The Fleapit Cinema Club

elcome to Season 11 and welcome to our most varied season yet with some great films from Wacross the globe: comedies and drama from UK; the greatest ever heist movie from France; drama from China; dark, fairy tale fantasy from Spain; a heart warming shaggy dog story from Argentina; Hollywood classics from, where else, America; an epic war drama from Holland and an autobiographical revelation from Sweden. The Season includes several of the most requested titles among its 17 feature films and offers over 34 hours of diverse cinematic pleasure! As last season’s trial of Sunday matinée screenings was so successful, we’ve carried the idea forward and this season will be showing three films which are just a little too long to feature in a regular slot including Fanny and Alexander as our tribute to the late Ingmar Bergman. Once again, Nick and Amanda are leading our team of projectionists and if you fancy joining this happy throng, do let us know before or during the season. Enjoy the season and thank you again for your support. The Fleapit Cinema Club Westerham Hall Quebec Avenue, Westerham, Kent. Doors and bar open 7:30pm Main Feature starts 8:00PM unless otherwise indicated † Sunday Matinée 2:30pm for 3:00pm THE SEASON AT A GlANCE The lavender Hill Mob 21 st September’07 Funny Girl (Sunday Matinée)† 30th September’07 Shallow Grave 5th October’07 Quartet 19 th October’07 Balzac and the little Chinese Seamstress 2nd November’07 Rififi 16 th November’07 Starter for Ten 14 th December’07 El laberinto del Fauno (Pan’s labyrinth) 4th January’08 Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf 18 th January’08 la Belle et la Bête (Sunday Matinée)† 27 th January’08 Bombón - El Pero 1st February’08 O Brother, Where Art Thou 15 th February’08 Zwartboek (Black Book) 29 th February’08 Fanny & Alexander (Sunday Matinée)† 9th March’08 Silent Night* 14 th March’08 My little Chickadee 4th April’08 West Side Story 18 th April’08 *See programme for details Tickets for Members’ Guests are £3.50 payable on the door. Seats are allocated on a first come, first served basis. As a Film Club, we are not bound by the classification system of the British Board of Film Censors. We leave it to the personal judgement of parents and guardians to decide if a film is suitable and will gladly give additional information on any of the films being shown. For further information please contact: Mark Mountjoy on 01959-561501 [email protected] www.fleapit.info The Fleapit Cinema Club

Eleventh Season September 2007 - April 2008 The Lavender Hill Mob 21/9/07 1951. UK. 78 min. B&W. Director: Charles Crichton Alec Guinness, Stanley Holloway, Sid James, Alfie Bass We kick off with a classic Ealing comedy – wittily and unpredictably scripted by T.E.B. Clarke (for which he deservedly snaffled an Oscar), this is the quintessential English caper movie. In many ways a companion piece to The Ladykillers , even though, or perhaps because, Alec Guinness’s central role in both films is so different. Here he plays, with infectious delight, a mousy milquetoast named Holland, the most unlikely of thieves. He is aided and abetted by a grand cast including Sid James having a ball and a very young Audrey Hepburn. But don’t blink during the opening scene if you want to catch her.

Funny Girl Sunday Matinée - 3:00pm 30/9/07 1968. USA. 151 min. Colour. Director: William Wyler Barbra Streisand, Omar Sharif, Kay Medford, Anne Francis, Walter Pidgeon Repeating her Broadway role, Streisand stars as legendary comedienne Fanny Brice (1891-1951) and gives a typically bravura performance, belting out ‘People who need People’ just as it should be. The perfect Sunday afternoon flic, it even offers a rare on-screen appearance by Mae Questel, the voice of Betty Boop, among others. Streisand and Medford became the 34th and 35th performers nominated for Oscars for work in a film directed by Wyler, a record which still stands.

