Films
Films Showing at Keswick Film Festival
2001 Festival
Julie Christie, Oskar Werner, Cyril Cusack, Anton Diffring.
Truffaut's remarkable adaptation of Ray Bradbury's sci-fi novel about an alarming future where books are banned: they make people unhappy and burn at the temperature of the title. We witness the fireman, Montag (Werner), torn between his wife and a dissident teacher (both played by Christie) and his choices in the eternal search for happiness.
A beautiful study of art, sensuality and identity set in early Victorian England, with Minnie Driver, Tom Wilkinson, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers.
Drew Barrymore in a feisty version of the traditional tale.
Set in a Montreal tenement, a boy escapes his family's madness by exploring his dreams.
A new print of the 60 year old classic
Highly acclaimed award-winning saga set amongst a Yugoslavian gypsy community.
Best British film of 98...'nuff said
A brilliant swashbuckler offering big screen entertainment and sparkling swordplay.
The most thought-provoking Hollywood film of 1948 - heading for the Oscars...
Five unmarried sisters make the most of their simple existence in rural Ireland in the 1930s.
7 Oscar nominations - a worldwide triumph!
A film of the early years of the reign of Elizabeth I of England and her difficult task of learning what is necessary to be a monarch.
Jim Jarmusch's riveting live documentary of Neil Young and Crazy Horse in concert.
Four London working class stiffs pool their money to put one in a high stakes card game, but things go wrong and they end up owing half a million pounds and having one week to come up with the cash.
An Englishwoman travels to Morocco with her two young daughters, where they deal with and adjust to the culture and people of the area. Told from the perspective of the youngest daughter, the story provides insight into the Moroccan atmosphere. Based on a 1992 novel by Esther Freud.
Allegra Geller, the leading game designer in the world, is testing her new virtual reality game, eXistenZ with a focus group. As they begin, she is attacked by a fanatic assassin employing a bizarre organic gun. She flees with a young marketing trainee, Ted Pikul, who is suddenly assigned as her bodyguard. Unfortunately, her pod, an organic gaming device that contains the only copy of the eXistenZ game program, is damaged. To inspect it, she talks Ted into accepting a gameport in his own body so he can play the game with her. The events leading up to this, and the resulting game lead the pair on a strange adventure where reality and their actions are impossible to determine from either their own or the game's perspective.
The Cardiff club scene in the 90's: five best friends deal with their relationships and their personal demons during a weekend. Jip calls himself a sexual paranoid, afraid he's impotent. Lulu, Jip's mate, doesn't find much to fancy in men. Nina hates her job at a fast food joint, and her man, Koop, who dreams of being a great hip-hop d.j., is prone to fits of un-provoked jealousy. The fifth is Moff, whose family is down on his behavior. Starting Friday afternoon, with preparations for clubbing, we follow the five from Ecstacy-induced fun through a booze-laden come-down early Saturday morning followed by the weekend's aftermath. It's breakthrough time for at least three of them.
Sensible David and his more flamboyant sister Jennifer get sucked into their TV to become two characters in the monochrome fifties sitcom 'Pleasantville'. Their arrival exposes the locals to 90's values of sex and enlightenment with colourful results.
An ingenious fable and metaphor for what happened to 50's America when the 60's arrived.
Sprightly bio-pic of James Whale the legendary British director of horror movies, (Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein )The last days of his fading career are beautifully told by its distinguished cast.
A great author embarks on a strange journey in which the past and the present are intertwined. This meditation on language, love and artistic creation, by Angelopoulos is emotionally compelling and intellectually invigorating.
WINNER - Palme D'Or Cannes Film Festival 98
Peter Mullan's debut feature is a painfully funny account of three brothers and their sister coming to terms with the death of their mother. A beautifully tailored mixture of pathos and gallows humour.
Ecumenical prize - Cannes Festival 1998.
Best Film Venice 1998
When the world-weary Dora is 'lumbered' with nine year old Josue she grudgingly takes him on a journey to find his father. The quest becomes a mutually enriching one in so many unexpected ways.
Triple Prize Winner Berlin Festival 1998
BAFTA Best Foreign Language Film 1999
One of the most subversively funny and challenging films to come out of America in recent years. Dealing compassionately and intelligently with taboo-breaking subject matters. The characters are not judged but treated with humanity and perception in this charting of their missed chances to find happiness. A profoundly affecting look at modem American society
International Critics' Prize, Cannes Festival 1999
Khoja's debut feature is a lovingly crafted, sublime piece of film making, using as a background, the ancient 5000 year tradition of the passing of Hindustani songs from mother to daughter, by oral instruction only, encouraging almost a spiritual bond between teacher and pupil. Set in contemporary New Dehli, an acclaimed singer loses her ability to perform when her mother (and teacher) dies.
Audience Award London Film Festival 1998
"We come in peace ...don't run"..Ker..sp.. latt!!
Pierce Brosnan, Danny Devito Glenn Close, Jack Nicholson, Rod Steiger and many more stars including Tom the Song! battle against little green men. A wonderfully subversive big budget Hollywood movie. As it glee-fully trashes so much of our contemporary culture it has us rooting for the space invaders all the way.
Mckellar writes, directs, and acts in his first feature. A witty study on an intimate scale, of how a particular group of people prepare for their final moments.
Embattled primary head teacher at war in the classroom.
International Critics’ Prize, Berlin 1999, Ecumenical Jury Prize, Berlin 1999
Joint Best Actress Award, Cannes 1998
Double Palme d’Or winner returns to his beloved gypsies. Prepare to be swept away by this uproarious comedy amid the teeming gypsy community of the former Yugoslavia.
Winner, Silver Lion, Venice Film Festival 1998
Immortality and a change of sex was the elegant and witty way in which Virginia Woolf dealt with the mysteries of gender, death and history in her novel ORLANDO. Sally Potter's visually captivating film, based lovingly on the book, provides 'a beautiful historic pageant of 400 years of English history, full of grand visual and aural pleasures, sly jokes,emotional truths - and romance.' Time Out.
Orlando's humanity is wittily encompassed by the magnificent Tilda Swinton supported by an idiosyncratic cast including Quentin Crisp as Queen Elizabeth lst. A stunning visual treat.
Imagine making your first film at 17 and then it to become a festival hit at Cannes. Based upon the case of a poor family in Teheran where young girl twins were liberated by social workers after being shut away for years by selves.
Samira's father is one of the most famous film makers in Iran and this breathtakingly beautiful vision of nomadic life in Iran will hopefully introduce a wider audience to his work. Based on the life and art of the makers of Iranian carpets known as gabbehs, it portrays the imaginative power and poetry of ordinary people in their struggle for personal freedom.
In 18th century Europe the stars of baroque opera were the castrati. This is the lavish biopic of angel-voiced Castrato singer Farinelli and his composer brother Riccardo. Dramatic conflict is sparked by a test of the brothers' loyalty, when the composer Handel wants to write for Farinelli but abandon Riccardo . A feast for the eyes and ears. An exotic treat for anyone who loves the colour, the drama, and music of the world of opera.
Winner of Un Certain Regard at Cannes 1999 and chosen for the prestigious closing night slot at The Edinburgh Film festival, BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE is a tale of the entwined lives of a motley assembly of Brits and Bosnian refugees. Poking fun at the terrible madness of nationalism, scoffing at the damaging prides and prejudices that fester in many people. This wonderfully manic comedy is a sharp reminder of what it is to be really human, inspires hope and a film everyone should see.
Heathcote Williams, Karl Johnson, Toyah Wilcox.
Jarman's Tempest is very far from Prospero's island and storm-wrecked ships. The labyrinthine settings and startling shifts in time and style reflect the director's aesthetic and artistic preoccupations in that images are associative and poetic rather than at the service of Shakespeare's narrative. A highly original film from one of Britain's most innovative directors, whose early death was a tragic loss to cinema.
Juliette Binoche, Benoit Regent, Winner Golden Lion and Best Actress: Venice 93
Blue is a study of notions of individual freedom in the modern world. A rich symphony of colour, music and emotion begins this three part cinematic meditation of the human condition within the present day. Julie is the only survivor of a car crash in which her composer husband and daughter die. Her life is shattered and she increasingly becomes reclusive, but her past catches up with her when a journalist tracks her down and confronts her with the accusation that it was actually she who was the composer of her husband's work.
Toshiro Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, Minoru Chiaki.
In this feudal Japanese setting of Macbeth, Kurosawa's adaptation of Shakespeare's story is mightily effective. The Samurai background enhances the revelation of the murderous ambition of Washizu (Toshiro Mifune), while his wife Asaji, chills the blood with her manipulative scheming. The director's mastery of visual and dramatic technique makes it easy to understand why this was T.S.Eliot's favourite film.
Laurence Fishburne, Irene Jacob, Kenneth Branagh.
Oliver Parker has allowed Kenneth Branagh to shine in the 'puppet-master' role of Iago, the slighted lieutenant of Othello (Laurence Fishburne). Wreaking revenge, Iago ensnares the jealous Moor in his complicated web of deceit. This classic tale of love and the deadly power of jealousy "explodes into passion, violence and moving sorrow." Time Out
William Eady, Mandy Mathews, Tommy Flanagan.
A hit at Cannes 1999 and winner of awards at Edinburgh and London Film festivals.
Set on a Glasgow council estate during the 70's dustmen's strike, Ratcatcher follows the story of James, a young boy who escapes his cruel childhood by visiting a new greenbelt housing development. Already renowned for her Cannes-winning short films, Ramsay's impressionistic approach to narrative yields riches galore. Her bold visual sense, droll wit and remarkably tender but unsentimental take on the characters makes for a distinctly poetic brand of film making. A fabulous and exotic portrait of childhood
lnnokenti Smoktunovsky, Mikhail Nazvanov, Elza Radzina-Szolkonis.
"Hamlet is a bell that awakens our consciences" wrote Grigori Kozintsev and his version of Shakespeare's troubled Prince of Denmark (from a translation into Russian by Boris Pasternak) focuses on an introspective but very human young man whose way of thinking is his principal weapon but who is nonetheless capable of firm decision. The result is a brilliant exposition of thought transformed into action, shot in stark, black and white photography to the accompaniment of a score by Shostakovich.
Sharon Stone, Gena Rowlands, Harry Dean Stanton
From the director of Funny Bones and Hear My Song, this is the truly inspiring story of two boys' friendship. Max is a giant, lumbering oaf, taunted, near-illiterate and near-mute. His new neighbour, Kevin, is a bright, tiny, disabled and bullied 'freak'. Together they develop a passion for Arthurian legend, and embark on a series of quests which empower the duo to overcome their challenges. Funny, uplifting, and full of magic.
Al Pacino, Kevin Spacey, Winona Ryder, Alec Baldwin.
In his directorial debut, Al Pacino has made Shakespeare's powerful drama, Richard III, accessible to a wider audience.
We follow the cast working through rehearsals, while John Gielgud, Kenneth Branagh and Vanessa Redgrave also appear as we glimpse the process that goes into mounting a production and creating characters.
"Informative, engrossing and hugely enjoyable" Empire
Julie Delpy, Janusz Gajos, Zbigniew Zamachowski
Winner Silver Bear and Best Director: Venice 94.
Karol's French wife divorces him after 6 months of unconsummated marriage. Having lost everything he is reduced to busking on the Paris Metro, but when he returns to the new capitalist Poland his luck changes, and then he tries to 'get even'. White ends with a touching, lyrical admission of the dangerous power of love.
Cecilia Roth, Marisa Paredes, Candella Pena; Penelope Cruz.
The popular choice for the big prize at Cannes 1999, but did get the Best Director Award at least. Almodovar's best yet will thrill his followers as well as winning new fans. With an outstanding female cast this celebration of mothers, all things female and high melodrama is his best since Tie Me Up Tie Me Down. Almodovar's exhilarating use of his art is a joy to behold.
Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Michael Keaton, Keanu Reeves
A teeming, joyful, acrobatic introduction high in the hills of Tuscany heralds the opening of a pruned but captivating international version of Shakespeare's troubling comedy. With Washington as the Duke, Reeves as a splendidly imperious John the bastard, Keaton and Elton as the clueless Dogberry and Verges, and Branagh and Thompson as the 'romantic' Beatrice and Benedick, we see some of the best verbal jousting in the language.
Kelsey Grammar, Amanda Donohoe, Genevieve Tessier
The winning film as selected by the all-children panel at Belfast's Cinemagic Film Festival '98. Howard Spitz (Kelsey Grammar of Frazier) writes really bad detective novels and hardly sells any at all. He decides to try his hand at children's books with the help of a 10 year-old girl he meets in the local library. His problems start when he becomes a success and can't cope with the fame. A great buddy movie but with a different angle.
Ian McKellen, Annette Bening, Kristin Scott-Thomas, Jim Broadbent, Robert Downey JR, Nigel Hawthorne, Maggie Smith.
Loncraine's version is a light-year away from Olivier's. The director, who had previously avoided the Bard, wanted to team-up with the classically trained McKellen, and the result is a fresh vision of Shakespeare's grand design. Set in a 1930's civil war England, this is "a seamless, high-octane thriller of power and politics, one for today and tomorrow." (Time Out)
Leonardo DiCaprio, Clare Danes, Pete Postlethwaite.
Modern day Verona Beach, Florida ...with mafia-type families, customised cars and designer guns, the story is as relevant today as ever. Shakespeare's genius was in telling intricate stories in an entertaining way for a mass audience. Luhrmann gives us two hours of breathtaking imagination, stunning visuals and a brilliant soundtrack in this gleeful cinematic update. Every word spoken is from the original 400 year old text. The film set a bench mark for the rush to put Shakespeare on celluloid.
Irene Jacob, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Jean-Piere Lorit
The conclusion of this pan-European trilogy is set in Geneva with a tale of parallel lines and interwoven destinies that draws connecting threads with the two previous films. At its heart is an exploration of solitude and a desire for communication, faith, destiny and chance. A beautiful young woman meets and befriends a solitary and older ex-judge with a penchant for electronic eavesdropping.
Franke Potente, Moritz Bleibtren, Herbert Knaup
Lola (Potente) has 20 minutes to raise 100,000 marks to replace the money her boyfriend has lost. The problem is, the boyfriend's boss is a gangster and it's his money. This is a very old, simple story but told in a visually striking way, one which has proved very successful overseas, netting a number of prizes, including the Audience Award at the 1999 Venice festival.
Joseph Fiennes, Gwyneth Paltrow, Judi Dench, Ben Affleck, Geoffrey Rush, Tom Wilkinson, Simon Callow, Colin Firth, Imelda Staunton, Martin Clunes, Antony Sher...
Another chance to see... Yes, but it certainly bears repetition, so feast your eyes and ears once more on a fascinating re-creation of Elizabethan England, with Joseph Fiennes sparkling as the young poet, Gwyneth Paltrow deserving her plaudits in a demanding role, and a fine supporting cast - all skilfully delivering Tom Stoppard's witty lines, including a magnificent finale featuring a certain Patron of the Theatre-by-the-Lake.
John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Tim Roth, Bruce Willis, Amanda Plummer, Christopher Walken.
Tarantino and writer Roger Avary create a web of events and characters that ultimately all play parts of a larger story...the tale is far more sprawling and complex, but it also rewards and satisfies.
The entire cast exudes the confidence of the script and sell their often brutally witty dialogue well. The superb packaging of cool music and luscious cinematography completes the deal. And the ribbon that ties it all together is a delightfully clever conclusion. BBCi
Joseph Cotten, Orson Welles, Trevor Howard.
'This is a full-blooded, absorbing story adapted from the book by Graham Greene, which reflects credit on all concerned.
The locale is postwar Vienna, which is controlled by the combined military force of the four occupying powers, and revolves around the black market and all its unsavoury ramifications. Holly Martins, a young American writer, arrives to join his friend, Harry Lime, who has promised him a job. He just gets to him in time to attend his funeral, following a street accident. Suspicious of conflicting evidence and with a strong hunch that Harry was murdered, Holly decides to unravel the mystery despite a warning to lay off by a British major who discloses the real nature of his friend's activities.' Variety
'Drummer Charlie Flagg (Matthew Hennessey), a gregarious nonstop talker, forms a rock band in North Carolina with singer and songwriter Tony Ridge (Lee Holmes) who's just been fired from his job. Only problem is that Tony's so shy, he hides in a closet while trying out his songs. They add two other members to the band which takes the name "Circus Monkey": Wynn Knopp (Kevin Corrigan), a perpetually stoned guitarist, and Eric Elwood (Steve Parlavecchio), a bass player who's got a loan shark on his case.
Writer and director John Schultz has fashioned a funny and rollickingly good movie about the challenges of keeping a band together on the road.' Spirituality and Practice
"Blade Runner" impresses with its inquiry into the nature of memory, identity, and what it means to be human. The characters, behind their damaged and defensive facades, are complex and well realised. Harrison Ford's performance as the world-weary Deckard, and Rutger Hauer's portrayal of the terrifying yet sympathetic Batty, are noteworthy.
"Blade Runner" fully and richly deserves its reputation. It is simply one of the most extraordinary films ever made.' BBCi
Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss.
'"No one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself." says Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), the earnest, elegant John the Baptist figure in the Wachowski brothers' allegorical science fiction masterpiece. Well, we'll give it a shot.
He's talking to Neo (Keanu Reeves), a blank-faced computer whizz who's about to go through the looking glass - out of the late 20th century world as he knows it, into the real, post-apocalyptic "desert of the real".
It's a reality where robots rule the planet and keep humans plugged into a virtual reality matrix, living in a dream world, while their energy fuels the machines.' BBCi
'Scott (Paul Mercurio), is a talented dancer who dreams of winning the Pan-Pacific Grand Prix. His maverick approach flies in the face of the rituals of ballroom dance and sees him being threatened with disbarment and without a partner. Enter the clumsy and visually challenged Fran (Tara Morice). Together, they do it their way and make their dreams of the National Championship title come true.
The plot is blatantly familiar, a romance blossoming between an unlikely pair, and they go on to conquer all, against all the opposition. But add Luhrmann's flamboyant style and you have a film that has a vibrant energy.' BBCi
Acclaimed at festivals everywhere, the film explores the connections between memory, imagination and identity - and our relationship with the movies and with each other - in the story about a normal week in limbo. Every Monday a new consignment of the recently dead arrive for processing. Each is allowed three days to choose the single moment in life he or she wants most to remember.. This moment is then recreated by actors and is then screened at week's end, before the shade passes on to eternity. Most comply, but businessman Mr Watanbe insists he can find no defining moment worthy of recall from an undistinguished and uneventful life.
Bill is a struggling writer in modern day London. In looking for inspiration he has taken to following individuals, but things turn a little awkward when he becomes involved with one of those he follows. An excellent first feature, and no surprise that Chris Nolan is now making his next film in Hollywood.
Microcosmos is an almost wordless account of a summer's day amongst the insect and creepy crawly world of a French meadow which took three years of painstaking work with microscopic cameras to complete. It went on to become a hit at festivals and in the box office throughout Europe.There has never been a nature film like this before, (and not a David Attenborough within sight.)
Winner -Technical Prize, Cannes 1997
Dublin director Damien O'Donnell graduates from award-winning shorts and video promos with a funny, invigorating, highly successful film based on Ayub Khan-Din's play about conflict in a Pakistani family in 1970's Salford. Nicknamed 'Genghis' by his nearest and dearest, George Khan is determined to raise his seven children as respectable married Muslims while his canny Lancastrian wife, concerned for their happiness and personnel fulfillment, slyly encourages the generational rift.
David Lynch (Wild at Heart, Blue Velvet) has veered away from his normal style and made a touchingly gentle film based on a true story which has become a great success. Alvin Straight decides to make the journey of 300 miles to make up with his estranged brother. He is determined to make his own way there and hitches up a makeshift trailer to his lawn mower and sets out on a six week journey through the American heartland and the wonderful characters he meets along the way.
Once again we try to make up for the lamentable cinema release this very good film received. Mike Hodges' (Get Carter) new thriller is set amongst the seedy London gambling world. Much more than a simple thriller, it comments on the possibly illusory theory that we can control our lives and avoid gambling in every sense of the term. An ambitious and intriguing film.
A young, pregnant Irish girl is in Birmingham looking for her feckless lover when she meets Mr Hilditch (Hoskins in brilliant form), a quiet and caring canteen manager who offers her a lift and friendly advice. Atom Egoyan is a master of creating disturbing cinema and this gripping adaptation of the William Trevor novel is like nothing else you will see in the cinema today. Look out also for his award winning films, Exotica and The Sweet Hereafter
Distinguished by a fine British cast and a clever script, this is an elegantly crafted Victorian yarn brimming with intrigue, deception and class conflict which charts the extraordinary true story of one of the most sensational cases in British legal history. TICHBORNE is a refreshing period drama which, while maintaining an impressive sense of the Victorian era, has a lightness of style and an atmosphere of elegant fun and eccentricity which make it a thoroughly enjoyable film to watch.
The first ever commercial release for a film made in Bhutan and in the Tibetan language. It is 1998 and World Cup fever has reached the Indian Himalayas. THE CUP is a delightful comedy about the lighter side of living in a Tibetan Monastery. A touching story that tackles the issues of winning and losing, life in exile and the impact of the modern on the traditional, and…the eternal question: where DO you find a TV to watch the big game?
An unsuccessfully puppeteer (John Cussack) discovers a 'portal' into the mind of John Malkovich and sets up a business selling 15 minute rides inside the actor's head.
This amazingly original, surreal comedy (Jonze's first feature) is all the more surprising as it comes from a Hollywood studio. The cast masterfully keep the audience involved in the convoluted plot, while Jonze has shown himself to be one of the most audacious debut directors in recent times.
Nominated for three Academy Awards, inclusing Best Director.
Returning to England from a bombing run in May 1945, flyer Peter Carter's plane is damaged and his parachute ripped to shreds. He has his crew bail out safely, but figures it is curtains for himself. He gets on the radio, and talks to June, a young American woman working for the RAF, and they are quite moved by each other's voices. Then he jumps, preferring this to burning up with his plane. He wakes up in the surf. It was his time to die, but there was a mixup in heaven. They couldn't find him in all that fog. By the time his "Conductor" catches up with him 20 hours later, Peter and June have met and fallen in love. This changes everything, and since it happened through no fault of his own, Peter figures that heaven owes him a second chance. Heaven agrees to a trial to decide his fate.
One of the best films to come out of Spain in recent years, Abre lo ojos apparently starts off as a romantic drama, but soon grabs the viewer's emotions as it becomes a psychological thriller which probes the mind and identity of Cesar (Noriega) following the accident that overwhelms his life and his grip on reality. Amongst it thought provoking subjects id the question of whether money can really but happiness - if so, how much are you prepared to pay? The 'Spanish Hitchcock' as Amenbar has been called, will keep you guessing until the final frame.
An Oscar winning performance by Hilary Swank as the confused, abused, victim of small-town and small-minded prejudice. Deceiving an entire community into accepting her as a man where (s)he is readily accepted until the truth is out, Boys Don't Cry is compelling, absorbing and ultimately tragic. It is a timeless story of star-crossed love told in a simple, non judgmental way that will have you engrossed from beginning to end. Based on a true event.
Departing from his previous, highly successful voilence-and-gangster films, we see that 'Beat' Takeshi has lost none of his technical brilliance and his ability to surprise and delight with this heart-warming, eccentric and, at times, hilarious journey through modern Japan of the 9 year old Masao 'protected' by the overgrown delinquent Kikurijo. An untapped capacity for responsibility and compassion emerges in the man as self discovery infuses their poignant relationship and bittersweet journey towards maturity.
Temple returns to the story of the Sex Pistols twenty years after his film The Great Rock and Roll Swindle - now admitted by Temple to be largely manager McLaren's version of events. Mixing Templ's own footage with contemporary TV material, The Filth and the Fury (a reference to a tabloid headline of the time) is a response to the earlier film, allowing the surviving members of the band to tell their story of the most chaotic two years in rock 'n' roll history.
Mafia hitman, Ghost Dog (Whitaker), lives on the roof of a deserted building, communicates with the rest of the world by carrier pigeon, and lives his life by the code of the Samurai. When Ghost Dog himself becomes the target of a gangland hit, Jarmusch inventively treats us to his trademark feast of bizarre situations and eccentric characters.
Yimou Zhang (Raise the Red Lantern) continues on a fine form with this great film, winner of the Golden Lion at Venice 1999. It is simple, moving and universal (has been compared to David Lynch's The Straight Story and De Sica's Bicycle Thieves), and tells the tale of a 13-year old girl (Wei) entrusted with the task of keeping all 28 pupils (not one less) at their studies in the absence of their teacher, Gao. When troublemaker Zhang Huike runs off to the City, Wei must bring back the truant.
Quite simply one of the best gangster films ever made. Razor-sharp scipt, top-class acting and brilliant performances from Bob Hoskins as the self-deluding 'master' gangster superbly supported by a vampish Helen Mirren make this a must see experiance. And it's British, with all the action taking place in London. This is the gritty reality end of gangster films and shows modern pretenders how it should be done.
We gladly raise the profile of Belgian cinema (Rosetta is also a candidate for our Festival in February) with this straight-faced, dark comedy. Ambitious reporter Roger (Benoît Poelvoorde, last seen in the UK in Man Bites Dog) obsessively coaches his son Michel to break the world record for opening and closing a door in 24 hours. Never shying away from blacker topics than are normally to be seen in a comedy. Mariage has constructed a beautiful, unsentimental film with unforced surrealist moments worthy of the country that brought us Magritte.
Mike Leigh's story of William Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan staging the first performance of The Mikado, this is a beautiful period drama, a musical extravaganza and an intelligent critique Victorian values. We are treated to a highly comic glimpse of the theatre company's lives, excerpts from the G&S operettas, and Oscar-winning costume and make-up, a cinematic treat.
Mulit-award winning epic with a host of stunning performances. Structured round the songs of Aimee Mann is a complex weaving of nine people's lives over the course of a day. The film builds to a climax of emotions through a series of images that will stay with you for a long time to come.
(N.B Strong language)
An absorbed and profoundly moving story of the blind boy Mohammad, magnificently played by Mohsen Ramezani, whose freedom of spirit and idealism conflict with the fear resignation and misery of his father, who curses his luck at having his prospects ruined by a handicapped son - all in the surroundings of Iran's glorious northern highlands.
Figgis's self-referential Hollywood drama presents the viewer with a screen split into quadrants, each simultaneously displaying an unbroken 93-minute shot. Making the audience look at the way our perceptions of the world have been affected by film, this jaundiced satire is a virtuoso exercise of timing, lighting and planning.
The third part of Gitai's "city" trilogy focuses on two women in Jerusalem's ultra-orthodox Hassidic Jewish community. Slowly and simply, the film observes, in long, immaculate takes, how this sternly patriarchal society entraps woman as servants of reproduction. Patience with the measured pace is rewarded with impeccable devastating filmmaking.
Henry Fonda, Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards, Charles Bronson.
The best Western ever made? With scriptwriting collaborators Argento and Bertolucci, one of the greatest film scores from Morricone, and a cast including a blue-eyed Fonda, how could Leone fail to produce a masterpiece? The famous fifteen-minute opening scene is as audacious as anything you will ever see on screen.
Nicole Stephane, Edouard Dhermitte, Jacques Bernard.
The Melville/Cocteau collaboration creates a magical film which captures the visual and textual elements of Cocteau's work with stunning accuracy. Music by Bach and Vivaldi, a mesmeric narration and vivid monochrome photography add subtle, menacing beauty to the inexorable tale of defiance, which unfolds like Greek tragedy and portrays youth in its most decadent and macabre form.
John Getz, Frances McDormand, Dan Hedaya, M Emmet Walsh.
A modern film noir in which greed and lust trap the characters in an escalating, nightmarish terror. This was the first collaboration from the brothers Coen, made on a limited budget, with strong central performances and a plot which twists upon itself to delicious effect.
Teresa Stratus, Placido Domingo, Cornell McNeil.
Dumas's story, transformed into Verdi's hauntingly beautiful opera, gains yet another dimension as cinema by Zeffirelli. The overture begins and we are drawn into the tragedy - Violetta is alone and dying, while bailiffs empty her once magnificent salon. Brilliant depictions of that lost world through flashbacks further intensify the poignancy of the love story as it winds to its moving end.
BAFTA Awards 1984: 'Best Production Design/Art Direction' and 'Best Costume Design'
Gillian Anderson, Eric Stoltz, Dan Ackroyd, Elizabeth McGovern.
The ravishing but penniless socialite Lily Bart (Anderson) learns that only marriage will bring her acceptance in the brutal, brittle climate of turn-of- the-century Manhattan society where appearances are all. Her heart-breaking situation (jealousy and malice threaten) infuses a period drama that provides an astute commentary on our own society.
Jalil Laspert, Jean-Claude Vallod, Chantal Barre.
Highly-regarded at the Edinburgh Festival, and praised by the extremely hard-to-please French critics, Cantet's extraordinary debut feature examines the emotional and political impact of social chance. Franck arrives as Director of Human Resources, new broom at the ready, at the factory where his father has worked on the shop-floor for 30 years.
Julie Christie, Oskar Werner, Cyril Cusack, Anton Diffring.
Truffaut's remarkable adaptation of Ray Bradbury's sci-fi novel about an alarming future where books are banned: they make people unhappy and burn at the temperature of the title. We witness the fireman, Montag (Werner), torn between his wife and a dissident teacher (both played by Christie) and his choices in the eternal search for happiness.
John Cusack, Iben Hjejle, Todd Louiso, Jack Black.
Nick Hornby's best-selling tale of a man, his music and his problems with commitment is transposed from London to Chicago with surprisingly good results. Frears, Cusack and the Grosse Point Blank team have produced a film which some believe is even better than the book.
Frances McDormand, Steve Buscemi, William H. Macy.
The plan of incompetent criminal Jerry (Macy) to ransom his wife goes horribly wrong when his henchmen bungle the kidnap and pregnant cop McDormand is called in to investigate. Boasting wonderful performances from McDormand and Macy (a veteran of Mamet plays), Fargo mixes humour, suspense and mystery with wry social observation. Beautifully written and, finally, very moving.
Nanako Mastushima, Mika Nakatani, Hiroyuki Sanada.
A cult phenomenon in the Far East, this is a chilling tale of an investigation into rumours that students, having watched a mysterious video, received a phone call telling them that they will die in one week's time. Seven days later they are dead. The investigators find themselves racing against the same deadly deadline.
Catherine Deneuve, Emmanuelle Béart, Vincent Perez, John Malkovich.
Based on the last volume of Marcel Proust’s monumental novel A la recherche du temps perdu, this sumptuous adaptation demands all of Ruiz’s visual inventiveness and technical virtuosity. Proust looks back on his life, loves and memories shaped by the decadent French aristocracy amongst whom he wandered, capturing their monstrosity with his brilliant novelist’s eye.
Joel McCrae, Veronica Lake, Robert Warwick.
When film director, John L. Sullivan (McCrae) tires of his escapist movies, he hits the road as a hobo to seek background for his planned work of social seriousness, O Brother Where Art Thou? Partly inspiring the Coen's latest outing this is Sturges (a lasting influence on the brothers) at his most satirically comic and exuberantly anarchic.
Frances O’Connor, Johnny Lee Miller, Harold Pinter.
Combining elements of Jane Austen’s novel with material from her journal, Patricia Rozema has crafted a most successful screen adaptation. Witty, passionate and believable, the protagonists prove once again that the course of true love seldom runs smooth, but this Fanny Price, poor relation oppressed by wealthy relatives, is a feisty lass...
George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake-Nelson, Charles Dunning.
George Clooney is a vainglorious charmer who breaks from a chain gang in a tale loosely based on Homer's Odyssey. The Coens' most recent film is a glorious mix of road movie, musical and Preston Sturges-type screwball comedy (the title is an allusion to the film Joel McCrae wants to make in Sullivans Travels).
Saffron Burrows, Peter Mullan, Maria Doyle Kennedy.
Brilliant acting illuminates this masterpiece of love and humiliation across class boundaries. In a battle of wills between the count’s beautiful daughter (Burrows) and his footman (Mullan), love and tenderness, but also anger, hate and feelings of inadequacy alternate in a superbly effective and faithful interpretation of Strindberg’s drama.
Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Alan Cumming.
Against an authentic backdrop of ancient Rome, in this seldom-performed story of bloody double revenge, Hopkins is magnificent as Titus Andronicus, the Roman general returning home from his defeat of the northern Goths, whose Queen (Lange) remains a formidable adversary. Horror, pathos and the blackest of humour are blended in a most intelligent and audacious interpretation.
Behzad Dourani, the villagers of Siah Dareh.
Kiarostami reclaims his crown as 'greatest living Iranian film director' - no small tribute in the last two years of fine films from that country. This Venice Festival Jury Prize-winning tale of an encounter between westernised sophisticates from Tehran and apparently simple villagers provides a "subtle personal debate about the value of being alive", as the Variety critic put it.
Inspired by Herman Melville's Billy Budd, the film unfolds in flashback form as a former Foreign Legion sergeant-major remembers his service in the remoteness of Djibouti. Perfect cinematography conveys the appeal of the azure sea and the athletic, graceful movements of the soldiers. A visual treat and a beautifully crafted soundtrack.
The fictional biopic of the world's second best guitarist, Emmet Ray, and his obsession with Django Reinhardt, the real jazz guitarist who stunned Paris from the 30s to the 50s with the brilliance of his playing. So lovingly made, it evokes a slice of jazz history that we somehow missed - make sure you don't let it pass by again.
At last, the 1999 Cannes Palme d'Or winner (and Best Actress Award) comes to Keswick. An uncompromising portrait of a tough Belgian teenager struggling against life's trial in the shape of job-finding problems, an alcoholic mother and harsh living conditions. Her hope and determination are superbly captured by these gifted directors.
An uncompromising, semi auto-biographical tale from writer/director Oldman, who grew up in working-class London, the setting for this bleak account of domestic violence, addiction and crime. Burke (Best Actress, Cannes) and Winstone give superb performances, while Oldman's directorial debut has been likened to the work of Cassavetes - praise indeed.
Wong Kai-Wai departs from the fast, hand-held excitement of the acclaimed Chungking Express to relay, in a restrained and exquisite style, the story of two neighbours brought together by the suspicion that their spouses are having an affair. With everything ambiguously left to the audience's imagination, the mystery of the leads' suppressed emotions is left intact.
The story of pre-Revolutionary Versailles and how aristocratic courtiers gained political advancement through the ridiculing of others. Provincial hydrologist, de Malavoy (Berling), soon learns that his sharp wit may gain him the ear of the king and so royal sponsorship of his marsh-draining scheme. Leconte's finest?
Oscar-nominated as Best Foreign Film for its visually stunning widescreen cinematography and authentic drama, Himalaya tells the story of a perilous trek to trade salt for grain in the dizzying locations of these spectacular mountains. Family conflicts introduce human emotions - tragedy, pride, power and ancestral prejudices - into the struggle against the elements.
In 1927, Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont are a famous on-screen romantic pair. Lina, however, mistakes the on-screen romance for real love. Don has worked hard to get where he is today, with his former partner Cosmo. When Don and Lina's latest film is transformed into a musical, Don has the perfect voice for the songs. But Lina - well, even with the best efforts of a diction coach, they still decide to dub over her voice. Kathy Selden is brought in, an aspiring actress, and while she is working on the movie, Don falls in love with her. Will Kathy continue to "aspire", or will she get the break she deserves ?
Those who relished Nolan's ultra-low budget Following will not be disappointed by the follow-up. Guy Pearce stars as a man suffering from short-term memory-loss, unable to recall anything for more than a few minutes, who attempts to track down his wife's killer. Nolan remains one of our most original and intelligent talents.
Set against the backdrop of western China's magnificent landscape, this is Lee's (The Ice Storm) poignant tale of a quest to find love, an assassin, and a lost jade sword. A martial arts film which harks back to the era of Tao-infused spiritual epics, rather than modern "chop-socky" pulp filmmaking.
Javier Bardem's heart-breaking central performance prompted his Oscar nomination for Best Actor in this biopic of poet, Reinaldo Arenas. Having fought for the revolution, Arenas finds himself imprisoned and an outcast in Castro's homophobic Cuba. Schnabel employs a lyrical narration of Arenas's texts with a subtlety and intensity that has lead to the poet's books selling by the thousand in the US.
Venice Film Festival 2000, Grand Jury Prize.
A graceful, subtle film which probes the oppression and suffering of Tunisian wives and mothers. Confined to the island of Djerba while the men enjoy the freedom to live and work where they will, returning for a month's 'season' to their families, the women merit Tlatli's sensitive plea for understanding, compassion and change.
Grand Jury Prize-winner at both Cannes and Los Angeles, this is the tale of two teachers setting out in Iranian Kurdistan, near the dangerous Iraqi border, to convince reluctant villagers of the joys of learning. Their encounters are extraordinary, as is the ability of local people to survive in a malevolent world.
Cannes 2000 Jury Prize (shared with Songs From The Second Floor)
A young Russian woman arrives in Britain with her ten-year-old son. She mistakenly applies for political asylum and thus begins a desperate struggle for survival. Pawlikowski's graceful, economic style augments the perfect performances of Korzun and Considine. At last, a British film that has something powerfully pertinent to say about contemporary Britain.
Edinburgh Film Festival 2000, Winner Best New British Feature
BAFTA 2000 Winner Most Promising Newcomer
A reissue of Elvis Presley's 1970 Las Vegas concert movie featuring 20 of the King's classics. This 'Special Edition' disposes of the original's fan testimonials and concentrates on Presley at work.
There is nothing quite like this film. Andersson keeps his camera static, recording just one take per scene in this haunting, peculiar and funny collection of loosely linked sketches and tableaux. A synopsis doesn't do justice to the stunning imagery in Andersson's surreal and expressionistic compositions. Try it...
Cannes 2000 Jury Prize (shared with Blackboards)
Dragged by his wife to the local theatre, factory-owner Castella falls heavily for the leading lady. He must reform his lifestyle, which leads to complications of his own and other people's taste, and to several complications of the heart. Attempts to cross borders and intermingle in society create much mirth in this Oscar-nominated Gallic web.
The most highly acclaimed film of the year opens with a reassurance that no animals were harmed in its making, but be warned: Amores Perros is slang for 'tough love', and this is an unapologetically tough triptych of overlapping tales, each with the common theme of perros - dogs. The sprawl of Mexico City provides the backdrop for this ground-breaking commentary on 21st century civilisation.
Academy Awards 2001: Nominated Best Foreign Language Film
Cannes: Winner Canal+ Award
Edinburgh Film Festival: Winner New Director's Award
A couple, shattered by their daughter's death, go to Venice to forget, only to find a second death is foretold and implicated in the first. Roeg's chilling adaptation of the Daphne du Maurier short story comes high in the British Film Institute's chart of best British films for good reason. A new print allows Roeg's dazzling existential riddle to shine through. Don't walk home alone...
Scripted by Ingmar Bergman, directed by his erstwhile leading lady (and lover) Liv Ullman: who better to portray the anguish, cruelty and guilt of an extramarital affair? Veering between her orchestra-conductor husband and film-director friend (an echo of Bergman's past), Marianne, superbly played by Lena Endre, threatens everyone, including, harrowingly, her young daughter.
A woman named Grace retires with her two children to a mansion on Jersey, towards the end of the Second World War, where she's waiting for her husband to come back from battle. The children have a disease which means they cannot be touched by direct sunlight without being hurt in some way. They will live alone there with oppressive, strange and almost religious rules, until she needs to hire a group of servants for them. Their arrival will accidentally begin to break the rules with unexpected consequences.
A multi-prizewinning film whose rich, complex plot reveals strands interwoven with poetic precision. The characters - family, neighbours, business associates, friends - are depicted (like their country) as positive, anxious, prosperous, insecure, and treated with deep humanism and touching humour. Do see it: it's a life-enhancing experience.
"Only rarely is a film this tender and observant about the ups and downs of daily existence" Roger Ebert
Although starting darkly, this uplifting film, inspired by a true store develops into a warm comedy about the need for people to adapt to find happiness. Stunning Cinemascope images, a moody score and a superb central performance from Regina Casé (ably supported by the three male leads) comes together in an unsentimental study of women's changing role in Brazilian society.
Winner in Cannes, Cartagena, Brazil, Havana and Karlovy Vary Festivals
MacKendrick is better known as the director of The Ladykillers, Whisky Galore and other Ealing comedies. This film basically finished his career: a disaster on its release, it has become recognised as a true classic. A brilliant depiction of the lure of fame, and the depths to which some sink in its pursuit. Quite stunning.
Intrigued by the tale of one woman's journey across Afghanistan to save her friend, Mohsen Makmahlbaf risked entering the country to research his screenplay. Nafas leaves her refuge in Canada to brave the Taleban regime in an endeavour to ensure her sister's survival. A vibrant plea for women, and for humanity in general.
Ecumenical Jury Prize, Cannes 2001
Two friends, dissenting scriptwriters, decide to write a contemporary political film. In this clever 'film within a film' the story of a small family garage at odds with globalisation becomes ever more outrageous, as the whole Moliterno family rallies, along with the local Marseille community, against the banks and multinationals.
Set in Stockholm in 1975, "Together" charts the trials and tribulations of a Swedish hippie-commune as they grapple with the thornier aspects of free love, political engagement and child rearing. Writer/director Lukas Moodysson's skilfully woven tale reaches a tender conclusion and even manages to use an ABBA soundtrack to considerable dramatic effect.
Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, Gustav Froehlich, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, George Heinrich.
Many of the images, ideas and characters, first seen in this birth of science fiction cinema still prevail today, setting the standard for modern practitioners. The story itself, the timeless struggle between capital and labour, conjures up images as powerful and relevant as when it was first released. A truly landmark film.
Tim Robbins, Paul Newman, Jennifer Jason-Leigh, Charles Durning.
In a fairytale 50's New York, scheming Vice-President of Hudsucker Industries (the priceless Paul Newman) installs mail-room hayseed Norville Barnes (Tim Robbins) as President in a bid for the chair himself. Norville, to everyone's surprise, has ideas of his own, including one that's, you know! For kids!! Lushly photographed by Coen regular Roger Deakins, this hilariously exuberant satire remains one of the Brothers most polished and purely enjoyable films.
Nominated Best Cinematography Award - Roger Deakins, British Society of Cinematographers
Nominated Palme d'Or - Joel Cohen, Cannes Film Festival
"A thoughtful, often visually striking agitprop work." - Alexander Walker , Evening Standard
"A jewel of a film" - The Guardian.
Czech surrealist Svankmajer takes a loose adaptation of the old Faust legend, in which a man sells his soul to the devil, and blends it with live action, claymation, puppet theatre, stop-motion animation and special effects. The result is a film as far from Disney as you can get - animation for both the mind and the eye.
With Live Piano Performance from Neil Brand
Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, Francis Lederer, Carl Goetz
Enjoy the live performance of internationally-renowned film accompanist Neil Brand, as his piano helps interpret this silent German classic.The film's main protagonist, Lulu, is radiant, outrageous, provocative - but somehow strangely innocent, winning our sympathy when confronted by a series of predators: several men - and a woman...
Laura Linney, Mark Ruffalo, Matthew Broderick.
A single mother's life is thrown into turmoil after her tearaway younger brother returns to town. Lonergan tackles the difficult relationship of sister and brother without resorting to trite resolutions, leaving characters open to possibilities and thus allowing us to share in their emotions.
Three Academy Awards nominations, including Best Actress and Best Screenplay
Winner Sutherland Trophy, London Film Festival 2000
Winner Grand Jury Prize, Sundance Film Festival 2000
In post-World War III Japan, a secret military project turns a biker gang member into a raging psionic psychopath. For his debut feature, Otomoto reworks his own highly successful comic strip into a staggering piece of animation, its complex plot being both imaginative and serious.
Klaus Kinski, Werner Herzog, Claudia Cardinale, Mick Jagger.
The celebrated German filmmaker Werner Herzog revisits his turbulent and legendary love-hate relationship with actor Klaus Kinski, which was utterly puzzling to outsiders and yet survived five films together and mutual death threats. Using clips of Kinski's excesses and revisiting old haunts, Herzog paints a stirring picture of his departed comrade.
Sao Paulo International Film Festival 1999: Audience Award Best Documentary - Werner Herzog
Sam Waterston, Haing S Ngor, John Malkovich, Julian Sands, Bill Paterson.
1975. In the wake of American involvement in Vietnam, Cambodia became a national death camp under the brutal Khmer Rouge regime. Seen through the eyes of a New York Times reporter and his Cambodian assistant and interpreter, it's an angry and intelligent film, subtly acted and powerfully photographed by Chris Menges. A damning indictment of the Nixon administration and a document of one the blackest periods in history.
1985 Oscars: Winner Best Cinematography - Chris Menges. Winner Best Supporting Actor - Haing S. Ngor. Winner Best Film Editing - Jim Clark.
1985 BAFTAs: Nominated Best Actor, Director, Picture, Screenplay
Winner Film, Cinematography, Adapted Screenplay, Actor
1984 British Society of Cinematographers: Best Cinematography Award - Chris Menges
Candace Evanofski, Donald Holden, Curtis Cotton.
A deceptively simple tale of a group of children in a squalid North Carolina town who band together to cover up a tragic mistake. Green's poignant debut feature is an extraordinarily assured work with an aesthetic reminiscent of Days of Thunder yet totally original in its ability to make the ordinary look beautiful.
Winner, Best First Film, New York Film Critics Circle Awards, 2000
Grand Prize, Turin Film Festival
Mario Adorf, Angela Winkler, David Bennent.
Based on Gunther Grass's novel, The Tin Drum echoes the rise and fall of the Third Reich through the eyes of Oskar, who, appalled by the insanity of the (adult) world around him, decided to stop growing at the age of three and to bang on a tin drum. This at times absurd and grotesque film counts as one of the stellar achievements of German cinema since World War II.
Oscar for Best Foreign Film, 1980
Joint Palme d'Or Winner (with Apocalypse Now), Cannes 1979
Katherine Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, Robert Morley, Peter Bull.
Photographed by Jack (The Red Shoes) Cardiff, this beloved WWII classic sees Bogart's gin-swinging river trader and Hepburn's prim missionary escaping the Germans down the Ulonga-Bora river in East Africa. He wants to lay low till it's all over. She wants to take on a 100-ton German steamer. Negotiating obstacles both physical and psychological, they gradually develop a hard-earned love and respect for each other. Funny, romantic and exciting, it's pure golden age Hollywood escapism.
1952 Oscars
Winner Best Actor - Humphrey Bogart
Nominated Best Actress - Katherine Hepburn
Nominated Best Director - John Huston
Nominated Best Screenplay - John Huston, James Agee
Mercedes Moran, Graciela Borges, Martin Adjemian.
The best of New Argentine Cinema, Martel's atmospheric study of the lives of two women and their families in the small, provincial town of Salta has attracted festival plaudits from around the world. This debut feature is beautifully photographed and wonderfully acted, the film submerging the viewer in the day-to-day existence of the suburban middle class of Argentina.
Winner, Alfred Bauer Award, Berlin International Film Festival
In 1914, a team of explorers set out to find the lost continent of Atlantis. Disney's brave new, experimental animation is a great adventure for children and adults alike. Lots of spectacular action (including a remarkable closing sequence) keeps the little ones entertained, while the grown-ups will be impressed by the superb animation, the depth to the story, and the lack of cutesy talking animals!
Nominated for six Annie Awards, 2001 (US animation awards)
Hannelore Elsner, Vadim Glowna, Tonio Arango.
Based on the life of Rohler's mother, prominent German novelist and marxist Giseta Elsner, the story begins with the fall of the Berlin wall. This fascinating portrait of Hanna Flanders, an intellectual torn between her conflicting ideals and the new realities of a changing society, reveals a woman aiming to satisfy her human needs by heading for Berlin...
Best Picture: San Jose and Miami Festivals and 'German Film Awards'.
Best Actress: Bavarian and Chicago Festivals, 'German Film Awards'.
Best Director: Rotterdam, Karlovy Vary and Istanbul Festivals.
Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Leonard Rossiter.
With A.I.'s posthumous realisation minus Kubrick, this remains his only work of science fiction. But what a work! Ahead of its time even now, its a unique 'trip' though aeons of human history, from our primitive ape ancestors, to a future space mission to Jupiter. . . and beyond. Cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth, special effects artists, and Kubrick's legendary obsession for detail pull you into a totally believable reality, increasingly rewarding with each repeated viewing.
1969 BAFTAs: Winner Best Cinematography - Geoffrey Unsworth. Nominated Best Film - Stanley Kubrick
1969 Oscars: Winner Best Effects, Special Visual Effects - Stanley Kubrick.Nominated Best Director - Stanley Kubrick
Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz, Rufus, Yolande Moreau.
Discovering a schoolboy's tin of treasures, Amelie traces the owner and returns the box. From that moment on, she determines that bringing good to others shall be her life's work. Delicatessen director, Jeunet, has concocted a naively optimistic, sweet-hearted nostalgia-fest with breathtaking visual moments all anchored by the arresting performance of Tautou.
Winner, Audience Award, Edinburgh and Toronto Film Festivals, 2001
Nouvelle vague veteran Claude Chabrol depicts an isolated society rife with rumour and suspicion in a small Breton fishing village. Less a whodunnit than an investigation into the psychology and moral flaws of the chief protagonists (excellent acting - surprisingly? - from de Caunes) a girl's murder takes us to the heart of untruthfulness.
Nominated Golden Bear, Berlin 1999
A film that captures the bleak nature of lowlife in a godforsaken place. Yet it is a film of great power and beauty. Suppressed until the collapse of Communism, it has taken Damnation twelve years to obtain a release. A work of art.
LePage's first English language film is a stylish and surreal tale of a man who lives out several parallel lives in different "worlds" and in different relationships at the same time. Swinton produces a charismatic performance and the exquisite visuals keep the audience engaged as LePage muses on existential questions of existence.
Described by Variety (5/11/01) as a "spaghetti Eastern, 'Tears of the Black Tiger' charts the exploits of doomed star-crossed lovers Seua Dum, a spirited country lad, and his city girlfriend Rumpoey. The film is a gloriously kitsch, affectionate spoofing of the cowboy film, a stylish display of colour with an infectious soundtrack to boot.
Hammer horror, Jaws, Sleepy Hollow, The Matrix, Crouching Tiger...are all distilled, and largely outdone, in this tale of the Beast of Gévaudan in pre-Revolutionary south-western France. The rationality of the Enlightenment confronts local irrationality and atavistic cruelty in this extraordinarily exuberant, swashbuckling drama.
A treat for those who reveled in the sublime soundtrack to the Coen Brother's O Brother, Where Art Thou?, the film which spawned a million-selling CD and broadened the audience for gospel, blues, bluegrass and American folk music. Pennebaker's expert touch catches on stage the music that is at the heart of blues and soul.
Hailed as the Brothers' masterpiece, this neo-noir thriller is in the mould of a James M Cain pulp novel, yet in typical Coens style draws on so many genres it is impossible to categorise. The understated, enigmatic central performance of Thornton as the Barber is a stunning achievement, as is Roger Deakins' wonderful black and white photography. Do not miss.
Winner Best Director (shared with David Lynch) Cannes Film Festival 2001
Brilliant filmmaking by the young Austrian director, and a return to real acting by the star of Chocolat. Michael Haneke contrives to tell a love story in the format of 'inter-related lives' - his snapshot technique gives a taut thriller feel to the proceedings - and he even weaves in the asylum-seeker theme (for the third time in this season's films). You'll not fall asleep in front of this one.
During the heaviest fighting of the war in Bosnia in 1993, three injured soldiers find themselves trapped in a trench between enemy lines. The problem is: one is Serb and the other two, Bosnian, and now the trio must find some way of escaping this hopeless situation. Tanovic’s prize-winning debut uses black comedy and barbed dialogue to lift No Man’s Land into a suspenseful satire on the absurdities of war.
The indifference of UN officers, the superficiality of reports from journalists and especially the deep-seated mutual ethnic hatred of the warring sides are powerfully portrayed in this absurd theatre of war.
It is unlikely that any synopsis of this portrait of a small-town men's choir will convey just how affecting and inspirational this documentary is. The most successful film ever at the Norwegian box office, it follows the engaging group of men (ranging in age from late twenties to mid-nineties!) around their home town of Finnmark and on to their busy round of concerts. Theirs is the harshest of landscapes in which to survive, but they do so with such an indomitable pride that you'll be left in awe of their respect for nature and companionship, and in the power of the human voice.
Like another wonderful Mexican film, Amores Perros, this film is multi-layered. On the surface there is a voyage of sexual and self-discovery by two teenage friends. Dig deeper and you find a story of two Mexicos; and for those prepared to dig deeper still there is a third, more profound exploration of life, sex and death.
What makes Y Tu Mamá También so different is that the sex is used to unlock secrets. The older woman is the central strength and gives the film a gravity that makes its points stick. There is much naked flesh but Cuarón's wildly erotic film never loses touch with thought and feeling.
Add in the availability of the second and third layers, if you're prepared to look, and you have something very special indeed.
When an unexpected death occurs in a family, we follow its impact on those bereaved. Denial, guilt, sorrow, anger, a picking up of the pieces and grudging acceptance are all laid before us in a way that draws us in with the grieving family. It is the effect that the death has on everyday activities that is the most profound and - simply because they are everyday - has the most impact on us.
This is razor-sharp, quality drama about our fragile existence, yet somehow energizing and almost therapeutic. Sad it may be but it is never mawkish or self-pitying. A film that is honest and open - and one that demands to be seen.
A vibrant, visual treat that is full of colour, music and, above all, joy. Monsoon Wedding delights in human fallibilities and is unashamedly romantic. Yet, this is no lightweight. It deals with some serious issues and Mira Nair is noted for her ability to tackle difficult topics.
We are invited to view the, often chaotic, preparations for an arranged marriage. This staple tradition of Indian society is played out against modern attitudes and the tensions, stresses and strains are there for all to see.
Skeletons come tumbling out of cupboards and the emotional roller coaster will have you lifted to exhilarating heights only to plunge you down as the next twist unfolds.
This is a film that you will be telling your friends to see - make sure you don't miss it!
If you enjoy film noir, romantic attachments, Hitchcock, humour, or the thriller genre, you should find plenty to appreciate in this story of the seedy-but-appealing ex-con (Cassel) and the partially-deaf office girl (Devos) whose lip-reading ability becomes crucial as the plot thickens. She needs an assistant in the estate agency, and picking Paul changes her from dowdy dogsbody to a woman living on the edge of her nerves and emotions.
Audiard dispenses with glamour and slickness: his unflinching eye for the ways in which people are turned inside-out through thwarted desire and desperation presents us with an edgy, erotic and increasingly violent movie.
This is the David Lynch of Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet - The Straight Story it is not. Originally intended for a TV series, it has the feel of a series where you are drawn along by a sequence of events. However, to even try to give an outline of the story would be futile. Think of the film as a dream. Dreams don't have plots, aren't easily explainable, don't necessarily have complete sequences and may not connect with each other. You know the difficulty you have when trying to explain one - even more so if you begin: "Last night I had the weirdest dream…" This is that weirdest dream.
Wonderfully stylish, and a score by Angelo Badalamenti, Mulholland Drive is truly original and one-of-a-kind.
Winner, Best Director, Cannes 2001
A haunting, emotive drama about a handsome French soldier horrifically wounded in World War I, a period when science had perfected mechanised warfare, but had yet to work out how to rebuild the ripped and shredded bodies of the men sent out to fight. When screened at the Cannes Film Festival, this uplifting, epic film prompted the entire audience to explode into applause. An intelligent addition to the role-call of anti-war films such as Paths of Glory and a poignant reminder on Remembrance Sunday of how cinema can still have the power to move us deeply and honestly.
Brazil, 1910, and the reason for the blood feud between two families is long forgotten. Yet neither family has got to the point where it can see the futility of killing and the pointlessness of their deadly ritual. 'The Kid' - who knows that it is his beloved elder brother Tonho that is next, and for whom such a loss is as unfathomable as it is absurd - questions this cycle of revenge and reprisal.
A chance meeting with a passing circus act, affects the brothers and hope anew springs forth. However, is this newfound hope enough to break the cycle?
A visually stunning piece of filmmaking, Behind The Sun is both tragic and uplifting.
An uncompromising drama set in the Deep South about a Death Row prison guard (Thornton) who begins an affair with a dead man's wife (Berry). Tackling issues such as capital punishment, racism and breaking the cycle of violence, the pared-down, understated narrative is unhurried and, although a little contrived in places, is perfectly complimented by the performances of Berry and Thornton.
Don't let Halle Berry's excruciating Oscar acceptance speech put you off this one. Her fine performance and that of Thornton's are worthy of high praise, as is the beautiful camera work and the sensitive script. The style of the film, and its perfectly judged ending, are unlike most Hollywood movies - possibly because of its young Swiss director, Marc Forster, who brings a European restraint and pace to the proceedings.
A portrait of humanity inspired by the suffering and spirit of a group of children who cope with unbelievable hardship and danger in their attempts to afford a life-saving operation for their dying brother. They are representatives of an ethnic minority - Iranian Kurds - on the brink of a viable existence, living by their wits and courage, trying any expedient to get their mules across the border to smuggle their pathetic goods into Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Ghobadi won the Camera d'or (best first feature) at Cannes for this brilliant, passionate work. It is so well acted and photographed that there is no doubting the director's absolute belief in his creation, and the deserved place he now has in the pantheon of talented filmmakers working in Iran today.
A low-budget UK film with an epic, big-budget feel. British-born debut director, Kapadia shot The Warrior in the heat of the Rajashani desert and the cold mountains of the Himalayas. It tells the story (based on a Japanese folk legend) of a violent killer in the service of a tyrannical lord who experiences a spiritual awakening and abandons his profession. The majestic scale of its imagery counters the simplicity of the film's narrative. Dialogue is kept to a minimum while the musical score and epic camera-work combine to create an ambitious first feature of great panache.
How three men, their families, friends and lovers, are changed (or not) by unexpected death. Just in terms of narrative, it would impress for the expert interweaving of different strands; its sense of place, too - farms and villages near the flat saltmarshes of the Essex coast - is strong, assured and spot-on. But what really raises it above most recent British fare is its emotional richness and authenticity; though we're worlds away from Loachian naturalism (Eric Rohmer's work or Michael Winterbottom's Wonderland are more useful reference points), the characters and their lives are beautifully, at times horribly, real. Terrific stuff.
This is a rare film that has as its heart a story that has been orally passed down through generations. It is set in the natural environment of the Iglooik community and gives the viewer a unique experience. A singular way of life is depicted in superb detail - igloos for shelter, clothes from animal skins, dog sleds and the ritual of sharing spoils of the hunt - down to a bizarre contest.
This is an epic tale. The mystical and mythical are low-key and it is the more familiar aspects of love, betrayal, jealousy, and good and evil that make up the story. Although the plot will be familiar, the setting, people and language will not. This is an almost anthropological study and one that will keep you fascinated for its entire near 3 hours. Extraordinary.
This is an ensemble piece in which we get involved with the characters. We feel we are watching real flesh-and-blood people go about their lives. It deals with some serious issues but is not without humour or romance.
Is corporate development all bad? What impact has man had on the environment and what is the on-going impact of that habitation? When you are told, "People don't realise how hard it is to invent a tradition", you know this can only be America - but it also film making at its absolute best.
New Print
Is this the greatest crime film ever made? Francois Truffaut thought so, and it was certainly one of the most influential, inspiring Kubrick, De Palma, Tarantino. Quintessentially film noir, made in France by American Jules Dassin (who went to Paris because he was victimised by the McCarthy anti-Communist witchhunt), Rififi is famous for its uniquely suspenseful heist scene, but it offers much more: Dassin believed in the human element, in everyday settings, insisting on simplicity and pace, reworking familiar situations to create something brutally effective, although the violence is much less overt than we generally encounter in the Twenty-first Century.
Set in Greenock, this is the raw, compassionate and perceptive story of an impoverished teenager (wonderfully acted by newcomer Compston) who tries desperately to find a stable home for his mother - just emerging from prison and himself. Critically acclaimed as Loach's best for over a decade, the film portrays an age-group cruelly and callously betrayed by an uncaring older generation. Don't expect easy answers - it's unashamedly political, realistic and hard-hitting, and warns of a desperate plight which it would be perilous to ignore. Superbly scripted (Paul Laverty) and shot (Barry Ackroyd), Loach has assembled a winning team.
Documentary In the aftermath of the 1999 massacre at Columbine High and of September 11th, investigative journalist Michael Moore asks why the USA is so prone to violent killings. Travelling through the nation, Moore leads us through his provocative arguments in a scary yet entertaining and frequently hilarious way. Moore is the irrepressible scourge of 'Stupid White Americans' (the title of his publication, the most widely-read non-fiction book in the US), and of corporate power (in his TV series, 'TV Nation'.) He argues that it's all down to the American Ethic, and presents his film as a warning to the UK not to go down this route.
Ramsay more than fulfils the promise shown in her wonderful debut feature, Ratcatcher, in this tale of Morvern (Morton), a checkout girl whose would-be novelist boyfriend leaves her an unpublished book after his death. Morvern has ideas of her own, though, and with her friend Lanna (the excellent newcomer, McDermot) begins to gain astute insights into modern life. An assured, visually expressive adaptation of Alan Warner's 1995 cult novel, Morvern Callar is a story told through a succession of stunning images, with a masterful use of editing and sound design. This is the confident face of 21st century British cinema.
James Fox, Mick Jagger, Anita Pallenberg, Michèle Breton.
The festival kicks off with Nic Roeg's directorial debut, a brimful collection of ideas about power, persuasion and performance ("The only achievement that makes it, makes it all the way is madness") Opening as a gangster thriller, the film juggles visual and verbal imagery and develops into a complex blurring of the divide between reality and fantasy.
Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill, Anna Paquin.
An absolute peach of a film that has virtually everything - extraordinary acting, wonderful New Zealand landscapes and cinematography and a beautiful musical score beautifully performed by Holly Hunter - befitting a film with such a title. It contains too a look at Victorian values (which should, but this time fail to, mask deeply sensual attraction with mystery, fear and exotic settings), the clash of Maori and European cultures, a woman moving from repressed muteness to positive self-fulfilment, and perhaps the best performance in movie history by a child actor.
Oscars 1994: Hunter, Paquin and Campion
Cannes 1993: Palme d'Or; Best Actress (Holly Hunter)
Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert, Emmanuelle Béart, Fanny Ardant.
With tongue firmly placed in cheek,François Ozon offers up for our delight his Agatha Christie-style murder mystery-cum-musical. The '8 women' are all suspects in the murder, and all suspect each other. It's all hilarious plot, stylish behaviour, and barbed wit. As if the mounting ridiculousness of each confession and revelation wasn't enough, each woman has her own song-and-dance routine through which to indulge herself and expound her character. 8 Women oozes acting talent, with each woman sending up her public persona and revelling in the fabulousness of it all - as they also probe the complex dynamics between mothers and daughters, female siblings, mistresses, servants and romantic rivals.
Berlin Film Festival 2002: Silver Bear
Ozon nominated for the Golden Bear
Theresa Russell, Tony Curtis, Gary Busey.
Marilyn Monroe, Albert Einstein, Senator Joseph McCarthy (of the anti Communist witch-hunt) and baseball-hero Joe DiMaggio (Monroe's husband) meet in a New York hotel room in 1954. Nicolas Roeg's excellent version of Terry Johnson's satirical stage-play offers us an acting and writing tour de force, masterly dialogue and a most entertaining mix of topical issues: fame, vanity, communism versus democracy, world peace, jealousy, Freud, love, The Theory of Relativity, the physical appearance of the universe, the A-bomb, hatred, and freedom of speech.
Cannes 1985: Winner, Technical Grand Prix, Nominated for Palme d'Or
Jack Nicholson, Patricia Clarkson, Beau Daniels, Benicio Del Toro.
Sean Penn comes of age as a director in one of last year's best US films. Jerry Black (Nicholson) is a retired homicide detective who just can't let the job go. When the brutal murder of a child is reported, Black swears he'll bring the killer to justice. Nicholson's subtle performance - described by Christopher Tookey in the Daily Mail as his King Lear - has light and shade, humour and profundity, although the abundance of cameo appearances is a little distracting. Part psychological thriller, part parable, part tragedy, The Pledge is the work of a major player in US cinema.
Nominated for Palme d'Or, Cannes 2001
Javier Camara, Dario Grandetti, Rosario Flores, Leonore Watling.
Two people sit next to each other in an audience. Months later their paths cross again and an unexpected friendship is struck due to the similarity of their respective tragedy. The pain of loss and loneliness, the joy of friendship and the difficulties of communication are all familiar Almodovar themes. Here, however, they are given a completely new perspective. Talk To Her is funny and moving as well as a technical tour-de-force. Almodovar still has the power to shock but this is an altogether more mellow film in which he has created a surreal world that holds us spellbound in morbid interest. Not to be missed.
Nominated, Best Film, British Independent Film Festival 2002
Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duval
By adding 50 minutes to his masterly 1979 Vietnam War movie (already of epic proportions), Coppola has surprisingly offered us a film that doesn't appear much longer than before. The story, inspired by Conrad's Heart of Darkness, charts Capt Willard's (Sheen) trip up river from Saigon into darkest Cambodia looking for Col Kurtz (Brando), a brilliant but quite mad soldier with extreme methods. If you're new to the film, or have only seen it on the small screen, you are in for a treat. With souped-up sound and rejuvenated colours, this masterpiece displays an ambition sadly lacking in today's Hollywood.
Best Cinematography, Best Sound, 6 nominations, Academy Awards 1980
Palme d'Or and FIPRESCI Award, Cannes 1979
Gene Hackman, Theresa Russell, Rutger Hauer, Mickey Rourke, Joe Pesci.
An Arctic explorer literally falls into a mountain of gold and in so doing becomes the richest man in the world. But, as we know, wealth does not bring happiness. Eureka divides into three distinct parts - the discovery, the death, the trial. John Boorman rates the first two parts as potentially the greatest movie ever made and these sections contain some of the finest examples of movie-making you will ever see. It is in the final part that we get some of the most highly charged emotional performances. A masterpiece.
Richard Gere, Brooke Adams, Sam Shepard, Linda Manz.
Set in the days just before America entered World War One this is a story of a tragic love triangle. It is told through the eyes of someone looking back at events that shaped her life when she was a young girl.
The film is also a homage to nature. Frames are filled with sky, fields, dawn, sunset and it is quite simply one of the most beautifully shot films you will ever see. Add in the acting, the story line, the stunning score by Ennio Morricone and you have a genuine classic.
Winner, Best Director, Cannes 1979
Winner, Best Cinematography, Academy Awards 1979
Jenny Agutter, Luc Roeg, David Gulpilil.
Two children find themselves lost in the Australian outback. They come across an Aborigine who has been ritualistically banished by his tribe - he is on a Walkabout. The children need saving and he saves them. This simple foundation, however, is only the carrier for a deeper and more profound message. It can be seen as a heart-warming tale of how people survive in the harshest of circumstances. On the other hand, it is a deeply haunting story of how people fail to communicate and in so doing lose so much: at the end, all the characters are even more lost than when they started.
Cannes 1971: Nominated for the Palme d'Or
Cate Blanchett, Giovanni Ribisi.
Heaven was to be the first part of a trilogy by the late Polish director Kristov Kieslowski called Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell. Kieslowski, however, died in 1996 and the script was given to Tykwer. A man dies a drug related death and the grieving widow takes matters into her own hands. Her actions cause unforeseen tragedy but during the ensuing investigation love kindles anew. Is the finding of love enough to overturn the unworthiness of its foundation? And, once found, is it enough to justify the means? What would you be willing to risk for love?
Best Film, German Film Awards 2002
Nominated, Best Film, Berlin International Film Festival 2002
Kris Kristofferson, Elizabeth Pena, Matthew McConaughey.
This is a superb murder mystery that unfolds piece by piece until its dramatic conclusion. It has many of the recurring themes John Sayles seems to love - corruption, the past haunting the present, fathers and sons and racism most prominent among them.
It begins with the unearthing of a skeleton out in the desert which appears to be have been there for some 40 years. Clues show who it once was and that death was not of the natural variety. The past now has to be investigated and what is discovered are secrets that have to be confronted. Brilliant.
Nominated for Best Screenplay, Academy Awards 1997
David Bowie, Rip Torn, Candy Clark, Buck Henry.
Roeg's venture into science fiction is of course much more than the simple tale of a man who came to seek help for his parched planet. Capitalising on lucrative inventions and heading up an international conglomerate, he seems well on his way; but earthly temptations (sex, booze and TV!) endanger the ultimate objective. The depiction of the alienating effects of an over-commercialised society must be intended to warn us earthlings, just as much as the extraterrestrial Bowie character - he of the anorexic frame, pale skin, orange hair and mismatching coloured eyes - who becomes the battleground of an innocent, alien culture pitted against our tainted, Westernised existence.
Berlin Film Festival 1976: Nom. Golden Bear
Academy of SF,Fantasy & Horror Films: Winner, David Bowie, Best Actor
Nassim Abdi, Cyrus Abidi, Youssef Habashi.
The principles of democracy, the comedy of the absurd, and the road movie would seem not to have very much in common. However, these themes are all present in Babak Payami's beautifully photographed film about a bright, urban, educated young woman who arrives on a remote Iranian island to bring enlightenment and the chance to vote to a backward peasant population. They in turn have a thing or two to teach her - about human relationships and the nature of their vastly different existence. There is humour, but also dignity, in Payami's look at democracy Iranian-style.
Winner, 5 awards, nominated for Golden Lion: Venice Film Festival 2001
FIPRESCI Award, London Film Festival 2001
Donald Sutherland, Julie Christie, Hilary Mason.
Bereaved parents Sutherland and Christie attempt to escape the aftermath of their daughter's accidental drowning. In Venice - through Roeg's eyes a dank, sinister and labyrinthine place - the couple stumble through coincidences, premonitions and misunderstandings which cloud their suffering, culminating in one of the most chilling endings on film. Roeg's adaptation of the Daphne Du Maurier short story is both an existential horror movie and a meditation on grief. The legendary and beautiful lovemaking scene, the non-linear editing, and the transforming of a culturally-rich city into a menacing maze come together to make one of this country's most moving, chilling, and highly-praised films.
BAFTAs 1974: Best Cinematography & 6 Other Nominations
Gaston Pauls, Ricardo Darin, Laetitia Bredice.
A petty thief is observed, and saved from arrest, by a major league con-artist. The two strike up a partnership to pull off a once-in-a-lifetime con trick. Their job is to sell a set of (forged) rare stamps, 'The Nine Queens'. All goes to plan until the forgeries are stolen and they have to set up another con trick to be able to pull off the first one. But just how many con tricks are being pulled? And by who on whom? The plot is layer upon layer of inter-weaving conspiracies. Superbly scripted, well paced and totally engrossing, this is a highly accomplished debut.
5 awards, incl. Best Director & Best Film - Argentinian Film Critics Awards 2002
Audience Award, Portland Film Festival 2002
Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard, Uma Thurman The dialogue is clear, clever, nuanced but sharp as a knife, and the acting is absolutely spot-on in this investigation into a sexual encounter that took place a few years earlier. Three friends, meeting again in a seedy motel room, conduct a subtle investigation into memory and guilt. Iofilm rightly says 'The fascination of Tape is in the performances and with the language, how words dance around truth, mocking it. Ethan Hawke, as Vince, captures the dysfunctional aspect of a man gone rancid from failure and yet cunning as a rat in his ability to confuse argument'. Topical and brilliant - a must-see.
Mike Leigh's last screening at the Film Club was the triumphant Topsy Turvy, a departure from his familiar territory, but he returns to working-class drama with this tale of minicab driver, Phil (Spall) and partner Penny (Manville). The film provides a very persuasive, dramatically powerful account of London housing-estate lives blighted by economic hardship, emotional inarticulacy, glaring resentment and impoverished hopes. Balancing scenes of bitter-sweet hilarity and harrowing starkness, Leigh has pulled off an affecting portrait of modern British working-class life, the film building to a truthful and genuinely moving climax.
Anthony LaPaglia, Geoffrey Rush, Barbara Hershey A 'lantana' is a tangled, suffocating weed and Ray Lawrence's movie explores the twisting inter-relationships between an adulterous police detective, Leon Zat (LaPaglia), his wife (Hershey), her psychologist and a professor. This powerful psychological thriller manages to combine complex human emotions with gratifyingly real characters and a riveting storyline. LaPaglia gives the performance of his career in one of the best films of the year. Comparisons have been made with Altman and Paul Thomas Anderson, but Lawrence's canvas is less flamboyant, although just as intricate. At last, a deeply satisfying thriller for grown-ups that insists the most compelling mysteries are buried in human relationships.
Two years ago Terry Gilliam turned up in Spain with £22m, hoping to realise his lifelong ambition of filming Don Quixote. The shoot turned into a disaster and Fulton & Pepe were there to record this compelling fly-on-the wall documentary. The relentless stream of shear bad luck unfolds as a hilarious comedy of catastrophe, and we are left sympathising with Gilliam's assertion that there is a jinx on Cervantes' book - after all, it consumed the last 20 years of Orson Welles' life with little to show for it. It is heartbreaking to see how, despite Gilliam's adapting to adversity, it all comes to nought. Let's hope he gets another chance - he's the right man for the job, after all.
Zaza (Ashkenazi), a 32-year-old Georgian living in Israel is forced to choose as his parents' plans for his arranged marriage are threatened by his passionate affair with Judith (Elikabetz), an older, divorced single mother. From such a dilemma - based on the director's own life - Dover Kasashvili explores the universal tension between individual desire and the duties of the bloodline: "love against love." He does it with impressive assurance as he negotiates audacious shifts in tone: starting as a deadpan comedy of manners, the film turns explicitly erotic and finally emotionally forceful for the morally sophisticated finale. Funny, tender, sexy and at times painfully tough, Late Marriage is an effective, complex exploration of passion and commitment.
New print
Feted Viennese court composer, Salieri (Abraham) confesses to the 'murder' of Mozart (Hulce), his estimation of Wolfgang's unappreciated genius making his own success resoundingly empty. Forman masterfully adapts the Peter Schaffer play with stunning camerawork, beautiful Prague locations and a glorious soundtrack This new print with 20 minutes of extra footage gathered from the cutting room floor is unlike any film made today.
In his youth, Spider has been deeply disturbed by the death of his mother and has been placed in a mental hospital to help him over the trauma. On his release he revisits the scenes of his childhood and we are witness to his collection of memories. This could be bleak, austere, and gloomy. Instead it is fascinating, daring and full of performances of enormous strength. A quite remarkable film.
Shot in digital, this is a collection of 10 stories all set in the front seat of a car. The unnamed central character owns the car and through her interactions with her passengers we get an insight into her life and those of her passengers. The film's various characters give us first-hand opinions on religion, sex, divorce, parental duty and the place of women in Iran today. This is a highly original film with an experimental feel, yet still packs an emotional punch. Compelling viewing - and all the more extraordinary when you realise what little else there is to distract you from what is happening on screen.
On arrival In Helsinki a man gets beaten up. He cannot remember who he is or anything of his past. Unable to get a job or anywhere to live he starts living on the outskirts of the city. Taken in by the locals, he makes new friendships and forms new relationships and slowly starts putting his life back together. This is a film that almost defies description. It mixes great humour with sickening violence, wretchedness with compassion, and has characters that are somehow totally real yet completely absurd. A film that you should not miss. Unique.
Western Australia, 1931. Ordered by the Chief Protector of Aborigines (Branagh) to be taken from their homes and relocated in a special unit for half-caste children, sisters Daisy and Molly and their cousin Grace seize their first opportunity to escape. In this amazing episode from one of the darkest chapters of Australian history, they set out to trek 2000 km, guided by the rabbit-proof fence that bisects the outback, pursued by an Aboriginal tracker (played by Gulpilil - Nic Roeg's boy star in Walkabout). Wonderful acting, dazzling cinematography and a haunting score by Peter Gabriel.
Named 'Film of the Year 2002' by Total film and The Face magazines, here's another chance to catch this cult classic. Donnie is a high school student with a sardonic but likeable attitude, whose scores are 'intimidating', and who occasionally and alarmingly forgets to take his medication. He receives warnings in his visions of a giant rabbit and narrowly escapes death from a falling jet engine. His world becomes increasingly bizarre as he tries to find out what life is and how it works. Film 2002 summed up many viewers' reactions to this genre-defying film in calling it ''the most refreshing and original movie I've seen in years''.
Sundance Film Festival 2001
Nominated Grand Jury Prize
The 'City Of God' of the title is a notorious slum in Rio De Janeiro. Paulo Lins, on whose novel the film is based, grew up in this place but somehow escaped it. He spent eight years writing his book and it tells the story of two boys who take different paths as they grow up. City Of God is a city where the law and social services have no place; friendships are formed out of necessity and desperation. The residents are outcasts and the young carry out acts of extreme violence, as this appears to be their only option in this moral and economic wasteland.
AFI Festival 2002
Winner, Best International Feature Film,
BAFTA 2003
Winner Best Editing
Nominated for Best Film not in the English Language
Following Boogie Nights and Magnolia, here is Anderson's latest and most successful film, which has drawn praise right across the critical spectrum. Not the maverick Adam Sandler's typical role by a long chalk, we're given a crazy take on romantic comedy as Barry (Sandler) leads us through adventures of obsession, isolation and ultimately love, when he encounters the mysterious, sweet-faced stranger Lena (Emily Watson) who enhances and complicates his existence. The darkness, anger, mystery, challenge and hilarity evoked by Anderson's hero offer an experience we felt you should not miss.
Cannes Film Festival 2002
Won Best Director
Nominated Palme d'Or
The stage production of Kiss of the Spiderwoman at Keswick's Theatre by the Lake this summer features a character recounting the plot of a classic '40s Hollywood horror movie: Cat People. Kitten-faced Simone Simon plays Irena, a Serbian girl in New York who is tortured by ancestral memories of her town's werecat history. What set this film apart from contemporary horror movies was its rejection of gnashing teeth and dodgy masks, of monsters and mad scientists: these were ingredients that ultimately made audiences laugh. Instead, ordinary people experienced the extraordinary. The strange and the frightening were suggested by film noir lighting and a revolution in horror movie-making was born. The British Film Institute nominates Cat People as one of the 360 key works in the history of cinema. Not to be mistaken for the '80s remake - accept no substitute.
This is an uncompromising and unforgettable film. There is not even a hint of the feel-good factor, yet when you emerge from the cinema you will feel good that you are where you are and not where Lilya is.
Moodysson has a knack for showing the world through the eyes of children. The world of Lilya is one of exploitation, betrayal and dashed hopes. Her innocence and trust are stolen and when even the merest glimpse of her dreams comes into view, a horrible destiny crushes her back down.
Akinshina gives an astonishing performance and is one that you really should not miss. Stunning.
Winner Stockholm Film Festival Canal+ Award 2002 (Oksana Akinshina)
Winner Guldbagge Awards 2003
Film, actress, cinematography, direction, screenplay
Winner Gijon International Film Festival 2003
Actress, film and special prize of the young jury
Following up their acclaimed debut, Being John Malkovich, screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and director Spike Jonze are on top form with Adaptation. This is storytelling at its most bewildering, brilliant and inventive. Cage is quite superb in the dual role of the Kaufman brothers; they may appear identical but they have completely different personalities and Cage makes them both believable people. Cage is more than ably supported by Streep and Cooper along with a host of other stars. There is so much to see in this film that any attempt at a synopsis is futile - not to be missed.
Academy Award 2003 - Winner Best Supporting Actor (Chris Cooper)
BAFTA 2003 - Winner Best Screenplay 2003
One man is in the middle of a crisis of his own making; he has it all - a successful business, a wonderful lover, a beautiful daughter - yet, nothing is any fun. Another is calm, serene and so much in love; he has had it all - a successful business, a wonderful wife, a son - yet, there is a regret that prevents complete happiness.
How these two lives are reconciled is the subject of this touching, poignant film. The story gives us every emotion possible and leaves a warm glow but has enough dramatic punch to make this a highly satisfying film. The brilliant cast add that something special making Son Of The Bride a memorable, wonderful 'must see'.
Winner Montreal World Film Festival 2001 Special Grand Prize
Nominated, Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film 2002
As their father disappears into the West African desert, his two sons are left to experience loss, love and exile - but there is humour here too, and rich humanity, not least in the director's heart-warming sensitivity to the tenderness of childhood. Add the vibrancy of African colour, fine acoustic guitar soundtrack, and you relish a rare cinematic treat.
Hong Kong International Film Festival 2003
Firebird Award for Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
Two refugees travel from the Pakistan/Afghan border through a multitude of countries in an effort to get asylum in Britain. All manner of means are employed to get to Britain - all of them hazardous and arduous.
This film engages the viewer through its realism - it is almost a documentary in look and feel. It was made on a handheld digital camera using available light, with an unprofessional cast and dialogue that was mostly improvised. It is a human story of our time and one that demands to be seen if only to counter the media hysteria normally associated with refugees.
Winner Berlin International Film Festival Golden Bear 2002.
Sokurov was allowed to film for a mere 4 hours in the Hermitage Museum and this remarkable film was shot in one continuous take. This is a quite astonishing feat as the film is far removed from a mere tour guide. As we move through the Hermitage we come across scenes from Russian history over the last 200 years. The choreography required from the hundreds of extras is mind-boggling. The camera wanders through the gallery, swishes us through the crowds, transports us up staircases into rooms full of people and takes us onto the dance floor for the Grande finale. A beautiful, original and unique film that is a glorious experience.
Winner Toronto International Film Festival Visions Award 2002
Remaking a successful but gloomy art-house film by Andrei Tarkovsky would appear a dangerous endeavour, but Soderbergh carries off in stylish fashion the tale of psychologist Chris Kelvin (Clooney) travelling to the troubled Prometheus space station to investigate the suicide of a crew member. The planet Solaris creates seemingly flesh-and-blood people from the memories and desires of the occupants of Prometheus, creating a danger to rational life on Earth. As much philosophy as science fiction, the film is concerned with questions of identity, time, memory and the relationship between mind and body. It is also an absorbing love story.
Berlin International Film Festival 2003
Nominated Golden Bear: Steven Soderbergh
Why does a carpenter take on a new apprentice when he is already at capacity? This is a fascinating study of a man who has endured the ultimate loss and has a chance at redemption - or is it the chance to exact revenge?
The base story is quite straightforward but the Dardenne brothers use it in such a way to produce a compassionate and compelling piece of cinema. Their mastery of the camera not only shows you all that needs to be seen but also manages to convey the emotions and feelings of the central character even though we seldom see his face - the shrug of the shoulder or stiffening of the neck is more than enough to tell us all we need to know.
Winner Cannes Film Festival 2002 (Best Actor: Olivier Gourmet)
Winner Lumiere Awards 2002 (Best French Language Film)
Bela Tarr has no contemporary equal. He makes films on a monumental scale; films that unfold gradually and gracefully. Werkmeister Harmonies is based on the novel The Melancholy Of Resistance by László Krasznahorkai. It takes place in an unnamed small Hungarian town that is visited in the night by a mysterious figure and his travelling sensation.
This is a work where any attempt at meaning is futile. Tarr immerses the viewer in his unique, singular, cinematic universe. The succession of long, very long, takes will have you enraptured or enraged - one way or another you will be opinionated by this film.
Winner Berlin International Film Festival Reader Jury 2002
Three young women find themselves incarcerated in one of the Magdalene Laundries (a nun-controlled borstal for 'fallen women'). There they find themselves virtual slaves subjected to torture, sadistic punishments and cruel humiliations, all committed in the name of penance. This is a film that exposes a truly horrific way of life and one that is made all the more horrific by the revelation that the last Magdalene Laundry did not close its doors until 1996.
This controversial film makes for traumatic viewing. However there is much compassion and humour, affirming the humanity of the characters. A powerful piece of cinema; one that takes film far beyond its usual entertainment or escapism values.
Winner Golden Lion Venice 2002
"The best film ever made", said one of our members firmly 5 years ago. We've waited for this new, pristine example of the BFI's restoration programme to see if she was right. Certainly a classic: Prince Salina (Lancaster as the Leopard, so-called for his power and eminence) must come to terms with rapid change in 1860s Italy as Garibaldi's revolutionary army invades his Sicilian fiefdom. To protect his patrician status, he wants his bolshie nephew, Tancredi (Delon), to marry Angela (Cardinale), beautiful daughter of a rich merchant: the scene is set for a superb, sumptuous epic as marxist aristocrat Visconti illuminates Lampedusa's wonderful novel.
Grand Prix, Cannes Film Festival 1963
The story of a young girl who struggles to claim her rightful place as the spiritual leader of a people seeking to find a viable existence in the modern world. A beautifully filmed account of both contemporary Maori life and its rich mythology, as Pai (Castle-Hughes is phenomenal in the central role) tries to assume her destiny by fighting a thousand years of tradition. This is an inspiring work by both writer-director Niki Caro and his acclaimed cinematographer Leon Narbey that has attracted huge audiences around the world (Audience Award at Sundance, Manila, Rotterdam, Seattle, San Francisco and Toronto Festivals).
A warm, tender movie from Claire Denis (Beau Travail), this dreamlike masterpiece opens on a Friday night in Paris. Having packed up her possessions to move in with her lover, Laure attempts to drive to have dinner with friends but discovers that the traffic is at a standstill. A handsome stranger knocks on her car window: this chance encounter will change her life. Using little dialogue, Denis allows Agnès Godard's luminous photography to take centre stage, lending night-time Paris and the physical attraction between Laure and Jean a palpable frisson. Beautifully scored by Dickon Hinchliffe (of Tindersticks), it's cinema to mesmerise you.
It is 1971. China is in the grip of the Cultural Revolution and two youths find themselves exiled to a remote village for re-education as Maoist peasants. The two boys fall in love with the granddaughter of the local tailor and bring to her attention forbidden foreign books. With her mind opened to the wider wonders of the world, she longs to see what lies beyond her village. Dai Sijie bases the story on his semi-autobiographical novel. Time seems to have softened the harshness of the conditions but the film is never over-sentimental.
Rural Spain 1940: Victor Erice's extraordinary debut film is the haunting portrait of an introverted child (Ana Torrent is unforgettable) who sees James Whale�s 1931 classic, Frankenstein. Fascinated, and encouraged by her sister, she searches the woods for the monster, becoming immersed in a mysterious, poetic, imaginary world. A poignant exploration of the fragile innocence of childhood, The Spirit of the Beehive is Spanish cinema at its very best. While references to fascism and politics are mainly allegorical - Franco still ruled in 1973 - it captures the frustration, fears and uncertainty within the family in the aftermath of the Civil War.
Golden Seashell (Erice) - San Sebastián International Film Festival 1973
This good-natured comedy, top-scoring film at the British Federation of Film Societies Autumn viewing sessions, introduces us to Elling the would-be poet and his friend Kjell the would-be lover, who share a room at a psychiatric treatment centre until they are discharged into a flat in central Oslo under the eye of the social services. Britain's "Care in the Community", despite its name, could gain so much from copying our Scandinavian neighbours. As Elling writes, and Kjell falls in love with the pregnant lady upstairs, the bizarre and the eccentric are commonplace, but treated with the sympathy and genuine humour that refresh our better human instincts.
Nominated Best Foreign Film, Oscars 2002
This screening will be preceded by the short film "Welcome To"
Albert Finney, Billie Whitelaw, Frank Finlay
The festival kicks off with Stephen Frears' first feature, a wonderful pastiche of noir murder mysteries. More than a series of Bogart in-jokes, it features some fine performances - Finney in particular is superb as the Liverpool bingo-caller-turned-sleuth.
Samantha Morton, Paddy Considine, Sarah Bolger, Emma Bolger, Djimon Hounsou
Two of the most explosive young talents working on the screen, Morton and Considine, unite to star in the semi-autobiographical fairytale of New York from Oscar nominee Sheridan (In the Name of the Father, My Left Foot). Reeling from the death of their infant son, an Irish family relocate to Hell's Kitchen in Manhattan, where they struggle to establish themselves. Intimately told by their 11year old daughter Christy (Sarah Bolger), a child wise beyond her years, this is a funny, heartfelt and humane comedy-drama, blessed by magnificent performances from the actors and devoid of the usual clichés. It is sentimental but never mawkish and at times quietly profound.
Nominated Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, BIFA
Like all brilliant animation this one appeals to all ages. Madame Souza has a grandson called Champion - not the most sporty of boys but he loves his tricycle. Grandmother sees an opportunity and trains Champion to compete in the Tour de France. Will he make it? Will he win? This is a wonderfully inventive and stylish piece of animation with a twisted and sophisticated plot and one dazzling set piece after another. A handcrafted labour of love with astonishing attention to detail and richness of content. A pure delight from beginning to end. What is the French for 'Don't miss it'?
Nominated Best Foreign Film, British Independent Film Festival 2003
Mr Jolly Lives Next Door
Frears directs this anarchic Comic Strip film, first screened in 1986 on Channel 4. The regular Strip artists (Mayall, Edmondson and Richardson) co-star with special guests, Peter Cook and Nicholas Parsons. (Video projection) PLUS:
The Deal
The acclaimed political drama outlining the 'marriage' between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, culminating in the famous Granita restaurant meeting. Frears returned to TV to direct David Morrissey and Michael Sheen in this compelling film, which was broadcast on Channel 4 the night delegates arrived at the 2003 Labour Party conference. (Video projection)
John Malkovich, Glenn Close, Michelle Pfeiffer, Uma Thurman
A sumptuous tale of sex, scandal andintrigue. Faithful to Laclos's 18C novel, Frears and scriptwriter Christopher Hampton succeed sublimely in capturing the mores and ethos of these French aristocrats who live for manipulation and sexual power games. Malkovich is superb as the philanderer Valmont, as is Glenn Close playing the Marquise de Merteuil, with whom he plots the undoing of saintly Madame de Tourvel (Michelle Pfeiffer)
Best screenplay, Art Direction, Costume Design, Oscars 1988
Derek Jacobi, Steve Varden, Boo Pearce, Jane Wall
Shot near Keswick, this film received an emotional 5-minute standing ovation at its Italian world premiere in September 2003. Sandy Kenyon (played by debutant Steve Varden) dreams of becoming a pilot - his problem is cerebral palsy and serious mobility difficulties. Facing suspicion and hostility, his determination leads him into uncharted waters (for him) of daring, love and fulfilment. On reading the script and viewing test scenes, Derek Jacobi was eager to offer his help last summer, and shooting was successful despite some of the worst weather that the Lake District could throw at the crew while filming took place.
Special Jury Award, Europacinema Film Festival 2003
Anjelica Huston, John Cusack, Annette Bening
Roy (Cusack) is a practitioner of the small-con, cheating bartenders of $10, cheating sailors out of their cash. The other 'grifters', girlfriend Myra (Bening) and mother Lily (Huston) don't like each other one little bit. Not in their league, but caught squarely in the middle of this feline conflict, Roy is repelled by both options and carefully dances between the two women. Wonderful script, acting and direction.
Nominated: Best Director, Best Writing, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, Oscars 1991
Ewan McGregor, Tilda Swinton, Peter Mullan, Emily Mortimer.
A faithful adaptation of Scottish writer Alexander Trocchi's 1957 cult novel. Ewan McGregor plays Joe, a rootless young drifter who finds work on a barge travelling between Glasgow and Edinburgh, owned by Les and his wife Ella. One afternoon they discover the corpse of a young woman floating in the water. Accident? Suicide? Murder? As the police investigate and a suspect is arrested, we discover that Joe knows more than he is letting on. Young Adam (MacKenzie's second feature) is a remarkable achievement, meticulously crafted with Giles Nuttgens' beautiful widescreen cinematography and with a superb soundtrack by David Byrne (of Talking Heads fame). A film brimful of scenes that make a lasting impression. Not to be missed.
Best Film, German Film Awards 2002
Nominated Best Film, Berlin I.F.F.
George Lopez and the children of his class.
An uplifting documentary film which follows primary school teacher, Georges Lopez, over the course of a year in an isolated dairy-farming region in Auvergne, France. This is not your ordinary village elementary: all the children - they are aged four years to eleven - are taught together in a single classroom. Lopez demands respect and admiration from his students, helping them develop into confident, able kids who will be able to hold their own at senior school. His work is his life, and this makes all the more poignant his devastating and unexpected revelation at the end. A beautifully sensitive portrait of a unique school and, a very special teacher.
Best Documentary, European Film Awards 2002
Jeff Bridges, John Huston, Anthony Perkins
This little-seen 1979 film is an adaptation of a novel by The Manchurian Candidate author Richard Condon. It plunges into the JFK assassination and the conspiracy theories that surround it. Winter Kills provides a perfect, absurd finale to the half-decade of post-Watergate paranoid thrillers that preceded it and compares favourably to the grand unified conspiracy-theory fictions that followed, such as Oliver Stone's JFK and James Ellroy's book American Tabloid. Financed by soft-porn distributors with a sideline in the drug trade, the production continually ran out of money, at one point forcing Richert to make another movie, The American Success Company, in order to raise funds for its completion. Though Winter Kills met with glowing reviews, it received a limited release in only a few cities, prompting Condon to write an article blaming the Kennedys and the military-industrial complex. Perkins' character's possible involvement went without comment.
John Hurt, Tim Roth, Terence Stamp, Laura Del Sol
Willie Parker (Stamp) used to be a gangster. After betraying his former colleagues, he fled to Spain where he thought he could hide from their vengeance. For ten years he manages but one day two hitmen kidnap him. Their orders are to escort him to Paris where he is to stand 'trial'. But it is a long way to Paris...
An offbeat crime drama featuring excellent performances. All the usual conventions and stereotyping are turned on their heads. Well received on its release, The Hit made very little impression at the box office. This is a rare screening; do not let it go by this time round.
Best Actor, Evening Standard British Film Awards 1985
Valeria Golino, Vincenzo Amato, Francesco Casisa.
Respiro is an evocative, subtle dramatisation of the life of a particular family who live within an isolated fishing community on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa. The film concentrates on the trials and tribulations that beset the beautiful, but emotionally unstable, wife of a fisherman and a mother of three. It is, however, much more of a tapestry, not only paralleling a local folk tale, but also stitching together vignettes of a society that seems almost completely removed from modern day existence. The stark beauty of the sun-drenched island is used to great effect as a backdrop for the characters' domestic disputes and miniature dramas and provides haunting images superbly shot by cinematographer Fabio Zamarion. Golino is suitably gorgeous, but the find is Casisa whose burgeoning physicality and maturity, thrown into a protective role as he is forced to deal with oddities of his mother's behaviour, is a major contribution.
Best Film, Critics' Week Cannes 2002
Nick Moran, Neil Stuke, Kate Ashfield.
In this visually audacious, updated adaptation of the short novel by cult writer BS Johnson (who committed suicide in 1975), Moran plays the eponymous, none-too-gifted nerd, waging war on his enemies - real and imagined - using a simple, if highly effective credit and debit system. Though shot well before 11 September 2001, Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry is bizarrely prophetic in places too - with its scenes of terrorism, governmental panic, and planes over the Middle East (direct results of Malry's extra-curricular activities). Interwoven throughout is a joint storyline - set in the 15th century and concerning Leonardo Da Vinci and the Franciscan monk who originally dreamt up the Double Entry. The film is further enhanced by a terrific soundtrack by Auteurs frontman Luke Haines. (Notes from Channel4Film)
Peter O'Toole, Steve Railsbeck, Barbara Hershey
Richard Rush's 1979 film bucked the studio system with its multi-layered storytelling and interesting themes. It also provided Peter O'Toole with one of his best screen roles. In spite of being nominated for three Academy Awards - Best Actor, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay - studio politics buried the film and it has languished in cult semi-obscurity ever since. Vietnam veteran Cameron (Steve Railsbeck) is on the run from the police when he stumbles onto the set of a war movie. A megalomaniac Eli Cross (Peter O'Toole) is directing the movie. Taking the place of a dead man, Cameron becomes a stunt man and starts to fall in love with the leading lady played by Barbara Hershey. Is Eli trying to capture the stunt man's death on film? In addition, what happens to a paranoid man when illusion and reality change places?
Thanks to Anchor Bay Entertainment for permission to screen The Stunt Man.
National Society of Film Critics of America Award 1981
Audrey Tautou, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Sergi Lopez
Frears sympathetically shines a light on the normally unseen world of exploited illegal immigrants in modern-day London. These invisible people keep the economy running, yet struggle to keep their own lives. A chance discovery brings out the full horror of the shady goings on in a seedy hotel. What does the discoverer do? It is not possible to go to the police, but to do nothing brings into danger the lives of other people. This excellent thriller manages to combine social observation and political comment. We also meet a whole host of vulnerable, proud people reduced to doing almost anything to survive. A film that sheds light on dark places and practices.
Sergio Trasatti Award (Frears) Venice Film Festival 2002
ALFS Award, London Critics Circle Film Awards 2003
Jeff Goldblum, Greta Scacchi, John Sessions, Peter Bowles
The true story of Herbert Biberman, one of the directors who was blacklisted and jailed for his leftist sympathies during the McCarthy era. Although expelled from the Directors' Guild and harassed by the FBI, Biberman went on to make Salt of the Earth (1954), an independent, neorealist film about striking miners in New Mexico which was initially banned in the USA by an Act of Congress. Now, however, it is regarded as one of the most important political films ever made. Biberman was married to actress Gale Sondergaard (played by firebrand Greta Scacchi) whose Oscar-winning career was cut short by his unflinching idealism. Director Karl Francis shifts skilfully between scenes of glamour and oppression, sticking close to this compelling history.
The story of its creation and lack of distribution is as interesting as the film itself and, subject to availability, Karl Francis will take part in a Q & A session after the screening.
Jang Seung-ub is a penniless orphan who has a gift for art. The painting master, Kim Byung-Moon, takes him into his care, but Jang proves a rebellious pupil and is soon living life to the full, whilst never fully being accepted by the society that f�tes him. Against a backdrop of political unrest in the unstable South Korea of the 1850s we view the life-story of a hugely talented natural artist with an appetite for life. This is a beautifully shot film, the brilliance of the paintings being given full justice. A lavish depiction of a rebel artist.
Best Director, Cannes 2002
Witnessing her son being arrested during a street protest, Christine suffers a heart attack and falls into a deep coma. By the time she recovers, the Berlin Wall is no more. As a die-hard supporter of the GDR this news could kill her. Her son and daughter decide to devise evermore elaborate schemes to keep the news from her. The creation, and maintenance, of a make-believe world involves hare-brained ideas and increasingly desperate actions. A hugely enjoyable, yet thought-provoking comedy, with as much to say about the corruption of capitalism as the strictures of communism.
Best European Film, Berlin Film Festival, 2003
"I have been seduced by the wonderful Monrak Transistor and a folksy pop music tradition we've apparently been missing all these years. A simple tale of boy meets girl, boy gets drafted, girl takes up with worm-pill salesman, boy goes AWOL with an Elvis-impersonator manager and becomes a famous karaoke singer (stop me if you've heard this one before) this terrifically spicy dish is described by director Pen-ek Ratanaruang as 'a piece of candy with just a taste of satirical poison at its centre.' Swipes are duly taken at the Westernisation of Thai culture, but with such a lightness of touch that your heart still thinks it's watching a love-story/musical even while your head insists otherwise. A treat."
Mark Kermode, The Observer
This documentary follows eight contestants, aged 12 to 15, through the preparations for, and then the agonies and ecstasies of, a two-day knock-out spelling competition in Washington DC, the climax of the 1999 National Spelling Bee contest. Blitz sets his sights wider than just the question of who will win. It�s great drama made fascinating by the pithy introduction to the characters in their habitats and then the tense, teasing drama of the actual competition. Crisp, judicious editing by Yana Gorskaya pulls all this into beguiling shape. This is a drama as enthralling as any fiction.
Nominated for Best Documentary Film, Oscars 2003
A streetwise Argentinian jewel of a film about the thin line between cops and crooks in crime-ridden Buenos Aires, this is a triumph for young director Pablo Trapero.Shot authentically and intimately by Guillermo Nieto, and illuminated by the corrupted innocence of Jorge Román's winning central performance, this powerful character piece follows a young provincial locksmith's initiation into the maelstrom of the police force and capital city life. El Bonaerense demonstrates once again why Argentine new-wave film-makers are starting to make waves internationally.
FIPRESCI Award, Chicago International Film Festival 2002
One of the strongest Iranian films in years: few films from any country recently have dealt so incisively with the consequences of alienation and social polarisation. The idea for the film originated in an incident that Panahi and fellow filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami read about in the news: a thief, trapped by the security system inside a shop takes extreme action. Panahi explains, "I became obsessed with this story: what could have pushed a human being so far? Abbas ended up writing a screenplay about this incident, tracing the events leading up to it and discovering how and why such a horrifying thing could occur."
Un Certain Regard Jury Award, Cannes 2003
Yoshimi is going through a divorce. She moves to a badly maintained block of flats and tries to put on a brave face when confronted by dark corridors, flickering lights, damp spots and dripping ceilings. Her six-year-old daughter, Ikuko, starts disappearing onto the roof where she is drawn to the water tank. What secrets does it hold? Who is the other girl that also plays by the tank? This is another very scary ghost story from director Hideo Nakata (The Ring). It is chilling in its simplicity, exerting a psychological terror just as Nicolas Roeg managed in Don't Look Now. See it now before the inevitable Hollywood remake.
An enchanting fairytale and surreal fable, this animated feature has enthralled both adults and children in their millions all around the world. 10-year old Chihiro, capricious and headstrong, believing the world should revolve around her, stumbles with her parents into the Land of the Spirits, a world of ancient gods and magical beings ruled over by the demonic sorceress Yubaba. With the help of the enigmatic young Haku, she learns both what to renounce and how to survive. A visionary work and an adventure unlike any other.
The tumultuous political landscape of Paris in 1968 (particularly Henri Langlois's dismissal from the Cinémathèque) is the backdrop as three young cinephiles are drawn together by their passion for film. Matthew, an American exchange student, discovers in French twins Theo and Isabelle a relationship unlike anything he has ever experienced or will ever encounter again...and he longs to be a part of it. Past Oscar-winner Bertolucci (The Last Emperor, Last Tango in Paris, etc.) makes his love of cinema apparent, masterfully and playfully paying homage to some of the great directors of world cinema and their films.
Almodovar has followed the outstanding Talk to Her with a beautifully crafted and complex tragicomedy, furthering his already considerable reputation as one of Europe's most distinctive and popular filmmakers.
As young boys, Enrique and Ignacio fell in love at the Catholic Boarding school they attended, but the affair was destroyed by an abusive priest.
Years later an actor claiming to be Ignacio (rising star Gael Garcia Bernal) turns up at the offices of film director Enrique Goded, with a story based on those childhood experiences. As he reads, complex layers of fiction, memory and illusion unravel. The mystery deepens further when the real priest appears with his own revelations.
Rémy, self-styled hedonist and "sensual socialist" is dying. Alienated son Sébastian, international banker and "arch-capitalist," reluctantly visits. Moved by his father's situation, Sébastian ruthlessly strives to achieve the impossible - to make his father's death a happy one.
Told with such delicate wit and delight, this film is a treasure. The film's targets are numerous - hospital bureaucracy, the crumbling Welfare State, union corruption, the Roman Catholic Church and the dumbing-down of Western society.
Yes, there is sadness, addiction and death, but mainly this is a film about warmth and laughter and the sheer perversity of humanity.
Best Foreign Language Film, 2004 Oscars
From the maker of Amores Perros one of the 21st Century's best films to date, this is Inarritu's latest masterpiece, a technically exhilarating, structurally complex and gripping narrative which tests audience comprehension to the limit.
The plot is deceptively simple. The lives of a professor dying of heart disease, a suburban mother and an ex-con who has found Jesus, intersect after a tragic accident.
Tackling huge questions: if there is a God, why does He allows evil things to happen? What is the nature of human identity? How do we cope with guilt? This is a hugely ambitious drama led by three powerhouse performances.
Audience Award, Venice Film Festival 2003
Five seasons on a floating temple offer sharp lessons in life for the young boy apprenticed to an aging monk, in this ravishing Korean drama, a meditation on the cyclical nature of life.
As the boy grows to adulthood, each season brings new insight into the illusory nature of time and human aging. Sometimes the images are shocking: a man writes 'shut' on pieces of paper and glues them over his eyes, nose and mouth, a cat's tail is dipped in ink and used to pen a sutra, a baby crawls along the icy surface of the lake.
Yet the result is an exquisite morality tale, a visual feast that's infused with a Buddhist outlook on life, love, and man's place in the universe. Haunting, serene and beautiful.
In 1984, Arnold Friedman, award-winning school-teacher and jovial patriarch, was found to be receiving child pornography in the mail. Within days, Arnold, along with his 19-year-old son Jesse, was accused of multiple counts of sexual abuse towards local children, whom he had tutored.
This gregarious family were also habitual home-video freaks, documenting every aspect of their lives, performing sketches and routines. The accusations and eventual trial did nothing to stop this impulse, even during the subsequent family breakdown.
Nothing is black-and-white in this devastating tale not only of a family in tatters but of the flaws inherent in the American legal system. The end result will leave you emotionally shattered and highly moved. As the tagline says "Who do you believe?"
Grand Jury Prize - 2003 Sundance Film Festival
A famous poet is trapped between real and imaginary worlds as he becomes infatuated with the Angel of Death.
Autobiography mingles with classical mythology against a background of post-war France. This fine new print from the BFI revives Cocteau's ingenious theatrical stage-sets, and enhances the film's dream-like, uncanny atmosphere conjured up by the still remarkably persuasive visual effects.
