The Tin Drum movie still

Each month, Melanie Friesen invites a distinguished guest to Vancity Theatre’s Cinema Salon, in order to present his/her favourite film. After the screening, both audience and speaker have the opportunity to engage over drinks and snacks in the Vancity lounge. This month’s film is Volker Schlondorff’s 1979 film The Tin Drum.

Winner of the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or and the first German film to win the Best Foreign Film Oscar, The Tin Drum is based on one of the great novels of the twentieth century written by Günter Grass. Set in Danzig from 1925 to 1945, it centers around the first 20 years of Oskar Matzerath’s life.

Matzerath is born with an adult’s intelligence and perception. At the age of three, he flings himself down the cellar stairs so he won’t grow up physically and share the hypocrisy and craziness of adults. Remaining child size in stature, he literally marches to the beat of his own drum.

The film isn’t about Oskar’s intuitive rebellion of the world he is forced to suffer nor the horrors of war; it’s about an entire nation slowly losing its identity while its people become puppets under the Nazi regime. There is no performance on screen comparable to David Bennent’s Oskar.

“Ken

Ken Wallace is a painter and a retired associate professor. He has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in major public and private galleries in North America, receiving four Canada Council Awards for work in both painting and film. Wallace was inducted into the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 2010.

Wallace’s work is showcased in many private and public collections including the National Gallery, Art Gallery of Ontario, Vancouver Art Gallery, and numerous private collections. He’s additionally taught drawing and painting at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in both the Faculty of Education and the Faculty of Fine Arts and at Emily Carr University of Art and Design.

Vancity Cinema Salon with Ken Wallace Presents The Tin Drum

Date: Tuesday, February 3, 7:30 pm
Venue: Vancity Theatre, 1181 Seymour Street, Vancouver
Tickets: $13.00; may be purchased online

2 Comments

  • Comment by Howard Firth — June 12, 2017 @ 1:28 pm

    Please advise if Kenneth Wallace still has paintings done of famous North American Natives, painted in the Yukon. 1970’s.

  • Comment by Ariane Colenbrander — June 12, 2017 @ 1:54 pm

    Hi Howard,
    Thanks for getting in touch. I’m not sure either he still does paint. I’d advise doing a Google search to see whether you can find his site or firm that represents him. Hope that helps in the right direction! – Ariane

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