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| Waitati Film Society | ||
Waitati
Film Society 2012 Season screens Tuesdays at 8:00 pm |
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Mar 6, 8.00pm: Mildred Pierce | More... |
| Michael Curtiz, USA 1945, DV. PG low level violence | ||
| Joan Crawford won her only Oscar for the title role, as a single mother who toils her way from waitress to successful businesswoman to provide for her spoilt and ungrateful daughter. Director Michael Curtiz followed up the success of Casablanca with this melodramatic noir adaptation of James M Cain’s notoriously racy novel. | ||
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Mar 20, 8.00pm: The Postman Always Rings Twice | More... |
| Tay Garnett, USA 1946, DV. PG adult themes | ||
| Another classic James M Cain adaptation. “More film blanc than noir, as screencombusting lovers John Garfield and Lana Turner – dressed more for Park Avenue than the greasy spoon she slings hash in – plot to do away with her nice but old husband.” – Film Forum | ||
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Apr 3, 8.00pm: Walkabout | More... |
| Nicolas Roeg, Australia 1971, DV. PG cert | ||
| A fable-like story of a teenage girl and her young brother stranded in the Australian outback. “It’s that rare thing, the intellectually haunting film – the movie that doesn't shock with its gore or stun with its violence so much as work its way beneath your senses to terrify with a realization about our species and ourselves that we'd rather not admit is true.” – New York Sun | ||
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Apr 17, 8.00pm: Wake in Fright | More... |
| Ted Kotcheff, Australia 1971, DV. R16 cert | ||
| “This gritty classic follows the increasingly off-kilter journey of a very proper and uptight teacher whose one night in the outback turns into a shattering hallucination of gambling, drinking and brutality… Controversial and groundbreaking… One of the great beacons of Australian cinema.” – ACMI | ||
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May 1, 8.00pm: Last Train Home | More... |
| Gui tu lie chie, Fan Lixin, Canada/China 2009, DV | ||
| “The mind-boggling notion of 130 million Chinese migrant workers making their way home from inhospitable industrial cities to impoverished villages once each year gets a human face in Lixin Fan’s extraordinary, vital documentary… Essential viewing.” – Entertainment Weekly | ||
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May 15, 8.00pm: La Strada | More... |
| Federico Fellini, Italy 1954, DV. M adult themes | ||
The film that made Fellini a household name. Anthony Quinn is a force of nature as the itinerant circus strongman who buys an affection-starved waif (Fellini’s muse Giulietta Masina) from her poverty-stricken family. “The cornerstone of Fellini’ s work.” – Martin Scorsese |
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May 29, 8.00pm: The Garden of the Finzi-Continis | More... |
| Il giardino dei Finzi Contini, Vittorio De Sica, Italy 1970, DV. PG cert | ||
This late-career triumph from Bicycle Thieves director Vittorio De Sica follows the lives of two Jewish families in the years leading up to World War II. “An autumnal work in two senses – the subject is the last golden flash of freedom before one of history's major tragedies… De Sica’ s final great work.” – Bright Lights Film Journal |
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Jun 5, 8.00pm: Hamlet | More... |
| S. Gade & H. Schall, Germany 1921, DV. censirs rating tbc | ||
| Legendary Danish actress Asta Nielsen produced and starred in this gender-bending version of Hamlet in which the Prince of Denmark is a girl brought up as a boy. Nielsen’s “body language as Hamlet is as self-aware as Tilda Swinton maneuvering between sexes in Orlando.” – NotComing.com. Polychrome-tinted 2007 restoration from the German Film Institute. | ||
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Jun 12, 8.00pm: Return of the Prodigal Son | More... |
| Navrat ztraceneho syna, Ewald Schorm, Czechoslovakia 1966, 16mm. GA | ||
| Rarely seen Czech gem by little-known filmmaker Ewald Schorm, whose work echoes that of his contemporaries Antonioni and Bergman. This film nervously probes into the damaged psyche of an architect who has been admitted to a psychiatric hospital after attempting suicide. | ||
