Summer comes to Keswick!

It seems very appropriate that the weather is so lovely at the moment; we can all go outside and enjoy it while there are no club movies to see! We hope you have enjoyed the year; we feel that it was a good one with some great films, and certainly a fantastic 25th Film Festival last month. 

Many of the films went on to win BAFTAs or even Oscars and many more appeared in the BFI's best films of the year list. It is also a good sign that so many club-type films are now winning awards worldwide.

Thanks to everyone who has helped keep the show running over the year, whether you were on the committee, running front of house, running the Festival or helping on it. An especial thanks to Ian Payne for directing all the great festivals we have had in his time and to Julia Vickers for stepping forward to run the next ones! A special thanks should go the Rennie family for all their years giving the club a home, and to Jonathan and Graham for taking on the responsibility for our future. Thanks all!

So that is it from us. The emails will be back in mid summer with a list of films for next season for members to choose from, and the Sunday night shows will start again in September.  If you are looking for something to see meantime, keep your eye on the Alhambra website - they  will keep showing films for you every week. 

Have a great summer, everyone! 

The Last Dance - Sunday 23rd March 5pm

The Last Dance is another Members' Choice; Hong Kong wedding planner Dominic loses his business due to Covid and switches to running a funeral business. It is actually going quite well except that his business partner is an old-school Taoist priest Master Man, who has no time for his new commercially oriented youngster.

“Starts out as an odd couple story but evolves into something more complex and satisfying: a film about tradition, gender roles and family tensions.” - Wendy Ide, Observer

In The Mood For Love - Sunday 23rd February 5pm

 

In this beautiful film chosen by the Alhambra's Carol Rennie to fit in the Mint Chinese Film Festival weekend, we return to one of the first films ever shown by the club in 2001. Winner of more than 40 awards when it was released, including best actor and cinematography at Cannes, and rave reviews such as "probably the most breathtakingly gorgeous film of the year, dizzy with a nose-against-the-glass romantic spirit that has been missing from the cinema forever" – Elvis Mitchell, New York Times - whether you saw it then or not, this is a great chance to see this classic film.

The Crime Is Mine - Sunday 16th February 5pm

Our members's picked François Ozon's The Crime Is Mine which takes a stage play from the 1930s and produces a frothy, beautiful, #MeToo film for the 2020s full of twists and turns, comedy and drama; what more could we ask for?

"Writer-director Francois Ozon creates a wonderfully engaging vibe that mixes in little jolts of realism amid the generally breezy, gleefully camp thrills." - Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall

The Universal Theory - Sunday 2nd February 5pm

 

The Universal Theory is set in 1962 where we join Johannes, a student, off to a conference in Switzerland with his amazingly grumpy tutor Dr Julius Strahten. They are joined by Professor Henry Blomberg, who helped the Nazis in the war. 

Before you think this is a German scientific documentary, Jessica Kiang's review in Variety is entitled "A sumptuous homage to Hitchcock packaged as a Metaphysical Noir"; all is not what it seems!

"It is entirely its own exotically original thing. Catch it while it is on the big screen, where its widescreen brilliance truly flourishes." - Jonathan Romney, Financial Times (£)

Green Border - Sunday 1st December 5pm

This thriller-cum-political drama takes place in the Green Border - the space between Belarus and Poland where hopeful refugees wait the next stage of their journey into Europe…

"'Green Border' strikes me as the best and most important film to be released in the U.S. so far this year." - Godfrey Cheshire, RogerEbert.com

Your Programme for Autumn 2024

We are getting close to the start of our 25th year which starts on Sunday 15th September. The autumn season is booked, including 9 films voted for by the members. You can now read about all of the films in the PDF of the brochure which is also available around town.

If you join the club for £10 you get to see any of the club films for only £6 but everybody is welcome at all of the films.

We hope that you will want to see many of the films here and that our 25th year turns out to be a memorable one for us all!

