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."

If Only I Could Hibernate - Sunday 22nd December 5pm

If Only I Could Hibernate was chosen by members last season, but it was withdrawn by the distributors; it is now available! It was the first Mongolian film to be shown at Cannes Film Festival. It follows the daily life of Ulzii, a young 15-year-old boy, who is torn between personal ambition and family loyalty.

"Brings an earthy, lived-in authenticity to a premise that, in other hands, could feel like a piece of ethnographic voyeurism." - Wendy Ide, Observer

Paradise is Burning - Sunday 20th October 5pm

Winner of a Best Director award at Venice, Paradise Is Burning is Mika Gustafson's first movie and is a celebration of youth: three sisters, aged 16, 12 and 7, are surviving alone after their fun-loving mother finally abandons them all together.

"Bracingly shot and edited, with impressive performances from the cast, the film is packed with powerfully intense moments." - Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall

Shayda - Sunday 17th March 5pm

Shayda tells the story of the titular character's attempt to escape her abusive husband's clutches. This is director Noora Niasari's confident personal debut , which won an Audience Award at Sundance for the World Dramatic Competition program.

"One of the most masterful debuts of a filmmaker that I've seen in a long time." - Claudia Puig, FilmWeek

Poor Things - Sunday 25th February 5pm

 

This week you can see Emma Stone's BAFTA winning performance in Poor Things, the latest from the strangely brilliant director Yorgos Lanthimos. The film was nominated for 11 BAFTAS and also won for production design, make up and hair, costume and special visual effects.

Emma Stone stars 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). But to Wedderburn's disgust, she then turns to reading and before you know it, she is out-thinking and outsmarting the men.

"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" - Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

Anatomy Of A Fall - Sunday 28th January 5:00 PM

Anatomy Of A Fall won the Palme d'Or at Cannes last year and 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?

“This family drama masquerading as a murder-mystery touches on universal marital tensions; it is both enigmatic and very human.” - Laura Venning, Empire Magazine

Paris Memories - Sunday 10th December 5pm

Another Members' Choice for our penultimate film of 2023. Paris Memories (Revoir Paris) is inspired by a real experience of the Bataclan attack in Paris, Alice Winocour (who co-wrote the magnificent 'Mustang' we showed 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".

"It’s a sensitive, careful film with real emotional intelligence, but no less gripping for swerving dramatic fireworks in favour of quieter, more observational moments." -  Philip De Semlyen, Time Out

Brother - Sunday 3rd December 5pm

In Brother we meet two brothers and their mothers are immigrants to Toronto in the 1970s. 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." Neil Baker, Cinerama Film.

“No feeling in “Brother” goes unfelt; every element of its filmmaking taps into the heart.” - Peyton Robinson, Rogerebert.com

Passages - Sunday 26th November 5pm

The outstanding Franz Rogowski stars alongside Adèle Excharopoulos and Ben Whishaw in the latest film from Ira Sachs. "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.

“Rogowski, Whishaw and Exarchopoulos are all black-belt performers and they bring this film to vivid and sensual life." - Peter Bradshaw, Guardian

“A briskly-moving, turbulent, emphatically sexy, deliberately exasperating love triangle.” - Glenn Kenny, Rogerebert.com

Pretty Red Dress - Sunday 12th November 6pm

 

A later start this week to make room for The Royal Ballet's Don Quixote so join us at 6pm for PRETTY RED DRESS. A film starring an X-Factor winner (Alexandra Burke) singing Tina Turner songs may not sound like our usual type of film but this got great reviews earlier in the year.

"This is a terrific film. It's original, has heft, is magnificently performed, and it blew me away" - Deborah Ross, The Spectator.

"Unafraid to face up to complex personal issues while still maintaining its solidly mainstream appeal." Mark Kermode - Observer

"Examines its subject matter with great heart and passion." - David Jenkins, Little White Lies

Small, Slow But Steady - Sunday 5th November 5pm

Set in a near-deserted, Covid Tokyo, Small, Slow But Steady 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.

"Anyone committed to the more contemplative, emotionally refined end of the current Japanese art cinema spectrum will find this against-the-grain study genuinely alluring." - Jonathan Romney, Screen International

 

Master Gardener - Sunday 29th October 5pm

 

In Master Gardener Joel Edgerton plays the gardener in Sigourney Weaver's estate, but we soon realise he has not always been a gardener.

"The less you know about Master Gardener going in, the better: tracing the trail of these characters’ secrets is part of the thrill. But it’s compelling for other reasons too." - Stephanie Zacharek. TIME Magazine

La Syndicaliste - Sunday 22nd October 5pm

La Syndicaliste is a "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.

“Isabelle Huppert carries it along with a performance every bit as gripping as you’d expect.” -  Cath Clarke, Guardian