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(Otto Preminger / US / 1945 / 98 mins / b&w / Cert PG)
In this murder mystery story, Eric Stanton (Dana Andrews), a press agent
down on his luck, drifts into a small coastal town in California having been
thrown off a bus. He meets June (Alice Faye), a wealthy but reclusive woman,
and has his eye on Stella (Linda Darnell), a sultry gold-digging waitress.
In love with Stella but broke, Eric decides to marry June, steal her fortune,
and then divorce her in favour of Stella. However, when Stella is suddenly
and mysteriously murdered, he becomes a suspect and things begin to go
wrong…
(Drama / Dir: Paolo Sorrentino / With Giacomo Rizzo, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Laura Chiatti / Italy-France 2005 / 110 mins / Cert 15)
Geremia de' Geremei is 70. He is also an ugly, filthy, rich, tight-fisted, cynical and ironic usurer. He has a sick and obsessive relationship with everything: his mother, his father, money, women, even life itself. That's why he thinks he is lonely. But, as it turns out, he is not alone.
Fanny and Alexander
The Oscar winning Fanny & Alexander is the culmination of a lifetime's work by one of cinema's greatest artists, Ingmar Bergman. The story is a rich tapestry of one year in the life of a large and well-to-do theatrical family living in a Swedish provincial town at the turn of the century. This is the complete version of the film. |
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(Jan Schütte / Ge / 2000 / 89 mins / col / German with English subtitles / Cert 15)
At the end of an exceptionally hot summer, playwright Bertolt 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 stark contrast to the deep, volatile emotions of the characters: love and hatred, jealousy and egomania, betrayal and dashed hopes. And all the while, Brecht, superbly played by Josef Bierbichler, struggles to make plans for the future that fate is about to cut short. "Affecting…touching…nothing short of genius" THE TIMES
(Drama / Dir: Richard Linklater / With Patricia Arquette, Bobby Cannavale, Ethan Hawke / USA, UK 2006 / 108 mins / Cert 15)
Based on Eric Schlosser's non-fiction book, Linklater turns journalistic
investigations into an ensemble drama examining the health risks involved
in the fast food industry and its environmental and social consequences.
Don is sent by his bosses at burger giant Mickey's to investigate findings
that cow manure has contaminated its products. He visits the huge meat packing
plant and discovers all sorts of unpleasant details about the meat used and
the conditions for the workforce of illegal Mexican immigrants.
(Isidro Ortiz / Sp / 2001 / 94 mins / col / Spanish with subtitles / Cert 18)
A conflict between reason and instinct. Dr Faust, a well-known specialist in terminal medicine, is deeply depressed. While attending a conference, he meets a former patient, Santos, whom - eight years ago - he had diagnosed as having only months to live. Together they set off on a life or death journey in the depths of the city, where the buildings are suffering from a strange virus. Faust must struggle against death, his own desires, against Santos and himself.
(Dir: Humphrey Jennings / UK 1939-43 / Total 80 mins / Cert U)
Humphrey Jennings, widely considered Britain's greatest documentary director, was born on 19 August 1907. The BFI marked this centenary with a selection of his best films, newly restored by the BFI National Archive. Beautifully evoking everyday heroism in times of war and peace, these four short films combine poetic observation with subtle yet intense national feeling. They remain an inspiration to countless modern filmmakers. The compilation consists of: Spare Time, Words For Battle, The Silent Village and Listen To Britain
(Dir: Abbas Kiarostami / Iran / 2003 / 74 minutes / Cert U)
This is a richly poetic, radically minimalist film, featuring five extended sequences: a piece of driftwood is tossed and broken by the waves; people stroll along the promenade; a group of dogs gather by the water's edge; ducks move noisily across the frame from one side to the other; and a pool of water is shot at night, with the sounds of storm and frogs croaking breaking the stillness. Carefully constructed and manipulated, with a soundtrack meticulously assembled as a symphony of natural noise, together the images comprise an abstract narrative arc, which moves evocatively from solitude to community, motion to rest, and near silence to sound and song.
(Drama / Dir: Bruno Dumont / With Adelaide Leroux, Henri Cretel, Samuel Boidin / France 2006 / 91 mins / Cert 18)
A contemplation of controversial director Bruno Dumont's home territory,
Flanders is a picture of bestial humanity centred around a group of young
men and women from the northern French countryside conscripted into a war
to the east, where they brutalise, and are brutalised.
