Our Next Film Club Screening: Travels with My Aunt,

April 6, 2025 @ Back Lane Studios

With our next film, we celebrate spring and the incomparable Maggie Smith, who died last September. Travels with My Aunt, directed by George Kukor in 1972, follows the story of a straight-laced bank clerk who first meets his eccentric aunt Augusta, played by Smith, at his mother’s funeral. He gets drawn into her rather louche plan to save a former paramour and soon realizes that she has a past that would make Mae West blush.

BLFC member Diana Blake will introduce the film. Remember to reserve your spot by midnight on Wednesday, April 2, 2025, by clicking on the link below. If there is space after this date, it will be first come first served on April 6.

Screening details – Travels with My Aunt

Sunday April 6, arrive between 1:30 and 1:45 pm – film starts at 2 pm
https://www.eventbrite.com
Back Lane Studios, 9 Neepawa Ave., Toronto – side door

Background on Travels with My Aunt

The film is loosely based on the 1969 Graham Greene novel of the same name. Maggie Smith plays the role that was originally intended for Katharine Hepburn until the studio decided she was too old to play herself younger in the flashback scenes. Roger Eberts called the film “a whimsical romantic fantasy that works; which is to say, if you are not a fan of whimsical romantic fantasy, it’s going to be too much for you.”

Interested in our monthly Film Club?

Well, 2025 is here, and that means more screenings and a new selection of films for our Back Lane Film Club get-togethers at the studio.

Thanks to Kirsten Gunter for coming up with the idea and organizing our club.

Members pick a film that’s been forgotten or overlooked and deserves to be seen. Whoever chooses the film gives a short introduction, we watch, and there’s a discussion after the screening.

Our screenings usually take place on the first Sunday of the month at the studio. Space is limited. We can comfortably accommodate around 30 people for a screening. We set up online seat reservations on Eventbrite for members to book their seat! If a screening appears to be sold-out on Eventbrite, there may be a few seats still available. Email us at info@backlanestudios.ca to find out.

Here are some club details:

Annual fee: $25 (for refreshments, film rentals, etc.) Screenings will thereafter be free for members. E-transfer your membership fee to ellen@backlanestudios.ca or pay in cash or by credit card at the studio.
Guests: Non-members can attend if space is available for a fee of $5 per film screening.
When: Usually the first Sunday of each month with the possible exceptions of July and August.
Where: At Back Lane Studios, 9 Neepawa Ave., Toronto, ON M6R 1V1.
The Films: Under-appreciated gems that deserve to be seen. We will be assembling a list of overlooked films that are available for screening on DVD, through streaming or on hard drives. The selected film for each screening will be given a five-minute introduction by the film’s nominee, including background, interesting trivia, information about the actors, etc.

If you are interested in joining, please email us at info@backlanestudios.ca. It will be a great opportunity to meet fellow cinephiles and to see and discuss some interesting feature films.

Film club members are invited to gather at 1:30 pm at Back Lane Studios, 9 Neepawa Ave., ahead of the 2 pm film start time

Here’s the list of films for the coming year in no particular order: Viridiana, Burning, Travels With My Aunt, The Automat, The Servant, Kolya, Until the End of the World, Camille Claudel, Black Butterflies and Diva.

Sunday Jan. 5, 2025: Camille Claudel
Sunday, Feb. 2, 2005: Viridiana
Sunday, March 9, 2025: The Automat
Sunday, April 6, 2025: Travels With My Aunt
Sunday, May 4, 2025
Sunday, June 8, 2025 (Please note the date change!)
Sunday, Sept 7, 2025
Sunday, Oct 5, 2025
Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025

Past Screenings

The Automatic, Sunday, March 2, 2:00pm at Back Lane Studios

Mel Brooks literally sings its praises. Ruth Bader Ginsburg praises its democratic nature. Elliot Gould and Carl Reiner remember it fondly. And Starbucks executive chairman was inspired by it.

The Automat restaurant was a culinary delight and a technological wonder. It thrived in its day because of social changes that were sweeping the work force and because of a company’s commitment both to its staff and to its customers.

This documentary is entertaining, informative and deeply nostalgic — well worth the hour and 19 minutes you’ll spend watching it. And Mel Brooks is charming! He loved the coffee at The Automat. When the restaurant chain was founded, it was all about the coffee!

Reserve your seat at The Automat! As an added bonus, we will hand out Automat recipes and pool our knowledge about the movies where those elegant little coin-operated compartments made an appearance! Watch and enjoy the trailer here.

Question: Which movie is this Automat scene from?

Our first screening for 2025: Camille Claudel

This 1988 French film about the life of 19th-century Parisian sculptor Camille Claudel was directed by Bruno Nuytten and features French film star Isabelle Adjani as the artist. Largely unknown outside of her native country, Claudel was a gifted young sculptor who counted Auguste Rodin (played by Gérard Depardieu) as one of her mentors. When Rodin meets Claudel, he is married, considerably older and very well established in the French arts world. The film follows her tumultuous professional beginnings as a sculptor and follows her affair with Rodin for whom she worked. This affair shocks her bourgeois Catholic family, in particular her mother, who disapproves of her vocation and Camille’s refusal to conform to 19^th century roles for women. Her younger brother Paul, a successful diplomat and gaining recognition as a poet, refuses to come to her aid after her zealot mother wants her institutionalized when Camille shows signs of mental instability.

Here’s Roger Ebert’s take on Adjani’s performance, which was nominated for an Oscar: “Adjani is possessed in this movie. It is not one of those leisurely costume dramas in which people in beautiful costumes move through elegant rooms. Her eyes always look haunted, and even in the moments of luxury and romance there is the suggestion in her body language of that feral creature down in the ditch, grubbing for clay. She makes sculptures because she must – because the figures in her work are trapped within her, and if she does not release them she will burst.”