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What's on at Greenwich Picturehouse - Vintage Sundays
Thirteen-year-old novice witch Kiki must spend a year away from home as part of her training. She decides to settle in a pretty seaside town and set up a broomstick-based delivery service to make a living. Adventures ensue as Kiki faces the dual challenges of making deliveries and maintaining faith in herself in this delightful coming-of-age story.
Told in flashback as successful film director Salvatore returns to his native Sicilian village, CINEMA PARADISO centres on the friendship between the young Salvatore and the irascible projectionist Alfredo (Philippe Noiret), who preserves a collection of footage censored from the local cinema programme by the priest.
Salvatore inherits from Alfredo not only a love of film, but also his job, as the Nuovo Cinema Paradiso enjoys a brief term of glory as the hub of the community before the days of TV and pop. Romantic, nostalgic, funny and exuberant, CINEMA PARADISO is all the more memorable for the winning performances by the great Philippe Noiret and ten-year-old Salvatore Cascio.
Stanley Kubrick Considers The Bomb, a new short film produced and directed by Matt Wells, will be screened exclusively in cinemas as part of this release. With contributions from those who knew Kubrick best, including Katharina Kubrick, Jan Harlan (Kubrick’s Executive Producer and brother-in-law) and journalist and author Eric Schlosser, the film considers how Kubrick responded to society’s widespread concern about nuclear war and transformed it into his irreverent comic masterpiece.
A brilliant atom-bomb farce, endorsing with suspense and dark comic aplomb Kubrick’s characteristic vision of human fallibility and stupidity. It’s famous for Peter Sellers’ triple role, but George C. Scott, Peter Bull and Sterling Hayden give equally superb performances, the last as the unhinged air force general who launches a war of Mutually Assured Destruction.
The velvet-voiced Barbra Streisand sings like an angel in Frank Pierson’s take on the timeless tale of doomed romance. The film’s musical centrepiece, ‘Evergreen’, a tender ballad co-written and performed by Streisand, won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
John Norman Howard (Kristofferson) is a talented but self-destructive rock star whose career has peaked. Years of concerts, managers and tours have made him cynical and the monotony has taken its toll. Then he meets the innocent, pure and very gifted singer Esther Hoffman (Streisand). As one of his songs in the movie says, “I’m gonna take you girl; I'm gonna show you how.” And he does. John shows Esther the way to stardom, forsaking his own career. But as they fall in love, her success only makes his decline even more apparent.
In many ways the definitive rock concert doc, Martin Scorsese’s THE LAST WALTZ feels as fresh and invigorating today as ever. Capturing what was billed as The Band’s last ever live performance in San Francisco on 25 November 1972, Scorsese’s film provides an intimate first-hand portrait of a group weary from 16 years on the road but still dedicated to their loyal following. The charismatic frontman Robbie Robertson is very much the focus, and at times his personality overshadows the film’s end-of-an-era undertones. As a piece of documentary cinema, however, THE LAST WALTZ is unmissable viewing, not least for the presence of rock royalty that peppers the footage, including Neil Young, Eric Clapton, Joni Mitchell, Neil Diamond and Ringo Starr.
Bob Fosse’s stylishly directed and choreographed screen adaptation of John Kander’s fine musical based on Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin stories. With a chilling vision of Weimar Berlin, a city of gaiety and perversion, champagne and Nazi propaganda, CABARET features a show-stopping, Oscar-winning musical performance from Liza Minnelli, Joel Grey as the unforgettable emcee, and a truly extraordinary final fadeout.
A documentary record of the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, JAZZ ON A SUMMER’S DAY is popularly hailed as one of the first and most influential live concert films. A who’s who of legendary jazz and rock ’n’ roll performers make up the impressive line-up, with director Stern’s deft, economical style capturing them in all their glory. In terms of stand-out turns it’s too close to call, but Chuck Berry’s rendition of ‘Sweet Little Sixteen’ nestles pretty near the top of the pile, with Mahalia Jackson’s spine-tingling performance of ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ closely jostling. The film set the template for the genre; WOODSTOCK and MONTEREY POP swiftly followed. JAZZ ON A SUMMER’S DAY is unquestionably essential viewing for music, archival and documentary fans alike.
