The terrific audience who saw the Oscar winning performance of Cate Blanchett in "Blue Jasmine" gave it a rating of 3.89 when rounded up became a rating of 4 Stars.  This topic became the basis of animated discussions over coffee and cake post screening.

PRISONERS Starring Hugh Jackman - screened Thursday 15th May

Quebec filmmaker Denis Villeneuve has snared top talent for PRISONERS, his first English language film, with JAKE GYLLENHAAL playing Loki, a cop investigating the disappearance of two girls on Thanksgiving. They're the daughters of Keller and Grace Dover - HUGH JACKMAN and Maria Bello and of the friends they were spending the day with - Franklin and Nancy - TERRENCE HOWARD and VIOLA DAVIS. An immediate suspect is local lad Alex - PAUL DANO.

When Alex is discovered to be mentally challenged and is released on insufficient evidence Keller decides to take matters into his own hands as the police pursue multiple leads and the pressure mounts.

Ratings: ABC’s At The Movies team of Margaret: David: both give it 4 Stars

IMDB give it 8.1

Classification: MA
Duration: 153 mins

Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Lead actor: Hugh Jackman
Release Date: September 2013
Language: English

Coming Attraction, Thursday 10th April screening of "BLUE JASMINE"

Hot on the heels of last month's Italian comedy Basilicata Coast to Coast at Reels at Wehl comes the much anticipated and celebrated Blue Jasmine. CATE BLANCHETT stars in Woody Allen's latest film playing the role of Jasmine who flies first class from New York to San Francisco, talking non-stop to the stranger sitting next to her. First class seat one can only assume! She's come west to stay with her sister Ginger, though the siblings - adopted and with different birth parents have little in common. Flashbacks show how Jasmine was formerly married to Hal, ALEC BALDWIN a NYC wheeler dealer and Jasmine was part of a social whirl, unaware that Hal was a serious womaniser. All that has come crashing down, and Jasmine has to start life all over again, broke and in a strange city - it requires a great deal of re-adjustment. This is a movie that you have heard and seen a lot about and if David Stratton of ABC's At the Movies rates this highly with 4.5 Stars, it is a must see on Thursday 13th April. New members are always welcome to the film society and enjoy the movies with other lovers of quality cinema at the unique and intimate Wehl Street cinema.

Next Screening | Friday - February 14th, 2014 | A Royal Affair

SPECIAL VALENTINE'S DAY FILM

WITH

CHAMPAGNE AND CHOCOLATE

6:30pm - Drinks and Nibbles
7:00pm - Short film followed by 'A ROYAL AFFAIR'

About The Film...

The true story of an ordinary man who wins the queen’s heart and starts a revolution. Centering on the intriguing love triangle between the ever more insane Danish King Christian VII (Mikkel Boe Følsgaard), the royal physician who is a man of enlightenment and idealism Struensee (Mads Mikkelsen) and the young but strong Queen Caroline Mathilda (Alicia Vikander), A ROYAL AFFAIR is the gripping tale of brave idealists who risk everything in the pursuit of freedom for their people... and above all, it is the story of a passionate and forbidden romance that changed an entire nation.

Read on for review by Margaret and David from ABC's 'At The Movies...

Ratings:  Margaret: David:  

 

Review by Margaret Pomeranz

The Danes are riding high on the international film scene at the moment with MADS MIKKELSEN winning best actor in Cannes recently. He stars in a new release here, A ROYAL AFFAIR, about a possibly little-known historical event in Denmark in the 18th Century. A young English princess, Caroline - ALICIA VIKANDER - travels to Copenhagen to be married to the Danish king Christian - MIKKEL BOE FOELSGAARD.She's horrified to discover that her young husband is mentally unstable. When Johann Struensee, Mikkelsen, is appointed to be his personal physician, a dangerous closeness develops between the young Queen and the doctor.

When the Queen and Struensee become involved in politics, trying to reform some of iniquities in Danish society, they enter even more dangerous territory.This has been beautifully directed by Nikolai Arcel from a screenplay he wrote with Rasmus Heisterberg, the duo that brought us the first and the best of the Stieg Larsson adaptations, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO. It's not only a grand romance, it's also an insight into the dangers of personal and political hubris. MADS MIKKELSEN is wonderful as Struensee as is ALICIA VIKANDER as the Queen, but it's the performance of MIKKEL BOE FOELSGAARD as the King that is stunning, he brings a beautiful pathos to his demanding role. It is quite a conventional film in many ways, but it's been done intelligently, it is an engrossing work.

Next Screening | January 17th, 2014 | Red Obsession

6:30pm - Drinks and Nibbles
7:00pm - Show screened

 

From ABC's 'At The Movies' with Margaret and David

 

Ratings: Margaret: David:

 

The great chateaux of Bordeaux struggle to accommodate the voracious appetite for their rare, expensive wines, which have become a powerful status symbol in booming China.

 

 

Review by Margaret Pomeranz

A most fascinating documentary about the wine industry has been made by Australian filmmakers Warwick Ross and David Roach. RED OBSESSION focuses on the wine producers of Bordeaux, on the 'grand cru' estates, where for centuries the combination of ancient vines, soil, climate and devotion has produced some of the greatest wines in the world. The creation of a good wine is regarded as an art form by the winemakers, the grapes are more miracle than agricultural product.

But with the global financial crisis many traditional markets in the West fell away, leaving it to the rich of China to pick up the slack, which they did with gusto.

