Monday, March 24, 2014

Fanny - Sunday 30th March 5pm

Sadly, we reach our last film for this season. We finish with Part Two of Daniel Auteuil's trilogy - 'Fanny'. In Part One, 'Marius', we met the lovers in Marseille, with Marius not sure whether his love for Fanny was stronger than his desire to go to sea. In Part Two, he has gone to sea and left Fanny alone to face the consequences of their romance. Will he come back and marry her, or should she give way to the wooing by Panisse, the much older friend of her father's, who is in love with her too? The mix of love, drama and comedy started in 'Marius' continues here; you will have to come along to find out what Fanny decides to do...


Monday, March 17, 2014

The Patrol - Sunday 23rd March 5pm

This week's film - 'The Patrol' - is a war film, but with a different slant to the 'normal'; based around a Platoon of British soldiers in the front line Afghanistan in 2006, we are taken into their minds as they deal with lack of equipment, bad decisions by their officers and, possibly the worst, lack of faith in their politicians; why are they there at all? Why should they risk their lives for someone else's battle?  Written and directed by Tom Petch,  who is himself a former soldier, the film won the Jury prize for  'film of the festival' at last year's Raindance Festival in London, no mean feat for a new director.

Monday, March 10, 2014

Michael Kohlhaas - Sunday 16th March 5pm

We welcome back Mads Mikkelsen this weekend, playing the title role in 'Michael Kohlhaas'. We last saw him in 'A Royal Affair' and 'The Hunt', now he takes on the very different role of a  Robin Hood-like legend.  Michael Kohlhaas, a well-to-do horse dealer in 16th century France, is cheated of two horses by a local baron and his attempts to right this wrong grow steadily out of control. How far can a fight for justice be justified? Is right always right? Set against the modern wars in the Middle East and the political arguments in Ukraine, this moral dilemma seems to go on for ever...Let's see how Mikkelsen takes on the problems!


Monday, March 03, 2014

Prince Avalanche - Sunday Sunday 9th March 5pm

After a fantastic weekend at the Keswick Film Festival, our film this week, 'Prince Avalanche',  'follows two unlucky, unhappy guys as they paint lines on a forgotten stretch of rural Texas highway, bickering and battling every step of the way. It has an effortless, scattershot hipster sweetness that feels deeply Scandinavian, and would always have been a goofily lovable character comedy. But a haunting mid-film sequence in the burned-out shell of a remote house elevates the film into something more impressive and compelling, a mournful but quietly angry comment on life in the wake of financial and emotional disaster. With gorgeously crisp photography and pitch-perfect performances from the two leads, this is one of the most intriguing and thoughtful American films of the year' (Tom Huddleston, Time Out).

Hopefully this mix of comedy and thoughtfulness will result in the 'oddity of the season' we picked the film to be!