(Dir: Mikio Naruse / With Masayuki Mori / Japan 1955 / 123 mins / Cert 12A)
Naruse's ultimate masterpiece opens in the bombed ruins of Tokyo as Yukiko (Hideko Takamine) searches for Tomioka, with whom she worked during the war. They renew their affair, but he tells Yukiko he can't leave his wife... The two characters are adrift and in constant motion, but Naruse shoots them with travelling shots so imperceptible that all seems fixed, immobile.
(Yasujiro Ozu / Jp / 1959 / col / 119 mins / Japanese with English subtitles / Cert PG)
In one of Ozu's mature masterpieces, an ageing actor returns with his troupe to a provincial town. There he is reunited with his former lover and his illegitimate son, who believes that the actor is his uncle. The actor's desire to be with his long-lost family enrages his present mistress, who spins an elaborate web of deceit that leads to heartbreak for them all. A stirring visual poem depicting the joy and pain of everyday life, Floating Weeds is beautifully photographed in seaside summer colours by Kazuo Miyagawa, one of Japan's greatest cinematographers. Exquisitely restrained and bittersweet, this is a fine example of Ozu's lyrical melodramas.
(Drama / Dir: Walter Salles / With Tcheky Karyo, Fernanda Torres, Fernando Alves Pinto / Portugal 1995 / 100 mins /Cert TBC)
Paco lives with his elderly mother in a poor Sao Paulo neighbourhood. When
she hears the government has seized her savings, the shocked woman drops
dead. Paco now feels little desire to stay in Brazil and agrees to smuggle
a violin stuffed with raw diamonds to Lisbon.
(Horror/Comedy / Dir: Anders Banke / With Petra Nielsen / Sweden-Russia 2006 / 96 mins / Cert 15)
In Lapland, it is pitch black for months. A seemingly perfect dwelling place
for vampires! An effective mix of comedy and horror, as vivid as red blood
on white snow, Frostbite tells the story of a doctor and her 17-year-old
daughter who move to work in a small town hospital. When the deaths start
to pile up the pair must watch their necks until dawn - which is four weeks
away.
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(Drama / Dir: Patrice Chéreau / With Isabelle Huppert, Pascal Greggory / France 2005 / 90 mins / Cert 15)
Jean Hervey is a man who, after 10 years of marriage, believes he understands his wife Gabrielle completely. They appear to have reached a position of perfect contentment together, that is until one day Gabrielle leaves Jean a note explaining that she has left him for another man. Jean barely has time to take in this unexpected news however, when Gabrielle returns to him repented. Outbursts of honesty, extremes of secrecy, moments of doubt and founded or unfounded joy await the couple.
(Available from 23 June 2008) (Drama / Dir: Lenny Abrahamson / With Pat Shortt, Conor Ryan, Anne-Marie Duff / Ireland 2007 / 81 mins / Cert 18)
Garage is the second film from director Lenny Abrahamson and writer Mark O'Halloran the team behind the award-winning black comedy Adam & Paul. Regarded by his neighbours as a harmless misfit, Josie has spent all his adult life as the caretaker of a crumbling petrol station on the outskirts of a small town in the mid-west of Ireland. He is limited, lonely, yet relentlessly optimistic and, in his own peculiar way, happy. Garage is the story of Josie's hapless search for intimacy over the course of a summer which sees his life changed forever.
(David Gordon Green / US / 2000 / 89 mins / col / Cert 12)
This is the captivating and beautifully shot story of a group of children
on the verge of adulthood during one long, hot summer. Set in a rural town
in North Carolina, the group of youngsters find themselves caught in a tragic
lie after an innocent game goes wrong. David Gordon Green's debut, he won
the Special Jury Prize at Sundance 2003 with All the Real Girls and is set
to direct Miramax's adaptation of John Kennedy Toole's novel A Confederacy
of Dunces.
(Drama / Dir: Nick Broomfield / With Ai Qin Lin, Zhan Yu, Zhe Wei / UK 2007 / 96 mins / Cert 15)
On February 5th 2004 twenty three Chinese drowned in Morcombe Bay. Their
families in China are still paying off their debts. With an extraordinary
debut performance from Ai Qin Lin in a film whose principal characters are
played by Chinese former illegal immigrants, Ghosts narrates the realities
behind the Morcombe Bay tragedy and offers a unique insight into a secret
world that surrounds us.
