Next screening 'Brides' from Greece, Thursday 14th April

'BRIDES'

Thursday 15th April

6.30pm pre-screening complimentary glass of wine
7.00pm screening of 'Brides'

Greek with English subtitles

Executive producer Martin Scorsese

**** Margaret Pomeranz ***1/2 David Stratton

SYNOPSIS

"……A FASCINATING STORY OF DESPERATE CIRCUMSTANCES AND UNREQUITED LOVE." Jaimie Leonarder, THE MOVIE SHOW

American photojournalist Norman Harris (Damian Lewis) is about to return home to his wife in Detroit, disillusioned with work and life after having his images of the Greece-Turkey war rejected for being "too artistic".

Meanwhile in Samothrace, Greece, a young seamstress called Niki Douka (Victoria Haralabidou) is preparing her bags for Chicago where she is to marry a tailor she's never met. Norman and Niki find themselves on the same ship bound for America.

Norman is travelling first class. Niki is in third class, sharing the cramped space with seven hundred mail order brides from every corner of Greece, Turkey, Russia and Armenia. In heir suitcases each bride carries a photo of her prospective groom and a wedding gown. Sleazy bridal "agent" Karaboulat (Steven Berkoff) is official chaperone or the Russian brides, but he has a secret and sinister agenda for some of his charges...

While the other first class passengers drink and dance the night away, Norman worries about the plight of the brides. But it's the spirited Niki who really catches his eye, his feelings for her are deeper than anything he's ever felt before.

Trailer and review
http://www.abc.net.au/atthemovies/txt/s1469467.htm

Rated PG

Star Box results for Piccolo Italian Film Festival

Lessons on Chocolate - awarded 3 stars by the majority of members and their guests


** 28%
*** 46%
*** 12%
***** 14%







Caravaggio - nearly half the audience awarded 4 stars

* 2%

** 20%
*** 27%
**** 49%
***** 2%

Next Screening "Piccolo Italian Film Festival" 4 March 2010

We will start a bit earlier so we don't run too late screening these 2 feature films in our little Italian film festival.

Come along to either one or both of the films.

6pm "Lessons in Chocolate" (Lezioni di Cioccolato)

7.45pm Intermission – Italian flavoured supper (gold coin donation for the supper in place of the pre-screening nibbles would be greatly appreciated thanks)

8.15pm "Caravaggio"

end 10.30pm



6pm Lessons In Chocolate (90 mins)
Lezioni di Cioccolato

Director: Claudio Cupellini

Cast: Luca Argentero, Violante Placido, Neri Marcorè, Hassan Shapi, Josefia Forlì, Monica Scattini, Francesco Pannofino, Ivano Marescotti

Trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uPYH95GUaM

Winner of Best Comedy and Best Actress (Violante Placido) at the 2007 Monte Carlo Comedy Film Festival, "Lessons in Chocolate" is a fresh and delightful comedy where humour and pathos are mixed in the right proportions.

Mattia (Luca Argentero), a building contractor in Perugia on a promising career path, is about to close the biggest deal of his professional life, when his illegally-hired worker Kamal (Hassani Shapi) is badly injured when he falls off some scaffolding. Kamal threatens to sue him unless... Mattia takes his place in an advanced chocolate making course! Kamal had came to Italy from his native Egypt to realize his dream of opening his own pastry shop, needing a diploma to do so, and now Mattia has no choice but to take Kamal’s place in the school and pretend to be him. But there, Mattia meets the model student Cecilia (Placido), who for her part, is anything but indifferent to his charm…

Among laughs, misunderstandings and mouth-watering recipes, Mattia will discover a way to bring his and Kamal's disparate cultures together while finding love and life at the same time.

2007 98' Digital 18+


8.15pm Caravaggio (130mins)

Director: Angelo Longoni

Cast: Alessio Boni, Paolo Briguglia, Elena Sofia Ricci, Jordi Mollà, Claire Kleim, Benjamin Sadler, Paolo Giovannucci

Trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faNrm0oFxmk

The 17th century Italian artist Michelangelo Caravaggio (Nigel Terry) lies dying in poverty; he remembers his vibrant life, first as a youth, ...

