FILM SOCIETY
EVERYONE IS WELCOME!
Film Society screenings every Thursday fortnight (except for school holidays)
Drinks and Nibbles at 7.00pm, Movie starts at 7.30pm
2012 (Jan - Dec) Membership Card must be shown
Please note: your 2011 membership card is no longer valid!
Membership cost is $15
Members receive regular emails about film screenings and events.
KFS PARTNERS
Katherine Cinema
www.katherinecinemas.com.au
2012 members receive a discount entry price to Film Society screenings and visiting film festivals and concession entry price to all other regular cinema screenings
DeckChair Cinema, Darwin
www.deckchaircinema.com.au
Discounted tickets to Deckchair Cinema (Normal price $15 – members price $9). April to November throughout 2012.
Discounted tickets to Flix in the Wet (Normal price $15 – members price $10) screening at Birch, Carroll & Coyle, Mitchell St Darwin, Sundays, 22ndJan to 25th Mar in 2012.
Silver Screen Café
20 First St Katherine; 8972 3140
KFS 2012 members receive a discount! Enjoy a meal before a film! Now also open on Thursday evenings!
CONTACT US
To suggest a film or offer the Society some assistance, please contact
Email: kathfilmsociety@gmail.com
UPCOMING FILMS
MARGIN CALL
Thursday, 10th May
Classification: MA Genre: Drama, Thriller
Margin Call takes place in a fictional Wall Street investment bank over a frenzied 24 hours during the opening days of 2008's global financial crisis.
The extraordinary first feature film from director JC Chandor does not explain what occurred in the 2008 global financial crisis, but instead, explores the psychological pressures and ethical choices among those who caught an early glimpse of the abyss and then helped push everyone else into it.
The film's title, Margin Call, comes from a stock market term referring to a demand for money when something bought with borrowed funds has ruinously decreased in value.
PAST FILMS 2011
A Seperation
Thursday 26 April 2012
Release date: 01/03/2012 Classification: PG Genre: Drama Director: Asghar Farhadi Lead actor: Peyman Moadi and Leila Hatami, Saareh Bayat, Shahab Hosseini, Sarina Farhadi, Language: Iranian Country: Islamic Republic of Iran
Review by Margaret Pomeranz
Asghar Farhadi's film A SEPARATION arrives in this country with a reputation, a good one. This multiaward winning film begins with a couple addressing the camera . Simin, LEILA HATAMI, is seeking a divorce from Nader, PAYMAN MOADI, because he won't leave his Alzheimer afflicted father to live overseas on a visa that is rapidly running out.
Denied a divorce, she goes to live with her mother while he returns home to his father and their daughter Termeh, SARINA FARHADI. Into their household comes Razieh, SAREH BAYAT, a woman from a conservative, religious working class background. She arrives each day with her daughter to help look after the old man. An incident happens and Nader finds himself in a legal battle with Razieh and her excitable husband Hodjat, Shahab Hosseini.
This exquisite film begins slowly but soon grabs you by the throat as it explores the fine line between truth, honesty, loyalty and justice. There are moral issues at stake here and all are taken into consideration with the utmost compassion. Farhadi's style of filmmaking, seduces you into this world of domesticity and dilemmas. It is truly moving on occasions.
The performances are all outstanding but the young woman playing Termeh, SARINA FARHADI, who is the director's daughter, is just heart wrenchingly excellent. There are no simple answers and Farhadi doesn't offer them. It's certainly a film for grown ups despite its PG rating.
Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Thursday 12 April 2012
Classification G Country USA Language English Genre Documentary Director Werner Herzog Screenwriter Werner Herzog Producer Erik Nelson, Adrienne Ciuffo
Cinema's great raconteur, Werner Herzog, has created this extraordinary documentary of some of the earliest known representations by humankind: the Chauvet Pont d'Arc cave art. The Chauvet Cave was discovered in 1994 in the Ardeche gorge in southern France. Sealed off 25,000 years ago by a rock fall, the cave was found to contain amazing drawings and paintings, some of them estimated to be 32,000 years old. The paintings are of animals horses, rhinos, lions, bears, bison and they're stunningly beautiful.