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Jun 19, 8.00pm: Plug & Pray | More... |
| Jens Schanze, Germany 2010, DV | ||
| “The deeply fascinating and occasionally frightening future of artificial intelligence is the focus of this globe-trotting report on the state of things in the field. Among others, futurist Ray Kurzweil and computer pioneer Joseph Weizenbaum consider whether man really can go beyond biology.” – Vancouver IFF | ||
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Jun 26, 8.00pm: Rachel | More... |
| Simone Bitton, France 2009, DV | ||
| This intelligent, layered documentary puts the Gaza Strip death of American peace activist Rachel Corrie in the context of a new generation of globalised activists crossing the world to put themselves in harm’s way. “Simone Bitton again proves that she is one of the finest contemporary documentarians.” – Screendaily | ||
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Jul 3, 8.00pm: Buddha's Lost Children | More... |
| Mark Verkerk, The Netherlands 2006, DV. PG violence | ||
| “An exquisite and tranquil documentary about a Thai monk and the homeless boys to whom he gives a brand new life, Buddha’s Lost Children is richly affecting on many levels… This is a beautiful and uplifting film that leaves us with a genuine sense of harmony.” – Urban Cinefile | ||
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Jul 10, 8.00pm: Addicted to Love | More... |
| Liu Hao, China 2010, DV. PG cert | ||
| “A Chinese senior citizen rediscovers the power of the heart in this beautifully observed and played film. Shunning sentimentality in favor of the earthy, downbeat but delicate feel that defined Liu Hao’s previous pics, it takes a simple premise and explores it with subtlety, sensitivity and quiet humor.” – Variety | ||
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Jul 17, 8.00pm: Ae Fond Kiss | More... |
| Ken Loach, UK 2004, DV. M sex scenes, offensive language | ||
| Pakistani DJ woos an Irish music teacher in the third film and most hopeful of Ken Loach’s Glasgow trilogy (Sweet Sixteen, My Name Is Joe). “All of Loach’s formidable strengths, which include a sense of humor, come together in the wrenching A Fond Kiss.” – LA Times | ||
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Jul 24, 8.00pm: The Strength of Water | More... |
| Armagan Ballantyne, New Zealand 2009, DV, M violence, offensive language, sex scenes | ||
| The arrival of a stranger to the remote Hokianga precipitates a terrible accident and young twins Kimi and Melody must learn to live apart. “This is a stunningly assured and original debut feature. Viewers may find themselves strangers in their own land but the experience is unforgettable.” – Herald on Sunday | ||
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Aug 14, 8.00pm: Stori Tumbuna | More... |
| Paul Wolffram, New Zealand 2011, DV | ||
| Research and traditional lore are neatly interlaced in this film by New Zealand ethnomusicologist Paul Wolffram, who spent two years recording the culture of the Lak people in the southern region of New Ireland, a remote island of the north coast of New Guinea. | ||
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Aug 21, 8.00pm: My Brother Is an Only Child | More... |
| Mio fratello è figlio unico, Daniele Luchetti, Italy 2007, DV. M violence, sexual references, offensive language | ||
| Two brothers grow up outside Rome in the sixties. One follows family tradition and becomes a Communist, the other rebels and becomes a neofascist. “Sweet and soft as a slice of panetone, My Brother Is an Only Child is exemplary family melodrama of the kind the Italians do so effortlessly.” – Time Out | ||
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Aug 28, 8.00pm: Kamran Shirdel Retrospective | More... |
| Kamran Shirdel, Iran 1965-2002, DV | ||
| A retrospective programme of five short films from Kamran Shirdel, one of the pioneers of the social-documentary in Iranian cinema. Programme features the shorts Tehran Is the Capital of Iran, Women’s Prison, The Women’s Quarter, The Night it Rained and Solitude Opus. | ||
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Sep 4, 8.00pm: Black Island, White Island | More... |
| Isla negra, isla blanca, Ventura Durall, Chile/Spain 2004, DV | ||
