The Last Wave

A film by Peter Weir

The film begins at an Australian school in the desert. Even though there are no clouds in the sky, the children hear thunder and a storm soon breaks out. In quick succession, a pounding rain, followed by grapefruit-sized hail, assail the schoolhouse. All while the sun is shining.

David Burton, a corporate tax lawyer in Sydney, is asked to defend five Aboriginals accused of murdering one of their group. During the interviews that follow they remain uncooperative but he begins to suspect they are tribal Aboriginals living in the city, even though nobody believes him and the accused deny this, refusing to disclose the true events surrounding the murder. If the murder could be proved to have been a tribal killing then it would be subject to tribal law.

Burton, who is plagued by recurring dream premonitions, also suspects that his dreams are related to the case, and that the unusual weather being experienced in the city is somehow linked too. After Chris Lee, one of the suspects, starts to appear in his dreams, Burton is convinced that the murder victim was killed in a tribal ritual because "he saw too much", though Chris refuses to acknowledge this in court. As the lawyer delves deeper, his dreams intensify, his obsession with the murder case overcomes his life, and the increasingly strange weather phenomena, with black rain and mud falling from the sky, begin to bode of a coming apocalypse.

A cross-cultural link is identified by an Aboriginal elder between his people and Burton's great-grandfather; a link also recognised in Burton's ability to predict the future from his dreams. Chris does his best to guide Burton through the realm of Dreamtime, and Burton is drawn deeper and deeper into a strange web of visions and symbols where the line between the two realities evaporates. The Aboriginal leads the lawyer into the tribal underground caves beneath the city to a confrontation with the tribe's shaman. In a final vision, as he emerges from the subterranean tunnels on to a beach, Burton understands the nature of the apocalypse that is about to strike the land – the Last Wave.

Rabbit-Proof Fence

A film by Phillip Noyce

A true story of hope and survival, based on the book Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington Garimara. It is the story of the author's mother and two other young mixed-race Aboriginal girls who ran away from the Moore River Native Settlement, north of Perth, in order to return to their Aboriginal families, after being placed there in 1931. The film follows the girls as they trek for nine weeks along 2,400 kilometres of the Australian rabbit-proof fence to return to their community at Jigalong in the north-west, while being followed by the regional constabulary and a native tracker.

At this time it was Australian government policy to train Aboriginal children as domestic workers and integrate them into white society. Part of what would become known as Australia's "Stolen Generations", 14-year-old Molly Craig leads her little sister and cousin in a daring escape from their confinement in a government camp. Molly, Daisy, and Grace must then evade the authorities on a dangerous journey in the vast and lonely outback, walking north along the rabbit-proof fence that bisects the continent and will lead them home. Their universally touching plight and unparalleled courage are a beautiful testament to the undying strength of the human spirit.

The performances by the amateur child actors are both authentic and heartbreakingly affecting. In the documentary of the making of the film, we see the difficulties faced in working with young and inexperienced kids and how with great skill and patience the director and crew were able to bring out the natural abilities of these young actresses. The shooting of the abduction scene, especially, is as moving in the documentary as in the film itself, perhaps more so.

An honest and unsentimental film with magnificent photography capturing the stunning Australian landscape and a haunting, mystical score by Peter Gabriel.

Paris, je t'aime

A film produced by Claudie Ossard and Emmanuel Benbihy from an original idea by Tristan Carné.

A declaration of love to the City of Love. Eighteen renowned filmmakers have created their own vignette, each based in one of the arrondissements of Paris, to form a collection of short films embracing a love of the world's most romantic city. Each brings their individual vision, underlining the wide variety of styles, genres, encounters and the various atmospheres and lifestyles that prevail in the neighbourhoods of Paris. "Paris is known as the 'City of Lights'... a city of culture... of fine dining and magnificent architecture. Paris is a city for lovers: lovers of art, lovers of history, lovers of food, and lovers of... love."

The assortment of celebrated international directors contributing to this collection includes Gurinder Chadha, Sylvain Chomet, Joel and Ethan Coen, Wes Craven, Alfonso Cuarón, Nobuhiro Suwa, Alexander Payne, Tom Tykwer, Walter Salles and Gus Van Sant. Starring in the films are some of the finest actors and actresses with Natalie Portman, Juliette Binoche, Steve Buscemi, Bob Hoskins, Nick Nolte, Elijah Wood and Maggie Gyllenhaal among many others.

