The Festival of the Arts has been soaking up almost every spare minute of my working day so this is going to be a bare bones update.My highlight: Simon “Shaun of the Dead” Pegg back on screen in Run Fatboy Run about a marriage-shy waster who tries to win the love of his life (Thandie Newton) back by running the London Marathon. Readings, Empire, Regent-on-Manners, Lighthouse Petone, Penthouse.
For the kids who like those dance-as-a-substitute-for-gang-warfare movies we have Step Up 2 The Streets, sequel to the massive 2006 hit that launched Channing Tatum on an unsuspecting world. He returns for the sequel. Readings only.
There’s a couple of special screenings coming up this weekend to commemorate the 50th Anniversary, on 17 March 2008, of the return to New Zealand of HMNZS Endeavour with the members of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition.
The 1955–58 Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (CTAE) was Commonwealth-sponsored and successfully completed the first overland crossing of Antarctica, via the South Pole.
Funded by the governments of the UK, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, as well as private and corporate donations under the patronage of Queen Elizabeth II, the expedition was headed by British explorer Dr Vivian Fuchs, with the late Sir Edmund Hillary leading a supply support team.
While Sir Ed’s supply party beat the English led group to the South Pole (being only the third group to reach the Pole overland after Amundsen in 1911 and Scott in 1912), the expedition arrived at Scott Base on 2 March, 1958, having crossed 3,473 km of previously unexplored snow and ice in 99 days.
The programme, presented in association with Antarctic Research Centre (Victoria University of Wellington), includes footage of the departure and return of the CTAE expedition, stunning film from on the ice, as well as classic film segments celebrating New Zealand’s Antarctic connection over the last 50 years.
Friday 14, Saturday 15 March at 7pm
Entry by koha
75 mins
After the excitement of the pre-Oscar rush it’s another quiet week at the cinema. Opening all over town (that’s Readings, Empire, Penthouse, Regent-on-Manners and Lighthouse Petone) is the historical drama The Other Boleyn Girl featuring the dream team of Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson along with Eric Bana as ‘Enery the Eighth.
Even more historical (at least in terms of distance if not accuracy) is 10,000 B.C. which stars our own Cliff Curtis as a character called Tic’Tic (I kid you not). Directed by Independence Day‘s Roland Emmerich, 10,000 B.C. was partially filmed in New Zealand last year and tells the story of a young mammoth hunter’s desperate efforts to save his tribe. There’s no sign of Raquel Welch but Camilla Belle (When a Stranger Calls) comes off the bench to play eye-candy: Readings and Regent-on-Manners.
If neither of these take your fancy, there are sneak previews again this weekend of the Simon Pegg rom-com Run Fatboy Run (directed by his good mate David Schwimmer). You’ll find that at Readings, Empire, Regent-on-Manners and Penthouse today, Saturday and Sunday only.
All three of these titles will be reviewed at Funerals & Snakes next Wednesday (and in the Capital Times on the same day). Meanwhile, tickets have gone on sale for the 2008 World Cinema Showcase which is an absolute doozy this year – a worthy competitor to the main Festival. And the Film Society got under way on Monday which must mean that Summer is nearly over.
Just in time for the weekend, here’s a quick run down of the films opening this week in cinemas across town.
Returning from last year’s Film Festival is Lady Chatterley, a French adaptation of an earlier (“kinder, gentler” according to Ebert) version of D. H. Lawrence’s famous erotic novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover. It sounds like it could have been titled There Will Be Sex: Rialto only.
Also returning, but from the more recent French Film Festival is big-budget costume drama Molière, about the great dramatist played by Romain Duris.That one is a Penthouse exclusive.
Finally this week, 300‘s Gerard Butler romances Hilary Swank from the dead in P.S., I Love You. Described by one reviewer as having a “high ick factor”. Readings and Regent-on-Manners.
All these films will be reviewed at Funerals & Snakes by next Wednesday (and in the Capital Times on the same day).
Opening tomorrow night at the Film Archive – Wellington multi-media artist Sarah Jane Parton presents her wacky take on the future…
Well known for her beguiling video and installation work (and love of lycra leotards) Parton has assembled a cast and crew of Wellington’s finest to create a sci-fi musical odyssey starring Toi Whakaari graduates Antonia Bale, Anja Tate-Manning (Chapman-Tripp award winner), and Jade Daniels, alongside theatre veteran Rose Beauchamp, dancer Sam Lahood and a bevy of young and talented children.
With music performed by a live band featuring the members of Cassette under the musical direction of Parton’s partner Luke Buda (Phoenix Foundation), fronted by the perpetually hilarious Jo Randerson, the show contains a reasonable degree of cynicism, offset by moments of absurdity and humour.