The old codes of honour are waning in 19th Century Japan seemingly for everyone except Seibei, low ranking samurai, who lives only for his elderly mother and two small daughters. When his childhood sweetheart returns to town, followed by her drunken ex-husband, Seibei takes matters into his own hands.
Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, 2004 Oscars
Finbar McBride is a dwarf; train-obsessed and fed up with people's reaction to his size. So when he inherits a derelict train depot he tries to retreat into his own privacy.
But solitude is hard to come by in the small town of Newfoundland, with its intrusive characters including Joe the hotdog vendor, permanently parked on his doorstep, and highly-strung artist Olivia, repeatedly running him off the road.
In spite of himself, Fin gets emotionally involved in their personal dramas. When these newly forged bonds are tested that he finally opens his eyes to a broader view of the world and his place in it.
Best Screenplay, BAFTA Awards, 2004
One 24 hour period, Grenoble, France. Three films. Genres - thriller. comedy. melodrama. 3 very different couples. All audaciously intertwined in this groundbreaking trilogy of films. An outstanding cinematic treat.
On The Run
Belvaux plays Bruno, an unrepentant terrorist, whose escape from prison leads him to find assistance from an unexpected quarter in this compelling noir police thriller.
One 24 hour period, Grenoble, France. Three films. Genres - thriller. comedy. melodrama. 3 very different couples. All audaciously intertwined in this groundbreaking trilogy of films. An outstanding cinematic treat.
An Amazing Couple
In stark contrast to the films around it, an old-fashioned French marital comedy with tangential plot twists and refreshing invention.
One 24 hour period, Grenoble, France. Three films. Genres - thriller. comedy. melodrama. 3 very different couples. All audaciously intertwined in this groundbreaking trilogy of films. An outstanding cinematic treat.
Afterlife
Providing answers to many of the questions left unresolved in the first two films, this low-key melodrama is the most austere yet emotionally rewarding episode.
Prisoners in the São Paulo Carandirú Penitentiary tell the tales of their crimes to the visiting Doctor.
Prisons don't come much meaner than this one. It's a tinderbox just waiting for a spark to ignite it, which is exactly what happened one fateful day in 1992 when riot police stormed the building.
Babenco discovers an unexpected warmth within the grim prison walls as tales of love, jealousy, failed escape attempts and the on-going AIDS epidemic grab us by the throat.
Funny, violent, and shocking, this is a rich tapestry of stories woven together with a masterful touch.
Biopic of recalcitrant file-clerk and underground comic book writer Harvey Pekar. 'American Splendor' began life in the 1970's, exploring the mundane reality of Pekars' own life and of those around him.
Mixing real interviews with Pekar alongside his fictional alter-ego (Paul Giamatti), the movie skilfully combines animation, reality and fiction in its engaging story of the meeting of Harvey and comic-store owner Joyce Brabner (Hope Davis), a pair who combine a huge range of personality and health disorders.
These are the ordinary grumps Hollywood ignores, treated with neither condescension nor special pleading and set in Cleveland, probably America's least glamorous city.
Grand Jury Prize - Sundance Film Festival 2003
New Director's Award - Edinburgh International Film Festival 2003
The first film out of post-Taliban Afghanistan is a riveting and angry drama about a Kabul mother and daughter who, upon the death of her husband, resort to desperate measures to survive.
Banned from venturing outside without a man, the mother is forced to send her daughter out to work, dressing her as a young boy. But the Taliban are recruiting male children and "Osama's" act becomes increasingly dangerous.
First-time director Barmak takes pains to interrogate the religious and social roots underlying the Taliban's treatment of women. And far from celebrating the American liberation, Osama suggests that Afghanistan will need more than bombs in order to be healed.
Best Foreign Language Film - Golden Globe 2004
Into a Depression-era Rocky Mountain village stumbles Grace (Nicole Kidman), on the run from the mob and her mysterious past. Sanctuary is offered - at a price: she must offer her services to the village in any way she can.
Shot experimentally in a bare warehouse with minimal set and town features marked with white paint on the floor, Von Trier demands that you focus solely on the characters.
Digging deeper into his familiar themes of prejudice and exploitation, he goes beyond female martyrdom into an exposé of the dark recesses of human nature.
European Film Awards 2003 - Best Director, Best Cinematographer.
Following the recent Polanski Retrospective at the NFT, we present new prints of two classics from the master of cinematic menace.
A testy older man and his young wife pick up a hitch-hiker on their yachting weekend. Tensions arise as the two men engage in competition for the woman's approval, the power games inevitably getting out of hand.
A rare opportunity to see a masterful debut film.
Nominated Best Foreign Language Film - 1964 Oscars/BAFTAS
Following the recent Polanski Retrospective at the NFT, we present new prints of two classics from the master of cinematic menace.
1930s Los Angeles. Private eye Jake Gittes finds himself increasingly out of his depth when taking on what seems to be a simple divorce case.
The Oscar-winning script takes us into the morally and psychologically murky world of civic and personal corruption. Impeccably made, genuinely intelligent and complex.
Actor (Nicholson), Screenplay, Director - 1975 BAFTAs
Actor (Nicholson), Screenplay, Director, Picture - 1975 Golden Globes
Twelve years after he left, Ivan and Andrei's father returns home. He reasserts his position as head of the household, with no explanation, and airily declares the boys are to come with him on a fishing trip up to the Northern Lakes.
But this is no family bonding holiday. Does he intend to force them to grow up, to become men like himself, or merely use them for some private agenda? Few answers are forthcoming but the questions provide their own mystery.
Played out on a beautiful but chilling canvas of deep browns and iron greys, this marks the debut of an outstanding filmmaker. A mysterious and disquieting experience that will stay with you for many days.
Golden Lion, Venice Film Festival 2003
In ancient China, warring factions plot to assassinate Qin, the most powerful ruler. A nameless warrior arrives at court claiming to have defeated his three greatest enemies: Broken Sword, Flying Snow and Sky. However, inconsistencies arise as his story unfolds.
Shot by legendary cinematographer Chris Doyle as a kind of hallucination, a riot of colour and movement, this Crouching Tiger-style blend of awesome martial arts set pieces, historical drama and tragic romance, is one of the richest and most unforgettable movie experiences of this or any other year.
Nominated, Best Foreign Film, Oscar, 2003
Two young men set out on an 8000 km journey of self-discovery through the extraordinarily beautiful landscapes (and beautiful women!) of South America.
Director Salles (Central Station), adapting the journals of Ernesto 'Che' Guevara (Gael Garcia Bernal, Amores Perros, Bad Education) traces the origins of a revolutionary heart, capturing the restlessness of youth and the awakening sense of social injustice that created one of the most iconic and influential political leaders of the 20th Century.
3 Awards at Cannes, 2004
Following on from the success of The Barbarian Invasions last season we bring you Denys Arcand's award-winning, hilarious and satirical comedy 'prequel' featuring many of the same cast and characters.
Made 17 years earlier, this is a witty and provocative look at the battle of the sexes. Four men gather at a country retreat to prepare a gourmet supper, while in the city their female companions are working out at a health club.
Both groups discuss their sex lives, affairs and seduction techniques and when they finally meet for dinner, the knives are out, revelations are made and an uncomfortable night is in store for all.
8 Génie Awards (Canadian Oscars), 1987
Nominated, Best Foreign Film, 1987 Oscars
A rich and pleasing love story between Kenji (Asano), a depressed ex-pat librarian in Bangkok with Mob connections and Thai bar girl Noi (Boonyasak), from the director of last season's Mon-Rak Transistor.
Stuck in limbo, unable to move on or end it, Kenji hooks up with Noi, the sister of a girl run down in front of him as he perches on the edge of a bridge. Their striking and moving relationship forms the core of this surreal mix of gangster in-fighting and whimsical mood piece.
Heavy with irony, sometimes reminiscent of Jim Jarmusch's hipster deadpan style and shot with Chris Doyle's typically ravishing poise, this is a unique slice of Asian cool from a maturing filmmaker.
Jury Prize, Fant-Asia Film festival, 2004
A wonderfully sharp portrait of a friendship disintegrating under pressure from time, place and social difference.
Mahmut, disillusioned, divorced photographer living fastidiously alone in Istanbul, reluctantly agrees to put up Yusuf, an uncultured country cousin looking for work. However, Yusuf's half-hearted search is unsuccessful and he begins to outstay his welcome.
Sly, restrained humour ensures that this melancholic look at friendship, fulfilment and the inability to connect never feels suffocating. It's the things left unsaid which speak volumes.
Grand Jury Prize, Cannes, 2003
Joint Winners, Best Actor, Cannes, 2003
Simply the most truly moving, fascinating film of the decade. In 1999, Jeremy Gilley had an idea. His aim: to create just 24 hours during which the entire planet would stop killing each other. “If I failed, it would make an interesting film about a world unwilling to change. And if I succeeded ... well, that was almost inconceivable.”
Well, this inconceivable film has been received rapturously around the world so we’re delighted to welcome Jeremy to our Gala screening.
A depressive, whose life as an actor in LA is made possible by liberal doses of lithium, returns home for his mother's funeral. Enter Ian Holm as the domineering Dad and Natalie Portman as the epileptic love interest. An instant cult hit, this is a hilarious yet understated film about life, love and the bizarre delights of New Jersey.
A very tasty exercise in supernatural and psychological horror from Korea. Two girls struggle with their icy stepmother as a sense of supernatural unease pervades their isolated home. The most creepy spine-chilling tale since Ring. Will make you whimper.
A rockumentary, if you will, about Metallica's struggle to record their 10th album St. Anger. With no material, a crippling case of writers' block and their front-man in rehab, the rest of the band start group therapy. A film at volume eleven.
Inspired by an infamous true story that made headlines in Japan, four children are abandoned by their wayward mother. The children survive in a world of imagination and parallel existence that is both terrifying and heart-stoppingly sad. By turns discomforting, comic and moving, this is a haunting and powerful achievement from the director of Afterlife.
Paddy Considine gives a terrifying performance as a vigilante determined to punish the low life criminals who abused his brother. "God will forgive them and allow them into heaven," he declares. "And I can't live with that." A dark, violent story of remembrance and revenge, this is easily Shane Meadows' best work yet, a stunning affirmation of his powers.
A father and son slowly make their way by foot, boxcar and thumbed rides to the seaside city of Koktebel. In less talented hands, this could have been just another road movie. Instead, the taut script, understated performances and a loving eye for natural beauty create a film that recalls vintage Terrence Malick. An arresting, spaced-out and dreamy film from Russia.
A white baby camel is born to a family of nomadic Gobi Desert shepherds. So traumatic is the birth that the mother rejects the baby. Luckily the family knows what to do. They send for a musician who can play a melody to melt the stubborn camel's heart. The sweetest film you'll see this year.
A star-studded cast revolves around James Barrie (played by Johnny Depp), the Scottish playwright whose relationship with a widow (Kate Winslet) and her four sons unlocked his imagination, enabling him to create his children's classic Peter Pan. Wonderful performances as well as sensitive direction from Forster (Monster's Ball), make this a moving experience.
Within the sunlit expanses of the Yorkshire Dales, two 16 year old girls embark on a brief yet intimate friendship. The two leads give note-perfect performances as the sexual curiosity of their youth unfolds. As languidly erotic as the hazy indolence of summer, this is British cinema at its most superb, from the acclaimed director of Last Resort.
Jonathan Glazer (Sexy Beast) directs Nicole Kidman in this story about a New Yorker who believes her dead husband has been reincarnated in a child. A solemn yet ominous work, Birth is set in a series of airless interiors and stark landscapes. Lauren Bacall provides classy levity in a film controversial for Kidman taking a bath with her (very) young lead.
A wickedly hip film shot entirely in the subway of Budapest through which Bulcsú, a ticket inspector, stumbles on his daily rounds. It's a sick kind of fluorescent-lit wonderland with impromptu raves in the tunnels, flirtatious bunny girls and Kafkaesque bureaucratic railway authorities to fight. Meanwhile, a mysterious, possibly supernatural killer is stalking the subway. A film with style to burn.
A totally gratuitous mind-spin of a movie which won the Prix du Jury at Cannes. Try this for a plot: a businessman is kidnapped by persons unknown. He's imprisoned in a cheap hotel room. For 15 years. Then without warning or reason, he's given a mobile phone, and invited to find the man who stole 15 years of his life. A revenge drama of awesome proportions, this is virtuoso film-making from a Korean master. You will never ever eat calamari again.
Funniest film this year? What if I told you it was a Belgian road comedy with wheelchairs? In black and white? No, seriously. Aaltra is about two grumpy middle-aged men who lose the use of their legs in a bizarre agricultural accident then head to Helsinki to protest. This sublimely nutty black farce features a plethora of Tati-esque sight gags, Jason Flemyng as a bewildered English motocross rider, and a jaw-dropping karaoke performance by a Finnish biker. Essential viewing.
Set in a vast and leaking cinema on the last rain-lashed night of its life, the audience have its own reasons for watching the film, Dragon Inn. Despite its simple premise this film has extraordinary reach and power, from a director renowned for his graceful compositions. A strange, inscrutable, yet frequently beautiful experience worth savouring and considering, quietly.
Just days before the Iraqi war, Jehane Noujaim (Startup.com), gained extraordinary access to the Al Jazeera network. As US Spin division Centcom moved to control all wartime media coverage, Al Jazeera fought for independence with tragic consequences. Noujaim never takes a cheap shots (take note Michael Moore) but concentrates on individual stories from both sides, often with telling, moving and frequently comic results.
Arrogant and malformed, and capable of making the most upsetting noises with his mouth, Napoleon Dynamite is a Super Geek. Not the greatest of assets when helping a new (Mexican) friend win the class presidency in your small town high school of Preston, Idaho. With humour reminiscent of The Simpsons, this is a wonderfully offbeat movie, which revels in its own modish kookiness.
Jim Jarmusch gets a whole movie to celebrate his favourite stimulants "Coffee and cigarettes. That's like the breakfast of champions." Actually a fine compilation of accomplished shorts starring all Jarmusch's friends, from Cate Blanchett to Steve Coogan, the film's a poignant, odd, unexpectedly insightful and frequently very funny experience.
A tale of domestic abuse with the stomach-tightening tension of a thriller, which swept clean Spain's national film awards (Best Film, Director, Screenplay, Actor and Actress) and garnered acclaim from critics everywhere. With a finely-wrought script which defies sensationalism and pitch-perfect performances from the two leads, this is undoubtedly a major work.
This disturbing account of a Columbine-style high school massacre is a dreamlike exploration of violence that refuses easy explanations.
Winner of the Palme D'Or and Best Director, Cannes 2003
Possibly the looniest, most alienating, most WHAT-WERE-THEY-THINKING?? mainstream film ever made. And we wouldn't have it any other way. A philosophical screwball comedy from director David O. Russell (Three Kings), that's completely mesmerizing, galvanizing, and utterly wonderful. It's a film of big ideas that feels lighter than air, with a dazzling up-for-anything world-class cast.
A biopic depicting the early years of legendary director and aviator Howard Hughes' career, from the late 1920s to the mid-1940s. 'At nearly three hours it's expansive but never dull, while the 20s-40s are superbly recreated, Hughes' Beverly Hills plane crash is stunning and the conclusion, which initially seems anticlimactic, is haunting. Like Hughes' flying boat The Spruce Goose, The Aviator is imposing, spectacular, and hard to get off the ground. But when it takes off, it soars.' BBCi
Taut, tense and provocative, Enduring Love is that rare film in which all the elements, script, direction, photography and design, come together to form an exceptional piece. A great cast of British talent: Daniel Craig, Samantha Morton, Rhys Ifans, completes the picture. If only all our films could be this good.
Louis I Kahn ranks among America's greatest modern architects, yet his refusal to compromise resulted in many unfulfilled projects by the time of his sudden heart attack at Penn Station, New York in 1974.
Unknown to his 'official' family he had also fathered children by two other women. Among them is Nathaniel Kahn, director and narrator of this unique celluloid collision of therapy and celebration, which asks whether his father's social stature could excuse or even explain such destructive behaviour.
Above all this is a fascinating, touching human story: when was the last time you cried at an architecture documentary?
Audience Award, Chicago IFF, 2003
An entomologist wandering the dunes in search of specimens is persuaded by local villagers to spend the night in a young widow’s shack at the bottom of a pit. In the morning the ladder has gone and, like the woman, he is forced to shovel sand out of the ever-filling pit to survive.
This brilliant, sophisticated comedy centres upon Etiénne, a successful but appalling Parisian novelist and publisher, and Lolita, his sensitive, verweight daughter and aspiring singer. It is a strikingly witty and observant story about power, family tensions and monstrous egos in the arts world, backed by a beautiful soundtrack.
Inspired by the crimes of Korea's first recorded serial killer, this policier was a huge hit in South Korea. After the discovery of female corpses in and around a provincial town in 1986, Park (Song Kang-ho) a brash but often intuitively correct local detective is joined by Inspector Suh (Kim Sang-kyung), a more methodical type from Seoul who barely conceals his contempt for the country cop's methods of interrogation.
After ensuring we're hooked by a good, suspenseful mystery, Bong refuses to play by the generic rules: he emphasises the human cost of the killings, the despair and confusion that set in as the investigation drags on and the fact that the waters are far muddier - in terms of evidence and ethics - than we'd like to believe.
Best New Director, San Sebastian Festival, 2003
Events start to spiral out of control when Antoine and Hélène lose their tempers with each other in the nightmare traffic of the year’s hottest day. Supplying a dangerous killer on the loose and a mysterious hitch-hiker, Kahn brilliantly weaves his Hitchcockian plot of nightmarish events against a background of paranoid masculinity and marital dysfunction. Brilliantly acted, this sophisticated thriller will intrigue and enthral you.
Critics
In this thoughtful drama about race, roots and cross-cultural love, Ken Loach is in an unusually romantic and non-political mode. The title comes from a Burns love poem, and in this 'Romeo and Juliet on the Clyde', Paul Laverty's script impressively depicts the cultural divide between a second-generation Pakistani man who falls in love with the young Irish Catholic woman who teaches music at his sister's school. Great acting and believable, intelligent filmmaking.
A chance encounter on a train leads Jesse (Hawke) and Celine (Delpy) to spend 14 brief hours together exploring the city of Vienna, discovering a mutual love of the unrehearsed and each other...
Silver Bear, Berlin IFF, 1995
Nine years later the couple meet again. He is an unhappily married novelist touring his book based on their first meeting, she's an artist living in Paris. They have a little over an hour before he has to catch a plane. So who are they now? Is there still anything between them?
What happens when you eat nothing but McDonald's for one month? Armed with his video camera filmmaker Morgan Spurlock challenged himself to eat three meals a day at Ronald's McDs - and if they offered to 'super-size' his order, he had to say yes!
After three weeks his doctor is begging him to abandon the plan as his body balloons and his liver tests are coming back as 'obscene'.
One part Michael Moore-type anti-corporate tub-thump, one part Jackass: The Investigative Blow-Out, Spurlock looks at the McInvasion of schools and hospitals, takes his beef to an insufficiently slick PR for the Grocery Manufacturers of America and pelts us with chewy stats and facts. Meanwhile he puts on 25 pounds, waves goodbye to his libido and ponders the implications for the diet of millions of 'users' worldwide.
Best Director’s Award, Sundance Film Festival, 2004
In this beautifully made tale of love and loss, a writer embarks on a series of relationships with women. He writes of a fictional 2046, a place where people go to relive old memories from which no-one has ever returned. Is it the future? Or his own past?
Shot in burnished colours (again by Chris Doyle) this is an atmospheric 60's mood piece. Set principally in the rooms and corridors of an apartment block, it's the story of one man's gradual realisation of his own limitations and the relationships that litter his past.
Five years in the making and with a cast of the leading lights in Asian cinema, this is a provocative, singular work from a genuine auteur.
Vera Drake is a selfless woman, completely devoted to and loved by her family. However, moonlighting from her job as a cleaner she also secretly performs abortions for young women, a practice illegal in 50s Britain.
Vera sees herself as simply helping women in need and always does so with a smile and kind words of encouragement. But when the authorities finally find her out, Vera's world and family life rapidly unravel.
Staunton's Oscar calibre performance anchors this typically absorbing, detailed and devastating Mike Leigh film as the master English filmmaker departs from a contemporary setting for only the second time since 1999's Topsy Turvy.
Golden Lion, Venice IFF, 2004
Best Actress, Imelda Staunton, Venice IFF
A huge hit in its native France, this Oscar-nominated story of tough kids in a sink school in the France of 1949 has all the impact of its predecessors in the genre, such as Les quatre cents coups, Goodbye Mr Chips and Dead Poets Society.
The arrival of M. Mathieu (Gérard Jugnot), armed only with his musical compositions, would seem to hold out little hope of impacting on the hardened early teen-aged criminals who conduct a secret war with their corrupt and vicious headmaster. There's plenty of tension, emotion, humour and music to please most tastes in this eminently entertaining movie.
On World Peace Day, another chance to see one of the big successes of the Keswick Film Festival 2005. One man's struggle to bring the world to it's senses - if only for one day.
Former actor Jeremy Gilley has devoted the last five years to the promotion of World Peace Day; one day in the year when the fighting and the shooting all over the world stops. Inspirational.
To escape poverty and unemployment a young Columbian woman accepts a dangerous job. Swallow 60 pellets full of heroin and smuggle them into the USA.
Featuring an Oscar nominated performance from Catalina Sandino Moreno this is the gripping and harrowing tale of one of the many thousands of drug 'mules' that enter America every year. Non-judgmental in its approach and following the details of the process - recruitment, instruction, ingestion (!) - and then the trip itself. Maria makes a charismatic and sympathetic protagonist.
All marriages are a mystery to outsiders, they say. Five episodes from a modern European marriage. In reverse. From divorce to first meeting this riveting and mature movie reveals fractured shards of the life of one French couple. Intense and riveting it will linger in the mind for days.
Sorrentino's impressively confident second feature manages to be entertaining, pleasingly intelligent and surprisingly substantial. It centres on Titta, a quiet, smart, very serious and very secretive 60-year-old Italian who lives anonymously and pretty joylessly in a Swiss lakeside hotel. Expert in shady finance but not in affairs of the heart, he keeps his cards close to his chest, too wary even to speak to the beautiful hotel barmaid Sofia ... until odd figures from his past start turning up at the hotel.
Kicking off as a genuinely squewed character study before taking an agreeable turn into the realms of romantic crime-thriller, this contrives to blend comedy, suspense and understated sentiment to intriguing and witty effect. A delight.
Geoff Andrew, Time Out
A remarkably assured first film by Nicole Kassell, The Woodsman treats a sensational subject in a resolutely unsensational way, and proves yet again what a fine and subtle actor Kevin Bacon is. He plays a paedophile trying to build a new life after being released from prison after 12 years.
He is well supported by Kyra Sedgwick (also Mrs Bacon - here's a couple whose chemistry shows up on screen) and Mos Def is outstanding as a cynical parole officer expecting Bacon to re-offend again. The film makes it clear that this is a possibility, while also showing us a man who is not a monster but twisted by sexual urges most of us don't feel. The film, taken from Stephen Fechter's play, allows Bacon a surprising and controversial kind of redemption. Overall it's a thoughtful and resonant piece of work.
Rob Mackie, The Guardian
Flatmates Peter and Jan (Goodbye Lenin's Daniel Brühl) have a shared secret: by night they break into the homes of rich folk, not to steal but to scare them out of their complacency by rearranging the contents and leaving sinister notes. When Peter's girlfriend Jule and a fat cat she owes money to become involved things go completely out of control.
Weingartner's ultimately feel-good film is never preachy, alternately funny, touching and gripping, with very likeable characters you'll be rooting for and an intelligently complex look at our consumerist society. Great soundtrack too.
A breathtaking ride into audacious fight scenes, pop culture references and hilariously ludicrous situations and gags. Referencing westerns, gangster movies, dance and Chuck Jones cartoons this is a hugely enjoyable and imaginative martial-arts comedy from a director legendary within the Hong Kong movie scene.
1945. As the Russian Army closes on Berlin, chaos reigns as the Third Reich crumbles. Hitler rages against his own generals and the German people themselves, unable to accept defeat.
The first German film in 50 years to deal with this period of the war and features an astonishingly humanising performance from Bruno Ganz. Controversially playing him not as the usual caricature but a raging, shouting, spittingly real Hitler This is devastating filmmaking outstandingly put together in every department.
Veteran Senegalese director Sembene Ousmane here tackles the controversy of female circumcision in a passionate drama set in a rural village in Burkina Faso. When four little girls flee a purification ceremony and 'the cut', they take refuge with Collie (Fatoumata Coulibaly), a woman who refused to have her own daughter circumcised. She casts a mystical protection (the Moolaadé of the title) and a standoff follows. It is a warm hearted and wryly observed take on village life.
Teeming with life, art, myth and madness, Desplechin's film is a careering modern relationships melodrama that undercuts the usual routines of French chamber cinema with left turns into ghost story, bedlam burlesque, cornershop shootout and even a madcap rap moonwalk.
The film knocks between two ex-lovers Nora and Ismael, whose lives have taken paths nearly as divergent as their outlooks on them. A jitterbug web of recriminations, wrong-footing revelations and the odd reconciliation, the film is enrapturing to watch, full of appositely grandstanding performances and tumbling improvisatory technique. Majestic movie-making
Nick Bradshaw, Time Out
Depicting the country before the 2003 western invasion, this is the first movie to come out of Iraq since the fall of Saddam. It's an amazing film, shot in an Iraqi refugee camp on the border with Turkey by Kurdish director Bahman Ghobadi (A Time for Drunken Horses), in which we witness a handful of orphaned children and their efforts to survive the appalling conditions. Dedicated, according to Ghobadi, "to all the innocent children in the world - the casualties of the policies of dictators and fascists", Turtles Can Fly vividly immerses the viewer in the tough life of this makeshift community struggling with their landmine-ridden existence. A must-see.
A deeply moving film that has touched audiences wherever it has been shown. A new pastor, Anna, is sent for her first assignment to a women's prison, where she encounters both Kate, whose life story and reputation for disturbing powers affect her profoundly, and Henrik whose position as prison official should guard him against romantic attachments...
Following Dogme principles, director Annette Olesen probes perceptively the themes of religion, friendship, love, desire for (and experience of) maternity, shedding light on the most painful corners of human existence and constructing a heady, devastating climax. Brilliant cinema.
Ex-offender Ricky (rapper Ashley Walters in an outstanding debut) has barely re-entered the volatile environment of his East London council estate when he is reluctantly sucked into a vicious circle of petty rows, threats, gun violence and recrimination. The catalyst being. . . a broken wing mirror. Such mundane realism defines this feature debut of documentary maker Dibb, who has rejected the usual flashy and clichéd trappings of the genre to tell a tragic story of how a family is destroyed when guns enter their otherwise unexceptional lives.
Dibb has produced a work of superior, committed and responsible storytelling.
Dave Calhoun, Time Out
Sounding initially like yet another gentle, pre-digested rom-com: Man enters into marriage of convenience with free-spirited stranger in order to free her from her rabidly strict family, only to gradually realize that they're actually made for each other.
From the opening frames, however, it's clear that the aptly named Head-On takes a markedly different approach to the material- here, he makes his living picking up empties in a punk club, she's mainly looking for a way to have as much unattached sex 'n drugs as possible, and they meet after both attempting suicide.
The most honestly electrifying film I've seen in years, Fatih Akin's thundering character piece completely captures the joy, fear and self-loathing of bottoming out. Perhaps even more impressively he displays a deep compassion for his characters throughout without sugar coating their destructive qualities in the slightest. Those thirsting for a walk on the wild side should be completely enthralled.
Andrew Wright, The Stranger, Seattle
Set against the background of Chile's bloody coup in 1973, when Pinochet's military junta overthrew the Allende socialist government, this is the story of how two boys, one from the privileged suburbs and the other a shanty-town slum-dweller, become classmates and friends. As the outside world impinges on their lives, their school, and the lives of their friends and families, we witness a society verging on civil war.
The settings - school, shanty-town, bourgeois villa, Santiago - are finely-depicted, the camerawork creates images that will live with you for years, and the performances of all the young actors are immensely impressive.
Spirited Away two years ago (125 audience, 87% score) showed there is a market in the West for Japanese animation (and there dominant skills over most western animators), so we kick off the spring season with its wonderful follow-up.
Transformed from a young woman into an aged crone by the Witch of the North Sophie finds work with eccentric wizard Howl in his titular home. He’s busy fighting wars with his neighbours so she befriends his cursed fire demon Calcifer and various adventures ensue. Peopled with Miyazaki’s trademark demons, spirits and bewildered humans and with another gorgeous Joe Hisaishi score, this marks the continued refinement of the trademark Miyazaki themes: redemption, flight, identity, loyalty, honour and friendship.
From the director of Close My Eyes and The Others comes this moving and involving drama. Revol (Javier Bardem) wants to die. After breaking his neck at the age of 20 he has been paraplegic and bedridden for 28 years and has had enough. Should he be granted his wish or is it mere self indulgence? Do we have the right to kill ourselves if we want to? And what part do those around us play? You might be surprised at your own reactions to his situation. With some elements of fantasy, as Revol escapes his condition through his imagination this is at times genuinely moving. A powerful and provocative contribution to the euthanasia debate.
A young journalist meets 'the President' (a stunning Michel Bouquet) - France's last socialist President, as his potential biographer. Whilst learning about his years in power and his thoughts on the state of the nation, he also tries to find out about The Presidents' somewhat shady past, only to realise he is being watched.
Mixing biography, fiction and the filmmakers own research this is a biopic like no other. Defiantly intellectual in its study of ideas and ideals, the relationship between the individual and the state and as French as they come, this is a treat for any politically and socially minded person.
Following on from the success and acclaim of last season's landmark film Downfall, comes another piece of WWII German history, approaching the subject from the opposite direction. Sophie Scholl was a real young German woman, familiar to every German schoolchild. Part of The White Rose, a secret non-violent anti-Hitler student group, she was 21 when she was arrested. Drawn almost verbatim from the transcripts between Scholl and her interrogator Robert Mohr, this features an outstanding performance from Julia Jentsch (The Edukators) as the embodiment of self belief, a belief that being young did not excuse her from resisting the Nazis.
SILVER BEAR - Best Actress & Director, Berlin 2005
The first Sub-Saharan African film to be directed by a woman this stands with last season's Moolaade as an exploration of modern Africa. In an unnamed African state, a fragile peace is declared between warring tribes. At a feast held in honour of the truce, the undercurrents of years on conflict rage and the words and actions of a few will decide the course of the future for all. Director Nacro said she was going for the universality of a parable, with Shakepearean overtones, and certainly the central character of Colonel Theo bares resemblance to several of the Bard's flawed heroes. But the echoes of Rwanda and other conflicts connect this to recent events still in the mind of Africa and the world.
Made 'for the price of a used car' as writer/director/editor/actor Carruth puts it, Primer is a good example of how far a micro budget but mega ambition can get you.
Abe and Aaron are white collar engineers by day but sweat over their own inventions by night in the hopes of striking it big. When they do, its not in the way they intended and maybe the 'device' is more than they can cope with. The low key deadpan style makes old science fiction clichés seem fresh again and a layered and offhand approach to dialogue and plot information obscures what's happening rather than laying everything out like a Hollywood no-brainer. A treat.
GRAND JURY PRIZE - Sundance Film Festival 2004
Gorgeous, raunchy, frequently hilarious, and shot through with fantasy interludes of stunning beauty, Popular Music's setting is a tiny village in Arctic Sweden in the 60s. Two teenage boys decide to become rock stars to pick up girls but they haven't reckoned on the conservative mentality of their hometown, for whom even the Beatles seem Satanic.
A train races through Italy, bound for Rome. Aboard are three separate stories, lightly interconnected. Made by three world-famous directors, Iranian master Kiarostami, Italian veteran Olmi and Ken Loach, it's Loach who steals the show with a dynamic, raucously funny miniature about a stolen train ticket and three loudmouth Celtic fans...
This stunning and intricate adaptation of Le Carre's novel is a consummate follow-up film from the director of City of God. Ralph Fiennes calibrates his performance beautifully and as the forceful Tessa, Rachel Weisz delivers a career-best turn, with excellent support coming from Pete Postlethwaite and Bill Nighy. A grown-up thriller filled with passionate performances, this is one of the finest films of 2005.
A raucous mix of black comedy and noir thriller from the writer of Lethal Weapon, this film is a wicked treat. Stars Robert Downey Jr and Val Kilmer revel in the off-the-wall approach and sharp one-liners. Fast, furious and politically incorrect, the dialogue is riddled with hilariously colourful profanities that add to the general sense of twisted, adult fun.
Justin Cobb is 17 and sucks his thumb. When his 'holistic orthodontist' (hysterically, Keanu Reeves) urges him to invoke his 'power animal' he conjures a faun. After he starts taking Ritalin to cope with his 'Attention Deficiency Syndrome' Justin becomes a cocaine-tongued debate team whizz - but is he any happier? Pitch perfect performances from Vincent D'Onofrio, Tilda Swinton and Vince Vaughn make this a deadpan comedy delight.
An ageing actress buys black-market dumplings supposed to bring eternal youth. So begins this savage satire, from the writer of Farewell My Concubine, a disturbing and transfixing revelation of the perversion caused by the pursuit of beauty. Christopher Doyle's (In the Mood for Love) fantastic cinematography makes the film so exquisite as to be almost other-worldly. But the contents of the dumplings might be the most horrific in cinematic history...
Dazzling debut feature and a terrifyingly plausible vision of biochemical crisis. It is the near-future, and a highly contagious super-virus, developed by a rogue US scientist, has escaped from its lab in a remote desert base, raising fears of a global epidemic. Hallucinatory in tone, its stunning visuals map out a frightening vision of the future.
A handsome, dynamic and taut family friendly animation, from the creator of the greatest anime ever, Akira. Ray Steam receives a steam ball, a power source allowing whoever wields it to invent the most fearsome weapons of mass destruction. This is animation at its fastest and most thrilling with every frame of this frenetic adventure crammed with beauty. Spectacular, gripping, exhilarating stuff.
The renaissance in South American film-making continues with this simple tale of a worker in a shoe factory who persuades a colleague to pretend to be his wife for a reunion with his brother. With pared down dialogue and skilfully underplayed performances, this impressively understated story of 'ordinary' lives, blends deadpan humour and emotional restraint to moving effect.
An energetic, and vividly extreme dance phenomenon, Krumping, is exploding on the streets of South Central, Los Angeles. The kids form their own troupes and meet to outperform rival gangs of dancers. Surrounded by drug addiction, gang activity, and impoverishment, they have managed to somehow rise above it all. The film offers an intimate, completely fresh portrayal of kids in South Central as they reveal their spirit and creativity.
Winner of the Critics' Prize at Cannes, this debut feature from Palestine stuns with its powerful narrative, vivid performances and striking widescreen compositions. Abu Shukri and his family have settled in a desolate valley, living on charcoal the mother and daughters ceaselessly produce. But when running water arrive at home, the women begin to thirst for more freedom; for food, for love, for desire, for life.
Victor (Johnny Depp), accidentally weds the spooky Corpse Bride (Helena Bonham¬Carter). How will he escape to join his real girlfriend in the Land of the Living? A weirdly wonderful fantastical animation from the director of A Nightmare Before Christmas.
A charming and beguiling tale of a ragtag fishing community who need a new factory so desperately, they'll do anything to fool a young doctor to move into town. This is a lovely witty film full of tiny, sharp moments that remind viewers of the joys of the laughter to be found just beneath a simple surface.
Lonely and with few friends, Shiza's introduction to the world of work is to provide fighters for illegal bare-knuckle boxing. His life is drastically changed when he falls in love with a dead fighter's girlfriend. The beauty, drama and sheer scale of Kazakhstan's landscape, from the steppes to the mountains, are vividly captured in this poetic, tender and convincing film.
After Tom shoots two criminals when they hold up his diner, he finds that his moment of 'heroism' draws his family into a petrifying world of violence. A top-drawer suspense thriller, the film also reveals layers of complexity coiled in its fabric. Starring Viggo Mortensen in a faultless performance, the star of the show is still director David Cronenberg, whose tightrope walk between spectacle and critique hits both guts and mind hard.
Jonathan (Elijah Wood) is seeking the woman who saved his Ukrainian grandfather from the Nazis. He hires Alex, a Ukrainian, whose family specializes in "tours of dead Jews", to help him on his search. Alex's grandfather (also called Alex) is the driver, although he claims to be blind and insists on going everywhere with his "seeing eye bitch," Sammy Davis Junior Junior. Whimsical and devastating, hilarious and poignant, beginning in goofiness and ending in silence and memory: truly, at the end, everything is illuminated.
A devastating documentary which questions the American war machine. Is all US policy dominated by the idea of military supremacy? The answer would appear to be affirmative. Winner of Sundance's Grand Jury Prize.
Dispossessed twenty-year-old Bruno, living on benefits and thieving, sells his baby on the black market. Realising his mistake, he scrambles to reclaim his lost son. Winning a second Palme d'Or in 2005 for its director brothers (the first was for Rosetta in 1998), this is a devastating redemptive tale marking the culmination of one man's searing journey into adulthood.
A sparkling American indie, the toast of this year's Sundance: a comedy about love, sex, fidelity, and upholstery? Struggling musician Josh and long-suffering girlfriend Emily's attempt at Quality Time together is derailed by a string of farcical events and bizarre encounters - not least, Josh's stoner brother Rhett, who invites himself along for the ride. Smart and uncomfortably truthful, this is the sharpest, wittiest comedy about relationships (and male neuroses) of the year.
Each lonely and lacking purpose in life, Juan and Bombon the dog have much to offer each other. An affectionately told story of ordinary folk, this gently meandering tale steeped in the truth of life has a feel-good factor that glossier productions can only feign.
Gallic heartthrob Romain Duris hits a dazzling streak in this stylish and audacious thriller. Tom, a contemptible small-time hood, dreams of being a concert pianist like his mother, yet finds himself pulled inexorably into his father's seedy and foolish underworld life. A work of authority and intensity, set to masterful classical musical performances.
Two words sum up this film: Utterly. Filthy. The premise is simple: the most famous comedians in the western world tell their own profanely personalised version of a legendary joke. As the tagline says the film contains: 'No Nudity, No Violence, just Unspeakable Obscenity'. Prepare to either walk out in disgust or fall off your seat laughing.
3 young British travellers run (very) foul of the locals and feral terrain while touring the deserted wasteland of outback Australia. Filmed with impressive naturalistic performances and gritty docu-style direction, the leisurely pace soon transforms into a nail-biting assault on the senses. This is a searing and harrowing film, suitable only for those who find (their own) extreme terror entertaining.
An overbearing Moroccan father forces his irreligious son to drive him on a 3000 mile Islamic pilgrimage from France to Mecca (in an old Peugeot). A sweet-natured and compelling road movie with a rigorous absence of sentimentality, what makes this film truly remarkable are the unprecedented climactic scenes amidst the collective fervour of Mecca.
Nothing can prepare you for this film's sheer audacity, its eccentricity and its unashamed aspiration to poetry. What starts as a love story between a soldier and a peasant boy metamorphoses into a visionary retelling of a shaman legend of the forest and the hunting of a shape-shifting tiger-shadow. Seductive, sumptuous and scary, this is a brilliant adventure in structure and style.
A transient young man, who breaks into unoccupied homes, discovers an abused young wife with whom he falls murderously in love. Essentially a ghost story steeped in the coexistence of this world and the next, it's also ultimately about the transcendent and magical power of love. An intoxicating film from the director of 'Spring Summer Winter Autumn... and Spring'.
"A sad film about hope", this remarkable feature follows 42 former employees of closed shoe factories in Maryport, Cumbria and Essex on a coach trip across Europe to the heart of the Bata shoe empire in the Czech Republic. A bittersweet road movie, it's rendered memorable by its unsparing yet sympathetic eye and its acute observation of what Bata's maxim, 'We are not afraid of the future' means to the lives of the passengers.
A volatile pair of young lovers from France, both the offspring of Algerian exiles, begin a quest to rediscover a homeland they don't know. A nostalgia trip, a road movie with musical pit-stops, a romance with hiccups, Exiles traces the couple's steamy, reckless journey across boundaries of culture and history with a flair that won the Best Director Award at Cannes.
A tale of love,honour and revenge following the US quad rugby team preparing for the 2004 Paralympics. While the rugby scenes are filled with ferocious passion and harrowing wheelchair duels (these men are tough), the film really uses sport as a way into the players' lives, hopes and fears. To see these men in the full force of athletic exuberance is to learn something valuable about the human will. One player's motto: "No arms. No legs. No problem."
On the coldest, driest and darkest continent on Earth, there is snow, and there is ice, and there are penguins. Thousands of whom march many miles inland to breed, suffering freezing temperatures and starvation, but ultimately returning their chicks to the sea. This film is simply, and astonishingly, the story of this annual cycle, exquisitely made to enthral the whole family.
Justin Cobb is 17 and sucks his thumb. When his 'holistic orthodontist' (hysterically, Keanu Reeves) urges him to invoke his 'power animal' he conjures a faun. After he starts taking Ritalin to cope with his 'Attention Deficiency Syndrome' Justin becomes a cocaine-tongued debate team whizz - but is he any happier? Pitch perfect performances from Vincent D'Onofrio, Tilda Swinton and Vince Vaughn make this a deadpan comedy delight.
Gallic heartthrob Romain Duris hits a dazzling streak in this stylish and audacious thriller. Tom, a contemptible small-time hood, dreams of being a concert pianist like his mother, yet finds himself pulled inexorably into his father's seedy and foolish underworld life. A work of authority and intensity, set to masterful classical musical performances.
Don (Bill Murray) is a man set on idle. Until the day he receives a letter suggesting he fathered a son 20 years ago and he embarks across America to quiz previous girlfriends. The resulting scenes of excruciating discomfiture and embarrassment are superbly contrived and bolstered by terrific performances from an all-star cast, with Murray at a career best. A visually elegant and constantly droll film and Jim Jarmusch's finest yet.
A Hollywood movie that's not afraid to tackle the race issue - head on. From the writer of Million Dollar Baby comes this incendiary multi-strand drama in the style pioneered by Robert Altman in such films as Nashville and Short Cuts.
Over two days the lives of a police detective, drugged-out mother and thieving son, racist cop, Persian immigrant family and many more, interweave as they try to negotiate the melting pot that is LA. With a host of big names: Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Brendan Fraser this is not glossy entertainment, but a provocativev and intelligent exploration of modern America.
After Sokurovs' films on Stalin (Moloch) and Hitler (Taurus) comes this character study of the Emperor Hirohito in the wake of World War 2. Following the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Emperor Hirohito is summoned to make a humiliating account of himself to an angry, contemptuous General Douglas MacArthur. Like two alien species they regard each other, as the Emperor struggles to an unthinkable decision - to renounce the divinity accorded his position, and become a man. The scratched, grainy look, murmuring unfocused soundtrack and dark photography painfully evoke the apocalyptic atmosphere of post- nuclear Japan like a pungent sepia science fiction movie.
While documenting the experiences of prostitutes in Calcutta's red-light district, photojournalist Zana Briski befriended many of their children and decided to provide them with a chance to record images from their own lives. Supplied with cameras by Briski, the children present a portrait of their harsh world that is both unique and insightful. Thus was born Kids with Cameras, a unique outreach programme still running today in Calcutta. Meanwhile she tries to get them out of the brothels and into schools. An honest account of children living on the edge but filtered through hopeful and positive eyes.
BEST DOCUMENTARY - 2004 Oscars
Deep in a forest lies an all-female boarding school. Cut off from the outside world its occupants are forbidden to leave the grounds or ask questions about the sounds they hear at night. The close proximity of the uncanny beside everyday activities creates a unique atmosphere of dread. It sounds like an art-house version of The Village and though the scenario is similar, the details and intention could not be more different. One of the most original debuts of recent memory, Innocence uses sound particularly well to build up an atmosphere of foreboding. Few answers are forthcoming - but signs and symbols abound. With strikingly composed 'scope images it's a rich cinematic experience.
What next from the genre-hopping Winterbottom (9 Songs, Code 46, 24 Hour Party People)? A film of the unfilmable novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy? No problem. Except its not a film of the book, but a film of the attempted filming of an unfilmable book.
Following the film crew and 'director', (played by Jeremy Northam), it's a study of the madness of filmmaking and of the limits of narrative. How much of a story can you construct from some rambling episodes and can it be meaningful? Steve Coogan plays Shandy, our unreliable narrator with Rob Bryden as brother Toby, and a host of British comedy faces - Stephen Fry, David Walliams, Shirley Henderson, Dylan Moran...
The Taiwanese director of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hulk, Sense & Sensibility and The Ice Storm here revisits themes from his earliest films, Pushing Hands and The Wedding Banquet; the gay man struggling with society’s restraints.
1963. Beneath the skies of Brokeback Mountain a farmhand and a rodeo rider begin a relationship. Knowing that society will never allow it they agree to part, but meet again 4 years later, both now married.
No doubt Oscar attention will have brought this onto most peoples' radar but for once it is fully deserving. With surprisingly mature performances, particularly from a revelatory Heath Ledger, this is a rich, classic drama to envelop you in every scene.
GOLDEN LION - Berlin Film Festival 2005
"the most important film to come out of America in years" B. Ruby Rich, The Guardian
The maestro of discomfort returns after detours into a post-apocalyptic landscape (Time of the Wolf) and music (The Piano Teacher). Now, closer to home, a study of the many faces of responsibility.
George and Anne are a well-to-do middle class French family with a son. But their comfortable life begins to unravel when an anonymous video tape appears in the post showing their house over a two hour period. They are being watched. But by who? And why? Is the past coming back to haunt them? Unravelling like a classic thriller and addressing the many faces of personal and national responsibilities this is typically rigorous filmmaking from a master.
BEST DIRECTOR - Cannes Film Festival 2005
Clooney's second feature as director (after Confessions of a Dangerous Mind) sees him exploring the political atmosphere of the 50s. CBS reporter and anchorman Ed Murrow (David Strathairn), one of the legendary figures of US journalism, challenges Senator Joe McCarthys' bullyboy tactics on air, jeopardising his career and the network.
Clooney, whose father was an anchorman, works from his own script and shoots in lustrous black and white which enables him to cast the real Joe McCarthy as himself by intercutting archive footage. The result is a powerful period piece on the power of journalism to confront societies iniquities.
BEST SCREENPLAY & ACTOR (David Strathairn)
Venice Film Festival 2005
With fierce insight and feeling, writer-director Noah Baumbach delivers a fresh look at the effect of divorce on children, in a movie where even the laughs cut to the bone. He sets the film in Brooklyn where he lived in the 1980s during and after the break-up of his own parents. All performances are flawless, but Jeff Daniels' portrait of a man trying to helplessly to break out of the cocoon of his own self-regard is a finely tuned tour de force and it represents his shining hour on screen.
DIRECTOR'S AWARD - Sundance Film Festival 2005
SCREEN WRITING AWARD - Sundance Film Festival 2005
Set amidst the sprawling Johannesburg township of Soweto - where survival is the primary objective - Tsotsi traces six days in the life of a ruthless young gang leader who ends up caring for a baby accidentally kidnapped during a carjacking.
Tsotsi is a gritty and moving portrait of an angry young man living in a state of extreme urban deprivation. The film is a psychological thriller in which the protagonist is compelled to confront his own brutal nature and face the consequences of his actions. It puts a human face on both the victims and the perpetrators of violent crime and is ultimately a story of hope and a triumph of love over rage.
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM - Oscars 2006
Gunslingers, outlaws, ne'er-do-wells and scallywags abound in many a western, but few come as psychotic and devilish as the semi-mythic Arthur Burns who haunts the most savage corners of Australia's outback in this violent, graphic and grisly tale of brotherly loyalty and responsibility.
When Arthur's younger siblings are caught by the authorities a bargain is struck: in order to save the youngest from the noose Charlie Burns (Guy Pierce) must hunt and kill Arthur, the eldest of the three and by far the most sadistic and brutal.
Bleak and unflinching this superbly acted revisionist western puts bullets back into the six-shooter genre.
Ireland 1920: workers from field and country unite to form volunteer guerrilla armies to face the ruthless "Black and Tan" squads that are being shipped from Britain to block Ireland's bid for independence.
Driven by a deep sense of duty and love for his country, Damien abandons his burgeoning career as a doctor and joins his brother, Teddy, in a dangerous and violent fight for freedom.
As the freedom fighters' bold tactics bring the British to breaking point, both sides finally agree to a treaty to end the bloodshed. But, despite the apparent victory, civil war erupts and families who fought side by side find themselves pitted against one another as sworn enemies, putting their loyalties to the ultimate test.
Palme D'or - 2006
From the wartime novel by Joseph Kessel, Jean Pierre Melville's Army of Shadows traces the harrowing feats of a small band of Resistance fighters operating during the German occupation of France in World War II. Avoiding acts of spectacular heroism, Melville presents a twilight world, where the clandestine freedom-fighters seek to avoid capture and are forced to eliminate informants from their own ranks.
When L'Armée des ombres was originally released, a French critic wrote that "this Resistance epic was, in the end, a sublime thriller". We see Melville handle the suspenseful set-pieces with his usual consummate cinematic mastery, so the film finally resembles one of the director's own gangster pictures.
History states that in 1607 three ships arrived in North America, bringing the very first settlers from England. It could be said that the rest is downhill from there!
Helmsman Terrence Malick (The Thin Red Line) creates a charming romance in which the English Captain John Smith (Colin Farrell) and the native Pocahontas attempt to cross the cultural divide with their love for one another.
Malick brings beauty, depth and sumptuous visuals to this cinematic poetic feast.
Breathtaking and extraordinary.
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY
Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman was Oscar nominated for her role as 'Bree', a transsexual who is one snip away from making her transformation from a man to a woman complete. Complications soon arise when Bree is confronted with the news that in a past heterosexual encounter he fathered a son, Toby, whose drug use and rent boy life-style have landed him in trouble with the law.
Fearing her son's reaction Bree poses as a Christian case-worker, leading him on a mutual voyage of self discovery. This is a beautifully acted tale of acceptance that perfectly balances whimsy, hilarity and charm.
BEST ACTRESS - Tribecca Film Festival 2005
A marvellously, witty and compassionate film chronicling the last few hours in the life of an aging man who lives alone, with his cats and his super-strong booze in a Bucharest flat. Director Cristi Puiu's real purpose is to show the indignity, sadness and sheer mundanity with which an unexceptional, lonely 62 year old can leave this earth one night within hours of reporting a suspicious headache to the emergency services.
Puiu also moves beyond social concerns with an account of life's fragility and vulnerability that is subtly and persuasively philosophical. We, armed with the knowledge of the title, begin to contemplate the power of death over life ... Excellent performances throughout, the dialogue and cinematography are frighteningly true to life.
Winner - UN CERTAIN REGARD - Cannes 2005
A double-bill, one fictional, the other fact, on the topic of suicide bombings. An act that baffles, angers, and sickens people the world over, yet seems to have no end of volunteers or supporters who see the perpetrators as martyrs.
The factual film, a documentary examining the before, during and after of the suicide bombing of a bus in Jerusalem four years ago serves as counterpart to the devastating consequences depicted in the fictional: both offer a rare opportunity to examine this modern phenomenon and provide viewers with an extraordinary insight in to the horror of modern guerrilla warfare.
SPECIAL JURY AWARD - BIFF 2006
A double-bill, one fictional, the other fact, on the topic of suicide bombings. An act that baffles, angers, and sickens people the world over, yet seems to have no end of volunteers or supporters who see the perpetrators as martyrs.
Paradise Now tells the story of two Palestinian friends recruited for a fatal assignment that has unexpected consequences, a story told credibly and non-judgementally by director and co-writer Hany Abu-Assad. Depicting their mission in vivid detail he avoids creating both martyrs and monsters.
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Nomination - Oscars 2006
What began as a documentary of the once-in-a-lifetime reunion of the Ballets Russes dancers in 2000, soon turned into the map of the rich history of the ballet company of Russian refugees who never danced in Russia.
Over 50 hours of delightful archival footage was uncovered by Geller and Goldfine and together with idiosyncratic stories given by the dancers, Geller and Goldfine had the daunting but thrilling task of editing this down into the tale of the ballet company.
The result follows the company's history from the turn-of-the-century in Paris, its halcyon days touring the States in the 1930s and 40s to its demise in the 1950s and 60s; fusing archive footage with poignant and revealing interviews.
An entertaining fantasy in which Almodovar returns to his roots with themes of the power of motherhood and the blessing of good friends. Starring Penelope Cruz, who has never looked or acted better, as a prickly resourceful woman whose long-held secret about the father of her teenage daughter is revealed only upon the ghostly appearance of her dead mother.
It is very difficult to mesh fantasy with reality but with great charm and a light touch, Almodovar shows exactly how it is done.
BEST ACTRESS - Cannes 2006
BEST SCREENPLAY - Cannes 2006
Having been ostracised during his childhood because of his Western name, Tony had gone through a very lonely childhood. A talented artist restricted by his lack of feeling, he has now made a career as a technical illustrator, usually working alone.
How does such a person then cope when love so unexpectedly strikes? Eiko is like an angel in Tony's daily existence, and for the first time in his life, he feels connected to the outside world.
Murakami's works are amongst some of the most brilliant creations of modern literature. Tony Takitani is the first time that Murakami has allowed one of his short stories to be adapted for the screen. Director, Jun Ichikawa has created a film that resonates classic Japanese works to a degree rarely encountered in today's cinema. Let's hope it is the first in a long partnership.
"Fiercely unsentimental and surprisingly beautiful, Hungarian drama Fateless does the seemingly impossible: it succeeds in portraying the subject of the Holocaust in a new and devastating light.
Based on a novel by Nobel Prize-winning author Imre Kertész, it's the story of a 14-year old Hungarian Jew György Köves, whose unremarkable arrest on a bus in Budapest leads to Auschwitz, Buchenwald and near death in a smaller German labour camp. It's a handsome and large-scale production but don't go expecting another Schindler's List. Lajos Koltai's film is far more ambiguous, disturbing and, ultimately, upliting ... The film's unusually honest tone is established early on ... The acting, especially from young Marcell Nagy, is also superb." BBCi
GOLDEN BEAR nominee, Berlin 2005
An adult-oriented French-Canadian drama, this is a story of grief, guilt, redemption, faith and the need to 'let go'. Two strangers meet at an emotionally challenging time for both. Elise Guilbault commands the screen as Jeanne, a middle-aged doctor whose attempts to help a battered wife (Isabelle Roy) yield unforeseen, tragic consequences. How do you cope with senseless violence or the impending death of someone you love and without whom you can see no future?
BFFS Jury's Best Contemporary Film, Commonwealth Film Festival 2006
Johnnie loves his train (The General) and Annabelle. When civil war breaks out, he is turned down for service because he's more valuable as an engineer. Annabelle thinks he's a coward.
Union spies capture The General with Annabelle on board. Johnnie to the rescue.
The superb cinematography stunningly depicts Buster Keaton indulging in increasingly impressive train-based acrobatics. This is Keaton at his best, with this film being hailed as the greatest screen comedy ever made.
Chaplin acts the roles of Hitler (alias Adenoid Hinkel) and a Jewish barber who returns to Germany as an amnesiac, decades after an accident in World War I, totally unaware of the rise of Nazism and the persecution of his people.
The barber is eventually carted away to a concentration camp which leads to reversal of roles when the barber escapes and is mistaken for Hinkel on the eve of the invasion of Austria.
An incredibly effective satire, no wonder it was banned by Hitler, Mussolini andFranco. This is Chaplin's first film talkie.
5 Nominations - Oscars 1940
Football is a hot topic in Iran, since the country qualified for the 2006 World Cup, but women are forbidden to attend matches. Offside is a vibrant, humorous work from writer/director Jafar Panahi (The Circle, Crimson Gold) which portrays the efforts of a group of teenage girls to sneak into a crucial international qualifying game at Tehran's main stadium. Their conflict with the authorities gives rise to situations which depict the absurdity and difficulty of the position of women in Iran's patriarchal system.
Critics have likened this film to the best work of Ken Loach, whose humour and social critique are reflected in the predicaments of Offside's characters. The finale has interesting glimpses of what Iran's best-known director sees in store for his country's future
Wang Xiaoshuai scooped the 2005 Jury Prize at Cannes with this story from rural China in the 1980s, which tells of 19 year old Qinghong's desire to make a life in the surroundings she knows, rather than falling in with her father's dreams of leaving for prosperity in Shanghai. The movie centres on the discontented Wu Zemin, deeply protective of his beautiful daughter. He's determined that she'll go to college in Shanghai or Beijing and escape from the stultifying provincial life that is suffocating him and his circle of more sophisticated friends. A poignant family melodrama ensues as father and daughter work out the conflict in their dreams.
Belgian actress Deborah Francois, who impressed us in the Dardenne brothers' The Child, excels in this precise, cold-blooded revenge drama from writer/director Dercourt. She plays butcher's daughter Melanie, whose promising career as a pianist was unknowingly ruined by Ariane (Catherine Frot) when Melanie was only 12. The embittered girl gains employment in the household of Ariane who little suspects the real reasons for her new employee's scrupulous attentiveness. With a classical music accompaniment accentuating the tension and suppressed emotion, The Page Turner is pleasingly reminiscent of Claude Chabrol at his best.
Since leading man Jack Nicholson acquired the rights to The Passenger in the mid-1980s, screenings of Antonioni's 1975 identity-swap oddity have become increasingly rare. Now, reissued in a new print, we have a chance to enjoy this tale of a world-weary television reporter in Africa who is profoundly depressed by his failing marriage and by a drab professional career. While researching a documentary in the Sahara Desert he meets a gunrunner who dies suddenly. Noticing that they have a similar appearance, he assumes the recently deceased's identity and accepts the consequences that it brings, showcasing one of Jack Nicholson's finest ever screen performances.
In the opening scenes a distraught father feverishly retraces the chain of events that led to his 6-year-old daughter's abduction in New York's Port Authority Bus Terminal months earlier. Questions, doubts and anxieties pile upon him to the point where we wonder about his sanity and the very existence of the child. His encounter with Lynn and her daughter Kira (Abigail Breslin of Little Miss Sunshine) impacts on the solace he has been seeking in the district's seedy bars. Tense and harrowing, but compassionate and redemptive too, the film is notable for the brilliant Lewis's haunting, resonant performance.
This story of love draws its strength from the setting: an utterly contemporary portrait of a London fractured by urban regeneration, immigration and the gross imbalance of its citizens’ wealth. Will (Jude Law) and Sandy (Martin Freeman), successful architects who have won a tender to regenerate King’s Cross decide to relocate their office to the area as commitment to the project. It appears a poor decision when they are targeted by Amira (Juliette Binoche)'s son. Enter Bruno (Ray Winstone) to investigate, and the emotional intensity increases. Superbly-acted, well-paced and leavened with humour, Minghella once again delivers the goods.
"Minghella captures the damage and strains of profound and rapid change quite brilliantly. The images of the urban renewal around King’s Cross are haunting, as are the images of the area’s inherent seediness. The human metaphor that glues the drama together is wonderfully effective" - James Christopher, The Times
For our opening gala this year, we're delighted to present the UK Premiere of Freedom Writers. Based on the actual journals of disadvantaged students at a Long Beach (California) high school, detailing the violence and trauma of their lives, the film isn't only about an amazingly dedicated young teacher, it's also, emphatically, about some extraordinary young people. With a sensitive, vastly impressive performance by Hilary Swank and blessed by the contribution of Imelda Staunton and a gifted group of young actors, the film has already wowed audience and critics in the USA.
Maggie bounces from one abusive relationship to another, finally losing all her children to foster-care. Then she meets Jorge, a Paraguayan, and together they battle back. There's a fine script by Rona Munro. Crissy Rock won several Best Actress awards as Maggie.
A pregnant wife searches for her missing psychiatrist husband. It's Barcelona, 1913: the theories of a man called Sigmund Freud are abroad. The case histories of the missing doctor offer hysterical clues. In an escalating farce, Freud himself finally arrives to lecture on 'Totem and Taboo'. And they all live neurotically ever after.
The Pamir Kirghiz people have migrated across Central Asia from the U.S.S.R to China to Afghanistan to Pakistan and finally to remote eastern Turkey to preserve their culture. Now they face the most serious threat to their traditions. As well as comedy about the process of film-making, this international award-winning documentary offers ethnographical description of a unique people, their history, and the conflict between ancient culture and globalisation.
A wealthy businessman offers an enormous donation to Jacob, a man dedicated to helping Indian street children. But the gift unexpectedly opens a window on to Jacob's troubled past. Tightly scripted and sharply directed, Blier's film skilfully avoids sentimentality to produce a drama about shattering revelations and difficult choices. It's already a hit on the festival circuit.
Three generations of a messed-up family make their way in a clapped-out vehicle across America, hoping to find their share of the American Dream in California. If that sounds like the Joads travelling hopefully in The Grapes of Wrath, it's also the plot of an amusing comedy with brains too.
Set in the time of the collapsing Mayan civilisation, Apocalypto is great epic cinema, with brilliantly detailed plazas and pyramids, horrific human sacrifice and attempts to placate the gods. Jaguar Paw's attempts to survive Zero Wolf's pursuit and rescue his family are thrilling, savage and bloody, the Indian cast is superbly photogenic and Mel Gibson's reputation as a hugely exciting filmmaker is assured.
Or to use the full title: "Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan"
Sacha Baran Cohen moves on from Ali G to a role as a sort of journalist touring the USA and falling in love with images of Pamela Anderson. Even as you're offended, you'll find yourself unable to resist the comedy. You will laugh at "Borat", you really will, but the laughter will sometimes stick in your throat. (Kenneth Turan, LA Times)
Perhaps the most famous of the Garnett/Loach collaborations: social realism before the term docudrama had been invented. Carol White plays a woman who loses her home, children and husband (Ray Brooks) thanks to the pitiless not-so-welfare state. The realistic portrayal of society's underbelly, scripted by Jeremy Sandford, helped to give rise to the charity Shelter , and touched the consciences of a generation.
The first-ever movie in an Australian Aboriginal language is lushly filmed and cleverly framed by an English-language narration (voiced by David Gulpilil, Australia's best-known Aboriginal actor). True to oral tradition, Ten Canoes weaves stories within stories to create a hugely enjoyable comedy-drama.
It's 1969. Thirteen-year-old Frits (a compelling performance from Janus Dissing Rathke) has to contend with a depressive Dad and a tyrannical headmaster. But he fights back, inspired by television images of Martin Luther King, and encouraged by a radical teacher. This is a 'family drama' that succeeds in being both straightforward and moving.
This debut film won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film festival, and is now garnering awards in North America too. Zbanic examines the aftermath of the Balkan wars that broke up Yugoslavia. The moving, carefully-paced drama focuses on the secrets which a mother, Esma, keeps from her 12-year-old daughter Sara - and finally, painfully, reveals.
This documentary focuses on two very different competitors in the 1968 solo round-the-world yacht race. Bernard Moitessier, in days of deep reflection, finds himself; while Donald Crowhurst, a desperate man, decides to pretend he's - then can't go through with his deception. Both families contribute to this moving memoir of the impact of isolation and the overwhelming desire to succeed.
Idealist Liverpudlian Dave goes to Spain in 1936 to fight in the Civil War. Soon his ideas are in turmoil as anarchists, the militia and communists argue with each other instead of their Fascist enemies. Even his passion for a Spanish firebrand is tested by the crisis in his beliefs. 'confirms Ken Loach as Britain's greatest contemporary filmmaker' (Ian Christie, Sight and Sound)
CCTV is watching you. A Glasgow surveillance camera operator pursues her obsession with an ex-jailbird beyond the images of the man she is tracking. Red Road's arty roots in Dogme dogma liberate rather than restrict Oscar-winning director Arnold, graduating from short to full-length movie with aplomb (and the Cannes jury prize of 2006).
The experienced documentary-maker directs his confrontational methods at the secretive self-regulation of the USA's movie-rating board. It's bracing, funny and sharp as, with the help of a private eye, Dick outs the once anonymous panel and exposes their prejudices and industry links. 'The hypocrisy and humbug on display from the Hollywood watchdogs is X-certificate stuff'.
A young girl travels north with her mother in 1944 Spain, after Franco's victory. Amid Fascist repression and her stepfather's indifference, she begins to live mostly in an imaginary world, where she comes to terms with the real world around her.
The paths of Tristan, trying to recover from a shattered marriage, and the enigmatic Cristina never quite meet in the streets of Santiago. Or do they in the end? Chile's capital is richly portrayed in a lavish palette of colours in this international festival award-winning debut tale of love, loss and urban ennui.
Long regarded as unfilmable, Patrick Suskind's 1985 novel Perfume has finally reached the screen with this tale of an 18th century Parisian orphan who turns mass murderer in search of the perfect scent, 'Love'. Brought up lacking both love and education, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille develops a highly discerning sense of smell which he uses to create exquisite perfumes. His work, however, takes a dark turn as he searches for the ultimate scent. An extraordinarily brave, challenging piece of work. (Variety.com)
A serious discussion of globalisation cunningly disguised as an entertaining feature film. Bamako (which means 'the Court') puts the World Bank and its allies on trial for what they've done to Africa. And meanwhile life goes on all around, from a love story to an incongruous mock Western set in Timbuktu.
Regularly voted one of the greatest British films of all time. Billy Casper, a Barnsley lad who doesn't want to go 'darn t'pit' finds a refuge from street-life in training a wild kestrel. David Bradley is stunning as Billy. The stinging unsentimental realism of the drama amid the south Yorkshire landscape is marvellously brought to life through Chris Menges' camerawork.
You need a family film on a Sunday afternoon... A kind of March of the Penguins: The Musical, this is the story of a young penguin's problem about being "different". Mumbles Happyfeet is a fabulous dancer but he just can't sing. Children will identify with his hurt at being an outcast, leading to him going off on a quest to discover where all the fish have gone. Brilliant visuals, lively songs and highly entertaining characterizations.
Peter Mullan won Best Actor at Cannes for his 'raw, utterly believable performance' (Edward Guthmann, SF Chronicle) as a recovering ex-drunk. Joe lives on the edge. Love and lyalty give him hope, but society and his own nature often work against him. Loach vividly portrays Glasgow working-class life in a morality tale with no easy answers.
The eagerly awaited biopic of Beatrix Potter, children's writer and Lake District legend. Renee Zellwegger stars, with a find supporting cast of British actors including Ewan McGregor and Emily Watson. Babe director Noonan has boldly included animated sequences of Peter - no, not Roger - Rabbit and his pals alongside scenes shot near Coniston.
The desolate beauty of the high Tibetan plateau forms the backdrop to this harsh story of the struggles between antelope poachers and the patrol licensed to stamp them out. A Beijing journalist elicits the strange ambiguities in this tussle - curiously resembling a modern-day Western - in the mutual obsession of hunters and hunted.
A Stasi agent in 1980s East Germany is ordered to spy on a prominent actress. Through the agent's moral crisis the first-time director explores the communist era - where the ex-wife of Ulrich Muhe, who plays the agent, really spied on him. The film swept the board at the 2006 German film awards, and provoked a wide debate about coming to terms with the past.
Watch echoes of horror movies past as a giant creature rises from the deep to terrorise Seoul. But there are also comic touches, and a dash of satire, amid the multi-layered drama of a layabout trying to rescue his daughter from the fiend's clutches.
My name is Georges Figon. Okay I'm dead but, being the talkative kind, death isn't going to stop me from speaking. Yes, I'm a shady individual. Sure I have links with the underworld and other dark forces. But luring Ben Barka, the Moroccan opposition leader, into a trap was mainly an opportunity for me to become a great movie producer. Nothing political about it. Just the big money. And my girlfriend, actress Anne-Marie Coffinet, will become a star thanks to me. I have already been able to sign Georges Franju as the director,Marguerite Duras as the scriptwriter and Ben Barka as the technical advisor of a film that will never be. What I didn't know is that I had hired the Grim Reaper as the Nemesis...
After his highly successful Hollywood career, Paul Verhoeven returns to the Netherlands and helms a more personal epic. Truth-based, Black Book, set in Holland during the final months of the Second World War portrays Rachel Stein, a beautiful and independent young Jewish woman who joins the Resistance and sets out on a dangerous mission to infiltrate the upper echelons of the Gestapo in order to find out who has betrayed her family. Nothing so banal as simple heroes or villains in this fast-paced, densely plotted movie: although there's little out-and-out comedy, there's still a sense that Verhoeven enjoys keeping us on our toes while occasionally letting the action rip.
Director Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu and writer Guillermo Arriaga's final part of the trilogy that began with Amores Perros and continued with 21 Grams once again weaves multiple intercut story strands, this time spread across three continents and four countries (from Morocco to San Diego by way of Mexico to Japan) and as the title implies, numerous languages. A number of tragic incidents triggered by human stupidity and carelessness steadily pile up, and emotional tension increases as the filmmakers burrow deeply, with extraordinary empathy and insight into the existential loneliness of the characters, portrayed with moving performances from all the actors.
Director Hans-Christian Schmid turns a sharply observant yet understanding eye towards a fragile human being at sea in a world of moral ambiguity. In her small town in 1970s southern Germany, Michaela, 21, has grown up in a deeply religious family, but she burns to leave home and study at university. There, her first taste of freedom, her budding love for Stefan and her friendship with Hanna crack open the shell of faith and family within which she had always felt secure and protected, so she decides to seek a priest’s help to fight the troubles associated with her strict upbringing.
Stage actress Sandra Hüller won the Silver Bear at Berlin for this stunning emotional tour de force in her feature film debut.
Aku Louhimies' Frozen Land (aka Paha Maa) is an aptly named story of cold hearts, paralysed emotions and numb spirits in a wintry Helsinki.
Based on a Tolstoy story called "The False Note", it begins and ends with a funeral oration that raises the question as to whether life is worth living.
A variety of people are linked, initially through the passing of a forged €500 note, which brings nothing good to anyone, and a theme emerges about life as a relay race in which misfortune is the poisoned baton.
Harold Crick (Will Ferrell), a senior agent for the Internal Revenue Service in Chicago, seems a virtual automaton. The reason is soon revealed when we find that Harold is a fictional creation, the central character in a new book by celebrated recluse Kay Eiffel (Emma Thompson). "I'm a character in my own life," he tells his shrink, whose solution is to recommend him to literature professor Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman). To find out who's "writing" Harold, the prof tells him to start living the life he's always wanted: learning the guitar and courting his baker Ana (Maggie Gyllenhaal) seem a good start.
Enjoy a brilliant script by Zach Helm, fine acting, an arresting soundtrack and Chicago's finest architecture.
In the shameless pursuit of something we’ve never tried before, KFC is screening its first Bollywood feature. About time too, you might say...
BBCi sums it up with: "Everything about this film works: the inventive story-telling; the uplifting song sequences set amidst a theatrical landscape of circus clowns and dancing elephants; the sparkling comedy complemented by moments of tenderness and endearing innocence. It's rare to see a film that bounces between humour and sentiment so seamlessly. And it is rarer still to see characters become etched in the memory so enduringly that audiences become almost protective of them... Lage Raho Munnabhai is the ultimate in feel-good cinema that leaves you feeling like anything is possible."
Often described as a French Shakespeare in Love, this latest representation of the life of Molière, France's greatest comic playwright, portrays an impetuous young man learning through subterfuge, witty repartee and romance how to become the father and true master of the satire of human nature
In this sumptuous costume romp, Romain Duris proves himself again one of the finest young French actors, much helped by the film's intelligent, funny and suspenseful script.
Tirard cleverly takes the material of some of the best-known plays to weave a richly entertaining story, aided by a fine score and great cinematography.
It’s July 1983 and the schools are breaking up. On his way home, after being taunted by school mates for wearing flares, Shaun (Turgoose) meets a group of friendly skinheads who take him under their wing. The summer looks like it’s about to get a whole lot better.
Shaun spends a carefree summer with the gang, discovering girls and parties and going on a frolic dressed in their grannies’ night gowns. The mood then changes on the release of racist skinhead and supporter of the National Front, Combo (Graham), from prison.
Most of the events in this debut film occur during the dusk or deepest dark of a rural Spanish night, where even the street lights stop working. A young woman is raped and murdered in a field of sunflowers on the edge of the village.
The Night of the Sunflowers is an ensemble piece with overlapping narratives that unfold through the morally ambiguous darkness of a small community threaded with hidden secrets, half truths and madness.
The likely rapist is revealed to us early on in the film - by which time various men are paraded before us as possible guilty parties, and the director's focus is on the potential for wrongdoing which is shared by all of them. Even the least expected are spurred on to act immorally by the extremity of their circumstances.
Ingmar Bergman's dark masterpiece … is a radical work of art that reaches back to scripture, to Cervantes and to Shakespeare to create a new dramatic idiom of its own. Released 50 years ago, it's as fresh as a glass of ice-cold water…The movie fiercely addresses itself to the agony of belief, the need to believe in a God who remains silent, mysterious, absent. It is a work of art that grabs the audience by the lapels, believers and unbelievers alike, and demands not answers, exactly, but an acknowledgement that this is the most important question, the only question: why does anything exist at all? Even after half a century, The Seventh Seal is an untarnished gold-standard of artistic and moral seriousness.'
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
Days of Glory tells of a forgotten army: the North African soldiers
from former French colonies who took up arms to defend a country
that most had never seen. Their motives for doing so are varied but
all are unified by a sense of duty and a pride in their part in freeing
France from the Nazis. However what really unites the men – and
also begins to tear them apart – is the fact that despite the risk to
each being equal on the battlefield, in the mess hall they are
treated as second-class citizens.
Water, the third in Deepa Mehta's controversial 'elements' trilogy, focuses on the deep-rooted social injustices faced by millions of Hindu women in 1930s India.
8 year old Chuyia is widowed before she has even met her husband. In keeping with 2000 year old custom, her parents shave her head and closet her away in a house of widows, where the women beg in the streets and mildly accept their lot in life. Chuyia's illuminating presence affects their lives radically, as a forbidden romance develops between Chuyia's friend and a young Ghandi - following Brahmin who has sworn to resist injustice.
Despite the harsh social issues the film has a lively light feeling - even more surprising given the Hindu fundamentalist threats against Deepa Mehta's life and the Indian Government's inability to guarantee her safety. People risked their lives to make this film, which was finally completed in Sri Lanka. Please watch it!
Eight years after the violent murder of his wife, paediatrician Dr Alex Beck (François Cluzet) comes under renewed suspicion when his wife's murder case is re-opened, but he receives a mysterious email that suggests that she may still be alive.
You're kept on the edge of your seat following the twists and turns of Tell No One's clever plot, and the experience is exhilarating. Cluzet is masterly, and thanks to a highly-talented and credible cast in the minor roles (Kristin Scott Thomas, Jean Rochefort, Nathalie Baye…) Canet achieves wall-to-wall tension, with a strong emotional storyline woven through it.
"Sydney Pollack's gentle and rapt documentary about his friend Frank Gehry, the superstar architect who designed the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, is an intelligent piece of partisan adoration - although he gives some space to Gehry's detractors, too. Interviewees include architecture mandarin Philip Johnston and big capitalist honchos like Disney's Michael Eisner and super-agent Michael Ovitz, all of whom have commissioned status-symbol buildings from Gehry.
It is rare to see so many rich businessmen interviewed in a movie which isn't a Michael Moore-style exposé. Gehry is shown cutting bits off a cardboard model to design a building, and the Blue Peter-y origin of some of his buildings is hilariously detectable. But the majesty of his Bilbao masterpiece is obvious."
PETER BRADSHAW, THE GUARDIAN
Not 1914-18, but on this Remembrance Sunday we see how the British coped with the threat of conflict and the disruption to their lives during and after the Second World War.
Bombs at Teatime is a selection of delightful films that provide a fascinating glimpse into Britain during the 1940s. We see a society in which shared values transcend contrasts of geography and divisions of class: among other things, it becomes clear that whilst we may talk-the-talk about our carbon footprint in the 21st century, Britons were far more in touch with environmental issues in the 1940s.
Based on the novel by Peter Jinks, Hallam Foe centres on a teenage boy who is still grieving for his dead mother who committed suicide a few years earlier. Hallam (Jamie Bell), an eccentric loner who spies on people whilst wearing a dress and war paint, lives a feral life hiding out on his family's estate in the Highlands. A confrontation with his stepmother drives him to a new life in Edinburgh, where his actions become even more bizarre.
Hallam Foe has an amazing combination of moods, notably of foreboding and comedy, and there's a lightness and exuberance that makes you hope beyond reason that things will turn out for Hallam.
Jamie Bell switches with aplomb between boyish charm and gaunt edginess in his first British role since Billy Elliott, whilst David Mackenzie underlines his rising reputation in world.
Adapted from Jhumpa Lahiri's Pulitzer prize-winning novel, The Namesake stars Kal Penn as Gogol, the son of Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli, who leave their home in Kolkata to begin a new life in 70s New York. Gogol's Russian name provokes a personal identity crisis, but it's not till years later that he questions both his name and identity as a first generation American teenager.
Exploring the Asian American immigrant experience, this poignant tale resonates wherever you are placed in the world. But it's the quiet love story between Gogol's parents that really inspires and lifts the film.
This is an outstanding portrayal of two young strangers who are brought together by ancient tradition and grow old side by side, while trying to make sense of their confusing contemporary world. A fascinating story of the meeting of cultures.
This is a movie with bleak and wintry insights into relationships, and the unchallenged assumptions about how relationships supposedly define what we are - as if in coupledom, our best and maturest selves are in the Venn diagram overlap between the partners. Climates immerses in an icy bath of scepticism any thought that we are capable of changing in a relationship, or that the participants can know each other well enough to effect such a change, or know each other at all. Isa himself is a pretty nasty piece of work: cold, arrogant, a liar. Bahar is hardly more sympathetic: her face is closed and difficult to read.
So this is not an easy watch. I have to confess that, though I believe it to be outstanding, Climates does not offer the magnificent flourish of compassion and richness that made Ceylan's previous film, Distant, a modern classic. It is, however, the work of a film-maker who has established absolute mastery over his cinematic idiom; it does not trade in miserabilism, but a kind of degree-zero clarity about the potential for alienation and anguish in our secular faith in romantic partnership. This is the dark side of love, and it is examined with fierce, cold brilliance.
Forty years on, Gillo Pontecorvo's classic The Battle of Algiers remains as relevant as ever. So relevant, in fact, that Pentagon officials consulted it for tips on dealing with the Iraq situation. A riveting reconstruction of the struggle for independence in mid-50s Algiers, its pseudo-documentary style still feels as headline-fresh as its content, in which we confront the ugly realities of both French Foreign Legion and Algerian guerrillas. The combination of realistic production values with the bracing use of authentic locations and Ennio Morricone's punchy score gives this film a deserved place in the world cinema canon.
The real-life tragedy of Adrienne Shelly's murder last November is in complete contrast to this funny, charming tale of Jenna, who, stuck in a marriage to a man she loathes, inconveniently pregnant with his child, oppressed by long hours waiting on tables for a grouchy boss, finds relief in baking pies. Shelly keeps us laughing through all the tough and tender twists and turns of her emotional roller-coaster.
Screenwriter Tony Gilroy (of the Bourne trilogy) makes his directing debut (but he's still the writer) in this legal/business thriller that is very reminiscent of John Grisham at his best. Michael Clayton (an excellent George Clooney playing a fixer for a powerful law firm) hurries through increasingly dangerous episodes telling clients what they don't want to hear "I'm not a miracle worker, I'm a janitor."
Gilroy has a knack for creating strong characters and situations that resonate with tension. His casting is superb: Clooney of course, but we're treated also to the best of Tilda Swinton, Sydney Pollack and Tom Wilkinson. A fascinating morality tale in the world of sharp suits and smooth operators.
Boyd van Hoeij, the talented reviewer of european-films.net, sums up Les Témoins extremely well: 'This multi-layered story set in the 1980s focuses on the contrasts between illness and health, sex and romance, friendship and companionship and the fluidity of all these categories in the face of the capriciousness of both life and the humans who get to live it to tell the tale...
More importantly, it is not strictly about AIDS but "just" about human beings trying to get on with life for however long it may last and -- if they are lucky -- bear witness to the strength and complexity of the human spirit.'
A film that sounds like a derivative thriller - a crew of fishermen facing bankruptcy decide to smuggle Chinese immigrants from mainland Europe to Scotland- could easily have traded on clichés for its effects but writer/director Steve Hudson creates an altogether more complex portrait of what essentially decent people will do in desperate circumstances.
The fishermen, played by a top-rate cast that includes Ken Loach stalwarts Peter Mullan, Gary Lewis and Martin Compston star in this low key but powerful drama which puts a human face onto human trafficking.
The moral quandary of collaboration - fight for what you believe in and face certain death, or co-operate with the enemy to save your own skin - is the crux of this taut drama which tells the true story of a group of imprisoned artists, financiers and swindlers secretly assembled in a concentration camp to forge millions of pound and dollar notes to support the German war effort.
Ruzowitzky's film is gripping, in the manner of a tense thriller, yet the director highlights the horrors of war with remarkable subtlety, and he digs deeply into questions related to choice, survival and martyrdom with great clarity.
The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
In this, his second feature since Chopper, the New Zealand-born director makes an impact as an excellent storyteller. It is not a very bloody or violent affair, but a captivating film surrounding the most famous outlaw in American history and enveloping the viewer in 1880s USA. It rivals or even surpasses the novels from that era and a whole string of classical westerns. The majestic skies and landscapes are highly impressive, but the film is most interested in the psychological make-up of the characters, simply letting their day-to-day activities speak for themselves. Brad Pitt is great as Jesse James, (Best Actor, Venice 2007) but Casey Affleck's fine performance as the titular coward is utterly compelling.
This shoestring feature, begun as a community project, has garnered plaudits at festivals in Ireland and north America. Devised with local teenagers at a south Liverpool Internet café, and part-funded by drug money (well, 20 grand from Glaxo Smith Kline), it’s a funny and touching day in the life of the Potts family, starring locals amid established actors like Andrew Schofield and Kate Fitzgerald. Music is by Pete Wylie of The Mighty Wah!
'A potent combination of ethnography and concert film' (Variety), this documentary follows five Romani bands from four different countries on their tour of the USA in 2001. British-born director Dellal captures the diversity of gypsy music from Antonio El Pipa's Spanish Flamenco Ensemble to the flamboyance of Macedonian diva Esma Redzepova. But she also captures an unexpected fusion as the tour develops and the groups from very different musical traditions find common origins and mutual inspiration in their music.
Gérard Depardieu is on his best form for years as Alain, the ageing singer with a strong local following and a contented marriage. Then he spies the much younger Marion (Cécile de France) and a mutual infatuation begins. She's an estate agent and the houses she shows him become metaphors for their possible futures. But are his true feelings as sentimental as his songs?
Làn fhìrinn na sgeòil (The truth is in the story). Seachd - pronounced 'Shack' – is a feast for the eye, filmed and produced on the Isle of Skye. It's a feast for the ear too, albeit in Gaelic. Former Wall Street banker Miller shrewdly focuses on the twinkling eye and accomplished storytelling of Aonghas Padruig Caimbeul as grandfather of young Angus, a nine-year-old seeking to prove his parents were murdered. Despite terrific reviews ('excellent' said the Sunday Times), Bafta didn't Oscar-nominate it for best foreign-language film and won't say why. Watch and wonder.
Icelandic band Sigur Rós toured their homeland in the summer of 2006 in a series of unannounced, free concerts. The informal venues ranged from a community hall, a protest camp to outdoor sculptures. The film follows the tour, using often acoustic arrangements, with prolonged close-ups and intimate interviews rather than the stilted images of stadium rock, to get close to the band's nature and roots.
An Irish busker, "a broken-hearted Hoover fixer sucker guy" as he himself sings, falls for a Czech girl who sells flowers by day but plays piano whenever she can. This is a modern musical: 'Its tone may be sweet and gentle, but it has the grit to resist going exactly where you'd expect it to.' (LA Times) At its heart are two fine acting and singer-songwriting performances by Glen Hansard, lead singer of the Irish group the Frames, and Marketa Irglova, who was a startlingly mature 17 when the film was made.
Winner of Awards from New York to Amsterdam at Film Festivals this pre-release film is to be our closing film. It tells the remarkable and moving story of a group of children who use music to overcome hardship and loss. It is the story of an orphanage, unlike one you've ever seen before, and of the drive of these remarkable young singers and their teachers to make it to London for a series of concerts. It is the story of kids from the Agape Orphanage South Africa, many orphaned through AIDs. "A life-affirming testament to the power of music" Wendy Ide, The Times "Cinema at it's most inspirational" David Edwards
Rock photographer Corbijn turns to movies ('shooting with a poet's eye', Rolling Stone) to fictionalise the brief life of Ian Curtis of Joy Division. Based on his widow's memoir, Cannes-award-winning Control brilliantly captures, in black and white, northern Britain in the late 70's, with a superb central performance – including singing – from newcomer Sam Riley, and fine self-effacing support from Samantha Morton. Both the lives and the music are superbly honoured.
'A tiny gem, but completely irresistible.' (reel.com) An Egyptian police band is stranded in a small Israeli town, unable to contact their embassy. Café owner Ronit Elkabetz persuades some of her regulars to take in the conspicuously overdressed, Arabic-speaking strangers. What follows is a gentle comedy of Arab-Israeli relations as the guests become embroiled in the lives of their hosts, centring on a fine performance by Sasson Gabai as the bandleader whose stern countenance gradually crumbles.
As Peter Bradshaw (The Guardian) says, this is a very linkable, smart, offbeat debut from Delpy as director, inevitably related to the Richard Linklater films in which she starred. Similar to the walk-and-talk intimacy of Before Sunrise and Sunset, but sharper, funnier and less syrupy, we follow a couple (Delpy and Adam Goldberg), she a Parisian, he a New Yorker, as they spend a weekend in her home town.
The film was written, edited, directed and co-produced by its star, who reveals a wicked sense of humour and a real understanding of relationships. She also wrote the music and cast her real parents as her onscreen ones. In Philip French's opinion, Delpy's ego trip proves, fortunately, to be a happy, very funny excursion.
The nostalgic, bittersweet tone of this acclaimed documentary about the Apollo space program reminds viewers that even at its most destructive, humankind is capable of feats of breathtaking splendour.
The film brings together for the first time crew members of each of the nine U.S. spacecraft that voyaged to the moon between 1968 and 1972, as the Vietnam War raged a quarter of a million miles away on Earth. Alan Bean, Apollo 12 lunar module pilot, recalled "Human beings can do amazing things if they get together and put their egos aside."
Shadow features familiar images from the Apollo era, including the famed "Earth rise" photo taken from Apollo 8 and footage of Neil Armstrong stepping onto the lunar surface, but also weaves in never-seen archival footage the filmmakers found in extensive searches through NASA's film library.
Moreover, the documentary marries, also for the first time, silent 16mm films of Mission Control during the Apollo flights with recordings of the controllers' voices.
A wedding invite from an estranged sibling inspires a grandmother to assemble her family and embark on a roadtrip in a broken down caravan.
Argentine maestro Pablo Trapero continues his upward trajectory as director in this his fourth feature, displaying immense empathy toward its central character, Santiago, with immense Patagonian landscapes to match. Trapero shoots the vast, frozen plains beautifully, and they become a metaphor for Santiago's spiritual emptiness. It's a typically intelligent and emotionally stunning journey of a father's return to his senses after a horrible accident.
Santiago's new fugitive existence (from spoiled interior designer in Buenos Aires to broken loner in the far South) shows that however diminished Santiago is in this new world, the people involved in it, and their anguish, are real too - but Trapero manages a genuine surprise finale...
Although it parallels an old-fashioned prisoner-of-war movie, Rescue Dawn becomes much more because of writer-director Werner Herzog's admiration for the remarkable true story of Dieter Dengler, the German-born U.S. Navy pilot shot down over Laos in 1966, who escaped a remote jungle prison camp after months of brutal captivity. Dengler at first seems a conventional action-movie hero: handsome, resourceful, brave and optimistic. But the more time spent with him, the more eccentricities he reveals...
Herzog has found in Christian Bale an actor capable of conveying the intensity and visionary quality of the typical Herzogian hero, in the lushness of the Laotian jungle a wonderful backdrop, and in his nod towards the Iraq war a most thought-provoking movie.
This erotically charged epic from Oscar-winning director Ang Lee is a brilliant look at how the best-laid plans of freedom fighters during wartime can backfire, especially when sex with the enemy is a fundamental part of their deadly scheme.
Adapted from Eileen Chang's short story by Lee's Crouching Tiger screenwriter Wang Hui-Ling, Lust, Caution follows a powerful political figure (Tony Leung) in World War II-era, Japanese-occupied Shanghai who enters into a dangerous game of emotional intrigue with a young woman (Tang Wei).
The film has the look of some of the war-era films from the 1950s but with the sumptuous cinematography that characterises Lee's previous works.
Winner of The Golden Lion Award, Venice 2007
This was winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes 2007, not surprisingly in view of its beautifully textured story, impressive camerawork and brilliant acting - a work of considerable purity and honesty which offers further proof of Romania's new prominence in the film world.
Set in the last years of Ceausescu's dictatorship, it focuses on a pair of twenty-something students desperately looking for a hotel room in town. They intend to take Mr Bébé there, who will help Gabita with a small problem: she is pregnant, which is not a straightforward matter in a Catholic police-state, and she does not want to keep the baby. Mr Bébé is no saintly Vera Drake however, and he demands a proper payment...
Based on the true story of French Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric), the film follows the last few months in Bauby's life as revealed in his memoir, dictated to a skilled therapist through the movement of one eye.
Haunting, searing and beautiful, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly traps you inside your worst nightmare, only to bring you to your senses. Best Director at Cannes 2007, Julian Schnabel (Before Night Falls) and screenwriter Ronald Harwood (The Pianist), with gifted cinematographer Janusz Kaminski (Schindler's List, Technical Grand Prize, Cannes 2007) and a very strong cast, succeed against all odds in transferring Jean-Dominique Bauby's remarkable memoir to the screen. They manage to film the story of a man afflicted by locked-in syndrome without alienating the viewer or betraying the author's painstaking fight for words. Remarkable.
This comedy about life, love and relationships in the twenty first century, shot in London, Liverpool and the Isle of Man by the directors of "Lawless Heart" (screened by KFC in December 2002) features Sam, a charming, young schemer who has ambitions in the glamorous world of public relations, his mum Jill (Lesley Manville), an aspiring singer, and Vince (Bob Hoskins) who gives him the opportunity to move to London.
However, his best-laid plans, involving Sheila (Stockard Channing), suffer a real setback when true love turns his world upside down in the most unexpected of circumstances. Ultimately about forgiveness, this is a charming and intelligent affair.
This directing debut garnered a number of European awards in 2006 but is only now reaching our shores. A father struggles to bring up his daughter and son in a cramped Rome apartment. Seen from the plaintive point of view of the son (a scintillating performance by 11-year-old Alessandro Morace), the film charts the effects of the mother’s surprise return, the volatility of the father and the delicate changes the boy is undergoing.
Thanks to Axiom Films
In 2003, in the aftermath of Iraq's invasion, the patients of a mental hospital escape into the crazed Baghdad world. Medical student Mehdi, trapped in lowly work by his late father's activism against Saddam, gets the help of patriotic soldier (and asylum inmate) Ali to round up the lost patients – among them Ahlaam in her wedding dress, searching hopelessly for her lost fiancé. This is an unflinching story of life pre- and post-Saddam, a rare chance to see an Iraqi point-of-view. The film-makers were kidnapped by insurgents and interrogated by US soldiers during the shoot, yet survived to tell an extraordinary tale. 'That any film should be made under such circumstances is extraordinary in itself, but that the film should also look so good and be so compelling, is nothing short of a miracle.' (Anton Bitel, Channel 4 Film)
Thanks to Winstone Film Distributors
At the height of the Sixties, Winner's fast-paced directing style combined with the subversive humour of Clement and La Frenais to produce this popular comedy-thriller. Michael Crawford and Oliver Reed are brothers whose love for practical jokes leads them to keep upping the ante until their next project is to steal the crown jewels – just to show it can be done.
Michael Winner's own print
Raag was apparently inspired by the Columbine high-school massacre to make this award-winning film. He took a different approach from Gus van Sant's Elephant, however, gathering together a group of inexperienced young actors in workshops out of which the story emerged, with great credit to all involved, and offering an explanation of how such horror comes about. Two 16-year-old school outsiders try to protect each other, but find the bullying of their peers growing in intensity. Soon there seems only one way out. 'Asks a lot of ugly questions about peer pressure, bullying and one's rights to revenge or at least defend oneself…accomplished...' (Boyd van Hoeij, European-films.net)
UK premiere – thanks to Amrion OÜ
This multiple international award-winner (including the jury prize at Cannes 2007) begins with a lengthy shot of dawn over the north Mexican plains. But this is not everyday Mexico: we are in a Mennonite community that still speaks the Dutch-German dialect of their founders. At the same leisurely pace, there unfolds a stately yet disturbing drama, of the passion of an upright member of the community for a married woman, and the burden this places on the man's wife, who knows of the affair from the outset. Reygadas uses breathtaking camerawork and non-professional actors to convey the strangeness of this world and of his story, a remarkable advance on his previous two films.
Thanks to Winstone Film Distributors
Oliver Reed plays a zoo-keeping prisoner of war charged with looking after Lucy the elephant when she has to be moved, owing to the small matter of the Second World War going on all around them, from Berlin to Innsbruck. 'Hannibal Brooks, like Lucy, has a kind of slow, tranquillized dignity and a disarming desire to please.' (Vincent Canby, New York Times) Long before Porridge or Auf Wiedersehn Pet, the venerable writing team of Clement and La Frenais penned this quirky and funny romp.
Michael Winner’s own print
Isabelle Huppert plays the mother of teenage sons who are possessive and self-centred. When she transgresses their world of secrets, and suggests she sells the house in which they live so she can start anew with her man friend, a family tragedy is set in motion. Powerful acting from Huppert, and from Jérémie Renier alongside his real-life brother as the two sons, combine with restrained but unflinching direction to make this an emotional thriller, a gripping family drama which '...etches the line between love and hate with a savagery that is almost unprecedented' (LA Times).
UK premiere - Thanks to Soda Pictures
Ryan Gosling makes an excellent job of playing Lars - the shy, possibly borderline autistic in this touching comedy of a young man who hits on the delusional idea of taking a life-sized doll along as his girlfriend to enable him to make social contact. Fine supporting acting from Patricia Clarkson as the family doctor, sensitive to the suffering caused by the loss of his parents, advises Lars' remaining relatives (Emily Mortimer and Paul Schneider) to indulge the make-believe for therapeutic reasons. There is fine interaction of the characters in Gillespie's clever direction – even the mail-order fiancée seems to come to life - and serious themes are treated without undermining the engaging comedy of the whole.
Thanks to Verve Pictures
A suitable film for children and adults, The Italian tells the story of young Vanya, who, abandoned in an orphanage, faces the possibility of being adopted and taken to Italy – portrayed as warm and welcoming compared to the coldness of Mother Russia. For the first time the boy (a fine child actor, Kolya Spiridonov) begins to wonder about his natural mother. He reads his personal file then sets off across the country with only a distant address and his own resourcefulness to guide him, pursued by the ruthless adoption broker (played by the veteran Mariya Kuznetsova, most recently seen here in Russian Ark).
Thanks to Soda Pictures
'A fiction with irresistible charm and wit' said Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian in a five-star review. Some have been more cautious, especially since this is the latest in a recent spate of American movies that greet unexpected pregnancy by ducking the abortion issue. Nevertheless most viewers have been charmed and indeed uplifted by Ellen Page's portrayal of a 16-year-old with panache and a snappy gift for dialogue (winning newcomer Diablo Cody the 2008 Oscar for best screenplay), as the young woman meets the uptight potential adoptees of her unborn baby and learns about power, sexuality and the hypocrisies of the adult world. Jason Reitman was close to winning the Best Director Oscar for this a few weeks ago.
Thanks to Film Quest
Beaufort explores themes of survival, camaraderie and the futility of war. Cedar was himself in the Israeli army, and his portrayal of an Israeli army unit guarding an old Crusader castle in South Lebanon reeks of authenticity. It won him the Silver Bear at Berlin in 2007 and nomination for the Best Film in a Foreign Language Oscar. The film's take on the conflict with Hezbollah is 'neither guilty nor jingoistic' (New York Times) and its distance from the politics enable it to be reflective and philosophical about its war themes. 'Mesmerizing...memorably claustrophobic and fatalistic, Cedar's film recalls the great war films of Renoir and Kubrick.' (Andrew O'Hehir, salon.com)
A perfect companion-piece to Control, shown at the Festival's February weekend. This documentary tells how a bunch of lads from Manchester, terribly derivative to start with, went into the studio for six months and emerged, with the help of producer Martin Hannett, as the definitive post-punk band Joy Division. Gee 'has a knack for non-fiction storytelling' (Stephanie Zacharek, salon.com). With access to all the key players – including the words of frontman Ian Curtis' widow Deborah as well as the presence of Curtis' then girlfriend – he provides a fascinating account of the band’s achievements, downfall, and how those left behind by Curtis’ suicide recovered to become New Order.
NW England première – thanks to The Works International
This won Akin Best Screenplay at Cannes to go with his previous awards, including the Berlin Golden Bear for Head-On (2004). Like the earlier film, the movie shifts between Germany and Turkey, but with far greater complexity as it focuses initially on the lives of father and son, first- and second-generation Turkish immigrants: the father a charming scoundrel, the son a respected professor. Then it daringly leaps to the life of Ayten, a Turkish left-wing activist who escapes to Germany in search of her mother, whom she believes is working in a shoe-shop; actually, a prostitute. The interwoven narratives create rich layers of (justified) coincidence – compared by some to Babel.
Thanks to Artificial Eye
Love it or loathe it, the first Death Wish was a stylish, genre-defining movie. A bleeding-heart liberal architect turns vigilante when a client renews his long-festering interest in guns, and his wife and daughter are sexually assaulted and killed. The film turned Charles Bronson from a character actor into a major star; his fans believe this is Bronson's best solo turn, before the later movies in the franchise concentrated on the violence, rather than on the ambiguities of a deranged New Yorker taking the law into his own hands. Nevertheless, there is violence a-plenty. This is the movie Sly Stallone wants to remake for today: watch out. (Or at least enjoy the brilliant Oscar-nominated score by Herbie Hancock)
Thanks to Paramount
Written by Carl Hunter and Frank Cottrell Boyce (one of Britain's greatest screenwriters and responsible for most of Michael Winterbottom's recent successes) this amusing story tells of a traumatised asylum seeker from China who's given an allotment to help him integrate, in the midst of a group of prejudiced and eccentric Brits – growers trying to sell out to a mobile phone company. This is a subtle look at the changing face of working-class society as it faces up to the phenomenon of ethnic immigration, called by Mark Kermode 'an amiable post-East Is East social comedy that uses the tensions on a Northern allotment as a paradigm for multicultural Britain.'
Carl Hunter will be here to introduce and discuss his film
Veteran writer-director Sayles finds the roots of rock and roll – and a moment of profound change - in small-town Alabama, 1950. A small-time club owner stakes everything on one big gig starring the legendary Guitar Sam. Well, Sam ain't coming, but who knows what he looks like? And just blown into town is a young musician named Sonny with one of these new-fangled electric guitars and quite a voice on him. Sayles uses stereotypes like Stacy Keach's racist sheriff, then subverts them. The authenticity of the locale and the music (Gary Clark Jr as Sonny really is a rising blues star) resonate against the magic of the tale.
NW England première – thanks to Axiom Films
The Coens' latest, and some say their best (well, just look at the four Oscars it’s garnered), is part-thriller set in a blood-soaked Texas, and part-character study, exquisitely adapting Cormac McCarthy's novel. Tommy Lee Jones is the lawman subtly portraying a vain attempt to bring morality to bear on evil; Josh Brolin is the small-time crook who stumbles on two million dollars, which proves a lot harder to hang on to than to find; and Javier Bardem is the ruthless bounty-hunter with a dark line in cynicism and skill in killing people with a cattle stungun.
Thanks to Paramount
This is a multi-award winner by debut director Bayona, with Pan's Labyrinth's del Toro as producer. Belen Rueda plays Laura, who returns in her 30's to take over the orphanage she was briefly in as a child. But soon her son Simon seems to see imaginary beings that she too sees. What's going on? The minimum of special effects provokes the maximum of fearful anticipation. When the sick boy goes missing, Laura's and her husband's search for the child is also a spooky, skilfully-made journey into the darker recesses of the human imagination.
Thanks to Optimum Releasing
Specially chosen for both adults and children to marvel at on the Theatre’s big screen, Earth brings you images such as you have never seen. Concentrating on the movement of a few animals, but meeting plenty of others along the way, we take a journey from North to South Pole over the course of a year, and in the words of BBCi's Ann Kelly, 'No shot is less than dazzling, most are beautiful and many are stunning.'
There is some censorship of the nastier things in nature, but the serious message of the pictures is that the damage mankind is doing to the earth is stark, and, if we are not careful, terminal. In the final analysis though, most critics appear simply stunned at the beauty of this film.
Thanks to Lionsgate Films
Agostino Ferrente will be joining us on Thursday evening as the North West premiere of his film opens the 9th Keswick Film Festival
Ferrente and keyboard player Mario Tranco both live in the vibrant but rundown area of Piazza Vittorio. To save their local theatre, the Apollo, they set up the Apollo 11 project - as optimistic as its moon-landing namesake - and decide to try and gather a multi-ethnic orchestra to publicise the cause. To the soundtrack of the eventual orchestra's music, Ferrente enthusiastically and humorously draws us into the search for musicians and the attempt to integrate their diverse skills - from Western classical to Arab oud and African drums - into a concert-producing outfit.
NW premiere - thanks to Wide Management (France)
Sciamma's first feature as writer-director offers a whole new angle on the world of synchronised swimming; or rather, it uses that world to provide insights into the world of teenage girls. Marie, Floriane and Anne fall in and out of love – in one case, with each other – and, as Lisa Nesselson at variety.com assures us, 'Be it pretty lasses or their ordinary-looking peers, male viewers can rest assured that this is an accurate take on distaff disarray.' There are no adults in sight, no male perspectives. Just the young women, their rivalries and affections, their progress to adulthood.
Thanks to Slingshot Studios
Rivette is 79 but still a pioneer of the nouvelle vague. Here he adapts a Balzac novella set in the early nineteenth century. It's a 'subtle and beautifully mounted' (Philip French, The Observer) account of the pursuit by a nobleman of a married woman, who has hidden from his obsessive pursuit in a Mallorca convent. She is played by a vibrant Jeanne Balibar, opposite Gérard Depardieu's lookalike son Guillaume, and who here is the pursuer and who the pursued? The film’s languid camerawork and careful directorial distance make for a treat.
Thanks to Artificial Eye
Menzel has adapted one of the late Bohumil Hrabal's novels before: Closely Observed Trains, a seminal film of the 60's. Amazingly, he's still directing, and still on form, with this picaresque story of a Czech everyman Jan Dítě (literally John Child). Jan resolves to reach the top of the hotel trade, despite minor problems like the onset of World War II, and his chronic tendency towards bad luck and black humour. The film manages to remain funny, sexy and sensual – with more than a nod towards silent comedy – even as the story deepens and darkens.
NW England première – thanks to Arrow Film Distributors
It's nearly a decade since Jenkins' debut with The Slums of Beverly Hills. Here she writes and directs what is clearly an autobiographical project that she crafts into a dark comedy. Oscar-nominated Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman are thoroughly convincing as middle-aged siblings unexpectedly and unwontedly thrown together by the increasing dementia of their father (Philip Bosco). It's a rare film that provokes reviewers to wish there had been more exposition, but just whatever happened to the missing Mom? Watch and decide. Otherwise, the combination of laughter and pain lift this well clear of worthiness into good entertainment.
Thanks to Film Quest
A pampered sports star, a water-polo player, falls for a student activist. This is Hungary in the 1950's, where the parents of scriptwriter Joe Esterhasz (Jagged Edge, Basic Instinct) emigrated from. And so the movie – made in Hungary by a Hungarian crew - moves gradually towards its twin climaxes: the unsuccessful revolution of 1956, and the Olympic water polo match in the same year, between Hungary and the USSR, in which there was 'blood in the water'. 'The film has been given the polished Hollywood treatment, but its feel is no less authentic for that…for me [the characters] are symbols of the tragedy that befell my country' (Monica Porter, daughter of Hungarian revolutionaries and reviewer for The Times).
Thanks to Lionsgate Films
Labaki directs, co-writes and leads this crackling ensemble piece set in Beirut. She plays Layale, a beauty-shop owner with a settled relationship at the centre of a medley of women with problems. But all is not as it seems: here 'caramel' is not just sweet, but a painful depilatory. And in the movie her settled relationship turns out to be with a man married to someone else. The friendship of the group of women is complicated by sectarian division - yet still manages to survive and thrive in such a cosmopolitan city. Even lesbianism, albeit subtly treated, has its moments.
