The ByTowne and the Mayfair are offering a great lineup of films for all tastes as roll into the colder months.
There are two film noir classics in ByTowne’s “Noirvember” series, starting with Double Indemnity (1944). It’s sometimes cited as a perfect noir—a femme fatale, a morally weak antihero, a murder. From Billy Wilder, one of my favourite directors, Double Indemnity is a Metacritic “Must See.” The other classic–Lady Vengeance (2005)–features a truly fatal lady. This South Korean film directed by Park Chan-wook (Oldboy, The Handmaiden) follows a wrongfully convicted woman who, on her release from prison, seeks vengeance on the man responsible.
There are also two contemporary murder mysteries at the ByTowne: Amsterdam and Decision to Leave. The former is set in 1930s Amsterdam and loosely based on a factual case. A trio of friends (Christian Bale, David Washington and Margot Robbie) have been framed for a grisly murder, and their only chance to save themselves is to untangle the mystery.
The second film, Decision to Leave, is Park Chan-wook’s latest psychological thriller. A detective is investigating the suspicious death of a man whose beautiful widow seems to be glad he’s dead. The detective is living apart from his wife because of his recent promotion to the big city, and he gradually becomes obsessed with the widow. Decision to Leave won Best Director at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.
Too serious for you? Then check out See How They Run, a star-studded comedy about a murder. Its plot will remind you of the classic British whodunnit. The murder victim is a nasty American film director; the suspects are everyone associated with the London play he planned to adapt as a film, Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap! Playing at both cinemas.
You have two opportunities to see some extraordinary silent films on the big screen with live music accompaniment! At the ByTowne, Harold Lloyd’s brilliant comedy Safety Last! is paired with a Charlie Chaplin short and a Buster Keaton short. A triple crown—the three most acclaimed physical comedians of the silent era! The Mayfair has programmed a double bill: first, the 1928 horror film that’s based on the story by Edgar Allan Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher, with a short classic of surrealism from Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali: Un Chien Andalou. Roger Ebert described The Fall of the House of Usher as “one of the most haunting spaces in the movies,” while Rotten Tomatoes says Un Chien Andalou is “a hugely influential masterpiece stuffed with iconic sequences, (which) has lost none of its power to enthrall—or unsettle.”
The Mayfair is leading up to its 90th anniversary in December with a series of Oscar winners, starting with Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece The Godfather—its 50th anniversary. According to the BBC, it “reveals something new every time you watch it.” Next is Lawrence of Arabia. To be fully appreciated, this remarkable epic must be seen on a big screen with an excellent sound system.
For David Bowie fans, there’s a very special treat continuing at the ByTowne. The documentary Moonage Daydream bills itself as an “immersive cinematic experience” about this enigmatic shape-shifter. It features never-before-seen concert footage, but is emphatically not a standard rock documentary. Delving into four decades of Bowie’s life, it explores his alienation, isolation, philosophy, calm acceptance of reality, and fascination with outer space. And his penchant for occasionally blowing things up in the art world.
There are two more films I think will impress viewers. The first, continuing at the ByTowne, is Triangle of Sadness. It has divided film critics, but it won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes. A vicious satire of the fashion industry and the super-rich, no one comes out well except a couple of servants. Warning: it has very explicit scenes of the results of mass food poisoning.
The second is The Wonder, described in the ByTowne schedule as “a psychological thriller inspired by the 19th-century phenomenon of the (Irish) ‘fasting girls’.” Critics have heaped praise on Florence Pugh who plays the nurse hired by the local bigwigs to report on the 11-year-old girl who supposedly has eaten nothing but “manna from heaven” for four months.
Another film at the ByTowne is based on more recent history. Call Jane is a drama about the underground movement that–before Roe v. Wade–helped American women obtain safe (though illegal) abortions during a time when it was virtually impossible—no matter what a woman’s circumstances (rape, incest, health, economic straits) to do so. Elizabeth Banks plays a housewife at risk of death due to her pregnancy who finds help in the Call Jane organization and then becomes a “Jane” herself.
Last but certainly not least, there’s Ténor at the Mayfair. It’s a Cinderella story about a poor delivery guy from a Parisian banlieue who aspires to be a famous rapper while studying to be an accountant. When making a sushi delivery to a rehearsal at the Paris Opera, he spontaneously sings along. A vocal coach hears him, tracks him down, and—well, you can guess how this plays out, but it’s a nice an antidote to all those murder films and bleak dramas. Or if you love opera. I left the theatre humming and smiling.
Dates, times and tickets for the ByTowne are at www.bytowne.ca. Dates, times and tickets for the Mayfair are at www.mayfairtheatre.ca.
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