Chester Film Society

Chester Film Society Message

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 07:45:00 GMT

<table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" class="border_2">  <tr bgcolor="#FF9966"> <td colspan="3" align="left" valign="top"><img src="http://www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk/Images10/newsheader.png" width="560" height="100"></td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> <td colspan="3" align="left" valign="top">Our next film of the season takes place on: Tuesday March 9th STEAM MILL 7.45pm </td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> <td colspan="3" align="left" valign="top"><div align="left"><img src="http://www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk/Images10/frontimage_burnafterreading.jpg" width="560" height="350"></div></td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#6699FF"> <td colspan="3" align="left" valign="top"> Review</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#d4d3e3"> <td colspan="3" align="left" valign="top" class="style4">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 </td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#FF6633"> <td colspan="3" align="left" valign="top">Trivia </td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#FFCC99"> <td colspan="3" align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> 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. </div> </td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#99CCFF"> <td colspan="3" align="left" valign="top">Please visit <a href="http://www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk/mailing_list/news_100307.htm" target="_blank">http://www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk/mailing_list/news_100307.htm</a> for an online version of this issue. </td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#99CCFF"> <td colspan="3" align="left" valign="top">This newsletter is produced by Mike Graham for Chester Film Society. Please visit <a href="http://www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk" target="_blank">www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk</a> regularly for programme information. </td> </tr> <tr> <td height="2"></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> </table> <table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" class="border_2">  <tr> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> </table>

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Chester Film Society Message

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 06:50:00 GMT

<table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" class="border_2">  <tr bgcolor="#FF9966"> <td colspan="3" align="left" valign="top"><img src="http://www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk/Images10/newsheader.png" width="560" height="100"></td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> <td colspan="3" align="left" valign="top">Our next film of the season takes place on: Thursday March 4th STEAM MILL 7.45pm </td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> <td colspan="3" align="left" valign="top"><div align="left"><img src="http://www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk/Images10/frontimage_vicky.jpg" width="560" height="350"></div></td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#6699FF"> <td colspan="3" align="left" valign="top"> Review</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#d4d3e3"> <td colspan="3" align="left" valign="top" class="style4">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 </td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#FF6633"> <td colspan="3" align="left" valign="top">Trivia </td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#FFCC99"> <td colspan="3" align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> 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). </div> </td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#99CCFF"> <td colspan="3" align="left" valign="top">Please visit <a href="http://www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk/mailing_list/news_100303.htm" target="_blank">http://www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk/mailing_list/news_100303.htm</a> for an online version of this issue. </td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#99CCFF"> <td colspan="3" align="left" valign="top">This newsletter is produced by Mike Graham for Chester Film Society. Please visit <a href="http://www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk" target="_blank">www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk</a> regularly for programme information. </td> </tr> <tr> <td height="2"></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> </table> <table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" class="border_2">  <tr> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> </table>

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Chester Film Society Message

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 10:52:00 GMT

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Chester Film Society Message

