Chester Film Society

Chester Film Society Message

2010-09-08T21:18:44Z


SPECIAL EDITION TODAY 8/9/10
October Trip
Hello everyone! Our season has now started, very good to see members old and new enjoying the refurbished Little Theatre. It was great to welcome founder members George Mayled and Derek Smith. Our first film Honeydripper scored a creditable 7.23 with some good comments. (You can always send in your own comments on this film anytime.) This is a special edition of the newsletter as there are a few items I must tell you about. First off is our proposed trip to Saltaire and Bradford. This is planned for 23rd October, an all-day trip. We start with a trip to Saltaire. The world's largest showcase of David Hockney's work sits between a railway and a canal in Saltaire, a trim, Victorian northern suburb. Unlikely? Not really. Saltaire is close to Hockney's birthplace of Bradford; the mill building, which houses the collection, was christened 'The Palace of Industry' when it opened in 1853. Hockney is famously industrious. Following a pub lunch we will head to The National Media Museum, Bradford. The National Media Museum examines the history of the media. Starting 300 years ago with the camera obscura the museum also has exhibits looking at the state of the art electronic imaging of the future. The Museum houses some of the most significant and important visual material to be found anywhere in the world. The photography collection contains key images by some of the most influential photographers as well as a wide range of photographic equipment. The Cinematography collection has some of the first film making equipment on display as used by Auguste and Louis Lumiere. The history of television is also on display with John Logie Baird's 1923 experimental apparatus, a diverse range of television receivers, the Thames Television camera collection and a major archive of television commercials. 3 cinemas including an Imax. No prices yet because we will book the transport based on how many are interested. So can you please send me an email just to let me know if you are interested. No obligation to book at this stage. Families and friends welcome. I'll even host a special themed quiz on the journey. Please contact me now: mike.graham@chesterfilmfans.co.uk.
Kaleidoscopic
	Kaleidoscopic is the first festival in the UK to debate and examine the history, process, and business of adaptations across multiplatform including film, television, radio, theatre, graphic design, literature, and branding. The inaugural three day event takes place in Glyndwr University and Wrexham Library and features a programme of screenings, panel sessions, and masterclasses with a number of renowned industry professionals. Festival highlights include an exclusive Q&A with writer Steven Moffat and producer Sue Vertue on Sherlock � the modern day reincarnation of Sherlock Holmes created by Steven and League of Gentleman's Mark Gatiss � and a masterclass by Tim Firth who will discuss adapting his screenplay of Calendar Girls into a successful stage play. Mike Poultan � an English translator and adapter of classic plays � will be on hand to talk about his recent adaptation of Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur for the Royal Shakespeare Company, and one of Britain's best loved writers, Ian Edginton, alongside one of the medium's brightest artistic talents, I.N.J. Culbard, will be in conversation to discuss the first two instalments of Self Made Hero's Sherlock Holmes graphic novel series: The Hound of the Baskervilles and A Study in Scarlet. But you gotta be quick - starts tomorrow! Visit http://kaleidoscopicfest.org/ for more information
Chester Literature Festival - Mark Kermode
	In It's only a Movie, the incomparable Mark Kermode takes us into the weird world of a life lived in widescreen. Join him as he embarks on a gut-wrenching journey through the former Soviet Union on the trail of the low-budget horror flick Dark Waters, cringe as he's handbagged by Helen Mirren at the BAFTA awards ceremony, cheer as he gets thrown out of the Cannes film festival for heckling in very bad French, and don't forget to gasp as he's shot at while interviewing Werner Herzog in the Hollywood hills. Written with sardonic wit and wry good humour, this compelling cinematic memoir is genuinely �inspired by real events'. Outspoken, opinionated, and never lost for words, Mark Kermode has carved out a career in print, radio and television based entirely on the belief that The Exorcist is the greatest movie ever made and that the Pirates of the Caribbean films should be buried in a very deep hole where they can never bother anyone ever again. Mark Kermode contributes to Sight and Sound magazine and The Observer newspaper. He reviews films with Simon Mayo on Friday afternoons on BBC Radio Five Live, and co-presents the BBC Two arts programme The Culture Show. Book Now: Mark Kermode: It's Only a Movie l Town Hall Assembly Rooms l 7.30pm l £10
Please visit http://www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk/mailing_list/news_100908 .htm for an online version of this issue.
This newsletter is produced by Mike Graham for Chester Film Society. Please visit www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk regularly for programme information.

Subscribe to Chester Film Society via email by entering your email address below:

Chester Film Society Message

2010-09-05T12:50:14Z


Our next film of the season takes place on: Tuesday September 7th Little Theatre 7.45pm

