Okanagan College’s “(Contemporary) Classics at the Classics” not-for-profit film series ends next Monday night (the 30th) with a closing night double bill at the historic Salmar Classic. At 5:00pm we are screening the animated, family-friendly Wes Anderson film “Fantastic Mr. Fox”, followed at 7:30pm with Terrence Malick’s magnum opus “The Tree of Life”. Admission to both of these films is free with a donation of non-perishable food items for the Second Harvest Food Bank.

“One of the aims of the series this year has been to select a range of films that will appeal both to OC students and to the wider Salmon Arm film-going community, so it is fitting that the series end with a night when we show two films that everyone in town can come down and enjoy regardless of their age” says Okanagan College Film professor Dr. Tim Walters, who introduces each film in the series. “As we’ve been the beneficiary of generous support of the series from OC, the Salmar Community Association, and the good folks at Pinz Tattoos, we are able to offer free admission to both films with a donation to the Second Harvest Food Bank, and I feel very fortunate and appreciative that we can end the season by helping out a group that do great work in our community.”

Wes Anderson’s 2009 hit “Fantastic Mr. Fox” is an animated adaptation of the beloved Roald Dahl novel of the same name, and follows the attempts by Mr Fox to save his family and friends from angry farmers. Featuring an all star cast of voice actors (including George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray) and the usual quirky Wes Anderson style and humor, this is a fun, smart, fast-moving film that will be enjoyed by kids of all ages.

The final film of the series is Terrence Malick’s 2011 epic “The Tree of Life”, a hugely ambitious and visually overwhelming film painted on a massive canvas which rightly earned the most sought after prize in the movie world, the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Starting from the story of a couple (Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain) raising two small children in small town 1950’s Texas, Malick’s film explodes in scope to follow the growth of this family in parallel with that of the entire history of life in our universe through stunning visual images and a magnificent orchestral soundtrack. Unsurpassed in the grandeur and beauty of its composition, and in its philosophical aspirations, this is a film for lovers of pure cinema. “I was very keen to end the series on a very high note,” says Walters, “and it doesn’t get much higher than “The Tree of Life”, which for my money is a stone cold masterpiece, a jaw-dropping experience in the cinema (which doesn’t happen nearly often enough), and the only film made in the 21st Century that is seriously in the conversation about being the greatest film ever made. It’s really that good.”