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.
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
If Only I Could Hibernate was chosen by members last season, but it was withdrawn by the distributors; it is now available!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
"Detective Ma Zhe wanders through the frames of Wei Shujun's period noir Only the River Flows, smoking cigarettes like carbon monoxide is actually his oxygen, almost always bedecked in his leather coat. These are the trademark symbols of a weary cop who has worked too long and seen too much" - Andy Crump, Paste Magazine.
"Fittingly, as pure cinema, Only The River Flows is a knockout: eerie and dreamlike" - Danny Leigh, Financial Times
Winner of the Festival Favourite Award at the Sundance Film Festival, Radical is based on a genuine teacher, Sergio Juarez Correa, a teacher in the northeastern Mexican border town of Matamoros, whose story, by Joshua Davis, appeared on the cover of 'Wired' in 2013 and inspired this film. The school in question was known as 'the school of punishment'; it was impoverished, dominated by drug gangs and corrupt officials, all of which Sergio took on as a test to try out a new method - student-led learning.
"Brought to life by an electrifying cast fronted by Derbez and an ensemble of young actors already at the top of their game, while 'Radical' might feel like familiar territory, it is energized with so much heart and compassion that it feels almost impossible not to fall for its myriad charms." - Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, AWFJ
The Outrun starts in London where we meet Rona who is spiralling to the bottom of her alcoholic life, pushing her loving partner Daynin away on her way downwards. She decides to run for cover to the place of her youth, Orkney. Not out of the woods yet - her family there cause her more heartaches - but she gradually finds peace and tranquility in the remote and windswept Scottish Islands
Rona is played by Saoirse Ronan in another potentially award winning performance:
"When it comes to disappearing into emotionally and physically demanding roles, there are a few actors out there as gifted and committed" - Tomris Laffly, Harper's Bazaar.
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
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
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?
"This wistful, island-set melodrama has strong performances and the sly hypnotic power of a high-end meditation app." - Kevin Maher, The Times
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
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 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
Another Members' Choice this week with AFIRE. 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...
"Afire is an entertainment with spark and philosophical insight" - Jonathan Romney. Financial Times
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.
"It is an engrossing mixture of adventure yarn and methodical police procedural that generates moments of pulse-racing tension" - Allan Hunter, The List
Another Member's Choice this week, 1945, a thriller which appears to be a mix between 'Once Upon a Time in the West' and a Hungarian holocaust movie - this time looking at the complicity of the locals rather than the Nazis themselves.
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 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.
