grace church hackney film club

February film club: Tarnation

2007-02-11T23:54:00.000Z

February's film club will be on Saturday 17 February. We'll be showing Tarnation, directed by Jonathan Caouette. It's a documentary, put together by Jonathan comprising of film clips and other documentation of his life. I've not seen the movie, but Dan Sayer, who has chosen it has put together this blurb, which aptly describes it, I'm sure.

"Putting yourself out there like this is scary andexciting, but it has definitely healed me and seems toheal others as well..."

Jonathan Caouette on Tarnation

"In another life, we will be honest. We will be able to be silent."

Prof. Mondrian Kilroy in the novel 'City' by Alessandro Baricco

Tarnation is the story of a family. It's the story of a family both blessed and cursed by beauty and talent, and afflicted by abuse and illness.

Extolled as beautiful and cathartic by some, derided as narcissistic and exploitative by others; Tarnation is a vision that blurs the boundaries between subject and object, art and artist.

The film is showing at Dan's place in Dalston. Details of the address are in the email, but the map of how to get there is here.

Come for 7:30pm and bring something to drink, pizza or some salad.

Film starts at 8:30pm.

Hope to see you there.

Babel - Friday 26 January @ The Rio, Dalston

2007-01-22T00:38:00.000Z

So, the date has changed. It's now on Friday 26 January. Hopefully the email will have informed you of this. For those of you who can come, we're watching Babel at the Rio cinema which is at 170 Kingsland Road in Dalston.

Directions on the cinema website (including transport details), or from Streetmap.

The showing is at 8:30pm, so I suggest meeting at 8:45pm just inside the cinema. You may want to get there earlier to make sure you get a ticket.

And hopefully we'll have time to cram in a late drink and film discussion after the movie ends.

We can meet for food beforehand at Somine.

Best films of 2006

2007-01-22T00:34:00.000Z

Here's one I should have posted earlier. I did it a few weeks ago on my other blog - just before the year ended. You can go there for more detail, but for the benefit of the film club blog, here are my favourite films of 2006.

1. Volver
2. Hidden
3. Pan's Labyrinth
4. Walk the Line
5. Lady Vengeance
6. Brick
7. The Wind That Shakes the Barley
8. The Squid and the Whale
9. Lemming
10. Red Road.

January film club

2007-01-14T23:09:00.000Z

This month we're going to see Babel, the new film from Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (who previously directed Amores Perros and 21 Grams). The film was around both at Cannes, where it divided critics, and at the London Film Festival back in October. I was inspired to make it the January film club choice because of the feature about it in the current issue of Little White Lies (one of my favourite film magazines). They made Babel the feature film for the issue, and waxed lyrical about in in the review, finishing up with the flourish:

"Absorbing, powerful, evocative and emotional, Babel is gripping filmmaking. An utter, unqualified triumph"

Given that I generally respect their movie opinions, that'll do me fine. I must be sort of OK at least.

But it wasn't just their praise of the movie. They did an interview with the director. One of their questions was "What do you love about movies?" His answer was:

"Wow. There are so many angles. What do I love about movies? I think a way to put it is that, besides the fact that I can eat popcorn without guilt, I think that it reminds me of and reveals to me things about the human condition that I'm not aware of until that moment. It brings me closer to the things that I should be close to, but I have forgotten. When a film touches me on that level, it reminds me of my own life, and it gives me justification for this complex life that we are living. It puts me in touch with the source and the reason and the meaning of life"

That could just about be a motto for film club. I'm impressed enought that I want to see his movie even more.

By the way, the film stars Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael Garcia Bernal and Rinko Kikuchi, if you like looking at beautiful people while you get in touch with the source and meaning of life.

Film club: a quick look back

2007-01-14T21:51:00.000Z

For the first post of the new year, it seems appropriate to have a quick look back at film club over the last two years. We've had a film club every month for 24, apart from two, where I obviously didn't get organised in time to hold one. Anyway, we've watched a heap of good films, and if you're new to film club, you may be interested in what they were.

