The Pope's Toilet - Sunday 11th February 5pm

We stay in Latin America for Sunday's offering, The Pope's Toilet, set in Uruguay. According to the Evening Standard,

This small but perfectly formed Uruguayan comedy from César Charlone and Enrique Fernández has the fetching Cesar Troncoso as Beto, a financially strapped petty smuggler from the small town of Melo near the Brazilian border, who hopes the Pope’s 1988 visit will provide his wife and daughter with financial succour as well as the appropriate blessing.

Though this is a comedy, it is also shrewd and humane about its peasant characters, painting the leading character’s wife and solemn little daughter (the marvellous Virginia Ruiz) who wants to be a radio announcer rather than a seamstress, with real sympathy. It’s charming in a proper way, entirely avoiding sentiment and, with Olivier Assayas’s Summer Hours, can be counted one of the best films in town.

Surviving Life (Theory and Practice) - Sunday 5th February 5pm

The film we have this Sunday WILL be different to anything else you see, and defies normal description!

 'Surviving Life (Theory and Practice)' is a surreal tale from Czech director Jan Svankmajer  based on the premise that it is 'your dreams that are real, while your waking life is an exotic, strange tissue of unreal diversions' - Peter Bradshaw, Guardian. Our hero, a happily married man, has vivid dreams of a beautiful woman dressed in red. He goes to a psychoanalyst for help...to remain IN the dreams, not to escape them... The film itself is a mix of live acting and animated cutouts, including models of the actors themselves...we have pictures on the wall of Freud and Jung coming to life to discuss the results of their work... so think Terry Gilliam meets Woody Allen. As David Jenkins, Time Out, say, the result 'harnesses the skewed workings of the subconscious, confirming Svankmajer as a master filmmaker and knocking films like ‘Inception’ and ‘The Matrix’ into a cocked hat. Just dreamy!' I will say no more; come along and see for yourself!

Poetry - Sunday 29th January 5pm

This Sunday's film is Poetry, a south Korean film with a startlingly good central performance by Yun Jiong-hie, who came out of retirement to play Mija, an elderly nurse who discovers she has early Alzheimer's disease.
According to Time Out,

"True to the spirit of the title, writer-director Lee organises the sprawling mess of Mija’s personal life with the control and grace of a master, each digression and seemingly arbitrary encounter all building upon his elderly protagonist’s spiralling sense of distress. So relaxed is the pacing, you suspect certain segments would not have worked were it not for Yun’s exhilarating, meticulous central performance......As with Chekhov’s theory of the gun, anyone who starts a film going to poetry classes is eventually going to come up with a poem. The one Mija finally delivers will rip your heart to shreds."

KFC On The Road: Dr Zhivago, Mungrisdale, Fri 27th

If any of you are in the mood for a old classic film, why not go along to Dr Zhivago, our 'KFC on the Road' presentation at Mungrisdale Village Hall on Friday 27th January at 7.30. I have been there twice now and I guarantee a warm reception; give it a try and you might well become a regular there too!

The Red Machine - Sunday 22nd January 5pm

After two weeks in France we are off to America for this week's film - The Red Machine.

Set in the 1930s, when the US and Japan were still allies (at least on paper). This is the story of an attempt to steal Japan's 'Enigma Machine'...but without Japan knowing it. A very tight-lipped, stoney-faced Navy spy and a wisecracking safe-breaker are teamed up to accomplish the task, both bringing their own baggage along. In a clever touch, the directors change the scene colouring and background music to fit the two main characters.

What results is a tightly shot heist movie - the final robbery scene where silence is essential had me on the edge of my seat - shot like a 40s B crime movie... BUT... is it a spoof? Only you can decide, but I think you will enjoy it either way.

Vaughan