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zedz wrote:Balibo is OK, but embraces just about every cliche of the 'engaged', based-on-a-true-story genre.

colinr0380 wrote:There's a very interesting article in the news section of this month's Sight and Sound by John Pilger who tears the film apart ("a travesty of omissions") for its whitewashing of the West's part in supporting the genocide in East Timor.

The historical record is unambiguous: the US, Britain and Australia conspired to accept such a scale of bloodshed as the price of securing South East Asia's "greatest prize" with its "hoard of natural resources"...Britain supplied Suharto with machine guns and Hawk fighter bombers which, regardless of fake 'assurances', were used against defenceless East Timorese villages. But the critical role was played by Australia, this being Australia's region. During World War II the people of East Timor had fought heroically to stop a Japanese invasion of Australia. Their betrayal was spelt out in a series of leaked cables sent by the Australian ambassador in Jakarta, Richard Woolcott, prior to and during the Indonesian invasion of 1975. Echoing Henry Kissinger he urged "a pragmatic rather than a principled stand", reminding his government that it would "more readily" exploit the oil and gas wealth beneath the Timor Sea with Indonesia than with its rightful owners, the East Timorese. "What Indonesia now looks to from Australia...", he wrote at Suharto's special forces slaughtered their way across East Timor, "is some understanding of their attitude and possible action to assist public understanding in Australia".

Two months earlier, in October 1975, Indonesian troops had murdered five newsmen from Australian TV near the East Timorese town of Balibo. On the day after the capital, Dili, was seized in December, they shot dead a sixth journalist, Roger East, and threw his body into the sea. Australian intelligence had known twelve hours in advance that the journalists in Balibo faced imminent death, but the government did nothing. Intercepted at the spy base Defence Signals Directorate (DSD) near Darwin, which supplies US and British Intelligence, the warning was suppressed so that it would not expose Western governments part in the the conspiracy to invade and the official lie that the journalists had been killed in "crossfire". The secretary of the Australian Defence Department, Arthur Tange, demanded that the government not even inform the journalist's families of their murders. No minister protested to the Indonesians. This criminal contrivance is documented in Death in Balibo, Lies in Canberra by Desmond Ball, a renowned intelligence specialist, and Hamish McDonald.

I asked Robert Connolly why he had cut the original Williamson script and omitted all reference to government complicity. He replied that the film had "generated huge discussion in the media and the Australian government" and in that way "Australia would best be held accountable".

rohmerin wrote:Amazing program. I want to see ALL the Italian films and specially Abel Gance's J'accuse (that it will be also screened at the Barbican this Autumn).
Question, excuse me but I'm new in London and I need to know it: How do I get tickets witouth a credit card? Box office, I suppose, but, I mean, are all sesions full? Have I to wait looooong queues as in Spanish Cinemateque?

Is there anyone here a BFI member?

Gracias.

I've receipt some information from an Italian friend: puoi prenotare online o in persona (di solito aprono un box office a leicester square) or per telefono.
So, the Leicester Sq is the best option.

zedz wrote:I've managed to see about a dozen of these, but the only absolutely unmissable one is the revival of Night of Counting the Years, a fantastic film that's been neglected for way too long.

The White Ribbon is one of Haneke's best films, so make of that what you will. It looks fantastic, at any rate. Bright Star is excellent, though it becomes more conventional in the final third. Mother I've discussed in its thread. Dogtooth is memorably weird, a much more interesting provocation than some of its better publicised Cannes brethren, and Lanthimos might be a filmmaker to watch. The de Oliveira is a glorified anecdote, but a beguiling one. Samson & Delilah is a fine debut from a great short film director.

If I were there, I'd be most excited about White Material, the latest Film ist, and the Rivette. And from what I've heard, the best Cannes refugee they've got (in the absence of Police: Adjective) is Tales from the Golden Age.

MichaelB wrote:I'm certainly going to try to see Anthony Asquith's Underground - given the strength of his other two silents (Shooting Stars and A Cottage on Dartmoor), this should be pretty unmissable.

foggy eyes wrote:

MichaelB wrote:I'm certainly going to try to see Anthony Asquith's Underground - given the strength of his other two silents (Shooting Stars and A Cottage on Dartmoor), this should be pretty unmissable.

Have you not seen this already, Michael? It's pretty great - the chase over Battersea Power Station (best location in London?) at the end is amazing...

MichaelB wrote:I could always have called up a Digibeta, but I've known about this revival for some time.

franco wrote:I do like White Material, but I just feel that all it does is to contrast the lyricism of Chocolat. There are already tons of movies with similar themes and outcomes; it does not seem to me that Claire has brought something new to illuminate the subject or told the story in her idiosyncratic flair. That said, I am asking too much! I should just remember the film as a solid, exciting, and unambiguous thriller.

foggy eyes wrote:(e.g. Kinatay - ugh)...