We start at 3.00pm with Slow West, starring Michael Fassbender: it was Fassbender who encouraged director John Maclean to make a film after working on a short with him. Slow West is a British made western, which keeps the genre feeling new...and, as Peter Bradshaw says in the Guardian "It's only slow in the way a rattlesnake or a predatory killer is slow. This terrific film is actually tense, twisty and brilliant".
The second film is 45 Years at 5.00pm, which stars Tom Courtenay and Charlotte Rampling. A couple who are about to celebrate 45 years of marriage receive news from the past that threatens to upset not just the celebration but their whole life. This has received great reviews and seems to have given both actors a chance to excel again – "Rampling has never received an Oscar nomination, but she deserves one for this performance. Courtenay, who has two Oscar nods under his belt, rates another one for helping Rampling reach this peak" - and this from an American (!), Lou Lumenick in New York Post.