Montmartre
Bruno Podalydès
A lonely and frustrated man helps a woman with hypoglycemia when she faints by his parked car, initiating a relationship with her.

Quais de Seine
Gurinder Chadha
A young man with two friends are taunting women who walk by. When a young Muslim girl, Zarka, stumbles and falls on a pavement, François goes to her aid. They feel an attraction for each other and he is left wondering whether she is the girl of his dreams.

Le Marais
Gus Van Sant
A man and woman visit a printer. While she discusses the work in hand, he finds himself attracted to a young employee, trying to explain that he believes the man to be his soulmate, not realising that he speaks little French.

Tuileries
Joel & Ethan Coen
An American tourist waiting for a train in the métro becomes involved in the conflict between two young lovers.

Loin du 16e
Walter Salles & Daniela Thomas
A poor young woman leaves her son in a crèche and travels across Paris to work, caring for the child of a bourgeois mother.

Porte de Choisy
Christopher Doyle
Absurd tale of a beauty products salesman visiting a Chinatown salon run by a woman who proves to be a tough customer.

Bastille
Isabel Coixet
A husband planning to leave his wife for a much younger woman meets her in a restaurant when she tells him that she has terminal leukemia. For her sake he hides his feelings and shows compassion, and in doing so falls in love with her again.

Place des Victoires
Nobuhiro Suwa
A woman who has lost her beloved little boy and unable to resolve her grief is comforted by a magical cowboy.

Tour Eiffel
Sylvain Chomet
A boy tells the story of how his mime artist parents met in prison and fell in love.

Parc Monceau
Alfonso Cuarón
An older man and younger woman meet for an arrangement that a third person, Gaspard, who is close to the woman, may not approve of. Later it is revealed that the young woman is his daughter, and Gaspard is her baby.

Quartier des Enfants Rouges
Olivier Assayas
An American actress acquiring and using drugs while awaiting a shoot of a movie. She is disappointed when the drug dealer sends someone else to deliver her deal.

Place des fêtes
Oliver Schmitz
A young man and young woman meet for the second time in one day when Sophie, a paramedic, helps him as he is dying of a stab wound.

Pigalle
Richard LaGravenese
An older couple, Bob and Fanny, meet in a bar and act out a fantasy argument to rediscover some lost sensations in their relationship.

Quartier de la Madeleine
Vincenzo Natali
A gothic story in which a young backpacker tourist encounters a vampire attacking a victim whilst crossing a bridge, and falls in love with her.

Père-Lachaise
Wes Craven
A young woman breaks up with her fiancé while visiting the Père-Lachaise Cemetery. The young man redeems himself with the aid of good advice from the ghost of Oscar Wilde.

Faubourg Saint-Denis
Tom Tykwer
After mistakenly believing that his girlfriend, a struggling actress, has broken up with him, a young blind man laments on the growth and seeming decline of their once joyful relationship.

Quartier Latin
Frédéric Auburtin & Gérard Depardieu
A wealthy man and his estranged wife meet in a restaurant for one last drink and to discuss terms for an amicable divorce.

14e arrondissement
Alexander Payne
Carol, a lonely American tourist from Denver, on her first European holiday and struggling with the French language, finds peace within herself through her love of Paris.

Picnic at Hanging Rock

A film by Peter Weir

On Valentine's Day, 14 February 1900, a party of schoolgirls from Appleyard College took a trip to Hanging Rock near Mount Macedon in the state of Victoria. During that idyllic sun-drenched afternoon some of the party left the rest of the group and having climbed higher, stopped to rest and fell asleep. They awoke as though still in a dream and silently ventured further through a passage in the imposing rock face. Some of the girls were never seen again.

Adapted from the novel by Joan Lindsay, the story centres around Miranda, a young student whose beauty is compared to one of Botticelli's angels by Mlle de Poitiers who teaches French and deportment. Her circle of friends includes Irma, Marion, Rosamund and the waifish Sara, an orphan, who is not allowed to go on the outing. Miranda has a premonition that she will not return from the picnic and tells Sara, who has a crush on her, that she must find someone else to love.