Shallow Grave 5/10/07 1994. UK. 91 min.Colour Director: Danny Boyle Ewan McGregor, Kerry Fox, Christopher Eccleston, Keith Allen The feature film debut of Scottish director Danny Boyle is a dark, hip, Generation X comedy about a trio of Edinburgh roommates whose narcissistic greed fuels murder and betrayal and has much in common with the stylistic gymnastics of Coen brothers films, particularly Blood Simple . Boisterous journalist Alex (Ewan McGregor), flirtatious doctor Juliet (Kerry Fox), and meek accountant David (Christopher Eccleston) are seeking a fourth person to share their stylish flat, and finally settle on Hugo (Keith Allen). But no sooner has Hugo moved in when he is found dead in his bed alongside a valise containing vast amounts of cash… w a b f a i p A d D 1 S A P b s O f B J S p i g N R N s h c D a p p W A D 1 M D 1 W T C n i c r

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Membership entitles entrance to all films at no extra cost. Family membership covers two or more adults and/or children living at the same address. Starter for Ten 14/12/07 2006. UK. 95 min. Colour. Director: Tom Vaughan James McAvoy, Rebecca Hall, Charles Dance, Catherine Tate One of the few advantages of the English obsession with class is its comic possibilities, exploited here with warmth and great humour. It’s the 1980s and our working-class hero from Essex has made it to Bristol University, much to the disgust of his mother (nicely played by Catherine Tate) who has disowned him as a consequence, Undeterred, he follows his dream and makes it onto Bristol’s University Challenge team and then tries to woo one of his posh team mates…

El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan’s Labyrinth) 4/1/08 2006. Spain. 120 min. Colour. Director: Guillermo del Toro Ariadna Gil, Ivana Baquero, Sergi López, Maribel Verdú, Doug Jones Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro returns to the phantasmagorical with this haunting fantasy-drama set in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War and detailing the strange journeys of an imaginative young girl who may be the mythical princess of an underground kingdom. Del Toro’s perfectly balanced screenplay and assured skills as a visual storyteller; fearless performances from an immensely talented cast; Javier Navarrete's lullaby score and special effects that dazzle and horrify all fall beautifully into place to create a genuinely affecting adult fairy tale.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf 18/1/08 1966. USA. 150 min. Colour Director: Mike Nicols Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal, Sandy Dennis The original film poster read: "You are cordially invited to George and Martha's for an evening of fun and games." Though ‘fun and games’ hardly describes the seething, acidic ill will and unmitigated vitriol dished up by Taylor and Burton in towering form playing the married leads. Not surprisingly, it was the first film to have its entire main cast nominated for Oscars (it won five) and remains today one of the very best stage-to-screen adaptations. Steamy über-drama at its finest. La Belle et la Bête Sunday Matinée - 3:00pm 27/1/08 1946. France. 120 min. B&W. Director: Jean Cocteau Josette Day, Jean Marais, Mila Parély Thanks to Disney, we all know the story but this masterly version, understandably Cocteau's most popular film, is the most faithful to the 1756 fairy tale by Jeanne-Marie leprince de Beaumont. The film features tight, economical storytelling, brilliant costume and set design and enough visual fireworks (including many stunningly executed optical effects) to enrapture. The acting is uniformly, well, wonderful - Josette Day makes a stunning Belle and Cocteau regular, Jean Marais, excels in a triple role that includes the magnificent Beast. This is the film that proved fairy tales are wasted on the young. Bombón - El Perro 1/2/08 2004. Argentina. 97 min. Colour. Director: Carlos Sorin Juan Villegas, Walter Donado, Gregorio the dog, Rosa Valsecchi Our first foray into Argentinean cinema is a shaggy dog story - a gentle, bitter-sweet peripatetic comedy-drama about a recently unemployed Patagonian mechanic attempting to rebuild his life. Having hit the road to sell his finely crafted homemade knives, he rescues a woman stranded far from home and is rewarded with a magnificent, specially-bred Argentine dog he decides to take on the dog-show circuit aided by a carefree dog trainer named Walter…It’s a lovely little film with bold, crisp compositions, pretty light, rolling landscapes and a sentimental guitar score.

