The cultural capital of Australia, Melbourne is inarguably the premiere location for film fans down under (no matter what anyone from Sydney tells you). These weekly posts will take you beyond the multiplex and highlight the Top 5 movie alternatives worth checking out each week.
1. Vertigo // San Soleil (Melbourne Cinémathèque’s Non-Union Mexican Equivalent)
In no way associated with the actual Melbourne Cinémathèque, this is the first in a six week program of Thursday night double features at LongPlay bar & cinema in North Fitzroy, programmed by Melbourne bloggers Jemima Bucknell and Simon Di Berardino. Kicks off with a screening of the film that Sight & Sound just named the best of all time, followed by Chris Marker’s 1983 experimental documentary, San Soleil. (Thursday, January 17)
2. Breaking Loose (CineCult303)
A premiere stop for fans of the weird and the wonderful, CineCult launches into the New Year in typically strange style with Breaking Loose, Rod Hay’s 1988 direct-to-video tale of a surfer run afoul of vicious biker gang. Bad acting and bad eighties hairstyles abound. Held as always at Bar303 in Northcote. (Tuesday, January 15)
3. The Mission (The Astor)
Worth seeing for Ernie Morricone’s beautiful score alone, Roland Joffé’s sweeping religious epic about an eighteenth century Spanish Mission in the South American jungle won the 1986 Palm d’Or, and should have won the Oscar the same year. For a film like this, your television simply won’t suffice. Screened in 70mm at Melbourne’s home of 70mm. (Monday, January 14)
4. Oldboy (The Shadow Electric)
It’s hammer time at the Abbottsford Convent, where the big outdoor screen at the Shadow Electric Bar will flicker to life at sundown for Park Chan-wook’s awesome Korean revenge film, Oldboy. See it with a crowd before Spike Lee remakes it. (Wednesday, January 16)
5. Total Recall (Rooftop Cinema)
Forget Colin Farrell and bring back old memories with Paul Verhoeven’s Total Recall, one of the greatest science fiction films of the early nineteen nineties (and the title of its stars biography). Rooftop are also screening the remake the following evening if you want to make a weekend of it, although frankly I wouldn’t recommend it. (Saturday, January 12)
What say you Melbournians? What will you be checking out this week?
