Publications
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Known as Cape Town’s grande dame, the Labia is South Africa’s only independent art-repertory bioscope. Loved not only by Capetonians, it’s clear to see why the Labia is magnificent to say the least. After surviving six decades, it’s only right that she gets to party like a rock star!
The celebrations kick off from Friday 15 May to Friday 29 May from just R25 for movies, R70 for events.
Not quite sure what to expect? Well the folks at the Labia don’t plan on partying alone. They want you to enjoy the celebrations with them. They’ve compiled, just for you, the best of 20 years at the Labia:
A Tickle In The Heart (1996)
Max, Willie & Julie Epstein began their career in New York, sixty-odd years ago. Recently Klezmer music experienced a revival. The kings of Klezmer music returned, and this time they took even the famous halls of Europe and the United States by storm.
Babette’s Feast (1989)
Artistic, sensual and sacred passions unite in Babette’s Feast. Written & directed by Gabriel Axel, from a short story by out of Africa’s Isak Dinesen, This Oscar winning film offers ‘an irresistible mixture of dry wit and robust humanity’.
Bad Boy Bubby (1993)
Bad Boy Bubby is just that: a bad boy. So bad, in fact, that his mother has kept him locked in their house for his entire thirty years, convincing him that the air outside is poisonous. After a visit from his estranged father, circumstances force Bubby into the waiting world, a place which is just as unusual to him as he is to the world.
Bad Lieutenant (1992)
Harvey Keitel, Frankie Thom, Zoe Lund in a film by Abel Ferrara. A harrowing journey through the ugliest ruins of contemporary morality as an out-of-control cop, addicted to crack, gambling & molestation, finds redemption on his final descent into hell.
Bread & Chocolate (1978)
Nino Manfredi is marvelous in this uproarious comedy about an italian immigrant working odd jobs in prosperous Switzerland and trying desperately to fit in. Through his work becomes increasingly degrading, he tenaciously refuses to give up and go home. Like Chaplin’s beloved tramp, this hapless Everyman is eternally rejected, yet ever hopeful.
Canone Inverso (2000)
Making love
A genuinely touching drama starring Gabriel Byrne. Costanza is drinking a beer in a Prague pub on a summer night in 1968, when a violinist enters and starts playing a “canone inverso” for her. A love story and friendship story rolled into one, set against the background of World War II and the ‘Prague spring’ 25 years later.
Delicatessen (1991)
The famous post-apocalyptic surrealist black comedy about the landlord of an apartment building who creates cannibalistic meals for his odd tenants. A comedy / drama / fantasy / horror / romance directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro.
Die Große Stille (2005)
Into Great Silence
A unique, transcendent and transporting cinematic event.
An examination of life inside the Grande Chartreuse, one of the world’s most ascetic monasteries of the reclusive Carthusian Order in France. In English, French, and Latin.
Divided We Fall (2000)
In Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, a childless couple agree to hide a Jewish friend at great personal risk of discovery and execution. In doing so, they find themselves making unorthodox choices and learning about the true nature of the people around them. Oscar-nominated.
Gloomy Sunday (1999)
Budapest in the thirties. Laszlo, a restaurant owner, hires András the pianist to play in his restaurant. Both men fall in love with the beautiful waitress Ilona who inspires András to his only composition. His song, Gloomy Sunday is, at first, loved and then feared, for its melancholic melody trigg
Head On (2004)
Head on follows two young Turkish-Germans who are forced into a marriage of convenience which ultimately blossoms into a bond of mutual admiration. Erotically charged, darkly funny, HEAD ON is a journey you won’t forget.
I Have Never Forgotten You: The Life & Legacy of Simon Wiesenthal (2007)
A comprehensive look at the life and legacy of Simon Wiesenthal, the famed Nazi hunter and humanitarian. Narrated by Academy Award winning actress Nicole Kidman, it features interviews with longtime Wiesenthal associates, government leaders from around the world, friends and family members, and includes previously unseen archival footage.
Il y a longtemps que je t'aime (2008)
I’ve Loved You So Long
A woman struggles to interact with her family and find her place in society after spending fifteen years in prison. Confronted with the unexpected goodness of her younger sister Léa, who makes Juliette a part of her family, she carefully opens up. Nominated for two Golden Globes.
