11th September, 2002 ENIGMA
Michael Apted's film is based on a novel by Richard Harris and is scripted by TOM STOPPARD. It is set in Bletchley Park and involves one of the decoding stars who has fallen apart after being ditched by a dazzling co-worker. When he returns to work, she has gone so, helped by her friend, he sets out to find her and also to solve a problem which has loomed since she disappeared. DOUGRAY SCOTT, KATE WINSLET, SAFFRON BURROWS, JEREMY NORTHAM.
2nd October, 2002 LIAM
Stephen Frears presents a tough, anti-nostalgic movie with a seven year old hero growing up in Liverpool in the early years of the Depression. Jimmy McGovern’s story hits you at gut level and the performances have a raw humanity. IAN HART, CLAIRE HACKETT.
23rd October, 2002 THE PLEDGE
Sean Penn directs this story of a retiring detective who makes a pledge with a murdered girl’s mother to find the killer - he knows the police have the wrong man, but his obsession to redeem his pledge leads to his self-destruction. JACK NICHOLSON, ROBIN PENN-WRIGHT, BENICIO DEL TORO.
13th November, 2002 THE CLAIM
In Michael Winterbottom’s film, an ailing mother arrives, with her daughter, in the snowbound outpost of Kingdom Come at the same time as an enigmatic railway engineer. The town is owned by a former prospector who has sold his wife and baby to a man in exchange for his claim, and who, years later, only needs the new railroad to pass through to complete his empire. PETER MULLAN, NASTASSJA K1NSKI, WES BENTLEY.
11th December, 2002 CAPTAIN CORELLI’S MANDOLIN
John Madden directs this version of the book by Louis de Bernieres. The setting is a Greek island during WW2. The girl’s fiance goes of to light against the Italians in Albania but while he is away the island is occupied. She finds herself falling in love with a quixotic Italian soldier who is a peace loving man at heart - he plays the mandolin and encourages his compatriots to form a choir. Her fiance comes back from the war.... NICHOLAS CAGE, PENELOPE CRUZ.
15th January, 2003 MERCI POUR LE CHOCOLAT
Claude Chabrol has produced a cool, elegant film with every frame exquisitely composed and each scene carefully, economically plotted. This is a mystery in which Mane-Claire dispenses the hot chocolate, which she did to her ex-husband’s second wife before she fell asleep at the wheel. Every tic and twitch on her gaunt, freckled face hints at fire down below - a monster in a pearl necklace. ISABELLE HUPPERT, ANNA MOUGALIS.
12th February, 2003 AMELIE
Director, Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Amelie works to intervene in the lives of those around her, sorting out their problems and making them happy, becoming a kind of angel for deserving people. She finds a folder in the street and falls in love with the man who dropped it. It is a comedy with a lightness of touch and interesting characters AUDREY TATOU, MATHIEU KASSOVITZ.
19th March, 2003 IN THE BEDROOM
Directed by Todd Field. Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson deserve three Oscars each as a married couple in a quiet Maine fishing village facing up to the biggest shock of their lives and trying to prevent their grief from destroying what’s left. SISSY SPACEK, TOM WILKINSON, MARISA TOMEI.
2nd April, 2003 CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON
Ang Lee directs this stylised epic romance in a Chinese tradition, beautifully choreographed and with the most dangerous-looking catfight in screen history ZHANG ZIYI, CHANG CHEN.