In this cross-genre work, ideological meltdown is imminent, the revolution is doomed long before it begins and audience members are advised to bring a blanket.
PERFORMANCE DETAILS
Thursday 28, Friday 29 February and Saturday 1 March at 7pm
at The Film Archive, cnr Taranaki and Ghuznee Streets
Tickets:
Full Price – $15,
Concession – $13,
Fringe Addict – $12
Read Brannavan Gnanlingam’s great interview about the show
here
Come check out: Life in NZ from the 1950s to the 1980s!
The Friends of the Film Archive are launching their 2008 season with a 70-minute romp through pivotal moments in New Zealand’s recent history.
Beginning with the glorious coloured trailer hailing Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953, through to David Lange’s brilliant oratory declaration of New Zealand’s Nuclear Free status in 1985, it all adds up to give a picture of the culture that has shaped the Baby Boomer generation.
Tonight, Thursday 21 Feb, 7pm
70 minutes
Entry by koha
My picks are the New Zealand Primary Schools at Work– A five-year-old arrives with his mother on his first day at school and joins activities in the new entrant’s class.
But even better is Miss New Zealand, NZBC, 1973 (excerpt)
Miss Southland is introduced and totters onto the stage in her platforms!!!!!
In 1998 Werner Herzog made an acclaimed documentary called Little Dieter Needs to Fly about German-born Vietnam hero Dieter Dengler and his adventures as a US Navy pilot. He obviously had a big connection to that story as he has now gone back and made a feature about the most amazing chapter of Dengler’s life: the escape from a jungle-bound Viet Cong prison camp after 6 months of near starvation. The Dark Knight’s Christian Bale stars. Rialto exclusive.
Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman star together as two old men on their last legs in The Bucket List, directed by Rob Reiner. It opens today at Readings, Empire, Lighthouse Petone and Penthouse. Also, from the commercial department is teleporting adventure Jumper starring Hayden Christensen and Samuel L. Jackson. Rumours that the proposed sequels to Jumper will be called Sweater and Pullover are simply reckless. Readings, Empire, Regent-on-Manners.
Tonight come along to the Film Archive (corner of Taranaki and Ghuznee Sts) to the opening of à jaðrinum (transl. on the edge), a collection of 15 recent video works from Iceland, curated by Leonhard Emmerling, from 5:30pm.
The Archive will be revealing its mediagallery (a contemporary film and video gallery) programme for the next SIX months with a FREE GIFT. There’ll also be live musical performance by The Droszkhi & Riffkah Space Disko! – Hit (and miss) Signals from the Cosmos presented by Bek Coogan (Cortina) and Torben Tilly (Minit, Bad Statistics).
The artists in à jaðrinum explore a number of themes inspired by the cultural and geographical myths of Iceland; from melancholic self-effacement, to desolate landscapes and…erm, pixies.
It’s a quiet week for quality releases so you can all go to No Country for Old Men. Alternatively, if you’ve already done that or want a palate cleansing in advance of There Will Be Blood, you can check out comedy-thriller-romance Fool’s Gold at Readings, Regent or Sky City Queensgate. Matthew McConaughey reunites with Kate Hudson (How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days) as an estranged couple who reunite to search for sunken treasure (as you do). Donald Sutherland and Ray Winstone are the good actors lending their name to the project.
John C. Reilly goes from sidekick (Talladega Nights, The Aviator) to front and centre in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. Reilly plays the eponymous rocker in a biopic that follows his up and down career across five decades and spoofs classics like Ray and Walk the Line. Written by Judd Apatow (Knocked Up and The 40 Year Old Virgin), Walk Hard opened yesterday (Waitangi Day special) at Readings, Regent-on-Manners, Empire and Sky City Queensgate.
As we approach the apex of the international awards season the biggest week for quality cinema releases in memory is upon us. With 8 Oscar nominations, the Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men leads the pack and opens today at Readings, Lighthouse Petone, Paramount, Sky City Queensgate and the Embassy. Based on a Cormac McCarthy gothic crime novel, No Country reportedly sees the Coen’s back in their finest form since Fargo . Josh Brolin (American Gangster) plays a hunter who stumbles on a suitcase full of money and decides to keep it. He doesn’t realise that one of the biggest badasses in screen history (Javier Bardem) is coming to get him – and the money.
George Clooney as Best Actor is one of seven Oscar nominations gained for Michael Clayton, a paranoia-thriller about a corporate fixer who uncovers a plot that cannot end well for his clients – or for him. Written and directed by first-timer Tony Gilroy (co-writer of the Bourne trilogy), Michael Clayton brings to mind 70s classics like The Parallax View and Three Days of the Condor (directed by Sydney Pollack who stars in Michael Clayton). Readings, Empire, Lighthouse Petone, Penthouse and Sky City Queensgate.