The End We Start From - Sunday 24th March 5pm

In The End We Start From Jodie Comer stars as a woman who gives birth just as terrible floods hit London; new life begins as the old life ends. The film continues to emphasise the individuals' problems rather than the bigger picture, focusing on our unnamed hero trying to survive as food gets harder to find. She first escapes from London up North with her partner, then tries to reach a commune with a new-found friend, all the while having to fend for her baby.

"Comer’s vulnerability and idealism are authentic as are her determination and a dash of real ruthlessness... She carries everything with unselfconscious strength and style." - Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

AGM - Sunday 18th February 4:30pm

We are having our normal very brief AGM before Love Life, please come for 4.30 onwards to enjoy a free drink while we make decisions for the coming year.

We have moved our AGM back in the calendar to allow time for the accounts to be audited, so this meeting will cover 18 months (but will still not take long as all the info you need is on our website, please try to read it before the meeting). The election of officers and Trustees is essential so do please come along or we will not be able to continue.

The Peasants - Sunday 11th February 5pm

For The Peasants the makes of 'Loving Vincent' have taken a Polish classic novel as a basis and produced a "ravishingly beautiful visual triumph". The story is of Jamila, a striking blonde beauty who is admired by every male in the village, including both the rich Maciej and his eldest son Antek, who Jamila loves. When Maciej arranges a marriage for himself with Jamila, the affair with his son continues, with disastrous results.

“A disconcertingly beautiful picture about the ugliness of humanity.” - Wendy Ide, The Observer

 

20,000 Species of Bees - Sunday 21st January 5pm

 

A beautiful, gentle film about family, identity and so much more, which won its star, Sofia Otero the Best Actress award at the Berlin Festival… not bad for an 8 year old. Sofia plays Cocó, the youngest son of Ane, who is having problems with her marriage. When Ane takes her family to visit her own mother Lita in Spain, her own identity as a sculptor is thrown into doubt by Lita. Coco meanwhile is more and more sure he is a girl in a boy's body; the only person to accept this is her great aunt Lordes, who is happy with her bees, and with calling her Lucía. So...Pretty well the whole family have identity problems of their own.

With this gentle, empathic picture, [director] Urresola joins a conversation that usually plays out as a screaming match, and tones it down to a murmur. It turns out that you hear a lot more that way" - Wendy Ide, Guardian.

Nobody Has To Know - Sunday 17th December 5pm

We finish this season with an unusual love story, both in characters and place, whilst the twists and turns will keep you guessing along the way. Set in the beautiful but barren Outer Hebrides, with the lovers in their autumn years, will it all turn out for good… or will it go sour?

"This wistful, island-set melodrama has strong performances and the sly hypnotic power of a high-end meditation app." - Kevin Maher, The Times

Paris Memories - Sunday 10th December 5pm

Another Members' Choice for our penultimate film of 2023. Paris Memories (Revoir Paris) is inspired by a real experience of the Bataclan attack in Paris, Alice Winocour (who co-wrote the magnificent 'Mustang' we showed here in 2016), places Mia, by a huge mis chance, in a restaurant which is attacked by a terrorist gunman. Mia "finds herself completely broken by the experience…" - Wendy Ide, Observer. We see the whole event through Mia's eyes, crouched on the floor with just the gunmen's feet in view; the tension this creates sets the scene for the whole film, but this film is not really about the attack, who did it or why, it is about the effect on a survivor, Mia. Wendy Ide goes on to say "Three months after the event, she starts the process of piecing together her shattered memories of the attack, even as she comes to realise that some elements of her life are beyond repair".

"It’s a sensitive, careful film with real emotional intelligence, but no less gripping for swerving dramatic fireworks in favour of quieter, more observational moments." -  Philip De Semlyen, Time Out

Brother - Sunday 3rd December 5pm

In Brother we meet two brothers and their mothers are immigrants to Toronto in the 1970s. Francis has to protect his younger brother Michael, whilst teaching him to become a man in the gang community they live in. "The result is a stunning, tender and compelling story of brotherly love, family and friendship that isn't afraid to challenge outdated notions of masculinity while offering us a searing portrait of community oppression and racism. Brother is a hauntingly beautiful cinematic adaptation." Neil Baker, Cinerama Film.

