CINEMA REBORN 2022 - DAY 2 - MR KLEIN, BEAU TRAVAIL, THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI, TROUBLE IN PARADISE and BATCH '81

Jeanne Moreau in Mr. Klein

It’s the first of four days when Cinema Reborn will be screening from morning till night. Today brings on a brilliant array of restored classics. Ranging from one of the most brilliant Hollywood comedies of the 30s, Trouble in Paradise,  to our first ever film from the Philippines, the ferocious allegory of the Marcos regime Batch ’81. Something for everyone. 

Screenings start at 11.15 am with Joseph Losey’s Cesar Award-winning Mr. Klein, then a repeat of last night’s scintillating openerBeau Travail, followed by the first screening of Orson Welles 1947 noir The Lady from Shanghai with Welles and Rita Hayworth starring.

 

Rita Hayworth goes blonde, The Lady from Shanghai

Full details of all films with links to some superb program notes by Mark Pierce, Adrian Martin, David Hare, Geoff Gardner and Noel Vera can be found ON THIS LINK. Advance ticket sales that enable you to walk straight to the Ritz’s Cinema 5 are available on the Ritz website or you can purchase tickets all day at the theatre box office (regular prices from $8-21).  

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Kay Francis, Herbert Marshall, Miriam Hopkins
Trouble in Paradise

There is indeed some trouble in the Cinema Reborn paradise. A couple of rather sad notes. The proposed introduction to Trouble in Paradise by film scholar Ivan Cerecina of Sydney Uni wont be taking place. Ivan has come down with Covid and is in isolation.

 

We are also sorry to report that the introduction by David Stratton proposed for The Lady from  Shanghai on Friday night at 6.00 pm will also not be taking place. David is battling a serious bout of ill-health and is not able to leave his home at the moment.

 

Ivan and David have sent their apologies. Cinema Reborn will have somebody at the screenings to make some introductory remarks and we wish both of our  friends and presenters the very best for quick recoveries.

 

In the meantime, we have twenty four sessions of our 2022 selection to go. Enjoy.

CINEMA REBORN – Off to a Flying Start – Tonight at 7.00 pm BEAU TRAVAIL (Claire Denis, France, 1999) – Introduced by Angelica Waite

Claire Denis

Expat critic Adrian Martin sums up our opener just so:

Beau Travail is a masterpiece (most fans regard it as Denis’ best so far), a film whose rich inner life only becomes more absorbing and intricate with repeated viewings. Oh, and have I mentioned the dance scenes? The film opens, stunningly, with a club crowd dancing to the Turkish hit by Tarkan, “Şımarık” (better known to Australians as “Kiss Kiss”, Holly Valance’s cover version), and ends, immortally, with one of cinema’s most extraordinary and oft-referenced spectacles: Lavant dancing his soul out to Corona’s 1993 “The Rhythm of the Night”. After seeing and hearing that, don’t let anyone tell you that disco is dead.  Click on the film title at the start of the paragraph to read the full version of Adrian's very illuminating Program Notes.

 

The film will be introduced by Angelica Waite (pictured above) a member of the Cinema Reborn Organising Committee.

 

Angelica has a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Film Studies from the University of Sydney. Her Honours research centred around Abbas Kiarostami’s Close-Up(1990), exploring the film’s interaction with dynamics of perfomativity, transformation, and generative processes of ‘truthmaking’ in documentary film.

 

Angelica has been on the Organising Committee of Cinema Reborn since 2019. She also works in research and academic support at the University of Sydney Library and as a Media Manager at SBS.

 

In 2020, Angelica was co-founder of The Film Group, a collaborative film screening and publication project with a focus on documentary film and artists' moving image.     

 

Tonight’s screening begins at 7.00 pm. Tickets at regular Ritz prices ($8-21) are available at the door but if you want to avoid the line-up and go straight to the screening you can book online IF YOU CLICK HERE

 

There is a repeat screening of the film tomorrow Thursday 28th at 2.00 pm (no introduction) which you can also book on the link above.

CINEMA REBORN - COUNTDOWN TO 27 APRIL AT 7.00 PM

A few quick reminders

All Cinema Reborn screenings including our Opening are at regular Ritz prices ranging from $8 for Senior Ritz Card Members, $10 for Members (join on the website if you click here) through to $21.