NW England première – thanks to Momentum Pictures
Anderson's latest succeeds in being both miniature and epic in its story of early oilman Plainview, played with fanatical absorption by Daniel Day-Lewis (winning the Oscar for best actor), and his confrontation with preacher Eli Sunday. The director takes tremendous risks, for instance casting Paul Dano unrealistically as both Sunday and Sunday’s own brother, or letting the camera drift over scenes languidly, or allowing Jonny Greenwood's score to soar over the soundtrack. The story is both relevant – to today's battles over oil and religion – yet timeless. Some even claim it has 'overshot the runway of movie modernity with something thrillingly, dangerously new.' (Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian)
Thanks to Buena Vista International
It’s 20 years since Tornatore's Cinema Paradiso won the best foreign-language Oscar. Nowadays he’s on a seemingly endless project to complete Sergio Leone's film-work about the Leningrad siege. But here he takes a break to make for himself a multi-award-winning dark thriller that's also a moving melodrama with an Ennio Morricone score. Russian actress Ksenia Rappoport plays a Ukrainian immigrant to Italy. Her seemingly quiet country life in her 30's gradually turns out to be not what it seems, as the horrors of her past life lead up to a violent present - where Michele Placido features as a particularly convincing Mafia sadist and Rappoport sustains our sympathy for her in spite of everything.
NW England premiere – thanks to Transmedia Releasing
A stunning epic to kick off our season, Mongol is filmed in the very lands that gave birth to Genghis Khan. Award-winning Russian filmmaker Sergei Bodrov transports us back to a distant, exotic period in world history; to stunning landscapes of endless space, climatic extremes and ever-present danger. Based on leading scholarly accounts Mongol delves into the dramatic and harrowing early years of the boy born as Temudgin in 1162. As it follows him from his perilous childhood to the battle that sealed his destiny, the film paints a multidimensional portrait of a man and leader far from the stereotype of a brutish Genghis Khan.
Notable for its warmth and humour, Marjane Satrapi's splendid, visually inventive adaptation of her autobiographical comic is much more a personal work than a political one, but she certainly hasn’t endeared herself to the Iranian authorities in this portrayal of life after the Islamic Revolution. Feisty, smart young Marjane is a true force of nature and her parents and lively grandmother applaud her independence. However, they realise that the teenager’s lust for life will eventually lead her into trouble with the Ayatollah Khomeini regime, so she’s sent to Vienna - but the carefree western ways of her new friends fail to impress her and she yearns for her homeland...
One of the world's great, individual directors, Roy Andersson presents his surreally witty view of the human condition through a series of hilarious vignettes which expose the love, pain, triumphs and misunderstandings of our lives. Some of you may remember Andersson's excellent Songs from the Second Floor which we screened in 2002 - this is less austere and more genuinely amusing, but the Swedish master has lost nothing of his deadpan attitude, portraying people who are desperate for others to acknowledge them, yet are blind to anyone's pain but their own. Named after a phrase by Goethe, You, The Living confirms Andersson's status as one of world cinema's true originals.
PHILIP FRENCH, THE OBSERVER: "Playwright Martin McDonagh, author of The Lieutenant of Inishmore, makes his feature debut as writer-director with In Bruges, a stylish, funny, exciting thriller in a tradition of tales about professional assassins that goes back through Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994) and Pinter's The Dumb Waiter (1957) to Hemingway's The Killers (1927). It centres on two Irish hitmen, the edgy young novice Ray (Colin Farrell) and the reflective, more experienced Ken (Brendan Gleeson). They've been sent by their London boss, Harry (Ralph Fiennes), to await their next assignment in the quiet, beautiful, medieval, Belgian town of Bruges…McDonagh's plotting is fiendishly clever, his dialogue crashes in on us like a tide throwing nails ashore with each wave and his black humour is laced with serious moral issues."
The desperately sad coincidence of the Madeleine McCann story delayed this film's release, but it is just that, a coincidence – one that in no way diminishes the impact of Ben Affleck's brilliant debut in this story (like Mystic River, based on a novel by Dennis Lehane) which has won a whole clutch of critics' awards in America.
Set in a tough Irish-American district of Boston, private investigators are brought in to help the local cops in their search for abductors and drug money. Affleck coaxes brilliant performances from brother Casey, Amy Ryan, Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris in particular, but the whole cast underlines the virtue of his excellent attention to authenticity. Even so, it's moral ambiguity that steals the show.
Twenty years on, in this re-release which offers a uniquely personal insight into the life of the late jazz great Chet Baker, renowned photographer/filmmaker Bruce Weber travels with the elusive jazz vocalist and trumpeter, weaving together excerpts from Italian B movies, rare performance footage, and candid interviews with Baker, musicians, friends, battling ex-wives and his children - in what turned out to be the last year of his life. Winner of the 1989 Critics Prize at the Venice Film Festival, nominated for an Academy Award, Let's Get Lost has become an important document in both the career of the filmmaker and the life of a jazz legend.
In the tradition of classic Italian neorealist cinema (best example The Bicycle Thief) Ermanno Olmi wrote, directed and photographed this epic masterpiece which won him the Palme D'Or at Cannes in 1978. Chronicling the lives of peasant families in Bergamo, Lombardy, at the turn of the 19th/20th centuries the staggeringly good performances of a large non-professional cast, transmit a powerful unifying force through their shared experience of hardship. Their lives, following the course of the seasons, compare unfavourably with that of the landlord, who owns everything - their homes, fields, crops and livestock – yet the sense of humanity and community shine through brilliantly.
Hugely popular at the Venice Film Festival, and César for Best French Film of 2007, Tunisian-born director Kechiche's latest movie revolves around Slimane, a shipyard worker from an immigrant Arab community in the French Mediterranean port of Sète who is laid off: a blow which the tired, ageing man accepts with bitter fortitude, as he attempts to use the settlement cash to open a couscous restaurant.
This is a deeply moving tragicomedy, exploring through a skilful, laconic narration both the universal search for happiness (not forgetting the importance of food, which the title implies) and the tensions and situations specific to immigrant families.
A look at tightrope walker Philippe Petit's daring, but illegal, high-wire routine performed between New York City's World Trade Center's twin towers in 1974, what some consider, "the artistic crime of the century."
"At the heart of it all, an ode to the free spirit, a courageous if quite possibly mad individual and the strange beauty of buildings that now represent something entirely different. A well-deserved prizewinner at Sundance this year." TONY SULLIVAN, EYE FOR FILM
"The wonder and awe the film generates isn't so much the filmmaker's genius though director James Marsh's talents aren't in doubt - he's crafted and constructed a fine documentary - it's the archive and stock footage and subject matter that leaves one breathless." DYLAN MATTHEW, EDINBURGHGUIDE.COM
Our affection for Shane Meadows' films goes on unabated: Somers Town tackles various themes, but the most engaging to watch is the growing friendship between two very contrasted boys: Tommo (Thomas Turgoose, Shaun in This Is England) believes himself to be a tough guy, whereas the Polish immigrant Marek (Piotr Jagiello) is more sensitive. Their relationship is richly funny and touching, as they compete for the affections of Maria, the French girl from the café who is always just out of reach. Little wonder that Turgoose and Jagiello each received the jury award for Best Actor at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, where they had audiences in stitches. The soundtrack too is simply a perfect match, its songs seeming tailor-made for the narrative.
Edinburgh's Michael Powell Award jury said the film was "the freshest, most imaginative maverick work, deserving of the award."
Nesfarsit meaning 'unfinished', the tragedy of this film is the death in a Bucharest road accident in August 2006 of the director and his sound editor. Nemescu would probably have trimmed his Kusturica-like feature debut, but it is left in all its glorious original state. We are in rural Romania during the Nato bombing of Yugoslavia, when Americans on a military train find themselves unceremoniously shunted on to the sidings because they lack customs documents. A black Balkan farce ensues as soldiers and townspeople try to fraternise, and the grasping stationmaster spots an opportunity...
Winner, Un Certain Regard, Cannes 2007
Following his very well-received The Station Agent (screened by KFC in 2004) Thomas McCarthy's second film centres on Walter Vale, a solemn economics professor masterfully portrayed by Richard Jenkins. Finding himself in New York on business he discovers that two illegal immigrants, Tarek and Zainab, have been tricked into renting his apartment. They strike up an unusual friendship, but the outside world intervenes (unlike The Station Agent) when it transpires that Tarek is an illegal immigrant as well as tenant. We soon become immersed in McCarthy's wry humour and quiet wit, and there are some wonderful moments – although the characters are just as memorable as the plot when the whole piece is weighed in the balance.
In Hope, Francis, a lonely angelic-looking young man, witnessing the theft of a rare painting from a church, finds himself embroiled in a game of blackmail as he tries to make the culprit undo his crime. This beautifully shot thriller-cum-morality tale takes place in shiny modern Warsaw, but there's a fine contrast of darkness and shadows amongst its denizens.
Third in the trilogy of films representing not only Dante's concepts of heaven, hell and purgatory but also the Christian ideals of love, faith and hope, all penned by Krzysztof Piesiewicz (responsible too for much of Krzysztof Kieslowski's best work) Hope follows Tom Tykwer's Heaven (KFF 2002) and Danis Tanowic's L'Enfer.
"Once upon a time there was a city without a voice. Somebody had taken away the voices of all its inhabitants. Many, many years went by and nobody seemed bothered by the silence."
In this quirky sci-fi fantasy from Argentina there is rarely a human voice - Mr TV has seen to that - but sound and language have not died, because there is noise, text ("They have taken our voices but we still have words,") and music, and even the one exception of the dictator's favourite singer. Plots and counter-plots ensue in this alluring allegory that, ironically, employs the language of silent film to salute the power of free speech.
'Sometimes cinema tickles the senses, sometimes it tugs at the heartstrings, sometimes it exercises the intellect - but La Antena transmits to all three at once. For Sapir's film is visually beautiful, mentally stimulating, and thoroughly haunting...it would be dumb not to tune in to this extraordinary film.' ANTON BITEL, EYE FOR FILM
Due to circumstances beyond our control we were unable to show Gomorrah as planned.
In place of Gomorrah we had a free screening of WALL-E, and will hope to put matters right by arranging a screening of Gomorrah in the New Year.
It might seem a surprising choice, but we're merely replacing Sight & Sound's 4th best film of 2008 with their 3rd best! Despite it being animation, most of the serious critics have taken warmly to the film, and in fact it scores 96% on Rotten Tomatoes. So, if you haven't seen it, do come along and have a free treat.
We're a few days early (the midnight kiss is for 10 days hence) but it's fun: newly-single, failed writer Wilson just wants to spend the rest of a very bad year in bed, but he's pushed by a friend into posting an online personal ad on New Year's Eve. That the self-deprecating "Misanthrope to Misanthrope" ad he reluctantly writes gets a response at all is surprising. But then attractively glamorous blonde Vivian is full of surprises, most of them unpleasant. Like a spikier Before Sunrise, what ensues is in turn hilarious, deeply touching, chaotic and charming as these two quirky personalities edge through the Los Angeles evening towards midnight.
Don't expect political correctness in this spy spoof which sends up Agent OSS-117, the ‘French Bond’ (although he actually predates 007): Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath is a supercool smug character who displays both a ridiculous hero-worship of his nation's uninspired statesman, President René Coty, and a superiority akin to that of Peter Sellers’ Clouseau. The year is 1955, and OSS-117 has been sent to Cairo to monitor the growing Suez crisis, make contact with beautiful agent Larmina (Bérénice Bejo) and promote France’s ambitions in the area – more scope for Hazanavicius’s cheeky satire. Add in the loving care devoted to the period treatment, and it’s no surprise that this has been such a box-office hit in France.
Turner Prize-winning artist Steve McQueen co-wrote and directed this account of the IRA hunger strike led by Bobby Sands which gives a compelling and visionary approach to a pivotal moment in British and Irish modern history.
Beginning with the ‘dirty protest’ in the Maze Prison, McQueen wants us to live through this act of self-debasement "I want to show what it was like to see, hear, smell and touch in the H-block in 1981," states McQueen, who also gives us a fine central dialogue between Bobby Sands and his priest crystallising the battle between ‘the system’ and the revolutionary, who will always fight to keep his faith, regardless of the cost. Michael Fassbender recreates the Sands character in brilliant and deeply-moving fashion, in this multi award-winning triumph.
Sometimes it is difficult to preview a film without revealing too much of the content. Events affect every action, every aspect of character, and, as in this case, they should be viewed with no preconceptions. However we first meet Juliette (Scott Thomas), a haunted-looking, middle-aged woman in an ill-fitting overcoat, awaiting the arrival of her sister Lea (Elsa Zylberstein). Clearly their first meeting for a long time, we wonder where she has been during her long, mysterious absence. Writer-director Philippe Claudel reveals his secrets gradually, but the interplay of both characters is the key, and we watch fascinated as Juliette reveals her secrets and gradually transforms her life. Prize-winner at Berlin IFF 2008.
A labour of love from Wong Kar Wai (Chungking Express, In the Mood for Love, 2046) who was never satisfied with his 1992 version of Ashes of Time. His consistent themes (loneliness, disconnection, obsession with the past) and characters (proud, haunted, imperially alone) are unchanged, but this remastered print enhances cinematographer Christopher Doyle's adoring close-ups and impressive desertscapes with luxurious colour restoration. The desert dweller Ouyang (Leslie Cheung) is a broker and hostel-provider for itinerant swordsmen and their prospective clients, trying not to suffer the pangs of losing the woman (Maggie Cheung) who married his brother. There’s a powerful poetry running through it all, as Wong eschews the banalities of mainstream narrative for visual abstraction, beauty and the mysteries of time.
Acting, cinematography, musical soundtrack and direction are startlingly memorable in this BFI re-issue of Malick’s American masterpiece.
‘This first, magnificent outpouring of the sporadic genius of cinema’s equivalent to JD Salinger, Terrence Malick, still seems terrifically modern. That’s partly down to the career-best performances of Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek as garbage-collector Kit and naive schoolgirl Holly (who narrates), the misfit young couple who, like savage innocents, create a brief idyll and end up leaving a trail of blood through the unforgiving Montana badlands… a stunning but gentle essay on freedom and necessity, life and death.’
WALLY HAMMOND, TIME OUT
Peter O'Toole's late renaissance continues as his character Fisk becomes the emotional centre of this quixotic adaptation of a 1936 novella. Sam Neill plays the eponymous Spanley,a believer in reincarnation whose tales bring renewed life to the bereaved and melancholy Fisk.
'A heavy-metal band is arrested for "shaking the foundations of Islam" in "The Satanic Angels," an accomplished, at times gripping critique of contempo Morocco that refreshingly adds another dimension to the usual cinematic treatments of the country. Basing his script on a real case, sophomore helmer Ahmed Boulane fearlessly places blame at nearly all levels of society, using the sheer absurdity of the charges to highlight the increasing grip of fundamentalism on an ostensibly secular state. Despite occasional sound problems, pic -- a major hit at home -- is eminently exportable. 'Variety
From a family of film-makers, this is the teenage director's first fictional feature. Six-year-old Bakhtay is living in an Afghan cave near where the Taliban blew up statues of Buddhas in 2001. She resolves to go to school even though she has no pens, money, resources. Eventually, in her quest, she is set upon by bullying boys who act out the roles of both Taliban and Americans. Sometimes didactic and occasionally confusing, this heartfelt portrait has nevertheless garnered many awards including Crystal Bear (voted for by young people) at Berlin 2008.
The director fell for charismatic Eugene Hütz, gypsy punk leader of the New York band Gogol Bordello. He didn't reciprocate, but he did let her film him going back to his native Ukraine. Their relationship flickers in and out of visits to gypsy camps, to his bewildered family, to guardians of traditional music who dislike Hütz's take on Roma music, finally to the gypsy grandmother in a rundown Kiev apartment who inspired him.
The tango was out of fashion in Argentina, once its natural home. Indeed, director Entel didn't particularly like the genre until he heard a band playing in the street: Orquesta Tipica Fernandez Fierro, 'a scraggly outfit of pierced, dreadlocked players who wield their accordions and violins with punk abandon.' We follow the band on a European tour, living cheaply but cheerfully, sustaining their political activism as well as their music, in this word-of-mouth popular movie.
A woman's life is derailed en route to a potentially lucrative summer job. When her car breaks down, and her dog is taken to the pound, the thin fabric of her financial situation comes apart, and she is led through a series of increasingly dire economic decisions.
The much-praised film-maker returns with a characteristic collage of music, archive image and personal voice-over to reflect on the Liverpool of his youth, the 50's and 60's. Both an outward and a personal history, Davies' film is iconoclastic; as he surveys changes in his native city he even finds a moment to excoriate the Beatles. A few have found cliché and pomposity here. But most have been entranced, like the five-star reviewers for both Guardian and Independent.
Tarsem makes music videos and ads for a living. Between takes for those, and with millions of his own money, he made this dark fairy tale. In 1915 a paralysed stuntman meets a sickly 9-year-old Romanian girl in LA. His words, spinning a yarn at first embellishing his own plight, take wild flight when we see them enacted in the child's imagination. It's a cinematic spectacular, told at a relaxed narrative pace.
A follow-up to Peace One Day, this is the campaigning story of Jeremy Gilley's ten-year quest to have September 21st recognized as International Peace Day. The United Nations have officially adopted it: but what difference does that make on the ground? We follow Gilley to Afghanistan with actor Jude Law – who says this is the most important thing he's ever done – to try and have a million and a half children vaccinated against polio on Peace Day 2007.
Heavy Load are latter-day punk: Lewes's answer to the Ramones. Most of them are also people with learning difficulties. Rothwell's funny, affectionate but frank film follows them as they try to move from benefit gigs into the mainstream. Will they ever finish the album? Will they survive schisms? Will they succeed in their campaign for the disabled to be allowed to stay out late?
Ticket also gives entry to the concert at 10pm at the Rugby Club
Two boys discover a fortune. What are they to do with it? Nine-year-old Anthony is for investing and schmoozing; seven-year-old Damian is for making lives better. Damian is a child-expert on the saints, who are surprisingly practical when he discusses things with them. Why, St Claire even smokes roll-ups (it's allowed, in heaven). Boyle and screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce conjure up a child's-eye-view of something resembling Shallow Grave that avoids sentimentality while seeing the best in people.
Children / Madonna and Child / Death and Transfiguration
These three early films, subsequently assembled as a single work, tell of the melancholy life and death of the director's alter ego, Robert Tucker, growing up an artist and a homosexual in postwar working-class Liverpool. Bold use of music and an acute visual sense prefigure Davies' later works, with sustained passages of brilliance.
Nepal has been transformed in less than a decade from a royal kingdom to a democracy where Maoists are in the majority. Over three years Bridgham follows the lives of six women through these changes, from soldier to grieving mother, from monarchist to activist.
Thanks to the Directors
This story is a national treasure in Japan, adapted here as a crisp clean animation. Makoko, a high-school student, discovers through a near-death experience that she can travel back through time. So she passes the quiz she once failed, guzzles the food she once missed. But soon her adventures become more serious as she sees tragedy coming that she might prevent.
This award-winning documentary follows a choir of older people in Northampton Mass. through a tough schedule.. And it’s not just tough because the songs are unfamiliar to the singers, featuring the best of the Clash and the Ramones. Some of them need oxygen just to get through a rehearsal; one or two are terminally ill. But they still manage the 71 rhythmic repetitions of ‘can’ in the Pointer Sisters’ Yes we can can.
‘Pete Postlethwaite is the autocratic, hypnotic patriarch of a post-war Liverpool working-class family. The rest of the family struggle in his shadow. Extraordinarily, they can only express themselves through songs, persistent seams of feeling through the beautifully-realised bleakness. ‘Long, stately shots combine with impassioned performances to create a visual tour de force unmatched elsewhere in British cinema…this film is a masterpiece.’ (Andrew Pulver, The Guardian)
Borat-director Charles this time follows Bill Maher, the irreverent American chat-show host, as he interviews believers around the world. The anti-religious editing and invective may be skewed, but the outcome is very funny, from chatting to ‘Jesus’ at the Florida Holy Land Experience to sharing unexpected laughs with a couple of Vatican priests who don’t think much of the Old Testament.
Thanks to Momentum Films
Scott Hicks was converted to the music of Philip Glass by his children. Now he has compiled a sumptuous and musically rich portrait of the man himself, seen from twelve different angles. Glass is a workaholic with a very particular aesthetic; only late moments from his wife Holly suggest there’s an emotional price to pay.
Please note the new time for this film Saturday 14th February 7:15 PM at The Alhambra
‘Lips’ Kudlow and his best friend Robb Reiner were almost metal rock stars in 1984. Here Gervasi, a roadie back then, follows the band as they mount another determined but maybe doomed effort at fame and fortune although now in their 50’s, with families to (be) support(ed by).
Jacqueline du Prė was the leading cellist of her generation. But at the height of her fame, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Still controversial because it was based on the one-sided biography by du Prė's siblings, Frank Cottrell Boyce's script provided the basis for a scintillating performance by Emily Watson in the central role.
Jack Nance plays a man who initially orbits the earth, until out of his mouth is born a mutant child, and later, in the suburbs with his reluctant partner, over a meal of man-made chicken that wriggles as they eat…Yes, this is the first feature in the oeuvre of David Lynch: surrealist, exasperating, dazzling, thought-provoking, unsettling, about creativity and the fear of babies and the human imagination and maybe the director’s ego - like the work of no-one else.
A multiple-award winner in Germany, the title of Four Minutes refers to the musical and emotional climax of a claustrophobic prison-set relationship drama between a buttoned-up music teacher and her violent but talented pupil (played by 'a mesmerizing Hannah Herzsprung' (Jeanette Catsoulis, New York Times)). A seam of dark humour runs through this intense psychodrama, where the present gradually reveals the dark passions of the past.
This multiple-award winner on the festival circuit is adapted from a Soviet era novel. It centres on six people in Lasnamäe, a housing estate in the Estonian capital Tallinn. Their solitude is reflected in the ways their stories touch tangentially but never quite meet. With a brooding score and fine cinematography, the movie has put Estonian film on the world map.
What happens when asylum seekers move into an allotment in the north of England. Community and racism are explored in a lightly political comedy that began life as a documentary about a real-life project. 'Raking over this original idea, screenwriters Frank Cottrell-Boyce and Carl Hunter sow the seeds of a fictional slice of life, nurturing shoots of observational comedy, gentle romance and conflict.' (Manchester Evening News)
Hiam Abbass, in a terrific performance, plays Salma the Palestinian widow, who tends a lemon grove handed down through generations. But the Israeli Defence Minister moves in opposite and the lemon grove becomes regarded as a security threat. The based-on-a-true-story drama moves to the Israeli court, and to the hearts and minds of the central characters – including the Defence Minister’s wife Mira, who sympathises with Salma, and the young lawyer who takes on Salma’s case and soon falls for her.
Some people said this movie would only be finished when the director or its subject died. But here it finally is, and they’re both still alive: at the centre, the quirky poet, musician, artist and family woman Patti Smith. Twelve years in the making, Sebring’s film eschews most conventional biographical detail for a portrait instead through seemingly casual scenes of Smith in middle age, widowed, with children growing, returning to music and activism, contrasted with the young Patti Smith who was punk before punk had been invented.
Based on a real-life case, this is the drama of a 7-year-old Pakistani boy who wanders across the border with India and ends up, along with his father who comes to look for him, languishing in jail for months, the pair mistakenly regarded as spies. Nandita Das is excellent as the bereft mother, though she is acted off the park by her screen-'son'.
When punky weirdo Eunice wanders into a service-station in search of a friend, the dowdy girl at the counter, Miriam, is so drawn to the belligerent vagrant that she takes her home. That night, to Miriam's bemusement, Eunice strips off to reveal a bruised, chained, pierced body and seduces her; the next morning, however, finding her guest gone, Miriam feels impelled to head off in pursuit, a move that will draw her into Eunice's brutal world of seedy sexual encounters and habitual murder. This bleak, provocative debut is at once emphatically English and clearly indebted to American crime and road movies. (Time Out)
Call it what you want follows Kendal climber, George Ullrich, as he tests himself over a year, at home in the UK and further afield. We see him climb Lake District testpieces, skip the bolts on The Bachar-Yerian, nail Californian first ascents and solo above the ocean in Mallorca. As problematic situations arise, the film asks other notable climbers how they deal with the issues and ideas that drive the sport. Call it what you want asks the question, "what is truly important in rock climbing?"
Free Screening
It’s the mid 19th century. The men of the indigenous Sami people of northern Norway are succumbing to the lure of alcohol. But strong-willed Elen leads a boycott of the local liquor store, and persuades her fellows to listen to charismatic preacher Laestadius: soon a confrontation is imminent. This story of rebellion is personal to Gaup, whose ancestors were involved: it’s been ten years in the making.
Six blind Tibetan teenagers, cast out by their own families, are in the safe refuge of blind educator Sabriya Tenberken’s school. She calls in Erik Weihenmayer, the only blind man to have climbed Everest, to help the teenagers meet a new challenge: an ascent of the 23,000 foot Lhakpa Ri. But what is the climb for? For whose benefit? According to whose values?
Robert Carlyle, in what some say is his best performance since Trainspotting, stars as Shaun, caring for his dying alcoholic friend. Through three time-scales – childhood, adolescent and the present in their 30’s – we see the roots both of their friendship and of the fissures that have brought them to this.
From a story by Steve Martin, this thriller centres on a Muslim American action-hero – and dares to be ambiguous and complex as his treason unravels. Don Cheadle is subtle as the man scarred by a bombing of his family in the past; Guy Pearce is his mirror-image as the agent who pursues him.
Thanks to Momentum Pictures
Is this Joaquin Phoenix's last movie? He says so. He's the downbeat man torn between the daughter of a family friend (Vinessa Shaw) and the beautiful woman along the hall (Gwyneth Paltrow, in a part written with her in mind). Premiered at Cannes, the film reunites Phoenix with the director of We own the night. And yes, that's Isabella Rossellini playing his mother.
Enthusiastic word-of-mouth tributes persuaded us to programme this July 2008 release, in which Olivier Assayas explores the troubled fate of a priceless private art collection following the death of the materfamilias. It’s a quintessentially French look at how a family deals with death and legacy, and Juliette Binoche, Jérémie Renier and Charles Berling are typically brilliant in their portrayal of siblings at odds with each other over the disposal of priceless artefacts (loaned to the producers by the Musée d’Orsay) which represent their family’s personal history. An intelligent and tender exploration of nostalgia, mortality, property and the power of memory.
Adapted from a little-known novel by Georges Simenon (creator of Maigret), Béla Tarr’s first film since Werckmeister Harmonies (2000) has resembled in its slow evolution the long takes for which the auteur is famous. After one of these, a long, slow pan up the prow of a ship at night, we see Maloin, a switchman at a railway station situated by a ferry harbour, watching the arrival of the last ferry, perched in his control room on high, from where he can see the whole bay. What ensues depicts the moral restlessness that grips a man after witnessing a shocking event. Spot Tilda Swinton in the role of his wife, and be prepared to let Tarr’s vision, his eerie music and prowling camera wash over you…
Palme d’Or nominated, Cannes 2007.
Winner of the Audience Award at Toronto IFF, this is the story of how an impoverished Indian teenager became a contestant on the Hindi version of "Who Wants to be A Millionaire?". Danny Boyle’s film is a breathless, exciting story, both heartbreaking and exhilarating, about a Mumbai orphan who rises from rags to riches on the strength of his lively intelligence. Boyle bridges the two Indias (wealthy, aspiring middle-class and extreme poverty, both brilliantly portrayed by the director) using the device of the TV programme, telling the story of Jamal’s wretched upbringing and the intuition with which he improvises his way up through the world. We’re treated to a script by Simon Beaufoy (The Full Monty), the involvement of A.R. Rahman, the king of Bollywood music, and a touching love story to boot...
Known mainly in the West for his 96-minute one-take historical tableau Russian Ark (screened by KFC in November 2003) surely one of the oddest art-house hits of all time, Alexander Sokurov is widely viewed as Russia's most important living filmmaker. That fact might not help you much in trying to get a handle on his new Alexandra, a cryptic, prickly tale about an old woman who visits her grandson and his comrades in an isolated war zone, has a series of uncertain encounters and then goes home again.
This movie, so simple on its surface and so hard to figure out, is a pretty tough point of entry to Sokurov's work, though it's not like his other narrative features (The Sun, Father and Son, Mother and Son, Moloch, etc.)are such easy assignments either. The war in question seems to be Russia's campaign against rebels in Chechnya, and in fact Alexandra was shot there, under difficult and dangerous conditions. But everything about Alexandra's journey and the setting is deliberately ambiguous. The war could be almost anywhere, at almost any point in modern history -- or at least any point at which a quasi-imperial army finds itself lodged for years in hostile surroundings, and slipping into depravity and self-doubt.
To any Russian viewer, Sokurov's choice of a leading lady will be fraught with almost electrifying significance. Alexandra is played by 81-year-old Galina Vishnevskaya, probably the greatest operatic soprano in that nation's long musical history and, along with her husband, the cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich, a figure long associated with artistic resistance to the Soviet regime. Although she's used to performing, Vishnevskaya isn't a film actress, and most of the other parts -- her officer grandson, his fellow soldiers, a Chechen woman who befriends Alexandra in the marketplace -- are played by non-professionals.
The film is set in Liège (Belgium), their familiar home town, but this is new territory for the Dardenne brothers (Rosetta, Le Fils, L’Enfant), in that it is more like a thriller than anything they have done before. And the brothers take to making telling moral points about the murky underside of European affluence in this quicker-paced tale of immigration, centring on the title character, a courageous Albanian immigrant played by Arta Dobroshi. There’s a series of tricky narrative revelations and switchbacks, involving a low-life local mobster (Fabrizio Rongione) in a conspiracy to murder Lorna’s pathetic junkie husband, Claudy (Dardenne regular Jérémie Renier), but feelings can change and Lorna is stretched in different directions by the hand of fate.
Winner, Best Screenplay, Cannes 2008.
BOYD VAN HOEIJ, EUROPEAN-FILMS.NET: "The Neapolitan mafia, known as the Camorra, gets the Syriana treatment in Matteo Garrone's Gomorra, one of the most incisive organised-crime films to emerge from any country since the 1970s. Like the bestselling novel that has been translated into 33 languages (including English), Gomorrah the film should find success far and wide."
ANDREW O'HEHIR, SALON.COM: "At times the viewer must struggle to keep up with him, but Garrone finds marvelous, dark, symbolic and poetic images in the appalling and decrepit urban-rural sprawl of Naples... While his movie is about one crime-plagued city (the Camorra is believed responsible for 4,000 murders in Naples since the 1970s), it's hard to avoid seeing it as a broader commentary on Italy's recent social and political paralysis. Furthermore, 'Gomorra' blends the disparate traditions of Italian cinema -- the crime drama, the melodrama, the art film -- more adeptly than any movie from that country in recent memory."
A rare chance to see the whole of this masterly biopic by Steven Soderbergh, who said, while paying tribute to Walter Salles's The Motorcycle Diaries, "Now, there's a trilogy" when Che was released. Benicio del Toro (Best Actor, Cannes 2008) provides an excellent physical and emotional performance as the asthmatic Argentine doctor who became Latin America's most legendary revolutionary since Simón Bolívar. At times warm and witty, at times cruel and dogmatic, Che is portrayed as the often brilliant strategist and tactician of guerrilla warfare, but also the jungle leader in Bolivia who made crucial mistakes leading to his own death. Historians will discuss the political weightiness of Soderbergh’s portrait, and its ideological and historical precision, but as a depiction of one man’s rise to greatness and ultimate fall, we can but admire his energy and vision.
More plot-driven than his preceding films, Ceylan’s latest is neatly conceived and supported by cinematography and soundtrack of high quality. Intense mood permeates every perfectly composed frame from which the director builds an atmosphere of oppression reflecting the interior discontent of his characters. A former photographer, the director finds shades of colour, tricks of light, and uses of shadow which enhance his story of family tensions in most impressive fashion, meriting him the Best Director Award at Cannes 2008.
A magnificent role for Mickey Rourke as Randy Robinson, an ageing wrestler grappling with his emotions as much as with his opponents in this Golden Lion Winner at Venice 2008. There are inevitable comparisons with Marlon Brando, as Rourke, having emerged from his prize-fighting -and-plastic surgery of recent years gives the performance of his life in a role that allows for a gamut of emotions in a rich, patient spell of intimate storytelling. There’s no avoidance of the pantomime in the wrestling ring, but Director Aronofsky skilfully blends the real emotions of the wrestlers’ camaraderie and their connections with their families and friends, and achieves a sensitive connection with his audience which is likely to be hugely involved with the fate of this part-heroic, part-tragic figure.
Cannes 2008 Palme d’Or winner, Laurent Cantet returns to the contemporary social and work-related issues of his earlier features (Ressources humaines, L’Emploi du temps). The film’s story, based on a novel by François Bégaudeau (who also plays the fictionalised version of himself) recounts his experiences as a teacher who tries to impart French language and life lessons to a school class of 14-year-olds during one school year. The lively characters in this class, reflecting the mixed ethnicity of Paris’s twentieth arrondissement, and teacher François’s connection with them, their parents and his colleagues, tie in themes of civil unrest and French republicanism as an ideal, but above all director and actor/author allow the children to talk – which is utterly fascinating.
Animation seems an unlikely vehicle for documentary, but here it works brilliantly. It’s a remarkable, hallucinatory and deeply disturbing work, unlike any animated film you’ll have seen before: hand-drawn in a colourful comics style, it portrays Folman's struggle to recapture his lost memories of Israel's ill-fated 1980s war in Lebanon, when he was a young draftee. With no memories of his time in Lebanon (except that he knew he had seen combat and witnessed the Sabra and Shatila massacres of September 1982, when pro-Israeli Lebanese Christian militiamen carried out a near-genocidal campaign of murder in two Palestinian refugee camps) he decided to try to cope with severe depression by contacting former military comrades, a psychiatrist friend and a neurologist who specializes in memory impairment. This is the extraordinary result, winner of the Audience Award at Warsaw IFF, and nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes 2008.
A comedy, but an unsettling one - as Swiss-French director Meier put it: ‘rather like an inverted road movie.’ In the middle of the countryside, a father, a mother and their three children live happily on the edge of a motorway that has been disused for the past ten years. When the road works are suddenly completed, and the first cars drive past, the nightmare begins.
Combining great acting by Isabelle Huppert and her colleagues, superb cinematography by Agnès Godard - Claire Denis’s loyal DoP - and a fine soundtrack which contrasts the harsh sounds of ‘civilization’ with the peacefulness of the natural landscape backed by a beautifully chosen, wide range of music, this should start our season in memorable style.
Philip Seymour Hoffman stars as a theatre director (it’s the opening night of his production of ‘Death of a Salesman’) attempting to re-enact his life as it is occurring. From the relentless imagination of Charlie Kaufman, writer of Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, comes an examination of the mind: losing grip of one’s self; the fractured, self-possessed mind of the artist; the interplay of waking lives and dreams, or waking lives and memories – all these are themes that drive Kaufman’s first film as both writer and director, raising such questions as Is everyone a hero of his own drama and an extra in everyone else's?
Odd Horten is a 67-year-old Norwegian train driver who discovers after hanging up his timetable for the last time that there is still light at the end of the tunnel . After attending a party at which his colleagues see him off by pretending to be steam engines, Horten settles into retirement by embarking on a mini-odyssey which brings him a host of new experiences and eccentric encounters, involving a deal of visual humour. Reminiscent of the work of Aki Kaurismäki and Roy Andersson, Bent Hamer’s film maintains a balance between dark reality and theatrical irony as the rising tide of melancholy is complemented by his fine sense of the ridiculous.
"How brave of distributors New Wave Films to pick up such a seemingly uncommercial project and present it to the public in such a tough economic climate, even if the film only pops up on a bare handful of screens across the country. In an ideal world, such boldness would yield rich reward - and there'd be a receptive climate for reflectively quiet, intensely personal, experimentally poetic documentaries such as this.
As it is, such fare is generally restricted to film festivals - such as Edinburgh, where sleep furiously premiered to favourable notices last June. Sight and Sound hailed Koppel, a Liverpool-born, Slade-educated artist who teaches in London and Paris, as 'the unfussiest film-maker since Bresson,' describing his film as 'quite simply, a masterpiece.'"
NEIL YOUNG, JIGSAW LOUNGE
Favourably compared to the work of Ingmar Bergman, Jan Troell's film introduces us to a woman who experiences an artistic awakening after being introduced to photography. Based on real-life events, the story opens at the start of the 20th century and centres on Finnish housewife Maria Larrson (Maria Heiskanen), who struggles to care for her large brood of children and manage her abusive, alcoholic husband, Sigge. The film is beautifully shot throughout and delivers a strong message about personal integrity and the fulfilment that come from finding an artistic outlet. It's also a deeply understanding film which resists the usual clichés of violent husband melodramas.
In this modern homage to Ozu’s 1953 masterpiece Tokyo Story, Dörrie’s moving and fascinating film begins with Trudi (Hannelore Elsner) being told by doctors that her husband, Rudi (Elmar Wepper), has a fatal illness - one whose progression is difficult to predict. Trudi keeps the knowledge of his fate to herself, encouraging him to take a trip with her to Japan. All he will agree to however is a trip to Berlin to visit their son, Klaus and daughter, Karolin - a minor disaster since either their son, nor his family, nor Karolin has time for them. So the story progresses towards Japan in an entirely unexpected way, and cherry blossoms become a metaphor for life's ephemeral beauty...
Adapted from the novel by Anne Michaels, Jeremy Podeswa's drama stars Stephen Dillane as a Toronto-based writer struggling with demons from his Polish past. When the Nazis murdered his parents and dragged away his sister, he was rescued by a Greek archaeologist before being taken after the war to Canada. Here, Jakob, who has become a writer struggling to articulate his childhood horrors, must exorcise the ghosts of his past if he is to close a traumatic chapter of his life and find serenity in the present. As much about memory as about the Holocaust, FUGITIVE PIECES is a touching testimony to the power of remembrance and redemption, and the high quality of cinematography, acting and musical score play their full part in creating a memorable film.
"Polish veteran Andrezj Wajda tackles an event close to his – and his country's – heart in ‘Katyn’, a poignant drama that traces the lasting effects of a national tragedy, the memory of which started to warp almost as soon as it happened….The principal success of Wajda's stately, widescreen and exquisitely shot film lies in its sober attempt to mirror the fragmented truth of a genocide. For half a century, the perception of Katyn was clouded by ideology: it was a distortion whose ripples were felt at the most intimate of levels. Wajda is excellent at portraying the lingering corruption of this top-down rewriting of history."
DAVE CALHOUN, TIME OUT
In order to keep alive the family's grocery shop Antoine is forced to go back to his home town when his father has a heart attack. Unwillingly driving the family van from hamlet to hamlet, delivering supplies to the few remaining inhabitants, his attitude gradually changes when accompanied by his Parisian friend Claire... To achieve documentary-like realism, director Éric Guirado shot portraits of travelling tradesmen in southern France: his film affectionately observes their gruff, self-reliant customers and respects these hardy, weather-beaten but also funny and endearing people. Ultimately, this French boxoffice hit is about the coming-of-age of a man rediscovering life and love in the countryside.
Part of the Ken Russell weekend, featuring Ken in conversation with Derek Malcolm, and screenings of films Song of Summer and Mahler.
We are delighted to welcome Ken to the Alhambra in a return to Keswick, and look forward to hearing him talk with Derek Malcolm (currently film critic of the London Evening Standard and President of the British Federation of Film Societies).
Both films were shot in Borrowdale, and both, in their separate ways, are typical of Ken Russell's highly-regarded skill as a filmmaker and his brilliant inventiveness and ability to capture emotion and inspiration.
Ken once described Song of Summer as his best piece of work.
Adapted from Aldous Huxley's "The Devil's of Loudun," the story revolves around a liberal-thinking priest in 17th Century France, whose womanizing exploits make him unpopular with the Catholic clergy and whose political views make him a liability for Cardinal Richelieu. He is denounced and accused of consorting with the devil and having sexual activities with the nuns in the town's convent, most notably Sister Jeanne, an unsatisfied, humpbacked nun in love with him.
From Rotten Tomatoes
Part of the Ken Russell weekend, featuring Ken in conversation with Derek Malcolm, and screenings of films Song of Summer and Mahler.
We are delighted to welcome Ken to the Alhambra in a return to Keswick, and look forward to hearing him talk with Derek Malcolm (currently film critic of the London Evening Standard and President of the British Federation of Film Societies).
Both films were shot in Borrowdale, and both, in their separate ways, are typical of Ken Russell's highly-regarded skill as a filmmaker and his brilliant inventiveness and ability to capture emotion and inspiration.
Claire Denis creates a subtle family drama about the close connection between widower Lionel and his daughter, Joséphine. Since the early death of her mother, she and her father have depended on one another, living together until her adulthood. However, she and Lionel realize that the time for them to move on may have come…This portrait of the deep bond between father and daughter is portrayed through secret smiles, stolen glances and comfortable silences, as other relationships come into play. With Agnès Godard’s fluid camerawork, the film builds into a richly textured meditation on family, friendship, love and loss.
\"A lavish, noirish melodrama sparkling with Pedro Almodovar’s trademark humour… devilishly clever and shrewdly cast with a stable of Almodovar regulars, the storyline casts a particularly gorgeous Cruz as an actress struggling to escape the suffocating constraints of the ageing millionaire lover who has bankrolled her career. The film is awash with references to the noir genre, Italian neo-realism and even to the director’s own quirky oeuvre… It’s a rollicking struggle that, in the hands of consummate ringmaster Almodovar, is a joy to watch.\"
BARRY BYRNE, SCREEN INTERNATIONAL
Ton, a Bangkok architect comes to the rural community of Takua Pa in South Thailand, in order to supervise rebuilding work in the wake of the devastation caused by the 2004 tsunami. He chooses to stay in a small, rundown hotel owned by the shy Thai-Chinese Na who is bringing up her gangster brother\'s child. The two tentatively embark on a relationship, but Na\'s brother Wit does not take kindly to the news... Tension and suspense abound as we witness the development of their passion against the backdrop of a wounded landscape and a bruised population.
Andrea Arnold goes from strength to strength in this, her second feature (following Red Road), in which she develops her very personal style of story-telling and coaxes extraordinary performances from her leading actors. An entirely credible portrait of the emotional and sexual development of a teenage girl coping with her tough life on a Thames Estuary estate, it’s a treatment which has been described as Ken Loachian realism from the female viewpoint. Arnold’s sensitive, imaginative and intimate portrayal of the girl, her family and Mum’s new boyfriend is as successful as her depiction of the wider world in which Mia (Katie Jarvis) lives.
Winner of the Jury Prize, Cannes 2009.
In this profoundly moving story of the human spirit rising above appalling suffering, we see German, French and Scottish soldiers trapped in the gruesome trenches of what would soon be recognized as the worst and most pointless slaughter the world had yet seen. But on this 95th anniversary of an extraordinary Christmas truce, it is also a work of nostalgia for a time when war was still imagined to be a glorious and dangerous sport. With gorgeous music (from classical arias to Scottish bagpipers), lovely photography, sufficient enquiry into the morality of warfare, we have fine performances from Guillaume Canet, Daniel Bruhl and Alex Ferns enjoying some civilized bonhomie amid the carnage.
‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty’ John Keats, 1819. In London, in 1818, a secret love affair begins between 23 year old English poet Keats, and the girl next door, Fanny Brawne, an outspoken student of fashion. Written and directed by Academy Award winner Jane Campion, Bright Star is a riveting drama based on their three-year romance. Campion in an eloquent, refreshing return to her form of The Piano gives us a moving account of Keats’ great love and tragic death. With highly professional attention to detail, beautiful cinematography and intelligently understated performances from her actors Ben Whishaw and Abbie Cornish, Campion turns real events from the life of the poet into one of the most gorgeous and satisfying period dramas in recent memory.
First famous in 1955 for La pointe-courte, Agnès Varda’s latest film sees the veteran writer director marking her 80th birthday by looking back over her long and eventful life. The Beaches of Agnès is a captivating ciné-memoir, surrealistic and impressionistic, surveying the godmother of the French New Wave’s formidable career as a still photographer and filmmaker. Beaches have a special emotional resonance for her and here she takes an unconventional approach to revisiting – both literally and figuratively – places in her past.
This touching, subjective film examines her life principally through her relationships with friends, family and creative contemporaries, whilst injecting warmth, skill and playfulness to fully entertain her audience.
César for Best Documentary 2009
BirdWatchers is an unusual and sympathetic exploration of a diminishing society driven to near extinction by capitalism and colonialism. The opposing worlds of the Guarani Indians (excellent natural actors) and the farmers of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, engage in a metaphorical as well as a real war. The former are enclosed in reserves, with no other perspective except that of working as semi-slaves in sugar beet plantations; the latter lead a wealthy and leisurely existence owning huge fields with transgenic plantations. But as well as anger, both sides are also fascinated and curious about “the other” - a curiosity that will create a deep bond between the young shaman apprentice Osvaldo, and a farmer’s daughter...
Bahrani’s latest humanist portrait adds to his reputation as one as the most distinctive and engaged young auteurs working in America today. On the lonely roads of North Carolina, two men forge an mprobable friendship that will change both of their lives forever. Solo is a Senegalese immigrant cab driver, an amiable, compassionate and inquisitive fellow who picks up William, a tough-faced, grumbling old-timer with a lifetime of regrets. Solo, understanding William's grim frame of mind only too well, decides to try to help him find a new lease of life. William is resistant but despite their differences, both men soon realize they need each other more than either is willing to admit: an unlikely but distinctive friendship which has to compete with Solo’s own family life…
FIPRESCI Prize, Venice Film Festival 2008
Winner of the New Director’s Award at the Edinburgh Film Festival, and Cinematography and Director Awards at Sundance 2009, Fukunaga’s debut feature is a riveting film that weaves together two heart-wrenching, gritty stories, creating an evocative tale of immigrants leaving South America for a better life in the States. Vivid, unforgettable storytelling grounding you in reality and offering hope, it’s the beautifully and realistically photographed story of Casper, a former teenage gang member on the run from his former gangmates, and Honduran teenager Sayra, who’s dreaming of being reunited with her father in a better life in America, as they ride the railways north. Almost universally acknowledged as one of the best films of 2009.
His first narrative feature, Sergey Dvortsevoy's film is extraordinary, an exhilaratingly alive and sweet-natured tale set in the barren landscape of a Kazakh steppe. Asa, just demobbed from the navy, returns to live with his sister Samal, her husband Ondas and their three children. Asa dreams of his own flock of sheep, but it appears that until he gets married, his wish will never be granted. He targets a young unmarried woman called Tulpan, whose face he has never seen, but her feelings are not to be taken for granted…
Dvortsevoy's documentary background is put to masterly use: his insistence on authenticity allows him to capture some of the most marvellous footage of nature possible. Four years in the making, Tulpan is filmmaking of the highest order, reminiscent of Werner Herzog at his best.
Winner: BFI’s Sutherland Trophy and ‘Un Certain Regard’, Cannes 2008
With a pre-film talk by Neil Sinyard, Emeritus Professor of Film Studies at Hull University.
Adapted from Thackeray’s novel, the story begins in a small village in Eighteenth Century Ireland: young, unscrupulous Redmond Barry is determined to make a life for himself as a wealthy nobleman, and after enlisting in the British Army he lies, dupes, duels and seduces his way up the social ladder. It is one of Kubrick's most gripping pictures, with a strong narrative and extraordinarily lush images, presenting a more sympathetic hero than does Thackeray; but Barry is still the rogue who introduces us to a fascinating world of beautifullyplayed characters who people the writers’ imagination, helped by a suave third-person narration from Michael Hordern.
We are grateful to the Stanley Kubrick Estate and Warner Brothers for special permission to borrow this rare print of Barry Lyndon.
The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner is a multiple award-winner on the festival circuit starring Miki Manojlovic as Bai Dan, whose grandson Alex's first cry coincided with his grandfather's crowning as 'king of backgammon'. Now, 30 years on, Alex has lost his memory. Doctors give little hope of recovery but Bai Dan has other, eccentric ideas. Through the game of backgammon, and a quest by tandem across Europe back to their native Bulgaria, the younger man learns about the past and rediscovers who he is.
Thanks to the Director
The story of a white farmer who took the unprecedented step of challenging Robert Mugabe before the SADC (South African Development Community) international court, charging him and his government with racial discrimination and of violations of Human Rights.This film is an intimate account of one family’s astonishing bravery in the face of brutality, in a fight to protect their property. This is the only documentary feature film to have come out of Zimbabwe in recent years, where a total press ban still exists. Mugabe and the White African is perhaps the outside world’s only real glimpse of what it is like to live inside Mugabe’s Zimbabwe.
Winner of the Guardian First Film Award 2009 and the FIPRESCI Prize at the London Film Festival Joanna Hogg’s first film is described by Anton Bitel as ‘a subtle drama addressed at the teenager still vacationing in every adult’. Anna, a childless fortysomething goes to join her old school friend Verena, her husband and their three adolescent children for a holiday in the Italian countryside. George is there, with his son. The only person missing is Anna’s husband, supposedly absent because of work although Anna’s regular phone conversations with him reveal greater frictions between them. With its lingering wide shots and natural soundtrack, Unrelated is unreservedly an adult film, eschewing fancy special effects or wild narrative leaps for character drama.
Thanks to the director.
A woman in a desolate central European landscape sets off to seek out, and take her revenge on, her rapist of many years ago. So far, so indie cinema. The surprise is that a British writer-director, Peter Strickland, has so immersed himself in the concept and the landscape that he's created a festival hit, winner of the Silver Berlin Bear. Fine cinematography and a strong central performance by the previously unknown Hilda Peter serve him well. As for the widely-praised sound - '...an other-worldly score, part choral, part electronic, by Steven Stapleton and Geoff Cox, and a genuinely enigmatic sound design....a powerful, unsettling film.' (Jonathan Romney, Independent)
Thanks to Artificial Eye
In 1950’s South Africa, apartheid is just beginning. Free-spirited Amina has broken all the rules of her own conventional Indian community in South Africa by running a cafe, a ‘grey area’ for those who fall outside the strict ‘black and white’ rules of the apartheid-led government. Long accustomed to the racial barriers of the country and its new laws, Madeleine and Jacob share a budding attraction. Miriam, on the other hand, is a doting mother to her children and a demure and subservient wife to her chauvinistic, frustrated husband, Omar. Quietly intelligent, Miriam has never assumed that she may have choices in life. When Miriam meets Amina, their unexpected attraction throws them both off balance. Winner of 21 festival awards.
Thanks to Enlightenment Productions.
A dark romantic fairytale about a young woman, ‘Clara’, who is involved in a car crash with her husband, ‘Morten’. As she wakes up in her partial sighted state, she realises that the accident has drastically changed their relationship and their lives. Clara spirals into a breakdown, and Morten insists they should move on and start a new life. As Morten tries to get her to understand the reality of how things have changed for them, she experiences flashbacks from the car accident which hint at a hitherto unknown truth.
After twenty years in which a father and son have fallen out of touch, the son returns to his home village in the mountains of Trentino. The profound surprise is that he has a Muslim wife, and a son they are bringing up in the Muslim faith. How will the conservative community react? Intriguingly this was written and directed by a father and son team – Marcello, who has died since the completion of the movie, was well-known in the 60's for religious stories; Dario has previously co-directed a feature-length music documentary about the group Negramaro. This festival prize-winner is a UK premiere.
Thanks to the Director
Independent film-maker Kim, for her second feature, travels back from New York to her Korean birthplace. In casting amateurs and working with little script, she gives a new meaning to the notion of a 'child's-eye view': 'Kim essentially gave a few pivotal lines of dialogue the kids would have to say, and then let them improvise, their spontaneity taking over.' (Twitchfilm) The children are abandoned by their mother, treated carelessly by their alcoholic aunt, and have to look out for themselves.
Thanks to Soda Films
This documentary was inspired by a trip to Berlin in 2005. When Ian Hawkins bought a souvenir t-shirt with the old East German (DDR) communist symbol on it, he realised he needed to learn about life before the wall came down before he could wear it. So he subsequently returned to Berlin with his camcorder and set about gathering stories from both the East and West. This is a word-of-mouth hit with a host of fascinating interviewees, from the British Communist who worked for the Stasi, to the child of Communist parents who misses the old days.
Thanks to the Director
'We wanted to walk the real Africa, beyond clichés of cheetahs at sunset, and colourful marketplaces where you taste strange foods to make people laugh. What we found out is more subtle and sensitive...' The Poussins are amazingly adventurous travellers who decided, starting symbolically on 1 January 2001, to retrace the path of early humankind by walking the entire continent of Africa from the Cape of Good Hope to Israel. Reliant not on sponsorship but on the goodwill of Africans, their epic journey has already spawned three books and a twelve-episode television series. Finally making this movie in English has enabled them to revisit where it began, and the friends they made nearly a decade ago.
Thanks to the Directors
An estimated 2 million German women were raped by Russian troops, 100,000 of them in Berlin. ‘A Woman in Berlin’ is a diary written at that time and published some 15 years after the war’s end. Its author, who identifies herself as a journalist, was anonymous. The book's publication in 1959 inspired outrage in Germany, where the idea of German women cooperating somewhat with the Soviets was unthinkable, and in Russia, where it soiled the honour of the Red Army. It was withdrawn but reprinted nearly 50 years on.
Thanks to Metrodome.
'Hopkins has a singularity of style worth watching and the courage not to flinch in putting it on screen.' (Nigel Andrews, Financial Times) This widely-praised first-time director renders the beauty of the Cotswolds in stark cinematic contrast to the ugliness of his protagonists' lives, drawing more than one comparison with the poetic realism of Bruno Dumont.
Thanks to Soda Films
Richard O'Barry is a kind of gamekeeper turned poacher. In his youth he caught and trained dolphins for the Flipper television series. Ever since he's been trying to make amends. Here Psihoyos assembles a crew to follow O'Barry to a remote cove in Japan where dolphins are trapped and killed for meat on an industrial scale.
Thanks to Vertigo
Five story strands that at first seem like individual vignettes gradually knit together in this witty, stylish ensemble-piece by a first-time director. It's a multiple award-winner on the festival circuit. Group dynamics, the overstepping of taboos and the terrible consequences of avoiding losing face – these cohere cleverly in a cinematically sophisticated whole. 'Offbeat lensing style and quirky humour...the perfomances, by a mixture of non-pros and little-known thesps, are impressively naturalistic and spontaneous. Ostlund has a knack for comedy.' (Leslie Felperin, Variety)
Thanks to Trinity
This pseudo-documentary follows a film professor making a film about the criminal underworld, in the process becoming profoundly involved in the company he begins to keep. The approach keeps us cleverly engrossed in the unfolding tale of corruption, while simultaneously reflecting on what we're watching. The film has become a word-of-mouth hit, touted online as leading the North West's New Wave.
Thanks to the Director
Twelve-year-old Brendan is a child in a medieval abbey. He's fascinated by illuminated manuscripts and once he's met Aidan the illustrator, at work on the Book of Iona, embarks on a quest for the magical material for the inks. This well-crafted retro animation, with atmospheric music, has won a number of prizes including the Audience award at the 2009 Edinburgh Film Festival.
The director of 4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days has steered this project: five tales from the last fifteen years of Romania under Ceausescu, with separate directors (including Mungui himself) and a common theme of absurdism and light comedy. Each is based on an urban legend of the era, from the policeman and his wife who have to kill a pig without waking the neighbours, to the village preparing itself for the visit of the party functionary who never comes. 'Another notch in the country’s film-making renaissance which focuses on day-to-day life under the dictatorship to warm and often hilarious effect.' (Mike Goodridge, Screen Daily)
Thanks to Trinity
Experienced TV writer Poliakoff returns to film with a thriller confected from a tale of pre-World War II appeasement among the English ruling class. A fine cast underpins the drama, including David Tennant, Jenny Agutter, Bill Nighy and Julie Christie. 'A far more subversive film than its Brideshead Revisited-style patina of nostalgia first suggests ...Driven by a tremendous performance from Romola Garai...[who] captures brilliantly her character's mix of defiance, incomprehension and, eventually, terror.' (Geoffrey Macnab, The Independent)
Tideland tells the story of young Jeliza-Rose, who holes up with her dad, Noah, in an abandoned Texas farmhouse. After Noah dies, Jeliza-Rose seemingly disappears into a fantasy world in which she talks chiefly to her headless Barbie dolls, romances a disturbed adult and reports home to her dad’s leathery corpse. Gilliam’s films are not for everyone; he describes Tideland as a cross between Alice in Wonderland and Psycho. He also considers it his most tender film. Gilliam and our guest Tony Grisoni worked together on this and many other films over the past years.
Thanks to Revolver.
Masahiro Motoki stars as the newly redundant young cellist who returns to his roots but goes after a job advertising 'departures' – which he thinks may be a travel agency, but instead involves him in an entirely different journey, as the person who will strip the dead and make them ready for their funerals. Winner of the 2009 Oscar for Best Foreign-language film, the film's grace and general understatement are a surprise from a director with soft porn in his cv. Its flirtations with the broad humour of 'encoffinment' have puzzled some, but for most reviewers the laughs and reflective narrative make a good fit.
The series of novels by Hiroshi Mori about the Kildren fighter-pilots in an alternative reality was deliberately published in the Noughties in non-chronological order. The complexity of ideas this implies is honoured in Oshii's ravishing anime adaptation. The Kildren fight wars for private companies as adult entertainment in a counter-universe that skilfully mixes retro and futuristic ideas. 'Oshii commented that the societies of highly developed economies have fostered a certain state of arrested development [in] young people...This sense of stasis, cultural amnesia, and immediacy also pervades the consciousness of the genetically engineered, perennially adolescent Kildren fighter pilots...the film is a brooding and densely philosophical exposition into the nature of love, war, memory, aging, and identity.' (Acquarello, Strictly film school)
Thanks to Manga
This was Jan Dunn's exciting debut as a director. She followed dogme principles – among them, no special effects, and naturalistic acting – to explore a narrative from three points of view. The life of Helen, a middle-aged woman struggling against her repressive husband Paul to express herself creatively, is transformed by the arrival of Tasha, a Czech refugee. Paul McGann and Chloe Sirene are effective foils and contrasts to the powerful central actor. 'A warm and generous performance from Pauline McLynn...shows she's entitled to put behind her the days of being Father Ted's tea-fixated housekeeper.' (Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian)
Thanks to Lionsgate
Four corrupt cops bent on vengeance penetrate the mob's high-rise hideout. But things take a genre-shaped turn when both sides of the law find that they're facing an even greater menace - the horror of the living dead. So police and villains join forces in the ensuing bloody mayhem. This low-budget zombie movie has developed such a reputation on its festival travels that it's been picked up for distribution in the USA and the Far East. At the Leeds Film Festival it out-shocked all the rest on a day celebrating Day of the Dead.
Thanks to Momentum
A Kurdish teenager (played by Firat Ayverdi) travels across Europe aiming to join the love of his life in London. But at Calais he's thwarted. How can he illegally get across to England? He decides he must learn...to swim. And so he meets the middle-aged swimming instructor (nicely played by Vincent Lindon) who overcomes his initial prejudices to help the lad, confront his own demons and will perhaps win back his own love. The central tale of the surrogate father cleverly lifts this above the run of exile-and-migrant movies.
Thanks to Cinefile
Adapted from a book by Brian Aldiss this is a story of conjoined twins exploited as a pop act. Aldiss recalls the day when the inspiration for the book came from a horrible dream he had when on holiday with his family in Norfolk - the story of conjoined twins exploited as a group. With a script by our guest Tony Grisoni, this film won awards up and down the festival circuit. ‘An intriguing oddity of a film’ says Peter Bradshaw ‘it isn’t right to call it a mockumentary; more a serious documentary about something that did not happen’. Thanks to Pallisades Tartan.
First-time director Venville has tempted an all-star male cast – John Hurt, Tom Wilkinson and Ray Winstone among them – to enact a script from the writing team who wrote Sexy Beast. Will the adulterous Frenchman get his just desserts from cuckolded Winstone, whose friends cheer the avenger on? A fine ensemble performance of a claustrophobic, sometimes theatrical drama, leads to a surreal climax.
One of the great silent movies starring Oscar winner Mary Pickford. It was her last silent movie. As shop girl Maggie Johnson, she works in a five and dime department store where she meets and falls for the handsome Joe Grant, played by Charles “Buddy” Rogers, who is actually working incognito as the store owner’s son, Joe Merrill. My Best Girl was the end of an era for Mary as film was transforming itself from silents to sound. This romantic comedy is one of Mary’s finest movies and played an even more significant role in her personal life as she divorced husband Douglas Fairbanks and married co-star in My Best Girl – Buddy Rogers.
Accompanied by the Gardner sisters
Thanks to Image Entertainment.
A young man returns to his home years after a violent incident tore the family apart. Shockingly he finds his mother in a local insane asylum. She warns him to run away and beware his dead father. But he chooses to stay, only to find that demons indeed dwell in his family’s midst. Juan Diego Botto, Luis Tosar, and Marta Etura star. An atmospheric horror film that captures the torment and power of artistic production.
Thanks to the writer.
Jon Ronson in his non-fiction book with the same title told of coming upon a secret branch of the U S military involved in New Age-style paranormal research. Critical opinion has divided about how successfully this notion, including, yes, killing by staring, has been turned into a fictional movie. The 'crazy comedy of military madness' (Philip French, The Observer) has a high-class cast: Ewan MacGregor, Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges are all present and correct.
Morton has drawn wide praise for a film (co-scripted by Tony Grisoni) based on her own childhood. Mollie Windsor is riveting as the 11-year-old girl abused by her parents and taken into care. The camera adopts her point-of-view throughout: physically, at her height and through her eyes; but also emotionally, so that we are drawn into the terrible ambiguities of a nightmare world where the irrational often seems to hold sway. More than one reviewer has spoken of 'the solid assurance of Morton's direction...again and again, Morton created sequences that seemed to contain far more than their visible components. They felt like intense private memories put on screen.' (Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent)
Writer-director Jan Dunn has previously specialized in outsiders and their relation to a community – the eponymous Gypo and loner Bob Hoskins in Ruby Blue. Here she takes a further step on that road by following a novitiate (newcomer Emily Beecham) into a nunnery. The young woman's vocation is seriously tested by an eccentric set of senior nuns, played by a stellar cast including Brenda Blethyn, Susannah York, Amanda Donohoe and Rita Tushingham.
Thanks to the Director
In the aftermath of the London Tube bombings of 2005 two very different people look for their loved ones: Ousmane, an elderly African searches for his long-estranged son and Guernsey widow Elizabeth Summers hunts for her student daughter. A piece of photographic evidence links their quests, and slowly a relationship develops between them.
Thanks to Trinity
Elliott Jordan plays (to critical acclaim) a young paper-pusher from Basildon with few mates and even fewer prospects – until he accidentally manages to score with the ex-girlfriend (Katharine Peachey) of the local Mr Big. Mayhem follows, and a portrait of New Town England emerges genially between the frames.
This compilation explores the history and legacy of coal-mining through material drawn from the British Film Institute (BFI) National Archive’s documentary and fiction collections. Part of a new series of events about Britain's 20th century industrial heritage, it offers a remarkable insight into an industry which came to define 20th century Britain. Jan Feull of the BFI will introduce King Coal, which will be accompanied by the shorts Whitehaven Whippets and A Cumbrian Adventure - these are a rare and wonderful opportunity to enjoy a very local flavour from the past.
It's 1961. A 16-year-old girl is seduced by a charming older man. It'll all end in tears. But every potentially ruinous cliché on the way is avoided by Danish director Scherfig (Italian for beginners). Instead this is a subtle coming-of-age, and coming-of-the-60's, story. Peter Sarsgaard as the older man is a fine foil for Carey Mulligan, compared by many critics to Audrey Hepburn for her spellbinding central performance. Nick Hornby has crafted a fine screenplay from Lynn Barber's memoir of life before Oxford.
An estimated 2 million German women were raped by Russian troops, 100,000 of them in Berlin. ‘A Woman in Berlin’ is a diary written at that time and published some 15 years after the war’s end. Its author, who identifies herself as a journalist, was anonymous. The book's publication in 1959 inspired outrage in Germany, where the idea of German women cooperating somewhat with the Soviets was unthinkable, and in Russia, where it soiled the honour of the Red Army. It was withdrawn but reprinted nearly 50 years on.
Thanks to Metrodome.
Nepal has been through extraordinary changes in the last decade and a half, from reactionary monarchy, through Maoist insurgency, to a fragile democracy where former adversaries rule side by side. As the film's website puts it: 'Filmed over four years during the height of the insurgency and the historic transition of Nepal from a 240-year old monarchy to a Republic nation, ‘Beneath Everest’ is a journey that exposes the grass root realities of Nepal’s ten-year war...Directed by a native Nepali, the film encourages Nepalis silenced by fear to tell their stories, and challenges them to reflect on their fears, triumphs and hopes as Nepal begins the long journey towards peace.'
Thanks to the Director
Winner of the Golden Camera Cannes 2009, indigenous director Thornton points his camera at the characters of two troubled teenagers. Petrol-sniffing Samson and artist Delilah leave their homes to head for Alice Springs. Their adventures are bleak, depicted in documentary-like fashion, but with a powerful upbeat conclusion. The director's alcoholic brother plays Gonzo, a tramp who befriends them (and scene-steals with a great rendition of Tom Waits' Jesus gonna be here).
Nominated for 5 BIFA Awards (acting, screenplay and direction) this was chosen as the gala conclusion to the 2009 London Film Festival. Aaron Johnson, Anne-Marie Duff and Kristin Scott Thomas (John Lennon, his mother Julia and his Aunt Mimi) do an excellent job in portraying Lennon’s life from 1955, when he was a rebellious 15-year-old living in stifling suburbia with his formidable aunt, until his departure for Hamburg with two other unknowns, Paul McCartney and George Harrison. John’s increasing discontent manifests itself in re-establishing contact with his mother whom he previously knew only as Mimi’s erratic, highly-strung sister Julia. Authenticity is maintained by a fine script from Matt Greenhalgh (Control), and Taylor Wood with her director of photography Seamus McGarvey, who portray post-war Liverpool with loving accuracy.
Rithy Panh's period epic set in the rich landscape of French colonial Indochina is a highly successful adaptation of Marguerite Duras's acclaimed semi-autobiographical novel. As the sea rises, the film tells the compelling story of a mother (an outstanding performance by current top actress Isabelle Huppert) who is deceived into investing all her savings in worthless, regularly flooded farmland which is incapable of supporting crops. Dealing with the romantic escapades of both son and daughter, fighting to protect her family from destitution at the hands of a corrupt administration and battling both the colonial bureaucrats and nature itself, she enlists the help of the local villagers, with an elaborate plan to keep out the sea and secure the future of both her family and the local community.
Winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes 2009, The White Ribbon is structured around a series of misfortunes (which give the impression of ritual punishment) befalling the citizens of Eichwald, a rural village in pre-World War I Germany. Half the population works for the Baron, and the stern Protestant pastor wields a strong influence, especially on the children, who appear strangely suppressed...
It’s a hugely absorbing film, with most impressive compositions in beautiful black-and-white photography. Commentators have asked whether Haneke’s portrait of a sick society is meant to give a pointer to the horrendous war to come and the fascism that quickly followed in its wake.
Starring in this exciting adaptation of the acclaimed novel by Nobel Laureate J.M. Coetzee is John Malkovich, playing the 52-year-old professor who takes a beautiful young student under his wing and into his bed. This is post-Apartheid South Africa, the student is of mixed race, and scandal erupts... Director and writer (a husband and wife team) have distilled Coetzee's tough novel into a focused, absorbing meditation on race, class, history, sex and the quest for reconciliation . It is a disquieting work to watch (none of Coetzee’s punches are pulled, although most of the violence
happens off-screen). Excellent acting from Malkovich, Jessica Haines and a fine supporting cast.
Un Prophète is about an illiterate Arab convict who undergoes a harsh rite of passage when he is recruited by the Corsican mob during six years inside a corrupt, brutal prison. Announcing the film’s award of Grand Prix at Cannes, jury chair Anjelica Huston hailed the film as "a masterpiece". She added: "Un Prophète has the ambition, purity of vision and clarity of purpose to make it an instant classic. With seamless and imaginative storytelling, superb performances and universal themes, Jacques Audiard has made the perfect film." Director too of Read My Lips and The Beat that My Heart Skipped, previously shown to highly appreciative Keswick audiences, Audiard was, with Un Prophète, the inaugural winner of the award for Best Feature Film at the 2009 London Film Festival.
Another chance to see the winner of the Festival's Audience Award.
Masahiro Motoki stars as the newly redundant young cellist who returns to his roots but goes after a job advertising 'departures' – which he thinks may be a travel agency, but instead involves him in an entirely different journey, as the person who will strip the dead and make them ready for their funerals. Winner of the 2009 Oscar for Best Foreign-language film, the film's grace and general understatement are a surprise from a director with soft porn in his cv. Its flirtations with the broad humour of 'encoffinment' have puzzled some, but for most reviewers the laughs and reflective narrative make a good fit.
To open our new season we’ve chosen this critically-acclaimed love story, which, set in the late1990s within a super-rich family called the Recchis, depicts the haute bourgeoisie in the throes of passion. In their Milanese villa, a marbled and gilded cage too large and ornate for normal family life, the family gathers to celebrate the birthday of its patriarch, sparking off a narrative that sees the carefully controlled, hyper-refined sphere of the Recchis come under increasing strain. With a marvellous central performance from Tilda Swinton, this superb film touches on many different complexities, bearing a resemblance to King Lear and Visconti's The Leopard and depicting a world on the cusp of change, where the grand old order struggles against rowdy new challengers.
Reminiscent of the success of Departures, yet another highly-regarded Japanese film demands a place in our programme. Tensions arise within a Yokohama family as they gather for the annual remembrance of their eldest son, who died 15 years earlier, attempting to save a drowning child. For some of them the festive gathering is an endurance test, but good cheer is the order of the day, and Koreeda’s treatment of their modest joys and gentle resentments is actually full of humour, with energetic mother Toshio ruling the roost from the bustling kitchen whilst her retired doctor husband flees to the sanctuary of his examining-room to escape his tussling grandchildren. Koreeda handles the family dynamics skilfully, generating much warmth as counterpoint to the discordant notes, and creating a bittersweet gem.
Samuel Maoz, soldier-turned-filmmaker and director of this Golden Lion winner at the 2009 Venice Film Festival, goes back to his harrowing experience of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon to construct his testament to the nightmare of war. Much of it set inside an Israeli tank, and exploring the same battlefield as last year’s brilliant Waltz with Bashir, this tense and claustrophobic film is an equally compelling tour de force: brilliant camerawork and extraordinary sound design reproduce the anguish of the four soldiers trapped in their hellish confinement, as their tank is dispatched to search a hostile town – a simple mission that turns into a devastating ordeal. If you liked Das Boot, The Hurt Locker, Waltz with Bashir, you’ll love this.
Former Bolshoi conductor Andrëi Filipov, disgraced for supporting Jewish musicians under Brezhnev’s regime in the ’80s, is now a mere cleaner at the Bolshoi. Intercepting a fax inviting the Bolshoi to perform in Paris, he resolves to reunite his old orchestra and take one last chance to re-enter the big time. Helped by his loyal friend Sacha and their old manager Ivan, Andrei tries to persuade all his musicians, but things start to unravel when they get to Paris…Essentially a larky comedy caper, the film's themes of lost opportunity and growing old strike the right emotional notes, and Mihaileanu manages his cast and amusing script astutely. Well-paced, well-developed characters...and Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto of course.
The story takes place in 1937, shortly after the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War. The Imperial Japanese Army has just captured the temporary capital of the Republic of China, and what follows is now known as the Nanjing Massacre. Commander Lu leads a small Chinese unit of regular and irregular combatants in defensive street-to-street fighting against a vastly superior army. This third feature by Chinese writer-director Lu Chuan (The Missing Gun and Kekexili: Mountain Patrol) presents other key individuals - a humane Japanese officer, a ‘comfort woman’, a Schindler-like figure who saved many civilians - who dramatise and give heart to the authentic story of terrible events which still cannot suppress the human instinct for survival.
Nominated for Best Foreign Film at last year's Oscars, there’s a very noirish feel about Revanche which presents typical characters from the genre - the ex-con with big ambitions, the Ukrainian prostitute, the local cop, his restless wife - whose lives are entangled in unforeseen ways. Although we start off in the grim streets and sleazy milieu of Vienna’s red-light district, most of the action is set amid the woods and lakes of Austria’s quiet countryside. When things take a bad turn, the film time and again overturns expectations: scenarios are unguessable, deliberate pacing lets us look deeper into the characters’ lives than most crime movies would trouble to do. Revenge is indeed uppermost, but this is that rare beast, a thoughtful thriller.
"It doesn't take more than a few minutes into Lion's Den to realize that this film is several cuts above the genre standard (women in prison). Versatile Argentine helmer Pablo Trapero shakes off the leisurely lethargy of his recent Born and Bred in a riveting, high-pitched drama blessed by the extraordinarily edgy performance of actress/producer Martina Gusman as a middle-class college girl who finds herself pregnant and in prison for murder." Deborah Young, The Hollywood Reporter.
‘Filmmaking at its most provocative and thoughtful, grappling with serious issues of justice even as it explores the internal emotions of its characters. There are moments of almost unbearable anguish along the way, as well as scenes of tenderness and compassion. By the end we feel like we have lived through this ordeal with Julia. We understand her inner strength in a horrific situation. And we also feel her unstoppable, raging need for freedom.’ Rich Kline, Shadows on the Wall
Winner of the 2009 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, Campanella's thriller is set in Buenos Aires in 1999, and centres on retired investigator Benjamin whose efforts to write a novel are frustrated when he finds himself unable to shake off his memories of a twenty-five year old unresolved rape and murder case. It highlights too the turbulent nature of Argentina in the 1970s, a period in which the country was descending into military dictatorships. Benjamin’s search for the truth will put him at the centre of a judicial nightmare, as the mystery of the heinous crime continues to unfold, testing the limits of a man seeking justice and personal fulfilment.
This latest masterpiece by writer-director Lucrecia Martel (La Cienaga, The Holy Girl) features Maria Onetto playing Verónica, an elegant, middle-aged dentist, who, driving along a lonely road, hits something - a dog? - but later she gradually becomes more and more unhinged, in the belief that she may have killed a little boy. The suspense occasioned by her doubt and guilt, coupled with several superb acting performances, drives this thriller to its unsettling conclusion.
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian: ‘In the past decade, there have been three great films about guilt, denial and the return of the repressed: Mike Leigh's Vera Drake in 2004, Michael Haneke's Hidden in 2005 – and this is the third, The Headless Woman…It is a masterly, disturbing and deeply mysterious film about someone who strenuously conceals from herself the knowledge of her own guilt.’
Not a weekend of hell, but two fascinating chances to experience the inferno of passion in L’enfer. Chabrol’s version, starring one of France’s top actresses, Emmanuelle Béart, (Manon des sources) was said by Time Out to be ‘a work of enthralling virtuosity’, and indeed, Chabrol, stalwart of the ‘nouvelle vague’, working alongside and in competition with such as Rohmer, Truffaut and Godard, gained the reputation of being ‘the French Hitchcock’ through this and similar films like Le Boucher, Le beau Serge, La Cérémonie and La Femme infidèle.
In this film, Paul (Francois Cluzet), the hardworking owner of a charming lakeside hotel, begins to suspect that his wife Nelly (Béart) is being unfaithful. As the pace and severity of Paul's delusions increase, so does the tension and drama in a brilliant exploration of the depths of a man’s disturbed psyche. Béart lights up the whole movie with her vivacious and sensuous performance as the wife Paul cannot trust.
In 1964 Director Henri-Georges Clouzot (The Wages of Fear, Les Diaboliques) started to make a film called L’enfer. He never finished it; it nearly finished him. In 1992, Clouzot’s widow sold the script to Claude Chabrol who did then make the film, releasing it in 1994. In 2005, Clouzot’s widow made available the film that her husband had shot and this was reconstructed to make the movie-cum-documentary Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Enfer, completed in 2009. You have the opportunity to see both and can compare and contrast the two versions. Is Clouzot’s work a lost masterpiece or did Chabrol do the script justice? You decide…
Following his critical successes with The Host (2006) and Memories of Murder (2003), Joon-Ho Bong continues his perceptive evocation of a rural community hiding dark secrets. Do-jun is the 27-year- old mentally challenged son who still lives with his mother (Hye-Ja Kim’s remarkable tour de force) in a small, ordinary South Korean town. Bong weaves an engrossing portrait of the feisty Korean widow who is unafraid of crossing a few moral boundaries in her attempt to prove her emotionally fragile son innocent of murder. Her maternal instinct comes into play with fearsome intensity when she finds that only she can clear his name. A fascinating fight for her version of justice, the film is also a superb murder mystery, with twists coming thick and fast at exactly the right moments.
Taking place during an unspecified African civil war, Claire Denis’s White Material is, like her Beau Travail, an extraordinary fusion of sound and images, evoking a wide range of emotions, memory and experience. Through Maria (brilliant acting again from Isabelle Huppert) a fierce and fearless white woman who refuses to abandon her coffee crop when confronted by a world gone mad, Claire Denis presents the themes of remaining strong in the face of danger, the marginality of being a white woman in black Africa, our attempts and failures to understand the world and ourselves, and the intimacy and frailty of human relations. All with the support of Christophe Lambert as Maria’s ex-husband, Isaach De Bankolé as ‘The Boxer’, an inspirational Che-like guerrilla fighter, and music by Tindersticks, this is what Jason Solomons of The Observer calls ‘a superb and complex film.’
Davis and Bennett (played by odd couple Ed Gaughan and Andrew Buckley), two hassled reps in ill fitting black suits, are psychic cleaners who specialise in exhuming difficult and painful memories, rattling through the skeletons in bedroom cupboards to excise occult energies. Using antiquated looking gadgets and bantering through their jobs, they have a Pinteresque quality which in no way diminishes the relief they can bring their clients.
Peter Bradshaw: ‘We might just have found our own Charlie Kaufman in Nick Whitfield, a former actor and stage dramatist whose feature-film debut won the Michael Powell award at the Edinburgh Film Festival this year. It's intensely and pungently English, eccentric, strangely heartfelt, and very funny: a film I watched to the incessant accompaniment of my own giggling.’
Anton Bitel, Film4: ‘Skeletons is a true original and with its pitch-perfect performances, surreal streak of humour, strong sense of place and poignant notes of melancholy, Whitfield's debut might just be the finest cult film to have come from Britain since Withnail and I (1987). That is high praise indeed.’
At last, the British gangster film which so many aspirants have been trying to bring to the big screen, hitherto with little success. Winner of both BIFA Raindance Award, and Jury Prize at the Raindance Film Festival 2009, Ben Wheatley's debut feature is the portrait of a Brighton-based family (middle-aged gangster Bill and wife, Maggie) who live in the council’s Down Terrace. 34 year old son Karl, just released from prison has been grassed up, so the “family business”, on the rocks anyway, has to be seriously attended to: a course of action which leads to absolute mayhem.
Seeking analogies, critics have paid such varied compliments as ‘Brighton Rock reworked in the style of The Royle Family’, ‘The Sopranos meet Mike Leigh’, ‘directing style comparable to Ken Loach or the Coen Brothers’, ‘workaday pub-crawler gravitas of a Ray Davies (Kinks) lyric’, ‘Harold Pinter purring in his grave’, but Wheatley’s originality and talent look likely to set him on the path of considerable individual success.
Dancing towards Christmas...
‘American documentary-maker Frederick Wiseman is often described as cinema’s foremost chronicler of Western institutions, from welfare offices (Welfare) and schools (High School) to research laboratories (Primate) and even entire towns (Aspen). For his thirty-eighth film, and his second about a ballet company after 1995’s ‘Ballet’, Wiseman documents three months spent in the opulent halls, rehearsal rooms and performance spaces of Paris’s Palais Garnier, home of the Paris Opera Ballet. With his long-time cinematographer John Davey, a single camera assistant and a crate of Super 16 film, he works his minimalist magic to utterly immersive effect, adding another quietly transcendent movie to his unique body of work…
To open the spring season, we have the winner of the Best Feature at Berlin 2010, a film focusing on lesbian couple Nic (Annette Bening) and Jules (Julianne Moore), who are happily raising their two children (15-year-old Laser and his 18-year-old sister Joni,) when their lives are thrown into turmoil after the kids track down their anonymous sperm-donor father. He turns out to be charismatic restaurateur Paul (Mark Ruffalo) who then cheerfully enters the lives of his biological children and their mothers. His presence triggers a series of unexpected events, causing everyone involved to re-examine their lives and relationships. Performances and direction are superb, the humour is sharp and intelligent, and relationships finely nuanced - but are the kids really all right?
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian: ‘There are some lovely, gentle moments in this documentary-style feature from Mexican director Pedro González-Rubio, set around the ravishingly beautiful coral reef of Banco Chinchorro in the Caribbean off the Mexican coast. Alamar – that is, "to the sea" – shows Jorge, a Yucatan tour guide bonding with his five-year-old son Natan from a failed relationship with an Italian woman, Roberta.’
Sukdhev Sandhu, Daily Telegraph: Is it fiction? Is it a documentary? Alamar…feels like a sun-kissed dream-drift. It’s a haze of a film, tremulous with emotion, bursting with poignancy... Jorge takes his son on a trip to the reef and there, he offers him an imaginative patrimony: a world of water and birds and fish… memories that will likely swish and echo in the boy’s subconscious for ever. It’s a man’s world that Gonzales-Rubio depicts without sentimentality, but with unusual tenderness...The intimacy between them belies any impression that what you’re seeing is fabricated.’
Alamar is preceded by Oceans Journey, an underwater travelogue by local filmmaker John Walker.
Winner of the Camera D’Or for Best First Feature at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, this outstanding debut of Australian director Michael Rowe is a character study in loneliness, featuring an extraordinary leading performance by Mónica Del Carmen.
It is a highly charged sexual thriller, set within the confines of a Mexican apartment, which follows 29 days in the dispirited life of freelance journalist Laura Lopez, as she moves from one anonymous sexual encounter to another. Soon, Laura meets Arturo, and before long she is submitting to demeaning sexual acts as part of their relationship, a tragic psychological reaction to a secret trauma from her past, which occurred on the previous leap year. With a red square around a date on her calendar wall, the wheels are set in motion for what will turn out to be a startling conclusion.
One of the most remarkable films of 2010, nominated for six BIFA Awards, this genre-defying piece is set in Brafferton Arbor, the area of Bradford where late playwright Andrea Dunbar grew up. Dunbar, author of harsh, unflinchingly realistic plays (Rita, Sue and Bob Too!) about life in The Arbor, continued to live on the estate until her early death in 1990. For two years director Clio Barnard interviewed people who knew Dunbar, and now has used actors who lip-synch to recordings made with the playwright and her family, largely concentrating on the troubled relationship with her daughter Lorraine. This footage is mixed with newly filmed excerpts from Dunbar’s first play (also called The Arbor), as acted in the streets where she grew up.
Number 5 on Sight & Sound’s 'Top Ten of 2010'.
Natha a poor farmer from Peepli village in the heart of rural India is about to lose his plot of land due to an unpaid government loan. A quick fix to the problem is the very same government's programme that aids the families of indebted farmers who have committed suicide. As a means of survival, farmer Natha can choose to die!
Anusha Rizvi has a story to tell and she does it without sermonising: her finely-nuanced narrative strikes home in a moving way, as she takes a light-hearted approach to a serious issue. The satire, directed at the media and the government hits hard and convincingly, aided and abetted by a talented, excellently-chosen cast.
A BBC-TV series broadcast in the Spring of 2010, writer Kay Mellor's adaptation of her own stage play is now a feature film starring Billie Piper, Sue Johnston and Alun Armstrong, along with newcomer Theo James as the Polish heartthrob that quiet Betty falls for, hopelessly, in 1950's Leeds. Kay Mellor writes: 'Mum and I were washing-up one day when she confided in me she'd had an affair before I was born...I realised she'd kept this secret for 30 years and that she still loved this man. I knew these two periods of mum's life were intrinsically linked and I was compelled to write the play.'
Q&A after the film with Kay Mellor
Six very different working-class characters have tangled and entangled lives in the new, post-apartheid South Africa. Blair is a contemporary of Mike Leigh and shares with him an early background in TV (he directed G F Newman's seminal Law and Order in 1978) and a taste for part-improvisation as a method of creation. But his work is more overtly political, and Jump the Gun is a penetrating social-realist take on the consequences of major political change. 'Episodic, unfocused and lacking a good ending, Jump the Gun ought to have been a mess. Instead it's an absorbing and insightful piece that grips the attention and refuses to let go.' (Totalfilm.com)
Varda's masterpiece focuses on a dead young woman, Mona, played by Sandrine Bonnaire. We keep returning to her body frozen in a ditch between flashbacks of her itinerant life. The subtle style has since moved into the mainstream: a striking mixture of documentary-style realism, including a voice-over from Varda herself as if she knew the woman, with great formalism employing an acute cinematic eye. 'What a film this is. Like so many of the greatest films, it tells us a very specific story, strong and unadorned, about a very particular person...- it is only many days later that we reflect that the story of the vagabond could also be the story of our lives.' (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)
Lumet's serious look at the consequences of a mistaken American nuclear strike on the Soviet Union was well-reviewed, but its release followed close on the heels of the more anarchic Dr Strangelove so it was dwarfed at the time. Its reputation has however risen over the years and it was remade in 2000. But the black-and-white original still shines, with terrific performances by a non-comic Walter Matthau, and by Henry Fonda as the beleaguered President with only Russian interpreter Larry Hagman (in his film debut) for company in the White House bunker. If Moscow is destroyed, must New York face the same fate?
55-year-old pool man Adam is known as the champ, a tribute to his former swimming glories. But he's getting old and times are changing. He gets demoted; his son gets his job; and then he makes a fateful deal with the leader of the resistance movement that has grave implications. War is background not foreground, but we understand its power through simple, elegant framing and a fine performance from Youssouf Djaoro in the lead role.
When a guerrilla commander asks a postman, Man Baldar, to record the cry of his newborn son, it's the beginning of a long journey. He travels between villages in Iraqi Kurdistan, trying to deliver messages between families separated by the raging war. The beauty of the landscape contrasts evocatively with the horrors (mostly off-screen) of battle. Aldi's poetic style won him Critics' Week prizes at Cannes, and Best Film at the International Eurarab film festival in Amal, Spain. '
This is the only full-length feature film the great Bill Douglas made: the story of the Tolpuddle martyrs, exiled to Australia in 1834 when they dared to fight for a trade union. Keith Allen, Imelda Staunton and Philip Davis are better-known now than they were then and other stars like Vanessa Redgrave have upper-class cameos on the margins of the story. Douglas' committed but imaginative vision doesn't just tell us the moving and powerful story of the comrades; his fascination with the predecessors of the medium of film is expressed through the figure of the lanternist, who wanders through the action with a host of optical devices from camera obscura to diorama.
John Hodge's screenplay takes Irvine Welsh's episodic novel and focuses it on junkie Renton (Ewan McGregor)'s experiences on and off heroin in Edinburgh and London. But this isn't British grit and grim realism. It's exuberant, sometimes surreal (like the dive into the worst toilet in Scotland) and never judgemental. Boyle's directorial wizardry brings out the best in many of his actors, most especially Robert Carlyle as the psychopathic Begbie. Iconic.
Gleaners are the people who snap up unconsidered trifles: the ugly potatoes left behind after the harvest, the discarded fruit and veg of a market. They are also artists. Varda uses Millet's painting of women in a wheat field, as well as modern-day gleaners in thestreets of Paris, to produce her own hybrid: part-documentary, part-artwork, part humorous meditation on ageing (she's in her 70's as she makes the film). 'Varda tints every frame of The Gleaners and I with a kind of joyous mournfulness: When you realize life is slipping by you, you want to hold on to every scrap.' (Stephanie Zacharek, salon.com)
The murder of a 16-year-old Navajo youth is the subject of this documentary. The man who beat Fred Martinez to death boasted that he'd 'bug-smashed a fag’. But Fred saw him/herself as a two-spirit person, inhabited by both masculine and feminine spirits, as indigenous North Americans have long accepted and honoured. The moving testimony of Fred's mother sits at the centre of an impassioned and thoughtful movie, already an award-winner and word-of-mouth hit on the festival circuit.
Pivellina is slang for 'little girl'. This pivellina, two-year-old Asia (played by Asia Crippa), has been abandoned by her mother on a swing somewhere in inner Rome. 50-something circus worker Patrizia, against her husband's wishes, takes the child to live in their trailer-park, and soon both of them, and the adolescent child-minder Tairo, have fallen for the charming child. Through their eyes we see the underbelly of Italian life, yet via a heart-tugging, unpreachy tale.
The only film directed by prolific screenwriter and author Dalton Trumbo. Trumbo was one of the Hollywood 10 and managed to win 2 Oscars whilst blacklisted! Went on to script Spartacus, Papillion and many other classics. Johnny Got His Gun is from his own novel and script and has been remade as well as turned into a play. A searing antiwar indictment.
Long before David Suchet was the loveable Poirot he featured here as the somewhat less sympathetic Beria, sidekick to Colin Blakely's Stalin. This is a dark comedy, for long thought lost, directed by one of the great TV-film directors. Based on a Russian short story, it features many British character actors illuminating the bleakly murderous buffoonery of Stalin's later years, with a script by Charles Wood. The black jokes are more hit than miss, and watch out for Brian Glover as Khruschev and an uncredited Michael Palin as a projectionist.
Q&A with director Jack Gold
'Formally exacting and sonically immersive, Madsen’s approach is so hypnotic you emerge as if roused from a troubling dream.' (Tim Robey, Daily Telegraph) This sober and sobering documentary looks at a Finnish plan to bury nuclear waste: how shall we make it safe for a hundred thousand years? The haunting visuals and powerful soundtrack lead us into an extraordinary debate about whether, and if so how, this can be done.
Followed by a discussion hosted by Eric Robson
The Dane Bille August directs an Ingmar Bergman script based on the youth of Bergman's parents. The film won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and Pernilla August won Best Actress. It's eloquent, moving, intense. 'I spent a long time wandering...through the streets and settings of my childhood... And in these settings I encountered my parents. Not the mystical figures I've already struggled with for so many years of my adult life, but two young people...He, very poor, comes from extremely difficult circumstances. She is a much-loved, spoilt princess in a well-established middle class milieu surrounded by a large family.' (Ingmar Bergman)
An abbreviated version of James Whale's classic horror film, in which an obsessed scientist assembles a living being from parts of exhumed corpses, is unforgettably accompanied by Lancaster Millennium Choir. First brought to eerie life in the autumn of 2010, this monster of a night out involves the calmly frenetic conducting of composer Andy Whitfield and the searing and soaring voices of his creatures, sorry, chorus of volunteer voices. Once invigorated they may well go on to perform theme tunes to other movies, a Laurel and Hardy song and a cowboy medley. Hi-ho, Silver; don't turn in your grave, Mary Shelley.
This animation comes from the director of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. The film's world is simultaneously a 'real' world where gifted student Kenji is persuaded to visit Natsuki's family for the summer – only to find he has to pretend to be her boyfriend when that's what he really wants to be anyway – and the virtual world of Oz, a cross between Facebook and the wider reaches of the Net, where anything might happen. The stories interweave brilliantly; in Japan it has already spawned novels and other spin-offs.
Sowetan Lucky Kunene decides, when his fellow petty-criminal Nazareth gets hurt in a botched ram-raid,that it's time for something on a bigger scale: taking over apartment blocks by allying himself with their tenants. But slum landlords and drug dealers – not to mention the police - don't like what he's doing. Drama, violence, and an oblique angle on post-apartheid society ensue.
We see the underbelly of urban Iran – the title is a slang name for Tehran's slums - in this first feature by Homayoun, who got permission to shoot his fiction by pretending it was a documentary. Ibrahim struggles to get by, renting a baby to improve his begging potential and trying to conceal his criminal associations from his new wife. Both crime drama and social study, Tehroun won the International Critics’ Week Audience award at the Venice Film Festival.
Pauline Kael wrote in 1962: 'It may be the most sophisticated political satire ever made in Hollywood.' Does it stand the test of time? You decide. In wartime, infantrymen played by Lawrence Harvey and Frank Sinatra are brainwashed by Chinese communists holding them prisoner: then they are returned to American society where they become important movers and shakers. Will they indeed become assassins? What is the meaning of the encounter with the Janet Leigh character on a train? The cinematic skill of Frankenheimer certainly hasn't dated. 'Was it really as good as it seemed? It was.' (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)
This enchanting coming-of-age drama was broadcast on Channel 4's second night. Young Alan is required to kiss the girl of his dreams in the school play: do dreams really come true? John Arlott commentates on the cricket-loving boy's obsession, and Alison Steadman is excellent as a strict, frustrated schoolteacher. 'Expertly directed by Apted from one of Jack Rosenthal’s breeziest scripts, P’Tang Yang Kipperbang...would doubtless be regarded as a minor classic if it had been theatrically released.' (Julian Upton, MovieMail)
From The Red Shoes to Rambo, for 70 years Cardiff's work helped to define the nature of cinematography. Dustin Hoffman handed him an honorary Oscar in 2001, the first ever for a director of photography. This film, using many extracts and interviews, explains why. 'Affectionate and fascinating...a celebration of the art of cinematography, particularly in a pre-digital age...Sweet and moving, but be warned, this film could seriously damage your finances, as it's likely to prompt an irresistible urge to rush out and buy Cardiff's entire back catalogue.' (Amber Wilkinson, Eye for Film)
Glamorous Cléo survives by pretending to be someone she's not: secretly she's called Florence, and this isn't even her own hair. As she waits – in real-time – for the results of a test that might say 'cancer', something is liberated inside her. Varda's style is all jump cuts and jagged realism then surprising formalism, with a brilliant Michel Legrand soundtrack holding it all together. No wonder Godard appears in a cameo.
Anglican nuns led by stern Sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr) try to establish a community in the Himalayas, battling the locals and their own demons. This was a pioneering exploration of 'the social claustrophobia of people in extreme circumstances' (BBC). It's still famous for its stunning design and Technicolor photography (by Jack Cardiff). Watch out especially for Kathleen Byron as a nun losing her grip on reality, brilliantly acted, lit and filmed. 'Run, don't walk to see this 1947 classic from Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. It's an all-time top 10 favourite of mine and seeing it digitally restored on the big screen brings a sugar-rush of pleasure.' (Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian)
Leading contemporary artist Vik Muniz, born poor in Brazil, goes back home to work with the catadores, the rubbish-pickers of Rio. In collaboration with director Lucy Walker (who made Blindsight) he creates portraits of some of them, using recycled materials they pick as his materials – and the resultant sales of the pictures changes their lives. So it's a film about recycling, about art and the artist – for Walker is careful to keep a sympathetic distance from Muniz - and about the lives of the recyclers themselves.
Veteran African-American actor Bennet Guillory plays a grieving father who goes to Japan to collect his dead son's belongings, and meets prejudice, including his own – his father died brutally in a Japanese POW camp. The bridge itself, an ancient bridge still standing, is a fine metaphor for the connections between ancient and modern, East and West, that unfold.
Share the experiences of those few travellers, explorers and diplomats permitted to enter Tibet before 1950. From the BFI archive unfolds a rich tapestry of ceremonial events, dramatic landscapes, colourful flora and fauna. Witness the installation of a new Dalai Lama and bizarre contrasts between the British diplomatic life and Tibetan customs, beginning with the earliest-ever film record of Tibet in 1922, with a party on the way to try to conquer Everest.
A BFI Compilation featuring extracts from films made between 1922 and 1970
St Anthony's demonic torment is the inspiration for a modern manager's midlife crisis. His marriage, his friendships, and his work – where he has to sack everyone – provoke a series of marvellously shot, and oddly funny scenes.
James Grecheville holds his own as young J Cody among a fine corps of veteran Australian actors in the directorial debut of former film-journalist Michôd. The teenager's mother dies of a heroin overdose and he goes to live with his criminal family, presided over by Grandma Smurf (Jacki Weaver) in a sociopathic approach to the human condition. The narrative cleverly downplays the gangster violence, keeping the audience on the edge.
Yes it's Shakespeare, Will, but not quite as we know it. Helen Mirren ('who is here at the peak of her powers') plays Prospera, banished to the island to look after Miranda (Felicity Jones), contend with Caliban, then come to terms with the invading Milanese. The gender change of the lead role lends an entirely different weight to the parent-daughter relationship. The film as a whole is as visually quirky as Taymor's famous Titus debut, and watch out for Russell Brand doing some comic business.
Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami’s first European film features a luminous performance from Juliette Binoche, playing opposite opera singer William Shimel, who makes his screen debut as starchy academic James Miller. At Arezzo in Tuscany, Miller discusses a new book in which he suggests copies can be just as worthwhile as originals. Antiques dealer Binoche drives him to the hill town of Lucignano where they chat and flirt, and when they are assumed to be a married couple neither of them denies it. Is the relationship genuine or an elaborate act of role playing and does it even matter?
The Khmer Rouge ran one of the twentieth century’s most brutal regimes. Yet the Killing Fields of Cambodia remain unexplained. Until now. In Enemies of the People the men and women who perpetrated the massacres – from the foot-soldiers who slit throats to the party’s ideological leader, Nuon Chea, aka Brother Number Two – break a 30-year silence to give entirely new testimony.
Unprecedented access to the Khmer Rouge has been achieved through a decade of work by one of Cambodia’s best investigative journalists, Thet Sambath, who is on a personal quest: he lost his own family in the Killing Fields. The film is his journey to discover not how but why they died. In doing so, he understands for the first time the real story of his country’s tragedy.
Special Jury Prize at Sundance 2010
Inspired by a 1913 book by Colette about her experiences in early music halls, this road-movie fulfils Amalric's objective of translating her tale to a modern setting. Amalric himself stars as Joachim, an ex-television producer who has returned to France to manage a troupe of dancers he assembled while in the States. These burlesque ladies are the real deal, an experienced, worldly-wise bunch who work hard and play hard, strutting their stuff around the ports of France. The touching plot is worked out against the background of the troupe’s witty routines (more tease than strip), appealing retro music and outrageous costumes, as they perform for actual audiences during the filming.
At Cannes 2010 La Tournée won the FIPRESCI (critics’) Award, and Amalric received the award for Best Director.
Winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes 2010, this unique and beguiling movie introduces Uncle Boonmee, who, suffering from acute kidney failure, has chosen to spend his final days surrounded by his loved ones in the countryside. To his astonishment, the ghost of his deceased wife appears, along with his long-lost son in non-human form. This unlikely clan then treks through the jungle to a mysterious cave, the birthplace of his first life, and the film takes a series of ravishing, dreamlike detours, achieving a mesmerising reunion of the living with the dead, the natural with the supernatural.
We’re moving to Rheged’s giant IMAX screen to make the most of this stunning cinematographical experience: beautiful shots of Everest form the background to George Mallory's lifelong obsession with conquering the summit and the suggestion that he was first to the top. With a stellar cast of voices including Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes and the late Natasha Richardson, the film blends personal accounts, re-enactments, historians’ testimonies and photographs from Mallory's life, and the correspondence between him and his wife, creating a compelling movie that is part history, part mountaineering and part love story.
Geffen reconstructs the tragic assault on Everest by Mallory and Sandy Irvine while observing Conrad Anker's and Leo Houlding's attempt to repeat the earlier expedition using the primitive equipment of 1924.
Please keep a look-out for further information about the Club’s help with transport, and the optional Rheged-hosted dinner to follow.
Both heart-warming comedy and heart-breaking drama have their place in this story which portrays an eccentric cast of characters from a well-to-do Italian family, owners of a pasta-making company, who gather to celebrate the handover of the business from father Vincenzo to eldest son Antonio. Younger son Tommaso decides he'll use the occasion to reveal to his unsuspecting kin that he is gay but, shockingly and farcically, his older sibling pre-empts him by making his own identical announcement. Tommaso is thus left stranded, still keeping his secret…
Undoubtedly comic, Loose Cannons is unusual in Italian cinema for focusing on the still entrenched conservatism of many families towards gayness. But it's no sermon: it's a witty, well-observed drama about pretending, about making other people happy, beautifully shot, acted and directed, and with a script full of warmth and richness.
Winner of the Grand Prix at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, this extraordinarily moving but non-sensationalist drama recounts the true story of a group of eight French Cistercian monks who were caught up in a bloody conflict between the Algerian Army and Muslim Jihadi insurgents. The country is increasingly in the grip of fundamentalist violence, and the brothers must soon decide whether to stay and carry out their duty to their Muslim neighbours, or leave. Aptly striving for simplicity and making a compassionate plea for understanding between cultures, the film muses on the meaning of religious vocation in a violent world.
Veteran African-American actor Bennet Guillory plays a grieving father who goes to Japan to collect his dead son's belongings, and meets prejudice, including his own – his father died brutally in a Japanese POW camp. The bridge itself, an ancient bridge still standing, is a fine metaphor for the connections between ancient and modern, East and West, that unfold.
After some criticsm that last year’s films tended to be a bit ‘dark’, we open our new season with a light-hearted comedy adventure romp, a ‘mix of Amelie and Indiana Jones’ – Empire. Famed big -budget French director Luc Besson (‘The Fifth Element’) has adapted the story from two Jacques Tardi comic books and proves ,once again, ‘anything Hollywood can do, he can do with buckets more visual flair’ – Time Out. Picture ‘les bons temps’ in Paris, 1911, where Adele’s sister lies near to death after an accident. Tomb raiders in Egypt bring back Mummies - speaking French of course! - and a pterodactyl egg, which is brought to life...naturally. Our unflappable heroine Adele tries to resolve it all, whilst evading her arch nemesis Dieuleveult – Mathieu Almeric well disguised (after his recent ‘On Tour’, who can blame him?).
Come along and enjoy yourself; our season is but young and there is time for darker nights to come...
Delepine’s follow-up to Aaltra (seen at our 2005 festival) seems to set out to upset everyone, starting with the dead. A black comedy with the courage of its bad-taste convictions; a film to love or hate, but not to sleep through!
A group of fired female employees from a toy factory reject the idea of spending their redundancy on a nude calendar and opt instead for Louise’s idea to pay for a hitman to kill the boss that put them out of work. This might not have been such a bad idea if they hadn’t hired the inept Michel. Things go from bad to worse when Michel attempts to sub-contract the hit to a series of highly inappropriate assassins.
Tonight’s treat is shown as a Tribute to Sydney Lumet who died earlier this year. He directed this one in 2008 at the age of 84, and showed here that ‘’the director of 12 Angry Men, Serpico and The Verdict was not only still working, but doing some of his best work’ - Empire. Two brothers (Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke) with very different money problems agree to rob a jewellery store—owned by their parents - which goes horribly wrong. The remainder of the film, flashing back and forth, takes us into an investigation of those affected by the robbery, revealing a very tangled web indeed. The film’s direction, writing and acting combine to give us a tense thriller with ‘a texture more akin to real life than Hollywood. Superior fare, packed with insight and suspense.’ - Time Out, which left Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian needing ‘hours to relax my tensed-up muscles’.
Is this our first claymation film?! The director Adam Elliot won an Oscar for his 2003 short Harvey Krumpet (which we will show first tonight) and returns here with a simple comedy of a eight-year old girl (voice by Toni Collette) from Melbourne who randomly writes a letter to a middle-aged Jewish New Yorker with Asperger’s Syndrome (who’s voice gives us a second chance to listen to Phillip Seymour Hoffman). Rather than throw the letter away, he replies, starting a 20 year correspondence between the two unloved, lonely pen pals, where they discuss everything under the sun from pets to taxidermy, obesity to agoraphobia. Does this work in clay? Reviewers and audiences seem to love it, what will Keswick Film Club make of it?
A completely different film to last week, this documentary was made over six months, following some Danish troops on a tour of duty in Helmand province, Afghanistan. As such, we see the new troopers start out from Denmark and growing gradually indifferent to the locals as the reality of their situation takes hold. Trying to befriend the locals is not an easy task when you are seen as ‘just another man with a gun’ The courageous director and photographer lived with these troops and manage to show all scenes without judgment, even the one which became notorious in Denmark, showing the Danes killing five injured Taliban troopers with a grenade. Was this a war crime, or were they protecting themselves?
This film gives us the chance to witness Afghanistan from the frontline in what even the US online magazine Salon decided was ‘a mesmerizing and terrifying documentary that can stand among the greatest war movies ever made'
3D NIGHT OUT AT RHEGED WITH OPTIONAL FOOD
The trailer for this film asks ‘Is it Dance? Is it Theatre? Or is it simply life?’ We move to Rheged for this week to find out in this marvellous 3D tribute to Pina Bausch by Wim Wenders. Bausch was a German choreographer who was a leading influence in the modern development of ‘Tanztheater’ - dance theatre. Wenders sets out to deliberately use 3D to explore the use of space on a stage as part of choreography and ‘proves that the third dimension can be much more than icing on the cake’ - Tim Robey, Telegraph. The film began as a collaboration with Bausch herself, until her unfortunate death before it was completed. Expect lots of dancing from Bausch’s major works, but also expect to see the dancers move out into the streets of Wuppertal to bring her ideas to life.
We will be organising transport to Rheged...and why not stop for a meal afterwards? Watch this space...
The winner of the 2011 Oscar for the “best foreign film". Can we build a better world by helping our tormentors or fighting them? Two contrasting stories are counterpoised, the link being that the fathers of two boys take the opposite view to their sons. We see one of the fathers working as a Doctor in Africa facing the dilemma ‘should he help an injured warlord or not?’ (if you saw ‘Of Gods and Men’ last season you might guess what his decision is), whilst the boys decision to fight back against the school bully has different consequences. ‘Is violence so deeply ingrained in the human character that even the best of us will embrace it? Or can we transcend our instincts and find a higher law?’ - A.O.Scott, New York Times
Using the internal family arguments to juxtapose the political ones, maybe Bier has made the allegory too obvious? You will have to come along to find out for yourself.
