SKYLIGHT BY POPULAR DEMAND
The National Theatre’s NT Live production of Skylight, recently screened at Palace Cinema, proved to be one of the program’s most successful plays, with popular demand leading to encore screenings this weekend. Skylight stars two of British cinema’s most celebrated actors: Bill Nighy, currently starring in Pride, and Carey Mulligan whose role in An Education marked the beginning of a highly successful movie career, making her West End stage debut in this highly acclaimed production by playwright David Hare, directed by Stephen Daldry (The Audience, Billy Elliott), captured live from London’s West End. Skylight screens at Palace Byron Bay Cinema at 1pm on Saturday and Sunday. Tickets $23–25 available at Palace box office or online at www.palacecinemas.com.au.
THE PRICE OF LOVE A young girl desires love but is corrupted by wealth, in Kenneth MacMillan’s erotically charged ballet and modern masterpiece Manon. First performed in 1974 and celebrating its 40th anniversary, Manon is a staple of the Royal Ballet’s repertory. The tragic story of Manon Lescaut and Des Grieux is based on the novel by French writer Abbé Prévost. The Royal Ballet’s Manon screens at Palace Byron Bay Cinema on Wednesday at 11 am. Tickets $15–$24 available at Palace box office or online at www.palacecinemas.com.au.
ell By John Campb
LIVING IS EASY WITH EYES CLOSED
HECTOR AND THE SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS AND SKELETON TWINS SCREEN THIS WEEK AT PIGHOUSE FLICKS
TUESDAY
MY OLD LADY
18 NOV to
WEDNESDAY
26 NOV
MOVIE CLUB PRICES Adult $12.00 / Golden $8.50
The title, of course, has been borrowed from the Beatles’ – or John Lennon’s, to be more accurate – ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’. It is 1966. Antonio (Javier Cámara) is a bald, chubby schoolteacher in Madrid. He is also a Beatles tragic and John Lennon devotee. Hearing that his hero is in Spain shooting a movie (‘How I Won The War’) he jumps in in his little green car and heads for Almeria with the goal of meeting him. On the way he picks up a couple of hitchhikers – Belén (Natalia de Molina), fleeing the confines of a hostel for pregnant girls, and Juanjo (Francesco Colomer), who has run away from home after his father, a copper, bullied him for refusing to have his hair cut. Franco’s Spain is a brutish realm benighted by Catholicism, writer/director David Trueba makes no bones about it, and the teenagers whom Antonio befriends are, unknowingly, at the coal-face of the social upheaval that swept the West at the time. But the film is in no way didactic, instead getting its message across through intimacy and a light heart. As one who understands the worth of words, Antonio believes Lennon’s Help encapsulates the human condition and he strives to open his travelling companions’ eyes to the pulse of life that Lennon’s lyricism represents. He becomes their mentor while the youngsters introduce love into his solitary existence – I found it reminiscent, throughout, of Michael Radford’s Il Postino (1994). Cámara’s brilliant portrayal is of a man of fervent intellect and robust humility, and it is perfectly complemented by de Molina’s girl on the cusp of womanhood and Colomer’s naive boy. The success of any story can generally be gauged by how we react when the protagonist approaches his journey’s end – in this case, I was as excited as Antonio, in a way that gunfights and smash-ups can never excite, as he got ever closer to succeeding in his quest. One of the year’s best – and the postscript is a beauty.
40 November 18, 2014 The Byron Shire Echo
The French have a peculiar system of home ownership that allows for the tenant to stay on in a residence after it has been sold until his or her death. Mathias (Kevin Kline) only finds this out when he travels from New York to Paris to claim the apartment that has been left to him in his father’s will. Ninety-year-old Mathilde (Maggie Smith) lives there with her spinster daughter Chloé (Kristin Scott Thomas), and they have no intention of moving. The opening suggests a comic drama, with the irascible nonagenarian, the ice maiden and the hapless Yank squabbling as they pursue their own agendas. But things take an unforeseen leap into the secrets and lies that float about in the dark seas of all family histories and the movie changes character to follow a different storyline. The hints that are dropped regarding Mathilde’s relationship with Mathias’s father set the tone, along with a an affair that Chloé is having with a married man – an affair that is an unconvincing and utilitarian piece of scriptwriting. What unfolds is a little overwrought but, thanks to the fine performances, absorbing enough – even if it resembles more an actors’ workshop. The problem with Israel Horowitz’s film is that it has been adapted from his own play and is never able to shake off its stultifying staginess. Notwithstanding some beautiful shots of the Seine and Notre Dame at night and a few perfunctory shots of the olde worlde neighbourhood where the battleground is set, all of the scenes of any import take place in Mathilde’s living room or kitchen. There are more close-ups than is necessary – we know how well these veterans can do various emotions without having the camera constantly zooming in on their dials – and, as more information is revealed about the past, you can’t help but feel that the outcome is predictable earlier than it should be. It simmers without coming to the boil.
TWO SHOWS ONLY! ON SALE NOW!
OPENS THURSDAY!
NT LIVE: SKYLIGHT (CTC) (No Free Tickets) Sat 22, Sun 23:1:00pm THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY PART 1 (M) (No Free Tickets) Thu 20, Fri 21, Mon 24-Wed 26: 10:50, 1:20, 4:00, 6:30, 9:00pm Sat 22, Sun 23:10:30am, 1:20, 4:10, 6:40, 9:10pm
ROYAL BALLET: MANON (CTC) (No Free Tickets) Wed 19: 11:00am LIVING IS EASY (WITH EYES CLOSED) (M) Tue 18-Wed 19: 4:15, 6:30pm Thu 20, Fri 21, Mon 24-Wed 26: 1:40pm Sat 22, Sun 23: 12:45pm GONE GIRL (MA15+) Tue 18: 3:45, 8:45 Wed 19: 11:55am Thu 20-Wed 26: 3:50pm Enjoy our licensed bar
Lavazza Espresso Coffee
SAT & SUN ONLY!
KILL THE MESSENGER (M) Tue 18: 10:40am Wed 19: 9:15pm MY OLD LADY (M) (No Free Tickets) Tue 18: 10:15am, 12:30, 6:40pm Wed 19: 9:40am, 1:50, 6:40pm Thu 20, Fri 21, Mon 24-Wed 26: 9:20, 11:30, 6:40pm Sat 22, Sun 23: 9:00, 11:10, 6:40 INTERSTELLAR (M) (No Free Tickets) Tue 18-Wed 19: 1:00, 2:45, 6:00, 8:50pm Thu 20-Wed 26: 3:00, 6:15, 8:50pm PRIDE (M) Tue 18: 10:50am, 1:20, 9:15pm Wed 19: 10:30am, 4:10, 8:45pm Thu 20, Fri 21, Mon 24-Wed 26: 10:00am, 12:30pm, 9:30pm. Sat 22, Sun 23:10:20am, 9:30pm All sessions are correct at the time of publication. Current session times at: palacecinemas.com.au Gift cards are the perfect gift
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Byron Shire Echo archives: www.echo.net.au