Access to the paintings has been strictly limited to a handful of researchers for fear that even human breath will cause them to deteriorate. Herzog, in his inimitable way, secured himself an entrée, took along a 3D camera, and, using lights that emit no heat, recorded these awe inspiring images for posterity.
"What constitutes humanness?" he asks the archaeologists and paleontologists along the way his line of inquisition reinforcing the spiritual power of the timeless art he documents.
Burning Man
Thursday 29th March 2012
Release date: 17/11/2011 Classification: MA Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance Director: Jonathan Teplitzky Leadactor: Matthew Goode Cast: Bojana Novakovic, Rachel Griffiths, Essie Davis, Jack Heanly Screenplay: Jonathan Teplitzky Music: Lisa Gerrard Country: Australia
4.5 stars from David and Margaret!!
This is Jonathan Teplitzky's third feature and follows his success with BETTER THAN SEX and GETTING SQUARE.
British actor MATTHEW GOODE plays Tom, the owner‐chef of a Sydney restaurant; he meets and marries beautiful Sarah, BOJANA NOVAKOVIC, and they have a son, Oscar, JACK HEANLY; but tragedy overtakes this family and Tom finds it difficult to cope.
When the film opens, the scenes unfold out of sequence and are abruptly terminated before they've run their course. But this only reflects the state of mind of a bereaved man who uses sex to overcome his grief. This is a stunningly well made film, which challenges us with its intricate structure and which will probably demand more than one viewing from sympathetic audiences. MATTHEW GOODE is really fine as Tom but the revelation is BOJANA NOVAKOVIC, who is simply amazing as Sarah. Fine actors fill in key supporting roles, among them ESSIE DAVIS, as Sarah's sister, KERRY FOX as Tom's business partner, and RACHEL GRIFFITHS as one of the women who tries to help him forget his grief. Also outstanding is young JACK HEANLY as Oscar.
Beautifully shot by Garry Phillips, intricately edited by Martin Connor, BURNING MAN is a film that will shock you with its honesty and its bravery. I can't wait to see it again.
The Runaway
Thursday 15th March 2012
Classification: PG Director: Ian Power. Starring: Jamie Kearns, Kerry Condon, Demián Bichir, Donncha Crowley.Country: Ireland
Based on a true story, THE RUNWAY is a children's adventure comedy drama set in Cork, Ireland in 1983. This pacey comedy, a nostalgic reminder of simpler times in a cash poor, community rich Ireland and combined with wonderful
performances, is a gem of a family film. The film introduces Grace (Kerry Condon), a fiery single hard working mum who has led her nine yearold son Paco (Jamie Kierans) to believe that his absentee father is Spanish. In a bid to connect with him, Paco diligently sets about learning the language in the hope of an eventual meeting.
When a South American pilot, Ernesto, (Damian Bichir) crash lands his plane near their home, young Paco befriends him and eagerly acts as translator with the locals. Ernesto stays with Grace and Paco while the townspeople fix his battered plane and build a runway to help him get home.
THE RUNWAY is "quirky, cheeky and full of heart... prepare to be charmed" (Sunday Independent).
We Need To Talk About Kevin
Thursday 1st March 2012
Release date: 17/11/2011 Classification: MA Genre: Drama, Thriller Director: Lynne Ramsay Lead actors: TildaSwinton, John C Reilly, Ezra Miller Music: Jonny Greenwood Country: United States
A suspenseful and gripping psychological thriller, Lynne Ramsay's We Need to Talk About Kevin explores the factious relationship between a mother and her son.
Tilda Swinton, in a bracing, tour de force performance, plays the mother, Eva, as she contends for 15 years with the increasing malevolence of her first born child, Kevin (Ezra Miller).
