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Season 2008/09

18 films shown in 2008/09, ordered by overall ratings.

Buster Keaton Programme

08 Jan 2009 - 7pm - Corn Exchange

USA/Mexico - 1928/1920 - Keaton/Reisner - 90 mins

Summary: A rare opportunity to enjoy two Buster Keaton films, with live accompaniment by the composer James Harpham. As Steamboat Bill Jnr., Keaton is the archetypal underdog who ultimately impresses his red-necked father and wins his business rival’s daughter. In the supporting short, Keaton and his bride are given a portable house you can easily assemble in One Week..…

Ratings: A: 70 | B: 17 | C: 3 | D: 1 | E: 0 | Overall: 93

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

22 Jan 2009 - 7pm - Corn Exchange

France/USA - 2007 - Julian Schnabel - 112 mins

Summary: This moving Oscar-nominated film tells the true story of Jean-Dominique Bauby, the successful editor of Elle magazine, who suffered a stroke which left him completely paralysed apart from his left eye-lid. With incredible empathy and humour, it traces his efforts to dictate his memoirs by blinking in a special alphabetical code

Ratings: A: 76 | B: 25 | C: 4 | D: 0 | E: 0 | Overall: 92

Infamous

11 Sep 2008 - 8pm - Plaza

USA - 2006 - Douglas McGrath - 118 mins

Summary: McGrath’s entertaining Infamous focuses on the research and writing of Truman Capote’s non-fiction novel “In Cold Blood”. Fascinated by the gruesome murder of the Clutter family, Capote travels to Kansas. When the two killers are caught, Capote is intrigued by one of them, Perry Smith and befriends him in prison

Ratings: A: 78 | B: 37 | C: 7 | D: 1 | E: 0 | Overall: 89

The Counterfeiters

04 Sep 2008 - 7pm - Corn Exchange

Austria/Germany/France - 2006 - Stefan Ruzowitzky - 98 mins

Summary: The season opens with a thought-provoking film based on the true story of a team of counterfeiters in a World War Two concentration camp. Offered an opportunity to cooperate with the Nazis in exchange for their lives and a degree of comfort, these prisoners are faced with a moral dilemma.

Ratings: A: 77 | B: 46 | C: 5 | D: 1 | E: 0 | Overall: 89

Die Welle[ The Wave]

12 Feb 2009 - 7pm - Corn Exchange

Germany - 2008 - Dennis Gansel - 101 mins

Summary: A German high school teacher decides to educate his pupils about autocracy by running his class for a week on the principles of a fascist regime. The experiment produces devastating effects, leading to a tragic conclusion. This powerful film was a huge hit in Germany

Ratings: A: 76 | B: 47 | C: 10 | D: 2 | E: 0 | Overall: 87

Water

25 Sep 2008 - 7pm - Corn Exchange

Canada/USA - 2005 - Deepa Mehta - 117 mins

Summary: This splendid film, set in 1938, describes the plight of a group of widows, including eight year old Chuyia, who are condemned by Hindu tradition to live their lives in poverty in a temple. It was defiantly filmed in Sri Lanka after bomb scares, rioting and death threats from protesting Hindus made working in India impossible

Ratings: A: 77 | B: 51 | C: 12 | D: 1 | E: 1 | Overall: 86

La Vie en Rose

26 Feb 2009 - 7pm - Corn Exchange

France/UK/Czech Republic - 2007 - Olivier Dahan - 140 mins

Summary: From childhood to glory, from triumph to despair, from Belleville to New York, La Vie en Rose tells the extraordinary story of Edith Piaf. Marion Cotillard won an Oscar for her performance as the singer in this moving and colourful film version of her life.

Ratings: A: 73 | B: 45 | C: 10 | D: 6 | E: 0 | Overall: 85

Michael Clayton

15 Jan 2009 - 8pm - Plaza

USA - 2007 - Tony Gilroy - 119 mins

Summary: Michael Clayton offers George Clooney a complex and challenging role as a fixer in a big corporate law firm. Though exhausted and stressed by personal difficulties, he must decide whether and how to cover up for the firm’s most ruthless partner, whose nervous breakdown threatens to destroy it.

