2021 - 2022 SEASON
​
Click to access the voting results for each film of the season.
13 Sept 2021
Parasite Official trailer here
Original title: Gisaengchung
​
South Korea 2019, 132 mins, Cert 15, Black comedy, Thriller
​Director: Bong Joon-ho
Starring: Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-hyun, Cho Yeo-jeong
Language: Korean
​
The Kim family are all unemployed, living in a squalid semi-basement apartment in Seoul and eking out a living. When son Ki-woo cons his way into a job tutoring for the wealthy Park family, the rest of the family see that as their path to a better life. Observing the naivety and ignorance of the Park clan, they devise a plan, full of lies and deceit, to infiltrate this elite household and live in affluence. But greed slowly takes hold and matters spin out of control.
Winner of the 2019 Palme d’Or, Parasite also won awards for Best Picture, Director, Foreign Language Film and Original Screenplay at the 2020 Oscars​.
11 Oct 2021
The Whistlers Official trailer here
Original title: La Gomera
Romania/France/Germany 2019, 97 mins, Comedy, Crime
​Director: Corneliu Porumboiu
Starring: Vlad Ivanov, Catrinel Marlon, Rodica Lazar
Language: English, Spanish, Romanian and Silbo
​
Cristi is a corrupt, disillusioned police detective in Bucharest who is in league with the criminal elements he is meant to be investigating. He travels to La Gomera in the Canaries to help a crime boss get a businessman out of jail and uncover millions in hidden cash. But first he must learn Silbo Gomero. This ancient whistling language is used by the locals to communicate across the island’s deep ravines and valleys, and also by the mafia to avoid detection. Constantly under surveillance himself and never sure who he can trust, Cristi is a marked man whichever way he turns.
A playful noir thriller from one of the masters of the Romanian New Wave.
‘An impish thriller of double-crossing and tables turned’ (Financial Times).
8 Nov 2021
Bait Official trailer here
UK 2019, 89 mins, B&W, 16mm, Cert 15, Drama
​Director: Mark Jenkin
Starring: Edward Rowe, Mary Woodvine, Simon Shepherd
​​
A Cornish fisherman without a boat struggles to make ends meet while coping with family rivalry and the influx of London money, Airbnb and stag parties to his picturesque harbour village. The summer season brings tensions between locals and newcomers to boiling point, with tragic consequences. Stunningly shot on Kodak B&W 16mm film, Bait is an impassioned tribute to Cornwall’s proud past and establishes Mark Jenkin as one of the most intriguing British film-makers of his generation.
BAFTA Award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer.
13 Dec 2021
Pain And Glory Official trailer here
Original title: Dolor y gloria
​
Spain 2019, 113 mins, Rated R, Drama
​Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Starring: Antonio Banderas, Penélope Cruz, Asier Etxeandia, Leonardo Sbaraglia
Language: Spanish
​
Facing ill health, depression and the decline of his powers, ageing film director Salvador Mallo reflects on his life as past and present come crashing down around him. The film narrates a series of reunions, some played out in real time, others recalled through flashbacks: his childhood in the 1960s in the village of Paterna near Valencia, his schooling, his first love in Madrid in the 1980s, the pain of the breakup of this relationship, writing as a therapy to forget and the discovery of cinema.
Antonio Banderas won Best Actor at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival for his nuanced portrayal of the film director, who is modelled on Almodóvar.
10 Jan 2022
42nd Street Official trailer here
Our Classic presentation
​
USA 1933, 89 mins, B&W, Cert A, Musical, Comedy, Romance
​Director: Lloyd Bacon & Busby Berkeley
Starring: Warner Baxter, Bebe Daniels, Ruby Keeler, George Brent, Dick Powell, Ginger Rogers
​
Set in New York in the depths of the Depression, 42nd Street follows a Broadway musical from casting call to opening night, when the leading lady twists her ankle and a young chorus girl (Ruby Keeler) stands in and steals the show. An instant and enduring classic, the film launched the Golden Age of Hollywood and is renowned for its dazzling routines – and the immortal line: “Sawyer, you’re going out a youngster but you’ve got to come back a star!”
Perhaps the greatest musical of them all, this lively Warner Bros film served as the prototype plot for scores of other films.
