Forest Row Film Society

1832. In Provence ravaged by cholera, an Italian hussar flees Austrian agents hunting down exiled revolutionaries. He tries to help the stricken population of a small town, only to be accused of poisoning the water. Taking refuge in an empty house he is helped by a mysterious woman (Juliette Binoche) searching for her husband. He joins her on her quest across a lovingly photographed Provence.

This is a sumptuous production with a heady mix of pathos, adventure and romance.

Further Reading

1. Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times 24th May 1996
2. Stephen Holden 'Romance on the run as a plague closes in' New York Times 17th May 1996 (registration required)

Tarkovsky’s first feature catapulted him to international prominence when it was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Ivan’s Childhood tells the story of a young war scout behind enemy lines, and contains many of the hallmark mystical, ambiguous qualities of his later films.

“For me Tarkovsky is the greatest filmmaker”―Ingmar Bergman

Further Reading

1. Fergus Daly and Katherine Waugh, Senses of Cinema, June 2001
2. nostalghia.com: an Andrei Tarkovsky information site

Ankur is a powerful drama of class, caste, gender and hypocrisy. Surya is the son of a feudal landowner forced to give up his studies and marry a young girl much against his will. Not only is he impatient of the social conventions of the caste system, but the ‘progressive’ Surya has an affair with his servant Lakshmi, the wife of a local labourer, and she becomes pregnant. Her husband believes the child to be his, only to be beaten by a confused and isolated Surya. The acclaimed first feature by one of the great Indian film makers.

Further Reading

1. Shyam Benegal, from Strictly Film School
2. The Daily Texan, 21st July, 1980
3. The Tribune 29th November, 1998
4. Shyam Benegal, from Chaos Magazine

A moving version of Ivan Goncharov's great tragi-comic novel (1858), the story focuses on Oblomov, the Russian aristocrat, who would rather sleep than take part in modern life. Set in the beautiful imperial St Petersburg, this delicate story of friendship, family and daydreams is a sharp social satire, as well as an evocative portrait of Russia's past. From the director of Burnt by the Sun, the film won the Palme d’Or at Cannes.

Further Reading

1. Janet Maslin 'A Dreamlike Soviet Oblomov' New York Times, 6th March 1981 (registration required)
2. David Gurevich 'Masterworks of Soviet Cinema' Images Journal
3. 'Nikita Mikhalkov' in http://www.filmbug.com

Lionel Jeffries' adaptation of E. Nesbit's classic story is an enduring popular children's film. Starring Dinah Sheridan, Jenny Agutter, Sally Thomsett and Bernard Cribbins, the film begins with the three children's father being arrested on suspicion of being a spy. Having to move to the country, the children soon settle into their new life, with the railway at the bottom of the garden. Meeting a colourful collection of people, the children enlist them to help prove their father's innocence.

This film may be the first Restoration comedy-mystery. It is the none-too-solemn enigmatic tale of a murder set in a great English house where morals among the newly rich were as loose as possible under cover of a mad mannerism of speech and dress. As he is hired by Lady Herbert to make precise drawings of her grand house, the draughtsman strikes a strange bargain.

Filmed locally at Groombridge, this is an astonishingly elegant film and one that is as rich to listen to as to see. With music by Michael Nyman, and excellent performances by Anthony Higgins, Janet Suzman and Anne Louise Lambert. The film will be preceded by Greenaway’s Water Wrackets (1975).

Further Reading

1. Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times, 29th September 1983
2. Peter Greenaway's site
3. Greenaway on the film (The Guardian)
4. James Mackenzie, Senses of Cinema January 2001
5. Information about Water Wrackets

The land is an awesome presence in this film, with striking images of the Northern Rural Chinese region of Shaanxi. A teenage girl, Cuiqiao, does not wish to continue to carry water for three miles a day nor to accept the marriage that has been arranged for her. However, it is 200 miles to go south where she could be a hairdresser, or possibly join the Communist Army. A soldier, Gu Qing, is seen walking across this vast landscape, coming to forge links with the region and listen to and collect folk songs to inspire the army. He stays in Cuiqiao’s poor family home and they fall in love but too soon Gu Qing has to return. A landmark film made by the exciting group of film makers that went on to make Farewell My Concubine.

Further Reading

1. Review from Subjective Camera
2. Review from Talking Pictures

This is the story of the rise and fall of a vocal group who were disbanded as part of the mounting persecution of the Jews. With their romantic songs in intricate harmony, inspired by American jazz, they were wildly popular in Germany in the 1920s.

Early cheerfulness leads to eventual defeat, but most of the time the film plays like a show-biz biopic, with lots of entertaining musical numbers. There is also a complicated romantic element, as two men are in love with the same woman. The subtle manner in which the political story is gradually folded into the individual tales ensured the success of this very satisfying film.

Further Reading

1. Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times 19th March 1999

Set in eleventh century Japan, Sansho is a powerful, cruel bailiff who acquires two young slaves, Zushio and his sister Anju. Zushio escapes, his sister dies, and Zushio makes his way to Kyoto to plead his case. Subsequently appointed governor of Sansho’s province, Zushio is determined to free the slaves, loses his post and embarks on a long search for his mother.

Spanning almost twenty years of a family’s life, Sansho Dayu is a thoughtful work of intense visual beauty from one of the world’s greatest film makers.

Further Reading

1. Movie Reviews UK
2. Review from Talking Pictures
3. Gary Morris 'The Spirit Moves: The World of Kenji Mizoguchi' Bright Lights September 1998, Issue 22

The restored version of one of the great classics of French cinema.

A pair of ardent young newlyweds begin married life aboard a Seine barge (L’Atalante) with an eccentric crew and a large collection of cats. The girl gets bored, leaves, and is brought back by the rascally mate (Michel Simon in tremendous form).

A film of extraordinary lyricism and beauty that manages to combine wild comedy with romantic yearning, it will be screened with Vigo’s Zéro de Conduite.

Further Reading

1. Desson Howe, Washington Post, 9th November, 1990
2. Hal Hinson, Washington Post, 10th November, 1990
3. David Thomson 'Love on the water' The Guardian 30th April 2005
4. Ian Johns 'Jean Vigo - longing shots and brief lives' The Times 28th April 2005
5. Derek Malcolm 'Jean Vigo: L'Atalante' The Guardian 4th February, 1999
6. Maximilian Le Cain Senses of Cinema July 2002