New release – Phoenix

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Directed by Christian Petzold, Germany 2014.

Screening from Friday May 15th till Thursday May 21st, every evening.
A Leeds Movie Fans Meetup is happening at the 6pm screening on Monday 18th

Phoenix

Friends will probably be familiar with the director Christian Petzold and star Nina Hoss from their excellent earlier films Yella (2008) and Barbara (2012). Phoenix offers the same absorbing and entertaining play on a familiar genre, the world of noir, here set in post-war Berlin. The Guardian review was rather lukewarm including the suggestion that the plot was implausible. This misses the point of Petzold’s films: they appear naturalistic but they are not primarily realist. Thus, Yella is a ghost story: Barbara is set in East Germany, but it is the DDR from film dramas.

Shortly after the end of the war and the liberation of the concentration camps Nelly returns to Berlin to seek out her previous life and her friends and family. Nina Hoss plays Nelly with real verve and is ably supported by Ronald Zehrfeld (also in Barbara) as Johnny and Nina Kuzendorf as Lena.

The Phoenix in the title is a night-club for troops of the allied occupation. One of the pleasures of the film is its use of the ‘lieder’ from Berlin’s popular musical culture. There is a particular skilful play with songs by Kurt Weill.

The film builds to a gripping and likely unexpected climax. Endings are often a let-down in many contemporary films: Phoenix and its cast deliver with superb aplomb.

 

Au Revoir Les Enfants

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Directed by Louis Malle, France, 1987
Screening on Sunday 17th May at 3.30p.m as part of the Friends AGM.
Poster-of-Au-revoir-les-enfants_non-dated_equad

This is in many ways the most personal film of the distinguished French filmmaker Louis Malle. The basic story is taken from experiences in his early years during World War II.

What happened in January 1944 was instrumental in my decision to become a filmmaker. It’s hard to explain, but it was such a shock that it took me several years to get over it, to try and understand it – and, of course, there was no way I could understand it. What happened was so appalling and so fundamentally opposed to the values that we were being taught that I concluded that there was something wrong with the world, and I started becoming very rebellious.

The film is set in a boarding school in occupied France, rather like the one that Malle actually attended. The film develops a narrative depicting a tragic chain of events, but as he recalls, one that was traumatic for the participants as well as the victims.

Malle started out in filmmaking in the 1950s. Even for a noted European director he has worked in unusually wide variety of industries and settings: in France, but also in the UK, in North America and on documentaries made in Asia. Malle comments that he had three great passions: Music, Literature and Film. The role of music in his work is exemplified by the marvellous score improvised by Miles Davis for his first feature, Lift to the Scaffold (Ascenseur pour l’echafaud, 1957). A good example of the contribution of literature is in the very fine Vanya on 42nd Street (1994) with its exploration of and homage to Anton Chekhov. Film itself crops up regularly: in today’s feature there is a sequence when the school students watch old movies:

…it was in the following years that they showed films in the school on Sundays, that’s when I saw the first Chaplin shorts. They were projected in this strange format that was rather popular in the late 1930s and 1940w, the 9.5 mm, which had a perforation in the centre – a terrible invention. Chaplin was forbidden during the war by the Germans, not only because he was Jewish but also because he’d made The Great Dictator. But his films, I was told, were still being shown, very discreetly, in schools and cine clubs. It was one of the great memories of my childhood, those Sunday evening, we’d darken the room, there’d be a white sheet, and everyone would sit and watch those films. I chose The Immigrant because, first, it was one of the great ones, and second, it was an evocation of freedom for those Jewish children when they see the Statue of Liberty, America being the Promised Land.

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Nominations For The Committee

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There are still a few days left to nominate someone to join our committee and become a trustee of the Friends. If you do not know anyone within the Friends and would like to be considered for the committee yourself, please contact us so we can discuss things further.

All nominations must be received by Sunday 3rd May, two weeks before the AGM.

We will be looking for a new Treasurer this year as sadly our long term treasurer and founding member of the Friends, Xavier Chevillard, moved to Belgium in December of last year. Additional information on the responsibilities of a trustee can be found here.

Hello Friend

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As the Picture House starts thinking about the next 100 years, the Friends committee thought it was about time to have it’s own website — and here it is. Over the last few months we’ve been thinking about how we can best use this site and we’d love to hear your thoughts. For now we’ll be bringing you news from the committee such as details of the AGM, previews of films and encouraging you to get involved with other members who regularly meet up at the Picture House.

Fruit of Paradise

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(Ovoce stromu rajských jime), Czechoslovakia/Belgium, 1970.
Thursday 30th April 7:00pm at The Hyde Park Picture House

Fruit Paradise

This avant-garde classic comes courtesy of the Czech National Film Archive and the Czech Centre in London where film buffs have enjoyed a major retrospective of the work of Vera Chytilová. She was one of the outstanding filmmakers in the Czech New Wave and, whilst she rejected the label of feminist, an important female director in times when they were even rarer than at the present.

The Czech New Wave was notable for its observational approach to cinema: an important influence on our own Ken Loach. And the filmmakers were also drawn to unconventional techniques and forbidden topics. The later led to regular attempts to ban or censor films, something that afflicted Fruit of Paradise. Following on from this film Chytilová became a ‘non-film person’ for six years.

But there has also always been a strong surrealist strand in Czech art and film. Since the 1930s Prague has been an important centre for this movement, tying in to a longer tradition of mannerism. Jan Švankmajer is certainly the most important surrealist filmmaker in the contemporary world.

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AGM 2015

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Sunday 17th May at The Hyde Park Picture House

The Annual General Meeting is an opportunity for members to meet and find out what’s been happening within the Friends and at the cinema in general as well as our plans for the future. It is also an opportunity for members to have their say. And there’s a buffet. Which is always worth mentioning.

Members are invited to start arriving from 12.45pm for a 1pm start.

  1. Register of attendance and apologies. Please bring your membership card along and show it upon arrival at the Picture House.
  2. Minutes of 2014 AGM (to be mailed out to members nearer the time of the AGM) including matter arising.
  3. An update on the application to register as a charity.
  4. Chair’s Report
  5. Treasurer’s Report
  6. Election of committee and officers
  7. Report of the General Manager of the Picture House and an opportunity for questions from Members.
  8. Any Other Business

The meeting will be drawn to a close around 2.30pm and members are invited to join us for a buffet followed by a screening at 3.30pm of Louis Malle’s 1987 drama AU REVOIR LES ENFANTS about a French boarding school which seems to be a haven from World War II until a new student arrives. He becomes the roommate and rival of natural leader Julien but a special bond quickly forms and a secret is shared.