Strawberry Mansion - Sunday 18th December 5pm

Imagine a world where everything is taxed, where product placement happens in your dreams. Imagine a world where these dreams are all recorded online via an 'air-stick' next to your bed... so that these can be taxed too.

James Preble is a tax man whose job is to audit your dreams. He calls on Bella, an old lady, who has no tax records; she hasn't updated her hardware. So far so simple (!?) What happens when he starts to audit her dreams takes him (and us) into a world of dreams where pretty much anything can happen, including falling in love...

"Beneath the crazy candy-coloured palette, there is actually some real human warmth in the love story, and the acting ensemble features some great comic performers in supporting roles..." - Leslie Felperin, Guardian

 

Decision To Leave - Sunday 11th December 5pm

 

Park Chan-wook won Best Director at Cannes this year for his latest film, and an array of great reviews: 

"A world-class artist at the top of his game" – David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter.

"It's a gorgeously and grippingly made picture and Tang Wei is magnificent" – Peter Bradshaw, Guardian. 

"One of the smartest, most satisfying murder mysteries in years." - Adam Graham, Detroit News

Triangle Of Sadness - Sunday 4th December 5pm

In Triangle Of Sadness we follow two 'beautiful people' onto a freebie aboard a fabulously rich yacht with VERY wealthy people aboard, including some capitalist Russians. Captained by a disillusioned Marxist (Woody Harrelson), the crew have been told they cannot say 'no' to any request. All goes, well, swimmingly, until a huge storm hits and their worlds are turned upside down...

"An absurd, iconoclastic riot. Ruben Östlund's point may be blunt — yep, rich people are bad — but his telling of it is hilariously, breathlessly entertaining." - John Nugent, Empire Magazine

The Gravedigger's Wife - Sunday 27th November 5pm

Winner of many awards around the world's film festivals and the Somali entry for the Oscars, "The Gravedigger's Wife is a beautiful love letter to the power of family" (Marya E Gates, RogerEbert.com)

"A handsome, widescreen fable about family bonds and financial insecurity, this Somali-language film’s simplicity and economy is its power." - Wendy Ide, The Observer

 

 

Vesper - Sunday 20th November 5pm

Vesper is a 13-year-old girl trying to rebuild a dying world. "Set in 'the new dark ages' — a ruined tomorrow in which the engineered viruses and organisms that humanity created in order to stem the planet's ecological crisis have escaped into the wild and remade life on Earth into a dreary (but awesome) Cronenbergian wasteland full of fleshy droids, bioluminescent critters, and trees whose spores try to suck out your internal tissue while you sleep — Kristina Buozyte and Bruno Samper's 'Vesper' has already drawn several comparisons to the likes of 'Stalker' and the Andrei Tarkovsky-inspired 'Annihilation.' It’s easy to see why.

The Innocents - Sunday 6th November 5pm

A future supernatural classic for you? Shown at The Alhambra as part of their Summer World Cinema season we thought The Innocents deserved another chance because not enough people saw it.

We start in "a pleasant, if featureless residential development in Romsås, Oslo, with 60s-style high-rise buildings near an artificial lake and picturesque woodland. Ida is a moody nine-year-old who resents her mum and dad paying so much attention to her elder sister Anna, who is autistic. As the long hot summer drags on, Ida is left to play outside, and tasked with looking after Anna. But Ida leaves her sister alone on the swings one day while she goes off with a new friend: a boy called Ben who shows her a strange mental trick he can do, making a bottle cap fly through the air without touching it. Meanwhile, Anna strikes up a friendship with a girl called Aisha, who has telepathic powers to match Ben's telekinesis...

"The Innocents’ is a nightmare unfolding in cold, clear daylight" – Peter Bradshaw, Guardian.

 "A complex piece of storytelling, both visually and narratively." - Brian Tallerico, Rogerebert.com

 

Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash - Sunday 30th October 5pm

Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash is an Indonesian action movie with a lot to say.

"Pulpy yet swooningly romantic, Edwin's entertaining thriller has perhaps the coolest film title in recent years; it also won the Golden Leopard at last year's Locarno film festival.
...
An adrenaline-pumping action fest that is ironic in many respects, 'Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash' swerves towards the mystical and the spiritual in the latter half, becoming an earnest and potent critique on the trappings of masculinity" - Phuong Le, Guardian.

Join & Share Our Facebook Event 

A later start and an extra new short film this Sunday

A reminder that we start at 5.30 this week, as the Alhambra is showing La Boheme during the afternoon. Then we have two films for you! In case you are worried just how long this will go on, both are short, so we should still finish by about 7.20pm.

