Cambridge Film Festival 2010 Brochure

Revivals
Saturday 18 September, 3.15pm |
Monday 20 September, 1.00pm
THE BATTLE OF
THE RAILS (U)
(LA BATAILLE DU RAIL)
Director: René Clément. Starring: Marcel Barnault, Jean
Clarieux, Jean Daurand. France 1946. 85 mins. French with
English subtitles.
Winner of the 1946 Prix International du Jury
at the Cannes Film Festival, THE BATTLE OF THE
RAILS launched René Clément’s reputation. Shot
in a neorealist style, the film celebrates the
French resistance and the courageous efforts
of French railway workers to sabotage the Nazi
occupation of their country during the Second
World War. Yet in this climate of fear and tension
the rail employees are forced to pick sides and
desperate measures are required to disable the
Nazis’ attacks after the D-Day landings.
A deliberate attempt to revive authenticity
after so many allegorical films made under
the Occupation.
DAVID THOMSON, The New Biographical
Dictionary of Film
Print Source: Courtesey of
Michèle Gautard
Monday 20 September, 7.00pm
Queen’s Building, Emmanuel college
CITY GIRL (U)
Director: F.W. Murnau. Starring: Charles Farrell, Mary Duncan,
David Torrence. USA 1930. 90 mins.
F.W. Murnau revisits the theme of the contrast
between rural and urban lifestyles explored
in his masterpiece SUNRISE. Based on Elliott
Lester’s 1925 play, The Mud Turtle, CITY GIRL is a
painterly depiction of a fragile marriage among
the wheatfields of Minnesota. During a visit to
Chicago, country boy Lem falls for and weds city
girl, Kate, a tough but lonely waitress. When Lem
takes Kate home, their relationship descends
into a claustrophobic struggle with the pressure
of Lem’s scornful father and the farmhands’
invasive, leering jealousy.
We are delighted to receive worldrenowned
silent cinema musicians Neil Brand
and Guenter Buchwald who will provide a live
accompaniment to the original silent version
of the film.
Print source: Hollywood Classics
Sunday 19 September, 6.30pm
FROM HERE TO
ETERNITY (PG)
Director: Fred Zinnemann. Starring: Burt Lancaster,
Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr. USA 1953. 118 mins.
This impressive digital restoration of Fred
Zinnemann’s acclaimed drama FROM HERE TO
ETERNITY premiered at Cannes 2010. Based on
James Jones’ best-selling novel of the same
name, the film powerfully depicts the passions
and violence of a group of soldiers stationed
on Hawaii just before World War II with an
all-star cast including Burt Lancaster, Deborah
Kerr, Frank Sinatra and Montgomery Clift. At
the Schofield Army Barracks in Honolulu, the
soldiers’ melodramatic joys and sufferings
are swept away by the Japanese attack on the
morning of 7 December. Burt Lancaster and
Deborah Kerr’s romantic nocturnal rendezvous
at the beach, in which their bodies passionately
intertwine as the waves crash over them,
remains a classic love scene in film history.
Print source: Park Circus
40 Box Office: 0871 902 5720 www.cambridgefilmfestival.org.uk
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