 

OPENING NIGHT

 

CINEMA REBORN gets underway with a screening of BEAU TRAVAIL Claire Denis’ take on Herman Melville’s “Billy Budd” “…a masterpiece (most fans regard it as Denis’ best so far) a film whose rich inner life only becomes more absorbing and intricate with repeated viewings” (Adrian Martin).  

 

If you want to book tickets to enable you to go straight to the cinema and avoid the line-up at the box office JUST CLICK HERE

 

THE CINEMA REBORN CATALOGUE

 

This splendid publication is a key feature of Cinema Reborn and this year it’s being given away right now and FREE. You can read it online if  you just  CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE 2022 CATALOGUE.

 

For our 2022 edition the book has 76 pages of almost entirely newly written  material by eminent, scholars, critics, educators, festival programmers and enthusiasts including international contributors John Baxter, Adrian Martin, Annouchka De Andrade, David Hare, Tony Rayns, Pamela Hutchinson, Ehsan Khoshbakht, Noel Vera and Marshall Deutelbaum. This is on top of contributions from local critics, scholars and film-makers Jane Mills, Margot Nash, Janice Tong, Rod Bishop, Mark Pierce, Adrian Danks, and Helen Goritsas

 

THE CINEMA REBORN WEBSITE AND THE FESTIVAL SCHEDULE

 

The information in the catalogue is drawn from our own website www.cinemareborn.org.au  and if you want to start at the start just click on that link or head straight to the FESTIVAL SCHEDULE to map out viewing plans.

 

DISCOUNT PARKING and PUBLIC TRANSPORT

 

If you park in the multi-story carpark about twenty metres along from the Ritz Cinema on St Pauls Street you can do so at a discount if you ask for a voucher at the box office. Maximum discounted price is $7.00

 

There are buses from the city and Bondi Junction and the L2 tram from Circular Quay ends near the Randwick shops. Full details of Parking and Public Transport are on the Ritz website https://www.ritzcinemas.com.au/getting-here

 

PHILIPPA HAWKER IN ‘THE SATURDAY PAPER” ON SAMBIZANGA

 

Our first film from Africa has been given some special attention by Philippa Hawker in The Saturday Paper. It’s in a two page spread which says some very nice things about Cinema Reborn and what we are trying to achieve. Pick up a copy before it sells out….

CHARITABLE DONATIONS

There is only a week left before the Australian Cultural Fund will close off our charitable donations page for 2022. If you are minded to make a tax deductible donation, large or small, to support the work of our all-volunteer group and bring more film classics back to the screen in Sydney click here for  THE AUSTRALIAN CULTURAL FUND

CINEMA REBORN 2022 - First Titles Announced - BEAU TRAVAIL (Claire Denis, France, 1999), ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (Sergio Leone, Italy, 1968), NIGHTMARE ALLEY (Edmund Goulding, USA, 1947)

It’s a big moment for a whole host of people who have been working to get the 2022 edition of Cinema Reborn up and running.

Cinema Reborn is devoted to carefully selected restorations of great films from cinema history. This year’s program comes from 10 countries - Italy, Iran, Japan, China, France, Australia, Angola, the Philippines, USSR and USA.

At the main evening and weekend sessions there will be a 10-minute introduction from an expert in the field and the new, pristine restorations - either 2K or 4K - will be presented in the Randwick  Ritz’s newly renovated and re-seated state-of-the-art cinemas. But this year there will be repeat weekday morning and afternoon screenings including on Monday 2 May and Tuesday 3 May to maximise your chances of seeing some very special moments in cinema history.

 Join us for one of the most unique events on the film calendar. 

 Join us for Cinema Reborn 2022.

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Cinema Reborn will  start with an Opening Screening on Wednesday 27 April and close on Sunday 1 May…. 

BOOKINGS CAN NOW BE MADE FOR THE THREE FILMS ANNOUNCED BELOW VIA  LINKS THROUGH TO THE RITZ WEBSITE.  

