“Loved it! Ken Loach at his best.”

“Another case of ‘What a shame life isn’t more like a film’, eh?”

“A ‘fucking’ [sic] brilliant end to the season !!”

“A good end-of-season film - but, of course, it isn’t the end.”

“The benefits of taking a close shave!”

“Despite being a roller-coaster ride of upbeat and bleak moments, this was an entertaining film full of Manchunian wit with a great performance from John Henshaw.”

“Subtitles would have been helpful for non-Scousers!”

“Silly and fun - though too much football”

“Good but Cantona’s [dialogue] needed subtitling”

“An aberration! An exercise in gritty un-realism, fantasy and a tacked-on happy ending. Most enjoyable!”

“… to laugh … and (be) positive! [sic]”

“Repetitive language and poor sound quality. I couldn’t understand the relationships.”

“A Gordon Brown mask would have seen them off quicker!”

“Who would be a teacher? ‘Fings ain’t wot they used to be!’”

“An exhausting profession!”

“They really earn their salaries - what a jungle!”

“The teachers and students were too tame and mild mannered to be considered realistic, from what I remember at school!”

“I liked this film but those were some rather mature kids!”

“The film had its moments but its length made it far too demanding to take everything in.”

“Well, France is also noted for its Revolution.”

A PROPOS DE NICE

with piano accompaniment by Wendy Hiscocks

“Great fun!”

“Full of life!”

“Plus ça change, plus c’est le même [chose]. Brilliant piano accompaniment.”

“Good and atmospheric”

“With a concoction of Hiscock’s music and the striking cinematography, this film was an excellent slice of French culture”

ZERO DE CONDUITE

“A for the music!”

“Great fun!”

“More fun than Etre et Avoir. Gloriously anarchic!”

“Enjoyed the whole evening - very informative Programme Note”

“Weird! I couldn’t begin to get engaged and simply didn’t find it entertaining.”

“Despite having some [good] moments, the clumsy sound design in this dated film didn’t do it much justice. The piano duets were interesting, with an outstanding recital of Danse Macabre.”

“A lovely evening spoilt by the [second film - zero for Zero!”

“Thank heaven for the pianist and the duets - superb! Such a shame - classic [films]? Harold [Lloyd] in 2009 was brilliant.”

“Piano was brilliant!”

“A+ for the pianist!”

“Congratulations to the pianist - he made the evening!”

“Andrew Youdell excellent! Thank you”

“I really enjoyed the piano accompaniment.”

“Andrew’s music provided a lot of atmosphere for this exceptional piece of Expressionism. A real cinematic treat, worth viewing just for the entertaining expressions [on the faces] of the characters.”

“Tremendous! Very moving and amazing - I had a strong feeling of what it must have been like to see this film at the time. Great music too!”

“I loved it. Very difficult to compare with a normal film but captivating from the start.”

“An amazingly different style of cinema”

“Such a different genre!”

“The Goth in me loved this film - the venue and the accompaniment made it a real treat.”

“I rather liked the Golem - a bit like King Kong, I felt sorry for him. Wonderful street scenes.”

“Lots of energy and imagination. I always thought there was some good in that Golem!”

“I felt sorry for the Golem - he got a hard deal, as did the knight!”

“There were wonderful parallels with Lenny in The Grapes of Wrath, Frankenstein’s monster, of course and The Wrong Trousers! But very disquieting - how many Sonder Kommando in Warsaw had seen this film as children?”

“Remarkable sets - organic rather than Gothic. An interesting film.”

“Dated - but still a good story”

“Next time, read the instructions - all of them!”

“More of these, please. [However,] I don’t suppose Mr Y is that frequently available!”

ALICE IN WONDERLAND

1903 8min silent from BFI archive featuring piano accompaniment by Wendy Hiscocks.

“Probably as entertaining as some of the more recent versions of the tale, although this scruffy short boasted the glummest Cheshire cat ever! Worth waiting for a restored version.”

“I preferred Tim Burton’s”

CONQUEST OF EVEREST

64min extract of 1953 colour documentary (dir: George Lowe, rt: 78mins)

“Gripping and true. The music fitted perfectly.”

“A triumph of film, music and climbing!”

“Very impressive!”

“Impressive film, with beautiful, very good evocative music”

“An epic challenge - music was OK”

ARTHUR BENJAMIN TALK

by Wendy Hiscocks

“Excellent talk by Wendy”

“A very lively and interesting introduction”

“An excellent talk and film accompaniment by Wendy - well done! Maybe we could have one of the other films in a future programme.”

