We sincerely hope that you had a wonderful and relaxing holiday season and that you are now ready for what the new year has to offer.
The Williams Lake Film Club will begin the second part of the season Tuesday, Jan. 10, at 7 p.m. at the Gibraltar Room.
Back doors open at 6:30 p.m. Everyone is invited to see the films. Admission is $9 regular, $8 for members and $6 for seniors/elders (65-plus) and students.
Language is Italian/Sicilian, with English subtitles.
As you are maybe a bit tired from all of the festivities and the dreary weather, we chose a film full of life and colour, music and singing, and unexpected twists and turns. The Orange Thief is such a film, a true Indie movie.
A group of 11 young film buffs, half Italian, half American, with one Frenchman tossed in for good measure, decide to make a film.
They certainly do not have much money and time is of the essence. They travel from the States, where they live, to Sicily, Lucca-Sicula to be exact, where two of their grandparents came from, and begin filming with a lot of enthusiasm and ideas, and with their own personal equipment.
They decide on three directors going out each day and filming a part of the story they had discussed. In the evening they watch the rushes and decide what to use.
The complete film was made in under a month and the cost was less than $15,000. And all of the actors are actually non-actors. This is the real part of the story.
The Orange Thief tells the story of a cocky, irrepressible, and penniless young man who has only one dream, to own a piece of his beloved Sicilian land.
To make money he steals oranges to sell, most often not successfully.
And one day he lands in jail where his cell mate is the feared, murderous yet philosophical Turrido, the Smooth Blade.
Turrido proposes a deal to our hero, to tape the song of his ex-lover Rosalba. Sounds simple enough, but it proves to be the turning point in our hero’s life as in everyone else’s he encounters. Will he get the song? Will he fall in love? Will she fall in love with him?
The Orange Thief premiered at the Woodstock Film Festival in 2007 and received standing ovations. They called it “A gem of a film … utterly delightful” and it received the Audience Award.
Most audiences love it — most critics don’t — we do! See you on Tuesday, Jan. 10.
