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| Waltz With Bashir (MA15+) |
commences September 11
110m
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| Every year at the Cannes Film Festival there is at least one film which sets everyone buzzing and this year it was this small-budget Israeli film. It is a ground breaking and very moving anti-war film produced, written and directed by Ari Folman, and is based on a true story. The film is a quest into the director's memory for the missing pieces from the days of the Lebanon war in the mid 80's. Waltz With Bashir is daring, gripping, intriguing, intense, thoughtful and intelligent filmmaking. It also compels us to look inside ourselves for the truth about the legacy of violence and the responsibility each of us has to try and fin alternatives to it. It is a film for all those who appreciate and celebrate cinema and its finest and most original. "Folman has made a beautiful, disturbing and deeply compelling film ..., while offering hope that he and others might someday heal from the ravages of war ... films like Waltz With Bashir offer us the opportunity to learn about and from our history ... perhaps those who do might, eventually build a world where such atrocities no longer exist" Kim Voyner- Cinematical. |
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commences September 11
111m
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| At their lakeside holiday home, Ann (Naomi Watts), George (Tim Roth) and their young son have unexpected visitors: two well-spoken, seemingly well-bred young men wearing polite smiles and preppy sportswear (Michael Pitt & Brady Corbet). The visitors want to play a game: "You bet that you'll be alive tomorrow at 9:00,and we bet that you'll be dead. OK?" In this stark thriller based on his acclaimed 1997 film of the same title, director Michael Haneke (Hidden) recreates an ever-tightening sense of suspense that balances on a knife's edge between icy fear and satiric surprise. As the family fights to survive thier every plan is thwarted, each option closed and each hour ticks closer to what could be their last. Want to come and play? |
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commences September 18
98m
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| From Walt Disney Studios and Pixar comes one of the year’s most acclaimed films. WALL-E is a robot built with one aim in life: to clean up the mess left behind by humans when they vacated Earth hundreds of years prior. Living in a space surrounded by the nostalgia that he has discovered amongst the refuse, WALL-E’s only companions are a cockroach and a VHS cassette of HELLO DOLLY. Dutifully going about his programmed business, he makes an unexpected discovery when he uncovers a small plant growing despite the odds. Andrew Stanton’s new animated epic sets a new standard in feature animation. Creating a future that is as fantastical as it is prescient, this timely film is a film for all ages that is not to be missed |
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commences September 18
(Arabic and French with English Subtitles)
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| In Beirut, five women meet regularly in a beauty salon, a colourful and sensual microcosm of the city where several generations come into contact, talk and confide in each other. Layale loves Rabih, but Rabih is married. Nisrine is Muslim and her forthcoming marriage poses a problem: she is no longer a virgin. Rima is tormented by her attraction to women and especially to this lovely client with long hair. Jamale is refusing to grow old. Rose has sacrificed her life to take care of her elderly sister. In the salon, their intimate and liberated conversations revolve around men, sex and motherhood, between haircuts and sugar waxing with caramel. |
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commences September 18
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| The Lombard family has been steadily disintegrating since the death of oldest son Liam three years before. The descent is slow and soft, manifesting itself in a personal crisis for each family member. Australian writer, director, and star Christopher Weekes, who financed "Bitter & Twisted" himself, remarkably captures the way a family can unfold after an unexpected death. He developes the crisis of each family member with an alsmot clinical precision while keeping the overall tone somewhat dreamy. "This isn't the person I' tought I'd become," the mother says as she sits at the side of her husband's hospital bed, and with that she sums up the crisis of each character. The marvellous cast includes Noni Hazelhurst, Rhys Muldoon, Gary Sweet, Penne Hackforth-Jones, Matthew Newton. |
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commences October 2
110m
