Film Programme for 2009-10 Season

Please see Links to Film Reviews webpage for full details of films.

From 8 January films will be screened at the Beverley Arms Hotel in the Westwood Room. Members and their guests are welcome to use the bar before the film which will begin as usual promptly at 7.30pm. You can also use the car park (on a first come, first served basis). You may need to collect a token from reception as you leave in order to exit the car park.

4 September 2009 – Man on Wire

Director – James Marsh, (2008)  Cert PG, UK/USA in English and French, Documentary.  1974 - 1350 feet up. A look at tightrope walker Philippe Petit's daring, but illegal, high-wire routine performed between New York City's World Trade Centre’s twin towers in 1974, what some consider the artistic crime of the century.

9 October 2009 – The Wave

Director – Dennis Gansel, (2008) Cert 15, German, Drama/Thriller. A high school teacher's unusual experiment to demonstrate to his students what life is like under a dictatorship spins horribly out of control when he forms a social unit with a life of its own.

13 November 2009 – Tokyo Sonata

Director – Kiyoshi Kurosawa, (2008) Cert 12A, Japanese, Drama. Life in contemporary Japan, highlighting the culture of preserving appearances. An ordinary Japanese family slowly disintegrates after its patriarch loses his job at a prominent company.

11 December 2009 – Couscous

Director – Abdel Kechiche, (2007) Cert 12A, French, Drama.  Mr. Slimani, a tired sixty year old, divorced father, forces himself to stay close to his family despite the scissions and tensions. He wants to escape from it all and set up his own restaurant. The family gradually recompacts around this project which comes to symbolise the means to a better life.... Or almost...

8 January 2010 – O’Horten

Director – Bent Hamer, (2007) Cert 12A, Norwegian, Comedy.  A drama focused on a life-changing moment in 67-year-old train engineer Odd Horten's existence: the evening of his retirement.

12 February 2010 – Is Anybody There?

Director – John Crowley, (2008) Cert 12A, British, Drama. Set in 1980s seaside England, a ten year old boy growing up in an old people's home run by his parents, learns to live in the moment, whilst Clarence, a retired magician, played by Michael Caine, comes to terms with the past.

12 March 2010 – Waltz with Bashir

Director – Ari Folman, (2008) Cert 18, Israel/Euro/USA, Animation/Biography/Drama.  Note: Rated for some disturbing images of atrocities, strong violence, brief nudity and a scene of graphic sexual content. An Israeli film director interviews fellow veterans of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon to reconstruct his own memories of his term of service in that conflict.

9 April 2010 – In the Loop

Director – Armando Iannucci, (2009) Cert 15, British, Comedy. Political satire from TV series, The Thick of It, involving the US President and UK Prime Minister, with chief spin-doctor Malcolm Tucker, played by Peter Capaldi, in spin around a war.

14 May 2010 – Flame and Citron

Director – Ole Christian Madsen, (2008) Cert 15, Danish, Historical Thriller. A drama centred on two fighters in the Holger Danske World War II resistance group.