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Apr 08 2009
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Preview: World Cinema Showcase

By Cinema, Wellington

Too late to be more than 50% use­ful to any­one, here’s my World Cinema Showcase preview:

As sum­mer gives way to autumn, and Daylight Saving Time gently releases its grip on our pri­or­it­ies, the first sig­ni­fic­ant film fest­iv­al of the year returns to take up res­id­ence at the Paramount. The World Cinema Showcase is two very tidy weeks of great filmgo­ing, almost as if the grand, winter, Festival has been dis­tilled down to a man­age­able essence.

Within, 33 fea­tures (and one omni­bus col­lec­tion of shorts) com­pete for your atten­tion and, luck­ily, the long Easter week­end allows you take full advant­age. A few of the titles were made avail­able to crit­ics as pre­views, but many more are on my list of films I simply must see on the big screen and, depend­ing on your tastes and interests, noth­ing is un-recommendable.

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Mar 04 2009
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FilmSoc: Another year of great value film watching

By Cinema, Wellington

Film Society logo eyeThose of us that try and take cinema ser­i­ously have very few for­ums where we can truly express our pas­sion and the Monday even­ing screen­ings at the Wellington Film Society are the alter at which we worship.

For over 60 years Wellingtonians have been gath­er­ing to watch flick­er­ing images from all over the world. In the days before the words nerd or geek we were called buffs (and were proud of it) and we still gath­er in our hun­dreds at the Paramount pic­ture theatre to bathe in the glory of a rect­an­gu­lar image on a sil­ver screen – shad­ows cast by films from exot­ic places (and some from less far afield).

This year’s Feb-Nov pro­gramme kicks-off on Monday with a real treat – Garden of Earthly Delights is the first screen­ing in a series of films by acclaimed Polish film­maker Lech Majewski and it’s a prime example of the kind of screen­ing that only the Film Society can provide. It’s an award-winning art movie about love, loss, mor­bid­ity and cre­ation and the dir­ect­or will be present at the screen­ing to take questions.

Other high­lights in this year’s broadly cur­ated pro­gramme include a couple of early films by Gus Van Sant (Milk), recent doc­u­ment­ar­ies Manufactured Landscapes and Darwin’s Nightmare and rare 35mm present­a­tions of fest­iv­al favour­ites La Sentinelle (1992), Diva (1981) and Paradzhanov’s mas­ter­piece The Colour of Pomegranates (1979).

Printed in Wellington’s Capital Times on Wednesday 4 March, 2009.

While filling in for Graeme Tuckett on Nine to Noon this morn­ing I gave the Film Society a bit of a deserved plug. It really is a treas­ure. You can listen here (or down­load):

[audio:http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/ntn/ntn-20090304–1148-Film-048.mp3]
Jan 11 2009
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More Ebert

By Asides, Dinner for One, Wellington

Roger Ebert on the per­son­al, private places he loves (and the joys of being alone with them, as well as the occa­sion­al pleas­ures to be found in shar­ing them):

I first vis­ited the Moscow Arms near Pembridge Square in 1970, when the room fee at the hotel now named the Blue Bells was £4 a night. I have nev­er met any­body in that pub. I always sit in the same corner booth. There is a man who comes in every lunch­time, tat­tooed, bald, and wear­ing a motor­cycle jack­et. He is nearly 40 years older now, but he is still there, and it looks like it’s still the same jack­et. Has he noticed me cross­ing his field of vis­ion 50 or 75 times in his life­time? Certainly not. But if he still comes at lunch­time every day, it is my duty to bear wit­ness, because by now I have become the only per­son in the Moscow Arms who knows how long he has been doing this, or cares. I believe this includes him.

I too enjoy sit­ting alone in cafés, res­taur­ants and bars. Indeed this very morn­ing I took brunch at The Cheeky Pipi in Island Bay and, des­pite the average-ness of the cof­fee and the meal, I enjoyed the sit­ting, the read­ing and the watching.

Dec 08 2008
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Significant Contribution

By Asides, History, Theatre, Wellington

Heartfelt con­grat­u­la­tions to Sunny Amey who, at last night’s Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards, was presen­ted with “The Mayor’s Award for Significant Contribution to Theatre”.

Often on these occa­sions people will say, “without this per­son I would­n’t be here” but in Sunny’s case I believe it to be lit­er­ally true. When my par­ents got mar­ried in 1966, Sunny (and Ralph McAllister) organ­ised the event, cooked the kai (meat­balls and pavlova) and the recep­tion was hos­ted at Sunny’s flat in London. Therefore, she’s always been a pres­ence in my life (although I did­n’t actu­ally meet her until 1993 when I star­ted work­ing for Downstage the first time and she was on the Board).

I’m very happy that I’ve got to know her since, and that Downstage (where she was the first woman Director back in 1970) is where I have landed.

Sep 20 2008
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An Anniversary

By Newtown, Personal, Wine

According to TreeHugger, wine in 3 litre card­board casks is sig­ni­fic­antly more envir­on­ment­ally friendly than the equi­val­ent volume in glass. I was pleased to read this as, in my final year of drink­ing, when I was giv­ing it a bit of a nudge, pretty much all my con­sump­tion was from those cheap casks of Country Medium you get at the front of the New World in Newtown. So, I’m glad to con­firm that, even then, I was doing my bit for the planet.

Yesterday, Friday, marked two years sober, two years which have eas­ily been the most pro­duct­ive of my life. To cel­eb­rate (and while we are on the sub­ject of the envir­on­ment) here’s John Clarke and Bryan Dawe dis­cuss­ing an envir­on­ment­al cata­strophe: “The Front Fell Off”.

John Clarke & Bryan Dawe – The Front Fell Off (Bob Collins)

Cheers.

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