2004

Dec: I Heart Huckabees

2005

Feb: Dogville
Mar: 5x2
Apr: The Apostle
May: Stalker
Jun: A Short Film About Killing
Jul: The Five Obstructions
Aug: Dear Wendy
Sept: You and Me and Everyone We Know
Oct: Taxi Driver
Nov: The Graduate
Dec: Pleasantville

2006

Jan: Babette’s Feast
Feb: Walk the Line
Mar: Raging Bull
Apr: The Squid and the Whale
May: Affliction
June: The Da Vinci Code
July: Solaris
Aug: Volver
Sept: Crash
Nov: The Exorcist
Dec: Short film special (including Bye Child and Je t'Aime John Wayne)

Look out for January's - post coming up...

December film club: Short film special

2006-11-28T08:22:00.000Z

December's film club is going to be a short film special, as well as being the second birthday of film club and a chance to celebrate Christmas, film club style.

Showing this month is my friend Andrew's BAFTA-nominated short film Bye Child.

"A Scary Little Jewel of a Film" - The Glasgow Herald

It's based on the Seamus Heaney poem of the same name, which in turn is based on the true life story of a child kept in a chicken shed in rural Ireland. The film was shown as part of the Grace Church Hackney Firstfruits festival in October, and by all accounts went down pretty well. So I thought I'd show it again.

I've working my way through some short films on DVD, and I think I'll also show:

The Opening Day of Close-Up (Nani Moretti)
Fridge (Peter Mullan)
Copy Shop (Virgil Wildrich)

That said, the number of films shown will of course depend on the amount of discussion and how much rather people might want to drink mulled wine or other seasonal fayre.

It's on this Friday - 11 December at our house in Bow. See here for map.

Hollywood lecture

2006-11-07T00:04:00.000Z

At the end of September I did a lecture entitled Is Hollywood's Art in the Right Place? A hundred years of tension between art and commerce in American cinema. I've said for ages that I'll post it up online, so at last, here it is.

Click here to download the text of the lecture.

I also intended to upload the audio recording of the lecture, but in order to do that, I'll have to find the CD first!

June film club: the Da Vinci Code

2006-06-02T08:31:00.000+01:00

Well, I've given in and against my better judgement have gone for the Da Vinci Code for this month's film club. However, there are some good reasons for this:

1. It does tie in with Andrew's talk on the book/film/phenomenon on 18 June.

2. If you're one of the dozen or so people in London who've not read the book, this may save you the chore of doing so. Granted, it will probably only take an hour or so longer to read the book, but just think, that's a whole hour of your life not wasted on Dan Brown!

3. No-one can ever accuse the film club as being 'arty' or showing 'obscure films' again. Ever.

Anyway, we'll be going to see it at the new Rich Mix centre on Bethnal Green Road on Tuesday (that's 6 June). The screening times are 5:45pm and 9pm. It'll probably be the later one. Let me know if you want to come and which screening you prefer.

If you want to, you can read what the critics have to say. It's not very good. But of course, you can make your own mind up.

And finally, I'm not the one to be dissuading anyone from coming to film club, but if you're only going to see one movie this month, don't see the Da Vinci Code, see Brick instead. This blend of two classic American genres - the 40's film noir and the high school drama - is quite brilliant, a cult classic in the making and one of my favourite movies of the year.

Film Club 26 April: Affliction

2006-05-22T08:13:00.000+01:00

The next film club will be this coming Friday (26 May), watching Affliction (cert 15). The movie may be of interest to people who have been to the Taxi Driver and Raging Bull events, as it was written (or at least adapted from a novel) and directed by Paul Schrader, who wrote the two Scorsese films. Affliction features Nick Nolte as a downtrodden small-town cop with a point to prove, who takes it upon himself to investigate a suspicious death. It also stars James Coburn, Sissy Spacek and Willem Dafoe.

I've not actually seen the film, but I trust Dan's taste in movies. If you want, you can read reviews here and here.

We'll be showing Affliction at the Yong/ Sayer/ Barnes house on 41 Balls Pond Road, Dalston. Here's how to get there. Buses from Shoreditch include 149 and 242. Buses from Bow: 277. A whole heap of buses from Highbury and Islington.

If you're coming, bring pizza and something to drink. Come round from 7pm. We'll start showing to movie at 8pm.

