June Film Club #2

Our second film in our Summer Series comes to us from Winnipeg, MB, Canada, director Guy Maddin's weird and wonderful The Saddest Music in the World.

The Saddest Music in the World is a 2003 Canadian film directed by Guy Maddin. Maddin and co-screenwriter George Toles based the film on an original screenplay written by British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, from which they kept "the title, the premise and the contest-to determine which country's music was the saddest" but otherwise re-wrote. Like most of Maddin's films, The Saddest Music in the World is filmed in a style that imitates late 1920's and early 1930's cinema, with grainy black and white photography, slightly out of sync sound and expressionist art design. A few scenes are filmed in color, in a manner that imitates early two-strip Technicolor. The film was well received by critics. It currently holds a fresh rating of 79% on Rotten Tomatoes and Roger Ebert gave the film 3.5/4 stars saying this in his review, "So many movies travel the same weary roads. So few imagine entirely original worlds. Guy Maddin's "The Saddest Music in the World" exists in a time and place we have never seen before, although it claims to be set in Winnipeg in 1933. You have never seen a film like this before, unless you have seen other films by Guy Maddin. The more films you have seen, the more you may love "The Saddest Music in the World". It plays like satirical nostalgia for a past that never existed. The actors bring that kind of earnestness to it that seems peculiar to supercharged melodrama. You can never catch them grinning, although great is the joy of Lady Port-Huntly when she poses with her sexy new beer-filled glass legs. Nor can you catch Maddin condescending to his characters; he takes them as seriously as he possibly can, considering that they occupy a mad, strange, gloomy, absurd comedy. To see this film, to enter the world of Guy Maddin, is to understand how a film can be created entirely by its style, and how its style can create a world that never existed before, and lure us, at first bemused and then astonished, into it."

We will be meeting Thursday, June 27 at 5:30 pm

Here's a trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyAlgfHgrk0&t=17s&ab_channel=RottenTomatoesClassicTrailers

Hope to see you there!

 

June Film Club #1

 Our first film of our Summer Series: Weird and Wonderful, is David Lynch's weird and wonderful directorial debut, Eraserhead.

Eraserhead is a 1977 American surrealist body horror film written and directed by filmmaker David Lynch.  Shot in black-and-white, Eraserhead is Lynch's first feature length film, coming after several short works.  The film was produced with the assistance of the American Film Institute (AFI) during the director's time studying there.  Starring Jack Nance, Charlotte Stewart, Jeanne Bates, Judith Anna Roberts, Laurel Near, and Jack Fisk, it tells the story of Henry Spencer (Nance), who is left to care for his grossly deformed child in a desolate industrial landscape.  Throughout the film, Spencer experiences dreams or hallucinations, featuring his child and the Lady in the Radiator (Near).   Initially opening to small audiences and little interest, Eraserhead gained popularity over sever long runs as a midnight movie.

Since its release, the film has earned positive reviews.  The surrealist imagery and sexual undercurrents have been seen as key thematic elements, and the intricate sound design as its technical highlight.  In 2004, the film was preserved in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".  The film currently holds a 91% certified fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes out of 55 critical reviews and Mike D'Angelo, writing for the A.V. Club, gave it an "A" saying this of the film, "While it's certainly possible to find metaphors in Eraserhead's bizarre imagery, the film works on such an intensely visceral level that attempts to analyze it seem counterproductive.  Can any words evoke the flesh-crawling queasiness of Henry's visit to Mary's parents' house, in which he sits uncomfortably on the couch exchanging forced pleasantries with Mom while some ungodly squeaking/squelching noise threatens to drown out the dialogue?  Is it worse when the source of that sound is unknown, or is it inexplicably worse when the source is revealed and it's not the horror show conjured up by your imagination?  Then there's that infant...thing, which hits the precise amalgam of repulsion and vulnerability that's capable of ripping one's soul apart.  See Eraserhead once and it'll lodge itself firmly in some dank recess of your brain and refuse to vacate." 

We will be meeting Thursday, June 20th at 5:30pm

Here is a trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0Eq5GtCYdA&ab_channel=criterioncollection

Hope to see you there!

Summer Series: Weird and Wonderful

 Hello everyone! Summer is finally upon us! As some of you may know for the summer months of Film Club we usually expand our movie watching. Instead of one movie a month, we do two, and those are usually part of some kind of theme: genre, director, etc. Last year our theme was Directed by Wes Anderson, a spotlight on the films of director Wes Anderson. So, I decided this year to do something a little different, or rather, very different, one could almost call it, something WEIRD. This year, our theme is "Weird and Wonderful" and will feature 6 films from 6 very strange directors.

(click the titles for a trailer)

June 20-Eraserhead

June 27-The Saddest Music in the World

July 18- El Topo

July 25- The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

August 22- Even Dwarfs Started Small

August 29- Stalker

That is the lineup for the summer. I will have individual posts and booklets available for each film, each month. Stay tuned!

Hope to see you there!

May Film Club

 For the month of May, we will be watching George Miller's Three Thousand Years of Longing.

