The Williams Lake Film Club wishes everyone a very Happy New Year.
A new year will often bring change and the biggest change for the Williams Lake Film Club is our new location at the Central Cariboo Arts Centre, 90 Fourth Ave., known to many as the Old Firehall.
Unfortunately, the rent for the Gibraltar Room is no longer affordable for us as a location for a local fundraiser.
The Central Cariboo Arts Centre offered to help us out and welcomed us with open arms. We are really looking forward to some great work together.
We already have bought a new screen which has been installed at the centre.
And regarding the comfortability of the chairs, well, bring a pillow for your tender tush to make your viewing experience even more enjoyable.
Our first film will be shown this coming Friday, Jan. 6, at 7 p.m.
To start the new season with a bang we will start our evening with an 18 minute short feature, Dinner for One.
This sketch was recorded by a German television station in Bremen in 1963 and has become an iconic part for every New Year’s Eve in Germany and many other countries ever since.
The category is now defunct, however, the clip held the Guinness World Record for Most Frequented Repeated TV Program, although it has never been broadcast in the U.S. or Canada. British comics Freddie Frinton and May Warden depict an aging butler serving dinner to his aristocratic mistress, Miss Sophie, on the occasion of her 90th birthday.
Our main feature is a new film, just released last August, Florence Foster Jenkins, U.K. (BBC Films), 111 minutes, biography/comedy/drama/music, shot mostly in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, rated PG-13.
A wealthy New York heiress, Florence Foster Jenkins (July 19, 1868 to Nov. 26, 1944), played by the incomparable Meryl Streep to absolute perfection, attempts to become an opera singer and sing at Carnegie Hall despite her horrible singing voice.
Meryl Streep actually has a beautiful singing voice and to watch her hit the notes in the worst way is an utter delight. Hugh Grant plays St. Clair Bayfield, a gay two-bit Shakespearean actor who became Jenkins’s longtime companion and musical help-mate.
Simon Helberg plays the pianist paid to accompany Florence. All three have been nominated for a Golden Globe as the film itself has been nominated for a Golden Globe as best Musical Drama.
When we pre-viewed this film last year, we immediately decided that this is an absolute must-see for you.
This film celebrates the human spirit, the power of music and the passion of amateurs everywhere.
It is hilariously funny, and I mean tears in your eyes funny, and then again tears in your eyes tender and touching, and then there is this wonderful feeling of respect and compassion for each other.
Early in the film we learn that Florence has defied medical science by living well beyond the usual lifespan of a syphilis victim, a disease she contracted from her husband she married when she was just 18 years old, an innocent young girl.
She endured years of archaic mercury and arsenic medication with loss of mental functions and chronic exhaustion.
Her partnership with St. Clair Bayfield remained celibate by mutual agreement and he was free to have affairs, however, he was completely devoted to and protective of Florence.
She is seriously unwell and singing is the only thing keeping her alive.
When you arrive at the arts centre, there will be some young volunteers opening the door for you, helping you up the stairs if needed.
There is a lift for wheel chairs and anyone not being able to climb the stairs.
After the film we will have mulled soft apple cider and yummy old fashioned cookies to help us celebrate the beginning of a new year, the year 2017, and the beginning of our new season at the arts centre.