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Out of this world Solaris viewing The Guardian has joined the McGuffin Film Club to offer ten pairs of tickets to a special showing of the classic film Solaris. It will be screened at 8pm on Friday, July 6, at the EMD Cinema, Hoe Street, Walthamstow. Solaris is science fiction at its very best: a beautiful, mysterious, dream. Author Stanislaw Lem managed to create another world and director Tarkovsky (who defected to the West in 1983) captured it on film. The plot concerns a scientist who goes to a Russian space station orbiting the planet Solaris. His job is to find out why one of the crew members went mad and killed himself. After he arrives at the station he realises Solaris has an enigmatic, vast ocean that can materialise dead humans from the cosmonaut's past. Soon his dead girlfriend appears on the station and he starts to question his own sanity and the awesome, puzzling nature of Solaris. To win a pair of tickets to see this unforgettable film, answer the following questions and send them to Solaris, Waltham Forest Guardian newsdesk, 480-500 Larkshall Road, E4 9GD, to arrive no later than first post on Friday, June 29. Senders of the first ten correct answers out of the hat will receive tickets early the following week.
1) The film Solaris was based upon a book by the same name written by which science fiction writer? a) Stanislaw Lem * b) Issac Asimov c) JG Ballard 2) Which well known director is strongly rumoured to be producing a remake of Solaris? a) Mel Brooks b) James Cameron * c) Guy Richie 3) Andrei Tarkovsky's father, Arseniy Tarkovsky, was famous in Russia in his own right. What as? (Andrei Tarkovsky's mother was a talented actress). a) A Politician b) A Poet * c) A Scriptwriter 4) What music is used over the opening sequence of the film Solaris? a) 'Stairway to Heaven' by Led Zepplin b) 'Kalinka', as performed by Alexander Kipnis c) J.S. Bach's 'Choral Prelude in F Minor' * 5) Solaris is often known as the Russian version of 2001. What short story by Arthur C Clarke is the film 2001 based upon? a) The Sentinel * b) The Watcher c) The Large Black Stone 6) The name of the ship that brings the main protagonist to the planet in Solaris is named after which Greek god credited with bringing fire, associated with enlightenment, to humanity. a) Zeus b) Promethus * c) Odin 7) Tarkovsky's last film 'The Sacrifice' (1986) was filmed in which Scandinavian country? a) Norway b) Finland c) Sweden * 8) Tarkovsky and his wife Larissa defected to the West after completing the film 'Nostalghia' in Italy. What year was this? a) 1973 b) 1983 * c) 1993 9) Where was Tarkovsky born in 1932? a) Moscow * b) St Petersburg c) Lenningrad 10) In which of Tarkovsky's other films, did an alien artifact/meteor crash to earth creating a surrounding Zone of mystery and portent? a) The Large Black Stone b) The Dead Zone c) Stalker *
McGuffin's Film & TV Society Programme for the coming weeks ************************************ Bus Stop June 22, 2001 at 8.30 pm: Marilyn Monroe in Bus Stop (1956) by Joshua Logan. Lasts 96 minutes / Language: English. Monroe plays a cafe singer who meets a cowboy while they are both trapped in a cafe overnight during a blizzard. A musical, she sings "I'm gonna stake my claim". It's a love story whose theme is the pitching together of innocence and experience. This film was made in colour. ************************************ Raise the Red Lantern June 29, 2001 at 8.30 pm: Raise the Red Lantern (1991) directed by Yimou Zhang Lasts 125 minutes/ Language: Mandarin with sub-titles./ USA certificate PG. An extraordinarily beautiful film set in 1920s China with a striking sound track. A 19-year-old university student is forced to quit college because of the death of her father. She becomes the fourth mistress of a wealthy man. ************************************ Solaris July 6, 2001 at 8.00 pm: Solaris or Solyaris (1972) directed by Andrei Tarkovsky Original Soviet Union version lasts 165 minutes/ Language: Russian with sub-titles./ UK certificate PG. Classic, dream like story of first contact with alien life force. Powerful, slow moving film, generally reckoned to be one of the best science fiction films ever made. Often described as the Russian version of 2001. ************************************ Tickets cost £6 (£3 concessions) on the night but you have to be a member. Membership costs £10 for supporting individuals (who get a free ticket to one film) or £3 per household. Please phone 020 8558 5527 to join or book tickets.
Waltham Forest Guardian, June 14, 2001. McGuffin Note: This quiz was set by McGuffin member Vicky Hartell.
Multiplexes will never replace the grand old cinemas shut by the Odeon group (Odeon faces a film-buff backlash, 3 May). Local cinemas with big screens and a space big enough to hold a sizeable audience, make the experience of going to the cinema entirely different from watching a tv film or video. Multiplexes appeal to the teens but they can never hope to produce the same atmosphere as an ornate, traditional cinema. Thanks to community pressure, at Walthamstow in north-east London, we have managed to save a wonderful cinema, the last in the borough of Waltham Forest. But it was touch and go. For a long time the Odeon group insisted only Indian language Bollywood films could be shown. Fortunately that restrictive covenant has been overturned and the McGuffin’s film society is showing a film made by London born film director Sir Alfred Hitchcock at the cinema on 11 May. We need vigilant newspapers such as the Evening Standard if we are going to save the few remaining local cinemas in London.
Jo Brind, Leyton, E10 Evening Standard, May 8, 2001.
Odeon faces a film buff backlash CINEMA giant Odeon is facing the wrath of movie enthusiasts across the South East following the closure of small neighbourhood film houses. The company , which absorbed the ABC chain last year, is accused of concentrating on the lucrative multiplex market at the expense of traditional art deco venues. Recent ABC closures have occurred in Walthamstow, Streatham, Sidcup, Hampstead, Gravesend, Uxbridge and Luton. Nationally, Odeon has shut down 19 high street cinemas. Campaigners have accused the firm of deserting local communities and using underhand tactics to limit competition, such as imposing a restrictive covenant clause in con-tracts that prevent buildings from re-opening as cinemas. Pressure group McGuffins was set up following the sale earlier this year of the ABC in Walthamstow. It has since joined Keep Cinema Local, whose spokesman Ben Appleby said: "Odeon would have us believe small local cinemas are not profitable, yet they don't want anyone else running them because they're scared it will affect business at multiplexes.'' While Odeon conceded that some smaller cinemas had been closed, a spokesman said: "Since we merged with ABC, we have opened or refurbished 124 screens while we have only closed 61." The spokesman added that a restrictive covenant clauses were "a legitimate business strategy". Sixty per cent of all screens in the UK are owned by the five big cinema companies, of which Odeon is the largest with a 33 per cent share of the London market. David Hancock, an industry analyst with Screen Digest magazine, said: "The rise of the multiplex is not necessarily a bad thing. What worries me is the way older audiences are being alienated - they don't really want to be confronted by up to 20 screens and gangs of teenagers."
Evening Standard, May 3, 2001.
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