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Click to download the Synopses are from For extensive film reviews and information go to For information on film classification go to Films are screened in the order shown, with a 15 minute interval between films. All film bookings are confirmed by the distributors, but are subject to change. For further information about the society or its programmes, contact: |
PROGRAMME FOR 2008
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 REVIEWS |
BLACK BOOK (ZWARTBOEK) Rachel Stein (Carice van Houten) is hiding in rural Holland in the final stages of the war.
When her foster home is destroyed by a bomb, she is rescued by a Resistance fighter and she meets
Mr Smaal (Dolf de Vries) a lawyer helping rich Jews escape. But the planned escape ends in slaughter,
including Rachel's family. She joins the Resistance and becomes involved with a high ranking SS officer
Ludwig Muntze (Sebastian Koch), hoping to gather useful information.
As Muntze's conscience steers him towards an unofficial cease-fire with the Resistance, his fellow officers
turn on him. Meanwhile, after a failed attempt to free Resistance fighters from the Nazi jail, Rachel is
implicated as a traitor to the Resistance and her life is at great risk, as is the life of Muntze. |
 REVIEWS |
SEPTEMBER Ed (Xavier Samuel) is white, Paddy (Clarence John Ryan) is Aboriginal and the shifting social
and political climate of Australia in the late 1960s threatens to fracture what was a rock solid friendship.
The pressure of growing from boys to men in a complex and segregated world forces them to question their
respective positions in life. They will inherit the lives of their fathers ... that is, unless one of them
does something to change their paths. |
 REVIEWS |
THE LIVES OF OTHERS In 1984 the German Democratic Republic (GDR) maintains power via the ubiquitous surveillance
operated by the Stasi, the State Secret Police, and their vast network of informers. Their goal is to know
everything about the lives of its citizens. Captain Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Muhe) is assigned by his boss
Grubitz (Ulrich Tuker) to set up surveillance of famous playwright Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch), who
lives with celebrity actress Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck). Dreyman is one of the few writers the
Stasi generally trusts not to be subversive, but no-one can be trusted. As the surveillance progresses, both
Wiesler and the artists he spies on are influenced by the system's morally untenable sensibilities. |
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5 X 2 Marion (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi) and Gilles (Stéphane Freiss) are a French couple whose
unhappy marriage is chronicled backwards through five episodes, starting with their divorce and ending
with their first encounter at an Italian seaside resort. |
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ANGEL Defiant, self centred young Angel Deverell (Romola Garai) lives with her mother (Jacqueline Tong)
above their grocery shop in a small town in early 20th century England. She is fully confident that she is a
gifted young writer and dreams of success, fame and love. When she finds a publisher for her first novel,
Theo (Sam Neill) who'll take a chance on her, her dreams begin to come true. Success quickly introduces her
to new possibilities, including the handsome Esmé (Michael Fassbender), brother to her biggest fan, Nora
(Lucy Russell). While Nora becomes her personal secretary and confidante, Esmé becomes her husband. When war
breaks out, Esmé enlists much to Angel's horror; she becomes isolated, falls ill and her life spirals out of
control. Esmé returns disabled, and his secrets destroy what's left of Angel's life. |
 REVIEWS |
ORCHESTRA SEATS Jessica (Cecile de France), a beautiful young woman from the provinces, moves to Paris and
lands a job waiting tables at a chic bistro on fabled Avenue Montaigne, the city's nexus for art, music,
theatre and fashion. Jessica's customers include a popular TV actress (Valerie Lemercier) who is courting a
Hollywood director (Sydney Pollack) for her first serious film role; a wealthy art collector (Claude Brasseur)
who is about to liquidate a lifetime's worth of treasures at auction; his disillusioned son Frederick
(Christopher Thomson); and an illustrious classical pianist (Albert Dupontel) who is at odds with his
manager/wife (Laura Morante) as to where his career is headed. Precisely because Jessica doesn't know how
celebrated these people are, her guileless engagement in their lives has a transforming effect on them -
and ultimately her. |
 REVIEWS |
AS IT IS IN HEAVEN After a breakdown, successful but lonely and tired international conductor Daniel Dareus
(Michael Myquist) interrupts his career and returns to his childhood village of Norrland, in the far north
of Sweden. He is asked to listen to the fragment of a church choir, which practises every Thursday in the
parish hall. Just come along and give a little bit of good advice. |
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THE HOME SONG STORIES Tom (Darren Yap), now in his 40s, begins to write the memoirs of his 60s childhood, as the
little boy (Joel Lok) whose mother Rose (Joan Chen), was a glamorous Shanghai nightclub singer. When Rose
meets Aussie sailor Bill (Steve Vidler), they are quickly married, and she packs up Tom and his older sister
May (Irene Chen) to head for Melbourne. The marriage just as quickly breaks up and Rose moves with the kids
to Sydney. After a succession of male friends and little success, in 1971 Rose moves back to Melbourne, in an
uncomfortable arrangement living again with Bill - and his mother. With Bill called away to sea, Rose takes
up with young Chinese cook Joe (Qi Yuwu) but despair, and conflicts over May's relationship with Joe, tear
the family further apart. Little Tom is deeply hurt, but May's ongoing conflict with her mother takes a respite
when Rose tells her daughter about her traumatic teenage years. |
 REVIEWS |
LUCKY MILES It's 1990 and an Indonesian fishing boat abandons a dozen Iraqi and Cambodian refugees on a
remote Western Australian beach, promising them that a bus over the sandhills will soon come and take them to
Perth. When the fishing boat sinks on its way home, the two people smugglers also end up in the empty outback.
