Newseason exploring cinema
Chris Watson previews the Nelson Film Society’s 2015 season which begins at the State Cinema next Thursday.
Film societies are distinguished from the everyday cinema by deliberately choosing to select films that go together to develop a deeper understanding of cinema.
Titles are grouped to show the work of a particular director or actor; the style of chosen country; or, possibly grouped to develop a particular theme.
This year the Nelson Film Society has a series of films featuring ‘‘fashion’’ in a melodramatic setting. Two are by the same director, Douglas Sirk. All That Heaven Allows is located in America and A Time to Love and a Time to Die is set in World War I Germany. Both feature Sirk’s glorious use of technicolour and the fine costume designs for which he is famous.
The elegant theme is supported by Rene Clement’s French film Plein Soleil (Purple Noon) based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith and starring the handsome Alain Delon in the role taken by Matt Damon in the 1999 remake under her title The Talented Mr Ripley.
Cinema’s term for a director of note is ‘‘auteur’’. In addition to Douglas Sirk’s work Film Society is featuring two more famous auteurs.
The first is the Indian Satyajit Ray, whose films of the 1960s and 70s were acclaimed for their brilliant cinematography and sensitive examination of the Indian caste system.
The Big City, The Elephant God and Charaluta are all coming to Nelson in the DCP format that mainstream cinema uses. These films have been restored by the British Film Institute and look magnificent on the big screen.
The director is well known for his artistic use of black and white but one, The Elephant God, is a crime film shot in vibrant hues in the colourful city of Varanasi.
The second auteur of note is the exiled Hollywood director Joseph Losey, whose films were scripted by the famous English dramatist Harold Pinter. Accident and The Servant both star Dirk Bogard and Julie Christie. A third film, Billy Liar, has been added to the pair as the rights to screen Losey’s The Go-Between were denied. Billy Liar has the advantage of also featuring Julie Christie in a key role.
Over the last few seasons Film Society, with the assistance of the Goethe-Institut, has made a special effort to screen interesting films from Germany. Two will be shown twice in consecutive weeks during the school holidays when Film Society will be using a smaller cinema.
The first is a documentary that follows the travels of a famous book publisher. How to Make a Book with Steidl. It shows the work behind the production of elegant, sensuous works of art that are more than just books. Steidl’s works ‘‘smell like the best inks, stimulate the eyes and feel weighty in the hands’’ as well as detailing the artistry of photographers like Robert Frank and Robert Adams.
Documentaries about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict were popular with the audience in 2014 so it is expected that the second German film, in July, will be well received. Kaddish for a Friend is a recent fictional, warm, true tale about the unlikely friendship between an 84-year-old Jewish war veteran who is desperate to remain living independently in his Berlin flat and a Palestinian teenager who is caught breaking into it. Forced to repair the damage he has done, Ali gradually comes to respect Alexander as the pair come to realise that the fragile existence of each depends in a large part on the other.
The second film to be screened in the 2015 season is the greatest anti-war film ever made. Based on the story by Eric Maria Remarque, Lewis Milestone’s All Quiet on the Western Front won Oscars for the producer and director. Made in 1930 in the first full year of sound movies, our version has been restored by the BFI and will look as good as it did on the day it was first shown with endorsement by the League of Nations.
Sadly, it was later banned by many countries. Obviously the Nazis didn’t like it but neither did other governments preparing for war. Even Australia and New Zealand banned it for fear that it would deter recruitment.
Not all the films to be screened by the society are historical.
From Japan there are two warm-hearted family films that were favourites of the last two international film festivals. I Wish is the powerful story of two boys separated when their parents divorce. From opposite ends of the country they plan to bring their parents together again by using the magical moment when two bullet trains pass each other.
Like Father Like Son by the same director, Kore-eda Hirokazu, is about two babies that swapped by the hospital only for the mistake to be discovered when they are enrolled for school. Two very different families have to get together to sort the matter out.
Another film, which won the Best Foreign Film Oscar last year was the Italian/French film The Great Beauty. Shot in Rome, it follows the life of a socialite who has lived on the fame of a novel written when he was in his twenties. He reflects on life and his first love in a way that echoes Antonioni’s La Dolce Vita.
And the opening movie, The Moo Man, on March 19, is an English documentary from 2013 which follows the life of a dairy farmer in Sussex who struggles to survive in the tough world where supermarkets control the sales price for his produce. Steve Hook, the ‘‘Moo Man’’ of the title, is the kind of farmer that many New Zealanders will feel sympathy for.
Also of interest to Nelsonians will be three short films made by local students that won awards in the annual Briefs competition last year. Each five-minute film will be paired with a feature film towards the end of the season in September and October.
In total there are 27 screenings, which, at a cost of $80 for a waged membership and $70 for an unwaged card, works out at under $3 a film. Alternatively, a ‘‘sample membership’’ for just $30 admits the holder to any three films from the year’s programme. Everyone is welcome to join at the door on a Thursday of their choice.
Screenings will always be on Thursdays starting sometime between 5.45 and 6.45pm each week – the exact time will depend on the cinema’s scheduling of its own films before and after the Film Society’s. The start time will be listed in the State Cinema’s advertisement in this paper each Wednesday and Thursday and on the cinema’s and Film Society’s websites.