Review
John Sayles has been one of the most versatile figures on the American scene for more than 30 years, as novelist, author of clever genre screenplays for exploitation movies produced by Roger Corman and, since 1981, the writer-director of highly individual independent films made on relatively modest budgets. His left-wing views and concern for social justice permeate his work, most of which is, in a broad sense, political. The recurrent themes are the relationship between private lives and public events, the effects of social change and the roots of present-day society in the past. A series of ambitious movies featuring ensemble casts has explored the history and culture of various regions - rustbelt New Jersey (City of Hope), southern Texas (Lone Star), Alaska (Limbo), Florida (Sunshine State) and Colorado (Silver City). Several have been set in the recent past: Matewan centres on a coalminers' strike in the 1920s; Eight Men Out looks at the commercialisation of baseball and the fixing of the 1919 World Series; and Baby It's You is about a middle-class Jewish girl embroiled in the cultural turmoil of the 1960s. African-Americans figure significantly in his work and the hero of his ingenious satirical comedy The Brother From Another Planet is an extraterrestrial fugitive taking on a black identity when seeking refuge from inter-galactic bounty hunters in New York. Sayles's film Honeydripper is an immensely likable, highly characteristic work pursuing many of these familiar concerns. It's set in the Deep South in 1950, specifically in the strictly segregated small Alabama town of Harmony where things are far from harmonious. Remarking on the ironic name, the black porter at the whistlestop station says: 'Only time I been in jail is in a town called Liberty.' The central character is Tyrone 'Pine-top' Purvis, a sixtysomething former boogie-woogie jazz musician played with lightly worn gravitas by Danny Glover. Tyrone runs the eponymous Honeydripper Lounge, a large wooden shack on the outskirts of town where liquor is served, his youngish wife Delilah (Lisa Gay Hamilton) makes excellent fried chicken and he provides backing for ageing blues singer Bertha Mae. But disaster looms. All the business is going to a rival bar where the music comes from a jukebox, the bills are piling up and the Honeydripper is threatened with being repossessed at the end of the week. The desperate Tyrone makes one last attempt to save his place. He lays off Bertha Mae, sends for a star blues guitarist from Arkansas, hijacks a lorryload of beer intended for his competitor and hopes he'll be saved by a big Saturday night audience composed of itinerant cotton pickers and soldiers from the local barracks, recently reopened by the Korean War. Honeydripper is a warm-hearted celebration of communal life, but it is far from being an exercise in nostalgia or a simple tale of showbiz success and a crafty old-timer. Tyrone survives by embracing change. The traditional guitarist he's expecting doesn't arrive and he's forced to turn to a young stranger, Sonny (Gary Clark Jr), arrested for vagrancy by a venal white sheriff (Stacy Keach), who then hires him out to the crooked local judge as a cotton picker. But Sonny, who's built his own electric guitar and amplifier, is the harbinger of a new music and he saves the day for Tyrone in an exuberant finale that reinvigorates the community. Sayles's film is in effect a story of continuity and social change, an allegory that combines realism and fantasy in showing the way rock'n'roll emerged from jazz, gospel music and the blues, which in turn drew on African and European traditions. In the context of the film, rock'n'roll becomes a joyful assertion of independence as against the way the blues represents the stoical acceptance of fate and oppression. It anticipates the civil rights movement and the great cultural shifts that are to begin later in the decade. There's a comic scene in Back to the Future where Michael J Fox, time-traveller to the early 1950s from the 1980s, performs a Chuck Berry number that Berry hadn't yet written. This is partly a joke about white America's misappropriation of rock'n'roll. Honeydripper returns the music to its rightful owners. The film is full of wonderful visual and verbal moments. I think particularly of Glover's eloquent speech about how black slaves learnt the piano by watching plantation owners performing minuets and then turned the instrument to their own purposes. And there's a fascinating chorus figure in the form of an elderly blind black guitarist who turns up all over town, talking gnomically and only visible to certain people. He speaks of having a great guitar, second only to the Devil's, evidently a reference to the great Mississippi blues singer Robert Johnson, known as 'the grandfather of rock'n'roll', whose magical guitar and musical gifts derived, legend has it, from having sold his soul to Old Nick. The excellent cinematography is the work of Mike Leigh's regular collaborator Dick Pope. Philip French
Trivia
John Sayles's short story, �Keeping Time,� inspired the film Honeydripper
News
Welcome to the first newsletter of the 2010-11 season. Welcome to all new and rejoinging members. Memberships are selling well, we fully expect to sell out quickly. Please make sure you don't miss out. Our first night is pretty busy, please make sure you arrive in good time for the show. We are now on Twitter - gives you the most up to date messages regarding the film society and film related news as it happens. As you will see from the website and programme - the society is celebrating it's 40th anniversary this season. Look out for some specal events to mark this milestone.
Please visit http://www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk/mailing_list/news_100905 .htm for an online version of this issue.
This newsletter is produced by Mike Graham for Chester Film Society. Please visit www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk regularly for programme information.

Subscribe to Chester Film Society via email by entering your email address below:

Chester Film Society Message

2010-08-20T08:34:18Z

CHESTER FILM SOCIETY eNEWSLETTER 20 August 2010

New Season Open! Dear Film Fan, In 1970 a group of Chester film enthusiasts, including our now President George Mayled, decided to promote a short season of mainly French and Italian foreign films for locals with a trusty 16mm projector. Four decades on and only Chester Film Society is left literally carrying the (film) can in the city centre. This is due to the hard work of the various committees running the society, and the continued support of members and guests over the intervening years. To celebrate this our 40 th season we have chosen to show a selection of classic films to represent the programming of the society throughout this period, such films as Cinema Paradiso, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and Belle de Jour. We are also reflecting your wishes, showing a selection of films with a comedy twist, six in total including Fear and Trembling on 12th October and MICMACS on 26th October. Our programme of 19 films includes famous directors such as Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire which is our second film on 28th September following our opening film Honeydripper on 7th September. Other directors who make a welcome return include Robert Altman with A Prairie Home Companion on 15th March and the Coen Brothers The Big Lebowski on 19th April. Over the years we have used various venues and this year we are adding St Mary's Centre to the Little Theatre and the Steam Mill, giving us more flexibility in programme dates. Events which haven't changed this season are our celebrated socials but we have added a special all day return trip event on October 23rd to Saltaire and the Bradford Museum of Photography and Film. Please ensure your membership by returning with a Stamped Addressed Envelope the tear off slip with cheque as soon as possible (sorry no credit cards). Please visit http://www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk/CFSapplication.htm for your application form, if you have not received a printed programme. We fully expect memberships to be full very quickly this year based on last season, don't delay. Thank you for your interest and support so far � we look forward to seeing you on 7th September at the Little Theatre. Enjoy the movies! *Tony Slater* Secretary, on behalf of the magnificent seven - Bob, Ken, Linda, Mike, Rachel, Richard & Sheila. Full 2010-11 season programme: Honeydripper Wings of Desire Fear and Trembling MICMACS The White Ribbon Disgrace The Fall Belle de Jour The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert The Lemon Tree Anything for Her The Last Station Cinema Paradiso The Wave Le Concert A Prairie Home Companion Half Moon Lourdes The Big Lebowski