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 11:53:00 GMT

<table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" class="border_2">  <tr bgcolor="#FF9966"> <td colspan="4" align="left" valign="top"><img src="http://www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk/Images10/newsheader.png" width="560" height="100"></td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> <td colspan="4" align="left" valign="top">Our next film of the season takes place on: Tuesday February 23rd STEAM MILL 7.45pm </td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> <td colspan="4" align="left" valign="top"><div align="left"><img src="http://www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk/Images10/frontimage_3burials.jpg" width="560" height="350"></div></td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#6699FF"> <td colspan="4" align="left" valign="top"> Review</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#d4d3e3"> <td colspan="4" align="left" valign="top" class="style4"> PLEASE NOTE THIS FILM TAKES PLACE AT THE STEAM MILL At some point in most great epics, the hero travels down to the underworld to commune with the dead, unburden himself of the past and learn timeless truths. In Tommy Lee Jones' sprawling contemporary western Three Burials , three men (each arguably the film's hero) go on a similar odyssey together, and while their downward journey may only be taking them south of the Texan border, certainly all the trappings of heaven and hell are to be found there. Outside a sleepy town in southern Texas, the bullet-riddled corpse of illegal immigrant Melquiades Estrada (Cedillo) is unearthed from a makeshift grave, only to be quickly reburied in a pauper's grave after the morgue's cooling system fails. Realising that the local sheriff (Yoakam) has little interest in a dead 'wetback', rancher, Pete Perkins (Jones) sets about personally investigating the murder of his friend and co-worker. Once he has discovered that the man responsible is Mike Norton (Pepper), a rookie Border Patrolman who, along with his wife Lou Ann (January Jones), has recently moved to the area from Cincinnati, 'Crazy' Pete violently abducts the callous young man, forces him to dig Melquiades up again, and sets off on horseback over the Mexican border with his two companions, one still living and one very dead. As they travel in search of an uncharted location that is to be the final resting place for Melquiades, and perhaps for Mike too, hard lessons are learnt about the value of life, the bond of friendship, and the winding road to redemption. In Three Burials, Arriaga follows the pattern established in his two previous screenplays, Amores Perros and 21 Grams , messing about with the normal constraints of chronological sequence to transform what might have been a very conventional revenge narrative into something multi-faceted. The discovery of Melquiades' body may be the story's starting point, but thanks to a tightly integrated series of flashbacks, his living presence haunts the film's Texan section as much as the increasingly putrescent stench of his cadaver wafts through the Mexican half. With so many perspectives, ironies abound, as viewers are privileged with a much bigger picture than the fragments of reality available to the characters (literally, as well as symbolically, blinkered to the viewpoints of others). It is Mike's craven response to what he has done, rather than his initial motive for doing it, that is at issue here, and in the film's balanced metaphysics, Mike is under greater threat from his own weakness of character than from Pete's rifle. His picaresque trek to the Rio Grande and beyond is a spiritual journey, a trek across the less clearly defined boundaries of memory and fantasy, of sanity and madness, of life and death, of sin and redemption. Although Three Burials is Tommy Lee Jones' directorial debut, he keeps a sure hand on the reins; for all its ambitious themes, intricate plotting and open-spaced grandeur, he never lets it bolt out of control. He also cuts an iconic figure as Pete, who is as craggy and inscrutable as the landscape (stunningly shot by cinematographer Menges). At first Pepper plays Mike with suitable unimpressiveness, yet in a scene in Mexico where he watches an episode of an American soap opera that, over the border, and under very different circumstances, he had seen once before, Pepper portrays Mike's transformative moment of self-knowledge with moving intensity. From then on Mike begins to grow into a man, and to earn for himself the privilege of being called 'son', an epithet Pete had previously reserved for Melquiades alone. Channel4 </td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#FF6633"> <td colspan="4" align="left" valign="top">Trivia </td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#FFCC99"> <td colspan="4" align="left" valign="top"><div align="justify"> Director/Actor Jones gave each cast member a copy of Albert Camus' "The Stranger" to read so that they would understand alienation, a big theme in both the novel and the film. Tommy Lee Jones's theatrical directing debut. His only other directing credit was the TV movie The Good Old Boys (1995) (TV). Much of the film was shot on Tommy Lee Jones's own ranch. The screenplay was written in Spanish by Guillermo Arriaga but was translated in to English by Tommy Lee Jones. </div> </td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#993366"> <td colspan="4" align="left" valign="top">News</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#CCFFFF"> <td colspan="4" align="left" valign="top"> <img src="http://www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk/Images10/savetheodeon.jpg" width="188" height="188"> Good news everyone. The planning application to turn the Odeon building into a nightclub was withdrawn by Brook Leisure on 10th February. Many thanks to everyone for registering an objection. There is talk of an independent operator taking over but we are a long way from that at the moment. We will report any further developments as they arise.</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#99CC66"> <td colspan="4" align="left" valign="top">SOCIAL NIGHT SUCCESS <img src="http://www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk/Images10/CFSSocial10.gif" width="125" height="94"> Thanks again to everyone who attended our Social Evening last week. We sincerely hope you had a good time. If you didn't come along take a look at what you missed. We had 9 short films along with some great prize quizzes, food and drink. Roll on next year! </td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#CCCCCC"> <td colspan="4" align="left" valign="top">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. Unfortunately we have also had an issue with availability of films during early March so will be unable to hold our festival this week. Please accept our apologies. The film season programme is not affected otherwise. </td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#CCCCFF"> <td colspan="4" align="left" valign="top"><div align="justify"> THE ULTIMATE FIELD TRIP I was lucky enough to be posted to Los Angeles last week through work. On my way back to the airport I diverted via Hollywood for a look around. Hollywood itself is quite tacky, but the area is very historic. I did a quick bit of research on my phone and found that the location for the Laurel and Hardy 1929 comedy Big Business was not too far away from Hollywood, so I just had to seek it out. Stan and Ollie are Christmas tree salesmen in California. Business is slow and a simple argument with one grumpy prospective customer (James Finlayson) escalates from a simple argument into full scale mutual destruction with Stan & Ollie destroying the customers house and garden, whilst Finlayson reduces their car to scrap metal, all under the disbelieving gaze of a police officer and an assembled crowd. There is an apocryphal story about this film. Apparently the studio bought a house and its contents from a man, and sent him on his way in his Model T. Producer Hal Roach arrived on location late in the afternoon and found that the actors and crew had actually destroyed the house next door, this house. I don't know if this is true, but it's a great story. <img src="http://www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk/Images10/Bigbusiness.jpg" width="417" height="151"> Scene from Big Business and how the house looks today - Dunleer Drive in Cheviot Hills LA. I also had a quick trip down Hollywood Boulevard, home to Grauman's Chinese Theatre, the Kodak Theatre and the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Now I know Tony is famous, but this famous? <img src="http://www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk/Images10/walkoffame.jpg" width="227" height="201"> </div></td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#99CCFF"> <td colspan="4" align="left" valign="top">Please visit <a href="http://www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk/mailing_list/news_100221.htm" target="_blank">http://www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk/mailing_list/news_100221.htm</a> for an online version of this issue. </td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#99CCFF"> <td colspan="4" align="left" valign="top">This newsletter is produced by Mike Graham for Chester Film Society. Please visit <a href="http://www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk" target="_blank">www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk</a> regularly for programme information. </td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td height="2"></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> </table> <table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" class="border_2">  <tr> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> </table>

