Rialto Channel’s month of fashion documentaries continues this week with the fabulous About Face: Supermodels Then and Now featuring some of the most recognizable faces in the world talking about modeling and aging. Also this week, catch Neil Jordan’s latest vampire film Byzantium, and find out just how tough it is to become a Master Sommelier in our New Wave flick of week, Somm.

Here are the highlights for the week: 

This is a documentary by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, a famous portrait photographer who 12 years ago started making documentaries. He’s in his early 60s and this film was inspired by his own fascination as to how one reinvents oneself as one ages to stay relevant in a youth obsessed society. An impressive cast of honest, open supermodels such as Isabella Rossellini, Jerry Hall, Christy Brinkley, Beverly Johnson, Lisa Taylor and Marisa Berenson feature in About Face, sharing with us their thoughts on aging and plastic surgery, and entertaining us with stories about life as a model. You’re not going to be blown away by the revelations in this film, but you will be charmed by these women, amused by the personal anecdotes, and reassured that growing old is just a matter of attitude.

Interview with a Vampire director Neil Jordan once again visits the challenges of living life as a vampire in this dark, stylish thriller adapted by writer Moira Buffin from her own play. Gemma Arterton stars as Clara, a feisty prostitute and vampire relaxed about doing whatever is necessary to keep her and ‘younger sister’ Eleanor (Ronan) safe from the somber men in dark retro suits who are searching for them. The two retreat to a small run down costal town to hide, however, Clara’s outrageous behavior and an influx of dead people in the town begins to make life difficult for the sisters. The film flicks between the 19^th century and the present day and Jordan masterfully captures both periods by using a luscious dark palette and handsome visuals, but what he does really well is capture the idea that time is irrelevant when you’re immortal.

Somm

Starring: Dustin Wilson, Dlynn Proctor, Brian McClintic & Ian Cauble
Directed by: Jason Wise
Screening: New Wave, Sunday 20^th April, 8.30pm 

This is the debut feature length documentary from American director Jason Wise that follows four wine experts as they prepare to sit the impossibly hard Master Sommelier test. Since the certification began in 1977, only 197 people around the world have passed the test, and generally it takes several attempts. The candidates we follow here are all friends, so plenty of teasing and even Middle Earth and Sauvignon Blanc bashing goes on over a blind taste test or two. However, as this daunting test gets closer, the boys become very serious about their preparation, and as we learn the fate of these four wine connoisseurs Wise’s documentary sobers up somewhat too.