Most of the men are quickly caught, except for two of the asylum seekers and one of the fishermen. The three,
Arun (Kenneth Moraleda), Youssif (Rodney Afif) and the fisherman Ramelan (Srisacd Sacdpraseuth), with nothing
in common but their misfortune and determination, escape arrest and begin an epic journey through the deserted
landscape. Laconically pursued by an army reservist unit, they bicker amongst themselves as they try to find a
big town - like Broome or Perth - without the slightest idea of the distances involved. |
 REVIEWS |
CHANGE OF ADDRESS New to Paris and looking for accommodation, French hornist David (Emmanuel Mouret) is approached
in the street by Anne (Frederique Bel), and invited to inspect a share apartment for friend - which turns out to
be herself. She seems attracted to David but she tells him she has a boyfriend. David starts tutoring the shy and
silent Julia (Fanny Valette), daughter of bourgeoisie mum (Ariane Ascaride), and tells Anne he's smitten. But as
they exchange romantic confidances, they end up sleeping together, only to quickly apologise next morning. Anne
even offers to help David woo Julia, starting with a weekend at her mum's shack by the beach, where a chance
meeting with restaurateur Julien (Dany Brillant) sets off a new round of romantic complications. |
 REVIEWS |
COUERS When not trying to find an apartment for difficult clients like Nicole (Laura Morante) and Dan
(Lambert Wilson), Thierry (André Dussollier) tries to charm his alluring but saintly co-worker, Charlotte
(Sabine Azéma), who gives him a tape of her favourite religious program - with some surprising contents.
Meanwhile, his sister, Gaëlle (Isabelle Carré), is on a quest of her own to find the love of her life.
With the help of Lionel (Pierre Arditi), a friendly bartender, she meets Dan (who is on a trial separation
from Nicole) until Nicole turns up, inadvertently spoiling Dan's planned romantic meeting with Gaëlle.
Lionel has hired Charlotte as a night nurse for his terminally sick and unbearably rude father, Arthur
(Claude Rich). Charlotte eventually resorts to extremes to get Arthur to behave himself, but now everyone
finds themselves at a new chapter of their lives. |
 REVIEWS |
THIS IS ENGLAND It's 1983 and school is out; 12-year-old Shaun Field (Thomas Turgoose) is an isolated lad growing up
in a grim coastal town, whose father has died fighting in the Falklands war. After getting bullied, he finds
fresh male role models when those in the local skinhead scene take him in. With his new friends, Shaun discovers a
world of parties, first love and the joys of Doc Martin boots. Here he also meets Combo (Stephen Graham), an older,
racist skinhead, recently got out of prison. As Combo's gang harasses the local ethnic minorities, Shaun is a
willing passenger but when Combo's fury gets out control, Shaun is shocked and has to mature rapidly. |
 REVIEWS |
FOUR MINUTES Former pianist Traude Krüger (Monica Bleibtreu) has been driving to the same women's prison at
Luckau almost every morning since 1944. She teaches her female students - thieves, frauds and killers - how to
play the piano. Like the volatile young convicted murderer, Jenny (Hannah Herzsprung), whose short life is already
filled with trauma, abuse and loss. When the 80-year-old piano teacher discovers the girl's secret, her brutality
and her dreams, she decides to transform her pupil into the musical wunderkind she once was, defying Jenny's
violent temper - not always with success. Besides, Traude has secrets of her own .... |
 REVIEWS |
CONVERSATIONS WITH MY GARDENER A middle-aged Parisian artist (Daniel Auteuil) returns to his old family home in provincial France after
his parents' death. He advertises for a gardener to maintain the sprawling land and to recreate his mother's vegetable
garden, and finds the first applicant (Jean-Pierre Darroussin) is an old school friend he hasn't seen since childhood.