Adolescent Kevin Katchadourian is in prison after committing a massacre at his high school and killing his father and little sister. His mother, Eva, a once‐successful travel writer, lives alone in a now rundown house and works in a mall travel agency in a town near the prison where she visits Kevin. She looks back at her memories of him growing up as she tries to cope with the anger and hostility of her neighbors, who know her to be Kevin's mother.
Based on the best‐selling 2003 novel by Lionel Shriver, We Need to Talk About Kevin explores nature vs. nurture on a whole new level as Eva's own culpability is measured against Kevin's innate evilness.
Yes Madam Sir
Thursday 16th Feb 2012
Yes Madam Sir is an inspiring nonfiction film by award winning Australian filmmaker, Megan Doneman, on the life story of India's most controversial revolutionary, Kiran Bedi, India’s first woman police officer.
One journey can change a life. One life can change the world.
Australian release: Dec 2011
(Film Festival release in 2009)
Rating: PG Genre: Documentary Narration: Helen Mirren
Please help to promote the film by putting a copy of the attached flyer on your work notice board or forward it onto friends. Attached also is information on the KFS and what your membership includes in 2012.
We hope that you can join us and why not come dressed in your brightest colours or wearing your own special momento of your travels to India to help create the atmosphere of India right here in Katherine!
Thursday 24th November
13 Assassins
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama Released: 2011 Country: Japan Language: Japanese Director:Takashi Miike Duration: 126 mins
Takashi Miike’s electric remake of Eiichi Kudo’s 1963 film is an action spectacle executed with killer, almost dizzying panache.
Thursday 10th November
The Guard
Genre: Comedy, Mystery & Suspense Released: 2011 Language: English Director:John Michael McDonagh Duration: 96 mins Rated: R
This brilliant Irish production is a cunning and gloriously off-kilter affair. Brendan Gleason plays Sergeant Gerry Boyle, an Irish cop not above dipping into the drugs he finds in car crash victims' pockets or calling a spade a shovel to his superiors. A murder and a missing cop are the least of his problems when FBI agent Wendell Everett (DonCheadle) arrives to nab a shipment of drugs. Our Gerry has stereotypical attitudes to Wendell, which rankle. They arestrange bedfellows, indeed. Wendell can't figure out whether Gerry is really dumb or really smart. Wickedly funny, this refreshing and smart film gives Gleeson one of his best roles yet.
Thursday 27th October
The Illusionist
Release date: 16/06/2010 Country: United Kingdom, France Language: French, English Dir: Sylvain Chomet Genre: Drama, Animation, Comedy, Art House & International Rated: PG
Duration: 82 mins Cast: Jean – Claude Donda, Duncan MacNeil, Eilidh Rankin, Raymond Mearns
An engrossing love letter to fans of adult animation, The Illusionist offers a fine antidote to garish mainstream fare.
The Illusionist is one of a dying breed of stage entertainers. With emerging rock stars stealing his thunder in the late 1950s, he is forced to accept increasingly obscure assignments in fringe theatres, at garden parties and in bars and cafés. Then, while performing in a village pub off the west coast of Scotland, he encounters Alice, an innocent young girl, who will change his life forever.
Thursday, 29th September
WHITE MATERIAL
"Simultaneously poetic, dramatic and realistic, "White Material" is an altogether
stunning work" - Los Angeles Times
France, 2009
Dir: Claire Denis Genre: Drama Duration: 102 mins Language: French Cast: Christophe Lambert, Isaach de Bankole, Isabelle Huppert, Nicolas Duvauchelle, William Nadylam
Festivals: Venice, Toronto and New York
From Claire Denis, the incomparable director of BEAU TRAVAIL, L'INTRUS and 35 SHOTS OF RHUM, comes WHITE MATERIAL: a rich and thrilling account of a woman driven to the edge. The film is a riveting exploration of the complexities of racial conflict and the limits of human will. The legendary Isabelle Huppert (LA CEREMONIE, THE PIANO TEACHER, 8 WOMEN), is Maria Vial, a fearless French woman attempting to run her family's coffee plantation in an unnamed African country. Torn violently apart by hate-fueled civil conflict, this unforgiving setting soon turns
against the foreign family, declaring them outlaws in their new home. In a brash effort to save her family and livelihood, Maria risks everything, fighting with every shred of her will to buck the rebel forces wrestling for control of local power.
