Rat Trap
The Round-up
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders
White Heat
End of the Rainbow
Life After the Fall
Hotel Very Welcome
The Aerial Ma, made it -top of the world!
We have worked very hard to become a venue for the annual Bath Film Festival. Thanks to the efforts of our Lettings Officer and the cooperation of the BFF we are hosting 8 films this year! The quote, of course, is James Cagney's famous line from White Heat. For more information on the Bath Film Festival go to: http://www.bathfilmfestival.org/
Rat-Trap (Elippathayam)
Adoor Gopalakrishnan
India 1981 116m PG
Friday 31 October, 6.30pm £4 / £3
with: Karamana, Sarada, Jalaja, Rajam K. Nair
Arguably the true heir to Satyajit Ray, Gopalakrishnan is one of India’s most outstanding filmmakers and Rat-Trap was the first film to bring him widespread international acclaim. Remarkable for its focus on characterization and detail, Rat-Trap is set in rural Kerala. Its story concerns Unni, the last male-heir of a feudal and decaying family. His inability to accept the socio-economic changes of a new society result in his gradual withdrawal into a metaphorical rat-trap sprung from his own isolation and paranoia. The decline is vividly told, with striking use of colour and music. ‘A brilliant character study’ - Sight & Sound. Winner of 1982 British Film Institute award for ‘the most original and imaginative film of the year’, Rat-Trap kicks off our Second Run Season. Sponsored by The Eastern Eye.
Adoor Gopalakrishnan
India 1981 116m PG
Friday 31 October, 6.30pm £4 / £3
with: Karamana, Sarada, Jalaja, Rajam K. Nair
Arguably the true heir to Satyajit Ray, Gopalakrishnan is one of India’s most outstanding filmmakers and Rat-Trap was the first film to bring him widespread international acclaim. Remarkable for its focus on characterization and detail, Rat-Trap is set in rural Kerala. Its story concerns Unni, the last male-heir of a feudal and decaying family. His inability to accept the socio-economic changes of a new society result in his gradual withdrawal into a metaphorical rat-trap sprung from his own isolation and paranoia. The decline is vividly told, with striking use of colour and music. ‘A brilliant character study’ - Sight & Sound. Winner of 1982 British Film Institute award for ‘the most original and imaginative film of the year’, Rat-Trap kicks off our Second Run Season. Sponsored by The Eastern Eye.
The Round-Up (Szegenylegenyek)
Miklus Jancsu
Hungary / USSR 1965 87m 15
Friday 31 October, 8.50pm £4 / £3
with: Jnos Grbe, Zoltn Latinovits, Tibor Moln·r, Bela Barsi
A profound influence on filmmakers from Sergio Leone to Bela Tarr, one of Sight & Sound’s ‘Best 365 Films of All Time’, The Round-Up is widely acknowledged as a supreme masterpiece. Set in a detention camp in Hungary 1869, at a time of guerrilla campaigns against the ruling Austrians, Jancsu deliberately avoids conventional heroics to focus on the persecution and dehumanization manifest in a time of conflict. Master of the long sweeping take, he continually implies action beyond the frame, creating dazzlingly choreographed sequences of images. Filmed in Hungary’s desolate plains, Jancsu summons a terrifying picture of the abuse of power that once seen is unforgettable. We are delighted that through the auspices of Second Run we can present a film by this titan of world cinema for the first time since the inaugural Bath Film Festival in 1991. Sub-titles.
