Ed Wood + Surprise Film

Tim Burton, 1994, USA, 127 mins, Certificate: 15

October is traditionally Halloween month for the Sydenham Film Club and this year we have a special event to celebrate it!

This is the outrageously true story of a man with a vision…who was unfortunately deemed the worst director in Hollywood history!
Tim Burton directs this (fittingly) creepy, but mainly bittersweet and totally eccentric life and work of Edward Davis Wood Jr. (1924-1978), the man responsible for some of the weirdest (and, let’s face it, BAD) films Cinema has ever seen, yet which have gradually won a massive cult status amongst film buffs. Johnny Depp is simply delightful as the eccentric title character, joined by Sarah Jessica Parker, Bill Murray, Patricia Arquette and veteran Martin Landau, who won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance as the elderly horror film star, Bela Lugosi, who developed a heart-warming (and kinda weird…) friendship with Ed, featuring in some of his films as well. The film won a second Oscar for Make-Up and is hailed as one of Burton’s very best films and of Depp’s finest performances.

The screening of “Ed Wood” will be followed by a surprise film, a very…relevant one to Tim Burton’s little gem! (Easy guesses? We shall see!).

Reviews

“As far as bio-pics go, this is one of the best of all time, not so much because of its subject matter, but because of its treatment of it. Try and find another bio-pic that’s not bloated, self-important or too long. Try and find one that’s just very entertaining. I think Ed Wood would make a great double feature with Citizen Kane, the sad, fascinating lives of two men vying for greatness and almost achieving it.” Jeffrey M. Anderson, www.combustiblecelluloid.com

“Making a movie about the life of Ed Wood certainly qualifies as an impossible dream, but Burton has pulled it off with wit, imagination and something amazingly close to grace.” Hal Hinson, www.washingtonpost.com

“What Burton has made is a film which celebrates Wood more than it mocks him, and which celebrates, too, the zany spirit of 1950s exploitation films – in which a great title, a has-been star and a lurid ad campaign were enough to get bookings for some of the oddest films ever made.” Roger Ebert, www.rogerebert.com