Mackay Library Society Films

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Non Members: $8.00

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The Rage of Placid Lake (M) 112 mins

When Placid Lake was a little boy, his mother, Miranda Richardson, sent him to school wearing a dress, just so he could experience sexuality from a different point of view. As a result, the poor kid was constantly the victim of bullies. Years has passed since then, but Placid, Ben Lee, still lives with his Mum and Dad, Garry McDonald, aging hippies with an eccentric outlook on the world. The movie is most successful as a romantic love story and Rose Byrne is, once again, terrific.

Twin Sisters (M) 135 mins

Based on a best-selling novel by Tessa De Loo, TWIN SISTERS is an epic story spanning a period of some 60 years. Twin sisters Alice and Lotte are separated at the age of 6 after the death of their parents. Anna grows up in harsh conditions on her uncle's farm in Germany, and the sickly Lotte is given a loving home with distant relatives in the Netherlands. As young women, Anna and Lotte have very different experiences during World War Two, and a reunion only serves to emphasise how far they have grown apart. Many years later, as old ladies, they happen to meet again and struggle to overcome their estrangement to find some form of reconciliation.

Springtime in a small town (PG) 116 mins

1946, and the war against Japan is over. In a small town in China, its crumbling buildings ravaged by the recent conflict, Yuwen lives a rather lonely life. Yuwen is married to Dai Liyan and lives with him in the ruins of his house, along with his sister and a family servant, but the marriage is no longer what it was; Dai is sickly, not really ill, but psychologically scarred. The routine, melancholy lives of these people are altered forever by the arrival of Zhang Zhichen, a Shanghai doctor and Dai's oldest friend. Zhang didn't know about his friend's marriage, and when he meets Yuwen he realises that she was his first sweetheart, a girl he loved and lost and hasn't seen in years. The original film version of Li Tianji's story was made by the veteran director Fei Mui in 1948; when the Communists took power in China, the film was frowned upon, probably because its characters are bourgeois. But, over the years, its importance in the history of Chinese cinema has become apparent, though Fei never worked again.

The Motorcycle Diaries (M) 128 mins

The Motorcycle Diaries is based on the journals of Che Guevara, leader of the Cuban Revolution. In his memoirs, Guevara recounts adventures he, and best friend Alberto Granado, had while crossing South America by motorcycle in the early 1950s.

Acclaimed filmmaker Walter Salles directs a beautiful script from Jose Rivera and starring Rodrigo De la Serna and Gael García Bernal as the young Che Guevara. A love letter to a continent and its people, The Motorcycle Diaries is a rich cinematic adventure that is not to be missed.

Somersault (MA) 107mins

Somersault is the debut feature from acclaimed Australian short-filmmaker Cate Shortland and is a visually haunting film set at the foot of the Australian ski fields. Somersault is the story of a young girl's sensory journey through which she learns the true meaning of love, family and friendship. Living with her mother, sixteen year old Heidi (heart-wrenchingly played by Abbie Cornish in a breakthrough role) looks to short-lived sexual encounters for the physical and emotional contact she craves.

Fleeing Canberra for Jindabyne, she meets Joe (played by Sam Worthington who delivers an outstanding performance), the son of a wealthy local farmer that leads to a developing romance in all its complexity. However Joe's relationship with Heidi challenges his ideas of sexuality, class and his future. Illuminated by the lives of others and the power of forgiveness, Heidi discovers she is more than she had realised. Like no other Australian film you will see this year, Somersault marks the important arrival of a gifted writer and director and a new voice in Australian filmmaking.

Gone With the Wind (digitally enhanced) (PG) 222 mins

GONE WITH THE WIND is a historical epic film of the War between the States and Reconstruction starring Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard and a host of other stars. Released in 1939, the film made box office history. It is the highest grossing film of all time (adjusted for inflation). The film received eight Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actress (for Hattie McDaniel - the first time a black had been nominated and honored)

The film is historically romantic in its treatment of many aspects of the era, including a decidedly racist view of slavery and the portrayal of the black characters. Never-the-less, it gives a fascinating view of the American South of long ago.

In My Father's Den (MA) 126 mins

When his father dies, Paul Prior (Matthew MacFadyen), a disillusioned and battle weary war photographer, decides to return home to an isolated land-locked town in New Zealand. His brother, Andrew (Colin Moy), a local ostrich farmer, is caught off-guard by Paul's sudden re-appearance after seventeen years away. Worlds apart, they barely recognise each other. Andrew, a pious man, pressures Paul into staying to help sort out the sale of their father's cottage and the adjoining orchard.

Reluctantly re-visiting the dilapidated family property, he discovers the old den, tucked away in the equipment shed. It belonged to his orchardist father, Jeff (Matthew Chamberlain), who away from his puritanical wife Iris (Vanessa Riddell), had secretly harboured a love of wine, literature and free thinking philosophy. When Paul as a child had accidentally stumbled upon this wondrous book-lined universe, he had been included in his father's secret, promising never to tell anyone about it.

Paul sets about clearing up and stumbles upon sixteen year-old Celia (Emily Barclay) in the den. She has been using the derelict hide-away as a private haven to write her stories and to fuel her dream of living in Europe, far away from the small town she longs to escape. Paul curtly sends her away, unaware that she is the daughter of his first girlfriend, Jackie (Jodie Rimmer), now the local butcher.

Love's Brother (G) 103 mins

Love's Brother is a gentle, romantic fable about love, destiny and the first espresso machine in Australia. In a small rural town in '50s Australia, two Italian brothers work hard to build a new life in this young country

In southern Italy, a young woman is about to travel 12,000 miles to escape the poverty of her tiny village and marry one of the brothers, based only on a letter and a photograph he has sent her. The question is - which brother?

Loves' Brother was filmed in Melbourne, the tiny Italian village of Civita di Bagnoregio and principally in the Hepburn - Daylesford region in central Victoria, which has a rich Swiss-Italian heritage dating back to the 1850's.

Three Dollars (M) 119 mins

At Last, a quality Australian film to offset the recent drought! Three Dollars is an adaptation by director Robert Connolly and author Elliot Perlman of Perlman's successful novel and it's a character driven piece made with intelligence and wit. The story is of a good man, Eddie, in bad times and his resilience in the face of circumstances that could break him. Eddie is an unfailingly decent and kind man, but often a rather ineffectual and indecisive one. The women in his life, Tanya, Amanda, even his daughter Abby, have it all over him; and yet, you really like Eddie, thanks to David Wenham's typically fine performance. The film is about the small things in life which add up to become big things. As Eddie discovers, it's amazing how far a little change will get you. Three Dollars asks the question - how much is your life worth? Like real life, Three Dollars is sometimes funny, sometimes scary, sometimes sad, sometimes hopeful.