T H U R S D A Y 1 3 A U G U S T -
W E D N E S D A Y 1 9 A UG U S T 2 0 2 6
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The Wellington Film Society takes a break during the annual NZIFF,
and returns Monday 7 September at 6.00pm and 8.30pm with the rescheduled :
THE QUIET EARTH Geoff Murphy, New Zealand, 1985
A powerful study of loneliness, the film hinges on Bruno Lawrence's understated but profoundly sympathetic performance. Zac is just complex and unreasonable enough to remain interesting when doing nothing whilst remaining someone most people in the audience will be able to identify with. At the time of release, when most films in the genre featured assertive, traditionally masculine men, his ordinariness had a profound appeal, and Lawrence always makes him feel real... The great strength of this film is not in anything technical or visually spectacular (both these elements are used sparingly) but in its human focus. The simplicity of its structure and core idea mean that it has aged much better than most of its peers, and unlike most similarly high concept films, it doesn't fall apart at the end but successfully ups the ante. Most of the cinematography is low key, so that when it wants to dazzle it can easily do so, and Geoff Murphy is a director who understands that less is often more. The quietness with the film lets it build up tension stealthily, putting Murphy in complete control, until the clamour of what is unspoken builds to a crescendo.
- Jennie Kermode, Eye For Film.
Members only.
Film Society Memberships are available at any time on line.
Film Festivals to note:
The annual NZIFF starts this week and runs to 23 August (encores 24 - 29 August) at The Embassy, Roxy, Light House Cuba and Petone, and the Massey University Screen Arts Cinema. The programme can be found on-line and in print at all the usual places around town. Bookings on-line and at the respective cinemas (some restrictions apply).
If you have a festival due to run in Wellington and it's not listed here, contact the Cinemaster.
This site relies on the various cinemas having their own websites up to date to access their screening times.
The paragraphs describing the films starting this week are in most cases adapted from the linked reviews.
For comments and movie news, contact the Cinemaster at
filmster@gmail.com.
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s t a r t s t h i s w e e k!
THE END OF OAK STREET -
There is a whole heap of Amblin nostalgia being mined here: it's like a goofy Jurassic Park in E.T.'s suburban setting and with Elliott's fractured family.
The dinosaurs are super-scary, well-delivered and make this a memorable - if insanely bonkers - action movie containing some memorably surprising shifts of gear.
Also Roxy, Queensgate, Monterey, Reading and Coastlands.
NZ International Film Festival -
This annual festivel runs till 23 August (encores 24 - 29 August). Artistic Director Paolo Bertolin, in his introduction to the printed programme. hopes the audience will experience the films on offer with the love, laughter and a few tears on offer at this beautifully different event. You will find the daily schedule in the "Reviews' tab on the regular cinemas listings.
Also Roxy, Lighthouse Cuba and Petone, and Massey University Screen Arts Cinema.
DE GAULLE: TILTING IRON -
Antonin Baudry's loud and proud biographical drama about the exiled wartime leader and later French president Charles de Gaulle, goes big whenever the opportunity arises. Distinctly old-fashioned and unsubtle - and often as brash and overbearing as Volker Bertelmann's score - it has some strengths as an uncomplicated historical spectacle. From the French Film Festival.
Also Lighthouse and Shoreline.
HITLER'S BIG FEAR -
This outlines the bleak time in 1937, where artists including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Marc Chagall, had works destroyed, labelled degenerate for not aligning with Aryan ideals. Directed by Simona Risi and framed by the recent exhibit at the Musee Picasso in Paris, this powerful documentary makes for a compelling watch.
Also Lighthouse and Shoreline.
ONE NIGHT ONLY -
Rom-com king Will Gluck's latest effort has handily proven that he can make a sharp, sweet, genuinely funny romantic comedy. Two New Yorkers find themselves single and, avoiding a simmering attraction to each other, decide to team up to find partners together. This is a high-concept, patently absurd comedy that defies the odds and makes you fall in love with it.
Also Lighthouse Petone, Queensgate, Monterey, Reading and Coastlands.
STOP! THAT! TRAIN! -
Adam Shankman directs this campy descendant of Airplane! and its movie-parody stepchildren, about a runaway high-speed passenger train headed into the path of a "stormaganza". Shankman keeps a steady hand on the wheel, no doubt comfortable in the knowledge that if a one-liner or slapstick bit misses the mark, there will be a bunch more to follow.
Also Lighthouse Petone, Queensgate, Monterey, Reading and Coastlands.
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