This newsletter is produced by Mike Graham for Chester Film Society. Please visit www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk regularly for programme information.

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Chester Film Society Message

2010-05-05T19:51:42Z



A final mailshot this season to thank you for your support of Chester Film Society during the 2009-10 season. So how did the season go? Top Film: The Reader - 8.47 (closely followed by Sophie Scholl at 8.44) Bottom film: Syndromes and a Century - 4.40 (the only film not to manage to get at least one 10 rating) Only three films managed to score zero ratings: The Reader (can't please everyone!), Syndromes and Be Kind Rewind. Full details can be found by visiting www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk. Many thanks for your feedback and comments on the films during the season. We'll soon begin the process of selecting films for the new season. Please contact us with any films you've seen which you think we'd like - we'll do our best to get them for you. Sometimes we can't book a film due to copyright or distribution rights. Even though a film may be on sale that does not mean it has rights for viewing to a non-theatrical audience. Did you know that our next season is our 40th? If you would like a special film to mark this milestone please let us know. Don't forget that Screen Deva is starting soon, lots of films and film related activities between Friday 28th May - Sunday 6th June, various venues in Chester city centre. The 10 day festival offers an engaging programme of newly commissioned artists' work, independent films released in the last 12 months, special events, classic cinema, the return of the region's original 48 Hour Film Challenge (you know, the one I won!) and an extended programme of FREE digital media workshops. Full details on www.chesterperforms.com. FILM QUIZ On Wednesday 2nd June we are hosting a film quiz as part of Screen Deva, along with some international short films. Venue: Bear and Billet Pub Doors: 7pm Tickets £5 per team (5 people max per team) book online, call 0843 208 0500, or call into Chester Tourist Information Centre. Hopefully we will see some of you there. So all's that left is to wish you a great summer - we'll contact you again with details of the 2010-11 season in due course. Thanks again, Mike, on behalf of the committee.
Please visit http://www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk/mailing_list/news_100505 .htm for an online version of this issue.
This newsletter is produced by Mike Graham for Chester Film Society. Please visit www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk regularly for programme information.

Subscribe to Chester Film Society via email by entering your email address below:

Chester Film Society Message

2010-04-25T15:19:25Z


Our next film of the season takes place on: Tuesday April 27th Little Theatre 7.45pm

