jan 6-12 | the mill and the cross | vancity

A Soul Food Movie pal sends this welcome note!

The astonishing and amazing movie, "The Mill and the Cross" (which some of us saw during the Vancouver International Film Festival) is back in Vancouver for a one-week run from January 6 to 12 at the VanCity Theatre.

This movie is unlike anything I've seen; it creates a new cinematic genre. Based on Breughel's painting "Christ on the Way to Calvary," it drews the audience into that painting, into the life and vision of Breughel, into the Netherlands of his day, into the mystery of redemption.

Here's my original post about the film's VIFF screening.

super-anon online!

A few years back, several PT people (including Chy Liu and Deb Sears) were involved in making super-fun short film that's gone on to win all sorts of accolades. Now it's online! Here's a note from Deb...

Hey Super-Doopers:
I hope this finds you all well.

Guess who is turning 89 on Wed. Dec 28th? Stan Lee! Not sure who that is? Shame on you - check it out wikipedia.

We thought it would be great to help celebrate Stan's birthday by posting SUPER-ANON to YouTube! Steve created a YouTube channel for the film - check it out here.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year
Deb

Super-Anon website
Super-Anon on IMDb

christmas at vifc

A CHRISTMAS CAROL
(UK, USA, 1951, 86 mins)

International Film Centre VanCity Theatre
Tuesday, December 21st, 6:30
Thursday, December 23rd, 6:00
TICKETS
onstage now at Pacific Theatre

Directed By: Brian Desmond Hurst
Cast: Alastair Sim, Kathleen Harrison, Mervyn Johns, Hermione Baddeley

Alastair Sim offers a masterclass in comedy as Ebenezer Scrooge in this definitive black and white version of the Dickens' classic. An incomparable roster of British supporting actors fill out the supernatural morality tale, including Michael Hordern as Jacob Marley, Hattie Jacques as Mrs Fezziwig, and George Cole as the young Ebenezer.

"A trenchant and inspiring Christmas show." —Bosley Crowther, New York Times, 1951

IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE
(USA, 1946, 130 mins)
Soul Food article

International Film Centre VanCity Theatre
Tuesday, December 20th, 6:30
Thursday, December 22nd, 6;30
TICKETS

Directed By: Frank Capra
Cast: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore

"This story is the lousiest cheese," Frank Capra admitted to his star after making a rotten pitch. James Stewart stuck by his favourite director. "Frank, if you want to do a movie about me committing suicide, with an angel with no wings named Clarence, I'm your boy."

Although the picture has become synonymous with homespun, small town values – values Stewart personified and Capra obviously cherished – it achieves its profound emotional resonance precisely by stressing their limitations, even to the point of suicide. This is the tragedy of a man who dreams of traveling the world, building cities, and making love to Gloria Grahame, who never leaves his hometown, works in his dad's office, and marries Donna Reed. The "unborn" sequence where Clarence shows George how things might look if he hadn't been around is chilling not because it's morbid fantasy, but because "Pottersville" was and is so much closer to contemporary society than the nostalgic gentility of Bedford Falls.

For both Capra and Stewart this was their first movie after service in WWII, and it's riven with their anxieties about coming home. Whether you believe in angels or not, it's a wonderful film.