Archibald Prize 2010

Films

Wednesdays 7.15pm

21 April – 30 May 2010

Exploring the heights and pitfalls of fame, this series raises provocative questions about the pursuit of success, the culture of celebrity, the endless need for the next new thing, and the price one pays for realising one’s dreams.

• Wednesday 21 April 2pm & 7.15pm
  Sunday 25 April 2pm
  42nd Street
  Dir: Lloyd Bacon (1933)
  89 mins  35mm  B&W  Rated G
  Warner Baxter, Ruby Keeler
  
  Show description ↓
   
  Seminal backstage musical in which the leading lady sprains her ankle on the opening night. Waiting in the wings is the chorus-girl (Ruby Keeler), who is ordered to get out there: ‘Sawyer you’re going out a youngster, but you’ve got to come back a star!’ 42nd Street was the first of three films released by Warner Brothers that are generally regarded as having revitalised the musical as a genre. The film provided celebrated choreographer Busby Berkeley full rein to develop his ideas. He freed the camera, creating innovative, surrealistic and often sexually-charged dance numbers that thrilled movie audiences. Variety listed 42nd Street as one of the top six money-making films of 1933, and it was nominated for an Oscar as best picture.
  Hide description ↑
   
• Wednesday 28 April 2pm & 7.15pm
  Sunday 2 May 2pm
  Milk
  Dir: Gus Van Sant (2008)
  128 mins  35mm  Colour  Rated M
  Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch
  
  Show description ↓
   
  Sean Penn plays gay-rights icon Harvey Milk who, in 1977, was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, becoming the first openly gay man to be voted into major public office in America. His victory was not just a victory for gay rights; he forged coalitions across the political spectrum. Gus Van Sant’s passionate biopic charts the last eight years of Milk’s life, from living in New York City to turning 40 and moving with his lover to San Francisco.
  Hide description ↑
   
• Wednesday 5 May 2pm & 7.15pm
  Sunday 9 May 2pm
  Jesus of Montreal
  Dir: Denys Arcand (1989)
  120 mins  35mm  Colour  Rated M
  
  Show description ↓
   
  Satirist Denys Arcand’s audacious, unruly and clever film follows the journey of a young actor, Daniel, who is commissioned by a theatre-loving priest, Father Leclerc, to help jazz up the annual performance of the Passion According to Mark in Montreal. The newly revitalised Passion, performed on Mount Royal, dazzles the audience and gets rave reviews, but Father Leclerc is upset by what he regards as the play’s wild speculations, particularly Daniel’s radical portrayal of Jesus. Identifying strongly with his character, Daniel sees himself as a contemporary embodiment of Jesus and, following an incident where he is arrested by police, is propositioned by a show business lawyer who offers to make him a superstar.
  Hide description ↑
   
• Wednesday 12 May 2pm & 7.15pm
  Sunday 16 May 2pm
  The wrestler
  Dir: Darren Aronofsky (2008)
  109 mins  35mm  Colour  Rated MA15+
  Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei
  
  Show description ↓
   
  Back in the late ’80s, Randy 'The Ram’ Robinson (Mickey Rourke) was a headlining professional wrestler. Now, 20 years later, he ekes out a living performing for handfuls of diehard fans in high school gyms and community centres around New Jersey. Director Darren Aronofsky presents a powerful portrait of a battered dreamer who, despite himself and the odds stacked against him, lives to be a hero once again in the only place he considers home – inside the ring. Warning: contains scenes of strong violence
  Hide description ↑
   
• Wednesday 19 May 2pm & 6pm Note earlier start time
  Sunday 23 May 2pm
  Nashville
  Dir: Robert Altman (1975)
  159 mins  35mm  Colour  Rated MA15+
  Keith Carradine, Lily Tomlin
  
  Show description ↓
   
  Film critic Pauline Kael described Nashville as ‘The funniest epic vision of America ever to reach the screen.’ Maverick director/producer Robert Altman’s original, multi-level, two-and-a-half-hour study of American culture, show-business and politics is one of the most significant films of the 1970s. The tragi-comic, free-flowing narrative depicts the intertwined lives of 24 protagonists during a five-day period in Nashville, Tennessee – the capital of country music. Underneath the drama about the music business and the election campaign of an unseen, independent party candidate is a suggestion that politics and show-business commercialism are equated, giving the film an air of subversive mischief.
  Hide description ↑
   
• Wednesday 26 May 2pm & 7.15pm
  Sunday 30 May 2pm
  Sunset Boulevard
  Dir: Billy Wilder (1950)
  111 mins  35mm  B&W  Rated PG
  Gloria Swanson, William Holden
  
  Show description ↓
   
  In what is regarded as one of the great American films, and the greatest film about Hollywood, William Holden plays an out-of-work screenwriter who finds himself embroiled with a faded screen star attempting a comeback. Gloria Swanson is brilliant as the tragically deluded Norma Desmond, ‘an actress who had become lost in her own imagination’, as costume designer Edith Head later described the character. In dissecting Hollywood’s ‘world of illusion’, director Billy Wilder carefully placed his wry, brilliant story within as authentic a setting as possible and made use of Hollywood history, including shooting on location and casting many significant Hollywood dignitaries as themselves: Buster Keaton, Cecil B De Mille, Hedda Hopper. The film was one of the last to be filmed on highly inflammable nitrate film stock and by the late 1990s much of the original negative had perished. Paramount Studios, believing the film merited the effort of a complete restoration, mounted an expensive project to have it restored. Restored 35mm print courtesy Paramount Pictures and British Film Institute.
  Hide description ↑
   

Note: For Wednesday night and Sunday screenings, tickets are issued at the Domain Theatre 1 hour prior to commencement. Arriving early is recommended as seating is limited to 320 and cannot be guaranteed. This is a specialist program designed for mature audiences and is generally not suitable for children under the age of 15. Babes-in-arms not permitted in screenings. We cannot admit anyone under the age of 18 to films with an R classification or without classification. It is a condition of entry to these screenings that behaviour does not disturb other audience members. All pagers and mobile phones must be switched off during screenings.

IMAGE: 42nd Street (dir; Lloyd Bacon 1933) Courtesy Chapel Distribution