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The Girl from Paris(Christian Carion / Fr / 2000 / 99 mins / col / French with English subtitles / Cert 15) Fed up with city life, Sandrine decides to leave Paris and live out her dream of becoming a farmer, taking over a farmstead on the Vercors plateau from cantankerous farming veteran Adrien. Set against the backdrop of beautiful French countryside, and featuring sparkling performances The Girl from Paris tells the engaging tale of two mismatched opposites who gradually, and grudgingly, learn to appreciate one another. |
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(Wong Kar Wai / HK / 1997 / col & b&w / Cantonese, Mandarin and Spanish with English subtitles / Cert 15)
Lai and Ho arrive in Argentina as lovers, but while driving south in search
of adventures, something goes wrong and Ho leaves for Buenos Aires. Devastated,
Lai finds work in a tango bar and attempts to carry on, but is consumed with
the thought of being 'happy together' once again with Ho. A heady cocktail
of sound and vision from the director of In the Mood for Love
and Chungking Express.
Harry He's Here To Help(Dominik Moll / Fr / 2000 / 112 mins / col / French with English subtitles / Cert 15) A quirky comedy/thriller cum psychological study in which Michel, on holiday with his family, is followed by an old school mate whose motives soon appear less than friendly, and certainly not helpful! The magnetic performance of Sergi Lopez in the title role won him Best Actor accolade at the 2000 European Film Awards and César Awards 2000. "Fresh, funny and very stylish" Geoff Andrew, TIME OUT |
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(Drama / Dir: Benito Zambrano / With Alberto Yoel, Roberto Sanmartín / Spain, Cuba, France 2005 / 110 mins / Cert 15)
Two young Cuban musicians Ruy and Tito share a dream of escaping Havana and making it big with their band Havana Blues. Tito lives with his wily grandmother Luz Maria who records her famed vocals in return for shots of vodka. Ruy lives with his hard working wife and two children but this doesn't stop him from charming his way into the bed of hot-shot Spanish music producer Martha. While in rehearsals for their first big concert, Ruy and Tito discover that Martha and side-kick Lorenzo are looking for new talent in Cuba. Facing the chance of a lifetime, Ruy and Tito have some big decisions to make.
(Documentary / Dir: Benjamin Christensen / Denmark 1922 / 181 mins / Cert 15)
Since its premiere in 1922, Benjamin Christensen's exploration of the role of superstition in medieval minds has caused outrage and protest from both the general public and religious groups. Dramatizing satanic activities and rituals including the ways in which suspected witches were tortured and killed, Haxan is a deliriously imaginative masterpiece. Not until 1941 did the director earn belated fame and respect - proof that this genre-defying 'documentary' was far ahead of its time. In 1968, the film won further praise and a whole new audience when it was re-released with a William Burroughs narration, under the title Witchcraft Through the Ages.
(Akira Kurosawa / Jp / 1958 / 138 mins / b&w / Japanese with English subtitles / Cert PG)
A story of rival clans, hidden gold and a princess in distress, The Hidden
Fortress is a thrilling mix of fairy story and samurai action film which
became Kurosawa's biggest box-office hit to date. Some twenty years on, the
film's influence would have even greater impact on world box-offices, when
George Lucas borrowed its plot for the first of his Star Wars
series.
(Dir: Alejandro Jodorowsky / With Alejandro Jodorowsky, Horacio Salinas, Juan Ferrara / Mexico 1973 / 110 mins / Cert 18)
A vagrant and thief wanders through a perverse and unfriendly land until he encounters an enlightened one, who gathers the thief and six of the world's most powerful individuals for a spiritual pilgrimage. The Holy Mountain is a surreal and provocative cult masterpiece. Its rich assortment of unforgettable images forms the basis of a fabulous and unrestrained exploration of humankind.
(Drama / Dir: Albert Serra / With Lluis Carbo, Lluis Serrat / Spain 2006 / 111 mins / Cert tbc)
Loosely based on Don Quixote, Albert Serra'a quietly compelling picture takes
its time in examining the relationship at the centre of Cervantes novel.
Sancho and Quixote are presented in a series of long takes and patiently
paced shots, which records their day-to-day activities. Shot in natural light,
on a small budget and with local amateurs playing the two leads, this film
echoes cinemas patient greats, namely Bresson and Ozu. Honour of the
Knights is a beautifully weighted tale of friendship, love, faith
and death.