Review
Preceded by a short. Preceded by the society AGM. In a beat-up video shop in a rundown Passaic, New Jersey, Mike (Mos Def) listens to owner Mr Fletcher (Danny Glover) as he spins tales of 1930s jazz pianist Fats Waller living in their blighted district. Mike doesn't have much going for him. His best friend, Jerry (Jack Black), works in a junkyard beside a power station. The buzzing pylons have fried Jerry's brain until he fizzes with tinfoil helmet paranoia. After a botched attempt to destroy the malignant plant, Jerry becomes magnetized and accidentally wipes Mr Fletcher's collection of VHS tapes. While Mr Fletcher is away investigating the tactics of his more successful rivals (a tactic that mainly revolves around stocking DVDs), Jerry and Mike resolve to remake all the lost films and rent them to an appreciative local audience. The showpieces of this whimsical comedy are Mike and Jerry's DIY blockbusters, a cheap, fun aesthetic they christen "sweding". Director Michel Gondry made his name mixing handicrafts with computer technology for a series of striking music videos, rendering the White Stripes in lego for 'Fell In Love With A Girl' and plunging Foo Fighters into a nightmarish dream in 'Everlong'. His collaboration with Charlie Kaufman produced a newly-minted classic in Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind but his solo venture The Science Of Sleep from 2006 showcased a boundless inventiveness unearthed by convincing plot and characterisation, producing a showreel of impressive set pieces lacking a telling overarching momentum. Be Kind Rewind avoids the claustrophobic solipsism of The Science Of Sleep via the amiable energy of its two comic leads. Mos Def takes the role as Gondry's alter ego, the ingénue film director, the artist as wide-eyed innocent. Jack Black brings his hoggish enthusiasm and a presence that fits right in with the retro 1980s VHS vibe. The film's conceit is ridiculous, of course. Running a VHS store in this day and age! And your suspension of disbelief will require another couple of crutches as the Passaic locals take to Mike and Jerry's short films as some kind of triumph for local life over the homogenous big budget studio product. Mike and Jerry's Sweded films are turned around with impossible haste. Plot is not Gondry's strong point. The Sweded films include Boyz N the Hood, Driving Miss Daisy, Robocop, Ghostbusters, The Lord Of The Rings, The Lion King and a climactic, community-unifying performance of the life of Fats Waller. It is hard to come down against the movie when it has such charming set pieces embedded within it. Nevertheless, Be Kind Rewind suffers from comparison with Son Of Rambow another film recreating a classic from the VHS-era by music video directors Hammer & Tongs, which is both genuinely moving and a celebration of a childhood spent watching 1980s films. Gondry and Hammer & Tongs belong to a generation of filmmakers who sat in their bedrooms fiddling with the tracking to watch Reagan-era crud like Ramboand Ghostbusters. This was music video generation in the same way that filmmakers who grew up in the 1960s harked back to baseball as a symbol of innocence (Bull Durham, The Natural, Field Of Dreams). Gondry expresses this nostalgia with his unique glue-and-cotton-wool methods for a comedy almost tailor-made for the user-generated YouTube generation. Ironically, its natural home will be on DVD, where you can zip directly to the Sweded movies. Channel4
Trivia
Michel Gondry was inspired to make this film after making Block Party (2005) which took place on one city block. Dave Chappelle was interested in playing Mike and came up with ideas of remaking Driving Miss Daisy (1989), Rush Hour 2 (2001) and Boyz n the Hood (1991). During the first scene within the "Be Kind Rewind" video store, a music video can be seen playing on the television behind the check-out counter. It's the music video for "Ma Maison" by French rock group Oui Oui, which Michel Gondry directed. Gondry was also the drummer for Oui Oui when they were still together between 1983 and 1992. The reason for Jack Black's hilarious version of the Ghost Busters (1984) theme song was simply because the legal department didn't have the rights to Ray Parker Jr.'s song yet. The term "Sweded" was created due to the Swedish government's stance on file-sharing. While many media corporations have succeeded in having files of their copyrighted works removed from Internet web sites, Sweden has treated such file sharing as a form of free speech, and a right of consumers. There is even a Swedish pro-piracy political party. Director Michel Gondry insisted on using the inhabitants of Passaic, New Jersey, where the film was shot and is set, as extras and some as prominent actors throughout the film. The scene where the inhabitants get to see "Fats Waller was Born in Passaic" (the biopic and only non-Sweded production) playing on the video store window actually featured the inhabitants watching the movie they had worked long and hard on for the very first time.
News
Be Kind Rewind is about making your own film, a theme that will be repeated this Tueday. In a similar vein there is a funny trailer making website at http://www.mymagnum.co.uk/. Just upload your face or use your webcam to make a trailer. Other ice creams are available!
Please visit http://www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk/mailing_list/news_100425 .htm for an online version of this issue.
This newsletter is produced by Mike Graham for Chester Film Society. Please visit www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk regularly for programme information.

Subscribe to Chester Film Society via email by entering your email address below:

Chester Film Society Message

2010-04-18T10:13:24Z


Our next film of the season takes place on: Tuesday April 20th Little Theatre 7.45pm

Review
Not a whiff of that famous Romanian vampire here, but another gypsy road trip from Tony Gatlif, the French-Algerian director famed for his exploration of Roma culture in Europe. Asia Argento stars as Zingarina, an Italian woman whose search for her Romany lover leads her to Transylvania, only to find he hit the road for a reason - he's not in love with her anymore. But far from slinking home, she embarks on her own odyssey across the harsh Romanian landscape. Like the characters in his previous film Exils, Gatlis' Zingarina is compelled to drop everything and embrace the unknown. But instead of finding out about her roots, Zingarina is determined to detach herself from them, finding some fetching robes and transforming herself into a gypsy. This sense of liberation from racial and cultural identity is further emphasised when she hooks up with Tchangalo (Unel), an itinerant hawker who like her, is multilingual, so their conversation switches between languages throughout. "ARGENTO IS REMARKABLE" Channelling her sultry, if slightly off the wall charm, Argento is remarkable in her ability to glower and glow simultaneously, and looks at home in Gatlif's twilighty cinematic landscape. His vision of life on the open road is highly (sometimes overly) romantic, peppered with lively music and striking landscapes: it's the feeding of the senses that takes priority over plotting or polish in Transylvania. French, Romanian, Romany and English with English subtitles. BBC
News
We always appreciate your reaction slips as we like to get feedback on the programme. You comments are posted onto the website each week and are useful for other film societies to help with their programming. However, I am sometimes baffled as to what people actually write - maybe it's the excitement of the moment!
WHAT A FIND! Morace Park was footling around on eBay looking for antiques when he stumbled on an item that was listed casually as an "old film" � and even then he was really more interested in the tin it was in. "It had a lovely look to it," said Park. But the contents of the battered container, which he bought for the princely sum of £3.20, have turned out to be a previously unknown film by Charlie Chaplin. Park � who, when he is not buying and selling antiques as a hobby, runs a company that develops products with inventors � bought the film "from someone else who deals in bits and bobs". When his parcel arrived, he didn't even bother to open it for a while. But when he did, he unfurled a little of the film and saw the title: Charlie Chaplin in Zepped. "I Googled it," he said, "and then my interest was pricked. I couldn't find any sign of it on the internet." The film, just under seven minutes long, is a mixture of footage of Chaplin and exuberant animation that reminded Park of Monty Python sequences. "It starts with live shots of Chaplin. It then turns into a dreamscape. We see a Zeppelin bombing attack. And then we see Chaplin taking the mickey out of the Zeppelin, at the time a powerful instrument of terror," he said. They concluded that the movie, shot on 35mm nitrate film, had been put together as a first world war propaganda piece aimed at defusing fear of airship bombing raids, which had been launched on Britain by Germany from the beginning of 1915. Another clue to the film's date and origins was provided by a reference in early frames to the Essanay film company. The 25-year-old Chaplin was contracted to the California-based company in December 1914, making such early masterpieces as The Bank, Work, and The Tramp, which established his "little tramp" character. But a year later, disputes over his contracts and salary led to a severance of relations between the star and his employers. The print acquired by Park seems to have been classified for exhibition in Egypt, which was then a British protectorate. But how the fragile, precious and highly flammable film survived and ended up on eBay is a mystery. He believes the real value of Park's eBay find could be anything from £3,000 to £40,000.
Please visit http://www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk/mailing_list/news_100418 .htm for an online version of this issue.
This newsletter is produced by Mike Graham for Chester Film Society. Please visit www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk regularly for programme information.

