Mary and Max - Sunday 2nd October 5pm

It is time for our 'claymation' special this weekend at the Alhambra, which is a novelty for the club and should prove interesting; how do clay models translate to adult movies? What makes one of these movies so good it wins an Oscar?

We have two films to see, both directed by Adam Elliot; the first is the short 'Harvie Krumpet', which won the 2004 Oscar for the Best Animated Short Film - 'The odd biography of a man who has Tourette's Syndrome, chronic bad luck, menial jobs, nudist tendencies, and a book of "fakts" hung around his neck.' I'll confess I am not a 'clay lover', but I have recently watched this film and I'll admit I liked it, despite my initial reservations. A film about life...intriguing!

Our main movie for the night is 'Mary and Max', Elliot's follow-up - 'A tale of friendship between two unlikely pen pals: Mary, a lonely, eight-year-old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, and Max, a forty-four-year old, severely obese man living in New York'. Adam Elliot certainly picks his subjects! Again, reviewers and audiences seem to love it, what will Keswick Film Club make of it? I suspect we will be mixed, but come along and see what you think!

Keswick Film Club wins more awards at Annual Film Society Awards

The British Federation of Film Societies Annual awards took place in London on 17th September and, once again Keswick did not come away empty handed. This year saw us win a commendation for our Programme again. For a small town, Keswick definitely does well – we have now won 21 awards since winning the Best New Society award in 2000, including Film Society of the Year in 2006.

One of the main reasons for our success was the hard work and inspiration that Rod Evans put into the club until he stood down earlier this year. His work brought him a well deserved award for Outstanding Contribution by an Individual. This award was passed on to Rod at the beginning of our film on Sunday, which was greeted by very warm applause from the audience. We all owe Rod a great deal.

Our Programming has also been the mainstay of our club; no matter how well you run a film night, people only keep coming if they appreciate the films. Keswick has always tried to stay ahead of the pack, for which David Miller deserves much thanks. We have been lucky to have the Keswick Alhambra Monday night programme delivering films that many other film clubs would be proud of, leaving us free to go one stage further in our film selection; thanks to David we have consistently delivered! Our selection of foreign language, art house and
documentary films stands up against any club.

It is also worth mentioning that our website and brochure are, in my humble opinion, as good if not better than any other club. The award for best website was combined with ‘best marketing’ this year, but taking a look at other leading club sites, Stephen Brown also deserves praise; Have a look at any of them and I think you will agree!

Vaughan Ames, KFC Chair

Before The Devil Knows You're Dead - Sunday 22nd September 5pm

This Sunday's film should be less contentious than Louise-Michel, but will definitely be more thrilling. Sydney Lumet directed Philip Seymour-Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Albert Finney and Marisa Tomei in this 'razor sharp' action thriller in 2008. At that time Lumet was 84, but the pundets have this film down as one of his best, alongside '12 Angry Men' and 'Serpico'. Peter Bradshaw in the Guardian said 'I needed hours to relax my tensed-up muscles'. We are showing this film as a tribute to Sydney Lumet who died last year.

Louise-Michel: 50.31%

Louise-Michel split the audience last night, resulting in a score of 50.31%. Interestingly there were nearly as many 1-star scores as 5-stars ones.

* 12
** 19
*** 21
**** 14
***** 15

Read John Stake's Review for his thoughts on the film.

Louise-Michel - Sunday 18th September 5pm

More Gallic humour this Sunday in the shape of Louise-Michel. I am always wary when critics describe a movie as 'destined to be a cult film' but the overwhelming majority of reviewers have been taken by the mix of black comedy and social comment that Benoit Delepine and Gustave de Kerverne have created.

   

Adele Blanc-Sec: Audience Score 76.7%

The two Keswick organisations that pray most for rain on a regular basis must be the Leisure Pool and the Film Club. Sunday's monsoon, allied to to our traditional opening night get together resulted in a pleasingly full Alhambra (152) for the first film of the Autumn Season.

Not challenging stuff but Indiana Jones avec les sous-titres was a tasty amuse-bouche for the winter nights ahead Adele Blanc-Sec proved to be a fine feelgood opener and showed what the French can do with a ripping yarn, a charming heroine and some serious CGI. 

Autumn Season Launch

Our Autumn programme begins this Sunday with The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec, a light-hearted comedy adventure romp; a 'mix of Amelie and Indiana Jones' according to Empire magazine. You can read the programme notes and watch the trailer here on the website.

As always we'd like to invite you for a start of season drink with us, so please do come along from 4.15pm on 11th September to swap your summer(?) stories with other members.

If you'd like to join or renew your membership you can download the application form and return in - it's tremendously helpful if you can do this before Sunday evening.

We have created an event on our Facebook page if you would like to let us and other 'Fans' know you'll be coming along.