QUICK SELECT
TWO LOVERS
Dir: James Gray, USA, 2008, 110mins, 35mm (M)
Working with a tight company of regulars (especially Joaquin Phoenix) and always in the milieu of Brooklyn’s ethnically tight Brighton Beach, James Gray has emerged as one of the most critically regarded of new American genre filmmakers - although largely in Europe rather than Hollywood. In Gray’s new work, Phoenix stars as a skittish and over-intense young man driven back to the family home and business after a failed relationship. New romantic options appear, but only neighbour Gwyneth Paltrow seems to offer something different from the old family obligations.
BUSHFIRE MOON
Dir: George Miller, Aust. 1987, 87 mins, 35mm. (G)
A bush Christmas in 1891 Victoria for the O’Day family means dust storms, drought and likelihood Dad (John Waters) will have to slaughter his flock or sell out to wealthy neighbour Mr Watson. Eight year-old son Ned is convinced Father Christmas has arrived in the district and all will be well. But in truth Father Christmas (‘Bud’ Tingwell, of course) has business to settle with Watson. Arc’s family Australian Christmas treat is a sweet Australian take on Dicken’s A Christmas Carol. From the NFSA collection.
THE WIZARD OF OZ
Dir: Victor Fleming, USA, 1939, 101 mins, 35mm (G)
Few films need so few words after their title to notate their place in film history or evoke the magical joy of their movie experience. We return to the source as a part of our survey of the classic’s own legacy: to all the red glitter of Dorothy’s shoes, all the Depression-austere black and white of her Kansas home, and the perfect Technicolor yellow of the entire length of its brick road
MONTANA and LILACS IN THE SPRING
As a replacement we conclude our celebration of Errol Flynn's 100th birthday with a very rare screening (on 35mm) of Flynn's 1954 hit British musical fantasy, Lilacs in the Spring (Dir: Herbert Wilcox, UK, 1954, 94 mins, 35mm). Lilacs in Spring will be our 'A' feature, proceeded by Flynn's 1950 western Montana (dir: Ray Enright, USA 1950, 76 mins, 16mm) - one of only two roles where Flynn played an Australian, a sheep ranger fighting with an underdog coalition of Mexican immigrants against American cattle barons. As with our last classic Saturday night double-bill, there will also be cinema commercials, newsreels and other curios from the NFSA vaults. Montana is courtesy George Eastman House and presented with the support of the Embassy of the United States.
LIMITS OF CONTROL
Dir: Jim Jarmush, USA 2009, 115 mins, 35mm (M)
A mysterious criminal (Jarmush regular Isaach De Bankolé) travels from Paris to Spain on an unclear mission. Each of his contacts (including Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, John Hurt and Gael García Bernal gives him a new clue to his next job. The influences include Point Blank, Le Samourai and maybe something of Jarmush’s own Ghost Dog. The style is by Australian cinematographer Chris Doyle. The film’s meaning grows with each brilliant image and each cameo clue.
ZARDOZ
Dir: John Boorman, 1974, UK/USA 105 mins (x)
Sean Connery plays a 24th century warrior-assassin, who questions the arbitrary power of the life-and-death dispensing stone deity that rules his saturnine world. John Boorman’s (Deliverance, Point Blank) eccentric sci-fi is enjoyably tongue-in-check (Connery’s dress might have inspired Borat) and willfully obscure. Its meaning is hinted at in its fusion of high and low-brows, of Beethoven, Arthurian myth and Frank Baum’s Oz (a careful re-read of the film’s cryptic title also helps). Plus Jackie Farkas’s deeply moving connection between ruby red shoes and Holocaust memoire, The Illustrated Auschwitz (Áust. 1992, 13’, unclassified 18+)
CRACKERS
Dir: David Swann, Aust. 1998, 92 mins (M)
A typical Aussie suburban Christmas lunch, and a typical dysfunctional Australian family forced to sit down to it. But David Swann’s holiday comedy is seen through the eyes of the only son, who long ago learnt that outrageous behaviour is the only way to get his parents attention. It has an inspired sense of the backyard surreal and a taste for barbequing dogs. But there’s also some bittersweetness in roles for Peter Rowsthorn, Susan Lyons and an all-too-rare Australian cinema appearance by Warren Mitchell. From the NFSA collection
THE WIZ
Dir: Sidney Lumet, USA, 1979, 131min, 34mm, (G)
Wizard of Oz reimaged amongst the street life and tenements of The Bronx was packaged by Motown as surefire hit, with Diana Ross fronting an all-star cast including Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow, Richard Pryor as The Wiz and Lena Horne as The Good Witch. Given rough treatment by the critics, the film still garnered four Oscar nominations, most notably Quincy Jones for Best Music and for the Ross-Jackson hit Keep on down the Road. Delivered to the big screen by Sidney Lumet (Network) and screenplay by Joel Schumacher.
CAMINO
Dir: Javier Fesser, Spain, 2008, 143 mins, 35 mms (M)
Camino is an eleven-year old dealing with two of life’s greatest challenges: falling in love and dying. Deeply involved with the religious society Opus Dei, her family manage their grief by retreating into religious fervour; but Camino keeps her own faith with the sort of dreamy inner life only cinema can best describe. Like The Sea Inside “...few films manage to balance Hollywood sentiment and European irony as successfully” (- Screen International). Camino triumphed at the Spanish Academy Awards in 2009, winning all major categories.
OZ: A ROCK AND ROLL ROAD MOVIE
Dir: Chris Löfven, Aust, 1976, 103 mins 35mm, col., Eng. (G)
In Chris Löfven’s glam rock riff on The Wizard of Oz. Rock chick Dorothy travels to the city to see The Wizard in concert. Along the way she adds to her entourage a not-so-bright Surfie, a timid Bikie and a Motorhead (played by iconic Australia actors Bruce Spence, Gary Waddell and Michael Carman). Löfven was a leading producer of pop music clips in the 1970s and 80s. Here, working closely with Daddy Cool’s Ross Wilson, he lovingly detours the yellow-brick road onto the highway of Australian 70s youth culture.
