Call Me By Your Name is a coming of age film set in a northern Italian summer in 1984 and explores teenage sexuality amid a beautiful timeless landscape. In one sense nothing much happens as a teenager gradually becomes enthralled by an older American student. Just a beautiful film. And as good as an Italian holiday for the cold days of February.
We have the latest film from a Keswick favourite – Michael Haneke - this Sunday at 5.00 with the French Happy End. "The Laurent [family] hides in the bubble of its own privilege and live in a mansion in Calais. Georges, played by the reliably brilliant Jean-Louis Trintignant, is about to turn 85; since the passing of his wife, he's in love only with death. (In many ways, this ironically titled drama could be the sequel to 'Amour'.) The widower is trapped with what's left of his family: his daughter Anne (Isabelle Huppert), who runs the clan's construction business; her immature son, Pierre, who she'd like to see take over operations; Anne's brother, Thomas, a doctor; his wife, Anaïs and their newborn son; and Ève (a dynamite Fantine Harduin), Thomas's 13-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, who comes to live at chez Laurent after the suicide of her mother’ – Peter Travers, Rolling Stone.
Also staring Toby Jones, we have some great acing to look forward to but... does it live up to Amour, The White Ribbon, or Hidden? Although it was nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival 2017, some critics seem to prefer the more heartfelt style of 'Amour' over his older, more bleak films; they were inevitably left with split opinions over 'Happy End', then. Come along and see what you think of it!
In In Between three Palestinian women are sharing a flat in cosmopolitan Tel Aviv. They come from very different backgrounds and have different lives. But they are brought together against the attitudes of men (‘Where do you think you are living? In Europe?’ asks one of them – the men do not come out well in this). This is Maysaloun Hamoud's first feature film. Controversially it was made with Israeli money and provoked very different attitudes amongst its Palestinian audience including a fatwa from the mayor of the town where one of the women in the story is said to come from.
We are in for a visual and poetic treat this Sunday at 5.00 with the Moroccan Mimosas. The film follows a modern day caravan taking a dying Sheik to his home, the medieval town of Sijilmasa. Led by three diverse young men, they decide to take a shorter path through the Atlas Mountains, but is there really a route that will take them to their destination? They are beset with trials, both physical and spiritual along the way, where "the movie's largely scenic pleasures — both visual and aural, with a great deal of windswept soundscaping — wouldn't necessarily be out of place in Ford or Hawks, whether it’s in a scene of river fording, a stunning shot of a lake by moonlight, or the simple sight of a mule nibbling at the sparse grass" – Ben Kenigsberg, Variety. Compared by some to Herzog's 'Aguirre: The Wrath of God', the film takes on a dreamy parable feel, so we can expect our thoughts to be provoked and our eyes to be feasted; as to why it is called Mimosas, we shall have to wait and see...
Welcome back and happy new year. We try to find something fairly accessible to start a season and this is no exception. Marjorie's husband Walter had died 15 years ago so she gets a younger holographic version of him instead to talk to, as you do (or possibly will in 2050). So far, so good. Then it starts to get complicated with more holograms talking to each other. And a poodle. Or two. Or more if you count holograms. There are some dark secrets to be revealed. But if you can work out at the end who was who or wasn't…