Update: Affliction will be preceded by a screening of the short film Taxi Cat, by Dermot Gunn, inspired by Taxi Driver and shot in Hackney.

film club: 12 April - The Squid and the Whale

2006-04-06T23:35:00.000+01:00

The upcoming film club is next Wednesday, 12 April. The film we're going to watch is The Squid and the Whale which by all accounts is a bittersweet comedy drama about a family break-up in 1980s Brooklyn. The movie is written and directed by Noah Baumbach, who co-wrote The Life Aquatic with Wes Anderson (Anderson produced The Squid and the Whale). Jeff Daniels (Pleasantville, Good Night and Good Luck) and Laura Linney (Mystic River, Kinsey) are the husband and wife at the centre of the story. The film was nominated for an Oscar for best original screenplay.

The film has been pretty well received, and got the accolade of a 5-star review in Time Out this week.

If you're interested you can read an interview with Noah Baumbach in the Guardian from last week. The film is somewhat based on his own background and experience of family break-up.

The details

The film is on at the Odeon Covent Garden at 7:10pm. Meet in the foyer of the cinema at 7pm. The cinema is at 135 Shaftesbury Avenue. More info here. And a map here.

If you want to come to the film, and have an Orange phone, here's what you do:

Text 'Film' to 241

You'll then receive a text from Orange with a reference number to show to the cinema box office to claim 2 for the price of 1.

That should be all you need but there's more info on the Orange website here.

Hopefully there will be enough people with Orange phones to get everyone in half price!

Afterwards we'll be going out for some food and a discussion. The venue will most likely be the Centre Point Sushi Cafe.

Little White Lies

2006-03-13T00:16:00.000Z

I'd like to recommend a decent newish movie magazine to film club readers. It's called Little White Lies, and is available from Borders (and possibly some other places). Unlike other magazines, it isn't in thrall to the cult of celebrity (although it does have some interviews), and instead takes the line that movies inspire discussion about a whole host of related issues, and they have articles on these related issues. Understand? If not, have a read of my Daily Growl blog post, which goes into a bit more detail on the mag. It also has unique socring criteria, which take account of more than just the in-cinema experience, and which I wholly approve of.

The latest issue is out now.

Next film club: Raging Bull

2006-03-12T21:37:00.000Z

As you know, the next film club event is this coming Friday (17 March), and it's the long-awaited Raging Bull showing. The film is a Martin Scorsese classic from 1980, written Paul Schrader (his writing partner on Taxi Driver), and based on the book of the life of professional boxer Jake La Motta, tracing his rise and self-destructive fall. The movie features Robert De Niro as Jake La Motta in an Oscar-winning performance.

The film traces the life of the stubborn middle-weight boxing champion as he struggles to be champion. His life passes through successive stages of punishment, compromise, and self-disintegration, due to numerous inner demons. The tale of Jake La Motta's downfall is a reversal of the sentimental, much-loved boxer/hero story in the likes of Rocky. (Much) More detail on Raging Bull here.

This screening is in advance of the ‘Blinded by the Light’ event at Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club on 29 March where Andrew Jones will give a lecture on the Christian themes in Raging Bull.

The venue is Sveta Graudt’s flat in Bethnal Green. If you want more info on how to get there, email me (address on the Profile page of this blog). For food, please bring a pizza (or something similar - garlic bread maybe too) and something to drink. Snacks, tea etc will be supplied. Come for food from 7pm, and the film will be showing at 8pm.

Syriana

2006-03-12T20:46:00.000Z

Macey and I joined in the busy experience of going to the cinema in Paris last weekend (the French really love their cinema - I was impressed) to see George Clooney's pound-putting-on, Oscar-winning performance in Syriana. It's an interesting movie. I use that terrible word, because it's a film that's easier to admire than love.

I like what they're trying to do with the story but there were a few problems. It suffers from the usual problem that ensenble films face where you have to try to keep track of multiple characters with (often) multiple story lines. But in addition Syriana's stories tended to be complicated, and I wonder how much of what might have helped me follow it better ended up on the editing room floor. It was a real mental exercise keeping track of everything and trying to follow the unnecessarily complex plot, and it didn't help that a good bit of the movie had conversations in various Middle Eastern and South Asian languages, which being in France, had French subtitles (and French is not my strong point!).

Oh well, one to hire when it comes out on DVD to try to work it out and see if really is the great film people are making it out to be. For the record, Clooney is good in it.

