculately turned one-liner. It exists in a bubble - Anderson's New York doesn't exist and never did - but the rarefied atmosphere is a bit of a blind; what sneaks up on you is how, in his deliciously roundabout way, Anderson wears irony on his sleeve to camouflage a deeper sincerity. At its heart, this is a comedy of unrequited love, melancholy and disappointment. One to savour. (TimeOut) The Element of Crime & Angel's EggI've chosen two films that I feel are unjustly neglected – they're both early films by directors who went on to fame, both feature ghostly landscapes ruined by apocalyptic flooding, and both are heavily stylised, slow exercises in imagination and visual aesthetic but don't suffer losses in terms of plot and narrative. Yet the films come from very different places in every sense, and have very different feels, perspectives and concerns. The Element of Crime (1984) was the first feature film by Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier, now one of the most prominent and established figures in European cinema. Von Trier is famous now for his ascetic, morally complex and satirical films such as Breaking the Waves, the Idiots, Dancer in the Dark and Dogville, but his less well-known early films were a very different story. Every frame of The Element of Crime oozes maximalism, from the astonishing three-dimensional panning shots through scenes of bizarre, intricately detailed post-apocalyptic anarchy to the well-lit beads of sweat on our hero's forehead. Essentially a postmodern film noir, it tells the story of Fisher, a retired policeman who goes in search of a serial killer using the method invented by his elderly and deranged mentor, Osborne, which requires him to retrace the killer's steps and enter his mindset. Long before Sin City and the ubiquitous tinting of modern Hollywood fantasies, the film very compellingly employs a palette of almost exclusively amber hues, adding to the claustrophobic, dream-like atmosphere and resulting in what must be one of the best-looking films ever made in Europe – but the story alone will have you gripped from start to finish. Angel's Egg (Tenshi no Tamago - 1985) is an early effort by the Japanese anime director Mamoru Oshii, who became famous in 1995 for bringing a new level of artistry to the anime medium with Ghost in the Shell. OK, yes, Angel's Egg is an anime film – so many film fans remain sceptical about anime, either because "it's cartoons" or more understandably because of the perceived clichés: giant robots, teenage superheroes who duel constantly and talk too loudly, cheesy music, unlikely hair colours and space-based pornography. All of those things are out there in abundance, but anime is a rich collection of many different genres and operates on all kinds of levels between high and very low art, and none of those clichés appear in Angel's Egg (alright, maybe the unlikely hair colours. But they're fun). Oshii's admitted stylistic influence from Eastern European directors of the mid 20th-century is apparent in this slow, deliberate film with very little dialogue. Visually and imaginatively however, the film is startling, and this is the work of Oshii's collaborator, the artist Yoshitaka Amano, whose eerie, surreal watercolour visions have earned him employment in many areas of manga and anime, including the Final Fantasy games. The film, which has an excellent orchestral score, is to be experienced primarily as a feast for the eyes, ears and imagination, but far from being an aesthetic slide-show, the story, about a pale young girl with a large egg wandering an abandoned gothic city and the arrival of a mysterious warrior, though simple, is coherent enough to always engage the curiosity without surrendering to abstraction, and supplies an interesting finishing twist. These two rare films are firm favourites of mine, and I urge you to come and see how great they look when projected onto a big screen! Hope to see you there! Adam Harper (Magdalen FilmSoc Committee) V For Vendetta & Sin CityV FOR VENDETTA (James McTeigue, 2005) (Magdalen Auditorium, 7:00pm Monday 27th Nov) V for Vendetta is loosely based on the eponymous comic book series by Alan Moore. The screenplay was a pet project of the Wachowski brothers of Matrix fame and was started even before their rise to fame with the original Matrix. However, so the rumour goes, after the mediocre reaction to the Matrix sequels they handed over directorial control of the project to James McTeigue. Anton