Sad, Mad or Unsettlingly Independent

For the weekend of Remembrance Day, this talk, illustrated by a range of clips, will look back at the range of representations of widowhood in films from different periods and cultures.

Sat 9 Nov – In the Auditorium

This is a new 4K restoration by the BFI of the classic, distinctly beautiful British animated feature film presents the characters and colours sparkling as never before.

Hoping to escape destruction by human developers and save their community, a colony of rabbits, led by Hazel and Fiver, seek out a safe place to set up a new warren. Although hard-hitting in its depiction of survival and conflict, the film is a work of great beauty with an extraordinary voice cast who elevate the work to the highest level. Some of Britain’s best-known actors including John Hurt, Richard Briers, Ralph Richardson, Denholm Elliott, Roy Kinnear and Hannah Gordon, brought the rabbits to life and made them eternally memorable. A unique opportunity to see this classic on the big screen.

UK 1978 Martin Rosen & John Hubley 91m

Toni en Famille

Toni is raising her five children alone. She also sings at bars and had a hit single 20 years ago. Today, as her two eldest prepare to go to college, Toni wonders: what will she do when all of her offspring have left home?

Antonia (Camille Cottin), affectionately known as Toni, is a single mother who tirelessly cares for her five children while juggling a demanding full-time job. Her evenings are filled with song as she performs in local bars to support her family. Toni possesses a remarkable talent, evident from a chart-topping single she recorded two decades ago. As her two eldest children prepare for university, Toni faces a poignant question: What lies ahead when her nest is empty? At 43, can she still grasp the opportunity to regain control of her life? Director Nathan Ambrosioni (‘Paper Flags’) crafts both a poignant portrait of a woman and a moving family tableau, displaying remarkable accuracy and delicacy. The film premiered at the 16th edition of Film Francophone d’Angoulême. Cast also includes Thomas Gioria, Léa Lopez and Louise Labèque. (Subtitles)

France 2023 Nathan Ambrosioni 96m

Amidst World War I's chaos, a grieving father turns hero, leading villagers to safety while evading a relentless enemy driven by vengeance.

In a Belgian village during the tumultuous start of World War I, the Lambert family finds themselves thrust into the heart of the conflict. At the centre is Leonard (Iain Glen), a devoted husband and father who grapples with protecting his family amidst the chaos of war as German forces advance to their village. Amidst the war, a tender love story blossoms between Adrien Lambert (James Downie), Leonard's son, and Louise Janssen (Sasha Luss), a local villager. Their relationship serves as a beacon of hope and resilience in the face of adversity. With its compelling portrayal of familial bonds, love amidst chaos, and the indomitable human spirit, ‘The Last front’ will immerse audiences in a gripping tale of survival, love, and the enduring impact of war on both individuals and communities. Mesmerising, suspenseful and thrilling, this is a fine drama that shines a spotlight on a part of Europe that really hasn’t been covered very much in war movies.

Belgium 2024 Julien Hayet-Kerknawi 98m

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of one of the best and most ambitious films of the 21st Century, we present this 4K remaster that sees a team of explorers travel through a wormhole in space in an attempt to ensure humanity's survival.

In Earth's future, a global crop blight and second Dust Bowl are slowly rendering the planet uninhabitable. NASA physicist Professor Brand (Michael Caine) is working on plans to save mankind by transporting Earth's population to a new home via a wormhole. But first, Brand must send former NASA pilot Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) and a team of researchers through the wormhole and across the galaxy to find out which of three planets could be mankind's new home. Staggeringly beautiful, bafflingly complex, this is proper event cinema.

USA 2004 Christopher Nolan 169m

Exhibition on Screen

200 years after its opening and a century after acquiring its first Van Gogh works, the National Gallery is hosting the UK’s biggest ever Van Gogh exhibition. Van Gogh is not only one of the most beloved artists of all time, but perhaps the most misunderstood.

