SHREWSBURY FILM SOCIETY

Season 2

With feedback from both the member's survey and other sources during our first year, the committee felt that it had a better understanding of what our members were looking for in Season 2. This time we increased the season from 12 to 15 screenings. We also felt that we could strike the right balance of films. This was borne out in our membership, which went from 27 to 75 almost overnight.

Bread and Tulips

12A | Italy | 2000 | Italian
Comedy, Romance
Director: Silvio Soldini
Date Shown: Friday 28 September 2012

Life is often just "for sake of" and we need to know about it and want to benefit when we are presented with the occasion to. A bit for "sake of", a bit for choice, Rosalba, young and apart from anything a housewife of Pescara, during a bus trip after she found herself alone and...forgotten in a highway cafe, decides not to wait for her husband and sons to come back to pick her up but instead decides to find her own way home. She is a little offended that she has been forgotten by her family and has been told by her husband to stay put so, rebelling a little she finds herself hitch-hiking direct for Venice. Her adventure in Venice begins meeting strange but fascinating people. Fermo; an anarchistic florist, Grazia; a masseuse and Fernando; a waiter from Iceland that speaks his own language of Italian.


Sound It Out

12A | UK | 2011 | English
Documentary, Music
Director: Jeanie Finlay
Date Shown: Friday 12 October 2012

SOUND IT OUT is a documentary portrait of the very last surviving vinyl record shop in Teesside, in the North East of England. Starring Tom, Kelly, David, Daniel, 70,000 records and the good people of Teesside. A distinctive, funny and intimate film about men, obsession and the irreplaceable role music plays in our lives. High Fidelity with a Northern Accent. Got any Makina ?


The Well-Digger's Daughter

PG | France | 2011 | French
Drama, Romance
Director: Daniel Auteuil
Date Shown: Friday 26 October 2012

Provence, late 1930s. Rustic digger Pascal Amoretti, a widower, encourages fellow laborer Felipe Rambert to date his virgin eldest daughter Patricia, the only of his five who attended a Parish finishing school. Getting drunk, Felipe unwittingly helps her date wealthy general store owner Mazel's handsome, womanizing son, dashing air force pilot Jacques, who gives her a motorbike ride home, make love and get her pregnant. Shortly after, both men are called for military service against the Nazis. On leave, Felipe finds out the truth and still proposes. Jacques is reported missing in action, his family refuses to recognize the baby, so Pascal sends Patricia with it to his outcast sister.


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The Conversation

AA | USA | 1974 | English
Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Date Shown: Friday 9 November 2012

Harry Caul is a devout Catholic and a lover of jazz music who plays his saxophone while listening to his jazz records. He is a San Francisco-based electronic surveillance expert who owns and operates his own small surveillance business. He is renowned within the profession as being the best, one who designs and constructs his own surveillance equipment. He is an intensely private and solitary man in both his personal and professional life, which especially irks Stan, his business associate who often feels shut out of what is happening with their work. This privacy, which includes not letting anyone into his apartment and always telephoning his clients from pay phones, is in part intended to control what happens around him. His and Stan's latest job, a difficult one, is to record the private discussion of a young male/female couple meeting in crowded and noisy Union Square. The arrangement with his client, known only to him as "the director", is to provide the audio recording of the discussion and photographs of the couple directly to him alone in return for payment. Based on circumstances with the director's assistant, Martin Stett, and what Harry ultimately hears on the recording, Harry believes that the lives of the young couple are in jeopardy. Harry used to be detached from what he recorded, but is now concerned ever since the deaths of three people was the direct result of a previous audio recording he made for another job. Harry not only has to decide if he will turn the recording over to the director, but also if he will try and save the couple's lives using information from the recording. As Harry goes on a quest to find out what exactly is happening on this case, he finds himself in the middle of his worst nightmare.


