Cinema: Screenings in Trinidad

Abstract

Film Club to Start Membership Drive: Three Top Shows ExpectedRecent acquisitions of the Trinidad Film Club are 16mm versions of three award-winning films - Kanal (Polish), One Summer of Happiness (Swedish), and The Witches of Salem (French). These films will be shown in addition to the regular 35mm monthly film. The 35mm film for this month will be the Indian film The Dance of Shiva. Kanal, which was awarded a special prize at the Cannes International Film Festival, will be shown on Tuesday night at Queen's Hall. The film, which was directed by Andrzej Wajda, follows the fate of a partisan unit during the days of the Warsaw uprising in World War Two. Surrounded by Nazis, the partisans are obliged to retreat to base through the sewers, but they find an exit impassable. One Summer of Happiness, the Swedish idyll directed by the celebrated Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, is the first of his films to be shown in Trinidad. It will be presented in July. The Witches of Salem, a film adaptation by Jean-Paul Sartre of the Arthur Miller play The Crucible, an award-winner at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival and from the British Film Academy, concerns the notorious witch trials of Massachusetts in 1692. The film is directed by Raymond Rouleau and stars Simone Signoret, Yves Montand, and Mylene Demongeot. It is to be shown in September.Other 16mm films shown earlier this year were Aparajito, the second part of a trilogy by Satyajit Ray (Bengali), Death of a Cyclist (Spanish), Wozzeck (German), and The Strange Ones (French). Eighteen films will have been seen by members by the end of the year.Because of the expense of renting 16mm films, which include air freight, royalty, censorship fees, and cinema hire, the club, whose present membership stands at 200 with a $io-dollar yearly fee, is undertaking a drive to attract more members. It is offering a half-yearly membership which begins on June 7 and includes the right to attend both 16mm and 35mm viewings for tiie rest of the year. Most 35mm films are rented from the vaults of local distributors, and up to now the films chosen have been those which the club has considered worthy of revival or those films which drop from the regular circuit through unpopularity. There has been criticism of this policy, which is almost inevitable because of the high cost of renting 16mm versions of prize films from abroad. An increase in membership could undoubtedly improve the fare now offered by the club, and it is probable that next year's programme will comprise only 16mm films. In that case, with its membership doubled, Trinidad will have the chance of seeing such films as The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, The Seven Samurai, Black Orpheus, some of which are already available for 16mm distribution.[SG, June 5,1960: 5; used with the permission of the Trinidad Guardian]Film Club Starts Membership Drive: Two More Showings For YearThe Trinidad Film Club, with a current membership of 220, has launched a membership drive for next year. The membership fee has been raised from $10 to $12, which can be paid in two half-yearly instalments. It will also be possible to hold a half-year membership.This year, two films remain to be seen, New Faces and Animal Crackers with the Marx Brothers. For i960 members will have seen 18 films, twelve 35mm and six 16mm. The 16mm series included Ingmar Bergman's Smiles of a Summer Night, Satjayit Ray's Aparajito from Bengal, Wajda's Kanal from Poland, the French Witches of Salem, the Spanish Death of a Cyclist, and from France again Les Enfants Terribles. Revivals in 35mm included John Huston's African Queen, William Wyler's Desperate Hours, Carol Reed's Odd Man Out, Alfred Hitchcock's The Trouble with Harry, and the Brazilian film Cangaceiro. Among the short subjects shown have been Canada's The Loon 's Necklace, the British documentaries Thursday 's Child and Between the Tides, and the French The Golden Fish.Since its inauguration the club has had some difficulties and disappointments with distributors abroad, but it has now established a more reliable relationship with booking agencies in London. …