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Valerie a tyden divu)
Jaromil Jires
Czechoslovakia 1970 73m 15
Friday 31 October, 10.45pm £4 / £3
with: Jaroslava Schallerov, Helena Anyzov, Petr Kopriva, Jiri Prymek
One of the last films of the Czech ‘New Wave’, and one of the most influential fantasies ever made, Valerie is an intoxicating gothic fable about a 13 year-old girl beset by bizarre erotic dreams in which she is constantly pursued by a sinister array of lecherous authority figures, set against a backdrop of bacchanalian revelries. Schallerov, (13 at the time) gives an extraordinary performance, effortlessly expressing the confusion, anxieties, and wonders of a girl at the onset of womanhood. Mixing horror, fairytale, surrealism and Freudian symbolism, it’s another wonder that the film was ever made in a climate of Soviet suppression! Jires manages to successfully combine the ethereal with the grotesque (think Alice in Wonderland meets Nosferatu). Add breathtaking visuals and a remarkable score and ‘its overall effect is stunning’ - Time Out. Second Run Season. Sub-titles
White Heat
Raoul Walsh
USA 1949 112m PG
Saturday 1 November, 7.30pm £4 / £3
with: James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O’Brien
Some film images are (or should be) etched on the collective retina of cinema audiences. James Cagney’s Cody Jarrett standing on top of the gas tanks, shooting wildly and screaming “Made it, Ma - top of the world!” is one such image. It is the closing scene of this, one of Warners’ greatest ever films, featuring Cagney’s triumph of acting genius. This dumpy middle-aged man dominates the screen from start to finish as the psychotic mother-fixated gangster who is an unstoppable force of dynamic malice. The story itself is relatively routine; cop works from the inside to try to bring down the bad guy. What makes the film so memorable is the sheer uninhibited madness of Cagney’s character and the way everyone else in the film wilts under his glare.
Jaromil Jires
Czechoslovakia 1970 73m 15
Friday 31 October, 10.45pm £4 / £3
with: Jaroslava Schallerov, Helena Anyzov, Petr Kopriva, Jiri Prymek
One of the last films of the Czech ‘New Wave’, and one of the most influential fantasies ever made, Valerie is an intoxicating gothic fable about a 13 year-old girl beset by bizarre erotic dreams in which she is constantly pursued by a sinister array of lecherous authority figures, set against a backdrop of bacchanalian revelries. Schallerov, (13 at the time) gives an extraordinary performance, effortlessly expressing the confusion, anxieties, and wonders of a girl at the onset of womanhood. Mixing horror, fairytale, surrealism and Freudian symbolism, it’s another wonder that the film was ever made in a climate of Soviet suppression! Jires manages to successfully combine the ethereal with the grotesque (think Alice in Wonderland meets Nosferatu). Add breathtaking visuals and a remarkable score and ‘its overall effect is stunning’ - Time Out. Second Run Season. Sub-titles
White Heat
Raoul Walsh
USA 1949 112m PG
Saturday 1 November, 7.30pm £4 / £3
with: James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O’Brien
Some film images are (or should be) etched on the collective retina of cinema audiences. James Cagney’s Cody Jarrett standing on top of the gas tanks, shooting wildly and screaming “Made it, Ma - top of the world!” is one such image. It is the closing scene of this, one of Warners’ greatest ever films, featuring Cagney’s triumph of acting genius. This dumpy middle-aged man dominates the screen from start to finish as the psychotic mother-fixated gangster who is an unstoppable force of dynamic malice. The story itself is relatively routine; cop works from the inside to try to bring down the bad guy. What makes the film so memorable is the sheer uninhibited madness of Cagney’s character and the way everyone else in the film wilts under his glare.
End of the Rainbow
Robert Nugent
France, Australia 2007 83m nc
Thursday 6 November, 7.30pm £4 / £3
A large multi-national company is building a gold mine in a poor, remote area of Guinea, West Africa. As massive industrial equipment is erected amongst the mud huts the locals are positive about the changes, but their hopes turn to anger and despair as conflicts over the mine escalate. The military are called in as villagers are forced to relocate and are suspected of trespassing and panning for gold. End of the Rainbow is an elegiac essay on modern day colonization. Never didactic or judgemental, Nugent allows the changing landscape to present a story of human struggle and transformation. Strong imagery, reminiscent of Salgado’s epic photographs, coupled with Orwellian-type scenes make this an unforgettable film. ‘Observational film making at its very best.’ - Angus Macqueen, former Head of Documentaries, Channel 4.