Baker (Magdalen FilmSoc President) SIN CITY (Frank Miller/Robert Rodriguez, 2005) (Magdalen Auditorium, 9:20pm Monday 27th Nov) The cinematic translation of a graphic novel is an especially hefty feat, dogged by failure. Joel Schumacher's 'Batman & Robin' (1997), Mark Steven Johnson's 'Daredevil' (2003), Guillermo del Toro's 'Hellboy' (2004): such big-budget flops are testimony to the inherent difficulties and dangers of such a venture. With the amoral verve of Robert Rodriguez' 'Sin City' (2005), however, a tour-de-force in style, speed, and tongue-in-cheek nastiness, there is newfound hope for the format. Yoking together three of Frank Miller's original tales ('The Hard Goodbye', 'The Big Fat Kill', 'That Yellow Bastard'), Rodriguez' terse sensory assault is conducted with unerring faith to Miller's aesthetic. His trademark economy of line and colour is exploited to phenomenal effects, the monotone dour of Basin City punctured with flashes of primary brights. Mickey Rourke is superb as the monstrous, lovesick Marv, whilst Nick Stahl is unforgettable as the quite sickening Yellow Bastard. Other standout performances include Bruce Willis as 'good cop' Hartigan and Jessica Alba's alluring turn as Nancy Callahan - the whole cast revel in their dissolute roles, dazzling against the gritty milieu. 'Slick', 'iconic', 'adrenalin-fuelled', 'Sin City' is truly deserving of the sort of critical jargon bestowed on lesser offerings with indiscriminate ease - an automatic classic and an absolute pleasure. Rachel Harris (Magdalen FilmSoc Committee) Primer & La Jetée/Sans SoleilPrimer (Shane Carruth, 2004)(Magdalen Auditorium, 7:30pm Monday 20th Nov) La Jetée/Sans Soleil (Chris Marker, 1962/1983) (Magdalen Auditorium, 8:55pm Monday 20th Nov) Shane Carruth's 2004 release 'Primer' harks back to the days when a sci fi flick was all about the shoe-string budget and the ideas. Here, a group of four scientists/fledgling entrepreneurs are working frantically on a device in a suburban garage, but when two of the men discover that it in fact also works as a time machine, they realise it is too valuable to market, which strains the limit of their trust in the other two men, each other, and themselves (or, rather, their 'future' or 'alternative' selves). If you find the scientific gadgetry conversations difficult to follow at the start, just wait til the time travel sets in and there are several versions of the two men wandering around (some of which are hypothetical versions), meaning the two men's relationship is made immensely more complicated by always having to frantically second guess themselves; then of course there are all the usual ramifications such as 'don't go back in time and kill your own mother'. Stylishly cheap, if confusing; you won't follow all of the plot twists in spite of the fact that you realise how crucial they are – in the end probably best just to let the whole thing slide past and laugh at the odd genius line of dialogue like 'Are you hungry? I haven't eaten since later this afternoon.' This is followed by Chris Marker's two films on the theme of 'remembrance of things to come' (thus making it a time-travel triple-bill), first the short new wave classic 'La Jetee' (The Pier, 20 minutes) and then the feature length 'Sans Soleil'. Marker worked as a travelling photographer and political journalist in the 1950s, and 'La Jetee' is itself 'un photo roman', a montage film made of black and white still photographs. It also has a haunting musical score and an unsettlingly deadpan, but poetic, narration. Terry Gilliam – who remade it as the big budget 'Twelve Monkeys' – described the editing as so extraordinary that 'it works on a musical level'. The plot revolves around a soldier who is used as a guinea pig for time-travel experiments in post-apocalyptic Paris, where "the victors stood guard over a kingdom of rats". He is the first successful subject in these experiments, which have otherwise driven people to death, disappointment and madness, because he has a strong mental image of a moment before the Third World War, and thus he has a stronger link to the past. (As a traveller in his own memories, he encounters a woman in peace-time - in the unreal world somewhere between past and present and imagination - an idea which you might have seen more recently in 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'). Without ruining the poetic revelation of what it is that is so significant about the moment on the pier to which he keeps returning again and again, this one second of the man's life which he is so fixated on, the narrator warns early on that "Nothing tells memories from ordinary moments. Only afterwards do they claim remembrance on account of their scars." (The film is also a play on Hitchcock's Vertigo with the theme of 'remembrance of things to come' – think of the doubling of Kim Novak's tower scene – but again I don't want to give too much away). 