Green Book
2018 Feature – 127 mins – Cert 12A
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Director: Peter Farrelly
Stars: Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali
Bookings: email filmnight@rockbournevillagehall.org.uk or
phone Lucy Matthews 01725 518695
BBFC Summary: GREEN BOOK is a drama in which an Italian-American takes a job as driver to a black pianist on tour through the Deep South.
Green Book won this years’ academy award for the best film, but, lest that should put you off (past ‘Oscar’ winners don’t always go down well in Rockbourne) let me assure you that Green Book is a delight. The film is straightforward, brilliantly well executed and often very funny (directed by There is Something About Mary’s Peter Farrelly), although the underlying subject is far from a laughing matter. What is more this is based on a true story.
It is 1962, Tony ‘’Tony Lip’’ Vallelonga, a New York Goodfella, strip club bouncer and small part player in gangster movies, is out of work. Don Shirley, a famous African American concert pianist, books Tony, played by the wonderful Viggo Mortensen, to drive him for a concert tour of the Deep South states in his extravagant, head-turning, bright blue Cadillac and to act as a minder in the intractably segregated corner of the USA.
Tony is not enthused at working for a black man, but he needs the work. Don, Jamaican by birth, played with arrogant insouciance by the imperious Mahershal Ali, is a highly educated doctor of music. He is also an irritating snob who hardly gets along with the crudely practical bouncer. They begin their sometimes arduous journey armed with ‘The Negro Motorist Green Book’, a travel guide for safe travel through the segregated South.
As the disparate pair witness and endure appalling injustices on the road, for example when the famous pianist is invited as guest of honour to a reception in an antebellum mansion and is obliged to use the servant’s lavatory, they begin to face the circumstances together. In doing so they build a collegial respect and affection for each other which, in fact, lasted all their lives.
In some ways this is a typical Hollywood ‘buddy’ movie, well made and uncomplicated. But it is more than that: a heart-warming, funny, and sincerely felt crowd pleaser, which we are sure you, like the millions who have seen it, will enjoy enormously. John Crome
Click here to read about Green Book on IMDb
Click here to download the flyer in pdf format
Doors open 7:00pm, Film 7:30 £6, Supper 9:45 £6, wine £12/bottle
Pay at the door, last bookings 1200 Sunday 16th June
Next film 18th September: tbd (future films 2019, Oct 16, Nov 20)
SAVE THE DATES FOR ROCKBOURNE VILLAGE HALL SUMMER MUSIC EVENTS
FRIDAY 28TH JUNE – CLASSICAL MUSIC: concert and talk
FRIDAY 19TH JULY – SUMMER SIZZLE: BBQ and live music