During the picnic, four of the girls, Miranda, Irma, Marion and Edith, decide to explore the rock in direct defiance of the headmistress, Mrs Appleyard. After following a labyrinth of paths, the girls are drawn to a plateau where they fall asleep. On waking, they get up, and seemingly under a spell, advance as one towards an inner recess, witnessed by Edith, who cries out to them not to go. It is as though they are compelled to enter and the rock swallows them. One of the teachers, Miss McCraw, goes up to see what has happened. By sunset, only Edith has returned, hysterical and unable to explain what has transpired – only that she saw Miss McCraw heading up towards the plateau without her skirt.

The police investigation by Sgt Bumpher and Constable Jones leads them to a young Englishman, Michael Fitzhubert who was lunching at the rock with his family. Michael, with Albert Crundall, the party's young local Australian valet, spent part of the lunch watching the girls' picnic, but offer no clues in the investigation. Search parties are organised, an Aboriginal tracker is brought in and finally, a bloodhound. Michael cannot forget his vision of Miranda and organises his own search. He spends the night on the rock and is found in a terrible state clutching a piece of lace which leads to the discovery of Irma, though she has no memory of what happened on the rock, or of the fate of her companions.

The school feels the effects of the tragedy and the town of Woodend quickly becomes restless as news of the disappearance spreads. An increasingly dishevelled Mrs Appleyard informs Sara that her fees have not been paid and that she will have to return to the orphanage. The next day Mrs Appleyard informs a teacher that Sara has been picked up by her guardian. The girls leave for their summer holidays under the impression that they will not return. Sara is then found in the greenhouse into which she has fallen from her window. The film ends with the information that Mrs Appleyard was found dead from a fall from the cliffs at Hanging Rock the same year.

Famed for its dreamlike aura and unresolved story, the film, released in 1975, established Peter Weir as a major filmmaker and is a critically acclaimed classic of Australian cinema. With award-winning photography and a memorably haunting score, it remains one of the most chillingly atmospheric and beautifully enigmatic films ever made.

Chocolat

A film by Lasse Hallström

When Vianne Rocher and her six-year-old daughter, Anouk, drift into a small tranquil town in rural France and open a very unusual chocolate shop during Lent, they are met with outrage and disapproval from the old-fashioned and very conservative inhabitants.

But as Vianne sets to work producing mouth-watering confections that are made with secret ingredients, and based on age-old recipes handed down to her, gradually the strait-laced inhabitants are almost magically inspired to abandon themselves to temptation and happiness. As their trust grows, her advice and practical help are sought by many of the locals and before long their hearts are won over. Only the authoritative town maire, Comte Paul de Reynaud, remains resistant and is determined to close her down.

When a group of river drifters, led by Roux, arrive in the town they are treated with contempt by everybody except Vianne and Anouk. Having now become accepted and trusted herself by the townsfolk, it falls to Vianne – as she begins to fall for the enchanting Roux – to teach the townspeople something about tolerance, acceptance and compassion.

A beautiful and captivating comedy based on the novel by Joanne Harris.

Jindabyne

A film by Ray Lawrence

While on his annual fishing expedition in isolated high country with friends, Stewart Kane discovers the body of a 19-year-old girl in a river. Deciding that there's nothing they can do to help her at this point, Stewart, Carl, Rocco and Billy continue their weekend, calling the police only after they've finished fishing and come down from the mountain, two days later.

When they return to their small town of Jindabyne in New South Wales, they're surprised when their families and the community treat them with anger and hostility for their selfish, callous behaviour. Stewart's wife, Claire, is particularly disillusioned, calling into question her entire relationship with Stewart and their young son, Tom, who himself has been getting into dangerous situations hanging around with a slightly older, troubled girl, Caylin-Calandria. Tensions are even higher because the murdered woman was a member of a nearby Aboriginal community, sparking resentment and cries of racism. Simmering guilt, familial tensions, and strained friendships threaten to tear the residents of Jindabyne apart.

The film features gorgeous cinematography with the most stunning mountain landscape scenery and a hauntingly beautiful soundtrack. It is a compelling and complex tale of doubt, anger, shame and responsibility – a richly observant study of people in crisis. At its heart, it's about the everyday choices people make in life, and how they live with the consequences.