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