Caban Programme 2008 - 09
Screenings are at Y Caban, Brynrefail
at 7.30pm (in theory)
Films are now programmed up to Christmas and following the programme below there is a short list of the films under consideration for 2009. We would welcome any suggestions (positive or negative) to info@occasionalcinema.org.
We are also showing films in Bangor at the Blue Sky Cafe in October and November.
2006, France, Cert 15, 106 mins, Dir: Michel Gondry Cerebral, romantic comedy
French-born Michael Gondry, and co-writer of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, has given us another movie with that distinctive combination of elegance and wackiness: insouciant, self-reflexive and intensely childlike. It is set in Paris, where Stéphane (Gael García Bernal) has returned to live in the almost-forgotten family home he left with his father when his parents divorced. Now his mother has divided the apartment into two flats, allowing him to live in one and rent the other out to two single girls, Stéphanie and Zoe (Charlotte Gainsbourg and Emma De Caunes). Stéphane simply moves back into his childhood bedroom, which his mother has kept unchanged with all his old toys and posters and wacky inventions, and it encourages Stéphane in his regressive Walter Mitty-ish tendency to reverie and fantasy. In his head, Stéphane is the host of a homemade TV show, with stage-set and cameras made of cardboard, a kind of lifestyle-news programme whose sole purpose is to comment on the ongoing bafflement of his life. And poor Stéphane is falling for his beautiful neighbour, Stéphanie, who is entranced by this innocent, with his ingenuous imaginative charm and love of arts and crafts, but does not find him attractive. Idealistic and romantic: a thwarted love story that does not trade in the degraded cliches either of romance or conventional sexiness. Stéphane's relationship with his workmates, particularly the boorish yet likable Guy, played by Alain Chabat, is effortlessly comic.
UK 2007 Director: Gareth Lewis
A hit man has second thoughts about his career and seeks refuge from his boss by finding work as a baker in a rural Welsh village.
Writer-director Gareth Lewis provides a great story, excellently told with lots of refreshing originality, tons of laughs, and perfect casting throughout. Damian Lewis is wonderful in the lead role, displaying the perfect blend of comedy, action and romance and Kate Ashfield is gorgeous. A family-friendly feel-good story of redemption.
France 2007 Director: V Paronnaud & M Satrapi
Poignant coming-of-age story of a precocious and outspoken young Iranian girl that begins during the Islamic Revolution. The black-and-white animation, highly stylized and in two dimensions unlike the usual cartoon 3-D, summarizes in quick, intelligent flashes, often impressionistic, growing up in Teheran and Vienna from a highly personal point of view. The narrative is as original as the art.
The narrator, Marjane Satrapi, only daughter of an educated Teheran couple, first sketches in briefly how the Shah first came to power, only to lose it and have it replaced by the fanatical religious regime of today. Educated in a French school, she and her family are rapidly alienated from the so-called revolution; she is sent to Vienna to continue her education, falls in with a group of punks and eventually returns both depressed and disillusioned to Teheran where, with other university students, she must submit to the rule of extreme Islamists.
The story covers a great deal of ground from the point of view of a young pro-Western culture radical, and is told with humor and intelligence. She laughs at herself as much as at the semi-lunatic Guards of the Revolution.
This is no fairy tale with flying horses and beautiful princesses, but a serious, unsentimental and sometimes brutally honest film covering, among other events, the story of the millions of Iranians and Iraqis who died in a now forgotten seven year war around the Persian Gulf.
UK 2007 Director: Anand Tucker
Starring Jim Broadbent, Colin Firth and Juliet Stevenson
Writer, Blake Morrison's moving and candid memoir of the weeks leading up to his Yorkshire GP father’s death. A beautifully written, well acted but above all wonderfully directed, film looking at a man who learns about himself by finding out about his father. Colin Firth plays a real writer who wrote an auto-biographical novel about his relationship with his father played by Jim Broadbent.
The events are funny and moving but restrained within a believable reality. Firth learns to live with his father's behaviour as we see that he isn't perfect either. It's positive about life without being sentimental.
Anand Tucker brings Blake Morrison’s autobiographical bestseller to the screen with sensitivity, humour and visual flair. - Empire
Israel/France 2007 Director: Eran Kolirin
Comedy/Drama
A band comprised of members of the Egyptian police force head to Israel to play at the inaugural ceremony of an Arab arts centre, only to find themselves lost in the wrong town. What follows is a special night of quiet happenings and confessions as the band makes its own impact on the town and the town on them.
A touching film about what makes us similar as humans, you will be subjected to a wide range of emotions during this film: joy, frustration, embarrassment, delight and so on - the humanity of the film really shines. People of such different backgrounds are basically the same; same hopes and aspirations, same fears and frustrations etc. The same things make all of us tick.
This film is also about strangers and others. And how we can help one another. The scene with Haled and the Israeli boy and girl in the skating rink is a classic.