Beau Travail (Claire Denis, France, 1999)

Our Opener 

BEAU TRAVAIL (1999)

“ALLEGORICAL TALE OF REVENGE AND JEALOUSY SET WITHIN A FRENCH FOREIGN LEGION OUTPOST IN AFRICA” – SLANT MAGAZINE

Veteran French director Claire Denis riffs off Herman Melville’s Billy Budd in this enthralling, lyrical drama about an officer, Galoup, recalling how his idyllic army days in Djibouti were destabilized by the arrival of a handsome young recruit who attracts the attention of Galoup’s commandant.

Claire Denis brings a female director’s eye to toxic male ego and unrequited homoeroticism. 

An unforgettable film with an even more unforgettable end-titles sequence. Luminously photographed by Agnès Godard.

“Subtle brilliance that’s still relevant over twenty years later”

-      Fresh Fiction

Introduced by Angelica Waite, Film Programmer and Member of the Cinema Reborn Organising Committee 

 WATCH THE TRAILER CLICK HERE

 RATING MA15+, 92 MINS, France, 1999, French, English subtitles WITH: Denis Lavant, Michel Subor, Grégoire Colin

 Screens on Thursday 27 April at 7.00 pm (with introduction)  and Thursday 28 April at 2.00pm TO MAKE A BOOKING

To read internationally renowned critic and scholar Adrian Martin’s superb Program Notes on Claire Denis and what is regarded as her finest film click through to the Cinema Reborn website HERE

Our Saturday Night Special 

ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (1968)

“QUITE SIMPLY A MASTERPIECE, LEONE’S REVISIONIST WESTERN IS A MYTHIC SPECTACLE OF A FILM AND A LANDMARK IN CINEMA HISTORY” – FILM4 STAFF

In hindsight, Sergio Leone’s earlier Westerns were mere warm-ups for this sprawling, operatic, epic about a mysterious stranger (Charles Bronson) and an ageing gunfighter (Jason Robards) joining forces to protect a widow (Claudia Cardinale) and her land from a gun-for-hire (Henry Fonda) and his gang of assassins who work for the railroad as it expands across the West.

It’s got everything – achingly beautiful music from the maestro Ennio Morricone; widescreen cinematography from Tonino Delli Colli; scriptwriters Bernardo Bertolucci, Dario Argento and Leone; perhaps the best pre-titles sequence ever made; Henry Fonda playing against type as a ruthless, vicious killer; and a story with all the frontier justice, frontier love, simmering revenge and lawless power you could wish for. A sumptuous, elegiac closing of an era.

The new 4K restoration includes scenes that were deleted for its first release.

“Long live Leone’s timeless monument to the death of the West itself…Critical tools needed are eyes and ears. This is Cinema.”

-      Paul Taylor, Time Out Film Guide

Introduced by Jane Mills, Film-maker, critic, Hon. Associate Professor, School of the Arts and Media, University of New South Wales

WATCH A TRAILER CLICK HERE

RATING M, 166 MINS, Italy, English, CAST: Henry Fonda, Claudia Cardinale, Charles Bronson, Jason Robards

PRESENTED WITH THE SUPPORT OF THE ITALIAN INSTITUTE OF CULTURE, SYDNEY 

Screens on the big screen in the Ritz Cinema One on Saturday 30 April at 7.45 pm (with introduction)  and Tuesday 3 May at 1.00pm 

TO MAKE A BOOKING CLICK HERE

To read  the fine program notes on Sergio Leone, Italian Westerns and this great epic movie written by RMIT University scholar and Co-curator of the Melbourne Cinematheque Adrian Danks CLICK HERE

Our Closer

 NIGHTMARE ALLEY (1947)

“THIS RAW, BITTER DRAMA OF THE TOUGHER SIDE OF TRAVELLING CARNIVAL LIFE MAKES FEW CONCESSIONS” – DAILY TELEGRAPH 

Usually cast as a romantic lead, Tyrone Power goes well against type as a carnival worker who uses the codes of a fake mind reader to become a dinner-suited, blindfolded ‘mentalist’ in a reputable Chicago night club.

 Carny life at its most realistic, this film noir exposes the ‘lower depths’ of the entertainment world and has grown in reputation, now aided by this superb 4K restoration which premiered at Bologna's Il Cinema Ritrovato in 2021. 