Followed by Q & A with the director
Mark is a likeable teenage artist living in a Northumbrian mining village in 1974, during the mining strike. He falls in love with a London girl that no-one likes and decides to escape to art college in London. Unfortunately, he tries to fund this by strikebreaking and scabbing on his family and friends...
This appears to be the small budget film to end all small budgets. With the most expensive films coming in at $300m, this one cost about $30K. It is the first film by Andy Mark Simpson, who wrote it, financed it and directed it, and he is still only 28.. He wrote it as a teenager and took four years to complete with the help of local unknown actors. It has still managed to win some awards in the UK and USA. This may not be the most polished film you ever see, but if you, like me, enjoy small budget movies and new directors, it is one to see... As an added bonus, Andy will be coming along to answer some questions; possibly ‘how did you make a film for less than a car?’ will be the first one!
What would you do if your four year-old has been murdered by some school kids that you happen to not only know, but teach as well? In the opening to this film, Nakashima’s teacher tells her class she has just poisoned the milk of the two responsible with the HIV virus.
‘ A bleakly, furious anti-people film, in which almost every character is a vicious tyrant or a deserving victim’ - Tom Huddleston, Time Out, this is not an easy film. It examines Japanese Youth culture and extreme bullying, using flashbacks to show the ‘confessions’ which lead the teacher (Takako Matsu) to such an act.
GALA NIGHT! A DOUBLE BILL AND FOOD ALL FOR THE PRICE OF ONE FILM!
When Rod Evans stood down as chair we asked him to chose two films to make a ‘Gala night’ as a last thank you from the club, for all he did for us. Today is the result. We start the evening at 4pm with a real thought-provoker. The winner of this year’s Cannes ’Palme d’Or’, Malick also inspired some Cannes critics to boo. The basic plot has Jack O’Brien (Sean Penn) thinking back over his life, especially his upbringing in 1950’s Waco, by his very strict father (Brad Pitt) and loving mother (Jessica Chastain). But Malick has a much, much higher target here; nothing less than the nature of the universe and the possibility of God. Most reviewers have not been able to resist comparing this to Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, both visually and in its scope; we will be able to discuss our views afterwards, in the break for food, and drink.
GALA NIGHT! A DOUBLE BILL AND FOOD ALL FOR THE PRICE OF ONE FILM!
Our second film will start at 7.30pm. Incendies is a devastating mystery thriller. A dead mother, Nawal, leaves instructions in her will to her two twins, to deliver two letters to their unknown father and brother. What follows is their journeys, from Canada to the Middle East, and into their pasts. ‘The crucial territory covered is fixed in the heart. The film gathers momentum from its images, including the three dots Nawal tattooed on the heel of her missing son. I’ll say no more. Incendies is best opened fresh. But there is no way you’ll get it out of your dreams’ - Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
This film was nominated for the Oscar for best Foreign Film and has won various awards at film festivals this year. Rod has found two great looking films here—and surprised all that know him by not choosing a French one! A good Gala night is promised for all.
Aaltra is about two grumpy middle-aged men who lose the use of their legs in a bizarre agricultural accident then head to Helsinki to protest. This sublimely nutty black farce features a plethora of Tati-esque sight gags, Jason Flemyng as a bewildered English motocross rider, and a jaw-dropping karaoke performance by a Finnish biker. Essential viewing.
Chanda is a 12 year-old South African who knows what a hard life really is. Her baby sister dies, her mother is suffering from ‘the bug’ (AIDS), her step father is a drunk and the villagers blame divine judgment against her mother for bringing all the trouble on herself. Chanda—played by the terrific Khomotso Manyaka—is forced to take on running the family. The family’s only friend, Mrs Tafa, tries to help the situation by moving Chandra’s mother out of the village, but Chandra, who knows she needs her mother, no matter how ill she is, goes in search of her. Oliver Schmitz—who directed ‘the Apartheid-era film Mapantsula’ in 1988— brings us this film about the brutal and dark world of AIDS where the reactions of the community in denial only help to bring on their own destruction.
Revolutionaries or terrorists? Freedom fighters or criminals? The Algerian Independence struggle 50 years ago has not been the subject of many films, with the Battle of Algiers the most famous. It is the setting for Bouchareb’s film of three brothers growing up in French Algeria, losing their father on VE day in Setif - where the French massacred thousands of protestors - and then meeting up again in 1950’s France, in the days of the FLN terror tactics. His outlook is humanist, not political, as he looks at the events that lead the three men to this point.
We had the first part of Bouchareb’s loose trilogy in 2007’s ‘Days of Glory’, which so impressed President Chirac that he changed the law on pensions to African war veterans, previously denied to them. The second part of the trilogy looks and feels more like an artistic Mobster movie than anything—sharp action in dark settings.
‘A young noblewoman is torn between passion, duty, companionship and ambition, each quality personified by a different man’ - Variety. Tavernier continues his masterful direction of films with this adaption of Madame de Lafayette’s 1622 novella. In a 16th century France dominated by Catholic and Protestant battles, we meet Marie de Mezieres (Melanie Thierry), who is soon forced to become the Princess of the title against her will; she is already in love with a Duke. Her new husband soon rushes off to war, leaving her in the hands of an ageing Count. Tavernier then follows the Princess through the conflicts of a woman with no rights to decide for herself but trying to get the best of all options.
Our last movie for this season is another documentary, to put you in the Christmas spirit, about the effect of another type of gift. In the 60’s and 70’s, a Swedish woman, Hilde Back, gave a regular donation to sponsor the education of a Kenyan schoolboy, Chris Mburu. Chris went on to graduate from Harvard Law school and became a leading figure in the United Nations. If this wasn’t reward enough, Chris decided to seek out the stranger who helped him, and to set up the Hilde Back Education Fund to help further Kenyan children. This fund is now giving hope to poor children, but further agony to those who just fail to qualify; could this be worse than the no hope they had before?
From the daughter of Holocaust victims, to an act of altruism, to the promise of help for future generations; the ‘butterfly effect’ at its very best. Happy Christmas everyone!
Daniel Auteuil rose to fame acting in 'Jean de Flo-rette', and 'Manon des Sources’, both adaptions of Marcel Pagnol novels. Auteuil is now paying hom-age to Pagnol by starting his directorial career with FOUR films by the same author; our first film of the season is the first of these to be completed.
A tale of love and class in 1940‘s Provence, Auteuil himself plays the well digger, Pascal. He discovers his beautiful and favourite daughter, Patricia (newcomer Astrid Bergès-Frisbey), has become pregnant. The father-to-be flies off to war and his parents, local bourgeoisie, decide Patricia is on the make. Torn between love and shame, to avoid scandal, Pascal banishes his daughter to give birth at her aunt‘s house, and it is left to his simple-minded assistant to try to bring about a change of heart.
Our re-release spot this season takes us back to the sultry 60's when being cool meant being French, smoking Galouises, owning villas in St Tropez... and hanging round your private swimming pool.
In our pool we see handsome Jean-Paul (Alain Delon) worried about losing his beautiful wife, Marianne (Romy Schneider) to an ex-boyfriend, Harry (Maurice Ronet) who has turned up unexpectedly. To add to the melange, Harry has brought along his 18 year-old daughter (Jane Birkin). What starts out as simple sexual jealousy and longing, gradually turns to something much more...
The result is a film where "The tension, both sexual and dramatic, constantly crackles and the casting is practically perfect" - Scott Jordan Harris, Film 4.
We are back in Washington. It‘s 1935 and we are firmly (and proudly) in 'B Movie' country. The US needs to get the secrets of the Japanese cipher machine without being found out - they are still allies. Coburn is the tight-lipped disgraced US spy, with a past that no-one understands and no sense of humour - imagine Bond without the smile - charged with the task. "If the Japanese catch us, they have every right to ship us back to Tokyo and have us executed". Eddie is a master safecracker, after the perfect robbery, who is released from jail to help.. Or go back to jail. "We made a plan, it's a good plan, and we're sticking to the plan. You got a problem with that, then throw me back in the jug and get yourself another villain, cos I'm out". Can the two outwit the Japanese and their mutual dislike?
A tightly shot heist movie where the actions speak louder than the words...and silence is their best bet of winning the day...or is it a spoof? It made me laugh and I loved it, but it works either way.
Much of the poetry has gone out of Mija‘s life; she lives in the sticks, getting by on a nurse‘s wage, looking after a man who has had a stroke and her teenage grandson whose mother has moved to the big city. To make matters worse, she discovers she has early Alzheimer‘s disease. Finding words failing her, she decides to enrol in a poetry course. Like most new poets, she realises that poetry does not just happen and starts to wander around the countryside looking for inspiration.
This in itself might have made a good start to a movie, but director Chang-Dong Lee adds another element to her already complicated life that brings real tragedy close to her door...
Coming out to rave reviews from all critics, this looks to be ....poetry in motion!
This Czech comedy is introduced by the critically acclaimed animation film director himself to explain that the use of a mix of cut out animation from photographs and live-action segments, is because he couldn‘t raise enough money for a 'real' film.
It tells the story of a seemingly happily married man who starts to have very vivid dreams featuring a beautiful woman dressed in red. Instead of trying to get rid of these dreams, he wants to experience more of them, so he enlists the help of a psychoanalyst to try and explain what's happening. Their efforts are successful but he risks becoming addicted to his dreams and the alternate life he lives within them... We get the chance to see both Freud and Jung attend a real psychoanalysis session, where they can observe what became of the science they invented and their reactions to their work being ridiculed.
The film‘s complex narrative and unconventional imagery may not be everyone‘s cup of tea but 'Švankmajer is a grand master not just of innovative animation techniques but of life itself....... at the height of his filmmaking powers as director, artistic director and storyteller.' - Deborah Young, The Hollywood Reporter
Possibly a new theme for Keswick—'the One that Got Away'. We found this one by chance; maybe there are others out there? This was Uruguay's submission for Oscar consideration in 2008. Based on an actual 1988 visit to Uruguay by Pope John Paul, this bitter but affable social comedy imagines the impact of a papal visit upon one small village. The film's protagonist is Beto, an all too human (and occasionally despicable) father and husband who supports his family by smuggling sundries across the Brazilian border on his broken down bicycle. While his neighbours hatch plans to sell gastric sustenance to the anticipated holy hordes, Beto hopes to profit by building an outhouse for the Pope. Will they be rewarded for pinning their economic hopes upon God's representative on earth? The answer becomes the piquant point of the story. This is a first film for co-director Charlone, who is best known for his work as cinematographer on such films as 'City of God' and 'Stranded: I've Come From a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains’.
In the early 1970's, Allende's Chile was seen round the world as the great hope for social change. This film is set appropriately in 1973, examining the moment when Allende was killed and that dream became a nightmare in the hands of the Chilean army and the CIA.
The main character, Mario (Alfredo Castro), is a coroner‘s assistant who becomes fixated on the fading music-hall artiste, Nancy, next door – a woman with leftwing connections – just at the point when he's forced by the army to join a special unit processing the victims of military massacres.
Larrain likes to show the life of ordinary people against the backdrop of big events. His last film - Tony Manero - had the same lead playing a cabaret artist in Pinochet's 1978. Here, Mario is more interested in his budding affair with Nancy than the politics around him, until those politics invade his world.
This gentle romantic comedy tells the story of Norman, the manager of the theatre on the pier at a once grand East Coast holiday resort. Norman has worked at the theatre all his life and despite the efforts of Sandra, his long- serving and suffering assistant, he will not accept that the local council, which owns the theatre may be serious about putting it into the hands of commercial management. As the plot unfolds, Norman realises that it may be time to move on and put behind him the ghost of the fifties and sixties singing star Alma Cogan.
Starring Roger Lloyd-Pack and Niamh Cusack with John Hurt in a cameo role and with original music by Tony Britten this new film will resonate with Keswickians. The potential closure of the theatre in the film resonating with the threat to the cinema in Keswick, and the role of the RNLI in the film with our Mountain Rescue. A gentle introduction to more music to come.
Thanks to Anwen Rees and Tony Britten
UK Premiere
Kamal is a nine-year old Arab boy living in Jerusalem with his grandfather, mother, and sisters. Everyday he goes to the Old City and tries to sell postcards but he is thwarted by bullies and constantly discouraged by his strict grandfather. David is a Jewish boy, also aged nine, who is in Jerusalem to visit his father, whom he hasn’t seen in years. Thinking that he is carrying a large amount of money Kamal steals from David resulting in a chase in which Kamal escapes. But when David runs into the same bullies that have been targeting Kamal, Kamal rescues him, and another chase begins. Together, the two boys must learn the true meanings of friendship, trust and sacrifice.
Awards include: Best Children’s Film Tiburon; World Cinema Award Best Feature, Washington DC; Best of the Fest, Palm Beach
Thanks to Artificial Eye
Based on a true event which for many epitomises the faults in the Turkish legal system, Pardon tells the tragicomic story of three friends who end up in prison when they are mistaken as members of a terrorist organization.
The Writer, Ferhan Sensoy is a popular director and actor in Turkish theatre where he is well-known for his spontaneous political criticism. He generally performs on stage in his own theatre which means that not many outsiders get to see his work. "Pardon", in that sense, is reaching out to people who can not come to watch his plays.
A posting from Istanbul on the IMDB states “The story is one of the true stories of Turkey about its legal system faults. The acting and directing is superb. I have watched it three times in the same week and laughed each time.”
Thanks to Plato Films
The film tells the story of a highly intelligent former state champion bodybuilder from small town Ohio who has become obsessed with his scientific research and, consequently, has let his world-class physique go. He journeys to the mecca of bodybuilding, Los Angeles, to prove himself. Determined to reveal his new ideas to the world, the awkward yet sincere bodybuilder realizes he has no choice but to get back in supreme shape, compete in the ultimate "Mr. West Coast" bodybuilding competition and use his own body as the perfect reflection of his mind's work. Amidst the LA-freaks, Hollywood wannabes, and outrageous gym culture of Los Angeles, the now determined bodybuilder struggles to preserve an integrity of the mind, body, and spirit that is so apparently void in this strange new land.
Thanks to Sam Turcotte
Vacation is the story of Toru Hirai (Kaoru Kobayashi) a middle-aged bachelor who works as a prison guard on death row and lives with his older sister and her husband. Hirai’s sister is determined to marry him off to a divorced single mother of a 6-year-old son Tatsuya, who is suspicious of his new father. In exchange for a one-week vacation, for a proper honeymoon to get to know his new family, Hirai volunteers to ‘support’ illustrator Shinichi Kaneda (Hidetoshi Nishijima) who is about to be executed by hanging. There is little emotion in the film, apart from the fear that every character is harbouring for the future, until the trauma of Kaneda’s terrifying death. Kadoi shows the hard choices and personal sacrifices the ideal Japanese husband and father will make for his family.
Kobayashi and Nishijima won acting awards at Yokohama film festival 2009.
Thanks to Eleven Arts
Billed as ‘Die Hard meets A Prophet’, Cell 211 takes us into a Spanish jail with Juan, a new guard who tries to impress by reporting in a day early. That sort of attitude is never a good idea and events mean that Juan needs to rely on his wits to survive.
According to Philip French, this excellent Spanish picture has all the traditional ‘Big House, Prison Movie’ ingredients: the fair but weak governor, the contrasted good and bad warders, the charismatic convict leader (a knockout performance from Luis Tosar, famously menacing in Michael Mann's Miami Vice), the old lag, the slimy informer, the destructive riot, and the familiar message that the trouble is due to overcrowding, penny-pinching and the lack of either creative work or serious attempts at rehabilitation.
Thanks to Lionsgate
The film follows the efforts of Jon Gnarr, an Icelandic comedian/TV show actor/perpetual goofball, to become Mayor of Rejkjavik. A benchmark of the excesses that lead up to the credit crunch in 2008 were the waitresses in Reykjavik who thought it was normal to afford weekend shopping trips to Milan. We all know what came next. The krona collapsed and the whole country effectively went bankrupt under the debts incurred by its over extended banks. The government took its fair share of the blame and in 2009 Gnarr launched The Best Party, a satirical political party that parodies Icelandic politics and aims to make the life of its citizens more fun. Standing in the municipal election of 2010 Gnarr promised free towels in all swimming pools, a polar bear for the Reykjavik zoo, all kinds of things for weaklings, and an incorruptible and drug-free parliament by 2020.
Originally entitled ‘Bienvenue Chez les Ch’tis’ this gem of a comedy explores the north/south divide in France. The film plays on cultural and linguistic differences as the hero, Philippe, travels from suave and comfy meridional France to take up a post-office manager's job in his country's grim north which most of the French consider to be populated with hard drinking unemployed rednecks speaking an incomprehensible local dialect – Ch’ti.
The film is brought to life for a British audience through inspired subtitling which succeeds in matching French mis-speaks with plausible English equivalents in a tour de force which, says the Guardian, merits the creation of a whole new Oscar category. Allied to ”the ingenuity of the
writing, the fluency and comic timing of the actors, in particular the assured direction of Dany Boon, who happens to be a Ch’ti himself”, the Sticks and the town of Bergues are destined to charm.
Thanks To Pathe
This highly efficient Korean thriller from the director of the ultra-violent The Chaser has an unremarkable plot: a taxi driver at the end of his tether is induced to carry out a murder in Seoul and finds himself crushed between two different branches of the mafia and goes on the run. The film does, however, in addition to moving with the speed of a bullet, have three distinctive features; it's the first Korean thriller to have attracted a major investment from a Hollywood studio; knives and axes are the gangsters' weapons of choice and they go about their work gleefully in pools of blood; and, the desperate hero comes from Yanji City in the curious Chinese enclave of Yanbian, an autonymous prefecture abutting China, Russia and North Korea largely populated by Koreans carrying Chinese identity papers.
In partnership with Keswick Peace and Human Rights Group (KP&HRG)
This film is the disturbing story of what happens to children when they seek asylum in Britain. Every year, thousands of children come from all over the world to Britain seeking refuge from persecution, terrorism and war. But many find this country is not the place of safety that they hoped. Instead they are met by a culture of disbelief and an asylum system that can cause them profound psychological and physical harm. Through the stories of a 10-year-old Iranian boy, a 16-year-old Afghan and a 22-year-old Ugandan woman, this film explores the experiences of young people who have been brutalized by the British asylum system. It's a shocking story. It was first shown on Channel Four Dispatches on Monday 29th November 2010.
With Q&A with Clare Sambrook and Rachel Seifert
Adapted from Sally Nicholls’ novel, Ways to Live Forever is a touching and inspiring film about 12 year old Sam, played by Robbie Kay. Sam is the narrator of the film, through the medium of his video diary. He reveals much about himself, when while making a list of important things about himself, the fact that he is dying of leukaemia merits only 4th place. He loves facts, he wants to know about UFOs and horror movies and airships and ghosts and how it feels to kiss a girl. He wants to know the facts about dying.Sam needs answers to the questions nobody will answer.
Also starring Ben Chaplin, Emilia Fox and Greta Scacchi, Ways to Live Forever has been an official entry in the Amsterdam, Tallinn, Terra di Siena and Indianapolis Festivals.
Thanks to Gustavo Ron
A BFI National Archive restoration
A hundred years ago the British Antarctic Expedition (1910-1913) led by Captain Scott set out on its ill-fated race to the South Pole. Joining Scott on board the Terra Nova was official photographer and cinematographer Herbert Ponting, and the images that he captured have fired imaginations ever since.
Ponting filmed almost every aspect of the expedition: the scientific work, life in camp and the local wildlife. Most importantly, Ponting recorded the preparations for the assault on the Pole - from the trials of the caterpillar track sledges to clothing and cooking equipment - giving us a real sense of the challenges faced by the expedition.
Ponting used his footage in various forms over the years and in 1924 he re-edited it into this remarkable feature. The BFI National Archive has restored the film and reintroduced the film’s sophisticated use of colour along with with a new score by Simon Fisher Turner featuring the composer, the Elysian Quartet, Sarah Scutt, David Coulter and Alexander L'Estrange.
Thanks to BFI
The film takes place almost entirely on a property in the cane country of northern New South Wales, where single mother Rhea (Emily Barclay) survives by barring the door against debt collectors.To help make ends meet, she agrees to find room for Doyle (John Hurt), an old sailor with Alzheimer's disease who is the paternal grandfather of her three young daughters - an exotic figure in this setting, with his faraway eyes, English accent and sensitive, ravaged face. The oldest girl, Lou (Lily Bell-Tindley), initially resents the newcomer and the painful memories he stirs up. Doyle confuses the 11-year-old Lou with the wife who broke his heart many years ago, and Lou soon finds her own reasons to restage the past. This is a slightly dangerous coming-of-age fantasy.
This session also includes a screening of Elfar Adalsteins’ Sailcloth staring John Hurt and among the short films tipped to land an Oscar nomination.
Thanks to Matchbox Films
Our screening of Lou will be preceded by Elfar Adalsteins’ Sailcloth also staring John Hurt and among the short films tipped to land an Oscar nomination.
An elderly gentleman absconds from a nursing home by setting in motion events that veil his disappearance. He heads to the local pier, where an old companion awaits him, ready for their last great journey.
Double Bill with Sherpas, the True Heroes of Everest
Could you ski to the South Pole? That was the challenge that British Adventurer, Felicity Aston put to ‘ordinary women’ from around the Commonwealth as she set out to create the most international all-female expedition ever to the South Pole. Late in 2009, Felicity led a team from places as diverse as Jamaica, India, Singapore and Cyprus - some of whom had never even seen snow - on a 900 km skiing trek across the Antarctic, one of the toughest and most notoriously hazardous journeys on the planet. Eighty-mile-an-hour winds ripped through base camp; frostbite and injuries were an everyday occurrence; but they also shared beliefs, ideas and philosophies and broke no less than six World Records. Snowline has produced a documentary about the project mostly from over 3,500 individual clips of footage shot by members of the team.
Thanks to Snowline
Double Bill with The Call Of The White
Sherpas The True Heroes of Mount Everest focuses on the hired Sherpas of a Swiss Everest Expedition Team. Among the Sherpas is Dawa, who has accented the Everest summit thirteen times. The film heroically showcases the role of Sherpas who make it possible for the big-pocketed Western climbers to reach the summit. Made by documentary makers at Swiss Television plus Hari Thapa, film-maker in Kathmandhu the film has won prizes at a number of film festivals including Best Film at Kathmandhu
Thanks to Hari Thapa
Inspired by the real-life experiences of screenwriter Will Reiser, director Jonathan Levine's 50/50 is the story of a 27-year-old cancer patient's battle to beat the disease with the help of his friend. It has received strong reviews and – unusually for a comedy – is considered an outside bet for an Oscar nomination next year.Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays the somewhat portentously named Adam Lerner, a young writer working for a National Public Radio station in Seattle, who is told out of the blue he has spinal cancer with a 50-50 chance of recovery. He gets along with a little help and hindrance from his friends, family and fellow patients, and the movie and Adam himself treat his situation with considerable humour.
Thanks to Lionsgate
UK Premiere
Montreal writer/director Tara Johns, in her feature debut, takes us back to the ’70s, the dreadful fashions and interior decor drenched in a dewy nostalgic haze, to tell the simple story of 11-year-old Elizabeth, who longs to get her first period so she can be like her friends. When Elizabeth discovers she is adopted it sparks a bout of preteen rebellion and confusion. If her mom isn’t her real mom, then maybe her idol is; he’s determined to get to a Dolly Parton concert to find out. This leads to a cathartic cross-country trek by a mother searching for a daughter searching for a mother - both of them really searching for themselves. Parton’s participation, allowing a few of her songs to be re-recorded by Canadian artists and providing a voiceover finale, add much to the film’s appeal.
Thanks to Palomar Films
Actor Paddy Considine has seen his first feature garlanded at the British Independent Film Awards (Best Film, Best Actress and Best Debut Director) and at Sundance (world cinema directing award, special jury prize drama). Peter Mullan is a gambling, washed-up widower Joseph, a man plagued by violence and a rage that is driving him to self-destruction. As Joseph's life spirals into turmoil a chance of redemption appears in the form of Hannah, a Christian charity shop worker. Their relationship develops to reveal that Hannah is hiding a secret of her own with devastating results for both of their lives. The performances roar off the screen, Mullan is fantastic but the real revelation of the film is the performance of Olivia Colman; so good in fact that you forget this is a movie. While it is difficult to watch, critics have showered the film with praise.
Thanks to StudioCanal
Quentin Crisp was born Denis Pratt on Christmas Day 1908. As an openly gay man in a much less tolerant era, he suffered constant abuse and rejection in his quest to "make them understand". He may or may not have made society understand homosexuality, but he certainly raised awareness of it, and you could argue that freedom of sexual choice would not be as accepted today were it not for his courage and determination.
Thames's television adaptation of Crisp’s autobiography The Naked Civil Servant eight years after he wrote it took Britain by storm and made Crisp an overnight celebrity. John Hurt's unforgettable performance as Crisp won him a BAFTA for Best Actor, while director Jack Gold won the Academy's highest commendation, The Desmond Davies Award, for outstanding creative contribution to television. Credit for the film's success also goes to screenwriter Philip Mackie and producer Verity Lambert. Perhaps the highest praise is Crisp's christening of John Hurt as his "representative on earth."
Thanks to Freemantle Media
Quentin Crisp moved to America at age seventy-two, "when people my age rocked themselves asleep in nursing home. Not me! I want my time lived!" And live his life Quentin Crisp certainly did. Setting off on the journey of a lifetime to New York City on September 13, 1981, the out-spoken Quentin Crisp was immediately embraced by New Yorkers and before long wined and dined by celebrities in every corner of the city. Mr. Crisp’s romantic view of New York and America was coloured by wartime relationships with GIs in London and by a love of Hollywood movies. The film was nominated and won prizes at a number of festivals.
Thanks to Momentum Pictures
Bird On A Wire is Tony Palmer’s film about Leonard Cohen’s 1972 European Tour (from Dublin to Jerusalem). Having gone missing soon after completion, the film is only now receiving its first official release almost 40 years later. This version has been re-constructed by Palmer from the original soundtracks and around 3000 fragments of film cut 294 from cans of rushes discovered in Hollywood in 2009. The film interweaves live concert footage with backstage encounters. It follows a mostly bewildered band and management as they deal with exploding speakers, backstage groupies and the vagaries of an artist with an extremely delicate temperament. Tony Palmer has commented on Cohen’s power over an audience simply by his presence; “authority doesn’t really describe it; transparent goodness is probably closer, and a profound belief that it is the poet’s responsibility to address the political problems of the world.”
The film will be introduced by Tony Palmer
In partnership with Keswick Peace and Human Rights Group (KP&HRG)
Gulistan (Senay Orak) and her younger brother, Firat (Muhammed Al), have a normal childhood with their mom (Fahriye Celik) and dad (Alisan Onlu) and new baby brother. Dad is a Kurdish journalist; on their way back from a wedding, the family is stopped by three gunmen, who shoot the parents dead in front of the kids. The kids' aunt Yekbun (Berivan Eminoglu), an underground Kurdish activist, moves in to care for them, but as she tries to get a visa to take them to their grandpa in Sweden, she's kidnapped by the paramilitary police and the children are left completely alone. As the weeks pass, they start selling everything in the apartment just to have food to eat, but it's not enough for medicine for the baby. Their life gets harder as they struggle to survive.
In the days that follow, the paths of the two children, along with those of Dilara and Nuri, will all intersect in ways that have surprising impact due to the unexpected restraint with which their roles are played.
The film has won awards at 10 international festivals
Tony Palmer's epic film was made in 1982/3 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Wagner's death. Filmed in 200 locations throughout Europe, many where the actual historical events took place, it is only now released on DVD as Palmer wishes it to be viewed. The film portrays Wagner's life and work, from before the 1848 Revolution, through his exile in Switzerland, his rescue by King Ludwig II of Bavaria to the final triumph at Bayreuth, and sets his radical musical and political ideas in the context of his life and times. The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir George Solti with singers including Dame Gwyneth Jones and Peter Hofmann performs the music, which is illustrated with images by cameramen Vittorio Storaro and Nic Knowland. The stellar cast includes Richard Burton, Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Vanessa Redgrave and László Gállfi.
The film will be screened in two parts with a one hour interval and introduced by Tony Palmer
Thanks to Tony Palmer
UK Premiere
Luo Jiang and Guihua, a poor, middle-aged couple with few prospects, decide to buy an 11- year-old girl, Xiao Ezi (aka "Little Moth"), for $140 in rural China. Xiao Ezi's life is in peril, as she is forced to earn money for her new parents as a beggar while suffering from a blood disease that leaves her unable to walk. Her greedy adoptive father refuses to buy her medicine, while Guihua’s growing maternal affection wracks her with guilt. With virtually no budget, a hand-held digital camera and a cast of non-professionals, Peng Tao turns the sordid street life of small town China into a chain-reaction tale of human cruelty and unforgettable suspense.
Thanks to the director
In this comedy from Spain, a young girl in her twenties, Marina, and her teenage brother, Samuel, have lost their parents in an accident three years ago. Samuel has taken it hard. He hasn't left their apartment in these last three years and has created a bizarre world for himself and his once-famous literary grandfather. His eccentricity and cleverness scares off the tutors hired to educate him. Marina has no life as she is consumed with taking care of Samuel and working across the street as a waitress.
Marina accidentally meets up with a psychologist, Gabriel, and asks him to be her brother's tutor. Almost immediately, Gabriel has a powerful positive effect on Samuel. And Gabriel becomes smitten with Marina. The student Samuel reverses roles and begins to teach the shy Gabriel how to attract women.
Thanks to Gustavo Ron
Tony Palmer's epic film was made in 1982/3 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Wagner's death. Filmed in 200 locations throughout Europe, many where the actual historical events took place, it is only now released on DVD as Palmer wishes it to be viewed. The film portrays Wagner's life and work, from before the 1848 Revolution, through his exile in Switzerland, his rescue by King Ludwig II of Bavaria to the final triumph at Bayreuth, and sets his radical musical and political ideas in the context of his life and times. The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir George Solti with singers including Dame Gwyneth Jones and Peter Hofmann performs the music, which is illustrated with images by cameramen Vittorio Storaro and Nic Knowland. The stellar cast includes Richard Burton, Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Vanessa Redgrave and László Gállfi.
The film will be screened in two parts with a one hour interval and introduced by Tony Palmer
Thanks to Tony Palmer
In this multi-award winning film (including Golden Berlin Bear, 2011) Nader and Simin argue about living abroad. Simin prefers to live abroad to provide better opportunities for their only daughter, Termeh. However, Nader refuses to go because he thinks he must stay in Iran and take care of his father who suffers from Alzheimer's. However, Simin is determined to get a divorce and leave the country with her daughter. Their argument has escalated into a demand for divorce. The film shows a middle-class household under siege; there are semi-unsolved mysteries, angry confrontations and family burdens: an ageing parent and two children from warring camps appearing to make friends.
Thanks to Artificial Eye
The narrative revolves around two sisters during and shortly after the wedding party of one of them, while Earth is about to collide with an approaching rogue planet. The film prominently features music from Richard Wagner's prelude to his opera Tristan und Isolde. Trier's initial inspiration for the film came from a depressive episode he suffered and the insight that depressed people remain calm in stressful situations. The film was much feted at Festivals and the lead actresses gave prize-winning performances. Lars von Trier ‘ has made one of the most unforgettable, unshakably unique films of this year.’ Jim Tudor.
Once again we welcome Jan Faull from the BFI who brings a curated selection of old film, this time Tales from the Shipyard. Those who came last year to her collection King Coal will have enjoyed local film from Cumbria amnd the North West. Tales from the Shipyard is the second in the BFI collection This Working Life a three-part celebration of Britain's industrial heritage as seen through the eyes of filmmakers from the Victorian era to the present day. The remaining part which will be compiled for next year by the BFI will be on the steel industry
Barrow-In-Furness shipbuilders Vickers are featured adding local interest. Paul Rotha’s modernist classic Shipyard (1935, 24min) filmed at Barrow in Furness, captures the building of a liner with the eye of a painter. A rare opportunity that should not be missed.
Thanks to BFI
Single mother Anna (Noomi Rapace) is moved with her 8 year old son Anders (Vetle Qvenild Werring) to a secret address outside Oslo, fleeing as they are from her abusive husband. Fearing for their lives, Anna is perpetually terrified that she and her vulnerable son will be found at any moment. So that Anders can sleep in his own bed, and to allay the suspicions of her supposed protectors, Anna invests in a babycall monitor. However, sequestered in the symmetrical monotone concrete of the flat, a legacy of short-sighted 1960s Oslo architecture, Anna hears the babycall pick up the distressed voice of another troubled child.
When no trace of this child can be found, Anna’s fragile psychological state is called into question.
Thanks to Soda Pictures.
Rooted in real life – injury and death from car accidents are now alarmingly common in Argentina – Trapero’s film feels almost like a documentary in its early scenes outlining the mostly nocturnal work of ambulance medic Luján (Gusman), on the one hand, and ambulance-chasing lawyer Sosa (Darin), on the other.
"The film turns steadily into a taut, suspenseful noir thriller, alert to the psychological needs and doubts of its clearly star-cross'd lovers and to the visceral physicality of both hospital work and criminal violence alike. Darin and Gusman, each of them excellent, receive sterling support from the rest of the cast, while superb camerawork and editing create a mood of tense immediacy from the attention-catching start to the spiralling chaos of the extraordinarily gripping finale." Geoff Andrews, Time Out
Thanks to Axiom Films
On general release from 2nd March 2012
For more information see axiomfilms.co.uk
For those who saw McQueen‘s first movie, Hunger, his second could not come quick enough. Hunger took us to the world of the IRA and hunger strikes, giving the story from both sides, but avoiding any judgement. His second film, Shame, takes the same approach to a very different topic; sexual addiction.
Brandon (Michael Fassbender again) is shown against a cold, glass and metal New York backdrop, where his high paid corporate lifestyle mirrors his cold (lack of love) life. He is not content picking up women on the subway, but needs call-girls and porn to keep him going. His carefully controlled life is thrown into disarray when his equally messed up sister arrives. Sissy (Carey Milligan) is a club singer with problems of her own. The question that McQueen raises - 'is the Shame of the title the cause or the reason for their life choices?' - I leave you to decide.
Time for a lighter interlude after last week. Albatross gives us the chance to enjoy some great acting in this comedy drama.
Into the lives of Jonathan, a failing author (played by Sebastian Koch - Lives of Others) and his wife Joa (Julia Ormond) comes Emelia Conan Doyle (Jessica Brown Findlay, late of Downton Abbey). Emelia‘s devil-may-care attitude to life bewitches their daughter, Beth (Felicity Jones who we saw in The Tempest last year), angers Joa and stirs Jonathan, who sets out to teach her to write (with a name like Conan Doyle, you would want to write wouldn't you..?). The evolving relationships between the three give us the main plot for the film, but Emelia steals the film, both with the universally acclaimed acting of Brown Findlay and some great lines.
Perhaps because adoption juxtaposes feelings of love and loss, writer-director Rodrigo García centres his bittersweet, superbly crafted Mother and Child on three women affected by adoption.
Almost forty years ago, a young girl of fourteen gets pregnant, and gives her baby up for adoption. Fast-forwarding to the present, we meet three very different women, struggling to maintain control of their lives. There's Elizabeth, (Naomi Watts) a smart and successful lawyer who uses her body to her advantage. Karen, (Annette Benning) meanwhile, is a bitter health care professional who obviously has a lot of heart but never shows it. She gave up a daughter at the age of fourteen and has never got over it - her bitterness inspiring her to lash out at everyone around her. Finally, Lucy (Kerry Washington) is a woman who has failed to conceive with her husband, who turns to adoption to make the family she desires.
This mixture of loss and joy forces you to examine the ―what ifs' of the characters' lives. García shows remarkable control of the tone, holding it across three different stories and through the characters' individual transformations that lead them to ostensibly happier places.
Ralph Fiennes has chosen Shakespeare as his directorial debut and most critics seem to think he has done a good job of it. He has choosen to reset the film in a modern day Balkan state (filmed in Serbia) racked by civil war, complete with street fighting and demonstrations. This has allowed him to transpose Coriolanus' inability to woo the people of Rome into a modern power struggle we have all become used to seeing over the last decades. Cinematographer Barry Ackroyd (fresh from The Hurt Locker) gets great reviews for these modern combat scenes and, looking at the trailers we can see why; but most plaudits are reserved for the acting. Fiennes himself plays Coriolanus, with Gerald Butler playing his enemy-turned-ally Aufidius, whilst Vanessa Redgrave is universally applauded as Volumnia, his mother. We also get another chance to see Jessica Chastain (Tree of Life) as his wife Virgilia.
So our last film of the year is Fiennes' first as a director; we don't get enough Shakespeare locally; let us hope his film and the stellar actors help make up for that.
We start the season with a period love affair, but one which is laced with the political arguments of its time. The young English princess Caroline (Alicia Vikander) was sent to Denmark in 1766 to forge the alliance of the two states by marrying the insane King Christian (Mikkel Boe Folsgaard).
This might have been a footnote in history but for the arrival of the German doctor Struensee (Mads Mikkelsen) as the King’s physician. Struensee was a political radical who set about influencing the King, attempting to bring in Enlightenment policies to a reactionary court - before the French Revolution remember - whilst having an affair with the Queen at the same time.
Nikolaj Arcel (‘The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo’) concentrates on the characters more than the politics, giving us a film about three strong characters caught up together, but showing a little known period in history where progress fought reaction much as in the Middle East today.
‘Monsieur Lazhar’, nominated for the Best Foreign film at the 2012 Oscars, is a French Canadian comedy drama which starts with a tragedy. An eleven year old boy discovers his teacher has committed suicide in the classroom. Monsieur Lazhar, an Algerian immigrant to Canada, reads about this in the paper and presents himself at the school as a substitute teacher for the class, claiming twenty years experience back in Algeria.
The film then follows the class through the next six months, watching them get over the shock of the suicide and Lazhar learning how to teach them. But there are other secrets to unfold in his life...
This is a small-life drama, which ‘you could almost describe as a morality tale, but it’s more thought-provoking than debate-provoking, its strength is the realness of the emotions and authenticity of the detail’ - Cath Clarke, Time Out
Dominik Moll has made very few films, but those (’Harry, He’s Here To Help’, ‘Lemming’) have left his fans wanting more, including one of our members who requested this film. ‘The Monk’ is a French film, based on the 1776 novel by English writer Matthew Lewis, set in Spain.
Ambrosia is abandoned as a baby outside a Capucin monastery and is brought up to become an unrivalled and popular preacher whose sermons draw large crowds. All is going well for him, until a masked monk comes on the scene, when a series of temptations gradually pull him from the straight and narrow; no-one, however good, is free from temptation.
What results is a sultry, romantic horror movie, but don't expect ‘The Devils’, this is a much more introspective film, beautifully filmed, with a universally acclaimed but uncharacteristically restrained performance from Vincent Cassel as Ambrosia, powering the film forwards.
Two apparently unrelated love stories in time and place... In 1969 Paris, single mum, Jacqueline, is trying to bring up Laurent, her Down’s Syndrome son. She has built an intense bond with him, which causes her heartache when he falls in love with a classmate.
Meanwhile, we move to Montreal in 2011, where DJ Antoine has a love triangle of his own; he is in love for the second time, but his former long-term lover will not accept he has gone.
Director Vallée does not make clear if there is a link (beyond love) between the stories; instead, using music as the link, he switches between time and place, blurring the lines as he goes. Vanessa Paradis, better known to us as a singer, has won various awards for her role as Jacqueline.
Béla Tarr has not made many films, but has had critical acclaim for triumphs such as (‘Werckmeister Harmóniák (2000)’, ‘Sátántangó (1994)’) He tells us this is to be his last movie and he has chosen to sign off with an apocalyptic, end of days story.
He begins by telling us that Nietzsche watched a horse being mistreated and was so upset he never worked again, never recovered, dying eleven years later. Tarr’s film then imagines the life of the unknown horse, following the horse and its owner through six days on a subsistence farm, where the horse refuses to drink or work and their subsistence, their very existence is threatened.
A bleak film, certainly, but one which critics and audiences alike have praised.
‘Even the Rain’ shows a film company arriving in Bolivia to make a film about Columbus arriving in America and starting the exploitation of native Americans. The trouble is that the film company starts off by exploiting the locals in the same way Columbus had. Their mistake is to hire Daniel, who turns out to be a local leader in the fight against privatisation of the water resources; the ‘double storyline’ is set. (We are in 2000 when there was a genuine fight against Bechtel Corp, who lost their battle to charge the locals for water.)
Our film has good credentials; it was written by Ken Loach’s screenwriter Paul Laverty (and, indeed, the director Icíar Bollaín appeared in Loach’s ‘Land and Freedom’). ‘Their point is that exploitation, inequality and misplaced ideals cross the centuries, but so too do smart, disenfranchised folk willing to take a stand.’ - Dave Calhoun, Time Out. We last saw Bollaín as director of ‘Take My Eyes’ (2005 Festival). Let’s hope she has learnt the lesson of history but, as Roger Ebert pointed out - ‘I looked in vain for a credit saying, “No extras were underpaid in the making of this film.”
Our second film in a short season of ‘the power of water’ movies takes us to an unnamed country in Africa or the Middle East where time (and the village men, apparently) have stood still for centuries. The women of the village are still forced to fetch water via a dangerous path to the local mountain spring, while the men laze around the village. This might have gone on forever but for the spirited resistance of Leila (Leila Bekhti), who encourages her fellow women to withhold sexual favours until the men get a pipe...er... laid. The ‘Love strike’ hits the national news and the basis for our comedy drama is set; a sort of ‘Made in Dagenham’ for the Arab Spring..?
The director, Radu Mihaileanu, who has directed eight films (’The Concert’ (2009)), comes from a communist, Jewish background, but is more interested in a feel-good, humanist approach, while Leila Bekhti and Biyouna are singled out by the critics for their performances.
Who will win this battle of the sexes? Wait and see...
‘Nuri Bilge Ceylan is one of the most significant movie-makers to have emerged this century ...His finest work to date, ‘Once Upon a Time in Anatolia’, is a carefully controlled masterpiece.’ - Philip French, Observer.
This feeling was echoed at Cannes, where the film won the Jury Prize in 2011. The story is played out in one night as we watch 12 men searching the Steppes for a dead body. Gradually we realise that two of the men are suspects for the murder, the others are policemen, gravediggers, a doctor... There is little in the way of traditional action, instead Ceylan leaves it to us to work out what has happened, what is going on, with the dialogue just giving us hints; like the police, we can only gradually understand the crime.
As the film moves towards daylight, the focus switches more towards the doctor. Their meeting with a young woman unsettles him...‘just as, we imagine, Ceylan hopes to unsettle us as he takes us with him on this compelling, masterly journey. ‘ - Dave Calhoun, Time Out
Gala Night: Two films, guests, food and good conversation.
After last year’s successful Gala night, we thought we should do it again, this time with new British films and guest directors as our theme. In contrast to our other film today, ‘Two Years at Sea’ is a very uncomplicated documentary, filmed in grainy monochrome with little or no talking.
Ben Rivers’ is building a reputation as a good experimental filmmaker. Here, he spends time filming Jake Williams, a recluse by choice who lives in an isolated, cluttered house deep in the forest in Aberdeenshire. We follow him in his day to day activities, eating, fishing, chopping wood, building a raft, with teasing, partial shots, leaving us to decide if this is just a pretty visual film of life on the edge of society, or a deeper ‘semi-blank canvas on which to draw your own ideas about living’ - Dave Calhoun,Time Out. The critics and audiences all seem to love it, though the critics are more split on its worth.
Hopefully, with Ben Rivers introduction, we will be able to fill the canvas for ourselves.
Gala Night: Two films, guests, food and good conversation.
Our history of supporting up and coming UK directors continues with this ‘period sci-fi’ from the new team of U’Ren and Ant Neely who decided to sell their house to get this movie made. We hope to have them both here today to tell us about it. If you could revisit your childhood...which moment would you choose? And what price would you pay? So runs the trailer for the film. Stephen and Conrad, our heroes, grow up wanting to be scientists. They want to invent a time machine to go back to rescue Victoria, who died when they were young... But have they really grown up? Did Victoria ever exist? Is the past really THE past, or just one of the infinity of possible pasts that exist? And, in that past, did Victoria love Stephen or Conrad? A tangled thread indeed, with multiple possibilities looping round them.
This film still has no distributor but, even without, won the best film award at the Boston Sci-Fi Festival 2012 and at the London Independent Film Festival 2012. Not bad for a period drama!
The Dardenne brothers have built their reputation on a series of award winning social-realist dramas around children based in the backstreets of Belgium. This one is no exception, both in its subject and its awards (sharing the Jury Prize at Cannes 2011 with‘...Anatolia’).
Here, 12 year old Cyril (Thomas Doret) is frantically cycling or running round town trying to find the father who has abandoned him to social services, as he cannot believe his father doesn’t want him. Desperate for a father figure, he falls in with ‘Wes’, a local drug dealer. Cyril’s potential to become good or bad, especially influenced by adults, is the Dardennes’ theme. His chances of turning out well are improved by a chance meeting with Samantha (Cécile de France), who agrees to ‘foster’ him at weekends, but Cyril does his best to mess this up too...
NIGHT OUT AT RHEGED WITH OPTIONAL FOOD
Prepare yourself for an experience like no other; our film today is not so much a documentary, more of a meditation. Filmed on glorious 70mm in 25 countries over 5 years, ‘Samsara’ is visual trip, in both senses of the word.
Ron Fricke came to fame as the cinematographer on ‘Koyaanisqatsi’, and went on to specialise in non-narrative films that explore our relationships with the world about us. Samsara is a Sanskrit word for ‘the ever turning wheel of life’, and Fricke attempts to ‘follow a loose arc from birth through dehumanization, destruction and death to spiritual transcendence’ - David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter. Using only his camera to tell the story, he shows the beauty AND the ugliness in the world. Fricke is famous for his cinematography, so expect beautiful camerawork, carried along by a soundtrack from Michael Stearns. AND we see this at Rheged, so come along.. and let yourself sink into the experience.
This might be our movie of the season; from the moment in the trailer where 6 year-old star Quvenzhané Wallis tells her Daddy ’I’m the man’ I was hooked. 29 year old newcomer Benh Zeitlin, brings us this ‘magic realist’, post apocalyptic adventure, starring Wallis as Hushpuppy (a universally-agreed ‘star in the making’) and a bunch of other non-actors who convert the Bayou into ‘Bathtub’. A storm is coming, and with it the prehistoric Aurochs. Hushpuppy has to stay strong to survive. Whether this is ’Mad Max’ territory, or just a small child’s imagination, we’ll have to wait to find out.
‘Sometimes miraculous films come into being, made by people you've never heard of, starring unknown faces, blindsiding you with creative genius. Beasts of the Southern Wild is one of the year's best films’.- Roger Ebert. Festivals from Sundance to Cannes have agreed with him.
Raoul Ruiz died last year having directed over 100 films, many of which did not reach Britain. He was born in Chile and was inspired by authors such as Gabriel García Márquez, who wrote complicated stories moving through time and place...and back again. Today we have Ruiz’s last movie, which gives us four and half hours to cover much of the 18th and 19th centuries, following the life of Pedro da Silva, flying backwards and forwards in a series of flashbacks. He
starts out as a young orphan in a home and we learn he is the son of a rich noblewoman...or possibly not.
We learn more and more of his life and others around him via a series of unreliable narrators so that we are never sure if what we learn is true; as in life, others see your life through their own. Even the characters themselves change from scene to scene.
NOTE This film will begin at 2.00pm and there will be an interval..don't let its length put you off!
By all accounts this is a little movie with a big heart, BUT one that has broken all box office records in France and done well all across Europe...so we just HAD to have it in Keswick to see what the fuss was about! It’s not a new story; rich, white guy with a black servant, who learn to like each other. Although it does star François Cluzet, the other actors are relative unknowns (One of whom, Omar Sy has, however, won the Best Actor César award). It’s not a clever comedy - ‘You will laugh, you will cry, you will cringe’ - A O Scott, NY Times.
Based on a true story (believe it or not), we have Philippe, a rich paraplegic, who is bored by all the applicants for a job as his carer, so he hires Driss, a wise-talking Senegalese who only applied so that he could get welfare benefits. Driss manages to improve Philippe’s life whilst getting himself out of the poverty trap. That’s it... So why has it proved so popular? ‘Not a great film but a warm one that pushes the viewer’s emotional buttons so deftly it feels like a massage. My guess is that you will laugh and cry at all appropriate moments. Resistance is futile.’ - Richard Corliss, TIME.
Enjoy the massage...
Not exactly a Christmas movie, but it is a comedy and it is at least about Peace in our Time. Audiences seem to like it - it even won the audience award at the Toronto Film Festival - but critics are split. The scene is a small un-named village in an un- named Middle East country, where the locals are split between Muslims and Christians. Since the coming of TV, at the smallest excuse, the men are liable to pick up their arms and fight each other. The women are
fed up with losing their husbands and sons in these futile fights, and they decide it is time to stop. First they sabotage the TV, then they invent miracles and even...but I won’t spoil it by telling you all their schemes.
The second in our ‘power of women’ season, this one is not so easy to take as ‘The Source’, possibly because the arguments and the solutions are harder to understand. Nadine Labaki, who also directed ‘Caramel’, seems to be saying that wars would not happen if women were to run society. Believe that or not, enjoy the comdy... and have a happy Christmas!
We start and end our season with films that should be main-stream, but aren’t. This film took 5 years to see the light of day, but "...the resulting movie is stunning: provocative and brilliant, a sprawling neurotic nightmare of urban catastrophe, with some-thing of John Cassavetes and Tom Wolfe, and rocket-fuelled by a superbly thin-skinned performance by Anna Paquin" - Peter Bradshaw, Guardian.
Lisa is the 17 year old daughter of a Broadway stage star and goes to private school; it shows. She is mouthy, self-obsessed, sexy but naive, living for the moment. She gets into her mind to buy a cowboy hat and, seeing a bus driver wearing one, she runs alongside, flirtatiously trying to attract his attention to find out where he bought it. The driver cannot resist looking...with disastrous results.
The film then follows Lisa’s more and more desperate attempts to make up for the consequences, driven by guilt... or is it righteousness...or just vengeance against the world for putting her in this position?
Anna Paquin, who stars as Lisa, rightfully gets high praise for her role here. Although she had already played Rogue in the 'X Men' series, this was filmed before her leading role in the tv series 'True Blood', and was her first chance to show she could really act. Alongside her, we also get to see Matt Damon and Mark Ruffalo... and even Jean Reno
The director, Kenneth Lonergan, created a real stir with his first film - ‘You Can Count On Me’ - in 2000 and then all went quiet. Whilst he was successfully writing scripts (including ‘Gangs of New York’), the world did not know he was fighting the studio to get ‘Margaret’ released as he wanted it, getting Martin Scorsese on his side along the way. He eventually accepted this shorter version, but not until 2011 was it finally released.
This is truly a film that belongs in the ‘one that nearly got away’ mould, which, as Peter Travers says in Rolling Stone "What a shame. Margaret, for all its flaws, is a film of rare beauty and shocking gravity...Seek it out. You can thank me later".
Why is it called ‘Margaret’? You will have to come along and find out for yourself.. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Depending on your mindset, this is either a very appropriate film for now...or not. Are the Palestinians to blame for the conflict in Gaza, or the Israelis? This film tries to take a decidedly slapstick look at the problem and comes out with the answer - "we should all just learn to live together" Now there's an idea...
Jafaar is a very poor Palestinian fisherman. One day, emptying his nets, he finds he has caught a large pig. As a Muslim, this causes him something of a problem; as a poor Muslim he cannot afford to look a gift, er, pig, in the mouth. He can't eat it because it isn't Halal, he can't sell it to the Israelis because it isn't Kosher. He tries to hide it from his wife, he tries to sell it to the U N. He even tries to... Well I won't spoil it and tell you the rest, but along the way expect some 'belly' laughs.
The second half of the film changes gear, with Jafaar being accused of siding with the enemy and even suicide bombing.
The lead role is taken by Iraqi born Sasson Gabai, who also starred in 'The Band’s Visit', a similar attempt to see both sides of this conflict. The director Sylvain Estibal is a French ex-reporter in the Middle East who is now based in Uruguay. He sets out to remain impartial in the conflict, while trying to bring out the absurdities on both sides and to raise the almost impossible issues in the area.
Compared to some of the other films we are showing this year, this is a shoe-string budget movie and, as one of the few critics who bothered to review it says "If the why-can't-we-all-just-get-along message is simplistic, the film, shot in Malta, and occasionally rough-hewn, has its heart in the right place and is worth 90 minutes of anyone's time" — Bernard Besserglik, Hollywood Reporter. Let’s find out.
This film has had so much hype we felt we just "had to have it, darling!" It starts with a man (Carax) waking up in bed and going through a hidden door into... a movie theatre. Is the film, then,
his dream, or an homage to all films?
We follow the hero/star, Oscar (played, as always in Carax movies by Denis Lavant) as he is driven around Paris in an enormous limousine by his chauffeur Céline (Edith Scob), taking him to various assignments (or film parts?). He is continually changing roles (he has a makeup table in the car), from a concerned father to a beggarwoman, an old man on his deathbed, to an anarchic beast who kidnaps Eva Mendes from a glamour shoot in a cemetery.
Leos Carax, the director, has only made 5 full films (including 'Les amants du Pont-neuf' and 'Pola X'), but has always been an enigma: 'Leos Carax...has met the challenge of filming the visions dancing and dueling inside his own internally exploding head. Love him or hate him, Carax does Carax brilliantly' - Peter Travers, Rolling Stone. Here he takes his favourite star (Lavant) and gives him two hours to show his worth; surely Oscar must put him in line for an Oscar?
In 2003, Zvyagintsev brought us 'The Return', feted universally, even here in Keswick. He now brings us 'Elena', an almost film noir-like movie which, once again, has brought worldwide critical acclaim, including the Cannes 'Un certain regard' special jury prize.
Elena has married Vladimir, we learn, some ten years earlier. She was his nurse when his appendix burst, and the relationship was upgraded to wife with, apparently, little or no love on either side. She has continued to look after him since. In the background, we find Elena has a feckless son, Sergei, from a previous marriage who is reliant on Elena bringing him money to support his own family. Vladimir has no time for him, instead doting on his own daughter, Katya, who seems to have little purpose in life beyond getting his money. So this loveless family life has continued until now, when circumstances clash; Sergei's son needs money to go to college or he will have to join the army, whilst Vladimir has a heart attack and has to face up to his future. His decision does not favour Elena's family and she has to decide what to do to ensure her family are secure. With a central performance by Nadezhda Markina playing Elena, also to enthusiastic critics, we can look forward to a gripping drama, with overtones of the state of Russia today; people are of no importance, money is all.
Our film tonight could be a season highlight. It is one that Dave Calhoun from Time Out says "..is a devastating, highly intelligent and astonishingly performed work. It's a masterpiece". George (Jean-Louis Trintignant) and Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) are 80 year olds and a very happily married couple.
'Amour' follows them in their day to day life through the traumas caused when Anna has a stroke and her life begins to close down. What do love and companionship mean when one half of a couple is facing the end? How can we cope? What's the right way to behave? Can anyone else understand what you're going through? Is life always worth living? What role, if any, do kindness and compassion play? And what, actually, do those words even mean in extreme circumstances? Michael Haneke (who we have previously enjoyed directing 'Hidden' and 'White Ribbon') has already won the Palme D'Or for this film at Cannes, garnering great praise from the critics for its intelligence, intensity and intimacy. On top of this we have the pleasure of seeing Trintignant and Riva "give breathtaking performances" Peter Bradshaw, Guardian with Isabelle Huppert in support. A masterpiece indeed.
Made in 1965, this became a cult classic in America, and was restored in the 1990s, by Jerry Garcia, Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola. The narrative is a kind of 'Don Quixote' on drugs, designed to take us on a series of tales within tales; is there a plot, or are we imagining it all? We follow the adventures of Alfonse van Worden, a Belgian officer, through the Sierra Morena during the Peninsular War. He discovers a manuscript which contains stories which involve him. These stories, and his own adventures, overlap and lead us into a surreal, swashbuckling romp.
This is the latest film from Miguel Gomes, one of the most distinctive directors in contemporary cinema. We start in Lisbon, where Aurora, on her deathbed, asks to see Ventura, of whom no-one has heard before. When he arrives, his story takes us back to 50 years before when he and Aurora were lovers in Africa. What we see is the history of their illicit love affair, set against Portugal's colonisation of Africa.
Left to raise her four children after her husband is imprisoned, Everyday focuses on the impact this has on a mother and her family. Some first class performances and Winterbottoms's observational style of filming will keep you engaged and engrossed as the true genius is that Everyday was filmed over five years, to match the period of the husband's sentence. You will see the four children grow up before your eyes and their changing faces are fascinating to watch, only adding to the believability of the story
Thanks to Soda Pictures.
Two vivacious girls begin to discover their sexuality, their desires and the limitations placed on them by the society in which they live. Set in modern Iran, this is a story of seldom seen Iranian youth culture. Positive, fun-filled lives fuelled by parties, defiance and more may not be the conventional take on life in Iran so be prepared to re-evaluate any media driven preconceptions.
This is a film that reveals how two women defy the rules, despite the dangers, to live their lives as they wish.
Thanks to Peccadillo Pictures.
One of the most iconic images ever taken. It was taken on 29th September 1932, 69 floors off the ground on the Rockefeller Building in New York. It was published in the New York Herald Tribune a few days later but it was not until 2003 that the real story began to emerge. Who took the photo? Who are the men depicted? Where did they come from? This documentary answers some of these questions as well as providing an in-depth look at this photograph.
Thanks to Cargo Film Releasing (USA).
Two brothers divided by their parents' separation long to re-unite their family. When they learn that, if you wish at the exact moment two bullet-trains pass each other your wish will be granted, they form a plan to achieve their mutual wish. Helped by friends - some of whom have wishes of their own - teachers, family and strangers, the two boys embark on their quest. This is a wonderful evocation of childhood innocence, wonder, trust and friendship and all without cloying sentimentality.
Other Hirokazu's films (Afterlife, Nobody Knows and Still Walking) have played to large and enthusiastic audiences in Keswick.
Thanks to Verve Pictures.
Scent of a Woman is a classic (even if it is a re-make of an Italian film). Like Untouchable, it is chock full of brilliant performances. At its core, one able bodied person is employed to help a cranky disabled one and both get much more than they bargained for. The film won a glut of major awards, including Al Pacino's first Oscar for Best Actor (after 7 nominations).
This is not, however, a one-man show as Pacino is ably supported by Chris O'Donnell and Philip Seymour Hoffman in an early role. Scent of A Woman is a well-crafted film delivering a wonderful blend of drama, romance and humour. By the end you realise that seldom are you taken on a journey with so much intelligence and skill.
Thanks to Universal Pictures.
The character Yossi first appeared in the 2002 film Yossi and Jagger where two soldiers fall in love. Now a workaholic doctor, Yossi lives a solitary existence in Tel Aviv. When a woman from his past talks into his examination room he re-evaluates his life and sets off on a new journey.
One critic (Melissa Hanson) says "You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll grin from ear to ear". Yossi is a film with a tender, deeply romantic sensibility that gradually leads to a climactic scene of soaring emotion.
Thanks to Peccadillo Pictures.
See how a visiting doctor's chance game of football with village girls leads to the Akhand Jyoti Football Academy, which breaks a cycle of poverty and builds on the girls' enthusiasm for football, allowing them to complete their schooling and to train to become the much-needed future employees of the rapidly expanding eye hospital. Girls from all regions, castes and creeds are part of the AJFA.
Lucy Mathen, who some will remember from John Craven's Newsround in 1976, changed careers in 1988 to become an ophthalmologist and set up the charity Second Sight. In 2012 she became the first recipient of the Karen Woo award - recognising doctors who have gone beyond the call of duty. She will be introducing the screening, selling and signing books and there will be a collection for her charity.
Thanks to Lucy Mathen.
An astute observation based on real cases of bullying. In central Gothenburg, Sweden, a group of boys, aged 12-14, robbed other children on about 40 occasions between 2006 and 2008. The thieves used an elaborate scheme called the 'little brother number' or 'brother trick', involving advanced role-play and gang rhetoric rather than physical violence. Play is elegantly shot - entirely filmed in static shots using a Red 4K camera - and while languid at times, it is punctuated by unlikely moments of humour. An award winner at Festivals from Tokyo to Tromso.
Thanks to Soda Pictures.
Only released in the UK in September 2012 and from the director of Oscar winning A Separation, this is another gripping tale of secrets and lies. Three Iranian families travel to spend time at the seaside. But it is not all pleasure - ulterior motives lurk under the surface as well as secrets, betrayals and tragedy. The opening scenes allow you to understand the film's personalities and relationships through the humour and knowing banter of friends having a good time. Then someone disappears and their orderly life begins to crack. Blame is tossed around, small lies grow in size and number, and the mystery of the disappearance becomes compounded by the greater mysteries of their life; enthralling and suspenseful.
Thanks to Axiom Films.
When originally released in 1990, Nightbreed had been savagely cut to102 minutes. This release is much more in line with Clive Barker's original vision. Various versions have emerged on VHS tape – one clocking in at 145 mins and another at 159 mins. In early 2012, Russell Cherrington, previously at the University of Carlisle and a frequent helper of this Festival, created a composite cut of the film using the footage found on both VHS tapes as well as the Warner Bros DVD. This version is the most complete version of Barker's film available and we are delighted to welcome Russell to host the screening. What was already a real treat for fans of horror films now delivers much more.
Thanks to Russell Cherrington.
One drunken kiss brings the world of popular Dominik - he with the hottest girl for his girlfriend, money to spend on designer clothes and rich parents – to a crashing halt. Seeking solace in the world of social networking he begins to isolate himself from the real world and enters a place from which there seems to be no escape; Suicide Room shows this virtual world in all its beauty and wonderment. If you have ever wondered how a person can be drawn into this on-line universe then Suicide Room is a must-see. Winner of many awards, this is one title that fully deserves its Best of the Fests billing.
Thanks to KADR Film Studios, Poland.
Presented with the participation of Keswick Peace and Human Rights Group.
Stealing a Nation tells a story literally 'hidden from history'. In the 1960s and 70s, British governments, conspiring with American officials, tricked into leaving and then expelled the entire population of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean. The aim was to give the principal island of this Crown Colony, Diego Garcia, to the Americans, who wanted it as a major military base. Indeed, from Diego Garcia US planes have since bombed Afghanistan and Iraq. This story is told by islanders who were dumped in the slums of Mauritius and British officials who left a 'paper trail' of what the International Criminal Court now describes as 'a crime against humanity'.
Bernard Nourrice, a member of the Chagossian Support Group, will be here to talk about this long-standing issue.
Thanks to John Pilger.
Free Family Film
When an evil spirit known as Pitch lays down the gauntlet to take over the world, the immortal Guardians must join forces for the first time to protect the hopes, beliefs, and imaginations of children all over the world.
Entry is free to all and tickets will be distributed via the schools.
This Norwegian documentary looks at the events one year after the euphoria of the Tahrir Square protests in Cairo. How have the lives of ordinary Egyptians changed since those momentous events in 2011? Those who have followed the story in the news will be aware that there is still much unrest in Egypt but this documentary tells how things are for those who actually live and work in Cairo. This is a film with some fascinating insights that will elicit much debate, playing at many film festivals all over the world.
Thanks to the Norwegian Film Institute.
'National Geographic' photographer James Balog was once a sceptic about climate change. But through his Extreme Ice Survey, he discovers undeniable evidence of our changing planet. In Chasing Ice we follow Balog across the Arctic as he deploys revolutionary time-lapse cameras designed for one purpose: to capture a multi-year record of the world's changing glaciers. Travelling with a young team of adventurers by helicopter, canoe and dog sled across three continents, Balog risks his career and his well-being in pursuit of the biggest story in human history.
Thanks to Dogwoof.
The rhythm of the life of a village. Found Memories draws the viewer into the rhythm - from predawn bread baking to prickly interactions to post-squabble coffee and mass - so that when a young woman appears on Madalena's doorstep, she seems to have entered this suspended world along with us. Rita (Lisa E. Fávero) is a backpacking photographer in search of aesthetic bliss. Initially treated like the parasite she appears to be, over the course of this crisp, gracefully inflected meditation on time's passage, Rita develops the interest in her subjects that turns an image into more than stolen light.
Thanks to MPM Film (France).
Extending from deep underground to the depths of outer-space, this is a visual treat. The Atacama Desert in Chile is one of the driest places in the world. Astronomers flock to the Atacama to gaze into the universe and search for evidence and artefacts from the beginning of time. Elsewhere, other "archaeologists" search among the pebbles and dust. They are looking for bones. Or at least fragments of bones. Thousands of Chileans were abducted and killed, their bodies disposed of in the Atacama. Forty years later their relatives still search the desert for any sign of bone fragment.
Thanks to Verve Pictures.
This is an aural treat, with a superb soundtrack and live performances. A biopic of Belfast music legend Terri Hooley, who established a record shop called Good Vibrations and then moved into record production after an epiphany inspired by a visit to a punk concert. From The Shangri Las to The Outcasts in one night and from there to giving punk an outlet in 70's Belfast - a time when Belfast was a war zone. The impact this has on Hooley and his beloved punks is truly eye-opening. It's this simmering sense of dread and conflict which gives Good Vibrations its edge, and allows its many moments of uplift to shine that much brighter.
Thanks to The Works.
Maryam d'Abo suffered a subarachnoid haemorrhage in 2007 and is lucky to be alive. Her experience inspired this film, made by her film director husband (Chariots of Fire, Greystoke, The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes and Revolution). It leads the viewer on a personal journey of recovery, giving a sense of hope to those who are isolated by their condition, one that is not seen and therefore often misunderstood. At times both traumatic and uplifting, this is an intelligent and informative documentary.
Thanks to Maryam d'Abo.
This film has been selected by John Hurt for inclusion in this year's programme.
An exhilaratingly alive and sweet-natured tale set in the barren landscape of a Kazakh steppe. Asa returns from the navy to live with his sister, her husband and their three children. Asa dreams of his own flock of sheep, but it appears that until he gets married, his wish will never be granted. He targets a young unmarried woman called Tulpan, whose face he has never seen, but her feelings are not to be taken for granted. Four years in the making, Tulpan is filmmaking of the highest order, reminiscent of Werner Herzog at his best.
Winner: BFI's Sutherland Trophy and'Un Certain Regard', Cannes 2008
Thanks to Verve Pictures.
Learning how an autocracy works takes on a distinctly disturbing angle when the pupils start to live and act under autocratic rules and conventions. As what was initially an experiment gives way to daily living, what will it take before those involved realise what is happening? It is said that evil exists when one good person does nothing but what happens when one good person does something? A stunningly powerful film that is frighteningly believable and one that is all the more thought provoking for being set in Germany.
Thanks to Momentum Pictures.
Evil depicts life in a single-sex boarding school and what one person has to endure. Having been expelled from one day school for fighting, Erik ends up in a boarding school. Out of the frying pan and into the fire? An assured piece of film making - as the director attended such a boarding school himself - and a cast who play their parts brilliantly. As the tension increases you will be drawn into the story and forced to revise your opinion of the central character as he undergoes a period of intense change. Very powerful with knockout performances.
Thanks to Metrodome.
John Hurt introduces one of his lesser known films. Philip Seymour Hoffman adds another great performance to his gallery in Owning Mahowny, an engrossing comedy-drama about the perils of compulsive gambling. As Toronto bank-loan manager Dan Mahowny, Hoffman brings fresh depth and tortured humanity to his portrayal of a man helplessly feeding his pathological need to gamble with millions in embezzled bank money - money he can't afford to lose. A delicate balance of humour, adrenaline, and escalating tension fuel this modern-day tale of obsession.
Thanks to Momentum.
Presented with the participation of Keswick Peace and Human Rights Group.
Two young lovers are university students in the West Bank and hail from Gaza. Forced to return home before completing their courses and now within a more religious and traditional environment, their love story can continue only by marrying. But can a lowly construction worker living in a refugee camp convince her father that he can provide for his beloved daughter?
Judged best Arab feature at the Dubai Film Festival following its initial bow at Venice Days and Toronto Discovery. Shot in the occupied Palestinian Territories, the first fiction film shot there for 15 years, the digital camerawork earned the film technical awards.
Thanks to Susan Youssef.
The journey depicted in the film was one attempted by thousands during 2005 and 2010, with many perishing in the attempt. This film was created in memoriam of those that did not survive and to humanise those who may have been received with suspicion and contempt upon arrival. It was an illegal and extremely dangerous mission but one undertaken in the hope that they could earn a better living and more amply provide for their family. The journey is made all the more poignant as we hear characters reminisce about what they are leaving behind and what they speculate they will find.
Thanks to Memento Films.
Deeply inspired by Django Reinhardt, Ken Sykora's musical career was cut short by World War II and rock'n'roll. He moved to broadcasting where he worked on more than 3000 programmes over four decades. At the peak of his popularity in the early 70s he suddenly and unexpectedly quit the BBC and moved his young family to Scotland to run a hotel in 'the middle of nowhere'. Featuring intimate interviews with his three children, close friends and colleagues, Ken is creatively brought to life through a mixture of animation and his radio voice. With exclusive access to Ken's extensive archive, his life of music, food and words is reconstructed using memorabilia and rare sound recordings not heard for more than 50 years.
Thanks to Five Feet Films.
A feature film about Benjamin Britten, released as part of the 100 year celebrations of his birth. Britten is the most performed British composer worldwide. This film premiered at Gresham's School, which he attended, and focuses on how his life-long pacifism influenced his life and music. Written and directed by Tony Britten (whose film about Alma Cogan was featured at last year's festival), narrated by John Hurt and with a superb cast of young people, including many supporting roles taken by students of Gresham's School, the film weaves dramatisation with a documentary narrative. Tony and Anwen Rees Myers, the producer, will be here to introduce the film. We are also screening War Requiem later in the day.
Thanks to Capriol Films.
Winner of a host of festival awards and the 2013 submission from the Netherlands to The Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. This is the story a young boy – brought up alone by his father and having difficulty coping with the absence of his mother – who develops a special relationship with a fledgling rescued jackdaw. The arrival of the bird acts as a catalyst between father and son, as both struggle to come to terms with their loss. Whilst aimed at audiences from age 12, it still has an emotional punch and something to offer all ages.
Thanks to Waterland Film, Netherlands.
McCullin is a whirlwind tour through a remarkable professional life spanning 20 years. Don McCullin's photographic career, which began in 1959, specialised in examining the underside of society. McCullin couldn't read properly and his community was full of gangs and violence but ironically they proved his salvation. With an inherent gift for composition and knowing when to press the shutter, his portraits of a local gang were bought by The Observer, opening the door to another world. McCullin became an internationally known photojournalist, particularly recognised for his war photography and images of urban strife.
Thanks to Artificial Eye.
An antiques collector inherits a house from his estranged mother only to discover that she had been living in a shrine devoted to a mysterious cult of angels. As night falls, he comes to suspect that his mother's spirit still lingers within her home. This is a beautifully crafted, stylish and thought provoking horror film, featuring a strikingly original narrative technique and experimental in its use of voiceover (voiced by Vanessa Redgrave).
Thanks to Rodrigo Gudiño.
How much emotional impact can a single touch have? And, have you ever wondered what the beauticians say about you? Touch gives us an insight into the daily goings on in a nail salon. It also presents understated and believable characters, where often what goes unsaid matters the most. That said, the dialogue is powerful and interesting enough to keep you guessing as to what the eventual outcome might be. It is a case of enjoying the journey, as each of the characters slowly reveals more of him or herself. Nguyen is a storyteller and a gifted director, one to watch out for.
Thanks to Minh Duc Nguyen and Melissa Tong.
A film that will tickle the taste buds as well as satisfy much else. Deanie Ip puts in a career defining performance and, as she puts it, acting as an old lady is not difficult at all, as she is just playing herself. In lesser hands the film may have become a mawkishly sentimental mess or a tub thumping tirade about the treatment of elderly Hong Kongers, or even worse, both. Instead, thanks to Hui's sensitive direction and the loving focus on the central relationship beautifully played by Ip and Lau, A Simple Life is one of the best and most rewarding films you are likely to see for many a year and deserves all the praise and many awards lavished upon it.
Thanks to Verve Pictures.
Following presentations covering the history of Britain's coal mining and shipbuilding industries, we welcome back Jan Feull and turn our attention to the nation's steel industry. Local interest centres on the fact that on 6th November 1856 the Workington Haematite Iron Company Ltd. was established to manufacture pig iron from locally mined haematite ore. Bessemer steelmaking commenced in June 1877 until closure in 2006. Although there are no local films in the selection, there are rare documentaries, animations and short films which span the twentieth century.
Highlights include footage of the building of the new Tyne Bridge in 1928 and the rare 1945 film STEEL which was shot by award-winning cameraman, and our very first guest, Jack Cardiff.
Thanks to BFI.
Totally based around the music of Benjamin Britten and the poetry of Wilfred Owen, this is a must-see for fans of classical music or poetry, but much more than that, it is a film for everyone who wants to watch a unique anti-war film. Containing a powerful montage of images, there is no better summary of the film (and no better embodiment of our Senses theme) than that of the Washington Post - 'Jarman has added visuals so intense that this is likely to be the ultimate embodiment of the idea until someone develops a technique for recording and playing back physical sensations other than sight and sound: the impact of a shell exploding a few yards away; the feel of mud everywhere; the taste of blood coughed up from a lung wound.'
Thanks to Producer Don Boyd.
Ray Winstone plays the Alzheimer's afflicted Frank, a previously formidable man confined to a residential home, a shadow of his former self. James (Jim Sturgess), after many months of searching, finally finds his father figure and breaks him loose from the nursing home, beginning a rather dangerous road trip laced with gallows humour. However, with Frank's mind failing and James' motives unclear, the film gradually unravels the past of both characters.
Thanks to Cinemanx.
Jacky Vanmarsenille is the Bull of the title, a hulking, thug of a man, a low-level cattle farmer with a sideline in intimidation for the 'hormone mafia'. With access to all the hormones and a lack of confidence in his own masculinity he has been unable to resist trying the drugs himself, building his body up and his temper at the same time.
In this story, based on a true event in Belgium when a meat inspector was killed to stop him revealing the use of growth hormones in the cattle industry, director Michael Roskam takes us into this world of crime, showing the seedy side of Belgium, but the result is more than a thriller, more a dark look into the character of Jacky; a sort of 'farm noir'?
We are tempted from the off just to see Jacky as the macho, low-life thug he appears, but Roskam, by showing us his early life through a series of flashbacks, gradually builds a picture of a seriously damaged man, looking for a way through his life. What could make a man risk his life taking what should be lethal doses of cattle hormones? Don't judge him too harshly until we get to the flashback which reveals all. As in the classic 'Sophie's Choice', you will know which flashback is THE one when you see it...
Jacky is played by Matthias Schoenaerts (who, himself, bulked-up especially for the part, but not with cattle hormones). He has had rave reviews for the portrayal, and it has already won him the co-starring part in 'Rust and Bone' shown recently at the Alhambra . "It's an amazing performance. At times in the film he moves like a bull, he actually looks like a bull" Chris Summers, BBC.
The film itself was an unlikely nomination for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language film. Whether Keswick will find this justified or not, we shall see, but Schoenaerts' performance is universally proclaimed. A star is born?
Pablo Larrain's Pinochet trilogy finishes here with General Pinochet's attempt to legitimise his Chilean regime by calling a referendum in 1988. The trick was, of course, that both he and the world at large assumed he would win it, but a group of oppositionists (I don't think I dare call them a coalition in England at the moment) had other ideas. Gathering together people who didn't like Pinochet was the easy part; convincing the population that they dared to vote against Pinochet was something else.
The NO campaign hires Rene Saavedra, an advertising hot shot (played by Gael García Bernal of last season's 'Even the Rain'), who sets out to push the politics into the background and make everyone hope for better times to come.
Having had the second of the trilogy 'Post Mortem' recently, it seemed only right to bring this one to Keswick too. Having seen it in London, I agree with the critics that this is the best of the series. Let's see if you agree.
Thomas Vinterberg burst onto the scene back in 1995 when he co-created the Dogme 95 Manifesto with Lars Von Trier. Their aim was to make films based on the traditional values of story, acting, and theme, and excluding the use of elaborate special effects or technology. In 1998 he made 'Festen' on this basis, which won the Jury Prize at Cannes. Since then, he appears to have lost his way, but all critics agree he is back in a big way with this film, where he takes on his familiar theme of group hysteria.
In 'The Hunt', Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen of 'A Royal Affair') is a temporary kindergarten teacher with many close friends in a close-knit community. Everything goes wrong for him when an accusation is made against him by a small child. The community turns against him and leaves him with no chance to defend himself.
The Hunt becomes a tense drama-thriller, with many gripping scenes, including "Lucas's appearance at the Christmas Eve church service, which can really only be watched through your fingers." Peter Bradshaw, Guardian
Mads Mikkelsen gets rave reviews from just about everyone, winning Best Actor at Cannes, whilst Vinterberg was nominated for the Palme D'Or.
We hoped to have this film last season as part of an unlikely 'time travelling' theme, but it was not available...um... in time. Now it has done the rounds in the US and comes to us with high acclaim. A small budget movie from an independent team; what should we expect?
The title comes from an advert placed in a Washington paper :-
WANTED: Someone to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You'll get paid when we get back. Must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this once before.
Three journalists track down the advertiser, only to discover a supermarket employee with a machine in his garage...Is it for real? The journalist intern Darius (Aubrey Plaza) is given the task of finding out, so, posing as a respondent to the advert, she joins up with Kenneth as they
try to travel across time.
So is this just a comedy? Do they manage to travel through time? Will true love win the day? You will have to come along and find out for yourself.
Meanwhile the director, newcomer Colin Trevorrow and actors Mark Duplass (whom the observant amongst you will know from a recent film here 'Your Sister's Sister') and Aubrey Plaza (a tv actress in the States) have had great reviews, and the film picked up a couple of awards at the Sundance Festival.
Perhaps this season can be summed up by 'films to make you think'. If so, this one will definitely fit the part. If there is one thing that unites the critics, it is that you should see this film more than once...and that you will want to! Not content with covering a lifetime, 'Cloud Atlas' takes us from the past to the future, from 1849 to 2346, through various unconnected stories...or are they?
The continuity is carried by each actor playing different roles in different times; spotting which actor in disguise will be at least one of the topics discussed after the film. And there are stars galore for you here Tom Hanks and Halle Berry get top billing, but look out for Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving and even Hugh Grant and Susan Sarandon...if you can recognize them.
What's it about? A good question. It is a love story, but so much more. I could talk about its spiritual message, but is it really about reincarnation, or Taoism? I could talk about its politics, but is this post-Marxism, or just post Matrix? Maybe it is simply our old friends 'good versus evil', or heroes and anti-heroes. It IS based on David Mitchell's book of the same name, but all I would say is, read the book after you have seen the film, not before.
Cinematically, the Wachowskis directed 'The Matrix', so expect some fantastic effects, but there are parts where we are taken into much gentler directions. The directors split the film up between them, so Tykwer ('Perfume', 'Run Lola Run') brings his own feel to the movie too. It is science fiction, farce, suspense, even melodrama. Overall, as Roger Ebert says, "To borrow Churchill's description of Russia, 'it is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.'...But, oh, what a film this is! And what a demonstration of the magical, dreamlike qualities of the cinema."
For once we have a big budget movie ($100m+), and one made in the States, but don't expect to go to sleep; this film is anything but boring. Maybe we should run a competition - 'what is it about...?'
Two tapes, two Parisian mob killers, one corrupt policeman, an opera fan, a teenage thief, and the coolest philosopher ever filmed. All these characters twist their way through an intricate and stylish French language thriller.
Many of you saw 'A Royal Affair' and 'The Hunt' in last year's programme. I also guess a lot of you will have watched 'The Killing' and 'Borgen' on television over the last few years. What do these have in common? They all come from Denmark, a country that has almost cornered the market in good quality thrillers over the last decade. To celebrate this (and obviously to push home their advantage), the Danish Film Institute are sponsoring a number of Danish films over this summer, which includes 'The Escape (Flugten)'. This made us decide it was worth seeing if anyone would enjoy a mid-summer film club; if you do, come along and see what the Danes have for us this time.
It is the story of a Danish journalist who is kidnapped by the Taliban and used to put pressure on the Danish government to withdraw their troops. Her escape and the resulting questions (No-one else has succeeded - how did she escape? ) when she gets back to Denmark make up this political thriller. Its star (Iben Hjejle) and director (Kathrine Windfeld) are both woman - unusual for a terrorist thriller. On the back of this film,Kathrine Windfeld went on to direct some episodes of 'The Killing' and 'Wallander'. Lastly, look out for Lars Mikkelsen, brother of Mads Mikkelsen...definitely a family with acting in the blood!
We start our autumn season with a familiar theme for regular film goers in Keswick; a beautiful French period drama. Set among the pine forests of France, the photography is made to look like paintings by Vermeer, showing the story cast against a backdrop of autumn leaves or tranquil oceans. The peace is not as perfect as it seems, however.
Taken from the 1927 novel by François Mauriac, our story, set in 1926, starts with the young Thérèse discussing love with her friend Anne. She is brought down to earth by the realisation that she is likely to marry Anne’s brother to seal the deal between him and her father; business, not love, are to be her fate. She accepts this, hoping that marriage will bring what she seeks; ‘Marriage will save me from the disorder in my head’
It is not until further events happen in Ann’s life that Thérèse begins to have doubts. Like Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary before her, her loveless marriage and the dull provincial life begin to weigh her down - but what can she do about it?
Thérèse is the last film by director Claude Miller (‘The Little Thief’, ‘A Secret’) - a long-time collaborator of François Truffaut. Miller died soon after completion of this film. He has taken the original novel of provincial passion and converted it into an atmospheric, closely observed drama, full of suspense and ominous intrigue.
The central character of Thérèse is taken by Audrey Tatou, who manages to combine her normal pixie-like energy (‘Amelie’) with a powerful stillness, resulting in a performance ‘utterly mesmerising as her implacable inner demons push her into conflict with everything around her’ - Trevor Johnston, Radio Times. She is ably supported by Gilles Lellouche as Bernard, her husband, and Anaïs Demoustier as her friend Anne.
Welcome to ‘Villa Virgin’, a shantytown in a Buenos Aires slum. The scene is an unfinished hospital—the ‘white elephant’ of the title. The background is corrupt politicians failing to get a housing project built, and drug cartels vying for control of the area - a (sadly) all too familiar backdrop to the modern world.
Our heroes here, are two priests trying to keep the peace between the rival gangs whilst pushing the politicians to get the housing project completed. Meanwhile, the homeless live in the empty hospital; all that is needed for an explosion is for something to light the fuse...
The backdrop of poverty and homelessness bring to mind the recent battles of Hugo Chavez in Venezula, whilst the church’s ‘peoples champion’ is even closer to home with the selection of the Argentinean Pope. These big issues are obviously part of this film, but Pablo Trapero is more interested in the real-world problems faced by the people involved; while the politicians procrastinate and get rich, the people battle everyday starvation, homelessness and violence and the priests face their own personal problems.
South American cinema has grown and grown recently. Pablo Trapero is familiar to us - we have seen his ‘Lions Den’ and ‘Carancho’ in recent seasons. You may well recognize the actors too - Father Julian is played by Ricardo Darin (‘The Secret in their Eyes’), Father Nicolas - Jeremie Renier (‘The Kid with a Bike’) - whilst Martina Gusman who plays the community worker Luciana also appeared in Trapero’s two recent films.
We should expect political intrigue, then, but most of all we should expect drama.
The first of this season’s ‘new UK Directors theme’, takes us to a a soapy London suburb where all is not as well as it looks on the surface. At the centre of the action is Skunk, an 11 year old diabetic, played to universal acclaim by new-comer Eloise Lawrence. Her father, Archie (Tim Roth) is the ‘nice guy’, doing his best to look after Skunk and her brother.
The ‘bad guy’ is Skunk’s angry neighbour Mr Oswald (Rory Kinnear), who seems to bring darkness into her life. An everyday story of suburban life?
Rufus Norris started his directing career in the theatre (‘London Road’), but this is his film debut. He has met with much critical acclaim, with nominations for ‘Best British New-comer’ and ‘European Discovery of the Year’; ‘this is stirring stuff from a director who's well worth keeping an eye on’ - Adam Woodward, Little White Lies. In producing this good British indie drama, he is being compared to the likes of Andrea Arnold, will we agree? Either way, we can look forward to some great acting.
‘Superbly made and brilliantly acted, Sleep Tight is a terrific Spanish chiller that is well worth seeking out. Highly recommended’ - Matthew Turner, View London.
‘It’s eminently watchable, more than a little chilling and a league and a half better than most of its kind’ - Derek Malcolm, Evening Standard.
It was reviews like these that convinced us that this Hitchcock-type suspense thriller should come to Keswick.
Director Jaume Balagueró has a thing about the apartment buildings in Barcelona; having directed two horror movies ( ‘[Rec]’ and ‘[Rec] 2’) about the same block, he now uses the same subject in a more psychological thriller. This time, the embittered concierge César Marcos (played brilliantly by Luis Tosar, ‘Even the Rain’, ‘Cell 211’) has it in for the world; he sets out to make the tenants as unhappy as he can. Along the way, he comes across Clara whose very cheerfulness makes her his number one victim.
‘The deliciously dark script keeps you guessing throughout as you never really know what Cesar is up to and are constantly marvel-ling at his continual close-shaves. To that end, Balaguero maintains a nail-bitingly tense atmosphere that keeps you constantly on the edge of your seat, though there's also a streak of jet-black humour running through the film that works well’ - Matthew Turner, View London
Belarus, 1942. The Germans have occupied the country and the locals are trying to survive as best they can. For some this means collaboration with the enemy, for others, the path to follow is to become partisans. Being caught out for either means death.
Here lies the thrust of the film - in the fog of ever changing alliances, who is the enemy, who the friend?
Photographed beautifully (also in the fog) by award winning Romanian cinematographer Oleg Mutu (see ‘Beyond the Hills’ later this season), this film means ‘he must now take his place as a leading figure in world cinema’ - Philip French, Observer.
‘In the Fog’ is Sergei Loznitsa’s 2nd film to be nominated for the Cannes Palme D’Or, but the first, ‘My Joy’ has not been released here yet. If we like this one, maybe we can get the first later...
In Anatolia 25 years ago, twelve idealist teachers left their home country to take their teaching skills to countries with poor education. ‘Selam’ tells the story of three of these people, Harun, Zehra and Adem. Harun goes to Senegal and Zehra to war-torn Afghanistan, whilst Adem finds himself in Boznia Herzegovnia, leaving his pregnant wife behind in Turkey.
When the director Levent Demirkale decided to make this film, he found himself facing some of the same problems they had faced 25 years before, especially in Afghanistan where the continuing war made it hard to even find actors or locations to shoot safely.
Screening At Rheged.
For those who watched ‘Samsara’ at Rheged last year I do not need to tell you how beautiful and stirring it was. Our audience feedback score was 87%, one of the highest ratings of the year. How could we follow THAT this season? We decided that the best bet was to go back to Ron Fricke’s earlier film, which has earned a 95% score from nearly 21000 viewers.
Fricke’s technique is to use a ‘non-narrative’ documentary style, allowing his camera to make the point. Gliding meditatively over in slow motion, or speeding over using time-lapse techniques, his pictures show what a thousand words cannot.
‘Baraka’ (a Sufi word meaning ‘breath of life’) has a similar scope to ‘Samsara’ , creating a ‘guided meditation’ on the world by uniting its physical beauties with our abilities to destroy them.
We see active volcanoes, churches and temples, burning oil fields and lakes.
It was for ‘Baraka’ that Fricke had a special camera built which allowed him to use time-lapse photography whilst keeping perfect control of the camera movement, which he used in both this film and ‘Samsara’ with such magnificent results. To quote from ‘Rotten Tomatoes’, ‘In one evening sequence a desert sky turns black, and the stars roll by, as the camera moves slowly forward under the trees. The feeling is like that of viewing the universe through a powerful telescope: that we are indeed on a tiny orb hurtling through a star-filled void’.
It all took 14 months to film with the team travelling to 24 countries in 6 continents. To add the cream to the mix, it was all produced using 70mm film, giving us a visual extravaganza to enjoy.
‘Critics and audiences have struggled to find the right words to describe the effect Baraka has on them; but it seems appropriate to be speechless after seeing this wordless masterpiece of cinema’ - Andrew L Urban, Urban Cinefile. Come and see if you can find words to describe it...
If you were thinking of making a successful documentary film, would you consider, as a topic, Israel’s security policies? How would you get enough information to make the film? How would you get Israel (or, indeed, the USA) to agree to it being told? How would you trust what you were told? Director Dror Moreh deserves praise for even attempting this; he certainly deserves it for succeeding so well that the resulting film was nominated for an Oscar as the best documentary. (He lost out to ‘Searching for Sugar Man’, shown at the Alhambra last year which, whilst a great film in its own right, was surely a much easier option for the judges than ‘The Gatekeepers’).
In this film, Moreh has managed to gather the six surviving former heads of Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency (the equivalent of the British government's MI5) and convinced them to speak out about their policies and the results, good and bad, successful or not. Interlinking the interviews with news broadcasts, we effectively have a history of terrorism in Israel over 45 years, with commentary from some of the most influential men of the times.
What makes this more than a history, though, is the insight offered by these men into the psychology of power inside the government; what do you decide to do when you have the power to order the death of a terrorist (or, indeed, may terrorists) rather than attempting to negotiate a peaceful solution? When the pressure is on to find a culprit, proof is less important - witness the IRA ‘bombers’ in England since released on appeal.
‘Of the myriad moral contradictions at play here, it's the idea that these men remain entirely unaccountable for their actions that is perhaps the most shocking of all. As one subheading says: One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter’ - David Jenkins, Little White Lies.
Maybe the one question only we can answer is ‘how do we trust what these professional, secretive men say?’ No doubt our discussions after the film will focus on this...
New UK Directors Day.
Keswick Film Club likes to support new British talent. Today we show two by new UK Directors. Two very different films, we hope they show the range of films being produced today.
New director Mike Tweddle brings us his own British social realist film in the mould of ‘Kes’. The story of a boy, a girl and a dog...
Tweddle says: ‘I decided to direct and produce this film from one of my own screenplays as I truly believe it was a story that needed telling and I wanted to make sure it got made. Dog fighting is an abhorrent so called "sport" that has no place in a civilised society and we at Broken Scar Productions believe we have made a realistic family drama that portrays a dark subject with both compassion and empathy.’ The cast and crew of ‘Damaged Goods’ are all either keen amateur actors or new professionals starting their careers. Hopefully this film will see them on their way!
Mike Tweddle is hoping to make it to Keswick for this showing and will be available for a Q&A about 3.30, after the film.
New UK Directors Day. Both directors will be present
Keswick Film Club likes to support new British talent. Today we show two by new UK Directors. Two very different films, we hope they show the range of films being produced today.
In the second of our films today, Ciaran Hinds plays Max who has just lost his wife. He goes back to a place where his family used to spend their summer holidays in an attempt to forget his sorrows. In a series of flashbacks, we follow his memories over a summer when his meeting with a wealthy family lead to tragedy.
‘The Sea’ was premiered at Edinburgh this year and was adapted by the author himself, John Banville, from his Man Booker prize winning book of the same name.
‘The film is beautifully shot with a stark contrast between the bleak, raging waves of the sea in the present, and the sun-kissed sandy beach of the past’ - Screenkicker. Stephen Brown also managed to persuade an array of British actors including Charlotte Rampling, Sinead Cussack and Rufus Sewell. A good start to his career? Let’s see.
Stephen will be here for a Q & A session after the film at about 6.30.
This film was a contender for the Cannes Palme D’Or last year. Director Christian Mungiu (’4 months, 3 weeks & 2 days’) brings us a story which would be hard to believe if it wasn’t based on real events in Romania.
Aline (Cristina Flutur) and Voichita (Cosmina Stratan) have been brought up together in an orphanage, where they were very good friends, possibly lovers. Alina has escaped to West Germany and learnt Western way, but comes back to see her friend Voichita. By this time, Voichita has become a nun and is happy with her life in the monastery.
What follows is a series of arguments between lifestyles, between beliefs, between ancient and modern, even between East and West; Alina attempts to get Voichita to leave the monastery and go back, beyond the hills, to Germany with her, while Voichita attempts to get Alina to see the error of her ways and join her as a nun.
Who will win the argument? I won’t spoil the film by telling you what happens - you will have to come along to find out - but be prepared to be surprised!
The film’s subject is austere, but it is filmed beautifully - once again the cinematographer is Oleg Mutu (‘In the Fog’, 20th October) - using long takes and the cold, winter light on the hills,
Director Abbas Kiarostami was brought up and started his film career in Iran, remaining for many years after the Ayatollah made filming almost impossible; many of his films were simply banned (‘I think they don't understand my films and so prevent them being shown just in case there is a message they don't want to get out’). He learnt to use tight formal control and to make his films more and more subtle and has continued in this way until he is now one of the world masters (’Taste of Cherry’, 1997). He has now made two fictional films entirely outside Iran - ‘Certified Copy’ (which we showed in Spring 2011) in Italy, and now this one, in Japan, which was nominated for the Palme D’Or at Cannes.
The film follows Akiko, a lovely student in Tokyo who has been forced by poverty to pay her way by prostitution. At the start of the film she is sent to a client in the suburbs. But when she arrives, the client turns out to be a very old man, Takashi, who is more interested in love than sex. Her relationship with him and her boyfriend, Noriaki, are then what the film is about, with no relationship being what it seems for long.
Kiarostami uses confined spaces, such as car journeys, to isolate his characters and show either ‘the impossibility of intimacy in the modern world’ (according to Robbie Collin in the Telegraph) or ’a world in which people shut themselves off to genuine interaction’- (Andrew Shenker, Little White Lies). Likewise his endings cause some debate - ‘The sign-off to his masterpiece ‘Taste of Cherry’ is still something to be pondered. But his latest movie...really is bafflingly and even exasperatingly truncated’ - Peter Bradshaw, Guardian, whilst Steven Boon (Chicago Sun-Times) thinks ‘The way this film ends is perfect’. A master at work, then, on a work we can discuss for a long time to come.
This is another in our series of UK directorial debuts, this time for Tina Gharavi. She was exiled from Iran in 1979 and has been making acclaimed documentaries since 2001, mainly on immigration, equality and diversity. This, her first full feature film got her a BAFTA nomination for Outstanding debut by a British writer, director and producer.
The film begins in Tehran in 2001, but Nasrine has a run-in with the morality police there who do not like her ‘free-spirited ways’. Her father decides to send her, with her brother Ali, to England for her own safety. After suffering the fears and discomforts of illegal immigration, Nasrine ends up in Newcastle, where she and Ali try to fit in to their new life and norms. Nasrine soon begins to make friends and finds it easier to fit than Ali, who now has problems of his own...
The film tries to bring out the courage needed to change countries, showing how difficult and sad it can be.
‘A gorgeous movie, the film equivalent of a magnificent banquet composed of 78 sweet courses. It is in the classic high Italian style of Fellini's ‘La Dolce Vita’ and Antonioni's ‘La Notte’’ - so says Peter Bradshaw in the Guardian. Could ‘The Great Beauty’, which won Director Paolo Sorrentino a nomination for Palme D’Or at Cannes, win ‘film of the season’ at Keswick?
The supposed main player in this film is ageing playboy Jep Gambardella, but the real star is the city of Rome. As ‘La Dolce Vita’ brought us the highs of High Roman Society in the 60s, so this film brings us the beauty (?) of the Berlusconi years; don't forget they are both comedies! The ‘sweet life’ has become ‘the shallow life’.
We join Jep at his totally over the top 65th birthday party (‘among the finest choreographed bacchanalia sequences I’ve laid eyes upon’ - Jordan Hoffman, Film.com). When he awakens the next day, he begins to think back over his life, where his early promise has broken down into triviality and decadence. Sorrentino then allows (his long time collaborator) Luca Bigazzi’s beautiful cinematography to follow Jep around the streets of Rome, his dream-like zooms picking out the memories. What should Jep do with the rest of his life?
Sorrentino has been making films for a relatively short time (his first was 2001) but this is the fifth to be nominated for Palme D’Or at Cannes (’The Consequences of Love’, ’The Family Friend’, ’Il Divo’ and ’This Must be Place’ came before this one) and the critical acclaim puts this at or near the top; ‘A shimmering coup de cinema to make your heart burst, your mind swim and your soul roar’ - so says Robbie Collin in the Telegraph. So will history compare it with ‘La Dolce Vita’? Only time will tell, but you can see what you think tonight.
Shown as a last minute replacement for Wadjda
An aging, booze-addled father makes the trip from Montana to Nebraska with his estranged son in order to claim a million-dollar Mega Sweepstakes Marketing prize.
After his successful debut directing Pagnol's "The Well-Digger's Daughter", where should Daniel Auteuil go for his next film? Where else, but another Pagnol story. And, just in case you haven't got the message, he is bringing out THREE films based on Pagnol's trilogy. "Marius" and "Fanny" are both released together, "César" is in production. Knowing Keswick's love of French films and Auteuil specifically, we decided we should show both of the released films, so we start the season with "Marius" and end it with "Fanny".
Much like the earlier Pagnol stories that Auteuil starred in, "Jean de Florette" and "Manon des Sources", these stories are linked, but stand alone. In "Marius" we meet the young Marius (Raphaël Personnaz) living in Marseille with his elderly father César(Auteuil himself, relishing this comic role). He dreams of sailing off to adventures in any one of the boats in the harbour. What is to stop him going? Well, Fanny of course. Fanny (Victoire Bélézy) is the daughter of the local shellfish seller and their obvious attraction is the centrepiece of the story; but will his refusal to admit he loves her drive her away, possibly into the arms of her other suitor, the much older Panisse?
This love story is mixed to great effect with the comic interludes, mainly from the older generation on both sides, giving us a perfect season starter.
Are you one of the many people who tell us we should have more comedy in our programmes? Well, this season is for you.
Stephen Dillane stars as Harry Papadopoulos; a self-made millionaire who has turned a small fish and chip shop into a major international corporation (as you do). All is going well, until he misses the significance of the financial crisis (as many others did). Before he can say "mushy peas", his empire is crashing and he is left with nothing...but a decaying old shop he co-owns with his brother.
There is only one way to get money - persuade his brother to sell - but his brother has other ideas; "let's re-open the shop together!"
What follows is not going to surprise you too much, but should make you laugh. The cast get good reviews all round, especially the two brothers, Harry and Spiros (Stephen Dillane and Georges Corraface). The finance industry gets a good kicking, while the family dynamics (yes, there are sons!) keeps the humour going well. We also get a Greek-Turkish backdrop when the son of a rival kebab shop takes a fancy to Harry's daughter.
This is a first film by director Marcus Markou, who also wrote the screenplay. Our club member who saw it recommended it so we hope you enjoy a laugh for once. Normal service resumes next week!
Anyone fancy fish & chips?
If we tell you this film is about Didier, the banjo player in a blue-grass band falling in love with Elise, a tattoo artist, and that they have a child who gets cancer, you will probably be thinking that it sounds a recipe for disaster..."And yet, from all this, the director Felix Van Groeningen has created something not just plausible and affecting but sharp and alert in its distress" - so says Anthony Lane in The New Yorker, and his words are echoed by most of the critics.
How has he done this? By starting at the end of the story and flashing back and forth, he removes any possibility of a schmaltzy ending, "dismantling the chronology of this painful love story to illuminate the past by ramming it up against the present, and vice versa" - Tim Robey, Telegraph. The present day pain and anguish is constantly relieved by their past life. And their past is very beautiful. A case of love at first sight brought very much to life by what the critics also agree on - some great acting by the two central players, Johan Heldenbergh and Veerie Baetens. Neither of these are famous outside Belgium but both put themselves into these roles with a vengeance. Baetens especially gets credit - Tim Robey goes on to say "She ought to be a huge star, and this is exactly where to see her born".
Van Groeningen also manages to bring some politics into the mix - Didier is a full blown atheist who blames their problems on the state, while Elise falls back on her religion for comfort. Oh, and we must mention the music. Back to Anthony Lane for my favourite quote - "For any viewer who, for one reason or another, has been shamefully ignorant of Belgian bluegrass, here is your opportunity to make amends". How can you resist that as a challenge?
Can you imagine being born in a prison camp where the only crime your parents have committed was to disagree with the government? Stretch this imagination further, then, and think what you would be like 23 years later where this has been your only reality; where everyday you are forced to work long hours and can only dream of the luxury of a bowl of rice. You are unaware that other people do not live as you do. You have seen no books, indeed you can barely read or add up. Education has been the very minimum to allow you to carry out the slave labour you have done since you were 6 years old.
This was the world of Shin Donghyuk. Born into a North Korean political prison, he lived there all his life until he was 23, when he managed to escape. This film tells his story, using interviews with him where he lives now (in South Korea) and animated sequences to describe his life in the camp. Shin Donghyuk is possibly the only person to have escaped from a North Korean camp (These camps are so large they can be seen from space), so the world press were keen to talk to him. He was taken to the USA and asked to speak out to help those still in the camps, but he is a very quiet man who found the spotlight too hard to take, especially as his experience had taught him that the only way to survive was to keep quiet and accept anything and everything. He left America and went to South Korea.
Some of the things he did as a prisoner seem horrific to us, but he had nothing to compare them against; to survive, he did what he was told, what he had to do - Marc Weise's documentary "reveals a man broken by the knowledge that freedom has brought him" - Anton Bitel, Film Forever. It will also reveal to many people the very existence of these camps; how this secret has been kept beggars belief. They have existed twice as long as the Soviet Gulags and about twelve times as long as the Nazi concentration camps. You will be amazed and horrified at Shin Donghyuk's story.
First I have to tell you that ’Wadjda’ is a movie of firsts. It is the first feature film shot entirely in Saudi Arabia. Even more impressive, ’Wadjda’ is the first feature film made by a female Saudi filmmaker. In a country where cinemas are banned and women cannot drive or vote, writer-director Haifaa Al Mansour has broken many barriers with her new film. If I then tell you it won one of the best film awards at Venice Film Festival, you will see we chose it for more than
it’s possible effect on Saudi society.
Even in Britain, many girls are brought up to think of themselves as girls first, humans second; ‘Don’t play football with the boys’, etc. Whilst this has changed a lot, and is still changing, in Saudi girls can still do virtually nothing without permission from a male adult. So the frowns little Suzie would get in London are positive encouragement compared to what 10 year old Wadjda gets in Riyadh. She rebels by wearing Converse sneakers under her black robes, but when it comes to wanting a bike to prove she is faster to her young friend Addullah, not only do the adults say no, but everything she tries to raise money to buy her own is also forbidden.
Imagine, then, how hard it must have been for Al Mansour to write and direct this film. Writing could be done behind closed doors, of course, but she had to find ways of filming without being seen; hiding in the back of a van or watching through a monitor. She took the decision not to attempt to produce an overt political film, but to show us their society through a 10 year old girl’s viewpoint, a viewpoint that can only see the absurdity of the rules, not the oppression. It is also a viewpoint that allows us to laugh along with her adventures, making this a light film to watch.
The story of young social workers in a half-way, foster house for troubled teenagers does not sound like the background for a popular film, especially when you realise it is made in the USA, not the UK...BUT popular it has been. Doing the tour of festivals this year, it has picked up several awards both for the film itself and the acting, and the Rotten Tomatoes scores from critics and audience are 98% and 94%. So what is the fuss about?
The film follows life in the care home, taking off after a new girl, Jayden, with some major problems, moves in. Run by 20-something year-olds - not much older than the kids they look after - the story of the carers mirrors that of the cared. Two of these carers - Grace and Mason - have the worst-kept secret relationship. Grace has problems of her own, which she has trouble talking about; why doesn't she take her own advice and unburden herself?
Not surprisingly, this is not a UK social-realist film with angst written all over it; the Americans like their pills with more sugar on. But the script get applause for avoiding too much sugar, leading us through the highs and lows of the life of these young people.
Although all the kids get their moments on screen the plot is based around Grace and Mason and it is Brie Larson, who plays Grace, who gets the loudest applause for her acting. Although she has been acting since she was 9, most of her parts have been on tv and in supporting roles. This is her first major part for which she has won major acclaim from the critics ("Incredible" - Charlotte O'Sullivan, Observer)
The writer/director is Hawaiian born Destin Cretton. This is his second film, and it has won him several awards, and high praise too. "Short Term 12 is a miracle of a movie. Beautifully written and perfectly played, all of human life is here: the good, the bad, the messy and the uplifting" - Ian Freer, Empire
He developed the script from his own short film of the same name, but it comes from his own experience as he once worked in a similar home. Is it as good as the reviews and awards suggest? Maybe Michael Leader’s overview on Film4 is more realistic - "Somewhat slighter than the festival raves would have you expect, Destin Cretton's indie flick is nonetheless a wholly affecting, gently nuanced drama - and a portfolio piece for rising star Brie Larson". Let's see what we think.
Yes, we have another comedy; that's two in one season (and there is more to come)! If I tell you this one comes from Chile, from the same producers as "No" that we saw last year, you might guess
this one has a bit more bite.
