Penwith Film Society Summer 2008 season
Please note that the films are scheduled the week before, so forexact timings please look at the Merlin Cinemas site. Or you can phone the Savoy, Penzance: 01736 363330 or the Royal, St Ives: 01736 796843. As our seasons are proving so popular, to avoid bitter disappointment you can buy tickets from the Savoy from the Wednesday before the film. There is no telephone booking as yet. Write-ups: by Steve Payne (society chair), photos © their respective owners. |
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| APRIL 6 / 7 / 9 |
IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON | |
David Sington |
 This stunning documentary charts NASA’s 1968–72 Apollo moon missions with a wealth of hitherto unseen footage and reminiscences from the guys with The Right Stuff, the astronauts who transcended the bounds of the earth and earthly imagination in a project that preoccupied the interest of the entire world. Breathtaking visuals and candid commentary from the men involved (with the exception of the notoriously reclusive Neil Armstrong, who appears in archive footage) makes for compelling viewing for the whole family. Don’t miss this one! “Wonderful, beautifully assembled…sends a shiver up the spine” — The Observer |
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| APRIL 13 / 14 / 16 | THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY | |
Julian Schnabel |
 In 1995, French Elle editor Jean-Dominque Balby suffered a massive stroke that left him with the ‘locked-in syndrome’ that paralyzed everything but his left eye and his mind. Schnabel’s deeply moving movie pays tribute to the triumph of an indomitable human spirit and celebrates the supremacy of the creative imagination of its subject. Amalric is superb and is supported by a strong ensemble, which makes this very highly recommended indeed. “Intensely beautiful” — Uncut |
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| APRIL 16 — SPECIAL PREVIEW SCREENING - SAVOY SCR1 7PM | HAPPY-GO-LUCKY | |
| Mike Leigh UK 2008 | 15 | 118m Sally Hawkins | Kate O’Flynn | Sarah Niles | Eddie Marson |
 Join us for the Cornish preview screening of Mike Leigh’s latest film, an atypically up-beat slice-of-London-life that tests primary school teacher Poppy’s prodigious optimism to the limit. Producer Simon Channing Williams, a PFS life member, will be on hand to introduce the film, show off his Berlin Bear and host a post-screening 30 minute Q&A. Afterwards, please join us for nibbles and drinks upstairs in the bar. Proceeds from this unique event will be split between Penwith Film Society and the Cornwall Film Festival. Early booking essential! “Light, smart and illuminating” — Time Out |
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| APRIL 20 / 21 / 23 | BORN AND BRED | |
Pablo Trapero |
 A domestic tragedy has landed Santiago in bleakest Patagonia, hunting and trapping animals to eke out the modest living he makes maintaining the local airstrip. Resigned to an existence of emotional limbo, he slowly learns to re-connect to life through the unlikeliest of friends. This austere but marvelously moving testament to emotional resilience unfolds with sensitive performances in a beautifully photographed landscape. Don’t miss. “An intelligent, deeply involving piece of cinema” — The Guardian |
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| APRIL 27 / 28 / 30 |
THE COUNTERFEITERS | |
Stefan Ruzowitsky |
 Operation Bernhard was a Nazi plan to flood the UK and US economies with counterfeit currency produced by skilled concentration camp POWs who lead comfortable existences in comparison with rank and file prisoners. Ruzowitsky’s finely tuned drama, built around a superb central performance from Karl Markovics, points up the acute moral quandary experienced when one survives at the expense of one’s fellow human beings. This is a gripping slice of cinema built around a riveting piece of hidden history. “A tough, clear-eyed, provocative piece of work” — The Guardian |
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| MAY 11 / 12 / 14 | BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD | |
Sidney Lumet |
 This typically playful and enigmatic two-parter from the Two charmless brothers with pressing money problems plan a bank heist — lack of experience means it all goes wrong of course, horribly, catastrophically wrong; crime doesn’t pay and evil breeds evil. Veteran director Lumet may be 82, but he knows how to ratchet up the tension and pile on the pressure, and he’s aided here by career-best performances from the two excellent leads. Strap yourself in for this one — it’s a white-knuckle ride from start to finish. “A superb heist thriller…relentless and uncompromising” — The Guardian |
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| MAY 18 / 19 / 21 | SILENT LIGHT | |
Carlos Reygadas |
 This love-triangle tragedy set amongst an isolated rural Mennonite community in Mexico is played out with exquisitely composed shots, like the extraordinary time-lapse sunrise that opens the film, with long slow-burning takes that underscore the ominous drama and its breathtaking finale. Lust, passion, recrimination and redemption – all human life is here in this contemporary cinematic version of a mediaeval passion play. “Sublime…beautiful looking and unexpectedly gripping” — The Guardian | |
| JUNE 1 / 2 / 4 |
THE ORPHANAGE | |
Juan Antonio Bayona |
