Middleton Village Hall at 7.30 on 31st August, as part of The Middleton Environment Fair
This is a departure from last years "local" idea but still has "every day life" as the theme. It is a compilation of fascinating newsreel and documentary film from the 1940s that provide an illuminating glimpse at how we lived, the Home Front and domestic life of the time.
There is also a very timely environmental aspect; amongst other things the film shows that although we talk about our carbon footprint in the 21st century, Britons were far more in touch with environmental issues sixty or more years ago. At times wry, affectionate, informative or surprising, these films document a time of great austerity as Britain sought to retain a sense of normality in the shadow of World War II.
Details of the films can be seen here and here.
If there is enough time we hope to show some short films before the main show. There will also be an intermission with refreshments.
Wirksworth Festival. Tuesday September 18. Town Hall
90 minutes, US/UK 1953
"One of Huston's most delightful movies is a parody of his own style, The Maltese Falcon, of Bogart's tough persona and tall tales in general, while remaining a good yarn in itself. Most of the action takes place in a small Italian sea port where a motley group is awaiting a ship to East Africa. Once there, they wish to get their hands on uranium-rich land.
Lollobrigida plays Bogart's glamorous Italian wife, and Lorre, the other survivor from The Maltese Falcon besides Bogart, is now partnered by Morley instead of Sidney Greenstreet. The feeling of spontaneity might have derived from the fact that Huston and co-writer Capote's screenplay was written only 12 hours before each day's shooting. Bogart sank a great deal of his own money into the project that eluded a keen public on release, but it has since become a cult favourite." Channel 4 Review
The original novel was written by "James Helvin" a pen name of Claud Cockburn and the screen play by Truman Capote and Huston. Sometimes regarded as stylistically "camp" in that everybody over-acts outrageously, including the beautiful Lollobrigida, except perhaps for Bogart himself who apparently didn't see the joke and thought the whole thing was too damn clever by half.
My favourite character is Ivor Barnard's Major Jack Ross (crook no.3; aka The Galloping Major)
Review
Then, on Wednesday, September 19, the Society is thrilled to present another classic silent movie accompanied live by local musicians. Following the sell-out showing of METROPOLIS last year, with music by local composer Colin Humphreys, this year's offering is the 1919 German film THE CABINET OF DR CALIGARI a film about madness. Colin has also composed the music for this and will give an introductory talk about the film, particularly the stunning and bizarre film sets.
Colin says; Although THE CABINET OF DR CALIGARI is much less of an epic than METROPOLIS last year, it still has a very significant place in the history of cinema, as anyone who has studied the history of film will tell you. I have composed music that is dark and brooding to reflect the mood of the film, and all those who liked METROPOLIS last year will, for different reasons, like this. It is a psychological thriller with a bit of horror thrown in - a wonderful mixture!! The visual look of the film is quite unlike any other film I have seen, with crooked buildings and painted shadows, inspired by the German Expressionist style of painting, which was very much in vogue at the time.
Not-to-be missed Festival events. Both start at 7.30pm (See Festival brochure for more details or ring the Festival Office to book your tickets on 01629 824003).
Bigas Luna 91 minutes, Spain/France (1994), 18 .
A playful, surreal and perverse exercise in symbolic eroticism, slightly bawdy in a life affirming way, with some lovely music ; solo male flamenco singing and songs from Edith Piaf amongst other things.
Tete, a nine-year-old boy, goes in search of the perfect lactating breast. French cabaret dancer Estrellita is the woman on whom Tete's roving gaze settles but she has a lover: her cabaret partner "Fartman Maurice" - a motorbiking petomane whose jealousy is as potent and focussed as his "art". Worse still, Tete has a rival for Estrellita's affections in the form of lonely teenage electrician and flamenco singer Miguel, whose attempts to serenade Estrellita prove unexpectedly successful.
From the opening sequence, in which Tete demonstrates his skill as an anxaneta - a climber of human pyramids during Catalan's Castellan competitions - to the flashes of hallucinatory comedy this is a film that reaches into a tradition of symbolic farce mined by Almodóvar in his early films.
Entertaining, colourful, bawdy but sweet-centred and unexpectedly touching coming-of-age comedy in which the director sniffs out the ridiculous impulses that gives rise to the characters' most climactic moments.
A flavour of Catalonia as pungent as picada sauce and it succeeds because Luna has a keen eye, sympathy and sensitivity for his characters.
Review
Remarkable film, nominated for seven Oscars - with a typical Alan Bennett script.The action takes place in a fictional boys' grammar school in the north of England. Set in the 1980s, the piece follows a group of history pupils preparing for the Oxbridge entrance examinations under the guidance of two teachers (Irwin and Hector) with contrasting styles.
Irwin teaches the essay style of brisk generalities flavoured with sufficient facts and quotations to engage the examiner's interest and disguise the boys' ignorance in the hope of programming them for success. This method was one of 'false pretences', that Bennett felt he had had to teach himself in order to succeed in examinations, one academic pursuit with which he constantly had trouble. Hector however wishes to teach knowledge as it is and believes that such contrived methods are practically indecent.
The play blends both comedy and tragedy, with multiple layers and themes, including growing up, the wider purpose of education in adult life, teaching methods, and the English education system. Indeed the role of Posner with his hopeless attraction to Dakin, fondness of Hector's teaching methods and late development into adulthood represents deep autobiographical details of Bennett's life.
Arguably the classiest and funniest of the RKO Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musicals. Top Hat offers something close to perfect cinematic escapism
Astaire plays Jerry Travers, a musical star who meets Rogers as Dale Tremont on a jaunt in London. He falls instantly in love with her and charms her, with the help of a sandy soft-shoe shuffle, into almost falling in love with him, until she wrongly takes him to be the errant husband of her pal Madge (Broderick).