Three Thousand Years of Longing is a 2022 fantasy romantic drama film directed and produced by George Miller. Written by Miller and Augusta Gore, it is based on the 1994 short story "The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye" by A.S. Byatt and follows a djinn (Idris Elba) who is unleashed from a bottle by a professor (Tilda Swinton) and tells her stories from his thousands of years of existence.

The film holds a 71% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and Glenn Kenny, writing for Rogerebert.com, gave it a 3.5/4 stars saying this in his review, "The tales told by the Djinn are packed with hair-raising violence and extremely variegated landscapes of lust. It's a chronicle of how love and hate can make one do funny things. And about the paradox of being human, our intrepid selves and our shadow selves. So much human achievement is depicted here, and so much human atrocity. As is observed near the end of the picture, "Despite all the whiz-bang, we remain befuddled." 

I hope that you will be able to make it out for this interesting film. We will be meeting Thursday, May 23rd at 5:30pm.

Here's a trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWGvntl9itE&ab_channel=MGM

Hope to see you there!

April Film Club

 Hey everyone! Since April is my birthday month, I generally pick one of my favorite movies for us to watch. This time around we will be watching the utterly bizarre Borgman by Dutch director, Alex van Warmerdam. I think it will get us ready for our Summer Series: Directors of the Weird and Wonderful.

Borgman is a 2013 Dutch psychological thriller drama film directed by Alex van Warmerdam. The film follows a vagrant as he and his team turn the lives of arrogant upper-class people into a psychological nightmare. It currently holds an 87% on Rotten Tomatoes and Brian Tallerico, writing for Rogerebert.com, gave it 3/4 stars saying this in his review, "Van Warmerdam is clearly commenting on class issues, however, the social commentary feels like background more than thematic centerpiece. He is way more interested in mood, malevolence, and the general sense of unease that permeates every frame of "Borgman". Like a religious parable designed to present more questions than answers, "Borgman" can sometimes frustrate but it is an accomplished piece of work, driven by a uniquely malevolent tonal balance and two fantastic central performances. It sometimes simmers when I wish it would boil over but damn if it isn't fascinating to watch the water bubble."

We will be meeting Thursday, April 25th at 5:30pm

Here's a trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85Tgt-qAdJM&ab_channel=FilmIsNowMovies

Hope to see you there!

March Film Club

 Happy March everyone! In keeping with past Film Club tradition, I have tried to find a film that is in some part Irish, whether its actors, director, writer, setting, etc. and for this year I have chosen John Crowley's Brooklyn.

Brooklyn is a 2015 romantic period drama film directed by John Crowley and written by Nick Hornby, based on the 2009 novel of the same name by Colm Toibin. A co-production between the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Canada, it stars Saoirse Ronan in the lead role, with Emory Cohen, Domhnall Gleeson, Jim Broadbent, and Julie Walters in supporting roles. The plot follows Eilis Lacey, a young Irishwoman who emigrates to Brooklyn in the early 1950s to find employment. After building a life there, she is drawn back to her home town of Enniscorthy and has to choose where she wants to forge her future. 

It currently holds a certified fresh rating of 97% on Rotten Tomatoes and Glenn Kenny, writing for Rogerebert.com, gave the film 4/4 stars saying this in his review, "The persistent feeling that this movie so beautifully creates is that even when the world is bestowing blessings upon us, it's still at the bottom a sad place, and the key to an emotionally healthy existence involves some rooted acceptance of that. The movie ends with Eilis having made some substantial steps to that accepting place, and also determined to move purposefully forward. People have spoken about how understated and old-fashioned "Brooklyn" is, to the extent that it might come across as a pleasant innocuous entertainment. Don't be fooled. "Brooklyn" is not toothless. But it is big-hearted, romantic and beautiful."

We will be meeting Thursday, Mar. 28 at 5:30 pm

Here's a trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15syDwC000k

Hope to see you there!

February Film Club

 Hey it's February already! Hopefully we're all done with the snow and negative weather, bring on the spring! For the month of February, I've decided to show the Coen Brothers' O Brother, Where Art Thou?

O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a 2000 satirical comedy-drama film written, produced, co-edited, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. It stars George Clooney, John Turturro, and Tim Blake Nelson, with Chris Thomas King, John Goodman, Holly Hunter, and Charles Durning in supporting roles. The film is set in rural Mississippi during the 1930s, and it follows three escaped convicts searching for hidden treasure while a sheriff relentlessly pursues them. Its story is a modern satire which, while incorporating social features of the American South, is loosely based on Homer's epic Greek poem the Odyssey.
The film currently holds a certified fresh rating of 78% on Rotten Tomatoes and Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian said this in his review, "O Brother, Where Art Thou? has brio, wit, and style, and the whole picture is air-cushioned with appealing comedy and its own unassuming good nature. Simply: this is a film which is impossible to dislike, and moves with an easy, approachable swing through the bleached and steaming landscape of bluegrass Mississippi, with its ornery confidence men and cracker-barrel politicians. It is made with marvelous clarity and fluency, and Joel and Ethan Coen attain a comic simplicity that other film-makers can only dream of."

We will be meeting Thursday, Feb. 22 at 5:30 pm

Here's a trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9UlbxlM5nE

Hope to see you there!