(Thriller/ Dir: Brice Cauvin / With Laurent Lucas, Hélène Fillières / France 2006 / 95 mins / Cert TBC)
Earning frequent comparisons to the finer work of David Lynch for its defiantly
unpredictable and enigmatic narrative twists, Brice Cauvin's political thriller
Hotel Harabati opens at a Parisian train depot, where a couple in their
mid-thirties, Philippe and Marion, retrieve a suitcase that doesn't belong
to them. The suitcase is labelled with the words 'Hotel Harabati' and it
filled with neatly-rolled bank notes…
(Drama / Dir: Laurent Cantet / With Jalil Lespert, Jean-Claude Vallod / France-UK 1999 / 100 mins / Cert 15)
Frank, a young business-school graduate, starts work experience in the office of the factory where his father has worked all his life. Yet his comfortable world is soon overturned when he discovers executives' plan to fire 12 workers and he becomes involved in a union battle in which his father does not wish take part. His loyalties are painfully divided between the factory workers, his father, career and idealism.
(Bruno Durnont / Fr / 1999 / 143 mins / col / French with English subtitles / Cert 18)
In a small, close-knit community in North East France, an 11 year old girl has been raped and murdered. On the hunt for the killer is Police detective De Winter, an awkward, shy introvert who maintains a close and voyeuristic relationship with his neighbour and her boyfriend. An almost child-like innocent, De Winter is appalled by not only the crime, but the monstrousness of human behaviour One of the most startlingly original, daring and controversial films of recent times, L' Humanité is a stark and haunting portrait of human nature, suffering and compassion. "L' Humanité is one of the best films of the last ten years" Mark Cousins, Sight and Sound
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I Could Read the Sky(Nichola Bruce / GB, Ie, Fr / 1999 / 86 mins / col & b&w / Cert 15) Adapted by Nichola Bruce from the acclaimed photographic novel by Timothy O'Grady and Steve Pyke, I COULD READ THE SKY is a haunting and lyrical film about identity, love, loss, and the isolation and loneliness of the immigrant. Dermot Healy movingly portrays a man reflecting upon his life, from his rural upbringing in the West Coast of Ireland to his journey to London and experiences in the vividly modern metropolis. |
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(Available from 26 May 2008) (Dir: Chan-wook Park / With Soo-jung Lim, Ji-hoon Jung, Hee-jin Choi / Korea 2006 /105 mins / Cert tbc)
A madcap fantasy from Chan-Wook Park, director of Sympathy For Mr Vengeance, Oldboy and Lady Vengeance. Young-goon is admitted to a mental institution. Believing herself a cyborg, she refuses to eat, and charges herself with a transistor radio. Il-soon is a fellow inmate, who wears masks, has the ability to steal people's personality traits, and believes he is fading and will one day turn into a dot. When Young-goon faints because she refuses to eat, Il-soon decides it's his job to get her on her feet again.
(Manoel de Oliveira / Po, Fr / 2001 / 90 mins / col / French with English subtitles & English / Cert PG)
A film about an ageing actor, Gilbert Valence (Michel Piccoli), from the moment he learns his wife, their only child and her husband died in a car accident, to the moment he suddenly turns old. "This is a gem: a small but perfectly formed, perfectly poised and perfectly acted movie, " Peter Bradshaw, THE GUARDIAN
(Dir: René Allio / With Claude Hébert, Jacqueline Millière / France 1975 / 130 mins / Cert tbc)
The perfect companion piece to Back To Normandy, René Allio's film inspired Philibert to return to his filmic roots. A tragic tale of a vengeful farmer's son who murdered his family, claiming it was God's judgement, only to write his confessional memoirs whilst in jail before taking his own life. A cast of local villagers enact the events from 150 years before. Allio guides his narration through a cinematic interweaving of historical re-enactment, documentary and psychological study.
(Akira Kurosawa / Ja / 1952 / 137 mins / b&w / Japanese with English subtitles / Cert 12)
A lowly civil servant discovers that he is dying of cancer. After bouts of self-pity, a spell of hedonism and a doomed attempt at a platonic relationship, he commits himself doggedly to the task of converting a city dump into a children's playground. Tough-minded and unsentimental throughout, this is one of Kurosawa's finest films and also offers a vivid and satirical portrait of post-war Tokyo.