CARAVAGGIO is a mesmerizing and beguiling biopic about the master Renaissance painter that captures the man as well as his work.

Alessio Boni plays Michelangelo “Michele” Merisi, born into a humble family in the town of Caravaggio (from which the future artist would derive his professional moniker). Cursed with a violent temper, Michele becomes as well known for his brawling as for his art, frequenting the seamier side of Rome and using its prostitutes and thieves as models, even for his religious paintings. Eventually, his art creates a fervent group of admirers, while his personal life establishes an equally dedicated battery of enemies…

Director Angelo Longoni (Have No Fear, IFF2005) sets up a complex and revealing interplay between the artist and his era, ably assisted by three–time Oscar-winning cinematographer Vittorio Storaro (Apocalypse Now), Boni gives a great, full-bodied performance as the street fighter and father of one of the most remarkable bodies of work in the entire artistic canon.

2006 130' 35mm 18+

Star Box rating for "How much do you love me?

Reels members and guests voted with our new Star Box to rate "How much do you love me?", which screened on Sunday 14th February 2010.

Results

* = 2 ** = 5 *** = 38 **** = 24 ***** = 5

"How much do you love me?

Love is a big subject and on Valentine's Day Reels @ Wehl brings you a film about love but not love in a conventional sense. If you are in-love, out of love, single, happily married, happily divorced or you just love going to the movies, this is the film for you.

"How much do you love me?" is a French/Italian movie Combien tu gagnes? (France) Per sesso o per amore? (Italy) starring Monica Belluci and Gerard Depardieu and directed by Bertrand Blier

**** stars Margaret ***.5 David
Rated MA, duration 95 minutes, genre comedy
Sunday 14th February

2.45pm for a glass of champagne.

Film commencing 3.15pm

SYNOPSIS
Controversial French writer and director, Bertrand Biler brings us the highly provocative How Much Do You Love Me? an intensely seductive story about beauty, sex and love.

Balding, elfin-eared Francois (Bernard Campan) enters a hooker-in-the-window joint in Paris' Pigalle district to meet the woman who has become his sexual obsession the voluptuous, fur coat wearing Daniela (Monica Bellucci). Her services can be had for 150 euros and an overpriced bottle of champagne. Francois doesn't balk at the cost. Instead, he reveals that he has just won a fortune in France's lotto and will give her 100,000 euros a month to live with him until the money runs out. Daniela accepts and appears to cheerfully transform herself into the domestic housewife of every man's dreams. But Francois has a heart condition and Daniela's unnerving gangster boyfriend Charly (Gerard Depardieu) isn't about to let her go. The fact that Daniela is a sex worker implies that any man with the necessary cash can have her. But even though Francois can pay to touch her, can he get under her skin?

Trailer and review http://www.abc.net.au/atthemovies/txt/s1608292.htm

Subtitled in English

Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis
Welcome to the Sticks (literally, Welcome to the Land of the Ch’tis)

Thursday 21st January 2010
6.30pm pre-screening drink and nibbles
7.00pm film screens


With 20.2 million viewers, it is the most successful French film in in the history of French cinema and surpassing the previous record set by Hollywood blockbuster “Titanic”

Synopsis
Post office manager Philippe Abrams (Kad Merad) and his wife Julie (Zoé Félix) love the sunny South of France. But when Philippe gets caught trying to cheat his way into a transfer to a Riviera resort, the punishment could not be worse. Philippe must pay for his sins by spending three years at a post office in the dreaded Nord Pas de Calais, France's northernmost region, reputed for its heavy industry and cool climate. Leaving Julie and their son Raphael behind and braving the chilly North alone, Philippe soon finds himself having quite a good time with the friendly, fun-loving Northerners. He comes to appreciate the local cuisine and even learns to get by in ch'ti, their incomprehensible patois. But should he let on to the unbelieving Julie? Depressive by nature, she's never been happier than in her new role as the supportive wife of a man battling with adversity, it's a tricky call...
Source: Dendy Cinemas http://www.dendy.com.au/moviedetail.asp?Mov_ID=M1583