We start by showcasing a new short, animated film, 'THE FELL WE CLIMB', produced by young Cumbrians in collaboration with mentors from Anti-Racist Cumbria, based on their own experiences of "what it's like growing up in Cumbria if you aren’t white". The film will be introduced by Keswick school pupil Millie Williams, and lead animator, Lou Kneath of +3K Animation. This took the best part of a year to produce and should be interesting from both a 'black lives matter' perspective and as a great way to support young talent.

The film is about 15 minutes long so we should be into the main feature, QUEEN OF GLOR' by 6.00.  One of the highlights of the current programme, this film is 'a dry comedy' about the problems of Ghanaian people living in New York so they slot together very well.

Queen Of Glory - Sunday 23rd October 5:30pm

A slightly later start time of 5:30pm for our film this week. "Actress Nana Mensah makes an impressive debut as a writer-director with 'Queen of Glory', a dry comedy of culture clashes, both ethnic and generational. Mensah fondly depicts the world of a Ghanaian American who has for the most part kept her heritage at a distance. But even in New York City, far from her homeland, she inevitably reconnects with tradition" – Pat Padua, Washington Post.

“Remember the name Nana Mensah — as an actor, writer and director, Queen Of Glory is a hugely impressive calling card.” - John Nugent, Empire Magazine

Join & Share our Facebook Event 

Leave No Traces - Sunday 16th October 5pm

Leave No Traces was chosen as the Polish entry to the Oscars. Based on a true story from Communist Poland in 1983 when the Warsaw police beat to death an 18-year-old student and then covered this up right to the highest level of government. Whilst possibly hard to believe for us then, it seems a lot more believable with the recent swathe of police violence in the USA.

“[A] meticulously detailed thriller...” - Wendy Ide, Observer

Join & Share our Facebook Event

A Chiara - Sunday 9th October 5pm

 

This week our film is the the third part of a loose Calabrian trilogy by director Jonas Carpignano. 

"At once a coming-of-age story and a mafia thriller, 'A Chiara' takes a look at organized crime in Southern Italy from the unique perspective of a teenage girl, Chiara (Swamy Rotolo). Her world is turned upside down after her father disappears and she tumbles down the rabbit hole after him, discovering he's a member of the 'Ndrangheta crime syndicate'" – Katie Walsh, The Wrap.

 Join & Share our Facebook Event

Official Competition - Sunday 2nd October 5pm

Put two actors who dislike each other in a film and you might have a disaster on your hands, but this is what Lola deliberately decides to do when given limitless money to make a movie in Official Competition.

"A sly satire of cinema that also manages to be a showcase for the comedic chops of its stars" - Michael O'sullivan, Washington Post

Join & Share our Facebook Event 

Anaïs In Love - Sunday 25th September 5:00 PM

 

Girl leaves boy, meets boy, falls in love with...his wife. That is the only thing that is 'simple' about the life of Anaïs, who flits from one drama to the next... but can you resist her appeal?

"Set to be a sure-fire comfort hit for many generations to come." - Jasmine Valentine, Little White Lies

Join & Share our Facebook Event 

The Big Hit - Sunday 18th September 5pm

"Emmanuel Courcol channels the feel-good energy of films like 'The Full Monty' for his latest, which fictionalises the true story of Swedish actor Jan Jönson's attempt to help prisoners stage a version of Samuel Beckett's 'Waiting For Godot'". - Eye For Film

The film will be preceded by our 2022 AGM at 4:30pm which will be a short meeting.

Join & Share our Facebook Event

Eiffel - Sunday 11th September 5PM

We are back! We hope you have all enjoyed your summer, but, like us, you are looking forward to watching great World Cinema again. We are starting out with EIFFEL this Sunday 11th at 5pm

Construction of the Eiffel Tower might not have made an opening night movie, but the writers here have invented a back story about the muse that inspired the brilliant engineer to greater heights and changed the film to a love story; have they devised a good plot? That is up to you to decide.

"Taken as a speculative romance, and in the right matinee spirit, it’s lushly engaging, with a star pairing that – appropriately – rivets" – Tim Robey, Telegraph.

Join & Share our Facebook Event 

We Are Back

It has been a long time since we showed films to a full house; Covid has dominated our lives for what seems like forever. We are starting this new season with high hopes of being 'back to normal', so no social distancing, no masks, drinks on the opening night and even paper voting slips! We do hope you are looking forward to a new season of films as much as we are.

One thing we are not bringing back yet is the brochure; we have booked films until the end of October and we will produce a shortened handout showing the details of these which you will be able to pick up from the Alhambra. We will do the same for the rest of the season during October.

So what can you look forward to?  We are starting with a 'French September' - three films from France to get us going again (Eiffel, The Big Hit and Anaïs In Love). Then a quick trip round Europe (Spain, Italy, Poland)before heading to the US and Indonesia to finish the first half of the season.