Finally caught up with this, and it really is as good as the reviews have made it out to be. Eerie, textured, and dark - a really rich and multi-layered coming of age tale. The presentation is quite beautiful. I'm really astounded that this one slipped through the cracks, so yet again props to SR for getting behind yet another underappreciated gem.

What an extraordinary little film, I'll echo the praise for Second Run for having rescued this. It'll be lingering with me for a while...a bit uncomfortably so. The film captured the certain unsettling amorality of childhood with thought-provoking clarity, as it also did Celia's response to heartbreak & tragedy, and her vivid imagination. A dark, ominous film indeed, and very well-made one too.

At #43 in Time Out's Greatest Directorial Debuts Of All Time: http://www.timeout.com/film/features/show-feature/8594/time-outs-50-greatest-directorial-debuts-of-all-time.html

The unpleasant policeman in this film, played by William Zappa, is actually my uncle. (100% true!) Certainly one of his bigger and better roles -- as opposed to, say, the straight-to-video Marvel Comics Man-Thing.

My father, his younger brother, still hasn't seen Celia! Will be getting him the DVD for Christmas.

Our Celia release is #9 in Time Out's 10 Best DVD's of 2009! http://www.timeout.com/film/features/show-feature/9362/the-dvds-of-2009.html

FilmFour choose Celia as their #6 in their 'Must-See DVD's of 2009': http://www.channel4.com/film/cinemadvd/dvd_top10mustsee_dvds.html

I see this is showing at the Curzon Mayfair on the 11th of April, with an introduction by somebody called Michael Brooke.

http://www.curzoncinemas.com/whats_on/c ... ael_brooke

An extended introduction, I've just spotted, so I'd better find out what that means!

Yes, I'm standing in for Ann Turner - normally, Second Run likes to get the director along to these screenings, but they're usually flown in from mainland Europe, and Australia was sadly beyond their budget. But we're hoping to arrange some kind of personal contribution from Turner herself - she's thrilled that it's getting a big-screen revival, however fleeting.

Great stuff, I'll be there.

You beat us to it, Duncan Hopper! Thanks very much for posting it.

A little correction, though: the special screening on Sunday 11th April is at the RENOIR Cinema (not the Curzon Mayfair).

Also, as MichaelB has just said, we're trying to see if 'technology' permits the possibility of having director Ann Turner, who lives in Australia, make an on-screen appearance in central London for the Introduction! Will keep you informed.

CELIA is a wonderful film - do please mark it in your diaries to come to our screening.

I haven't seen Celia, but very much hope to make the April screening. From everything I've heard, the film sounds right up my street in its apparent similarity to other fantastical/psychological films about childhood from around the same time like Paperhouse, The Reflecting Skin (say, howzabout a Second Run DVD of this?) and Parents. Another more recent example might be Larry Fessenden's underrated Wendigo.

I've booked my ticket for this, so you'll have at least one person in the audience.

Just a gentle reminder about our special event screening of CELIA at the Renoir cinema on this Sunday 11th, starting at 1.30pm; very happy to see that Time Out have selected the screening as their Critics’ Choice of the Week (at number 2).

And, fingers crossed, we think we'll be able to beam director Ann Turner live and direct from her Antipodean home into conversation with Michael Brooke and the audience, without the need to resort to an ouija board.

Please come and support our screening, and do come and say hello to us there.

Wow. I have to say that when Second Run said that we'd be "making history" and that the Q&A with Ann Turner would be via Skype, I immediately translated this as "we've never done this before, and you and Ann are our guinea pigs (or possibly lab-bred rabbits)."

Well, I couldn't have been more wrong. Thanks to Viktor, the projectionist-cum-technician, it went absolutely flawlessly - it really was a case of me at the front with a microphone and Ann completely filling the Renoir's screen, having an entirely coherent, delay-free conversation. And she was on great form too, especially since it must have been the wrong side of one in the morning for her when it ended.

And it was great seeing the film on the big screen again, for the first time in 21 years - it really is an exceptionally clever, subtle and insidious piece of work.

For Australian viewers, Celia is playing on ABC2 tonight (24-7) at 8.30pm.

Finally dug this out of my kevyip and watched it. Excellent film, albeit one that becomes more disturbing as it progresses. By film's end, I don't know that I was more sympathetic to Ray than to Celia, but certainly more sympathetic to Ray than I was earlier in the film, and less so for Celia. And that's probably what Turner was after to some extent.

There were also some really funny visual moments in this film, especially when the permit-holders are wandering around the rabbit-coop looking for their pets.

One last thought: Michael Brooke's essay remarked that this film is often compared to 400 Blows and Lord of the Flies. While that's certainly justified, esp. since they were all debut features, I think Celia would make a great double-bill with Kes, which I recently saw for the first time. Anywhoo, terrific film, and now I'm interested in seeing more cinema from Oz.