LORD OF THE FLIES

(1963, Peter Brook) James Aubrey’s Ralph tries to get 30 schoolboys, marooned on an island after a crash, to stay civilized, but…All location-shot, all non-pro cast, from Nobel Laureate William Golding’s novel, in a rare film by stage icon Brook. DCP. Approx. 92 mins.
2:35, 6:30, 10:25

“One of the purest and least compromised adaptations imaginable. A powerful drama that was faithful to the mythic quality of Golding’s novel but also added an extra, more literal dimension. Brook’s film isn’t just a tale of lost innocence. It is a minutely focused case study of the behavior of kids in the wilderness… On-screen, the boys’ descent into savagery can’t be dismissed as an abstraction; it becomes something very real. On the film’s release, many critics were unable to look past the surface of those all-too-believable schoolboys, finding that they diminished the menace of the story. It is precisely the fact that these characters somehow visibly remain politely spoken prep school kids enjoying an escapade—even after they have painted their bodies and are screeching ‘Kill, kill, kill’ while dancing around a fire — that those familiar little choristers are capable of such unspeakable barbarity, that makes the movie infinitely frightening.”
– Geoffrey Macnab

“BRAVELY DARING. There is physical authenticity in it. The boys all look genuine and the air of their tropical island is unmistakably real.”
– Bosley Crowther, The New York Times

“An encroaching nightmare of innocence lost, following Golding’s thesis about what happens when civilization breaks down and man’s true nature is revealed. Raw and pitiless to the core, with occasional flashes of dark humor (‘We’re not savages. We’re English!’), the film shows signs of relentless paring-down on all levels: the absence of distracting and sensual color, the svelte 92-minute running time, the purposeful forward movement of every scene. And that’s the trick of making Golding’s allegory work: making it feel not like an allegory at all, but the inevitable result of order dissipating, and violence sweeping in to fill the vacuum.”
– Scott Tobias, The Dissolve

PRIVILEGE

(1967, Peter Watkins) Even as Britain’s coalition government intones “We Must All Conform,” caged-on-stage rocker Paul Jones implores “Set Me Free” to hysterical fans – but is he just an establishment puppet?  Done in semi-doc style by the director of The War Game. 35mm. Approx. 103 mins.
12:30, 4:25, 8:20