Great site to find movie reviews www.rottentomatoes.com
Thursday 15th September
Babies
Rating: G Genre: Documentary Released: 2011 Country: France Director: Thomas Balmes
Ever wondered how you might have turned out had you been born in another country? Well it would seem not a lot for the first year of life. This documentary joyfully captures the first year of life of four babies, one from Namibia, another from Mongolia, the third child is raised in Japan and the final baby in the USA. The film memorizes audiences as it follows the four babies simultaneously from birth to first steps.
Great site to find movie reviews www.rottentomatoes.com
Thursday, 1st September
The Tree Of Life
USA, 2011 Limited National Release Dir:Terrance Malick Genre: Drama Duration: 138mins. Language: English Producer: Sarah Green, Bill Pohlad, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner Lead Actor: Brad Pitt Cast: Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain, Fiona Shaw, IreneBedard, Hunter McCracken, Laramie Eppler, Tye Sheridan
From Terrence Malick, the acclaimed director of such classic films as Badlands, Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line, The Tree of Life is the impressionistic story of a Midwestern family in the 1950's. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile acomplicated relationship with his father (Brad Pitt). Jack (played as an adult by Sean Penn) finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith. Through Malick's signature imagery, we see how both brute nature and spiritual grace shape not only our lives as individuals and families, but all life. A beautifully made film that will both move and challenge you as it explores how we reconcile the beauties, the emotions, the faith of our lives with suffering and death.
Thursday 18th August
On Tour
"Winningly played: Amalric is charmingly raffish and the real-life performers are brassily naturalistic"
- TOTAL FILM
Rating: MA Genre: Drama Released: 2010 Country: France Director: Mathieu Amalric
Director, Mathieu Amalric, won Best Director for this film at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.
Joachim, a former Parisian television producer had left everything behind - his children, friends, enemies, lovers and regrets - to start a new life in America. He returns home with a team of New Burlesque strip-tease performers whom Joachim has fed fantasies of a tour of France, of Paris!
Traveling from port to port, the curvaceous showgirls invent an extravagant fantasy world of warmth and hedonism, despite the constant round of impersonal hotels with their endless elevator music and the lack of money. The show gets an enthusiastic response from men and women alike.
But their dream of a tour culminating in a last grand show in Paris goes up in smoke when Joachim is betrayed by an old friend and loses the theatre where they were due to perform. A quick return journey to the capital violently reopens old wounds. "On Tour" is a magical, incredibly entertaining view of old school entertainers trying to find their way in a
modern world.
Thursday 4th August
Oranges & Sunshine
Duration: 104 mins Genre: Drama Director: Jim Loach Country: Australia Release date: 09/06/2011
Classification: M
In 1986, Nottingham social worker Margaret Humphreys, EMILY WATSON, is approached by Charlotte, FEDERAY
HOLMES, an Australian woman who wants to discover her true identity. Later, in a group therapy class, Margaret
meets Nicky, LORRAINE ASHBOURNE, who laments the loss of her brother, Jack, whom she believes was sent to
Australia as a small child, while she was brought up in an English orphanage. After further research Margaret
discovers that Charlotte and Jack were just two of the many thousands of children who, in the 1950s and 1960s, were
transported to Australia 'for their own good', told that they were orphans. The revelations to follow are astonishing -
how could these things have happened in recent memory?
Barney's Version
Thursday 26th May 2011
Duration: 130 mins Genre: Comedy - Drama Director: Richard J. Lewis Country: USA Release date: 24/03/2011 Classification: M
Barney is a chain-smoking, hard-drinking hockey fan. He's capricious, he's not exactly the greatest looking guy, but he has a zest for life that is incomparable and perhaps that's the reason so many women find him attractive. Creating that character has given PAUL GIAMATTI another great role after SIDEWAYS and HARVEY PEKAR and he runs with it, no wonder he won a Golden Globe for this.