An intimate friendship develops between the two as the painter builds up an impressionist's canvas of the gardener
whose honest and simple view of the world is uncluttered. As they see everything through each other's eyes, they find
a beauty they have never seen before. After all, a gardener grows things for others, just as a painter paints for others
to see. |
 REVIEWS |
THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP An illustrator of sorts, Stephane (Gael Garcia Bernal) moves back to his mother's Paris apartment
for a new job, and soon meets the two girls living across the landing, Stephanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and Zoe
(Emma de Caines). The new job turns out to be much duller than he was led to expect, working on calendars with the
crude Guy (Alain Chabat). But all the while, Stephane has vivid and extensive dreams, including the recurring one
about his own one man show, Stephane TV. As his waking life and sleeping adventures tumble through his brain, his
attraction first to Zoe then to Stephanie begin to consume him and his inventive mind. But Stephanie finds his
indecisiveness offputting, not to mention his bizarre behaviour as if he were in a dream .... |
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PIERREPOINT Following in the footsteps of his father and uncle before him, Albert Pierrepoint (Timothy Spall)
joins the 'family business' in 1934. He rises through the ranks to become the most feared and respected executioner
in the country, hanging over 600 people before his sudden resignation in 1956. Living a double life as a master
hangman, a humble grocery deliveryman, a friend to Tish (Eddie Marsan) and loyal husband to Annie (Juliet Stevenson),
Pierrepoint's determination to become the most efficient, hence most humane executioner in the land results in him
executing infamous murderers and, after the war, Nazi war criminals. But the latter also shatters Pierrepoint's
jealously guarded anonymity turning him into a minor celebrity. |
 REVIEWS |
I SERVED THE KING OF ENGLAND When ageing Jan Dite (Oldrich Kaiser) is released after almost 15 years in prison, he reflects
on his strange life, from the period before the war when as a young man (Ivan Barnev) he is first a lowly apprentice
waiter who dreams of being a millionaire and owning a hotel. He progresses through life in a series of lucky
incidents that turn out to be not so lucky because they invariably involve some mischief and he has to move on. |
 REVIEWS |
THE US VS JOHN LENNON John Lennon, ex-Beatle and singer songwriter who eventually adopted New York as his home, used
his fame and his fortune to protest the Vietnam War and advocate world peace. The film traces Lennon's metamorphosis
from a lovable Moptop of The Beatles in the 60s to anti-war activist to inspirational icon in the 70s
as it examines how and why the U.S. government tried to deport him. |
 REVIEWS |
SHUT UP AND SING The story of the Dixie Chicks, from the peak of their popularity as the national-anthem-singing
darlings of country music and top-selling female recording artists of all time, through the now infamous
anti-Bush comment made by the group's lead singer Natalie Maines in 2003 during a UK tour, coinciding with the
start of the war in Iraq. |
 REVIEWS |
I DO Luis (Alain Chabat) is successful, handsome and single. His carefree existence is threatened
when his mother and five sisters decide it's time for him to marry. They are sick of doing his domestic chores
so they set him up on blind dates every night with all the single women that they know (and even some that they
don't). |
 REVIEWS |
2 DAYS IN PARIS French photographer Marion (Julie Delpy) and American interior designer Jack (Adam Goldberg)
live in New York, but try to revive their sluggish romance with a European holiday. Venice is a disaster when
they both go down with gastroenteritis and they stop over in Paris for two days. The city is full of promise,
except for Marion's overbearing parents (Marie Pillet, Albert Delpy) who don't speak English, and her various,
flirtatious ex-boyfriends who seem to pop up everywhere. Coupled with Jack's conviction that French condoms
are too small, their sex life is as dysfunctional as their social life and their relationship. |
 REVIEWS |
WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR? In 1996, General Motors released the EV1, a revolutionary electric car requiring no gas, no oil
and little maintenance. A group of environmentally minded Californians - among them former Baywatch star
Alexandra Paul and Mel Gibson - began driving them throughout the smog-ridden state. The noiseless, fumeless
cars proved a hit with their owners, but with few others. |
 REVIEWS |
RIDING ALONE FOR THOUSANDS OF MILES When Japanese fisherman Gouichi Takata (Ken Takakura) learns that his estranged son Kenichi (
Kiichi Nakai) has been diagnosed with a terminal disease, he travels to Tokyo, wanting to reconcile. Kenichi
absolutely refuses to see his father, citing the years of conflict between them. However, Takata's daughter-in-law
Rie (Shinobu Terajima) gives him a videotape which may help. Kenichi has been making a film about Chinese opera,
and his dream has been to see the singer Li Jiamin perform a legendary ballad. |
 REVIEWS |
THE BOTHERSOME MAN Forty-year-old Andreas arrives in a strange city with no memory of how he got there. He is presented with a job, an apartment - even a wife. But before long, Andreas notices that something is wrong. Andreas makes an attempt to escape the city, but he discovers there's no way out. Andreas meets Hugo, who has found a crack in a wall in his cellar. Beautiful music streams out from the crack. Maybe it leads to "the other side"? A new plan for escape is hatched.
