The Reel McCoy Film Group
Screening world cinema and forgotten gems since 1990
Screening world cinema and forgotten gems since 1990
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The Reel McCoy Film Group is a not-for-profit film society that since 1990 has been catering for people interested in cinema, particularly those who like to see timeless classics and overlooked gems at low cost. Our membership fees are:
$50 for 12 months
Membership runs from the date of joining.
$35 for 6 months $20 for 3 months
With very grateful support from
 Canberra Museum and Gallery Members of CMAG are welcome to join the Reel McCoy at a substantial discount: membership for a year for only $20. Screenings are held in the Theatre of Canberra Museum and Gallery (corner of London Circuit and City Square, Canberra City), usually on the second and last Sundays of each month at 12:30 pm. Next screening: Sunday, 28 July 2024 at 12:30 pm
LADY FOR A DAY
Apple Annie (Robson), a streetside fruit vendor in New York, has been lying to her daughter back in Spain, pretending to move high in the city’s upper social circles. Now her daughter is coming to New York with her aristocratic fiancé, in front of whom she must appear to really be a lady – for a day. And her only chance of doing so rests with a local gangster, who considers Apple Annie to be a good-luck charm. Frank Capra made this film on the eve of hitting the big time, and it’s clear why he was about to.
For more information, e-mail us or come along to a screening The Reel McCoy Film Group is a member of the Australian Film Societies Federation. Contact them to learn how to start and run a film society or group of your own. Programme for the second half of 2024:
Sunday 14 July 2024
THE LION IN WINTER UK, USA · 1968 · 134 min. Director Anthony Harvey Cast Katharine Hepburn, Peter O'Toole, Anthony Hopkins English king Henry II (O'Toole) gathers his family together in his Chinon château for Christmas in 1183. The guests include his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine (Hepburn), temporarily freed from house arrest, accompanied by her sons, Richard, Geoffrey, and John. When Phillip II of France and his sister are included in the guest list the proceedings deteriorate into complex power plays over inheritance of lands and the throne. In the 1969 Academy Awards, the film had 7 nominations and won 3 Oscars®: Katharine Hepburn for best actress, John Barry for his regal musical score, and John Goldman for his adapted screenplay.
Sunday 28 July 2024
LADY FOR A DAY USA · 1933 · 96 min. Director Frank Capra Cast May Robson, Warren William, Glenda Farrell, Jean Parker Apple Annie (Robson), a streetside fruit vendor in New York, has been lying to her daughter back in Spain, pretending to move high in the city’s upper social circles. Now her daughter is coming to New York with her aristocratic fiancé, in front of whom she must appear to really be a lady – for a day. And her only chance of doing so rests with a local gangster, who considers Apple Annie to be a good-luck charm. Frank Capra made this film on the eve of hitting the big time, and it’s clear why he was about to.
Sunday 11 August 2024
DEPARTURES Japan · 2008 · 131 min. Director Yojiro Takita Cast Masahiro Motoki, Ryoko Hirosue, Tsutomu Yamazaki A moving film which won the 2009 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. It opens with a passionate cello player losing his job as his orchestra plays to another almost empty concert hall. Disheartened, he returns to his home town, and needing work, he applies for a job at a company called Departures. He thinks it’s a travel firm, but it’s not and he is in for a surprise. Exquisitely directed, photographed, and acted, the film is both comical and profound. It looks at the difficult subject of dying and finds beauty, meaning, and love. There is also some exceptional cello playing.
Sunday 25 August 2024
BLOW OUT USA · 1981 · 108 min. Director Brian de Palma Cast John Travolta, Karen Allen, John Lithgow In this neo-noir thriller, Travolta is a sound technician gathering sound effects for a film when he hears a tyre blow out and sees the resulting fatal car crash. It transpires that the victim was a promising presidential candidate. Odd characteristics of the sound recording lead him to suspect that the crash was no accident. The film was not successful at release but has gained cult status, particularly following its enthusiastic endorsement by Quentin Tarantino. Notable features of the film are the cinematography by the late, great Vilmos Zsigmond, and the insight the film gives into the mechanics of filmmaking.