This film is a chance to reexamine and better understand this iconic artist. Focusing on his unique creative process, we explore the artist’s years in the south of France where he revolutionised his style. Van Gogh became consumed with a passion for storytelling in his art, turning the world around him into vibrant, idealised spaces and symbolic characters. Poets and lovers filled his imagination; everything he did in the south of France served this new obsession. In part, this is what caused his notorious breakdown, but it didn’t hold back his creativity as he created masterpiece after masterpiece. Made in close collaboration with the National Gallery.

UK 2024 David Bickerstaff 90m

Je Verrai Toujours Vos Visages

Victims of violent crime and perpetrators meet up in a restorative justice group in order to have a dialogue and heal from their trauma.

Since 2014, France’s Restorative Justice programme offers a safe space for dialogue between offenders and victims – supported by professionals and volunteers. Among the participants are Chloé (Adèle Exarchopoulos), a victim of sexual assault; Grégoire (Gilles Lellouche), Nawelle (Leïla Bekhti) and Sabine (Miou-Miou), victims of burglary and snatching; while Nassim (Dali Benssalah), Issa (Birane Ba) and Thomas (Fred Testot) are offenders, convicted of violent robberies. In this emotional and difficult journey, they must overcome resentment to find solace and forgiveness, and perhaps, at the end of the road, some of them might even find healing. Adèle Exarchopoulos, won Best Supporting Actress César Award. ‘Herry is brilliant at taking hold of social issues and turning them into works of fiction… an ideal blend of intelligence and emotion.’ CineEurope. (Subtitles)

France 2023 Jeanne Herry 118m

Simply delightful in every sense of the word - a widowed cleaning lady in 1950s London falls madly in love with a couture Dior dress, and decides that she must have one of her own.

Leslie Man Mrs Harris is a warm, hard-working cleaning lady in 1950s London, doggedly going from house to house, quietly tidying up after lives far more exciting and glamorous than hers. But when she sees a Dior dress in one of her regular client’s bedrooms, she falls in love and sets her mind on travelling to Paris to get one herself. This 60-year-old story of pursuing a dream with resolute kindness could not feel more fresh in its knowing class clash. Lesley Manville is an absolute treasure, her command of comedic pathos supreme.

2022 Hungary / UK Anthony Fabian 115m

The story of how a young Donald Trump started his real-estate business in 1970s and '80s New York with the helping hand of infamous lawyer Roy Cohn.

Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan), eager to make his name as a hungry second son of a wealthy family in 1970s New York, comes under the spell of Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), the cutthroat attorney who would help create the Donald Trump we know today. Cohn sees in Trump the perfect protégé -- someone with raw ambition, a hunger for success, and a willingness to do whatever it takes to win. Both actors, especially Jeremy Strong, are gripping in a coming-of-age story that portrays the younger Trump somewhat sympathetically, though he loses his soul as he learns to imitate Cohn’s tactics. Can be compared to the Frankenstein tale in which the mad doctor creates a monster and then loses control of it.

USA 2024 Ali Abbasi 120m

La Nuit Américaine

Filmed at Nice’s fabled Victorine Studios, François Truffaut explores the joys and strife of moviemaking in one of his most beloved films. This is a congenial tribute to the self-afflicted madness that is making a movie.

Truffaut himself appears as the harried director of a frivolous melodrama, the shooting of which is plagued by the whims of a neurotic actor (Jean-Pierre Léaud), an ageing but still forceful Italian diva (Valentina Cortese) and a British ingenue haunted by personal scandal (Jacqueline Bisset). An 18 of 20 irreverent paean to the prosaic craft of cinema as well as a delightful human comedy about the pitfalls of sex and romance, ‘Day for Night’ is buoyed by robust performances and a sparkling score by the legendary Georges Delerue. (Subtitles)

France 1973 François Truffaut 116m

Documentary filmmaker extraordinaire Mark Cousins examines the life and work of Scottish artist Wilhelmina Barns-Graham in his latest cine-essay.

