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Past Screenings
Tue
22
Nov
- Drama, Mystery, Sci Fi
- Soviet Union
- Colour
- 163 mins.
Deep within the Zone, a bleak and devastated forbidden landscape, lies a mysterious room with the power to grant the deepest wishes of those strong enough to make the hazardous journey there. Desperate to reach it, a scientist and a writer approach the Stalker, one of the…
Tue
30
Apr
- Biographical road movie
- USA/France/UK
- Colour
- 106 mins.
David Lynch's lyrical portrait of one man's real life journey across America's heartland. Filmed along the route that the actual Alvin Straight (Richard Farnsworth) traversed in 1994 from Laurens, Iowa, to Mt. Zion, Wisconsin, "The Straight Story" chronicles Alvin's patient odyssey and those he meets along the…
Tue
05
Apr
- B&W
A critical and commercial hit for Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin and, making his debut, Kirk Douglas, this high-voltage portrait of evil and greed remains blissfully absorbing and entertaining. Stanwyck plays manipulative millionairess Martha, married to Douglas, a weak-willed DA with a drink problem, whom she despises. Enter…
Tue
09
Sep
- Colour
Feel-good movies don't come any better than this Australian smash hit, which is an exuberant joy from sequined start to feathered finish. Come Dancing meets Footloose when rebel ballroom star Paul Mercurio hesitantly teams up with ugly duckling novice Tara Morice for an important contest. He wants…
Tue
11
Jul
- Drama
- Italy
- B&W
- 96 mins.
The first collaboration between Roberto Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman is a devastating portrait of a woman's existential crisis, set against the beautiful and forbidding backdrop of a volcanic island. After World War II, a Lithuanian refugee (Bergman) marries a simple Italian fisherman (Mario Vitale) she meets in…
Tue
24
Jul
- Romantic comedy
- France
- Colour
- 109 mins.
Like his earlier films, Claire's Knee and Pauline at the Beach, this is a sunny treatise on the agonies of holiday romance from director Eric Rohmer. This time, however, there's a male protagonist, with Melvil Poupaud playing the graduate student waiting for his girlfriend to join him at the seaside.…
Tue
12
May
- Colour
Originally released in the UK as Summer Madness, this was the movie that whetted director David Lean's appetite for location filming with international stars, paving the way forBridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago. It's a touching take on The Time of the…
Tue
08
Dec
Driven by the social conscience that informed his Matewanand Eight Men Out, and the same sense of the past rising up that drew Lone Star so much acclaim, this multilayered ensemble piece from writer/director/editor John Sayles takes as its notional theme the development of swampland for profit.…
Mon
08
Aug
- Comedy western
- USA
- Colour
- 89 mins.
This is one of a pair (it was followed by Support Your Local Gunfighter in 1971) of priceless comedy gems from director Burt Kennedy that spoofs the western genre with great affection. Both films provided marvellous roles for James Garner, here utilising his easy-going charm as the…
Tue
23
Jun
- Colour
Atom Egoyan won the Grand Jury prize at Cannes and was also Oscar nominated for his direction and adaptation of Russell Banks's novel about the impact of a schoolbus crash (which kills 14 children) on a small Canadian community. Although the Pied Piper analogy is overemphasised, this…
Tue
10
Jan
- Satirical drama
- USA
- B&W
- 92 mins.
Not a box-office success in its day, this mordant satire has rightly picked up admirers over the years, and is at long last recognised for the classic that it is. It contains key career highs for Burt Lancaster, as vicious Broadway columnist JJ Hunsecker, and Tony Curtis,…
Tue
07
Jun
- Satirical drama
- USA
- B&W
- 95 mins.
Powerful and unscrupulous New York newspaper columnist J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster) enlists sleazy press agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) to do whatever it takes to break up his sister's affair with a jazz musician. The first American film of Scottish director Alexander Mackendrick, Sweet Smell of Success…
