THE FILM HOUSE

Listings for Oct. 23 to 29

Papillon (2018): Tuesday 7 p.m., Friday 9 p.m., Saturday 6:30 p.m. The Wife: Friday 6:30 p.m., Saturday 4 p.m., Sunday 7 p.m. Bad Reputation: Wednesday 7 p.m., Saturday 9 p.m.

Three Identical Strangers: Thursday 7 p.m.

The Silence of the Lambs: Saturday 11:30 p.m. (Halloween special screening)

Don’t Look Now (1973): Sunday 4

p.m.

to ten percent. While this detail makes for bad historical reporting, it certainly makes for exhilarating cinema as the film undeniably demonstrates.

In the opening scene of the film, we get our first glimpse of Charrière (played by Charlie Hunnam of “Sons of Anarchy” fame) framed through the door of his prison cell. Invoking the image of Bresson’s Fontaine in Un condamné à mort s’est échappé, he waits for the intervention of divine grace which comes in the form of his Jost, Degas, who, in exchange for his protection, agrees to finance his escape.

In the face of extreme brutality and intolerable conditions within the prison walls which might be read as a commentary on prison reform (the guards are often indistinguishable from the ‘animals’ that they watch over), the solitary Charrière opens himself up to Degas over the course of the film and together, the two embark upon their most important adventure, one which will test their endurance and wits, but might ultimately secure them their freedom.

While it presents a vision of masculinity which might seem an antiquated remnant of the past, the film is ultimately about brotherhood, which, in its very excesses, forces us to reflect upon the brutality unfolding before our very eyes and the name in which it is carried out — man. While perhaps not as compelling as McQueen-Dustin Hoffman, Hunnam and Malek’s marvellous on-screen chemistry make this classic worth revisiting.