Le Havre

PG | Finland | 2011 | French
Comedy, Drama
Director: Aki Kaurismaki
Date Shown: Friday 23 November 2012

A dock worker in Le Havre hears a human sound inside one of the containers in port, that container which left Gabon three weeks ago and which was supposed to arrive in London five days after its departure from Gabon, which didn't happen. The Le Havre police and French border guards find a still alive group of illegal African immigrants inside. On the sign from one of his elders, a young teen boy among the illegal immigrants manages to escape, news of which hits the local media. The first friendly face that boy, Idrissa, encounters is that of former artist now aged shoeshine Marcel Marx. Marcel decides to help Idrissa by hiding him in his house, news which slowly trickles through his community of friends - most of whom he associates with at his local bar - and neighbors, most who assist Marcel in this task. Marcel goes to great lengths to find out Idrissa's story, which leads to Marcel's further task of trying to get Idrissa to London, his original end destination. The one neighbor who wants to turn Idrissa in and the authorities seem to be on to Marcel's activities, most specifically hard nosed police Inspector Monet, who may have his own private agenda. Through it all, Marcel has on his mind the health of his terminally ill and hospitalized wife Arletty, the terminal aspect being something of which he is unaware and which may in turn eventually kill him as Arletty is his life.


Milk

15 | USA | 2008 | English
Biography, Drama, History
Director: Gus Van Sant
Date Shown: Friday 7 December 2012

Using flashbacks from a statement recorded late in life and archival footage for atmosphere, this film traces Harvey Milk's career from his 40th birthday to his death. He leaves the closet and New York, opens a camera shop that becomes the salon for San Francisco's growing gay community, and organizes gays' purchasing power to build political alliances. He runs for office with lover Scott Smith as his campaign manager. Victory finally comes on the same day Dan White wins in the city's conservative district. The rest of the film sketches Milk's relationship with White and the 1978 fight against a statewide initiative to bar gays and their supporters from public school jobs.


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Midnight in Paris

12A | USA | 2011 | English, French, Spanish, German
Comedy, Romance
Director: Woody Allen
Date Shown: Friday 21 December 2012

Gil and Inez travel to Paris as a tag-along vacation on her parents' business trip. Gil is a successful Hollywood writer but is struggling on his first novel. He falls in love with the city and thinks they should move there after they get married, but Inez does not share his romantic notions of the city or the idea that the 1920s was the golden age. When Inez goes off dancing with her friends, Gil takes a walk at midnight and discovers what could be the ultimate source of inspiration for writing. Gil's daily walks at midnight in Paris could take him closer to the heart of the city but further from the woman he's about to marry.


Headhunters

15 | Norway | 2011 | Norwegian, Danish, Russian, English
Crime, Thriller
Director: Morten Tyldum
Date Shown: Friday 11 January 2013

Roger Brown works as one of the most powerful headhunters in Norway. To support his extravagant lifestyle, he is also an art thief, which he does in cahoots with his friend, the gun toting Ove Kjikerud. They replace the originals with forgeries, which go undetected at least until the trail back to the thieves goes cold. His outward bravado, based primarily on building upon reputation, masks his insecurities, especially in his short physical stature. He feels he needs that confident demeanor and wealth to get what he wants, including his trophy wife, art gallery owner Diana Brown. However, he almost seems to like the thought of what Diana represents more than Diana herself. As such, he has a mistress on the side named Lotte. The issue of having a baby - Diana wants to get pregnant while Roger doesn't want her to - is another bone of contention in their marriage. The two sides of Roger's professional life intersect when Diana introduces him to Clas Greve, who would be perfect for the CEO position at Pathfinder, the job for which Roger is currently recruiting. Clas is also in possession of a priceless Rubens, which if Roger and Ove can steal it, would be by far their most lucrative theft to date. After he and Ove are able to steal the painting, things start going wrong for Roger. He learns that Diana is having an affair with Clas. And someone is trying to kill him. He learns that it is Clas, who seems to know his every move. Is Clas trying to kill him for Diana? Or because he knows about the theft? Or a combination of the two? Or is there a bigger picture which Roger will have to discover?


The Source

15 | Belgium | 2011 | Arabic
Comedy, Drama
Director: Radu Mihaileanu
Date Shown: Friday 25 January 2013

In a remote and primitive patriarchal village between the North of Africa and the Middle East, the land has dried and the women traditionally bring water from a distant fountain to their houses while the idle husbands drink tea in the bar. The educated Leila, who is the wife of the local teacher Sami, begins a sex strike movement among the women, supported by the elder Vieux Fusil (meaning old flintlock), to force the men to bring water to the village. They must face the strong reaction of the brutal men.