'Sans Soleil' again takes the character of a fictional world-traveller, in this case a cameraman. An unknown woman reads out his letters, sent while he was travelling to produce a study of 'the dreams of the human race', discussing the images that he creates with women in Japan, Guinea-Bissau, Iceland, and San Francisco. The cameraman, we realise, is impossibly travelled in distance and time; he has been around the world several times. Of the passengers on a train to Tokyo he remarks "waiting, immobility, snatches of sleep – curiously all of that makes me think of a past or future war: night trains, air raids, fall out shelters – small fragments of war enshrined in everyday life". He puts forward one short image at the start of the film as "an image of happiness"; later he returns to the area and it has been destroyed by a volcano and the ground has risen over hundreds of years, leaving it unrecognisable. Documentary, narrative, essay, work of art – it is hard to know how to place Marker's work, but it is certainly personal, full of the things he himself has found (for instance, footage he has taken of a Japanese couple lighting a candle for their dead cat). 'Sans Soleil' is also, confusingly, full of proposals from the cameraman for a film that in fact he never made, made up from his memories of travel; yet we are indirectly watching this non-existent film. Marker's talent is the personal, poetic way he can approach documentary evidence: his latest work, 'Chats perches', describes the political events in France during the Iraq war by following the strange graffiti of a yellow cat which starts appearing on walls around Paris. His treatment of the European wasteland that resulted from the First World War, a nineteen minute film called 'Owls At Noon', is a prelude to T.S. Eliot's 1925 poem 'The Hollow Men'. His films are studied accounts, half fictitious, half focused on actual societies, yet also giving great significance to the passing moments in an individual life – as he remarks, 'I dream of a world where each memory could create its own caption.' For more information on Chris Marker see http://www.silcom.com/~dlp/Pass Amy Cutler (Magdalen FilmSoc Committee) Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes)Free Wine Social Pub/Film Night: ABRE LOS OJOS (Open your Eyes) (Alejandro Amenábar, 1997) (Magdalen Auditorium, 7:30pm Sunday 19th Nov) Just a quick reminder that wine is provided free before the performance with entrance, which is the standard £3 for non-members, free for members. Anton For this week's Screening/Pub Chat we have a film that the director Alejandro Amenabar imagined in its entirety after having horrible nightmares while ill with the flu. Again, it's one in which I don't want to give too much of the game away; only that it concerns the shift in a man's life after a car accident (with his suicidally jealous ex driving the car), when his face has become horribly disfigured and he must wear a white mask over it: a terrible thing for an arrogant man – until one day he becomes involved in a revolutionary technique to restructure his face perfectly. This is partly drawn from the French horror film 'Les Yeux sans visage' (Eyes Without a Face), in which a girl after an accident is left only with eyes, and no face, and wanders the staircases of her house disconsolately in a white mask while her father, a surgeon, spends most of the film killing other young girls, 'stealing' their faces and surgically implanting them on her. There is in fact a very similar scene of the moment at which the body revolts against this seemingly 'perfect' transplant, and the face starts rotting away, revealing that it is in fact still in its disfigured state. Disbelief, suspension of disbelief, and the concept of the dream cure are ideas that are carried on into this film, except here, the border between reality and fiction is actually the main focus. The title itself translates as 'Open Your Eyes' – a line of dialogue that is repeated throughout the film – and considers the idea of the evasive dream, perhaps