SACRED SCREEN
American film-maker Ron Fricke's Baraka (PG, 1992, 96 minutes, above) touches on "humanity's relationship with the eternal", he says.
Shot on large-format cameras, the wordless images of pre- and post-industrial people are meditative and mind-altering. The film is screened as part of the Esplanade's Tapestry Of Sacred Music festival.
WHERE: The Projector, Level 5 Golden Mile Tower, 6001 Beach Road MRT: Nicoll Highway WHEN: Sunday, 5.30pm ADMISSION: $13.50 INFO: For schedule and bookings, go to theprojector.sg
CINEMATHEQUE SELECTS
This programme by the National Museum of Singapore has this month picked the little-known Mandarin-language Singapore film, Two Sides Of The Bridge (rating to be announced, 90 minutes, with English and Malay subtitles, above).
Made by Chong Gay Organisation, which was not as well-known or prolific as the Cathay or Shaw studios, this 1976 slice of social realism tells the story of two young people trying to find their way in an urbanising landscape. One finds happiness in hard work; another takes shortcuts and finds himself in trouble with the law.
WHERE: Gallery Theatre, National Museum of Singapore, 93 Stamford Road MRT: Bras Basah/Dhoby Ghaut WHEN: Tomorrow, 2pm ADMISSION: Free tickets can be collected at the museum's Visitor Services Counter on Level 1 from 10am to 6.30pm daily. Tickets are also available online at https://tinyurl.com/CinSelectsApr INFO: Tickets, limited to four a person, are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Remaining tickets will be given out at the door on screening day
ELLE (M18)
130 minutes/4.5 stars
Michele (Isabelle Huppert, above) is the autocratic boss of a successful video-game company. A shocking act of sexual violence is inflicted on her, a violation that colours everything revealed about her in the rest of the story.
Director Paul Verhoeven and screenwriter David Birke, in adapting Philippe Djian's 2012 novel Oh..., make Michele sympathetic one moment and a monster the next. As the story unfolds, the loose character sketch tightens into a thriller.
WHERE: The Projector MRT: Nicoll Highway WHEN: Wednesday, 8pm ADMISSION: $13.50 INFO: For schedule and bookings, go to theprojector.sg
GET OUT (NC16)
104 minutes/4 stars
In this work of horror, writer-director Jordan Peele turns the screws of racial anxiety to the breaking point. Black man Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) is visiting the leafy suburban home of the parents of white girlfriend Rose (Alison Williams), but underneath the liberal acceptance, something is off.
There are plenty of movies that address racial inequality, many of them mirthless and preachy.
Not this film. Peele, from the television sketch show Key and Peele, makes Chris an easy protagonist to get on the side of and, through his desperate eyes, see the creepiness just beneath the surface, waiting to pop out.