This movie is Barney, telling his story, his way. About his first marriage in Rome where he and best mate Boogie, SCOTT
SPEEDMAN, live the artist life of ex-pats in 1974. And then there are the years back in Montreal where Barney becomes a successful producer of schlock television and where he meets the Jewish princess, MINNIE DRIVER, who will be his
second wife. Unfortunately at his wedding he meets the woman he knows is the love of his life. She's Miriam, ROSAMUND PIKE, with whom his life will have enormous rewards and some terrible downs.
Thursday 12th May 2011
The Thin Green Line
A very special fund raising event from the NT Parks Ranger Association
100% of profits from this screening will go to the Thin Green Line Foundation
The Thin Green Line Foundation supports the families of Park rangers killed, and prevents further ranger deaths, on the frontline of conservation around the world. www.thingreenline.org.au
Rating: Exempt (film includes topics such as animal death and may not be suitable for very young children)
Genre: Documentary Released: 2007 Country: Australian Music by: John Butler Trio, Xavier Rudd, Bomba and Blue King Brown
In 2004, Australian Park Ranger Sean Willmore sold his car, remortgaged his house and travelled the world for 14 months to bring you the story of the sometimes life threatening challenges his colleagues face each day ...
In some of the world's most breathtaking and protected areas, share this behind the scenes, unique and very personal view of men and women of The Thin Green Line as they talk to one of their own. You'll experience their world as a ranger talking to rangers, all of whom are also husbands, wives, mothers, fathers and it's never a 9 to 5 job.
Go side‐by‐side on patrol; experience their sacrifice, dedication, passion, fears, joys, exhilaration, love, despair, anguish, camaraderie and hope. You'll go off the tourist trail to ride with the guardians of the world's protected natural gems as they encounter elephant charges in South Africa, walk with armed patrols defending the Mountain Gorillas of Central Africa, hang from helicopter high above the Rockies to pluck an injured hiker to safety.
Thursday 28th April
Classification: MA Duration: 93 mins Genre: Adventure, Biography, Drama, Thriller Director: Danny Boyle
Country: USA Release date: 10/02/2011
In May, 2003, extreme adventurer Aron Ralson, JAMES FRANCO, set out to walk in Bluejohn Canyon, Utah. After a brief encounter with a couple of girls also out for adventure, Aron struck out on his own - but became trapped when his arm was pinned under an immovable rock.
The pain and frustration of his situation, during which his thoughts turn to his parents and a former girlfriend, culminate in his life or death decision to extricate himself. Aron Ralston's story is a remarkable one, and so is Danny Boyle's film of it and James Franco's astonishing performance in the very demanding leading role.
This isn't a film for the squeamish, given the lengths to which Aron is eventually driven to free himself - but it's a consummate piece of film craft thanks to the work of all concerned, especially cinematographers Anthony Dod Mantle and Enrique Chediak. As a follow-up to SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, 127 HOURS shows Danny Boyle at the top of his form - it's not a story many filmmakers would want to tackle, and few would handle it as well.
Thursday 14th April
Classification: M Duration: 119 mins Genre: Adventure - Drama Director: Peter Weir Country: USA Release date: 24/02/2011
After an absence of years since his film Master and Commander in 2003, Peter Weir is back with THE WAY BACK the
story of a long and gruelling journey from a Siberian Gulag to freedom in India, a voyage of some 4000 miles, all of it on
foot.
Janusz, JIM STURGESS, is a Polish cavalry officer who is sent to Siberia on trumped up charges of betraying the Party and spying for the enemy. The chances of survival in the camp are slim. He decides to escape with Mr. Smith, ED HARRIS, an American who was arrested in Russia, with Valka, COLIN FARRELL, a hardened criminal from Moscow, and three others. The country may be beautiful but it's harsh.
Avoiding settlements or any encounters with locals because there is a bounty on any escapee's head, they meet up with a young woman Irene, SOAIRSE RONAN, and suspiciously at first they let her accompany them.