Gloria (Paulina García) is a 58 years-young woman who has been divorced for 10 years. She spends her days at work or helping her adult children (though, maybe, she’d like to see more of them?), but she yearns for a fulfilling life of her own; just wait till she hits the discos and singles bars in the evenings! When she meets Rodolfo (Sergio Hernández), her fun streak really comes into its own.
Will love win through for them at this later time in life? Is it the real thing, or will their pasts come back to haunt them and spoil it for them? This is obviously a bigger problem still in Chile (where everyone has a past to forget), but does director Sebastian Lelio want to bring this out, or just show that life is always full of possibilities, no matter how old you are?
Whatever his meaning, the result is full of out and out fun along the way. The script was written with Paulina Garcia in mind, and she was given a free hand to change things she didn't like - her exuberant acting is possibly due to this. Her resulting performance is central to the film and wins her high praise from most critics.
If the story had been set in the UK it would probably be based around 'online dating' nowadays - nowhere near as photogenic as a disco - but the story of ‘middle aged’ love second time around is global and highly relevant to the modern world (take my word for it...). By making it a laugh out loud comedy, Lelio allows us to enjoy their fun between the more serious moments.
Not many comedies make the grade for the highest honours, but this one has been nominated as Chile's entry for the Best Foreign film at the Oscars; let's hope it does well there, and for us.
We seem to have an unintended theme this season; great acting from the female lead. "Child’s Pose" is no exception. This Romanian noir thriller is lead by a universally acclaimed performance from Luminita Gheorghiu as Cornelia, who is the overbearing mother of 20-something Barbu, but is first and foremost a driven, successful architect who is not going to lose it all for anything; her place is at the top.
On the surface, the story is about a mother's love for her son and her desire to be central in his life even now he is grown up. Barbu is fighting for his independence at the same time. When her son has a car accident, for which he may be to blame, she sets out to use her power and influence to sweep it under the carpet...
There are obvious parallels here with the corrupt state of Romania post their revolution. Director Calin Peter Netzer successfully weaves the gripping plot into this political background and the emotional minefield of the mother-son relationship.
In Persian mythology, there is a magic stone which, when placed in front of a person, shields them from unhappiness, pain and suffering; the Patience Stone. Somewhere in Afghanistan, or maybe elsewhere, in a country torn by war, a young woman is left alone with her badly wounded older husband; he is in a coma. Gradually, she start to tell him of her problems, her suffering, her loneliness and her desires; she talks about their relationship, saying things she could never have said to him before. "Why am I telling you this?", she asks him.
Directing this incredibly poetic film, French-Afghan Atiq Rahami took it from his own powerful novel, with the help of veteran screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrier. The power on the screen comes once again this season from the leading (almost the only) actor - Golshifteh Farahani, gaining her enormous applause from the critics; "It is a tour de force for the actress, needless to say. Iranian Golshifteh Farahani is wonderful in the role" - Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune; "...Farahani, who uses her eyes with all the power of the great silent stars. With the subtle shift of a few muscles, she can convey a world of thought behind those eyes" - Hank Sartin, RogerEbert.com
Rahami uses flashbacks to fill in some of the details in the film, but essentially he manages to tell the story of "the woman's" life (she, like everyone else, is unnamed) simply by what she tells her husband. In doing this, he also gives us a history of a country's suffering. As Hank Sartin goes on to say in RogerEbert.com - "The details of the woman's life are like a crash course in the sociology of a country living through turmoil, under the twin constraints of strict religion and a constant state of war". So, a contender for our "poetic film of the year", then... but there are a couple of events that might shock us too.
Billy Elliot with a saxophone meets Buena Vista Social Club in Cape Town” summarises this vibrant film to kick off the 15th Festival. It is the latest film from our special guest, Dame Janet Suzman.
Felix's father used to play in the hottest jazz band in the Cape but his untimely death meant that his mother bans the Devil’s Music from the home.
At age 13 Felix starts to discover not only his musical roots but his own hitherto untapped talent.
Best Film, Filmfest Hamburg Michel Children & Youth Film Festival 2013.
Lucas Award - Best Film, Lucas International Children's Festival 2013.
Best Director, Africa International Film Festival 2013.
Audience Award - Best Film, Durban International Film Festival 2013.
Thanks to Penguin Films
It may be the remake but the original version of Quo Vadis was the first film screened at the Alhambra. An opportunity then to see one of the true milestones of the cinema.
Acclaimed as a Bangladeshi Film that avoids traditional stereotypes and presents its characters as rounded - perhaps even flawed, Third Person Singular Number is a thoroughly modern, stylistically-assured story of a young woman (in a career making role from Numrat Imroz Tisha as Ruba) negotiating independence in a society unwilling to grant single females a place of their own.
Thanks to Mostofa Sarwar Farooki
The Act of Killing boasts Werner Herzog as an Executive Producer and reflects on Indonesia's troubled past, when death squads took part in an anti-communist purge. The film brings together some of the leaders of those death squads to speak about their actions and recreate events in the style of Hollywood movies.
A bizarre concept? Maybe, but "the scenes of casual reminiscing by these men, are quite emotionally draining to watch and hear play out." (Markus Robinson IMDB) He goes on to say
"We (as audience members) maintain hope that the subjects (the former death squad leaders) will undergo a change of heart and see the errors in their ways; even though this 'hope' is a candle which becomes dimmer as the documentary nears its finale."
Thanks to Dogwoof
Adapted from the graphic novel "Never Goodnight" by the director's wife Coco Moodysson, the film takes place in Stockholm in 1982. It portrays the lives of three girls between twelve and thirteen years of age: Bobo, Klara and Hedvig. Ignored by their parents and considered strange by other people, the trio decides to start a punk band (something that only boys are doing at the time) despite agreeing that punk is dead!
Winner: Grand Prix, Tokyo FF (2013); Audience Award, Reykjavik IFF (2013)
Thanks to Metrodome
At the time he was arguably the world's best known and loved actor. This is cinematic gold from beginning to end. And, seeing it on the big screen is a rare opportunity not to be missed.
Peter Greenaway's sumptuous visual feast is shown as part of the Janet Suzman retrospective. Witty, clever, bizarre, complex, tantalising – a true cult movie.
Not forgetting the soaring soundtrack from Michael Nyman, this opportunity to see (and hear) The Draughtsman's Contract again on the big screen is not to be missed.
Thanks to BFi
Titus is the story of a virtuoso African-American jazz musician whose damaged soul has brought him to the status of a nobody.
Living in London, far from home, he's wasting away, estranged from his one true love – his vintage alto sax.
All hope looks lost until a visitor arrives, Jessica, the daughter he abandoned as a baby.
Over the course of a day and a night together, old demons are laid to rest and new ones are stirred and for one last time the future is back in Titus' hands.
Titus has been lauded and applauded at a number of Festivals, including the Audience Award at Dinard and we welcome Director Charlie Cattrall to host this screening.
Thanks to the Director, Charlie Cattrall.
Written and directed by Rama Burshtein who became the first Orthodox Jewish woman to direct a film intended to be viewed outside of the Orthodox community. It focuses on life among the Haredi Jewish community in Tel Aviv. An 18 year old girl is pressured by her mother to marry her deceased older sister’s husband following the death of her sister in childbirth.
Graceful, complex, and beautifully layered, the film offers a sympathetic portrait of an insulated culture by exploring universal themes.
Winner, seven Israeli Academy Awards (2012)
Winner, Best Actress Award (Hades Yaron), Venice FF (2012)
Thanks to Artificial Eye
Inspired by four shocking, allegedly true, events that forced the world's fastest growing economy into a period of self-examination, written and directed by master filmmaker Jia Zhangke (The World, Still Life), this daring, poetic and grand-scale film focuses on four characters, each living in different provinces of China, who are driven to violent ends.
"The violence hangs over the film like a haze: gunshot wounds to the face, ugly and very real-looking fistfights. This is a bitter, jagged, disaffected drama, pessimistic about China, pessimistic about the whole world. One character asks another if he ever feels like travelling abroad. 'Why would I?' he replies. 'Everywhere is broke. Foreigners come here now.' Jia Zhangke's movie gives us a brutal unwelcome." (Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian)
Director/Writer Jia won the 2013 Cannes Film Festival award for Best Screenplay.
Thanks to Arrow Films
A group of Guatemalan teenagers are ill prepared for the precarious journey that takes them from their native country to what they hope will be a bright new life in the United States. Diego Quemada-Díez's debut feature draws on outstanding performances from his young, non-professional cast.
"The film succeeds as both a gritty, uncompromising portrait of the teenagers' travels and a moving, eloquent testament to the power of friendship and camaraderie in the most testing of circumstances." (London FF)
Winner, Un Certain Regard, Talent Prize, Cannes 2013
Winner, Best Film: Mar del Plata, Zurich, Thessalonica FF (all 2013)
Thanks to Peccadillo Pictures
Billed as "A Portrait of the people of Burma", They Call it Myanmar speaks to ordinary Burmese citizens about life in their country under a regime so oppressive that only few faces are made visible to the camera, for fear of reprisal. Indeed, some of the production crew remain as ‘Anonymous’.
One face that is shown is that of Aung Sang Suu Kyi who is eloquent in expressing her frustrations and hopes for her country. "They Call It Myanmar" presents a sad and sobering glimpse at a stoic and long-suffering land. The Director Robert H Lieberman manages to capture the country's beauty, along with the proud perseverance of its people. (Washington Post)
Followed by a discussion with guests from the Burma Campaign.
Thanks to PhotoSynthesis Productions
Dominated the 1939 Oscars, winning 8, and has become a thing of legend. 1939 is now seen as the year Hollywood peaked. Just research the other films that were made that year and you can see why; and this is the best. Your chance to relive the spectacle as it was meant to be seen.
There will be an interval.
A brightly original and, for once, entirely positive take on the planet Earth, Vivan las Antipodas! is a standout documentary with the curious premise that, given the ocean mass, only a few inhabited places are exactly opposite each other on this planet, like Argentina and Shanghai, or Hawaii and Botswana. This exquisitely shot and produced travelogue compares not just places but the people, flora and fauna that are "upside down" from one another. Hypnotic travelling shots and twisted perspectives add another feather in the cap of prize-winning Russian cameraman and director Victor Kossakovsky.
Thanks to Filmhouse Releasing
It's a story about hubris and it begins in 2010 with a violent death at the SeaWorld aquatic park in Orlando, Florida. Dawn Brancheau, one of the park's most experienced trainers, was dragged into the water, mauled and killed by Tilikum, a 5000-kilogram orca whale she had been working with for years.
A lawsuit, brought by the United States' Occupational Safety and Health Administration, followed and private video footage recorded by the hidden cameras that SeaWorld had installed in its grounds and pools was made public. It is this footage that gives Gabriela Cowperthwaite's documentary such a charge.
There's no denying Blackfish is a powerful documentary. Focusing on the mistreatment of orcas by SeaWorld and other such marine mammal parks for human entertainment, the captivity of these animals is something that needs to continually be addressed as it has been for several years.
Thanks to Dogwoof
Chronicling a pivotal period in 20th century history, Nicholas and Alexandra tells the story of the last years of the Romanov dynasty.
As the ruling family clings on to absolute power, the world heads on course for war and the Bolshevik revolution gathers pace. Faced with difficult decisions, Empress Alexandra (for which role Dame Janet Suzman received a Best Actress nomination) relies increasingly on the advice of Rasputin, further alienating supporters and enemies alike.
Thanks to Filmbank
The mountainous scenery of Lesotho provides the canvas for a profoundly visual story, which tells the tale of Atang: making a pilgrimage from the bustle of Johannesburg to his native Lesotho to bury his father. There, Atang is reunited with childhood friend Dineo, with whom he discovers a romantic spark. But her disapproving father sends Atang back to Jo’burg. Resolving to win her back, Atang enlists the help of a young orphan boy.
The first film ever to be produced in Lesotho, this is a beguiling quest steeped in the history and culture of the Basotho people. (Cambridge FF)
Winner, Audience Award: Cambridge, Florida, Ashland, Sarasota, and Woodstock FF (all 2013)
Thanks to The Little Film Company
Runway centres on young Rahul who lives with his family in a small hut next to the runway of the international airport. His mother struggles to support the family by selling milk from a cow bought with a micro credit loan and his sister works long hours in a garment factory. What happens when the disaffected Rahul meets someone who he thinks has it all?
This is the final film of acclaimed director, Tareque Masud, before his tragic death in 2011.
Thanks to Catherine Masud
Patagonia, 1960. An Argentinean family meets a mysterious German physician on their way to opening a lodging house by the Nahuel Huapi lake. The encounter with the family reawakens the man’s obsession with purity and perfection. Everyone is gradually won over by this charismatic man, by his elegant manners, his scientific knowledge and his money, until they discover his real identity.
Based on Lucía Puenzo's novel, the story follows Josef Mengele, the "Angel of Death," a German SS officer and a physician at the Auschwitz concentration camp, in the years he spent "hiding" in South America following his escape from Germany.
18 award nominations including Un Certain Regard, Cannes 2013
Thanks to Peccadillo Pictures
Based upon Julie Maroh's award winning graphic novel La vie d’Adèle, Blue is the Warmest Colour follows the tumultuous relationship of student Adèle (Adèle Exarchopoulos) and Emma, a young woman with blue hair (Léa Seydoux), both of whom are struggling to establish their own identity, as they emerge painfully into adulthood. An epic and erotic love story the film includes extended and explicit sex scenes.
For the first time at Cannes, the 2013 Festival jury insisted that the Palme d’Or prize should be accepted not only by the Franco-Tunisian director but also by his two young stars.
Thanks to Artificial Eye
A Charity Screening on behalf of the Calvert Trust
Not the typical Sports Documentary, The Crash Reels charts the journey of Olympic Snow Board medal contender Kevin Pearce, as he recovers physically and emotionally from a crash in practice that left him in a coma for 6 days.
Lucy Walker’s film looks at the pressure on athletes to push the envelope in attempting ever more spectacular moves and the rivalry between competitors who are literally on the edge.
Thanks to Soda Pictures
Koreeda's last film I Wish was a highlight of last year's KFF. His piercing new film starts from a conundrum: what if it were discovered, six years after the event, that a hospital had inadvertently swapped two male babies and given them to the wrong parents? Despite marked differences in class, temperament and approaches to parenting, the Nonomiya and Saiki couples respond to this bombshell by exchanging their sons.
Thanks to Arrow Films
Documentary, shown in Partnership with the Keswick Peace and Human Rights Group
Nominated for the Best Foreign Film Academy Award in 2012, 5 Broken Cameras was filmed over 5 years and the title refers to the five cameras that were smashed during that time.
Emad Burnat is a Palestinian who bought his first camera to film his son growing up. Gradually, as the Israeli Army's security measures impact more strongly on his village the camera and the films he makes take on a more significant purpose.
5 Broken Cameras is a polemical work and in no sense analytical. It presents with overwhelming power a case of injustice on a massive scale, and gives us a direct experience of what it's like to be on the receiving end of oppression and dispossession.... But it isn't vindictive and has a sense of history and destiny. Much may be concealed, but what we are shown and experience is the resilient spirit of one village recorded by a single observer.
Discussion after the film with Mohammed Mukulmar
Thanks to Verve
Chosen ahead of Citizen Kane to represent the '40s. Why? Many would argue quite simply because this is the better film. If you think you have seen it all by watching it on television do yourself a favour and come to see the true magical spectacle that is Casablanca.
When Tom Proctor's dad dies his world falls apart; his brother joins the army, his mum is threatened with eviction and Tom gets intro trouble with the police.
Tom's life is turned around however when he's paired up with park ranger Al Thorpe in this enchanting coming-of-age story set in the stunning Yorkshire Dales.
We hope that the Director, Dan Hartley, will be able to attend and host this screening.
Thanks to Roguerunner
Based on a true story in the midst of the war in 1993, a young Bosnian soldier intervenes to save the life of a Muslim shopkeeper and the film jumps ahead 12 years to examine the consequences of that (tragic and heroic) act for the five people most closely affected.
A straightforward and ultimately moving film about the damage done to people's soul from the hostilities that racked the region for years, dealing with the emotional baggage and the aftermath of fighting. The pace is deliberate and the film simmers rather than explodes and with top-notch performances and traditional craft this is an appealing entry on the festival circuit. (Sundance)
Winner, Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, Berlin
Winner, Grand Prix, CinEast Festival (2013)
Thanks to Memento Films
Please note this film will now been shown in The Studio
On his 9th birthday, Thomas travels with his mother to visit his estranged father who, since an acrimonious divorce, has abandoned urban living in favour of an isolated rural life in the English Lake District.
As a digital native city boy, Thomas's encounter with the natural world, and his gradual understanding of the pivotal connection he provides for his, ultimately, lonely parents, leads to realisation and discovery. There are things his parents don’t know about each other that only he can reveal.
Perhaps he has the power and the means to change everything.
For this screening, hosted by Director Erik Knudsen, we hope to welcome members of the cast as well as one very special star.
Thanks to One Day Films
Please note this film will now be shown in the Theatre By The Lake's main auditorium.
Television is set in an isolated Bangladeshi Village where the devout community leader has banned the dreaded box. The film is a nicely underplayed comedy of manners and has been selected as an entry in Best Foreign Language film category for the 2014 Oscars
Thanks to the Director Mostofar Sarwar Farooki
Peter Bradshaw describes this film perfectly:
"Mark Cousins's personal cine-essay about children on film is entirely distinctive, sometimes eccentric, always brilliant: a mosaic of clips, images and moments chosen with flair and grace, both from familiar sources and from the neglected riches of cinema around the world. Without condescension or cynicism, Cousins offers us his own humanist idealism, as refreshing as a glass of iced water."
We hope to have Producer, Adam Dawtrey, on hand to explain more about all the film snippets that you will see and doubtless will want to see even more of.
Thanks to Dogwoof
A favourite at festivals around the world, The Rocket, has picked up audience awards at Leeds, Sydney, CineKid (Amsterdam), Calgary, Tribeca and the American Film Institute Festival so we're delighted to be able add it to the programme at Keswick.
Set against the lush backdrop of rural Laos, this spirited drama tells the story of scrappy ten-year-old Ahlo, who yearns to break free from his ill-fated destiny. After his village is displaced to make way for a massive dam, Ahlo escapes with his father and grandmother through the Laotian outback in search of a new home. Along the way, they come across a rocket festival that offers Ahlo a lucrative but dangerous chance to prove his worth.
Aspiring actor Pietro (Elio Germano) can't believe his luck when he bags his dream Rome apartment. It's already occupied by the ghosts of a theatrical troupe who vanished during WW2. A gentle comedy about a gay man's attachment to old-school notions of romance, Ferzan Ozpetek's film is reminiscent of Woody Allen at his most whimsical. Nothing happens that's overly dramatic – even the tragedy is treated lightly – but the amiability is infectious.
Winner, Audience Award, Moscow FF (2012)
Winner, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress, Italian Golden Globe (2012).
Thanks to Peccadillo Pictures
The second film of the Festival set around the liberation struggle; this was the first-time feature from the husband-and-wife team of Tareque and Catherine Masud.
Young Anu is subject to his father's fundamental Islamic religious belief whilst his uncle is active in the political movement for reform and change. A young boy faces life when all around him is change.
Thanks to Catherine Masud
Heli tells the story of the titular protagonist (Armando Espitia), a seventeen-year-old boy living with his wife (Linda González) and his sister, Estela (Andrea Vergara). The film follows the arcs of these characters and Estela's boyfriend (Juan Eduardo Palacios) as they struggle with drugs, violence, and corruption. Their plight appears to be hopeless since it's almost impossible to tell the difference between drug dealers, police and soldiers.
The movie is, shocking and dispiriting, and one assumes this was Escalante's intention: to testify, unflinchingly, to the horrors of his country’s drug war. A damning indictment of contemporary Mexico. (IMDB)
Please note that there is one scene of sadistic violence and you need to be prepared to be shocked.
Thanks to Network Releasing
Adapted from the graphic novel "Never Goodnight" by the director's wife Coco Moodysson, the film takes place in Stockholm in 1982. It portrays the lives of three girls between twelve and thirteen years of age: Bobo, Klara and Hedvig. Ignored by their parents and considered strange by other people, the trio decides to start a punk band (something that only boys are doing at the time) despite agreeing that punk is dead!
Winner: Grand Prix, Tokyo FF (2013); Audience Award, Reykjavik IFF (2013)
Thanks to Metrodome
We have this marked as our "oddity of the season" film. Part wry comedy, part parable on the state of the world, part spiritual...maybe even a bit supernatural..? And, even stranger, it is not only a US remake of a very recent (2011) festival favourite, Icelandic film ("Either Way"), but one which "proves far superior to the foreign-language original" - Trevor Johnston, Sight and Sound. We thought of bringing you both films to compare and contrast, but decided against; a film too far, maybe.
The film brings us two guys whose job is to repaint the lines on local roads in the middle of nowhere, after a huge forest fire. Set in Texas in the 1980's, where a real fire took place, the scene is set for a US-style buddy comedy...or maybe a European-style journey in the Nuri Bilge Ceylan mould. Which road does it take?
Here we need to pause and look at director David Gordon Green's past record. He started out in 2000 with "George Washington" which was very well received - he was compared to Terrence Malick - but he then gradually turned to action-comedy ("Pineapple Express", 2008) - which the critics weren't so keen on.
The success of "Prince Avalanche" seems to be that he has combined the two. Alvin and Lance go about their work swapping stories and problems as they go. Alvin is seemingly happy being alone in the wild, whilst Lance relishes the weekends when he can get back to town to party. The two argue, make-up and get drunk together. Behind this the fantastic blackened landscape looks almost otherworldly, and the occasional other characters that come down the road from time to time build the feeling of strangeness.
Does it work? Well only you can decide that, but Jonathan Robbins in Film Comment Magazine says "The journey taken by Alvin and Lance has few plot points, but the film is remarkably gripping and rich".
OK, we admit it; we saw Mads Mikkelsen was the star and couldn't resist it. After his amazing performances here last year in, first, "A Royal Affair" and then in "The Hunt" - two very different roles - we wanted to see him play the dashing hero. This role isn't quite what it looks like though. Michael Kohlhass is a Robin Hood-like creation, forced to fight back after facing unfairness and tragedy. So far, so good. But the key to this film is not the fight back, but the morality of this.
Kohlhass is a well-to-do horse trader, plying his trade in the sixteenth century Cévennes mountains of central France. He comes to a bridge where a local Baron illegally takes two of his horses as a tax before allowing him to cross. What follows is Kohlhaas' attempts to get them back, first legally then by raising a small army to fight the local government. Is he justified, or just a terrorist? Should he worry more about the consequences, or is Right always worth fighting for?
Mikkelsen is ideally suited to this role, with his quiet power driving the action and reacting to the moral dilemmas. We also see a small role for Denis Lavant ("Holy Motors") as a preacher trying to talk Kohlhass into stopping. Arnaud des Pallières has made a few films before, but this one is the first to really get noticed. It was nominated for the Palme D'Or at Cannes (albeit with an outside chance of winning), but he may be one to watch in the future - "Taking key influence from filmmakers such as Akira Kurosawa in its action, Ingmar Bergman's 'The Virgin Spring' (1960) in its setting and Andrei Tarkovsky in its satisfying depth, 'Michael Kohlhaas' is a sombre and brilliantly-realised period revenge drama, armed with a lurking muscularity" - John Bleasdale, CineVue.
The Patrol is the first British feature film to look at the conflict in Afghanistan. It won the Jury prize for "Film of the Festival" at the Raindance Festival in London this year. Set in Helmand Province, it follows an overextended British army patrol as they struggle to keep it together under increasingly tough conditions. The patrol is sent to protect an Afghan town against the Taliban. But with their forces stretched, tensions arise... Should Britain have gone in to Afghanistan in 2006? Were we there as 'part of a reconstruction effort'? The Patrol does not set out to judge the Army, rather the purpose of the mission.
We have a problem saying anything about this film, mainly because we don't want to spoil your viewing of "Marius" at the start of the season. So - SPOILER ALERT - don't read this until after you have seen "Marius"!
Marius has run away to sea, not realising that he has left Fanny pregnant. Left in the dishonourable position of being an unmarried mother and with no means of supporting the child, she is falling for the wooing of the older Panisse. Should she marry him, or hope for the return of Marius, the man she loves? Once again, Auteuil manages to mix drama and comedy to great effect. We will have to wait at least until the end of the summer to see what happens in the final part of the trilogy, "César". Enjoy your summer!
Are you ready for a Midsummer Film? Thanks to the Keswick Festival, we are breaking our normal summer silence and putting on a one-off film. A black comedy, but one which will also move you; just right for a summer evening!
Many of you will remember Frank Sidebottom; the creation of musician Chris Sievey in the early 80s, Sidebottom began as a musician but became a comedy act and even a reporter on Granada tv...all wearing a large papier mâché head. 'Frank', the movie is NOT the story of Sidebottom, but more a dream inspired by him (as his co-writer Jon Ronson says).
Ronson was the keyboard player in Frank Sidebottom's band and his character is the centre of this story, moved to the USA. Here Jon is a talentless keyboard player who joins Frank's avant-garde touring band and tries to change it to a successful pop band, with interesting effects on the other members of the band. These include Michael Fassbender (acting his socks off under the massive head where no facial expression can be used) and Maggie Gyllanhaal 'who seems able to conjure beautiful sounds and savage weapons out of thin air with equal ease' - Mark Kermode, Observer.
The film was co-written by Jon Ronson ('The men who stared at goats') and Peter Straughan ('Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy') and was directed by up-and-coming director Lenny Abrahamson, who has had success with recent films 'What Richard Did' and 'Garage'.
Is Frank a genius or just (excuse the pun!) a big-headed loser? As Mark Kermode goes on to say - 'for those who like their movies to dance to a different beat, it is something rather exceptional'. Sounds just right for Keswick.
There are two Keswick 'traditions' we didn't want to break; to start the season with a French film and to show all Asghar Farhadi movies. Imagine our pleasure, then, when we found that Farhadi had moved to France for his latest film.
In 'About Elly', Farhadi showed what a great storyteller he is, with the disappearance of Elly leaving us guessing whether she had drowned or simply gone home. 'A Separation' brought him an Oscar for his deeply involving way of showing the trials and tribulations of a couple split over moving countries to help their daughter to improve her life, or staying to care for an old parent in need.
'The Past' continues his study of fractured lives (could there be a trilogy being made here?). Ahmad (Ali Mosaffa) is called to France to finalise his divorce from Marie (Berenice Bejo from 'The Artist'). On arrival he is soon involved with Marie's problems in her new life - sharing a house with her new lover Samir (Tahir Rahim from 'A Prophet') and their three children from previous marriages. The already existing tensions are exacerbated by Ahmad's presence and we are pulled in to their complex relationships and problems; is there something more going on than meets the eye?
Farhadi's script deliberately keeps us guessing about these relationships and 'exerts a tight emotional grip throughout, ratcheting up the tension before delivering a series of heart-wrenching twists and revelations' - Matthew Turner, View London
The actors, too, all get universal praise, with Berenice Bejo singled out for many awards, including the Cannes Best Actress award for her central role here as Marie. A world star in the making since her nomination for most promising actress in 2001, she appears to be firmly there now.
Let's hope our pleasure at finding the French connection here to start the season is matched by yours, seeing this film that had Asghar Farhadi in the running for the Palme D'Or at Cannes.
Set around the wall between Palestine and Israel, the wall is used to show both the political divide and the gap between two lovers. Omar is willing to climb the wall at night, dodging the Israeli sentries to carry love letters to his girlfriend, but is he also involved in political sabotage as well? And Omar has bigger problems than worrying about what we think he might be doing; the Israelis are also on his trail…
This is the second film that director Hany Abu-Assad has had nominated for best Foreign film at the Oscars. In the first - 'Paradise Now' (2005) - his protagonists are would-be suicide bombers who are shown as ordinary people in their daily lives. Here too, we see Omar more as a lover than a terrorist. Abu-Assad is as interested in what makes people tick as he is in the horrors of the Middle East conflict; Omar's divided loyalties force us to examine what he is going through as a central tenet of this political thriller.
Mumbai, today. Lunch delivery has been raised to an art form, with armies of 'dabbawallahs' organising the deliveries from home to office with machine-like precision...but what if they get it wrong? Writer/director Ritesh Batra has produced this bitter-sweet look at life in a city, where the everyday trials of commuting mix with the magic of an unplanned liaison based on one such mix up.
Ila is trying to rekindle her husband's love by cooking him an extra special lunchbox, but it ends up on Saajan's desk. They begin to swap chapatti-wrapped notes and a virtual friendship grows; in this Facebook world, will a simple Lunchbox bring them together?
This is an Indian romantic comedy, but it is not Hollywood (or Bollywood); as David Jenkins bluntly points out in Little White Lies - 'one will produce a delectable dish which leaves your tastebuds positively humming, while the other will deliver a noxious slurry...More than a tale of random hearts connecting through fast food delivery, this is a heartbreaking movie about things that won't and don't and can't go wrong, going seriously wrong'. Jenkins is impressed too by Irrfan Khan ('Life of Pi'), who plays Saajan - '(he) proves here that he may be one of the greatest living actors in the world right now'. Praise indeed.
One of our guiding principles when choosing films is to try to bring you films from all round the world, so it came as a bit of a shock when we realised how few German films we show- the last one was 3 years ago ('Pina'). With the help (and prodding…) of a new member - who read and translated the German reviews - we have found 'Three Hours'; it was not scheduled to be released in the UK so we couldn't find English reviews.
We also break with another 'tradition'; it is a 'Rom-com'! Perhaps understandably given their often mainstream if not blockbuster nature, these are seldom given much time in our programmes. With 'Three Hours' we bring you young German director Boris Kunz's off-the-wall debut feature film which pays no heed to the traditional genre plot patterns of 'finding, separating, longing'.
Set in a sunny Munich, 'Three Hours' instead 'portrays a generation in a gorgeous manner' – kino.de - with the fresh love story of two old friends, an ecology activist, Isabel (highly-rated Claudia Eisinger) and poet Martin, both in their thirties.
In an oft-called-upon rom-com scenario, as Isabel is about to embark on a three year mission against genetic modification in Africa, Martin confesses his love for his old friend at the departure desk. It is at this point, however, where the clichés end as Kunz delivers a comedy which, as well as capturing the ethos of contemporary life and love in Germany in a very realistic manner, also offers us fairy tale scenes such as the main characters having a casual beer with God (you are going to have to see it to understand!).
Hopefully this begins to fill the German gap in our repertoire of films. Do let us know if you have spotted other under-represented countries.
New UK Directors Day. Video interview with the directors
Continuing Keswick Film Club's support for new British talent, we have two very different films which we hope will show the range of films being produced today.
With the world cup over, we thought it was appropriate to bring you this documentary; even football hating Mark Kermode loved it - 'Having infamously lost 31-0 to Australia, the "world's worst football team" American Samoa attempt to regain a sense of national pride by enlisting a coach and a couple of related off-islanders to help them rise from the bottom of the league during the World Cup qualifiers. Whether or not you give two hoots about "the beautiful game" (and I don't), this charming and uplifting documentary will have you cheering for the underdogs and wishing that all footballers were this humble, determined and just plain decent. The star is transgender player Jaiyah Saelua, who tackles hard and comes up smiling, winning the respect of gruff coach Thomas Rongen, a tough nut with personal tragedy in his past who is reduced to tears by the efforts of his team. You'll be the same; watching this was the first time I have ever punched the air because a football sailed into the back of a net. And very probably the last.'
New UK Directors Day. The director and one of the stars will be present.
Continuing Keswick Film Club's support for new British talent, we have two very different films which we hope will show the range of films being produced today.
Lisle Turner's first film is a gentle town-girl-meets-country-boy drama set in the Wye Valley. He uses this background to simply observe their meeting.
From Peter Bradshaw's review in the Guardian - '17-year-old Grace, a stroppy urban teen is forced by her parents to go with them on a supposedly restorative holiday. Grace is furious at being dragged away from her friends to somewhere she will get no mobile reception, and she senses, correctly, that the trip is designed to help her parents' relationship with each other, but not with her. But then in this alien world of concreteless unsignposted lanes she meets Say a young guy with emotional issues not far from her own, and something flowers between them'.
Both Lisle Turner and one of the stars, will be available for a Q&A after the film.
Nine-year-old Jiale is living with his parents Teck and Hwee Leng in Singapore in the 1990s economic crash. Hwee Leng is pregnant and Filipino Teresa is hired as a nanny-cum-all-round-dogsbody. The family is full of secrets and their already dysfunctional life is further disturbed by the growing bond between Jiale and Teresa.
Director Anthony Chen has won awards before this film for his shorts including Cannes and Berlin Film Festivals, but this is his first attempt at a feature film. Chen, who was trained at Britain's National Film and Television school, is now winning awards (Best first feature film at Cannes) and praise around the globe for this too.
The story (based on Chen's own life) revolves mainly around the badly behaved Jiale and his relationship with Teresa the impoverished nanny, against the background of the problems imposed on all families in Singapore by the economic crash. As Charlotte O'Sullivan says in the Evening Standard - 'It's tough to go down in the world. This superb drama from Singapore asks what happens when you're already at the bottom?'
Films that are released in spring tend to be missed by us as they don't fit our seasons; 2014 saw two films come out that we felt we should squeeze in and 'Under the Skin' is the first of these. Director Jonathan Glazer has spent 10 years and 3 writers developing it from the Michael Faber 2000 novel of the same name. His previous work includes the crime drama 'Sexy Beast' and the mystery 'Birth', both rife with stars. He also directed several adverts including the iconic and beautiful Guinness horses-from-the-waves and the Sony exploding-paint, so he is a man who doesn't fit into a particular genre, but likes to do a great job of anything he touches.
'Under the Skin' continues this trend; difficult to define, with no two critics seeming to agree about its genre even. On the surface it is about an unnamed woman (Scarlett Johansson) travelling the streets of Glasgow, but she appears to be hunting someone specific as she rejects many of those she finds. Is it an example of 'realist' cinema? This strand is emphasized by using not only non-professional actors, but some unprepared passers-by; Johansson actually picked up random people and hidden cameras were used to film their conversations. (So, it could even be a documentary on how ordinary people deal with meeting a celebrity!)
But is she just a stranger as she seems? Is this really a SciFi movie based on an alien from elsewhere? Her posh English accent certainly makes sure the locals in Glasgow know she is from elsewhere. Or maybe it could even be a horror movie, mainly left off-camera, but…
The film is beautiful, using both the Scottish scenery and CGI to best effect, with a score used to enhance the otherworldly feel.
The Danes have found their way to the top of the tree when it comes to making crime dramas in the last few years. 'The Keeper of Lost Causes' is their latest in this genre, with the now-expected top notch inter-related cast and crew. The story (taken from a novel by Jussi Adler-Olsen) was written for the screen by Nikolaj Arcel, who wrote the screenplay for 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' and 'A Royal Affair' , whilst the director Mikkel Nørgaard comes from episodes of 'Borgen'. You will recognize many of the actors too - the star, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, was in 'The Killing'.
We join the plot when Inspector Carl Morck returns to work after being shot, for which he has been partially blamed. As punishment, he is banished to the basement to document back cases. Here he is teamed up with Assad and it isn't long before they cannot resist picking up such case and running with it.
The one they pick is five years old, involving a successful politician who has supposedly committed suicide by jumping off a ferry, but no body was ever found…
The twist the film has to the normal police procedural is that we, the audience, are soon shown what happened; we then follow the police, in an interlocking series of flashbacks, watching the police investigation. The film is more of a 'will-the-police-work-it-out?' rather than a 'who-dunnit?'… Will they, or wont they..?
You will have to come along to find out!
We wanted to find a special film to make the most of our 'night out at Rheged' and surely this one has to meet that requirement? There can be no more inspiring place on Earth than the top of Everest; to see it on the huge screen AND in 3D will be the icing on the cake…
The film is a drama/documentary about the first successful bid to climb Everest in 1953, with reconstructions of the climb and fantastic photography of the mountains, all of which is complemented by real interviews from the time.
When Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit, the world was stunned; the result was sent back to England in time to deliberately enhance the crowning of Elizabeth as Queen. What we may not be as aware of is how important New Zealand saw Hillary's achievement. He became an instant hero and remained so all of his life. Director Leanne Pooley is from New Zealand and has tried, with this film, to tell us his story.
Fancy a meal afterwards too? Contact Rheged to book.
This school-based "clever, compelling Korean thriller" - Alan Hunter, Express - continues South Korea's rising prestige in world cinema. There is huge pressure on children to excel at school in the widening class society. 'Pluto' charts just how far June, one of the few non-wealthy boys at this boarding school, is forced to go to improve his grades to gain entry to the elite universities, and how he is used by the other boys in his school.
"A story of feuding neighbours with the emphasis on the neigh, 'Of Horses and Men' is a filly's-eye view of human folly from Icelandic writer/director Benedikt Erlingsson that's both hysterically funny and oddly moving" - Emma Simmonds, Little White Lies.
A huge success at festivals round the world, this comedy drama takes us into a small community of horse breeders in a vast valley where all human life revolves around their horses and where the horses are happier than the humans.
'Miss Violence' begins with a seemingly happy family occasion; a party to celebrate Angeliki's 11th birthday. At some point during the party, for no apparent reason, Angeliki jumps to her death from the balcony of her family apartment. Why?
The family tries to say it was an accident, but as the film follows the back story, we realise there is much wrong in this dysfunctional family, centred on the father. It is not until the end of the film that we find out what made her jump, by which time we have been taken into the darker side of both this family and Greek society in general.
It is not always easy to find reviews of foreign films, but this one has been reviewed by most of the leading critics; nearly all of them can't resist comparing director Alaxandros Avranas to Michael Haneke ('White Ribbon', 'Amour') so do not expect an easy ride here. Instead expect an observer's view of some uncomfortable scenes. Like 'Amour', most of the film is set in and around the family home.
Avranas is part of the Greek 'new wave', along with the like of Yorgos Lanthimos ('Dogtooth') and Athina Rachel Tsangari ('Attenberg'), which we haven't shown. This is his second film which has won several awards and been the darling of the Venice Film Festival.
And so we come to the 2nd of our 'Oops! We missed this last season' films. A film that won 3 Oscars, and much acclaim, we just had to have 'Dallas Buyers Club' in Keswick.
The film is about the real-life Ron Woodruff; you will not like him, nor are you supposed to. In the early 80s, good ole boy Ron was making hay while the sun shone on his life, by day 'a trailer-trash electrician…', by night a rodeo loving '...sex-and-drugs hedonist and homophobic-racist outlaw' - Anton Bitel, Film 4.
In 1986 he is told he has AIDS and is given 30 days to live. Not believing that a heterosexual guy could catch 'the homo disease', he refuses to accept his death sentence and goes out to find a cure on his own.
This is not the normal AIDS film, based around loving gay relationships. Ron continues to hate the state, continues to hate gays, but what he does ends up saving the lives of many of them.
The film has had much press due to the impressive performances of two of its stars; Matthew McConaughey plays Ron, losing 38 pounds to make himself look authentic. Jared Leto plays Rayon, the transgender woman who becomes his friend. Among the 69 awards the film won, these two both won Oscars - for best actor and best supporting actor - for their roles; '...what McConaughey does here is transformative. Damn, he's good. Ron lived for nearly seven years after his death sentence. McConaughey makes sure we feel his tenacity and triumphs in the treatment of AIDS. His explosive, unerring portrayal defines what makes an actor great, blazing commitment to a character and the range to make every nuance felt'. 'Leto gives an award-caliber performance of uncanny skill. He makes sure Rayon never loses her caustic wit and touchingly beleaguered grace. Leto is flat-out perfect.' - Peter Travers, Rolling Stone.
An acting treat awaits us.
A young novice nun is about to take her vows when she is told to seek out her Aunt before deciding. What her aunt tells her puts her on the road to discovering a past she never knew she had…
UK based Polish director Pawlikowski ('My Summer of Love', 'Last Resort') returns to Poland to make this film to great acclaim, including Best Film at the London Film Festival.
Almost since Hollywood started making Westerns they have borrowed and remade Japanese classic Samurai films - Kurosawa's 'Seven Samurai' becoming 'The Magnificent Seven' for instance. It is very appropriate, then, that there is a Japanese Samurai remake of one of the finest Hollywood Westerns - Clint Eastwood's late classic 'Unforgiven' being given the Samurai treatment here.
The story is the same; Ken Watanabe plays Jubei who has gone into hiding after the close of the Shogun era, but comes out for the reward offered by a group of prostitutes. 'But the plot is just a framework on which director Lee Sang-il and his scriptwriters hang many fascinating ideas: about the country's treatment of its indigenous Ainu people, about the shift from feudalism to 'freedom', and of course – as with any great western – about the rules and ramifications of violence. Unexpectedly brilliant' - Tom Huddleston, Time Out.
What makes a good film to start the season off? How about one from two of our favourite directors, with a star performance by a great actor, a plot to make us all stop and think and, obviously,it has to be in French?
We have had most of the films by the Dardenne brothers here - most recently 'The Kid with a Bike' in 2012. They share their social-realist drama milieu with the likes of Ken Loach, with whom they are often favourably compared.
The star here is Marion Cotillard, who won the Oscar for 'La Vie en Rose' and was most recently in Keswick in 'Rust and Bone'. Her performance here gets high praise from all the reviews we can find.
The story is the modern one of down-trodden workers. Sandra has just recovered from a nervous breakdown. When she tries to go back to work, she is told that her fellow workers have agreed to a one-off bonus to do the work Sandra was doing. She is given the weekend (two days, one night) to convince them to change their vote and let her have her job back...
'The genius of this film (to this writer, the brothers' best) is the way that it constantly undercuts preconceptions. Just when you feel that didacticism is creeping in, that a side is being taken or a point is being pushed, there's a twist and we're right back to neutral. It's difficult to articulate what it is that's so great about the Dardennes' cinema, but it perhaps has something to do with being in the thrilling company of filmmakers who fully comprehend the intricacies of their own text — a skill which is very much taken for granted. Their vigilance as filmmakers is awe-inspiring. This movie is a miracle.' - David Jenkins, Little White Lies
The basic story here is David and Goliath, with small town Kolya trying to stop the gangster-corrupt-city-mayor Vadim from taking his land. But can David stop Goliath when he is backed by a mafia and his own allies attempt to use blackmail as a weapon?
Kolya owns a modest property on a prime piece of land by the Barents Sea and Vadim serves a compulsory purchase order on him, to develop it to make a fortune. Kolya calls on his friend Dimitri, now a Moscow lawyer, to help him fight in the courts, but nothing is going to stop the mayor...
One of the major contenders for the Palme D'Or at Cannes in 2014, the critics loved this film; 'Stunningly shot and superbly acted, especially by Madyanov (who plays Vadim), this is filmmaking on a grand scale' - Peter Bradshaw, Guardian.
'Brimming with emotion, unflinchingly tense, and often darkly, painfully funny, this is a film possessed of both classic sweep and sharp contemporary relevance' - Hannah McGill, The List.
'Leviathan' comes from master film director Andrey Zvyagintsev, who manages here to combine the grand - Kolya takes on the mob, the state and the church in his fight - with the comic - as things begin to unravel, the victims hit the vodka in a big way - all in a small, everyday story of corrupt politicians. Zvyagintsev claims the story is not aimed at Russia, but this we will leave for you to decide.
For those who saw his 'Elena', which we had in 2013, you will remember how he uses very precise composition and large landscapes to make his films beautiful at the same time as telling his story. All together, this put 'Leviathan' as 'one to watch' after Cannes; here is your chance.
Australia; 2007. The Government brings in the 'Northern Territory National Emergency Response' (usually just called 'The Intervention'), nominally to intervene against child sexual abuse in Aboriginal communities, but resulting chiefly in a bigger clamp down on Aborigines' lifestyle.
Australia; today. Charlie has had enough of living under whitefella laws in his remote community and decides to take off and live 'the old way' in the bush...but can he remember the old skills and is his ageing body fit enough to survive? The story was co-written by director Rolf de Heer and longtime friend, leading actor David Gulpilil. The two have worked together before on 'Ten Canoes' and 'The Tracker', whilst Gulpilil has been playing leading roles since 'Walkabout', through 'Crocodile Dundee' and 'Australia'.
The plot is supposedly semi-autobiographical, following Gulpilil's ups and downs in recent years which even saw him in prison for a time. His acting especially gets great reviews (a best actor award at Cannes - almost the only showing so far in Europe - and the rest from the Australian press); 'Gulpilil's extraordinary grace and physical ease is still there, as it was in his first screen role 43 years ago in Nic Roeg's 'Walkabout'. But his face is now ravaged by time and history, and some of the close-ups here are terribly haunting. He shows us anger, resignation, defiance and sorrow at the same time, without a word' - Paul Byrnes, Sydney Morning Herald.
The showing of the film at Cannes resulted in a 7 minute standing ovation; what will we think?
In 1947, Thor Heyerdahl became a worldwide sensation by floating across 4300 miles of Pacific Ocean from Peru to Polynesia on a balsawood craft to 'prove' that this was the original way the islands had been populated. The book he wrote sold 50 million copies and the documentary he made along the way won an Oscar in 1951. The only people who weren't convinced then (and now) were the scientific community - 'just because you did it does not prove it was done before'.
What had also not been done before was to make a fictional film of the adventure; until Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg that is. Simultaneously filmed in Norwegian and English, it became Norway's most expensive film ever and their entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar in 2013. Visually stunning, it...'is filmed in a more realistic style than the fanciful 'Life of Pi', but it offers no less a sense of wonder, as evoked in scenes with flying fish, electric eels that light up the nocturnal waters, or simply the rapturously beautiful panoramic view of the tiny craft as a speck on the vast oceanscape' - Donald Liebenson, Roger Ebert.com
We are showing the English language version.
'A beast, a beauty, a castle in the snow. Winter Sleep, the new film from the Turkish master Nuri Bilge Ceylan, has all the key components of a fairy-tale, but its magic blows through the film in whispering breaths, raising the hairs on your arms even as you barely notice the air's movement' - Robbie Collin, Telegraph.
Aydin (played to great reviews by Haruk Bilginer) is a former actor who now runs the hotel he inherited with his young wife Nihal and his divorced sister Necla. He also has his finger in the pie of many of the local villagers' lives, treating them like his own mini kingdom. But all is not well; at home, his life is an ongoing quiet battle with his wife; in the village, his treatment of his very poor tenants leaves them discontented.
Director Nuri Bilge Ceylan has had great success at Cannes in the past, winning prizes for 'Uzak' , 'Three Monkeys' and 'Once upon a time in Anatolia'. Now he has finally won the Palme D'Or with his latest film. His films always scrape away at the darker sides of human behaviour and usually involve stunning camerawork. Both of these continue here, where 'as in all Ceylan's films, the landscape plays such a key role it should have an agent' Deborah Young, Hollywood Reporter; the village is built into mushroom-like caves of the Cappadocian Steppes, but his emphasis is on conversation this time, delving into the characters like a Chekov play. Covering topics as diverse as mushroom picking and the existence of evil, 'It proceeds to chew over them at length as the snow starts to fly and the fire gutters in the hearth' - Xan Brooks, Guardian. Ceylan is careful not to take sides in the arguments, portraying all the characters 'in their full complexity, complacency or contempt' - Richard Corliss, Time.
We tried really hard not to have this film because of its length, but it just looked so good we thought it had to come to Keswick. Put aside that extra hour to spend in the Alhambra, sit back and enjoy...
'If God doesn't exist', say the disbelievers in evolution, 'how do you explain eyes? How could they have evolved?' Ian Gray is working on the explanation, researching in a lab to find the genetic switch that prompted the creation of a photosensitive cell. But when he spots the eyes of Sofi on a billboard, he is thrown: he feels he knows her already. Tracking her down, this feeling grows still further: did he know her in a past life? Is there a God after all?
Ian goes on researching eyes, identifying the uniqueness in all eyes, but a startling find several years later makes him doubt himself all over again...
The actors get good reviews here, especially the two main stars Michael Pitt (seen in Keswick recently in ' Seven Psychopaths') and Brit Marling (who co-wrote and appeared in both of Mike Cahill's films). You will probably recognize Sofi (Astrid BergèsFrisbey) too, who was in 'The Well-Digger's Daughter'.
This is Director Mike Cahill's second film after 'Another Earth' which also played around with a mix of sci-fi and spirituality (a young girl who killed a man's family in a car crash goes back to try to help him 4 years later in search of her own redemption, whilst another earth has appeared in the sky, offering humankind a different escape). You are going to have to suspend some of your disbelief to get the best from the film, but 'I Origins addresses its subject with the kind of bright-eyed earnestness normally seen only in spaniels and MA students. What sets the film apart, beyond the glowing photography, delicate performances and beautifully selected Radiohead soundtrack, is that few young directors would have the nerve and ambition to 'go spiritual' without the protection of irony or dogmatism. It's not so much science fiction as hipster Terrence Malick — which, believe it or not, is a compliment' - Robbie Collin, Telegraph
There are more and more documentaries being made, many look worthy, but we feel we only have room for one in a season.
'Concerning Violence' was chosen as 'film of the month' by the BFI Sight and Sound Magazine, and certainly ticks all the boxes; in a world where violence is becoming more and more prevalent, how do we choose the good guys from the bad? Are local people right to fight back against colonial forces, or do they just cause themselves more harm?
Still seen as one of the best anti-colonialist theorists, Frantz Fanon's book 'The Wretched of the Earth' is used as the framework of this film, specifically the chapter from which the title is taken. Director Göran Olsson then spent many hours of patient time going through old Swedish news footage to build a story of what happened in Africa, including Angola, Zimbabwe, Liberia and Mozambique. He then uses the voice of singer Lauryn Hill as a narrator to link the pictures back to Fanon's text. By careful placing of the news clips, he tries to bring out the problems caused by the violent colonial troops AND the problems caused by the freedom fighters (surely not terrorists in the context of this film?), and to show the underlying problems caused by the racist settlers (a Rhodesian white man is shown calling his servant 'You stupid thing').
Olsson tries not to make judgements, but hopefully gives us the information to make up our own minds; no bad thing with all the strife we have to sort through on our news bulletins today...
If we tell you that all the cast and crew of this film except the director chose to remain anonymous then that probably tells you all you need to know about the state of repression in Iran today, which this film is challenging head-on.
In the 1990s, 'allegedly', the government attempted to eliminate the threat of a group of writers by driving them all off a cliff in a coach; the plot of this film is based around a manuscript written about this event. Not content with repressing the book, 'a former dissident turned state intelligence minister now wants to wipe this event from memory' - Stephen Dalton, Hollywood Reporter. Two hired thugs are attempting to find anyone who has a copy of the manuscript, to retrieve and destroy it...and to 'neutralise' the holder...
Director Mohammad Rasoulof has been banned from making films for 20 years, but continues to make them secretly before smuggling them to other countries for release. His previous films ('Iron Island', White Meadows') used the poetic symbolism familiar to us from directors such as Kiarostami ('Taste of Cherry') to mask his political points; in this political thriller he 'goes straight for the jugular, both literally and metaphorically. The results are challenging and alarming; the film-making brave and defiant' - Mark Kermode, Observer. The film won him a Jury prize at Cannes in 2013.
'Its ultimate point - that intellectual censorship requires the blanket elimination of those who pose even minimal threat to the possible destabilisation of the government - rings loud and long. And if a ban is imposed on a film whose ideas have been thickly shrouded in a symbolist fog, then why not have the cuffs slapped on you for something which bellows its fury towards the heavens?' - David Jenkins, Little White Lies
Never before screened in England, our opening film from New Zealand is an emotionally-charged and inspiring story of a man who has to overcome his own adversities to inspire a group of young people – through the unlikely medium of chess. We have enjoyed a number of powerful films from New Zealand such as The Piano and Whale Rider and The Dark Horse is sure to join that cannon of great films. One not to be missed.
Thanks to Koch Media
Difret is based on a true story and tells of the experiences of a young girl who fights back against the traditional Ethiopian method of finding a bride – essentially kidnapping. In trying to escape she sets in motion consequences that bring the full weight of the tribal as well as judicial system against her. Defended by a female lawyer who hears about her case on the radio, Difret is a story about justice and the emerging place of women in a traditional society.
The cycle has to break at some point," Director Mahari said at Sundance. "What you have to do is educate. I hope this film will go a long way toward changing thinking." It's hard to imagine a film this persuasive doing otherwise.- LA Times
Thanks to Soda Pictures
Described as a dark comedy, Excuse My French centres on Hany Abdullah Peter Soussa (Ahmed Dash), a young Egyptian Copt boy, who, after tragically losing his devoted and influential father, is uprooted from private education and enrolled in a state school. Overwhelmed by this new dog eat dog environment, Hany is mistaken for a Muslim by pupils and teachers alike and, for fear of being ostracised by his new peers, decides not to correct them on their assumption.
Director Amr Salama's screenplay for the film survived four rejections by the Egyptian censor of three successive governments before the final cut was approved for filming.
Thanks to Film Clinic
"It's not important what's real as long as I can visualize it," notes the narrator heroine early on in Blind, aptly setting the stage for a lithe, quicksilver portrait of a woman whose loss of sight only serves to sharpen her creative imagination. Blindness is a difficult affliction to understand. By simply closing your eyes and walking around, you might comprehend the act of not being able to see, but you would probably be unable to grasp the loneliness and isolation that occurs when the world is permanently cast into darkness. Eskil Vogt, whose debut feature this is, has provided viewers with a thorough exploration of Ingrid (played by Ellen Dorrit Petersen)and the ailment that confines her to her apartment. His character study is immensely thoughtful, and it allows the viewer to immerse oneself in Ingrid’s version of reality.
Thanks to Axiom
Made locally and involving some of our members this is a stunning, beautiful, heart-breaking film. A profound study of how time changes parents into children and children into parents. Full of truth, compassion and dignity.
We hope to welcome the director Tom Browne and his leading actors, Gemma Jones and Richard Johnson to add even more to what promises to be a special occasion.
Gemma Jones talks to Sara Teresa about her role in the film, the Lake District and the Lake District and Jones' roles in Harry Potter and the infamous The Devils.
Thanks to Tom Browne
Set during the American Civil War, The Retrieval tells the story of three Afro-Americans and what they had to do in order to survive. This is a meticulously shot period drama that eschews battle scenes in favour of character development and is all the more powerful for it.
Thanks to Chris Eska
Set within the backdrop of Bangladesh's struggle for independence from East Pakistan, Shongram (The Struggle)is a romantic drama which tells the tale of Karim, a Muslim who is in love with a beautiful Hindu girl, Asha. Their peaceful village life is suddenly interrupted by war and Karim must grow up fast to survive in an era when mass killings and abduction was common.
We hope to welcome the director and lead actress to provide a unique insight into this turbulent period of history.
Thanks to Munsur Ali
Part of an evening celebrating the voluntary sector and community spirit, followed by Ken Loach's (final?) film Jimmy's Hall.
Faith, Hope and Charity is the name of the Heritage Lottery Funded Film which is being made to celebrate 110 years of voluntary service in Carlisle.
The film, a drama follows activity through the ages, beginning with the paternalist Carlisle Charitable Organisation Society set up in 1904, to relieve the worst effects of poverty, its transformation into a Society providing Social Service and welfare in the inter-war period and onward to an organisation involved in the mobilisation of voluntary action in post World War 2 Carlisle. The film dramatises events and stories taken out of Annual reports and minute books such as the establishment of Currock House, one of the first Community Centres in England, the settlement of Vietnamese (boat people) families in Carlisle and the running of the Tourist Information centre in the City and more…
An evening of celebration of the voluntary sector and of community spirit.
Starting with Faith, Hope and Charity a short film which documents the work of the Council for Voluntary Service, in Carlisle over 100 years.
According to The Guardian’s Jonathan Romney, Jimmy's Hall finds Director Ken Loach in lyrical, but typically angry, form. It tells the true story of Jimmy Gralton an Irishman who was deported from his own country without trial in 1933. His crime – to have set up a public hall in County Leitrim, a venue for education, community events and musical shindigs both traditional and featuring the jazz that Gralton had brought back from America. Gralton, a socialist, arouses the local forces of intolerance and shocked grumblings about "jazzy music … pelvic thrusts" and "the 'Losangelisation' of our people".
Thanks to Entertainment One
One of the most astonishing films you will ever see. It may help to remember that the cast is deaf and you hear things they do not. Other than that you will find yourself immersed into their world, set in a crumbling State Boarding School for deaf adolescents, where the staff have effectively handed control to the gangs and cliques of students. Whilst at times uncomfortable viewing it is testament to the power of the film that it will remain with you long after the final credits.
Thanks to Metrodome
Can you imagine being born in a prison camp where the only crime your parents have committed was to disagree with the government? Stretch this imagination further, then, and think what you would be like 23 years later where this has been your only reality; where everyday you are forced to work long hours and can only dream of the luxury of a bowl of rice. You are unaware that other people do not live as you do. You have seen no books, indeed you can barely read or add up. Education has been the very minimum to allow you to carry out the slave labour you have done since you were 6 years old.
This was the world of Shin Donghyuk, possibly the only person to have escaped from a North Korean camp . Born into a North Korean political prison, he lived there all his life until he was 23. This film tells his story and is a presentation by Keswick Peace and Human Rights Group.
Thanks to Kaleidoscope Film Distribution
The Free Family Film
The screen version of a Broadway musical from 1987, Into the Woods boasts a stellar cast, impressive visuals, intricate sets and beautiful costume and makeup design. Add to this a great use of humour and some grisly touches, this film will delight the younger portion of the audience, while the emotional depth of the music and acting will touch the older crowd. It promises to be a joy to watch.
Charity Screening – thanks to the generosity of Disney Media (UK). Please give generously.
This is a hugely ambitious project, taking some of the world’s most accomplished Directors and inviting them to get inside the soul of their favourite buildings – The Berlin Philharmonic, Norway’s Halden Prison, The Opera in Oslo, The Pompidou Centre, The Salk Institute in La Jolla California and the National Library of Russia.
Wim Wenders, whose Pina showed that he had truly mastered 3D technology is convinced that it is a medium that has not been fully explored by intelligent film makers – these 6, half-hour explorations will show just how well they achieve it.
Thanks to Metrodome
Tapei, never knowing where their next meal is coming from. The father makes a pittance as a walking billboard for luxury apartments, whilst his children rely on free food samples from the local market to survive.
They seek refuge in an abandoned building, where the father becomes fixated with a strange mural painted on the wall. When they meet a lonely woman working in a local grocery store, it turns out she may be able to shed some light on the family's unanswered questions and lead them toward a better life.
A meditative drama which seeks to explore the definition of 'home'. An immensely bittersweet work, Tsai evokes the poetry and tragedy of life lived on the margins of society
Thanks to Verve Pictures (New Wave)
A motorcycle expedition on uncharted roads across the Himalayan state of Arunachal Pradesh, situated in North-east India. But more than an expedition, it's a film on friendship, camaraderie and the "never say die" attitude of five motorcyclists in the face of unforgiving terrain.
This is definitely not Top Gear! There was no back-up vehicle or film crew and set in parts of India hardly seen, filmed or explored, the film captures the interactions and experiences of the riders who are trying to chart a route, which according to everyone does not exist.
The terrain lends itself perfectly to the Imax screen - watch out for a spectacular bridge crossing ...and close your eyes and hope.
Thanks to Dirt Track Productions
This is that rare thing – a sci-fi romantic comedy but don't let put you off! It is also one of the most inventive films about a man who wants to revisit the past to make things perfect for the woman he loves. And, of course, it all goes to plan – yeah, right!
Thanks to Shoreline Entertainment
One of a trio of Belgian lads Philip (Robrecht Vanden Thoren), paralysed from the neck down, has heard about a Spanish brothel catering to the sexual needs of those with special needs. He tells his two friends, partially sighted Josef (Tom Audenaert) and Lars (Gilles De Schrijver) whose aggressive brain tumour has confined him to a wheelchair, that this is the chance of a lifetime to lose their virginity.
Filmed with humour and compassion Come As You Are could be the unexpected hit of the Festival
Thanks to Cinema For All
All the great world's cities contain pockets of different nationalities and in the case of Vancouver in the 1930s, this film focuses on the Japanese community, more specifically the Canadian-born first generation of Japanese immigrants, who started their own baseball team – the Vancouver Asahi.
Out-sized and out-muscled by their Caucasian opponents and in the face of racism and prejudice, the team rethinks its strategy and starts to find success.
Much more than a sporting underdog movie, The Vancouver Asahi goes on to explore the tensions between communities and between generations as World War II looms.
Thanks to Pony Canyon Inc
After 5 years of trying, it is excellent news that we are at last able to screen Volchok. Volchok is a sublime essay on the darker side of human nature and devastatingly compelling to boot.
A story of a mother and a daughter, we are shown a simple and effective story of unconditional love from one side (the child), which does not go away in the face of indifference and even cruelty - a harsh world seen through the eyes of a 7-year old girl.
This is a film that gets under your skin with its overriding despair and grim outlook of life, love and familial bonds yet draws you in through the sheer force of its storytelling and compelling performances. For everyone who loves bold world cinema.
Thanks to Koktobel Film Company and Lee Relph (https://mibih.wordpress.com)
Amelia loses her husband in a car crash on the way to the give birth to Samuel, their only child. She struggles to cope with her fate as a single mother and the impact on her each year of the anniversary of the tragedy. Seven years on, when things seemingly cannot get any worse, they read a strange book that talks about the 'Babadook' and the nightmarish experiences the two encounter form the rest of the story. Rated as one of the best horror films of recent years and with two stand-out performances, will you brave seeing the subtle, suspenseful, and shrouded in mystery film that is The Babadook?
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Thanks to Icon Film Distribution
At a time when food poverty is becoming an increasingly political issue, Keswick Peace and Human Rights Group’s choice of screening is particularly apposite. Channel 4 Dispatches asked three children to reveal how it feels when the cupboards are sometimes bare.
Thanks to Channel 4
23-year-old Englishman Tom Allen is all set for a successful office-bound career, but he finds himself persisted by a question many of us face: isn't there more to life than this? Leaving everything and everyone behind, Tom sets off on his bike without maps or guidebooks on a quest to find the answer. But what does he find?
Filmed over four years in 32 countries by one man on a bicycle, Janapar is a true one-off — a unique and intimate glimpse into a true story of life and love on the road; and a tale of finding what you’re looking for — right when you least expect it.
In association with Keswick Bikes
Thanks to Tom Allen
This film is Dogme 4. In the Namibian desert in southwest Africa, a tourist bus strays far off course and runs out of petrol. The passengers stumble into the blinding sun and find themselves at an abandoned German mining station. Jack the only passenger with any desert experience lectures them: There are five things you need to survive in the desert, and in descending order of importance they are water, food, shelter, making yourself visible and keeping up your spirits.
Thanks to Danish Film Institute
"Alias is a young albino boy growing up in the central African bush. He is the subject of taunting and also vulnerable to a terrible danger: the belief among witch doctors that the bodies of albinos offer magical powers. As a result ,many albinos are murdered or mutilated for the prize of a charmed body part. Bent on saving Alias from this ghastly fate, his mother entrusts him to her brother who runs a number of small businesses in the city. The waking nightmare of the African albino muti trade — whereby albinos are hunted for their supposedly restorative body parts — is a tricky subject to film without leaning too far in the directions of exploitation or exoticism, but artist-turned-filmmaker Noaz Desch’s staggering debut feature, 'White Shadow,' strikes the necessary balance with vision to burn." - Variety
The film will be followed by a discussion with Justine Atkinson of the Africa in Motion Festival
Thanks to Aya Distribution
Please note that this film is now showing at 1pm in The Theatre By The Lake and not 1pm at The Alhambra as stated in the programme.
When work commitments prevented John Hurt from coming to Keswick this year, we asked if he'd like to choose a film to show at the festival. He's selected Big Eyes, a Tim Burton film that he feels has been unkindly reviewed and is keen to promote.
Big Eyes tells the outrageous true story of one of the most epic art frauds in history. In the 1960s, painter Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz) had reached success beyond belief, revolutionizing the commercialization of popular art with enigmatic paintings of waifs with big eyes. The bizarre and shocking truth would eventually be discovered: Walter’s works were actually created by his wife Margaret (Amy Adams). The Keanes, it seemed, had been living a colossal lie that had fooled the entire world.
This film is Dogme 2. Director Lars von Trier made this, his own first (and only) 'Dogme 95' film, several years after originating the concept with his colleague Thomas Vinterberg. While not for everyone, von Trier's devotion to intellectual inventiveness in his art is apparent. At the end of The Idiots we may feel it was so realistic that we struggle to remember it was only a work of fiction and didn't actually happen. Documentary-style interviews with members of the commune force us to continually evaluate what we are watching. However offensive or intentionally clumsy, its influence cannot easily be denied.
Thanks to Danish Film Institute
Why is the bicycle back in fashion? The film explores this and tells the story of cycling in the land that invented the modern bicycle, its birth, decline, and re birth from Victorian origins to today. The film features interviews with cycling greats such as Chrises Boardman and Hoy but West Cumbrians can look out for John Grimshaw – the man behind Sustrans and the fantastic cyclepath network we enjoy so much.
We hope to welcome the film-makers who will host a post screening debate on the topic.
In association with Keswick Bikes
Thanks to Blue Hippo Media
This film is Dogme 1 - Dogme in its first incarnation. It proved much more approachable than it might have looked on paper and the rules under which it was made turn out to be a gift and an opportunity for a talented director with a sparkling story about the childhood secrets revealed by a son on the occasions of his father’s 60th birthday party. Festen is a delicious exercise in controlled, cathartic anarchy, worth watching for its singular, poignant story, its mirth and its fearlessness.
Thanks to Metrodome
Immigration is a hot topic, not just in the UK but all over the world. Set among the Turkish immigrant/refugee population of modern-day Vienna, the story revolves around little Veysel, a daydreaming stutterer struggling to assimilate into his German-speaking school. How does he fare? The answer is well worth finding out.
Your Beauty has been screened and acclaimed at some 60 Festivals around the world and is a welcome addition to our programme at Keswick.
Thanks to Dor Film Produktion
Many films feature a suicide and its aftermath but few, if any, do so in quite the way depicted byClass Enemy. Set in a school, the conduct of a new German teacher sets in train a sequence of events and speculation. This masterpiece not only shows the impact on those who claim to know the victim but also the lengths to which the establishment will go to protect its interests. Based on events witnessed and experienced by the director, although the story has been heavily fictionalised, this is a stunning piece of cinema.
Thanks to Triglav Film
The UK film industry seems to specialise in social realism, but can slip over the edge into soap-like kitchen sink drama all too easily. 'Electricity' takes social realism as a starting point, but drags it through the looking glass into wonderland.
Lily is working in a seaside amusement arcade, flirting with a customer. They swap numbers, but when she goes to meet him, her day disappears into a kaleidoscope of colour and fire; the electrical storm of the title - another epileptic attack has ruined her day.
Continuing our '(dis)ability' theme we started at the Festival, Bryan Higgins' film shows just how debilitating epilepsy can be, whilst using Lily's carefree attitude to life to stop us feeling sorry for her: she controls her own life. At least she does until an inheritance sets her off to London to find her wayward brother to give him his share. As she flits through this strange world of weird characters, her carefully ordered life is further thrown when a London doctor gives her a different prescription for her attacks...
Higgins' previous work has been mainly on television apart from one film ('Unconditional'), in 2012. He shows here that he has a great eye for detail, pushing Lily to the front in every scene. This works superbly, especially as Agyness Deyn gets great reviews for her acting ('by the time credits roll, she's ceased to be a fashion model that's dabbled in film ...and become one of the most promising young actors of her generation' ...'I could go on, but if you are not convinced by now, I don't know what else to say. 'Electricity' is a seriously great film, made by people with a burning desire to prove their talent. It is a tremendous achievement on all fronts and a credit to the British film industry' David James, We Got this Covered (London Film Festival Review)
A cracking film which fits well into our 'new UK Director' mould, with a new actor to boot. Definitely one we are looking forward to seeing; let's hope you are too.
Both female leads get great reviews in this South Korean drama. 'Young-nam arrives from Seoul in a small fishing village to take up the position of Police Chief, having been pushed out and transferred away from her previous position in the capital. On her first day moving into the town, she comes across a young girl, Dohee, whom she soon discovers is being beaten by an alcoholic stepfather and grandmother. Feeling compelled to put herself between the girl and her family to protect the child, Young-nam puts everything on the line as her own troubles gradually come to the fore, building towards an explosive climax, equally affecting and effective' -Kenji Lloyd, London Film Festival review.
A hit and run accident is the start and end of this story of two families from different social backgrounds who are linked by greed, ambition and lust. The story is told and retold from the perspective of various characters, giving us a different view each time - 'Looking at an unfolding accident from several distinct perspectives, the twisty narrative charts the complex interactions between a wealthy banking dynasty, a cashstrapped, middle-class family, a troubled young man and an unhappy troupe of warring artistes, all of whose fortunes are variously intertwined by unwise investments – both personal and financial' - Mark Kermode, Observer.
Paolo Virzi has taken the story from Stephen Amidon's novel and created 'a shrewd portrait of a rapacious, unhappy society' - Peter Bradshaw, Guardian - which has become Italy's entry for the 2015 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.
This film might have been made to help us end the season with a big bang!
What makes genius? Is it in the genes or is it hard work? Terence Fletcher is a jazz band conductor who wanders the halls of the Conservatory where he works looking for the core talent he can hammer into shape; and hammer is the right word. He conducts music with his fist, accepting no compromise, expecting only surrender to his methods - 'There are no two words in the English Language more harmful than... 'Good Job''.
Andrew is a young music student who wants to become not just good, but one of the world greats. He is prepared to practice his drumming till he literally bleeds, and won't let such trifles as love hold him back; he and Fletcher are made for each other, but can they work together?
The film was shot at speed (an incredible 19 days) and with speed - even the conversation has a staccato beat. Writer/director Damien Chazelle is only 29, this is already his second film and he is already winning awards at festivals - 'Whiplash' won both audience and jury prizes at Sundance.
Both actors had previous music training (which MUST have been useful!) and their acting comes in for high praise: J K Simmons - who plays Fletcher - (one of those actors who is in everything, but remains unknown - he is credited with 144 roles on IMDb, including 'Spiderman' and, for tv followers like me, 'The Closer') finally makes his mark in this role, as does Miles Teller who plays Andrew; 'Simmons gives an indelible, Oscar-worthy performance here, yet he's matched in every step by Teller' - Robbie Collin, Telegraph - who goes on to say 'However genius may flourish, you know it when you see it and 'Whiplash' is it' . Watch any of the trailers available on the internet and we think you might agree. As Peter Howell puts it in the Toronto Star 'Quite simply, 'Whiplash' is one of the year's best films'. What a way for us to end!
What better way to start our Autumn Sunday nights out than to join in a party that was celebrated throughout most of the western world? Don your party frocks, put on your spats; we are off to VE night in 1945 to join Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret in a night on the town with the rest of London!
OK, it never really happened (Margaret was only 14 at the time); OK, it is just frivolous fun...but what fun! Imagine you have spent the last few years cooped up in your home (well, Buckingham Palace, actually, darling, but still...) and that you are likely to be the Monarch of England for the rest of your life; wouldn't you fancy a night out? Imagine the whole of London is one big party, wouldn't you want to go out and join in the fun?
Well, Elizabeth convinces 'Dad' to let them go, then quickly they lose their 'escorts'... and each other! Naturally, no-one is going to recognize them (I did say this was fiction didn't I?), so good-time girl Margaret is going to find a lot of...interesting places to go ("By the way, what exactly IS a 'knocking shop'?") while queen-in-waiting Elizabeth is going to spend the night looking for her sister. Let's get out there and party with them!
Don't forget to take your tiara off!
If I say this is a story of an abandoned dog finding its way home, what would come to your mind? Possibly Disney's Incredible Journey? Well forget that; this a tale of a much darker type. 13 year-old Lili is sent to stay with her father in Budapest, taking her dog Hagen with her. Her father does not like dogs; the law does not like mixed-breed dogs (think racism...second class immigrants...). When he is told he has to pay a tax to keep Hagen, he leaves the dog by the side of the road to survive alone.
While Lili starts a campaign to get him back, Hagen's life goes from bad to worse. Living rough on the streets with other dogs, and eventually ending up in the dog pound, the only way the dogs can free themselves is by working together (think revolution). Once free, man's best friend does what men do best; they set out to get their revenge...
"Because director Kornel Mundruczo tells his story using real dogs - lots of them - it's fair to say that White God has no precedent in film history. Uniqueness alone wouldn't necessarily elevate White God into anyone's upper echelon, but Mundruczo's movie is as riveting as it is novel, a sobering look at what happens when the natural world turns on those who abuse it" - Robert Denerstein, Movie Habit.
Well reviewed by almost everyone, and winner of two awards at Cannes (including "Palme Dog"!), the film is an adrenalin-pumping thriller as well as an allegory-filled social commentary; you can read it as you want. The dogs scenes are all real, with no CGI - "Director Kornél Mundruczó's staging of the scenes in which the dogs take to the streets is breathtaking" - Geoffrey Macnab, Independent. How the myriad of trainers managed it is beyond belief. You will be pleased to know, no dogs were harmed in its making.
Will Hagen get back with Lili and all return to normal, or will he and his fellow dogs prefer their new-found freedom?
Xavier Dolan is only 25 years old and this is already his fifth film. The critics either love or hate him - some seem to love TO hate him - but all say this is his best film to date and drench it with universal praise:-
"Dolan's latest, is his funniest. It comes at you baying and rattling like an early Pedro Almodóvar comedy, threaded through with an infectious love of full-throttle melodrama" - Tim Robey, Telegraph
"This is easily Dolan's best film, and it's exciting to think how many times we might have to revise that statement over the years to come" - David Ehrlich, Little White Lies
The story is about the power of love, and its limits; when does a child behave so badly that a mother cannot cope any longer? Set in a fictional slightly future Canada where a law has been passed allowing parents the right to institutionalise their children without a court ruling, Diana (Die) has this choice hanging over her with a son, Steve, pushing the limits every day.
She appears to be saved by a new neighbour, Kyla, who steps into their world and brings some sanity with her; or at least she seems to; the trio help each other, all is looking rosy... but can it last?
The actors all get great reviews - Antoine-Olivier Pilon as the over-the-top Steve, Suzanne Clément as Kyla and, especially Anne Dorval as Die - while Dolan himself won a Jury Prize at Cannes.
We thought we would try something new this season. Our commitment to bring you as many new films from around the world as possible means we rarely find room for any old classics; films that you may well have seen on television - that you may have seen several times in fact - but that are worth seeing again, especially on the big screen. We are starting off with three HUGE classics to see if they appeal to you. If they do, we will continue next season. Do let us know what you think...and what films you would like to see. They can be any age just as long as they are GOOD!
As an opener, we have struck lucky: to celebrate the centenary of Orson Welles' birth, The Third Man has been re-released in a brand new 4K restoration - which, to you and me, means the picture will be as sharp as a knife.
Do we need to tell you about the plot? Out of work pulp fiction writer Holly Martins (Joseph Cotton) arrives in post-war Vienna to take up a job offer from his friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles), only to find he has just been killed in a car accident... but Martins is suspicious about the accident and decides to investigate. Full of famous scenes and a great cast, supported by instantly recognizable zither music, this soon became a classic film noir, winning an Oscar and a BAFTA and consistently reaching many "Best Film" lists - it is still number 2 on the Rotten Tomatoes top 100.
I can’t wait to see it on the big screen - see you there?
'Film Noir' had its heyday in the black and white era of the 40s and 50s, but it has never quite gone away (and thank goodness for that). Modern 'neo-noir' has replaced some of the shadows with neon colours, but the femme fatale is still there. Director Yi'nan Diao brings us his version here - with a difference; instead of a fast paced, simple plot, he makes character more important. His femme fatale might even be an innocent bystander; what matters is the relationships.
The story starts with body parts turning up in coal processing plants. Zhang, the detective in charge, bungles the case badly. We rejoin him 5 years later as an alcoholic security guard when similar murders begin to happen again. He starts to look into the case with his ex-partner and they link the murders to a beautiful and mysterious widow; is she involved? Is she perhaps the killer?
The film won the Golden Bear at Berlin Film Festival (beating Boyhood into 2nd place) and high acclaim from most critics, though some have found it's plot confusing even though it is beautiful to see.
"Puzzling out the whos and the whys of this marvellously oddball case takes a back seat to drinking in the film's dark, shining evocation of night and the city. The staging is like Tarantino in a brooding funk: take the beauty parlour face-off, a flurry of crazed action against a chequered floor bathed in pink light. There are hints of Vertigo – a comparably elusive film plot-wise – in the central relationship, which has its own melancholic twists and turns. But if Diao's intent on confounding us, he has the courtesy to do it with frequently astonishing style and verve" - Tim Robey, Telegraph.
A beautiful, Chinese, complicated neo-noir, then; bring it on!
UK Directors Day
Keswick Film Club's two-for-one day brings you two very different UK films to enjoy for the price of one film!
A Western, with a 16-year-old Scots lead, directed by a Scottish, ex-folk/rock star, made in New Zealand; what’s not to like?! Well, it all gets a lot better from then on; "It's only slow in the way a rattlesnake or a predatory killer is slow. This terrific film is actually tense, twisty and brilliant" - Peter Bradshaw,Guardian
Jay has left Scotland to search for his lost love. Along the way across Colorado, he bumps into Silas (Michael Fassbender), a hardened killer, who offers to help keep him alive. Their journey is full of action, surprises and digressions which keep the film feeling new, without losing that Western feeling. The reviewers love it, Sundance Festival gave it the Grand Jury prize.
UK Directors Day
Keswick Film Club's two-for-one day brings you two very different UK films to enjoy for the price of one film!
Kate and Geoff Mercer are planning a celebration for their 45th wedding anniversary when a letter arrives for Geoff; the body of Katya, his lover from 50 years ago has turned up in the Alps where she was killed. Forgotten and unmentioned for many years, why does her reappearance matter? How much did she mean to Geoff? What secrets has he covered up all these years? Can you be jealous of a dead person?
6 tales, linked by revenge, which should have you laughing as well as biting your knuckles: what do you do when you get an unfair parking fine..? Or you discover your groom has been unfaithful at the wedding..? Get your own back of course! But, how far would you go..?
The film has been compared to those of Pedro Almodóvar (who produced it), and has won great plaudits for new director Damián Szifron, including nominations for Oscar, BAFTA and Palme D'Or.
Come along and enjoy...but maybe not a good idea to drive home afterwards if the black comedy has got to you...
"One of the best films I have seen for years" - Ann Martin, Keswick Film Festival - how good can it get?!
The news is full every day of Islamic extremists winning more territory in the Middle East, but what is it like on the ground for those concerned? This film is set in the days after Timbuktu was taken over, with the local devout Muslims trying to understand what they could possibly be doing wrong and the new ruling Jihadists trying to invent laws to prove they are in control: "No more music, no soccer".
The film has won a Jury prize at Cannes and was nominated for the Palme D'Or there, and for an Oscar.
Our 2nd classic ‘couda been a contenda’ for my favourite film - as the winner of 8 Oscars it might top your list too. It is certainly seen as Marlon Brando’s greatest film; he basically invented method acting here, and his disagreements with director Elia Kazan (who gave evidence at the McCarthy trials) helped to give the film an edge, which was seen as an allegory for those very trials.
Terry Malloy (Brando) witnesses a murder by a corrupt union boss and holds his tongue until he meets the dead man’s sister and falls in love. Should he back his corrupt brother (Rod Steiger) or his new lover?
Full of amazing acting, great lines and a great story, surely one film that can be watched over and over again…
John drives a taxi long hours each day, trying to make a living from the Dublin suburbs where he lives. He is not trying to escape his environment, but to survive, and to keep his alcoholic mother alive at the same time. Their lives are grim; arriving home, his first thought is will his mother be collapsed in an alcoholic stupor, will she have run off, or will she be dead?
Held together by great performances from Jack Raynor and Toni Collette, it is, nonetheless, the writer/director, Gerard Butler, who gets the highest praise as "the elliptical storytelling and, most of all, the stillness of the frame somehow allow a seemingly everyday story to radiate and reveal an inner life that’s captivating and immersive in the way it combines expressive acuity with humane insight...the best Irish film in years"- Trevor Johnston, Sight & Sound.
Director Nanni Moretti returns to the winning ways of his earlier The Son's Room with another 'family drama'. What's it about? "Try as she may to play the hard-nosed pro on set, Margherita is swept up in the emotional turmoil of moving out of her boyfriend's apartment and dealing with a teenage daughter and a hospitalized mom. All this inevitably boils over into the political film she's making about factory workers at odds with management" - Deborah Young, Hollywood Reporter.
Mixing in a dose of comedy (John Turturro plays the American lead in her film) makes Mia Madre "a tremendously smart and enjoyable movie" - Peter Bradshaw, Guardian
NIGHT OUT AT RHEGED WITH AN OPTIONAL MEAL
Wim Wenders tells us how he was inspired by the pictures of Sebastião Salgado as a youth (he has kept one of his pictures of his desk ever since). In this film, Wenders and Sebastião's son follow Sebastião around the world to produce an Oscar nominated documentary of his work.
Who is Sebastião Salgado? For 40 years he has taken black and white pictures of the people struggling with the world, often in conflicts. Wenders produces an equally beautiful film, showing the master at work, meeting and photographing humanity.
A kind of anti-Lawrence of Arabia-cum-Bedouin-Western, Theeb is the story of a young Bedouin boy who hooks up with his brother and an Englishman crossing his part of the desert during the Arab revolt against the Ottoman empire. We watch his swift coming of age alongside his tribe's but, instead of the Englishman leading them like sheep, we see the events from Theeb's young viewpoint.
"Like Timbuktu, (from earlier in the season) which lamented the growth of radical Islam in contemporary Mali, Theeb insists on the importance of preserving cultural difference against the totalizing vision of racial and religious hegemony" - Oleg Ivanov, Slant Magazine
An action adventure...with a difference.
Starring the much-missed James Dean, Rebel without a Cause was one of the events that lead to 'Teenagers' - not just as young adults, but as a power all of their own. Alongside Brando in The Wild One, and Elvis Presley in music, James Dean here portrayed the fears and angst so prevalent in the years to come; the only thing that was missing was Dean himself, killed in a car crash a month before the film was released.
Jim Stark moves to a new town with his father and domineering mother. In one day, he falls in love with Judy and clashes with the local gang leader. Taking young loner Plato with them, the three hide out in a large house and play at happy families until the police arrive... In a film full of stars, with many messages hidden in the 50s but more obvious now, it is perhaps appropriate to quote a sadly missed favourite critic, Robert Ebert - "Like its hero, Rebel Without a Cause desperately wants to say something and doesn't know what it is. If it did know, it would lose its fascination. More perhaps than it realized, it is a subversive document of its time".
Here in the West we are happy enough with our ability to find love, feeling sorry for the single and even sneering at the Indian 'arranged marriage' idea; what if the world decided you HAD to be in a relationship? If you weren't, or your partner left you, you had 45 days to find another one or...be turned into the animal of your choice!
Colin Farrell plays David, sent to a 'love-hotel' to find a partner. His choice of animal, if he fails is (you guessed it) a Lobster. With many other stars, including John C Reilly, Rachel Weisz and Olivia Colman, we follow his attempts to find a mate.
The Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos (Dogtooth, Alps) has always liked 'alternative reality' based on strict rules and here, with his first English language film, he has "broadened his scope and has created a marvellously bleak, bizarre comedy" - John Bleasdale, CineVue - which has won him a Jury prize at Cannes.
Nelly has survived the concentration camp, but only just; she has been shot in the face. The surgery she goes through leaves her unrecognizable. In post-war Berlin, she goes looking for her husband, Johnny. Convinced Nelly has been killed, he assumes she is just very like his dead wife; he asks Nelly to pretend to be herself to collect her inheritance...
This "noir-ish and complex emotional thriller" - Cath Clarke, Time Out - takes us on an Hitchcockian rollercoaster; did Johnny betray her to the Nazis? Does she want revenge, or her old life back? Should she be supporting the birth of Israel?
Their joint ability to play out what seems impossible (he not recognizing her, she not admitting who she is) can be seen as an allegory of German society's attempt to deny reality...but where is it heading..?
"This is a magnificent, career-capping achievement from one of the great storytellers of our era" - Trevor Johnston, Time Out. Director Edgar Reitz has revisited his fictional village of Schabbach once more - this time going back in time to the 19th century. Here we meet Jakob - "a dreamer, a Romantic, a reader, always getting yelled at by his blacksmith dad for idling. He has conceived a passionate desire to leave the grind and oppression and emigrate to the promised land of Brazil - a 'homeland' that is an alternative both to Germany and the church’s feebly promised heaven" - Peter Bradshaw, Guardian.
Reitz first invented Schabbach in his epic 1980s TV series Heimat (Homeland), which became a classic. He moved on with the characters in several films before bringing us the 'prequel' here - though one which stands alone for those of us not familiar with it.
Although Chronicle... is nearly 4 hours long, it is filmed in a stunning crystal-clear black and white which is "never dull for a moment; indeed, there is a box set addictiveness to the whole thing" - Peter Bradshaw again. There are a few dabs of colour too...
What better way to spend a dull December afternoon..?!
We finish our season with a bang - big budget, big stars, big action. Canadian born Denis Villeneuve, who brought us the brilliant Oscar nominated Incendies in 2010, has moved over to challenge for the Michael Mann crown with his latest - "a blisteringly intense drug-trade thriller that combines expert action and suspense with another uneasy inquiry into the emotional consequences of violence" - Scott Foundas, Variety
Essentially Sicario follows an unlikely trio over the border between the USA and Mexico into the war on drugs. Emily Blunt plays Kate Macy, an FBI agent out of her depth in a team cobbled together to take on the top drug suppliers. She is partnered with Matt Graver (Josh Brolin), a sandal-wearing mystery man who claims to work for the Defense Department, and Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro), the 'Sicario' of the title...the 'hitman'. What follows is the usual interagency mess-up following mixed agendas... and morals.
The actors all get high praise from the critics with Blunt especially finding a new role for herself - "Blunt's performance has an edge of steel. She brings off a mix of confidence, bewilderment and vulnerability, which functions very well against the alpha male characters higher up the chain of command" - Peter Bradshaw, Guardian.
Behind it all is the director's mastery: Foundas again -"Villeneuve stages one extraordinary suspense set piece after another, starting with an epic traffic jam at the border that ensnares the Americans just as they are heading back home... Using no special tricks - just the sharp, colour-saturated compositions of cinematographer Roger Deakins; the airtight cutting of editor Joe Walker; and the subtly menacing score of composer Johan Johannsson - Villeneuve creates a sequence as nail-biting as any Fast and the Furious car chase, except that here all the cars are standing perfectly still". Sounds good to us...and good enough to get him a nomination for Palme D'Or at Cannes.
We always try to get the season started with a film which will open your hearts to the joys of watching foreign films without making you work...too hard. 'La Famille Bélier' seems to be made just for us; it is French, it has some ideas to make you think, whilst remaining, at heart, a comedy drama to sit back and enjoy. What better way to get over the January blues?
Paula is 16 years old and lives with her younger brother, Quentin, and their Mum and Dad, who are simple, if eccentric, dairy farmers. All is as it should be...except Paula is the only one who is not deaf.
The family live as normal a life as possible (Dad even wants to stand as Mayor), though Paula is left to translate to the outside world, leaving her family very dependent on her. When she meets Gabriel, she decides to join his choir to be around him; not a problem to start with, but what happens if her singing talent leads her away from home?
So the bigger issues, then, are scattered amongst the comedy. It is all held together by some great acting: local stars Francois Damiens and Karin Viard play the parents with Luca Gelberg (the only actual deaf actor) playing Quentin, but the main plau-dits are reserved for Louane Emera (Paula) who won the César for most promising actress here - "It wouldn’t work, though, without the Julia Stiles-ish Emera's solid-gold knockout performance: both singing and signing, while describing a young woman overcoming understandable reservations about allowing her voice to be heard" - Mike McCahill, Guardian. Appropriately, she was discovered via her singing talents in the French version of 'The Voice'.
Juan and Pedro are two mismatched cops searching for two teenage girls who have disappeared in a remote part of Andalusia. It is post-Franco Spain and the lingering Fascist sympathies of the area are not helping their investigation. The locals don’t seem to want to know, preferring to think the girls have just run off rather than accepting anything more sinister can have hap-pened to them.
"The script uses the thriller format to lock together the personal, the social and the political in what adds up to not only a darkly ambiguous thriller but a portrait of an isolated community, and a whole society, in flux: a marshland" - Jonathan Holland, Hollywood Reporter.
If you, like me, enjoy film noir and crave the days when thrillers were full of clever scripts and false endings, then this one is for you.
"Aware that we’ve seen this story before – the buddy-cops-hunt-a-rural-killer plotline isn't exactly new – director Alberto Rodríguez crams the film with red herrings, dead leads, oddball supporting characters and murky political subtext. He leads us out into the wilds and back again, throwing in the odd fist fight and car chase to keep things ticking along. The result is a taut, visually sumptuous and hugely entertaining thriller" - Tom Huddleston, Time Out
"I haven't read 'Hard to Be a God'; I only know German's movie is a standalone soul-socker; maybe the greatest film since the millennium began’ - Nigel Andrews, FT
"Though it delves into the worst extremes of human ugliness, Gerrman's film is exhilarating, moving, funny, beautiful and unshakeable – a danse macabre that whirls you round and round until the bitter end. Even when German's film is over, it’s not really over. Whenever you close your eyes, it's still playing" - Robbie Collin, Telegraph.
Hard to describe this amazing film: some scientists have gone to a different planet which is just like Earth, but locked into the middle-ages. As travellers, they are not allowed to influence anything, though they are treated like gods...Is it really another planet, or just a view of us and where we might be heading?
Be warned, this is not going to be an easy ride; BUT it just might be your favourite film of the millennium too!
The classics proved popular last season so we are going to carry on. The theme this season is 'as chosen by members': all three were requested by you!
We kick off with a Marx Brothers classic from 1935. With all their usual mixture of anarchy and slick timing, this time they are 'organising' the New York Opera as they try to get two friends hired at the expense of real talent.
If you saw "Lady in the Van" with the great Maggie Smith, then imagine this is a "Man without a Van", starring the great Peter Mullan; you can see why it wasn't a difficult decision for us to want to show it.
Peter Mullan plays Hector, an itinerant who appears to have been on the move for a long time, but we are not told why or for how long. The story concentrates on showing that his life may have its bleak points but most of the time it is just like yours and mine: eating, washing and shopping are shown as his daily routine, even if he does it at the motorway service station he happens to have been dropped at by his latest hitched ride. He has no desire to change his life, in fact he seems happy with it, laughing and telling stories with the friends he has made along the way.
As we meet him, Christmas is coming and he is trying to get down to London to share some Christmas cheer at a homeless hostel with his friends there.
Written and directed by first-timer Jake Gavin, who has put his previous experience as a reporter and homeless hostel volunteer into showing Hector as a likeable, ordinary man, not an invisible cipher by the roadside.
"Hector is thought-provoking cinema at its best, taking a man who will make you smile and placing him in situations that'll make you cry, and evoking a host of emotions through a series of social interactions. With Peter Mullan's enormously heartfelt performance at its core, the film allows us as an audience to take a step back and look at the bigger picture, and to place value in the things we hold most important. Being dealt a bad hand is in no way aligned with being a bad person, or a lesser person at that, and Jake Gavin's brilliantly written and directed story is a glowing example of this" - Gary Arnot, Cinema Perspective
It is the 1990s, many Estonians are living in Georgia when the civil war between Georgia and Abkhazia breaks out. Caught in the fighting, most Estonians flee the area, but Ivo stays behind to help his neighbour Margus harvest the crop of tangerines. The fighting overruns their area and Ivo finds himself nursing two injured soldiers, Niko and Ahmed. This would be difficult enough if Niko and Ahmed were on the same side... Ivo is forced to prevent them from killing each other in his house.
The result is "a tremendous, old-fashioned anti-war film, by turns touching, moving and suspenseful" - Peter Bradshaw, Guardian.
'Tangerines' was only beaten to the Oscar for the Best Foreign film by the wonderful 'Ida' which we showed in 2013, but it is only recently that 'Tangerines' got a UK release: maybe this is just as well as "it contains moments of great joy and hope as it reflects the way heightened emotions can shift from hatred to hilarity in a heartbeat. Given everything that has been happening across Europe this past summer, it couldn’t be a more timely or poignant film" - Allan Hunter, The List
The title gives much away about this film; we are looking at a girl with eating problems, but, rather than see it from her viewpoint, or even from an adult's point of view, we are watching it all from her sister's angle. What it doesn't tell us is that the sister is younger - 12 in this case - and that she sees her sister as a role model.
Katja is an adolescent schoolgirl, but becoming a bit of a star as a figure skater. In trying to increase her fitness and her success, she is secretly suffering from anorexia and bulimia. Alongside her, sister Stella is suffering from prepubescent anxieties about her own body and sees Katja as perfect.
First time director Sanna Lenken was partly inspired by her own battles with anorexia but, by placing Stella as the central character, she allows the film to be much more about her young jealousies and the relationship problems caused by Katja's eating difficulties, making the film much more lightweight (no pun intended!) and fun to watch.
Katja is played by former child pop star Amy Deasismont, but it is new discovery Rebecka Josephson - discovered only one month before shooting began - who steals the show as Stella.
"The film is mostly shot at Stella's eye level as she cowers perpetually in the shadow of scary adults and beanstalk teenagers. The restless, jittery handheld camera work by Moritz Schultheiss absolutely adores Josephson's thick copper-colored tresses and comically stern features. Blessed with a freckled moon face that registers every tiny tremor of anguish and mischief, she is both convincingly awkward and winningly natural, even when she breaks into fluent English to converse with non-Swedish characters. A child star is born in Lenken's warmhearted dramatic treatment of an evergreen subject" - Stephen Dalton, Hollywood Reporter
Plus Q&A with Terence Davies
'Sunset Song' starts with a sweeping shot of a cornfield, which comes to rest on Chris as she rises up out of the corn: we are about to watch a film about country life and a young woman's coming of age there.
Whilst the photography is beautiful, Chris's life is certainly not: She loves the life on the farm, even though she dreams of other things, but her father (played by Peter Mullan, our second sight of him this season) is an old fashioned patriarch who rules his family with a rod of iron.
It is not till Chris meets Ewan that she begins to see there could be happiness at home too but even that lies under the shadow of the approaching First World War…
'Sunset Song' was adapted - from the classic 1932 novel by Lewis Grassic Gibbon - by writer/director Terence Davies; "Patriarchal regimes and the broken clockwork of dysfunctional family life are hallmarks of Davies films dating right back to his debut, 'Distant Voices, Still Lives'. To 'Sunset Song' he also brings some of the impressionist wanderings that characterised his last film, 2011's 'The Deep Blue Sea'" - Henry Barnes, Guardian.
Chris is played by Agyness Deyn, who, if the reviews are correct, has stepped brilliantly from top model to top actress in this role (via 'Electricity', seen here in 2014).
"Sheer perfection - the gold standard of tragic romances whose influence can still be seen to this day" - Keith Ulhich, Time Out.
The joy of having member's choice for the classics season is when you pick such great films as this! We did think of having it ("One of cinema's classic love stories" - Kate Muir, Times) on Sunday as it was Valentines Day but there really were too many films to fit in the season; sorry.
David Lean wrote and directed 'Brief Encounter', taking it from the Noel Coward play 'Still Life'. It was his 5th film before he went on to direct so many other famous films such as 'Lawrence of Arabia', 'Doctor Zhivago' and 'A Passage to India'. It earned him the Grand Prize at Cannes and an Oscar nomination for Best Director.
The stars were Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard; "She is Laura: the good little housewife to a drab, inattentive middle-class worker bee, trudging through a repetitive, stultifying existence somewhere in suburbia. He is Alec: a doctor whose equally loveless union has driven him to find solace in work. Their chance meeting in a station café develops first into a casual friendship, then gradually, guiltily into something neither of them can fully understand or admit" - Tom Huddleston, Time Out. Look out for other faces too - Stanley Holloway, Joyce Carey and Cyril Raymond, who plays the "drab, inattentive worker bee" husband so well.
The encounter may be brief, but it is oh! so beautiful, oh! so...English!
Tony Britten (In Love with Alma Cogan) returns to Keswick with his latest film ChickLit.
"Four men, one girl and a mission ..."
Four guys set out to save their local pub by writing a mummy porn novel but someone needs to own up to being the author.
Meet Zoe – an out-of-work actress who takes on the role with gusto leaving our four heroes with the appalling but hilarious prospect of having to churn out erotic novels for the foreseeable future.
A fantastic ensemble cast including Christian McKay, Dakota Blue Richards, Dame Eileen Atkins, Caroline Catz, James Wilby, Niamh Cusack, David Troughton, Miles Jupp, Cathy Tyson, Tom Palmer and of course, Sir John Hurt, ChickLit will raise a smile and a smirk to open KFF 2016.
Winner of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix, The Wonders is a startling second feature from writer-director Alice Rohrwacher. It centers on Gelsomina (Maria Alexandra Lungo) the eldest daughter of a bee-keeping family in rural Tuscany. Her late-in-life exposure to the modern world - in the form of a chintzy reality TV show and its glamorous hostess (Monica Bellucci) – are at odds with her father's proudly traditional way of life. Within its framework this film delivers an intimate response to the age-old conflict between modernity and tradition.
The third documentary by agit-prop duo Mike Bonanno and Andy Bichlbaum, The Yes Men are Revolting sees them take on the issue of climate change and for the first time, reveal something about themselves and their partnership.
Using stunts and faux press conferences to expose the attitudes of big business, the film was crowd-funded with over 2500 people contributing some $146,000.
Val (Regina Casé) is a hard working live-in housekeeper in modern day Sao Paolo and is very used to looking after the everyday needs of her wealthy employers. However, when faced with her estranged daughters sudden appearance, Val is forced to reassess the social boundaries that have kept her set apart from the rest of the household. This is a fast paced and humorous dissection of Brazilian social inequalities that delivers a warm and "deeply moving examination of the essence of family" (USA Today).
A winner at many festivals!
The battle against bureaucracy is a theme that crosses international boundaries and Still Mine is a Canadian take on the struggle of the little guy. In this instance, the little guy is octogenarian Craig, played by James Cromwell (LA Confidential, The Artist) who is trying to build a new, more manageable house for his wife (beautifully played by Geneviève Bujold) who is starting to struggle with dementia.
A tale of man against the state, old values against the new and a love of the land and the family. Still Mine is a worthy first feature in our memory strand.
Polisse won the Jury Prize at Cannes and featuring Paris' Child Protection Unit (Polisse is a child's misspelling of police) it portrays some difficult issues and reminds us that abuse is not as far away as we would like to think.
Polisse features multiple story-lines centred on the (often harrowing) experiences of the police men and women in the Unit. Director Maiwenn plays the role of a photographer, assigned to the Unit by the Ministry of Justice and gradually becoming drawn into the lives of those around her.
The potency and fragility of adolescent desire is played out in this striking debut from British novelist Helen Walsh. Based in Birkenhead, Shelly (Lauren McQueen) and Rachael (Brogan Ellis) come from differing backgrounds but both find themselves intertwined with a predatory pawn broker - Mikey (Stephen Lord). Adding to an already intense subject matter, Walsh's use of voyeuristic camera-shots bring the viewer closer to the challenges afflicting these girls.
Helen Walsh will attend the screening and host a Q&A afterwards.
It is easily forgotten that Iceland was something of an economic powerhouse in the last decade. Life in a Fishbowl is the tale of 3 individuals, each with a hidden life, whose stories intertwine in the run-up to the financial crash of 2008.
Eik, a young mother and nursery teacher cannot make ends meet and starts to moonlight; she meets Mori, a poet and novelist and apparent down and out; whose property is coveted by Solvi a banker with eyes towards redevelopment.
A huge hit in its native Iceland 'Fishbowl' is now set to enthral a much wider audience on the Festival circuit.
A French music lover befriends a once-great American jazz artist and attempts to save him from self-destruction in this moody drama. Largely forgotten in his home country, Dale Turner played by Dexter Gordon, has moved to Paris in search of a more appreciative audience. He finds it in the form of Francis Borler (Francois Cluzet), a bebop aficionado who befriends the expatriate player. Borler soon becomes familiar with Turner's darker side, including his struggles with alcoholism, drug addiction, and depression. Fearing for the musician's life, the fan becomes his caretaker, an arrangement that leads to a brief improvement in Turner's health and fortunes but places great emotional strain upon them both.
Director Bertrand Tavernier pays great attention to the visual and aural details of the jazz world, with outstanding musical supervision provided by Herbie Hancock. Round Midnight's greatest asset, however, is Gordon's Academy Award-nominated performance, informed by his own life experiences. His naturally fascinating presence combines with the film's obvious love of the music and its milieu to provide what many have hailed as one of the more authentic and affectionate presentations of the jazz world on the silver screen.
Herbie Hancock won the Academy Award for Best Music, Original Score.
This Changes Everything is an epic attempt to re-imagine the vast challenge of climate change. Directed by Avi Lewis, and inspired by Naomi Klein's international non-fiction bestseller, the film presents seven powerful portraits of communities on the front lines, from Montana's Powder River Basin to the Alberta Tar Sands, from the coast of South India to Beijing and beyond.
Interwoven with these stories of struggle is Klein's narration, connecting the carbon in the air with the economic system that put it there. Throughout the film, Klein builds to her most controversial and exciting idea: that we can seize the existential crisis of climate change to transform our failed economic system into something radically better.
Unlike many works about the climate crisis, this is not a film that tries to scare the audience into action: it aims to empower. This Changes Everything will leave you refreshed and inspired, reflecting on the ties between us, the kind of lives we really want, and why the climate crisis is at the centre of it all.
This event will be followed by a Q&A with Hazel Graham, Cumbria Action for Sustainability
Thanks to FilmBuff.
Could this be the ideal family film?
For parents and grandparents, a chance to renew their acquaintance with Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the Gang, and maybe dig out an old t-shirt, poster or comic book.
For children, the chance to make a new set of friends as Charles Schultz's characters are brought to life in a 3D animation that somehow manages to capture the spirit of those original line drawings.
Relaxed Dementia Friendly Screening
Thigh-slappin', sarsaparilla-swiggin', sharp-shootin' Calamity Jane is a woman in a man's world, fitting in the only way she can - by being one of them. As driver of the Deadwood stagecoach, she fearlessly fights off countless Indian ambushes to bring the frontier town its provisions.
Back at the bar, she joins the "mangy pack of dirt trashin' beetles" at the Golden Garter theatre for a drink and recounts tall tales of her daily travails. The only man tougher than her in these parts is the charming but notorious Wild Bill Hickok. Her only feminine weakness is her secret love for Lt Gilmartin.
One of Doris Day's most famous performances with a score packed with Oscar-winning songs, this is a film to take you back in time.
This screening is the first in a programme of dementia friendly film screenings in 2016 funded by Film Hub North and Cumbria Community Foundation.
When the sledgehammer of the State decides that the nut of an irritant folk singer needs to be cracked, the legal process becomes a heavy weapon.
Court exposes the convoluted workings of the Indian judicial system and seems to have touched a nerve, with Indian censors mandating edits before approving the film for release.
A courtroom drama like no other, Court contrasts the lifestyles of the defence and the defendant, the prosecutor and the judge.
Jennifer Peedom started out to make a documentary about a Sherpa on his 22nd ascent of Everest, again in support of a well-financed foreign climbing team. For such teams, Sherpas are as essential to their success as ropes or oxygen equipment but valued significantly less.
During filming tragedy struck as an ice fall killed 16 Sherpa guides, which brought many years feelings of injustice to a head – the Sherpas went on strike. The focus of Peedom's film changed immediately and the result is compelling.
This is a Charity Performance in aid of Cumbria Flood Relief.
Described by Mark Kermode as "a poignant examination of the bonds of family love", The Closer We Get is a remarkable documentary film from Karen Guthrie.
Kermode continues, "When her mother is debilitated by a stroke, Karen and her siblings rally round, joined by father, Ian, who left them years ago, but who has remained a powerful presence/absence. Unravelling the complex strands of their home life takes Karen from Scotland to Africa, wondering how she managed to go so long without asking 'how exactly did we get here?'".
We hope that Karen Guthrie will be able to attend the screening and talk about this remarkable film.
Described as a slow burning, very Japanese coming of age drama, Still the Water is a lyrical and moving film set on the sub tropical island of Amami where the land and seascapes provide a compelling backdrop to the story.
Kyoko and Kaito are teenagers with complex relationships with their parents – their own developing relationship is brought into focus by the discovery of a tattooed body washed up on the beach.
Ninth-century China: 10 year-old general's daughter Nie Yinniang is abducted by a nun who initiates her into the martial arts, transforming her into an exceptional assassin charged with eliminating cruel and corrupt local governors. One day, having failed in a task, she is sent back by her mistress to the land of her birth, with orders to kill the man to whom she was promised - a cousin who now leads the largest military region in North China.
Based on an album by Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish, Imaginaerum was an obvious choice for inclusion in the Memory Strand.
As he lies in a coma, composer Thomas relives his life from being a 10 year-old orphan, while his estranged daughter, Gem, struggles at his bedside, wondering whether to sign a 'Do Not Resuscitate' order.
As Thomas' life story, mixing recollection and fantasy, converges with the present day, Gem embarks on her own journey to discover her past and reach a form of reconciliation.