Recently remade with a cast including Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. Here’s a chance to see the original on the big screen.

“The characterizations in Nightmare Alley are studies in film noir. People are shown as venal, gullible, and obsessed with success at any price.” 

-      Joan Cohen

“One of those films mentioned in lowered voices, a guilty secret, to be screened at midnight behind closed doors…”

-      John Baxter

Introduced by James Vaughan, film-maker, director of FRIENDS AND STRANGERS, Member of the Cinema Reborn Organising Committee

WATCH A TRAILER CLICK HERE

RATING M, 110 mins, USA, English, CAST: Tyrone Power, Joan Blondell, Coleen Grey, Helen Walker, DIRECTOR Edmund Goulding

Screens on Sunday 1 May at 7.45 pm (with introduction)  and Tuesday 3 May at 10.45 am 

TO MAKE A BOOKING CLICK HERE

To read author, critic and film-maker John Baxter’s insightful Program Notes on Edmund Goulding and the film's place in the film noir canon click through to the Cinema Reborn website CLICK HERE

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Meanwhile dont forget to check out THE CINEMA REBORN FACEBOOK PAGE for news and if you are minded to make a tax deductible donation, large or small, to support the work of our all-volunteer group and bring more film classics back to the screen in Sydney click here for  THE AUSTRALIAN CULTURAL FUND

 ....and if you want to maximise your attendance think about joining THE RITZ ROYALTY CLUB and save on all admissions. Seniors get additional savings.

More news in a few days.

 

On DVD and streaming - Shelley Jiang revives Claire Denis' second feature NO FEAR, NO DIE/S'EN FOUT LA MORT (France, 1990)

This is a rare Claire Denis film to find, being one of her earliest and least widely distributed. There are obvious comparisons to make between this effort and High Life (survival and madness in captivity, the almost anthropomorphic lurching of big machines that house the characters). But No Fear No Die's real sister film is Nenette et Boni. Although their focus is on the journey of two main characters, the core transformation is located in the characters' relationship with a kept animal/pet, and what their substitution of that animal at a critical point means about them. Here, the animal is a cock trained by Jocelyn and Dah, Beninian migrants to France. They join older Frenchman Pierre who, along with young wife Toni and his adult son, runs a restaurant in a food market and has hired the two to start up a cock-fighting betting racket on the floors beneath. 

The story seems to collapse forward rapidly after the midpoint but this narrative style suits perfectly Denis' take on the impulsiveness/automaticity of trauma-induced thought. Denis has said in interviews that she was inspired to make this film after reading Frantz Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks, which "describes a special kind of neurosis--colonized people feeling psychologically defeated even though they are physically free to determine their future". 

Questions for those who have seen the film: is Jocelyn's sexual attraction to Toni, and the desolation it strikes, manifestations of the grip of white colonial power on him as well as the corrosive sense of shame or hopelessness that this continuing grip provokes in him? I think it's hard to see the significance of the turning point of this film (the fall of the champion cock after Toni's tampering) without accepting this. The more difficult question is which came first -- Toni's influence or Jocelyn's vulnerability to her influence?

I have always admired the risks Denis takes in her storytelling (taboo themes, unconventional editing style), and this film certainly doesn't disappoint. There are visual rhymes in this film that are so direct, they can be hard to accept (Dah drops sugar cubes into Jocelyn's coffee cup with the same action he uses to feed the cocks; Jocelyn in a club swaying erratically with a woman as he does with the champion bird; the movement of Toni's neck and curly up-do mimicking the shape and movement of a cock's head). 

Denis lends her story noir dimensions, at first for fun. There are men in trenchcoats, gritty and sparsely lit concrete expanses. The scene of Pierre's arrival in which we watch from behind a glass door as he approaches from his car through the cold bleak exterior looks as if straight out of Melville. We feel excited for Jocelyn and Dah when they discuss with anticipation the spoils of this particular partnership, but the pair's consignment to dank underground living quarters suggests the beginning of a confrontation with the dire material and hierarchical reality of their work conditions as African migrants. We feel as if the exciting potential of their adventure may have been cut short.