Paramount screenings

The Paramount Theatre deserves all the support it can get if it is to maintain its independence from the two major companies, but despite a number of worthy programmes attendances have been poor. The latest news is that Eisenstein's Ivan The Terrible (both parts) will feature there in the near future. This is something of a scoop, for part 2 has been available only as a 16mm print and I don't think part I has ever been screened in this country. These classics will just about be compulsory viewing for those interested in films as cinema, art. entertainment or whatever.

Other good films at the Paramount have been Naked Among Wolves from East Germany. Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? and the Russian Hamlet. Kozintsev's film, a vital and stirring interpretation, is the best Shakespearean effort I have seen, perhaps less cerebral than some would hope for. but certainly capturing the spirit if not the letter of the play. I find this film as both cinema and drama streets ahead of Olivier's 1948 version, although purists may think otherwise. Innokenti Smoktunovsky gives a thrilling performance as Hamlet a was reminded of Brando in Julius Caesar, alternately subdued and raving), and the music by Shostakovich adds its own crashing splendour. Speaking of Shakespeare, one hopes for an early release of Chimes At Midnight by Orson Welles ("a masterpiece" says Films and Filming) or at least a return season of his Othello. The vagaries of distribution in New Zealand make this hope a vain one.