14 Feb 2022
The Truth Official trailer here
Original title: La vérité
​
France 2019, 106 mins, Cert PG, Drama
​Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche, Ethan Hawke
Language: French
​
In his first film made outside his native Japan, Hirokazu Koreeda explores the secrets and lies we tell ourselves and those closest to us. Catherine Deneuve plays a legendary French film diva who reigns supreme and is adored by men, but has a fraught relationship with her estranged screenwriter daughter (played by Juliette Binoche). The release of the mother’s memoir, euphemistically entitled The Truth, ignites a family confrontation during which true feelings emerge, accounts are settled and love and resentment are confessed.
‘Koreeda’s understanding of the complexities of familial love and the disappointment of middle age is as wise as ever’ (BBC).
14 Mar 2022
3 Faces Official trailer here
Original title: Se rokh
Iran 2018, 100 mins, Cert 15, Drama
​Director: Jafar Panahi
Starring: Behnaz Jafari, Jafar Panahi, Marziyeh Rezaei
Language: Farsi
​
Well-known actress Behnaz Jafari is distraught by a provincial girl’s video plea for help when her family tries to prevent her from pursuing her studies at the Tehran drama conservatory. Behnaz abandons her shoot and turns to filmmaker Jafar Panahi to help solve the mystery of the young girl’s troubles. They travel by car to the rural northwest where they have amusing encounters with the charming folk of the girl’s mountain village, but the city visitors soon discover that the protection of age-old traditions is as deeply ingrained as the generous local hospitality.
‘Jafar Panahi has created a quietly engaging quasi-realist parable full of intelligence and humility and showing real respect for women and for female actors.’ (The Guardian).
11 Apr 2022
The Painter & The Thief Official trailer here
Original title: Kunstneren og tyven
Norway 2020, 102 mins, Documentary
​Director: Benjamin Ree
Starring: Karl Bertil-Nordland, Barbora Kysilkova, Øystein Stene
Language: Norwegian
​
The audacious theft in 2015 of two huge paintings by Czech artist Barbora Kysilkova from a prominent Oslo gallery instantly sparked documentary film maker Benjamin Ree’s interest. But neither he, the artist nor the perpetrators could have predicted what would happen next. During the trial, Kysilkova asked one of the accused why he had taken the paintings. Karl-Bertil Nordland replied, “Because they were beautiful’. Perplexed, Kysilkova contacted him to request an unusual form of restorative justice: to paint his portrait.
‘Blending elements of love story, mystery and biopic with non-linear storytelling, Ree crafts a beguiling take on the long roads back from (other people’s) bad choices’ (BFI).
9 May 2022
The Candidate Official trailer here
Original title: El Reino
​
Spain 2019, 109 mins, Cert 15, Drama, Thriller
​Director: Rodrigo Sorogoyen
Starring: Antonio de la Torre, Mónica López, Josep Maria Pou
Language: Spanish
​
2007. A coastal city in Spain. An influential regional politician whose high-class lifestyle is based on nefarious and illegal business dealings is about to take the leap into national politics. But he becomes trapped in a struggle for survival when a newspaper exposes him to the public eye and threatens to break his entire party. This award-winning, razor-sharp thriller from the producers of The Secret in Their Eyes and Dogman grapples with Spain’s hottest topic: corruption among the political class.
‘Antonio de la Torre is magnetic as a politician at the centre of a web of betrayal’ (The Guardian).
6 June 2022
Another Round Official trailer here
Original title: Druk
​
Denmark 2020, 117 mins, Action, Drama, Thriller
​Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Starring: Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Magnus Millang, Lars Ranthe
Language: Danish
​
The film (whose Danish title translates as ‘binge drinking’) tells the story of four high school teachers in Copenhagen who are at various stages of midlife malaise and bored with their lives. Together, they decide to test the theory put forward by a well-known Norwegian psychologist that a certain constant level of alcohol in the system is required to enhance creativity, courage and inspiration. However, the experiment affects each of the men differently and soon gets out of hand.
Winner of the Best International Feature award at the 2021 Oscars and of four European Film Awards at the 2020 Cannes Film Festival, including Best Actor for Mads Mikkelsen.