The mistaken-identity plot may be a tad overstretched, but it does give the production the excuse to shift from a moderately idealised London to a hysterically extravagant studio re-creation of Venice.
Blore and Horton provide plenty of comedy filler between Hermes Pan's lavish musical numbers, with a succession of outstanding songs penned by Berlin. 'Top Hat and Tails', a stage performance showcasing Astaire's solo talents, is a treat with its machine-gun tap-dance, but the film comes to glorious life when the two stars perform together. 'Cheek to Cheek' is not merely the film's outstanding sequence but one of the great dance routines in the history of the Hollywood musical.
Dir Jean Vigo. France 1934 86 mins b&w/ French with English subtitles Cert PG
A young barge captain Jean, takes his peasant bride Juliette, to live afloat on the barge 'L'Atalante', which plies the Seine. The couple begin married life in the company of the eccentric crew and a large collection of cats. Conflict arises when Juliette is seduced by the bright lights of Paris
This is one of the great classics of the French cinema, a film of extraordinary lyricism and beauty that manages to combine wild comedy with romantic yearning.
Jean Vigo made only four films before he died of tuberculosis in 1934, aged just 29. Yet no movie-lover, however eccentric, could compose a list of 100 films through which the cinema should be celebrated without including at least one of his works.
This new version was carefully restored according to the director's original intentions and includes previously missing footage, only recently rediscovered.
If you are undecided about coming to see this film then read this review
"The film is a masterpiece not because of the tragic story of its maker nor because of its awkward genesis, but be cause, as Truffaut has said, in filming prosiac words and acts, Vigo effortlessly achieved poetry".
About a veteran and cynical schoolteacher (Barbara) who is close to retirement. The only means she has found to take the edge off her desperate loneliness is writing in her journal. When Sheba Hart, a younger, attractive woman, joins the faculty as an art teacher, Barbara watches her from afar and has nothing but caustic things to say in her diary about her clothing and her care-free manner. Despite her disdain for this woman, Barbara finds herself reaching out to her.
Sheba responds by inviting her to dinner at her house to meet Sheba's lecturer husband. Instead of opening herself to these people, Barbara immediately sees them as competition to be beaten in the battle for Sheba's attention. Later, when Barbara discovers her new friend in a classroom having sex with Steven, a 15-year-old from the school; she realizes that knowledge of this secret gives her power over Sheba which she can use for her own purposes. But eventually, Barbara sets in motion the scandal that will rock both their lives in ways they never imagined.
Judy Dench is positively evil as Barbara, and was nominated for best actress for her performance. Cate Blanchett and Bill Nighy add to the distinguished cast.
(1999 Iran. Sub-titles) 
Children Of Heaven was the first Iranian movie to be nominated for an Oscar Nine-year-old Ali (Hashemian) has mislaid his sister Zahra (Seddiqi)'s shoes. Afraid to tell his impoverished parents about the loss, Ali comes up with a practical solution: Zahra can wear his trainers during her morning lessons provided she returns them to him in time for his afternoon classes. The plan does not always go smoothly. The film culminates in a running race, where Ali has the chance to win a new pair of trainers.
Director Majid Majidi uses real locations and non-professional actors to fashion an engaging portrait of youthful determination and resilience. And in documenting the rituals of everyday life in the capital, the film-maker doesn't shirk from depicting the material gulf between the social classes. Beguiling stuff.
(1996 - English)
A grim, gritty South London housing estate makes an unlikley setting for an uplifting love story. Adapted by screenwriter Jonathan Harvey from his own stage play, Beautiful Thing tells how teenage loner Jamie falls for next-door neighbour Ste, one of the tough kids who bullies him at school. Amazingly, he finds his feelings reciprocated, and the two progress to a tender, tentative relationship. Despite the problems of working-class homophobia, the film succeeds in presenting its central relationship not as anything startlingly different, but simply as a teenage romance. Problems of brutality and deprivation are acknowledged but never allowed to dominate, and under the influence of love even the harsh walkways and terraces of the estate take on a sunlit glow.
Fantastic music by the Mama's and Papas's, and an outstanding performance by Linda Henry as Jamie's single mother - supported well by a brilliantly underplayed cast. Look out for the early cameo appearance of Meera Syal as the PE teacher.
This is one in a long line of exceptional Channel 4 films. Contains a good deal of swearing, but the script is full of moments of cutting English humour.
BBC review quoted here:
"It's a dog's life for Coco (Juan Villegas), a middle-aged, out-of-work mechanic who gets by flogging handmade knives in Argentina's parched Patagonia region. But a new door opens when he's given Bombon, a hulking game hound of noble breeding. As man and mastiff hit the canine competition circuit, a gently uplifting tale of starting over, self-fulfilment and sexual awakening emerges. Just the right side of sentimental, Bombon El Perro is another sweet little story from Carlos Sorin of "Historias Minimas"
"There's not a terrific amount of dramatic tension here: Sorin's storytelling is often as self-effacing as his (human) hero. But there is the same rich sense of setting and character that made Minimas a minor marvel. The world of pooch parades is captured with a similar eye for detail (if not daftness) as mockumentary Best In Show. And the two-legged cast - non-professionals to a man - all deserve commendation. There's a nice counterpoint between the bashful Villegas (Sorin's former car-parker!) and his boisterous new mentor Walter (Walter Donado), while restaurant warbler Rosa Valsechi hits a warm note."
"But of course, it's the headline canine who scoops first prize. He's a rare breed of movie mutt: too much of a brute to be cute, but he'll tickle your belly all the same. His deadpan comic timing puts half of Hollywood to shame. And though this slim but likeable tale is light on surprises, there's a terrific one in store when Bombon finally comes of age."