“An interesting evening of film clips. Perhaps we could have a film from the selection on the ProgNote, with music by Benjamin.”

“A wonderful evening of entertainment - most original”

“Great evening - entertaining and informative”

“Excellent evening - thanks!”

“A fascinating evening of film and music”

“A refreshingly different evening, which opened up a whole new world”

“Informative and interesting and made you want to appreciate the films he had done, particularly Conquest of Everest”

“A very interesting and enjoyable evening, with a range of films and styles”

“Very well presented and interesting”

LOOKING FOR ERIC

UK 2009 112 minutes Cert. 15

It is no surprise to find that postmen - like the rest of us - have personal problems, as was demonstrated in the postal strikes we saw last year. However not many have guardian angels, so to speak. We have seen films before where an outside influence consoles and has some power over someone else’s life. In Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire (1987), for instance, the two guardian angels were Ganz and Sander who kept a watchful eye on the character played by Peter Falk. In Ghost (1990) Patrick Swayze’s ghost abets the romantic adventures of widowed wife Demi Moore. Even more significantly, in It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) Clarence sees that things turn out right for the hero. The main difference between these examples and tonight’s ghost is that Mr Cantona is very much alive. If you could choose your own third party to protect you and confide in, who better than someone you regard as a hero or heroine. Thus Eric, our troubled postie, turns naturally to his Old Trafford eccentric footballing hero and namesake.

One could be forgiven for thinking that director Ken Loach might pay too much attention to Cantona’s footballing prowess when he was indisputably one of the greats alongside Bobby Charlton, George Best and more recently David Beckham, and others. However, the clips that Loach throws in merely serve to show why Eric regards Cantona as his hero. Indeed this is not the first film in which Eric Cantona has appeared. Following his retirement from football in 1998 he had a role in the film Elizabeth starring Cate Blanchette.

As regards the plot of the film Looking for Eric, I am not going to spoil it for you. The first half of the film deals with Eric’s family life and troubles and introduces us to many of his friends, family and co-workers. Cantona appears and consoles where necessary. Most of the comedy comes at the end of the film, where the baddies get their comeuppance All the supporting cast give excellent performances and look like they really enjoyed making the film… especially the end.

This is a good upbeat film to end the initially programmed part of our season and we hope you will enjoy it.

Eric Bishop - Steve Evets
Eric Cantona - Himself
Lily - Stephanie Bishop
Ryan - Gerard Kearns
Ryan’s Girlfriend - Kelly Bowland
Meatballs - John Henshaw
Spleen - Justin Moorhouse

Director - Ken Loach
Screenwriter - Paul Laverty
Producer - Rebecca O’Brien
Cinematography - Barry Ackroyd
Music - Isobel Griffiths

THE CLASS (ENTRE LES MURS)

France 2009 124 minutes Cert. 15

We welcome the Abingdon and District Twin Towns Society to our annual joint screening event of this interesting film, The Class, which is based on the autobiographical novel by François Bégaudeau entitled ‘Entre Les Murs’. Bégaudeau is a novelist and teacher, and the multiracial picture he draws of life in a Parisian suburban school may be easily recognised by teachers, students and parents across the multicultural western world.

The film is made in documentary style, with only Bégaudeau playing ‘himself’ as Monsieur Marin. Although the students use their real names, they develop their characters through improvisation and are not portraying themselves. The result is that of a highly credible representation of the strains and challenges of education for the secondary sector, where the relevance of grammatical theory is pulled sharply into focus by the students. At times the classroom battles between student and teacher and student with student become melodramatic and uncomfortable for both the actors and the viewer. The film has the feel of authenticity, as the behaviour and language of the students is that which they would use in ‘real life’.

“The very least you can say about this rich, stimulating film is that it has the zest of actuality that you get in the best documentaries, and only rarely in fictions that aspire to documentary urgency … you could show this film in Hackney, Brooklyn, Shanghai or Baghdad and it would have much the same currency.” Jonathan Romney, The Independent on Sunday.

François Marin - François Bégaudeau
Esmeralda - Esmeralda Ouertani
Angélica - Angélica Sancio
Agame - Agame Malembo-Emene
Boubacar - Boubacar Toure

Director - Laurent Cantet
Screenplay - François Bégaudeau, Laurent Cantet, Robin Campillo
Cinematography - Pierre Milon
Producers - Simon Arnal, Caroline Benjo, Barbara Letellier, Carole Scotta

ABCD FILM SOCIETY PRESENTS

PIANO DUETS AND FILMS FROM FRANCE

Saturday, 27th March 2010 Saint Nicolas’ Church, Abingdon

The films: two classic short films by Jean Vigo:

A Propos de Nice (1930, Cert U, 25 mins) & Zéro de Conduite (1933, Cert PG, 41 mins)

A Propos de Nice accompanied on piano by Wendy Hiscocks

Jean Vigo is credited with only four films, made between 1930 and 1934, the year in which he died at the age of 29. Despite his small output, his work has had an abiding influence on French and European film culture, with two prizes named after him, one in France and one in Spain. The list of winners in France is most impressive (read the list: google “Prix Jean Vigo”); while the Spanish award is for documentaries with a “documented point of view”.