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| The Duchess is a chronicle of the life of 18th century aristocrat Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (Keira Knightley), who reviled for her extravagant political and personal lives. She is a vibrant beauty and celebrity of her time. But she is trapped in an unhappy triangle with her husband and his live-in mistress. She falls passionately in love with an ambitious young politician, and the affair causes a bitter conflict with her husband and threatens to erupt into a scandal. Director Saul Dibb takes the helm for this period drama adapted from Amanda Foreman's best-selling novel and The Duchess also stars Charlotte Rampling and Ralph Fiennes. |
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| The Lemon Tree (Etz Limon) (G) |
commences October 9
106m
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| Salma, a Palestinian widow, has to stand up against her new neighbour, the Israeli Defense Minister, when he moves into his new house opposite her lemon grove, on the green line border between Israel and the West Bank. The Israeli security forces are quick to declare that Salma’s trees pose a threat to the Minister’s safety and issue orders to uproot them. Together with Ziad Daud, her young Palestinian lawyer, Salma goes all the way to the Israeli Supreme Court to try and save her trees. Her struggle raises the interest of Mira Navon, the Defense minister's wife, who is trapped in her new home and in an unhappy life. Despite their differences and the borders between them the women develop a bond. |
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| The Grocer's Son (M) 105m |
commences October 9
106m
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| It is summer, and thirty-year-old Antoine is forced to leave the city to return to his family in Provençe. His father is sick, so he must assume the lifestyle he thought he had shed—driving the family grocery cart from hamlet to hamlet, delivering supplies to the few remaining inhabitants. Accompanied by Claire, a friend from Paris whom he has a secret crush on, Antoine gradually warms up to his experience in the country and his encounters with the villagers, who initially seem stubborn and gruff, but eventually prove to be funny and endearing. Ultimately, this surprise French box-office hit is about the coming-of-age of a man rediscovering life and love in the countryside |
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commences October 16
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| Prepare to be entertained by the inspiring individuals of ‘Young@Heart,’ a New England senior citizens chorus that has delighted audiences worldwide with their covers of songs by everyone from The Clash to Coldplay. As Stephen Walker’s documentary begins, the retirees, led by their strict musical director, are rehearsing their new show, struggling with a discordant Sonic Youth number and giving new meaning to James Brown’s “I Feel Good.” What ultimately emerges is a funny and unexpectedly moving testament to the simple things these seniors value: old friendships, new challenges and a little time in the spotlight. |
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commences October 16
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| On August 7th 1974, a young Frenchman stepped out on a wire illegally rigged between New York's Twin Towers, then the world’s tallest buildings. Following six and a half years of dreaming, Petit spent eight months in NYC planning the execution of the coup. Aided by a team of friends and accomplices, Petit had to find a way to bypass the WTCs security; to smuggle the heavy steel cable and rigging equipment into the towers; to pass the wire between the two rooftops; to anchor the wire and tension it to withstand the winds and the swaying of the buildings. The rigging was done under cover of night in complete secrecy. At 7:15 AM, Philippe took his first step on the high wire 1,350 feet above the sidewalks of Manhattan. James Marsh’s documentary brings Petit’s extraordinary adventure to life through the testimony of Philippe himself and some of the co-conspirators who helped him create the unique and magnificent spectacle that became known as the artistic crime of the century. |
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commences October 16
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| The new film from the Coen Brothers (No Country For Old Men) is a wickedly funny spy caper starring George Clooney, Frances MacDormand, Tilda Swinton, John Malkovich and Brad Pitt. CIA agent Osbourne Cox is writing his memoirs after getting fired from the CIA. The disc containing the memoirs is discovered in the female locker room at the gym, where it was left by mistake by the secretary of Katie Cox's divorce lawyer. Katie had downloaded the information secretly so her divorce lawyer would have ammunition for their case. Assuming that the disc contains vital classified information, gym employee Linda Litzke and her co-worker Chad Feldheimer decide to sell the info to the highest bidder. Feeling the sands of time running through her sagging figure, Linda needs the money for a series of expensive plastic surgeries but her quest for beauty sets in motion an unanticipated string of deadly, comical disasters. |
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| Brideshead Revisited (tbc) |
commences October 23
135m
