This year will be a wonderful year for Kildare film fans as not only do we have The Riverbank Theatre in Newbridge screening a wealth of cinema treasures but now The Moat Theatre in Naas will be hosting a mouth watering feast of films in their upcomi
ng film club writes Wayne Byrne.
Kicking off the club on February 1 will be the psychological thriller "Fermat's Room", in which a group of intellectuals take part in a twisted race against time where they must solve puzzles while trapped in a room where the walls are slowly caving in. Picture a more sophisticated version of the execrable "Saw" series.
The next week will see the screening of one of the very best and most influential films of the French New Wave, Jean Luc Godard's terrific 1960 film "Breathless (A bout de souffle)." The film was Godard's debut full length feature and it's striking visual style and hip dialogue would greatly influence future indie darlings Quentin Tarantino and Jim Jarmusch.
The following month a more recent effort will be aired: the acclaimed 2009 film "Coco Before Chanel", which tells the life story of the renowned French fashion designer Coco Chanel.
The week after, we go back half a century with director Billy Wilder's classic 1960 comedy "The Apartment", starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley Maclaine. Wilder was a master of comical satire and here he touches on the mundanity of office life and the stuggle of the everyman as Lemmon's Bud Baxter falls for his boss's mistress while trying to work his way up through the ranks of the insurance company he works for.
From "Some Like it Hot" to "Sunset Boulevard", Wilder is a director whose filmography is an embarrassment of riches and here is the perfect chance to see this revered comedy on the big screen, five decades after it's initial release.
In April, local cineastes should delight at the chance to catch one of this critic's favourite films on a rare silver screen outing, Federico Fellini's 1960 epic post-Neorealist masterpiece "La Dolce Vita."
The film tells the story of a once idealistic journalist who envisioned becoming a renowned writer but who succumbs to the glitz and glamour of tabloid journalism; mixing with Rome's social elite is too much for Marcello Mastroianni's easily led writer to give up and years later we see him go through a mid life crisis as his dreams have passed him by as he realises he has become a mere hack writer.
Also showing in April will be Australia's "The Black Balloon" starring Toni Colette and then rounding off this season of classic and contempoary cinema delights in May will be Pedro Almodovar's film noir love story "Broken Embraces" starring Penelope Cruz and then the club will finish up with Eric Guirado's French drama "The Grocer's Son."
Membership costs n40 and includes entrance to all eight films in the film club's programme. For more information call in to The Moat Theatre box office or call them on (045) 883030.