Vigo’s point of view in A Propos de Nice is of course what underlies our first film this evening. Consisting of rapid sequences of images, both of the pleasures of the rich visiting the resort and of the lives of the poor, it was controversial when made, both for its implicit ideas and for the montage method by which they are conveyed. The photographer Boris Kaufman went on to win an Oscar in 1954 for his work on On the Waterfront.

Vigo was a significant influence on Truffaut and on the British “Free Cinema” movement of the 1950s, whose key members included Lindsay Anderson, Karel Reisz and Tony Richardson. If you can remember Anderson’s If (UK, 1968), you may be struck by the stylistic and narrative similarities of our second film this evening, Zéro de Conduite (Nought for Conduct). (Anderson said his film was an homage to Vigo). It is set in a boys’ boarding school in which first pranks, and then rebellion, are the order of the day,. “An epic, free-for-all pillow fight in the dormitory suddenly turns into a mock religious procession, the picture going into slow motion, the soundtrack playing Maurice Jaubert’s memorable score backwards, a blizzard of feathers from the pillows floating in the background. With scenes such as this, it is not surprising that Zéro de Conduite was greeted by many with outrage. Jean Vigo’s first masterpiece was banned in France until 1945″ - Maximilian Le Cain (sensesofcinema.com).

Direction & script - Jean Vigo (both films)
Photography - Boris Kaufman (both films)
Art Direction - Henri Storck (uncredited) (Zéro de Conduite)
Music - Maurice Jaubert (Zéro de Conduite)

Leading roles in Zéro de Conduite

Surveillant Huguet - Jean Dasté
Surveillant Pète-Sec - Robert le Flon
Surveillant-Général Bec-de-Gaz - Du Verron
Principal du Collège - Delphin
Professeur - Léon Larive
Mère Haricot - Madame Emile
Préfet - Louis de Gonzague
Pompier - Rapha l Diligent

INTERVAL

The piano duets: performed by Wendy Hiscocks & Antony Gray

Gabriel Fauré - Dolly op. 54. Berceuse; Messieu Aoul; Le jardin de Dolly; Ketty-Valse; Tendresse; Le pas espagnol

Maurice Ravel - Ma Mère l’Oye. Pavane pour la belle au bois dormant ; Petit Poucet; Laideronnette, Impératrice des pagodes ; Les entretiens de la Belle et de la Bête; Le Jardin féerique

Camille Saint-Saëns - Danse Macabre (arr. Wendy Hiscocks)

Fauré (1845 - 1924) composed the Dolly suite, a collection of piano duets reflecting on childhood experience, between 1894 and 1896.

Ravel (1875 - 1937) wrote his Mother Goose Suite in 1910 as “five children’s pieces”, with quotations from
Perrault’s stories inscribed on the score.

Saint-Saëns’ (1835 - 1921) Danse Macabre, originally composed for piano and voice and based on a French Halloween superstition, was first performed in 1872.

Composer-pianist Wendy Hiscocks was born in Wollongong near Sydney and began playing the piano at an early age. In her teens she started composing, and went on to study composition with Peter Sculthorpe at the University of Sydney. Since moving to London in 1988 she has received commissions from distinguished soloists, ensembles and choirs from around the world. Her compositions include a collection of piano works, Scenes from an Australian Childhood and the choral work, Grace. As pianist she has appeared internationally at venues ranging from London’s Purcell Room to festivals on several continents. She performs chamber music and piano duos and duets, and accompanies singers in a large range of repertoire including her own compositions. Her piano duet arrangement of Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre was published in 2007. She is also preparing a biography of the Australian composer Arthur Benjamin, about whose film music she recently spoke to ABCD members.

