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Tuesday 18th Sep
7.45pm
Little Theatre
Journey
To Italy
1953 France 80 mins
Director: Roberto Rossellini
Starring: Ingrid Bergman, George Sanders
This deceptively simple tale of a bored English couple travelling to Italy to find a buyer for their house, inherited from an uncle, is transformed by Roberto Rossellini into a passionate story of cruelty and cynicism as the couples marriage disintegrates around them. 'Journey to Italy' is recognised as one of Rossellini's greatest films but also as a key landmark in the development of modern cinema.
Your
comments on this film:
Mannered but haunting!
Absolute rubbish
George Sanders was so wooden.
A travelogue dressed up as a classic.
I liked it!
Tuesday 9th Oct
7.45pm
Little Theatre
Volver
2006 Spain 111 mins
Director: Pedro Almodovar
Starring: Penelope Cruz, Carmen Maura
Led by the feisty Raimunda (Oscar-nominated Penelop Cruz), a group of spirited women overcome a mother's death and male abuse with humour, dignity and a certain innovative cunning.
Your
comments on this film:
His finest film so far.
Very strong women.
Neither fish nor fowl.
Vibrant, colourful, sexy, clever film.
Tuesday 16th Oct
7.45pm
Little Theatre
Three Times
2005 Taiwan 116 mins
Director: Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Starring: Shu Qi, Chang Chen
This beautiful and lyrical film, regarded by some critics as the best film shown at last year's Cannes Film Festival features two of Asia's biggest stars, Shu Qi and Chang Chen. They play different characters in three episodes set in different years, 1911, 1966 and 2005. In this film with it's central film of love and emotion Hou Hsiao-Hsien comments on our different expressions of love in different times.
Your
comments on this film:
Never mind the Cannes nomination this film should be canned
Brilliant ,brilliant,brilliant
Should be shown as a double
bill with Crouching tiger for pace
Is it too early to shoot
the committee? (Thanks I take it you'll be joining the committee next year?)
A photographic treat .
A mirror on the decline
of a civilisation's morals skillfully directed
Tuesday 30th Oct
7.45pm
Little Theatre
Harry He's Here
To Help
2000 France 112 mins
Director: Dominik Moll
Starring: Laurent Lucas, Sergi Lopez
While on holiday with his family, Michael meets an old school friend, Harry. As the title suggests, Harry tries hard to help Michael, initially with some practical things. However, this soon starts to become rather dark and sinister as Harry's help become less and helpful and far from legal.
Sergei Lopez won a well deserved Cesar Award for his title role in this quirky comedy thriller.
Your
comments on this film:
Very good.
Slow, shallow, silly and soporific.
Where there's a well there's a way!
Formidable. Laurant Lucas (Michel) could have been better.
Was Harry a bad eggsample?
Tuesday 6th Nov
7.45pm
Little Theatre
Little Fish
2005 Australia 114 mins
Director: Rowan Woods
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Sam Neil
How do you learn to love again when the pain of the past won't let you go? This is Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett as you have never seen her; going for broke as Tracey Heart and getting the results that such an instinctively raw approach deserves. This is a story about human frailty, forgiveness and resolve, brilliantly told through wonderful direction and marvellous performances. A much bigger film than its title suggests.
Your
comments on this film:
Superb film.
Strangely uplifting and quite moving.
Dire and depressing drugs tale.
Not half bad.
Intriguing ideology on the frailty of circumstance.
Tuesday 27th Nov
7.45pm
Little Theatre
The Farewell:Brecht's
Last Summer
2000 Germany 89 mins
Director: Jan Schutte
Starring: Josef Bierbichier, Monica Bleibtreu
At the end of an exceptionally hot summer, playwright Bertol Brecht prepares to leave his tranquil lakeside house to return to Berlin for the forthcoming theatre season. Most of the many women in his life are there: his wife, daughter, old lovers and current flames. The serenity of the countryside stands in dark contrast to the deep, volatle emotions of the characters who experience love and hatred, jealousy and egomania, betrayal and dashed hopes. And all the while, Brecht, superbly played by Josef Bierbichier, struggles to make plans for the future that fate is about to cut short.
Your
comments on this film:
A bit disappointing.
Thank goodness he's dead.
Excellent. A real feel
of the GDR before the fall of the Wall.
Plodding portrait of the
perishing poet.
Teutonic tedium.