 This acutely disturbing ghost story, very much in the tradition of The Turn of the Screw and more recently, The Others, finds a couple opening a home for disadvantaged children; when their adopted son disappears, perhaps taken by his imaginary friends, mother Laura finds herself recalling memories of her own troubled childhood. This supremely spooky, yet ultimately moving psychological thriller was produced by the team behind Pan’s Labyrinth, so don’t say we didn’t warn you. “Not for the faint-hearted” – Independent on Sunday |
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| JUNE 8 / 9 / 11 | PERSEPOLIS | |
Vincent Paronnaud |
 Based around Marjane Satrapi’s autobiographical graphic novels, this above-average animation charts the experiences of a 9-year-old girl growing up during Iran’s Islamic Revolution, and her subsequent moves to middle-class Vienna, back to Iran and finally Paris. There’s a winning mixture of sassy adolescent wit and sly political satire, all delivered with stylish monochrome graphics and superbly realised voice characterizations. “A tour-de-force…accessible art of a very high order” — Variety |
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| JUNE 15 / 16 / 18 |
YOU, THE LIVING | |
| Roy Andersson Sweden | 15 | 93m | subtitles Elisabeth Helander | Jörgen Nohall | Jan Wikbladh | Björn Englund |
 Roy Andersson’s films are without parallel – remember Songs From The Second Floor? — a dystopian vision of life and the world, tempered by an acutely off-the-wall sense of humour and presented here in a series of Sisyphusian vignettes wherein the anonymous citizens of an unidentified town, never, ever, quite come to terms with life and all that it demands of them. Disconcerting, discreetly deranged and delightfully daft. “A subliminal, blackly metaphysical comedy” – Sight & Sound |
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| JUNE 22 / 23 / 25 |
PARANOID PARK | |
| Gus Van Sant USA 2007 | 15 | 85m Gabe Nevins | Taylor Momsen | Jake Miller | Dan Liu |
 The director of Elephant again casts his eye over the disaffected wasteland that is suburban teenage American adolescence. Grungy skateboarder Alex accidentally kills a security guard near the eponymous leisure facility of the title, and is encouraged by a girlfriend to assuage his guilt by expressing his thoughts and feelings in writing. The hazy cinematography, loose direction, fuggy soundtrack and spaced-out performances provide a potent atmosphere of alienated angst “A haunting tone poem…mesmerising” — Rolling Stone |
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| JUNE 29 / 30 / JULY 2 |
OUR DAILY BREAD | |
| Nikolaus Geyrhalter Austria 2007 | 15 | 92m |
 This cool, lucid, narrative-free documentary takes a dispassionate look at how the food we eat gets to the supermarket. There’s neither voice-over nor moral posturing, just tableau after tableau of industrial agricultural processes that, in their own way, take on a terrible formal beauty or possess a surrealistic sense of the bizarre. Some of the images are uncompromisingly challenging and will be guaranteed to generate passionate debate, but their presentation here lifts this above mere polemic and into the realm of art. “Eerie…disturbing…impeccable” — Variety |
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| JULY 6 / 7 / 9 |
EDGE OF HEAVEN | |
| Fatih Akin Turkey 2007 | 15 | 120m | subtitles Baki Davrak | Tuncel Kurtiz | Nursel Köse | Nurgül Yesilçay | Hannah Schygulla |
 Akin again (who could forget Against The Wall?) tackles the enduring issues of German/Turkish identity, nationality, love and loyalty in a compelling drama reliant on circumstance and coincidence that nonetheless nails its component parts together with a rarely seen assurance and aplomb. Throw in five fantastic lead performances and you have a contemporary masterpiece of European cinema. Very highly recommended. “Intriguing, complex…beautifully acted and directed” — The Guardian |
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| JULY 13 / 14 / 16 |
SEACHD: THE INACCESSIBLE PINNACLE | |
| Simon Miller UK 2007 | PG | 92m | subtitles Padruig Moireasdan | Aonghas Padraig Caimbeul |
 After his parents perish while trying to ascend Scotland’s Inaccesible Peak, a tower of stone permanently shrouded in fog, Angus is sent to live with grandfather Aonghas, who tries to help him to come to terms with his loss. This, the first feature ever made in Gaelic, mixes jaw-dropping scenery, sweetly sentimental characters and a moving magical-realist narrative into an inspirational, heart-warming fable about growing up. Superb! “Brimming with magic and mysticism…an epic journey” — BBC |
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| THU JULY 17 SPECIAL SCREENING SAVOY SCREEN 1 |
THE CONFORMIST | |
| Bernardo Bertolucci Italy 1970 | 18 | 108m | subtitles Jean-Louis Trintignant | Dominique Sanda | Gastone Moschin |
 Trintignant excels as the middle-class intellectual but morally feeble Fascist ordered to kill his liberal former university mentor in Paris, 1938; but the real draws are 29-year-old Bernardo Bertolucci’s daring direction, Vittorio Scarfiotti’s dazzling design and Vittorio Storaro’s sensuous cinematography. This new print confirms that duplicity was never so stylishly rendered as in this keynote piece of '70s European art-house cinema. “Dazzling…passionately seductive” — Time Out |
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