The Band's Visit - December 12th 7.30pm

The Band’s Visit is Port Fairy Film Society’s December screening this Friday 7.30pm.

Comedy can’t end wars. But sometimes it can help cut through the unremitting complexity of conflict and grief by presenting us with the simple maxim: our stories are shared, so let’s laugh about it together.

The Band’s Visit revisits the Israeli-Arab issue with a clever set-up. An Egyptian police band due to perform at an Arab cultural centre becomes stranded at a remote Jewish village in Israel due to a miscommunication with a bus driver. In their bright blue police uniforms and carrying enormous instrument cases, they are less fish out of water than a pod of beached whales.

When the enemy is humanised, and needs our help, it generally brings out the best in people, and so it is – eventually - with the townfolk of Peta Tikva. The helpless dignity of the men and the generosity of the women in particular provide some interesting and amusing culture clash moments. With a lovely coming-of-age subplot and an emphasis on the shared love of music, the film is touching and memorable.

“The Band's Visit (is) a witty, elegant and deeply affecting film,” said David Stratton in The Australian.

“A film of quiet intensity, hard edged charm and surprising revelations, The Band's Visit straddles comedy and drama with ease," wrote Andrew L. Urban from Urban Cinefiles.

To get the audience in the mood, and to celbrate our final film of the year, the Port Fairy Band will be performing in the theatre shortly before the screening.

Screening starts at 7.30pm. Memberships available at the door, tea and coffee provided.

Click below to watch trailer:

The Counterfeiters - November 21st

 

The Counterfeiters is Port Fairy Film Society’s November screening this Friday 7.30pm.

 

Salomon Sorowitsch is regarded as ‘the most charming scoundrel in Berlin’ and the best counterfeiter in the world. As his fellow Jews begin disappearing, he is given the chance by the Nazis to save himself by forging money to help bankroll the war effort. Sal chooses life. ‘Nobody’s prepared to die for a principle,” he says.

 

This year’s winner of Best Foreign Film Oscar, The Counterfeiters is based on a true story. Like last year’s German drama The Lives of Others, this film explores the moral murkiness of collusion. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, but at what cost to conscience?

 

Karl Markovics’ portrayal of a Sal, a man who understands that to survive he must sacrifice others, has been lauded for its understated power.

 

"What distinguishes The Counterfeiters is the masterfully subtle manner by which (director Stefan) Ruzowitzky gets under your guard and wreaks havoc with your conscience," wrote Jim Schembri in The Age.

 

"One of the most vital releases of 2008," wrote Leigh Paatch from the Herald Sun. 

Click below to watch preview:

 

Screening starts at 7.30pm. Memberships at the door, tea and coffee provided. For more info contact Damien on 55681358

Tarerer Film Festival - 7th November

Port Fairy Film Society is proud to support Tarerer-Gunditj Project Association in presenting the 2nd Tarerer Film Festival on Friday 7th November. The festival is curated by Walter Saunders.

At 7pm, screening in the foyer are two short films by Indigenous writer/directors. Payback (G, 10 mins) is a short drama by Warwick Thorton about payback, the Indigenous traditional law system. After 20 years, Paddy (George Djilaynga) is released from jail into tribal law. No Way to Forget (G, 10 mins) was written and directed by Richard Frankland. The film tells the story of Shane Francis (David Ngoombujarra), a Field Officer during the Royal Commission Into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

At 7.30pm we screen Wrong Side of the Road (M, 80 mins) by Ned Lander. This film documents the members and crew of the Aboriginal rock-reggae bands, No Fixed Address and US Mob on the road for two days. A road movie, musical and documentary drama in one, this innovative film is both inspiring and disturbing. No Fixed Address have reformed for this year's Tarerer Music Festival.

Screening at 9.00pm is Backroads (R, 60 mins) directed by Phillip Noyce. Two strangers – one white, one black – steal a car in western New South Wales and head for the coast. Jack (Bill Hunter) is abrasive, cunning and disparaging about Aborigines. Gary (Gary Foley) doesn’t really care – he just wants to escape. En route, they pick up Gary’s Uncle Joe (Zac Martin), a French hitchhiker (Terry Camilleri) and a young woman (Julie McGregor) who’s running away. Their petty crimes escalate as they go, heading towards disaster.

Entry is $10 by donation, food and wine included.

The Edge of Heaven - October 17th

Review by Damien Becker.

The Edge of Heaven is Port Fairy Film Society’s October screening after our Annual General Meeting this Friday at 7.30pm.

This German/ Turkish film directed by Fatih Akin takes the idea we have seen recently in Crash and Babel that many of our stories are linked in ways we don’t see, so that the viewer, witness to the concidences and near misses, is drawn to shout, ‘Look out behind you!’ to help the characters along.

Chance intertwines the lives of six characters. A retired Turkish widower living in Germany invites a younger woman to stay with him for payment. She accepts, partly to help her daughter whom she thinks is studying in Turkey but who is in fact on the run in Germany as a wanted terrorist. A German mother despairs for her daughter who has fallen in love with the young fugitive. The widower’s son returns to Turkey as redemption for a crime he cannot understand. Two of the six will die, the others left to reassemble their lives. 

Winner of Best Screenplay at Cannes, The Edge of Heaven requires patient viewing, which is rewarded by the detailed observation of the characters lives and the essential humanity of their dilemmas. The film lacks the polish or overt political commentary of Babel, but it’s a more humble film and a better one for that reason. It is also a not-so-gentle reminder of the complexities of the modern European dream. Akin is a gutsy filmmaker because he’s prepared to gamble that there is there is more meaning in the spaces in between action – the silence in conversation, the gaps in narrative, the physicality of a loved one’s absence – and that film can be a way to convey this.

