This love story chronicles the lifelong relationship of conductor-composer Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein. A symphonic love story with sparkling, awards-worthy performances.

Bradley Cooper takes on the triple role of lead actor, director and writer. He wisely eschews the conventional biopic logic of ticking off Bernstein’s career highlights. Instead, ‘Maestro’ zeroes in on his vivid, life-long love affair with Chilean émigré Felicia Montealegre, beautifully played by Carey Mulligan who is the beating heart of the film. ‘Maestro’ digs deep into Bernstein’s music to unleash some of the greatest hits (‘West Side Story,’ ‘On the Waterfront’) and a few lesser-known pieces. A recreation of his legendary performance of Mahler in 1968 just about blows the roof off New York’s St Patrick’s Cathedral. This is a film for cinephiles as well as musos and romantics, with its discrete ‘movements’ mirroring the movie making style of its time frame. Early scenes are filmed in 35mm black-and-white, while Lenny and Felicia’s stormy late 1960s patch is captured in Technicolor. This elegant, ambitious biopic is a love letter to life and art, and at its core is an emotionally epic portrayal of family and love. "An absolute marvel." Rolling Stone

USA 2023 Bradley Cooper 129m

Met Opera

This Met premiere stars soprano Ailyn Pérez as Florencia in a new production that brings the mystical realm of the Amazon to the stage. Inspired by the magical realism of Gabriel García Márquez, the opera focuses on opera diva Florencia Grimaldi, who returns to her native Brazil to perform and to search for her lost lover.

Sun 10 Dec 15:15

A riveting tribute to Tyneside photographer Tish Murtha, who lived a life as tough as those she shot in different eras of deprivation and marginalisation.

Tish chronicled working-class lives in the north east in the 1970s and 80s (and also those of Soho sex workers in London), earning for herself the nickname “Demon Snapper” in the papers. In capturing the reality of poverty and deprivation in communities where the misery of unemployment had been allowed to settle by Westminster, Murtha showed her subjects’ humour, optimism and refusal to be cowed – particularly in the faces of children. The film is presented with enormous humanity and warmth by Murtha’s grownup daughter Ella, who is an eerie likeness of her late mother. The centrally important point is that Murtha was not an outsider: she was a part of the people whose lives she recorded.

UK 2023 Paul Sng 90m

Illusions Perdues

After its very popular screenings at the Chichester Film Festival, we present the story of the rise and fall of a young man in Paris, who dreamed of becoming a writer and became a journalist.

In 1821, Lucien de Rubempré arrives in Paris as a sensitive, and idealistic young poet determined to write a reputation-making novel. Instead, he finds himself swept into journalism, whose influence and reach is booming with the help of the printing press, widely available of late. Under the mentorship of cynical editor Étienne Lousteau. Lucien agrees to write rave theatre reviews for bribes, achieving material success at the expense of his conscience. Lost Illusions is sumptuous yet piercing, an expertly plotted social-relations saga of the kind that once typified prestige Hollywood cinema, and it dives into moral quandaries rather than dispensing easy bromides. Cast includes Benjamin Voisin, Cecile De France and Vincent Lacoste. (Subtitles)

France 2021 Xavier Giannoli 150m

In association with Pallant House Gallery and their exhibition ‘John Craxton: A Modern Odyssey’ (28 Oct 2023 to 21 Apr 2024) we present a selection of Greek themed titles over the next four months.

Traveling to inspect an abandoned mine his father owns in Crete, English author Basil (Alan Bates) meets the exuberant peasant Zorba (Anthony Quinn) and invites him along when the older man claims he has mining experience. In Basil's father's old village, he finds himself attracted to a young widow (Irene Papas), and Zorba takes up with the woman who runs their hotel (Lila Kedrova). When things go wrong, Zorba teaches Basil how to enjoy life even under the most trying circumstances.

John Craxton helped to find filming locations for Michael Cacoyannis’ film on the Greek Island of Crete, where he lived in the city of Chania. He remained a life-long friend of Walter Lassally, the film’s Oscar-winning cameraman.

Greece/USA 1964 Michael Cacoyannis 142m

Royal Ballet

Our annual return to the Royal Opera House for its Festive ‘The Nutcracker.’ Join Clara at a delightful Christmas Eve party that becomes a magical adventure once everyone else is tucked up in bed. Marvel at the brilliance of Tchaikovsky’s score, as Clara and her enchanted Nutcracker fight the Mouse King and visit the Sugar Plum Fairy in the glittering Kingdom of Sweets.