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Chester Film Society Message

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 18:19:00 GMT

Hello everyone. Not the usual format this week. I am away on business and can't get to my PC, so I am having to produce a simpler newsletter for you. Bells and whistles from our next film "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada", which will be the start of our festival week at the Steam Mill. SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY Tuesday 16th February at the Little Theatre starting 7.45pm Syndromes and a Century is a 2006 Thai drama film written and directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul. The film was among the works commissioned for Peter Sellars' New Crowned Hope festival in Vienna to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It premiered on August 30, 2006 at the 63rd Venice Film Festival. The film is a tribute to the director's parents and is divided into two parts, with the characters and dialogue in the second half essentially the same as the first, but the settings and outcome of the stories are different. The first part is set in a hospital in rural Thailand, while the second half is set in a Bangkok medical center. "The film is about transformation, about how people transform themselves for the better," Apichatpong said in an interview. In Thailand, Syndromes and a Century became controversial after the Board of Censors demanded that four scenes be cut in order for the film to be shown commercially. The director refused to cut the film and withdrew it from domestic release. Since then, the director had agreed to a limited showing in Thailand where the cut scenes were replaced with a black screen to protest and inform the public about the issues of censorship. The work is described as a comedy to start out, but ends as a science-fiction story. "It's a film about heart," the director told the Bangkok Post. "It's not necessarily about love, it's more about memory. It's about feelings that have been forever etched in the heart." It was originally entitled Intimacy and Turbulence and was to be an autobiographical look at his mother and father, who were both physicians working in a hospital in Khon Kaen, Thailand. But the director revised that concept when he cast the actors and began filming. The story still focuses on a male and female doctor, and is dedicated to the director's parents, but is set in two hospitals 40 years apart and explores both the memories and current lives of the protagonists. "I began with my parents story, but it has sprung to other things," Apitchatpong said in an interview. "When I met the actors, when I found the location, there were other stories combined and added in. I try not to limit it. I allow it to flow whichever way it goes. It is very exciting." Trivia - The Thai title "Sang sattawat" roughly translates as "Century's Light" with "Sang" meaning light and "Sattawat" meaning century. ................................. Finally, thanks to everyone for coming along to our Social Night last week. We sincerely hope you had a great night. If you didn't come along ask your fellow CFS members what you missed. Regards Mike

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Chester Film Society Message