| This documentary explores the collaboration between the Nobel-prizewinning Chilean poet Pablo Neruda and his friend, the Catalan architect Germà Rodriguez Arias, to build and renovate four unique houses in Chile and France. The collaboration produced two very different aesthetic styles: the irrational Nerudan world on one side and Bauhaus lines and rationalism on the other. | ||
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Sep 11, 8.00pm: Paradise Now | More... |
| Hany Abu-Assas, The Netherlands/Israel 2004, DV. M adult themes | ||
| Two seemingly ordinary Palestinians are recruited as suicide bombers. “The clammy, chilly, fatal realism of this film is something you could never reproduce in another setting – Saïd and Khaled’s video testimonials were shot in a building where real bombers have documented themselves for posterity.” – Salon.com | ||
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Sep 18, 8.00pm: Five Days in September | More... |
| Barbara Willis Sweete, Canada 2005, DV. G cert | ||
| The Toronto Symphony Orchestra gets a new lease on life when new music director Peter Oundjian steps on board, and music lovers get to see a firsthand account of the creative firestorm that follows in this documentary from filmmaker Barbara Willis Sweete. “Absolutely first rate.” – Variety | ||
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Sep 25, 8.00pm: Vacation | More... |
| Ferien, Thomas Arslan, Germany 2007, 35mm & DV. censors rating tbc | ||
| “Ana, Robert and their teenage son Max plan on spending an idyllic sojourn at their remote country house. Their fragile unity is disrupted, however, when more and more members of their extended family show up to vent past resentments and reveal long-kept secrets. A serene, quietly rewarding drama.” – Seattle IFF | ||
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Oct 2, 8.00pm: Blindsight | More... |
| Lucy Walker, UK 2006, DV. PG cert | ||
| When the first blind man to climb Mt Everest, Erik Weihenmayer, challenges six blind Tibetan school children to climb its neighbour, Lhakpa Ri, failure is not an option. “A strikingly photographed doc that unfolds into a story of human achievement and a study of the East-West culture clash.” – The Times | ||
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Oct 16, 8.00pm: Mid-August Lunch | More... |
| Pranzo di ferragosto, Gianni Di Gregorio, Italy 2008, DV. PG violence | ||
| In this delicate Italian comedy a happily retired bachelor is stuck looking after his aged mother and three other old ladies while Rome empties for a long weekend. “Charming and gently hilarious featuring an extraordinary cast of elderly characters…” – Hollywood Reporter | ||
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Oct 30, 8.00pm: The Murderer Hides His Face | More... |
| Vrah skryva skoy tvar, Petr Schulhoff, Czechoslovakia 1966, 16mm. GA | ||
| Crisp black and white mystery-thriller starring the reliably odd Rudolf Hrusinsky. Three women have died, but who is the culprit? The unemployed windowdresser, the gamekeeper, the farmer or the mentally disabled boy? | ||
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Nov 13, 8.00pm: Coffee & Cigarettes | More... |
| Jim Jarmusch, USA 2003, DV.M offensive language | ||
| Bill Murray, Steve Buscemi, Iggy Pop, Tom Waits, the Wu-Tang Clan, Cate Blanchett, Steve Coogan and the White Stripes celebrate twin hipster addictions in a series of deadpan vignettes. “Way cool – and funny – in ways that more expensive comedies trying harder rarely are.” – Time | ||
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Nov 27, 8.00pm: A Mao e a luva | More... |
| Roberto Orazi, Brazil/Italy 2010, DV | ||
| The story of poet and musician Ricardo Gomes Ferraz, better known as Kcal, who has turned his house in the favela Pina in Recife, Brazil into a library for the children of his community by scrounging and collecting books for over 15 years. | ||
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Dec 11, 8.00pm: BLERTA Revisited | More... |
| Geoff Murphy, New Zealand 2001, DV. M adult themes | ||
| Bruno Lawrence’s Electric Revelation and Travelling Apparition was a changing line-up of musicians, filmmakers, lovers and hangers-on who between 1971 and 1976 toured New Zealand in a flower-powered bus. Murphy’s documentary on the group is structured to resemble one of their crazy vaudeville shows. | ||