Nominated by Bill Henson as inspirational cinema, this series of feature films embraces a dark universe. Blurring the boundary between consciousness and dreams, the stories explore a nocturnal, somnambulistic side of reality and display a fascination with lives led on the fringes of society - lives in transition, metamorphosis and spiritual despair; invasions of the unknown or strange into the mundane. A mellow and melancholy feast.
PROGRAM
12 & 16 January
One whole night
Dir: Chantal Akerman 1982
90 min. 35mm Colour Rated M15+
French with English subtitles
Longing, meeting, parting and escaping - a sultry night in the city is witness to many dramatic moments. Akerman's experimental feature presents us with a series of apparently unconnected fragments from the lives of fifty couples which take place during one, long Brussels night.
Print imported courtesy Communauté Française de Belgique & Royal Belgian Embassy.
19 & 23 January
Taxi driver
Dir: Martin Scorsese 1976
113 min. 35mm Colour Rated R
Cast: Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, Cybill Sheperd, Jodie Foster
An alienated Vietnam-era veteran is thrust into the night time urban sprawl of New York City when he takes a job as a taxi driver who will go anywhere, anytime. Scorsese's masterpiece is an examination of the gritty, casual violence of the everyday.
26 & 30 January
I vitelloni
Dir: Federico Fellini 1953
104 min. 35mm B&W Rated PG
Cast: Franco Interlenghi, Alberto Sordi
Italian with English subtitles
Follows the lives of five discontented and restless young men in a small, provincial town on the Adriatic. Regarded as layabouts, they exist in a world of dreams, fantasies, childish jokes and, for the most part, bored inactivity. Gradually each experiences a confrontation with reality, but only one of them chooses to do anything about his situation.
2 & 6 February
The bitter tears of Petra von Kant
Dir: Rainer Werner Fassbinder 1972
124 min. 16mm Colour Rated MA15+
Cast: Eva Mattes, Gisela Fackeldy
German with English subtitles
Making extended use of long, single camera shots and deep focus, this uncompromising drama is a film version of one of Fassbinder's own plays. The action takes place entirely within the confines of fashion designer, Petra von Kant's apartment. Imprisoned within this flowery, ornate set, three women act out a classical tragedy that explores the erotics of cruelty and the manipulation of sexual power.
9 & 13 February
The damned
Dir: Luchino Visconti 1969
155 min. 35mm Colour Rated M15+
Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Ingrid Thulin.
Dark, grotesque tale of a powerful German family's struggle to maintain control of its industrial empire at the beginning of the Nazi period. Chiaroscuro images, often accented with dazzling light effects, 'paint' the film with the morbid colours of the Essenbeck family's doomed predicament.
16 & 20 February
The magician
Dir: Ingmar Bergman 1959
102 min. 16mm B&W Rated PG
Cast: Max von Sydow, Ingrid Thulin
Swedish with English subtitles
If Vogler's Magnetic Health Theatre comes to town, there's bound to be a spectacle. But reports of supernatural disturbances at previous performances cause a local police chief and a sceptical scientist to request a preview before allowing Vogler's show into their village. A dark and sombre parable exploring confrontation between science and the supernatural.
23 & 27 February
Aguirre: the wrath of God
Dir: Werner Herzog 1972
94 min. 16mm Colour Rated PG
Cast: Klaus Kinski, Ruy Guerra, Del Negro
German with English subtitles
An hypnotic epic of megalomania and delusional madness. Klaus Kinski plays a Spanish conquistador who leads an expedition on a quest for the lost city of El Dorado. In his lust for gold, power and fame he travels beyond the reality of the South American wilds into the realms of hallucination.
2 & 6 March
Nosferatu
Dir: Werner Herzog 1979
124 min. 35mm Colour Rated PG
Cast: Klaus Kinski, Isabelle Adjani, Bruno Ganz
German with English subtitles.
Herzog's lyrical, captivating and sometimes humorous homage to Murnau's pioneering version of the Dracula story is unique to vampire cinema. Shot on location in Holland and eastern Slovakia, the menacing landscapes evoke childhood nightmares while Kinski gives one of his finest performances as Count Dracula, a creature of longing, passion and sorrow who broods on the torture and loneliness of living forever.
9 & 13 March
Network
Dir: Sidney Lumet 1976
121 mins. 35mm Colour Rated M
Cast: William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Peter Finch
In a bid for ratings, a television network cynically exploits the ravings and revelations of a deranged ex-news anchor by giving him his own show as "the mad prophet of the air-waves". A black, biting satire on the inner workings of the 20th century's most powerful medium.
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