Get out of the house on the third Wednesday evening of each month and enjoy films on the big screen with us!

The Drill Hall Film Society screens classic films at an affordable price in comfortable tiered seating in our air-conditioned theatre. Grab a delicious snack and beverage from the bar, and be part of our lively film discussions after each show.

Become a Film Society subscriber for just $75 and gain entry to 11 films/year (or $60 if you’re a Drill Hall Theatre Company associate member). Casual guest rates cost $10/film.

Renewals due in July.

Contact Peter on [email protected] for more information or to become a member.

The Drill Hall Film Society is a member of the Australian Film Societies Federation which provides support and information. To find out more visit AFSF.

Wednesday July 17^th @ 7pm

The first film of the Drill Hall Film Society’s new film season is a cult classic. Bud Cort is a dead-pan disillusioned 20-year-old obsessed with suicide with a lovable Ruth Gordon as a fun-loving 80-year-old eccentric. They meet at a funeral, and develop a taboo romantic relationship, in which they explore the tired theme of the meaning of life with a fresh perspective.

Bud Cort, who passed away in February of this year, built a reputation for eccentric characters and worked for Robert Altman in M*A*S*H and Brewster McCloud and Wes Anderson in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zizzou. Ruth Gordon is best remembered as the terrifying neighbour in Rosemary’s Baby. She began her film career in silent films in 1915 and had an extensive stage career. She married writer Garson Kanin and collaborated with him on the screenplays for Adam’s Rib and Pat and Mike, both of which starred Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. She died in 1985.

Both Ruth and Bud were nominated for Golden Globe awards for Harold and Maude. Director Hal Ashby won an Oscar as editor of The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming. His directing credits include Shampoo, The Last Detail, and Being There.

The Critics

“Hal Ashby’s comedy is too dark and twisted for some, and occasionally oversteps its bounds, but there’s no denying the film’s warm humour and big heart.”

“It balances a morbid premise … with charm, sharp social critique, and a now-iconic Cat Stevens soundtrack.”

Renowned critic Roger Ebert famously gave the film just 1.5 stars out of 4.

Rotten Tomatoes gives it 99.5 out of 100.

Today it is widely praised for its anti-war and anti-repression themes. Its cult status views it not as a romance, but as a catalyst that pushes a misunderstood young that helps thaw Harold’s icy exterior, proving that self-exploration and personal self-fulfilment can conquer the darkest of circumstance. Hal Ashby’s Being There and Harold and Maude have been inducted into the American National Film Registry.

Wednesday August 26^th @ 7pm

If you’re going to make a film about the end of the world, Sydney Journalist Neil Jillet allegedly said, ‘Melbourne’s the place to do it’. When Stanley Kramer brought his crew to Australia in order to film his adaptation of Nevil Shute’s post-apocalyptic novel, it was to become a collision of two vastly different worlds.

With On the Beach (which Ridley Scott counts in the top 5 sci-fi films of all time), world cinema received its first serious, high-budget, star-ridden film about the nuclear apocalypse. Much more than the topic itself, what impresses today is the wonderful way it was handled. Instead of filming an action/horror film, with plenty of special effects, uncountable explosions and a definite political statement ingrained between the lines of the script, Shute and Kramer, alongside the screenwriter John Paxton, made a slow-building drama utterly concentrated on the people.

Along with the UK’s A Town Like Alice (1956), The Shiralee (1957) and Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (1959) and another US production The Sundowners (1960), On The Beach is part of the foreign invasion of film makers that finally led to the revival of the Australian Film Industry by the end of the 1960s.

Originally Shute had WWIII start in the Middle East and in the 2000 TV version it is started by China. With the current threat of nuclear warfare once again at the fore, On the Beach is a beautiful ode to humanity, and a most persuasive cautionary tale if we ever there was one. For as long as we keep struggling to spread this word to watch this timeless classic, there’s still hope that On the Beach’s reality won’t become our own reality someday soon.

Wednesday September 23^rd @ 7pm

Tampopo (タンポポ, Tanpopo; literally “dandelion”) is a Japanese comedy written and directed by Juzo Itami, and starring Tsutomu Yamazaki, Nobuko Miyamoto, Kōji Yakusho, and Ken Watanabe. The publicity for the film calls it the first “ramen Western”, a play on the term spaghetti Western.

Following the success of The Funeral, Itami began writing Tampopo immediately after, drawing inspiration from Luis Buñuel’s The Phantom of Liberty, and American westerns, Sergio Leone in particular. He then infused it with his own observations of ramen culture and its ability to democratize Japanese society, a subject he briefly explored in The Funeral.

Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars, commenting that “Like the French comedies of Jacques Tati, it’s a bemused meditation on human nature in which one humorous situation flows into another offhandedly, as if life were a series of smiles.”

Tampopo has received unanimous praise from critics, with a 100% approval rating and average score of 8.53/10 from Rotten Tomatoes, based on 52 reviews. The site’s critical consensus states, “Thanks to director Juzo Itami’s offbeat humour and sharp satirical edge, Tampopo is a funny, sexy, affectionate celebration of food and its broad influence on Japanese culture.”

Tampopo has influenced many famous chefs including legendary chef and food writer Alice Waters, who has made the film required viewing for her kitchen staff, and her protégés Jerry Jaksich, Sam White, and Rayneil De Guzman who have not only made pilgrimages to Japan as a result, but opened their own ramen shop in 2013 as well.

Many film critics point to Tampopo as the originator of food porn. The film is notable for dealing with food and sexuality together, a theme found in later films such as Like Water for Chocolate (1992), Chocolat (2000) and The Taste of Things (2024).

Wednesday October 21^st @ 7pm

The Petrified Forest is a masterclass in ensemble acting. Though its single-location setting reveals its stage-play roots, the sharp dialogue and iconic clash between a disillusioned intellectual and a ruthless outlaw gangster make it a timeless, philosophical thriller.

Adapted from Robert E. Sherwood’s hit Broadway play, the story traps a group of misfits inside a lonely Arizona diner in the Petrified Forest. The title also serves as a powerful metaphor for the spiritual emptiness and stagnation felt by the characters during the Great Depression. Thus, the hostage situation acts as a catalyst for deep, existential dialogue, exploring themes of love and fatalism.

The 1935 Broadway production of The Petrified Forest starred Howard, an established star, and Bogart, an actor in his first leading theatrical role. Sherwood based the Duke Mantee character on John Dillinger, the notorious criminal who in 1933 was named by J. Edgar Hoover as the FBI’s first “Public Enemy #1”. When Howard was cast for the movie version, his contract gave him final script control, so he informed the studio that he would not appear in the movie without Bogart as his co-star. The film made Bogart a star, and he remained grateful to Howard for the rest of his life.

If you appreciate classic Hollywood tension or are interested in seeing Bogart’s career-defining leap from Broadway stage to movies, then this is an absolute must-watch. While the painted desert backdrops and philosophical monologues might feel a bit stage-bound to some, the undeniable star power of Bette Davis, Leslie Howard and Humphrey Bogart, and the surprisingly poignant ending, make it one of the most compelling dramas of its era.