Durban - There’s a feast of film this month as the Rhumbelow puts on a short Easter film festival, screening nine golden oldies on the theatre’s big screen.
“I thought it would be exciting to pull out some lovely old classics I am sure many would like to see again,” said theatre director Roland Stansell
“I tried to select things that people don’t have in their home movie collection. When last did you see Thoroughly Modern Millie?” he said. “It’s quite delightful. And even if you have the movie at home, perhaps The Jungle Book, seeing it on a big screen is always more fun.”
The festival runs from April 14 to 19 with screenings at 2pm and 6.30pm.
Opening things on Thursday is The Full Monty, the heartwarming comedy of six unemployed men, inspired by a touring group of male strippers, who decide they can make a small fortune by putting on a show of their own ‒ except they would go all the way.
Friday features Disney’s 1967 animated movie The Jungle Book as well as Cats, the 1998 musical staring Elaine Paige, Susan Jane Tanner and Ken Page.
Saturday features Disney’s Blackbeard’s Ghost, a 1968 fantasy comedy directed by Robert Stevenson and starring Peter Ustinov, Dean Jones and Suzanne Pleshette. On the Carolina coast, Godolphin College’s new track coach lodges at Blackbeard’s Inn, run by the Daughters of the Buccaneers, who claim to be descendants of the notorious pirate, and who risk losing their hotel to the local mobster.
Also featured is Saturday Night Fever, the 1977 American dance drama starring John Travolta as Tony Manero, a young Italian-American from Brooklyn who spends his weekends dancing at a local discothèque while dealing with social tensions and general disillusionment with his life.
Sunday brings you Thoroughly Modern Millie, a 1967 musical romcom starring Julie Andrews as a naïve young woman who finds herself in a series of madcap adventures when she sets her sights on marrying her wealthy boss. There’s also Oklahoma, the 1955 musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein.
Monday features Disney’s Mary Poppins, the 1964 musical fantasy which combines live-action and animation, and was the film debut of Andrews.
The festival closes with Moulin Rouge, a 2001 jukebox musical romantic drama by Baz Luhrmann and starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor.
All tickets are R100 and can be booked from Computicket.
The theatre will conduct a single showing of the movie Grease by Randal Kleiser and starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John on Sunday May 1 at 2pm.
In addition the Rhumbelow will be initiating a gay film festival from June 10-12. Stansell said he was still finalising the movies, but mentioned that Brokeback Mountain was among them.
The Alliance Française de Durban also has a cine club that meets on Wednesday evenings at 6pm. Entry is free and pizza and popcorn are available from Aces pizza on the premises.
This month’s film features African directors and stories. On April 13 is Eric Barbie’s Petit Pays (Small Country) featuring 10-year-old boy Gabriel, a normal, happy, carefree kid living in a comfortable ex-pat neighbourhood in Burundi, his “small country”. Then in 1993 tensions in neighbouring Rwanda spill over, threatening his family and his innocence.
April 20 features Philippe Lacôte’s La Nuit Des Rois (Night of the Kings). Here a young man is sent to La Maca, a prison of Ivory Coast in the middle of the forest ruled by its prisoners. With the red moon rising, he is designated by the Boss to be the new “Roman” and must tell a story to the other prisoners.
April 27 features Atiq Rahimi’s Notre Dame du Nil (Our Lady of the Nile) ‒ a coming-of-age story about of a group of Rwandan schoolgirls at a Belgian-run Catholic boarding school.
The Independent on Saturday