Patrick - Sunday 20th December 5pm

As soon as Mark Kermode stated that Patrick was "a Belgian nudist tragi-comedy", our ears pricked up; when the first clip had the man saying "Sometimes, to get what you want, you have to... not want what you want" we were hooked. We just had to find out why Patrick was so bothered about losing his hammer when all around him were... well… naked people.

Mark Kermode goes on to say, in the Guardian, "Anyone wanting a raunchy comedy with titillating displays of flesh definitely won’t get it… The fact that such sub-Shakespearean intrigue plays out in the nude is, remarkably, the least remarkable thing about this deadpan delight".

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The Lady in the Portrait - Sunday 13th December 5:00 PM

This one is for lovers of beauty, China and history; did I mention the beauty?

"In the court of Qianlong Emperor, the women serve as either wives or concubines while the men are mostly eunuchs or soldiers. There are, however, a few foreigners permitted to roam the palace grounds, including a couple of Jesuit priests whose religious practices are tolerated and whose artistic abilities are admired by Qianlong. One of them, the talented draftsman Attiret, is asked - or rather, commanded - by the emperor to paint the portrait of the latter's young bride Ulanara, who is still trying to find her place next to a powerful husband waging war throughout China...But the painting sessions prove difficult for both of them...Is he falling in love with her, tempted by such proximity to the female flesh? And is she unable to cope with the fact her husband is surrounded by subservient women, some of whom could be more attractive and worthy of the crown?" - Jordan Mintzer, Hollywood Reporter.

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Les Misérables - Sunday 1st November 5pm

Another attempt to show Les Misérables after technical problems prevented our screening a few weeks ago.  

It's not another remake of Victor Hugo's novel, but based on the same poverty and police injustice in the same suburbs of Paris. We follow the first two days of rookie cop Stéphane with his two jaded fellow policemen, Gwada and Chris, whose techniques veer definitely off-law, harassing teenagers and annoying the already pent-up locals. When a lion is stolen from a travelling circus, a riot situation follows, filmed by a small boy on his drone-cam; the police cannot hush up their tactics this time...

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Perfumes - Sunday 25th October 5pm

This one is for those of you who want to enjoy a good story, have a laugh and come away feeling good; meet Anne and Guilliame. Anne is "a professional nose – someone whose sense of smell is so precise they are sought after for everything from perfume creation (at least, she used to be) to corporate jobs disguising the horrible smell seeping from a factory into a nearby village" - Jamie East, Sun. Guilliame is a chauffeur, "striving to make enough money to upgrade to a better apartment so he can have his tween-aged daughter stay overnight. Guillaume can't afford to lose his job, as it is already hanging by a thread due to his having earned several points on his licence for speeding" – Leslie Felperin, Guardian. He gets the job of ferrying Anne between jobs...but she is not easy to work for.

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Sheep Without A Shepherd - Sunday 18th October 5PM

 

 For lovers of crime thrillers with twisting plots, Sheep Without A Shepherd is definitely for you.

"You would think that a film about a film-obsessed character would go in a predictable route that an equally film-obsessed audience would see coming; however, that's not the case. You never know which move each player will make next. 'Sheep Without a Shepherd' is an exceptional ode to crime thrillers and cinema lovers, with the affecting relevance of how the roar of the victimized can topple their oppressors" – Sara Clements, AwardsWatch.

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Papicha - Sunday 11th October 5pm

 

Where The Perfect Candidate gave us a fairly lightweight view of the problems of life for a woman in Saudi Arabia, Papicha takes a much hard-hitting look at Algeria in the 1990s, when the Islamic revolution forced women in hijabs. Basing the film on her own experiences, Mounia Madour places Nedjma, nicknamed Papicha – Algerian slang for 'cool girl' – at the centre of the whirlpool: she wants to be a fashion designer and, refusing to accept the changes that are happening, she decides to put on a fashion show in the university.

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Les Misérables - Sunday 4th October 5:00 PM

No, Les Misérables is not another remake of Victor Hugo's novel, but based on the same poverty and police injustice in the same suburbs of Paris. We follow the first two days of rookie cop Stéphane with his two jaded fellow policemen, Gwada and Chris, whose techniques veer definitely off-law, harassing teenagers and annoying the already pent-up locals. When a lion is stolen from a travelling circus, a riot situation follows, filmed by a small boy on his drone-cam; the police cannot hush up their tactics this time...

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The County - Sunday 27th September 5pm

We are off back to Iceland this week, from where we have had some great moments in the last few years – you will remember Rams and Woman at War I hope. The County comes from the same director as Rams - Grímur Hákonarson – but maybe has more of the feel of Woman at War.

Our hero this time is Inga, a dairy farmer fighting to survive in a farm drowning in debt to the local Co-op. When her husband dies, she becomes aware that the Co-op, far from supporting the local farmers, acts more like the Mafia; yes they guarantee buying all her milk but she has to buy everything from them at inflated prices. Risking everything, she writes a whistle-blower review to the Co-op Facebook account. The support she hopes for from the local farmers disappears as they fear the Co-op too much, giving us that feel of Woman at War - she is left to fight on alone.

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Make Up - Sunday 20th September 5pm

Finally considered old enough to be away from home by her parents, 18 year old Ruth has come to this deserted caravan site in Cornwall's winter to get a job and be with her long term boyfriend Tom. So we enter this dark, middle world of youth turning adult; she is between two chapters of her life, as the caravan site is between seasons. Being unsure of herself, she finds a friend in Jade, a fellow worker, who offers her help and a makeover, painting her bitten nails red...but is there more going on here than we see at first?

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The Perfect Candidate - Sunday 13th September 5pm

A perfect candidate to start our new season too? We thought so. We last saw director Haifaa Al-Mansour in 2014 with the first Saudi film ever directed by a woman – 'Wadjda' – where she brought us a small girl determined to own a bike (not allowed in Saudi). Six years later, she is back in Saudi with Maryam, a female doctor trying her hardest to be accepted as a doctor (her first patient refuses to let a woman touch him). Her clinic has the only emergency room for miles and is down a dirt road which becomes a quagmire when it rains. Failing to get the local councillor to do anything about it, she decides to stand for office herself. 

"Maryam doesn’t see herself as any kind of feminist pioneer. Her motivations are practical, not symbolic. But the people around her are bull-headed. To them, nothing exists beyond her gender. When she makes an appearance on local TV, the presenter assumes her policies deal only in women’s issues 'like gardens, for instance'" – Clarisse Loughrey, Independent.

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Film Club Reopens

Our new season will start on 13th September and we are very pleased to announce that we have found more films available than we thought, so we now expect to manage something like our normal season of unseen, new films. We are hoping that further films will be released as the months pass, so we do not intend to book up the whole season as we normally do, but will roll forward, booking three or four weeks in advance. 

We have three great films booked for September:

The Perfect Candidate (Sun 13th) from the director of 'Wadja' follows Maryam as she tries her hardest to be accepted as a female doctor in Saudi. 

Make Up (Sun 20th) is writer-director Claire Oakley's first feature film, for which she has got all-round good reviews: "She has taken the template of arthouse Brit realism and audaciously spiked it with some genre thrills, as if Ken Loach collaborated with Brian De Palma or Nicolas Roeg" - Peter Bradshaw, Guardian.

The County (Sun 27th) sees Inga, a dairy farmer fighting to survive in a farm drowning in debt to the local co-op. When her husband dies, she becomes aware that the co-op, far from supporting the local farmers, acts more like the Mafia.

You can find more details on all these films here on our new website along with links to book tickets which will be required as part of the Alhambra's safety guidelines.