Sunday 8 September 2024
LILI USA · 1953 · 80 min. Director Charles Walters Cast Leslie Caron, Mel Ferrer, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Zsa Zsa Gabor This lush, late Technicolor MGM musical sees a naïve French teenage girl lost and abandoned in a town far from home, alternately dismissed and taken advantage of, and ultimately rescued by a carnival puppeteer. He’s prickly and misanthropic but can relate to her through the puppet characters in his act – which is also the only way she can relate to him. After being discovered by Gene Kelly for An American in Paris two years earlier, Leslie Caron plays her first true leading role, and does a marvellous job of carrying an unashamedly sentimental story.
Sunday 29 September 2024
MO’ BETTER BLUES USA · 1990 · 130 min. Director Spike Lee Cast Denzel Washington, Spike Lee, Wesley Snipes, Giancarlo Esposito, Robin Harris Talented trumpeter Bleek Gilliam (Washington) is obsessed by his music and indecisive about his girlfriends Indigo (Joie Lee) and Clarke (Cynda Williams). But when he is forced to come to the aid of his manager and childhood friend Giant (Spike Lee), Bleek finds his world more fragile than he ever imagined. After the success of his hit Do the Right Thing Spike Lee was able to fulfil his long-time ambition to make a film about jazz. He trades his usual social issues for a parable and fills it with stars such as Denzel Washington, Wesley Snipes, and Giancarlo Esposito.
Sunday 13 October 2024
FLIRTING Australia · 1990 · 100 min. Director John Duigan Cast Noah Taylor, Thandie Newton, Nicole Kidman, Bartholomew Rose, Naomi Watts After the success of his film The Year My Voice Broke (1987), Australian director John Duigan followed up with this sequel which also proved popular with the public and critics. The film follows the young Noah Taylor character who leaves the Braidwood countryside to go to boarding school. He meets a Ugandan girl (Newton) from a nearby school, and, still the shy, romantic teenager he was in the first film, he falls in love with her. The film is a gentle, subtle study of the joys and pains of adolescence, its charm enhanced by some beautiful ensemble acting by a cast including Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts.
Sunday 27 October 2024
CHUNKING EXPRESS Hong Kong · 1994 · 98 min. Director Wong Kar-Wai Cast Brigitte Lin, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Tony Leung, Faye Wong This film is made up of two connected stories about Hong Kong policemen recovering from failed romances and their encounters with other women. The first involves a cop (Kaneshiro) who meets a mysterious drug smuggler (Lin); the second involves a cop (Leung) roused from his gloom by a quirky snack bar worker (Wong). Writer-director Wong Kar-wai’s thrillingly distinctive visuals in this movie catapulted him to international prominence. He has been compared to Jean-Luc Godard in the 1960s due to his unconventional editing techniques, freeze frames, jump cuts, voiceover, references to literature, and inclusion of pop culture.
Sunday 10 November 2024
A FACE IN THE CROWD USA · 1957 · 126 min. Director Elia Kazan Cast Andy Griffith, Walter Matthau, Patricia Neal, Lee Remick The face in the crowd is Larry Rhodes, dubbed "Lonesome Rhodes" by the radio interviewer who discovers him when doing a story from a rural Arkansas jail. She invites him to sing a song, which he does, and something clicks with audiences, who can’t get enough of him: he’s catapulted from radio, to television, to politics. But the interviewer who gave him his big break soon finds she’s made a terrible mistake. Rhodes is at once loathsome and fascinating, and the film, while it may be among Elia Kazan’s most blistering, is also perhaps his most entertaining.
Sunday 24 November 2024
THE DEVIL AND MISS JONES USA · 1941 · 92 min. Director Sam Wood Cast Jean Arthur, Robert Cummings, Charles Coburn This witty, delightful comedy has Jean Arthur as a saleswoman in the shoe section of Neely's department store, part of the corporate empire of an aloof, curmudgeonly tycoon. The tycoon, played beautifully by Charles Coburn, discovers that a union organiser (Robert Cummings) is attempting to recruit the disgruntled staff of Neely's and resolves to go undercover to ferret out those trouble-makers calling in the union. Fate has it that he's employed as junior sales staff member in the shoe department. His experiences teach him some hard truths about people and the lives they live at the bottom of his empire. Please note that programme details are subject to change without notice
List of films screened by Reel McCoy Film Group and
Big House Film Society, |