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A Screaming Man

PG | Chad | 2010 | French, Arabic
Drama
Director: Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
Date Shown: Friday 8 February 2013

Present-day Chad. Adam, fifty-five, a former swimming champion, is pool attendant at a smart N'Djamena hotel. When the hotel gets taken over by new Chinese owners, he is forced to give up his job to his son Abdel. Terribly resentful, he feels socially humiliated. The country is in the throes of a civil war. Rebel forces are attacking the government. The authorities demand that the population contribute to the "war effort", giving money or volunteers old enough to fight off the assailants. The District Chief constantly harasses Adam for his contribution. But Adam is penniless; he only has his son....


Sarah's Key

12 | France | 2010 | French, English, Italian, German, Yiddish
Drama, War
Director: Gilles Paquet-Brenner
Date Shown: Friday 22 February 2013

One of the darkest moments in French history occurred in 1942 Paris when French officials rounded up over 10,000 Jews and placed them in local camps. Eventually over 8,000 were sent off to German concentration camps. As 10-year old Sarah and her family are being arrested, she hides her younger brother in a closet. After realizing she will not be allowed to go home, Sarah does whatever she can to get back to her brother. In 2009, a journalist named Julia is on assignment to write a story on the deported Jews in 1942. When she moves into her father-in-law's childhood apartment, she realizes it once belonged to the Strazynski family, and their daughter Sarah.


Monsieur Lazhar

12A | Canada | 2011 | French, English, Arabic
Comedy, Drama
Director: Philippe Falardeau
Date Shown: Friday 8 March 2013

Bachir Lazhar, an Algerian immigrant, is hired to replace an elementary school teacher who died tragically. While the class goes through a long healing process, nobody in the school is aware of Bachir's painful former life; nor that he is at risk of being deported at any moment. Adapted from Evelyne de la Cheneliere's play, Bachir Lazhar depicts the encounter between two distant worlds and the power of self-expression. Using great sensitivity and humor, Philippe Falardeau follows a humble man who is ready to transcend his own loss in order to accompany children beyond the silence and taboo of death.


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Man with a Movie Camera

U | Russia | 1929 | N/A
Documentary
Director: Dziga Vertov
Date Shown: Friday 22 March 2013

This playful film is at once a documentary of a day in the life of the Soviet Union, a documentary of the filming of said documentary, and a depiction of an audience watching the film. Even the editing of the film is documented. We often see the cameraman who is purportedly making the film, but we rarely, if ever, see any of the footage he seems to be in the act of shooting!


The Skin I Live In

15 | Spain | 2011 | Spanish
Thriller
Director: Pedro Almodovar
Date Shown: Friday 5 April 2013

In honor of his late wife who died in a flaming car accident, scientist, Dr. Robert Ledgard, is trying to synthesize the perfect skin which can withstand burns, cuts or any other kind of damage. As he gets closer to perfecting this skin on his flawless patient, the scientific community starts growing skeptical and his past is revealed that shows how his patient is closely linked to tragic events he would like to forget.


The Angels' Share

15 | UK | 2012 | English
Comedy, Crime, Drama
Director: Ken Loach
Date Shown: Friday 19 April 2013

This bitter sweet comedy follows protagonist Robbie as he sneaks into the maternity hospital to visit his young girlfriend Leonie and hold his newborn son Luke for the first time. Overwhelmed by the moment, he swears that Luke will not have the same tragic life he has had. Escaping a prison sentence by the skin of his teeth, he's given one last chance......While serving a community service order, he meets Rhino, Albert and Mo who, like him, find it impossible to find work because of their criminal records. Little did Robbie imagine how turning to drink might change their lives - not cheap fortified wine, but the best malt whiskies in the world. Will it be 'slopping out' for the next twenty years, or a new future with 'Uisge Beatha' the 'Water of Life?' Only the angels know........


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©2024 Shrewsbury Film - screening the best current and classic films from around the world.
Regular film screenings at the Hive, Shrewsbury, Shropshire. SY1 1TE
The Hive Media and Arts Centre Cinema For All Film Audience Network