(Drama / Dir: Saverio Costanzo / With Christo Jivkov, Filippo Timi, Marco Baliani / Italy 2007 / 118 mins / Cert U)
Andrea is an intelligent, handsome young man who seems to have everything necessary to succeed. But the world's infinite possibilities have only confused him. In this disoriented state, he undertakes the novitiate, a period of spiritual training leading to priesthood. However, Andrea discovers more than a simple world of semi-silence and prayer in the monastery, where every look, every sound, reveals intrigue as the novices are encouraged to denounce one another's shortcomings.
(Drama / Dir: Lo Chi-Leung / With Karena Lam, Leslie Cheung / Hong Kong 2002 / 100 mins / Cert 15)
A young woman who is plagued by visions of ghosts eventually seeks the help
of a psychiatrist - Jim, who helps her realise that they are simply
manifestations of her own repressed psyche. After embarking on a relationship
with each other, Jim himself begins to start seeing ghosts specifically that
of a teenage girl he once wronged. Pushed toward taking his own life, Jim
must find a way to put the ghosts to rest.
(Documentary / Dir: Philip Groning / Germany 2005/ 162 mins / Cert U)
A contemplation of time. Silence, repetition, rhythm. Into Great Silence is the first film ever about life inside the Grande Chartreuse, the legendary Carthusian Order in the French Alps. A strict, next to silent meditation on monastic life in a very pure form, this is a film dealing with awareness, absolute presence, and men who devote their lifetimes to God in the purest manner.
(Drama / Dir: Pen-Ek Ratanaruang / With Tadanobu Asano, Gang Hye-Jung, Eric Tsang / Thailand-Hong Kong 2006 / 116 mins / Cert 15)
Kyoji is a Japanese chef working in a Hong Kong restaurant. Whilst having
an affair with his employer's wife, he's actually hired by his boss to poison
her. He escapes by boat befriending a single mother but they soon part. Once
he's installed in a seedy hotel in Phuket, Thailand, his boss sends his henchman
to sort out some unfinished business. Cinematography by the award-winning
Chris Doyle (In The Mood For Love/ Paranoid Park).
(Bertrand Tavernier / Fr / 1998 / 114 mins / col / French with English subtitles / Cert 12)
Daniel Lefebvre is the director of a Kindergarten in an economically depressed area of northern France. Appalled by the deprivation that his pupils must endure, he determines to rise above the tough conditions and battle against the tough conditions and battle against a repressive social and educational system. But thwarted by indifference and bureaucracy at every turn, Lefebvre begins to be plagued by self-doubt and his resolve begins to waver, until previously silent parents slowly start to rally to his cause. Searingly powerful, moving and optimistic, Tavernier's film features brilliant performances from a mixture of professionals and non-professionals. "A beautifully written, beautifully photographed and exquisitely constructed treat" Total Film
(Available from March 2008 TBC) (Drama / Dir: Andrei Kravchuk / With Kolya Spiridonov, Denis Moiseen / Russia 2006 / 99 mins / Cert TBC)
The Italian addresses the urgent issue of illegal adoption in Russia, which has become a well-documented international crisis. The film is based on the true story of an abandoned six-year-old boy, Vanya Solntsev, who rejects adoption by an affluent Italian couple and, instead, embarks on a dangerous search for his birth mother.
(Drama /Dir: Rafi Pitts / With Mitra Hadjar, Ali Nicsolat, Saeed Orkani / Iran 2006 / 78 mins / Cert 12)
A man looses his job and decides to find employment abroad, leaving behind his wife and daughter. Months pass and his family hear no word from him. Meanwhile a stranger arrives in town in search of work and his eyes wander to the beautiful young woman whom he hears no longer has a husband. This tender film narrates the struggle to survive of a generation torn between wanting to leave its country yet bound by blood to home.
(Andrei Tarkovsky / USSR /1962 / 96 mins / b&w / Russian with English subtitles / Cert PG)
Tarkovsky's auspicious debut depicts the exploits of a young boy caught up
in the horrors of war. After his family and village have been wiped out by
the invading Nazis, 12 year old Ivan joins a Russian partisan regiment. His
missions become increasingly perilous and it is decided that he must be removed
from the action but Ivan determines to carry out one final, dangerous mission.
