December at the IFI

From a full retrospective of films of Alfred Hitchcock, to a host of Irish and international features and the unmissable Christmas classics - that's December at the IFI!

Starting this month, and running well into 2013, the IFI is delighted to present a full retrospective of the 52 surviving films of Alfred Hitchcock. This is a truly unique opportunity for our audiences to immerse  themselves in the films of this giant of cinema. This is the largest season the IFI has ever undertaken and will run until March 2013, presenting the films thematically instead of chronologically. So whether you’re seeing some of them for the first time or rediscovering a classic you never thought you’d see on the big screen again, this is a season for true cineastes.

The Genius of Hitchcock: Part One from Dec 9th

As we get ready to say goodbye to 2012, we have great films to help the year go out with a bang! Some big titles from November continue into December with Amour, The Master and The Hunt all still on offer. The IFI’s commitment to Irish film continues with two features: Ian Fitzgibbon’s Death of a Superhero and Kirsten Sheridan’s Dollhouse. Both films demonstrate some stunning performances from young actors.

Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Donald in Death of a Superhero

There are fantastic classics on offer this month including re-releases of Lawrence of Arabia (celebrating its 50th anniversary), Babette’s Feast, and the Bette Davis and Joan Crawford masterpiece What Ever happened to Baby Jane? 

IFI Classic Lawrence of Arabia

We have great films lined up for Christmas too. Frank Capra’s unforgettable It’s a Wonderful Life is back on the big screen for the festive season, while the IFI Family screening for this month, WhenSanta Fell to Earth, is packed full of Christmas cheer. If you’re feeling ‘anti-Christmas’, be sure to have some fun with Billy Bob Thornton in Bad Santa and Bill Murray in Scrooged.

It's a Wonderful Life

If you’re stuck for Christmas gift ideas then look no further than the IFI Film Shop. With presents ranging from books to DVDs to stocking fillers, our specialist store can provide you with the perfect gift for this holiday season. If you are shopping for the person who has everything, our new IFI Gift Cards are the perfect solution, or if you’re looking for a gift that lasts all year, then look no further than IFIMembership which offers a host of great benefits. 

GAA Gold 2 DVD Box Set

  

And finally I’d like to thank all of our patrons for their support throughout 2012 and we look forward to seeing you again in 2013. Wishing you all a very merry Christmas and happy new year. 

Ross Keane

Director

Pat Collins, director of Silence, now available to buy on DVD in the IFI Film Shop, explains the story behind the documentary which follows sound recordist Eoghan Mac Giolla Bhríde on a psycho-geographical journey taken from Berlin to his native Donegal:

I was always fascinated by the people who went around in the 1930s and 1940s – people like Seamus Ennis and Seán Ó hEochaidh – who travelled from house to house and collected stories and songs and folklore. It’s a romantic notion, I suppose. I wanted to make a film about someone travelling around the country meeting people, but I wanted it to be set in a contemporary
context, so it evolved from being a folklore collector to being a sound recordist.

Though our character Eoghan is trying to get away from man-made noise and away from people, he always seems to meet someone; so he’s still hearing stories. The people that Eoghan meets as he travels through Ireland are mostly real characters playing themselves. People we had read about, or people we had met previously, or people we had heard about.

Eoghan meets a human geographer, a farmer, a barman, a museum owner, a fisherman, a writer. It’s one of the great things about making documentaries – the houses you get invited into, the people you meet out and about in odd places. These encounters give the film a documentary sensibility.

In many ways Silence is about transience… that we need to pay attention because things are going to pass. Even some of the birdsong, the corncrakes and the curlew reflect that. We wanted to film in genuinely remote areas in keeping with the locations where Eoghan would be recording – in locations that were genuinely free from man-made sound; and this meant we had to get away from roads. The Irish landscape is incredibly varied. There is no end to it.

Pat Collins

Director

Silence is available to buy on DVD at the IFI Film Shop now (€14.99). It can also be bought online (please note there will be an additional p&p charge).

Watch the trailer:

November at the IFI

November focuses on all things French as we celebrate the 13th IFI French Film Festival. In October we started the build-up to the Festival with a celebration of one of France’s most prestigious independent production and distribution companies, Les Films du Losange. To celebrate its 50th anniversary, this programme continues into November with Éric Rohmer’s classic Tales of the Four Seasons. Rohmer wanted the stories of the four films in the series “to focus on attractive, intelligent, self-absorbed if not entirely aware young women” and this is a rare chance to get to see all four films, spread over nine days. This ‘Le Losange’ focus will be completed during the Festival with screenings of Nicolas Philibert’s Louvre City, Michael Haneke’s (whose new film Love opens the Festival) Hidden starring Juliette Binoche and Daniel Auteuil, and the first feature from Barbet Schroeder, More.

There are fantastic films and guests on offer in this year’s IFI French Film Festival. We are thrilled to welcome Juliette Binoche whose latest film, Another Woman’s Life, is a comedy-drama by actress and novelist, Sylvie Testud.

Juliette Binoche in Another Woman's Life

We are also delighted that Béatrice Dalle, star of Betty Blue, will attend the aforementioned film that shot her to fame as well as her latest offering, Bye Bye Blondie. We’re pleased to welcome directors Héléna Klotz (with her feature Atomic Age) and Benoit Jacquot (with his story of the final days in the life of Marie Antoinette in Farewell, MyQueen), alongside actors Reda Kateb (starring in Catherine Corsini’s ThreeWorlds) and Alice de Lencquesaing (featuring in the Festival’s Closing Film, Ina Rush). With 34 screenings taking place during the Festival, we couldn’t fit them all into our regular monthly programme, so be sure to pick up a separate copy of the French programme (download in PDF) or check out www.ifi.ie/FrenchFest.

Kinopolis 2012: Wojciech Smarzowski's The Dark House

November also sees the return of Kinopolis, the 7th Polish Film Festival, with highlights including a focus on ‘the dark side of the Polish soul’, as represented by the work of director Wojciech Smarzowski whose latest award-winning film, Rose opens the Festival. We’ll also look at the latest from Poland’s continually impressive animation industry with a programme of short films and will welcome guests Marian Dziędziel, Arkadiusz Jakubik and Wojciech Pszoniak.

Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman in The Master

October sees the release of many great titles. Jacques Audiard’s follow-up to A Prophet, Rust and Bone, is a particular take on a modern love story starring Marion Cotillard; Paul Thomas Anderson’s eagerly anticipated The Master opens on the 16th alongside the equally awaited Palme d’Or winning Love by Michael Haneke; while Mads Mikkelsen puts in a stunning performance in Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt which was a big hit at Cannes and won him the Best Actor prize.

Laurence of Arabia (restored and re-released from November 23rd)

There are also many IFI Classics on offer with the 50th anniversary new digital print of Lawrence of Arabia and Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (in its extended U.S. cut!) making a return to the big screen.

Ross Keane

Director

Visit www.ifi.ie for more information on our November screenings or follow us on Facebook and Twitter for regular updates!