"Circular in structure and story, this potent drama captures all the pathos and surprise of life itself,” wrote Louise Kellar of Urban Cinefile.

“It’s a truly excellent film,” said Margaret Pomeranz from ABC TV’s At the Movies. “Four-and-a-half stars.”

Click below for preview:

A screening of the Moyneyana House short film ‘A Little More Conversation, a Little Less Action’ will take place before the main film.

AGM starts at 7.30pm. Memberships, tea, coffee and lollies are available at the door from 7.15pm.

Lars & The Real Girl - September 19th

When you're an odd young man, it's hard to do the right thing by others - or even yourself. But in small town America you can get away with just about any amount of weirdness.

Lars & The Real Girl is your typical boy meets girl made of rubber, boys falls for girl made of rubber-type movie. Lars (played with colour and sensitivity by Ryan Gosling) is slightly stranger than your garden variety loner. Crippled by his social inadequacies, Lars forms an attachment to a fake plastic woman named Bianca and begins introducing his new flame to his family. (Let's be generous and call Bianca a 'mannequin'.) On the advice of his therapist, they play along, and before long Bianca becomes an indepensible part of the community.

The premise sounds kinda creepy, but this indie hit was nominated for Best Screenplay at the Oscars and a terrific cast make good use of a tight, witty script. Australian-born director Craig Gillespie has crafted an almost believable tale set in chilly, small town America. Gosling (The Notebook, Half Nelson) is always good, and you do feel for Lars' utter helplessness.

"A strangely affecting romance with real heart — and another sign that Gosling is one of the best young actors around," wrote Helen O'Hara from Empire.

"The film is at once entertaining, heartwarming and thought provoking, hard to label and impossible to simplify - but really easy to enjoy," wrote Andrew L. Urban from Urban Cinefiles.

"The impressive thing about this movie is just how unweird it is," said Marc Fennell from Triple J. 

Screening starts at 7.30pm. Memberships at the door, tea and coffee provided.

Click below for preview of Lars & the Real Girl

Memberships not tickets

Port Fairy Film Society is a member of the Victoria Federation of Film Societies. We abide by their rules in the spirit of communities celebrating the love of cinema rather than profit. This enables us to special pricing which helps smaller communities like ours access less commercial films.

As a result, we sell memberships, NOT individual tickets to screenings.

Memberships are priced as follows:
$30 /$24 conc * three monthly film society screenings
$55 /$45 conc six monthly film society screenings
$110 /$90 conc annual membership
*Three month members can choose to pay half on first visit and half on second visit.

All Membership prices include membership to Port Fairy Community House.
Note: This does not apply to non-Film Society screenings such as fundraisers, special events and summer screenings. Individual tickets are sold at these screenings.

No Country for Old Men - August 15th

Is this the baddest bad guy in film history? Have the Coen Brothers, in directing Javier Bardem - Oscar winner for Best Actor in a disturbing wig - created a cinematic villain to rival even Robert Mitchum’s 1955 turn in The Night of The Hunter?

Click above to view trailer:

No Country for Old Men is Port Fairy Film Society’s August screening this Friday 15th August at 7.30pm.

No Country for Old Men is classic suspenseful cinema with all the elements: a drug deal gone wrong, a suitcase full of cash and a down-on-his-luck nice guy who makes the choice to pick it up and run. Bardem’s Anton Chigurh isn’t pleased with that decision, and it’s on for young and old, as they say.

A stellar cast that includes Tommy Lee-Jones, Woody Harrelson, Josh Brolin and Kelly Macdonald delivers the Coen Brothers their most critically acclaimed film since Fargo. With stunning backdrops and a mood of quiet, slow menace throughout, No Country for Old Men is a violent romp through the American desert and into Mexico. It’s a nasty but thrilling business - think Cape Fear meets The Proposition.

“It's the unexpected nature of the characters and what happens to them that makes this return to form from the Coen Brothers both intriguing and satisfying,” wrote Louise Keller from Urban Cinefile.

“Everything about this film is absolutely wonderful. I mean, it is the most tense thriller,” said Margaret Pomeratz from ABC TV’s At the Movies, where both Margaret and David gave the film five stars.

Screening starts at 7.30pm. Memberships, tea, coffee and lollies are available at the door from 7.15pm

The Kite Runner - July 18th

Click above to view film trailer:

Book lovers are forever saying that films aren’t as good as the books they are adapted from, as if being absorbed in a novel for days or weeks could ever be matched by two hours in a theatre. Comparing cinema to literature is as useful as judging your preference different between art forms. I think Bob Hoskins’ performance in Mona Lisa was better than the woman’s in the Da Vinci painting, for instance.

So, we have The Kite Runner universally regarded as being not as good as the book. No surprises there. But the story is such a compelling one that even a half decent rendition is better than most of the formula flicks coming out of Hollywood.

Amir, born in Afghanistan but now a comfortable resident of the United States, returns to his homeland to right a perceived injustice and assuage his guilt for having left. He arrives to Afghanistan under Taliban rule and must directly confront the repression he left behind.

Many critics praised the performances and style of this film as well as its portrayal of a land few of us in salty cold ports have any real understanding of. “This is a beautiful film that delivers in every way. It's about boys who don't need to chase shadows and men who want to relive the joy of that colourful kite's magical dance in the heavens,” wrote Louise Keller from Urban Cinefile.

“This haunting, redemptive tale has been beautifully filmed…the film is totally accessible to all audiences,” said Margaret Pomeratz from ABC TV’s At the Movies.

Screening starts at 7.30pm. Memberships, tea, coffee and lollies are available at the door from 7.15pm

A map of where we are

Reardon Theatre is in Bank Street Port Fairy opposite the Victoria Hotel. See map below:

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2008 Program

(Films at Reardon Theatre in Bank Street unless stated)