Autumn Events are here

Autumn Events are here

With the much vaunted end to the rain drought due to hit this weekend in Auckland and Wellington, those involved in the planning of the Autumn Events 2013 series must be rubbing their hands in glee.

The replacement for the World Cinema Showcase is open now and is offering up film lovers a pre-Film Festival treat to satiate their appetites until the main event comes along a little later this year.

With the Civic in Auckland opening up its doors and proffering forth its massive screen, as well as the Embassy in Wellington offering a bit of class, there's really a lot of cinematic sophistication on show with the programme which offers up a fair few treats and a retrospective to engage with too. You can also see films on the Paramount's screen in the capital and the Academy in Auckland.

Guys and Dolls and Lawrence of Arabia are the big drawcards on the big screen with restorations of the prints giving you the chance to completely wallow within the film-makers' intentions and simply lap up these movies which haven't been on the screen elsewhere in a very long time.

There are also premieres afoot as well - from the horror portmanteau of The ABCs of Death, where a range of filmmakers are given a short time to dispatch people in grisly ways according to the letter they've been given from the alphabet, to the NZ premiere of Kon-Tiki, an exploration of Norwegian Thor Heyerdahl's trip  across the Pacific on a balsawood raft. With stunning visuals and a captivating story, this is a film which works best on the big screen.

Elsewhere, a series of films from Asghar Farhadi offer a peek into Iranian film-making, as do three Jean-Luc Godard titles. It shows once again the determination of the organisers to offer us insights into worlds so often neglected outside the arthouse circuits.

Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters showcases the talents of the American photographer, best known for creating scenes of American vistas and gives us a tantalising look into what fuels the artist into creating cinematic landscapes which at times, even David Lynch would use. Looking like Jon Lovitz's brother and with blonde tips to his dark hair, this doco may well have a broader appeal than just the art students.

The House I Live In is a searing look at the US drug policy, how it's not working as you may believe and its implications for all those caught in its web.  Led by a diatribe from The Wire creator, David Simon, the film takes a long hard look at what is not going well. The late Roger Ebert said the film "made a shattering case against the War on Drugs" and it's compellingly put together and tautly directed, making it one of the must sees of the Autumn events.

David Cronenberg's son, Brandon ventures into horror with Antiviral, a flick about a worker who injects diseases from celebrities into paying clients and his descent into the black market. With the trademark Cronenberg flair for the grotesque, it's clear the apple doesn't fall far from the tree...

And there's also another chance to catch festival favourite From Up on Poppy Hill, Miyazaki's ode to 1960s post-war Japan - and the much vaunted doco, The Queen of Versailles.

All in all, my advice is bring on the rain and head down to get some culture from the eclectic offerings of the Autumn Events programme.