This beautifully shot and constructed film, cinematographers Lee Pulbrook, Steve Arnold and editor Paul Murphy must take a lot of credit, with narration by Russell Crowe, is a revelatory account of a crucial moment in history for the famous French vineyards. It is absolutely fascinating, jaw-dropping in some instances when you realize what prices are being talked about here, but at the same time the film is more than the sum of its parts. It's about the commodification of wine, the marketing of brands, the buying for status, it's a cautionary tale of our times. And all this began when Warwick Ross sat next to Master of Wine Andrew Caillard on a plane to London. The journey began there but went on to France, Hong Kong and the outer reaches of China. It really is an epic tale.

 
Director: David Roach and Warwick Ross
Classification: PG
Duration: 79 mins

Release date: 15/08/2013
Release details: Limited national release
Genre: Documentary
Distributor: Roadshow Films

Festivals & Awards:

Cinefest Oz 2013

Melbourne International Film Festival 2013

Sydney Film Festival 2013

 

 

Screened Thursday 28 November 2013

6:30 Drinks and Nibbles, Film Screens at 7pm

RUST AND BONE (2012)

"De rouille et d'os"

Winner, Best Film BFI London Festival, 2012

MA15+ 120 min - Drama | Romance  

Director:

Jacques Audiard

Writers:

Jacques Audiard (screenplay), Thomas Bidegain (screenplay)

Stars:

Marion Cotillard, Matthias Schoenaerts, Armand Verdure |

Screened to critical acclaim at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, Rust and Bone now arrives in the Limestone Coast.

It's from the director of the wonderful A Prophet and stars Marion Cotillard as Stephanie, an Orca trainer at a local Marineland Water Park. A chance meeting at a club one night means she meets drop out Alain (Schoenaerts) who's penniless and landed with his 5 year old son.

Despite Alain's attempts to hit on Stephanie failing miserably, the two are forced into each other's respective paths after an accident at the Water Park cuts short her career. Alain is a semi drifter, interested only in one night stands and a lack of real commitment, as opposed to Stephanie's warmer approach to life.

Faced by a life changing situation, Stephanie finds that Alain's aloofness is suddenly engaging and the pair form an unlikely relationship.

Rust and Bone is about two people dealing with their inner demons.  Cotillard is sensational as the trainer who finds she needs unexpected support - her restrained and subtle performance conveys every necessary nuance and emotion without being showy or over-sentimental as these films occasionally have a tendency to be. Likewise, Schoenaerts' dropout may be lacking a lot of emotion and living only from day to day, but he's the perfect foil to Cotillard; a brutal yet downbeat man, who's trying to make his way in the world.

There are a couple of gasp aloud moments within Rust and Bone, but this is an engrossing film, delivering a potent mix, a dramatic cocktail worth drinking down.  

 Official Selection Cannes Film Festival 2012 Toronto International Film Festival 2012 Telluride Film Festival 2012

Screened Thursday 17 October 2013 "TABU"

"TABU"
6:30pm - 7:00pm Drinks and Nibbles
7pm Film screens


WINNER – Berlin Film Festival – FIPRESCI Jury Prize & Alfred Baeur Prize for Artistic Innovation.

★★★★ "Prepare yourselves for a unique cinema experience: a tour de force of great beauty, whimsy and emotion. It’s really, really something special. It’s sublime.”Margaret Pomeranz, ABC AT THE MOVIES 

★★★★★ “I fell in love with it. I just fell under the spell. It is so rewarding.”David Stratton, ABC AT THE MOVIES 

“The most enjoyable and creatively ambitious film I’ve seen this year…Swooningly romantic. Simply glorious.”Tim Robey, THE TELEGRAPH UK 

IMDB rating 7.3 out of 10.

A love story told in two unique parts, TABU is, quite simply, a film unlike anything you’ve ever seen. Deftly moving between contemporary Portugal, colonial Africa and the landscape of dreams, director Miguel Gomes conjures an enthralling story of obsession, memory and dangerous forbidden romance.

In part one, ‘Paradise Lost’, we follow the seemingly ordinary daily life of a devout Lisbon woman, Pilar (Teresa Madruga) and her attempts to support and console her extravagant and bitter neighbour Aurora (Laura Soveral), who spends her day gambling at the local casino and whose grip on reality is clearly becoming tenuous; she’s convinced her stoic maid Santa is secretly practicing voodoo spells against her. 

When Aurora’s health takes a turn, a stranger is summoned to her deathbed and it gradually transpires this man is Gian Luca, the love of her life from the distant past. His confession to Pilar of their doomed youthful affair forms the basis of the film’s second extraordinary chapter, ‘Paradise’, set 50 years prior at an African farm in the foothills of Mount Tabu… 

Playfully interpreting and rearranging history, Gomes’ film is somehow both technically and narratively subversive and yet inescapably romantic, in no small way thanks to the sensuous black and white cinematography and incredible score and sound design. Where part one portrays a society wallowing in nostalgia, the second propels a dramatic shift in tone and emotional power, delivering everything the characters – and we – may dream of, and live for.



TRAILER
http://www.palacefilms.com.au/tabu/

Director: Miguel Gomes
Cast: Teresa Madruga, Laura Soveral, Ana Moreira, Henrique Espírito Santo, Carloto Cotta, Isabel Cardoso, Ivo Müller, Manuel Mesquita
Duration: 118 mins
Country of Origin: Portugal

Rated MA Strong s_x scene and nudity