SPRING PROGRAMME 2024
Badlands 15
USA | 1973 94 minutes
8 April 2024 MONDAY 19:30
AUDITORIUM
Tickets £8.00|£5.00 (up to age 25) CONCESSION NOT AVAILABLE ONLINE
DIRECTED BY
Terrence Malick
STARRING
Martin Sheen|Sissy Spacek|Warren Oates
This was
Terence Malick’s directorial debut, released fifty years ago. Set in 1950s
America, Sissy Spacek plays Holly, an impressionable 15-year-old, who is
charmed by Kit Carruthers (played by Martin Sheen), ten years her senior, in a
dead-end job, but very handsome. Holly loses her virginity to Kit, and he
encourages her to quit home and run off with him. Kit turns out to be a pretty
unstable and violent character, but Holly is smitten. It's not long before
Kit’s violence leads to murder and the pair are on the run across the Mid-West.
GAP
M PG
Germany | 1931 117 minutes
15 April 2024 MONDAY 19:30
Playhouse Main Screen
Tickets £8.00|£5.00 (age up to 25) CONCESSION NOT AVAILABLE ONLINE
DIRECTED BY
Fritz Lang
STARRING
Peter Lorre|Ellen Widman|Inge Landgut
Following
our recent screening of Fritz Lang’s silent masterpiece Metropolis, we
are now screening his other best-known film from the same period. In lists of
the greatest films of all time, M makes regular appearances. Of his own
films, it was one of Lang’s favourites. It is a film with a film-noir style and
many arresting images. The story is set in Berlin where a child-murderer is on
the loose. The police are not doing well in bringing the serial killer to
justice. People fear for their loved-ones. Regarded as such a heinous crime,
the city’s criminal underworld becomes involved to augment the so-far failed
efforts of officialdom.
GAP
Tangerine 15
USA | 2015 88 minutes
29 April 2024 MONDAY 19:30
GREEN ROOM BAR
Tickets £7.00|£5.00 (up to age 25) CONCESSION NOT AVAILABLE ONLINE
DIRECTED BY
Sean Baker
STARRING
Kitana Kiki Rodriguez |Mya Taylor|Karren Karagulian
Welcome to the raucous Los Angeles world of Sin-Dee Rella and her transgender sex-worker friends. Sin-Dee’s boyfriend, Chester, has been cheating on her while she was serving a 4-week jail sentence ... and, what’s more, with a white cisgender woman! Then there is no stopping Sin-Dee in her mission to track down the pair and give them their just deserts. It’s a funny film, building to a farcical denouement in the local hang-out, Donut Time, and drawing on the strong relationships between the girls. Tangerine has found many plaudits and is particularly important for its vivid portrayal of transgender characters using transgender actors.
GAP
The Lobster 15
Ireland/UK | 2015 119 minutes
13 May 2024 MONDAY 19:30
AUDITORIUM
Tickets £8.00|£5.00 (up to age 25) CONCESSION NOT AVAILABLE ONLINE
DIRECTED BY
Yorgos Lanthimos
STARRING
Colin Farrell|Rachel Weisz|Olivia Colman
Written and directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, whose latest film Poor Things has been in cinemas recently, this one fits into our Weird Films series very well. Starting with an absurd premise – that single people must find a mate within 45 days, or be turned into an animal of their choosing – the narrative, in a dead-pan style, follows through the inevitable implications. It’s up to the viewer to find the comparators with life and attitudes in the real world (whatever that is). The film premiered at Cannes and won the Jury Prize. It’s a surprising, funny, thought-provoking film to see, or see again!
GAP
Belle 12
Japan | 2021 121 minutes
27 May 2024 MONDAY 19:30
AUDITORIUM
Tickets £8.00|£5.00 (up to age 25) CONCESSION NOT AVAILABLE ONLINE
DIRECTED BY
Mamoru Hosoda
Suzu is a shy high-school student in rural Japan, who has given up on her previous passion for writing and singing songs, following the death of her mother. She’s persuaded to enrol in a virtual world called U, where her avatar, known as Belle, becomes a rising star as a singer. The narrative shows how the real and virtual worlds can work together, so that Suzu can overcome adversity in the real world, but only with the help of Belle in the virtual one. It’s directed by Mamoru Hosoda, who also directed our last anime screening – The Girl Who Leapt through Time. It’s anime for all the family.
