Film Society

Thursday – Term 4

Film Society: 1 – 3.30pm – Auditorium.

Co-ordinators: Rick Thompson and Aileen Harland

DATEFILM
Oct 12AMERICAN BEAUTY, USA, 1999, 122 mins.
Directed by Sam Mendes.
With Kevin Spacey and Annette Benning.
A sexually frustrated suburban father has a mid-life crisis after becoming infatuated with his
daughter’s best friend. A wickedly funny black comedy directed by newcomer Sam Mendes.
Oct 19* HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR, France, 1959, 90 mins.
Directed by Alain Resnais.
With Emmanuelle Riva, Eiji Okada, Stella Dassa.
Keystone of the French New Wave: Intricate study of a French actress and a Japanese architect,
providing new narrative techniques which shaped modern cinema.
Oct 26* SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT, Sweden, 1955, 108 mins.
Directed by Ingmar Bergman.
With Harriet Anderson and Ulla Jacobson.
In turn-of-the century Sweden, four men and four women attempt to navigate the laws of attraction.
Bergman brilliantly captures the tangled problems, jealousies and dissatisfactions that characterize
marriage, in this clever film about the war between the sexes and the quest for love.
Rated Best Comedy at the Cannes Film Festival.
Nov 02TWO HANDS, Australia, 1999, 93 mins.
Directed by Grigirn Jordan.
With Heath Ledger and Bryan Brown.
Jimmy, a small-time wannabe criminal, loses $10,000 on Bondi Beach. The money belongs to
Pando, the toughest criminal in Kings Cross, who sends his killer deputy, Acko, to find him. It’s a
clever mix of genre elements, heavily influenced US and British comic crime films of the 1990s,
but with a strongly Australian vernacular tone.
Nov 09* LEVIATHAN, Russia ,2015, 124 mins.
Directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev.
With Aleksei Serebryakov and .Elena Lyadoiva.
A Russian fisherman fights back when a corrupt mayor tries to seize possession of his ancestral
home. In the style of a tundra western, the film investigates the various betrayals – personal
and political – that poison life in a frozen village.
Nov 16FLESH AND THE DEVIL, USA, 1926, 112 mins.
Directed by Clarence Brown.
With Greta Garbo and John Gilbert.
Garbo is an irresistible seducer who comes between two lifelong friends, leading to a dramatic
finale where choices have to be made.
Nov 23* SILENCE, Japan, 1971, 123 mins.
Directed by Masahiro Shinoda.
With David Lampson and Don Kenny.
In the 17th Century, two Portugese Jesuit priests arrive in Japan at a time when Catholicism is
banned. The basis of this film is a best selling novel written by a Japanese Catholic writer in
the 1960’s.
Nov 30THE THIRD MAN, Britain, 1949, 104 mins.
Directed by Carol Reed.
With Joseph Cotton and Orson Welles.
Pulp novelist Holly Martins travel to shadowy, post war Vienna, only to find himself investigating
the mysterious death of an old friend, Harry Lime. The Third Man is considered one of the greatest
of all time, celebrated for its acting, musical score and atmospheric cinematography. In 1999, the
British Film Institute voted The Third Man the greatest British film of all time.