L'été meurtrier (1983)
One Deadly Summer
In the spring of 1976, a 19-year-old beauty, her German-born mother, and her crippled father move to the town of a firefighter nicknamed Pin-Pon. Everyone notices the provocative Eliane. She singles out Pin-Pon, moves in with him, knits baby clothes, and plans their wedding. Is this love or some kind of plot?
La Lectrice (1988)
A multi-faceted film based on Raymond Jean’s novel “La Lectrice”. Constance reads the novel aloud in bed to her lover. Inspired by the story of Marie, a woman who advertises her services as a reader of literature, Constance decides to do the same. The film is interspersed with readings from well-known literary sources as diverse as Baudelaire, Duras, Tolstoy, Lewis Carroll and de Sade.
Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005)
A lonely shoe salesman and an eccentric performance artist struggle to connect in this unique take on contemporary life. A poetic and penetrating observation of how people struggle to connect with one another in an isolating and contemporary world.
Montenegro (1981)
One New Year’s Eve, the frustrated housewife of a wealthy businessman encounters Montenegro, a caretaker at a zoo, who introduces her to the sensual world of the erotic Zanzibar, a playground of passion and wild excesses, and home to a community of crazy immigrant workers. Funny, bizarre and exotic.
Nocturne Indien (1989)
Written and directed by Alain Corneau. Launched in France in August 1989 and highly praised by French critics, “Nocturne Indien” is a peak in Alain Corneau’s work. A slow but fascinating movie that holds the viewer spellbound, with a weird and tightened atmosphere heightened by gorgeous photography that won an Oscar in 1990.
Prêt-à-Porter (1994)
A fashion show in Paris draws the usual bunch of people: designers, reporters, models and magazine editors. Their unconnected stories connect through the fashion show. Nominated for two Golden Globes.
Snow Cake (2006)
A heart-rending drama focused on the friendship between a high-functioning autistic woman and a man who is traumatized after a fatal car accident. Starring Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman and Carrie-Ann Moss.
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring (2003)
A beautiful, contemplative film set in the midst of the Korean wilderness. A Buddhist master patiently raises a young boy to grow up in wisdom and compassion, through experience and endless exercises. Years later the boy, now a young man, experiences his sexual awakening with a girl who has come to the temple to be healed by the master.
Taking Sides (2001)
Harvey Keitel, Stellan Skarsgard in an intelligent & moving drama based on a screenplay by Ronald Harwood (of the Pianist fame) and directed by Istvan Szabo. The provocative story, based on true events, arguably the most distinguished conductor of his generation.
The Castle (1997)
The Kerrigan family are a typical Aussie “battler” family and living right next to the airport never seemed to be a problem for them until the airport wants to expand - on to their land. “The Castle” is the story of how they fight to remain in their house, taking their case as far as the High Court. An absolutely hilarious comedy, with loads of one-liners.
The Pillow Book (1996)
As a young girl in Japan, Nagiko’s father paints characters on her face, and her aunt reads to her from “The Pillow Book”, the diary of a 10th-century lady-in-waiting. Nagiko grows up, obsessed with books, papers, writing on bodies, and her sexual odyssey.
Ushpizin (2004)
When you really need a miracle…
An Orthodox Jewish couple’s faith is tested after praying to the Lord for a child on the Succoth holiday. Moshe and Mali are broke and praying for a miracle. Suddenly, miracles abound, including two escaped convicts who arrive on Moshe and Mali’s doorstep in time to be their ushpizin - their guests. The miracles quickly turn into trials…
Walk on Water (2004)
He was trained to hate until he met the enemy.
Following the suicide of his wife, an Israeli intelligence agent, ruthless and efficient at killing, is assigned to kill a very old ex-Nazi officer. He ends up befriending the grandchildren of the Nazi war criminal, and challenging his own values. A drama / thriller that won a number of Israeli film awards.
What the Bleep Do We Know!? (2004)
A quantum fable.
Amanda, a divorced photographer, finds herself in a fantastic Alice-in-Wonderland experience when her daily, uninspired life literally begins to unravel, revealing the cellular, molecular and even quantum worlds which lie beneath. Guided by a Greek Chorus of leading scientists and mystics, she finds that if reality itself is not questionable, her notion of it certainly is.
More information: www.labiacelebrationexchange.co.za
For bookings call the Labia Cinema in Orange Street on 021 424 5927