Tuesday 4th Dec
7.45pm
Little Theatre
Tsotsi
2005 S Africa 94 mins
Director: Gavin Hood
Starring: Presley Chweneyagae, Terry Pheto
Hood's Oscar winning film, based on Athol Fugard's novel of the same name, tells of black youth and explores the reasons behind their violent disaffection. Tsotsi, a thug played by Presley Chweneyagae, has few scruples and no ties until he steals a car and unwittingly the baby in it. Hood replaces the background of apartheid of the novel with a modern context of social and economic division to give his film immediacy and relevance.
Absolutely brilliant acting.
Really good. More modern South African films please.
Gripping! Excellent!
Really great.
Fantastic photography, fantastic soundtrack, fantastic!
Nativity CFS style - Mary & Joseph in a BMW, 3 Kings as hoods, but baby was still in swaddling cloth.
Tuesday 11th Dec
7.45pm
Steam Mill
Kirikou And
The Sorceress
2002 France 84 mins
Director: Michel Ocelot
Joint winner of the Best European Animated Feature, this fresh vision of Africa by writer-director Michel Ocelot is a world away from singing lions and features an authentic soundtrack by Youssin N'dour. This enchanting adventure traces how tiny Kirikou outwits a powerful sorceress and was inspired by the folk stories of Senegal.
Enchanting
Fine animation. Beautifully and sensitively observed.
Funny and heartwarming.
Fear no more!
Tuesday 8th Jan
7.45pm
Little Theatre
Black Cat, White
Cat
1998 Yugoslavia/Austria/Germany/France
Director: Emir Kusturica
Starring: Bajram Severdzan, Srdjan Todoravic
In this bizarre comedy set in rural Yugoslavia in the heart of a gypsy community living by the Danube, Matko the swindler played by Cma Macka tries to settle a debt by selling his son Zare into an arranged marriage but both bride and groom have other ideas.
High octane slapstick - Benny Hill lives!
A riotous exuberant uplifting tale - with a cast of flawed gems.
Stupid - would prefer serious films.
Half way through the film I didn't know if I'd lost the plot or if they had!
My head is still spinning.
The gold tooth capital of the world?
Tuesday 29th Jan
7.45pm
Little Theatre
Solas
2000 Spain 97 mins
Director: Benito Zambrano
Starring: Maria Galiana, Ana Fernandez
This moving, heartfelt drama about the uneasy relationship between a mother played by Maria Galiana, and her daughter Ana Fernandez boasts superb performances and has won widespread critical acclaim and 14 international awards.
Your
comments on this film:
Very moving and
emotional but very good.
Thanks for the bucket for our tears.
Tears and more tears.
Problems with reading subtitles.
Some meaning was lost in translation but a beautiful film.
Will never be grumpy
again.
Miserable fairy
tale.
Tuesday 5th Feb
7.45pm
Little Theatre
The Beat That
My Heart Skipped
2005 France 98 mins
Director: Jacques Audiard
Starring: Romain Duris, Niels Arestrup
In this compelling drama, a reworking of the 1978 American film 'Fingers', Duris plays Tom who leads a life like that of his father, in real estate deals that might be termed criminal. But there is a sensitive creative side to Tom inherited from his late mother, a classical pianist. This manifests itself at a critical juncture in his life, when he senses that music will be the medium to take back his life. In this stylish and audacious gangland thriller set in Paris, Romain Duris becomes one of the most exciting actors of his generation with this charismatic performance.
Your
comments on this film:
Good performances, bit fragmented.
Great soundtrack.
Too violent for me (echoed by Too violent pour moi!).
I felt strangely sympathetic with Thom.
Nice lick on the keyboard.
Surprising, challenging, and fulfilling.
Tuesday 19th Feb
7.45pm
Little Theatre
Far From Heaven
2004 USA 102 mins
Director: Todd Haynes
Starring: Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid
Priveleged suburban husband and wife Frank and Cathy Whitaker are faced with choices that not only create a wave of vicious gossip amongst their community but also change their lives forever. Maverick director Todd Haynes embraces the look and feel of classic Hollywood melodramas of the 1950's in this period drama with a powerful and telling story that examines forbidden love.
Your
comments on this film:
Brilliant script but the 50's retro style at
times was too dominant.
Very thought provoking.
Moore's performance was fantastic.
Tuesday 26th Feb
8.00pm
Steam Mill
Kitchen Stories
2003 Norway 90 mins
Director: Bent Hamer
Starring: Isak Bjorvik, Folke Nilsson
The usual bureaucratic mode of market research is turned on it's head to the point of lunacy when a Swedish government researcher from the Hose Research Institute visits a Norwegian rural district and camps in the kitchen of a cantankerous old bachelor aiming to observe the culinary routines of single men. This is complicated by his growing friendship with him.