Life After the Fall
Kasim Abid
UK, Iraq 2008 100m PG
Friday 7 November, 7.30pm £4 / £3
with: the family of Kasim Abid
Kasim Abid returns to Baghdad after 30 years in exile. After being reunited with his family he decides to chronicle their lives on film. Shot over four years, this intimate documentary has the feel of a home movie. We get to know Kasim’s sister who is worried about sending her son on the bus to school, his brother who waits for hours in petrol queues, his bright young nieces who are desperate to further their education. As well as a unique insight into everyday life from an Iraqi perspective rarely touched on by the western media, Life After the Fall presents a personal story as metaphor for the state of a nation. We are thrilled that director Kasim Abid will be present in person to take questions after the screening. Documentary.
Hotel Very Welcome
Sonia Heiss
Germany, Thailand 2007 89m PG
Saturday 8 November, 2.30pm £4 / £3
with: Chris O’Dowd, Sonja Heiss’ first feature is a funny and brilliant docu-style portrayal of 5 Westerners travelling across the well-trodden paths of Asia. The chaotic Liam has gone AWOL in Goa to escape impending fatherhood back in Ireland; two other Brits - Josh and Adam – are chancing it and falling out in Thailand; German yoga-retreatist Marion reflects on life and relationships while Svenja attempts to escape her Bangkok hotel room. Hotel Very Welcome tests the ‘finding yourself’ shibboleth with hilarious precision! ‘Sonja Heiss shows real promise for lightly comic, observational filmmaking.’ - Derek Elley, Variety.
Showing with: Flighty Leigh Hodgkinson, 2007, 1m. Finding ‘the one’ isn’t easy: just ask the butterflies in this clever animation. Milan Michaela Kezele, Serbia/Germany, 2007, 8’. In the midst of the 1999 NATO air raids in Yugoslavia, two brothers make plans to play hide and seek in the forest.
Sonia Heiss
Germany, Thailand 2007 89m PG
Saturday 8 November, 2.30pm £4 / £3
with: Chris O’Dowd, Sonja Heiss’ first feature is a funny and brilliant docu-style portrayal of 5 Westerners travelling across the well-trodden paths of Asia. The chaotic Liam has gone AWOL in Goa to escape impending fatherhood back in Ireland; two other Brits - Josh and Adam – are chancing it and falling out in Thailand; German yoga-retreatist Marion reflects on life and relationships while Svenja attempts to escape her Bangkok hotel room. Hotel Very Welcome tests the ‘finding yourself’ shibboleth with hilarious precision! ‘Sonja Heiss shows real promise for lightly comic, observational filmmaking.’ - Derek Elley, Variety.
Showing with: Flighty Leigh Hodgkinson, 2007, 1m. Finding ‘the one’ isn’t easy: just ask the butterflies in this clever animation. Milan Michaela Kezele, Serbia/Germany, 2007, 8’. In the midst of the 1999 NATO air raids in Yugoslavia, two brothers make plans to play hide and seek in the forest.
The Aerial (La Antena)
Esteban Sapir
Argentina 2007 90m PG
Saturday 8 November, 7.30pm £4 / £3
with: Valeria Bertuccelli, Alejandro Urdapilleta, Sol Moreno
An undisclosed city at an undisclosed time. Many things seem familiar in this monochrome, silent, beautifully-realised allegory, but there are as many which are exotic and unfathomable. The inhabitants have all lost the ability to sound words - they communicate with each other (and with us) via inter-titular exclamations on the screen. The local despot Mr TV has robbed them of this badge of individuality. It’s felt that salvation lies with a singer and her blind son who retains the power of speech, but Mr TV’s heavies are determined that he will not speak out. There’s a stifling sense of peering into an hermetically sealed parallel universe in watching La Antena. It’s a stylish tour de force of silent movie homage and anti-authoritarian fable, quite unlike anything you’ll have seen before. Bath debut.