O Brother, Where Art Thou 15/2/08 2000. USA. 106 min. Colour. Director: Joel Coen George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, Charles Durning, John Goodman, Holly Hunter Works of the writing, directing, and production team of Joel and Ethan Coen are frequently requested and this season it’s the turn of their picaresque comedy set in the Deep South during the Depression and loosely based on Homer’s Odyssey. Suave and fancy-talking Everett Ulysses McGill (George Clooney in tip-top form), dim-witted Delmar, and easily- excitable Pete are serving time on a chain gang. Everett knows where $1.2 million is hidden and the three manage to escape leading to a wild and enjoyable adventure. The result is a lot more boisterous than the Cohen’s usual fare, accentuated by the fabulous Blue Grass score. Zwartboek (Black Book) 29/2/08 2006. Belgium/UK/Germany/Netherlands. 145 min. Colour. Director: Paul Verhoeven Carice VanHouten, Sebastian Koch, Thom Hoffman Paul Verhoeven returned to Holland after over twenty years in Hollywood to co-write and direct this epic WWII drama based on a true story. Rachel Steinn is a beautiful, Dutch Jewess whose family is killed by a bomb while most of Amsterdam’s Jews are being rounded up and sent to the concentration camps. But Rachel avoids capture and joins the resistance. With her hair dyed blonde, she can easily pass for a gentile and when the leader of the resistance’s son is captured, she is asked to use her feminine charms to persuade a German commander to release him… Fanny & Alexander Sunday Matinée - 3:00pm 9/3/08 1982.Sweden. 188 min. Colour. Director: Ingmar Bergman Pernilla Allwin, Bertil Guve, Gunn Wållgren To mark Bergman’s death in 2007, we’ve chosen his first overtly autobiographical film and his last work for the cinema. Bergman recreates several episodes from his youth and we first see Alexander, his alter ego, aged 10 at a joyous and informal Christmas gathering of relatives and servants. But then their recently-widowed mother marries a cold and distant minister and suddenly he and his sister are stripped of their creature comforts and relaxed family atmosphere…Probably his most popular and accessible film, it examines his familiar issues of psychological torment and spiritual confusion with less typical life-affirming warmth. Silent Night VII 14/3/08 We once again welcome Stephen Horne as our accompanist. Suspense 1913. USA. 10 min. B&W. Director: Lois Weber, A Phillips Smalley Lois Weber, Val Paul, Douglas Gerrard One of the first films with a female director - a woman and her infant are stranded in an isolated house when a tramp breaks in…The plot may be contrived but the direction (featuring excellent split screen work) remains fresh and modern. The Finishing Touch 1928. USA. 23 min. B&W. Director: Clyde Bruckman, Leo McCarey Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Edgar Kennedy An especially funny laurel and Hardy two-reeler. Promised Quartet 19/10/07 1948. UK/USA. 120 min. B&W. Director: Ken Annakin, Harold French, Ralph Smart, Arthur Crabtree Basil Radford, Naunton Wayne, Dirk Bogarde, Ian Fleming, George Cole, Jack Raine, Angela Baddeley, Cecil Parker Quartet features four of Somerset Maugham's most celebrated stories, each possessing its own mood, pace and rhythm, and each a little gem in its own right. As ever with Maugham, The Facts of Life, The Alien Corn, The Kite and The Colonel's Lady are all based on a distinctive central off-kilter relationship. It deservedly remains the most popular portmanteau film yet made.

Xiao cai feng 2/11/07 (Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress) 2002. Chine/France. 111 min. Colour. Director: Dai Sijie Zhou Xun, Chen Kun-chang, Liu Ye, Wang Shuangbao, Chung Zhijun The film is an adaptation of the Director’s own best-selling autobiographical novel. Set in China during the Cultural Revolution, the story follows two young men, luo and Ma, sent from the city to a mountain village for re-education in Maoist principles. They work with the peasants under the supervision of the village head and both fall in love with the little Chinese seamstress to whom they read forbidden works of Western literature including Balzac and Dumas…Wistful, bitter-sweet and gentle, this beautifully shot love story is a heart-warming treat.

Du Rififi Chez les Hommes (Rififi) 16/11/07 1955. France. 115 min. B&W. Director: Jules Dassin Jean Servais, Carl Möhner, Robert Manuel, Magali Noël, Perlo Vita Not only one of the best French noirs, but the daddy of all heist movies. Crafting an archetypal story about how human weakness can sabotage the best-laid plans, Dassin masterfully emphasizes the skill and nerve-shredding delicacy that it takes for the thieves to noiselessly execute their intricate plans in the classic half-hour heist sequence. The air of seediness and inevitable doom that lingers over the proceedings adds an existential weight to the suspense, turning Rififi into more than just a caper. It’s a cracker.