On Falling - Sunday 16th November 5pm

On Falling is our next members' choice - Aurora is a 'picker', pushing a trolley through the warehouse finding items chosen online by people she will never meet, keeping to a pace set by the machine in her hand. She is paid just enough to live on - when her mobile phone need repairing, this is a disaster as she is forced to go without other essentials.

"Carreira’s is the kind of small, still-waters debut that nonetheless confidently sets out its maker’s store for future work -- a clarion call for a new generation of social-realist cinema." - Guy Lodge, Variety

Dying - Sunday 9th November 5pm

We thought we may need to sell Dying as a film worth your while watching - why should you invest three hours of your life watching a miserable film about dying? Well the critics agree that "this is a film that justifies every second" and "has your undivided attention throughout the vividly composed, brilliantly acted chapters of its three-hour runtime. A miracle."

"Matthias Glasner’s Dying might sound like an ordeal, but this rich, novelistic and mordantly funny Berlin film festival prize winner wears its themes and running time lightly.” - Wendy Ide, Observer

Cloud - Sunday 2nd November 5pm

Kiyoshi Kurosawa had several award-winning films early this century, including the horror movie 'Pulse', where he portrayed the internet as the home of evil spirits. He is back now with Cloud, a film portraying the internet as dangerous, but this time it is human danger; is the main character who is an immoral 'reseller' of anything and everything for huge profits the baddy, or the people he sells to who decide enough is enough…? A story of our time, then.

"This riveting and highly unusual shoot-em-up finds Kurosawa returning to his roots." - David Ehrlich, IndieWire

Falling Into Place - Sunday 26th October 5pm

Our next Members' Choice is Falling Into Place; Kira has gone to Skye to help her get over an ex-boyfriend. Ian is there to see his friends and his ailing parents. They see each other across a crowed pub and the rest is obvious... except it isn't. 

"An antidote to Hollywood-style romcoms...Sensitive, fearlessly honest and forgiving, it sees two people make a connection amid the ongoing chaos of their lives" - Emma Simmonds, The List.

Parthenope - Sunday 19th October 5pm

Director Paolo Sorrentino has always been fascinated by beauty and in this weeks film he concentrates totally on the beauty of one woman - Parthenope - whose very appearance seems to have every man obsessed. She herself doesn't like where this power leads her; rather than giving her freedom and enjoyment, her suitors want to own her or bring her sadness.

“An exquisite treatise on cinematic beauty” - Siddhant Adlakha, Variety

Dreams - Sunday 12th October 5pm

Our first Members' Choice of the season is Dreams; 17 year-old Johanne has a crush on her new teacher Johanna, building into first love and even obsession.

"A story of hazy memories that’s also a city symphony, Dreams elegantly captures the disorienting rush of first love and the frustrations and anguish that stem from romantic fantasies colliding with reality." - Derek Smith, Slant Magazine

The Other Way Around - Sunday 5th October 5pm

When Ale and Alex's relationship comes to an end they decide to do things The Other Way Around and thrown a breaking up party.

"Even as they insist that they're perfectly fine about separating, the film is skilfully shot to both put Ale and Alex at odds within the frame and also show them as loving partners...Both take involving internal journeys through the narrative, dealing with their thoughts in their own ways as they speak with the people around them." - Rich Cline, Shadows On The Wall

The Return - Sunday 28th September 5pm

 

Most attempts at filming the story of Odysseus have played on the return of a King, but not so for Uberto Pasolini; in The Return he concentrates on the return of a man, a beaten soldier ashamed at the loss of all his men, whilst his Queen has suffered abandonment and humiliation. Odysseus finally gets home penniless and unrecognizable, washed up as a beggar on the shore, whilst Penelope fights off suitors, wishing to marry her for power and wealth.

The return of Odysseus to Penelope after twenty years is mirrored ironically by the re-meeting of Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche after 28 years since 'The English Patient'.

"The film shines when it's simply Binoche and Fiennes facing off, especially in scenes where Penelope pretends not to recognize her husband, trying to force him to step forward into his rightful place." - Katie Walsh, Los Angeles Times.

Late Shift - Sunday 21st September 5pm

In Late Shift, this Sunday at 5pm, we join Floria as she arrives for her afternoon shift to find she is understaffed, with only one nurse and a student to help her. Constantly on the move from one patient to another, from one crisis to the next, the camera (and us) follow her all the way, involving us in her stress and the odd short moments of calm.

"In its cool, propulsive procedural tracking of ward activity, Late Shift quite sufficiently makes its point regarding the monumental challenge and value of Floria’s work, and that of thousands like her." - Guy Lodge, Variety

A Real Pain - Sunday 14th September 5pm

Our 26th Year continues on Sunday 14 September with the Oscar winning A Real Pain - and it is a comedy! As IMDb describe it - "Mismatched cousins reunite for a tour through Poland to honour their beloved grandmother, but their old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history"

Your Program for Autumn 2025

Our new season of films is getting closer! The autumn season films are now booked (including 5 films voted for by the members), the brochure is at the printers and can be downloaded from the web. 

The films are all on the Alhambra website ready to book - where you can also join the club if you want - We so hope you do. It is still only £10 and you still get to see any or all club films for £6 each; We are keeping the non-member prices in line with the Alhambra prices, so that will give you a saving of £4.50 for every film you see; so not just great films but a bargain too!

We hope that you will want to see many of the films and that our 26th Year continues as a memorable one for us all  - don't forget to tell your friends about us!

Summer comes to Keswick!

It seems very appropriate that the weather is so lovely at the moment; we can all go outside and enjoy it while there are no club movies to see! We hope you have enjoyed the year; we feel that it was a good one with some great films, and certainly a fantastic 25th Film Festival last month. 

Many of the films went on to win BAFTAs or even Oscars and many more appeared in the BFI's best films of the year list. It is also a good sign that so many club-type films are now winning awards worldwide.

Thanks to everyone who has helped keep the show running over the year, whether you were on the committee, running front of house, running the Festival or helping on it. An especial thanks to Ian Payne for directing all the great festivals we have had in his time and to Julia Vickers for stepping forward to run the next ones! A special thanks should go the Rennie family for all their years giving the club a home, and to Jonathan and Graham for taking on the responsibility for our future. Thanks all!

So that is it from us. The emails will be back in mid summer with a list of films for next season for members to choose from, and the Sunday night shows will start again in September.  If you are looking for something to see meantime, keep your eye on the Alhambra website - they  will keep showing films for you every week. 

Have a great summer, everyone! 

The Room Next Door - Sunday 30th March 5pm

For our final film before our summer break we have The Room Next Door. Pedro Almodóvar's first English language film and the Best Film winner at the Venice Film Festival. Tilda Swinton's Martha is dying of cancer. She asks her old friend Ingrid (Julianne Moore) to be in 'the room next door' when she stops the pain by self-euthanising - in the next room to prevent Ingrid from becoming a criminal.

"It’s an elegant film, reckoning empathetically with an extremely complex topic" -  Little White Lies 

The Last Dance - Sunday 23rd March 5pm

The Last Dance is another Members' Choice; Hong Kong wedding planner Dominic loses his business due to Covid and switches to running a funeral business. It is actually going quite well except that his business partner is an old-school Taoist priest Master Man, who has no time for his new commercially oriented youngster.

“Starts out as an odd couple story but evolves into something more complex and satisfying: a film about tradition, gender roles and family tensions.” - Wendy Ide, Observer

The Girl With The Needle - Sunday 16th March 5pm

When we have got over the buzz from such a great weekend at the festival, Keswick Film Club continues this Sunday with The Girl with the Needle. Set in Denmark in the post-world war one 1920s, this is based on a true story and was nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes. 

"It is about a world in which women’s lives are disposable and in which the authorities are disapproving of and disgusted by their suffering – and set at a time in which the first world war had normalised the idea of mass murder" – Peter Bradshaw, Guardian.

Film Festival Review

What a great weekend of films! Over 3000 seats were sold (the best since the pandemic) to watch a choice of over 40 films; even showing some of these twice, the Alhambra Screen One was totally sold out five times, whilst screen Two was filled eight times! There were three Oscar winners picked before the Oscars were even announced (not to mention 'Anora' that was shown at the Club in January) plus an amazing array of International films from all over the world, including Australia, Japan, China, Iran, Palestine, Mexico and even Bhutan, not to mention the UK, Europe and USA.

The audiences came from far and wide too – Scotland, London even Dorset as well as many from Cumbria and Lancashire – and included students from Edinburgh University, Carlisle College and Birkbeck College, whilst there were three film directors and several cast members visiting over the weekend, helping to celebrate alongside several of the stalwart members of the club who had run the festival over the past 25 years.

It is impossible to pick 'the best' film – it will be different for everyone anyway – but the Audience vote gave it to 'The Marching Band' from France, scoring an incredible 93% (This is being shown at Rheged again this Sunday at 2.00pm if anyone wants to see it – I will be there!) closely followed by 'This is Going to be Big' from Australia and 'The Monk and the Gun' from Bhutan. I managed to miss all those; my favourite was the Oscar winning 'Emilia Perez' which was stunning even the second time I saw it and was one of another eight films to score over 80%.

We have to thank Ian Payne, the Festival Director, who has run it so well since 2017, but has now handed on the baton to Julia Vickers who has kindly volunteered to run it next year – "Thank you so much Ian and very good luck, Julia - may it be even better than this year".

Vaughan Ames

25th Keswick Film Festival

 

This week it's the 25th Keswick Film Festival and one of the biggest programmes we've ever had. It starts on Thursday with Harvey Greenfield Is Running Late which is now sold out but there's an additional screening at 9:15 on Saturday morning. At the time of writing the closing film Cottontail looks like it might sell out as well so we're also showing it in Screen 2. In between there's plenty to see; from award hopefuls like The Brutalist and Emilia Pérez, previews of new films such as Flow, Sister Midnight and Misericordia and a 50th Anniversary screening of Tommy which Mark Kermode just described as "one of the most important and groundbreaking pop movies of all time" in his final Observer column. There are free short film at the Ospreys and showcase from Oska Bright Film Festival, £5 Family Films (which are all really great and not just for kids) and a selection of modern classics and favourites in the new Screen2/Take2 strand. The real question is how to you choose what not to see?

The Problem With People - Sunday 2nd March 5pm

The Problem With People is a very Irish comedy and another choice from our members. Co-written by the American actor Paul Reiser who stars alongside Colm Meaney as cousins trying to heal a family rift.

"A breezy and affable tale of bittersweet reconciliation, this quirky and well-acted comedy delivers its misanthropy with a hint of irascible charm" - Todd Jorgenson, Cinemalogue

In The Mood For Love - Sunday 23rd February 5pm

 

In this beautiful film chosen by the Alhambra's Carol Rennie to fit in the Mint Chinese Film Festival weekend, we return to one of the first films ever shown by the club in 2001. Winner of more than 40 awards when it was released, including best actor and cinematography at Cannes, and rave reviews such as "probably the most breathtakingly gorgeous film of the year, dizzy with a nose-against-the-glass romantic spirit that has been missing from the cinema forever" – Elvis Mitchell, New York Times - whether you saw it then or not, this is a great chance to see this classic film.

The Crime Is Mine - Sunday 16th February 5pm

Our members's picked François Ozon's The Crime Is Mine which takes a stage play from the 1930s and produces a frothy, beautiful, #MeToo film for the 2020s full of twists and turns, comedy and drama; what more could we ask for?

