Another Members' Choice this week with AFIRE. Leon (Thomas Schubert) goes away to his friend Leon's parents' house for some peace and quiet to write his book. When they arrive, they find the house is not empty; Leon's Mum forgot to tell him that Nadja was already staying there... and the forest fire is getting closer and closer...
"Afire is an entertainment with spark and philosophical insight" - Jonathan Romney. Financial Times
“A brutally engrossing drama.” - Peter Bradshaw, Guardian“The film never stops sending chills up your spine.” - Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture
Sometimes life just seems too big to cope with, and L’immensità follows a family where that is all too true. Centred on the mother, Clara (Penelope Cruz) who is cracking up trying to keep here family together; trying to ignore her husband's extra marital shenanigans and trying to understand her eldest daughter, Adriana, who - if she only knew it back in 1970 Rome where this is set - is suffering from gender dysphoria and insists on being called Andrea.
"The force of Cruz’s charisma — she’s like a cross between Sophia Loren and a solar flare — is more than enough to justify spending time with the family." - Wendy Ide, Screen International
Our Autumn programme starts this Sunday 10th with And Then Comes The Nightjars which will be introduced by the director Paul Robinson (who also directed the stage version of The 39 Steps which has just finished it's run at the Theatre By The Lake). The film should have lots of local interest as a heart-warming story of friendship and survival set against the backdrop of the 2001 Foot and Mouth outbreak. The film started life as a stage play, written by Bea Roberts, which itself won many awards. The film has been made by the same people - director Paul Robinson, writer Bea Roberts and main actors, David Fielder and Nigel Hastings - so you can see it is a labour of love.
The film starts at 5pm but we hope you can join us from 4:30pm for free drinks and a chance to chat and get back into the Film Club vibe.
We get our Autumn Programme off with a bang on September 10th with ‘And then Come the Nightjars’, based on the foot and mouth outbreak in 2001, which should raise a lot of local memories, especially as the Director is coming for a Q&A too. We have a couple of big stars for you - Penelope Cruz in ‘L’immensità’ and Isabelle Huppert in ‘La Syndicaliste’, not to mention Sigourney Weaver in ‘Master Gardener’ or Ben Whishaw in ‘Passages’.
We always try to go around the world; this season is not quite as all-encompassing as some years, but we do manage Italy, France, Germany, South Korea, Japan, Spain and Canada outside the UK and USA. Talking of Germany, we were pleased you voted for ‘Afire’, as German films are a pretty rare thing for us. We have four films from the UK this year, which include ‘Scrapper’ - a classic Keswick film - and ‘Pretty Red Dress’ - with Tina Turner music a-plenty from Alexandra Burke and an interesting looking plot…‘Past Lives’ looks like a potential ‘Film Of the Season’ to me, with a cross-decades, cross-continents love story from South Korea and the USA. ‘Small, Slow but Steady’ might be the most unusual little film, about a deaf girl who takes up boxing to escape her isolation. Recommendation: Try to avoid reading reviews of ‘Master Gardener’ to get the best out of it… A rare 18-rated film, ‘Passages’ comes with great acting reviews...and it is 18 for a reason! ‘Brother’ looks good to us, which ‘unpacks Black grief in a way we haven’t seen often’, and we finish back in the UK with ‘Nobody Needs to Know’, set in the wild beauty of the Hebrides. Hopefully a film for all tastes here; we hope you enjoy all the ones you get to see