26 June 2020.
Dear cinephiles, due to the recent lengthy confinement, you have probably gotten used to watching all sorts of films on your small or big screens at home. It’s easy, cheap and comfortable, so you may be reluctant to go back to the BIG screen in the newly reopened cinemas.
But nothing tops watching a film in a dark movie theater, immersing in and concentrating fully on the story at hand. Where you can’t get up to turn down the pot on the stove, answer a child’s question, take a phone call or reply to an SMS.
Films – the really good ones – are works of art that enrapture you, enthral your senses, open up new horizons and can even influence your very psyche.
So give yourself a real treat and also support the many artists, creators, technicians and business people who depend on our fidelity to the 7th Art, as the French call cinema. They and so many other artists, including theater people and musicians, have suffered badly from the closedown of their professions, and need our live participation in their continued efforts.
Here are the week’s offerings to tempt you:
Wary of reluctant audiences, cinemas are screening films from just before the lockdown and some classics from top directors, such as an array of films from Clint Eastwood at the Empire Cinema, including J. Edgar, Jersey Boys and American Sniper, in the coming weeks.
The Pathé Cinemas are screening six of Christopher Nolan films including Inception, Dunkirk and his Batman trilogy.
Cine17 is showing Jean Seberg – Against all Enemies, about the American actress who rose to international fame in the late 1960s thanks to her role in Godard’s “Breathless”. But this film is more about her support for causes such as the Black Panthers and her tortured life due to constant FBI surveillance.
The Bio in Carouge is showing a refreshing comedy, Moscow Aller Simple (Moskau Einfach), based on the 1989 scandals that shook Switzerland when it was discovered that a branch of the government had secret files on almost a million Swiss citizens. The film is something between a bumbling Edgar Hoover and a comic “Das Leben der Anderen” (the Oscar-winning “The Life of Others”).
And next week, Cinélux cinema will show Amazing Grace, a great gift for those who love Aretha Franklin and gospel music. It’s a moving, rollicking documentary of her 1973 concert in a California church, directed by a young Sidney Pollack. The avant-première of the film with the Sova Gospel Choir on June 25 was sold out, so they are having a repeat concert on July 2nd. The venue is small and tickets will go fast, so reserve online now.
Look up the films, times and cinemas on cineman.ch.
Superb **** Very Good *** Good ** Mediocre * Miserable – no stars
By Neptune
Neptune Ravar Ingwersen reviews film extensively for publications in Switzerland. She views 4 to 8 films a week and her aim is to sort the wheat from the chaff for readers.
For more stories like this on Switzerland follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