Towering Gothic fantasy and soaring chords from Nightwish's album make Imaginaerum a visual and aural spectacle.
The tagline for Lapse of Honour, "In M15, it’s the battle of the fittest", sets the tone for a gritty urban drama. Based in Manchester's Moss Side, the film follows Eve's determination to become a grime artist and her partner Tom's (Tom Collins) enthusiasm to study graphic design. However, in order to leave the drug and gang culture of Moss Side behind, they must first battle to overcome their home lives. It is the first feature of Rayna Campbell and is also a must see for fans of the MOBO nominated rapper Lady Leshurr (Eve) who makes a seamless move into film.
Lapse of Honour will be followed by a Q&A with Rayna Campbell.
Described as cool, funny, but with substance, this sounds like the vampire movie for people who would never go to a vampire movie. This film has garnered wins from festivals from Buenos Aires to Dublin.
Iranian/American director Ana Lily Amirpour describes her debut film as an 'Iranian Vampire Spaghetti Western'. Her film wrong-foots the audience deviously with its aura of shivery nocturnal threat, the point being that the central character is the predator, not the prey. Never given a name, and played by Argo actress Sheila Vand, this apparition in a chador, skateboarding along the black-and-white streets of a fictional Iranian backwater called Bad City, turns out to be a vampire. She feeds mainly on those who've earned it.
On the Side of the Road is an Israeli documentary film written and directed by Lia Tarachansky. The film focuses on Israeli collective denial of the events of 1948 that led to the country's independence and the Palestinian Refugee problem. It follows war veterans Tikva Honig-Parnass and Amnon Noiman as they tackle their denial of their actions in the war. The film also tells the story of its director, Tarachansky, who grew up in a settlement in the West Bank but as an adult began to realize the problems of the Israeli Occupation for the Palestinians.
According to the film's director, the mass displacement of Palestinians in 1948 remains a taboo in Israeli society. In an interview with Frank Barat she said, "The strongest element of Israeli DNA is knowing what questions you cannot ask."
The film was shot over the course of five years and premiered at the First International Independent Film Festival in Tel Aviv.
Thanks to Lia Tarachansky.
With a discussion lead by Avi Levi.
Avi Levi is an ex-Israeli peace and environment activist. He completed his master MA in Peace Studies at The University Of Bradford as a Rotary Peace Fellow in 2013. Back in Israel he led a Fair Trade support project with Palestinian farmers. Avi has worked with Eitan Bronshtein, the founder of Zochrot who is one of the main characters in On the Side of the Road as a facilitator of educational workshops to Israeli and Palestinian youth in Wahat Eal Salam - Neve Shalom. Currently lives with his wife and two children in a housing cooperative in Leeds.
From the director of the very successful Janapur last year, British adventurers Tom Allen and Leon McCarron set out to follow Iran's longest river, the Karun, by human-powered means. Their aim is to go beyond the politics and explore the culture and geography of this most misunderstood of nations – and have a great adventure doing so. But despite Tom's previous experience of travel in Iran, they find that cultural differences run deeper than they’d realised. And when the once-calm waters of the Karun turn nasty, they wonder if they've bitten off more than they can chew...
Tom Allen will be attending this screening.
Love is real and Jin Mo-young's documentary My Love, Don’t Cross that River proves it. The film captures moments of elderly couple's Jo Byeong-man and Kang Kye-yeol's last moments of their 76 year marriage, filmed over 15 months. And they were just as in love as they must have been in their vivacious youths. Even though their bodies aged the love and playfulness in their eyes and hearts stayed forever young.
Visually beautiful, ScreenSpace described this documentary as "achingly sweet, funny and insightful".
In November 2014, filmmakers Leon McCarron and Tom Allen (director of the successful Janapur screened last year) set off for Patagonia to follow the Santa Cruz river across Argentina.
Their journey reflected on the past - using the diaries of Robert FitzRoy and Charles Darwin as inspiration for the expedition - yet also, crucially, it explored the uncertain future of the Rio Santa Cruz.
Now two huge dams are due to be built on the river and it seems clear that they will drastically affect the natural ecosystem, and some predict that construction could affect the level of Lake Argentina - the river's source - and therefore become a threat to the iconic Perito Moreno glacier.
Tom Allen will be attending this screening.
In the mountains of Pakistan, a mother and her ten-year-old daughter flee their home on the eve of the girl's marriage to a tribal leader. A deadly hunt for them begins.
After a rousing reception at Toronto International Film Festival 2014 and in over 20 countries since then, the critically acclaimed Dukhtar comes to Keswick from Pakistan for its release.
Shirley Clark's film captures Ornate Coleman's evolution over three decades. Returning home to Fort Worth, Texas in 1983 as a famed performer and composer, documentary footage, dramatic scenes, and some of the first music video-style segments ever made, chronicle his boyhood in segregated Texas and his subsequent emergence as an American cultural pioneer and world-class icon.
Clarke was a dancer who studied with Martha Graham before she moved out of performing and into the movie world in the late '50s. She became well known in independent film circles in the early '60s for her films "The Connection" and "The Cool World" before directing a 1964 documentary on poet Robert Frost that won an Academy Award.
Clark original project for a movie about jazz explored Ornate Coleman's decision to use his 11-year-old son Denardo as the drummer for his group. The project foundered in 1969 and was resurrected in 1983 for Coleman's first hometown appearance in 25 years. The film captures much of the improvisational flavour and unorthodox structure of Coleman's singular musical style.
"I knew I was connecting to the way he sounded because the first thing I laid down was the sound," Clarke said, "Having laid the spine down, which was his music, I edited to the music. That's where the rhythms and energy came from. The film looks like how Ornette sounds and has the same basic thinking."
Clarke's use of rapid-fire editing, the juxtaposition of images and its non-linear story line gives the film a far more sweeping scope than a standard portrait of an artist.
An over-protective father locks his seven children in their New York apartment in order to prevent them experiencing the dangers of life outside. Film becomes their window on the world and gorging on all-night sessions of VHS, the brothers turned their prison-like conditions into a site of creativity and play.
A chance meeting with a filmmaker on a rare trip outside the apartment led to the making of this extraordinary documentary, re-enacting scenes from their favourite films - homemade costumes and all - and seeing the interaction between the brothers and their strange patriarch.
A print of that black-and-white photograph, one of the most famous in jazz history, had for years hung in the office of Jean Bach's husband, Bob, a television executive. On the stoop or standing in front of it were Count Basie, Lester Young, Gene Krupa, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey, Charles Mingus, Horace Silver, Sonny Rollins, Marian McPartland, Coleman Hawkins, Gerry Mulligan, Mary Lou Williams and 44 other musicians (along with children from the neighbourhood).
The late great bassist, Milt Hinton, who is one of the warmest and most charming people interviewed, was also a fine photographer. His wife captured much of the Great Day with a color 8mm movie camera, and it's a treat to see the ensemble milling about on the street and taking their places for the final picture.
Many of the people in the photo are not and never were household names. But the musicians Jean Bach tracked down to give their reminiscences are quick to give them their due. They recognize their skill and talent and recall the personalities of their lesser-known counterparts; the jazzmen really did warm up to Jean Bach if they didn't already know her, and they ended up talking about everything.
Jean Bach does the seemingly impossible with A Great Day in Harlem. She makes a 40-year-old B&W photograph come alive.
Maya, a choreographer at a Jerusalem dance troupe, is married to Yoav, a senior official at the Ministry of Justice. A pair of career driven parents with two demanding children, each day requires planning and juggling, a great deal of hubbub.
One evening Maya spots a figure from her past and her evident distress reveals that she is hiding something.
"AKA Nadia is a film about choice: the choice of life, even at the price of sacrifice. It's about mothers and daughters, identities and truth and lies" - Tova Ascher
The title is not "A Room" or "The Room"; just "Room". Ma has been kept in Room against her will for years, Jack was born here. Room is Jack's universe, Room is what Ma dreams of; what she hasn't got.
Ma is played by Brie Larson ('Short Term 12') whose performance immediately started Oscar talks, while Jacob Tremblay as Jack gets equally loud plaudits. With the screenplay by Emma Donoghue from her own Booker-shortlisted book, Director Lenny Abrahamson has created a film which is "several things by turn: creepy, frightening, exhilarating and then frightening and exhilarating all over again" - Kenneth Turan, LA Times. One not to be missed!
Try to imagine a world where you are so poor that a slice of pizza can become your ultimate dream. This is the world of self-named Big and Little Crow's Egg - two brother's from the slums of Chennai. Scraping an existence the best they can, their lives are changed by the opening of a pizza shop: all they want is to try the mysterious food.
Much like 'Wadjda' (2013) and her desire for a bike, the boys set out to try to save enough money to reach their dream; much like her, nothing is ever as easy as it seems.
After the success of 2014's 'Of Horses and Men' we bring you another Icelandic film - 'Rams' - a story of sheep and men.
Two men specifically - Kiddi and Gummi - two brothers who run sheep farms next door to each other...but they haven't spoken for 40 years until now, when circumstances force them to speak at last.
This sweet little film "morphs from gentle near-absurdist comedy to something close to tragedy...a simply but skillfully told tale of the hardships of isolated rural life in Iceland even today" -Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter
For our last classic this season, we go back to comedy with Billy Wilder's gender-buster. Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis are on the run from the mob disguised as women - Josephine and Daphne (don't ask!). They board a train as part of an all-women band, whose singer and ukulele player (naturally) is Marilyn Monroe. The inevitable love triangle is further complicated by yet more disguises, and a real millionaire who decides to chat up Daphne…
Voted by the American Film Institute in 2000 as the best comedy film ever, this has to be a film to watch over and over. As Roger Ebert said "Wilder's 1959 comedy is one of the enduring treasures of the movies, a film of inspiration and meticulous craft".
And so - with Easter upon us - we come to the end of our season. Our last film is really beautiful and appropriate to the season change - Paolo Sorrentino's latest film (his first in English) is all about old folks looking back on their lives and trying to decide whether it is worth trying just one more time. Can he turn Winter into Spring..?
Sorrentino specialises in films about youth and age, life and death, but never forgetting to show how beautiful the world is (viz 'The Great Beauty', 2014 Oscar winner). 'Youth' is no exception: "there are intense visions of both sagging, bloated flesh and the transient bloom of ravishing sexuality - while the exquisite camerawork is itself always a reminder of how much beauty there is in the world" - Dave Sexton, Evening Standard.
The films is inundated with stars: Michael Caine plays Fred Ballinger, an aging, retired classical composer who is in a luxurious sanatorium for a health check ("At my age, getting in shape is a waste of time"). His daughter and assistant is played by Rachel Weisz and his best friend, Mick Boyle, a major film director, is played by Harvey Keitel. Along the way we also meet Jane Fonda and Paul Dano plus a pot pourri of pop stars playing themselves.
Fred is offered the chance to play one last concert for Prince Philip's birthday; should he come out of retirement or not? Mick is trying to get one last film written and directed; can he finally come up with the last line of the film?
Sorrentino mixes in music and musings to give us plenty to think about and enjoy: "This film really appears to be peering inside the director's mind, and it’s chaotic and fascinating. Most bizarre are the fictional representations of real-life characters who infatuate him, including surreal musings on Diego Maradona, Hitler, a levitating Buddhist and a veiled Arab woman. 'Youth' may take place in one location but Sorrentino brings the world to it" - Kaleem Aftab, Independent.
Unlike Fred and Mick here, we always think it is worth trying one more time - we'll be back in the Autumn; Have a great Summer!
"The full moon is high in the sky as Tokue soaks, drains, boils the beans for the first time, and waits patiently for the scent of the steam to change, talking to the beans all the while. It is an insult to hurry the process..." – Louise Keller, Urban Cinefile
After a winter of floods and a summer of political turmoil, it seems the right thing to do to offer you a peaceful, beautiful start to our Autumn season; what better way to do this than with a Japanese film? This is the first time we have opened with one as well...so what better way to bring a fresh look to our 36th season?
Sentaro runs a shop selling dorayaki - a sandwich of two small pancakes with red bean paste ('An') between them. The trouble is his An is very ordinary. Tokue (Kirin Kaki from the wonderful 'Still Walking' (2010)) has her own recipe and wants to work for him; once he has tried her An, he has to agree, despite the fact that Tokue is 76 years old. Her arrival brings with it an increase in sales; her joyful character brings out the best in Sentaro and one of his teenage customers, Wakana.
Director Naomi Kawase (we had her 'Still the Water' at the festival this year) uses these three characters to show how friendships matter and grow… whilst the second half of the story reveals huge hidden problems...
"Deniz Gamze Ergüven's brilliant debut drama 'Mustang' feels unlike anything you've seen before; it's like a cross between a prison-break movie, an arthouse drama and a fairy tale. It's raw,
funny and incredibly moving" - Cath Clarke, Time Out.
With 46 nominations around the world, including Best Foreign Film at the Oscars, this gem is likely to leave you bemused and angry, but filled with hope too. Five young orphaned girls come out of school and hit the beach with some friends, romping in the sea with some of the boys. Harmless fun? Maybe to us, but not to their uncle and guardian; in this small Turkish community their actions are perceived as nothing short of obscene. He literally locks the girls away in their grandmother's house, removing anything modern which might corrupt them further. Their lives are changed to preparation for marriage; "the house became a wife factory" as one of the girls laments.
The hope comes in the girls' reactions; whilst they are offered up to potential husbands one by one, they plan a breakout. "When it comes, the jailbreak is as gripping as Bourne. What stays with you, though, is the film's powerful feminist statement about how society perceives women and girls' sexuality; as if somehow a 12-year-old girl showing her legs is as dangerous as waving around a loaded gun" - Cath Clarke, Time Out
The actors here are non-professional, which gives a feeling of authenticity to the scenes (and, as several of the awards for the film have been for the acting, you can see they proved their worth to the critics). The script (co-written by the director) successfully shows the girls are a tribe unto themselves and know full well how to fight back.
You are leading your men against the Taliban in Afghanistan, doing your best to work with the locals, trying to build a future out of a horrible war. Your men and the locals like and respect you...BUT, in a war, things still go wrong and you have to make huge decisions in a moment which can change lives forever... The Danes have become the experts at bringing us tense films, perhaps none more so than Tobias Lindholm (writer for 'The Hunt', 'Borgen', writer/director of 'A Hijacking'), who wrote and directed Oscar nominated 'A War'. His usual leading actor Pilou Asbæk plays Captain Pedersen, the man at the centre of the action. Trying to do his best for the Afghans he is there to protect leads him into a situation where he is forced to make a decision to defend his men.
Back home, his wife has been forced to do her best to keep their family together without him, but she is not expecting the problems that hit them when he returns home...
As we come to terms with the Brexit vote, let's not forget the many millions who are desperate to live in Europe. 'Dheepan' is one of those; escaping from the battles of the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, he co-opts Yalini and Illayaal to play his wife and child, to give them all a better chance of getting asylum in France. There, they are forced to continue as a 'family', now taking on the new battle of survival in a country where they don't speak the language and finding a home and a job puts them amongst the most desperate. Dheepan starts out selling trinkets on the street before becoming the caretaker of the apartment block where they live, a block where drug sellers and gang violence rule, and he is forced to try to protect his new family, and the families around him the best he can.
Director Jacques Audiard has already had much success with films about people in desperate situations ('A Prophet' and 'Rust and Bone') but this one has finally won him the Palme D'Or at Cannes Film Festival. The critics are equally praising of the lead actor Jesuthasan Antonythasan (an ex-Tamil Tiger, this is his first role); David Fear, Rolling Stone thinks he has "a compelling, can't-take-your-eyes-off-him screen presence".
This should be a film to remember: as David Calhoun says in Time Out, "The very final scene, especially, should keep audiences talking long after they leave the cinema".
The winner of the Oscar for Best Foreign Film 2016, this is powerful cinema at its best. We are inside Auschwitz, alongside Saul, a Sonderkommando - a privileged prisoner who helps to control the rest - when he thinks he has found his dead son. He cannot rest until he has found a rabbi to carry out a proper Jewish burial.
In case you think there is nothing more to be said about the horrors of the Holocaust, or that it has been gone over too often, think again; "The single-minded power and visceral immediacy of Nemes's achievement, rightly acclaimed and awarded, prove otherwise" - Philip Kemp, Sight & Sound. Eschewing the normal visual horrors of the camps, first-time director László Nemes places his camera to show only what Saul sees, or directly in the face of Saul so that we follow his reactions to the hell around him, to the hell that he is part of by helping the Nazis for his own survival: we become Saul ourselves. Much of the 'action' around us is on the edge of the screen, or the sounds we hear (as the gas chamber door slams...)
"Yet even as our eyes are turned away from the abyss, an incessant soundtrack of screams, barks, orders, gunshots, cries and whispers evokes a cataclysmic landscape of evil unbound. The effect is utterly overpowering" - Mark Kermode, Guardian.
Saul's attempt to find a rabbi also risks a planned uprising by the other Sonderkommandos; he is putting the soul of the dead ahead of the lives of the living. "We will die because of you", one tells him, to which Saul replies: "We are already dead." "Yet, unthinkable as it seems, there is a glimmer of light in this appalling darkness, infinitesimal yet inextinguishable. Ultimately, it is that glimmer that makes Son of Saul so traumatic. Days after watching it I remain haunted by Saul's face, his skin covered in the ashes of the dead, his eyes alert with anxiety and anguish, a recognisable trace of humanity in a world beyond belief" - Mark Kermode, Guardian.
CELEBRATING NEW UK DIRECTORS DAY
Dan is not going to let a little inconvenience like his early death stop him influencing his two best friends, oh no. On a series of pre-recorded videotapes, he tells them where he wants his ashes spread, which turns out to be all over the country. Seph (Laura Carmichael from 'Downton Abbey') and Alex (Chloe Pirrie from 'Brief Encounters') are forced to set off on a road trip round Britain with the ever-decreasing Dan in a Tupperware container; the trip and his comments teach the two women about him and each other...
We hope Chanya Button will be joining us for a Q&A after the film.
CELEBRATING NEW UK DIRECTORS DAY
Life hasn't been going too well for Anna (Jodie Whittaker - 'Broadchurch') since her twin brother died. She finds herself coming up to 30, not only still living with her mum (Lorraine Ashbourne - 'Jericho'), but now living in the shed in the garden ("I needed some space"). She spends her time making home videos starring her thumbs and wondering what went wrong.
We hope to be joined by director Rachel Tunnard for a Q&A after the film.
"One Girl. One City. One Night. One Take" So says the film's trailer, and you know you are in for an adrenaline rush. Starting in a Berlin night club, the pulsating music sets the tone as Victoria, a fun-loving Spanish girl on holiday, meets four German youths.
"Victoria is an extraordinary filmgoing experience, raw and exciting." - Dave Calhoun, Time Out.
Sebastian Shipper shot this whole film three times, each in one take, and then picked the best one. The camera almost becomes a character here, stalking Victoria around. Travelling all over the city, with the inevitable many bit players, this would be pretty astonishing anyway, but the story is also gripping. What seems to start out as a fun night on the city, or a potential romance between Victoria and Sonne, turns into a heist full of danger... and the film becomes a fully fledged thriller.
Much of the action, as the title implies, follows Victoria, played here by Laia Costa who has won as many awards and plaudits as Shipper for her mesmerising performance - "Costa is simply perfect here. Watch the way her eyes convey the emotion of the moment, whether or not it's in the cautious flirtation with Sonne or the fear of the second act" - Brian Tallerico, Roger Ebert.com.
A fairy tale you can come and see without feeling you should bring your children...in fact, you DEFINITELY should leave them at home! Matteo Garrone ('Gomorrah') has put his own spin on the fairy tales collected by Giambattista Basile in the 16th century, to produce "something of a ready made cult item – equal parts Pasolini and Python, and the kind of film you've spent the past ten years wishing Terry Gilliam and Tim Burton would make" - Robbie Collin, Telegraph.
The three tales revolve around three connected kingdoms. The first is ruled by John C Reilly and Salma Hayek who will do ANYTHING to get a child... In the second, Vincent Cassel plays the sexaddicted monarch who is duped by 'an aged crone' with surprising consequences (well, maybe not surprising in this film...) and in the third, Toby Jones, in a "masterpiece of clowning" - Robbie Collin again - becomes obsessed with a flea on his daughter's arm which becomes a test for her future suitors (you have got to see this to understand!).
The whole effect is "gloriously mad, rigorously imagined, visually wonderful: erotic (and) hilarious" - Peter Bradshaw, Guardian. So, if you want a couple of hours of weird, erotic fun with a twist of horror, this one is for you! I can't wait...
He is the son of an American diplomat and a French/German mother, living in France in 1918; he has no friends and little support from his parents - is it any wonder that he is a bit wild?
Or...is he a budding sociopath? Brady Corbet's first feature film is a "brilliant psychological drama about the difficult relationship between a growing boy and his parents" - Keswick Film Club previewer - which "stays in your mind for days".Tense throughout (and beautifully filmed, reminding one reviewer of Kubrick and Visconti) and with appropriately scary, Wagnerian music from Scott Walker, we watch the child grow up against the backdrop of WW1 and the rise of fascism: his "monstrosity is the center of the film, and is terrifying because it is so normal" - Lauren Humphrey- Brooks, We Got This Covered.
Our film at Rheged this season is a 'hybrid documentary': following children and soldiers around Afghanistan, film maker Pieter-Jan De Pue brings us a mix of travelogue, social realism and drama (some of the scenes are re-enactments of real events). The result should look great at Rheged, De Pue winning a cinematography award at Sundance.
'Based on a True Story' can cover a multitude of sins: The Clan is based on Arquimedes Puccio, an intelligence officer in Argentina's 'Dirty War', who continues 'disappearing' people after democracy returns to Argentina in 1983...but now he does it for money. His family (The Clan of the title), appear to be at the very least, acquiescent - they live in a normal house together with the 'guests' locked in the bathroom...
For those who watched 'The Sopranos' and had mixed feelings getting into the heads of the Mafia, this may help (or hinder) your understanding: "On the one hand, it is uncomfortable to feel so close in proximity to the Puccios as they forcibly disappear their fellow Argentinians. On the other, by cozying up to the kidnappers in The Clan we get closer to the warped thinking that allowed them to tear apart other families while they sat comfortably around the dinner table with theirs" - Julia Cooper, Globe and Mail.
Whilst the film has not won many awards outside Argentina, it has been nominated for many; here, we have had many of Trapero's films ('White Elephant', 'Lion's Den', 'Carancho') so we know how Trapero likes to get into the minds of the characters, rather than staying with the politics...and Arquimedes (Guillermo Francella's) piercing eyes will stay with you long after you get home...
Several critics' taglines just say "Almodóvar is back to his best" and we were tempted to leave it at that too. He brings us the women's perspective of a story of angst; a mother who has lost touch with her daughter revisits her own life in flashbacks. Almodóvar creates a mystery out of this and, "Once again he's supremely confident in the unexplained and maestro-like in the reveal...Alberto Iglesias's mournful jazzy score is affecting, and the rest of the film's craft – cinematography, design, costumes – is typically exquisite" - Dave Calhoun, Time Out.
Nominated for the Palme D'Or at Cannes, all we can add is "welcome back, Pedro!"
A Columbian contender for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars 2015 is a rarity in itself, but this is a "Conradian jungle dream, or nightmare, shot in searing, scorching monochrome. It has something of Herzog's Aguirre or Coppola's Apocalypse Now" - Peter Bradshaw, Guardian... and "the result is unique and intoxicating, an art movie that grips like a thriller" - Tom Huddleston, Time Out.
The story follows two explorers, 30 years apart, who travel into the Amazon in search of the medicinal and psychedelic yakruna plant, where they both meet the same shaman. The result is a beautiful journey where the past meets the present: a contender for Keswick's film of the season?
It is 1945, World War Two is just ending. Stalinist Russia is now running Poland with a rod of iron. The French Red Cross has been sent to Poland to help French soldiers who are prisoners of war in German camps (civilians having to rely on the Polish Red Cross). One of the French doctors, Mathilde, is disturbed by a Polish nun who is desperate for her help in the local convent. When she gets there she is shocked by what she finds...
"As a writer and director, Anne Fontaine often deals with the struggles of women and with stories involving sex and sexual politics, but her concerns are usually veiled by the mechanics of a crowd-pleasing story. Invariably entertaining, her films - such as the biopic 'Coco Before Chanel' and thrillers and semi-thrillers such as 'Into His Hands' and 'Nathalie' - always have deeper currents lurking beneath. In 'The Innocents', that which is underneath comes to the surface" - Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle.
Fontaine successfully merges sexual politics, religion and post world-war politics here, in this heart-wrenching, but true story. Mathilde (played wonderfully by Lou de Laâge) does her best to help the nuns, while balancing her Red Cross duties and her love life; 'The Innocents' leaves us with at least some hope from a desperate situation.
Cherry blossom, food and family ties; if you are like me and remember director Hirokazu Koreeda's sublime 'Still Walking' in 2010 you will understand the allusion. Koreeda does not so much tell a story as allow small events in the lives of his characters to show us the way.
Three sisters travel to the funeral of their estranged father. Here, they meet their much younger step-sister for the first time and invite her to come to live with them. Despite the warning from an old aunt that "She may be your sister, but she's also the daughter of the woman who destroyed your family", the new 'little sister' goes back with her new family and "proves an entirely positive presence in this lovely, generous, and touching (film)" - Mark Kermode, Observer.
We hope you enjoy this "warm, embracing joy of a movie to watch" - Wendy Ide, Radio Times - which should put you in the mood for a great, relaxing Christmas. See you next season!
I always tell people that there is no such thing as a movie everyone will like but maybe this is the exception that proves the rule. We start the season with the small movie that has somehow swept the world.
Ricky is a troubled and troubling young orphan who has finally nowhere left to be fostered but a couple living in the middle of nowhere. Bella takes him in, Hec wants nothing to do with him. Trouble soon strikes again, and Ricky goes off into the bush to hide, where Hec tracks him down. But… the world sets out on a massive manhunt to track the two down and they are forced to flee...
What follows is a road movie with no roads; part comedy, part buddy movie, part coming of age, the two wise crack their way through the film, winning each other over, and us along with them.
Sam Neill plays Hec, but it is Ricky, played by Julian Dennison, who steals the show. "There's brilliant chemistry between Dennison and Neill, the pair quite obviously bouncing off each other; a joy to watch on screen, and as the story progresses you begin to feel like a member of their special pack, gleefully part of the adventure" – Jack Shepherd, Independent.
AND we get to go on a tramp in the amazing Kiwi bush...how lucky can we get?
An oppressed black man arrives in Europe to be met by persecution, humiliation and prejudice; a story of our time? Well, in this case, no: a story from the late 19th century. The more things change, the more they stay the same...
Chocolat (Rafael Padilla) was an ex-slave from Cuba who made his way to France via Spain. Doing odd jobs, he meets an English clown, George Footit, who takes him on and they develop the classic slapstick clown routine, with the 'edge' that it is the white man chasing the hapless black fool around. Chocolat went on to be very famous in France, but was never happy with his stereotypical role and fell into bad ways...
Taking the main role here is the marvellous Omar Sy (who we saw in 'Untouchable' in 2012): "a man with enough charisma to power the city of lights single-handed, beguiles as half of a Parisian clown act learning the prejudices of his time" - Phil Hoad, Guardian. You will also recognise James Thierrée who plays Footit - he is Charlie Chaplin's grandson and both looks and moves like him.
So expect lots of clowning around, mixed with some thought-provoking racial politics all held together by some great acting; what's not to like?!
KESWICK FILM CLUB'S 1000TH FILM!
Keswick Film Club started showing alternative films back in February 1999 and (ignoring possible counting errors...) tonight is the 1000th film we have shown! To celebrate this amazing feat, we decided to show the first film again. The Governess was first shown on 7th February 1999; thanks to all the volunteers and to Tom Rennie and the Alhambra we are still going strong in 2017; here's to the next 1000 films together! Maybe you were at the first? Have you been coming along ever since?
Why not let us have any special memories you have?
Set in the 1840s, Minnie Driver plays Rosina in the title role; she has been brought up in a London Sephardic Jewish community but, on the death of her father has to find a job to support her family. She obtains the post of governess to a young girl on a tiny Scottish island, changing her name to Mary to avoid anti-Semitism. The father (Tom Wilkinson) - who spends every possible moment avoiding his wife with his photography hobby - begins to spend time with Mary, whilst his teenage son (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) falls hook line and sinker for her...
I will leave it to one of our favourite critics over the years - Roger Ebert - to summarise the result: "Photography provides the counterpoint: Their dance of attraction begins at arm's length, through the pictures they take of each other. The claustrophobic, isolated Victorian household is a stage on which every nuance, however small, is noticed. And there are rich underlying ironies, not least that by denying their assigned places in society (he as a husband, she as a Jew), they are able for a time to function freely just as two people happy to be together in mind and body".
Hidden in this movie about a champion fencer on the run from the secret service in Leningrad in the 1950s, "Director Klaus Haro brings to light the terrible injustices faced by Estonians conscripted by the Nazi invaders during the Second World War and who are then hunted down by the secret police when the Soviets assume control" – Trevor Johnston, Radio Times.
Endel is hiding in plain sight by taking a job as a PE teacher in a poor, far-flung corner of Estonia. His teaching skills and empathy with his young charges result in some fine would-be fencers, who then want to take part in a competition...in Leningrad.
Haro gets much praise for the way he takes a simple story and builds in the tension, with the help of some good acting all round and some beautiful cinematography - "The film looks beautiful, too, with bleak, undersaturated landscapes and simple, austere photography establishing a distinct sense of time and place" - David Clack, Time Out
This is director Esther Campbell's first feature film and she is already getting compared to the likes of Andrea Arnold, Jane Campion and even Terrence Mallick. A very British film in its social realism, she takes us into the poetic with her use of "extraordinary images" - Mick MaCahill, Guardian. Esther will be with us for a Q&A after the film.
The story is that of a family split apart by the mental illness of the mother (played by singer-songwriter Beth Orton, to high praise). The children all react in different ways when the father (Muhammet Uzuner, 'Once Upon a time in Anatolia') lets them down; Rose goes looking for her Mum, Ewan searches his own self for signs of his mother's illness while Ramona waits for a love as beautiful as her parents had.
Kubo and the Two Strings, an animation that is getting rave reviews, with the voice of Kubo played by Art Parkinson – Rickon Stark in Game of Thrones.
Non-stop gags and dubious taste in Karen Krizanovich's choice. Roger, Roger. Do we have clearance, Clarence?
Matt Glasby has chosen this classic film set in a British public school, with Malcolm McDowell in his first big screen role – compare and contrast with The Browning Version at the Festival.
Ali Catterall has chosen this comedy horror about murder in the Critics' Circle, starring Vincent Price, Diana Rigg and just about every other British actor from the 1970s that you could name.
Romanian directors have made their mark on the international film scene in the last 10 or 15 years and Cristi Puiu is arguably one of the most influential of these. Starting with 'Stuff and Dough' in 2001, 'The Death of Mr Lazarescu' (which we showed here in 2005) through 'Aurora' in 2010, he has remained controversial. His latest film has now garnered him a nomination for Palme d'Or at Cannes this year.
Set almost entirely inside an apartment where friends and relations are gathered for an event that is at first not explained; only gradually do we work it out for ourselves. In fact, this is Puiu's technique for the whole film - he leaves it to us to decide.
"Puiu offers a talky masterclass in seemingly effortless choreography, moving between characters and among conversations about Communism; 9/11 conspiracies; the Charlie Hebdo murders (which have taken place three days before); the 'junkie' who someone brings with them; food; one ageing man's infidelities; and more" - Dave Calhoun, Time Out.
"As time passes, Puiu is confirming himself as one of the most truly distinctive (and philosophically fascinating) voices of 21st-century filmmaking; in his singularly thoughtful approach to cinematic realism, he is at once rigorous and quietly radical" - Geoff Andrew, Sight & Sound.
This promises to be one of those films we will be discussing for long afterwards...
In the 1960s on the east coast of New Zealand, two Maori sheep-shearing families - the Mahanas and the Poatas - are longstanding enemies and commercial rivals. 14-year-old Simeon Mahana, the youngest son, is in conflict with his traditionalist grandfather, Tamihana. As Simeon unravels the truth behind the longstanding vendetta, he risks his own prospects, and the cohesion of the entire society.
Adapted from a novel by The Whale Rider (KFC, 2004) author Witi Ihimaera this family saga is a return to Maori roots for Once Were Warriors director Lee Tamahori.
Thanks to Wild Bunch
Cristian Mungiu has followed up his Palme d'Or success with 4 months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days with Graduation which won him the Best Director accolade in 2016.
The tale of a doctor in a small Romanian town and his understandable ambition to do the very best for his daughter. But how far should you go to use influence and call in favours to further that ambition?
A fascinating tale of contemporary Romania, Graduation will challenge the moral compass of every parent.
Thanks to Artificial Eye/Curzon
Dain is a chieftain's grandson and Wawa granddaughter of a shaman. The pair are in love, but when rivalry with a neighbouring tribe erupts into violence, Wawa is promised to a warrior of that tribe as part of peace negotiations. Forbidden by their elders from being together, Wawa and Dain resolve to defy their families.
Shot entirely on location, the film tells a true story and many of the cast played characters based on their own roles in society, featuring traditional tribal dances, pig slaughtering and penis sheaths.
Winner of the audience award at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival.
Thanks to Visit Films
This much-loved musical drama won 3 Oscars and tells of the life of renowned musical composer, playwright, actor, dancer and singer George M. Cohen. It stars James Cagney who demonstrates brilliance as an actor and song and dance-man.
Thanks to Film Bank
Casey Affleck stars as Lee, a solitary Boston janitor who after a family tragedy must return to his home town, Manchester by the Sea to look after his brother's son.
It is never good to go back and Lee has to confront his personal demons as well as cope with his new responsibilities. Slow and deeply moving, the comedic elements emphasise that this is an immensely powerful film that is rightfully garnering nominations in the 2017 Awards season.
Thanks to Studio Canal
The first of our trilogy of films starring Greta Scacchi. Mike Figgis' remake of The Browning Version showcases some of the greatest talents in British acting and screenwriting. Adapted from Terence Rattigans's play by Ronald Harwood, Miss Scacchi plays the young wife of a much-disliked classics teacher (Albert Finney) at a British public school, who is reaching the end of his career. With Michael Gambon in the role of the Headmaster, Mike Figgis' film is a masterful re-telling of a well-known tale.
John Wilbye, the greatest of the Elizabethan madrigalists, spent his entire working life in the service of Sir Thomas and Lady Elizabeth Kytson. After Wilbye's second book of madrigals was published in 1609 he appears not to have composed anything else, yet Lady Elizabeth kept him on in the house until her death in 1628, showering him with gifts.
So why, when Elizabeth died, did Wilbye throw all this up and spend the rest of his days with her daughter, the divorcee Lady Mary Darcy?
Festival favourite, Tony Britten's collaboration with the internationally renowned vocal group, I Fagiolini, this sumptuously photographed film is a feast for movie fans and music lovers alike.
Thanks to Capriol Films
The Unknown Girl (15) F
113 mins, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, France (2016)
The Dardenne brothers never fail to impress and their latest release tells the tale of a caring, committed doctor in Liège (Adèle Haenel) whose one error of judgement leads her into an obsessive journey to find the identity of the unknown immigrant girl at her door.
As her search goes on, the question of blame becomes more complex than it first seems.
Thanks to Artificial Eye/Curzon
Director Pablo Larrain’s follow up to The Club is an 'anti-bio' of one of Chile's most vital and intriguing figures: poet-diplomat and politician, Pablo Neruda. Set in 1948, Neruda finds himself on the wrong side of an anti-communist drive and is forced into hiding. Details of this exile are delivered in narration by Gael Garcia Bernal, playing the detective who is tasked with tracking him down.
Thanks to Network Releasing
Directed by Michael Curtiz this was James Cagney's first color film, an aviation tale that was Oscar nominated for Cinematography and Interior Decoration.
James Cagney plays an independent, brash Canadian bush pilot who, inspired by Churchill's Dunkirk speech attempts service in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II but cannot bend to military ways. Soon, however, he proves his ability as a civilian.
Thanks to Warner Brothers
The second of our trilogy of films featuring Greta Scacchi, The Player sees Robert Altman and lead actors Tim Robbins and Miss Scacchi at their finest.
Griffin Mill (Robbins) is a Hollywood gatekeeper – anyone wanting to get their movie made needs to get it past him first. But when Griffin starts to receive death threats from someone he has ignored, the list of suspects is long.
Taking matters into his own hands leads to an inevitable downward spiral of consequences.
Thanks to Michael Tolkin
The third Cannes Jury Prize winning film by writer/director Arnold to be screened at Keswick (Red Road, KFF 2007; Fish Tank, KFC 2009) American Honey is her first film to be set outside the UK.
A teenage girl with nothing to lose joins a travelling magazine sales crew, and gets caught up in a whirlwind of hard partying, law bending and young love as she criss-crosses the Midwest with a band of misfits, under power-agent Jake, played by Shia LaBeouf. Otherwise Arnold 'street cast' the film, including the lead Sacha Lane, from impromptu auditions on parking lots, beaches, construction sites and state fairs.
Thanks to Universal
A sophisticated tale of an unlikely romance between two extraordinary artists, set against the backdrop of political upheaval and a clash of cultures in 1950s Brazil. Legendary American poet Elizabeth Bishop travels from New York City to Rio de Janeiro to visit her college friend Mary. Hoping to find inspiration, Elizabeth winds up with much more – a tempestuous relationship with Mary's bohemian partner, architect Lota de Macedo Soares, designer of Rio's Flamingo Park.
Thanks to Peccadillo
The global protest against the Iraq War on 15 February 2003 was a pivotal moment in recent history, the consequences of which have gone unreported. We are Many chronicles the struggle to shift power from the old establishment to the new superpower that is global public opinion, through the prism of one historic day.
Screened in association with Keswick Peace and Human Rights Group.
Thanks to Amir Amirani
Join Visual Effects Supervisor, Simon Hughes and Producer Nick Barton for a special screening of last summer's hit, Swallows and Amazons.
Before the film, Simon will be telling us some of the tricks of the trade such as how the film managed to join together so many different locations and afterwards Nick will be answering questions about the reworking of Ransome's great book and the challenges it threw up.
Thanks to Studio Canal
For 1200km, the Tibetan pilgrims of Zhang Yang's extraordinary travelogue clap, drop face down to the road or gravel or mud, and then lift themselves up to walk a few steps and do it all again, on a pilgrimage to Lhasa, the holy capital. We see the simplicity of human relationships and the nature of family, suffering, and extraordinary determination.
Zhang shot for more than a year and also managed to secure approval from the Chinese government to make and distribute this film celebrating Tibetan spirituality.
Thanks to Cinefile
In 1967, a young Beijing student, Chen Zhen, is sent to live among the nomadic herdsmen of Inner Mongolia. Caught between the advance of civilization from the south and the nomads' traditional enemies – the marauding wolves – to the north; humans and animals, residents and invaders alike, struggle to find their true place in the world. Annaud, who has worked with animals on other films and whose 1997 film Seven Years in Tibet is banned in China, had his personal ban lifted so he could direct Wolf Totem.
Thanks to wild Bunch
Matt Glasby's choice is one of the most powerful films (and Foreign Language Oscar winner) of 2016.
Two days in the life of Saul Auslander, Hungarian prisoner working as a member of the Sonderkommando at one of the Auschwitz crematoria who, to bury the corpse of a boy he takes for his son, tries to carry out his impossible deed: salvage the body and find a rabbi to bury it. While the Sonderkommando is to be liquidated at any moment, Saul turns away from the living and their plans of rebellion to save the remains of a son he never took care of when he was still alive.
Thanks to Artificial Eye/Curzon
Winner of the Best Screenplay and Best Actor awards at Cannes, Asghar Farhadi (A Separation, About Ellie) takes us on another compelling journey in contemporary Iran. Emad and his wife Rana are playing Willy Loman and Linda in an am-dram production of Death of a Salesman. Having had to move out of their home because of subsidence their own relationship starts to crumble after a disturbing domestic incident.
Thanks to artificial Eye/Curzon
HiroKazu Koreeda, a favourite of Keswick audiences: I Wish, KFF 2013; Like Father Like Son, KFF 2014; Our Little Sister, KFC 2016; is back with another gentle contemplation on family life.
Dwelling on his past glory as a prize-winning author, Ryota wastes the money he makes as a private detective on gambling. After the death of his father, his mother and ex-wife seem to be moving on while Ryota struggles to take back control of his life and to find a lasting place in the future of his young son – until a stormy summer night offers them a chance to truly bond again.
Thanks to Munro Films
Casablanca and Michael Curtiz, with Adam Feinstein
The 75th anniversary of the release of Casablanca is too good an opportunity to miss and this timeless film will be given even more resonance by Adam Feinstein's insight into the works of Michael Curtiz and the making of Casablanca itself.
Bogart plays a world-weary ex-freedom fighter who runs a nightclub in Casablanca during the early part of World War II. It has become a haven for refugees wanting to escape to America. Club owner Rick is approached by the famed rebel Victor Laszlo and his wife Ilsa, Rick's true love who deserted him when the Nazis invaded Paris. She wants Victor to escape to America, but having renewed her love for Rick, she wants to stay behind in Casablanca. "You must do the thinking for both of us," she says to Rick, and he does.
Thanks to Filmbank
Karen Krizanovic's choice stars the wonderful Amy Adams in Arrival, which has received plaudits across the world.
When mysterious spacecraft touch down across the globe, an elite team – led by expert linguist Louise Banks – is brought together to investigate. As mankind teeters on the verge of global war, Banks and the team race against time for answers – and to find them, she will take a chance that could threaten her life, and quite possibly humanity.
Thanks to Entertainment One
Described as "perhaps the most purely pleasurable film at Cannes" Paterson is the eponymous bus driver cum poet, who takes his inspiration from the conversations of his passengers and his day to day life in Paterson, New Jersey. Adam Driver is superb as the poet and he is wonderfully supported by Golshifteh Farahani (About Ellie) as his wife Laura, who has (largely black and white) artistic ideas of her own and Winnie the bulldog, rightful winner of the Palme Dog.
Thanks to Soda Pictures
Released some 46 years after the true life events of the Happy Valley murder (still unsolved) of Josslyn Hay, 22nd Earl of Errol, Roger Ebert says "White Mischief is an elegant, almost luxurious retelling of the story of Jock (Joss Ackland) ,his young bride, Diana (Greta Scacchi) and the Earl (Charles Dance). In White Mischief, the period is lovingly restored – the clothes, the cars, the rambling architecture, the lifestyle that could not conceive that Kenya would ever be independent, and was scarcely able to even see racism, much less decry it. Happy Valley is seen as a society of narcissists, in love with their own beauty and idle charm and existing primarily to drink and to gossip."
The film will be followed by a Q&A with Greta Scacchi.
Thanks to Filmbank
Dare you watch Ali Catterall's film choice? It may take you out of your comfort zone but this is not your run of the mill frightener.
This cannibal horror film follows a 16-year-old vegetarian who is forced to eat a raw rabbit liver during her school's humiliating hazing ritual. After devouring the meat, she starts to crave more flesh. The movie made its premiere at this year's Cannes Film Festival where it won the FIPRESCI Prize and was recently screened at the Toronto Film Festival.
After watching the film at TIFF, Joe Lipsett wrote that Raw, "perfectly balances horrific and comedic elements. Raw is an extremely confident film that will satisfy both gore hounds and purveyors of smart horror. It is one of the most surprising films of the fest and should be particularly appealing to audiences who appreciate France's brand of extreme horror. It is highly, highly recommended."
Thanks to Universal
Actor Greg Wise secretly records his meetings with tax planners for this Dispatches documentary for Channel 4. They reveal to him a range of legal tax avoidance schemes that are available to the rich and famous and he comes to question the priorities of HMRC. Writing in the Guardian, he said "HMRC will gather the 'low-hanging fruit' but will turn a blind eye to the serious amounts being aggressively avoided. They will trumpet the millions they get back from benefit claimants, but are much less vocal about their inadequate record on offshore tax schemes. As our Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee said HMRC's work has led to too few prosecutions of individuals for tax evasion and that there is, therefore, no credible punishment to deter people from breaking the law in this manner."
Greg Wise will present the screening and host a Q&A after the film.
We are delighted to announce that director Paul Murton will also be joining us for the screening. Paul is an accomplished director with The Bill and Casualty amongst his credits and he appears in front of the camera in his travelogue series Grand Tours of the Scottish Islands.
Keswick Peace and Human Rights Group
The documentary strand at KFF 2017 is admittedly a tad thin, but Life, Animated is a worthy flag-bearer for the genre and is one of the 'must-sees' at this years festival.
On the face of it, it is the story of Owen, an autistic teenager who finds a meaning in life and a means of communication through Disney animations. It is just as much about those around Owen who must help him navigate his way around this difficult and confusing world.
This will be a charity screening in aid of ICAAN, a West Cumbrian group that does superb work in supporting families of children with autism.
Thanks to Dogwoof
Loving celebrates the real-life courage and commitment of an interracial couple, Richard and Mildred Loving, who married and then spent the next 9 years fighting for the right to live as a family. Their civil rights case. Loving V. Virginia, went all the way to the Supreme Court. Director Nicholas (Mud, 2012) had access to documentary footage of the Loving’s home life from the mid-60s.
Loving received a standing ovation at its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2016
Thanks to Universal
Based on the novel To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway, The Breaking Point brings together actors John Garfield and Patricia Neal in a classic film noir.
A captain of a charter boat finds himself in financial difficulty and is drawn into illegal activities so that he can keep up the payments on the boat. The desperate captain agrees to smuggle Chinese refugees into the US but not all is well.
Thanks to Warner Brothers
Winner of numerous European Film Awards and nominated for Golden Globes, Maren Ade's film must surely rank as one of the most bizarre comedies to have been seen on the Festival circuit.
Ines is a high flying oil company advisor, perpetually in meetings and according to her practical joking father, Winfried, is in need of lightening up. Adopting his alter ego, Toni Erdmann, he inserts himself forcibly into Ines' life.
Thanks to Soda Pictures
As part of our celebration of poets, their works and their lives we are pleased to screen Glenda Jackson's Stevie, adapted from Hugh Whitemore's play about the life of Stevie Smith.
While the print of the film is showing its age, Stevie nonetheless a classic of its time, featuring Mona Washbourne, Alec McCowen and Trevor Howard.
Our closing film is from the director of Whiplash, Damien Chazelle.
Wannabe movie star Mia (Emma Stone) and pianist Seb (Ryan Gosling) are both hobbled by frustrated ambition when they meet and fall in love, however success comes at a personal cost.
The ICO describes it as "The setting is contemporary Hollywood, the tone light and airy, the story simple but lent immense verve by the style of Chazelle's direction and sheer charisma supplied by Stone and Gosling."
Tipped for many awards, La La Land will close KFF18 on a high.
Thanks to Lionsgate
Looking for new things to tempt you with this year, we have a couple of 'chillers' outside our normal scope. This one - written and directed by an Iranian in exile - unfolds from a feminist 'cry of anger' into a much weirder 'things that go bump in the night' horror movie: expect to see much about the problems of life for a lone mother and her daughter in post-revolution Iran... then expect the unexpected...
Shideh has been banned from becoming a doctor as a leftist, her husband is not sympathetic: she is a woman after all. He is sent to the front and she is left to look after her daughter in war-torn Tehran, forced to wear chador in the street and steadily losing all freedoms (she watches Jane Fonda workout videos behind closed blinds).
As life gets harder and harder for them, a bomb falls on their apartment block; but has something else arrived with it? Sleep-deprived Shideh gets more and more exhausted, we are gradually taken from the horrors of the world of war and male domination into an equally scary world of dhinns and poltergeists. "It is impossible to know what is real and what is not, what is a result of Shideh's exhaustion and what is a valid response to living in a war zone" - Sheila O'Malley, Roger Ebert.com.
What makes this film more believable than many straight horror movies is this basis in an already awful reality; it "offers itself up as an allegory of a nation left permanently damaged by the ravages of its own religio-political transformation", as Anton Bitel says on Projected Figures.com.
"As for special effects, did you honestly doubt that peeling duct tape and a sheet of printed fabric, if handled with imaginative brio, could be as frightening as any ten-million-dollar monster?"
A story of a train driver bringing up his adoptive son Sima whilst dealing with suicides and accidental deaths on his trains: believe it or not, this is more a comedy than anything. If I tell you that a train driver might inadvertently kill 20 or 30 people in a career, it could get even harder to believe, but writer/director Milos Radovic has "produced a touching portrayal of a life we struggle to comprehend, whilst striking an incredibly funny tone to match the coping mechanisms of the real life subjects of the story. As a film to simply enjoy, it is near faultless" - James Baxter-Derrington - The Panoptic.
The film starts with train driver Illija explaining to his counsellor how he has coped with one particular incident where he has killed six gypsies. Even watching this with no subtitles made me want to laugh; actor Lazar Ristovski, who plays Illija, manages to look a lot like John Cleese as he explains what happened!
I don't want you to think this is a heartless comedy romp, however. The bulk of the story tries to show how hard it is for drivers to deal with these events, with Illija trying hard to prevent Sima from becoming a driver like him. As the Raindance Festival reviewer puts it, "The film has a very difficult balance to maintain between being able to discuss suicide, accidental killing, and trauma in a sincere, but funny manner, and simply making light of these issues. It never fails to fall on the right side of this divide...Miloš Radović triumphs with this must-see sensitive, funny and heartwarming portrayal of the psychology of innocent murderers."
"In a remote Nepalese village, Prakash and Kiran, two 12-year-olds, who despite belonging to different castes, are inseparable best mates. They decide on a plan to raise a hen to earn some money by selling its eggs. Their new business venture seems to be working, but as times get hard, Prakash's father sells off all his chickens including the boy's hen. Prakash and Kiran find out that their hen has been sold to an old man many villages away and set out on an adventure to liberate their prized fowl. However, in their single-minded obsession, the youngsters are oblivious to the growing civil war brewing in the region and they soon find themselves travelling through some very dangerous territory, where their friendship will be put to the test" - from the London Indian Film Festival.
Director Min Bahadur Bham was the first Nepali director to have a film presented at Venice Film Festival - his 2012 short 'The Flute'. In 'The Black Hen', his first full feature film, he brings alive his own childhood in eastern Nepal, drawing incidents and stories from his own life, showing harsh lives unravelling in a devastated land, with a deft combination of humour and tragedy. This film, too, won Best Film at the critics week in Venice and was the Nepalese choice for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars. Like 'The Crow's Nest' last year, we expect 'The Black Hen' to bring a couple of likable young lads to our screen, but this one should have a lot more added bite with the background of the civil war in Nepal.
Prepare yourself for a feast - a feast of sumptuous beauty, of tricks and cons, of twisting loyalties and, yes, of sensual pleasure. Chan-wook Park, until now known for quasi-horror movies like 'Oldboy' (Festival 2005), has produced this "lush, romantic, crowd-pleasing melodrama" - David Edelstein, New York Magazine - adapted from Sarah Water's novel 'Fingersmith'. The difference is that she set it in Victorian England, he has moved it to Korea in the 1930s, when Korea was under Japanese rule - everyone was pretending to be Japanese to get on, which gives us the backdrop to the film.
Sook-Hee is hired by Count Fujiwara to be the handmaiden to the woman he is trying to marry, Hideko...but Fujiwara is a Korean con-man, not a Japanese Count, trying to steal Hideko's money and Sook-hee's past is a lot different from what she pretends. To add to the mystery, she and Hideko begin to fall in love ...
The film is told in three chapters, each from a different view-point, with the plot getting more involved as we go: "It's when the twists began and then the twists on the twists that I started to get excited" - David Edelstein again.
A beautiful, clever thriller, then, with added sensual excitement (you have been warned!); as Tom Huddleston says in Time Out, "this is smart, sumptuous and wonderfully indulgent, best watched on a wet Sunday with an entire box of chocolates". Keswick will, no doubt, handle the weather, you bring the chocolates...
Our last film of the year was premiered at the Edinburgh Festival in 2016 and brings together a large cast of stars including Jonathan Pryce, Agyness Deyn and Greta Scacchi (fresh from our festival in February). The main star is Lorenzo Allchurch, who plays 12 year old Djata, and appears in virtually every scene - to great reviews from the critics.
An unnamed dystopian country in the near future. The country is surrounded by CCTV and posters advocating civic duty - "DUTY", "SERVE". We follow Djata as he deals with the disappearance of his father, supposedly taken for a work assignment, but we know better... Djata's school life is effectively a military academy, whilst out of school he and his friends try to deal with a couple of adult bullies.
Welcome back to Keswick Film! We have another season of films from around the world for you to enjoy. After your summer break, are you ready to laugh? Ready to cry? Before we get stuck into some more thought-provoking films, we have a great season starter for you!
Meet Ove, the grumpy old man to beat even Victor Meldrew. He's lost his wife and his job and the only thing that stops him from committing suicide is that there would be no-one to moan at the neighbours all the while if he did...that and the fact that he is "so bad at dying", as his new neighbour Parvaneh tells him.
You won't be surprised to know that Parvaneh also brings some hope into his life ("no-one should be alone...not even you"), so save some of your tears for the feel-good moments too.
As a small child, Anna watches in horror as her family sell her grandfather's favourite 1000-year-old olive tree to help pay for a tourist restaurant.
Wind forward a dozen years and her grandfather has fallen into depression and dementia; does he miss his tree?
Anna discovers the tree has been bought by a Dusseldorf energy company as a symbol of its green policies; can she get it back?
What follows is her crazy mission, with a couple of friends, to go to Dusseldorf to rescue the tree, involving big business and the German environmental movement along the way.
The film is directed by Icíar Bollaín (we had her 'Even the Rain' here in 2012 and 'Take My Eyes' at the 2005 Festival) and written by her partner, multi-award winning Paul Laverty, Ken Loach's collaborator ('I, Daniel Blake', 'The Wind that Shakes the Barley'). Anna Castillo, who plays Anna, gets good reviews all round too, so this should be a treat for us all.
If you have seen any Kelly Reichardt movies, you will know she wants to draw you into the characters, asking you to think about their lives and their reaction to events: "From her terrific debut feature 'River of Grass' through 'Meek's Cutoff' and 'Wendy and Lucy', Reichardt has given us incomplete, quietly suffering women who feel their way into change. Her M.O. is to allow their unexpressed longings to hang quietly in the air so we can feel them too, and watch what happens when they try to act on them" – Ella Taylor, NPR.
'Certain Women' lets us see into the lives of four women in windswept Montana. Firstly, we meet Laura - Laura Dern playing a small-town lawyer, frustrated by the men she represents not respecting her abilities and yearning for more from her life.
Then we see Gina (Michelle Williams) who is fighting her teenage daughter and trying to hold her family together while planning a new house.
Lastly, newcomer Lily Gladstone leaves her horses for a while to take an evening class, where she falls for the teacher, Kristen Stewart.
At the end of World War Two, the Germans, suspecting that the allies intend to invade through Denmark, buried two MILLION land mines on the beaches of the west coast there. "And so, following the war's end, the British and Danes forced 2,000 German prisoners of war to locate and defuse those land mines ... by hand.
So here we have a horrible human situation in which we understand both points of view. On the one hand, we have the Allies thinking, "You planted them. You get them out." You have a people anticipating their children running on the beach and getting dismembered. You have an entire coastline rendered unusable.
On the other hand, you have these pathetic German kids - some of them underage teens conscripted in the last desperate phase of the war - who are victims of Hitler almost as much as the Allies" - Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle.
This is, then, a war film, but not about the war. Martin Zandvliet's story takes up this dichotomy by following a tough Danish sergeant, put in charge of the PoWs, who starts off hating them as Nazis but, inevitably, begins to sympathise with them as they carry out their gruesome task. It will hardly be a spoiler to tell you that there are some explosions, but Zandvliet manages to echo the tension the Germans would have been feeling: "He keeps outguessing us, and this outguessing serves an important function. With a task like this, there’s no such thing as routine and not one moment that is safe" - LaSalle again.
Imagine you have been living in the same place for most of your adult life, in a beautiful spot with beautiful views (this should be pretty easy for us in Keswick!). Your life has been wrapped up, not just in the place, but in the building itself. Along comes a developer who sees a chance to make a fortune by knocking down your home and building a newer, flashier apartment block. He offers you lots of money to move; what would you do?
Well, everyone in Clara's beachside block in Recife has agreed to sell... but she wants to stay. A retired music critic, she loves it here and has no need of the money. The developer, and even her friends and family think she is mad and try to persuade her to move...
The film is not about a 'David and Goliath' fight over the flat though. It "turns out to be less about the twists and turns of Clara's story and more about the confounding experience of aging, the mind-body conundrum, and how the physical environment becomes such a potent signifier of time, memory and meaning" - Ann Hornaday, Washington Post. "...besides being a study of a woman under duress, the film is a portrait of a society where many traditional values, like its buildings, are at risk of being annihilated simply for the sake of modernity and money" - Geoff Andrew, Time Out.
The film was nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes, and it is Sonya Braga (made famous by her role in 'Kiss of the Spider Woman' back in 1985) who gets much credit for this: her "evident strength, intelligence and vitality are essential to the character of the embattled but stubborn Clara" - Geoff Andrew again.
It is 1919, only a few weeks after the war has ended and the inhabitants of Quedlinburg - a small town in Germany - are trying to come to terms with losing the war and losing their loved ones. Anna cannot get over her fiancé, Frantz: she is even still living with his parents. She visits Frantz's grave every day. One day she sees a stranger placing flowers on the grave. He turns out to be Adrien...a Frenchman. What is he doing there? How did he know Frantz?
François Ozon has built a reputation around thought-provoking films that don't fit into any one genre, that often blur the boundaries of both gender and sexuality ('8 Women', 'Swimming Pool', 'Jeune & Jolie'). He is also famous for producing films fast, averaging more than one a year. 'Frantz' is different; it is based on a little-known 1932 film 'Broken Lullaby', though the second half is completely new, written by Ozon. A romantic mystery, it comes over as an homage to Alfred Hitchcock's 'Vertigo', "although Ozon being Ozon, every riff and tribute is upside down, back to front, and bilingual to boot" - Robbie Collin, Telegraph.
Anna and Frantz's family start off not trusting Adrien - even hating him as a Frenchman - but gradually they grow to like him as they find out how he knew Frantz. But is he telling the truth? Would knowing the truth help anyway? What should Anna do about her growing feelings for him?
"'The Age Of Shadows' is a tremendous thriller, combining Hitchcockian elements with action set-pieces and a slippery plot line as full of twists and betrayals as one of John Le Carre's Cold War thrillers. It is set in Korea in the 1920s. The country is under the yoke of the Japanese but there is a ferocious resistance movement" - Geoffrey Macnab, Independent. Need I say more?! Expect double-agents, double-crossing, and lots of action!
With Syria dominating the news for so long, this film tries to show what it is like for the general population, living in fear each day. "Set entirely in a Damascus apartment under siege from a world in conflict, this tautly-constructed, intensely claustrophobic drama offers a sometimes nerve-shredding depiction of what happens when conflict impinges on domestic space" - Jonathan Romney, Screen International.
Memories of the 60s - Celebrating 60s films At Rheged
If I ask you to name your favourite 1960s film, which one would come to your mind? No doubt we would get 100 different answers from 100 people...and we probably will when we ask the question at Rheged today. We have chosen 'The Graduate' to watch - mainly because it was such a great film, but also because it has just been re-released in a beautiful 4K digital version which should look fantastic at Rheged.
Do I need to tell you about the film? Dustin Hoffman made his name here as Ben, fresh out of university and sitting around at home looking for things not to do until he strikes up a 'liaison' with Mrs Robinson (Anne Bancroft), one of his parents' friends.
His embarrassed attempts at sex are both funny and sad, and things get worse when he meets and falls for her daughter Elaine (Katherine Ross), who is due to get married soon... can love prevail? Will Mrs Robinson allow it? Will Elaine find out about his relationship with her mother? If you can't remember, all I will say it is a great ride while he tries, ably assisted by the great music from Simon and Garfunkel.
After the film, instead of our usual meal, we are going to have some 60s snacks to eat while we discuss this and other 60s films. We will be joined by two professors from University College London who have been collecting memories of British cinema-goers so bring along your thoughts to share while you enjoy a great movie...and maybe some cheese and pineapple on sticks!
Many parts of the world make claim to being "God's Own Country", including New Zealand and even the Lake District. In this case it is Yorkshire, and, to the Saxby family, it might be a bit tongue in cheek; their lives on an inexorably failing livestock farm cannot seem to be anything remotely like heaven. Martin (Ian Hart) has had a stroke and is virtually incapacitated.
This leaves his mother (Gemma Jones) to worry and his son, John (Josh O'Connor), to shoulder most of the work, against his will and temperament: he had wanted to go to university with all his mates. This leaves him morose and virtually an alcoholic, getting blind drunk most nights in the local. "And what does he live for, now? When he is in town for livestock auctions, Johnny has fleeting sexual encounters with people he meets there" - Peter Bradshaw, Guardian. Note the word 'people' here: John may not be out of the closet, but he is gay. His life changes for the better, finally, when his father hires a Romanian, Gheorge, to help out...
So we are in 'Brokeback Yorkshire' territory here. Like Brokeback, their relationship grows to be more than they thought.
If the Marigold Hotel was set up for old English people to enjoy a long and fulfilling retirement, then Hotel Salvation has been set up for old Indian people to pass their last days before they die...and they are limited to 15 days! "'If you die, good for you. If you don't, go back home,' the proprietor tells them" - Amber Wilkinson, Eye for Film.
But 'Hotel Salvation' is much more to do with a father and son relationship - even family relations generally - than dying. A wry, gentle comedy drama, it follows the events after Daya has a dream and decides he is ready to die. He wants to do this on the banks of the sacred Ganges at Varanasi, so, naturally, he 'asks' his son Rajiv to take him there.
Rajiv is a modern man, much more interested in making money than worrying about traditions, but, nonetheless, he gets time off work and off they go.
Once in Varanasi, they book into Hotel Salvation. "Daya immediately settles in, making friends with the delightful widow Vimla and avidly following his favorite TV show 'Flying Saucer' with the other terminal residents. He has never seemed better. Rajiv gnaws his nails, torn between wanting his father to live and his anxiety to get back to work. His stress is palpable and one feels for his dilemma, at the same time one knows he has a big lesson to learn in that place" - Deborah Young, Hollywood Reporter.
Is 15 days long enough? You will have to come along and see...
This is not (quite) your average Aki Kaurismäki film: "If you know the Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki, you'll know he makes the driest of dry black comedies that rarely put a step further than a Helsinki bar – with a quiffed rockabilly band and pack of cigarettes never far away. His films are gems of poker-faced comic absurdism, full of expressionless faces and gloomy rooms. That's still the case with 'The Other Side of Hope' – but this time the veteran filmmaker's mind is on the European refugee crisis. In his own idiosyncratic way Kaurismäki addresses this hot topic by asking: why would anyone want to come to horrible old Finland anyway?" - Dave Calhoun, Time Out.
"...with 'The Other Side Of Hope' he delivers what is easily his most political movie yet, a two-finger salute to cold-hearted bureaucracy and his homeland's apathy in the face of the humanitarian crisis. In true Kaurismäki style, of course, it's done with bone-dry wit, a gentle streak of melancholy, fixed cameras and a smattering of silly sight gags" - Phil de Semlyen, Empire.
Two stories collide here: when salesman Waldemar Wikström wins big at cards, he decides to open a restaurant, where homeless and jobless Syrian refugee Khaled decides to sleep. Accepting the job he is offered by Wikström, Khaled begins to have hope...but is his hope misplaced? Will Finland accept him?
As de Semlyen goes on to say about Kaurismäki, "His wit and humanism carve out a special if rarely heralded niche for his films. This one will linger longer than most".
Chris, a detective, feigns mental illness to get near the psychiatrist treating his suspect. "Except that, from these fake, fictive therapy sessions, a different truth will emerge...
All the pieces of the puzzle are there, but the parallel pathways offered by Chris' co-existent insider and outsider POVs lead together – again and again – to a place that neither one alone could reach...'The Ghoul' is the best journey through a damaged brain you will take all year - and the sign of a very impressive new British filmmaking talent" - Anton Bitel, Projected Figures.
Catherine Frot plays Claire in the title role - a woman whose life is her work and her garden; and she is happy with that...until along comes her father's ex-mistress, Beatrice, who walked out 30 years ago. Played by Catherine Deneuve, Beatrice is the complete opposite of Claire - a freewheeling lush who gambles for a living and drinks wine with her breakfast. Why has Beatrice come back into Claire's life? Beatrice is impossible, "But the great Deneuve plays her with such endearing spirit, such an irreducible weave of dignity and desperation, that our exasperation is tempered with genuine affection... Frot has the trickier, more recessive role, one that might easily be underestimated by those who don’t know her as one of her country's nimblest comic talents" - Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times.
We get a great chance here to get to know them both.
Last Christmas, we finished the season with 'Our Little Sister' - also by Hirokazu Koreeda. At the time, we said "Koreeda does not so much tell a story as allow small events in the lives of his characters to show us the way". Well, 'small events' got in the way when we tried to show this film at the film festival; the DVD wouldn't play! After several requests, we decided to show it again here.
"Hirokazu Koreeda has drawn comparisons to Yasujiro Ozu in the way he's not as interested in major plot twists or set pieces as he is in subtle human emotion, typically hinging on family dynamics" - Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com
"No modern filmmaker has as sure a grasp on family dynamics as Hirokazu Koreeda" - Tom Huddleston, Time Out. In 'After The Storm', he concentrates on two people (played by Hiroshe Abe and Kirin Kiki; both of whom will be familiar to you from his previous films) - Ryota, who has made nothing of his life and regrets it now, and his ageing mother, Yoshiko. Ryota is a feckless character; he has given up trying to be a novelist and become a private detective. He gambles too much and has been divorced by his own wife, Kyoko, losing touch with his son, Shingo, in the process...and now his father has died. The storm of the title hits and he is stuck inside his mother's house overnight with Kyoko and Shingo while the wind and rain rage outside... Can he make amends to his family?
We hope you have a great Christmas and a happy New Year -see you all next season!
We start the new year with a comedy/drama to remind us that it is easy to forget… or have we just remembered it wrong? It isn’t just too much partying over Christmas! Marjorie has grown old and has problems remembering her past. This being 'the future', her family are trying to help by hiring a hologram/AI robot that is programmed to be (and looks) just like her dead husband Walter did in his forties. This clever hologram gets better and better at 'being' someone the more information it gleans. This does indeed help; Marjorie finds she gets on better with 'young Walter' than she does with her children, especially as she shares more and more memories with 'him'. There is a problem though: are her memories real? When 'he' speaks to the other family members, they give 'him' a different history; they all believe they are telling the truth - who should 'he' believe?
Director Michael Almereyda's most successful film was probably his version of 'Hamlet' set in modern day America, "Now, he is back with 'Marjorie Prime', a clever and affecting meditation on memory, bereavement, love and remorse" - Geoffrey Macnab, Independent. He is well supported with a great cast too - Lois Smith plays Marjorie, with Jon Hamm as Walter and Geena Davis and Tim Robbins as her daughter and son-in-law. Ann Hornaday in the Washington Post says "It re-assures and unsettles in equal, exquisitely calibrated measure. Viewers are left with the Faulknerian sense that, one day, the past won’t just be alive: it won’t even be past at all". I guess that would mean that we could watch our favourite movies again and again...for the first time! I can't wait for the conversation in the pub after this one...
"A dreamily mysterious and beautifully shot film about two disreputable Moroccan men who, as part of a caravan of travellers, accept the task of carrying the dead body of a holy man, the 'Sheikh', across the Atlas mountains to be buried in his home village" - so says Peter Bradshaw in the Guardian.
The film centres on the two men, and a mysterious character - Shakib Ben Omar - who is given the task of guiding the religious sect - led by the Sheikh - through the mountains. The three men are then left to face the elements - physical and spiritual - that try to prevent them reaching their goal.
"There's a touch of the Herzogs to this gorgeous and opaque film if you're willing to read it as a parable about the literal transporting of religious fervour to far flung communities. There's also an existential element to this journey, as the characters battle against ruthless elements which remain utterly blind to their spiritual cause. This becomes a test of faith for the men as events take a turn for the awkward" - David Jenkins, Little White Lies.
If fantastic scenery and thoughtful, poetic films are your bag, this one is definitely for you… We can't wait
"After watching Maysaloun Hamoud's sparkling, taboo-breaking first feature 'In Between', audiences will have to seriously update their ideas about the lifestyle of Palestinian women in Israel" - Deborah Young, Hollywood Reporter.
Mark Kermode chose this as his film of the week in the Observer. Two women share a flat in Tel Aviv; "Laila is a force of nature, a chain-smoking, leather-jacketed lawyer who can drink and snort the boys under the table and takes pride in overturning the conventions of her profession and her gender. She lives with Salma, an aspiring DJ who works long hours in kitchens and bars and whose strict Christian parents don’t know she's gay". It won't be a surprise to know that, when the ultraconservative Muslim Nour moves in too, problems arise; but maybe not the ones you would expect...
Mark Kermode goes on to say that the director 'Hamoud identifies herself as part of a new wave of realist Palestinian cinema, looking beyond the conflicts of the West Bank and Gaza, and putting women proudly centre stage. Yet she is not afraid to portray the price of freedom in a patriarchal world… Hamoud, too, has paid a price. After being criticised for taking Israeli state funding, she found herself the subject of death threats and fatwas from fundamentalists, accused of disparaging or corrupting Muslim women, Elsewhere, 'In Between' has been rapturously received, with Hamoud receiving the 'Women in Motion Young Talents' award at this year's Cannes festival.
Isabelle Huppert, who selected her for the award, declared that 'the free spirited and joyful women [Hamoud] portrays… are true heroines of our time'. That's a sentiment with which I wholeheartedly concur". It takes a lot to make Mark Kermode happy, and all the Rotten Tomatoes critics and audiences agreed, so we reckon this is a film not to be missed.
Meet the Laurents; a rich, dysfunctional family who are more interested in their own internal problems than the big issues going on in the world around them (including the immigration camp at Calais just down the road). The family business is run by Anne (Isobelle Hupert), but we see them mainly through the eyes of 13 year old Eve, the daughter of Thomas. "Her father has remarried, but spends his free time engaged in lyrical cybersex with another woman, and Anne's currently engaged to a British businessman (Toby Jones) for whom she harbors no apparent affection. [Anne's son] Pierre is prone to sudden outbursts, humiliating his relatives at family gatherings by calling out their disregard of immigrant houseworkers and heaping on insults whenever his mother comes close" - Eric Kone, IndieWire.
So classic Michael Haneke territory then. After his Oscarnominated 'Amour', which went down so well in Keswick, we were keen to see what he came up with next. With the critics split on this one, we decided we had to let you see it so that you could all make up your own minds. This is (almost) a follow-on from 'Amour' - Jean-Louis Trintingnant actually plays a character with the same name he played there - but this time Haneke uses black comedy instead of grand tragedy. "Sometimes 'Happy End' feels like an untidy retort to the pointed 'Amour', but it is also, on its own merits, an exceedingly clever, thought-provoking and dark reflection on life, death and family relations" - Kate Taylor, Globe and Mail.
We get some great acting along the way, with the newcomer Fantine Harduin who plays Eve getting many plaudits for holding her own in such famous company. Will you like it? You will need to come along to find out...
"There is a moment just before a teenage crush bursts its dam and becomes a fully-fledged first love. It's a moment in which time is briefly suspended; it's that shiver of uncertainty before you dive over the edge of the waterfall into the kind of love you could drown in. It's this – the exquisite torture of not knowing if feelings are reciprocated followed by the helpless flood of emotions – that is captured so intensely and urgently in this gorgeous work of yearning. Director Luca Guadagnino has a gift for romance" - Wendy Ide, Guardian.
Every description of this film includes words like beautiful, gorgeous, passionate… and not just for the budding love between Elio and Oliver, but for the scenery, the photography, the acting, even the script.
The budding love affair in question is made doubly fragile by being between two young men, both of whom have not done this before. As the glorious, Northern Italian summer progresses, so do their tentative steps towards each other. The film "trembles with a sense of impermanence, gorgeously developed as the summer's shadows grow longer (cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom blesses the imagery with an atmosphere you can breathe) and the duo becomes more brazen with its affections" - Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out.
For those who remember Guadagnino's 2009 film 'I Am Love', none of this will be a surprise, especially as his influences include Bernardo Bertolucci (he has directed a biopic about him). As Brian Tallerico finishes on Roger Ebert.com, the film "is unforgettable on every level, the kind of film that has the power to move and inspire. It is art of the highest caliber". Looks good to us!
"The opening sequence of 'Félicité', a moving and expansive fourth feature from the French Senegalese director Alain Gomis, is a gorgeous blur of chatter, movement and song. In a crowded bar in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, patrons drink and dance into the wee hours, their loud, bickering voices clashing with the music performed by the real-life local collective Kasai Allstars and a club singer named Félicité (Véro Tshanda Beya), whose somber gaze magnetizes the camera from the first frame" - Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times.
Félicité's life, already hard, is about to get a whole lot harder, however; her son has an accident and she has to find the money for an operation, and she has to find it now. She goes out on to the streets of Kinshasa calling in old debts and favours. "At every step she is met with the contempt and hostility of those she asks for help, including her own family" - Chang again.
"Félicité was the Senegalese entry to the Oscars and was up for the Golden Bear award at Berlin. The acting of Véro Tshanda Beya (a singer in Senegal, this is her first part), also gets praised - "Appearing in almost every scene, she carries the film in close-up, with strained subtle grimaces signalling a world of pain beneath" -
Kevin Maher, Times.
On the surface, like 'Call Me by Your Name', this is a film about teenage first love, but there the similarity ends. This love affair has very different consequences. Thelma arrives at a new college where she knows no-one. Soon after her meeting with Anja, a fellow student, Thelma starts to have fits. The tests she undergoes shows these as 'psychogenic non-epileptic seizures', which the doctor tell her are a physical reaction to a mental suppression. What is she suppressing and what brought it on now? It soon turns out that her parents may have something to do with causing this and that Anja may be the reason it is coming out now; Thelma is falling in love…
Merging Sci-fi and 'art house horror', we see Thelma's fits begin to cause involuntary damage to her surroundings; "Thelma is like 'Carrie' remade by Ingmar Bergman", as David Edelstein says in the New York Magazine. In case that puts you off more than it encourages, Sarah Stewart in the New York Post tells us "With its gray skies, moody ambience and ominous orchestral score, 'Thelma' fits the cliché about Scandinavian entertainment being dark as hell — in the best way. It's also gorgeous". Bring it on!
At the age of 84, Edie (Sheila Hancock) is finally free of the ties that bound her to an invalid and domineering husband – and it is the moment to start making up for lost time.
Her goal is to climb a mountain, Suilven, in the Scottish Highlands. Local guide Jonny (Kevin Guthrie - Dunkirk) is the man to help her do it. Movie Review World said that the relationship between the two is the key to the movie’s success and rates it as ‘one of the most tender on screen friendships of the year’.
Thanks to Arrow films
Based on a true story this north African comedy is the tale of Ibrahim, a Moroccan soldier, who is sent to a deserted island off the Mediterranean coast of Morocco to monitor the movements of smugglers and illegal immigrants. One day, Ibrahim finds a Sub-Saharan man, Mamadou, washed up on the beach.
While the unlikely pair tries to survive on the miniscule island, they inadvertently trigger a diplomatic incident that crescendos into a regional military crisis.
Thanks to Ahmed Boulane
This authentic and heart-rending film is the story of Brady, a rodeo rider who has just emerged from a coma. Brady is told not to ride again. "Play the cards you are dealt," says his father "let it go." Yet Brady's purpose in life is hitched to riding horses. Also, living in a trailer and eating rabbit soup is not the stuff of champions. In the starlight, around a campfire with friends, listening to his little sister sing simple yet beautiful songs Brady ponders his next moves.
Thanks to Altitude Films
A Woman's Life is a tale of tormented love embedded in the restrictive social and moral codes of marriage and family in 19th century Normandy. Upon finishing her schooling in a convent, young aristocrat Jeanne marries local Viscount Julien de Lamare, who soon reveals himself to be a miserly and unfaithful husband. As she navigates his chronic infidelity, pressure from her family and community, and the alternating joys and burdens of motherhood, Jeanne's rosy illusions about her privileged world are slowly stripped away.
Thanks to Arrow Films
A road movie set in present day Bulgaria, a country remains optimistic, mainly because all the realists and pessimists have left. At a meeting with his banker, a small business owner, who drives a cab to make ends meet, discovers the bribe he will have to pay to get a loan has doubled. The ethics board that reviewed his complaint about extortion now wants its share of the action. At his wit's end, he takes drastic action sparking a national debate on talk radio about how despair has taken over civil society. Meanwhile, six taxi drivers and their passengers move through the night, each in hope of finding a brighter way forward.
Thanks to Arri Media
A hard hitting documentary, Trophy is a startling exploration of the evolving relationship between big game hunting and wildlife conservation that will leave you debating what is right, what is wrong and what is necessary in order to save the great species of the world from extinction.
Be prepared to have your preconceptions challenged.
Thanks to Munro Films
A remote fishing village in Iceland. Teenage boys Thor and Christian experience a turbulent summer as one tries to win the heart of a girl while the other discovers new feelings toward his best friend. When summer ends and the harsh nature of Iceland takes back its rights, it's time to leave the playground and face adulthood.
Thanks to Matchbox
A 14-year-old girl belonging to the Sami people, a Scandinavian ethnic minority, is subjected to racism and eugenic scrutiny in the 1930s when she is removed from her family and sent to a state-run school that aims to re-educate her into Swedish culture. She must soon choose between new academic opportunities or staying true to her cultural identity.
Thanks to Swedish Film Institute
No Film Festival would be complete without a samurai sword epic and Blade of the Immortal, Takashi Miike’s 100th film, fits the bill perfectly. Based on a manga series it stars Takuya Kimura as Manji, a Shogunate era samurai, granted by a witch the dubious gift of eternal life.
After meeting a young girl, orphaned by a group of master swordsmen, Manji wreaks vengeance on them through a series of stylised showdowns – brilliantly choreographed, outlandishly violent and sometimes brutally comic to boot.
Thanks to Arrow Films
Inspired by David Banning's talk on Cumbrian film locations we wanted to screen a companion piece to showcase our fantastic landscape. Ken Russell was the obvious choice of Director and after much searching we are thrilled to be able to screen Clouds of Glory, thought for many years to have been lost.
Commissioned by Melvyn Bragg for Granada TV, Clouds of Glory is Ken Russell's interpretation of the lives and loves of Coleridge and Wordsworth. David Warner, David Hemmings, Felicity Kendal and Kika Markham vie for the lead against the landscape of Borrowdale.
Thanks to Lisi Tribble
Based on the true story of the kidnapping of a 12-year-old boy, held by the Mafia for 779 days in the hopes of silencing his informant father, Sicilian Ghost Story focuses on Luna, a classmate with a crush, who refuses to sweep his disappearance under the rug and challenges the code of silence that prevails amongst the adults.
This search for the missing boy seen through a child’s eye takes us through the Sicilian countryside evoking stories and fables that are familiar to all.
Thanks to Altitude
Keswick School presents A Monster Calls
12-year- old Conor (Lewis MacDougall), dealing with his mother's illness, a less-than- sympathetic grandmother and bullying classmates, finds a most unlikely ally when a Monster appears at his bedroom window. Ancient, wild, and relentless, the Monster guides Conor on a journey of courage, faith, and truth. Liam Neeson stars in performance-capture and voiceover as the nocturnally visiting Monster of the title.
Lewis MacDougall will introduce the film and host a Q&A afterwards.
Thanks to Entertainment One
Keswick Peace and Human Rights Group Screening
A globetrotting documentary that's more focused on solutions than problems, Demain provides a comprehensive look at ways in which activists, organizers and everyday citizens are trying to make the world a better, greener, more sustainable place. Co-directed by ecological rights advocate Cyril Dion and actress-filmmaker Melanie Laurent, this playfully made exposé should be required viewing for anyone wondering what they could do to pitch in and save the planet.
Thanks to Elle Driver
Our Last Tango is a story of love between the two most famous dancers in tango's history. María Nieves Rego (81) and Juan Carlos Copes (84) met when they were 14 and 17, and they danced together for nearly fifty years. In all those years they loved and hated each other and went through several painful separations, but always got back together. In Our Last Tango Juan and María tell their story to a group of young tango dancers and choreographers from Buenos Aires, who transform the most beautiful, moving and dramatic moments of Juan and Maria's lives into incredible tango-choreographies.
Thanks to Celluloid Circus
Suggested to us by Matt Glasby, The Work is set inside a single room in Folsom Prison, it follows three men from outside as they participate in a four-day group therapy retreat with level-four convicts. Over the four days, each man in the room takes his turn at delving deep into his past. The raw and revealing process that the incarcerated men undertake exceeds the expectations of the free men, ripping them out of their comfort zones and forcing them to see themselves and the prisoners in unexpected ways.
Thanks to Cinema for All
Additional Screening: Sunday 2pm Rheged
Over 65 million people around the world have been forced from their homes to escape famine, climate change and war in the greatest human displacement since World War II. Human Flow, an epic film journey led by the internationally renowned artist Ai Weiwei, gives a powerful visual expression to this massive human migration. The documentary elucidates both the staggering scale of the refugee crisis and its profoundly personal human impact and was filmed over the course of an eventful year in 23 countries.
Thanks to Altitude Films
Mountains May Depart is a film by Jia Zhangke, who has spent most of his 20-year career sounding off on the downside of what he considers his country's too-enthusiastic embrace of globalization, and the influence of Western capitalism and ideals (read: greed) that come with it. Set in 1999, 2014 and 2025, Mountains May Depart revolves mostly around its everyday heroine, Tao (Zhao Tao, Jia's muse on and offscreen), a woman caught somewhere between the dream and the reality of modern China.
In what may be the film of the Festival, Chilean director Sebastián Leilo (Gloria) has created an exquisitely compassionate portrait of the everyday obstacles of transgender existence.
Marina is a young waitress and aspiring singer. When her (older) partner dies after an accident Marina comes under suspicion. By virtue of her gender identity she is treated like a criminal, with everyone seeing not a grieving woman but an aberration.
Winner of the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay and Teddy Award
Thanks to Curzon/Artificial Eye
Bruce Parry is coming to Keswick to introduce Tawai – A Voice from the Forest and to host a Q&A afterwards.
Explorer Bruce Parry (The Tribe) travels the world living with indigenous peoples, delving deeper than ever on a journey into the heart of our collective human conscience.
Tawai is the word the nomadic hunter gatherers of Borneo use to describe their inner feeling of connection to nature. In this dreamy, philosophical and sociological look at life, explorer Bruce Parry travels the world to learn from people living lives very different to our own. From the jungles of Malaysia to the tributaries of the Amazon, TAWAI is a quest for reconnection, providing a powerful voice from the heart of the forest itself.
Thanks to Munro Films
The first on screen pairing of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy is set in the offices of a busy newspaper, where they work on the foreign and sports desks – and don’t have a lot in common. This review from the New York Times in 1942 "a cheering, delightful combination of tongue—tip wit and smooth romance, a picture of surface brilliance designed unreservedly 'pour le sport' but with enough of a homely little moral to make it quite comforting in these times. It's as warming as a Manhattan cocktail and as juicy as a porterhouse steak.
Thanks to Filmbank
Following the death of her father, Alice (Ruth Wilson) returns to her home village for the first time in 15 years, to claim the tenancy to the family farm she believes is rightfully hers. Her brother Joe (Mark Stanley – Game of Thrones, Love Lies and Records) who has worked the farm all these years understandably has other ideas. Then there is the spectre of their father, Richard (Sean Bean) which looms over the pair of them.
Thanks to Arrow Films
François Ozon (Swimming Pool, 8 Women, and the recent Frantz) dabbles in a lot of different genres to the point where you never quite know what to expect when he returns with a new project. His latest offering, L'Amant Double, is a 'deliciously twisted' erotic thriller, starring Jérémie Renier (Silence of Lorna) as the psychiatrist treating Chloé, a vulnerable Parisienne model who gradually finds out more about his past as their relationship develops.
Thanks to Curzon/Artificial Eye
In his final leading role, the late Sir John Hurt plays a terminally ill writer struggling to come to terms with his own mortality (and with no intentions of going gentle into that good night), to rebuild the wreckage of his family and to die with some semblance of dignity.
Superbly supported by Charles Dance and Sofia Helin (The Bridge) That Good Night will be screened as a tribute to our much-missed and much-loved Patron.
Thanks to Goldfinch Studios
Patrick Glen will have set the mood as our late-night frightener marks the 50th Anniversary of the release of the granddaddy of the genre, The Original and the Best according to Empire Magazine Night of the Living Dead really needs no introduction.
Brilliantly edited and with an underlying racial tension (we are talking 1960s USA) the film proved to be a game changer.
Thanks to Cinema for All
Keswick Peace and Human Rights Group Screening
Film director Leila Sansour returns to Bethlehem to make a film about her home town, soon to be encircled by a wall.
The film spans seven momentous years in the life of Bethlehem, revealing a city of astonishing beauty and political strife under occupation.
Thanks to Open Bethlehem Organisation
The fall out from the 'Rodney King' riots in Los Angeles in 1992 forms the backdrop to this heartfelt film exploring families and relationships between Korean and African American communities.
Eli and Daniel, two Korean American brothers, own a struggling shoe store and have an unlikely friendship with Kamilla, a street wise 11-year- old African American girl. It's just another typical day at the store until the Rodney King verdict is read and riots break out. With the chaos moving towards them, the trio is forced to defend the store while contemplating the future of their own personal dreams and the true meaning of family.
Thanks to Kaleidoscope
The Square is described as ‘a brilliantly funny, bracingly surreal art-world satire’ and stars Claes Bang, Elisabeth Moss and Dominic West.
The curator of a modern art gallery conceives an installation to encourage passers-by to engage their social consciences – a hostage to fortune if there ever was, leading to an inevitable downward spiral of events.
Elisabeth Moss shines in this audacious and provocative film.
Winner of the 2016 Palme d'Or
Thanks to Curzon/Artificial Eye
Additional Screening: Sunday 2pm Rheged
Over 65 million people around the world have been forced from their homes to escape famine, climate change and war in the greatest human displacement since World War II. Human Flow, an epic film journey led by the internationally renowned artist Ai Weiwei, gives a powerful visual expression to this massive human migration. The documentary elucidates both the staggering scale of the refugee crisis and its profoundly personal human impact and was filmed over the course of an eventful year in 23 countries.
Thanks to Altitude Films
The story of a Wyoming range war is elevated to near- mythical status in George Stevens' Western classic Shane. Alan Ladd plays a mysterious drifter who rides into a tiny homesteading community and accepts the hospitality of a farming family. Under threat from a land baron, the family turn to Shane for protection and perhaps more.
Thanks to Filmbank
It would not be KFF without a Kore-eda film. In The Third Murder, Maasharu Fukuyama (Like Father, Like Son) plays a famous defence attorney named Shigemori, who willingly takes the tough case of Misumi ,a man who murdered his boss. We know he did it. He’s confessed to doing it There’s little mystery there. But the reason why he did it is important to his sentence. Did he kill for money? But what motive might the victim's wife have had? Or his daughter....
Thanks to Arrow Films
Winner of the People’s Choice Award at Toronto, Three Billboards is Martin McDonagh’s darkly comic follow up to In Bruges and 7 Psychopaths.
Parallels have been drawn with the Coen Brothers at their best, not just because Frances McDormand heads the cast list.
Mildred Hayes is angry that months after the murder of her daughter, no culprit has been found She sets up the 3 Billboards outside the town to draw attention to the Police Chief’s (Woody Harrelson) lack of progress.
Thanks to 20th Century Fox
A young boy listens to his parents arguing yet again; is it all his fault? He goes missing: did he run away, or has he been kidnapped? "Andrei Zvyagintsev's 'Loveless' is a stark, mysterious and terrifying story of spiritual catastrophe: a drama with the ostensible form of a procedural crime thriller. It has a hypnotic intensity and unbearable ambiguity which is maintained until the very end" - Peter Bradshaw, Guardian.
The parents are in the throes of divorce - both have already found new lovers - and even their missing child cannot unite them. Learning all the while more about their life together, we follow the trail of the search (organized by volunteers; the police 'do not have time': in true Zvyagintsev style (viz 'Elena', 'Leviathan'), he cannot resist linking their broken marriage to the state of Russia).
Winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes and Best Film at the London Film Festival, plus scoring over 90% with critics and audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, this should be a film to make you think. As one character observes "no one can survive a life without love, and this astringent, remarkable film proves how true that statement is" - Leslie Felperin, Hollywood Reporter.
Independent's critic Geoffrey Macnab writes "British-Pakistani director Sarmad Masud's impressive debut feature is a surprising affair: a drama set in rural Pakistan and based on a true story but that plays like a feminist version of Howard Hawks' 'Rio Bravo'". In our perpetual hunt to bring you something different, how could we resist that?
"Nazo Dharejo, now legendary as 'the toughest woman in Sindh', was 18 in the early 1990s when her uncle launched a violent challenge to the ownership of her family's farm; land disputes are apparently ubiquitous in Pakistan, and certainly mere women could not be tolerated to occupy valuable land that should 'rightfully' belong to a man" - MaryAnn Johanson, Flickfilosopher.
The corrupt local law enforcement officers are unwilling to help, and having no money of their own to pay for support, Nazo, with her mother Waderi and her younger sister Saeda are left with two options - fight or flight. They chose to fight, taking on her uncle and his large band of mercenary soldiers. The result, as MaryAnn Johanson concludes, is "Tense, gripping, rife with tragedy but ultimately cheerworthy, 'My Pure Land' offers a gorgeous balance of action and drama in a setting that it both familiar and foreign, with a heroine I won't soon forget. And its feminism is an all-inclusive one that actively invites men to be allies. Yes, all men. Because you’ll only get left behind if you don't join us". Wait for us - we're coming!
After last week's true-life feminist western, this week's 1950s Hungarian Cold War true-life crime thriller is going to show up the Stalinist state's decidedly male chauvinist attitudes even more. The film starts just after the 1956 uprising, with Moscow definitely in charge, determined to defend the Soviet system. "One summer night in 1957, a young woman is murdered as she walks home from her job at a shoe factory in the provincial town of Martfu. The woman's spurned lover Akos Reti is the prime suspect, and Sopsits appears to place him firmly in the frame. Despite protests from his sister Rita, Reti swiftly confesses to the crime and is handed a death sentence, later commuted to 25 years in prison" - Stephen Dalton, Hollywood Reporter.
This might have been the end of it if similar murders hadn't started again in 1964… two more women die before Detective Bota and Prosecutor Szirmai - the local law enforcers - decide they are all linked... including the 1957 murder too. "Exposing the cracks in a supposedly flawless Communist justice system can only invite serious repercussions in a Soviet satellite state dependent on law, order and social conformity. With their careers hanging in the balance, Bota and Szirmai come under pressure to find a culprit and close the case as soon as possible. 'There are no serial killers in this country — is that clear?' barks one regional party boss" - Stephen Dalton again. Can Bota and Szirmai solve the case and find the murderer,or will the State intervene and frame other innocent bystanders?
Our last film for the year is a Kiwi movie we tried to get when it came out in 2010 but it was not available here; after last year's cult hit 'Hunt for the Wilderpeople', "Taika Waititi has hit the big league directing Marvel's 'Thor: Ragnarok', and his second film, 2010's Maori coming-of-age comedy 'Boy', is finally released in the UK. It's a disarmingly lovely, big-hearted film, and hilarious in places" - Cath Clarke, Guardian.
"The heartwarming and occasionally heartbreaking tale of a boy, his brother, his nan, his friends, the girl he likes, his criminal dad, his dad's mates, Michael Jackson, 'E.T. - The Extra Terrestrial' and a lot of money buried in a field ('I know exactly where it is. I buried it a certain number of steps from a post. I just can't remember how many steps. Or which post.') is guaranteed to brighten up [our winter] days and have audiences laughing out loud even when the subject matter is really quite bleak" - Jennie Kermode, Eye for Film.
So we are in classic poor Maori country. Set in 1984, life is hard but the Maori children don't seem to realize it. Boy will soon begin to learn the truth about his absent father when he returns (played by Taika Waititi himself, he is the comedy lead in the film). There is little adult guidance in Boy's life, and his imagination is allowed to take over, and that is the key to the success of the film; the deadpan humour, in spite of the tough life, should make you feel the joy of living. As Jennie Kermode says, "if you want to be reminded how much fun it is to let your imagination loose, this is a film you shouldn't miss". We hope it makes you feel good all through the summer. See you in September.
We start our new year with a comedy/drama that should get us all in the mood again; It's French and comes from the directors of 'Untouchable', the film which went down so well in 2012. What could possibly go wrong?! Well, picture the scene..."A bitter, laconic wedding planner; his chip-on-her shoulder protégé; an egomaniacal groom; a post-nervous breakdown waiter who can't stop hitting on the bride: These are but a few of the pieces that form the rollicking French farce, 'C'est la vie'. Manic and earnest, the meticulously constructed plot whips by at a breakneck pace" - Brent McKnight, Seattle Times.
The wedding is set in a 17th Century chateau but it looks like both the staff and the guests, not to mention the couple themselves, are all out to make the planner's job as hard as possible. "Like expert jugglers at a slapstick circus, the directors keep most of the characters and their faults and needs neatly in the air, with the rhythm hardly flagging and the tone buzzy and bustling throughout without becoming exhausting" - Boyd van Hoeij, Hollywood Reporter.
...And you have to love a film that changes its original French title to... A French title. Ah well; c'est la vie... come on along and enjoy yourself!
Prepare yourself to be sad, angry and thrilled all at once... Katja is a loving wife and mother. Life is looking better and better for her family as both parents recover from drug addiction and become good citizens, when both her husband and son are killed in a bomb blast.
Katja is devastated, failing to hold herself together as the crime is investigated. The police think it is drug related, but could it be something a lot worse? And how will Katja cope if those to blame are not caught and punished?... There are effectively three parts to this film; the crime, the trial and the post-trial, all of which hang on Katja and, specifically, on the acting of Diane Kruger who plays her. In a film that has itself won many awards for Best Foreign Film, including the Golden Globe in USA, Diane Kruger won Best Actress at Cannes Film Festival, and huge praise from every reviewer I can find.
Andrew Haigh's '45 Years' went down well in Keswick in 2015. 'Lean on Pete' was released just too late for us to get it last season; it gets a viewing here with thanks to one of our members who suggested it.
Haigh continues his compassionate style of directing, but this time in America with a story about Charley, a 15-year-old boy, and his father. "The collapse of Charley's fragile home life is softened by finding a new purpose elsewhere. He earns cash helping out likeable old racing hand Del (Steve Buscemi), who enters horses in scrappy local competitions" - Dave Calhoun, Time Out.
"In ways I wouldn't spoil, 'Lean on Pete' becomes something of a road movie about a boy and a horse... Charley's situation becomes increasingly desperate and moving, but never in a way that feels melodramatic. The main reason for that is the incredible trust that Haigh places in Plummer... This is such a subtle, beautiful performance" - Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com.
Winner of awards at Berlin and Seattle, 'The Heiresses' is a beautiful look at the problems and opportunities when life changes unexpectedly as "A withdrawn, middle-aged gay woman slowly inches out of the shadows of her dissatisfaction as she's forced to navigate a life separated from her more outgoing partner of 30 years... Minor-key and subdued to a fault, the drama nonetheless builds emotional involvement by infinitesimal degrees through its acute observation of characters and social context and its ultra-naturalistic performances" - David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter.
It feels as though saying anything about this film's plot will give too much away; let's just say we are watching a custody battle between a soon-to-be-ex-married couple. This has been done many times before, from 'Kramer v Kramer' to 'A Separation' but, as Odie Henderson says in RogerEbert.com - "Watching 'Custody' I was reminded of one of Roger's tenets: "It's not what a movie is about, it's how it is about it." Writer/director Xavier Legrand's feature length debut is about a bitter custody battle, but he has chosen to execute his plot as a quiet, brutally relentless psychological thriller. 'Custody' filters the majority of its terror through Julien Besson (Thomas Gloria), the 10-year-old boy at the centre of his parents' vicious legal struggle. This device never feels exploitative, because as any child of divorce will tell you, the dissolution of one's parental unit is traumatic even when the split is amicable. And this is not an amicable split".
I can also tell you that the film starts in court, where Antoine Besson is arguing for joint custody of Julien whilst his soon-to-be-ex-wife is arguing against. Is Antoine the innocent husband whose wife has set his kids against him, or is he the violent person she claims..?
The acting of all the cast gets great reviews, especially Thomas Gloria - "he has a very expressive face that often fills the screen in silence while his body telegraphs the sad resignation of one who feels helpless" - Odie Henderson again - whilst Xavier Legrand's direction won him the Silver Lion at Venice: he "seems precariously adept at turning the screws of suspense" - Anthony Lane, New Yorker.
With thanks to one of our members who suggested this film. "It's been a long journey for Paul Schrader, the screenwriter who gave us American classics such as 'Taxi Driver', 'Raging Bull' and 'American Gigolo'. In recent years, [he] also delivered a string of not-so-classics such as the tawdry and embarrassing Lindsay Lohan vehicle 'The Canyons' and the Nic Cage clunker 'Dog Eat Dog', both of which he directed. It was fair to think Schrader's best work was far in the rear view, and he would ride off as a once-vital talent who faded into the sunset. Now comes 'First Reformed', which Schrader wrote and directed, and it shows a raging fire still burns deep within the 71year-old. 'First Reformed' is a passionate, unnerving and almost unbearably tense drama about faith, conviction and the rotting core of life on our planet. It's the Schrader many hoped was still alive and kicking but doubted we would ever see again. What a comeback" - Adam Graham, Detroit News.
Ethan Hawke plays Toller, pastor of the First Reformed Church, the oldest church in Albany County, New York. Mary (Amanda Seyfried), part of his tiny, diminishing flock comes to Toller to get him to talk sense into her husband who is beset with doubts over their forthcoming baby - his radical environmental views makes him fear for the baby. Toller, who is himself full of doubts, tries to help, but his own fears make him less than convincing.
If you loved Pawel Pawlikowski's Oscar and BAFTA-winning last film 'Ida' as much as we did you won't be at all surprised that we have included his new 'Cold War' in this season. This, too, is winning awards: at Cannes Film Festival, Pawel Pawlikowski won the Best Director award and the film was nominated for the Palme d'Or.
The film shows the meeting between Wiktor, a travelling musician and Zula, who comes to an audition for his folk group. It then follows the two folk musicians around Cold War Europe, weaving their love and the politics of the time into "a crisply controlled saga of romantic torture, glamour, forbidden border crossings and more betrayals than you can shake a black silk stocking at" - Stephanie Zacharek, Time.
Wiktor and Zula have a complicated relationship over the years, which is held together by the music: "The music does the feeling for them - and the music, like their relationship, changes. We have folk chorals that speak of lost loves, sweetly wounded jazz twinkling in French cafés, and the furious, overpowering charge of rock 'n' roll" - Bilge Ebiri, Village Voice.
Which only leaves me wondering, is the 'Cold War' of the title about the political times of the countries they travel through; or is it more about the relationship between the two lovers..?
6 year-old Frida is taken to live with her aunt and uncle after her parents have died. She befriends their 3 year-old daughter, but the summer is not as idyllic as it might seem...
"In its subtlety, richness and warmth it is entirely beguiling – complex and simple at the same time. It is also very moving. 'Summer 1993' is about childhood and a child's fraught relationship to the adult world, and has some of the most miraculous child performances I can remember seeing recently, although the concept of 'performances' and 'acting' are meaningless with children this young: two little girls of six and three years old...What a lovely film it is" - Peter Bradshaw, Guardian.
If you can picture Sergio Leone directing a feminist western in Indonesia you are on the way to seeing what Mouly Surya has succeeded in doing here: after being told she is going to be robbed and raped in half an hour, Marlina prepares for the 'Robbery', then goes on her 'Journey' for revenge; you will have to come and see the movie to find out what the other two acts are...
Some films we show pick themselves because the director is well known, or the film has won prizes, others jump out at us because they look new and different; this is definitely in the second camp. To start with, it comes from the Dominican Republic, unusual in itself. Secondly, the director, Nelson Carlo de Los Santos Arias, in his first fiction feature film, appears to be trying to adapt the 'rules' of film-making to develop his own style: "'Cocote', is a dazzling collage of styles and approaches in which every scene - practically every shot - feels different from the one that came before. Evoking the restless unpredictability of a late-period Jean-Luc Godard film, de Los Santos Arias's images shift form almost constantly - from film to video, from black and white to colour, from widescreen to full frame - as the writer-director experiments with a vast array of aesthetic stylings, everything from slow-cinema stillness to ethnographic vérité to lustrous film noir. The result is an invigorating, if slightly exhausting, parade of near-perpetual innovation, in which the only constant is the filmmaker’s stylistic dynamism" - Keith Watson, Slant Magazine. We can only support any endeavour to evolve the art of film-making.
Alberto is returning to the Republic to attend his murdered father's funeral. A fervent evangelical Christian, he is already worried by the local Christian customs which coalesce in the ecstatic hybrid rituals of the 'rezos de los nueve'. His fears are increased as he begins to realize that his family expect him to take revenge on the local criminal boss who was responsible for the murder. The film builds to a crescendo as Alberto tries to decide what to do...
So we can expect a thriller, some wonderful shots of the Dominican scenery and way of life, mixed with some innovative filming; this is going to be a film we remember..!
It is fitting that the last film of one the great character actors, who rarely took the main part, was written for him to star in. Harry Dean Stanton, who died last year at the age of 91, is credited with 204 roles. He had been acting since 1954; probably his best known part was in 'Paris, Texas' in 1984 - a rare lead role for him.
'Lucky' is directed as an homage by John Carroll Lynch - who has almost as many acting roles himself: "Beginning as a broad comedy before blossoming into a wry meditation on death and all the things we leave behind... Lynch's directorial debut is a wisp of a movie, blowing across the screen like a tumbleweed, but it’s also the rare portrait of mortality that's both fun and full of life" - Eric Kohn, IndieWire.
Director Annemarie Jacir uses a simple road trip around Nazareth to explore the different 'truths' of life as seen by Palestinians in Israel. Father and son (as are the actors), are hand delivering invites to a wedding; Abu Shadi - who has lived here all his life - and Shadi - who now lives in Italy - argue about their different views of how to survive, about what is important; about pragmatism and idealism.
Hirokazu Koreeda has been recognized as a great director - the 'heir' to Yazujiru Ozu - since 'Nobody Knows' (2004), winning many awards around the world, but it has taken till now for him to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes with this, his latest film. I first fell in love with his work back in September 2010 when the film club showed 'Still Walking'. Since then, we have had most of his films and they have all gone down well in Keswick.
Always the master of family dynamics, here his family is more a house full of people living on the margins of society: "Shoplifting is practised by a middle-aged construction worker and the young boy he treats (and has trained) like a son; the labourer's wife works on a job-share scheme in a laundry; another young woman performs in a peep-show parlour; while the eldest of the makeshift 'family' lives off her former husband's pension and other more mysterious sources of income...Typically for Koreeda, the generally becalmed, affectionate tone builds slowly towards scenes that are finally deeply moving without ever being mawkish. Boasting excellent performances all round (with the writer-director once again demonstrating his expertise with children), 'Shoplifters' is another charming, funny and very affecting example of Koreeda's special brand of tough-but-tender humanism" - Geoff Andrew, Time Out.
The family dynamic is changed by a young girl they 'rescue' from the streets... "The director has always been good at showing love manifest itself in surprising ways, and his ability to tell this story with a minimum of sensationalism and judgement feels like a small miracle" - Bilge Ebiri, Village Voice.
Partly a true-life crime drama, partly a comedy, director Bart Layton has certainly come up with a new way to view the classic heist movie. Rotten Tomatoes describes it as "The unbelievable but true story of four young men who brazenly attempt to execute one of the most audacious art heists in US history. Determined to live lives that are out of the ordinary, they formulate a daring plan for the perfect robbery, only to discover that the plan has taken on a life of its own".
Warren and Spencer, a couple of college kids in 2004, inspired each other to set up 'the perfect crime', as much to prove to themselves that they were not just ordinary people as to make money. They decided to steal a rare, valuable book from their Kentucky university which was only guarded by the ageing book librarian. "[The kids'] meticulous preparations begin with typing "how to plan a heist" into Google and continue with watching every heist film ever made, though they manage to overlook the primary lesson of all such films - that something always goes wrong" - JR Jones, Chicago Reader.
The film starts off fairly light-heartedly but gets darker when the two would-be master criminals bring in two other friends to help (why would they need four people to steal one book from a helpless librarian..?). "By the time Warren's squaring his shoulders to taser the rare-books librarian (Ann Dowd, always a treat), 'American Animals' has veered from sorta-true-crime quasi-comedy into a Scorsese-inflected look at the realities of attempting a theft of this magnitude" - Sara Stewart, New York Post.
Whatever the genre of the film, it sounds like it should keep us talking after the event.
As you sip your sherry under your Christmas tree, wondering whether to put a star or just a light on the top, spare a thought for those with larger problems in the world...like Atli here in Iceland. Forced to move back home with his parents for reasons I'll let him explain when you see the film, he finds himself in a battleground between his parents and their neighbours; is the tree in his parents' garden beautiful as they believe, or just blocking the sun as the neighbours argue? "Can't they just move their chairs over a bit into the sun?"
