SATURDAY 18 APRIL: 10am
SATURDAY 18 APRIL: 12.30pm
SATURDAY 18 APRIL: 3.45pm
SUNDAY 19 APRIL: 10am
SUNDAY 19 APRIL: 12.30pm
SUNDAY 19 APRIL: 3.30pm
SHOWER
THE LIVES OF
OTHERS
CASABLANCA
BICYCLE
THIEVES
KOLYA
SECRETS & LIES
1999 / China / 92 minutes
Director: Zhang Yang / Colour
2006 / Germany / 137 minutes
Director: Florian Henckel von
Donnersmarck / Colour
1942 / USA / 102 minutes
Director: Michael Curtiz / B&W
1948 / Italy / 89 minutes
Director: Vittorio de Sica / B&W
1996 / Czechoslovakia / 110 minutes
Director: Jan Sverak / Colour
1996 / UK / 142 minutes
Director: Mike Leigh / Colour
This bittersweet yet
thoroughly winning tale
features great performances
by a gallery of engaging
elderly eccentrics who
virtually inhabit a Beijing
bath-house that’s about to
be torn down. This is one
of those “under the radar”
films with little commercial
exposure, but very highly
rated by Movies of Merit
participants. It won five
awards at various
international festivals and
was nominated for a further
two. One of those rare
warm and observant films
that leaves you with a smile
on your face.
Starring Martina Gedeck,
Ulrich Muhe and Sebastian
Koch, this outstanding film,
set in East Berlin in 1984,
deals with the poisonous
nature of a Cold War
society built on suspicion
and doubt. It features
superb performances,
impressive technical skills
and a meticulous plot. It
won 16 awards, including
Oscar and BAFTA awards.
The most highly-rated film
by Movies of Merit
participants on two
occasions, and my personal
favourite film from the
modern era.
This romantic war
melodrama has everything:
cult performers, quotable
lines, instant cliché, a
terrific plot, unforgettable
songs, and great
performances from
Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid
Bergman, Paul Heinreid and
Claude Rains. Set in North
Africa – but actually filmed
in a Warners’ back-lot –
this is one of the most
enduring and ageless films
from the Golden Age of
Hollywood. Winner of three
Oscars and nominated for
five others, it rated very
highly among Movies of
Merit participants.
This film, the masterwork of
the Italian Neorealist
movement, is a simple story
of a proud but unemployed
father seeking a job in
post-war Italy. When he
finds one, pasting film
posters across the city, his
bicycle is stolen; the film
charts his attempts to
retrieve it. An
extraordinarily moving film,
beautifully shot and
featuring non-professional
actors, it won an Oscar and
18 other awards; Movies of
Merit participants were
similarly impressed.
Another under-rated and
seldom-seen minor
masterpiece, starring
Zdenek Sverak, about a
mid-fiftyish cellist and
unattached lothario who
unexpectedly is made
guardian of a young
Russian boy in 1988
Prague on the eve of
independence from Russia.
Winner of 21 awards,
including an Oscar, it was
nominated for 12 others,
and universally praised by
Movies of Merit
participants.
Mike Leigh’s method of
developing screenplays by
involving his cast members
has never been as successful
as in this film, in which
Brenda Blethyn, a factory
worker whose adopted-out
daughter, a black woman
(Marianne Jean-Baptiste),
makes contact. Laced with
humour, the scenes in which
this newcomer is introduced
to the rest of the family
(including Timothy Spall and
Phyllis Logan) is one of
cinema’s greatest moments.
Winner of 38 awards
including a Palme d’Or, and
nominated for 29 others,
including 5 Oscars, this was
the most highly rated film by
Movies of Merit participants.
“Explores the value of family,
friendship, and tradition”
(Wikipedia)
“One of the most
unforgettable Cold War spy
thrillers” (Taste of Cinema)
“A joyous film which
provokes more than its fair
share of smiles” (Radio
Times Guide to Films, 2015)
“Material enough for a
season of soap operas”
(Roger Ebert, 2010)
“”The most beloved Academy
Award Best Picture of all”
(1001 Films to See Before
You Die, 2011)
“De Sica achieves an ironic
humanism that can’t fail to
touch the heart” (Radio
Times Guide to Films, 2015)
LET’S CELEBRATE
20
2015
GRAND OPENING
NIGHT
FRIDAY 17 APRIL, 5pm
Champagne and Nibbles prior to film
AU REVOIR LES ENFANTS
Bring a partner, a friend or come in a group
Tickets: $10 per film.
Grand Opening Night reception and film: $20
(includes champagne and nibbles prior to film)
Saturday OR Sunday day pass: $25 each
Launch and all films (7 events): $60.
Book via trybooking.com/123968
or ring the U3A office on 9639 5209
Please note: payment must be made at the time of
booking. Booking for films is essential.
No refunds will be available.
1987 / France / 103 minutes / Director: Louis Malle / Colour
U3A FILM FESTIVAL 2015
CURATOR, JOHN WALDIE
John is an English-Australian
who first became interested in
film some ten years ago while
working in Philadelphia. He has
developed a database of 4500
films by aggregating the ratings
from over 1000 reviewers.
John tutors film appreciation in
Melbourne and Castlemaine.
His Movies of Merit courses at
U3A Melbourne City are
extremely popular.
Written, produced and directed by one of France’s
greatest and most admired directors, this superbly
crafted film was the most highly-rated film on two
occasions by Movies of Merit classes. Using mainly
non-professional actors, this largely
autobiographical film depicts life and consequences
at a boarding school in Nazi-occupied France in
1944. Nominated for two Oscars and Golden Lion
winner at the Venice Film Festival, it also won 28
additional awards and nine nominations.
“Leads up to an emotionally devastating
finale” (Leonard Maltin, 2014)
UNIVERSITY OF THE THIRD AGE
Level 4, Ross House, 247-251 Flinders Lane.
03 9639 5209 www.u3amelbcity.org.au
Since 1985, Australia’s first U3A
and part of the global
network
3
1985
2015
LIFELONG LEARNING
AS PART OF ITS
30TH ANNIVERSARY
CELEBRATIONS
U3A MELBOURNE CITY
PRESENTS
2015
2015
TREASURY THEATRE
1 MACARTHUR PLACE
MELBOURNE
APRIL 17/18/19 2015