Tue 12 Dec 19:15 (Live)

Sun 17 Dec 14:00 (Encore)

La Passion de Dodin Bouffant

This mouthwatering and sensual exercise in haute cuisine and late-flowering romance is set in 1885 and almost totally within the confines of a rustic kitchen in a chateau. This is our closing film of this year’s French Film Festival.

Tran Anh Hùng, the Vietnamese director, now living in France, of ‘The Scent of the Green Papaya’ based the film on the book ‘The Life and Passion of Dodin-Bouffant, Gourmet’ by Marcel Rouff. Peerless cook Eugénie (Juliette Binoche) has worked for the famous gourmet Dodin (Benoît Magimel) for the last 20 years. As time went by, the practice of gastronomy and mutual admiration turned into a romantic relationship. He realises, however, that while he schmoozes the rich and famous in the dining room, she remains in the kitchen but is clearly hugely responsible for his august reputation. There is talk of marriage, but Eugénie values her independence too much in a relationship that she considers should be of equal parts. Both Binoche and Magimel who were together in life for a considerable time, exude an effortless rapport. Chosen as France’s Oscar contender. Warning: Another film like the recent ‘Delicieux’ that should not be seen on an empty stomach! (Subtitles)

France/Belgium 2023 Tran Anh Hùng 134m

The film takes a personal look at Napoleon Bonaparte's origins, and his swift, ruthless climb to emperor viewed through the prism of his addictive, and often volatile, relationship with his wife and one true love, Josephine.

TEXT TO COME

USA 2023 Ridley Scott 158m

Joanna Hogg’s (‘The Souvenir’) latest film sees an artist and her elderly mother confront long-buried secrets when they return to a former family home, now a hotel haunted by its mysterious past.

Julie and Rosalind have come to this secluded Welsh locale so the former can work on her new screenplay, incorporating remembrances of the latter’s childhood. Before Moel Famau was a hotel, for a few years it was also Rosalind’s home when she was a little girl. Memories hide around every corner and lurk in all the shadows. Tilda Swinton portrays both Julie and Rosalind, and in a career overflowing with magnificent performances, this may be one of her best. She dives in confidently, creating two distinct characters with their own personalities, histories, and ghosts who all stalk them down the lonely hallways of Moel Famau. As much as mother and daughter have in common, the emotional baggage they carry remains their own, and Swinton brings all this into the piercing, unflinching light with perceptive gracefulness. Acclaimed filmmaker Hogg's beguiling latest film is a brilliant and captivating exploration of parental relationships and the things we leave behind. This will undoubtedly capture the eye of every BAFTA award voter. "A blackly funny exploration of identity." Sight & Sound

UK 2023 Joanna Hogg 96m

Can the greatest romance of your life last only one night? Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke star in this ephemeral and sensual love story.

A chance encounter between two solitary young strangers. After they hit it off on a train bound for Vienna, Paris university student Celine and American tourist Jesse impulsively decide to spend the day together before he returns to the US. As the pair roam the city, Richard Linklater’s tenderly observant gaze captures the uncertainty and intoxication of young love. Capturing an effervescent mixture of the mid-90s, it's a striking, authentic observation of two people experiencing a romantically charged connection which would come to erode and inform the shape of their future.

USA/Austria 1995 Richard Linklater 101m

A hapless family man finds his life turned upside down when millions of strangers suddenly start seeing him in their dreams. When his nighttime appearances take a nightmarish turn, Paul is forced to navigate his newfound stardom.

Paul Matthews (Nicolas Cage) is an evolutionary biology professor at a small college, in a small town. In a weird dream scenario, Paul starts to appear in people’s dreams. This gets people to notice the nondescript character like they never did before. He reaches a celebrity status when he’s interviewed about this strange occurrence on TV in New York, and becomes comfortable accepting these life changes. This dark satire shows what can happen to someone in today’s cancel culture world when they have a fall-out on social media and their 15 minutes of fame turn rotten. Cage has appeared in over 100 films. In this one, he gives a pleasing uncharacteristic low-key performance instead of his usual over-the-top one. A darkly funny, and often truthful, look at the rapid hysteria of our real-world cancel culture, Norwegian filmmaker Kristoffer Borgli (‘Sick of Myself’) first English language film helps cement him as a provocative and wildly entertaining voice for our times.

USA 2023 Kristoffer Borgli 100m