It being an Icelandic film and a comedy, you can guess the argument doesn't stop there; even their pets are at loggerheads (inevitably, one family has a dog, the other a cat...) and the temperature rises with the heat of the Icelandic summer sun..."snippy comments give way to petty cruelties that eventually escalate to an absolute breakdown of social order...'Has everyone lost their mind?' one character cries at one point" - Ann Hornaday, Washington Post.
She continues - "Sigurðsson clearly has his finger on the pulse, not only of smoothly engrossing filmmaking, but also his own anxious times. ‘Under the Tree’ is a stylish, bluntly effective parable for an increasingly uncivil and irrational age", whilst Bruce DeMara, in the Toronto Star thinks - "Sigurðsson throws in some nice stylistic touches throughout to create an alternating mood of absurdity and foreboding".
So we finish our 20th Autumn Season as we began, with a comedy which we hope will put you in a good mood for your Christmas festivities. We continue our 20th Year celebrations in January with our Spring Season of films, and we have our 20th Film Festival at the end of February. Have a great Christmas everyone; see you in 2019!
We start the season with a French film, but this time with one chosen by our members in our 20th Year vote. Directed by Xavier Beauvois, who brought us the magnificent 'Of Gods and Men' in 2010, 'The Guardians' tells the story of the women left to run a farm in France when the men have been taken to fight in 1915. Hortense, finding there is too much work for her and her daughter Solange to cope with, takes on local girl Francine to help. "Beauvois... evinces the same taste for quiet, deliberate storytelling, panning his camera over the faces of Hortense, Solange, Francine and their female neighbours, or lingering on the figure of a soldier disappearing slowly into a morning mist. Seen through Beauvois's painterly eye, the farm and its environs take on a rough-hewed beauty. A scene in which the women scythe their way through a hayfield possesses the lyricism and sensitivity of a chapter from Tolstoy" - Ann Hornaday, Washington Post.
The story shows how the women don't just cope but improve the farm, with Francine becoming the central character as she impresses and fascinates all around her. Iris Bry (Francine), Nathalie Baye and Laura Smet (Hortense and Solange) - real life mother and daughter - all get great reviews:
We have another classic Nuri Bilge Ceylan film for you this week. It will be no surprise to his fans to know it is as long as usual, nor that it is as beautiful as ever. If there is a surprise it is that the usual thought-provoking dialogue contains much humour this time around: "I never thought I'd laugh this much during a Nuri Bilge Ceylan film...Ceylan delivers what might be his funniest, most politically poignant work yet. It also happens to be achingly personal" - Bilge Ebiri, Village Voice.
The story follows a young, would-be writer, Sinan, as he moves back and forth between the big city and his father's small village, always arguing and probing for answers in "a series of extended, tense, and often hilarious conversations about literature, popularity, love, modernity - issues central to the role of an artist today, especially in a place like Turkey" - Ebiri again. He blames his failure to achieve success as a writer on his father, but gradually begins to realise he has more in common with him than he thought.
All this is done with Ceylan's incredible attention to detail, alongside Gökhan Tiryaki, his regular cinematographer, whose flair for beauty stands out: "'The Wild Pear Tree' maintains a visual sophistication unparalleled in international cinema. Ceylan intersperses talky exposition with poetic imagery that deep-ens the story's thematic concerns, from a majestic swing of the camera that goes up and into a tree - the better to watch the leaves blowing in the breeze - to the slow tracking shot toward the edge of a well at the movie's taut and remarkable climax. In each case, the images reflect a broader quest for answers in a world that only reveals itself in piecemeal' - Eric Kohn, IndieWire. I hope all you other Ceylan fans are looking forward to this as much as I am...
John Cho plays Jin, in Columbus against his will as his father has been taken ill. Haley Lu Richardson is Casey, who has been unable to leave town as she feels she has to look after her mother, a recovering addict. These problems, and their differing reactions to them, bring them together as they wander around town discussing life...and...architecture! "Architecture has never been more romantic than in 'Columbus', single-name director Kogonada's stunningly beautiful film" - Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic. Casey - a would be architect - keeps trying to show Jin the beauty of the buildings; Jin is hard to impress.
Kogonada, influenced by Japanese director Ozu Yasujiro, has previously worked on 'video essays' of other directors, and he uses all the knowledge he has built up to make this beautiful film, where the buildings become the third star.
Two women, Eva and Kat, are living an idyllic bohemian life on a canal boat in London. What happens when Eva decides she wants a baby and Kat disagrees? Maybe nothing, but when Kat's best friend Roger turns up and agrees to be the father, and then moves in too, it is fair to expect some problems arise! This comedy drama follows the events set in the cramped space of the canal boat where the (now) threesome try to work out what they want while they plan for the fourth to arrive.
Eva is played by Oona Chaplin (daughter of Geraldine Chaplin, who plays her mother here) and Natalie Tena plays Kat; both get good reviews.
Members' Choice
A train pulls into town and two men dressed in black get out, with two large crates. In the summer heat, they begin their long, slow walk into town...If there was music in the background by Ennio Morricone, you might think this was a American western, but instead the music is by Tibor Szemzö and we are in Hungary in August 1945.
The two men are Orthodox Jews: Where are they heading? Have they come to exact their revenge on the town for its betrayal of Jewish residents during the Nazi occupation? Many in the town soon think so ("The Jews have arrived" one onlooker says). It is little more than a year since they allowed the Nazis to take them away. Those who remained have made good by confiscating Jewish property, none more so than the town clerk, Istvan, who is now a rich and powerful man; do the two men want it back?
To emphasise the change in mood and the growth of paranoia, Director Ferenc Török has chosen to make this the day of Istvan's son's wedding. When the train arrives, all the town are celebrating at Istvan's expense...
"The filmmakers appear to be aiming for something mythic or tragic as the Jewish men walk toward their mystery destination and as their presence results in dramatic events...the stellar movie succeeds as a portrait of cowardice and collective complicity in vile times" - Anita Katz, San Francisco Examiner. "The camera creeps from room to room, around corners and through doors and windows, furtively glimpsing the quiet dread. The score relies on sparse bass and strings, occasionally blended with the persistent clopping of horse hoofs. '1945' is a confident, finely paced piece of visual storytelling" - Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News.
Members' Choice
Directed By Chelsea Cohen, Ainsley Gardiner, Casey Kaa, Renae Maihi, Awanui Simich-Pene, Briar Grace Smith, Paula Whetu Jones, Katie Wolfe.
An eight year old boy - Waru - has been killed by the person supposedly caring for him. The local Maori community is devastated by the loss.
The producers of 'Waru', Kerry Warkia and Kiel McNaughton charged eight female directors with the remit to produce a ten minute vignette each, to be shot in real time in no more than one day; put together, each vignette is a chapter in the community's reaction. The sum of the result is "a fascinating glimpse into New Zealand's contemporary Maori community, Waru brings a sense of dramatic, urgent realism to a story that plays out like a suspenseful mystery" - Deborah Young, Hollywood Reporter.
We start with Charm, who is preparing the food for the mourners. "Her stormy confrontation with Waru's sobbing young mother is truly anguishing, as the girl begs her to use supernatural powers to 'bring my baby back'" - Deborah Young again. This is followed by Anahera, trying to deal with the loss at his school.
The central chapter is the Tangi (funeral), which concentrates on the ancestral traditions, with his two grandmothers, from different tribes, contending for his body. You will have to come along to see what the rest is about; "Joined together, the shorts are a powerful chorus of female Maori voices united in finding a way to protect all that is vulnerable" - Gayle MacDonald, Globe and Mail.
Directed by the great Steve McQueen and featuring many big stars, what's not to like? After '12 Years a Slave', a feminist heist movie comes as a big surprise to the world, but "McQueen largely succeeds at something few directors even try: to set a satisfyingly twisty crime plot in the broader social context of political corruption and systemic racial and gender bias" - Dana Stevens, Slate.
Adapted from the Lynda La Plante TV series, I can't wait to see what it looks like with McQueen's magic touch.
"Some nibble on life's bounty; the French writer Colette gorged" - Manohla Dargis, New York Times. Our film is Wash Westmoreland's take on Colette's early life; she meets Willy, author of many (often-ghost) novels, marries him and becomes his most successful ghost-writer, before branching out on her own. Meantime, as Dargis continues, she is "loosening the bonds of their conjugal life one affair at a time"...
Plus Q&A with director James Gardner
Between being bullied at school, put upon by her overbearing boss at the local arcade and having to look after her younger brother, sister and manic-depressive mother, life isn’t easy for 15 year old Sarah.
However, when Sarah's drama teacher channels her ferocious and volatile energies in to a stand-up comedy routine for the graduation showcase, Sarah discovers that she may have a hidden talent. As her love for comedy grows and the showcase draws nearer, the delicate balance in her life becomes increasingly difficult to maintain.
Already an Award Winner at Dinard, Edinburgh and Rome Jellyfish introduces us to exciting new talent both in front of and behind the camera.
Marcello is a small and gentle dog groomer who wants two things, to look after his clients’ dogs and take his daughter on exotic holidays. But to fund his lifestyle he runs a side business which has a rather unsavoury clientele.
Pushed to the limit by the man who terrorizes the entire neighbourhood, Marcello must make a crucial and potentially dangerous decision.
From the Director of Gomorrah, Dogman ia a tension-filled and captivating masterly return to the crime genre
A woman walks into a department store. Its employees are all dressed as if they belong in an adaptation of Roald Dahl's The Witches, gliding around and spouting gibberish to their customers, trying to land a sale with their hypnotic language.
The sales line works on the Sheila and the leader of the gothic tribe sells her a red dress so vibrant that its silk swishes and sways like a river of blood. It seems too good to be true; a petite size when she is not, but surprisingly it fits every curve of her body, accenting her greatest features. This is the dress you’d murder for, and would want to be murdered in....
This is the first film to tell the life story of the legendary Greek/American opera singer completely in her own words. Told through performances, TV interviews, home movies, family photographs, private letters and unpublished memoirs-nearly all of which have never been shown to the public -the film reveals the essence of an extraordinary woman who rose from humble beginnings in New York City to become one of the greatest artists of all time. Assembling the material for the film took director Volf four years of painstaking research, which included personal outreach to dozens of Callas's closest friends and associates, who allowed him to share their personal memorabilia in the film.
UK Premiere
Writer, Director and Composer Ben Zuckert's second feature is the story of Noah Wise, a saxophonist struggling to make it in New York. As his quartet takes a break from performing, Noah finds a more stable teaching job.
However along the way, he meets Rachel, a singer songwriter who has given up teaching to pursue her own musical dreams.
We are delighted that Ben has offered KFF the chance to premiere this new work in the UK.
Birds of Passage sees the origins of the Colombian drug trade through eyes of an indigenous Wayuu family that becomes involved in the booming business of selling marijuana to American youth in the 1970s. When greed, passion and honour collide, a fratricidal war breaks out and puts their lives, culture and ancestral traditions at stake.
Directors Guerra and Gallego wisely don’t get into too much of the production or distribution side of the drug business. Their attention is more on the family. While the numerous weddings, funerals and other ritualistic gatherings evoke the Godfather saga, the mob classic that most comes to mind is The Sopranos.
The first English-language film from Sebastián Lelio (A Fantastic Woman), Disobedience is the story of Ronit (Rachel Weisz,) a photographer and black sheep of the family who leaves New York to attend to a family emergency in London. She discovers that her friend Esti (Rachel McAdams), with whom she once shared a complicated romantic bond is now married to a rabbi. As their feelings for each other start to resurface, so do the suspicions of their conservative community.
Prepare for a love story like no other with this audacious Scandinavian fantasy, winner of Un Certain Regard at Cannes 2018.
Customs officer Tina is known for her extraordinary sense of smell. It's almost as if she can sniff out the guilt on anyone hiding something. But when Vore, a suspicious-looking man, walks past her, her abilities are challenged for the first time ever. Tina can sense Vore is hiding something she can't identify.
As Tina and Vore’s relationship develops, she finds out more about who she really is and is forced to make a potentially life-changing decision.
Set wholly within the tight confines of a Police call centre, alarm dispatcher Asger Holm answers an emergency call from a kidnapped woman. When the call is suddenly disconnected, the search for the woman and her kidnapper begins. With the phone as his only tool, Asger is forced to use others as his eyes and ears in a race against time to save the endangered woman.
Back in 2015, Mike Tweddle brought his first feature film Damaged Goods to Keswick Film Club.
Made on a tiny budget, it impressed us with its narrative and style. That was enough for us to jump at the chance to show Mike's second feature at this year's KFF.
Filmed over 2 weeks in a single location, Sparrowhawk is a tense interrogation thriller, with a new plot twist as each of the seven characters are introduced.
It would not be KFF without a Farhadi film. Add in a cast that includes Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem, and it makes for unmissable combination!
Everybody Knows takes us away from Farhadi's familiar Iranian territory to Argentina and Spain.
The film follows Laura (Cruz) on her travels from Argentina to her small home town in Spain for her sister's wedding, bringing her two children along for the occasion. Amid the joyful reunion and festivities, the eldest daughter is abducted. In the tense days that follow, various family and community tensions surface and deeply hidden secrets are revealed.
UK Premiere
The UK premiere of Relaxer takes us back to the 1990s. With the impending Y2K apocalypse (remember that?) fast approaching, Abbie is faced with the ultimate challenge - the unbeatable level 256 on Pac-Man - and he can't get off the couch until he conquers it. A survival story set in a living room.
Fighting With My Family is a heart-warming comedy from Stephen Merchant, the long-time collaborator of Ricky Gervais, It stars Florence Pugh (Lady Macbeth, Little Drummer Girl) and is based on the incredible true story of a WWE Superstar. Born into a tight-knit wrestling family, Raya and her brother Zak are ecstatic when they get the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to try out for WWE. But when only Raya earns a spot in the competitive training program, she must leave her family and face this new, cut-throat world alone.
Watch Dwayne Johnson and Stephen Merchant Bond Over Wrestlemania.
Where else but KFF could you see a four-hour epic on a Saturday morning? With a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes, An Elephant.. will certainly reward those who stay the course.
While protecting his friend from a dangerous school bully, 16-year-old Wei pushes the tormentor down a staircase. Wei escapes the scene and later learns that the bully is hospitalized and gravely injured.
Huang, Wei's classmate is bedeviled by a destructive affair with a married school official. Joined by Wei's neighbour, this unlikely and desperate trio, decide their only hope is to flee from the bully's gangster brother, enraged parents, and vindictive school authorities.
Keswick Peace and Human Rights Group Screening
In January 2013, Laura Poitras started receiving anonymous encrypted e-mails from "CITIZENFOUR," who claimed to have evidence of illegal covert surveillance programs run by the NSA in collaboration with other intelligence agencies worldwide. Five months later, she and reporters Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill flew to Hong Kong for the first of many meetings with the man who turned out to be Edward Snowden. She brought her camera with her. The resulting film is history unfolding before our eyes.
Every year, we at KFF try to make best use of the giant screen at Rheged. Visually stunning and thought-provoking, Down to Earth takes across 6 continents as a family journeys to meet those special people they call The Earth Keepers.
“A thought-provoking cinematic experience of the ancient, earthly wisdom. An inner journey, reconnecting us with our source and the mutual path we are walking. From the Amazon to the jungles of India, from the Australian outback to the Kalahari Desert, from the Andes to Lake Superior, we meet one-to-one with the Earth Keepers. Humble, connected individuals who have something that most of us lost completely”. Renata Heinen, Rolf Winters
In an alternate version of present-day California, mild-mannered call centre operator Cassius Green whizzes up the corporate ladder after he discovers his unique ability to adopt a 'white voice'. However the costs of success could be significantly more than alienation from his colleagues and his activist girlfriend.
Funny and surreal, Sorry to Bother you addresses serious themes of everyday racism and workforce oppression with a fresh wit and visual panache.
In honour of our special guest, Alice Lowe, we are taking the opportunity to screen Prevenge, the film she wrote, directed and starred in while 7 months pregnant. Described as a "pitch black, wryly British comedy" Prevenge follows Ruth, a pregnant woman on a killing spree that's as funny as it is vicious. It's her misanthropic unborn baby dictating Ruth's actions, holding society responsible for the absence of a father. The child speaks to Ruth from the womb, coaching her to lure and ultimately kill her unsuspecting victims. Struggling with her conscience, loneliness, and a strange strain of prepartum madness, Ruth must ultimately choose between redemption and destruction at the moment of motherhood.
Kena and Ziki long for something more. Despite the political rivalry between their families, the girls resist and remain close friends, supporting each other to pursue their dreams in a conservative society. When love blossoms between them, the two girls will be forced to choose between happiness and safety. Inspired by Monica Arac de Nyeko's "Jambula Tree", which chronicles a story of two girls in love in Uganda, Rafiki challenges deep rooted cynicism about same sex relationships among actors, crew, friends, and family in Kenya.
Rafiki was banned in Kenya, illustrating the societal tensions that same sex relationships can engender. As such, Rafiki makes for an interesting companion piece to Disobedience, shown on Friday
Academy Award nominee Chloë Sevigny stars as Lizzie Borden, the notorious woman at the heart of one of the most enduring mysteries in American history. After a lifetime of loneliness, Lizzie finds a kindred spirit in housemaid Bridget Sullivan (Kristen Stewart) and their secret intimacy sparks an unthinkable act.
Agnes Varda, one of the leading lights of France's honored French New Wave cinema era, and professional photographer and muralist, J.R., partake on a special art project. Together, they travel around France in a special box truck equipped as a portable photo booth and traveling printing facility as they take photographs of people around the country., They create special, colossal mural pictures of individuals, communities and places they want to honor and celebrate. Along the way, the old cinematic veteran and the young artistic idealist enjoy an odd friendship as they chat and explore their views on the world as only they can.
Described as a "luminous magic-realist fable" this is the story of Lazzaro, a beautiful peasant whose sweet nature makes people mistake him for simple-minded.
He is happy to help anyone in his village, which is ruled over by the evil Marchesa. Lazzaro is befriended by the Marchesa's petulant son, who convinces him to stage a dramatic incident to secure a ransom.
A myth of a modern Italy consumed by corruption and decline, Happy as Lazzaro, is a beautifully shot (on Super 16mm) film incorporating some exquisite imagery.
Winner of the Best Screenplay Award, Cannes 2018
With Alice Lowe and Carl Hunter Q&A
Long-time friend of the Festival, Carl Hunter, brings his first feature film to Keswick. Written by Frank Cottrell Boyce and starring Bill Nighy, Alice Lowe and Sam Riley, Sometimes Always Never will undoubtedly be one of the highlights of the Festival.
Alan (Nighy) is a stylish tailor with moves as sharp as his suits. He has spent years searching tirelessly for his missing son Michael who stormed out over a game of scrabble. With a body to identify and his family torn apart, Alan must repair the relationship with his youngest son Peter and solve the mystery of an online player who he thinks could be Michael, so he can finally move on and reunite his family.
Followed by a Q&A with Carl Hunter and Alice Lowe.
Sunset, directed by László Nemes (Son of Saul) is set in Budapest before World War and stars newcomer Juli Jakab. The story tells of a stubborn young woman's search for her lost brother in 1913 Budapest and is strangely gripping for much of its length, even as the search turns in on itself and evaporates. The breathlessly subjective camera, hovering close to the face of the main character, or following close behind, is carried over wholesale from Son of Saul.
UK Premiere
Keswick Peace and Human Rights Group screening followed by a Q&A with Norma Marcos
"I'm 16 and I've already been through 3 wars." Farah Baker, a young Palestinian, denounced the situation of Gazans under the Israeli blockade, in a tweet followed by 70 000 people.
In summer 2014, shocked by her tweet and by the war on Gaza, Norma Marcos took her camera and encountered Palestinians in Bethlehem before, during and after the war on Gaza. Through an artist, a banker, a florist, a woman race driver, a woman mayor - we discover how they are affected by this conflict in their daily life and how they rebuild their society despite the oppression.
In the tradition of Waltz with Bashir and Persepolis, this powerful documentary uses animation to bring home its message.
It is based on the book written by legendary Polish war correspondent Ryszard Kapuściński. It tells the story of a journalist, left to himself to write a feature story on the civil war in Angola on the advent of its regaining independence in 1975. Kapuściński is an idealist, a friend to lost causes and revolutions. Although he had been to many front lines before, Angola was to change him forever. He left for Angola as a reporter to come back as a writer.
After a one-night stand on New Year's Eve, Elena and Jake fall madly in love. Within weeks they are living together, and not long after they are trying for a child.
When the baby doesn’t materialize, pressure builds and the idea of a family starts to overshadow their relationship. A passionate, romantic, and contemporary love story, about the struggle to remain in love when life doesn't give you everything you want it to.
1974, Scotland. Bob Fulton, a Rolls-Royce engine inspector, returns to his section, upset and anxious. He's just told his colleagues that a Chilean Air Force jet engine has arrived in the factory for maintenance and he's refusing to let it go through, in protest against the recent military coup of General Pinochet. He's seen the images of people packed into football stadiums and the Chilean Air Force jets bombing Santiago, and now one of the engines from those very same planes is right there, waiting for inspection.
An inspiring documentary about the men who grounded Pinochet's air force.
Shown in association with Eden Carers
Between being bullied at school, put upon by her overbearing boss at the local arcade and having to look after her younger brother, sister and manic-depressive mother, life isn’t easy for 15 year old Sarah.
However, when Sarah's drama teacher channels her ferocious and volatile energies in to a stand-up comedy routine for the graduation showcase, Sarah discovers that she may have a hidden talent. As her love for comedy grows and the showcase draws nearer, the delicate balance in her life becomes increasingly difficult to maintain.
Already an Award Winner at Dinard, Edinburgh and Rome Jellyfish introduces us to exciting new talent both in front of and behind the camera.
Shown as a companion piece to Nae Pasaran, Too Late to Die Young is set the summer of 1990 as democracy comes back to Chile. In an isolated community, Sofía (16), Lucas (16) and Clara (10), face their first loves and fears, while preparing for New Year's Eve. They may live far from the dangers of the city, but not from those of nature.
At the time of writing, this is one of those rare gems with a score of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.
It is thanks to Neil Sinyard's contacts within the industry that we are able to screen William Wyler's classic documentary, The Memphis Belle, which was restored for the New York Film Festival in 2018.
Legendary Hollywood director William Wyler (The Big Country, Ben Hur, Funny Girl, Roman Holiday) made the documentary featuring the 25th mission of The Memphis Belle, a B-17 Flying Fortress based in England in World War 2, in 1944. His film inspired the 1990 feature film of the same name.
This is a unique opportunity to hear about the great director, watch his documentary and contrast this with the 1992 Hollywood feature length take on the story which screen after the documentary.
We are indebted to Catherine Wyler for making the documentary available to KFF.
It is thanks to Neil Sinyard's contacts within the industry that we are able to screen William Wyler’s classic documentary, The Memphis Belle, which was restored for the New York Film Festival in 2018.
Legendary Hollywood director William Wyler (The Big Country, Ben Hur, Funny Girl, Roman Holiday) made the documentary featuring the 25th mission of The Memphis Belle, a B-17 Flying Fortress based in England in World War 2, in 1944. His film inspired the 1990 feature film of the same name.
This is a unique opportunity to hear about the great director, watch his documentary and contrast this with the 1992 Hollywood feature length take on the story which screen after the documentary.
We are indebted to Catherine Wyler for making the documentary available to KFF.
A man stranded in the Arctic after an airplane crash must decide whether to remain in the relative safety of his makeshift camp or to embark on a deadly trek through the unknown in hopes of making it out alive. Arctic is a notably quiet and captivating slow-build adventure film, starring Mads Mikkelsen as a researcher-explorer who has crash-landed in the frozen wilderness. It's a genre we know in our bones, one that feels so familiar it’s almost comforting. Like Castaway and All is Lost it's a tale of a shipwrecked soul that derives its spirit and design from the mythic fable of the form, Robinson Crusoe.
Continuing our recent tradition, we are closing the Festival with the People’s Choice winner from Toronto.
Green Book is based on a true story set in 1962. Italian-American bouncer, Tony (Viggo Mortensen) is hired to drive renowned, African-American pianist Dr Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali – Moonlight) to a series of concerts across the southern states.
Tony is conflicted. He must reconcile own views on race with his duties as driver and skills as a minder – skills put to effective use as the road trip heads south.
The story that emerges has elements of comedy and high drama and serves as a significant reminder of contemporary bigotry and racial ills.
In an America more divided daily by the rhetoric of President Trump, we in Britain may have forgotten the huge discrimination still faced by people of colour there. 'The Hate U Give' focuses on one such problem - police shootings.
Starr (brilliantly played by Amandla Stenberg) is relatively lucky, her loving parents paying for her to go to Williamson, a wealthy and predominantly white school. She leads a double life; "'Williamson Starr doesn't give anyone a reason to call her ghetto,' she says. 'And I hate myself for doing it.' She keeps her white boyfriend Chris and friends at a distance from her home life, which she manages pretty well until the night when she witnesses her childhood best friend, Khalil, get shot by a white police officer at a traffic stop" - Lindsey Bahr, Associated Press.
Khalil's death becomes a national story and Starr's decision - should she speak up? Should she testify? - will define her life and those around her: Kahlil was working for a local drug lord, King, who wants her to keep quiet in case the police take him down too. Her classmates seem disconnected, even her boyfriend is slow to learn (he is used here to show that this issue affects as all).
The American response is shown by Monica Castillo, RogerEbert.com: "This is the story of a 16-year-old girl who's learning that the world is even worse than what she knew. In the audience, there will likely be many more girls who will either be hearing a story like Starr's, or recognizing their own experience onscreen, for the first time."
A must-see for us here in the UK.
Boy meet girl, meets boy; nothing new there then. Or is there: what is going on underneath?
The South Korean film industry has become more and more important over the last few years, from the dramatic, almost horrific 'Oldboy' and 'The Host' to the beautiful and thought-provoking 'The Handmaid's Tale' and 'Poetry'. 'Burning' is the latest from the director of 'Poetry', so we are at the beautiful, thought-provoking end of the spectrum today.
Jongsu yearns to be a writer, but is looking after his father's farm. When he runs into Haemi - an old school friend he has not seen for years - he falls hook, line and sinker for her wistful love of life. He agrees to take her to the airport and look after her cat while she is off adventuring in Africa, but when she returns, she has with her Ben, a rich man who's job is "playing". As the trio spend time together, Jongsu is more and more unsettled by Ben, but are his fears justified or is he just jealous?
At one point "Haemi takes off her shirt and dances on the patio... Both Jongsu and Ben are frozen in their seats, as they watch her fluid gestures, her primal openness to the beauty of her own experiences... [Jongsu] fell in love with this part of her. Ben yawns again. By the end of the dance, she is in tears. Jongsu now knows that Ben is, apparently, an enthusiastic amoral arsonist. There's a serious and alarming sense of danger, only you can't really point to its source. The whole of 'Burning' feels like this" - Sheila O'Malley, RogerEbert.com.
"Lee plays the actors off one another to create a compelling exploration of human nature. South Korea's official Oscar submission, 'Burning' culminates in a finale so astonishing that it will sear itself into viewers' memories for years to come" - Sonia Rao, Washington Post.
After a few weeks of thought-provoking films we thought it was time for a break with a French comedy!
"While co-writer/ director Laurent Tirard and screenwriter Grégoire Vigneron have created something wholly original with 'Return of the Hero', their inspiration is clear: What if Howard Hawks adapted Jane Austen's work as a screwball comedy? And they've succeeded.
Elisabeth Beauregard has always been a fierce protector of her family, but she’s about to meet her greatest challenge yet: Captain Charles-Gregorie Neuville. Soon after he's engaged to her younger, more naive sister Pauline, he’s summoned to the frontlines of battle. Pauline writes letter after letter to her fiancé only to get nothing in return. Elisabeth, looking out for her sister who's fallen deathly ill due to the lovelorn stress, decides to start writing to Pauline as the Captain. The war ends, but judgmental Elisabeth fervently believes Neuville will be a no-show. She continues her scheme so Pauline's attentions and heart can be directed elsewhere – to sweet, shy Nicolas. Three years later, the Captain returns and whips Elisabeth, her family and the entire town into a frenzy" - Courtney Howard, Fresh Fiction.
Jean Dujardin (of 'The Artist' and 'Wolf of Wall Street' fame) plays Captain Neuville as the perfect cad while Mélanie Laurent ('Inglourious Basterds') is Elisabeth, the main character here: "part of the fun is watching Laurent's barely contained glee as her character's outrageous concocted adventures enrapture audiences gathered in the Beaugrand drawing room" - Laura Clifford, Reeling Reviews.
Many of you will have seen Barry Jenkins' magical Oscar-winning 'Moonlight', where he followed the life of a young black boy as he grows to be a man and realises he is gay. Here again, "Jenkins seems to approach filmmaking with a sort of inspired synesthesia: There's a musicality to Beale that isn’t just confined to the soundtrack of jazz and strings and Nina Simone, a rhythm to his camera angles and storytelling and the particular beats each scene hits" - Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment.
The film is taken from James Baldwin's 1974 novel of the same name: "Fingered by a racist cop, young Fonny is imprisoned for a rape he didn't commit; his pregnant fiancée, Tish, struggles to free him with help from her tight-knit family. Stephan James's battered Fonny effectively signals real love and deep hurt, but it's KiKi Layne who shines in a difficult ingenue role, rendering the shy and deferential Tish – another era's ideal of femininity – delicate yet strong" - Kate Taylor, Globe and Mail.
So we are in the same world as our earlier film 'The Hate U Give', where black people suffer from racist police practices, and again we follow the effects on the woman next to the event, not the victim. It will be interesting to compare these films afterwards.
The title comes from Baldwin’s book: "Beale Street, for Baldwin, is a condition of black life in America, and the story it would tell 'if it could talk' is the one presented here: a girl; a boy; an unjust accusation; and a huge extended family full of wildly disparate men and women scrambling to save the boy from the fate of so many young black American men" - David Edlestein, Vulture.
Our 20th Year comes to end. We hope you enjoyed many of the films on show and will be back with us for our 21st year in September. Have a great summer!
We open this year with an amazing film that we couldn't get last season; nominated for Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA awards for best Foreign Language Film and for the Palme d'Or at Cannes, we felt we had to give you a chance to see it.
The film follows a twelve-year-old boy, Zain, who is forced to wander the streets of Beirut trying to make a living where he can; he is one of the many thousands of unregistered children in Lebanon who have no access to schooling, medical care or travel documents. But this is no sad story or even a tear-jerker: Zain is fighting back. "As the film opens, [he] is in court, suing his neglectful parents for having given birth to him. The piercing child's eye view of his chaotic Beirut life, to which we flash back, suggests he has a case" - Kate Stables, Sight & Sound.
Filmed by award-winning Nadine Labaki using the real-life experiences of her non-professional cast, we feel a real anger at the plight of these kids (Using my first ever quote from the Bible, "And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will be thrown down to Hades!"). The acting is superb - "Zain Al Rafeea (who was working as a delivery boy when cast) is simply excellent in the lead role. In a spiky, foul-mouthed performance, he gives Zain the wary, weary adult toughness of a youngster whose childhood has been stolen from him" - Kate Stables again.
An opener to enjoy, then, as a story, with acting to revel at; but also one to get us thinking...ready for what we hope is a great season ahead.
"Zhangke Jia's belter of a film is part crime epic, part woman-seeks-justice flick, part state of the nation address. It takes the staples of the gangster flick - the mobster's moll, gang rivalries, violent shoot outs - as a jumping off point for both a granular character study of a woman's resolve, and a macro portrait of China at the turn of the century where modernity is quickly outstripping tradition. Either way, it's a riveting picture driven by a fantastic performance by Zhao Tao as a wronged woman whose laser focus makes Kill Bill's The Bride look lackadaisical in comparison" - Ian Freer, Empire.
China has produced many epic movies and Zhangke Jia has been part of that for over 20 years. Here he continues in his niche, using a grand story to frame the ills of Chinese society today. Bring it on!
Agnès Varda directed 55 films in her 60 years in the industry. She presented this documentary about herself at the Berlin Film Festival this year with film notes that said "I don't want to do press, I don't want to speak about my work. After Berlin, the film will be shown instead of me speaking!" This became very prophetic when she died a month later, aged 90.
We have shown several of her films here, including 'Cleo from 5 - 7', 'Faces, Places' and 'The Beaches of Agnes' and despite the programming team's normal dislike of documentaries, we felt you would want to see this one. It "takes the form of an illustrated lecture, it's designed as a swansong, a greatest hits showcase that revisits and consolidates her extensive body of work...Varda's tone remains generously intimate, friendly and unpretentious" - Simran Hans, Guardian.
Whether you have seen her films or not, this should be fascinating and even...educational!
Members' Choice
Buckle up and prepare for adventure! The first of this season's films chosen by Members' ballot, this one should keep everyone on the edge of their seats...
As the title suggests, the film is about a balloon journey, but this one follows two families trying to go from East Germany to West Germany in 1979... if they get it wrong, they risk imprisonment or even death.
Based on a true story, we follow the Wetzel family; inspired by a magazine article from New Mexico, they set about gathering up the materials (including one thousand square metres of cloth!) and building their balloon with their friends the Strelzyks, all in total secrecy from the Stasi and potential informants. They spent eighteen months preparing, watching weather forecasts and waiting for the ideal night with a strong Northerly wind to make the attempt; but the Stasi were on their trail...
Made in 2018, the release coincided with the 28th anniversary of reunification and has caused some controversy.
"'In the year 2018, when many people are bickering over freedom, democracy and fractious GDR biographies, the cold war in which the balloon escape takes place seems very distant', von Uslar wrote [in Die Zeit]. 'The land of desire, West Germany, for which thousands of refugees risked their lives between 1961 and 1989 no longer exists'" - Kate Connelly, Observer. This hasn't stopped German audiences flocking to see the film, and visiting Pößneck, the village where the balloon was built. We might not get to Pößneck, but we can share in the adventure here in Keswick...
Plus Q&A with director Jon Jones
Members' Choice
For those of you brought up in the countryside, remember those blissful, seemingly endless summers, playing games when you were young? Or for us townies, holidays away which went all too quickly... well this is the world we go back to with four young lads in remote Wales. Davy and brother Iwan run wild through the woods with their friends Rhys and Robbie, enjoying their little paradise... until a tragedy occurs.
The adults take over - of course - and try to work out what happened, and what to do next, always ignoring young Davy and keeping him out of their conversations. He realises that they really don't understand and that it is up to him to work it all out.
The film reviewers praise the young actors - especially Noa Thomas as Davy - and Jon Jones' directing; showing everything from a child's perspective is never easy for an adult, but "you get the sense that Jones truly understands and treasures the foolish heroism of young boys" - Leslie Felperin, Guardian.
We are pleased to announce that the director, Jon Jones will be here to answer your questions after the film.
Members' Choice
Just about every critic has this down as the best film Almodóvar has done for some time and, as we like his films here in Keswick, this should be a treat for us.
Antonio Banderas plays Salvador Mallo (plays Almodóvar: this is semi-autobiographical), an ageing director who has not made a film in a while. We follow his suffering and memories through this 'achingly beautiful' film.
"Aniara: the interstellar equivalent of a luxury cruise ship, ferrying the wealthiest survivors of a dying Earth to a new home on Mars. When the Aniara gets knocked off course, a three-week voyage gets an updated ETA of 'TBA.' While the staff and the customers try to distract themselves with shopping, arcades and discos, as the years drag on, the ship's culture degrades..." - Noel Murray, LA Times.
Not so much a Sci-fi movie as a philosophical look at what humans might do when threatened with disaster (seems appropriate!), this looked too interesting to ignore. Just what would we do?
Members' Choice
In a world where climate change has become the biggest issue of our time, it is not surprising that films should be made about fighting it, but you will be surprised by the way this Icelandic comedy-drama-thriller handles it.
Our hero is a middle-aged woman, Halla, who is a choir leader by day and has been trying to adopt a child for years, but we meet her walking across a vast moorland with her bow and arrows. Her target is not any animal though: she is after the electric wires held up by pylons. The tension is high right from the beginning, though maybe the three-piece band playing on the moor is a little unexpected... "It's a striking introduction to one of the most original and exciting characters to emerge from recent European cinema" - Nikki Baughan, Sight and Sound.
Our eco-warrior has taken on the aluminium industry which she believes is ruining the local countryside, supported by the government which is frightened of losing the Chinese investment involved. Rather than make this "a gritty political pot-boiler", director Benedikt Erlingsson (we had his 'Of Horses and Men' here in 2014) "weaves a captivating dark comedy from these urgent, quite chilling issues" - Aimee Knight, Little White Lies. He is very ably assisted by the star Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir who plays Halla and her identical twin Asa: she "...is phenomenal. Showing a flair for both drama and comedy" - Nikki Baughan again.
The storyline weaves its way between Halla and Asa, with some beautiful side stories (Halla's choir is hilarious, as is a poor cycling tourist who I won't tell you about...). Erlingsson, who also co-wrote the story, gradually extends the plot, chasing the 'Mountain Woman' into the hills and following her home life into Ukraine. You will have to come to see the final mix of comedy and drama for yourself, but "there can be no doubt that she is one of the year's strongest, most inspirational heroes" - Nikki Baughan. Then we can discuss what happens at the end...
Members' Choice
The relationship between Hong Kong and China is big news as we go to press; this film is based on the weird fact that there is a black market of iPhones going from Hong Kong to China, where they were probably made in the first place.
"Huang Yao is shy 16-year-old Peipei, who's frantically saving up for a holiday in Japan with her rich best friend Jo. Peipei commutes daily between her home in the Chinese city Shenzhen and school in Hong Kong. To make a little extra money she smuggles for a gang. It begins harmlessly enough, slipping a couple of iPhones wrapped in cling film into her school bag" - Cath Clarke, Guardian.
Newcomer Bai Xue is more interested in Peipei's character than the smuggling though, concentrating her cameras on the gradual change in Peipei and her relationships as she gets more involved. She lives with her mother in Shenzen, but her father lives in Hong Kong giving her access to school there. Both parents have new partners, so when she meets Sister Hua, who runs the gang of smugglers, she seems "a more appealing mother-figure...But her youthful naivety leaves her well out of her depth in both her relationships and the criminal underworld" - Tony Rayns, Sight & Sound.
That is not to say that Bai Xue's film is not dramatic; she keeps up the tension at the crossings, using hand-held cameras and changes of music to show Peipei's nervousness, but, as Cath Clarke goes on to say, "She has a light touch and a precise way of finding the emotion in scenes. It took her a decade after graduating film school to get this film made – it's worth the wait".
Members' Choice
We had a double take when we saw the reviews of 'Donbass': a Ukranian black comedy? Really? Looking closer, that reaction is probably what director Sergey Loznitsa ('In the Fog') wants. His film is trying to show the sheer madness of the war in Ukraine, "...a place where there are still memories of the second world war, tribal loyalties concerning the Russia that saved Ukraine from Nazi Germany and fascism – but also, on the other side, the Stalinist terror-famine visited on Ukraine before the war" - Peter Bradshaw, Guardian.
Loznitsa does this by a series of episodes "...fuelled by ...collisions between the grave and the comic, a tonal oscillation mastered by Loznitsa in his documentaries and carried over here to support a vision of a society cracking under the weight of its own inconsistencies, corruption and mob mentalities" - Carson Lund, Slant.
As David Parkinson says in the Radio Times, "Watching this... it becomes dismayingly clear why the people of Ukraine voted in 2019 to entrust the country's presidency to a comedian known for playing a decent politician in a TV series. From its opening sequence showing how fake news is concocted to control the thought processes of a divided nation, this withering and soberingly acute satire has a ring of authenticity...".
So we can expect to laugh here, but possibly the same way you might laugh at some of the strange things that Trump comes out with; fortunately "The compunction to tell the truth remains, which is why Sergei Loznitsa's body of work is so indispensable: It refuses to be complacent" - Jay Weisberg, Variety.
A film about one woman's fight to get to the top; in this case literally as well as figuratively as promotion means cleaning the floor above in this Mexican hotel.
"For the time being, however, Eve has a world of grindingly hard work. She has to leave her young son behind in the care of a neighbour, and has to get up even earlier in the morning than everyone else because she is also going to adult education classes" - Peter Bradshaw, Guardian.
Imagine if Harry Kane had been forced to miss the world cup because his wife would not let him go. Based on a true story, this is what happened to Afrooz in Iran, when her passport was refused because her husband had not given his permission.
"Beyond her love of the game itself and her commitment to her country's success, Afrooz's identity is at stake. She has played for 11 years and been married for just six; why is being a wife then assumed to define her? A film that urges its audience to do more than just feel sad and sign a couple of petitions, 'Permission' brims with an anger that goes beyond that of Afrooz. It's less interested in tragedy than in making demands, less in pity than in emphasising how much potential is squandered when women are treated in this way. It's full of hunger for justice" - Jennie Kermode, Eye for Film.
Members' Choice
Set in Norway in 1942, 'The Bird Catcher' follows the life of a young Jewish girl, Esther, after her father has been arrested by the Nazis. Her safe, middle class life falls apart and she is forced to go on the run to survive. She ends up in the middle of nowhere on a farm owned by Johan, a Nazi sympathiser, where she tries to remain unrecognized. Her only real friend is the farmer's son, Aksel, who knows the truth. Aksel suffers from cerebral palsy and has been taught by his father that Jews are not people, but as he gets to know her he begins to identify with her; he too is not accepted for who he is...
The film's writer, Trond Morten Kristensen, started writing the script in 2003 as he thought the Norwegian collaboration with the Nazis was being overlooked - 760 Jews were deported from Norway, whilst 900 survived by escaping to neutral Sweden. The story was picked up by the producer Lisa Black in 2008, but has only just been completed.
As Lauren Bray says in the Santa Barbara Film Festival review, "The backdrop produces stunning winter images of coastal Norway near the Swedish border. The snow-frosted forests and idyllic countryside provide a nice juxtaposition to the suspense and fear the characters experience. The audience provided several audible gasps through every twist and turn in the plot.
The film is powerful and engaging, displaying deep loss due to war as well as forgiveness and redemption. It shows Esther's cunning and determination to survive in a world that doesn't want her to".
The film that takes off where 'Spotlight' finished. Not content with investigating historic child abuse scandals in the Catholic church, François Ozon released this drama around the trial of Cardinal Philippe Barbarin before the actual trial was finished. "Not a documentary exposé, as the filmmaker once intended, because that would do little more than reiterate the facts these brave men have already worked so hard to disseminate through the media. And certainly not a psychosexual thriller in the vein of Ozon's previous work...No, this would have to be a sturdy portrait of everyday heroism - a sober but compelling drama that rewarded its real subjects by casting famous movie stars to play them on the big screen" - David Ehrlich, Indiewire.
The film follows the story of three semi-fictional victims of sexual abuse by the same priest, Bernard Preynat, after one of them, Alexandre, discovers he is still a serving priest many years later. He takes his case to Cardinal Barbarin who professes concern but does little about it. Once other victims hear about the case and come forward, Barbarin's position becomes harder to sustain. "All three men's anguish, however, is put into relief by that of Emmanuel, one of Preynat's most serially exploited charges. Unlike his peers, the near-derelict Emmanuel has never managed to push past trauma to get his adult life on track; as the men form an activist union to 'lift the burden of silence' on their abuse, he finally finds a place to belong" - Guy Lodge, Variety.
A very different film from Ozon's usual, then - viz 'Frantz', seen here in 2017 - but "Ozon spins a palpable web of strength between his characters, so that even the most fragile among them can find the superhuman resolve they need to relive their trauma" - Ehrlich again.
For the many of us who came to see 'The Lunchbox' here in 2014, 'Photograph' will be your first Christmas present this year; the latest from director Ritesh Batra treads a similar path. Instead of a misrouted lunchbox, it all starts for our potential lovers here with a photograph.
Rafi scrapes a living taking photos of tourists "in front of Mumbai's Gateway monument. He sells his services to tourists by promising that 'years from now, when you look at the photograph you will feel the sun on your face, the wind on your hair, and you will hear those voices again.' If they do not have a picture, he tells them, 'it will be all gone.'" - Nell Minow, Roger Ebert.com. One of these tourists is Miloni, a student studying accountancy, but wanting to be an actress.
When Rafi learns that his grandmother is refusing to take any medicine until he finds a potential wife, what could he possibly do? Naturally, he sends her the picture he has taken of Miloni. What could possibly go wrong? You guessed it: grandmother wants to meet Miloni. There follows a string of meetings where Rafi and Miloni pretend to be dating...but will it ever become more than pretence? You probably guessed that too...
"This is a film that ends with the two characters walking out of a movie theatre, with one of them saying, 'The stories are all the same in movies these days.' It may be that the stories in movies are all the same. But it can be lovely when a movie like this one finds a different way to tell them" - Minow again.
We have always tried to start a new season with something not too heavy, ideally comedic as well, which often leads us to France: this year is no exception. What better than a French comedy that also stars Daniel Auteuil and Fanny Ardant?
We join Victor and his wife Marianne having an evening out in La belle époque, courtesy of Time Travellers - "a company run by his son’s best friend Antoine. In a variation on Westworld, the company use movie sets and actors to construct elaborate fictions for wealthy clients"- Alan Hunter, Screen-Daily. Later, when Marianne throws Victor out, he decides to 'go back in time' again, this time to 1974, the year he first met Marianne. With a well-researched and rehearsed team, they allow him to revisit his best year and fall in love with Marianne all over again...or is he just falling for the actor playing Marianne..?
Director Bedos "successfully jumps through the many creative hoops he sets and in the process pulls off the most thoroughly entertaining big-screen French farce in a very long time, one that's both classical and modern; he uses all the old tropes but convincingly adorns them with up-to-the-minute attitudinal and technological trappings.
The director also gets immaculate work from his players, beginning with the superb old pros Auteuil and Ardant, who display the energy of players half their age and effortlessly layer the film with a veneer of Gallic knowingness and sophistication" - Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter.
Sounds like a good start to the season to us!
As I write this, 'Marriage Story' has won four awards at the Gothams, usually a good guide to which films are frontrunners for the Oscars. Directed by Noah Baumbach ('The Squid and the Whale', 'Francis Ha', 'The Meyerwitz Stories') with many big stars including Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver and Laura Dern, this may be no surprise to us.
As you may have guessed from the title, this is a story about a marriage between Nora (Johannson) and Charlie (Driver), but one that is breaking up; played in flashbacks from an idyllic relationship to where Nora says "it's about to become 'a street fight', in which legality trumps love and 'genius' becomes an 'asset', the spoils of which must be divided equally" - Mark Kermode, Guardian.
Their child is at the centre of the row, especially as Nora has moved to Los Angeles from New York, and their lawyers are making it worse...
All the actors get good reviews, especially the pairing of Scarlet Johansson and Adam Driver. The end result might well bring to mind 'Kramer v Kramer' (for the divorce scenes) or even 'Annie Hall' (for the humour), but, as Mark Kermode goes on to say, "this often hilarious heartbreaker is simply Baumbach's best film to date – insightful, sympathetic and rather beautifully bewildered".
This is the first of two Netflix films we have been able to get this year, which is a talking point in its own right. See you there!
Members' Choice
Whilst in juvenile detention, Daniel is drawn to religion and thinks about joining a seminary. This proves impossible because of his criminal record, whereupon he travels to a small rural town to take up a job in a sawmill once he is paroled. "A little grey lie lets him take the identity of the young new priest, Tomasz, that the town is expecting, and soon Daniel is performing mass and hearing confessions while the older resident curate dries out in rehab for a while" - Leslie Feperin, Guardian - "The plot takes an interesting turn when Daniel learns that a tragic road accident has traumatised the community, and he discovers an unexpected skill at pastoral care as he tries to help heal the damaged psyches of the bereaved – many of them barely younger than himself".
So far, so good, but, as Jennie Kermode says in Eye for Film, "It's when he begins to wing it - to speak from the heart - that he discovers he really has something to give, and the realisation that he's actually helping people prompts him to reassess his own potential... An intelligent and provocative film which alternately charms and unsettles, Corpus Christi is Poland's entry for the 2020 Best Foreign Language Oscar. It's a small town drama with much bigger connotations and it thoroughly deserves its place on the world stage".
Members' Choice
Hold on to the edge of your seat; tonight we are off for this Seasons's gritty crime drama. Her husband is dead and the police won't believe it was murder; her son has gone totally mute since he died; she is living in poverty in Belfast and her mother looks down on her plight as "the wrong life choices". What more can go wrong for Sarah Collins?
Well, it hasn't even started yet. When a loser drug dealer breaks in to her home and insists on hiding some drugs there, "just for five days", it might not have been too bad, but he has stolen them from a big-time drug lord...who wants them back...
"Sarah reacts against criminals, she's patronised, ignored, irritated and hit on by almost everyone – a supermarket security guard who takes her for a hooker, a social worker who assumes a broken window must be her fault, police more interested in a noise complaint than a killing, and her endlessly disappointed mother" - Kim Newman, Sight & Sound.
Sarah is forced to go from frightened, grief-stricken widow, put upon by an uncaring system, to protective parent, to gun-toting film noir blonde.
Some great acting holds the plot together - "Sarah Bolger makes a slightly implausible character arc completely convincing, graduating from panicky improvisation to grim determination [ably supported by] Edward Hogg, as the teeth-baring Mancunian crime boss prone to discoursing on the correct use of metaphor [who] confirms his standing as a sorely underused asset of the UK film industry" - Phil Hoad, Guardian
Members' Choice
Another French comedy to keep you cheerful, this time with just about everyone having a 'double life'; most are having affairs, one man is writing books about it whilst his lover's husband is publishing them. To add to the mix, some great acting including Juliette Binoche; what more can you want on a winter's evening?!
It being a French film, we can offer much clever talk too; it being an Olivier Assayas film, we can also offer depth - "What sets Assayas apart from some of his critically adored contemporaries is that his films aren't just formally elegant; they're brimming with ideas. In 'Non-Fiction', as in much of his work, he celebrates France - the seductive beauty and richness of its culture - even as he pokes, prods and challenges it. He sees possibility in an increasingly interconnected world (his own movies, with their international casts and multilingualism, are themselves a product of that interconnectedness). He also sees loss, humour and absurdity. France is a country known for struggling with change. Part of Assayas' greatness as a filmmaker is his ability to make that struggle look so deeply human" - Jon Frosch, Hollywood Reporter.
So what is it all about..? Alain has always published Leonard's 'autofiction' books; until now. They disagree on most things. Meanwhile Alain's wife Selena has been having an affair with Leonard for years, whilst Leonard's wife is too busy saving the world to care. While all this is going on, Alain wants to modernise, so he has hired Laure to bring his firm into the digital age...and you can guess what else they share.
A French farce, sort of, but with lots to make you think about too...What fun!
"Shakespeare famously proclaims in Hamlet: 'There is something rotten in the state of Denmark'. In 'Sons of Denmark' something is indeed very rotten in the Scandinavian country.
This superb Danish movie operates like a police thriller mixed with politics, and it raises many urgent questions. Those who like Scandi-noir will enjoy the twists and turns of the plot, accompanied effectively by the score of Mozart's Requiem" - Michael McClure, DMovies.
It is 2025, Denmark. A year ago, a terrorist bomb has killed 23 people in Copenhagen. In the wake of this, the National Movement Party, lead by Martin Nordahl, is tipped to win the election with an openly fascist agenda. Many fear this, including the immigrant population.
In the first half of the film, we concentrate on Zakaria, a young Muslim, who wants to do something about this. He is recruited by a militant Islamic Group. In the second half, we see the view of Ali, who is lead to believe "he will be fine" if Nordahl comes to power...
As John Parker John asks in Entertainment Focus - "Ulaa Salim's feature directorial debut, 'Sons of Denmark' explores the complex subject of radicalization in this blisteringly relevant and pulsating thriller. Set in an alternative version of Denmark, dealing with extremely topical and provocative material, the film holds a mirror up to contemporary Europe (and America) and basically asks the question: do you like what you see?" A provocative film, then, which tries to show us the dangers of complacency.
Members' Choice
A local pub, for local people...well, no more. The tourists are taking over this Cornish village and the fishermen are losing out. Do they give in and make money from the tourist trade, or try to soldier on with what little fish they are allowed to catch? "'Bait' is both an impassioned paean to Cornwall's proud past, and a bracingly tragicomic portrait of its troubled present and possible future. It's a genuine modern masterpiece, which establishes Jenkin as one of the most arresting and intriguing British film-makers of his generation... [it] looks set to become one of the defining British films of the year, perhaps the decade" - Mark Kermode, Guardian.
If I tell you this is basically a dialogue between Pope Benedict and (soon to be) Pope Francis you might expect some weighty discussions...but would you expect comedy? If I tell you they are played by Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce, you will expect some great acting. All of this is true here:
"Fernando Meirelles' film deftly pulls off the knotty challenge of dealing lightly with complex dynamics and weighty themes, all delivered by pitch-perfect performances from two veteran British thesps. Funny, engrossing and thoughtful, the result is Meirelles' most entertaining and watchable film since 'City Of God'" - Ian Freer, Empire.
Netflix have finally realised they have to allow their films to show in real cinemas so come and along and enjoy this one while we can.
"Three children, two donkeys, one big adventure" was the pitch to crowdfunding investors who helped get this quintessentially British film to the cinema screens.
Starring established actors Mark Addy and Tara Fitzgerald alongside rising star Molly Windsor (last seen in the TV series Cheat) it is the story of three children crossing the North York moors to find their estranged mother and avoid 'The Social Services'.
The Yorkshire Post said "Huge praise has to go to director/writer Richard Heap whose unique screenplay evokes a range of emotions from laughter to tears. This is an uplifting and atmospheric story. The film is ultimately a celebration of childhood and the importance of home and family ties."
We are thrilled that Richard Heap will be joining us to introduce the film and hold a Q&A after the screening
This screening will be preceded by a new short film from Mike Tweddle:
The Curator
14 mins Mike Tweddle UK 2019 (NC)
We have rather fallen in love with Mike Tweddle’s film making and when he told us that he had made a short film, featuring Derek Griffiths (everyone's favourite from Playschool!) it sounded like the perfect way to kick off the Festival.
Amanda is a genuinely moving film about the impact of a terrorist outrage – the film is set within the context of the attacks in Paris and Nice – on a young family.
Cleverly, Director Mikhaël Hers does not focus on the attack itself but on the human consequences for those caught up in it – in this case David who suddenly finds himself solely responsible for his 7 year-old niece, Amanda.
With a delightful performance in the title role from Isaure Multrier and a cameo from KFF guest Greta Scacchi this is a film of great sincerity and warmth.
Thanks to Curzon
When we found that Richard Heap had directed a short film about the remarkable Nicky Spink's attempt at the Bob Graham Round, we had to screen it. We have paired it with The Run, Anupam Sharma's documentary about another endurance athlete – Australian Pat Farmer as he runs the length of India 85 kilometers a day for 64 days.
The Run will provide a nail-biting, humorous, visually enchanting, dramatic, inspiring journey through a diverse and visually stunning India which will saturate your senses. This film is a journey where the destination really does not matter.
Nicky Spinks – Bob Graham Round
20 mins Richard Heap 2015
Richard Heap will be joining us for a Q&A
In a yurt on the snow-covered fields of the North, Nanook and Sedna live following the traditions of their ancestors. Alone in the wilderness, they look like the last people on Earth. Nanook and Sedna's traditional way of life starts changing - slowly, but inevitably. Hunting becomes more and more difficult, the animals around them die from inexplicable deaths and the ice has been melting earlier every year. Chena, who visits them regularly, is their only connection to the outside world - and to their daughter Ága, who has left the icy tundra a long time ago due to family feud. When Sedna's health deteriorates, Nanook decides to fulfill her wish and embarks on a journey in order to find Ága.
2020 Academy Awards - Best International Feature Film Official Selection of Bulgaria
Thanks to Beta Cinema
Ibrahim's dying wish is to be buried underneath a tree that he says he planted as a boy. The problem is that land where the tree was planted has become a holy site called the "Noah Tree". The locals in the community don't believe Ibrahim’s claim that he planted the tree, believing that it was planted by the biblical figure Noah after the Great Flood, so it would be sacrilegious to dig up the area surrounding the tree.
Regardless of who planted the tree, Ibrahim claims that his family still owns the land, so he enlists his son Ömer to help him in his fight to be buried under there tree, putting Ömer in conflict with people who might go to extremes to protect the land.
Winner of the Best Screenplay award, Tribeca Film Festival 2019
Thanks to Cercamon
This film is the prolific auteur, Takashi Miike, at his most fun and anarchic, a noir-tinged yakuza film blending genres in the story of a young boxer and a call girl, who fall passionately in love while getting innocently caught up in a drug-smuggling scheme over the course of one night in Tokyo.
Thanks to Signature Entertainment
Shown to complement the Patron's Legacy Project, Only Lovers Left Alive features performances from both Sir John Hurt and Tilda Swinton.
Set against the romantic desolation of Detroit and Tangier, an underground musician, deeply depressed by the direction of human activities, reunites with his resilient and enigmatic lover. Their love story has already endured several centuries at least, but their debauched idyll is soon disrupted by her wild and uncontrollable younger sister.
Thanks to Thunderbird
Seventeen-year-old Franz journeys to Vienna to apprentice at a tobacco shop where he meets Sigmund Freud, a regular customer. Over time the two very different men form a singular friendship. When Franz falls desperately in love with the music-hall dancer Anezka, he seeks advice from the renowned psychoanalyst, who admits that the female sex is as big a mystery to him as it is to Franz. As political and social conditions in Austria dramatically worsen with the Nazis' arrival in Vienna, Franz, Freud, and Anezka are swept into the maelstrom of events.
Thanks to Beta cinema
Alejandro Landes' third feature, is a survivalist saga set on a remote mountain in Latin America. The film tracks a young group of soldiers and rebels – bearing names like Rambo, Smurf, Bigfoot, Wolf and Boom-Boom – who keep watch over an American hostage, Doctora The teenage commandos perform military training exercises by day and indulge in youthful hedonism by night, an unconventional family bound together under a shadowy force known only as The Organization. After an ambush drives the squadron into the jungle, both the mission and the intricate bonds between the group begin to disintegrate.
Thanks to Picturehouse
At the turn of the 19th century, Clare is an indentured convict held by a British Lieutenant. His abuse of power, delaying her release, leads to horrific consequences.
"Although set some 200 years ago the concerns about violence - towards women, towards indigenous people, towards nature, the repercussions of colonization - they're very much in our mentality and in the way we live now", observed Kent, "but by placing something in the past, you can give people a distance from it, so they can see it without feeling like they're being attacked. Everything that's real and deep about this film is relevant now. Completely."
A quite astonishing film but please be aware it contains scenes of brutality and infanticide.
Thanks to Vertigo Films
For Sama is both an intimate and epic journey into the female experience of war. A love letter from a young mother to her daughter, the film tells the story of Waad al-Kateab's life through five years of the uprising in Aleppo, Syria as she falls in love, gets married and gives birth to Sama, all while cataclysmic conflict rises around her. Her camera captures incredible stories of loss, laughter and survival as Waad wrestles with an impossible choice - whether or not to flee the city to protect her daughter's life, when leaving means abandoning the struggle for freedom for which she has already sacrificed so much.
Keswick Peace and Human Rights Group Screening
Thanks to Cinema for All
NB the 18 certificate relates to disturbing images of death arising from the conflict
Our family film this year is a classic tale, brilliantly interpreted by one of the country's leading satirists and backed up by a stellar ensemble cast. David Copperfield is a sheer unalloyed joy.
Dev Patel is excellent in the lead role in this fast-paced account of Copperfield's young life, with memorable encounters with, amongst others, Tilda Swinton, Peter Capaldi, Ben Whishaw and Hugh Laurie.
Thanks to Lionsgate
The third installment of Patricio Guzmán's series of documentaries, Nostalgia for the Light (screened at KFF in 2013) and The Pearl Button. Guzmán left Chile more than 40 years ago when the military dictatorship took over but he never stopped thinking about a country, a culture, and a place on the map that he never forgot.
The film is about the long strip of Andean mountains that runs between Chile and Argentina and that in ways both geographic and figurative separates it from the rest of the world. At the start of the film, and throughout, Samuel Lahu's breathtakingly clear, detailed aerial photography gives us the cordillera, its clouds and skies from every conceivable angle.
Thanks to Verve
At the time of writing, So Long My Son had a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes and it will more than repay your investment of time at KFF.
An epic family saga, it spans the tail-end of the 20th century in China and charts the collective history of both the country's one-child policy and the Cultural Revolution.
Yoajun and Liyun's only son is drowned after being goaded into swimming by their best friend's son. The two families' subsequent and intertwining fortunes are brilliantly and movingly portrayed.
Thanks to Curzon/BFI
This time-sprawling, mythological monster horror mixes ancestral fables and family drama for a fun and frightening cautionary tale, involving witches, demons and treasure hunting. The story follows Vinayak; a wily lad/son of a scamp landlord in the antediluvian village of Tumbbad. We first meet Vinayak as a young boy obsessed with finding secret family treasure connected to his cursed grandmother. Vinayak later learns the gold is kept by a creature from hell in an ancestral temple. To make a withdrawal, he must outwit the demon or risk being eaten, murdered and cursed like his prematurely crumbling Nan.
Thanks to The Festival Agency
A murder investigation is flipped inside out in Burak Çevik's second feature, a spellbinding and surprising work that questions whether we can ever truly understand criminal motives. We begin in the present as an unseen narrator recounts the assassination of his lover's disapproving mother; we then flash back to witness the first encounter between the lovers-turned-accomplices, their mutual attraction and world-weariness emerging across a sleepless night and morning after.
Thanks to Burak Cevik and Mustafa Unuzer
Dani (Florence Pugh) and Christian (Jack Reynor) are a young American couple with a relationship on the brink of falling apart. But after a family tragedy keeps them together, a grieving Dani invites herself to join Christian and his friends on a trip to a once-in-a-lifetime midsummer festival in a remote Swedish village. What begins as a carefree summer holiday in a land of eternal sunlight takes a sinister turn when the insular villagers invite their guests to partake in festivities that render the pastoral paradise increasingly unnerving and viscerally disturbing.
Thanks to Filmbank Media
"Based on an actual lie" The Farewell follows a Chinese family who, when they discover their beloved Grandmother has only a short while left to live, decide to keep her in the dark and schedule an impromptu wedding to gather together before she passes. Billi, freshly arrived from the USA and feeling like a fish out of water in her home country, struggles with the family's decision to hide the truth from her grandmother.
Chinese-American director Lulu Wang first turned her real-life family experience into a radio programme, aptly entitled In Defense of Ignorance. She subsequently adapted it into a movie, The Farewell, however the Chinese title is more direct - Don't Tell Her.
Thanks to Entertainment Film
Bill Nighy returns to the KFF Screen playing opposite Annette Bening in this nuanced relationship drama.
Grace and Edward have been married thirty-three years. When their son Jamie comes home to visit them in the fading seaside town where he grew up. Edward tells him that he plans to leave Grace, the next day. Hope Gap tracks the unravelling of three lives.
Thanks to Curzon
One of Ken Russell's most controversial works even if it hasn't been seen in public for 50 years. Aired on 15th February 1970 (one of the most misunderstood TV broadcasts ever) it marked the end of Ken's association with the BBC. Immediately after the broadcast the Strauss family removed all rights for the use of the music by Richard Strauss and the film has been wrapped in legal tape ever since. We are delighted that Lisi Russell will be with us to host the screening and discuss the film. In addition, we will be screening a number of music videos that Ken recorded for the likes of Elton John, Sarah Brightman and Cliff Richard as these too have seldom if ever seen light of day.
An evening of Ken's work that you may not have another chance to see, so one not to be missed.
Thanks to Lisi Russell, the BBC and BFI
This brilliant, blackly-comic thriller won the Palme d'Or at Cannes – the first South Korean film to do so.
It is the tale of two families from different ends of the social spectrum. The Kims eke out a living using their wits whilst the Parks enjoy a lifestyle of luxury. As the Kims infiltrate their way in to every aspect of the Park's life it seems that their luck is finally about to change. That is until...
Full of energy, verve and wit, Parasite is incredibly watchable but also brims with rage at society's inequalities.
Thanks to Curzon
Beyond the Front Lines, takes us on a journey both within our own minds and on the roads of Palestine, led by Palestinian psychiatrist and writer Dr. Samah Jabr. An heiress to anti-colonial psychiatrist Dr. Frantz Fanon, she exposes the psychological strategies of the Israeli occupation and their consequences, and the ways in which Palestinians have learned to cope. In this multi-voiced movie, interviews and columns are intertwined together with poetic escapes suggesting the invisible dimension of Palestinian streets and landscapes.
Keswick Peace and Human Rights Group Screening
Thanks to Hybrid Pulse
Together with her husband Ferdinand, Imelda Marcos stockpiled assets worth an estimated $5-10 billion from the Filipino people – not to mention that notorious wardrobe-full of shoes.
Yet despite that breathtaking corruption and the brutality of Marcos' martial law-imposing regime, Imelda and her son Bongbong, who is bidding for the vice-presidency, are on the comeback trail.
Thanks to Dogwoof
A Bulgarian/Japanese co-production, A Picture with Yuki centres on Georgi, a Bulgarian man living in Canada, and his Japanese wife, Yuki.
They are both now in Sofia, where Yuki tries to get pregnant through in vitro fertilisation procedures. When the doctor recommends that Yuki get some rest, the couple spends a few days in the countryside, but an accident soon shatters their bucolic happiness in the midst of nature.
Thanks to The Chouchkov Brothers
A teenage British Kashmiri, Noor, retraces her roots. She is joined by Majid, a local Kashmiri boy who is more smitten by her exotic foreignness than her obsession to unravel the mysteries of their disappeared fathers. Much against his better judgement, Majid finds himself guiding Noor to a forbidden area in the Indo-Pak border fraught with danger and ghosts of the past. They stumble upon a dark secret that they shouldn't have seen and Majid's worst fears are realised when they are set upon by an army patrol.
Thanks to Martin Myers
Winner of the Best Screenplay and Queer Palm at Cannes, this sumptuous film is set at the end of the 18th century with the rugged coast of Brittany as a constant backdrop.
Marianne is an artist commissioned to paint a portrait of a reluctant Lady Héloïse – a portrait that is to be sent to a potential husband in Venice.
As the artist observes her model the glances between the two women become more and more meaningful.
Thanks to Curzon
Sight & Sounds' best film of 2019 is set in the 1980s. Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne) is a young film student from a privileged background who begins relationship with Anthony (Tom Burke), an older man who manages to insinuate himself into her life.
Whilst the bonds strengthen and the relationship becomes more inward-looking, secrets are revealed.
The Souvenir is a "masterful portrait ...of... love as an addiction for which there is no easy cure. Swinton Byrne and Burke make for one of the year's most intriguing screen couples, although this is a romance based on anxiety, narcissism and opportunism rather than anything resembling genuine affection." Toronto Star
Thanks to Curzon
As ALS, a disease that causes the death of the neurons responsible for voluntary movements, starts to take hold of Lily's (Susan Sarandon) body, she decides to take matters into her own hands. Days before her scheduled demise, she invites her closest friends and family over to celebrate one last time. All is going well until her daughters, Jennifer (Kate Winslet) and Anna (Mia Wasikowska), arrive. Both are struggling with personal issues, and with the decision of their mother to take her own life.
Thanks to Lionsgate
Members' Choice
A very beautiful film about a forbidden topic; a young girl, May, taken as Hung's third wife, after Ha and Xuan, finds herself having to compete to exist.
"In May and in Ha and Xuan, there are all the women and girls of the past who've been ignored, abused, forced into competition with one another, made to endure a degradation of spirit and a commodification of body so complete it should have resulted in their annihilation... But with 'The Third Wife' new talent Mayfair reclaims just a few of those silvery strands from the neglect of history and weaves them into a film so sensuous we can lose ourselves in it, but so vividly real we might also be able to find ourselves there" - Jessica Kiang, Variety.
Members' Choice
Terrence Malick is back to his best: "'A Hidden Life' is a lucid and profoundly defiant portrait of faith in crisis. It's an intimate epic about the immense strength required for resistance, and the courage that it takes for one to hold fast to their virtue during a crisis of faith, and in a world that may never reward them for it. It is, without question, the best thing that Malick has made since 'The Tree of Life'" - David Ehrlich, IndieWire.
So we can expect his usual soul-searching, his usual beautiful scenery. This one is "... inspired by a life that is little-known - hidden, perhaps. Franz Jägerstetter was an Austrian conscientious objector during the second world war who made a personal stand for his anti-Nazi beliefs by refusing to take the Hitler oath as a Wehrmacht conscript" - Peter Bradshaw, Guardian.
A perfect candidate to start our new season too? We thought so. We last saw director Haifaa Al-Mansour in 2014 with the first Saudi film ever directed by a woman – 'Wadjda' – where she brought us a small girl determined to own a bike (not allowed in Saudi). Six years later, she is back in Saudi with Maryam, a female doctor trying her hardest to be accepted as a doctor (her first patient refuses to let a woman touch him).
Her clinic has the only emergency room for miles and is down a dirt road which becomes a quagmire when it rains. Failing to get the local councillor to do anything about it, she decides to stand for office herself. "Maryam doesn’t see herself as any kind of feminist pioneer. Her motivations are practical, not symbolic. But the people around her are bull-headed. To them, nothing exists beyond her gender. When she makes an appearance on local TV, the presenter assumes her policies deal only in women’s issues 'like gardens, for instance'" – Clarisse Loughrey, Independent.
In a country where males are totally dominant, Maryam gets little support from either men or women, but she soldiers on. "Al-Mansour cleverly shows that Maryam's family connections in the world of being a wedding singer have given her some crucial experience in public performance and addressing large assemblies of people, including men, in that rare context that permits the public acceptability of women" Peter Bradshaw, Guardian. This gives her campaign an air of credibility to us, though the reactions to her might well make us pretty angry too!
Will she win or lose? You will have to come along to find out.
Molly Windsor plays Ruth here, fresh from her role as the eldest child in 'The Runaways', the opener at our last Festival. Stand by for a very different role for her here...
Finally considered old enough to be away from home by her parents, 18 year old Ruth has come to this deserted caravan site in Cornwall's winter to get a job and be with her long term boyfriend Tom. So we enter this dark, middle world of youth turning adult; she is between two chapters of her life, as the caravan site is between seasons. Being unsure of herself, she finds a friend in Jade, a fellow worker, who offers her help and a makeover, painting her bitten nails red...but is there more going on here than we see at first?
This is writer-director Claire Oakley's first feature film, for which she has got all-round good reviews: "She has taken the template of arthouse Brit realism and audaciously spiked it with some genre thrills, as if Ken Loach collaborated with Brian De Palma or Nicolas Roeg" – Peter Bradshaw, Guardian. "Claire Oakley's assured debut is all about liminal spaces, both physical and mental, the places and feelings that hang eerily between the concrete and the comforting....Oakley keeps things taut as time seems to slip sideways for Ruth, things half remembered or imagined bright, like those nails, in her memory. There's nothing liminal about Oakley's talents, she has firmly arrived" – Amber Wilkinson, Eye for Film. [In case you, like me, don’t know what 'liminal' means, the Google definition is – "occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold"!]
"With cinematographer Nick Cooke, Oakley finds the bracingly different aspects of the Cornish landscape: ominous in the darkness, wild in the sunshine and menacing in the cold, as distant sea spray mixes with the cloud cover. It’s a clever and expertly made movie; Oakley luxuriates in its winter chill" – Peter Bradshaw again.
A coming-of-age movie, then, but one wrapped up in a spooky seaside thriller which results in a stylish psychological drama. Given Molly Windsor had gone down well at the Festival, we couldn't resist having 'Make Up' here.
If all that isn't enough, this is another Triple F-rated movie (female director, writer and star). What more can we ask for?
We are off back to Iceland this week, from where we have had some great moments in the last few years – you will remember 'Rams' and 'Woman at War' I hope. 'The County' comes from the same director as 'Rams' - Grímur Hákonarson – but maybe has more of the feel of 'Woman at War'.
Our hero this time is Inga, a dairy farmer fighting to survive in a farm drowning in debt to the local Co-op. When her husband dies, she becomes aware that the Co-op, far from supporting the local farmers, acts more like the Mafia; yes they guarantee buying all her milk but she has to buy everything from them at inflated prices.
Risking everything, she writes a whistle-blower review to the Co-op Facebook account. The support she hopes for from the local farmers disappears as they fear the Co-op too much, giving us that feel of ‘Woman at War’ - she is left to fight on alone. Inga tries to set up a rival co-op run by the farmers themselves and even appears on national tv. As the Co-op throw its weight at her there are some classic comic moments as you would expect – Inga spraying their building with milk for instance and throwing stuff of her own back at them!
Comparing this to Grímur Hákonarson's previous film, 'Rams', Amber Wilkinson says in Eye for Film, "More of a low-key straight forward drama than his black comedy-inflected hit", although Alissa Simon, Variety, thinks "The yin to that film's yang, 'The County' is full of feisty female energy and imagery, and sprinkled with rousing 'you go girl!' comic moments".
So we can expect the dour, low-key comedy Iceland seems to produce so well – see the robot cow-pat hoover going about its business - whilst enjoying this David and Goliath battle for ideas.
For the third time this season, we have a female hero, this time played by Arndís Hrönn Egilsdóttir in her first leading role: "Egilsdóttir's excellent performance as Inga shows us that, as the gruelling action continues, she looks younger and younger, just when you might expect her to become grizzled and aged by this nasty battle against a local bigwig. It is as if this struggle has given her a new vitality, which wasn't provided by back-breaking 24/7 work to pay off a crippling mortgage. Her enemies threaten her with bankruptcy. But this threat, so far from scaring her, does the opposite" – Peter Bradshaw Guardian. If you want to keep young and healthy...fightback!
Where 'The Perfect Candidate' gave us a fairly lightweight view of the problems of life for a woman in Saudi Arabia, 'Papicha' takes a much hard-hitting look at Algeria in the 1990s, when the Islamic revolution forced women in hijabs. Basing the film on her own experiences, Mounia Madour places Nedjma, nicknamed Papicha – Algerian slang for 'cool girl' – at the centre of the whirlpool: she wants to be a fashion designer and, refusing to accept the changes that are happening, she decides to put on a fashion show in the university.
"What Papicha so brilliantly captures is the instability of women's experiences. Rather than being relentlessly brutal, the film's structure better captures the ups and downs of the characters' lives. There are periods of fun that intercut the more challenging moments...It's the greatest asset of 'Papicha' that it condemns without being dogmatic, showing its central conflict to be more complicated than Western audiences might otherwise believe" - Lillian Crawford, Little White Lies.
"Meddour makes great cinematic choices, particularly the use of clothing design to specify the profound effect that the struggle between liberal and fundamentalist forces within Islam has on women. Women were killed during the civil war for not covering up, and it is quite possible that they could be again" – Amy Taubin, Film Comment.
One to make you think as well as enjoy.
Watching the trailer for this film, there is no dialogue. Lots of intriguing shots interspersed around a man at a desk. Only in the final seconds do you hear a voice say "Tell me everything that happened"; I was already hooked. For lovers of crime thrillers with twisting plots, this first feature film from director Sam Quah is definitely for you.
Our antihero is movie-mad Li Weiji; a poor Chinese immigrant in Thailand who comes home one day to find his wife burying a body in the back garden. He decides to use the knowledge he has acquired watching endless police dramas to protect his family, but "Famously intuitive police chief La Wen (Joan Chen) has a gut feeling..." – Katie Rife, AV Club, who goes on to say "Chen is delightfully wicked as the morally compromised chief of a corrupt and abusive police department".
"You would think that a film about a film-obsessed character would go in a predictable route that an equally film-obsessed audience would see coming; however, that's not the case. You never know which move each player will make next. 'Sheep Without a Shepherd' is an exceptional ode to crime thrillers and cinema lovers, with the affecting relevance of how the roar of the victimized can topple their oppressors" – Sara Clements, AwardsWatch.
Do you think you can out-think Li Weiji as he tries to out-think the police…?
This one is for those of you who want to enjoy a good story, have a laugh and come away feeling good; meet Anne and Guilliame. Anne is "a professional nose – someone whose sense of smell is so precise they are sought after for everything from perfume creation (at least, she used to be) to corporate jobs disguising the horrible smell seeping from a factory into a nearby village" - Jamie East, Sun. Guilliame is a chauffeur, "striving to make enough money to upgrade to a better apartment so he can have his tween-aged daughter stay overnight. Guillaume can't afford to lose his job, as it is already hanging by a thread due to his having earned several points on his licence for speeding" – Leslie Felperin, Guardian. He gets the job of ferrying Anne between jobs...but she is not easy to work for.
"There's no doubt we've been here before, as initial friction between Guilliame and Anne begins to shift, her coolness warming in the face of his refusal to simply back down to her demands. Magne [the director] isn't looking for the usual commentary on class or 'opposites', however, instead taking his lead from his perfumes theme to consider how personalities can mix to produce a more interesting result than each would achieve on their own. Guillaume is certainly helping Anne to loosen up and notice the world around her more but she is also offering him a sounding board and, gradually, an opportunity to think about his world and what he is offering his daughter differently" – Amber Wilkinson, Eye for Film.
A French 'rom-com'...but will there even be love at all? To quote from The Sun for the second time in one review (surely a first!) "When Harry Met Sally for people old enough to know better". Sit back and enjoy the ride.
No, not another remake of Victor Hugo's novel, but based on the same poverty and police injustice in the same suburbs of Paris.
We follow the first two days of rookie cop Stéphane with his two jaded fellow policemen, Gwada and Chris, whose techniques veer definitely off-law, harassing teenagers and annoying the already pent-up locals. When a lion is stolen from a travelling circus, a riot situation follows, filmed by a small boy on his drone-cam; the police cannot hush up their tactics this time...
Writer/Director Ladj Ly based this on his own experiences in the infamous housing estate 'les bosquets'. "In his direction and writing (the latter completed in collaboration with Giordano Gederlini and Alexis Manenti), Ly apportions blame fairly, and to be honest, there’s no one here to root for save the hapless Stéphane, and even he turns the odd blind eye to Chris' berserko outbursts" – David Jenkins Little White Lies.
"If the movie bears little resemblance to Hugo's plot, it does share the rage about injustice. And like its predecessor, which inflamed France in the 1860s, Ladj Ly's depiction of life in the tinderbox of Montfermeil – 20 kilometres east of the centre – has made itself felt in high places. President Emmanuel Macron has declared himself "upset by the accuracy" of the film, challenging his ministers to find solutions to the problems of the banlieues, the blighted suburbs where unrest frequently turns to riot" – Paul Byrnes, Sydney Morning Herald... "It's inexorable, terrifying, heartbreaking, with a finale that has plenty of weight. Ly's debut reminded me of Spike Lee's 'Do the Right Thing', made 30 years ago: urgent, provocative, tragic".
Nominated for an Oscar, a Golden Globe and the Palme d’Or at Cannes and another 46 nominations and 19 wins along the way, this should be a film to remember.
Spotted by Ann Martin after premiering at the Edinburgh Film Festival, David Miller spent some months tracking down the director to bring this amazing documentary to Keswick.
"When his 65th birthday approaches, Desmond O'Keeffe, an eccentric piano tuner from London, decides to undertake the most difficult and perilous piano delivery of his career. The challenge entails traveling to the heart of the Indian Himalayas with a 100-year old upright piano, carried across high mountain passes using only yaks and ponies. Destination: a primary school in Lingshed, one of the most isolated settlements in the world, situated 14,000 feet above sea level. If Desmond is successful, this will be the highest piano delivery in history, and the crowning achievement of his 40-year long career" - IMDb
"Director Michal Sulima acknowledges that one of his influences was Werner Herzog's movie 'Fitzcarraldo', about a mad obsession to transport a steamship over the Andes... The characters keep us engaged, and Sulima, who doubled as cinematographer, achieves startling and frightening sequences throughout the journey. The stirring conclusion should satisfy all but the most cynical in the audience. O'Keeffe retained an interest in the village long after the first journey, and he returned several times after the first adventure. Thanks to this immersive piece of filmmaking, adventurous audiences may well want to tag along" – Stephen Farber, Hollywood Reporter.
This one is for lovers of beauty, China and history; did I mention the beauty?
"In the court of Qianlong Emperor, the women serve as either wives or concubines while the men are mostly eunuchs or soldiers. There are, however, a few foreigners permitted to roam the palace grounds, including a couple of Jesuit priests whose religious practices are tolerated and whose artistic abilities are admired by Qianlong. One of them, the talented draftsman Attiret, is asked - or rather, commanded - by the emperor to paint the portrait of the latter's young bride Ulanara, who is still trying to find her place next to a powerful husband waging war throughout China...But the painting sessions prove difficult for both of them...Is he falling in love with her, tempted by such proximity to the female flesh? And is she unable to cope with the fact her husband is surrounded by subservient women, some of whom could be more attractive and worthy of the crown?" - Jordan Mintzer, Hollywood Reporter.
Better known as a producer, this is de Meaux's third film as director. "[He] shows a real command of his movie's craft, shooting in gorgeous widescreen compositions that often look like paintings themselves" - Jordan Mintzer again.
As soon as Mark Kermode stated that this was "a Belgian nudist tragi-comedy", my ears pricked up; when the first clip had the man saying "Sometimes, to get what you want, you have to... not want what you want" I was hooked. I just had to find out why Patrick was so bothered about losing his hammer when all around him were... well… naked people.
Mark Kermode goes on to say, in the Guardian, "Anyone wanting a raunchy comedy with titillating displays of flesh definitely won’t get it… The fact that such sub-Shakespearean intrigue plays out in the nude is, remarkably, the least remarkable thing about this deadpan delight".
Patrick has just inherited this nudist campsite when his hammer goes missing:"Defying any conventional euphemisms of what this tool might represent, frequent shots of the empty space it filled as part of a treasured set make it clear that Patrick's search is to make himself whole once again – or in fact to find a new whole in the wake of his father's death. His furrowed brow, inability to make eye contact and shuffling awkwardness mean that the real conflict of Mielants" film is an internal, psychological one. The comical litany of clues as to who had stolen the hammer, where it has travelled and whether it can be retrieved are a side-show to – or rather a reflection of – the introspective journey Patrick takes to come to terms with the past, present and a worrying
future" – Matthew Anderson, CineVue.
In his first feature film, director Tim Mielants, who is best known for tv series such as 'Peaky Blinders' and 'Legion', took inspiration from his own stay on a naturist campsite where it was the oddity of the individuals there that he remembered not the nudity. 'Patrick' will certainly have us feeling the same!
Probably the most talked about film in the last 2 years, we had to show it in Keswick. Chloé Zhao has become the first woman of colour to win the Oscar for Best Director whilst the film has garnered Best Picture plus 232 other awards around the world. Along the way Frances McDormand also won the Oscar for Best Leading Actress.
The film tells the story of the many 'new nomads' who lost everything in the last recession and took to the road: "as for anyone, survival isn't enough … we require hope. And there is hope on the road" – Mark Kermode Observer. Frances McDormand plays Fern, one of these new nomads: "At first, life on the road seems perilous and bleak, with inclement weather and cold economic realities giving Fern the chills. Yet she gradually discovers the warmth of America's travelling community, helped by inspirational figures such as the charismatic Bob (Bob Wells), at whose communal desert rendezvous new life skills are passed around by those who are not 'homeless' but simply 'houseless'".
Zhao uses real nomads to play many of the characters in the film, mixing their nonprofessional authenticity with the likes of Frances McDormand and David Strathairn to give the film a documentary feel a technique she used in her other two films with great success.
Your programmers saw this one at a weekend of films and loved it, as "Joanna Scanlan gives a superb lead performance, the best of her career so far. She is Mary, a woman who converted to Islam on marrying her husband, Ahmed (Nasser Memarzia). The couple live in Dover and he is a ferry captain, often away overnight or days at a time doing the cross-Channel run. Mary is placidly content with her life, her gently loving marriage and the meticulous practice of her Muslim faith. When Ahmed dies of a heart attack, Mary is almost unbearably dignified in her whiteclad widowhood; but, on going through Ahmed's wallet, a French ID card falls out, showing the photo of a rather elegant blond woman called Genevieve, together with her address in Calais. So Mary makes the terrible cross-Channel ferry journey to see this woman for herself. And do what? Confront her?...
After Love has the agony of a domestic tragedy and the tension of a Hitchcock thriller. Mary herself is the suspense; she is the ticking bomb who could explode at any time. Scanlan shows how she has suffered a triple mortification. Ahmed is dead. So is the Ahmed she knew. And so, perhaps, is Mary herself. She is humiliated and horrified by what she is uncovering on a moment-by-moment basis." – Peter Bradshaw, Guardian.
This is Aleem Khan's first feature film, which got the backing of the BBC and the BFI after he was awarded the Screen International 'Star of Tomorrow' in 2015.
A Danish drama with Mads Mikkelsen out for revenge.
"When a train smash leaves him a widower, pissed-off army officer Markus (Mads Mikkelsen) returns home unable to process his grief, let alone help his teen daughter with hers. He's a coiled spring and his solution to any problem is either to punch it or shoot it. So when statistician Lennart (Lars Brygmann) and two fellow geeks appear with evidence that the crash was actually part of an assassination plot by a gangster, Markus is ready to go full Death Wish.
What separates the ensuing mayhem from a thousand generic thrillers out there is an impish streak and writing that smartly juggles big ideas, mad gun battles and guilty laughs. Director Anders Thomas Jensen serves up a great running gag when Lennart's quiet sidekick (Gustav Lindh) confidently assumes the role of Markus's therapist to hide their real mission from his daughter. The contrasts between the cold-blooded soldier, his baffled daughter and the three boffins offers lots of oddball chemistry, too. And if the motivations of the latter feel a bit woolly, it’s hard to mind in a movie that is enjoying itself quite this much" – Phil de Semlyen, Time Out.
The result is "A darkly humorous revenge thriller with satisfying depth and a dash of savory quirk, 'Riders of Justice’ makes another compelling case for Mads Mikkelsen as an all-purpose leading man" – Rotten Tomatoes.
We spotted this one some time ago, before it won the Oscars, and couldn't resist it, especially as it stars Mads Mikkelsen.
Four teachers decide to put a philosopher's theory to the test: human's natural blood sugar level is 0.5% too low, so why don’t they try keeping it higher by drinking all the time?
"Another Round is a celebration and a lament of alcohol's foundational role in society, serving as both liberator and imprisoner. At first, they declare the experiment a rousing success, despite the indisputably terrible strategy of sneaking bottles of booze into work. Whisky is stuffed into supply closets. Vodka is covertly sipped in toilet cubicles. Martin (Mads Mikkelsen), especially, seems invigorated by some romantic notion that alcohol is the pathway to genius – Hemingway and Roosevelt were prolific drinkers, he tells his students. Booze, it seems, has made him a more inspiring teacher, and a better lover to his wife Anika" - Clarisse Loughrey, Independent.
Starring the wonderful Mads Mikkelsen and directed by Thomas Vinterberg (who brought us 'Festen' and 'The Hunt') this comic but thought-provoking drama won the Oscar for the Best International Film and many other awards around the world, both for direction and acting. The quest for hedonism is brought hilariously to the fore, whilst reminding us that it can never really be achieved. Cheers to the attempt!
Another film made for Keswick? A great British Drama starring Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Coleman; how good can it get?
A film written by the director from his own stage play, especially for Anthony Hopkins who plays the Father; maybe no surprise then that Anthony Hopkins has had amazing reviews and has become the oldest winner of an Oscar for Best Actor. "The Father is an immensely powerful film about dementia starring Sir Anthony Hopkins...he is absolutely remarkable here. I read the screenplay... and what he brings to the words on the page is beyond and beyond and beyond. Hopkins has played King Lear (twice) but this is his real King Lear" – Deborah Ross, Spectator. Probably no surprise either, but an extra treat, is that we are also given a great performance from Olivia Colman who plays his daughter.
Anthony is suffering from Alzheimer's and his world is falling apart around him as he forgets more and more. The film takes us inside HIS mind more than those around him so we can see how hard it can be. Deborah Ross goes on to say "We experience his confusion as if it were our own. Cut to the next scene and the kitchen in the flat is different, or chairs from the doctor’s office are stacked in the hall. What’s going on here? he is asking himself, and we are asking the same. Is this even his flat, as he seems to believe, or has he moved in with Anne and her partner, Paul (Rufus Sewell)? He is starting to fail to recognise people. Why is Anne no longer Anne and now being played by Olivia Williams and why is Paul now being played by Mark Gatiss?"
Ben Sharrock is a Scot who has previously lived and worked with refugees in Syria and Algeria. He set out to make a film which describes the plight of refugees not in their homeland but here in Britain where they wait for the process to see if they will be accepted or not. To make them even more cut off, the film is set on a remote Scottish island (Uist: the first film ever made here), where there is nothing for them or the locals to do.
"If all of that makes 'Limbo' sound tremendously heavy, the opposite is true: this is perhaps more than anything a comedy, a picture whose dry wit recalls that of another Scottish filmmaker, Bill Forsyth, who, in the 1980s, gave us wonderfully wry comedies like Gregory's Girl and Local Hero. Sharrock has a similar lightness of touch, even though his film has some serious underpinnings: It's a reflection on what happens when individuals from disparate places get together and need to define, for themselves above all, what 'home' means and what it means to leave it" – Stephanie Zacharek, Time.
The main player is Omar, from Syria, who carries his Oud everywhere although he cannot play it as he has an injured hand. Around him we also get to know other refugees and the local islanders, some who try to help (the film begins with a 'cultural awareness course'), others who simply feel threatened; together they are all in a kind of limbo, waiting for something (anything?) to happen...
Imagine being sent to prison in an isolated place, miles from anywhere. Now imagine that this prison is run by an inmate with total power, and, finally, imagine that he tells you that you have to tell a story to the whole prison or you will die. This is Roman's fate. "If you’ve ever floundered when asked to tell a joke off the cuff, you’ll feel Roman's pain. Except he has it much worse. He has to weave an entire story. All night long. Surrounded by 200 jeering prisoners nicknamed things like 'Half-Mad' and 'Petrol'. Not ideal". – Huw Oliver, Time Out.
Our first film from the Ivory Coast is inspired by the director, Philippe Lacôte's childhood memories of visiting 'La Maca' prison. "What follows is a strange blend of tough prison drama, historical allegory (pre- and post-colonial worlds pointedly collide) and theatrical performance piece, with mime, poetry, dance and oral history intertwined in a swirling cinematic maelstrom" – Mark Kermode, Observer.
Huw Oliver continues: "So the basis of this story is another story: the ruminations of this young kid (Koné Bakary, fear and anxiety welling in his eyes), whose real name we never find out. Through his narrative, we learn of the period when royals still reigned over the Côte d'Ivoire. The civil war that shook the country in the mid-2000s. And a certain gangster called Zama King".
"A bonkers and totally brilliant musical laced in sardonic humour" – Charlotte O'Sullivan, Evening Standard.
"Adam Driver is monstrously good in Leos Carax's gorgeous musical" – Tara Brady, Irish Times.
This film will split our audience; will you love or hate it? "Working from a libretto by the cult band Sparks, cult director Leos Carax's English-language debut is unlikely to please mayonnaise mainstream tastes. But for those seeking surprises, spectacle, and shadows, Annette is a marvel like no other" – Tara Brady again - so it sounds ideal for our Film Club!
A musical, then, with music (and story) by Sparks, where Annette is played by... a puppet. Adam Driver is Henry, an extrovert stand-up comedian who falls in love with Ann, an Opera singer (Marian Cotillard). Their baby, Annette, threatens to bring about the end of his career, but has special powers of her own which Henry is happy to exploit to get his career back... are you still with me?!
"Yes, Annette is an extravagantly ridiculous affair, a pop opera (like Ken Russell's 'Tommy', with a touch of Julien Temple's 'The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle'), shot through with the wry humour that has always characterised the Mael brothers' music. Yet at the heart of its swirling strangeness lies something of real truth and beauty that left me unexpectedly crying at the sight of a marionette levitating above a vast crowd, operatically warbling her fairy-tale lament" – Mark Kermode, Guardian.
A cracker... or not? Well Leos Carax won Best Director at Cannes for it; come along and see what you think!
"Revolving around a ram-rearing family headed by two patriarchs, the film is, at first, deceptively male-centric. Dargye, the husband, talks often of buying virile stock for breeding. Staying in the background, his wife, Drolkar, is smilingly docile – yet her character slowly becomes the film’s central figure, and the site of contrasting credos. As the couple already have three children, Drolkar is dismayed to discover that she's pregnant again. She feels pressure to get an abortion since mainland China has imposed family planning on its population, which includes contested areas such as Tibet. On the other hand, her husband's Buddhist beliefs dictate that his recently deceased father is now reincarnated inside Drolkar's womb" - Phuong Le, Guardian.
"As a Tibetan director dedicated to illuminating, with love and insight, the everyday culture of his contested homeland, navigating China's labyrinthine and often-changing filmmaking approval processes cannot be an easy task. And yet, over the course of now seven films, despite or possibly because of those restrictions, Pema Tseden has amassed the most quietly inspiring of filmographies, his novelist's eye yielding storytelling far richer than just ethnography or social observation. His beautiful, funny and tragic newest film, 'Balloon' is a case in point — both a gorgeously intimate family drama and an idiosyncratic artistic statement flecked with humour and sorrow, but alive always to the co-existence of the banal with the spiritual" – Jessica Kiang, Variety.
Wine is now the most drunk alcohol in the UK (official); it is Christmas when we might all be tempted to have a drop more; and in this season of good will, we thought a 'feel good' comedy about wine-making would be just what we needed to finish off our season!
Jo Pantoliano, better known for his tough guy roles gets to lead here as Marco, the CEO of a Canadian company.
"At the beginning of the movie Marco impulsively quits his job, taking the moral high ground on an ethical issue with his Canadian company's board. He books a ticket to Italy, where he left aged six for a better life in the US – though, of course, the lesson coming his way is that what a better life actually entails is the simple pleasure of sitting under a tree peeling an orange with a penknife while wearing a handkerchief as a makeshift hat" – Cath Clarke, Guardian.
Once in Italy, knowing nothing about wine-making, he decides, of course, to try to re-open the vineyard he inherited from his grandfather. This being a feelgood movie, I will only give you one guess how that goes!
Sean Cisterna has directed a number of films, but none have really been seen much outside of his Canadian homeland. This was made pre-covid and has become a hit on the festival circuit. Don't think too much about it, just sit back and enjoy the good times!
There is one week to go before the first "I love Lucy" show is due to air; will it be good enough for the audience? Lucille Ball is accused of being a Communist (this is 1950s America); will she be arrested? Desi Arnaz, her husband on and off screen, is accused of having an affair; will their marriage survive?
This is the background to this behind-the-scenes look at the making of (what turns out to be) a hugely successful sitcom. Written by Aaron Sorkin, famous for his amazing dialogue, and staring Nicole Kidman as Lucille Ball and Javier Bardem playing Desi Arnaz, this is amazingly a drama, not a comedy.
"Sorkin employs his trademark stylized and 'Sorkin-ized' approach to the real-life foundation of material in 'Being the Ricardos,' a whip-smart, cheeky, sepia-toned re-imagination of the story of Lucille Ball and her husband Desi Arnaz, whose ground breaking 1950s sitcom 'I Love Lucy' averaged an astounding 60 million viewers a week and to this day is hailed as one of the best and most influential TV comedies of all time" – Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun Times.
"Nicole Kidman is brilliant, if anything but funny, in Aaron Sorkin's writerly, behind-the-scenes take on I Love Lucy, with Javier Bardem as Desi Arnaz" – Simran Hans, The Observer
Russia's entry for the Oscars is based on real events in a small Russian town in 1962 that were not acknowledged for 30 years. This dramatic account of a workers strike and the horrific response - filmed in black and white to add to the realism – feels like a real Film Club film in the mould of Pawel Pawlikowski's 'Cold War'.
Veteran director Andrey Konchalovskiy sets the story around Lyudmila (Yuliya Vysotskaya), a stalwart Party Official who is against the strike and backs the Party's response, but gradually loses faith in the system, especially when her daughter goes missing after the strike.
"Whether theater actors or street cast newcomers, the cast of Dear Comrades! all deliver. But it's Konchalovsky regular Vysotskaya who stays with you, as a complex heroine whose utopian Soviet dream is gradually unravelling. It's a remarkable performance at the center of a devastating film" – Anna Smith, Deadline Hollywood Daily.
"Konchalovsky creates an utterly convincing air of mounting chaos, brilliantly captured on multiple cameras marshalled by cinematographer Andrey Naydenov. Yet this is no Paul Greengrass-style exercise in frenetic docu-fiction, spurred on by a blur of handheld footage. On the contrary, Naydenov and Konchalovsky opt for an eerie stillness that bizarrely amplifies the film's impact. Amid the increasingly confused cacophony of unfolding events, the comparative calm of the visuals strikes a horribly threatening chord" – Mark Kermode, Guardian.
"Sudanese film-maker Amjad Abu Alala's radiant drama dares to wonder if death could inspire courage rather than fear. In a small village near the Nile, the sheik and his dervish declare that baby Muzamil will die on his 20th birthday. His mother, Sakina, wears black, in premature mourning. Muzamil spends his sheltered youth studying the Qur'an and avoiding the Nile (too many crocodiles), not prepared to meet his end even a second early. Until he encounters Sulaiman, a former journalist who feasts on movies, booze and girls. 'Try sinning,' he suggests. But teenage transgression isn't a foregone conclusion. Mustafa Shehata dials up the brooding Muzamil's inner turmoil as he questions the beliefs he's swallowed whole" – Simran Hans Observer.
"The film is a parable about the dangers of blind faith in religion and authority, but it's also warmly compassionate and accepting of human nature. The baby's father can't cope; he leaves the village to work abroad, telling his wife, Sakina, that she's stronger, she'll manage... And she does; understandably, she becomes overprotective... And there are some gorgeous images here, too, such as flecks of dust glimmering in beams of sunlight or banks of the Nile, which give the movie a kind of mythic otherworldliness" - Cath Clarke, Guardian.
We have already shown three of Andrea Arnold’s films ('Fish Tank', 'Red Rose' and 'American Honey'), but this one is different in every way. First off it is a documentary, though there are really no words to speak of. Secondly, virtually the only cast is Luma the cow and her calves, plus a few farmers from time to time. Andrea Arnold has supplied no talk over..."You just get to be alongside Luma as she's milked, mated, has a baby that is taken away from her, over and over. It's relentless. She can never kick back and say: "I've decided to take two weeks off in July, if that's OK." And it makes you question why we drink cow's milk in the first instance. Why not dog's milk? Why not hippo's milk? It would make as much sense. Obviously, if you want to trade something for magic beans, it has to be a cow. But otherwise?"
It is unflinching and bleak but there are also moments of beauty. When the cows are released into pasture in the spring they race and gambol with joy. Cows are not graceful creatures and watching Luma gambol so clumsily is somehow doubly affecting. There is also a dazzling moment when the silhouettes of the herd are caught under a starlit night sky. But the ending is emotionally challenging, shall we say" – Deborah Ross, Spectator.
Not the film club's usual fare, obviously, but it seems like a film with a message even without any words... and just maybe one we should all think about? To misquote Guy Garvey's Finest Hour on Radio 6: "And why are we showing you this? Because you need to know".
Things must have improved in Iran since the last time we showed a Mohammad Rasoulof film (2015, Manuscripts Don't Burn); at least this time the cast and crew are willing to attach their names to the film. Last time he took on censorship in Iran; here, still shooting in secret, he brings us 4 tales about men faced with a simple yet unthinkable choice - to follow orders to enforce the death penalty, or resist and risk everything. This is not a film about capital punishment, instead it investigates the effect it has on those carrying out the punishment or their families.
"In its elegantly photographed, classically told and acted mix of domestic scenes, bucolic settings, and character drama, it could sit right alongside a Hollywood epic or arthouse drama on a double bill. But when juxtaposed against a history of Iranian cinema that has often relied on child-centric allegory and non-specific narrative to make its societal critiques, 'There Is No Evil' practically blisters with the intensity of specifically living in Iran as it exists now, as a state once believed to carry out the most executions of any country outside China". – Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times.
From one of Keswick's favourite directors since we showed Oscar-winning 'A Separation' in 2012, this one was set for our Festival until Amazon announced that there was only a 6-week window to see it on the big screen: this is your last chance! Could this be another Oscar for Asghar? Several reviewers think so.
'No Good Deed goes unpunished' should be the subtitle of this film. Our 'hero', Rahim is in prison for an unpaid debt, but is let out on a 2 day pass when his girlfriend finds a bag full of gold coins. They think about repaying his debt, but he decides to try to find the owner of the money instead. This gets picked up by the media and he is made into 'a hero'. "But fate, various forms of Iranian bureaucracy and simmering grudges, reroute Rahim's sudden celebrity. Like all Farhadi's work, 'A Hero' operates as a calmly agonizing procedural, where one evasion or deception naturally squirms into the form of another, and another...That life is shadowed by doubt, fear, economic uncertainty and a million small moral and ethical questions. Those are what 'A Hero' explores, while balancing our sympathies toward what these people are going through" - Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune.
So Farhadi is saying there are no heroes and no villains; "It may be our instinct to understand stories in terms of heroes and villains, but Farhadi, a peerless dramatist, seeks to defy those binaries at every turn" – Scott Tobias, The Reveal.
This film split our reviewers and will probably not be to everyone's taste, but it felt too big to ignore: Voted as fourth best film of the year by Sight and Sound, and winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes, we decided you had to be given the chance to see it.
Don't expect a plot, but do expect a magical experience, lead by the queen of the unexpected, Tilda Swinton. She plays Jessica who hears a strange booming noise which leads her throughout the film... but to where?
"...Tilda Swinton told me that she had always considered [David Bowie] to be her spiritual 'cousin'. Like Bowie, Swinton has always possessed an uncanny ability to meld the natural and the supernatural – the down-to-earth and the out-of-this-world. That's a quality put to perfect use in the latest film from the Thai maestro Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Indefinable in terms of plot, this Cannes jury prize winner (which became Colombia's submission for the 94th Oscars this year) is a dreamlike cocktail that brings together human sensory experience, disrupted natural order, canine curses, exploding head syndrome, viral growths, ancient bones, modern machines, improvised jazz, geopolitical upheavals and the 'invisible people' of the Amazon, all tinged by 'the perfume of decay... a fermented wound'" – Mark Kermode, Guardian.
"Designed and deserving to be seen big and loud, Memoria is a hypnotic, unquantifiable, occasionally inpenetrable sonic odyssey from a unique cinematic voice" – Jake Cunningham, Empire Magazine.
So there you have it: dare you miss seeing it?
Joel Coen's first film on his own without his brother is a bold one; stripping away all the Coen Brothers normal detail – even shooting in black and white – he is "zeroing in on the essential details of Shakespeare's tale of how a hunger for power can curdle into madness and death... his adaptation cuts the play down to a lean 105 minutes of Macbeth plotting, killing, and unravelling as he faces his ultimate downfall, trying to cling to the prophecies that propelled him to power. The sparseness of the script matches the modesty of the staging. Because the film lacks lush period detail, or really any specific background visuals at all, the audience's attention is thrown onto the performances, and the cast rises to the occasion magnificently." – David Sims, The Atlantic. He has even stripped away 2 of the witches leaving Kathryn Hunter to play them alone (maybe inspired by himself playing alone without Ethan?).
In another unusual move, the Macbeths are played (magnificently) by aging actors Denzil Washington and (of course!) Frances McDormand, playing their lust for the throne more from a desire to be relevant than from passionate rage.
The end result is a distinctly different and memorable version of Macbeth, very different from the Coens' previous films. It will be fascinating to see where he goes from here.
Joaquin Phoenix plays Johnny in this road movie where he hits the road across the States with his nephew Jesse who he is looking after while his sister Viv is away.
"This is a movie about listening – really listening – to what other people have to say. Johnny's work involves interviewing kids, tapping into their hopes and fears for the future. Jesse, an eccentric, endearingly odd nine-year-old, refuses to be recorded but immerses himself in the sounds around him. And through a series of late-night phone calls, Johnny and Viv, Jesse's mother, reopen the lines of communication that were felled after the death of their mother" – Wendy Ide, Observer.
"C'mon C'mon is a great big bear hug wrapped in celluloid. Mike Mills, is a master of intimate, unforced emotion and the kind of simple wisdom that always sounds best when it’s coming from the minds of children. They come out with the kind of gold that screenwriters would spend many a sleepless night trying to chase after" - Clarisse Loughrey, Independent - "Phoenix is always at his best in a role like this. He's playful and vulnerable, without a hint of vanity. I like when his sentences run as one long, intake of breath. He sounds a little like Winnie-the-Pooh".
Mahamat-Saleh Haroun's latest film was nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes and is the third of his films to be shown in Keswick ('Abouna' in 2003 and 'A Screaming Man' in 2011) "A perennial festival favourite, Haroun's deeply humanist films generally explore facets of manhood in his home country of Chad. Taking a chance outside his comfort zone, with 'Lingui, The Sacred Bonds' Haroun focuses on the strength and resilience of women in the face of a dangerously patriarchal society.
Living on the outskirts of N'Djamena, we meet Amina a single mother who was cut off by her family for having a child out of wedlock. When her daughter Maria, now 15, is expelled from school after also becoming pregnant the two face the event together. Abandoned by the father, Maria wants an abortion—illegal in Chad and forbidden by their religion—so that she can return to school and get her future back on track. Unlike her family, Amina does not turn her back on her daughter, but rather does everything she can to secure the health services she requires.
