1998

Films

March 9

Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932) 90 Mins

[G]16 mm, B/W, France

A tramp attempts suicide in the Siene and is rescued by a bookseller who takes him home. He soon learns that the Tramp is an rude ingrate who attempts to seduce every woman in the household, but no one is prepared to tell him to leave....

March 16

James & the Giant Peach (1996) 79 Mins

[PG]16mm, USA

An animated adaptation of the novel by Ronald Dahl about a little Orphan who escapes his evil Aunties through a transatlantic ride with a crew of bugs and comes to trust himself.

March 23

This Sweet Sickness (1977) 106 Mins

[R18]16mm, France

An obsessed hero (Gerard Depardieu at his finest) wanders into a cinema to watch Joan Fontaine draw back the curtain in a scene from Hitchcock's Rebecca...Both films have no moral intent in their depiction of obsessed heroes; Depardieu wants the woman who was his childhood memory and death and destruction will not prevent him attaining her

March 30

A Walk Through H(1978) 41 Mins

[GA] 16mm, U.K.

A symbolic journey through through a mysterious bird-filled landscape undertaken by a an ornithologist following a trail blazed by Tulse Luper.
Vertical Features Remake (1978) 45 Mins

16mm, U.K.

Having discovered surviving records for a film entitled by Tulse Luper, The Institute of Reclamation and Restoration sets about reconstructing four versions of that film. The result is a startlingly imaginative structural film and a hilarious parody of the genre.

April 20

A Zed & Two Noughts (1985) 115 Mins

[R13] 16mm, U.K. & Netherlands

Two twin brothers loose their wives to a tragic accident. One becomes fascinated by death and decay and draws the other into a strange symbolic quest for understanding. Greenaway's own fascination for composition and the absurd drive the narrative and vise-versa.

April 27

The Draughtman's Contract (1982) 103 Mins

[R13] 16mm, U.K.

Greenaway modernises his restoration comedy by filtering the fun through revisionist art history and giving the project a thriller's edge. So we're forced to read ever object in his unstill life, every turn of phrase (or whirling dervish) for its possible clues to an unsolved murder.

May 4

Bashu, The Stranger (1986) 120 Mins

[??] 35mm, Iran.

A terrified 10 Year old boy, orphaned and homeless after his village has been bombed, stows away on a truck and finds himself a stranger in the paradise of Iran's verdant North. The prejudice aroused by the boy's dark skin and impenetrable dialect are defied by the bold Nai, a farmers wife with two children of her own. Susan Taslimi, who, wrote the the original story is mesmerizing as the heroic Nai.

May 11

The Falls (1980) 185 Mins

[GY] 16mm, U.K.

A absurdist documentary of the biographies of 92 victims of a "Violent Unexpected Event". Tulse Luper makes and appearance as down Greenaway's fascination with compositional and structural variations

May 18

Flirt (1995) 85 Mins

[M] 35 mm, USA / Germany / Japan

Hal Hartley examines the themes of love and commitment through three versions of the same plot.

May 25

The Big Sleep 118 Mins

[?] 16mm, USA: .

Film Noir in overdrive. Philip Marlowe is hired to protect the daughter of a wealthy old man from herself and blackmail. Marlowe's life gets a whole lot more complicated from that point on. Lots of wisecracks, guns and trouble.

June 1

Point Blank (1967) 92 Mins

[GA], 16mm, USA

John Boorman's classic 60's noir. As Walker murders his way up the organization ladder demanding his money, he discovers that crime is no longer the province of individuals but of faceless corporations.

June 8

Zelig (1983) 79 Mins

[GY] 16mm, USA

A satiric speculation on the ultimate desire for social acceptance. Leonard Zelig (Woody Allen) confounds and attracts his psychiatrist (Mia Farrow) by not only changing his personalities but also his appearance in order to better suit the historical situations he encounters.

June 15

The Troublesome Creek: A Midwestern (1995) 88 Mins

16mm, USA

This film provides a vivid portrait of traditional American values swamped by corporate culture. Directors Jeanne Jordon & Steven Ascher return to Jeanne's parent's farm in Iowa, where a new regional bank has decided to call in their accumulated $2000,000 debt. Thought this is a personal account of one family's struggle, the universality of the story is what makes this film an unforgettable event.

June 22

The Navigator (1924) 62 Mins

16mm, B/W, Silent, USA

A useless millionaire (Buster Keaton) who can't even shave himself, and his rich dizzy girlfriend are adrift on an enormous, deserted ocean liner without lights or steam. One of the greatest comedies ever made.

Before the screening there was a selection of live music from the period the film was made, then a very brief talk about the film and Buster Keaton's career. Live piano accompanyment was well received by all.