Your
comments on this film:
Dark and moving.
Bit slow but it had it's moments.
Couldn't quite get the ending, otherwise touching.
Early IKEA testing?
Slow and methodical, mirroring the research like aspect of the film.
Tuesday 4th Mar
8.00pm
Steam Mill
For Your Consideration
2006 USA 98 mins
Director: Christopher Guest
Starring: Catherine O'Hara, Ed Begley, Ricky Gervais
Actress Marilyn Hack (O'Hara) has seen better days, but rumours begin that her role in a terrible indie melodrama could reap an Oscar nomination. Oscar-fever begins and the race towards nominations starts. Supported by a fantastic ensemble cast, this is a genuinely funny satire from Christopher Guest, master of the mockumentary genre. Fred Willard is hilarious as a TV presenter so dumb he thinks subtitles are breaking news.
Very funny.
I wonder if 'Home for Thanksgiving' is a better film?
Not a comedy - dark.
Some funny moments but not Guest's best.
And I considered it poor.
Tuesday 11th Mar
7.45pm
Steam Mill
Those Who Love
Me Can Take The Train
1998 Belgium/France 120 mins
Director: Patrice Chereau
Starring: Pascal Greggory, Charles Berling, Jean-Louis Trintignant
A strange assortment of odd friends together with dysfunctional family members travel by train to Limoges for the funeral of a misanthropic promiscuous Parisian artist Jean-Baptiste Emmerich. Throughout the long journey riverting revelations are revealed. An eclectic soundtrack (Massive Attach to Mahler) superb cinematography and vivid performances from an exceptional cast combine fantastically in this endearing film.
Utter tripe.
The soundtrack was the saviour of this film.
Very Gallic.
Thought it would never end.
Those who hate it can go home early.
Tuesday 1st Apr
7.45pm
Little Theatre
Little Miss Sunshine
2006 USA 95 mins
Director: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris
Starring: Alan Arkin, Greg Kinnear, Abigail Breslin
A funny and sometimes moving drama of a family's efforts, led by father Richard Hoover (Greg Kinnear), to get their daughter Olive across country in a beat-up Volkswagen minibus, to compete in a Junior Beauty Pageant. Alan Arkin play's Olive's grandad and he coaches her in a hilarious contest presentation, which contrives to both satirise American values and in a final scene unites the Hoover clan.
Delightful.
Little Miss Sunshine rocks!
Just the sunshine we needed.
This is the family that put FUN in Dys-FUN-ctional.
I laughed so much I cried! Brilliant.
The epitome of heart-warming!!! Superb.
From one extreme to another - that was great!
Cried with laughter, perfect tonic after hard day at work.
Hadn't had such a good laugh in ages.
A journey in more way's than one, brilliant.
Fantastic cast and story, very, very funny.
A funny, moving and unexpected film.
Tuesday 15th Apr
7.45pm
Little Theatre
Two Stage Sisters
1965 China 112 mins
Director: Xie Jin
Starring: Yindi Cao, Yeuhong Xing, Yunzhu Shangguan
A superb chronicle of the lives of two actresses who are close friends but whose rise to fame illustrates their very different attitudes. While one is happy just to take the wealth her success brings in Communist China, the other becomes politically involved. Eventually their friendship turns into a head-on confrontation. A daringly directed and remarkably assured film by Xie Jin, politically subtle and consequently all the more powerful.
In the immortal words of Irving Berlin: Sisters- there were never more devoted sisters!
How we have forotten original Chinese propoganda.
What nostalgic sounds from the projection booth.
Even the Chinese could not solve subtitles on a white background.
Tuesday 22nd Apr
7.45pm
Little Theatre
Le Gout Des Autres
2000 Canada/France 112 mins
Director: Agnes Jaoui
Starring: Gerard Lanvin, Christianne Millet
A film focusing on the lives of three men and three women. Castella owns an industrial steel barrel plant in Rouen; Bruno is the flute playing driver; Franck is his temporary bodyguard while he negiotiates ad contract with Iranian clients. His wife Angelique is an interior decorator and loves her dog. The conventional Castella hires Clara a forty year old actress to tutor Bruno in English who finds her and her lifestyle fascinating. The start of love? Through Bruno, Franck meets Marie, a barmaid who deals. They begin an affair. Are they in love? As the women hold back, the men must make decisions.
Realised 10mins in that I'd seen it before, but enjoyed it even more 2nd time round.
Wet paint anybody?
Felt a little distanced by the plain cinematography
Loving the chintz
Basically, nothing happened.
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