(IMDb) |
 REVIEWS |
TELL NO ONE Pediatrician Dr Alex Beck (François Cluzet) has been devastated since his childhood sweetheart
and wife, Margot (Marie-Jose Croze), was savagely murdered in the early days of their marriage eight years ago;
a serial killer was blamed. But when he receives an anonymous email directing him to a webcam, he sees a woman's
face standing in the crowd, being filmed in real time. Margot's face...Is she still alive? And why does she instruct
him to tell no one? He barely has time to lift the lid on this Pandora's Box before the police, led by Eric
Levkowitch (Francois Berleand), reopen the murder case, and are convinced he's the murderer. But Levkowitch
begins to have doubts when he sees too many holes in the case against Alex. But someone else, and more dangerous,
is after him. |
 REVIEWS |
DR PLONK It is the great year 1907 and Dr Plonk (Nigel Lunghi aka Mr Spin), famous scientist and
inventor, calculates that the world will end in 101 years unless immediate action is taken. As befalls
visionaries through the ages, Plonk is ridiculed for his beliefs, by politicians, by bureaucrats, by even
his faithful manservant, the deaf-mute Paulus (Paul Blackwell). Proof is required and the only acceptable
proof lies in the very future that's ending. Being the lateral thinker that he is, Plonk invents a time machine. |
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HUNTING AND GATHERING Camille (Audrey Tautou) works evenings as an office cleaning woman, and makes graceful drawings
in her free time, living in the attic of a Parisian apartment block. Philibert (Laurent Stocker) is a young,
aristocratic history buff living - temporarily - in an apartment lower down, part of the estate of his late
grandmother. He has let out part of it to up and coming cook Franck (Guillaume Canet), a gruff young loner and
womaniser with a genuine love for his frail grandmother, Paulette (Francoise Bertin). |
 REVIEWS |
MILLENIUM ACTRESS The story centers on the first interview in 30 years of Chiyuko, one of Japan's greatest
actresses. A videomaker, Genya, has secured this interview because the actress' former studio is being torn down, and
he is making a documentary. Now nearing 80, she lives in seclusion far from the city. Genya has been smitten
with Chiyuko, his favorite actress, for decades -- he even cries during all her films, which he has seen many
times. His boyish cameraman, however, like so many of the young in Satoshi's world, has no sense of history and
initially views the assignment as rather silly.
We find out that Chiyuko, born during Japan's devastating earthquake in 1923, once helped a young artist escape
from the military before he is captured and shipped to Manchuria. When Chiyuko is discovered by a producer
scouting for talent to make a propaganda film in Manchuria, she jumps at the chance in hopes of reuniting. |
 REVIEWS |
INTERSTELLA 5555: The 5tory of the Secret 5ecret 5tar 5ystem This remarkable collaboration between legendary Japanese animator Leiji Matsumoto and Parisian
techno gurus Daft Punk is a visual and aural treat of intergalactic proportions. Shot to accompany the
release of the band's second album, Discovery, Interstella 5555 plays like an extended music video with
only the album tracks as accompaniment to a dialogue-less story about four alien musicians who are kidnapped
and brought to earth. |
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INSIDE PARIS After splitting up with his long-term girlfriend, Anna (Joana Preiss), Paul (Romain Duris)
has moved back into the Paris flat his younger brother Jonathan (Louis Garrel) shares with their protective,
divorced father, Mirko (Guy Marchand). Depressed and lethargic, he remains housebound whilst Jonathan -
a devil-may-care womaniser and the film's narrator - walks the streets of Paris chatting up and seducing
young women. |
 REVIEWS |
TRANSYLVANIA Not a whiff of that famous Romanian vampire here, but another gypsy road trip from Tony Gatlif,
the French-Algerian director famed for his exploration of Roma culture in Europe. Asia Argento stars as
Zingarina, an Italian woman whose search for her Romany lover leads her to Transylvania, only to find he hit
the road for a reason - he's not in love with her anymore. But far from slinking home, she embarks on her own
odyssey across the harsh Romanian landscape. |
 REVIEWS |
GRINDHOUSE Two full length feature horror movies written by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, and
put together as a two film feature, and including fake movie trailers in between both movies.
