Chiltern U3A

Let’s go to the pictures!

Monthly meetings take place on the second Tuesday of every month at 14:30 in the Amersham Community Centre Large Barn Hall.

Members of the group share an interest in Cinema – whether recently acquired or life-long – and we celebrate this by viewing and discussing films from all over the world (but chiefly from America and the UK) across a wide range of genres and across many decades.  Sometimes we follow a particular theme; for example we have considered the work of several notable European émigrés in Hollywood including Billy Wilder, Ernst Lubitsch, Douglas Sirk and Fritz Lang; and in consecutive months we compared the two screen versions of Hemingway’s story The Killers.

Some meetings take the form of a talk on a particular subject or person, illustrated with excerpts from relevant movies.  At one meeting we welcomed Dr Tony Williams, former President of the International Dickens Fellowship, to speak about how the works of Charles Dickens have been treated on screen.  And we also welcomed Kevin Ashman, star of TV's Eggheads, who spoke about the famous Gunfight at the OK Corral, illustrating his talk with film clips to show how accurately – or, in most cases, inaccurately – the incident has been portrayed through 100 years of cinema.

Our recurring theme for 2022 was Ladies First, which encompassed a wide range of films with a prominent female presence, whether in front of or behind the camera.  These included:

Denial (2016) - the story of Deborah Lipstadt's libel case against Holocaust denier David Irving; The Bigamist (1953) - directed by Ida Lupino; Bright Star (2009) - directed by Jane Campion; The Divine Order (2017) - the story of the enfranchising of women in Switzerland; A Woman at War (2018) - an Icelandic woman's environmental activism; Million Dollar Mermaid (1952) - biopic of swimmer and actress Annette Kellerman; Antonia's Line (1995) - Marleen Gorris's Oscar-winning Dutch feminist film; Wadjda (2012) - eye-opening drama directed by Saudi Arabia's first female director Haifaa al-Mansour.   Al-Mansour's follow-up to that film will feature in June 2023.

2023 featured a short season of films with the theme Aunts & Uncles.  These included Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt, Jacques Tati's Mon Oncle, Cary Grant in Arsenic and Old Lace and the remarkable Grey Gardens, the story of Jackie Kennedy's aunt and cousin living in their decrepit Long Island mansion.

For 2024 the recurring theme was Seeing Double, in which we considered pairs of films featuring the work of particular actors or directors: Angela Lansbury, George Cukor, Richard Attenborough, Barbara Stanwyck and George Clooney.

For 2025 (and on into 2026!) our theme is Icons of Cinema. 

Our icons of cinema season continues into 2026 and for the first few months we focus on films from the USA.  Writer/Director Stanley Kubrick, one of the most influential figures in post-war cinema, is our icon for January and we feature one of his early films, The Killing, which demonstrates his mastery of the craft in a tale of a gang planning to rob a race-track.  This was only his third feature film, and for the first time he joined forces with an experienced producer, James B Harris, who considered Kubrick “the most intelligent, the most creative person I have ever come into contact with”.  Their independent company bought the rights to Lionel White’s novel ‘Clean Break’, in the face of competition from United Artists who wanted to film it with Frank Sinatra.  Veteran cinematographer Lucien Ballard was hired and did a superb job, especially with the horse-racing sequences.  Although only a minor box-office hit at the time, it quickly garnered critical acclaim and its influence has been noted by several later film-makers.

In February we have a very special meeting when our featured icon is the great Buster Keaton, and we will be delighted to welcome Ukrainian professional pianist Bohdan Reshetilov who will provide live accompaniment for the 1926 silent film The General.  Keaton based the film on an 1889 memoir about actual events that happened during the Civil War, though he changed the book’s perspective to be that of the Confederacy rather than the Union.  Filming in the Southern USA proved problematic, and Keaton was not allowed to use the real-life General locomotive and so he transported the whole production – sets, props, everything – to Oregon, of all places, where authentic railway tracks and stock were more readily available.  The town of Cottage Grove has a giant mural commemorating the making of the film and is gearing up for a centenary celebration next year.  The movie itself is celebrated as a classic of the silent era, and some of the stunts Keaton performs are simply breathtaking.

Walter Matthau takes centre stage in March, with the film A New Leaf.    His character is a playboy who has run out of money, and looks for a wealthy wife whose fortune he can ‘acquire’ when he murders her – yes, it’s a comedy!  Elaine May, who had made her name writing and performing sketches with Mike Nichols, but with only a few minor parts in films, wrote the script based on a short story by Jack Ritchie.  Her agent cut a deal so that she could also direct – but for a pittance, since this was her first directing assignment.  Paramount wanted a big name (Carol Channing) to play the female lead but May protested that it was Matthau’s picture, and the nature of the woman’s part demanded someone much less familiar.  In the end she was offered the part for herself, on condition that she be paid no more money!  There were problems, and May went way over budget (a trait which she repeated on subsequent productions!), but the finished movie is a delight and critic Roger Ebert declared it “hilarious, and cockeyed, and warm”.

In April our screen icon is Robert Redford, who very sadly died just recently.  In 3 Days of the Condor we see him at his very best, lighting up the screen with his consummate acting skills, playing a character who is out of his depth but is still determined to get to the bottom of what has happened, and why.  Both Redford, and director Sidney Pollack, denied any political motivation in making the film; the espionage genre was simply something they hadn’t tried before.  But, watching the film,  there is nevertheless a sense of the paranoia that gripped America after Watergate.  And – if you can believe this – according to a former KGB intelligence officer, the fictional clandestine CIA outpost in the film convinced KGB Generals to establish an equivalent office in Moscow, the ‘Scientific Research Institute for Intelligence Problems’.  But whatever the truth of that, or otherwise, the film is simply a hugely enjoyable piece of entertainment in its own right, and Faye Dunaway, Cliff Robertson and Max von Sydow provide sterling support.

The Group is always happy to accept new members, but other CU3A members are welcome to attend any meeting of interest on production of their current Membership Card.  If you intend to come it would be helpful, though not essential, to email the Convenor in advance.

Details of Coming Attractions are always included in the quarterly CU3A Newsletter, and the Group has its own regular Newsletter which is circulated by email to its members.  In addition members receive weekly emails, when time permits, with suggestions for worthwhile films that are coming up on the free-to-air television channels.