Lifestyle News South Africa

#OnTheBigScreen: Father Christmas, Mozart and superheroes

This week on the big screen: a father steps into the shoes of Father Christmas to reconcile with his family in the local film Liewe Kersfeesvader, we take a closer look at the man who invented the iconic feminist superhero Wonder Woman in Professor Marston & The Wonder Women, famed DC superheroes have to save the world in Justice League, a small donkey follows The Star and becomes an unlikely hero, a ruthless Nazi leader is The Man With The Iron Heart, and opera lovers can indulge in Mozart's Magic Flute.

Liewe Kersfeesvader

If there’s one local film tailor-made for family viewing during the festive season, it’s this heartbreaking gem from writer-director Ettiene Fourie, who twisted our sensibility with Die Windpomp and explored a woman’s passion in Dis Koue Kos Skat.

A young beauty queen is flung into swift adulthood when her father assumes a new identity: Father Christmas. Juggling an unhinged father, an impressionable kid brother, and a growing romance, Nonnie has to redefine her own meaning of family.

Professor Marston & The Wonder Women

This incredible true story looks at what inspired Harvard psychologist and inventor Dr William Moulton Marston (Luke Evans) to create the iconic feminist superhero Wonder Woman.

Marston’s inspiration for Wonder Woman were his wife Elizabeth Holloway Marston (Rebecca Hall) and their mutual lover Olive Byrne (Bella Heathcote); self-empowered women who defied social conventions while they helped Marston advance his prescient behavioural research.

A bold and illuminating true superhero origin story from writer/director Angela Robinson, it is also a tale of invention, perseverance, and courage against the forces of oppression.

Justice League

Ddirected by Zack Snyder, this big screen epic action adventure stars the famed lineup of DC superheroes: Ben Affleck as Batman, Henry Cavill as Superman, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Ezra Miller as The Flash, Jason Momoa as Aquaman, and Ray Fisher as Cyborg.

Bruce Wayne enlists the help of his newfound ally Diana Prince to face an even greater enemy. Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to find and recruit a team of metahumans to stand against this newly awakened threat.

Based on DC characters created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Justice League screenplay was written by Chris Terrio and Joss Whedon based on a story by Terrio and Snyder.

The Star

In this Sony Pictures Animation film, a small but brave donkey named Bo yearns for a life beyond his daily grind at the village mill. One day he finds the courage to break free, and finally goes on the adventure of his dreams.

Based on the Nativity of Jesus, and of an original pitch by Tom Sheridan, it was written by Carlos Kotkin and Simon Moore.

The Man With The Iron Heart

The Czech resistance in London decides to plan the most ambitious military operation of WWII: Anthropoid. Two young recruits in their late twenties, Jozef Gabcik and Jan Kubis, are sent to Prague to assassinate the most ruthless Nazi leader, head of the SS, the Gestapo, and the architect of the Final Solution - Reich-protector Reinhard Heydrich.

Cédric Jimenez co-wrote the screenplay with his partner Audrey Diwan, and British screenwriter David Farr (Hanna), and their work is based on the eponymous 2012 bestseller by Laurent Binet.

The Magic Flute

Met music director James Levine conducts Tony award-winner Julie Taymor’s production of Mozart’s masterpiece Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute).

Golda Schultz stars Pamina with Kathryn Lewek as the Queen of the Night. Levine leads a dynamic young cast in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute). The opera in two acts by Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder.

The film will be screened on 18, 19, 21, 28, and 29 November 2017.

Read more about the latest film releases: www.writingstudio.co.za.

About Daniel Dercksen

Daniel Dercksen has been a contributor for Lifestyle since 2012. As the driving force behind the successful independent training initiative The Writing Studio and a published film and theatre journalist of 40 years, teaching workshops in creative writing, playwriting and screenwriting throughout South Africa and internationally the past 22 years. Visit www.writingstudio.co.za
Let's do Biz