3 September 2007 THE WHITE COUNTESS
(UK/USA/Germany/China 2005)
The last film produced by the late ISMAIL
MERCHANT in partnership with director JAMES IVORY and with an original
screenplay written by KAZUO ISHIGURO, author of The Remains Of The Day.
Set in Shanghai in 1936, just before the Japanese invasion, it stars RALPH
FIENNES as a former American diplomat who has been blinded by an explosion, and
who looks to find solace by opening his dream bar. He meets an exiled Russian
aristocrat, played by NATASHA RICHARDSON, working as a taxi dancer. VANESSA and
LYNN REDGRAVE make up her censorious family.
Back to top
26 September 2007 THE PAGE TURNER (France 2006)
A characteristically subtle French thriller
where the violence is almost all in the mind, and the ending can be foreseen as
a dark menacing cloud in the future, but with its detail skilfully hidden as the
story twists and turns. Concert pianist Ariane, played by CATHARINE FROT,
carelessly destroys the dreams of a little girl at a conservatory entrance exam.
Ten years later the girl reappears in her life. A chillingly sympathetic
performance by DEBORAH FRANCOIS and clinically Hitchcockian directing by DENIS
DERCOURT.
Back to top
1
17 October 2007 MILLION DOLLAR BABY (USA
2004)
CLINT EASTWOOD seems to be making his best
films in his seventies and this one won him Best Film and Best Director Awards
at the Oscars, with HILARY SWANK and MORGAN FREEMAN picking up Best Actress and
Best Supporting Actor Oscars. It could be described as a traditional Hollywood
boxing movie, but it has been given a neat twist, with the veteran trainer
taking on a young woman determined to fight her way out of her trailer-trash
background. It is not a glorification of a noble art, but a thoughtful
investigation of individual motivation in a squalid and dangerous world.
Back to top
14 November 2007 THE NEW WORLD (USA 2005)
TERENCE MALIK is also a veteran director, but
in contrast to Eastwood, he has made only four films in thirty years.
Badlands, Days Of Heaven and The Thin Red Line were all memorable and
distinctive for their poetic and languid artistic qualities and his latest
offering, which confronts the cultural collision of New World settlers and
Native Americans, is no exception. It revolves around the compelling and
romantic story of Pocahontas, played by the 17-year-old Peruvian singer
Q’ORIANKA KILCHER. She saves the life of John Smith (COLIN FARRELL). Later he is
replaced by John Rolfe (CHRISTIAN BALE) who takes her to the Court of King
James. Certainly not cowboys and Indians – profound, moving and authentic.
Back to top
5 December 2007 THE PRESTIGE (USA/UK 2006)
CHRISTOPHER NOLAN has followed the intricate
mind-games of Memento and Insomnia with a Victorian melodrama
involving two stage magicians who pursue a deadly rivalry, with theatrical
illusions concealing deeper and potentially very dangerous deceptions. HUGH
JACKMAN and CHRISTIAN BALE provide the legerdemain (and brain), SCARLETT
JOHANSSON the distraction and MICHAEL CAINE as much explanation as you are
allowed. Careful watching recommended.
Back to top
16 January 2008 CHILDREN OF MEN
(USA/UK/Japan 2006)
Based on a grim futuristic novel by P.D. JAMES,
the setting is a heavily polluted, run down London of 2027 where a brutal police
force spends most of its time rounding up immigrants. Mexican director ALFONSO
CUARON has turned it into an action movie – but not one for the mindless. This
story contains dire warnings as reluctant hero CLIVE OWEN strives to protect a
pregnant girl – the first for eighteen years – from a corrupt government and
ruthless insurgents. MICHAEL CAINE provides a momentary lighter touch and
JULIANNE MOORE a cameo.
Back to top
6 February 2008 HIDDEN
(France/Austria/Italy/Germany 2004)
Austrian writer/director MICHAEL HANEKE does
not do cheerful. He does harrowing as in Funny Games, degrading as in
The Piano Teacher and depressing as in Time Of The Wolf. In Hidden
he does fearfully mystifying and does it brilliantly. Self-satisfied
middle-class highflyers DANIEL AUTEUIL and JULIETTE BINOCHE find their lives
disintegrating after they receive a video of their home taken by a secret
camera. Who is watching them? Is it the audience? Only the viewers (and maybe
the director) know the answer. An outstandingly original film.
Back to top
12 March 2008 CAPOTE (USA/Canada 2005)
This is a brilliant portrayal of the American
writer Truman Capote by PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN, which won him an Oscar for Best
Actor. It is not a biopic, but it concentrates on one crucial period in his life
in the late Fifties which resulted in his writing In Cold Blood, a book
which brought him national acclaim. We are left to decide on the aptness of that
title. CATHERINE KEENER is excellent in support.
Back to top
9 April 2008 THE WORLD’S FASTEST INDIAN
(New Zealand/Japan/Switzerland/USA 2005)
A feel-good movie about an old man and his 1920
Indian Scout motorcycle – a vehicle! for ANTHONY HOPKINS – who sets off to
compete in the Speed Week on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah in 1963, meeting
DIANE LADD and other generous souls on the way. Does Burt Munro match up to
Alvin Straight?
Back to top
Last Year's Programme
