The Reel McCoy Film Society

Screening world cinema and forgotten gems since 1990

Screenings are at 6:00pm every second Wednesday

PLEASE NOTE OUR NEW SCREENING VENUE at the National Library of Australia. Please enter by the front doors and go down to the theatre on level LG1 by the stairs on the right hand side or use the foyer lift.

Click here for our entire February - June program (PDF download)

Upcoming screenings:

July 8
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
Joint screening with the Dickens Fellowship (ACT).

(UK 1946) 115 min.
Director: David Lean. Cast: John Mills, Alec
Guinness, Valerie Hobson, Finlay Currie and Jean
Simmons.

Dickens’ classic is brought to the screen with
skill and love. Directed by Lean at the peak of
his talent, the film features a superlative cast of
British actors, evocative photography, richly
detailed costuming and sets, and a keen sense
of mood and suspense.

(Print courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive)

July 22
ZORRO’S FIGHTING LEGION - Episode 1 - The Golden God

(USA 1939) 28 min.
Directors: William Witney & John English.
Cast: Reed Hadley, Sheila Darcy and William
Corson.

This first episode from one of the best serials
ever made features Hadley playing Zorro and
his alter ego Don Diego Vega in their fight
against the evil Don del Oro.

plus: BACHELOR MOTHER
 
(USA 1939) 82 min.
Director: Garson Kanin. Cast: Ginger Rogers,
David Niven andCharles Coburn.

One of the most underappreciated gems of the
screwball comedy era. Rogers at the height of
her popularity stars as a shopgirl who is
mistakenly identified as the mother of an
abandoned baby. The milliomaire son of her boss
(Niven) only wants to help but as misunderstandng
builds on misunderstanding, will there be a happy
ending? These great actors are combined with a smart
script from Norman Krasna and smooth direction from Kanin

(Prints courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive)

August 5
ZÉRO DE CONDUITE (Zero For Conduct)

(France 1933) 75 min.
Director: Jean Vigo. Cast: Jean Daste, Robert
Le Flon, Du Verron, Delphin and Louis Lefebvre.

Subtitled Little Devils At School, this is a vision
of life in a French boarding school, where the
pressure of it all eventually leads to revolt.
Balancing between realism and surrealism, this
movie was banned until after World War 2, and its
influence can be widely seen, from Francois Truffaut
to Lindsay Anderson’s If...

plus: PARTIE DE CAMPAGNE (A Day In The Country)

(France 1936) 75 min.
Director: Jean Renoir. Cast: Sylvia Bataille, Georges Darnoux,
Jeanne Marken, Gabriello and Gabrielle Fontan.

Renoir’s celebration of nature and country life,
beauty and family tied in to its narrative. The
countryside is so beautifully captured in the
cinematography, it feels lie you’re looking at a
painting. Renoir himself makes an appearance
as Uncle Poulain.

(Prints courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive)

August 19
SOME LIKE IT HOT
GUEST SPEAKER: David Doepel, Local film maker who will also present a number of his own films.

(USA 1959) 122 min.
Director: Billy Wilder. Cast: Marilyn Monroe,
Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Joe E Brown, Pat
O’Brien and George Raft.

What more can be said about Some Like it Hot?
The comic tale of two male musicians who have to
flee the mob by posing as females in a girl band is now
part of film legend. As is the famous last line delivered
by a poker- faced Brown. A wonderful cast, led by Monroe,
enjoy themselves immensely.

(Print courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive)

September 2
DER BLAUE ENGEL (The Blue Angel)
GUEST SPEAKER: Coralie Woods, Celebrity Publicist.

(Germany 1930) 99 min.
Director: Joseph von Sternberg. Cast: Marlene
Dietrich and Emil Jannings.

An old bachelor professor follows some of his
students into a nightclub to confront them, only
to find himself  bewitched by one of the singers,
Lola. This fascination leads him into a downward
spiral. This is Dietrich’s celluloid debut, but
the film belongs to Jannings.

(Print courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive)