14th Keswick Film Festival: Thursday 21st - Sunday 24th

Hopefully you are all ready for the 14th Keswick Film Festival which kicks off with Thursday's party from 6:30pm at the Theatre followed by Michael Winterbottom's Everyday at 7:30pm.

If you're still having trouble deciding what to see we've put together this collection of trailers for most of the films showing at the Festival:

 

Tabu - Sunday 17th February 5pm

We have a much more Keswick-friendly film for you this weekend - TABU, the latest film from Miguel Gomes. Starting out slowly in in Lisbon, it builds the story of Aurora, an old woman who finds out she is dying. Unlike Amour , however, we do not stay inside her flat to see this. Instead she sends her neighbour Pilar in search of a man called Ventura. When Pilar finds him the film takes a different turn as he takes us back to Africa when Aurora was a young woman. Beautifully photographed, complete with some early 60s pop songs and a look at the colonial politics of that time, the result has left most reviewers ecstatic, with Andrew O'Hehir (Salon) claiming 'what you’ll see is not just the last movie released in 2012, but possibly the most original of them all'.

The Saragossa Manuscript - Sunday 10th February 5pm

After Holy Motors one hesitates to use the S* word but that does crop up in reviews. Nonetheless The Saragossa Manuscript is a fascinating piece of film-making. There is a website devoted to it and the author of the website has produced an outline of the film which he urges viewers to either read before viewing or immediately afterwards. He claims it doesn't serve as a plot spoiler but helps to provide some context to the stories within stories within the film.  I'll leave it up to you whether you wish to take his advice

Please note we only have a 3 hour gap between Alhambra screenings and the film is 3 hour and 2 minutes long! So we will be starting the introduction at 4.55pm and rolling the opening credits bang on 5.00pm. 

Amour - Sunday 3rd February 5pm

This weekend we have a real treat, probably the most anticipated film of the year for many people - 'Amour'. Several people who have already seen it have said it is their favourite film of 2012, David Calhoun of Time Out said '... a devastating, highly intelligent and astonishingly performed work. It's a masterpiece'.

The film follows the lives of an old couple after one of them has a stroke. It is the latest from director Michael Haneke (who brought us 'Hidden' and 'White Ribbon'), and has already won him the Palme D'Or at Cannes 2012. The film is nominated for both Best Film and Best Foreign Language film at the Oscars this year, as is Haneke for Best Director and  Emmanuelle Riva for Best Actress. On top of that we get to see Jean-Louis Trintignant AND Isobelle Huppert...AND it is in French! Definitely a must see for the Keswick Film Club, I think you will agree.