Skip to content

Quesnel Film Club to show Bel Canto at The Carib

The film will be shown on Thursday, Feb. 28 at 6:30 p.m
15696734_web1_180111-QCO-film-club
The film showing will take place at the Carib Theatre on Thursday, Feb. 28. File photo

The third film of the 2019 Quesnel Film Club’s winter lineup will show at the Carib Theatre on Thursday, Feb. 28.

Based on a novel of the same name by Ann Patchett, Bel Canto follows the story of a world-renowned opera singer (played by Julianne Moore, with singing done by Renee Fleming), when she is invited to perform at the private birthday party of a rich, Japanese industrialist (played Ken Watanabe) in South America.

The gathering includes dignitaries from around the globe and is taken over by guerilla soldiers, who take the group hostage and demand the local government release their comrades from prison. A month-long standoff follows, where rebel and captive are forced to face their humanity, and explore the power of music.

The story of the novel and the movie is based on the Japanese embassy hostage crisis (also known as the Lima Crisis) of 1996-97 in Lima, Peru. The novel was published in 2001 and won the Orange Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

Amanda Gillcash, the member of the film club who first suggested the film be brought to Quesnel, says the book is one of her favourites.

“It’s a funny little story,” says Gillcash. “But it’s got this lovely romantic twist, and this beautiful music is going on in the background.”

She says she spoke about the film enthusiastically to the others who were helping to choose the films, and they decided to go for it, as it is a bit different than some of the other ones the club will be showing this season.

The novel was also turned into an opera in 2015.

The film club’s first show of the winter season, The Wife, was sold out, while their second show, Shoplifters, came close.

Doors open at the Carib at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 28 and the show starts at 6:30 p.m.

Anthropocene: The Human Epoch will be shown on March 28 and will conclude the film club’s winter lineup.



community@quesnelobserver.com

Like us on Facebook