familiar cinematic territory (cf. The Matrix et al) but here utterly, terrifyingly convincing: for instance, you can never be anything but alone in your dream, faking significant activities with other people – and once that has been revealed to you, how do you regain the will to dream? It's a beautifully shot film, and good for the pub talk for the amount of symbolic details (for instance, when César (Eduardo Noriega) goes to Sofia (Penélope Cruz)'s apartment and starts to rip down her photos on the wall, there is a picture of 'The Sandman,' a popular comic book that deals with the world of dreams, created by Neil Gaiman, and also the song playing at the nightclub when César first arrives is 'Rising Son' by Massive Attack, in which the phrase 'dream on' is frequently repeated.) You may, in fact, already be familiar with the annoyingly indie remake 'Vanilla Sky', which came out four years later (keeping Penelope Cruz in the same role), and though it was a very straight remake for the benefit of those English speakers who couldn't be bothered to press the subtitle button, it threw in a sly reference to 'Jules et Jim' which can be used to rather skew your reading of the romantic relationships in the film. But don't get me started… Hope you can make it, Amy Cutler (Magdalen FilmSoc Committee) Nikita & LéonNIKITA (Luc Besson, 1990) (Magdalen Auditorium, 7:30pm Monday 13th Nov) In Nikita, Anne Parillaud plays a young punk who is declared dead and faced with a simple choice after a hold-up ends with a dead cop: spend the rest of life locked up, or train to be a government assassin. What follows is the transformation of Nikita into a seductive yet confused killer struggling to maintain a double life. Tim Murray Browne (Magdalen FilmSoc Committee) LÉON (Luc Besson, 1994) (Magdalen Auditorium, 9:35pm Monday 13th Nov) Léon tells the story of Mathilda (Natalie Portman), a 12 year old girl who is left homeless when her family are killed after a sour drugs deal. She attaches herself to Léon (Jean Reno), her quiet neighbour, and persuades him to teach her the trade of cleaning, whilst testing the boundaries of his paternal status. In both films Besson shows his ability to transcend what might be quite typical plots into two moving works through skilful characterisation and stunning cinematography, whilst maintaining his talent for enjoyable and tense action. Both films explore people working with a life forced upon them and both, funnily enough, feature Jean Reno as an assassin, though in very different ways. Tim Murray Browne (Magdalen FilmSoc Committee) OldboySocial Pub/Film Night: OLDBOY (Chan-wook Park, 2003) (Magdalen Auditorium, 7:30pm Sunday 12th Nov) A little while in coming but our social film night has finally come together. This Sunday we will be screening Oldboy. The basic idea is that before the performance there will be free wine, (and soft drinks), and afterwards if anyone wants to discuss the film, or indeed films in general we will make our way to a nearby pub. Should be good night. Winner of the 2004 'Cannes Grand Prix' this film from Korean director Chan-wook Park tells the story of a man who has been inexplicably kidnapped and imprisoned for 15 years who finds out from his only companion (the TV) that his wife has been brutally murdered and that he is the prime suspect. After his release he is handed a wallet full of money and a mobile phone. Soon after a stranger calls and asks him to try and find out why he has been imprisoned all these years. A truly tense and compelling film, to quote the cover critic quote "MAGNIFICENT… DON'T MISS IT" Anton Baker (Magdalen FilmSoc President) Show Me Love & AmélieSHOW ME LOVE (Fucking Åmål) (Lukas Moodysson, 1998) 7:30pm Lukas Moodysson's debut film, "Show Me Love", combines the light-hearted spryness of a teenage romp with the stylistic maturity that makes the Swedish Moodysson arguably the most interesting filmmaker today. This film, about an awkward and alienated girl and her quest to capture the heart of the high school beauty queen, is less about underage lesbianism than it is about the suffocating homogeneity of adolescence and the vertiginous experience of self-exposure. Moodysson's direction is superb, and the camera's way of capturing the characters, and the outstanding performances behind them, lend this film a humanist tenderness not found in contemporary cinema. Never have I, a boy from Atlanta, found a more apt and familiar representation of adolescent experience