Viva Lewes Issue #150 March 2019

ON THIS MONTH: FILM
The Great Escape, The Ponds, Waru
Film ’19
Dexter Lee’s cinema round-up
In the seventies it was the film they seemed to
put on every Christmas, and I got to know it
so well I could recite most of the lines before
they were uttered. Since then it’s become the
cinematic equivalent of comfort food: I must
have watched it 20 times. But you know what?
I’ve never had the chance to see The Great Escape
on a big screen. Until now, that is. To mark
the 75th anniversary of the mass POW escape
that the film is based on, John Sturges’ movie
is being screened simultaneously in selected
cinemas nationwide, including the Depot (24th,
6pm). I wouldn’t miss it for the world… and I’ll
still be hoping that Steve McQueen might just,
this time, make it over that god-damned fence
on his motorbike.
I’ll definitely be back a week later for the screening
of Scottish film maker Bill Douglas’ highly
acclaimed trilogy (31st) based on his life growing
up in crippling poverty in Edinburgh, and his
subsequent intellectual and spiritual awakening
after being called up for national service. The
trilogy, formed of My Childhood (1972), My Ain
Folk (1973) and My Way Home (1978), was highly
influential on subsequent film-makers and recalled
the work of Indian maestro Satyajit Ray.
As ever, there’s far too much on at the Depot
to fit in this space, but it’s worth highlighting
a few of the one-offs in March. The cinema’s
new monthly Saturday Night Horror season
kicks off with Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining
(2nd); the gentle documentary about the
Hampstead Heath swimming ponds The Ponds
(6th) includes an appearance by director Patrick
McLennan; this month’s book-to-film offering,
with a discussion afterwards, is Norman Z
McLeod’s adaptation of James Thurber’s The
Secret Life of Walter Mitty (7th), starring Danny
Kaye; International Women’s Day on the 8th
is marked with a screening of the Australian
eight-female-directed-film anthology Waru;
drummer Ginger Baker is coming to the cinema
for the screening of the 2012 documentary
Beware of Mr Baker (13th); Mr Voigt points his
critical eye to the 1962 John Schlesinger film
A Kind of Loving (20th). Plus there’s a Cinema
of the Mind screening of the documentary
Trans-Actions: An Exploration of Gender Dysphobia
(23rd), followed by what promises to be an
interesting debate afterwards. For more details
of these and many more films, check
lewesdepot.org.
The Lewes Film Club, meanwhile, has a busy
March at the All Saints (see Diary Dates or
lewes-filmclub.com): our highlight is an Alan J
Pakula 70s political thriller double bill: All the
President’s Men (1st) is followed by The Parallax
View (3rd). Other films are The Rider (15th),
McQueen (19th) and Aquarius (29th).
And it’s worth mentioning that the Attenborough
Centre (formerly the Gardner Arts
Centre, University of Sussex) has started up a
Sunday Cinema Club. This month’s offerings
are Matangi/Maya/M.I.A (3rd), News from Home
(10th), Utoya (17th), Human Flow (24th) and
Theatre of War (31st), the latter a cinematic reworking
of the Lola Arias play Minefield, which
was staged at the Centre in 2017.
47