A good night at the Oscars

2006-03-12T20:28:00.000Z

So what did you think of the Oscars this year? I was pretty happy with them, and you can read more about what I thought on my Daily Growl blog. Mainly I was really happy to see Philip Seymour Hoffman, an actor who I've admired for a long time, finally get mainstream recognition of his greatness. Nice also to see Walk the Line getting a shout too - it went down so well at last month's film club.

A full list of the winners are here. You can watch video clips here. So what did you think then?

Pub for after Walk the Line

2006-02-20T00:37:00.000Z

There's not much choice for pubs after the film club on Monday. There are two nearby - one is a smallish local place called the forty fives and the other is one of these student 'It's a Scream' pubs called The Hayfield.

Slightly further along Mile End Road (and maybe better) is The Half Moon. This is a Wetherspoons and maybe be better for discussion (they don't play music).

We'll decide after the film...

February film club: Walk the Line

2006-02-07T22:28:00.000Z

As you know, the next film club on 20 February is the much talked-about Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line, starring Joaquin Phoenix as the ‘Man in Black’, and Reese Witherspoon as June Carter. The movie is directed by James Mangold (Girl, Interrupted, Copland). Watch the Trailer here. Time Out have a video interview with Joaquin.

The film traces Cash’s life up until 1968 when he ‘cleaned up’ married June Carter, and features the classic prison gigs at San Quentin and Folsom. It’s been hard to avoid it lately, with the combination of film, music, a lengendary figure, good looking people, tales of'proper' method acting by Phoenix, and multiple awards given or hoped for, meaning it's been covered by just about every magazine in the world. It's been received pretty well by the critics too.

The venue will be a central London cinema (possibly Curzon Mayfair) for an early evening screening. I'll confirm the cinema and time to closer to the 20th.

Once again, let me know if you want to come. Looking forward to it already.

It's awards season!

2006-02-07T21:49:00.000Z

It's all gone awards crazy at the moment. We've had the Golden Globes, and now we've got the Oscars to look forward to, with all the attendant glitz and glamour. Looks like Brokeback Mountain is going to sweep to victory come 5 March, with probably some notable winners from Walk the Line and Capote. My guess is that Spielberg will be disappointed though. We'll see. The full list of noms are here. What are my predictions? Have a look here. If you really want to, you can keep up to date with all the details of the Oscar run-up.

We've also got our very own Baftas, jumping up and down shouting for attention and credibility, and desperately claiming to be some sort of Oscar predictor. If that was the case, The Constant Gardener would be much higher on the Hollywood agenda, as it's up for 10 Baftas, and as I'm sure it's a fine film (I can't believe I haven't seen it yet!) I hope it does well. Apart from that, the Bafta list does look remarkaby like the Oscar one. Still, 19 Feb should be fun. I usually watch it, and I'm sure this year will be no exception.

So what are your predictions? Or what would you have prefered to have seen nominated?

Hidden (Caché)

2006-01-25T13:00:00.000Z

I saw a brilliant new film on Monday night, free courtesy of Time Out. It's directed by Michael Haneke (Code Unknown, The Piano Teacher), and is bound to be one of the films of the year. It deals with issues like unacknowledged guilt, familial breakdown, class, and the very nature of how we perceive film itself. This is on top of being a cracking slow-burn thriller which will keep you going all the way through and give you loads to talk about afterwards. An ideal film club movie then? Maybe later in the year - who knows? I've got a longer review of it on the daily growl - highly recommended!

A feast for Babette

2006-01-18T10:16:00.000Z

As you know, the next film club is at Pete and Inge's and we're showing Babette's Feast. We usually have food before the film if it's in a home, and this time we have a movie tie-in! If you're coming, please bring one item of food that you think would be part of a feast. And bring a drink. But not any dessert. And we'll see what kind of feast we get...

The Golden Globes

2006-01-18T10:09:00.000Z

The Golden Globes were yesterday. Pleasingly there were big wins for Brokeback Mountain and Walk the Line and (finally!) a best actor for my personal favourite Phillip Seymour Hoffman. I've still to see most of these films (some haven't even come out here yet) but I'm looking forward to them! Walk the Line will be our film for February's film club. Full list of winners here. More Globes stuff on The Daily Growl.

