Far AwayApolo­gies, a bit slow on film soci­ety news this month… I’m post­ing this too late to cov­er Place Ven­dome, but what remains is well worth see­ing.

JEANNE AND THE PERFECT GUY (1998). At first glance, Olivi­er Ducas­tel and Jacques Mar­tineau’s
film appears to be a rel­a­tive­ly tra­di­tion­al French melo­dra­ma about AIDS — well act­ed and intel­li­gent­ly writ­ten, but noth­ing spe­cial. But this is the first time that the sub­ject mat­ter has been used as the foun­da­tion for a musi­cal and trans­formed into an irrev­er­ent, enjoy­able and com­plete­ly unex­pect­ed motion pic­ture expe­ri­ence.

This screen­ing will also fea­ture an extra. Lind­say Shel­ton, a past pres­i­dent of the Film Soci­ety and found­ing direc­tor of the Film Fes­ti­val before becom­ing the first Mar­ket­ing Man­ag­er of the NZ Film Com­mis­sion, will speak briefly before the film. Copies of his book, “The Sell­ing of New Zealand Movies” will be avail­able before and after the film (at a spe­cial price for Film Soci­ety mem­bers). He may even auto­graph your copy!

Mon­day 15 August, 6.15pm at the Para­mount

SAME OLD SONG (1997). Alain Resnais’ affec­tion­ate trib­ute to Eng­lish drama­tist and screen­writer Den­nis Pot­ter uses frag­ments of old record­ings to have his char­ac­ters burst into lip-synched song to express their inner lives and reveal truths that they strug­gle to con­ceal or deny. The sto­ry fol­lows six char­ac­ters as they nego­ti­ate their rela­tion­ships and cov­ers top­ics such as real estate, ago­ra­pho­bia, hypochon­dria and Parisian tourist land­marks.

Mon­day 22 August, 6.15pm at the Para­mount

FAR AWAY [Loin] (2001). Tak­ing place over the course of three days, Andre Téch­iné’s film explores top­i­cal issues of ille­gal immi­gra­tion and drug smug­gling with a high degree of clar­i­ty that also extends to the impas­sioned love sto­ry at the film’s cen­tre. French truck dri­ver Serge recon­nects with estranged girl­friend Sarah, who runs a fam­i­ly hotel in Tang­iers, and with Saïd, his Moroc­can friend who’s des­per­ate to start a new life in Spain (with­in view­ing dis­tance of his town’s shore, but inac­ces­si­ble due to immi­gra­tion laws).

Mon­day 29 August, 6.15pm at the Para­mount

Oth­er movies at the Para­mount this month…

Fritz Laing’s METROPOLIS (Ger­many 1927). The beau­ti­ful­ly restored print by the Mur­nau Foun­da­tion, with its new­ly-record­ed score, screened at the 2003 Welling­ton Film Fes­ti­val. The cel­e­brat­ed silent film about a futur­is­tic soci­ety that descends into chaos, is a clas­sic of a curi­ous kind, a movie with visu­als so strange and majes­tic they leave you breath­less.

Com­menc­ing August 11, for one week only

HEIGHTS (USA 2004). Chris Ter­rio’s movie (pro­duced by James Ivory and Ish­mael Mer­chant) takes place over 24 hours and
fol­lows five cen­tral char­ac­ters who are involved in each oth­er’s lives, if only they knew it. We know, and one of our plea­sures is wait­ing for the pen­nies to drop. Watch­ing their slow real­iza­tions and reac­tions to what is going on around them is a voyeuris­tic plea­sure. Glenn Close has nev­er been bet­ter.

From 18 August

THE BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY (USA/Vietnam 2002). With a cast includ­ing Nick Nolte, Temuera Mor­ri­son, Tim Roth, Bai Ling, and Damien Ngyuen, direc­tor Hans Pet­ter Mol­land’s film deals with the life of a Viet­nam boy with an Amer­i­can father. The heart-rend­ing sto­ry of the young Amerasian man’s quest to find his long-lost father is a sor­row­ful yet ulti­mate­ly hope­ful film made with impec­ca­ble artistry and emo­tion­al tact.

Open­ing on 25 August