Screen Machine

To-do: Week starting Thursday 26th May: Get Low, Of Gods and Men, Hangover 2, Douglas Sirk, Tsui Hark

Week starting Thursday 26th May

New releases opening this week:

Get Low is a comedy set in old timey America about a hermit (Robert Duvall) who demands that a funeral director (Bill Murray) hold his funeral party while he is still alive.

Of Gods and Men won the Grand Prix at Cannes last year. It’s about a group of Trappist monks caught in a bind between Islamic militants and government authorities during the Algerian civil war.

A Beautiful Life, directed by Andrew Lau (Infernal Affairs) is a weepie about a cop who falls in love with a poor woman.

The Hangover Part II is a sequel.

Soul Surfer is about a woman with one arm who enters a surfing competition and inspires a lot of people.

Short seasons:

Magnificent Obsessions: Hollywood Dames from Screwball to Sirk is a season of films curated by Roberta Ciabarra that celebrates great female actors. The subtitle is necessarily there to remind you that only American actresses from Hollywood’s Golden Era will be featured. And, for some strange reason, Barbara Streisand. Check out the full program here. At ACMI, until May 31.

The Melbourne Cinematheque finishes up its 3-week season, Phantoms and Fireworks: The Incredible Adventures of Tsui Hark, dedicated to the legendary action film director who breathed new genre-blending life into Hong Kong cinema. This week’s films are: Shanghai Blues (1984) a fast-paced romantic comedy about two nightclub performers who are split up when Japanese planes bomb Shanghai; and The Master (1992) starring Jet Li as a fresh-faced martial arts student who journeys to Los Angeles to study with his master only to find that he has been defeated. At ACMI, June 1.

Old films:

Freaky Fridays presents its third program of films by Mike and George Kuchar, American filmmakers who came to prominence in the late 50s/early 60s for their underground no-budget lo-fi cinema work. The films are The Devil’s Cleavage (1973) and short film Wild Night in El Reno (1977). At ACMI, May 27.

Mahalia Jackson in "Imitation of Life" at ACMI as part of its Magnificent Obsessions program.