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:35:00 GMT

Chester Film Society SOCIAL EVENING THIS SATURDAY - tickets selling now - don't miss out! Our social evening will take place at the Little Theatre this Saturday 6th Feb, starting at 7.30pm, and runs till about 10.45pm. We have planned a packed evening of entertainment. This will include our famous wall quiz and caption competitions, plus a few surprises. Many prizes to be won. If quizzes are not your thing don't worry. We will have a superb selection of short films, food including a vegetarian option, and your first drink included. The bar will be open throughout the evening. Here is a good opportunity to relax and meet some new friends - just ask anyone who came along last year. If you are hesitant or on your own don't worry, we will ensure you have a great night. If you know someone who might like to come along - tell them! The night is excellent value at just £7.50 per person - make sure you don't miss out. Food, drink and entertainment for £7.50? All proceeds go to the running of your film society. Tickets are available now. You can pay on the night but please reserve your ticket now, it will help us plan the catering. Just email. Thanks and hope to hear from you soon. Regards Mike

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Chester Film Society Message

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 10:01:00 GMT

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Chester Film Society Message

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:58:00 GMT

Chester Film Society SOCIAL EVENING - tickets selling now - don't miss out! Our social evening will take place at the Little Theatre on Saturday 6th Feb, starting at 7.30pm, and runs till about 10.45pm. We have planned a packed evening of entertainment: Prize quizzes including our famous wall quiz and caption competition, a superb selection of short films, food including a vegetarian option, and your first drink included. The bar will be open throughout the evening. Here is a good opportunity to relax and meet some new friends - just ask anyone who came along last year. The night is excellent value at just £7.50 per person - make sure you don't miss out. All proceeds go to the running of the film society. Tickets are available now: Buy them at the next film (Lift to the Scaffold) on Tuesday 2nd February or email back to me to reserve yours now! If you have not come to one of our social evenings before please do so, you will be made very welcome. Thanks and hope to hear from you soon. Regards Mike

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Chester Film Society Message

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 14:14:00 GMT

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Chester Film Society Message - Important

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:25:00 GMT

Hello, I've just been informed that tonight's performance of Vicky Cristina Barcelona has had to be postponed. We have not been able to get access to the Little Theatre due to the adverse weather. Please accept our apologies for the short notice, but we are sure you will understand, and prefer to be nice and warm and safe. We will reschedule this film - promise. Regards Mike

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Chester Film Society Message

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 10:29:00 GMT

<table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" class="border_2">  <tr bgcolor="#FF9966"> <td colspan="3" align="left" valign="top"><img src="http://www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk/Images10/newsheader.png" width="560" height="100"></td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> <td colspan="3" align="left" valign="top">Our next film of the season takes place on: Tuesday January 5th Little Theatre 7.45pm </td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> <td colspan="3" align="left" valign="top"><div align="left"><img src="http://www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk/Images10/frontimage_vicky.jpg" width="560" height="350"></div></td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#6699FF"> <td colspan="3" align="left" valign="top"> Review</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#d4d3e3"> <td colspan="3" align="left" valign="top" class="style4"> 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 </td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#FF6633"> <td colspan="3" align="left" valign="top">Trivia </td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#FFCC99"> <td colspan="3" align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> 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). </div> </td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#993366"> <td colspan="3" align="left" valign="top">News</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#CCFFFF"> <td colspan="3" align="left" valign="top"><img src="http://www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk/Images10/social10.jpg" width="464" height="186"> SOCIAL EVENING Make a date in your diary - we have now confirmed our social event for 2010. This will take place at the Little Theatre on Saturday 6th Feb, starting at 7.30pm. We have planned a packed evening of entertainment - Prize quizzes including our famous wall quiz, a selection of short films from slapstick to modern animation, food including a vegetarian option, and your first drink included. Here is a good opportunity to relax and meet some new friends - just ask anyone who came along last year. The night is excellent value at just £7.50 per person - make sure you don't miss out. Tickets are available now.</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#CCCCFF"> <td colspan="3" align="left" valign="top"><div align="justify"> MEMBERSHIP NEWS We have had some guests asking if they can convert to half-season memberships. Unfortunately we are now full so cannot offer this. Guests can still book for films through advance booking. This helps us balance members and guests against venue capacity. </div></td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#99CCFF"> <td colspan="3" align="left" valign="top">Please visit <a href="http://www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk/mailing_list/news_100103.htm" target="_blank">http://www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk/mailing_list/news_100103.htm</a> for an online version of this issue. </td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#99CCFF"> <td colspan="3" align="left" valign="top">This newsletter is produced by Mike Graham for Chester Film Society. Please visit <a href="http://www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk" target="_blank">www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk</a> regularly for programme information. </td> </tr> <tr> <td height="2"></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> </table> <table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" class="border_2">  <tr> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> </table>

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