February film club: Tarnation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.