"With one blow the film annuls a whole cinémathèque of the
war films of all lands" SIGHT AND SOUND
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(Carlos Reygadas / Me, Ge, Sp, Ne / 2002 / 147 mins / col / Spanish with English subtitles)
A middle-aged painter who has retired to a secluded and primitive village
to commit suicide befriends an old woman. A widely acclaimed, oblique and
meditative film, much indebted to the influence of Andrei Tarkovsky. "Almost
miraculous in its confidence and visionary calm." THE GUARDIAN
(Horror / Dir: Jess Franco / With Britt Nichols, Dennis Price, Howard Vernon / Spain / total 160mins / Cert 18)
Dracula Prisoner of Frankenstein (1972) delivers bizarre and absurd goings on at Castle Dracula where the Vampire awaits Dr. Frankenstein to return him to life so that they can collaborate in their evil schemes. In the Curse of Frankenstein (1972) This classic tale is enlivened by British Character actor Dennis Price as the quietly brilliant doctor Frankenstein.
(Horror / Dir: Jess Franco / With Dennis Price, Howard Vernon, Lina Romay, William Berger/ Spain / total 156 mins / Cert 18)
Devil's Island Lovers (1974) depraved drama about a beautiful
young couple framed for murder and imprisoned in a camp somewhere in South
America with a sadistic warden. In Night of the Assassins (1976)
a group of greedy relatives gather for the reading of a will. A dark mansion
provides the perfect setting for a masked maniac to stalk and slaughter the
undeserving kinfolk.
(Jacques Tati / Fr / 1948 / 77 mins / col / cert U)
Tati's debut feature tells the tale of a village postman's endeavours to streamline his service à l'américaine… "The timing and sheer cleverness of the gags is breathtaking. But, above all, this film is supremely good-natured. Perfectly managing to be neither acerbic nor sentimental, just gently and gloriously funny, Jour de fête is a delight." Edinburgh University Film Society film review
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Journey to Italy(Roberto Rossellini / It, Fr / 1953 / b&w / 80 mins / cert PG) This deceptively simple tale of a bored English couple (George Sanders and Ingrid Bergman) travelling to Italy to find a buyer for a house inherited from an uncle is transformed by Roberto Rossellini into a passionate story of cruelty and cynicism as their marriage disintegrates around them. Now fifty years old, Journey to Italy is recognised not simply as one of Rossellini's greatest films, but as a key landmark in the development of modern cinema. |
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(Jacques Feyder / Fr / 1935 / 109 mins / b&w / French with English subtitles / Cert 12A)
Sparkling satire set in the little Flemish town of Boom in 1616,
during the twelve year truce between Flanders and Spain, about unexpected
fraternisation between the Flemish and a visiting Spanish army. When the
men suddenly disappear, the Mayor's wife organizes the townswomen to greet
the invaders and preserve the peace with womanly wiles…
(Michel Ocelot / Fr / 2000 / 74 mins / col animation / Cert U)
Kirikou and the Sorceress was joint winner (with Chicken Run) of the 2002
British Animation Award for Best European Animated Feature. Showing how tiny
but brave Kirikou outwits a powerful sorceress, this enchanting adventure
was inspired by the folk stories of Senegal. Writer-director Michel Ocelot's
fresh vision of Africa is a world away from Disney's singing lions and features
an authentic soundtrack by Youssou N'dour.
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(Drama / Dir: Pedro Almodóvar / With Cecilia Roth, Imanol Arias, Helga Liné / Spain 1982 / 94 mins / Cert 18)
Almodovar's early foray into the chaos and anarchy of the many permutations of desire revolves around Sexilia, a young and nymphomaniac rock star, who meets and falls in love with the gay Riza Niro. He is the heir to a fallen Arab empire and she the daughter of a brilliant and twisted gynaecologist. Unable to have sex, the couple trace their problems back to childhood trauma.
(Drama / Dir: Pascale Ferran / With Marina Hands, Jean-Louis Coullo'ch, Hippolyte Girardot / Belgium 2006 / 168 mins / Cert 18)
Constance, a Lady of the Manor trapped in a bleak, passionless life with
a wheelchair-bound husband, experiences an awakening of the senses with her
solitary gamekeeper. The familiar story is told here with quiet sensitivity
and breathtaking visual beauty, underpinned by restrained yet powerful
performances. Ferran's expansive, moving film achieves the near-impossible
goal of staying faithful to the text in a uniquely cinematic way.
