Nov 25th
The Hunt for Red October**
US 1990. Paramount. 134m. Panavision

In 1984 a veteran Soviet submarine commander steers his state-of-the-art vessel into dangerous waters, pursued by both the Americans and his fellow Soviets.
Solid, slightly old-fashioned all-star Cold War thriller which maintains a sense of momentum rather than suspense. Generally speaking the first and best of the Tom Clancy film adaptations.

Written by: Larry Ferguson, Donald Stewart, from the novel by Tom Clancy.
Producer: Mace Neufeld.
Director: John McTiernan.
Starring: Sean Connery, Alec Baldwin, Sam Neill, James Earl Jones, Scott Glenn, Richard Jordan, Joss Ackland, Tim Curry, Peter Firth, Jeffrey Jones, Stellan Skarsgaard.
Photography: Jan De Bont.
Music: Basil Poledouris.
Production Design: Terence Marsh.

Nov 21st
The Third Man*** (PG)
Burg Kino, Vienna+

GB 1949. London Films/Alexander Korda/David O. Selznick. 104m. bw

In post-war Vienna an American writer arrives to visit his friend Harry Lime, who has been killed in an accident....or has he?
Marvellous intrigue thriller in which everyone is viewed with an air of suspicion, one of the best British films of its kind ever made, although it also bears a strong hallmark of influential American talents who are very well used. The technique threatens to swamp the story, but the quality of the author keeps things well above water, and the evocative zither music captures the atmosphere of black market Vienna in brilliant if idiosyncratic style.

Written by: Graham Greene.
Producer/Director: Carol Reed.
Starring: Joseph Cotten, Orson Welles, Trevor Howard, Alida Valli, Bernard Lee, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Siegfried Breuer, Ernst Deutsch, Erich Ponto, Paul Hoerbiger, Hedwig Bleibtrau, Geoffrey Keen.
Photography: Robert Krasker.
Music: Anton Karas.

+ the version shown at the Burg Kino (every week) is an English language print, with no German subtitles.

++ tourists can also do The Third Man Tour in Vienna which visits most of the locations - including the sewers used for the film's memorable climax.

100 Favourite Films: The Third Man

Nov 14th
The Sixth Sense*
US 1999. Hollywood Pictures. 107m.

A child psychologist tries to help a boy who can see living ghosts.
Despite central miscasting and a sluggish pace, this highly successful horror suspenser (with a clever twist in the tale) began the career of a bright new talent, and also marked the welcome revival of suspense and character to a flagging genre.

Written and Directed by: M. Night Shyamalan.
Producers: Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall.
Starring: Bruce Willis, Haley Joel Osment, Toni Collette, Olivia Williams, Donnie Wahlberg.
Photography: Tak Fujimoto.
Music: James Newton Howard.

Nov 9th
Groundhog Day**
US 1993. Columbia. 101m.

A weatherman reports on an annual local festival heralding the beginning of winter, and then finds himself living the same day over again. And again. And again....
Enjoyable Twilight Zone-style romantic comedy which indulges itself with the many comedic possibilities although it sentimentalizes towards the end.

Written by: Danny Rubin, Harold Ramis.
Producers: Trevor Albert, Harold Ramis.
Director: Harold Ramis.
Starring: Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott, Stephen Tobolowsky, Brian Doyle-Murray, Marita Geraghty, Angela Paton, Rick Ducommun, Rick Overton.
Photography: John Bailey.
Music: George Fenton.

Preceded by:
Thundering Fleas*
(US 1926. 20m. bw; A flea circus runs amok.; w: H.M. Walker, Carl Harbaugh, Hal Yates; P: Hal Roach; d: Robert F. McGowan; s: Our Gang, George French, Oliver Hardy, James Finlayson, Charley Chase.)
+ NY Times review

Nov 5th
Michael Collins**
US 1996. Warner Bros/Geffen. 132m.

The revolutionary life of an Irish rebel who successfully forced the British government out, but at a price.
Typically forthright biopic, like a more violent variation of Gandhi, depicting Collins as a tireless hero although making its main antagonist not the British, but the eventual president of the Irish republic, Eamon De Valera.

Written and Directed by: Neil Jordan.
Producer: Stephen Woolley.
Starring: Liam Neeson, Aidan Quinn, Alan Rickman, Julia Roberts, Stephen Rea, Ian Hart, Brendan Gleeson, Charles Dance, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers.
Photography: Chris Menges.
Music: Elliot Goldenthal.
Production Design: Anthony Pratt.