FILM CLASSIC: Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

This year the PCFF film jury was dedicated to the memory of the great comedic actor Gene Wilder. He played the role of Willy Wonka with just the right mix of mysterious-creepy-comical senses and challenged young viewers to interpret his intentions right up to the end. As Roger Ebert opined in his 1971 review, “WILLY WONKA is probably the best film of its sort since THE WIZARD OF OZ. It is everything that family movies usually claim to be, but aren’t: delightful, funny, scary, exciting, and, most of all, a genuine work of imagination.”