The inhabitants of this lost region are termed the Ch'tis in recognition of two key features of the Picarde patois. French 's' sounds become 'ch', and personal pronouns such as 'toi' and 'moi' become 'ti' and 'mi'. The blizzard of misunderstandings in which these and other dialectical oddities entrap Philippe constitute one of the most elaborate, protracted and relentlessly side-splitting linguistic adventures ever attempted on-screen.
Source: Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/jul/21/french.cinema

Politics of the film

• In May 2008, the film became the object of controversial remarks by Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the Front National political party. Le Pen, who claimed to have disliked the film, argued that the people of Nord-Pas-de-Calais do not look like the two main characters of the movie. He then added that "this is normal, since both of them are Arabs."


• 
  The film was also criticized for its filming location. The movie was filmed in Bergues where the locals speak both patois Ch'timi (a derivative of Picard) and French Flemish (a dialect of Dutch). This angered some advocates[who?] of the Dutch dialect who are struggling to keep the language alive.


• 
  While trying to promote the Northern dialect of French and fighting clichés, the film also shocked Occitans as Midi French people are not only portrayed as narrow-minded and prejudiced but worse still, none of the actors (mostly Parisians) have the typical Southern accent apart from a gendarme and a senile madman.[citation needed]
  


• Line Renaud's 'Ch'ti' accent was also criticized by some Northerners as not being authentic. Line Renaud was born in Pont-de-Nieppe near Armentières.
  Source Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bienvenue_chez_les_Ch

Trailers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErkEkhYvZ38

http://www.abc.net.au/atthemovies/txt/s2361573.htm

Next screening "Wake in Fright" Thursday 10th December 2009

6.30pm pre-screening drink
7.00pm film screens commences
Rated M

****1/2 David Stratton **** Margaret Pomeranz 7.9/10 IMDB

"The best and most terrifying film about Australia in existence" - Nick Cave

We are very pleased to announce the Australian classic and now Cannes' classic, "Wake in Fright" will be screened.

This year Wake in Fright was inaugurated into the Cannes' Film Festival Classics after originally being nominated for the 1971 Cannes 'Grand Prix du Festival International du Film' (now know as Palme d'Or/Golden Palm). The film disappeared and it was the then editor of the film who traced the negatives to a vault in America. He found them a couple of days before they were due to be destroyed. There's a story in itself ....

Brutal, uncompromising and stunning WAKE IN FRIGHT tells is the story of a young
teacher, John Grant, who arrives in a rough outback mining town planning to stay
overnight before catching the plane to Sydney. But, on this one hot night in
Bundanyabba, Grant decides to go into a smoky, crowded pub...

However, one night stretches to five, in which he discovers gambling, ruins himself
financially and plunges headlong toward his own destruction.

When the alcohol-induced mist lifts, the educated John Grant is no more. Instead there is a self-loathing man in a desolate wasteland, dirty, red-eyed, sitting against a
tree and looking at a rifle with one bullet left...

There is no Australian film quite like WAKE IN FRIGHT. Nominated for the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival in 1971 and still as raw and fresh today as it was then, rediscover this lost cinematic masterpiece as it screens for the first time in
nearly 40 years. (courtesy http://www.wakeinfright.com/ and refer this website for history and more information)

Wake in Fright was shot in Broken Hill and Sydney at Ajax Studios, Bondi. The film is produced by George Willoughby, Bill Harmon and Howard G. Barnes, directed by Ted Kotcheff and starring British actors Donald Pleasence, Gary Bond and Sylvia Kay, and Australian star Chips Rafferty (in his last feature film). Other cast members include a young Jack Thompson in his first feature film role, Al Thomas, Peter Whittle and John Meillon. More info on our blog site, including the history of finding the film.

LINKS

http://www.abc.net.au/atthemovies/txt/s2590361.htm

Wake in Fright interview with Director Ted Kotcheff http://www.abc.net.au/atthemovies/txt/s2598365.htm

Rated M