Apr 29th 
Downfall**        
(Ger/Austria/Russia 2004)

The last days of the Third Reich in WWII, mainly from the perspectives of a Berlin SS doctor and Hitler's personal secretary Traudl Junge.
Probably the definitive account of the final days in Hitler's bunker, an overdue German catharsis of the subject (previously covered in Der Letzte Akt in 1955), conveying as much of the horror of Hitler's decaying empire as well as his own flawed humanity amidst the monster. It drags only in its later stages.

Written/Produced by: Bernd Eichinger, based on books by Jachim Fest, Traudl Junge and Melissa Muller.
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel.
Starring: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Christian Berkel, Juliane Kohler (as Eva Braun), Ulrich Mathes, Corinna Harfouch, Heino Ferch, Matthias Habich, Thomas Kretschmann.
Photography: Rainer Klausman.
Music: Stephen Zacharias.

Apr 26th  
The Last Starfighter**         
(US 1984)   

A trailer park boy who is a whizz at a space wars computer game finds himself thrust into the real thing.
Passable and enjoyable 80s tribute to the Lucas and Spielberg genre, fairly lightweight and not to be taken too seriously, with computer effects that look basically like computer effects. More fun than Tron.

Written by: Jonathan Betuel.
Producers: Gary Adelson, Edward O. Denault.
Director: Nick Castle.
Starring: Lance Guest, Robert Preston, Dan O'Herlihy, Catherine Mary Stewart, Norman Snow, Barbara Bosson, Kay E. Kuter, Vernon Washington, Wil Wheaton.
Photography:King Baggot.
MusicL CRaig Safan.
Visual Effects Co-ordinator: Jeffrey A. Okun.

+ closing credit: "Video game available from Atari, Inc."

Preceded by:
The Milky Way**
(US 1940. 7m.; p,d: Rudolf Ising; voices of Billie Burke, Mae Questel.)
                                 

Apr 23rd 
(National Film Theatre) 
Lolita** (X)   

(GB 1961)             

A literary scholar in America marries a widow because of his infatuation with her young daughter Lolita.
A scandalous novel becomes self-sanitised to make it more acceptable for cinema standards of the time, translated by Kubrick into semi-black comedy (as a precursor to Dr. Strangelove, with Sellers in more than one guise), with performances therefore ranging from compelling down to caricature. It all makes for a peculiarly unsettling romantic whole.

Written by: Vladimir Nabokov, from his novel.
Producer: James B. Harris.
Director: Stanley Kubrick.
Starring: James Mason, Sue Lyon, Peter Sellers, Shelley Winters, Gary Cockell, Diana Decker, Lois Maxwell, Cec Linder.
Photography: Oswald Morris.
Music: Bob Harris, Nelson Riddle.

+ although Nobokov is credited, most of the screenplay was re-written by Stanley Kubrick and James B. Harris

Apr 20th  
Rogue Male**     
(GB TVM 1976)     

In pre-war Germany a British aristocrat claims to want to shoot at Hitler for the thrill of the hunt, but he soon becomes the hunted as the Nazis pursue him back to England.
Enjoyably tense thriller (previously made by Hollywood in 1941 as Man Hunt), in spite of limited 1970s BBC production values. One of its star's favourite roles, and an ideal one for him to get his teeth into.

Written by: Frederic Raphael, based on the novel by Geoffrey Household.
Producer: Mark Shivas.
Director: Clive Donner.
Starring: Peter O'Toole, Alastair Sim, John Standing, Harold Pinter, Cyd Hayman, Michael Byrne, Michael Sheard (as Hitler), Maureen Lipman.
Photography: Brian Tufano.
Music: Christopher Gunning.

Preceded by:
Time to Go**  
(GB TVM 1989. 12m.; Victims of British military occupation in Northern Ireland speak about the need for them to withdraw.; d: Ken Loach.)

Apr 18th  
Persistence of Vision*   
(Canada/GB/US 2012)                           

Documentary about the adventures in animation of Richard Williams (without his personal participation) and his efforts to make The Thief and the Cobbler(qv) over the course of three decades.
A useful and thoughtful although harshly subjectified compilation of mostly older documentaries and interviews from ex-collaborators, portraying the dedicated artist too much in love with his work to be able to finish it, but well sourced as a collection.

Produced/Directed by: Kevin Schreck.
Editing: Maureen Gosling, Kevin Schreck.