(Bertrand Tavernier / Fr Ge, Sp / 2002 / 170 mins / col / French with English subtitles / Cert 12A)
Set in Paris in 1942, Tavernier's film focuses on two Parisian filmmakers, impulsive Resistance fighter Jean Davaivre and womanising screenwriter Jean Aurenche, as they and their friends and colleagues face up to and come to terms with the German occupation.
(Available from 28 April 2008) (Dir: Robert Bresson / With Luc Simon, Laura Duke Condominas, Humbert Balsan / France-Italy 1974 / 84 mins / Cert PG)
Winner of the International Critics' Prize at Cannes in 1974, Bresson's masterpiece has lost none of its power and continues to cast a mystical spell. In this compelling and hypnotic film about the Arthurian legend, the Knights of the Round Table, their numbers depleted by their bloody and fruitless quest for the Holy Grail, return to King Arthur's court. Once there, Lancelot's passionate relationship with Queen Guinevere causes the Knights to fall out amongst themselves, eventually leading to their downfall. Lancelot du Lac is a unique and compelling vision of the Knights of the Round Table from one of the cinema's foremost artists.
(Available from 28 April 2008) (UK 1931-1950 / b/w & col / 674 minutes + 60 minutes approx extra material / Ratio 1.33:1)
Featuring 40 films over four DVDs, this extensive collection is a major retrospective of the British documentary film movement during its period of greatest influence. These films - many of which are being made available here for the first time since their original release - capture the spirit and strength, concerns and resolve of Britain and its people before, during and after the Second World War. The collection contains classic and lesser-known films including Rotha's Shipyard (1935), Elton's Housing Problems (1935) Jennings' Words for Battle (1941), Listen to Britain (1942), and emotive A Diary for Timothy (1946). Also featured are films from directors such as Ruby Grierson (Today We Live, 1937), Basil Wright (Children at School, 1937), Paul Dickson (The Undefeated, 1950) and Donald Alexander (Five and Under, 1941).
(Available from August 2008) (Drama / Dir: Catherine Breillat / With Asia Argento, Fu'ad Ait Aattou, Roxane Mesquida / France-Italy 2007 / 116 mins / Cert tbc)
This future wedding is on everyone's lips. The young and dissolute Ryno de Marigny is betrothed to marry Hermangarde, an extremely virtuous gem of the French aristocracy. But some, who wish to prevent the union, despite the young couples' mutual love, whisper that the young man will never break off his passionate love affair with Vellini, which has been going on for years. In a whirlpool of confidences, betrayals and secrets, facing conventions and destiny, feelings will prove their strength is invincible...
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The Last Resort(Pawlikowski / GB / 2000 / 77 mins / col / Cert 15) A Russian woman, Tanya, arrives in England with her young son hoping to see the English fiancé she met in Moscow. When he fails to turn up at the airport, Tanya and Artiom are virtually imprisoned in an asylum camp in a deserted seaside resort. Tanya gradually develops a relationship with an amusement arcade manager (Paddy Considine) who helps them escape. Fortified by great performances from the three lead characters, this is an amusing and fresh look at life on the fringe of modern British society. |
(Olivier Assayas, Fr, 1999, 107 mins, col
Directed by Olivier Assayas (Irma Vep) Late August, Early September is a perceptive and moving study of love and friendship among a group of young Parisians over the course of a year. Gabriel and Jenny are at the end of their relationship; Gabriel is beginning a new affair with the volatile Anne, whilst Jenny finds she cannot let go so easily. In the midst of this their friend Adrien learns that an old illness has returned, and he and those close to him must face up to the devastating prospect of his early death. This intimate and absorbing film examines the transforming effect that approaching death has on the friends and follows their attempts to overcome the disappointments and regrets of the past and find the strength to face the future. "Immensely satisfying, superbly acted" What's On
(Dir: Mikio Naruse / With Haruko Sugimura / Japan 1954 / 101min / PG)
One of Naruse's greatest works, this bleak, compelling, poignant portrait
of a quartet of ageing geishas focuses on Kin. Retired after successful real
estate deals, she cynically lends money and advice to the others. Then an
old lover (Ken Uehara) reappears... Rarely was Naruse's attention to financial
matters so insistent as in this fresco of confined lives, impeccably acted
by a very fine ensemble.