than in these two girls' plight in a small town in the Swedish boondocks. A great balance of the light and heavy, this is a truly remarkable film. Hunter Vaughan (Magdalen Film Soc Committee) AMELIE (Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Le) (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001), 9:20pm This film requires little introduction, regarded by many as a modern classic. Jean-Pierre Jeunet's film tells the story of Amelie, a young waitress working in a small Parisian café. Despite being young and naive, she already has a well developed sense of fairness and justice, and decides to go on a crusade of her own to help those around her find happiness. Along the way she finds she runs-into a mysterious passport photo collector, who may be the key to her own happiness. Definitely a feel good film, a fable of sorts, not quite the real world but such a delightful fantasy with its unique mixture of quirkiness and joie de vivre that you barely notice. Anton Baker (Magdalen Film Soc President) The Motorcycle DiariesJoint screening with North Oxford Film Society Dumplings & RepulsionDUMPLINGS (Fruit Chan, 2004) (Magdalen Auditorium, 7:30pm Monday 30th Oct) Opening our horror theme night is this gruesome tale from Chinese director Fruit Chan. It tells of an ex-starlet's quest for youth and beauty. After learning of a mysterious chef whose dumplings seemingly offer all she has been seeking, she manages to track her down, with the hope of obtaining this fountain of youth. But what is her secret recipe, and at what cost has it been obtained? An inspiring tale of hope and redemption this is not, enjoy… Anton Baker (Magdalen Film Soc President) REPULSION (Roman Polanski, 1965) (Magdalen Auditorium, 9:20pm Monday 30th Oct) Roman Polanski's 1965 classic insanity-fest is an absolute must for anyone with even the slightest masochistic tendency—or anyone that really likes a good ol' fashioned creep-out. Catherine Deneuve plays a young woman who, for understandable reasons, thinks that men are manipulative, aggressive sexual fiends. When her sister goes out of town and leaves her home alone, she slowly goes insane in an escalating cacophony of hallucinations and nightmares about seduction and rape. Yet, are they only in her mind? Either way, this is a hauntingly gruesome tour-de-force from one of the greatest directors ever, whose mastery of this genre (also including "Rosemary's Baby") was surpassed only by the horror of his own real life, realized when Charles Manson et al decided to crash the dinner party of his pregnant wife, Sharon Tate. Hunter Vaughan (Magdalen Film Soc Committee) The Documentary FilmmakerSpeaker event Run Lola Run & Dirty Pretty ThingsRUN LOLA RUN (Tykwer, 1998), 7:00pm In German thriller Run Lola Run, Manni calls his girlfriend Lola to tell her that he has left the payment for a successful smuggling job on the subway, and now has 20 minutes to obtain 100,000 deutsche marks or face his criminal boss' wrath. Lola runs downstairs and through the streets of Berlin to the bank her father runs, but is rejected and leaves without the money. She goes to meet Manni, who is holding up a supermarket, and is shot by the cops. Yet the story then begins again, exploring various different outcomes that chance could have brought about. The film is notable for its impressive cinematography, including slow and fast motion, split-screen, intercut colour and black and white, and animation. In its fast-paced, non-linear structure, it is reminiscent of Tarantino's work. DIRTY PRETTY THINGS (Frears, 2002), 8:30pm Urban thriller Dirty Pretty Things tells the story of a London 'cash for organs' scandal. Okwe is a Nigerian immigrant working as a taxi driver and hotel concierge, who nevertheless lives on the edge of poverty. He shares a room with Senay (played by Amélie's Audrey Tautou), a Turkish refugee working as a maid in the hotel. As illegal immigrants, they live in fear of being deported. Prostitute Juliette calls Okwe one night asking him to check a broken toilet; when Okwe comes to investigate, he is horrified to find a human heart. He reports it to the manager Sneaky, who blackmails him into keeping his mouth shut. Okwe soon discovers a shady business operation lurking in the London underworld. Hoping to fund her escape to America, Senay is lured in. The film marks a return to the grittiness of Frears' earlier films, such as My Beautiful Launderette (1985). |  |
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