“No feeling in “Brother” goes unfelt; every element of its filmmaking taps into the heart.” - Peyton Robinson, Rogerebert.com

Passages - Sunday 26th November 5pm

The outstanding Franz Rogowski stars alongside Adèle Excharopoulos and Ben Whishaw in the latest film from Ira Sachs. "A love triangle unfolds in Passages, a sexy, European drama. Most viewers…will be entranced by this wicked study of a man who uses people in his life like the actors on his set, ordering them around until he gets what he needs from them" - Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com.

“Rogowski, Whishaw and Exarchopoulos are all black-belt performers and they bring this film to vivid and sensual life." - Peter Bradshaw, Guardian

“A briskly-moving, turbulent, emphatically sexy, deliberately exasperating love triangle.” - Glenn Kenny, Rogerebert.com

The Beasts - Sunday 19th November 5pm

The Beasts is based loosely on a true story  of a Dutch couple who moved to Spain, here we have Antoine and Olga, a French couple, who have moved to a tiny hamlet in Galicia to set up an organic farm. The trouble is the locals, 'hill people', do not understand them - they consider farming to be just hard work and want out. Battle lines were set when the incomers vetoed a communal plan to sell out to a wind-turbine company.

“A terrific psychological thriller and a brooding, muscular piece of filmmaking...” - Wendy Ide, Screen International

Pretty Red Dress - Sunday 12th November 6pm

 

A later start this week to make room for The Royal Ballet's Don Quixote so join us at 6pm for PRETTY RED DRESS. A film starring an X-Factor winner (Alexandra Burke) singing Tina Turner songs may not sound like our usual type of film but this got great reviews earlier in the year.

"This is a terrific film. It's original, has heft, is magnificently performed, and it blew me away" - Deborah Ross, The Spectator.

"Unafraid to face up to complex personal issues while still maintaining its solidly mainstream appeal." Mark Kermode - Observer

"Examines its subject matter with great heart and passion." - David Jenkins, Little White Lies

Small, Slow But Steady - Sunday 5th November 5pm

Set in a near-deserted, Covid Tokyo, Small, Slow But Steady is a beautiful study of the small, slow but steady young woman Keiko who has been deaf since birth. She takes to boxing as a way to break out of her isolated world, but then has to face up to her loss of the desire to win and the closure of her gym, run by her major supporter.

"Anyone committed to the more contemplative, emotionally refined end of the current Japanese art cinema spectrum will find this against-the-grain study genuinely alluring." - Jonathan Romney, Screen International

 

La Syndicaliste - Sunday 22nd October 5pm

La Syndicaliste is a "French drama about a blood-boiling real-life case of injustice is the story of whistleblower and rape survivor Maureen Kearney, who for four years lived with a criminal record: falsely convicted of wasting police time, accused of inventing her rape" - Cath Clarke, Guardian.

“Isabelle Huppert carries it along with a performance every bit as gripping as you’d expect.” -  Cath Clarke, Guardian

Scrapper - Sunday 8th October 5pm

"Winner of the World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize, 'Scrapper', directed by Charlotte Regan, is a delightfully hilarious film from the UK. After her mom dies, Georgie, 12, lives alone in her flat, supporting herself by stealing bikes with her friend Ali. Everything seems to be going well until a young man shows up who claims to be her estranged father, Jason. Georgie is too grown up, Jason too immature, and she's suspicious about why he has appeared after being a deadbeat dad all these years. Scrapper is just one of those sweet, funny films that takes pleasure in the wonder of youth, with really tight, honest writing that is unexpected and fun" - Josh Flanders, Chicago Reader.