(Jean-Pierre Melville / Fr, It / 1961 / 114 mins / b&w / French with English subtitles / Cert PG)
For his second film about occupied France and his first mainstream venture, Jean-Pierre Melville turned to Beatrix Beck's autobiographical novel and two hot New Wave stars - Emmanuele Riva as Barny the atheist widow, and Jean-Paul Belmondo as Morin, the Catholic priest - charting their complex personal and religious relationship against troubled times. A box-office and critical hit, this is the nearest to a Melvillian 'woman's film', but the film belongs to Belmondo's erotically-charged performance.
(Luchino Visconti / It, Fr / 1963 / 188 mins / col / Italian with English subtitles / Cert PG)
Luchino Visconti's richest, most personal film, adapted from Giuseppe di Lampedusa's internationally acclaimed novel, The Leopard is set in 1860-62, during the turbulent period of Italian unification, and tells the story of an aristocratic Sicilian family threatened by the political upheavals. Burt Lancaster excels as the ageing Prince of Salina whose beloved nephew Tancredi (Alain Delon) goes off to fight with Garibaldi's revolutionary 'Thousand' and on his return falls in love with Angelica (Claudia Cardinale), the beautiful daughter of an up-and-coming merchant. This gorgeous evocation of an era, filmed on location in Sicily, is stunningly photographed, designed and costumed, with a rousing score by Nino Rota. The DVD features the restored and uncut release version of the film with fully restored picture and sound. "Visconti's masterpiece - beautiful, intelligent, deeply moving" Philip French, THE OBSERVER
(Stephen Frears / GB, Ge / 2000 / 91 mins / col / Cert 15)
Set in 1930s Liverpool, Liam tells the story of a family's struggle to keep
things together amidst the ravages of the depression, vividly told from the
viewpoint of a seven-year old boy. Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Stephen
Frears and written by the prolific TV and feature film writer Jimmy McGovern,
this is a hard hitting, powerful drama tthat manages to convey humour and
affection. "Intimate and touching" Alexander Walker, EVENING
STANDARD
(Drama / Dir: Aki Kaurismäki /With Janne Hyytiäinen, Maria Järvenhelmi / Finland 2006 / 80 mins /Cert PG)
Lights In The Dusk concludes the trilogy began by Drifting Clouds and The
Man Without A Past. Where the trilogy's first film was about unemployment
and the second about homelessness, this dark comedy takes on the theme of
loneliness. Set in Helsinki, the film traces the story of a night watchman
caught up in a series of misadventures with a femme fatale and a crooked
businessman.
(Available from 28 July 2008) (Drama / Dir: Terence Davies / With Marjorie Yates, Leigh McCormick, Anthony Watson / UK 1992 / 85 mins / Cert 12A)
Through an impressionistic series of beautifully nuanced vignettes, Davies'
autobiographical film evokes a period in the mid 50s. At 11 years old, he
felt unparalleled happiness and security, warm amid family and friends, unruffled
by the complications of sexual desire. A boldly imaginative cinematic hymn
to the quiet joys of just being alive.
(Documentary / Dir: Emma Hindley / UK 2007 / 90 minutes / Cert tbc)
A rare treasure trove of amazing colour footage, preserved and restored by
the BFI, reveals the story of the Dalai Lama and his secret Himalayan kingdom
in a way never told before. An exclusive interview with the Dalai Lama, focussing
on his early life and childhood is intercut with colour archive film from
the 1930s, '40s and '50s as well as revealing interviews with ordinary Tibetan
people who remember life before China sent in troops. Presented by Dan
Cruickshank, this astonishing film allows us to glimpse into the rich culture
of Tibet, showing us ancient ceremonies, Buddhist rituals and family life,
from a time before the Tibetan people lost their country, nearly 50 years
ago.
(Available from 29 September 2008) (Drama / Dir: John Maybury / With Derek Jacobi, Daniel Craig, Tilda Swinton / UK 1998 / 90 mins / Cert 18)
This dramatised biographical portrait of the life of British painter Francis Bacon concentrates on his relationship with George Dyer who became his lover and muse. An unsuccessful minor criminal, Dyer becomes Bacon's lover when the latter discovers him burgling his house in 1964. Dyer is introduced to the demi-monde of the infamous Colony Room club in Soho. Their sado-masochistic love affair is at first a happy one - a marriage of opposites - until Bacon eventually begins to tire of Dyer's increasing misery with the coterie who surround the artist.
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To hire any of these films or for further information, please contact Andrew Youdell in the Bookings department:
Telephone: 020 7957 8938
Email: bookings.films@bfi.org.uk