Antony Gray was born and educated in Victoria, Australia. He graduated from the Victorian College of Arts where he studied with Roy Shepherd and Stephen McIntyre, winning several awards and prizes, including the Allans Keyboard Award two years running. In 1982 he received a scholarship from the Astra foundation to continue his studies in London with Joyce Rathbone and Geoffrey Parsons. From his time at College he has been a champion of many living composers, and his work with Australian composers Malcolm Williamson and John Carmichael has been particularly productive. His many discs of solo piano music include the complete piano music of Malcolm Williamson, which has been included in a recent survey of 1001 recordings to hear before you die. He has recently started a major project to record the complete solo piano music of Saint-Saens, including a large body of unpublished and previously unrecorded material.

SPECIAL EVENT:

DER GOLEM, WIE ER IN DIE WELT KAM (The Golem)

Germany 1920 85 minutes Cert PG

Silent film with piano accompaniment by Andrew Youdell.
Venue: St Nicolas’s Church, Market Place, Abingdon. 7.30 p.m.

Weimar Cinema, frequently labelled Expressionist cinema, was the first great phase in German film, lasting from 1918 to 1933. It encompassed such masterly film-makers as Murnau (Nosferatu, 1922), Robert Wiene (Das Kabinett des Dr Caligari, 1919), Fritz Lang (Metropolis, 1926) and G.W. Pabst (Diary of a Lost Girl, 1929). Less well-known than these is Paul Wegener (1874-1948). Wegener co-directed, scripted and starred in the third Golem film in 1920 (the two previous Golem films have been lost; one of them was also directed by Wegener). The film is based very, very loosely on the best-selling novel by Gustav Meyrinck (1916), an atmospheric evocation of a monster that haunts the streets of Prague. The backdrop to the film is a stylised medieval city, re-created in the studio by Hans Poelzig, Gothic to mirror the Gothick plot. The interiors, however, are Romanesque rather than Gothic, cave-like and claustrophobic. Look out for the characteristically Expressionist chiaroscuro and the staircase. The female lead is played by Wegener’s wife, Lyda Salmonova.

Is the film anti-Semitic? Not overtly so, but there does seem to be, as in Meyrinck’s novel, an anti-Semitic current in the portrayal of Prague and its ghetto. Wegener went on to become one of the Third Reich’s key directors and in 1937 was made state actor by the Hitler administration. He directed Kolberg, the last great colour film of the Nazi era; he died in a Russian prison camp.

The Golem - Paul Wegener
Rabbi Loew - Albert Steinrück
Famulus - Ernst Deutsch
Miriam - Lyda Salmonova
Florian - Lothar Müthel
Child - Loni Nest

Directors - Paul Wegener, Carl Boese
Screenplay - Paul Wegener, Henrik Galeen
Cinematography - Karl Freund
Set design - Hans Poelzig
Producer - Paul Davidson
Studio - Ufa (Universum Film AG)

“Brilliantly done - tested our reading abilities to the limit!”

“Talk about tense - now please hand me the Paracetamol!”

“Excellent as a film but also as historical data - it brought back vivid memories of when I was in Italy at that time.”

“Fascinating, funny, frightening”

“Fascinating although difficult to follow all the characters. Poor Italy - first Andreotti, now Berlusconi!”

“Baffling but fascinating - that’s Italy [for you].”

“Brilliantly orchestrated [but] totally lacking in any emotion and hard to find anyone [in the film] who engaged my sympathies. What did Berlusconi and the present Italian government think of it?”

“Very complex and fast-moving. I lost the plot - but did I ever have it [in the first place]?”

“Once I gave up trying to follow the story, I enjoyed this stylish film very much.”

“Music particularly effective”

“Engaging, yet lengthy, political biopic that certainly had a lot of influence from American cinema. The use of Da Da Da over the end credits seemed incredibly inappropriate but actually worked well as a conclusion to [the film’s] eclectic soundtrack.”

“Interestingly filmed - molto interessante”

“High on style, the camera angles, music, etc. giving a very different and enjoyable film experience but difficult to follow …”

“Very interesting but difficult to follow, even with the excellent introduction. I’m sure [that], to someone familiar with Italian politics, it would have been even more enjoyable.”

“Even with the introduction, very difficult to follow! Andreotti walked like a zombie.”

“More interesting if there had been another assassination!”

“Confusing, both in keeping track of characters and plot plus how such an unlikeable, uncharismatic man gained so much power, but very good.”

“A very inscrutable man and proof that most good politicians get away with everything.”

“Toni Servillo [as Andreotti] reminded me of Nosferatu.”

“Lifeless power!”

“There was something of Nosferatu about the man!”

“A truly strange film. I do not know what to make of it.”

“Mr Marlow-Mann [the speaker who introduced the film] can’t have been very good because I didn’t understand any of it - not really! As he said, it didn’t matter and it was very stylish.”

“Don’t worry about the hoodies - beware the Suits!”