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Ventnor Film Society
Film Programme January-April 2008 Download a pdf version of the programme by clicking here.
Tuesday 22 January Jindabyne Nothing gets in the way of a men's fishing trip, even a dead body floating in the river. The fishing trip deep into isolated hill country is the catalyst for the events at the heart of the film which is based on the same Raymond Carver story that was used by Robert Altman in Short Cuts. Australian director Ray Lawrence uses the opportunity to dredge the grey areas between right and wrong, putting Gabriel Byrne and Laura Linney under scrutiny as a married couple rocked by the grisly discovery. Lawrence transposes the story to the vast landscape of New South Wales and in doing so touches a raw nerve of white middle-class guilt about treatment of indigenous communities.
Tuesday 29 January This is England Sean, a put-upon 12-year old, finds unexpected friendship with a group of local skinheads led by the sweet natured Woody. These skins are a far cry from the image of racist thuggery that the movement became known for in the 80s. It's all about the music, and of course the clothes, and although Sean is too small for Doc Marten boots, he still gets the haircut, the plaid shirt and the braces. For a while, everything is sweet in Sean's world. But soon, conflict arrives in the form of Combo, an old mate of the gang, whose time in prison has left him with a strong sympathy for the National Front. Sean's loss of innocence is at the heart of Shane Meadows' most autobiographical work to date, along with ever-relevant subjects like absent and surrogate fathers and white working-class marginalisation, particularly in the post-industrial suburbs.
Tuesday 12 February Paris je t’aime Welcome to Paris, the city of love with its multidimensional charms and enchantments. In this delightfully eclectic French film, 20 of the world's most accomplished filmmakers (Gus Van Sant, Gurinder Chadha, Wes Craven, Isabel Coixet, Walter Salles, Alexander Payne, Olivier Assayas, Tom Tykwer, Alfonso Cuaron, Joel and Ethan Cohen, and others) use the city's various neighborhoods as a backdrop for eighteen 18 short and snappy tales of the human adventure and love.
Tuesday 26 February Stray Dogs When their mother is put in prison for remarrying after her first husband disappears, brother and sister Zahed and Gol-Ghotai are allowed to stay with her at nights, but chucked out first thing in the morning. Free to roam the streets of Kabul, they look for a way to join her permanently by trying to get in trouble with the law. Iranian director Marzieh Meshkini offers compelling insights into the plight of women in post-war Afghanistan. A simple and impassioned story, powerfully told.
Tuesday 11th March Lady Chatterley A kinder, gentler version of the story most people know as Lady Chatterley's Lover - while endorsing Lawrence's approval of transcendent lust, the film also has a great deal of time for flowers, running water, close-ups of hands and long shots of trees (as well, of course, as for the class struggle and lusty sex). It's no surprise that the French should have made what's probably the best adaptation of Lady Chatterley so far - while England's courts banned the novel for several decades as obscene, Paris published Lawrence's "pornographic" tale of sex and four-letter words without blushing. Here, director Pascale Ferran delivers a passionate, moving take on the story as her ladyship abandons wheelchair-bound husband Clifford (Hippolyte Girardot) to frolic with Coulloc'h's tender woodsman. The sex is frank without being sensational and it's hard to imagine a British adaptation that could stage a scene in which Hands dances naked in the rain with such ease.
Tuesday 25th March Darratt A darker, fiercer and less accessible parable of guilt and revenge than Haroun's last film, Abouna - a story of anger and violence, which marries up a personal story of rage with Africa in general and Chad in particular, where a civil war has raged for decades and whose cycle of slaughter and counter-slaughter can only be brought to a halt when its victims make the agonising decision to forgive - or at any rate to forget. Ali-Bacha Barkai plays Atim, a young guy angry at the world. His father was killed before he was born by a notoriously brutal soldier, Nassara (Yousouf Djaoro), who has been granted amnesty from any charge of war crimes, and Atim's blind grandfather (Khayar Oumar Defallah) presents Atim with a handgun and entrusts him with a sacred task: track down Nassara in the distant, dusty town of N'djamena, where he is working as a baker - and kill him.
Tuesday 8th April The Singer While crooning through his way through various classics at a club one night, provincial dance hall singer Alain meets beautiful, troubled Marion (Cecile de France). When they fall into bed that night, a tentative, uneasy relationship starts to unfold, despite Marion's initial reluctance. Karaoke is threatening to cause Alain's work to dry up, but he soldiers on, managed by his ex-wife Michele (Christine Citti), and playing to crowds of divorcees and fortysomethings who come to dance to old-school hits. Marion, a partner in an estate agency and attempting to rebuild a life with her son after a messy divorce, quickly comes to regret sleeping with Alain, but as he pursues her a strange, unspoken affection develops. A subtle, always engaging love story with two brilliant performances at its heart.
Tuesday 22nd April True North |
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Supported by the Southern Co-operatives Foundation, the Isle of Wight Charitable Trust, Ventnor Partnership and Ventnor Town Council |
