23 What with Queen’s Birth­day and all, it’s a light, but good month for Film Soci­ety screen­ings.

First up is the 1998 Ger­man movie 23, a film by young Ger­man direc­tor Hans-Chris­t­ian Schmid is based on the true sto­ry of Karl Koch, a young com­put­er hack­er who stum­bles across a hid­den world of intrigue, decep­tion and dan­ger. After the light tone of the first hour the film becomes more chill­ing as the hid­den forces of law and order close in. The clas­si­fi­ca­tion is R16 (con­tains drug use and offen­sive lan­guage). Made avail­able through the Goethe Insti­tut, 23 is free to mem­bers, with the pub­lic admit­ted by way of dona­tion at the door.

Screens Mon­day 13, 6.15pm at the Para­mount.

Next is Shang­hai Express (1932). This Amer­i­can clas­sic by Joseph von Stern­berg stars Mar­lene Diet­rich as Shang­hai Lily. This mys­ti­cal and exot­ic sto­ry of love and destruc­tion is styl­ized to have every­thing done to the rhythm of a train. The plot con­cerns an evac­u­a­tion from Peking to Shang­hai, but it’s in every sense a vehi­cle for some­thing else: a parade of decep­tive appear­ances and iden­ti­ties, cen­ter­ing on the notion of a pros­ti­tute with more hon­our than those around her. It’s a while since we’ve been able to say it, but this screen­ing is for mem­bers only.

Screens Mon­day 20 June, 6.15pm at the Para­mount.

And final­ly, Dis­tant Lights (2002). The dis­tant lights in Hans-Chris­t­ian Schmid’s engag­ing ensem­ble dra­ma are those illu­mi­nat­ed by the promise of a bet­ter life. The Pol­ish town of Slu­bice is a dan­ger­ous place for
Rus­sians and Ukra­ni­ans who hope to slip across the Oder Riv­er to greater eco­nom­ic oppor­tu­ni­ties. The film, set over a 48-hour peri­od, fol­lows sev­er­al criss-cross­ing tra­jec­to­ries into the morass of treach­ery, oppor­tunism, des­per­a­tion and sus­pense. This film first screened in the 2003 Welling­ton Film Fes­ti­val. Made avail­able through the Goethe Insti­tut, Dis­tant Lights is free to mem­bers, with the pub­lic admit­ted by way of dona­tion at the door.

Mon­day 27 June, 6.15pm, Where else but the Para­mount?

That’s it for June. Plen­ty to keep you occu­pied mid-month in decid­ing what to book for at the Welling­ton Film Fes­ti­val, which com­mences on 15 July. The list of films already con­firmed can be found on the
34th Welling­ton Film Fes­ti­val link here.

More infor­ma­tion on the Welling­ton Film Soci­ety, includ­ing screen­ing sced­ules, sub­scrip­tion infor­ma­tion & mem­ber­ship forms can be found here.

(lift­ed from the WFS month­ly emailed newslet­ter)