Supposedly based on a true account this is an experiential film where you feel every one of those steps, through snow, over mountains, around Lake Baikal and eventually through the Gobi Desert to Tibet. Exhausting. The landscapes have been beautifully captured by Russell Boyd. It's an uncompromising film, necessarily episodic in its depiction of the group's quest for survival, but mesmerizingly involving.
Thursday 31st March
Rated: Unrated Duration: 120 mins Genre: Comedy Director: Billy Wilder Country: USA (English)
Release date: 29/03/1959
Some Like It Hot has been acclaimed worldwide as one of the greatest films ever made. It won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Comedy. Marilyn Monroe won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in Musical or Comedy, and Jack Lemmon for Best Actor in Musical or Comedy.
Two struggling musicians (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon) witness the St. Valentine's Day Massacre and try to find a way out of the city before they are found and killed by the mob. The only job that will pay their way is an all girl band so the two dress up as women, but further complications set in. In addition to hiding, one falls for another band member but can't tell her his gender, and the other has a rich suitor who will not take "No," for an answer.
Thursday, 17th March
Classification: M Genre: Drama Director: Gilles Paquet Brenner Cast: Kristin Scott Thomas, Melusine Mayance, Niels Arestrup, Frederic Pierrot, Michel Duchaussoy Country: France (English subtitles) Release date: 23/12/2010
Sarah's Key is based on the novel of fiction by French author Tatiana DeRosnay. Kristin Scott Thomas plays an American journalist, Julia Armand, living in Paris, writing for an English language current affairs magazine. She is on the brink of making big life decisions regarding her marriage and her unborn child. What begins as research for an article about the Vel'd'Hiv Roundup of Jews by French authorities in 1942 ends as a journey towards self discovery as she stumbles upon a terrible secret and discovers the heartbreaking story of a Jewish family forced out of their
home, a home that she now lives in. As she starts to see, live, and breathe through Sarah (Melsuine Mayance), the eldest daughter, her world is turned upside down.
Filmmaker Gilles Paquet‐Brenner keeps the tension high by telling the story of the past intercut with Julia's journey of discovery in the present and maintains the two parallel stories with equally compelling regard. Kristen Scott Thomas holds the film together with a superb performance.
Great site to find movie reviews www.rottentomatoes.com
Kath Film Society are kicking off their 2011 film season with a fantastic Chinese action thriller
Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame.
Thursday March 3rd, Drinks at 7pm, Film starts 7:30pm, Katherine Cinemas
David Stratton, ABC at the movies;
"I havnt enjoyed a martial arts film as much as this since Crouchin Tiger Hidden Dragon"
Rated: M Genre:Action/Thriller Director: Tsui Hark Lead Actor: Andy Law Cast: Carina Lau, Li Bingbing Screenplay: Chang Chia-Lu Language: Chinese
In the year 689 AD, Wu Zetian, CARINA LAU, is about to take the throne as China's first Empress, and a gigantic statue of buddha is being constructed at the royal palace to commemorate the event. But when two high-ranking court officials spontaneously combust, the Empress decides to free De Renjie, ANDY LAU, who she imprisoned eight years earlier for criticising her ambition to become Empress, and place him in charge of the investigation. Detective Dee, aided by Bei Donglai, a rather mysterious court official, and lovely Jing'er, soon finds himself immersed in a baffling mystery.
There really was a character called Di - he was an official during the Tang Dynasty, and he's been immortalised in crime novels and a tv series as a sort of 7th Century Chinese Hercule Poirot. In this hugely entertaining and extremely spectacular martial arts mystery, which has been consummately directed by veteran Tsui Hark, he's saddled with a strange case that seems to compound the mysteries as it proceeds.
With its amazingly elaborate sets, CGI effects that, for once, are truly spectacular, and an entertaining, lucidly told and enthralling yarn at its centre, this is one of the most enjoyable films of this type I've seen in ages.
Review from David Stratton - http://www.abc.net.au/atthemovies/txt/s3005047.htm