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Here in Melbourne we like to think of ourselves as a cultured bunch and we have a plethora of cultural institutions, festivals and independent cinema exhibitors constantly coming up with more entertainment than we have time to see. So, in the interest of helping everyone out, I’ve collated a short list of what you really ought to get yourself along to during the cinematic month of March in Melbourne.
Sunday March 13, 20 & 27,
7pm, Astor Theatre
The Astor Theatre, Melbourne’s grandest old theatre and our only single screen repertory cinema still standing, presents a Roman Polanski mini-season retrospective, including five of his most highly acclaimed films.
From his very first feature film Knife in the Water (1962) to his Academy Award Winning psychological horror-thriller Rosemary’s Baby (1968), this retrospective gives Polanski fans, cinephiles and newcomers alike the opportunity to see instalments of his Apartment Trilogy - Repulsion (1965), Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and The Tenant (1976) on the big screen. A rare and wonderful opportunity.
Australian new release
Opening March 3
There’s a lot of hate out there for our local film industry and from my point of view, it’s like anything: some of it’s very good and some of it’s very bad. In an effort to direct you towards the former, I’d recommend you leave A Heartbeat Away (2011) and Griff the Invisible (2010) well alone and make your way to see Wasted on the Young (2010) instead.
An impressively stylish film in the first instance, Wasted on the Young actually employs visual and aural craft to move beyond the film’s tonal affect and truly permeates the thematics of the film world.
This is truly a fascinating and accomplished film and a credit to the Australian film industry.
The Future Of Film: Sergei Eisenstein’s Revolutionary Aestheticism
Cinematheque at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image
The opportunity to see Sergei Eisenstein’s masterpieces of soviet cinema on a big screen is not one that comes by all that often.
In the first instalment of a three week look at the seminal filmmaker’s most significant works, ACMI present one of cinema’s most formally and socially famous films, Battleship Potemkin (1925) alongside the popular historical drama (and one of Eisenstein’s few sound films) Alexander Nevsky (1938).
Gregg Araki’s Kaboom! at the Melbourne Queer Film Festival
March 17-27 (session times TBA)
Now in its twenty-first year, the MQFF will be premiering one of this year’s most anticipated art house films: Gregg Araki’s Kaboom! (2010) Screened last year as part of the Official Selection at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, Kaboom! is a story about the sexual awakening of a college freshman who stumbles upon conspiracy.
From a truly American Indie writer/director who previously brought us the controversial and impressively nihilistic Mysterious Skin (2004), Kaboom! deserves to be on your must-see list.
Angele & Tony, Alliance Francais French Film Festival 2011
Palace Cinemas, March 9-27,
Just one year older than MQFF, the Alliance Francais French Film Festival is also set to hit Melbourne in March.
With several thematic strains ranging from When Cinema Seizes History to All You Need is Love, it’s fair to say that no one quite does cinema like the French.
One film in particular that is most definitely worth the time of day is Angele & Tony (2010) which, nuanced and meditative as it is, is probably just about as French as cinema can get.
The award-winning debut feature from writer/director Alix Delaporte is a mesmerising drama about two lost souls searching, finding and attempting to come to terms with human connections.
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Tara Judah is a freelance film writer and blogger who preferences a mediated experience of life and spends far too much time on twitter.
She blogs here: www.liminalvision.wordpress.com and tweets as @midnightmovies
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