2014 - 2015 SEASON
8 Sept 2014
The Smallest Show on Earth
UK 1957, 81 mins
B&W, digital, Cert (U), nominated for one BAFTA award.
Director: Basil Dearden
Leading actors: Bill Travers, Virginia McKenna, Peter Sellers, Bernard Miles, Leslie Phillips, Sidney James and Margaret Rutherford.
A young married couple inherit a run-down cinema, 'The Bijou' and face an uphill battle to make it a success. With this inheritance come three old retainers, the ticket man, the accompanist from the silent era, the cashier and a janitor doorman. A 'situation' comedy that portrays British grit and determination in the face of a daunting prospect.
13 Oct 2014
I, Anna
UK, Germany, France 2012, 93 mins
Colour, digital, cert (15), Artificial Eye Film Company
Winner of two awards and nominated for a further two.
Director: Barnaby Southcombe
Leading actors: Charlotte Rampling, Gabriel Byrne, Eddie Marsan, Jodhi May, Honor BLackman, Caroline Catz
Set in London, the film centres around Anna, a mature woman in late middle age who works in a department store. She lives with her daughter and grand-daughter having separated from her husband. Driven by loneliness, she has taken up speed-dating, where she hopes to meet someone to alleviate her loneliness.
10 Nov 2014
Like Father, Like Son
"Soshite chichi ni naru" (original title)
Japan 2013, 121 mins
Colour, digital, Cert (PG), Arrow Films
Winner of 15 awards and nominated for a further 35
Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
Leading actors: Masaharu Fukuyama, Machiko Ono, Yôko Maki
Two families whose paths had not crossed before are thrown together by an unusual discovery - they are both raising a child that, unbeknown to both families, is biologically the offspring of the other family. This comes to light when one of the boys has a blood test as part of the school registration process. The hospital is sued by both families jointly and the two boys stay with their biological families at weekends, while both families think about the best course of action to resolve this dilemma.
8 Dec 2014
Therese Desqueyroux
France 2012, 110 mins
Colour, digital, Cert (12A), Artificial Aye Film Company
The director's final film.
Director: Claude Miller
Leading actors: Audrey Tautou, Gilles Lellouche, Anaïs Demoustier
The story of a young woman, daughter of a rich, left-wing pine-forest owner, who marries the right-wing owner of another pine-forest in a marriage that is approved of and encouraged by both families, and which creates a massive pinery in the Bordeaux area in the 1920s. Her marriage bores her and leaves her unfulfilled and feeling trapped. She has a daughter, but finds that being a mother also leaves her feeling trapped. She has chosen wealth and security over love and freedom and depression sets in. Drastic action is called for ...
12 Jan 2015
Wadjda
Saudi Arabia, Germany, USA, UAE 2012, 98 mins
Colour, digital, Cert (PG), Soda Pictures
Winner of 18 awards and nominated for a further 18.
Director: Haifaa Al-Mansour
Leading actors: Waad Mohammed, Reem Abdullah, Abdullrahman Al Gohani
As she lives in a patriarchal society, where women are not treated as equal to their men-folk, ten-year-old Wadjda is in perpetual rebellion against the prevailing culture. She is westernised to the extent of wearing jeans and trainers, having a boy as a friend and following western pop music. She also realises that to lead her life on her terms she needs to have money of her own, but her small-scale business selling bracelets is never going to make her rich enough. Her desire to buy herself a bicycle not only focuses her attention on making money, but also enhances her rebellious credentials as woman are not supposed to ride bikes. Amidst all of this, she plans a rather traditional way of raising money...
9 Feb 2015
the Selfish Giant
UK 2013, 91 mins
Colour, digital, Cert (15), Artificial Eye Film Company
Winner of ten awards and nominated for a further twelve.
Director: Clio Barnard
Leading actors: Conner Chapman, Shaun Thomas, Sean Gilder
The story of two boys in their early teens, united by their poor backgrounds, their shared experience of being the outsiders in their local community in Bradford and their exclusion from school. Their futures looked bleak, but together they might just escape their bakground and survive.
9 Mar 2015
Last Passenger
UK 2013, 97 mins
Colour, digital, Cert (15), Kaleidoscope Entertainment
Nominated for two awards
Director: Omid Nooshin
Leading actors: Dougray Scott, Kara Tointon, Iddo Goldberg, David Schofield, Lindsay Duncan
A good, old-fashioned British thriller. the late-night London to Hastings train acquires a new driver, who drives the train at break-neck speed on a suicide mission. The passengers, an oddly assorted bunch of characters, led by a widowed doctor who needs to get off the train to go to work, must find a way to slow the train down... the race against time begins.
13 Apr 2015
The Great Beauty
"La grande bellezza" (original title)
Italy, France 2013, 142 mins
Colour, digital, Cert (15), Artificial Eye Film Company
Winner of 15 awards and nominated for a further 19, including a Golden Globe
Director: Paolo Sorrentino
Leading actors: Toni Servillo, Carlo Verdone, Sabrina Ferilli
Jep Gambardella wrote a successful novel 40 years ago, his first, and has not written another one since then. His early success has made him the darling of Rome's society life and the intelligentsia, but this has not brought great happiness as he has spent all this time trying to distance himself from his successful past. Plus, he still cannot get over a girl that he loved as a teenager and when he discovers that she has died he is upset. He throws a party for his 65th birthday and begins to look back at his life and evaluate himself.
11 May 2015
Asphalt Jungle
USA 1950, 112 mins
Colour, 35 mm, Cert (PG)
Winner of seven awards and nominated for a further twelve.
Director: John Huston
Leading actors: Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Jean Hagen, Sam Jaffe, Marilyn Monroe
A gang of criminals successfully pull off a robbery, but things soon start to fall apart...
8 Jun 2015
Shun Li and The Poet
"Io sono Li" (original title)
Italy, France 2011, 98 mins
Colour, digital, Cert (15), Artificial Eye Film Company
Winner of nine awards and nominated for a further seven.
Director: Andrea Segre
Leading actors: Tao Zhao, Rade Serbedzija, Marco Paolini
Shun li is a Chinese immigrant who works in a textile factory near Rome and although she is poorly paid, she saves her money to allow her to move her eight-year-old to Rome to join her. Without any warning, she is moved to Chioggia, a small town near Venice to work in a small bar. In this bar she meets Bepi, a regular. He is an older man, a fisherman from the former Yugoslavia, who has been in Italy for some time, and is called 'the poet' by his friends. They form a relationship, two lonely people in a foreign land far from their own countries and cultures. But, however comforting it is to the two people involved, this relationship is not popular with the Chinese and local communities and Shun Li's son's move to Italy is then thrown into question to pressurise her to stop seeing Bepi. Shun li must take action.