"Writer-director Francois Ozon creates a wonderfully engaging vibe that mixes in little jolts of realism amid the generally breezy, gleefully camp thrills." - Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall

Black Dog - Sunday 9th February 5pm

What looks like a post-apocalyptic, Mad Max setting, or maybe a Clint Eastwood loner western, is in fact set on the fringes of the Gobi Desert in China, the loner here is Lang – just released from long-term jail and returning to his hometown. But the town is being destroyed to make ready for the 2008 Beijing Olympics; the population is being relocated and the only job he can find is as a dogcatcher helping to round up the seemingly endless pack of feral dogs… One of these, the Black Dog of the title, becomes Lang's buddy of course.

"Black Dog registers as an existential fable about isolation, redemption, the possibility of making connections against the odds." - Jonathan Romney, Financial Times

The Universal Theory - Sunday 2nd February 5pm

 

The Universal Theory is set in 1962 where we join Johannes, a student, off to a conference in Switzerland with his amazingly grumpy tutor Dr Julius Strahten. They are joined by Professor Henry Blomberg, who helped the Nazis in the war. 

Before you think this is a German scientific documentary, Jessica Kiang's review in Variety is entitled "A sumptuous homage to Hitchcock packaged as a Metaphysical Noir"; all is not what it seems!

"It is entirely its own exotically original thing. Catch it while it is on the big screen, where its widescreen brilliance truly flourishes." - Jonathan Romney, Financial Times (£)

My Favourite Cake - Sunday 26th January 5pm

In My Favourite Cake we meet Marin a 70 years old who has lived alone for decades since her husband died and her children left home. Even her weekly meeting with her previously wild friends have slipped to monthly…and then yearly. Feeling isolated and lonely, she decides to take her future into her own hands and "sets out to revamp her love life. Before long, her eye is caught by taxi driver Faramaz. Throwing caution to the winds, she engineers a night to remember, filled with music, dance and brain-bruising quantities of wine. But plans have a way of going awry in this lovely, intimate, tragicomic tale of late-blooming love in the shadow of Iran's repressive regime" – Fatima Sheriff, Little White Lies.

Blitz - Sunday 19th January 5pm

Steve McQueen puts his genius to work in Blitz, a drama about the bombing of London in the war, whilst Saoirse Ronan acts her heart out as a mother whose son goes missing.

"A thrilling, moving, morally provoking odyssey through Britain at war, with a flock of vividly sketched supporting characters that buffet George from one adventure to the next." - Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph

Annual General Meeting - This Sunday at 4:30pm

The AGM of the Keswick Film Club will be held at the Alhambra on Sunday 12th January. We’ll start at 4.30 and be finished for the film which will start as usual at 5.00. 

All the documents are posted on the website - see AGM 2025.

Do come along and hear about what we’ve been doing, and it’s your chance to let the committee know what you think.

All the present officers are standing for re-election but we are always keen for new people to stand, so please get in touch if you are interested.

All We Imagine As Light - Sunday 12th January 5pm

The number one film in Sight & Sounds Films of 2024, All We Imagine As Light takes us to Mumbai, a bustling huge metropolis, never still, teeming with people and stories, where nothing seems permanent. The women all work at a hospital:Prabha is a senior nurse, Anu a trainee and Parvaty, a cook. Their stories are separate but interlocking.

"It's a marvel of a movie, with something of the humanist poetry of Satyajit Ray or Edward Yang. And it’s all the more remarkable given that this is Kapadia’s first fiction feature. What a talent." - Wendy Ide, Observer

 

Anora - Sunday 5th January 5pm

 

We hope you have saved some energy after the Christmas break as we start back on Sunday with Anora, the Palme d’Or winner at Cannes and the film voted Number two in the BFI best 50 films of 2024 - "a wild ride" and "absolutely breathless", "one of the films of the year" as Mark Kermode describes it on Kermode and Mayo's Take. If you don’t believe him, how about Deborah Ross in the Spectator – "I know you won’t believe it’s as good as everyone is saying it is until you hear it from me so here you are: yes, it’s as good as everyone is saying it is."