– Queen of the Desert – Only in cinemas from 2 June 2016 We have 5 double in-season passes thanks to Transmission Films. *(Tickets valid in Australia only)* Watch the trailer HERE A true story of the life of British explorer and adventurer, Gertrude Bell, QUEEN OF THE DESERT chronicles her journeys of love…
What a glorious way to bring in the New Year! Witness three powerhouse performances from musical theatre royalty, accompanied by conductor John Foreman’s Australian Pops Orchestra. It is the stuff of goosebumps. Silvie Paladino, Paulini and Josh Piterman lay it all on the line. Emotional resonance is palpable throughout. Many times, I had a lump…
In terms of views and images, Jupiter Ascending is a spectacle with an impressive space footage, sometimes rousing action sequences and titillating extraterrestrial fantasies. But just as a book of Jack Vance, it really doesn’t make any sense in the beginning. The difference is that while reading that book of Vance, the intended message becomes…
Based on a true story, this is a tale of one man’s obsession to build a monument to his beloved daughter. Set in France, the film begins in 1979 and pans some three decades. Joseph Cheval (played by Jacques Gamblin) is a quiet, withdrawn and solitary postman who has just buried his first wife and…
Director Eric Lavaine reunites most of the cast of his 2014 ensemble comedy Barbecue and brings them back to reprise their characters for this sequel, which was one of the hits of the recent French Film Festival. Happy 50 is also known as Plancha (“griddle”) in its original French. Eight years after the events of…
Garfield, the lazy, pizza- and lasagne-loving cat created by cartoonist Jim Davis 48 years ago has become part of pop culture. He has appeared in a daily comic strip published in some 2500 newspapers around the world and is the most syndicated comic strip in the world. He has also appeared in several books, animated…
What a glorious production of Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s choreographed Manon, which showcases all that is great about ballet. Featuring artists of The Australian Ballet with Orchestra Victoria, under the baton of Charles Barker, the staging is inspired, the costuming magnificent and the dancing sublime. Based on Abbé Prévost’s 1731 novel, love is pitted against money,…
Allegra in Three Parts made me cry, I’m not going to hide it. Grab your tissues, because this story of a young girl (Allegra, aged 11 and three-quarters) who has to be one person for one grandmother, another for the other, and a third for her dad, really tugs at the heartstrings. Allegra’s being brought…
Percival Everett’s James, a reimagining and recontextualising of Huckleberry Finn is a masterpiece. Satirical, cutting, compassionate, but also in many ways reverential to the original text. Francis Spufford delivers an amazing alternate history crime novel in Cahokia Jazz. Noir detective styling allows an exploration of a richly imagined alternate America of the 1920s with a…
One of the great plays of the 20th century retains its vibrancy and bite in a stunning MTC production, headlined by a bravura showing from Nikki Shiels. Written by Tennessee Williams in 1945, A Streetcar Named Desire was first performed on Broadway two years later. Now, here I am, coming up to 80 years on,…