Subscribe to Chester Film Society via email by entering your email address below:

Chester Film Society Message

2010-03-28T09:20:14Z


Our next film of the season takes place on: Tuesday March 30th LITTLE THEATRE 7.45pm

Review
Preceded by a short. The low-key Spanish import Fermat's Room falls into that (very small) sub-genre that I've just now designated as "math horror." (Vincenzo Natali's Cube also belongs in this group, and maybe even a few other movies that I can't think of right now.) This is a strange but engaging Spanish thriller in which four well-established mathematicians convene after receiving a mysterious invitation, and then find themselves trapped inside a shrinking room. The only way out is to solve a bunch of math riddles, but the biggest question is this: Why the heck is someone trying to kill four mathematicians in the first place? Handsomely shot and boasting fine work from its five actors, Fermat's Room is the sort of mystery / thriller that will appeal to folks who enjoy a good mind-bender as much as they dig a good foreign flick. It's certainly not as bizarre (or nearly as bloody) as Natali's Cube , but I'm betting the films would make for a pretty interesting double feature all the same. And while some of the in-movie puzzles are relatively obvious (hell, they even borrow one from Jim Henson's Labyrinth !), the movie as a whole proves to be sort of a puzzle in its own right. The third act revelations might not be all that shocking, but they work well enough in the low-key context of the piece. Without spoiling too much, I can tell you that one of the invited is a 22-year-old math phenom who, a few years back, was about to solve a very old and very difficult equation -- but someone trashed his apartment and ruined five years worth of research. Now he's (most likely) the only one who can save his fellow "guests" once the riddles start getting difficult. As played by Alejo Sauras , he's the character you'll root for from the outset. Also along for the numerical nightmare are an irritated inventor ( Santi Millan ), a pretty young genius ( Elena Ballesteros ), and a seasoned old math wizard ( Lluis Homar ). Their host, of course, is a guy called Fermat ( Federico Luppi ) -- although not even the party-thrower seems to know all the answers. Or even all the questions. And it's a darn good thing that each of the actors are solid, because you'll be spending about 80 minutes with them, yelling at one another in a freaky shrinking room. I'm still not exactly sure how all four walls of a room could compress inwards at the same time, but co-directors Luis Piedrahita and Rodrigo Sopena do a fine job of mounting a basic-yet-compelling thriller that not only has a brain, but also a pulse and a strong visual style. Even if you figure out half of the flick's puzzles early on, the actors are more than strong enough to keep the 88-minute experience moving along colorfully and confidently -- even with the material gets just a little bit wacky. There's always something to be said for smarts and efficiency, however, and the co-directors do a fine job of spinning their strange little story with a minimum of muss, fuss, or extraneous blather. And let's face it: Math is scary all by itself, even without the mysterious parties, angry strangers, and a freaky shrinking room. Scott Weinberg Cinematical
Trivia
When they're putting the bookcases on the floor and filling them with the books, you can see a green book written by the director with him on the cover.
Please visit http://www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk/mailing_list/news_100328 .htm for an online version of this issue.
This newsletter is produced by Mike Graham for Chester Film Society. Please visit www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk regularly for programme information.

Subscribe to Chester Film Society via email by entering your email address below:

Chester Film Society Message

2010-03-14T11:52:58Z


Our next film of the season takes place on: Tuesday March 16th LITTLE THEATRE 7.45pm