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| Brideshead Revisited, the epic novel of life, death and spiritual renewal among the English Catholic gentry, is widely described as Evelyn Waugh's greatest work. Whilst at Oxford University a chance encounter with the charming and decadent Sebastian Flyte (Ben Whishaw, Perfume), son of Lord Marchmain, draws Charles Ryder (Matthew Goode, Match Point) into the exclusive world of British high society. For the impressionable Charles, Sebastian's world of money, glamour and outrageous behaviour makes for a seductive cocktail. Sebastian takes Charles under his wing and when he's invited to 'Brideshead', the Flyte family's magnificent ancestral home, Charles becomes infatuated with Julia (Hayley Atwell, How About You?), Sebastian's beautiful sister. Brideshead Revisited stars Emma Thompson and Michael Gambon and is the new film from Julian Jarrold, the director Becoming Jane. |
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commences October 23
135m
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| Diane English, the creator of "Murphy Brown", has gathered an exceptional cast for the remake of George Cukor's 1939 classic. Her script maintains the arch spirit of the original, and the all-female cast, but the women aren't as relentlessly catty this time around. The story follows a group of female friends when the one they envied most discovers her husband is cheating on her. The cast includes Annette Benning, Meg Ryan, Candice Bergman, Eva Mendes, Debra Messing, Bette Midler, Jada Pinkett Smith. |
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commences October 30
96m
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| HUNGER is a challenging and unforgettable feature film by the multi award winning creative team of British artist film-maker Steve McQueen and Irish writer Enda Walsh. The film is a highly evocative and provocative interpretation of the real life story of I.R.A. volunteer Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender) who went on hunger strike as a political tactic in a long running battle over prison conditions in Her Majesty's Maze prison near Belfast, North Ireland in 1981. Hunger is a timely and compelling exploration of belief and commitment. Winner of the Camera d'Or (best first feature) at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. |
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| The Spirit Of Marathon (tbc) |
commences October 30
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| The first ever feature-length film to capture the essence, drama and unique spectacle of the famed 26.2-mile race, the production features five runners - three amateurs and two elites - as they train for and ultimately run the Chicago Marathon. Winner of the Audience Choice Award at the Chicago Film Festival. |
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commences Novaember 26
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| After Romeo & Juliet and Moulon Rouge Baz Luhrmann' turns to his homeland again for inspiration. His new film is an epic adventure set in Northern Australia before World War II, it concentrates on an English aristocrat (Nicole Kidman) who inherits a massive cattle station. When cattle barons from England conspire to take her land, she teams up with a country stock-man (Hugh Jackman) to drive her herd of 2,000 cattle across the vast unforgiving country... only to experience the Japanese bombing of Darwin. |
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commences November 27
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| Quantum of Solace continues the high octane adventures of James Bond in Casino Royale with Daniel Craig returning to the role. Betrayed by Vesper, the woman he loved, 007 fights the urge to make his latest mission personal. Pursuing his determination to uncover the truth, Bond and M interrogate Mr White who reveals the organisation which blackmailed Vesper is far more complex and dangerous than anyone had imagined. Marc Forster (Finding Neverland, The Kite Runner) is directing this latest adventure of the screen's most enduring hero. |
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| Standard Operating Procedure (MA15+) |
season commences tbc
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| One of our favourite filmmakers has excelled again. Oscar-winning documentarian Errol Morris (The Fog Of War, The Thin Blue Line) looks at the abuse and torture of prisoners by U.S. soldiers in the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad with a peculiar fixation in Standard Operating Procedure. The scandal, of course, came to light in 2004 through photographs taken by the Army members who served as prison wardens. The film is stunning and shocking and shows that the US army in Iraq is out-of-control. It's not even the first picture to focus on the notorious Abu Ghraib prison. What it is is the first time Errol Morris has looked at these issues, and that makes the difference. This is the first documentary ever to be shortlisted for the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. |
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