Wilhelmina Barns-Graham was a painter, a visionary, an artist. She was a unique thinker. One day in May 1949, Barns-Graham, then 36 years old and an emerging figure in the modernist St. Ives group of artists, climbed the Grindelwald glacier in Switzerland. She experienced an aesthetic and spiritual epiphany which rewired her brain and transformed her art. She spent the rest of her life painting it. Through a cinematic immersion into her art and life, the film explores themes of gender, neurodiversity, climate change, and the nature of creativity from youth to old age.

UK 2024 Mark Cousins 88m

From renegade auteur Jacques Audiard (‘A Prophet,’ ‘The sisters Brothers’) comes this audacious fever dream that defies genres and expectations.

In Mexico, a lawyer receives an unexpected offer to help a feared cartel boss retire from his business and disappear forever by becoming the woman he's always dreamed of being. Through liberating song and dance and bold visuals, this odyssey follows the journey of four remarkable women in Mexico, each pursuing their own happiness. The fearsome cartel leader Emilia (Karla Sofía Gascón) enlists Rita (Zoe Saldaña), an unappreciated lawyer stuck in a dead-end job, to help fake her death so that Emilia can finally live authentically as her true self. ‘Emilia Peréz; is art, theatre, narco-thriller and social commentary, all wrapped up into one. It's an award-worthy masterpiece and easily one of the best films of the year. Paul Guilhaume’s cinematography is masterful. (Subtitles)

France 2024 Jacques Audiard 130m

A story of ambition, blackmail and desire with a dazzling anti-hero at its dark heart, all brought together by a delicious performance by Ian McKellen as a catty theatre critic in 1930s London.

Jimmy Erskine (McKellen) is the most feared and famous theatre critic in 1930s London, saving his most savage takedowns for Nina Land (Gemma Arterton), an already unsure leading lady. He takes pleasure in ritually tearing her down, a practice that has further eroded her fragile sense of confidence. As a gay man forever at the mercy of laws that prohibit his very existence, Jimmy is living life on the edge, indulging in park sex with strangers while showboating his flamboyance in writing. But when his newspaper’s proprietor dies and his son (Mark Strong) takes over, Jimmy may need to turn to Nina for help. As the three become entangled in a whodunnit wrapped in a Faustian pact, their strange triangle winds tighter and tighter to devastating effect for all those caught in the deadly web of blackmail and betrayal. McKellen makes Jimmy simultaneously despicable, understandable and wholly entertaining, whilst Arterton is also a stand-out, as she skilfully navigates how a stage actress tries to overcome personal demons and self-doubt. Supporting cast also includes Romola Garai, Claire Skinner and the always impressive Lesley Manville. This is a whodunnit wrapped in a Faustian pact which winds tighter and tighter.

UK/USA 2023 Anand Tucker 95m

Clint Eastwood is back in the director’s seat, telling us about a family man who while serving as a juror in a high-profile murder trial finds himself struggling with a serious moral dilemma.

Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult) is driving late at night and has potentially hit a deer that was in the road. A year later he is called for jury duty about a murder case that he realizes may have a connection to his “deer” run-in. He finds himself struggling with a serious moral dilemma…one he could use to sway the jury verdict and potentially convict - or free - the accused killer.  The cast also includes Toni Collette, Oscar winner J.K. Simmons (‘Whiplash’), and Kiefer Sutherland. Collette and Hoult reunite on the big screen 22 years after playing mother and son in ‘About a Boy’. This is rumoured to be Eastwood’s final film.

USA 2024 Clint Eastwood 157m

Cillian Murphy plays a father who witnesses Ireland’s church’s abusive workhouses for unwed mothers in an absorbing Dickensian story based on recent history.

Christmas 1985. Devoted father and coal merchant Bill Furlong (Murphy) discovers disturbing secrets kept by the convent in his town, along with some shocking truths of his own. The film reveals truths about Ireland's Magdalene laundries - horrific asylums run by Roman Catholic institutions from the 1820s until 1996, ostensibly to reform "fallen young women." Adapted from the Booker Prize nominated novel by Claire Keegan, Cillian Murphy's outstanding acting – as has become the norm – anchors this moving film.

Ireland/Belgium 2024 Tim Mielants 98m