abfilms.org.uk

Our annual screening in association with the Abingdon and District Twin Towns Society is:

THE CLASS (ENTRE LES MURS) - April 22nd

A “thoroughly modern and thoughtful portrait of a rowdy and adorable class of multi-ethnic Parisian teenagers over one school year” (Dave Calhoun, Time Out).

This film won the Palme d’Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival and, in 2009, a César for Best Writing - Adaptation. (Cert 15)
Dir: Laurent Cantet 124 mins France 2008

This screening is additional to the main programme. Admission is £5.00 which includes food and soft drinks. You may bring your own wine. Please note that the start time is 7.15 pm.

As part of Abingdon Arts Festival 2010, ABCD Film Society presents:

PIANO DUETS & FILMS FROM FRANCE
Saturday 27th March - St Nicolas’ Church, Abingdon, at 7.30 pm.,

Films: Two classic short films by the legendary Jean Vigo:

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

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)

Tickets: £10.50 (£8.50 concessions) from Mostly Books, Stert St (01235 525880), Abingdon Information Centre (522711) or phone: 522163

The Golem was a clay statue of legend whose role was to protect the Jews of the Prague ghetto from an imminent pogrom. He fulfils his task but then turns on his rabbinical master. All is put right when a child removes the emblematic shem from his chest. The Cabinet of Dr Caligari is widely known as the definitive expressionist film, but some argue that the acting, the set design and the lighting of The Golem combine to make this the superior example. (Cert PG)
Dirs: Paul Wegener and Carl Boese 84 mins Germany 1920

Andrew Youdell returns to accompany on piano our annual silent film. The screening will begin at 7.30 p.m. and take place at St Nicolas Church, Market Place, Abingdon.

Arthur Benjamin joined the ranks of some of Britain’s finest composing talent, being recruited by Muir Mathieson to write music for films in the 1930s. This illustrated talk by Australian composer and pianist Wendy Hiscocks celebrates Benjamin’s valuable contribution to British Film on the fiftieth anniversary of his death and includes excerpts from Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much, Walker’s Turn of the Tide and Mathieson’s Steps of the Ballet. A large section of Conquest of Everest will also be screened.
The start-time will be 7.30 p.m.

Giulio Andreotti, Italian Prime Minister seven times between 1972 and 1992, was once described by Margaret Thatcher as having “a positive aversion to principle”. This stylish film, with an inscrutable performance from Toni Servillo as Andreotti, certainly has a complex plot but is cinematically extremely rewarding, even if you have only the dimmest notion of Italian politics. “An extraordinarily sinister portrait [of] Italy’s most significant politician of the post-war period” - Anthony Quinn, Independent on Sunday. (Cert 15)
Dir: Paolo Sorrentino 114 mins Italy 2008

Tonight’s screening will be introduced by Alex Marlow-Mann, a specialist in Italian cinema, visiting ABCD for the second time. The screening will start at 7.30 p.m.