With the US and Russia engaged in mutual sabre rattling over the future of Crimea it is timely that the digitally restored version of Stanley Kubrick's 1954 film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is to be seen ag
New Zealand International Film Festival
Autumn Event 2014
Civic Theatre, Auckland
April 11 - 13
With the US and Russia engaged in mutual sabre rattling over the future of Crimea it is timely that the digitally restored version of Stanley Kubrick’s 1954 film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is to be seen again on the big screen.
Set during the Cold war the film features overzealous Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) who manages to scramble the US nuclear capability against the Soviet Union without the knowledge of his superiors Only Ripper and a British RAF Captain, Lionel Mandrake (Peter Sellers) who is being held by Ripper know the codes to recall the bombers
In the War Room, President Muffley (Peter Sellers), General Turgidson (George C Scott) and ex-Nazi nuclear scientist Dr. Strangelove (Peter Sellers) attempt to defuse the situation.
The film which is now fifty years old is one of several classic films which are being screened in the NZIFF’s mini-festival this April which also includes Aguirre, The Wrath of God, Funny Face, On the Waterfront and The Third Man
Aguirre, The Wrath of God the 1972 film written and directed by Werner Herzog is an hallucinatory tale which follows a Spanish expedition travelling from the mountains of Peru down the Amazon where they are led by the ruthless Don Aguirre who is only interested in finding El Dorado. This was the first of Herzog’s first collaborations with the actor Klaus Kinski.
Funny Face directed by Stanley Donen is one of the great musical of the 50s with Audrey Hepburn as a brainy West Village bookshop manager and Fred Astaire as the fashion photographer whose camera (not to mention a trip to Paris and some fabulous Givenchy gowns) might just transform her into a runway star.
The Time Out Film Guide says of Funny Face “The musical that dares to rhyme Sartre with Montmartre, Funny Face knocks most other musicals off the screen for its visual beauty, its witty panache, and its totally uncalculating charm.”
Elia Kazan’z On The Waterfront won eight Academy Awards including Best Actor for Marlon Brand. His performance was one of the great mid-century film roles giving a method acting performance that revolutionised big-screen acting 60 years ago and it is still dramatic today.
The Third Man made in 1949 by Carol Reed with its post war Vienna setting is a great example of British film noir with the incisive collaboration of director Carol Reed and actor Orson Welles who bring a sinister flamboyance to novelist Graham Greene’s literate, perfectly structured thriller script.
Sessions:
Dr. Strangelove
April 11, 7.30 pm, The Civic,
Aguirre, the Wrath of God
April 12, 8.15 pm, The Civic,
Funny Face
April 11, 1.00 pm, The Civic,
On The Waterfront
April 11. 4.00 pm, The Civic,
April 13, 3.30 pm, The Civic,
The Third Man
April 12. 6.00 pm, The Civic,
