Manderlay (January 2011)

chosen by Jeani

The film
Grace the gangster's daughter discovers a slave colony working a cotton plantation. She frees them, just as their 'owner' Mam dies, and Grace sets out to establish democracy, self-determination and the opportunity to prosper. But her naivety and inability to find out who the people are lead to more and more problems, and she finds herself behaving in ways she would not have anticipated.

This is the second film in Lars von Trier's trilogy 'USA - Land of Opportunities'. It's filmed in the same style as Dogville, which we saw a year ago - no scenery, minimal props, a narrator and a story-book feel.

The response
Tom & Jeani chose Manderley because of the strong response to Dogville last year. Most of us found Manderley much easier to watch, even though the subject matter was uncomfortable. There were loads of questions - Why did Grace stay? Why did Willem allow and even encourage her to behave as she did? Why didn't the slaves plant cotton when they knew they had to?

I (Juliet) thought this was a straightforward metaphor for the state of racial inequality in the USA. But we also found ourselves talking about free will, consciousness, leadership. OK, what would we do if Grace turned up in our street?

Fellini's 8 1/2 (December 2010)

chosen by Katherine and Danny

The film
An Italian film director is working on a science fiction film, but he's got "director's block". He has problems with his stars, his wife and his mistress. The film moves through flashbacks and dreams, as he explores the challenges of depicting the 'truth'.

8 1/2 was directed by Federici and released in 1963.

The response
Katherine and Danny chose this film, to introduce a classic into our repertoire. They chose it 'blind' and only saw it on the morning of the day we met.

First, the grumbles - the library copy was slightly damaged so some of us didn't watch the whole thing and (because of Christmas) some households hadn't seen it at all. The subtitles were difficult to read, too.

Danny and Katherine liked the style - and it must have made a big impression in 1963ut - but agreed it would need several viewings to appreciate it properly. It was quite difficult to remember the various scenes in the film. As a 'stream-of-consciousness' narrative it reminded Juliet of Ulyssees (written much earlier) or Anne Enright's' recent 'What are you like'. Sue and Bruce weren't very impressed, the story didn't seem to go anywhere. (Some of us thought that if the male attitudes in this film to women is at all representative of Italy today it's no wonder that Berlusconi is its Prime Minister.)

Before starting this film club we hadn't realised so many films are about the process of making films - and so many of them refer to each other. Looking forward to our next year of film viewing!

Films so far

November 2010 - The Tree of Wooden Clogs (seen by Bruce and Sue at the Howard Assembly Rooms)
October 2010 - Precious (Tony & Lucy)
September 2010 - To Kill A Mockingbird (Bruce & Susan)
August 2010 - An Education (Tom and Jeani)
July 2010 - Summer - at Seven
June 2010 - Gregory's Girl (Juliet & Andi)
May 2010 - Frost Nixon (Catherine & Danny)
April 2010 - Delicatessen (Lucy & Tony)
March 2010 - The Fall (Susan & Bruce)
February 2010 - The Big Lebowski (Andi & Juliet)
January 2010 - Dogville (Jeani & Tom)
December 2009 - A Matter of Life and Death (Danny & Catherine)
November 2009 - The Bicycle Thieves (Bruce & Susan)
October 2009 - Persepolis (Tony & Lucy)
September 2009 - Revolutionary Road (Tom & Jeani)