Hollywood on hold

2006-01-17T12:18:00.000Z

Well, after all the excitement generated by my lecture on the 29th, I've had to let everyone down by going and cancelling it! Well, postponing it till the next available slot (in the summer sometime - date tbc).

My excuse? Well it basically involves the kitchen sink! We've had to do some emergency work on our kitchen, which I reckon is going to take quite a lot of our time over the next week or so, and I won't be able to give the lecture enough decent preparation time to do it justice. So sorry about that. But I'm sure you'll understand. I'm sure it'll be worth the wait...

Film Lecture: 29 January

2006-01-12T14:00:00.000Z

Well, it's official now, since it was in the notices last night. I'm doing the next Sunday evening lecture, and it's on the 29th January after the evening service. My title is 'Is Hollywood's Art in the right place? - A hundred years of tension between art and commerce in American cinema' Sound pretentious? Well, let's hope it's not too bad. I really need to knuckle down and get working on it more!

on the 29th the Bishop of Stepney is the visiting preacher. Do you think he could be persuaded to stay for the lecture?

13 (Tzameti)

2006-01-10T17:59:00.000Z

I saw a good film last week - 13 (Tzameti), which is recommended for all fans of these grip-your-seat-because-of-the-tension thrillers. I've already posted it on my personal blog and reviewed it on Collective.

Top 10 films of 2005

2006-01-08T10:35:00.000Z

As some of you may know, each year I compile a list of my top 10 films (as well as albums, gigs etc). The films are:

1. 2046
2. Crash
3. The Edukators
4. Maria Full of Grace
5. Sideways
6. A History of Violence
7. Broken Flowers
8. The Beat That My Heart Skipped
9. Life is a Miracle
10. Bombon El Perro

Honourable mentions: King Kong, Downfall, Palindromes, In My Father’s Den, Vera Drake

There's a little more on this list on my personal blog The Daily Growl (as well as other stuff, including my best music of last year)

Let me know what your favourites were, by posting in the comments. Who knows, if enough of you do so, I could even do a film club best of 2005!

Next film club: 27 January. Babette's Feast

2006-01-06T00:22:00.000Z

The next film club will be on Friday 27 January. Thanks to Pete and Inge for agreeing to host it at their place. We'll be showing Babette's Feast (Cert. U), Gabriel Axel's 2002 film about a a remote Danish religious community, a French maid, and (unsurprisingly) a big feast. It's a lovely tale of self-sacrifice, thwarted ambitions, and lost love, sensuous joy, and grace.

Please let me know if you want to come, so we can tell Pete and Inge how many people to expect.

Upcoming film club dates.

February: The proposed date for February's film club is 20 February. We've not had a cinema event for a while, so it would be good to go out! My proposal is that we see the new Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line, starring Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny, and Reese Witherspoon as June Carter. I've had some good feedback about this one already, so hopefully it should be a goer. The cinema and time will be confirmed nearer the time (but it will be early evening).

March: On 29 March Andrew is doing another lecture like the Taxi Driver one, this time it's the next film in the Martin Scorsese / Paul Schrader trilogy - Raging Bull. More on this film later, but it would be good to show the whole movie in film club. The proposed date is 17 March. I haven't got a venue for this one yet, so I'm looking for volunteers. It may need to be somewhere with a decent amount of space as the Taxi Driver film club was the biggest one we've had so far. Please let me know if you'd be happy to do this, or have any suggestions.

Welcome to the film club blog!

2006-01-02T13:08:00.000Z

This is a new-for-2006 experiment for film club. I'm setting up this blog with the aim of making film club a wee bit more interactive. I've got a few ideas for the blog:

Firstly I can post info on upcoming film club movie showings, with further info about the films, directors, actors etc, for anybody who's interested in reading more.

It's also a chance for people to post comments and maybe even generate some kind of discussion about movies and related stuff. If there's a lot of people posting comments, it may be worth setting up a film club messageboard in the future, but for now we'll stick with the blog and see how it goes.

As well as me posting items, it would be good if there were other people interested in posting on the blog. If that's you, let me know and I'll try and sort out further posting rights. The idea is that other than posts about upcoming film club events, it may be fun to submit our reviews of films we've seen, invite people to see films outside film club and link to other sites which could be useful to film club.

Anyway, enough for now. Let me know what you think...