A Classic - and it’s The Beatles!
Man on Wire is an exciting documentary about Philippe Petit who
managed to sneak into the World Trade Center in 1974 and do a high-wire act
between the Twin Towers.
An amazing story and fascinating to watch. The reenactments are also well filmed
and a nice job of telling the story.
This documentary plays like a classic heist film. It's filled with suspense and
has many of those caper moments of mistakes that may ruin the entire job. Even
though the final outcome is already known, it's still thrilling. A well crafted
film that does a wonderful job of telling the story of one man's dream and how
he managed to make it a reality.
Set in Afghanistan, Noqreh (a charismatic performance from the non-professional Agheleh Rezaie) is determined to enjoy the new freedoms available to her since the ousting of the regime. She has enrolled in a girls’ school, but has to conceal the fact from her strict father. She harbours the ambition of becoming the first female president of Afghanistan but has to smuggle an illicit but much-cherished pair of high-heeled shoes under her burka until her father is out of sight. The contrast between Noqreh’s ambition and the opportunities available to women like her is stark.
And while initially we almost believe that Noqreh could become a stateswoman, her options are gradually worn down by the immovable forces of tradition and by the exhausting process of survival. While Makhmalbaf allows moments of off-beat humour, post-Taleban Afghanistan is not a place for optimism, it seems.
France/Italy 2006 Director: Julie Gravas
A 9-year-old girl weathers big changes in her household as her parents become radical political activists in 1970-71 Paris.
Mexico 2005 Director: Francisco Vargas
Strikingly shot in black and white, this feature debut by Mexican Francisco Vargas has won a number of festival awards. It begins with a grisly torture scene, but soon reveals itself as a very different kind of film - majestically slow at times, but increasingly suspenseful in its evocation of the struggle of a small village against military thugs.
Czech Republic/Slovakia 2008 Director: Jiri Menzel Comedy/Romance/War
A bitter-sweet comedy set in German occupied Czechoslovakia during World War II explores the gradual maturing of an ambitious man who, suddenly in love and guided by stupidity rather than opportunism, finds himself on the side of the occupying power.
France/Belgium 2006 Director: Pascale Ferran
A French adaptation of the second (and much less well-known) version of D.H. Lawrence's erotic tale.
2007 Director: Ang Lee
The clash of Chinese politics and female sexuality lies at the heart of Ang Lee's controversial erotic thriller, along with equally playful yet portentous themes of identity and role playing, deception and coercion, love and murder. A naive student whose interest in amateur dramatics segues into radical politics in forties Shanghai.
France/USA 2007 Director: Julian Schnabel
The true story of Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby who suffers a stroke and has to live with an almost totally paralyzed body; only his left eye isn't paralyzed. Biography/Drama
Germany/Turkey/Italy 2007 Director: Fatih Akin Drama.
A Turkish man travels to Istanbul to find the daughter of his father's former girlfriend.
Mexico/Spain 2007 Director: Juan Antonio Bayona
A woman brings her family back to her childhood home, where she opens an orphanage for handicapped children. Before long, her son starts to communicate with an invisible new friend.
France/Belgium 2006 Director: Xavier Giannoli
An aging French pop idol has a melancholic awareness of the slow disappearance of his adoring female audience and of his advancing years. He is completely knocked off balance when he becomes involved with an attractive young businesswoman. But what are her motives for the relationship.
USA 2008 Director: Thomas McCarthy
Drama
A widowed college professor travels to New York City to attend a conference and finds a young couple, who turn out to be illegal immigrants, living in his apartment.
France/Germany 2006 Director: Julie Delpy
Comedy/Drama/Romance
Marion and Jack try to rekindle their relationship with a visit to Paris, home of Marion's parents … and several of her ex-boyfriends.
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The Occasional Cinema is a film society run by volunteers. You must become a member to attend a film showing. Membership is available on the door on film nights for a cost of £5 per lifetime: after this film entrance is £3.00. Member's guests who are not resident in the area may watch a film for £5. Members are welcomed to play an active part in the running of the society.
Films are shown at the Caban, Brynrefail (and from October 2008 at the Blue Sky Cafe, Bangor) and unless stated otherwise start at 7.30pm, or more accurately, sometime after 7.30pm when everyone's finished the delicious food.
Food is available from 6.30pm and a sophisticated clientele enjoy the wholesome food, reasonable price (£7.50 for two courses at the Caban, £8.00 at the Blue Sky Cafe) and excellent atmosphere. Meals are provided on a first-come first-served basis. Reservation is very helpful - Caban 01286 685500, Blue Sky 01248 355444. You can't book for the film, which is first come first served. Everyone who arrives before 7pm and has booked will get to see the film.
Blue Sky Café is in the central part of Bangor High Street at number 236 behind the butchers and opposite the Halifax Building Society. It was formerly Java and before that the Ambassador Hall.
www.occasionalcinema.org Matrix10 web hosting.
