A festive night for Corrie Film Club

On Sunday, December 14th, the club meets in Corrie Hall at 6.00 pm, earlier that usual so as to show the wonderfully funny and touching French/Belgian film, Ernest and Celestine, then break for supper and go on with Chimes at Midnight, ending with the now traditional showing of the classic silent comedy, Dinner for One.

Ernest is a suitably named bear, who takes life seriously. Celestine is a mouse, currently occupied as a dental student. She’s a smart little number, always two or three jumps ahead – but this film inhabits much more sophisticated territory than Tom and Jerry. She, like all the mice, lives underground, but chums up with unfortunate Ernest, who is trying to make a living as a street musician. Their friendship is such a taboo relationship that both find themselves rejected by their ‘proper’ worlds, and the authorities track them down and try to part them – uselessly, for they have fallen deeply in love.

Bring a contribution for supper if you want to stay on for the whole evening. Revived, we’ll watch Chimes at Midnight, a Shakespearian romp directed by and starring Orson Welles. Its UK release was titled: Falstaff, but it returned to the title of its Spanish release: Campanadas a medianoche. The film centres round Falstaff’s almost paternal relationship with Prince Hal, who must choose between loyalty to Falstaff or to his actual father, King Henry IV. With Welles himself as Falstaff, John Gielgud as Henry IV, Jeanne Moreau as Doll Tearsheet and Margaret Rutherford as Mistress Quickly, it’s a romp through the time of the classic stars, seldom glimpsed now. The script contains text from five of Shakespeare’s plays; and the narrator is none other than Ralph Richardson. Truly a plum pudding of a film, packed with nuggets of richness. To round the evening off, the silent comedy, Dinner For One sees a solitary diner waited on by his impeccably serious man-servant – who, however, has been rashly partaking of swigs from the brandy bottle. Watch out for – too late. He’s tripped over the tiger’s head rug yet again.

No charge for any of these delights, but contributions to running costs are welcome.