AIMS. The aim of this group is to widen our own knowledge, understanding and appreciation of world cinema and different cultures by watching films and sharing our response to them No previous knowledge required: just a desire to know more about contemporary world cinema which so often seems more challenging, imaginative and better acted than most of the films that come churning off the Hollywood production line.

ACTIVITY. Each film is introduced by a member who will share why they have chosen it and say something about it and its Director. After the film has been shown we break for tea/coffee and refreshments and then have a discussion of the film. These have been very lively and interesting and everyone usually contributes, although there is no obligation to stay for this.

The group meets at Llanrhos Old School once a fortnight on Friday evenings at 6.45pm.

This is an open group at the moment so you are welcome to join us if you fancy the film. Attendance varies considerably according to what we are showing. However, it is helpful to know in advance if you are coming. We advertise each film on the LLandudno Area u3A Facebook site.

PROGRAMME

We have now been meeting for eleven years since the very beginning of our U3A and during that time we have shown a very wide range of films from all over the world, many of which will have received major awards e.g. Oscar, Golden Globe, BAFTA award for best foreign language film, Palme d’Or at Cannes etc. Some of the most popular over the years can be found below and you might like to check them out for yourself.

• Jean de Florette and Manon Des Sources. (France 1986 and 7)
• The Return (Russia. 2003)
• Departures (Japan.2008)
• The Concert (France /Russia. 2008)
• Aftershock (China 2010)
• Broken Circle Breakdown ( Belgium 2008)
• Our Little Sister (japan. 2015)
• After the Wedding (Denmark2006)
• The Lives of Others (Germany2006)
• The Secret in their Eyes (Argentina 2009)
• Amelie (France 2001)
• Cinema Paradisio (Italy 1988)
• Life is Beautiful ( Italy 1997)
• The Hunt (Denmark 2012)
• Capernaum (Lebanon 2018)8*
• Children of Heaven (Iran 1997)*
• Everlasting Moments (Sweden 2008)
• La Nuit Americane (France 1973)
• Untouchable (France 2012)
• Like Water for Chocolate (Mexico 1993}*
• Kolya (Czechoslovakia 1996)
• No Man’s Land (Bosnia 2001
• Water (India 2003)

*The most popular of all with members. Awarded 10/10 unanimously

Interestingly some of the less well known films have been the ones our members have really enthused about. You don’t have to attend blindly as I send an outline of each film in the week before the meeting. We also encourage members to use the IMDB website (Internet Movie Data base. To access it just google IMDB) which includes a vast amount of material including trailers and reviews of every film ever made. Like them we also score each film out of ten at the end of each session. It’s amazing how widely member’s responses can vary.

Very occasionally we will show a film which doesn’t strictly fit into the World Cinema category. For instance at one of our Christmas Socials we showed the relatively unknown Christmas fantasy set in Salford and starring Eddie Izzard, “Lost Christmas”.

Highlight

On one occasion as we gathered to watch the Oscar Winning Film, Indochine, one of its two main stars totally unexpectedly dropped in! Lin Dan Pham, the French Vietnamese actress, who played opposite Catherine Deneuve in the film was visiting a good friend of one of the members and was persuaded to come and speak about her experience.

In introducing the film Lin talked about her journey from unknown teenager to stardom. She related how her friend had sent in her application for the part because she, herself, didn’t think she was pretty enough and her parents were not particularly supportive. Immediately after her screen audition her family moved to Belgium and she forgot about it. Six months later the film studio literally tracked her down-- pretty teenage actresses fluent in French, Vietnamese and English were not easy to find!

Lin also related how as an inexperienced actress she was supported through the film by Catherine Deneuve, both her screen and in a very real sense her ”acting” mother. Surprisingly she didn’t follow up this amazing opportunity and became a senior marketing manager in Vietnam where she met her English husband, Andrew Huntly.

Her return to film began many years later when she began training at the world famous Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in New York, the home of “method” acting. It proved a triumphant one as she starred in the BAFTA and Caesar( French Oscar) winning film, ”The Beat That My Heart Stopped” in 2005 for which she received a Caesar as most promising actress. Since then she has mixed appearing in a wide range of films with stage acting. She is probably best known in the U.K. for the critically acclaimed Mr Nobody (2009). Lin has now also received the highest artistic award France can offer when she was made a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters.