Salutations Fellow Cinephiles!
We are very excited about our choices for the November Cine Club. We start on Sunday 4 November – yes, that is right, today – with Recount, an award-winning film about the infamous US 2000 presidential election. Then we move on from that outrageous bit of history to a sublime bit of whimsy with Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.
All bases seem covered in our German-language selection, Mahler auf der Couch – a fictional account of Gustav Mahler’s real life consultation with Sigmund Freud. Come for the music, stay for the psychoanalysis. Morning Glory is a fun film featuring comedic talents Harrison Ford and Diane Keaton. Uh, yes, Harrison Ford can be very funny! Up next is the Spanish film 14 Kilometres to bring us all down to earth as we witness the desperation experienced when trying to illegally immigrate to Europe.
We celebrate the fabulous hoofer, Eleanor Powell with our featured classic. If you have any interest in film history, the “Golden Age of Hollywood”, DO NOT MISS BROADWAY MELODY OF 1940! When Eleanor Powell and Fred Astaire dance to Cole Porter’s “Begin the Beguine”, it is one of the most mesmerizing tap sequences in film history. In his autobiography Steps in Time, Astaire remarked, “no ricky-ticky-sissy stuff with Ellie. She really knocked out a tap dance in a class by herself.” Dig out, brush off your old tap shoes and shuffle off to the cultural centre Wednesday 21 November to celebrate Ellie’s birthday!
If you like dogs, Diane Keaton (again), or Kevin Kline, then you will really enjoy Darling Companion – a film that will leave you smiling. And finally, we have chosen the Oscar winning Danish film In a Better World, to finish the month. Gripping and graceful.
We leave you with this quote from Broadway Melody of 1940:
Johnny Brett (Fred Astaire): [singing] So, move Grant’s Tomb to Union Square / and put Brooklyn anywhere / but please, please / I’m down on my knees / don’t monkey with Broadway!
See you at the movies!
The ACSA Cine Club Team
Recount
Sunday 4 November – 5 pm
(USA 2008) 116 min. Kevin Spacey, Laura Dern, Tom Wilkinson, John Hurt. Dir: Jay Roach. All-star docudrama examining the events surrounding the most controversial presidential election in United States history. The highest office in the country is up for grabs, and the fate of the free world may hang in the balance. When the initial tallies from Florida voting polls prove inconclusive, the decision is made to hold a recount. But it’s a controversial decision to say the least, and one that caused many sceptical voters to suspect foul play. Eventually the case would go all the way to the Supreme Court, and as the trial gets under way charismatic Texas republican James Baker attempts to rally public support for the recount. But the Democrats aren’t about to lie down and die just yet, because Al Gore’s former chief of staff Ron Klain can play hardball with the best of the old elephants.
Original Version (English) with Spanish Subtitles.
Mahler Auf Der Couch
Sunday 11 November – 5 pm
Deutsches Cinema
(Germany 2010) 98 min. Johannes Silberschneider, Barbara Romaner, Karl Markovics. Dir: Felix O. Adlon, Percy Adlon. Gustav Mahler snatched Alma under the noses of Vienna’s artistic elite, but ten years of marriage and the death of one child have exacerbated the strains caused by the 19 year gap in their ages, and Mahler’s refusal to allow Alma to write music (“I need a wife, not a colleague”). While staying at a spa resort, Alma falls in love with Walter Gropius, five years her junior. Tormented, Mahler seeks advice from Sigmund Freud. A clever, surprisingly funny, engrossing fictional story around the factual lives of some of history’s most iconic figures.
Original Version (German) with English subtitles.
14 Kilometres
Sunday 18 November – 5 pm
Cinema Español
(Spain 2007) 95 min. Adoum Moussa, Illiassou Mahamadou. Dir: Gerardo Olivares. Three people looking for a better life become stranded in the desert with little hope of survival. Buba is a mechanic living in Niger with his brother Mukela; their village is mired in poverty, and given Buba’s talent as a football player, they decide to travel to Spain, where they believe Buba might have a shot at playing as a professional. Unable to travel legally into Europe, Buba and Mukela pay smugglers for passage in the back of a panel truck into Algeria, where they can easily pass into Spain. En route, Buba and Mukela meet Violeta, a teenage girl from Mali who is escaping an arranged marriage with a man she hates. During the trip, the three begin to have doubts about the smugglers, and their fears become reality when they’re dumped in the desert 14 kilometers from their destination. They are told that they’re only a 4-hour walk away from their destina- tion, but without navigation tools they find themselves lost in the sandy plains with no idea of how to make their way to civilization. Winner of Best Film at 2007 Valladolid Film Festival.
