July 28th, 2026Phoenix Cinema
No sooner has Hugh Jackman entertained us by reading a book to his sheep, than he pops up as Robin Hood. This is, however, no jolly romp for Robin, Friar Tuck and the Band of Merry Men versus the Sheriff of Nottingham Forest.
In The Death of Robin Hood (Monday, July 27, 2pm), at Daylesford’s community-owned and run Phoenix Cinema, Robin is grappling with his past after a life of crime and murder. Now he is gravely injured after a battle he thought would be his last. Thankfully, a mysterious woman offers him a chance of salvation.
Francis Ford Coppola’s eerie 1974 classic, The Conversation (Monday, July 27, 4.30pm) captures Watergate-era paranoia and disillusion. As the Catholic eavesdropper, Caul, Gene Hackman: at the nadir of his despair ends up smashing a figure of the Blessed Virgin in his apartment because he suspects it contains a listening device.
In his glasses and moustache, drab suit, white shirt and tie with clear plastic Macintosh worn indoors, Caul is unforgettable. A classic and poignant American everyman comparable to Ernest Borgnine’s Marty from 1955 or Paul Walter Hauser in Clint Eastwood’s Richard Jewell from 2019.
Some critics even believe he probably inspired the East German Stasi agent in Florian von Donnersmarck’s 2006 film The Lives of Others, listening in on lives happier and more fulfilling than his. The global phenomenon, The Odyssey, screens at Monday.July 27, 7pm.
Thursday sees the first showing of the groundbreaking Serpico (Thursday, July 30, 4.30pm). Fresh from The Godfather, Al Pacino is superb as the New York cop fighting corruption. Corruption at a greater, government-shaking level is seen in All the President’s Men (Thursday, July 30, 7pm). At this distance Nixon and his attempt to bug the Democratic Party HQ seems childlike when compared with today’s White House antics, to use a mild term.
We have seen in our time the desperate scramble for ratings by commercial TV (and radio). In Network (Friday, July 31, 2pm) Peter Finch is messianic with his paranoid rant: “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!” A damning portrayal of those who churn out TV stuff and those who devour it.
Words: Kevin Childs | Link: www.daylesfordcinema.org.au