Apr 16th  
A Night to Remember***       
(GB 1958)

The last few days of RMS Titanic on its ill-fated maiden voyage across the Atlantic.
Still the best of all the Titanic disaster reconstructions. Though constrained by British production economics (including use of stock footage), with mostly character actors rather than stars, one of Rank's most prestigious efforts, a carefully escalated historical thriller working its way up to an impressive panic-stricken finale (one that was a key influence for James Cameron on the otherwise inferior Titanic.)

Written by: Eric Ambler, from the book by Walter Lord.
Producer: William MacQuitty.
Director: Roy Ward Baker.
Starring: Kenneth More, Jane Downs, Michael Goodliffe, Laurence Naismith, Frank Lawton, Kenneth Griffith, David McCallum, Anthony Bushell, Alec McCowen, John Merivale, Honor Blackman, Ralph Michael, John Cairney, George Rose, Andrew Keir, and others.
Photography: Geoffrey Unsworth.
Music: William Alwyn.
Editing: Sidney Hayers.
Art Direction: Alex Vetchinsky.

+ fragments of this film contain footage from Herbert Selpin's 1943 Nazi propaganda drama Titanic

Apr 8th   
To the Wonder*    
(US 2012)                           

An American has a tortuous love affair with a French single mother, and in between he also briefly rekindles his relationship with his boyhood sweetheart.
Another of this director's pretentious meditations on the fragility of life: a deeply personal and self-indulgent study of broken human beings hoping to find happiness (based on his second marriage), always beautiful to look at, with flashes of thoughtful scenes involving a Catholic priest struggling to keep his faith.

Written and Directed by: Terrence Malick.
Producers: Sarah Green, Nicolas Garcia.
Starring: Olga Kurylenko, Ben Affleck, Javier Bardem, Rachel McAdams, Tatiana Chiline.
Photography:Emmanuel Lubezki.
Music: Hanan Townshend, and others.
Editing: A.J. Edwards, Keith Fraase, Shane Hazen, Christopher Roldan, Mark Yoshikawa.

Apr 6th  
Nothing Like a Dame*  
(GB 2018)             

Eileen Atkins, Judi Dench, Joan Plowright and Maggie Smith meet on their regular homely chats about their careers on stage and screen.
80 minutes of theatrical anecdotes from four refreshingly candid veteran British actresses, quite engaging themselves even if the film only amounts to a glorified interview with just the occasional moment of old footage thrown in.

Producer: Karen Steyn.
Director: Roger Michell.
Photography: Eben Bolter.
Music Supervision: Anne Miller.
Editing: Joanna Crickman.

+ retitled in the US, perhaps more descriptively, as Tea with the Dames

Apr 3rd   
(Century Clacton) 
Dumbo**  (PG) 
(US/Australia/GB 2019)               

In 1919 a widowed war veteran returns home, where a struggling circus adopts a baby elephant that can fly.
A charmingly anthropomorphic Disney animation is turned into a human-centred, sentimental and politically correct family drama, still quite enjoyable if one adjusts to the difference in style. In the hands of Tim Burton what is on the screen is never less than interesting.

Written by: Ehren Kruger.
Producers: Justin Springer, Ehren Kruger, Katterli Frauenfelder, Derek Frey.
Director: Tim Burton.
Starring: Colin Farrell, Danny De Vito, Michael Keaton, Eva Green, Nico Parker, Finley Hobbins, Alan Arkin, Roshan Seth.
Photography: Ben Davis.
Music: Danny Elfman.
Production Design: Rick Heinrichs.

Apr 1st     
Hellzapoppin'***       
(US 1941) 

Two Broadway comedians are reluctantly persuaded to make a Hollywood film.
30 years before Monty Python and Airplane! came along this anarchic spoof, a surprisingly subversive comedy made in the Golden age, which also plays the familiar Hollywood trick of trying to have its cake and eat it, by staging a grand musical romantic comedy in style, and only occasionally letting conventionality take over before the zany interludes, which, when they come, are hilarious. More cinematic and surreal than the Marx Brothers, and more tasteful as entertainment than Monty Python.

Written by: Nat Perrin, Warren Wilson, Alex Gottlieb, based on the stage revue by Ole Olsen, Chic Johnson.
Producers: Alex Gottlieb, Jules Levey, Glen Tryon.
Director: H.C. Potter (and others).
Starring: Ole Olsen, Chic Johnson, Hugh Herbert, Martha Raye, Mischa Auer, Jane Frazee, Robert Paige, Lewis Howard, Elisha Cook Jnr, Richard Lane, Shemp Howard.
Photography: Elwood Bredel, John P. Fulton.
Music: Frank Skinner.
Musical Direction: Ted Cain, Charles Previn.
Editing: Milton Crruth, Ted J. Kent.
Costume: Vera West.