Review
PLEASE NOTE THIS PERFORMANCE TAKES PLACE AT THE LITTLE THEATRE A smorgasbord of talent. Twenty glimpses of Paris - its different suburbs. High quality shorts masterfully united. A veiled woman intrigues us about the beauty beneath her hijab. Gus Van Sant delights with a flirtation between two young boys (and a surprise revelation). Steve Buscemi's mind-boggling tourist guide accompanies him through a surreal Coen Brothers encounter in the Metro. Maggie Gyllenhaal gets stoned off her face preparing for an acting role. Bob Hoskins hangs out in sleazy Pigalle. Elijah Wood discovers his inner vampire. Oscar Wilde's burial place inspires one humourless would-be bridegroom and saves his relationship. Tom Tykwer takes us running through the streets of Saint-Denis with a blind man in love. Gerard Depardieu is a bartender - and a host of other stars and directors charm us with strange and original tales of love in the city of love. These vignettes are a whirlwind tour of the heart of each arrondissement, but they focus on Frenchness, or Parisienness rather than over-exploiting famous landmarks... which makes it all the more fun recognising the locales. The quality is superb - each short film is almost a masterclass - but the overall effect can be wearying. Such a torrent of shorts leaves no room to develop an overall momentum, however skilfully they are knitted together. Each touches our emotions in a different way. Yet it is like nibbling for nearly two hours in the kitchens of the best chefs. At the end we are exhausted and hungry. The concept of Paris Je t'Aime is a beautiful one. This film is a permanent and worthy homage to the great city. Eye for film
Trivia
The segment "Parc Monceau" directed by Alfonso Cuarón was shot in a single continuous shot. This is the first feature film fully scanned in 6K and mastered in 4K in Europe (as opposed to the normal 2K). Encoding the image took about 24 hours per reel (at Laboratoires Éclair). Julio Medem was attached to the project for a long time. He was supposed to direct one of the segments, but he finally fell off because of schedule conflicts with the filming of Caótica Ana (2007). The original intention of the film was to represent each of the 20 arrondissements of Paris but this idea was abandoned together with filmed segments by directors Christoffer Boe and Raphaël Nadjari.
Please visit http://www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk/mailing_list/news_100314.htm for an online version of this issue.
This newsletter is produced by Mike Graham for Chester Film Society. Please visit www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk regularly for programme information.

Subscribe to Chester Film Society via email by entering your email address below:

Chester Film Society Message

2010-03-07T08:45:10Z


Our next film of the season takes place on: Tuesday March 9th STEAM MILL 7.45pm

Review
PLEASE NOTE THIS PERFORMANCE TAKES PLACE AT THE STEAM MILL PRECEDED BY A SHORT Ask Ethan Coen to explain his latest fable, and he will scratch his thinning hair and summarise its strange ponderings thus: �It is about the covert world of the CIA and internet dating.� Ask Joel Coen to unravel Burn After Reading, and he'll stroke his well-trimmed goatee and define its unusual formula thus: �This is our version of a Tony Scott/Jason Bourne kind of movie - without the explosions.� Indeed, to this previously untapped combo of inert espionage and modern dating rituals, they could add the perils of alcoholism, '70s conspiracy thrillers, computer malfunction and personal training. Not to forget sexual deviancy. In a career steeped in oddity, this is another polished example of the brothers' predilection for tossing a pile of wacky ideas and multiple movie references into the juicer to see what flavour emerges. Following that most un-Coen of eventualities, an Oscar triumph, at first glance you might see their latest as an effort to paddle away from the threatening currents of the mainstream and back into the reassuring calm of the left bank - although, given it was made prior to the release of No Country For Old Men, that would require some nifty clairvoyance on their Brillo-haired behalf. Perhaps they just wanted to reawaken the zany in their filmmaking. Compared to the moody poetry of that classy neo-Western, Burn After Reading has the wild abandon of a punk-rock song - it's all jibs and jabs, the rope-a-dope moves of a boxer. A slighter, less obviously showy piece that will grow and grow with repeated viewing. So what's the rumpus? Ozzie Cox (John Malkovich), a low-level data analyst at the CIA's voluminous headquarters at Langley, has quit in a fit of pique. He didn't take too kindly to being demoted. Truth be told, he doesn't take too kindly to anything. However, a disc of what appears to be his hastily penned revenge memoirs turns up in the ladies' changing room of Hardbodies Fitness Center. Naturally, personal trainer Linda (Frances McDormand), desperate to fund her forthcoming surgical work, together with her eager-beaver underling Chad (Brad Pitt), decide to sell the intelligence to the Russians. Did we mention overly horny Harry (George Clooney), currently schtupping Ozzie's wife Katie (Tilda Swinton) and soon preying upon lonely Linda through the avenue of internet dating? We should. He's relevant. All of it is played at the amphetamine pace of Raising Arizona. Ethan, always the more talkative of the brethren, would remind us that most of the characters were written with exactly these actors in mind. Malkovich's pouting arrogance is a perfect fit for huffy clown Ozzie. McDormand's disjointed smile and genius for body-language are ideal for nervy, jabbering Linda. Swinton's snooty grace is primed for Ozzie's untrustworthy spouse. Out of the crowd, however, it's the pretty boys who enjoy themselves the most, defiantly mocking their swish Ocean's Umpteen images. Pitt uncorks his hyperactive loon, blissfully ensconced in the hollow brain-space of a gym-cute bubble-head bounding into the world of espionage like a puppy. Clooney has a wonderful line in smarm he reserves for just these Coen-arranged occasions. Harry is a true-blue sleazebag - wait 'til you see what he's got in his basement - who emerges out of the chaos as near enough the leading man. This is precision-built madness. Beneath these chattering lunatics and the pinballing plot lies an intricacy worthy of Kubrick. The sound-editing alone is exquisite: the squeak of a wardrobe door triggering a blast of violence; the hallways of Langley reverberating to the clip-clop of fraught footsteps, rhythmically muffled by carpeting in sonic tribute to The Shining's zooming trike. Regular cinematographer Roger Deakins may have been on his holidays, but replacement Emmanuel Lubezki (a real person) proves adept at tight, shapely frames and creepy angles. Ethan might remonstrate, but there runs a theory in certain circles that all Coen films are ultimately about American foreign policy. While it takes work to figure out exactly how that fits The Ladykillers, it is written through Burn After Reading like a stick of rock. Curiously, it's the schmoes rather than the bureaucrats in the firing line. The CIA suits (led by a too-brief appearance from J. K. Simmons) are benign, bemused and rather gormless; it's the knuckleheaded plebs who are out of control. America's troubles, it titters, are of their own making. Ian Nathan, Empire Magazine
Trivia
The first Coen Brothers film not photographed by Roger Deakins since Miller's Crossing (1990). He was unavailable, having committed to shoot Revolutionary Road (2008). The opening film of the 2008 Venice Film Festival. The Coen brothers said they wrote the screenplay for this film while writing the screenplay for No Country for Old Men (2007). They would usually alternate every other day for each script. The Coen Brothers wrote the character Osborne Cox with John Malkovich in mind. Brad Pitt's character was also written with the actor in mind, inspired by a commercial for which he suffered a similar haircut and dye job. Indeed, the Coen Brothers noted at a Q&A session at the Venice Film Festival that all the leading characters were written for all the leading actors, with the exception of Tilda Swinton. Frances McDormand utters the phrase "For Pete's sake!" while in her car surrounded by CIA agents. She utters the same phrase in Fargo (1996) while interviewing William H. Macy's character. George Clooney's third film under the direction of the Coen brothers following O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) and Intolerable Cruelty (2003). These three films have been dubbed the "trilogy of idiots" by the brothers. Frances McDormand's seventh film under the direction of the Coen brothers following Blood Simple. (1984), Raising Arizona (1987), Miller's Crossing (1990), Barton Fink (1991), Fargo (1996) and The Man Who Wasn't There (2001). McDormand is Joel Coen's wife. It was George Clooney's idea that his character wear a gold chain, thinking it would him look ordinary and a bit old-fashioned. According to costume designer Mary Zophres, even cheap suits look good on Brad Pitt, thus for the scene where his character Chad wears a one she had to tailor a suit with a purposefully bad and ill-fitting cut and a horrid-looking wool tie.
Please visit http://www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk/mailing_list/news_100307.htm for an online version of this issue.
This newsletter is produced by Mike Graham for Chester Film Society. Please visit www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk regularly for programme information.