Ratings: A: 68 | B: 52 | C: 9 | D: 2 | E: 1 | Overall: 85

Mountain Patrol

23 Oct 2008 - 7pm - Corn Exchange

China/Hong Kong - 2004 - Lu Chuan - 88 mins

Summary: A powerfully paced story about conscience and survival, Mountain Patrol is set in the spectacular freezing plains of Tibet. It’s a gripping drama centred on an expedition by a local volunteer force and a reporter in search of poachers hunting wild antelope for their pelts

Ratings: A: 46 | B: 52 | C: 16 | D: 6 | E: 0 | Overall: 79

Persepolis

13 Nov 2008 - 8pm - Plaza

France/Iran - 96 mins - Paronnaud/Satrapi - 96 mins

Summary: This lovable and beautiful animation is the autobiographical tale of Marjane Satrapi, a girl growing up in Iran under the fundamentalist regime of the 70s and 80s. It is a rich blend of coming of age comedy, political history and social drama.

Ratings: A: 57 | B: 26 | C: 42 | D: 7 | E: 1 | Overall: 78

The Orphanage

27 Nov 2008 - 7pm - Corn Exchange

Mexico/Spain - 2007 - Juan Antonio Bayona - 106 mins

Summary: A mother returns to her childhood home, but its disturbing past is revealed when her son starts to talk about his new imaginary friends. This tale of a missing child at a long-abandoned orphanage is a chilling gothic horror movie from Spain.

Ratings: A: 35 | B: 42 | C: 21 | D: 5 | E: 1 | Overall: 75

Juno

18 Dec 2008 - 7pm - Corn Exchange

USA - 2007 - Jason Reitman - 96 mins

Summary: This is an engaging and quirky indie comedy with a brilliant performance by Ellen Page in the title role. A bright teenager with a sardonic wit, she becomes pregnant and sets out to find the perfect parents for her unborn child. However things aren’t quite as straightforward as they seem.

Ratings: A: 32 | B: 40 | C: 25 | D: 2 | E: 1 | Overall: 75

Lady Chatterley

06 Nov 2008 - 7pm - Corn Exchange

France/Belgium - 2006 - Pascale Ferran - 168 mins

Summary: This French-language adaptation of the second of DH Lawrence’s three versions of his novel is stirring in all senses. Any hint of cliché in the familiar tale of the lonely lady revived by her relationship with the gamekeeper is overcome by the film’s splendid photography and execution

Ratings: A: 22 | B: 60 | C: 28 | D: 5 | E: 0 | Overall: 72

London to Brighton

05 Feb 2009 - 8pm - Plaza

UK - 2006 - Paul Andrew Williams - 82 mins

Summary: An outstanding British drama combining social realism with gritty thriller dynamics, as two women – an adolescent runaway and an experienced prostitute – go on the run to the coast. Although far from cosy viewing, there is some warmth and humour and, by skilfully withholding vital information, Williams keeps us guessing to the end.

Ratings: A: 40 | B: 35 | C: 23 | D: 8 | E: 8 | Overall: 70

Fear and Trembling

09 Oct 2008 - 7pm - Corn Exchange

France - 2003 - Alain Corneau - 107 mins

Summary: The return of a Belgian to Japan, where she was born, to work as a corporate translator turns into a comic nightmare, as her efforts to assimilate herself and to show initiative are sabotaged by her co-workers. An entertaining study of the sheer hell of office life

Ratings: A: 25 | B: 53 | C: 30 | D: 9 | E: 5 | Overall: 67

Sherrybaby

12 Mar 2009 - 8pm - Plaza

USA - 2006 - Laurie Collyer - 95 mins

Summary: After three years in prison for robbery, Sherry wants to rebuild her life – not an easy task for a former heroin addict, alcoholic and neglectful mother. Maggie Gyllenhaal gives a wonderful central performance – tough, dignified, defensive, emotional and sexy – in Collyer’s impressive feature debut.

Ratings: A: 13 | B: 54 | C: 38 | D: 4 | E: 2 | Overall: 66

Happy-Go-Lucky

26 Mar 2009 - 7pm - Corn Exchange

UK - 2008 - Mike Leigh - 118 mins

Summary: Mike Leigh’s new film is not just more optimistic than his familiar social realism – it positively glows with the irrepressible cheerfulness of its central figure, Poppy, whose gift for making the most of life is challenged by a driving instructor with a very different world view.

Ratings: A: 17 | B: 40 | C: 31 | D: 8 | E: 4 | Overall: 65

The Magic Flute

16 Oct 2008 - 8pm - Plaza

UK/France - 2006 - Kenneth Branagh - 138 mins

Summary: Stephen Fry’s script transforms Mozart’s opera into a spectacular musical adventure on the Western Front. Tamino is rescued by a trio of field nurses and is sent to free the kidnapped daughter of the Queen of the Night. The lovers’ destiny may determine the lives of millions.