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Group Leader: Phil
Hunt
The aim of the Film Group is to watch and then discuss a variety of films of
different eras, different countries and different directors. We don’t tend
to watch modern films that we could watch in the cinema and are likely to be
expensive to obtain. Sometimes we will watch two films in successive
meetings which can be compared to see how different directors may handle the
content. Sometimes it is just a great film that we feel we want to watch
again.
We meet once a month in a member’s house, which limits the size of the
group, but if you are interested, contact the group leader (telephone number
in the monthly newsletter as we still have room for new members.
Films watched so far are (IMDb mentioned below is the International Movie
database)
MIDNIGHT
COWBOY 1969 US director: John Schlesinger
John Schlesinger's Oscar-winning film, which features brilliant
performances by Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman, brought an unusually gritty
realism to the screen and offered a rare portrait of New York's street
scene. Joe Buck (Jon Voight), a hustler from Texas, heads to Manhattan where
he hopes to find plenty of wealthy women willing to pay for the services of
a handsome man. When he arrives, the naive country boy befriends Ratso Rizzo
(Dustin Hoffman), a tubercular, homeless con artist who dreams of moving to
Florida. As they go about trying to get the money Ratso needs, the two men
see and confront all the seediness, corruption, and cruelty that flourish in
the big city. A film that has a hard centre but a soft ending with some
1960’s style.
SOME LIKE IT
HOT 1959 US director: Billy Wilder
This film is No 78 in IMDb top 250 films of all time.
When Chicago musicians Joe (Tony Curtis) and Jerry (Jack Lemmon)
accidentally witness a gangland shooting, they quickly board a southbound
train to Florida. Disguised as Josephine and Daphne, the two newest
homeliest members of an all-girl jazz band, their cover is perfect...until a
lovelorn singer (Marilyn Monroe) falls for "Josephine," and an ancient
playboy (Joe E Brown) falls for "Daphne". A much loved comedy that is still
a delight to watch, whether it is the “Cary Grant” accent attempted by Tony
Curtis, the gorgeous Marilyn Monroe, or the rather surprising conclusion for
Jack Lemmon.
THE TWO JAKES 1990 US director: Jack Nicholson
This was a follow on film to Chinatown with Jack Nicholson
directing and we watched it to look at the changes that come from a
different director and 16 years. Again about the exploitation of land and
resources of Southern California with sex and violence thrown in, it is a
rather disappointing sequel that has the style but not the substance of
CHINATOWN. You do need to see the CHINATOWN to get the full picture in the
second film.
CHINATOWN 1974 US director: Roman Polanski
This film is No 62 in IMDb top 250 films of all time.
Director Roman Polanski's neo-noir detective story is set during a heat wave
in 1930s Los Angeles, whose residents are suffering from a water shortage as
a result of an ongoing drought. Private investigator Jake Gittes (Jack
Nicholson) runs a detective agency specializing in matrimonial strife and
infidelity. A sex scandal implicating Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway), with
whom Jake is destined to become more closely acquainted, a real estate
swindle and a murder keeps Jake on his toes and in trouble with the laws. A
breakout film for Jack Nicholson.
LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL 1998 Italy director: Roberto
Begnini
This film is No 75 in IMDb top 250 films of all time.
An inspired, award-winning story about the power of love and the human
spirit, Life Is Beautiful starts off as a light comedy of love and marriage.
But then, the family’s lives are threatened by the holocaust of World War II
and the main character must rely on imagination and ingenuity to save his
beloved wife and son from an unthinkable fate. The mixture of comedy and the
horror of war s not to all tastes but is is regarded as a modern classic.
NORTH BY NORTHWEST 1959 US director: Alfred Hitchcock
This film is No 36 in IMDb top 250 films of all time.
An advertising executive is mistaken for a spy and is pursued across the
country while he looks for a way to survive. Cary Grant is the suave centre
of action, intrigue, romance and comedy. The attack by the crop-dusting
plane and the finale on Mount Rushmore are well known to most film lovers.
James Mason plays the villain, a role he didn’t often play.
THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN 1960 US director: John Sturges
John Sturges's remake of Akira Kurosawa's classic THE SEVEN
SAMURAI has become a classic film in its own right. This time it is a small
farming Mexican village that makes involuntary donations of its harvest to a
gang of bandits led and decides to hire a group of professional gunmen,
headed by gunslinger-for-hire Chris (Yul Brynner), to protect them. It is
fun to recognise all the now well known actors that were in this film at the
start of their careers – Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughan, Charles Bronson etc.
The changes made to the Japanese story to suit western taste is interesting
to observe.
THE SEVEN SAMURAI 1954 Japan director: Akira Kurosawa:
This film is No 13 in IMDb top 250 films of all time.
Set in 16th Century Japan, the epic SEVEN SAMURAI follows the plight of a
defenceless farming village that lives in constant fear of marauding
bandits. A very mixed group of samurai, each with a different character and
motivation, agree to defend the village. It portrays the inflexible feudal
social conditions of Japan at the time and the effects on different classes
of people. It is full of energy, emotion and action and is regarded as the
best Japanese film of all time. It was copied by Hollywood in THE
MAGNIFICENT SEVEN which we agreed to watch next.
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Film Group