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Chester Film Society Message

2010-03-03T07:50:37Z


Our next film of the season takes place on: Thursday March 4th STEAM MILL 7.45pm

Review
PLEASE NOTE THIS PERFORMANCE TAKES PLACE AT THE STEAM MILL The 21st century has been tough for us Woody Allen fans. We've had to squirm through Small Time Crooks, Anything Else, Match Point and the rest, scanning the screen for the faintest trace of the great man's erstwhile genius, which is why the first few minutes of Vicky Cristina Barcelona are so tantalising. There's zesty flamenco music, and there's golden sunlight which makes both the actresses and the architecture look fantastic. Suddenly, we've got the prospect of something we never thought we'd see again: a new Woody Allen film that's not physically painful to watch. It opens with two friends � Vicky and Cristina, of course � arriving for a summer holiday in a Spanish city you can probably guess. Vicky, played by Rebecca Hall with Mia Farrow's accent and Allen's own nerviness, is proudly sensible. Cristina, played by Scarlett Johansson, sees herself as the duo's free spirit. No sooner have they ticked off all the Gaudi buildings in the guidebook � and you get the impression that that's about as far as Allen's research went � than they're approached by a Catalan painter, Javier Bardem, who invites them with hilarious directness to spend the weekend with him. Vicky gives him short shrift, but Cristina jumps at the offer. Nothing could suit her bohemian, spontaneous self-image more than to dash off with a hot-blooded stranger. However, she hasn't reckoned on Bardem's volcanic ex-wife, Penelope Cruz, who knows more about being bohemian and spontaneous than Cristina ever will. By the time Cruz appears, Vicky Cristina Barcelona has del ivered on those initial good omens: it's Allen's best film in at least a decade. What separates it from his catastrophic recent work is that instead of straining for zany comedy or solemn drama, he lets the tone settle somewhere in between. As in the likes of Manhattan and Hannah and Her Sisters, the comedy and drama both flow naturally from characters who are as confused and contradictory as any of us. The wonderful performances help, too. Cruz is a worthy Oscar nominee, but all four of the main actors make Allen's sometimes clunky dialogue come alive. Bardem and Cruz's ability to do so in two different languages is quite something. Allen's characters, with their untidy bundles of conflicting emotions, stand in stark contrast to the cardboard cut-outs in He's Just Not That Into You, an ensemble romantic comedy which also features Scarlett Johansson. An entire film spun out of the supposedly revolutionary insight that when a man is horrible to a woman then he probably doesn't like her very much; it reduces each of its characters to a single relationship issue: Jennifer Aniston wants to marry her reluctant boyfriend, Ben Affleck; Jennifer Connelly wants children with her reluctant husband, Bradley Cooper; Drew Barrymore wants to find love on the internet; and so on. It's depressing to see such charismatic actresses playing such pathetic, anti-feminist stereotypes, but the men tend to be loathsome Neanderthals, so at least the film is even-handed. Two of Penelope Cruz's competitors in the Best Supporting Actress category are Amy Adams and Viola Davis in Doubt, a drama set in a Catholic school in the Bronx in 1964. Meryl Streep is the headmistress, a nun in a black bonnet who can freeze the blood of every child in the school, and half of its staff, with one peer down her nose. Streep's nun is a strict traditionalist who condemns "Frosty the Snowman" as a hymn to pagan black magic, and she's at odds with Philip Seymour Hoffman, a priest and basketball coach who wants the church to be friendlier and less formal. A young nun, played by Adams, is torn between their two attitudes, but when she suspects Hoffman of abusing an altar boy � the school's first and only black pupil � she reports her concerns to Streep, even though she doesn't have any evidence. Anyone who watches films for the acting should buy their ticket immediately. As well as Adams and Davis, who plays the boy's mother, both Streep and Hoffman are Oscar nominees, and Streep, in particular, is phenomenal: she begins as a witch-like villainess and becomes increasingly human with each tiny gesture. But Doubt is ultimately more a collection of electrifying confrontations than a fully realised film. The dia-logue strikes sparks, but what it's actually saying about doubt, or anything else, isn't clear. Nicholas Barber, The Independent
Trivia
For his brief driving scene in this movie, Javier Bardem underwent hours of driving instruction and still didn't have a driver's license to show for his efforts when the movie wrapped. "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" was based on a screenplay Woody Allen originally wrote years earlier, which was set in San Francisco. Since his deal for this film specified that it must be shot in Spain, Allen looked for a story from his files that could be rewritten for a Spanish setting, took his old San Francisco-set script and rewrote it. The city of Barcelona offered to pick up the tab of production costs if the film was shot there, the amount rose up to two million Eur from public funds. Ultimately, the filmmakers shot in Barcelona. Woody Allen wrote the parts of Cristina and Juan Antonio with Scarlett Johansson and Javier Bardem in mind. Apparently, Bardem was his first and only choice for the male lead. This is the fourth consecutive film where Woody Allen has filmed outside of the United States (after Match Point (2005), Scoop (2006) and Cassandra's Dream (2007)). New York does feature as a filming location in the film but it is believed Allen has tired of filming in New York, hence the existence of European locations in his recent work. The title is a conflation of the character names of the two lead actresses as well as the movie's major setting (i.e. Vicky and Cristina and Barcelona). The title does not the represent the name of a character called Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Cameo: [Joan Pera] The Spanish actor who has dubbed Woody Allen's voice in several Spanish and Catalan versions of his films for over twenty years appears in the film. First Woody Allen film where two girls' names appear in the title: Vicky and Cristina. Other Allen movies with girls names in the title include Hannah and Her Sisters (1986); Alice (1990); Melinda and Melinda (2004); Cassandra's Dream (2007); What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966) and Annie Hall (1977).
Please visit http://www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk/mailing_list/news_100303.htm for an online version of this issue.
This newsletter is produced by Mike Graham for Chester Film Society. Please visit www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk regularly for programme information.