GAP
Ed Wood 15
USA | 1994 110 minutes
3 June 2024 MONDAY 19:30
AUDITORIUM
Tickets £8.00|£5.00 (up to age 25) CONCESSION NOT AVAILABLE ONLINE
DIRECTED BY
Tim Burton
STARRING
Johnny Depp|Martin Landau|Sarah Jessica Parker
Edward D. Wood Jr. is reputed to have directed some of the worst films of all time. But his story is interesting and Tim Burton has created a very funny docu-drama about the career of this filmmaker, who brought us such gems as Glen or Glenda, Bride of the Monster and Plan 9 from Outer Space during the 1950s. At this time Wood befriended the ailing and all-but-forgotten Bela Lugosi – star of the 1930s Dracula films – and included him in several of his own productions. Johnny Depp does a fine job in the title role, while Martin Landau got an Oscar for his portrayal of Lugosi. An unusual film in being both funny and informative.
GAP
Fight Club 15
USA | 1999 139 minutes
10 June 2024 MONDAY 19:30
AUDITORIUM
Tickets £8.00|£5.00 (up to age 25) CONCESSION NOT AVAILABLE ONLINE
DIRECTED BY
David Fincher
STARRING
Brad Pitt|Edward Norton|Helena Bonham Carter|Meatloaf
It has
been compared with other rebellious films like Rebel Without a Cause and
The Graduate. This one was the film for Generation X (born 1965 to
1980). On its release, it divided the critics and did not do hugely well at the
box office. Once released on DVD, though, it found a following, and greater
commercial success. Ten years after its first release The New York Times
called it the ‘defining cult movie of our time’. The unnamed narrator of the
story is disillusioned with his life and his work and suffering acute insomnia.
When he eventually meets Tyler Durden, his life changes to become more exciting
and much more dangerous. But who is Tyler Durden?
GAP
Gaslight PG
USA | 1944 114 minutes
17 June 2024 MONDAY 19:30
AUDITORIUM
Tickets £8.00|£5.00 (up to age 25) CONCESSION NOT AVAILABLE ONLINE
DIRECTED BY
George Cukor
STARRING
Charles Boyer|Ingrid Bergman|Joseph Cotten|Angela Lansbury
In the ABC of Cinema, ‘C’ is for American director George Cukor. Gaslight is an atmospheric Victorian melodrama and source of the verb ‘to gaslight’. As a teenager, Paula is removed from London to Italy, following the murder of her aunt, a celebrated opera singer. Some years later, Paula returns to the still-vacant house with her new husband, Gregory. Soon, though, Paula starts to hear strange noises around the house, the gas lighting flickers, she loses personal possessions and worries she is losing her mind. She does not realise the extent of her husband’s control, or the reason for it. Ingrid Bergman is Paula and won an Oscar for Best Actress in the role. Charles Boyer is the gaslighting, menacing master of the house.
GAP
Terence Davies Trilogy 15
UK | 1983 101 minutes
24 June 2024 MONDAY 19:30
GREEN ROOM BAR
Tickets £7.00|£5.00 (up to age 25) CONCESSION NOT AVAILABLE ONLINE
DIRECTED BY
Terence Davies
STARRING
Terry O'Sullivan |Phillip Mawdsley|Valerie Lilley|Wilfrid Brambell
We bid
farewell to Terence Davies, gay British film director, who died in October
2023. This semi-autobiographical trilogy comprises three segments made at
different times, which together portray the life of a gay man growing up in
Liverpool from the 1950s onwards. The Trilogy has been screened at
numerous film festivals to critical acclaim. The depiction of life as a
working-class homosexual man at this time is unrelentingly bleak and lonely.
The epithet ‘gay’ seems entirely inappropriate. This screening will be in the
intimate atmosphere of the Green Room Bar, and there will be a short break
between each segment of the Trilogy.