Original version (Spanish) with English subtitles.
Darling Companion
Sunday 25 November – 5 pm
(USA 2012) 103 min. Kevin Kline, Diane Keaton, Dianne Wiest. Dir: Lawrence Kasdan. A heart-warming film with a superlative cast. Beth rescues and takes home a a bedraggled dog from the side of the f reeway. While at a remote cabin for a weekend with family, her egocentric, doctor husband Joseph loses the dog and doesn’t care. But his practice is just going to have to wait because Beth is not going home until they find “Freeway”, a beautiful Collie-mix. With help from Joseph’s sister, her new boyfriend, and a psychic gypsy maid, the family search high and low for the missing dog and in the process find that they also need to mend their own relationships. Kevin Kline is hilarious as the irritable elitist, insulting hippie ideals and alleged gypsy psychics. The dialogue is quick, astute and savvy in navigating all the characters towards happiness in their relationships.
Original Version (English) with Spanish subtitles.
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Wednesday 7 November – 7 pm
(UK 2012) 112 min. Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt, Kristin Scott Thomas. Dir: Lasse Hallstrom. Quirky, feel-good British comedy about Britain’s leading fisheries expert approached by a consultant to help realize a sheikh’s vision of bringing the sport of fly-fishing to the desert. Of course the fisheries expert thinks the project is both absurd and unachievable. But when the Prime Minister’s overzealous press secretary latches on to it as a “good will” story, this unlikely team will put it all on the line and embark on an upstream journey of faith and fish to prove the impossible, possible.
Original Version (English) with Spanish subtitles.
Morning Glory
Wednesday 14 November – 7 pm
(USA 2012) 110 min. Harrison Ford, Diane Keaton, Jeff Goldblum. Dir: Roger Michell. Charming romantic comedy set in the hilarious and dysfunctional world of morning television. When hard-working TV producer Becky Fuller (McAdams) is fired from a local news program, her career begins to look as bleak as her hapless love life. Stumbling into a job at “Daybreak” (the last-place national morning news show), Becky decides to revitalize the show by bringing on legendary TV anchor Mike Pomeroy (Ford). Unfortunately, Pomeroy refuses to cover morning show staples like celebrity gossip, weather, fashion and crafts, let alone work with his new co-host, Colleen Peck (Keaton), a former beauty queen and longtime morning show personality, who is more than happy covering morning “news.” Tart and terrific fun!
Original Version (English) with Spanish subtitles.
Broadway Melody of 1940
Wednesday 21 November – 7 pm
Eleanor Powell’s Birthday
(USA 1940) 102 min. Fred Astaire, Eleanor Powell, George Murphy. Dir: Norman Taurog. The plot is merely a clothesline upon which to hang sleek and opulent musical production numbers by the incredible dancing talents of Astaire and Powell — particularly the classic, breathless, eye-popping, gloriously black-and-white six-minute tap dance finale between Astaire and Powell to Cole Porter’s “Begin the Beguine.” The tale itself is the typical backstage contrivance: Johnny Brett and King Shaw are a couple of hoofers working in a dance hall for peanuts. Due to mistaken identity, King gets tapped for the lead in a Broadway show opposite big star Clare Bennett rather than Johnny. But when King drowns his trouble in booze on opening night, Johnny covers for him, taking his place in the show. This is the historic one-time-only pairing of MGM’s Queen of Tap Powell and the cinematic grace incarnate Fred Astaire. Do not miss this one!
Original version (English) with Spanish subtitles.
In a Better World
Wednesday 28 November – 7 pm
(Denmark 2009) 113 min. Mikael Persbrandt, Trine Dyrholm. Dir: Suzanne Bier. Anton is a doctor who commutes between his home in an idyllic town in Denmark, and his work at an African refugee camp. In these two very different worlds, he and his family are faced with conflicts that lead them to difficult choices between revenge and forgiveness. Anton and his wife Marianne are separated but share two young sons. Their ten-year-old son Elias is being bullied at school, until he is defended by Christian – a new boy who has recently lost his mother to cancer and is greatly troubled by her death. Elias and Christian quickly form a strong bond, until Christian involves Elias in a dangerous act of revenge with potentially tragic consequences. At no point does Bier’s film stray far from the borders of violence, whether it’s the violence of disease, of calculated payback, or simply of insufferable feeling. The movie retains grip and grace, and the performances—by the child actors, in particular—quicken the pulse of life, even in their obsession with death. Academy Award Winner for Best Foreign Language Film.
Original Version (Danish) with English subtitles.
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