Souleymane's performance is tender and raw, seething under the surface with the anger she carried all these years for the community that exiled her, but also buoyed by the deep love she feels for her daughter. Through Amina and Maria's journey to reproductive freedom, Haroun both shines a light on the strict patriarchal laws of the country, but also the powerful connections women form to help each other survive within them" -Marya E Gates, RogerEbert.com.
Montreal, Canada, present day. A postman arrives at the house of Lebanese Maia and her daughter Alex with a large box from France. "It contains the pictures and notebooks she sent to her best friend Liza circa 1983 after the girl moved to Paris, minutely recounting her daily life during the civil war. Now Liza is dead and the 'memory box' has been returned to sender" -Deborah Young, Hollywood Reporter. Alex is intrigued but Maia doesn’t want her to look. Inevitably, Alex cannot resist and the film follows her discovery of her mother's past. Why was Maia so insistent on not looking back..?
Directors Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige have worked together since they met at collage, firstly on shorts but then on feature films ('A Perfect Day', 'I want to see'), always about the state of modern Lebanon. Their films have always been popular on the Festival circuit and have won several awards over the years.
Memory Box is not a film about the fighting or the bombing in the civil war, so much as a film about the everyday lives of people during the war: Alex "learns how the teenage Maia clashed with her parents, got obsessed with guys and her own looks, partied and experienced joy in a time when not only were there no mobile phones or WhatsApp, but there was a war going on with constant bombings and militia-run checkpoints where people were frequently killed" – Leslie Felperin, Guardian.
Boisterous landlord Ali (Adeel Akhtar) and pragmatic teaching assistant Ava (Claire Rushbrook) meet through a chance encounter. Over the course of one month, sparks fly and a connection begins to grow. But their newfound passion is threatened by the legacy of Ava's past relationship and by Ali's emotional turmoil following the breakdown of his marriage. Beautifully written, funny and warm, Ali & Ava is a keenly observed portrait of 21st century British society.
Thanks to Altitude Films
Adapted from a short story by Haruki Murakami, and winner of the Best Picture in a non-English Language film at the 2022 Golden Globe Awards, this haunting road movie was co-written and directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi.
We meet Yūsuke Kafuku, a recently widowed actor and director who is assigned a young woman to chauffeur him as he directs a production of Uncle Vanya at a theatre festival. As tensions mount within the cast, he is forced to face some painful truths from his past, and with the help of his chauffeur travels a road from love and loss to acceptance and peace.
Thanks to Modern Films
Additional Screening: Sunday 12:30pm Alhambra Screen 2 (Tickets)
There's real power in director Meise's determination to show history in all its stained reality. This tense, moving portrait tells of masculinity struggling against the bounds of violence and punishment in which it is placed. These men are bonded by brutality, like brothers at war, but the central relationship is the film's tender core. Earthy and understated, this Austrian prison drama tells a story of resilience amid harsh treatment of gay men in post-war Germany.
Thanks to MUBI
The acclaimed French Director Céline Sciamma (Portrait of a Lady on Fire) gives us another wonderfully enchanting tale. When 8 year old Nelly's grandmother dies, she goes with her parents to help sort out her grandmother's house, which is her mother's childhood home. There she meets another young girl whose life soon shows startling parallels to Nelly's own.
Thanks to MUBI
Belgium's outstanding Oscar nomination is brilliantly filmed from a child's eye view.
Seven-year-old Nora and her big brother Abel are back to school. When Nora witnesses Abel being bullied by other kids, she rushes to protect him by warning their father. But Abel forces her to remain silent.
Thanks to New Wave
Marianne Winckler, (played by the incomparable Juliette Binoche) a well-known author, goes to live in northern France to research for her new book on the subject of job insecurity. Without revealing her true identity, she gets hired as a cleaner, working with a group of other women.
Thanks to Curzon Films
The Kosovan entry for the International Film Oscar scooped the main awards at Sundance Festival.
Like many women in Kosovo, Fahrije is hoping for news about her husband, who is still missing seven years after the war. Widows are not expected to work, but she has to provide for her family and joins forces with other widows to start a business producing ajvar. This is even though the community already condemns her for daring to drive.
As storytelling, this is as good as it gets.
Thanks to Altitude Films
As the descriptive title indicates, Yang Ya-che's crime thriller is a tale of ambition, power and betrayal. In 1980s Taiwan, Madame Tang is a hard-hearted matriarch who mediates between the rich and powerful in government and business to increase the influence and wealth of her family. When one case goes wrong, with disastrous results, Madame Tang’s relationship with her daughters is changed forever.
Thanks to The Media Pioneers
2013. Exiled in Switzerland, Olga, a talented and passionate 15-year-old Ukrainian gymnast, is trying to make her place at the National Sports Centre. But the revolt of Euromaïdan breaks out in Kiev, suddenly involving her relatives. While the young girl has to adapt to her new country and prepares the European Championships, the Ukrainian revolution enters her life and will shake everything up...
Screened under the banner of UK Cinemas in support of Ukraine this is a charity screening in support of Red Cross and Unicef
Thanks to 606 Distribution
A brilliant, animated film from Japan that will be seen to best effect on Rheged's big screen. This is not to be missed!
Suzu is a shy, everyday high school student living in a rural village. For years, she has only been a shadow of herself. But when she enters "U", a massive virtual world, she escapes into her online persona as Belle, a gorgeous and globally-beloved singer. One day, her concert is interrupted by a monstrous creature chased by vigilantes. As their hunt escalates, Suzu embarks on an emotional and epic quest to uncover the identity of this mysterious "beast" and to discover her true self in a world where you can be anyone.
Thanks to National Amusements
The Keswick Peace and Human Rights Group selection.
In October 2000, a police officer shot and killed unarmed 17-year old Asel Asleh. His story is tragically familiar for Americans, but Asel was not killed in Ferguson, New York City, Atlanta, or Minneapolis. Asel was a Palestinian teenager who was murdered by Israeli police as he participated in a demonstration, calling for an end to the Israeli occupation and settler-colonization.
There Is A Field began as a play about Asel's life and his death and the film intercuts performance and archive footage.
Thanks to Donkeysaddle Projects
A pre-release of a film not seen before in Cumbria, from the acclaimed Director of Walz with Bashir.
Kitty, the imaginary girl to whom Anne Frank wrote her famous diary, comes to life in the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. Her memories reawakened by reading the diary, believing that if she's alive, Anne must be alive as well, she sets out on a quest to find Anne. We follow Kitty as she travels across Europe and back to Anne Frank's time, armed with the precious book, in search of her beloved friend.
Thanks to Altitude Films
Writer/Director Mark Cousins was awarded the 'Outstanding Achievement Award' from the 'British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies' 2020.
The Story of Looking sees Mark prepare for surgery to restore his vision. He explores the role that visual experience plays in our individual and collective lives. At a time when we are more assailed by images than ever, he reveals how looking makes us who we are, lying at the heart of human experience, empathy, discovery and thought.
This deeply personal film will be followed by an online Q&A with Mark himself.
Thanks to Modern Films
In the late 70s in Buenos Aires, under military rule, a banker has mysteriously disappeared. A colleague arrives from Geneva to replace him but finds himself in a society under intense surveillance. As he tries to make sense of the disappearance, he becomes tangled in a sinister web of colonialism, high finance and a nation’s dirty war.
Thanks to MUBI
Francois Ozon's French comedy drama handles the serious subject of euthanasia and assisted dying with a delicate lack of sentimentality. Based on Emmanuelle Bernheim's autobiographical novel of the same name, the film starts Sophie Marceau as Emmanuelle, whose successful, well-connected father suffers a sudden debilitating stroke. His request to her to help him end his life is the pivot for the film to explore the irony of such a request, as we learn more about Emmanuelle's childhood and family life.
Thanks to Curzon Films
Almodovar and Cruz together again – it would not be a festival without them!
Two women, Janis and Ana, coincide in a hospital room where they are going to give birth. Both are single and became pregnant by accident. Janis, middle-aged, doesn't regret it and she is exultant. The other, Ana, an adolescent, is scared, repentant and traumatized.
Thanks to Warner Brothers
Injured in a car accident as a child, Alexia, played by Agathe Rousselle, has a titanium plate fitted into her head, and develops an extreme fetish for cars. Her subsequent encounters with men, women and vehicles reveal her loneliness and search for belonging. This body horror film is, according to the director, an attempt to talk about love without words.
Thanks to Altitude Films
The latest film from Director Jacques Audiard stars Noèmie Merlant, last seen in Portrait of a Lady on Fire is described as a Romance, a Comedy and a Drama
Émilie meets Camille who is attracted to Nora, who crosses paths with Amber. Three girls and a boy - They're friends, sometimes lovers and often both.
Thanks to Curzon Films
Sight & Sound named Joanna Hogg's sequel as their film of the year, just like they did with Part One in 2019.
In the aftermath of her tumultuous relationship with a charismatic but manipulative older man, Julie begins to untangle her fraught love for him by making her graduation film and sorting fact from his elaborately constructed fiction.
Thanks to Picturehouse Entertainment
Adapted from a short story by Haruki Murakami, and winner of the Best Picture in a non-English Language film at the 2022 Golden Globe Awards, this haunting road movie was co-written and directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi.
We meet Yūsuke Kafuku, a recently widowed actor and director who is assigned a young woman to chauffeur him as he directs a production of Uncle Vanya at a theatre festival. As tensions mount within the cast, he is forced to face some painful truths from his past, and with the help of his chauffeur travels a road from love and loss to acceptance and peace.
Thanks to Modern Films
Additional Screening: Sunday 12:30pm Alhambra Screen 2 (Tickets)
Finland's entry for the Best International Film Oscar has received high praise from critics across the globe.
A young Finnish woman escapes an enigmatic love affair in Moscow by boarding a train to the arctic port of Murmansk. Forced to share the long ride and a tiny sleeping car with a Russian miner, the unexpected encounter leads the occupants of Compartment no. 6 to face the truth about their own yearning for human connection.
Thanks to Curzon Films
This gentle comedy of a clash of cultures and catering in Finland charmed a group of seasoned film professionals at a recent screening weekend and is set to entertain us here in Cumbria.
Cheng, a skilled chef, arrives in Finland looking for a mysterious man from his past. Largely ignored by the locals, only Sirkka, the café owner is prepared to help.
Thanks to Parkland Entertainment
A painful secret, kept hidden for 20 years, threatens to derail the life that Amin Nawabi has built for himself and his soon to be husband. Recounted mostly through animation, Flee tells for the first time the story of his extraordinary journey as a child refugee from Afghanistan.
Thanks to Curzon Films
In Ryusuke Hamaguchu's elegant and entertaining film, we meet 3 different women, whose lives do not connect but whose stories share a common theme: the role of fate in resolving, or otherwise, their relationship difficulties. Shown in 3 episodes, these stories about the complexities of relationships add up to much more than the sum of their parts.
Thanks to Modern Films
The hot tip for the Best International Film Oscar and perhaps even Best Picture itself, this Norwegian film will be a fitting way to close the Festival.
A wistful and subversive romantic drama about the quest for love and meaning in contemporary Oslo. It revolves around Julie, a vibrant and impulsive young woman who, on the verge of turning thirty, is faced with a series of choices that force her to continually reinvent and pursue new perspectives on her life. Over the course of several years, Julie navigates multiple love affairs, existential uncertainty and career dissatisfaction as she slowly starts to decide what she wants to do, who she wants to be with, and ultimately who she wants to become.
This life-affirming coming of age story deservedly won Reinsve the Best Actress award at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, and is nominated for two Academy Awards including Original Screenplay and International Feature Film, as well as two BAFTA awards including Leading Actress and Film Not in the English Language.
Thanks to MUBI
Construction of the Eiffel Tower might not have made an opening night movie, but the writers here have invented a back story about the muse that inspired the brilliant engineer to greater heights and changed the film to a love story; have they devised a good plot? The critics are totally split, as usual, so it is up to you to decide.
"Engineer extraordinaire Gustave Eiffel is unimpressed, on first pass, by the sketches of a giant metal pylon presented to him, as a possible centrepiece for the 1889 World's Fair in Paris. "It's ugly," he declares.
What changed his mind? The screenwriter of Eiffel, Caroline Bongrand, has concocted a theory, to do with a great lost love of his youth, a flighty ingénue called Adrienne Bourgès, whom Eiffel was prevented from marrying by her rich industrialist father.
As unproven propositions about historical figures go, this Francophone effort hews closer to 'Shakespeare in Love' than to 'Anonymous' – a fanciful embellishment of the facts, not a ripping up of every credible biography. Taken as a speculative romance, and in the right matinee spirit, it's lushly engaging, with a star pairing that – appropriately – rivets" – Tim Robey, Telegraph.
"Emmanuel Courcol channels the feel-good energy of films like 'The Full Monty' for his latest, which fictionalises the true story of Swedish actor Jan Jönson's attempt to help prisoners stage a version of Samuel Beckett's 'Waiting For Godot'.
Transporting the action to France, versatile star Kad Merat takes on the role of Étienne Carboni, an actor whose dreams of becoming a household name have remained just that. Étienne's latest project sees him venture inside the walls of a prison to provide theatre workshops for the inmates. It is here that he becomes inspired to try to stage Beckett's absurdist classic - after all, he reasons, few are more familiar with the concept of waiting in the same place and performing the same rituals day after day than prisoners" – Amber Wilkinson, Eye for Film.
So a French comedy drama, with director Emmanuel Corcol following the prisoners as they gradually gain interest in the play and confidence in their own ability. As Chris Knight says in the National Post "it's a fun performance to watch, and you don't even need to be well versed in Beckett to have a good time".
Girl leaves boy, meets boy, falls in love with...his wife. That is the only thing that is 'simple' about the life of Anaïs, who flits from one drama to the next... but can you resist her appeal?
"Anaïs spends half the movie racing at breakneck speed down sidewalks, up stairs, across fields, down hallways, into and out of elevators, always half an hour late for everything (and sometimes she doesn't show up at all). She barely apologizes for keeping people waiting. She just breezes through, chattering non-stop. No one can get a word in... Anaïs is so confident about her 'charms' that other people's obvious displeasure don't seem to bother her. She talks her way out of everything." - Sheila O’Malley, RogerEbert.com.
Both the lead actor, Anaïs Demoustier, and the director, Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet, get great reviews: "While Anaïs is a charismatic energy source, and Demoustier's fizzy, swirling portrayal as wonderfully in the moment as it can be, the filmmaker's astute treatment of Emilie — the beguiled target who knows how to re-shift the molecules in the air — is what ultimately, intelligently crystallizes the themes of seduction, pleasure and what's too often untapped about female power. It's easy to see what’s Rohmer-ian in the basic architecture of 'Anaïs in Love', yet there's no denying this is a narrative whose wisdom and nonjudgmental perspective on life, love and learning is a woman's. May we get many more tales of zestful turbulence from Bourgeois-Tacquet, a storyteller to watch" – Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times.
Put two actors who dislike each other in a film and you might have a disaster on your hands, but this is what Lola deliberately decides to do when given limitless money to make a movie. Starring "Penélope Cruz as Lola, a cutting-edge (read: screamingly pretentious) film director who's hired by an aging millionaire (José Luis Gómez) anxious to leave something behind as a legacy. (It's that or a bridge.) Given a hit novel to adapt – about two brothers locked in mutual hatred – and an unlimited budget, she casts Ívan (Oscar Martinez), the most respected theater actor of his generation, and Félix (Antonio Banderas), a movie star and sex symbol of the wattage of, well, Antonio Banderas" – Ty Burr’s Watch List.
'Official Competition' is, then a film about making a film which gives all three actors the chance to play comedy for a change, which they do to great reviews – "its lead performers Penelope Cruz, Antonio Banderas, and Oscar Martínez inhabit their fully-realized characters with such wit that it's a treat just to watch them exist" – Matt Zoller Seitz, RogerEbert.com. We think you will enjoy the treat too.
This is the third part of a loose Calabrian trilogy by director Jonas Carpignano. "At once a coming-of-age story and a mafia thriller, 'A Chiara' takes a look at organized crime in Southern Italy from the unique perspective of a teenage girl, Chiara (Swamy Rotolo). Her world is turned upside down after her father disappears and she tumbles down the rabbit hole after him, discovering he's a member of the 'Ndrangheta crime syndicate'" – Katie Walsh, The Wrap.
Taking non-professional actors in the first 2 parts, he extends their roles here: Chiara was a side character last time around, and now takes the lead, with Swamy Rotolo gaining great reviews as a fine actor in the making. Her real family play most of Chiara’s family – the Guerrasios - too.
Kate Walsh continues - "Carpignano immerses us into the world of the Guerrasio family at Giulia's 18th birthday party. It's a long, joyous, and celebratory scene, detailing all the small family dynamics, the loving rivalry between Chiara and Giulia, the close relationship the girls have with their father, who is a quiet, but proud man, and introduces the low-stakes conflict that is Chiara's uncles threatening to out her to her father as a smoker.
The party scene lulls the audience into a sense of warm safety, a bubble that's pierced dramatically, in an almost surreal fashion, when Chiara, curious about comings and goings at her house later that night, wanders into the street and witnesses a car bombing. There's Chiara before the explosion and Chiara after the explosion, and she'll never go back to who she was before"
Based on a true story from Communist Poland in 1983 when the Warsaw police beat to death an 18-year-old student and then covered this up right to the highest level of government. Whilst possibly hard to believe for us then, it seems a lot more believable with the recent swathe of police violence in the USA.
"It begins in high spirits, with two pals larking about in a Warsaw square, Grzegorz (Mateusz Górski) and Jurek (Tomasz Ziętek); when police demand to see the pair's ID, Grzegorz refuses – he knows his rights. His mum is Barbara Sadowska, a poet and outspoken critic of the communist government. At the station, he is brutally beaten up. At one point an older officer intervenes to berate a rookie for booting him in the back. Go for the stomach he barks: 'It leaves no marks.' Grzegorz dies two days later" – Cath Clarke, Guardian.
The state rushes in to try anything to cover this up, to leave no traces of the incident, but Jurek has seen it all and refuses to keep quiet...
This is director Jan P. Matuszynski's third film, having previously made a documentary and a fictional movie; this one falls between the two, giving us documentary-like detail in a John Carrie-like world of grey bureaucrats. The film was chosen as the Polish entry to the Oscars.
PLEASE NOTE THE LATER START OF 5:30pm
We start this week's session with a new short, animated film, 'THE FELL WE CLIMB', produced by young Cumbrians in collaboration with mentors from Anti-Racist Cumbria, based on their own experiences of "what it's like growing up in Cumbria if you aren’t white". The film will be introduced by Keswick school pupil Millie Williams, and lead animator, Lou Kneath of +3K Animation. This took the best part of a year to produce and should be interesting from both a 'black lives matter' perspective and as a great way to support young talent.
It provides great support for our main feature 'QUEEN OF GLORY', a dry comedy about the problems of Ghanaian people living in New York.
"Actress Nana Mensah makes an impressive debut as a writer-director with 'Queen of Glory', a dry comedy of culture clashes, both ethnic and generational. Mensah fondly depicts the world of a Ghanaian American who has for the most part kept her heritage at a distance. But even in New York City, far from her homeland, she inevitably reconnects with tradition" – Pat Padua, Washington Post.
"At the beginning of the film, Sarah is planning to drop out of grad school and move to Ohio with her married lover, who has been offered a university teaching position there. That changes when she gets a phone call informing her that her mother, Grace, has suddenly died from an aneurysm. The news throws Sarah for a loop and suddenly the life she's mapped out for herself seems less feasible, if not completely implausible. Instead of running off to the Midwest, Sarah returns to her childhood home in the Bronx and tries to navigate the aftermath of her mother's death, including planning a traditional funeral and running her family's Christian bookstore" – Lovia Gyarkye, Hollywood Reporter.
Mensah wrote, directed, and stars in the film, which was completed in 30 days, but took over seven years total to complete. Mensah stated that frustration with limited and stereotypical roles led her to create the film as an artistic outlet: "I wasn’t given artistic opportunities anywhere else, so I had to go out and make some." The film was funded through investors, Kickstarter campaigns, and Mensah's own savings.
"Pulpy yet swooningly romantic, Edwin's entertaining thriller has perhaps the coolest film title in recent years; it also won the Golden Leopard at last year's Locarno film festival. Adapted from the popular novel by Eka Kurniawan – the first Indonesian writer to be nominated for the Booker prize – this is a bombastic time capsule of 1980s Indonesia that is all about the essence of manhood. Left impotent by a childhood trauma, Ajo can't get it up, but he can certainly raise his fists, earning a reputation as a daredevil who chases death just to prove his virility.
Paved with hair-raising motorcycle duels and even murder plots, Ajo's path towards self-destruction is cut short by his encounter with Iteung, a girl hired as the bodyguard for one of the young man's intimidation targets. Cue the perfect meet-cute where the pair engage in thrilling hand-to-hand combat against the spectacular backdrop of a concrete dumping ground. And like any classic love scene, the camera lingers on their contorting bodies, accentuating the sensuality as much as the speed of martial arts moves.
An adrenaline-pumping action fest that is ironic in many respects, 'Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash' swerves towards the mystical and the spiritual in the latter half, becoming an earnest and potent critique on the trappings of masculinity" – Phuong Le, Guardian.
I couldn't have said it better myself: an Indonesian action movie with a lot to say.
A future supernatural classic for you? We have always said we wont put on any film that has been shown by the Alhambra, but we thought this should be an exception. Shown by them as part of their Summer World Cinema Season, we think there was only one film club member who saw it, so, with apologies to him, we think this is one that you should all have a chance to see.
We start in "a pleasant, if featureless residential development in Romsås, Oslo, with 60s-style high-rise buildings near an artificial lake and picturesque woodland. Ida is a moody nine-year-old who resents her mum and dad paying so much attention to her elder sister Anna, who is autistic. As the long hot summer drags on, Ida is left to play outside, and tasked with looking after Anna. But Ida leaves her sister alone on the swings one day while she goes off with a new friend: a boy called Ben who shows her a strange mental trick he can do, making a bottle cap fly through the air without touching it.
Meanwhile, Anna strikes up a friendship with a girl called Aisha, who has telepathic powers to match Ben's telekinesis. Aisha starts silently communicating in her mind with Anna, who – to her parents' overjoyed astonishment – is now able to speak, thanks to her new friend. But these superpowers, revealed as calmly and frankly as if in some social-realist drama, become forces for evil..." Is this all a metaphor for something? "...perhaps this film's force comes from the fact that there is no other level to find in it. They simply have these supernatural abilities, it is something to do with their being children, and that is all there is to it. The final 'duel' scene, taking place in almost complete silence and under the nose of the notionally competent adults, is a masterpiece of sorts. ‘The Innocents’ is a nightmare unfolding in cold, clear daylight" – Peter Bradshaw, Guardian.
Don't miss your 2nd chance to see this one!
We are taken back to Africa, the Kingdom of Dahomey in 1823 when the Agojie defended the kingdom against the Oyo Empire. 'So what?' you might say, but the Agojie were an elite unit of ALL FEMALE warriors. "Formally considered 'wives' of King Ghezo, unable to marry or have children of their own, their reputation for ferocity remains unparalleled – no one dares gaze upon them as they march through the streets" -Clarisse Loughrey, Independent.
On one level, this is a blockbuster historic war movie, disguising a black feminist story; a big hitter with a social conscience. Amazingly, it was considered unprofitable to make for three years; it has gone straight to the top of the US box office. With Viola Davis in the title role of Nanisca, director Gina Prince-Bythewood spurned ay use of CGI to keep the film feeling 'real', with (nearly) all the stunts being done by the actors themselves – no mean feat when you see the fight scenes! As Clarisse Loughrey goes on to say, "Davis, Mbedu, Lynch, and Atim's performances are all so unilaterally committed – not only to the hardened quality of these soldiers, but also to their gentility, their sense of humour, their pain, and their resolve – that the film's emotions are convincing and sincere. The Woman King isn't intended to be any ordinary account of history. It is a vibrant, restorative celebration of Black womanhood in all its glory".
Vesper is a 13-year-old girl trying to rebuild a dying world. "Set in 'the new dark ages' — a ruined tomorrow in which the engineered viruses and organisms that humanity created in order to stem the planet's ecological crisis have escaped into the wild and remade life on Earth into a dreary (but awesome) Cronenbergian wasteland full of fleshy droids, bioluminescent critters, and trees whose spores try to suck out your internal tissue while you sleep — Kristina Buozyte and Bruno Samper's 'Vesper' has already drawn several comparisons to the likes of 'Stalker' and the Andrei Tarkovsky-inspired 'Annihilation.' It’s easy to see why.
Told at the somnambulant [pace] of a European art film but plotted with the simplicity of a fairy tale, the filmmaking duo's first feature since 2012's 'Vanishing Waves' offers a dramatically uneven but imaginatively vivid feat of post-apocalyptic world-building that flips the script on so many other stories like it.
Instead of using a variety of unique details to flesh out its familiar dystopian premise about the tension between a rich society of elites — who've barricaded themselves within Edenic fortresses known as 'Citadels' — and the scavengers they've abandoned to the mutant wilderness beyond the city walls, 'Vesper' blurs that age-old saga of haves and have-nots into a distant backdrop for something more interested in the flora and fauna that have evolved around it. If humans can have such a profound effect on nature, what effect might nature have on humanity in return?" – David Ehrlich, IndieWire.
Winner of many awards around the world's film festivals and the Somali entry for the Oscars, "Finnish-Somali writer/director Khadar Ayderus Ahmed's tender romance 'The Gravedigger's Wife' follows Guled, as he spends his days waiting outside the hospital in Djibouti City with his friends for bodies to bury. He lives in relative poverty with his doting wife Nasra and their son Mahad. When Nasra's failing health due to a kidney infection sends the family into a tailspin, Guled and Mahad each seek money for her much-needed surgery" - Marya E Gates, RogerEbert.com.
Although the story is one of poverty, the director, Khadar Ayderus Ahmed, concentrates on the love between Guled and Nara, and even the reluctant love of their son Mahad - who is ashamed of their poor and illiterate lives - to bring out the craziness of a system that ensures a gravedigger cannot afford the medicines he needs to keep his wife alive. As he rushes back to his rural family and Mahad washes cars in the street in attempts to raise money, the love never dies; "Ahmed wisely allows his actors the room to be playful amongst the film's dramatic plot, bringing a true sense of familial bonds. Charming and wistful without ever feeling maudlin, 'The Gravedigger's Wife' is a beautiful love letter to the power of family" – Marya E Gates again.
Ruben Östlund becomes one of the few directors to win the Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival twice; this time has proved controversial with the reviewers as usual, splitting pretty much down the middle. All agree it is funny, some think it is hilarious, others that it is bad taste. Many think it has nothing really to say other than 'the rich are bad' whilst others think it is a brilliant pastiche of the usual Hollywood rich; how could we resist letting you decide for yourselves?
We follow two 'beautiful people' onto a freebie aboard a fabulously rich yacht with VERY wealthy people aboard, including some capitalist Russians. Captained by a disillusioned Marxist (Woody Harrelson), the crew have been told they cannot say 'no' to any request. All goes, well, swimmingly, until a huge storm hits and their worlds are turned upside down...
"Who could resist a film in which a sweet old lady watches a live grenade roll down the deck and come to a rest against her foot, then turns to her husband and says: 'Look, dear, it's one of ours'?" – Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph.
"[A] disappointingly blunt satire of class and status..." – David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter
"The thing about Östlund is that he makes you laugh, but he also makes you think" – Peter Debruge, Variety
"Ruben Östlund's takedown of the super-rich that plays like Buñuel by way of the Farrelly brothers" – Philip de Semlyen, Time Out.
What will you think...?
"From a mountain peak in South Korea, a man plummets to his death. Did he jump, or was he pushed? When detective Hae-joon arrives on the scene, he begins to suspect the dead man's wife Seo-rae. But as he digs deeper into the investigation, he finds himself trapped in a web of deception and desire" – Rotten Tomatoes.
Park Chan-wook won Best Director at Cannes this year for his latest film, and an array of great reviews – "A world-class artist at the top of his game" – David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter.
"The plot reads like a Hollywood erotic thriller from the early '90s – a 'Shattered' or 'Basic Instinct' – Park isn't here for the lurid thrills or wild twists" – Philip de Semlyen Time Out.
"It's a gorgeously and grippingly made picture and Tang Wei is magnificent" – Peter Bradshaw, Guardian. (I have never read him so gushing over a film).
Hae-joon is a married man, but, as he investigates the death, he begins to fall in love with Seo-rae. What follows is the classic Hitchcockian film noir, but, as Bradshaw continues, "Is Hae-Joon going to cover up for Seo-rae? Is she all that she appears to be? Well, audiences might think they broadly know the answers to both those questions, but the script by Park and Chung Seo-Kyung keeps you off-balance at every turn, periodically hitting you with new characters and fresh developments that you have to wait to understand. But each new scene had me propped further forward on my seat – further still for the second and then the third act – and Cho Young-Wuk's musical score forthrightly ratchets up the fear. And in every corner of the detective's life he finds a variation on a single question: at what point do you decide your marriage isn't working? When do you know that you are in love? What will trigger the decision to leave?"
Can you resist?!
Imagine a world where everything is taxed, where product placement happens in your dreams. Imagine a world where these dreams are all recorded online via an 'air-stick' next to your bed... so that these can be taxed too.
James Preble is a tax man whose job is to audit your dreams. He calls on Bella, an old lady, who has no tax records; she hasn't updated her hardware. So far so simple (!?) What happens when he starts to audit her dreams takes him (and us) into a world of dreams where pretty much anything can happen, including falling in love…
"'I think I'm losing my mind. - It's about time.'" This is a crucial exchange in 'Strawberry Mansion', a witty and thoughtful movie about one man's struggle to recognize the unreality of what is deemed accepted reality, and to embrace the logic of dreams over the morally compromised 'real' world. This makes 'Strawberry Mansion' sound pretty heady and abstract, but it isn't, not really. The film's metaphors are easily grasped, and the execution is whimsical and humorous, with strong internal logic as well as a big heart. It is only natural that James Preble feels like he is losing his mind in the la-la-land of 'Strawberry Mansion', when what is actually happening is he is finally seeing things for what they really are. His mind is free. 'It's about time.'" – Sheila O'Malley, RogerEbert.com.
This is a sweet, low budget whimsy, a refreshing change from all the blockbuster CGI-lead movies we are surrounded with in our lives; a dream come true? At the very least, it will be a strawberry treat for Christmas!
"It's difficult to think of the moments before a heartbreak and not lace them with omens. The mind, too often, moulds memories into prophecies. Colours get dialled up. Emotions solidify. It's a hard thing to talk about, let alone visualise. That's why 'Aftersun', the debut of Scottish filmmaker Charlotte Wells, is so astounding. She's captured the uncapturable, finding the words and images to describe a feeling that always seems to sit just beyond our comprehension.
Eleven-year-old Sophie (Frankie Corio) is on holiday with her dad, Calum (Paul Mescal), at a point in the Nineties when the Macarena was at its cultural apex. It's made clear that Calum isn't with Sophie's mother anymore. He moved to England; they stayed in Scotland. This trip to Turkey, which Calum can barely afford, is a rare opportunity for father and daughter to be together.
Except we’re not watching these events as they were, but as they're remembered – by an older Sophie (Celia Rowlson-Hall) under the strobe lights of a nightclub or a rave or, really, the chaotic confines of her own brain. We also see her play and replay an old VHS tape from the trip, trying to pinpoint some hidden truth… this shared time between Sophie and Calum marked the end of... something..." – Clarisse Loughrey, Independent.
As the recent winner of five of the British Independent Film awards, including Best Film and Best Director, this reviewer is not alone; 95% of Rotten Tomatoes critics liked it, many of them giving it 5 stars.
If you thought the super-rich in 'Triangle of Sadness' were a trifle mad (!), then wait till you see this one. The difference is that this is a documentary.
The film follows the whims of Bidzina Ivanishvili, the ex-president of Georgia. Now a billionaire, he has a hobby. He collects... trees. "But not just any trees: he favours huge, ancient and rare examples that have been a constant in the lives of the people of the Black Sea coast for generations. The chosen trees are gouged out of the ground, leaving raw gashes of stripped topsoil, and transported at vast expense and inconvenience to their new home, the Shekvetili Dendrological Park. ...his autocratic whims – part folly, part power flex – are the subject of much debate among the Georgian people. Some are gung-ho: he builds roads in order to transport the trees, improving the infrastructure of the area, they argue. More often, though, they weep over the aftermath of this ego-driven environmental vandalism" – Wendy Ide, Guardian.
The director, Salomé Jashi, was inspired to make the film – which took her and her crew two years to make - when she saw the tree floating by on a boat shown in the poster. She decided to make the documentary, leaving the local people and the viewer to make their own minds up about this strange juxtaposition of beauty and devastation.
Footnote: you may be pleased to know that his garden is now open to the public.
"Fact and fiction, truth and lies swirl about each other in Jafar Panahi's latest. The film - in which Panahi plays a version of himself - also deals with the age-old conundrum of whether to stay or go. Panahi himself doesn't currently have the latter option, having been detained by the Iranian authorities back in July and ordered to serve six years in prison. Given that, since the filmmaker was banned from making movies in 2010 by the regime, he has made 10 features and shorts, it's unlikely this latest act of repression will succeed in silencing him either" – Amber Wilkinson, Eye for Film.
"Panahi introduces two stories that extend in parallel throughout 'No Bears'. One follows the production of a film-within-the-film, that Panahi is attempting to direct via Zoom while stationed in the small village of Jaban on the Iranian side of the border. This tracks the attempts of a refugee couple stuck in the Turkish town for the last 10 years to escape to France. The other is a docufiction about Panahi's stay in Jaban and the suspicions and dramas his covert filmmaking rustles up" – based on a review by Jamsheed Akrami in Film Comment.
"No Bears starts in a gently comic tone, and we are fooled into expecting a gentle observation of rural Iran. But as he weaves his two stories together, the tone shifts at a nail-biting trot towards something more sinister. We're left not only fearing for Panahi's lovers, but for our director too. As he walks through the darkness to meet a group of angry men, a stranger gives him a piece of advice. Lie to them. They mostly do not care about the truth, only the appearance of the truth" – Greer McNally, Time Out.
Originally called 'Corset', this period drama puts a finger up to other period dramas just as Empress Elisabeth of Austria tries to do as she turns 40 and is deemed to be 'old': she refuses to accept this and wears her corset tighter each day to keep her figure and beauty as it has been, whilst finding more and more ways to keep her status in society and not be consigned to irrelevance. "Elisabeth toys with avoidance tactics and schemes to get herself out of the daily royal performance she is expected to endure. On a quest for personal freedom, she travels to England and Bavaria where former lovers once taught her to ride horses and embrace her liberty. She poses for portraits dressed in ball gowns with white fur trim and red jewels, smoking lilac Sobranies – a vision in kitsch" – Caitlin Guinlan, Little White Lies.
Elisabeth has had many dramas and documentaries made about her ever since she was alive and this is one of five films made in the last two years; she was to her time what Diana was to ours.
"What is rewarding about this picture, however, is the way that it interrogates her iconic status. By focusing on the Empress in middle age (or old age, given that forty was the average life expectancy for Austrian women in the late 19th century), the film touches on the loss of status of a woman who was valued almost entirely for her appearance. But more interestingly, it also suggests that aging can be a release, capturing that liberating, relatable moment of realisation that she is finally running out of f---s to give" – Wendy Ide, Screen International.
We are showing this film as part of the Alhambra MINT Chinese Film Festival.
"After Her college graduation, Yezi comes back home to spend her last summer vacation with her grandmother. The house is filled with grandma's memories that gradually begin to take shape in reality. Her grandma slips into the abyss of amnesia and time begins to lose meaning. Haunted by those memories, Yezi finds herself wandering among fragments of her family history." – Keswick Alhambra.
The winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance 2022: "Bolivian director Alejandro Loayza Grisi started his career as a photographer then turned to cinematography; now he makes his feature debut with this slow and beautiful-looking drama set high on the Andean plateau.
Utama opens with the staggeringly gorgeous image of an elderly man walking towards the sun rising golden over mountains. This is Virginio, whose weathered face is as cracked as the earth beneath his feet. Virginio spends his days tramping across the plain grazing his flock of fluffy llamas; he and his wife Sisa live without running water or power. They are a couple in real life, non-professionals discovered by Grisi as he drove around scouting locations. You can see that closeness in every gesture, in Sisa's arthritic fingers tenderly patting her husband's hand.
It's Sisa's job to fetch water while Virginio grazes the llamas. The trouble is that rain has stopped coming to the region; the village well has dried up. "Time has gotten tired," a friend tells Virginio, to explain the drought. But the truth is that climate change is making life unbearable – not that global warming is ever spoken about.
In fact, until the couple's grandson Clever shows up wearing a hoodie, we could just as easily be watching a film set in the 1920s as the 2020s. Clever wants his grandparents to move to the city with the rest of the family. What he fails to understand is that the question for Virginio and Sisa is not where to live, but where to die. And when they are gone, there will be no one left in the family to speak the indigenous Quechua language or live their way of life. It's a gentle and superbly shot film" – Cath Clarke, Guardian.
Hasna and Mariam are sisters, aged 9 and 7, running wild on the streets of Paris from a mother who doesn't want them. They are eventually sent to live in different foster homes, when Hasna's story (based on real life) takes a huge turn for the worst. "Traumatized by her past and the wrenching way Mariam was taken from her, Hasna copes by splintering off her identities — Moroccan immigrant, Parisian party girl, sexual libertine, tomboyish hothead — even as she desperately seeks to integrate them in the form of home and family. Using three actresses to play the adult Hasna, including Amer herself, the filmmaker gracefully dramatizes dissociation, both as a survival mechanism and as an increasingly fraught form of acting out... Hasna emerges as a fascinating but also troubling screen heroine, a courageous protector of the defenseless whose instincts have nowhere to go when Mariam disappears from her life." – Ann Hornaday, Washington Post.
You will have to come to see it to find out what happens to her, but the director Dina Amer uses documentary techniques as well as some clever effects to follow the changing life of this splintered character. If I say any more I will spoil it for you...
In the late 19th century, a young Danish priest travels to a remote part of Iceland to build a church and photograph its people. But the deeper he goes into the unforgiving landscape, the more he strays from his purpose, the mission and morality.
Visually stunning, Godland makes for a marvellous cinematic opener for Keswick Film Festival.
Thanks to Curzon Films
In the late 19th century, a young Danish priest travels to a remote part of Iceland to build a church and photograph its people. But the deeper he goes into the unforgiving landscape, the more he strays from his purpose, the mission and morality.
Visually stunning, Godland makes for a marvellous cinematic opener for Keswick Film Festival.
Thanks to Curzon Films
A wildlife volunteer on an uninhabited island off the British coast descends into a terrifying madness that challenges her grip on reality and pushes her into a living nightmare. Evoking the feeling of discovering a reel of never-before-seen celluloid unspooling in a haunted movie palace, this provocative and masterful vision … asserts Mark Jenkin (Bait) as one of the U.K.'s most exciting and singular filmmakers.
Thanks to BFI
Former actress Sangok (Lee Hyeyoung) is back in Seoul, after living abroad for many years. She stays with her sister Jeongok (Cho Yunhee) in her high-rise apartment and seem to share most of their lives. The siblings sleep late, have breakfast in a café and visit a restaurant owned by Jeongok's son. But through the details of the day (a spill on her blouse, an encounter at her childhood home), it becomes clear that there is much she is not revealing. These mysterious circumstances seem to have something to do with her decision to meet with film director Jaewon (Kwon Haehyo) to discuss her return to acting.
Thanks to Verve Pictures
Written and directed by Li Ruigin, this Chinese drama follows the lives and hardships of Ma Youtie and Cao Guiying in rural China. They are simple farmers who after an arranged marriage grow to love each other. They move into a series of unoccupied houses which are progressively demolished. Despite being a high-grossing film, Return to Dust was was removed without explanation from Chinese streaming services in the run-up to the party congress.
Thanks to Modern Films
Hélène and Mathieu have been happy together for many years. The bond between them is deep. Faced with an existential decision, Hélène travels alone to Norway to seek peace, an act that will test the strength of their love.
A powerful, dignified performance from Vicky Krieps made more poignant by the knowledge that her co-star, Gaspar Ulliel, later died in a skiing accident.
Thanks to Modern Films
Filmed in 2021, this is a lockdown drama exploring the effects on a film cast and crew of living alone during covid restrictions. The six interlinking narratives show us how they each cope with enforced isolation: an actor fears her best performance will never be shown and succumbs to depression, an editor agonises that she cannot visit her mother who is sick, a writer yearns for a colleague who has to return to an abusive ex-partner. A Bird Flew In is directed by Kirsty Bell in her debut film, and features an ensemble cast including Derek Jacobi and Sadie Frost.
Thanks to Jade Films
Signe and Thomas are in an unhealthy, competitive relationship that takes a vicious turn when Thomas suddenly breaks through as a contemporary artist. Signe lives without ambition, but when her partner suddenly experiences massive success, Signe makes a desperate attempt to regain her status by creating a new persona hell-bent on attracting attention and sympathy.
Thanks to Modern Films
Richie Bravo is a once-famous singer who returns from Italy to his Austrian home after the death of his mother. Here he has to pick up with his brother Ewald, his father who has dementia and doesn't realise that his wife is dead, and his alienated adult daughter Tessa, who demands money from him for abandoning her years before. The character of Richie was written for actor Michael Thomas following his impromptu singing of a Sinatra song on a previous shoot. Directed by Ulrich Seidl, Rimini won the Best Feature Film prize at the 2022 Diagonale.
Thanks to Sovereign Films
Iranian comedy is perhaps a genre new to KFF but Winners sets a superb precedent.
One day nine-year-old Yahya and his friend Leyla find a precious statue. Sharing a passion for cinema, Yahya's boss Nasser Khan decides to help them find the owner.
We are thrilled that that Director, Hassan Nazer will be in Keswick to introduce the film, which is the UK's entry for the Best International Film Oscar.
Thanks to Modern Films
In Chile in the winter of 1976, Carmen heads off to her beach house to supervise its renovation. Her husband, children and grandchildren come back and forth during the winter vacation. When the family priest asks her to take care of a young man he is sheltering in secret, Carmen steps onto unexplored territories, away from the quiet life she is used to. This feature debut by Manuela Martelli explores one woman's struggle with misogyny and corruption under Pinochet's rule.
Thanks to Verve Pictures
Keswick Peace and Human Rights Group presentation + director Q&A
Fadia, a dynamic Palestinian refugee stranded in Lebanon yearns for the ancestral homeland she's denied. She challenges her friend, the director, to find the ancient mulberry tree that stands as witness to her family's existence, guided only by inherited memories, a blind man and a two-headed dragon. Spanning fifteen years, this story of a friendship that stays connected across a divided land and a fragmented people, adopts a birds' eye perspective to reflect on freedom of movement, exile and the hope of return.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the Director Sarah Beddington
Thanks to Verve Pictures
This is a road film with a difference as we follow the travels and fortunes of Eo, a donkey born in a Polish circus. Inspired by Robert Bresson's 1966 film Au Hasard Balthazar, Director Jerry Skolimowski shows us modern Europe through Eo's eyes, and we experience the happiness and despair of his encounters along the way. Eo won the Jury prize at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, and is Poland's entry for the 2023 Oscars.
Thanks to BFI
What Do We See is picking up a lot of traction on social media and is a proper 'festival film!'
In the Georgian riverside town of Kutaisi, summertime romance and World Cup fever are in the air. After a pair of chance encounters, pharmacist Lisa and soccer player Giorgi find their plans for a date undone when they both awaken magically transformed - with no way to recognize each other.
Thanks to Verve Pictures
Ugyen, wants to be a singer and move to Australia. However, his National Service requires him to be a teacher and in light of his indifference to the role, he is sent to the most remote school on earth, much against his will. Visually stunning and emotionally uplifting, Lunana, which is the first film from Bhutan to be nominated for an Oscar, may be the hit of the Festival.
Thanks to Peccadillo Pictures
Screening sponsored by KE Adventure Travel
KE Adventure Travel offers over 360 active adventures in 90 countries worldwide. Best known for its pioneering itineraries and challenging trips with an 'edge', KE also offers an exciting range of easier guided and self-guided walking, cycling, family and wildlife journeys throughout the world. Based in Keswick in the Lake District, KE are passionate about creating unique travel experiences for their customers. Established in 1984, KE Adventure Travel is a member of ABTA (W4341), AITO (5075) and holds an ATOL license (2808). www.keadventure.com.
In 1988, the Government's clause 28 aimed to prohibit the promotion of homosexuality in schools. Unintended consequences, then, for teacher Jean in this tender film described as a future queer classic, a remarkable debut feature from Georgia Oakley.
Thanks to Altitude
Call My Agent's Laure Calamy stars as mother of two, Julie is making ends meet, getting by as the head chambermaid of a five-star hotel in Paris, with only sporadic alimony payments from her ex-husband. Each meticulously-planned day starts before sunrise, preparing the kids for school and undertaking a long commute to work. But when a national railway strike breaks out Julie's routine is thrown into chaos, pushing her into a frenetic race against time that threatens everything she's worked so hard for.
Thanks to Jade Films
Set in Tahiti, the film follows the louche life of the French High Commissioner. As rumours of French nuclear tests in the Pacific grow, his privileged lifestyle is threatened.
Thanks to Verve Pictures
The Dardennes' latest film is set in Belgium, where a young boy and an adolescent girl who have travelled alone from Africa pit their invincible friendship against the cruel conditions of their exile.
It was Mark Kermode's Film of the Week upon its release. In his review he said "While some may baulk at the Dardennes flirting with the thriller genre, …(the two young actors)… keep the film's feet firmly on the ground delivering a hefty emotional punch built in equal measure on empathy, admiration and anguish."
Thanks to Picturehouse Entertainment
Director Carla Simón has created a superb drama where ties of family and a sense of place are paramount.
As far as they can remember, the Solé family have spent every summer picking the peaches from their orchard in Alcarràs, a small village in Spain. But this year's crop could be their last, as they face eviction. The new plans for the land include cutting down the peach trees and installing solar panels, which causes a rift within the large tight-knit family. For the first time, they face an uncertain future and risk losing more than their home.
Winner of the Golden Bear at Berlin.
Thanks to MUBI
Bohemia meets Activism in this extraordinary documentary, directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed is an epic, emotional and interconnected story about internationally renowned artist and activist Nan Goldin told through her slideshows, intimate interviews, ground-breaking photography, and rare footage of her personal fight to hold the Sackler family accountable for the overdose crisis that is plaguing the USA.
A life and lifestyle unimaginable to the majority of us, Nan Goldin’s story is utterly compelling.
Thanks to Altitude
In one of Morocco's oldest medinas, Halim and Mina run a traditional caftan store. Trade is busy, particularly with some of the demanding customers. To help keep up they employ a young man Youssef. The talented apprentice shows an utmost dedication in learning the art of embroidery and tailoring from Halim. Slowly Mina realizes how much her husband is moved by the presence of the young man.
Thanks to Verve Pictures
The Rana family appears to be a happy and traditional one, hoping for the birth of a boy to continue the line. Assumptions and standards are unravelled when the youngest son secretly joins a dance theatre and falls in love with a trans starlet. Written and directed by Saim Sadiq, this is his first feature length film. It received a standing ovation at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Queer Palm prize for best LBGTQ, queer or feminist theme movie.
Thanks to Studio Soho
Adam, the son of a fisherman, is offered the ultimate privilege to study at the Al-Azhar University in Cairo, the epicentre of power of Sunni Islam. Shortly after his arrival in Cairo, the university's highest ranking religious leader, the Grand Imam, suddenly dies and Adam soon becomes a pawn in a ruthless power struggle between Egypt's religious and political elite.
Thanks to Picturehouse Entertainment
Winner of the Coup de Coeur prize at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, Lola Quivoron's debut feature film is set in the thrilling underworld of motor-cross racing in the Parisian suburbs. Julie Leary starts as Julia, a self-reliant young woman who is drawn into these illegal urban "Rodeos". Her passionate and fearless riding challenge the macho culture as she seeks to find a place in this outcast community.
Thanks to Curzon
KFF has screened just about every Kore-eda film and this modern morality tale is another absolute joy.
The film follows two brokers (one of whom is played by Parasite's Song Kang-ho) who sell orphaned infants, circumventing the bureaucracy of legal adoption, to affluent couples who can't have children of their own. After an infant's mother surprises the duo by returning to ensure her child finds a good home, the three embark on a journey to find the right couple, building an unlikely family of their own.
Thanks to Picturehouse Entertainment
Ali Abbasi was born in Iran but educated and works in Denmark. His third film here is about Iran, but was made in Jordan as he was not allowed to film in Iran. It is a crime thriller, based on a real serial killer in the early 2000s who targeted female sex workers in Mashad, but the reason we thought we should show it is that is portrays how hard it is for women in Iran. With the recent murder of Mahsa Amini, and the resulting women-led protests, this becomes doubly relevant.
"The film dramatizes the true story of a serial killer who murdered 16 prostitutes in 2000-2001. Saeed Hanaei was a labourer and Iran-Iraq War veteran who reportedly began his crime spree when someone mistook his wife for a prostitute. During and after his rampage, he claimed he had God on his side, saying he was on a jihad to rid Mashhad's streets of its most corrupt elements. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of his story was that the killer became a hero to some before his execution...Abbasi constructs his narrative in three main strands, one following Saeed not just on his murderous crusade but also in the mundane day-to-day of his family life; another observing some of his victims (most of the women are poor and drug-addicted) before their murders, and a third following Rahimi[a journalist] as she tries to investigate the killings, which at times puts her in harm's way." – Godfrey Cheshire, RogerEbert.com.
This may be a hard-watch in places, but should give us a lot to discuss. It is also the Danish entry for the Oscars and was nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes, where Zar Amir-Ebrahimi won best actress for her portrayal of Rahimi.
A young woman attends the trial of another woman as research for her own project, but gradually comes unstuck as her own emotional chords are struck. "Documentarian Alice Diop's narrative debut 'Saint Omer' is a visually arresting courtroom set drama that explores the similarities (and distinct differences) between two young women of Senegalese descent living in France. Rama (Kayije Kagame), a novelist, feels drawn to the story of Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanda), a young woman on trial for the murder of her 15-month-old daughter. Both women are academically inclined, with complicated relationships to their own mothers. Both women occupy a liminal space between Senegal and France. While Rama is shown as an accepted academic, Laurence is continually othered, with those observing the trial shocked at her “sophisticated” command of French (to which Rama tells her agent she just sounds like any other educated woman.)" – Marya E Gates, RogerEbert.com.
"Although technically a work of fiction, 'Saint Omer' is fiercely documentary-like in its concerns. The questions it conjures are not the anticipated emotional ones, rather they challenge the audience, asking: what expectations do we carry about a person like Laurence? Do we want to believe that she is evil? Crazy? Is she the product of a 'foreign' culture? Is there someone else in her life that we could pin this on?" – Sophie Monks Kaufman, IndieWire.
Nominated for many awards, this could lead to a very interesting 'outro' in Keswick!
You are very poor and desperate for more money. Your father is very ill – dying - and there is nothing you can do to help his suffering. A gangster on the run comes along and offers you money to hide in your isolated house for some time, but the deal is that he replaces your father... what would you do? This might have made a great story just like that, but director/writer Carolina Markowicz has gone one further by adding humour.
"The stereotypes of sophisticated drug kingpin and naïve rural dwellers are turned on their heads in Carolina Markowicz's lively deadpan comedy, which screened as part of the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. Rather than playing it as a straight culture clash, Markowicz introduces farcical elements as it emerges that country life is anything but simple, explores the clash of masculine egos between the privileged mobster and Irene's much more temperamental, frequently inebriated husband Jairo, and observes Miguel's gradual disintegration as the waiting game becomes more Kafkaesque' – Jennie Kermode, Eye for Film.
The audience who saw Jafar Panahi's 'No Bears' recently were keen to see his son's first film, which has debuted to great reviews, won 'Best Film' at the London Film Festival and made 28 in the BFI top 50 for last year; here it is.
"A family is making a tense, hot, uncomfortable road trip in a borrowed car through remote north-western Iran, heading apparently for the Turkey/Azerbaijan border. The elder son is at the wheel, a quiet young guy who says little but often seems in the grip of an intense, suppressed emotion. Pantea Panahiha is excellent as his mum, sitting in the front passenger seat, bantering drily with her husband in the back: a shambling, grumpy bear of a man with a broken leg in a plaster cast and a consistent need to smoke. Next to him is a wacky 8-year-old boy who gives a glorious performance: always clowning around, winding down the window and winding everyone up. Their ailing dog, Jessy, in the back, keeps needing to be taken out for calls of nature... Great child acting is rare: so is great adult acting, and so is great directing of children and adults. But they all come together in this lovely, beautifully composed debut feature drenched in a subtle but urgent political meaning" – Peter Bradshaw, Guardian. The reason they are travelling is left until late in the film.
The journey takes them through some wonderful landscapes, captured by Amin Jafari (who also worked on 'No Bears'), and is full of humour and sadness which, as Mark Kermode points out in the Observer, "is the key to this enchanting movie's magical spell".
We are starting with a film that should have lots of local interest - based around the foot and mouth disease outbreak in 2001, which affected 2000 farms across the country, and resulted in over 6 million cows and sheep being killed to stem it. Although this film is based on a farm in Devon, Cumbria was the worst affected, with nearly 900 cases.
The film started out in life as a stage play, written by Bea Roberts, which itself won many awards. The film has been made by the same people - director Paul Robinson, writer Bea Roberts and main actors, David Fielder and Nigel Hastings - so you can see it is a labour of love.
I can't give you many facts to go on as we are writing pre review stage, but the film makers, Finite Film and TV, say simply "A heart-warming story of friendship and survival set against the backdrop of the 2001 Foot and Mouth outbreak...tells the story of an unlikely friendship between a Devon farmer and the vet who is assigned to cull his precious herd". Hopefully we will have more to tell you before 10 September. What I can say is that we have been promised the director, Paul Robinson, to introduce and take a Q&A, and we are trying to get some local farmers and/or vets to come along to give their memories, so we should have a great start to the season.
Sometimes life just seems too big to cope with, and this film follows a family where that is all too true. Centred on the mother, Clara (Penelope Cruz) who is cracking up trying to keep here family together; trying to ignore her husband's extra marital shenanigans and trying to understand her eldest daughter, Adriana, who - if she only knew it back in 1970 Rome where this is set - is suffering from gender dysphoria and insists on being called Andrea.
Clara's way of coping is to identify with her children, and behaving like them - running through the streets shouting, even hiding under the table at a dinner party. There is still time for some beautiful tender moments with them, and, of course, being played by Penelope Cruz does help — she is fast building a reputation for these parts.
The character of Andrea is loosely based on director Emanuele Crialese's younger life, so he does empathise with his/her experience, giving the film a realistic feel. This is aided by some great acting from Luana Guiliani who plays Andrea "Sloe-eyed newcomer Giuliani, who identifies as a cisgender female in real life, is remarkable in a role that requires equal measures of innocence, sensitivity, and anger" - Steve Davis, Austin Chronicle.
An edge-of-the-seat police drama for you here, with a difference; it is based on a real case...and one that was not solved. (They tell us this upfront so I am not giving anything away). A young woman is murdered walking home one night. The police begin to investigate but can't find the killer, not because there are no suspects, but because there are so many; Clara was a party animal who liked 'bad boys'. The police are convinced it was an ex-boyfriend...but which one?
In one sense, then, a straight, if well-crafted, 'police procedural' thriller, but the director Dominik Moll makes us realise, without saying anything specific, that there is an underlying concern here. All the police investigating are men; are they judging Clara for her behaviour, blaming the victim for the crime?
The captain, Yohan Vivès , is on his first case, and he does his best - the murder takes over his life - but he cannot see the blind spots in their work. "This is where 'The Night of the 12th' works. When a female judge asks for the case to be re-opened three years later and calls Yohan in to discuss, he says, confusedly, "Something is amiss between men and women." Such a simple word but so eloquent. He knows what's wrong. He can see it in front of him! He just isn't sure how it might apply. The screenplay is excellent (the film won six Césars earlier this year, including Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Film)." - Sheila O'Malley, RogerEbert.com.
Leon (Thomas Schubert) goes away to his friend Leon's parents' house for some peace and quiet to write his book. When they arrive, they find the house is not empty; Leon's Mum forgot to tell him that Nadja was already staying there... and the forest fire is getting closer and closer... "This is a film about youth, climate change, ego, artistry and, well, being a human in the world. So naturally the main protagonist is an arrogant, off-putting writer aggrieved by everything and everyone around him as he tries to work on his latest novel in a would-be idyllic setting" - Lindsey Bahr, Associated Press.
"Winner of the World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize, 'Scrapper', directed by Charlotte Regan, is a delightfully hilarious film from the UK. After her mom dies, Georgie, 12, lives alone in her flat, supporting herself by stealing bikes with her friend Ali. Everything seems to be going well until a young man shows up who claims to be her estranged father, Jason. Georgie is too grown up, Jason too immature, and she's suspicious about why he has appeared after being a deadbeat dad all these years. Scrapper is just one of those sweet, funny films that takes pleasure in the wonder of youth, with really tight, honest writing that is unexpected and fun" - Josh Flanders, Chicago Reader.
Sounds like a winner to us!
A love story across two decades and two continents, which might make you cry with joy or sadness...Na Young leaves Korea (and her friend Hae Sung) with her parents as a young girl, bound for Canada. She rekindles the relationship on Skype, 12 years later, now called Nora, but life gets in the way. Another 12 years go by, she is living in New York and married to Arthur when Hae Sung comes to visit...will they reconnect, or will life and Arthur win out?
This is not a conventional love triangle—there are no baddies here, just a woman with many 'what-ifs' and two distinct lives. "'Past Lives' feels so deliciously restrained that it makes even quiet dramas seem histrionic. And yet it's a wide emotional field that gives its characters room to breathe. For all its bittersweet ness, it's also a deeply satisfying experience that deals with intimate subjects in global terms. Or maybe the other way around? Either way, if 'Past Lives' isn't 2023's best film, we're in for an incredible year of cinema" - John Wenzel, Denver Post.
Greta Lee, who plays Nora is made for the part, being a Korean who has been living in the States for most of her life; the film made her go through similar emotions. "Lee and her co-star Teo Yoo are electric together, conveying an excess of feelings both unspoken and not fully understood through their graceful exchange of looks and dialogue" - Trace Sauveur, Austin Chronicle.
Could we agree with John Wenzel, or will another incredible film be our favourite?
"'My name is Maureen Kearney. I didn't lie. I didn't make anything up.' This French drama about a blood-boiling real-life case of injustice is the story of whistleblower and rape survivor Maureen Kearney, who for four years lived with a criminal record: falsely convicted of wasting police time, accused of inventing her rape" - Cath Clarke, Guardian.
Irish woman Maureen Kearney (played magnificently, as always, by Isabelle Huppert), was a trade union leader in France in 2011. Working in a large nuclear engineering company, she finds out that the new management are planning to sell off France's nuclear technology to China. Her life changes when she turns whistleblower; she begins to get threats at home and eventually, a masked man breaks in and brutally sexually assaults her.
"The thing is, to the police, she is the wrong kind of victim. Why is she so composed? She doesn't cry, and tells her story calmly, like she's rehearsed it, the lead detective says. Kearney's #MeToo legal hell begins" - Cath Clarke again.
This is not a comfortable film to watch, especially when we remember this actually happened. Her life was doubly wrecked, first by the attack and then by the barrage of lies spread about her by the police and judiciary. There are even some reviewers who knock the film itself - "I'd be the first to admit La Syndicaliste isn't perfect (much of the camera-work is anonymous; there are multiple loose ends). But the nuclear force of Huppert's performance makes such gripes irrelevant. La Syndicaliste shows how easy it is to destroy the lives of low-paid workers and those who represent them. No Gallic shrug from Huppert. She gives a damn" - Charlotte O'Sullivan, Evening Standard.
Powerful stuff...
Joel Edgerton plays the gardener in Sigourney Weaver's estate, but we soon realise he has not always been a gardener. "He describes a certain sensation as 'the buzz you get just before pulling the trigger.' A viewer may notice that [he] always wears long-sleeved shirts, even as the weather gets warmer. It's curious. Then, [in his bedroom], he strips to the waist in front of the mirror. During my first viewing of the movie, this was the point in which I wrote, 'What the f—k is going on?' And I left it at that writing from Venice last year - and I'm still going to leave it at that. The mileage other critics give you will definitely vary; the plot has also been discussed in a spate of recent Schrader interviews. But if there's a chance that you can walk into this film innocent, you should. That's the way the movie will best work on you" - Glen Kenny, RogerEbert.com. Can you resist reading the reviews?
Set in a near-deserted, Covid Tokyo, this is a beautiful study of the small, slow but steady young woman Keiko who has been deaf since birth. She takes to boxing as a way to break out of her isolated world, but then has to face up to her loss of the desire to win and the closure of her gym, run by her major supporter Mr Sasaki. "It requires a personal search by the intensely quiet Keiko, helped by the silent bond shared between herself and Mr. Sasaki, to pull her forward. [The actors] Miura and Kishii are wonderful together. Their father-daughter dynamic adds an external heartwarming mood in a movie where the greatest drama often occurs internally" - Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com.
So who wants to see a film starring Alexandra Burke, singing Tina Turner songs? Not you? Well, think again! "'Pretty Red Dress' is a debut feature starring a one-time X Factor winner so, you know, kill me now. But it's a thin week and I'll cut it some slack and be kind, like it says on the T-shirts. That was my thinking, because, as is now obvious, I can be a patronising fool. This is a terrific film. It's original, has heft, is magnificently performed, and it blew me away" - Deborah Ross, The Spectator.
Convinced yet? Well if I go on to say it also stars another magnificent newcomer - Natey Jones - playing the tough, just-released from-prison, South London drug dealer, who just happens to have a thing for wearing women's dresses, and that their teenage daughter, Kenisha (played by Temilola Olatunbosun, also to great reviews) has problems of her own, you might begin to see that this could be a film well worth your time.
The film is written and directed by relative newcomer Dionne Edwards who was named as one of Screen International's Stars of Tomorrow in 2019 ; one to look out for? "Edwards's film plays a lot with stereotypical conventions surrounding gender expectations. It's a bold commentary on the many roles we play to fit in with society whilst learning to be comfortable in our own skin. Both Jones and Burke give stellar performances. Jones' tormented portrayal contrasts beautifully with Burke's strong-willed Candice, who yearns to escape her low paid job for a glimmer of stardom. As secrets unravel, their emotional conflict translates into a fascinating look into dominance and vulnerability" - Kelechi Ehenulo, Empire.
As Tina Turner herself might well have said, "You're simply the best"...
"'The Beasts' is a rural psychological thriller from Spain that has won many awards across Europe and it is a riveting, merciless study of human nature, so cleverly tense throughout that even a game of dominoes becomes menacing. You didn't know a game of dominoes could be menacing? Trust me, it can. You might never be able to look at a pack of dominoes again without feeling menaced" - Deborah Ross, The Spectator.
The awards it has won include the French Cesar award for best foreign film and Best Film at the Spanish Goya Awards plus many best acting awards for the stars Denis Ménochet and Marina Foïs - both big names with over 170 films between them (you can see Marina Foïs again in 'La Syndicaliste'). Based loosely on a true story of a Dutch couple who moved to Spain, here we have Antoine and Olga, a French couple, who have moved to a tiny hamlet in Galicia to set up an organic farm. The trouble is the locals, 'hill people', do not understand them - they consider farming to be just hard work and want out. Battle lines were set when the incomers vetoed a communal plan to sell out to a wind-turbine company.
Two brothers, Xan and Lorenzo, are the main local protagonists goading Antoine especially, who eventually retaliates by filming the brothers… not a good move. "This leads inexorably to the most dramatic pivot in 'The Beasts', when Olga and, to a lesser extent, her daughter, Marie, become the protagonists. The film, then, is as much about the beastliness of Xan and Antoine's outmoded machismo as it is about the perseverance and fortitude of women in opposition to it." - William Repass, Slant Magazine.
"Tomas (the outstanding Franz Rogowski) has just finished his latest film. At the wrap party he complains to a man at the bar that no one wants to dance with him. The random woman next to him overhears and offers. This is Agathe (the incredible Adèle Excharopoulos) …Tomas grins and meets Agathe on the floor. As they dance, the man with whom Tomas was talking makes his goodbyes; we realize he is Tomas's husband, the English Martin (a superb Ben Whishaw). Between Agathe and Tomas, one thing shortly leads to another. But when someone is as careless in their personal life as Tomas is, no path is ever straightforward" - Sarah Man vel, Critic's Notebook. "A love triangle unfolds in 'Passages,' a sexy, European drama. Most viewers…will be entranced by this wicked study of a man who uses people in his life like the actors on his set, ordering them around until he gets what he needs from them" - Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com.
Two brothers and their mothers are immigrants to Toronto in the 1970s violence there. Francis has to protect his younger brother Michael, whilst teaching him to become a man in the gang community they live in. "The result is a stunning, tender and compelling story of brotherly love, family and friendship that isn't afraid to challenge outdated notions of masculinity while offering us a searing portrait of community oppression and racism. Brother is a hauntingly beautiful cinematic adaptation of [author] Chariandy's work" - Neil Baker, Cinerama Film.
Clement Virgo's 'Brother' is that wonderful thing: the unexpected standout. "It's easily the best premiere of the [Toronto] fest for me. Virgo unabashedly admires the work of Barry Jenkins, particularly 'If Beale Street Could Talk,'... but he's also got his own confident, lyrical voice. His complex film unpacks Black grief in a way we haven't really seen that often. We've seen many stories about struggle and violence, but rarely the emotional and even physical toll that it takes on loved ones and an entire community" - Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com.
Inspired by her brother's real experience of the Bataclan attack in Paris, Alice Winocour (who co-wrote the magnificent 'Mustang' we saw here in 2016), places Mia, by a huge mis chance, in a restaurant which is attacked by a terrorist gunman. Mia "finds herself completely broken by the experience…" - Wendy Ide, Observer. We see the whole event through Mia's eyes, crouched on the floor with just the gunmen's feet in view; the tension this creates sets the scene for the whole film, but this film is not really about the attack, who did it or why, it is about the effect on a survivor, Mia. Wendy Ide goes on to say "Three months after the event, she starts the process of piecing together her shattered memories of the attack, even as she comes to realise that some elements of her life are beyond repair".
This is the main driver of the movie; we see Mia, unable to get over her shock, repeatedly revisiting the restaurant to work out what happened. Here she meets up with other survivors and bereaved relatives. She becomes even more desperate to remember when someone accuses her of causing harm by her actions that night.
Alice Winocour makes the film an exploration of the recovery rather than the horror of the attack as most terrorist films do. "'Paris Memories' is an emotionally searing exploration of the rippling effects of trauma, but it's not all doom and gloom. With its emphasis on empathy and solidarity, the film demonstrates that the human spirit can be lifted by something as simple as a hand held in the dark" - Yasmin Omar, Empire.
Virginie Efira, who plays Mia, gets amazing reviews for her performance and it won her the César Award for Best Actress.
We finish this season with an unusual love story, both in characters and place, whilst the twists and turns will keep you guessing along the way. Set in the beautiful but barren Outer Hebrides, with the lovers in their autumn years, will it all turn out for good… or will it go sour? "'Nobody Has to Know' from writer, director and leading man Bouli Lanners is a moving study of love that comes too late. Phil (Lanners) is an islander, originally from Belgium, who enjoys the hard outdoor life. The locals are simple, religious, and plain spoken. While walking alone on the cold beach he suffers a stroke; he loses his memory but makes a recovery. Millie played with tremendous intensity by Michelle Fairley, is a local woman assigned to take care of him; she tells him a lie, that they were secretly together before his stroke" - Ann Brodie, What She Said.
"'Nobody Has To Know' goes beyond those melodramatic roots to explore a more measured, complex story of how to escape the straitjacket of a settled past to create a future based on a more honest understanding. Side shoots of the story convey the family circumstances that have shaped both Phil and Millie, with Julian Glover co-starring as her dour, taciturn father Angus" - Allan Hunter, Screen Daily
"The widescreen film looks, for lack of a better word, stunning. Lanners background in landscape painting has been a constant in his work, with the empty, wide or overwhelming landscapes frequently strong psychological indicators rather than just pretty backdrops" - Boyd van Hoeij, Film Verdict.
A lovely tale of 'almost-doomed' romance starts our 25th Year. Ansa is sacked from her shelf-filling, supermarket job for taking home out-of-date food to give to the poor. Holoppa is sacked from his job in a scrapyard for drinking at work. All looks lost for both of them until they meet at an eclectic karaoke bar (!) and love beckons... but a lost address and even a charming stray dog still stand in their way... You have guessed it - Aki Kaurismäki is back with his latest comedic look at the world and its problems.
"The tale is in its telling", as David Jenkins says in Little White Lies, and no-one tells a tale like Kaurismäki - remember 'Other Side Of Hope' we had here in 2017? He has won 60 awards along the way and this one won him the Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival.
"Present and correct is his usual shadowy noir lighting and a jukebox soundtrack of Finnish and other ballads. It builds on his other stories of Finnish working-class woe and wears its film-loving heart on its sleeve with wry nods to other directors throughout.
Particular to Fallen Leaves is a deep, amused sigh at the limitations of men and alcohol, especially when paired. But it's not judgy, just jaded, at least until the clouds finally start to part. It finds genuine humour in its characters' almost down-and-out lot, but it's fully on their side – the side of those trampled on by modern times" - Dave Calhoun, Time Out.
We hesitated about showing this documentary, but the constantly great reviews (100% on Rotten Tomatoes, 8.7 on IMDb) and the number of members who voted for it, persuaded us it should be seen: An inside view of the Russian occupation of this Ukrainian city is not going to be an easy watch, but probably one we all should see.
Near the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the city of Mariupol took the brunt of weeks of shelling and fighting. When Russia invaded the city, "The Ukrainian Associated Press journalist and film-maker Mstyslav Chernov was there for 20 days, and filed video reports that helped to galvanise western opinion, particularly the horrific images of mass graves. But this movie is the uncut, unexpurgated version: the real nightmare, the real explicit obscenity which no TV executive would put on the nightly news" - Peter Bradshaw, Guardian.
Whilst Chernov inevitably shows much of this nightmare, he also disproves many of the Russian myths: "During the siege, Russian propaganda claimed that bombing victims were plants, singling out one wounded pregnant woman as 'an actress' wearing make-up. Chernov's footage shows that very woman stumbling, dazed through the rubble. There are no actors here" - Phil de Semlyen,Time Out.
The Ukrainian people are still suffering and dying.
Lest we forget...
A beautiful, gentle film about family, identity and so much more, which won its star, Sofia Otero the Best Actress award at the Berlin Festival… not bad for an 8 year old. Sofia plays Cocó, the youngest son of Ane, who is having problems with her marriage. When Ane takes her family to visit her own mother Lita in Spain, her own identity as a sculptor is thrown into doubt by Lita. Coco meanwhile is more and more sure he is a girl in a boy's body; the only person to accept this is her great aunt Lordes, who is happy with her bees, and with calling her Lucía. So...Pretty well the whole family have identity problems of their own.
The first film by Basque director Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren, this is a heart-warming attempt to look at some of these huge issues with an open mind, letting Lita tell Ane that she is being too soft on her son, that he just needs putting in his place, while Ane is allowed to support Coco/Lucia without making any real decisions, leaving only Lourdes to take Lucia's side, while she gets on looking after her thousands of bees...
"And Lucía's grandmother is unlikely to be the only person who will push back against the idea of an eight-year-old questioning their gender identity. It's the most scalding of hot-button topics and a brave choice for a debut film. But with this gentle, empathic picture, Urresola joins a conversation that usually plays out as a screaming match, and tones it down to a murmur. It turns out that you hear a lot more that way" - Wendy Ide, Guardian.
The Palme d'Or winner at Cannes this year is a whodunnit, deliberately built around uncertainty, where marriage is the prime suspect.
Sandra, a German author is married to Samuel, a French aspiring author. They live in an Alpine chalet with their visually impaired son Daniel. Their marriage is argumentative, which becomes especially important when Samuel is found dead outside in the snow. Did he fall? Did he commit suicide? ...Or was he pushed? In a world where perceptions are more important than truth, the police accuse Sandra of murder. But did she do it?
Their marriage is picked over by both sides in the court, where any given 'fact' can be seen to have different meaning - "Marriage, the film suggests, is like a mosaic. One or two highly coloured tiles might catch the eye but they can't, on their own, show the whole picture" - Wendy Ide, Guardian. Much of the film, then, is a courtroom drama, but Wendy Ide goes on to say "A genre that can be prone to stuffiness and overly waffly dialogue, the courtroom drama here is electric, restlessly dynamic and compulsively watchable".
Is she guilty? You will have to decide. "Each individual presents a starkly different vision of their shared existence - yet it's hard to say that either of them is wrong. Does the truth lie somewhere in between or does it encompass both of their realities? Or does it (gasp) simply not exist? The curse of wanting to know everything, it turns out, is the eventual realization that we know nothing" - Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine.
Can you resist coming to see for yourself..?
A last minute replacement for Lost In The Stars which we hope to try and show again at a future date.
From the Mint Chinese Film Festival Website:
Synopsis
This is a story about how people and animals finally get along. A snow leopard breaks into the sheep pen of a nomad and kills nine rams. Father and son then argue: the son insists on killing the snow leopard, but the father insists on releasing it.
Curator's Note
Snow Leopard is an extraordinary vision of human relations with other animals. More specifically, it sets out the complex dynamics of animal conservation and Tibetan-Chinese relations in the People’s Republic of China today in an exciting and sometimes confronting story. A local Tibetan television crew, composed of three Tibetans and a Han Chinese cameraperson eagerly learning Tibetan, cover a breaking story about a snow leopard captured by a local herder after it has killed nine of his rams. The herder wants to kill what he refers to as ‘the beast’. His father argues that killing sheep is in the leopard’s nature, and that killing it will store up bad karma. Local officials and later the police arrive, insisting that the leopard is top of the national protected species list and must be released. And then there is ‘Snow Leopard Monk’, brother of the angry herder. Fascinated by photographing wildlife, it turns out he has a special relationship with this particular snow leopard. (MINT CFF special film reviewer, Chris Berry)
Taking a Polish classic novel as a basis, the makers of 'Loving Vincent' have produced a "ravishingly beautiful visual triumph". The story is of Jamila, a striking blonde beauty who is admired by every male in the village, including both the rich Maciej and his eldest son Antek, who Jamila loves. When Maciej arranges a marriage for himself with Jamila, the affair with his son continues, with disastrous results.
BUT the reason to see this film is much more to do with its construction. "It's the sheer luminosity of the images on display that keeps you thoroughly enthralled. The filmmakers' technique involves shooting the entire film in live-action form, with real actors and sometimes real sets, and then painting tens of thousands of frames in rotoscoping fashion to produce the feeling of oil paintings come to dynamic life. The result is near hallucinatory in its effect, as if walking through an art museum filled with masterpieces that have lives of their own" - Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter.
In a film strangely reminiscent of 'Past Lives', but with a very different feel, 'Love Life' explores Love and Life as past loves come back to haunt the lives of a Japanese couple.
In a wonderful, chaotic family, "The delicate domestic balance shared by Taeko and her second husband, Jiro, is upended when a tragedy strikes the family, in this wrenching Japanese melodrama from Kôji Fukada.
Relations are further strained by the arrival of Taeko's deaf and seemingly vulnerable ex-husband, Park, back into her life. Since Taeko is the only person who can communicate with him – Park speaks Korean sign language – the responsibility for his care falls to her. But the gap between Taeko and Jiro, both physical and emotional, grows ever wider. It's a solid, sensitively handled study of the aftermath of a trauma" - Wendy Ide, Observer. And I haven't even mention Jiro's parents involvement, or his ex-girlfriend Yamazaki...
Keswick Film has had a knack of picking the Oscar films before the date; well, 'Poor Things' is giving off the vibes already as we write this, so it might well be very hot by the time you see it in February. The latest from the strangely brilliant director Yorgos Lanthimos (Best Director Award?), it stars Emma Stone (Best Actress Award?) as Bella, the 'Frankengirl' brought back to life by Doctor Baxter (Willem Defoe). Rather than becoming a monster, however, Bella gets more and more complete as she discovers first how to move and talk, then the pleasures of the flesh (with sleazy, caddish Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo - Best Actor Award?)). But to Wedderburn's disgust, she then turns to reading and before you know it, she is out-thinking and outsmarting the men.
"Poor Things is a defiantly strange film, a movie that obviously echoes Shelley's Frankenstein, but it's more about liberation than the folly of playing God. With the possible exception of the warmth that Dafoe surprisingly brings his mad scientist, the men in 'Poor Things' are uniformly awful, faux intellectuals who hold power over Bella purely because of gender and society. Through each episodic development in the script by Tony McNamara ('The Favourite') from the book by Alasdair Gray, Bella becomes more self-aware and confident" - Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com.
The film and, especially, Emma Stone get great reviews inspiring, for instance, Peter Bradshaw in the Guardian to rave "Everything in it – every frame, every image, every joke, every performance – gets a gasp of excitement… And his leading lady is someone who takes it to the next career level, or the level beyond the next level".
Put this one in your diary now!
After a triumphant debut in New York, Michael and David Groom's first feature film has its European Première here in Keswick.
Set within the ancient walls of York (the UK's most festive city) and the stunning natural beauty of the Lake District, Between the Lights is a romantic drama with a liberal dose of the supernatural, in which we visit our characters over three consecutive Christmases. When sceptical scientist Alice falls for reluctant medium Jay, she’s taken on an odyssey of love, loss and discovery that will turn her world upside down.
The screenings of Between the Lights on Thursday 29th February are now sold out. There are still tickets available for the screening on Saturday 2nd March at 11am.
Thanks To Michael and David Groom
Melody teaches music at a hospice for children. The thirty children are having a party at the end of autumn and ask Melody to compose a piece using the sounds of thirty different birds. She goes to her home village to record the birdsong and is helped by the caretaker of the family home, Mango. When they find just 20 birds, Mango makes Melody understand that only the old village singer knows where the other birds are, but bird hunters have forced him out of the village.
Thanks To Hassan Nazer and Dreamlab
14-year-old Zeina and her family are the last to have stayed in their besieged hometown of Damascus in Syria. A missile rips a giant hole in their home, exposing them to the outside world. When a rope is mysteriously lowered into the hole, Zeina gets her first taste of freedom, and an unimaginable world of possibility opens up for her.
As the violence outside escalates, the family is pressured to evacuate, but Mutaz, her father is adamant that they stay, refusing to flee to the uncertain life of a refugee. Faced with a life or death dilemma, Zeina and Hala, her mother, must make the choice whether to stay or leave.
Thanks To Modern Films
Italy's entry for the 2014 Oscars (and a Golden Globe nominee) is an Homeric fairy tale that tells the adventurous journey of two young boys, Seydou and Moussa, who leave Dakar to reach Europe. A contemporary Odyssey through the dangers of the desert, of the sea and the ambiguities of the human soul.
Thanks To Altitude
Howard, a retired sea captain, refuses any help from his daughter Grace. My Sailor, My Love is a story about this guilt-affected daughter-father relationship.
But it's also a love story between two elderly people, proving that a new beginning is never too late.
Thanks To Signature Entertainment
Cora (Karen Allen) is faced with a life/death decision after her husband Barry (William Sadler), has been diagnosed with a terminal heart disease.He informs her that he will spend his final days alone in order to spare her the emotional distress of watching him die. Their neighbour who acts as their surrogate son, is contemplating his own life choices, which become influenced by the couple's circumstance.
Although A Stage of Twilight is about death, it is also about the joy of life, about growing in love, and about finding human connection amidst loss.
Thanks To Brian Long
Follow the rise and fall of the world's wildest cinema in the riotous new doc from co-directors Ali Catterall and Jane Giles, who will be presenting the film in Keswick.
In a cavernous building near Kings Cross, reverberating from the rumbling tube trains below, London’s legendary Scala cinema ran from 1978-1993. A site of permissiveness, subversiveness and transgression during the politically turbulent, post-punk, pre-digital Thatcher years, it was legendary for its anything-goes attitude and the sheer excitement it generated around repertory film – with all-nighters, trash/horror/arthouse double and triple bills.
Thanks To BFI
In a small mining town in Mexico, Emiliano searches for those responsible for the disappearance of his activist mother. Receiving no help from the police, he finds a clue that leads him to the wealthy Aldama family.
Thanks To Sovereign Films
The first amongst her friends to hit puberty, Zaffan, 12, discovers a terrifying secret about her body. Ostracised by her community, Zaffan fights back, learning that to be free she must embrace the body she feared, emerging as a proud, strong woman.
Thanks To Modern Films
After a triumphant debut in New York, Michael and David Groom's first feature film has its European Première here in Keswick.
Set within the ancient walls of York (the UK's most festive city) and the stunning natural beauty of the Lake District, Between the Lights is a romantic drama with a liberal dose of the supernatural, in which we visit our characters over three consecutive Christmases. When sceptical scientist Alice falls for reluctant medium Jay, she’s taken on an odyssey of love, loss and discovery that will turn her world upside down.
The screenings of Between the Lights on Thursday 29th February are now sold out. There are still tickets available for the screening on Saturday 2nd March at 11am.
Thanks To Michael and David Groom
This year's selection by the Keswick Peace and Human Rights Group is a double bill of films from Palestine, set in the occupied West Bank prior to both the current conflict and the election of Israel's current governing coalition.
Both films portray the triumph of the human spirit over the daily challenges of life while under occupation, whilst not minimising the personal cost.
Mayor is a real-life political saga following Musa Hadid, the Christian mayor of Ramallah. His immediate goals: repave sidewalks, attract tourists, and plan the city's Christmas celebrations.
The Present (Dir Farah Nabulsi, Palestine, 24 mins, 2020)
On his wedding anniversary, Yusef and his young daughter set out in the West Bank to buy his wife a gift. Between soldiers, segregated roads and checkpoints, how easy would it be to go shopping?
Thanks To Dogwoof and Farah Nabulsi
Samsara is a story split in two: two continents, two communities, two belief systems, two sets of experiences and inner lives. Between them lies a sensory pathway, all light and sound. The viewer is only asked to close their eyes and travel with it. Every morning, a Buddhist teenager visits an elderly woman’s home to read her The Bardo Thödol, a guide for the journey between death and the next rebirth. On her last day, the young man whispers the book’s final passages in her ear, closes his eyes, and meditates alongside her, as she embarks on a transformative journey into what lies beyond.
Thanks To Curzon
A 48-year-old woman living in a small Georgian village, Etero (Eka Chavleishvili) never wanted a husband. Commanding and intelligent, possessed of a stoic independence and a dry wit, she cherishes her freedom as much as the mille-feuille she repeat-orders at her local café. But when a passionate encounter brings a new recklessness into her life, she must decide whether to pursue love or continue alone. Grappling with a personal revolution, Etero seeks her own happiness.
Thanks To Verve Pictures
Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel star in The Taste of Things, a mouth-watering 'gastromance' by Tran Anh Hùng (The Scent of Green Papaya) that won him Best Director at Cannes 2023.
France, 1885: Celebrated gourmet Dodin (Magimel) lives on an idyllic Loire Valley estate alongside Eugénie (Binoche), his cooking collaborator of over 20 years. Normally Dodin devises the dishes while Eugénie executes them to perfection, but when she finally allows him to cook for her, their relationship takes an unexpected turn.
Thanks To Picturehouse
Takumi and his daughter Hana live in Mizubiki, close to Tokyo. One day the villagers become aware of a plan to build a camp site nearby, offering city residents a comfortable 'escape' to nature. It becomes clear that the project will have a negative impact on the local water supply.
Thanks To Modern Films
Maman lost all the beautiful things she once had – including her name, her job and her husband – years ago, after the outbreak of the war. Now she works as a cab driver and lives with two of her three sons in a small apartment. In order to maintain her maternal authority, she keeps her sons apart from each other and of course from a piece of land she owns. Just when she gets rid of the wife of her youngest son, the other son decides to marry one of his colleagues. And the story develops in two parallel worlds: in the world of the real and the world recreated in a film script the youngest son is writing...
Thanks To Hassan Nazer and Dreamlab
Legendary filmmaker Víctor Erice (Spirit of the Beehive) comes back with Close your Eyes, a compelling reflection about identity, memory and filmmaking. The film also reunites Erice with Ana Torrent, 50 years after Spirit of the Beehive.
Thanks To Verve Pictures
Alaina is tired of being a police officer in the Pine Ridge Reservation, and decides to begin her journey with the help of her grandfather: she will fly through time and space to South America, and everything will feel different when she hears the dreams of other people, those who live in the forest. But there will be no definitive conclusions... Birds don't talk to humans, yet if only we could understand them, they would surely have a few truths to tell us.
Thanks To Sovereign Films
A solo trip to Korea becomes a wild adventure for a middle-aged Singaporean woman, where she embarks on a journey of self discovery and unlikely bonds are formed.
Thanks To Rediance films
Mexico's entry for the 2024 Oscars
Director Lila Avilés' (The Chambermaid) latest film is set in a large house where, over a long day, family and friends meet for the birthday of 7 year old Sol's father, but as it will likely be his last, it is also a farewell ceremony.
Thanks To Verve Pictures
Fact and fiction mix in Kaouther Ben Hania's astonishing hybrid docudrama, screened in Competition at Cannes this year, which stars professional actresses alongside real family members in a retelling of a Tunisian mother's heartbreak over two of her daughters' departures to fight for the Islamic State.
Olfa (Hend Sabri) is the mother of four daughters. One day, her two eldest, Rahma and Ghofrane, leave to fight for IS in Syria. Some years later, Ben Hania invites two actresses into the frame, bringing the viewer closer to the stories of Olfa and her daughters, and in combining direct interviews with dramatic re-enactments, attempting to understand their relationships, their past, and the process of radicalisation.
Thanks To Modern Films
The commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife Hedwig, strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp. The film portrays the idyllic life that the family of the Nazi commandant enjoyed in a sumptuous house next to the concentration camp right in the middle of the Holocaust.
Thanks To 24 Films
Winner of the Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award
Monk is a frustrated novelist who is fed up with the establishment that profits from Black entertainment that relies on tired and offensive tropes. To prove his point, he uses a pen name to write an outlandish Black book of his own, a book that propels him to the heart of hypocrisy and the madness he claims to disdain.
Thanks To Curzon
The follow-up to his searing, highly acclaimed western Sweet Country (2017), Warwick Thornton returns with this artful, fiercely political tale of spiritual worlds colliding, starring newcomer Aswan Reid alongside Cate Blanchett (who also co-produced).
Australia, 1940s: Renegade nun Sister Eileen (Blanchett) presides over Indigenous boys deliberately orphaned by the authorities in the Australian Outback. In her orphanage, no Indigenous values, language or practices are allowed. The arrival of a new boy (Reid) unsettles the monastery, as do his mysterious, perhaps supernatural, abilities – which only increase Sister Eileen's fervour for Christ to be his guide.
Thanks To Signature Entertainment
When her young son Minato starts to behave strangely, his mother feels that there is something wrong. Discovering that a teacher is responsible, she storms into the school demanding to know what's going on. But as the story unfolds through the eyes of mother, teacher and child, the truth gradually emerges.
Thanks To Picturehouse
You have nowhere to go for the holidays, so what do you do? Well, in the case of student Angus, you stay at school with your hated History teacher Mr Hunham and… oh, yes, the school cook Mary. Mr Hunham is there because he refused to pass the son of one of the school's rich benefactors and as a punishment he is left looking after the 'holdovers' - those with no home to go to. Mary is there because her son has been recently killed in Vietnam and doesn't want to be home alone.
"Nothing about 'The Holdovers' sounds particularly special, and yet it's one of director Alexander Payne's best films – very funny, occasionally touching and a sterling example of the bonds that can be forged by an unlikely family. Set in a stiff New England private school in 1970, it passes the 'should see' test with flying colours" - Brian Lowry, CNN.
I should also add that it stars Paul Giamatti who never fails to be 'worth watching'. Alexander Payne has made several movies about guys like Mr Hunham and Angus - losers who show just how bad men can make their own and everyone else's life. We had 'Nebraska' here in 2013, and you will probably have seen 'Sideways' or 'About Schmidt'.
Well, he is back here at his best.
Shayda tells the story of the titular character's attempt to escape her abusive husband's clutches. The pair have moved to Australia for Hosain to become a doctor, though he wants to return to Iran. Frightened of his continual violence, Shayda takes her daughter Mona into a women's shelter while filing for divorce, but the courts, as often happens, take Hossain's side and give him rights to see his daughter alone. We see Shayda's fear that Hossain will take Mona out of the country in the opening scene as Shayda takes her daughter to the airport to show her places she can hide 'just in case'.
This is director Noora Niasari's confident personal debut , which won an Audience Award at Sundance for the World Dramatic Competition program. "Reportedly based on the filmmaker's own experience, this drama surges with truth, thanks in no small part to a stunning performance from Zar Amir Ebrahimi, winner of Best Actress at Cannes for 'Holy Spider.' Ebrahimi plays [Shayda], alternately processing the trauma of her past and trying to carve out a new future for her daughter. With her abusive husband in the narrative mix, 'Shayda' hums with inevitable dread.
It's a tug-of-war between hope and fear that gives Ebrahimi the platform to carve out a completely three-dimensional character. We come to care for Shayda and her daughter. And, by extension, the thousands of women in the tragically same position in the world" - Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com.
We end our year with an appropriately named film which brings hope to a world full of troubles. Jodie Comer stars as a woman who gives birth just as terrible floods hit London; new life begins as the old life ends. The film continues to emphasise the individuals' problems rather than the bigger picture, focusing on our unnamed hero trying to survive as food gets harder to find. She first escapes from London up North with her partner, then tries to reach a commune with a new-found friend, all the while having to fend for her baby.
"The End We Start From explores more than motherhood at the end of the world, its subject is every nuance of womanhood at any stage of life. The film takes great care to convey just how wild and new that enormous new stage in life is, how deeply tied to who you were before, and always will be. It's heartening that neither of the seismic changes that occur in this story is what makes or breaks its people: the journey gets harder, but you just keep walking through. Eventually, the rain will always stop" - Ellen Kemp, Evening Standard.
"'The End We Start From'... provides us with an unusual, female powered alternative within a field of films that are usually heavier on action than words. It's carried to the finish line by Comer, an actor whose naturalism is an ideal fit for a character forced to constantly react to the ever changing situation in front of her, no time for anything but a need to survive. When she does get the briefest of pauses, to deliver a moving monologue about a deep-rooted fear of death or to finally allow herself to cry, it's all the more impactful for the restraint that's surrounding and Comer is outstanding whatever the mode. As a big screen star, she's just beginning" - Benjamin Lee, Guardian. Don't miss her big start!
We have decided that the Festival Favourite - 'Totem' deserves to be seen by more people than got to see it at the festival. We will be showing it on TUESDAY 16 APRIL AT 7.30pm.
Mexico's entry for the 2024 Oscars
Director Lila Avilés' (The Chambermaid) latest film is set in a large house where, over a long day, family and friends meet for the birthday of 7 year old Sol's father, but as it will likely be his last, it is also a farewell ceremony.
Thanks To Verve Pictures
Rescheduled from Sunday 4th February
A cracking, Hitchcockian, twisty thriller to go with the MINT Chinese Film Festival at the Alhambra this weekend.
A Chinese couple go away to an island for a weekend to celebrate their wedding anniversary, but the wife goes missing.
"The unlucky holidaymakers in this instance are He Fei (Yilong Zhu, in an outstandingly good performance) and his wife Li Muzi, who come to Belandia, a fictional south-east Asian island-nation, to celebrate their one-year wedding anniversary. However, Li Muzi goes missing just days after they arrived… When he wakes up in his hotel the next day, there's a beautiful vampy woman there (Janice Man) who claims that she's Li Muzi, but He Fei insists she's an impostor…" [Is he right, or has he lost his memory?] "He hires local Mandarin-speaker Chen Mai (Ni Ni, also terrific) to help him investigate his wife's disappearance and liaise between him and the cops. A tough cookie who drives like Lewis Hamilton and seems honest enough, Chen Mai insists that He Fei tell her the whole truth about the circumstances of his wife's disappearance. Turns out he's not been completely honest, of course, and directors Rui Cui and Xiang Liu start skilfully peeling back the onion…" - Leslie Felperin, Guardian.
The twists and turns continue throughout; definitely a thriller 'like they used to be'...
Last year's Chinese Film Festival was amazing and this year's is looking equally good; we can thoroughly recommend it if you are at all interested in Chinese movies. Lost in the Stars is being shown by the Film Club to fit; looks like a great film too!
Our very own short film made for us by Northern Soul Productions starring local people from the Keswick Theatre Club and University of Carlisle drama students. As Carl Hunter told us 'Frank (Cottrell Boyce) and I were having a pint one evening and we thought - wouldn't it be nice to make a short film as a 10th birthday gift to the Keswick Film Festival, so Frank wrote the script.' Carl has described the style of the film as 'La Jette meets Alan Bennet'. Filmed in and around Keswick, part funded by Cumbria Tourism who will be able to use it for advertisng the Lake District, the producers hope it will go on to win prizes at other Film Festivals.
Accelerate will be shown before Dean Spanley, Hilary and Jackie and Grow Your Own. It will also be shown at a free screening at the Alhambra on Sunday at 15.30 with a local hour-long film Call It What You Want
Cancelled due to Coronavirus closure
Winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes, this feels like a Sergio Leone western...on steroids. "Set deep in the north-eastern Sertão - the Brazilian outback - it mashes up many themes and influences, but is chiefly a scream of satirical defiance against new president Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right globaliser who made his international statesman debut at Davos last year, famously promising to make the country more open to foreign trade. This movie's closing credits pointedly note that the production created 800 jobs" - Peter Bradshaw, Guardian.
Teresa gets a ride in a water truck to her grandmother's funeral; Bacurau is in dispute with the authorities and needs the water. As if this and the funeral aren't enough for the tight-knit community, there is a bunch of foreigners holed up nearby, armed to the teeth with hi-tech gear. And then the village disappears off GPS systems, and their mobile phones stop working...
The film deliberately switches genres, going from tragedy to comedy to action drama and, yes, do expect some blood. As Peter Bradshaw finishes, "It is a really strange film, beginning in a kind of ethno-anthropology and documentary style, becoming a poisoned-herd parable or fever dream and then a Jacobean-style bloodbath. It is an utterly distinctive film-making, executed with ruthless clarity and force".
And to quote one of our programme team who went to see it, "It is just brilliant". I’ll go with that!
From the 2010s
British retirees travel to India to take up residence in what they believe is a newly restored hotel. Less luxurious than its advertisements, the Marigold Hotel nevertheless slowly begins to charm in unexpected ways.
From the 1980s
A filmmaker recalls his childhood, when he fell in love with the movies at his village's theater and formed a deep friendship with the theater's projectionist.
After leaving the British Secret Service, David Somers (played by Trevor Howard) finds work cataloging butterflies at the country house of Nicholas and Jess Fenton. After the murder of a local gamekeeper, suspicion falls on their niece, Sophie Malraux (Jean Simmons). Somers helps Sophie to escape arrest and they go on the run together.
Much of it was filmed in the Lakes and the rushes were shown to Jean Simmons at the Alhambra.
From the 1970s
The story spans the years from 1945 to 1955 and chronicles the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family. When organized crime family patriarch Vito Corleone barely survives an attempt on his life, his youngest son, Michael, steps in to take care of the would-be killers, launching a campaign of bloody revenge.
Followed by Part 2 at 8pm
From the 1970s
The continuing saga of the Corleone crime family tells the story of a young Vito Corleone growing up in Sicily and in 1910s New York; and follows Michael Corleone in the 1950s as he attempts to expand the family business into Las Vegas, Hollywood and Cuba
The waning Tang dynasty is torn by unrest, and the police are on the hunt for the leader of the most prominent enemy army, the House of Flying Daggers. A romantic warrior breaks a beautiful member of a rebel army out of prison to help her rejoin her fellows.
Now that he feels comfortable with wuxia, or martial arts movies, following "Hero" - his first foray into the genre, Chinese master Zhang Yimou creates a gem in "House of Flying Daggers".
From the 1990s
A wealthy entrepreneur secretly creates a theme park featuring living dinosaurs drawn from prehistoric DNA. Before opening day, he invites a team of experts and his two eager grandchildren to experience the park and help calm anxious investors. However, the park is anything but amusing as the security systems go off-line and the dinosaurs escape.
A winter warmer for you here - "American artist Miranda July makes brazenly wayward comedies. Her latest is about the Dynes, three furtive, off-the-grid Californian schemers who, on a whim, welcome a bubbly Latina, Melanie, into their fold. Melanie's always wanted to be part of an Ocean's Eleven-style heist; she doesn't realise the Dynes are ideologically committed to small-time crookery and that they despise the extravagantly wealthy, whom they label Kajillionaires ... You can't put a price on a movie as sweet as this one" – Charlotte O'Sullivan Evening Standard.
In an interview with Miranda July, the interviewer commented that the Dynes weren't so much Oceans Eleven as Oceans One; she replied "Oceans 0.5 I think!" They are beautifully small scale scammers...
"The final third of the film is something of a marvel. One might reasonably worry about casting a person of colour as, yet again, the emotionally open free spirit who loosens the uptight white characters' bounds. But, profiting from improvisation with a clever cast, July delivers closing scenes that flesh out the two younger women while embracing wider sadness about the human condition. It's easy to make allowances when the film is otherwise so true to itself and its characters.
July has made her best feature. Four fine actors (how nice to see Winger back, even if she is scarcely recognisable) make the most of tricky, slippery material. On out-there triumph" – Donald Clarke, Irish Times.
From the 1960s
Lawrence of Arabia is the classic film from David Lean starring Peter O’Toole and based on the autobiography from Thomas Edward Lawrence who during the first World War was on assignment by the British Empire in Arabia. The film would become a cult classic and is known today as a masterpiece.
Is this the issue of our times? Back when I was young, many people struggled to accept homosexuality was 'normal' (indeed many fought hard against it and some do to this day). Now we are faced by the question of 'gender dysphoria' – are trans people real? Does it exist or is it just mixed up kids being misled by well-meaning (but, by inference, wrong) doctors? I will admit that I am open-minded but certainly not convinced...YET. If you are like me (or even if you think it is ALL wrong) then maybe this film can help.
Sasha "was born into a boy's body, but as soon as she was able to articulate such notions — from the age of two-and-a-half or three, her mother says — she insisted she was a girl" – Maryann Johanson, Flickfilosopher.
The film concentrates mainly on Sasha and her Mother, who is her main defender and advocate when it comes to school days: "If it didn’t say 'male' on a piece of paper, Mom says about the school's stubborn insistence that Sasha is a boy, no one would know otherwise. Why should it matter?" – Johanson again.
"This is a gentle work, a welcome contrast to mass media's hysteria around – and astonishing cruelty towards – trans children, which has no need to contrive any drama because conflict is built deeply into the society it depicts. Although we never see the dramatic climax with her principal or ballet tutor, we are aware of how precarious Sasha's ability to live as she desires is, dependent as it is first on her family – especially her parents – and then on her teachers, who have the power not just to take sides on transphobic bullying but to entirely veto her gender expression" – Juliet Jacques, Sight and Sound.
I would love to understand these children's problems more, wouldn't you? Come along and see what Sasha has to say...
Saeed Jaffrey, Daniel Day Lewis, Roshan Seth
Set within the Asian community in London, during the Thatcher years, Omar takes over the running of his Uncle Nasser's laundrette. He is helped by his lover Johnny who is an outsider, white but not entirely accepted by either the white or Asian Londoners.
A landmark film in which racial and sexual politics collide uneasily,this is the Hanif Kureishi (writer) and Stephen Frears collaboration that made Frears's reputation.
"What a wonderful, heart-breaking, life-affirming gem of a movie this is. Having proved a crowd-pleasing hit at the London film festival in October 2019 (how long ago that now seems!), this vibrant, insightful and deeply empathetic drama about teenage girls forging their identities in a potentially hostile world is grittily realistic, yet also fiercely optimistic. Boasting a terrific ensemble cast that showcases a host of talented newcomers, it’s exactly the film we need right now, pointing the way to a more positive future while looking the perils of the present day squarely in the eye" – Mark Kermode, Guardian.
Rocks comes home from school to find her mother has gone leaving her with her young brother to look after and no money. How she copes and how she is helped by her friends is the story of 'Rocks': "Although principally a social-realist drama set in and around East London, Rocks is fortunately bereft of the miserabilism associated with the genre" – Rogan Graham, Little White Lies.
Written and directed by three women, using workshops of school children and youths, which "has given this team effort an impressively authentic edge. Everything about these teenagers' lives rings true, from their battles for survival to the exuberance of a classroom food fight, or scenes in which the girls bust dance moves (an eclectic music playlist speaks volumes about their characters) on a rooftop, or in a train carriage" – Mark Kermode again.
One of the biggest hits around the UK at the moment, it just looked too good for us to miss.
From the 2000s
It ain't easy bein' green -- especially if you're a likable (albeit smelly) ogre named Shrek. On a mission to retrieve a gorgeous princess from the clutches of a fire-breathing dragon, Shrek teams up with an unlikely compatriot -- a wisecracking donkey.
Most seasons we have a film which comes over as poetry in motion, which would be beautiful to look at even if there were no story; 'Song without a Name' is this season's poem.
Based on real events in the 1980s in Peru, Georgina - an indigenous Quechuan living near Lima – scrapes a living selling potatoes. When her baby is due, she hears an advert for a free clinic where she goes to give birth, but the baby disappears and she is left fruitlessly begging the police to help before turning to the media. Although the film makes it clear that it is the norm for the poor people of this area to get no support, "just when you think that León is going to steer the film into the terrain of a conventional investigative thriller, she remains fixated on exploring loss and pain on an intimate and personal scale" – Steven Scaife, Slant Magazine.
Filmed in glorious monochrome "the film remains grandly composed, with spectacular tableaus that make the Peruvian hillsides look like scenes from a John Ford western. Georgina becomes a silhouette slipping down barren mountains; when she enters the newspaper offices, the walls appear to entrap her" – Teo Bugbee, New York Times.
Melina León is a Peruvian director, based in Lima and New York. This is her first feature film: originally shown at Cannes, the film has gone on to be a big hit at 90 film festivals around the world, winning 32 awards along the way.
This is the sixth Francois Ozon film we have shown here in Keswick, which have covered many genres as his fame grew. With 'Summer of 85' he is firmly back with the genre that he started with: "In those days, the surfaces of his films seemed to radiate with sexual energy — like prickling hairs on bare skin — while a kind of lusty homicidal danger lurked just out of sight. 'Summer of 85' reminds us what makes the Ozon touch so unique" – Peter Debruge, Variety.
"Based on the British novel 'Dance on My Grave' by Aidan Chambers, Ozon's adaptation transports events to Northern France focusing on Alex, a death-obsessed 16-year-old in need of a friend during a long hot summer. After capsizing a boat on the sea, he's saved by David, confident and slightly older, who immediately takes him under his wing. The two become fast friends before something else more passionate quickly takes over" – Benjamin Lee, Guardian... But we see all of this in flashback after a tragedy has occurred...
"Nobody since Eric Rohmer gets the joys and the agony of young love under the French summer sun as well as Ozon does, time and again; cinematographer Hichame Alaouie working with Ozon for the first time, captures the director's sense both of bright days that seem to stretch on to eternity and intimate spaces that become a character's whole world" – Alonso Duralde, The Wrap.
On holiday with their mother in the Lake District in 1929 four children are allowed to sail over to the nearby island in their boat Swallow and set up camp for a few days. They soon realise this has been the territory of two other girls who sail the Amazon, and the scene is set for serious rivalry.
Cancelled due to Coronavirus closure
Members' Choice
What a great way to finish our year! The opener at Venice Festival, directed by one of Keswicks favourites Hirokazu Koreeda ("Koreeda has proved himself to be a master of the slow-build human drama, a conjurer of small details that bed down and take root until his pictures burst into flower like a late cherry blossom" - Xan Brooks, Guardian) trying out his first film outside Japan; starring Catherine Deneuve ("[she] comes heaving through every scene like some formidable gunship, wreathed in cigarette smoke, running on scotch and all but scattering the supporting cast") and Juliette Binoche (a second helping from her this season) with Ethan Hawke thrown in for good measure. Wow!
Deneuve plays Fabienne, an aging diva (good casting there then) who has just written an autobiography called 'The Truth', though there appears to be little truth in it that her daughter Lumir can discover. When Fabienne takes on a mother role in a film which also rings bells for Lumir, we have the plot for a disturbed family - just the job for Koreeda!
"If Koreeda's 'Shoplifters' was about discarded people coming together to form a family, perhaps 'The Truth' is the opposite, where flesh-and-blood relations have to figure out how to forgive, or at least to understand, each other. Even working in another language and on another continent, he once again captures the intricacies of the human condition" -Alonso Duralde, The Wrap.
We hope you have enjoyed our 21st year and look forward to seeing you again in September. Have a great summer!
From the 1950s
An ex-police officer is asked to follow an old friends wife who thinks she is being followed by ghosts. A classic Hitchcock about a man who’s afraid of heights and a woman he must unfortunately follow to great heights.
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