Subscribe to Chester Film Society via email by entering your email address below:

Chester Film Society Message

2010-02-28T11:52:05Z


Our next film of the season takes place on: Tuesday March 2nd STEAM MILL 7.45pm

Review
PLEASE NOTE THIS FILM TAKES PLACE AT THE STEAM MILL There are six chapters in the cracking, below-the-radar Spanish crime drama The Night of the Sunflowers. Each is told from a different perspective, and each veers unpredictably into the next, creating a gripping and blood-soaked daisy chain of cause and effect. The technique of the writer-director, Jorge Sánchez-Cabezudo, may remind you of the globetrotting Oscar-winner Babel, but in confining his story entirely to a parched village in rural Spain, he keeps far tighter control over its ramifications. There's no absurd connection to yak-farmers in the Tibetan steppes here, or whatever. It's a local affair, albeit an extremely messy one. The first segment concerns a travelling salesman (Manuel Morón), who is passing through town. When he finds a beautiful young woman, Gabi (Judith Diakhate), alone in the woods, he tries to rape her, but is interrupted by the return of her speleologist husband Esteban (Carmelo Gómez) and photographer Pedro (Mariano Alameda), who have been investigating a newly discovered cave. The would-be rapist escapes unseen, and the second chapter, told from the point of view of Esteban and Pedro, then starts, backtracking to earlier that day. By the end of it, they have found Gabi in a state of shock, and on their drive back to the village the appearance of a man walking on the road sends her into paroxysms of fear. They stop the car to accost him, but he runs. In the third chapter, an incredibly violent showdown follows, by which time we know two things the justice-seekers don't: the man Gabi has identified isn't a very pleasant chap. But he isn't her attacker either. This is virtuoso storytelling, laced with the insidious omens and reversals of a top-flight Greek tragedy. The arrival of an unreliable local police deputy (Vicente Romero) and the suspicions of his superior (Celso Bugallo) send the story barrelling off in a whole new direction, but Sánchez-Cabezudo seamlessly shepherds your attention towards their wary relationship with just a few deft strokes. Remarkably, this is his debut. It deserves as big an audience as it can find. Tim Robey The Telegraph
Trivia
Here's a thriller with an interesting title that seems to query: Where do sunflowers face in the night? �When the sunflower plant , Helianthus annuus, is in the bud stage, the head and the leaves do indeed track the path of the Sun. The genus name Helianthus is from the Greek helios "sun" and anthos "flower". Interestingly, however, and contrary to popular belief, once the massive topmost flower opens into the radiance of yellow petals, it slows and then stops moving, ending up permanently facing east .� ---Solar flower, New Scientist , 3 August 2002
News
VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA With the adverse weather we did not show this film on 5th January. Vicky Cristina Barcelona will be shown on Thursday 4th March at the Steam Mill, and film society members will be admitted free.
Please visit http://www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk/mailing_list/news_100228 .htm for an online version of this issue.
This newsletter is produced by Mike Graham for Chester Film Society. Please visit www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk regularly for programme information.

Subscribe to Chester Film Society via email by entering your email address below: