It’s a week of daring and controversial cinema at The Ritzy. One of the most infamous movies in film history gets a repertory screening, Nagisa Oshima’s Ai No Corrida (In The Realm of The Senses).
Based on true events this notoriously graphic and erotically charged allegorical tale of sexual obsession was systematically banned across the globe on its initial release in 1976, with its director charged with obscenity in his native Japan. It still holds up as an incredibly divisive and powerful film.
This year’s most talked about release has to be Palme d’Or winner Blue is the Warmest Colour, an intimate and intense coming of age tale of a young school girl’s affair with an older woman. Director Abdellatif Kechiche has been highly praised by those who have seen the film and damned by those who were in it. Go and see what all the fuss is about when the Ritzy screen it this week.
Essential documentary Dirty Wars sees journalist Jeremy Scahill making a dangerous and in depth investigation into war torn Middle East and how covert American units are turning it into a deadly and lawless killing ground. A Q&A with Scahill follows the screening.
How to Survive a Plague gathers interviews and archive to footage to tell the story of Act Up (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) and their struggles to beat ignorance and their relentless lobbying of politicians to provide the drugs needed to help those living with HIV. This screening is followed by a panel discussion.
Directed by British filmmaker Sean Ellis, Metro Manila sees a young Filipino couple leaving their rural home and heading for the capital, only to be pulled into a world of lowlife criminals in this gritty and topical thriller.
Short Sighted Cinema dedicates and entire evening to the best short films by emerging new directors, and Saving Mr Banks sees Tom Hanks as Walt Disney desperately trying to convince Emma Thomson as author P.L Travers to let him adapt Mary Poppins for the big screen. Maybe it was her that suggested he have his head cryogenically frozen and buried under Disney Land, the happiest place on earth.
Alexander Payne (The Descendants, Sideways, About Schmidt) has finally given cult cinema icon and Hollywood veteran Bruce Dern the lead role he deserves in Nebraska. Convinced he’s won a million dollars, Woody Grant (Dern) begins an 850-mile journey to Lincoln, Nebraska to collect his winnings, despite the reservations of his long-suffering wife and family. Should be a blast (with a touch of melancholy), especially with Dern in the driving seat.
