Chorlton Film Institute is a version of a Guerilla Cinema group aimed at making arthouse film accessible in and around Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester.
Next Film
Feb 18th 2010 Let the Right One In Cert 15 (115 mins) . Doors open 8pm. Film starts 8.30pm.
We hope to be showing a short film before the main feature - details to follow.
A rare dip into the horror genre for us at CFI....but this is no ordinary vampire film.
Let the Right One In, adapted by John Ajvide Lindqvist from his own remarkable novel and directed by Tomas Alfredson, is a major addition to the vampire genre, in a setting closely resembling that of the first film by another gifted young Swede, Lukas Moodysson's Show Me Love (aka F*****g Åmål). It takes place in Blackeberg, an anonymous dormitory town built outside Stockholm in 1952. This rootless place, as Lindqvist twice observes on his opening page, has no church (hence none of the ritual protections against vampires) and all that remains of the past is the ruins of an old mill (an oblique reference to Dreyer's Vampyr).
The time is the winter of 1982 with snow thick on the ground and the Cold War back in the news as tensions grow between Sweden and the USSR over Russian subs in Swedish waters. Also in the news are some puzzling murders in the Stockholm suburbs.
The film's 12-year-old hero, the sweet-natured, fair-haired Oskar (KÃ¥re Hedebrant), a shy, studious boy living with his divorced mother in a three-storey apartment block, is being bullied at school and his tormentors draw blood. One night, while he's stabbing a tree with a knife, pretending to avenge himself on the bullies, a girl his own age appears in the snow-covered playground. She's pretty, barefoot, moves with a nimble grace, has a pale complexion with dark rings under her eyes and turns out to be a dab hand at Rubik's Cube, a favourite toy of the early 1980s. She's called Eli (Lina Leandersson), has recently moved in next door to Oskar, and lives with HÃ¥kan, a middle-aged man she calls her father. She only comes out after dark, when the school day ends and is, of course, a classical vampire.
The film's title refers to a piece of undead lore with which I was previously unacquainted. Apparently, vampires must be invited into the lives of those they love and a tentative friendship and then a tender love grows up between Oskar and Eli.
Meanwhile, the film makes us witnesses to a series of grisly killings carried out by HÃ¥kan to drain blood for Eli, and by the girl herself for direct transfusions. One of her assaults leads to a female victim becoming infected, the horrendous results of which include an attack by demented cats and then spontaneous fire.
Both the town's permanent residents and the visiting vampires lead lives of quiet desperation and Alfredson and Lindqvist maintain a subtle balance between the two narrative strands. So we are simultaneously shocked by the atrocities perpetrated by Eli and HÃ¥kan, yet sympathetic to the way in which Oskar is given a new purpose and vitality through his relation with Eli.
In one particularly memorable scene, the camera pans down a page in an encyclopaedia Oskar is studying. It includes the names of the British engineer William Morris (of Morris Motors) and Herbert Morrison, and then switches to a notebook in which he's writing dots and dashes.
It turns out he's learning Morse code to communicate with Eli through the party wall of their adjoining flats and the code returns to extraordinary effect in the film's funny, macabre and oddly moving coda.
A wholly unnecessary American remake is in pre-production. (Philip French - Observer April 2009)
Previous Films at CFI
The CFI has no membership criteria - just turn up and pay on the night. This is not a profit-making venture. We are aiming simply to cover the cost of the film hire (via Film Distributors FILMBANK), the hire of the Audio & Visual equipment (from Chorlton-based company Hollowsphere), the rental of the Church & the cost of the flyers, designed and printed by Holden and Sons and UK Print.
Adrian at Hollowsphere has invested in some new Mackie C300z loudspeakers, due for test at the Persopolis screening. This will hopefully increase the vocal clarity of the future films. (Please let me have any feedback .....Adrian)
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The time is the winter of 1982 with snow thick on the ground and the Cold War back in the news as tensions grow between Sweden and the USSR over Russian subs in Swedish waters. Also in the news are some puzzling murders in the Stockholm suburbs.
The film's 12-year-old hero, the sweet-natured, fair-haired Oskar (KÃ¥re Hedebrant), a shy, studious boy living with his divorced mother in a three-storey apartment block, is being bullied at school and his tormentors draw blood. One night, while he's stabbing a tree with a knife, pretending to avenge himself on the bullies, a girl his own age appears in the snow-covered playground. She's pretty, barefoot, moves with a nimble grace, has a pale complexion with dark rings under her eyes and turns out to be a dab hand at Rubik's Cube, a favourite toy of the early 1980s. She's called Eli (Lina Leandersson), has recently moved in next door to Oskar, and lives with HÃ¥kan, a middle-aged man she calls her father. She only comes out after dark, when the school day ends and is, of course, a classical vampire.
The film's title refers to a piece of undead lore with which I was previously unacquainted. Apparently, vampires must be invited into the lives of those they love and a tentative friendship and then a tender love grows up between Oskar and Eli.
Meanwhile, the film makes us witnesses to a series of grisly killings carried out by HÃ¥kan to drain blood for Eli, and by the girl herself for direct transfusions. One of her assaults leads to a female victim becoming infected, the horrendous results of which include an attack by demented cats and then spontaneous fire.
Both the town's permanent residents and the visiting vampires lead lives of quiet desperation and Alfredson and Lindqvist maintain a subtle balance between the two narrative strands. So we are simultaneously shocked by the atrocities perpetrated by Eli and HÃ¥kan, yet sympathetic to the way in which Oskar is given a new purpose and vitality through his relation with Eli.
In one particularly memorable scene, the camera pans down a page in an encyclopaedia Oskar is studying. It includes the names of the British engineer William Morris (of Morris Motors) and Herbert Morrison, and then switches to a notebook in which he's writing dots and dashes.
It turns out he's learning Morse code to communicate with Eli through the party wall of their adjoining flats and the code returns to extraordinary effect in the film's funny, macabre and oddly moving coda.
A wholly unnecessary American remake is in pre-production. Philip French - Observer April 2009
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