A double-bill of thrillers that recall both filmmakers' favorite exploitation films. "Grindhouse" (a downtown
movie theater in disrepair since its glory days as a movie palace known for "grinding out" non-stop
double-bill programs of B-movies) is presented as one full-length feature comprised of two individual
films helmed separately by each director. |
 REVIEWS |
UN SECRET On his fifteenth birthday a family friend tells Francois (Quentin Dubuis)
a shattering truth - tying his family's past to the Holocaust - that may enable him to develop his
own sense of self. Until then, the secret had lain silent, known only to a few, including his
mother Tania (Cecile De France), his father Maxime (Patrick Bruel) and lifelong family friend
Louise (Julie Depradieu). |
 REVIEWS |
THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric)regains consciousness in a haze and realizes
he's in a hospital.
While unable to move or even speak, he hears all too well what the
doctors are saying: he's had a stroke and is now suffering locked-in syndrome, a condition so rare that
medical science cannot understand it. The 43 year old, successful and charismatic (but divorced) editor
of French Elle, is at the peak of his career. It was during a drive in his flash new convertible with his
oldest son, that he suffered the stroke. As Jean-Do comes to grips with his new life inside what sometimes
feels like a diving bell under the sea, he begins to use the unaffected part of his humanity: his
imagination, which floats like a butterfly across an interior world he has to create for himself.
Deep inside, he comes across memories and emotions that are woven into his life. To communicate, he
learns, painfully slowly, to blink his one remaining eye once for 'yes' and twice for 'no' - and perseveres
enough to turn his story into a book. |
 REVIEWS |
BRICK LANE Young Bangladeshi, Nazneem (Tannishtha Chatterjee) is sent to London, leaving behind her beloved sister and home, for an arranged marriage and a new life. Trapped within the four walls of her flat in Brick Lane, East London, and in a loveless marriage with the middle aged Chanu (Satish Kaushik), complete with two daughters. She fears her soul is quietly dying. Her sister Hasina (Zafreen), meanwhile, continues to live a carefree life back in Bangladesh, stumbling from one adventure to the next. Then one day, Karim (Christopher Simpson) knocks on her door with a consignment of garments for hemming, casual work she has taken on for extra money. Age difference aside, Karim and Nazneem begin to nurture a relationship. But with the terrorist outrage in New York on September 11, 2001, Karim becomes more activist, while Nazneem discovers more about herself and her new world. |
 REVIEWS |
THE EDGE OF HEAVEN Following an expected tragedy, college professor Nejat (Baki Davrak) leaves his home in Hamburg for Istanbul to find Ayten (Nurgül Yesilçay), the Turkish daughter of his father Ali (Tuncel Kurtiz)'s friend, who he wants to help financially. Unbeknownst to him, Ayten had traveled to Hamburg searching for her mother Yeter Ozturk (Nursel Kose). Now as a political prisoner, she has been deported back to Istanbul where she makes friends with Lotte (Patrycia Ziolkowska) and she and her mother Susanne (Hanna Schygulla), become entangled in the consequences. |
FINAL SCREENING FOR 2008
 REVIEWS |
LUST, CAUTION In World War II era Shanghai, Wong Chia Chi (Tang Wei) has been left behind by her father,
who has escaped to England. At university, she meets Kuang Yu Min (Wang Leehom) who has started a drama
society to shore up patriotism in the face of the Japanese occupation. As the troupe's new leading lady,
Wong has found her calling. Kuang convenes a group of students to carry out a radical and ambitious plan
to assassinate a senior Chinese collaborator with the Japanese, Mr. Yee (Tony Leung). Wong will take the
role of her life as Mrs. Mak, to gain Yee's trust by befriending his wife (Joan Chen) and then draw the
man into an affair so she can pinpoint his movements for the planned assassination. |