Prince Avalanche - Sunday Sunday 9th March 5pm

After a fantastic weekend at the Keswick Film Festival, our film this week, 'Prince Avalanche',  'follows two unlucky, unhappy guys as they paint lines on a forgotten stretch of rural Texas highway, bickering and battling every step of the way. It has an effortless, scattershot hipster sweetness that feels deeply Scandinavian, and would always have been a goofily lovable character comedy. But a haunting mid-film sequence in the burned-out shell of a remote house elevates the film into something more impressive and compelling, a mournful but quietly angry comment on life in the wake of financial and emotional disaster. With gorgeously crisp photography and pitch-perfect performances from the two leads, this is one of the most intriguing and thoughtful American films of the year' (Tom Huddleston, Time Out).

Hopefully this mix of comedy and thoughtfulness will result in the 'oddity of the season' we picked the film to be!

Screeings Of "Lights, Camera...Alhambra"

Keswick Film Club, in partnership with the Alhambra Cinema, has produced a short film to mark the Centenary of the Alhambra Cinema. The film lasts about 30 minutes and features recollections from local people from silent films, the first talkie until the present day.

The film will be screened during the festival (all screenings will take place at the Alhambra) at the following times:

• Friday 28th February at 6.00pm with the filmmaker Joel Baker 
• Saturday 1st March at 5.00pm
• Wednesday 5th March at 2.00pm before The Clouded Yellow
• Thursday 6th March at 2.00pm before Swallows and Amazons

We would like to thank the funders of the film and the background research:

• Keswick Neighbourhood Forum
• Keswick Town Council
• The Lake District Communities Fund

15th Keswick Film Festival

The 15th Keswick Film Festival starts on Thursday night with a party and Felix - the latest film from Dame Janet Suzman (who is also our guest) and go through to Sunday evening with over 30 films to choose from. Then the centenary celebrations continue through until Thursday with free screenings of films from each decade at The Alhambra, including The Godfather Parts 1&2, Lawrence of Arabia and Vertigo.

The Patience Stone - Sunday 23rd February 7pm

Coming hard on the heels of Wadjda (and indeed Circumstance and About Elly from last year’s festival), The Patience Stone, our film for this Sunday, (don’t forget at 7.00pm) again reflects on the position and role of women in Muslim societies.

The Patience Stone is a drama from French-Afghan director Atiq Rahimi and based on his own prizewinning novel and adapted by French screenwriting legend Jean-Claude Carriere.

It is described by The List as follows: “In an unnamed town in what could be Afghanistan, a young woman tends to her injured husband. A religious war is being fought around them, and while battling alongside his Muslim brothers the husband has taken a stray bullet in the neck. Now he is breathing and not much else; he lies staring into space, not moving and completely unresponsive. His silence prompts the woman to speak – 'You’re compelling me to talk', she says – and as the surrounding violence escalates she begins to tell him all the thoughts, resentments and deep secrets that he has never listened to during their marriage.

This is a striking and provocative film, and essential to its success is Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani, giving a deeply layered performance as the woman. She is both liberated and falling apart, at once a victim and fiercely in control, and Farahani ensures her actions are never predictable but always believable. Her expression in the film’s final enigmatic frame is one of the best parting shots in cinema this year.”

Child's Pose - Sunday 16th February 5pm

As I was researching information for the brochure this year, I realised that many of the films we had chosen had great reviews for the leading female actress. Our film this week, 'Child's Pose', from Romania, stars Luminita Gheorghiu, who adds to these reviews - 'A taut modern morality tale from Romania with a knock-out lead performance from Luminita Gheorghiu.' - David Jenkins, Little White Lies.

How far would a mother go to protect her child? How far should she go? And, underneath it all, is she really protecting herself even more? 'A spellbinding drama of social commentary and psychological realism, this caustic look into the corrupt heart of the Eastern European bourgeoisie twists into a brilliantly ambiguous study of obsessive motherly love.' - Rotten Tomatoes.

The film was Romania's nomination for the Best Foreign Film at this year's Oscars, and has already won the Golden Bear at Berlin... good film, good acting...a good night out? Let's hope so!