June 29

Two Friends (1986) 76 mins

[??] 16mm, Australia

Jane Campion's made for TV film focusing on the friendship of two high school girls.

July 6

Microcosmos (1996)?? Mins

[??] ??mm, ??

A day in the life of a whole lot of bugs.

July 13

Utu (1983) 104 Mins

[PG] 16mm, New Zealand

Geoff Murphy treats the conventions of the Colonial-epic form with offhand audacity. Set in 1870, this movie deals with the relations between the Maori and the British. The plot centers on Te Wheke (Anzac Wallace), an english-speaking Maori scout with the British Colonial Forces. When his people are slaughtered, he feels the need to exact Utu.

July 20

Mabo - Life of an Island Man (1997) 87 Mins

[??] 16mm, Australia

Director Trevor Graham examines the the life and Eddie Mabo and his successful legal claim that the indigenous inhabitants held "native title" to the Murray Island, three Islands on the eastern fringe of Torres Strait, Australia.

August 24

Stalker (1979) 163 Mins

[??] 35mm, USSR

Andrei Tarkovsky's classic film concerns an area known as the Zone, where a meteor struck long ago. At the heart of the Zone is a place known as the Room. Anyone who enters the Room has their deepest, dearest wish granted. The authorities have blocked all access to the Zone, but there are rare individuals known as Stalkers who are willing to guide people through the Zone to find what lies within. The Zone is essentially a post- industrial wasteland, with vegetation growing over abandoned buildings, factories, and so forth. The film concerns itself with a Stalker who is leading two men (known only as the Writer and the Professor) into the Zone.

Summary written by rev@halcyon.com

August 31

Siesta (1987) 93 Mins

[??] 35mm, ??

A woman wakes up near a runway wearing a red dress, covered in blood. What happened and how she get there form the narrative of this intriguing, surreal mystery.

September 7

From Sand to Celluloid (1996) ??? Mins

[??] 16mm, Australia

Six short films from Australian indigenous filmmakers

September 14

Daybreak (1939) 87 Mins

[GY] 16mm, B/W, France

A factory worker kills a colleague, then tries to understand how the events of his life have lead him to this act.

September 21

Soigne ta droite (1987) 81 Mins

[M] ??mm, Switzerland

The film serves as a beginner's guide to Jean-Luc Godard in the eighties and nineties. The ever-cantankerous vieillard terrible of French Cinema stars as the Idiot (or is he a prince?) who must convey his film to the capital but is hampered by unhelpful car doors, preoccupied airport staff and suicidal airline pilots.

September 24

The Slamander (1971) 110 Mins

[R16] ??mm, Switzerland

A film of quiet humour that about a journalist who recruits a novelist friend to help him rustle up a quick TV script based on a news item in a local paper concerning a man who accused his niece of shooting and wounding him. She claimed the gun went off while he was cleaning it; eventually the case was dropped for lack of evidence.

September 28

Adultery: A User's Guide (1995) 100 Mins

[??] ??mm, Switzerland

The final film made by Christine Pascal tells the story of one stressful day in the life of a young couple who work and live together as architects. In the evening, they find out whether they have one their first major architectural competition, a decision that will make or break their relationship.

October 5

Alphine Fire (1985) 117 Mins

[GA] ??mm, Switzerland

A dramatically intense study of of a farming family living an isolated existence of the Swiss Alps. The High Alps are breathtakingly beautiful, but also forbiddingly isolated...The fifteen year-old son is even more cut off from the rest of the world as he is deaf and, unlike his sister, has never had any education.

October 9

Jonah Wjho Will Be 25 In The Year 2000 (1976) 110 Mins

[R16] ??mm, Switzerland

A whirling political comedy about the 70's lunatic fringe of people in their twenties and thirties, each with their own answers to the problems of society.

September 24

Fourbi (1996) 114 Mins

[??] ??mm, Switzerland

A communications company is given the task of drawing up concepts for TV programmes and decides to buy the rights to the stories of several criminals, for script development. Rosemonde...eight years ago killed the man who tried to rape here...Marie, a young actress, is asked to visit Rosemonde, and is promised the role in the film if she can make here talk.

October 12

This Window Is Yours (1994) 95 Mins

[G] 16mm, Japan

High School Senior Yoko is leaving town, but her ambiguous delays stir mixed feelings of love and frustration in her classmate and neighbour Taro.

Our thanks to The British Council , The Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran (No WWW address for New Zealand, but here is the Embassy in Canada), The Australian Film Institute and Pro Helvetia - The Arts Council of Switzerland for their assistance with the films this year.

1954
1955
1956
1957
1958
1959
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1998
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006

HOME