February 15
LONELY HEARTS
(Australia 1981) 95 min. DVD
Director Paul Cox
Cast Wendy Hughes, Norman Kaye, Jon Finlayson, Julia Blake

A piano tuner with a whimsical streak, Peter (Kaye) goes to a dating agency in search of a companion. He meets a shy and dowdy bank clerk Patricia (Hughes) and despite an age difference of 20 years and an awkward start, their romance blossoms, but they still have to deal with their overbearing family members. The film is written by Paul Cox and John Clarke (yes, the John Clarke on the 7:30 Report). The AFI named this film the best of 1982 and it helped introduce Paul Cox to an international audience.

DVD courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia

February 29
IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY
(UK 1947) 92 min. 16 mm
Director Robert Hamer
Cast Googie Withers, Jack Warner, John McCallum, Edward Chapman, Jimmy Hanley, Susan Shaw, Patricia Plunkett

An odd film that doesn’t fit neatly into the Ealing Studio’s standard output, it is best described as a kind of ensemble-cast film noir, transplanted to the constantly raining London of popular imagination. Doris Sandigate (Withers), a put-upon East-End  housewife runs into her former lover one Sunday. He has just escaped from prison and needs a place to hide. Doris puts him up in her own house - without telling the rest of her family. While this is the main plot thread, we are also allowed to follow the stories of other associated characters, including Doris’ family, and a dim-witted gang of thieves whose target is a shipment of roller skates.

Print courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia

March 14
ASHES AND DIAMONDS
(Poland 1958) 96 min. DVD
Director Andrzej Wajda
Cast Zbigniew Cybulski, Waclaw Zastrzezynski, Ewa Krzyzewska, Adam Pawlikowski

GUEST SPEAKER Dr Roger Hillman, Lecturer, Film Studies ANU

This is Wajda's third feature film and is an adaptation of the 1948 novel of the same title by Jerzy Andrzejewski. On the last day of World War 2, Maciek (Cybulski), a young Resistance fighter, is ordered to kill Szczuka (Zastrzezynski), a Communist district leader. Though killing had been easy for Maciek in the war, Szczuka was a fellow soldier, and Maciek must decide whether to follow his orders. The film's viewpoint alternates in its examination of each character's moral dilemmas.

DVD courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia

March 28
HE WHO GETS SLAPPED
(USA 1924) 72 min. DVD
Silent with musical soundtrack
Director Victor Seastrom
Cast Lon Chaney, Norma Shearer, John Gilbert, Tully Marshall

A subdued Chaney offers one of his greatest performances as Paul Beaumont, a scientist shattered to discover that his wealthy patron has stolen both his wife and the credit for his work. After suffering the humiliation of being publicly slapped by both of them he punishes himself for his own stupidity by becoming a clown in a circus with an act where he gets slapped more than a hundred times. Consuelo (Shearer) a horseback rider joins the show and Beaumont falls in love with her as do a fellow horseback rider (Gilbert) and his old patron.

DVD courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia

April 11
SANSHO THE BAILIFF
(Japan 1954) 124 min. 16 mm
Director Kenji Mizoguchi
Cast Kinuyo Tanaka, Yoshiaki Hanayagi, Kyoko Kagawa

Kenji Mizoguchi is considered to be one of Japan's greatest directors and Sansho the Bailiff is considered to be one of the best of all Japanese films. The film is named after the villain and based on a 500-year-old folk tale that tells the story of an exiled District Administrator, his wife, Tamiki, their young son, Zushio, and younger daughter, Anju, who suffer at the hands of the heartless Sansho. Mizoguchi closely observes the compositional rules of classic cinema. The film, which is set in 11th-century feudal times, reflects the director's feeling that humans and nature are the two sides of a coin. To view the film, which has been described as a lament for suffering but which does contain resolution, reconciliation and forgiveness, is to go on a journey of mythical proportions.

Print courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia

TUESDAY April 24
PATHS OF GLORY
(USA 1957) 86 min. 16 mm
Director Stanley Kubrick
Cast Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, Adolphe Menjou, George Macready

This shattering study, based on fact, of the insanity of war, has grown more profound with the years. During WW1, French general (Macready) orders his men on a suicidal charge; when they fail, he picks three soldiers to be tried and executed for cowardice.

Print courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia

May 9
PIANOMANIA
(Austria/Germany 2009) 93 min. DVD
Directors Robert Cibis, Lilian Franck
Cast Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Stephan Knupfer, Lang Lang

Austrian documentary about a piano tuner who works for famous pianists like Lang Lang and Pierre-Laurent Aimard. The first step to making a good documentary is picking an interesting subject, and the film-makers have succeeded here. Ostensibly about the intricate craft and skill involved in the maintenance of high quality pianos , it also has a broader theme of examining the obsessiveness (or "mania") that drives the enthusiastic and contagious energy of the expert (or "geek"). This was a nominee for Best Documentary at the 2009 European Film Awards.

DVD courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia

May 23
HIS GIRL FRIDAY
(USA 1940) 92 min. 16 mm
Director Howard Hawks
Cast Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy, Gene Lockhart, Helen Mack

Rosalind and Cary trade wise-cracks, barbs, schemes, double-crosses and kisses in this fast-paced screwball newspaper saga. Based on the popular play, The Front Page by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur about a reporter who wants to quit and a ruthless editor who won't let go, both get the story of their lives. Filmed a number of times, in this version director Howard Hawks had the bright idea of turning one of the male roles into a female played by Rosalind Russell. The result was magic.

Print courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia

June 6
THE CHESS PLAYERS
(India 1977) 120 min. 16 mm
Director Satyajit Ray
Cast Sanjeev Kumar, Saeed Jaffrey, Shabana Azmi, Farida Jalal, Veena

It’s 1856 in Northern India, and the British are looking to annex another kingdom. A British General comes on a secret mission to gauge the opposition, only to find a ruler who is more interested in poetry and music, and courtiers who spend their time obsessively playing chess. Satyajit Ray’s satirical drama about the defence of India is sumptuous, lyrical, comic and beautiful to watch.

Print courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia

June 20
THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO
(USA 1985) 82 min. 16 mm
Director Woody Allen
Cast Mia Farrow, Jeff Daniels, Danny Aiello, Dianne Wiest, Van Johnson

The Purple Rose of Cairo is a comedy-drama written and directed by Woody Allen. It is the tale of a film character who leaves a fictional film of the same name and enters the real world. The story is about the woman’s love for the fictional character and the tension that occurs when the real actor comes to town and she has to choose between the character on the screen and the real actor.

Plus

SHERLOCK  JR.
(USA 1924) 45 min. 16 mm
Director Buster Keaton
Cast Buster Keaton, Kathryn McGuire, Ward Crane, Joseph Keaton

Sherlock Jr. is an early Buster Keaton film about the merging of a film with real life. A film projectionist is framed by a rival for stealing his girlfriend's father's pocket watch and dreams that he is in a movie as its detective hero.

Prints courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia