Upcoming Film Events

There's quite a few films and film events coming up soon that are worth noting (they're all in my Google Calendar of Film Events below, which you can subscdribe to).

• This Wednesday at Melbourne Cinémathèque is screening Benjamin Christensen's Häxan. I won't be able to make it as I have another screening to attend (an invitation-only preview of Bobby Galinsky's Prey) but hope to make it to the second film, Carl Dreyer's Master of the House.
  
• Bastardy opens at the Kino on Thursday. It's a local documentary about indigenous actor Jack Charles, an intriguing character I spoke to a few years ago when I saw him in the street. I'd recognised him from a bit part in Alkinos Tsilimidos' Tom White, and had a very animated conversation. He seemed an intriguing subject. NOTE: as per Jake's comment below, it's unclear whether this film opens this week. Palace's website has it prominently advertised for opening this week, but ambiguously isn't selling any tickets for it. Go figure. UPDATE: opens 11 June.
  
  
• Pure Shit, a ground-breaking and gutsy Australian film by Bert Derling from 1975, has a screening at ACMI this Saturday at 4pm and includes a cast and crew reunion with a Q&A as a bonus.
• By all accounts, Warwick Thornton's Samson and Delilah is the local film to see. Plus it's been accepted into Cannes Un certain regard. I'm told it's no less a film than Ivan Sen's very fine Beneath Clouds. Opens this Thursday.
  
• Prey, an Ozploitation flick starring Natalie Bassingthwaighte, has a 2-week season starting this Friday at the George Cinema in St. Kilda, prior to going to DVD. Talking Ozploitation, John Hewitt's Acolytes screens at ACMI this weekend and next. Check out this article in The Age.
• When We Were Kings, a documentary about Muhammad Ali, screens at ACMI on Sundays 10 & 17 May.
• Screening at the Kino and Como cinemas, the Spanish Film Festival starts Wednesday 13 May and runs until Monday 25 May. I'm particularly looking forward to the Luis Buñuel retrospective. Seven of his films screen in Melbourne and there's also an exhibition at the City Library at 253 Flinders Lane (near Degraves St.) that includes both photos of Buñuel and his friends and associates (such as Salvador Dali, co-director of Un chien andalou) and video clips from various of his films. The exhibition is open now, until the end of the month. At the festival I plan to see a few of the contemporary Spanish films as well, and will submit reviews and posts for the official festival blog.
  
• Melbourne Cinémathèque is next week screening Michelangelo Antonioni's Zabriskie Point and Wim Wenders' The State of Things.
• Youssou N'dour: I Bring What I Love, a music documentary about one of Africa's most famous musicians, screens at ACMI from Thursday 14 - Sun 17 May.
• Neil Armfield's very intriguing Streetsweeper screens at ACMI, co-presented by AFCA, on Saturday 16 May at 4pm. Filmed beautifully with a keen photographic eye, there's very little dialogue or plot, as the film follows a mysterious character's wanderings in and around Newcastle, cleaning streets and reciting poetry.
  
• Sita Sings the Blues is a children's animation that looks good enough for adults, screening at ACMI on Sundays 17 & 24 May. I'm a sucker for these films.
• Frank Urson's Chicago (1927) and Josef von Sternberg's Thunderbolt (1929) screen at Melbourne Cinémathèque on Wednesday 20 May. The following week sees the start of a three week season of Japanese Noir: Violent Cops & Pistol Operas, including films by Takeshi Kitano, Masahiro Shinoda, Masaki Kobayashi, Tai Kato, Seijun Suzuki and Nagisa Oshima.
• Andrzej Wajda's powerful and authentic Katyn, a semi-biographical story about a World War II tragedy that had a powerful impact on his life, opens at the Nova on May 28. Highly recommended.
  
• Opening on 4 June: Potential Films' Noodle. On paper the story doesn't seem overly exciting, but I have much respect for the films that Potential import such as the work of Catherine Breillat and, more recently, You, the Living. Also, the much-acclaimed Two Lovers, starring Joaquim Phoenix and Gwyneth Paltrow.