RFYC Film Nights – January to April 2017
Thursday 5 January.Phantom of the Opera(2004)
The film version of the well-known Andrew Lloyd Webber musical had a mixed reception from the critics but the music, the songs and the spectacle provide entertainment to satisfy most tastes.
Thursday 19 January.Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002)
Visually stunning and well-acted this film tells the compelling true story of three Aboriginal girls who are forcibly re-located from their home and their mother. Determined to return home they set-out on a 1,200 mile journey across Australia following the line of a fence erected to keep rabbits away from land designated as pasture.
Thursday 2 February.TheAfrican Queen (1951)
Adapted from a novel by C.S. Forester, the African Queen stars Humphrey Bogart in his Oscar-winning portrayal of the slovenly, gin-swilling captain of a tramp steamer called the African Queen which carries supplies to small East African villages during the First World War. Katharine Hepburn plays the maiden-lady sister of a prim British missionary; when the Germans invade and her brother dies the ill-matched pair head for civilization together.
(Club closed for maintenance 6 –16 Feb)
Thursday 23 February.Bridge of Spies (2015)
In this fiction-based-on-fact historical drama Tom Hanks stars as an American attorney tasked with negotiating the release of the U-2 spy plane pilot Gary Powers, who was shot down over Russia at the height of the Cold War. Mark Rylance plays the British-born spy who is to be exchanged for Powers in East Berlin.
Thursday 9 March.Where Angels Fear to Tread (1991)
Helena Bonham Carter and Helen Mirren both star in this film in which an upper-class British widow unwisely marries a much younger Italian during a visit to Italy. Shocked by her behaviour and concerned about the future, her strait-laced mother-in-law dispatches her son to Italy to persuade her to return home - but by the time he arrives the two have wed. As in E.M. Forsters’ novel many things go wrong as the story unfolds but,unlike the novel, the film does hint at a happier ending.
Thursday 23 March.The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009)
The ordinary routine of a New York City subway dispatcher is thrown into chaos by an audacious crime, the hijacking of one of the subway’s trains. The criminal mastermind who leads the armed gang of four hijackers threatens to execute all the passengers unless a large ransom is paid within one hour. Denzel Washington and John Travolta star.
Thursday 6 April.The Third Man (1949)
This iconic British film was directed by Carol Reed and written by Graham Greene; it stars Orson Welles and Trevor Howard and is set in post-war Vienna. The story focuses on Holly Martins, an American who is given a job by his friend Harry Lime - but on arrival Martins discovers that the man with whom he is to liaise is dead. He then meets with Lime's acquaintances in an attempt to discover the truth of the matter.
Thursday 20 April.The Leopard(1963)
Lavish and wistful, this filmfeatures epic battles and sumptuous costumes as it chronicles the fortunes of Prince Fabrizio Salina and his family during the unification of Italy in the 1860s. The story begins as Salina (Burt Lancaster) learns that Garibaldi's troops have embarked in Sicily and continues through a series of political and family machinations. The closing section, set during an almost hour-long ball, is often cited as one of the most spectacular sequences in film history.