Summer Film Festival sizzles

Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre is screening an impressive range of films for the Summer Film Festival, until January 19.

As well as the films described below, the classic Mary Poppins, Singin’ in the Rain, The Wizard of Oz and High Society will be shown. Go to www.bunbury entertainment.com for session times.

THE TURNING

MA : Australia : Drama Starring: Rose Byrne, Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Miranda Otto

Seventeen talented Australian directors from diverse artistic disciplines each create a chapter of the hauntingly beautiful novel by award-winning author Tim Winton. The linking and overlapping stories explore the extraordinary turning points in ordinary people’s lives in a stunning portrait of a small coastal community. As characters face second thoughts and regret, relationships irretrievably alter, resolves are made or broken, and lives change direction forever. This watershed film reinterprets and re-imagines the work for the screen.

BLUE JASMINE

M : USA : Comedy/Drama Director: Woody Allen Starring: Cate Blanchett, Alec Baldwin, Peter Sarsgaard

After everything in her life falls to pieces, including her marriage to wealthy businessman Hal, New York socialite Jasmine (Cate Blanchett) moves into her sister’s modest apartment in San Francisco to try to pull herself together.

While still able to project her aristocratic bearing, Jasmine is emotionally precarious and lacks any practical ability to support herself.

Throughout his career, Woody Allen has created many memorable female characters. Certain to take her place in this gallery of complex and richly observed women is Jasmine, portrayed by Cate Blanchett.

BLACKFISH

M : USA : Documentary Director: Gabriela Cowperthwaite: Starring: Tilikum, Dave Duffus, Samantha Berg

Blackfish tells the story of Tilikum, a performing killer whale that killed several people while in captivity. Director-producer Gabriela Cowperthwaite compiles shocking footage and emotional interviews to explore the creature’s extraordinary nature, the species’ cruel treatment in captivity, the lives and losses of the trainers and the pressures of the multi-billion dollar sea-park industry.

This film challenges the audience to consider their relationship to nature and sheds light on their fellow mammals.

LOOKING FOR HORTENSE

M : France : Comedy: Director: Pascal Bonitzer: Starring: Kristin Scott Thomas, Jean-Pierre Bacri, Isabelle Carré

Damien is a professor of Chinese civilization who has a problem: he has promised Iva, his life companion, to ask his father Sebastien, a state councillor, to intervene in favour of Zorica, an illegal immigrant.

In theory, Sebastien Hauer is influential enough to keep Zorica from being expelled from France but the trouble is that he has always despised his son. As for Damien, he hates his old man.

Looking for Hortense is a beautifully filmed, French “dramedy” with sprinkles of social commentary.

MR PIP

M : Papua New Guinea : Drama: Director: Andrew Adamson: Starring: Hugh Laurie, Eka Darville, Florence Korokoro

Andrew Adamson (The Chronicles of Narnia) directs Hugh Laurie in this drama set during the 1990s civil war in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, following one girl’s fascination with the Charles Dickens novel Great Expectations.

Adapted from the acclaimed 2006 novel by New Zealand’s Lloyd Jones, Mr Pip stars Golden Globe winner Laurie as the enigmatic teacher who reads to his pupils from Great Expectations. Matilda, a 14-year-old student, is transported by her imagination and the world of Dickens.

A wonderful tale of the imaginative power of story that reveals that on an island at war, fiction can have dangerous consequences.

I WISH

PG : Japan : Drama: Director: Hirokazu Koreeda: Starring: Koki Maeda, Ohshiro Maeda, Hiroshi Abe

Koichi lives with his mother and retired grandparents in the south of Japan. His younger brother Ryunosuke lives with their father, further north. The brothers have been separated by their parents’ divorce and Koichi’s only wish is for his family to be reunited.

When the 12-year-old boy learns that a new bullet train line will soon open, linking the two towns, he starts to believe that a miracle will take place the moment these new trains first pass each other.

With help from the adults around him, Koichi sets out on a journey with his friends, each hoping to witness a miracle that will improve their lives.