10 September 2003 GOSFORD PARK (UK/USA 2001)
ROBERT ALTMAN takes a gently quizzical look at the British class system in the Thirties with the expert help of an immaculate script by JULIAN FELLOWES and immaculate ensemble acting from a bevy of British Thespians including HELEN MIRREN, KRISTIN SCOTT THOMAS, MICHAEL GAMBON, and above all, MAGGIE SMITH.
1 October 2003 THE GIRL FROM PARIS (France/Belgium 2001)
A young Parisienne throws up her well-paid job in computing to realise her childhood dream of being a farmer. She buys a farm from an embittered veteran who stays on over the following winter. The resulting relationship between the two, beautifully played by MATHILDE SEIGNER and MICHEL SERRAULT, follows a path both stony and tender.
22 October 2003 RABBIT-PROOF FENCE (Australia/UK 2002)
PHILLIP NOYCE exposes a shameful episode in Australian recent history by recounting the true story of three young girls, separated from their aboriginal mothers by government decree, who walk the 1200 miles back home following the rabbit-proof fence which their long-gone white fathers helped to build. Heart-warming but never sentimental with a chillingly pompous performance by KENNETH BRANAGH.
12 November 2003 SUNSHINE STATE (USA 2002)
A long overdue debut at Heswall for JOHN SAYLES, the most original and humane of American directors. It is a warm look at modern life in Florida as long-established locals meet the challenge of new development and as they, especially the women, also assess their own lives during the newly invented traditional week of the Buccaneer Days Festival.
10 December 2003 SMALL TIME CROOKS (USA 2000)
WOODY ALLEN is no stranger to Heswall and it has been said that this film is a return to his earliest style, recalling such films as Sleeper. True or not, it is superbly crafted, with designs by SANTO LOQUASTO and photography by ZHAO FEI, and uninhibited playing by ELAINE MAY, TRACEY ULLMAN, HUGH GRANT and Allen himself.
14 January 2004 INSOMNIA (USA 2002)
CHRISTOPHER NOLAN follows his fiendishly complex Memento with this more straightforward but equally intriguing remake of a Norwegian thriller set in the Arctic Circle. AL PACINO is a cop from LA, already under stress, who is sent to solve a crime in Alaska where he is tormentd by lack of sleep, his own past and a devilish ROBIN WILLIAMS.
11 February 2004 ALL OR NOTHING (UK/France 2002)
This film is vintage MIKE LEIGH dominated by a desperate performance from his long-time collaborator TIMOTHY SPALL, yet as his unkempt mini-cab driver slouches through his pointless life, it is LESLEY MANVILLE, as his put-upon partner, who almost steals the show. Bitter anguish laced with touching humour and not without hope in the end.
17 March 2004 LANTANA (Australia/Germany 2002)
Lantana is an Australian film which received a very limited showing in the UK in spite of having extremely favourable reviews. The Director, Ray Lawrence, made Bliss in 1985 and has not been able to get funding to make another feature film since then. His talents have been wasted on TV commercials, but this film has made the wait worthwhile. We don’t normally think of Australia as the home of particularly sensitive natures and at first Lawrence’s hero, Leon, a first-class portrayal by Anthony LaPaglia, seems to fit the stereotypical mould. He is an overweight, aggressive detective with chest pains who feels he has reached a dead-end in his career and married life. He takes his self-loathing out on suspects and wife, but it is the women in his life - wife, short-term mistress, assistant - who provide, in their own ways, the humanity he cannot grasp himself. But this is not just an intelligent story of love, betrayal, trust and sex. The film is cleverly constructed with a parallel and intertwining plot concerning murder and loss, so it is also a thriller. Then a series of artful coincidences provide plot twist and wry humour.
7 April 2004 LAISSEZ-PASSER (SAFE CONDUCT) (France/Germany/Spain 2001)
Bertrand Tavernier has made a film of epic proportions with 137 speaking parts. It is a story set in a time of heroic events during the Occupation, but it has all the intimacy of a typically French domestic drama. It is concerned with a topic which is obviously close to Tavernier’s heart and is based on the memories of two real figures from French cinema history, both of whom he knew well. Jean Aurenche was a brillant screenwriter and Jean Devaivre mainly an assistant director. Both were associated with the "tradition of quality" so bitterly criticised by Truffaut and the critics of the Cahiers Du Cinéma. So Tavernier may still be settling old scores with this film, but be that as it may, what he has done is to make an intriguing and honest account of life in France under Nazi rule and to examine the pressures and conflicts which artists, and in this case particularly film-makers, had to undergo. There are few French films about the Occupation and this one makes Truffaut’s The Last Metro look rather contrived and shallow.
CHEESE AND WINE EVENING with a showing of BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM
This is a film by Gurinder Chadha who made Bhaji On The Beach and What’s Cooking? Both these films, one set in Blackpool on a day out and one in America on the run-up to Thanksgiving, deal with the problems faced by ethnic minorities beset by the traditions and cultural pressures of the alien society in which they now live. She shows how difficult it is for the women especially to cope with the everyday situations they have to contend with. Both these films are comedies but with serious undertones. Now Chadha has returned to England to make this film about a teenage girl who, not untypically, has a crush on David Beckham, but who, very untypically for a young woman in the Punjabi Sikh community, also proves to be a very talented footballer in her own right. The problems this causes are dealt with in this film by a resort to humour and the film is a light, undemanding, thoroughly enjoyable romp. Films about sport and football in particular usually upset both fans and the not interested alike, but this film should entertain both if you don’t expect anything too heavy. Just the thing for a glass of wine and a cheese chapati.
