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

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

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

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

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

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

We kick off our five-film Art of Action season with Buster Keaton’s classic, ‘The General’.

Keaton plays Johnny Gray, a Southern railroad engineer who loves his train engine (the General) almost as much as he loves Annabelle Lee (Marion Mack). After the opening shots of the Civil War are fired at Fort Sumter, Northern spies steal the General (and, unwittingly, Annabelle), switching the story from drama and romance, to adventure mixed with Keaton's trademark deadpan humour as he uses every means possible to catch up to the General, thwart the Yankees and rescue his darling Annabelle. As always, Keaton performs his own stunts, combining his prodigious dexterity, impeccable comic timing, and expressive body language to convey more emotion than the stars of any of the talkies that were soon to dominate cinema.

USA 1927 Buster Keaton 79m

★★★★★ Daily Mail

Barbican

Hailed as 'the ultimate Broadway musical from the golden age’, ‘Kiss Me, Kate’ is a simple love story - about two people who just can't stand each other!

Sun 17 Nov 12:30

Wed 20 Nov 17:15

Presented as a companion to the Pallant Gallery exhibition ‘Dora Carrington Beyond Bloomsbury’ and the Chichester Evening Arts Society Talk ‘Dora Carrington: The Tragic Muse of Bloomsbury’.

Painter Dora Carrington (Emma Thompson) develops an intimate but extremely complex bond with writer Lytton Strachey (Jonathan Pryce). Though Lytton is a homosexual, he is enchanted by the mysterious Dora and they begin a lifelong friendship that has strangely romantic undertones. Eventually, Lytton and Dora decide to live together, despite the fact that the latter has fallen in love with military man Ralph Partridge (Steven Waddington), whom she plans to marry. Benefits from a gorgeous Michael Nyman (‘The Piano’) score.

UK 1995 Christopher Hampton 121m

De Nos Frères Blessés

With his second feature, writer-director Hélier Cisterne recreates the tragic true story of a young communist worker devoted to the struggle for Algerian independence.

Fernand Iveton (Vincent Lacoste) became the only Algerian of European background to be executed as a political prisoner by the French authorities during Algeria’s War of Independence. He left behind a loving wife and adoptive son. Moving smoothly between Paris and Algiers, Cisterne plunges us into the heart of a conflict that continues to resonate in contemporary France, North Africa and beyond, providing a chilling reminder of colonial tyranny, as well as a hopeful example of a man who chose humanity over politics and profit. Cast also includes Vicky Krieps and Jules Langlade. The film benefits from a very passionate script along with two main actors who exude conviction. (Subtitles)

France 2022 Hélier Cisterne 95m

Julie Zwijgt

Julie is a star player at an elite tennis academy. When her coach falls under investigation and is suddenly suspended, all of the club's players are encouraged to speak up. But Julie decides to keep quiet.

Julie (Tessa van den Broeck) dedicates her life to tennis, her sport, her training and her career. When her coach is suspended, rumours start spreading and voices, other than Julie’s, are heard. Belgian director, Leonardo Van Dijl, follows her each step of the way, always keeping the right distance. “I wanted Julie to inspire. There's a uniquely emancipatory, rebellious energy in Julie's decision not to speak, as it compels the film to respect her pace and not bow to external pressures”, Van Dijl noted. Sometimes silence is louder than words. Cast includes Ruth Becquart, Koen De Bouw, Claire Bodson and Laurent Caron. ‘A tense, absorbing film of silences and absences, of difficult terrain skirted around, of subjects avoided’ - The Guardian. (Subtitles)

Sweden / Belgium 2024 Leonardo Van Dijl 97m

Maria Schneider's rise to fame after ‘Last Tango in Paris’ and its controversial production's impact on her life and career.

As an aspiring young actress, Maria Schneider (Anamaria Vartolomei) seemingly could not have asked for a better opportunity: co-starring alongside the legendary Marlon Brando (Matt Dillon) in the highly anticipated Last Tango in Paris. But the experience proved scarring: Schneider never entirely recovered from what she felt was a violation of her by both Brando and director Bernardo Bertolucci (Giuseppe Maggio). Drawing inspiration from Vanessa Schneider’s book about her cousin, Being Maria observes the star before, during and after she made Last Tango. The cast also includes Céleste Brunnquell and Yvan Attal, but it is Vartolomei that most impresses in Jessica Palud’s sensitive biopic. (Subtitles) We will screen ‘Last Tango in Paris’ as a companion piece to this film.

France 2024 Jessica Palud 100m

Everyone’s favourite bear Paddington returns to Peru, as he and the Browns visit his beloved Aunt Lucy. A thrilling adventure ensues when a mystery plunges them into an unexpected journey through the Amazon and beyond.

UK 2024 Dougal Wilson 103m

Ultimo Tango a Parigi

Bernardo Bertolucci’s landmark and controversial erotic film focuses on a young Parisian woman meeting a middle-aged American businessman, who demands their clandestine relationship be based only on sex.

Distraught following his wife's suicide, American hotelier Paul (Marlon Brando) becomes transfixed by the beautiful younger Frenchwoman Jeanne (Maria Schneider) when he meets her by chance at an apartment both are attempting to rent. The couple begin an extended but purely anonymous sexual relationship in which they do not even tell each other their names, but it soon becomes clear that the couple's deliberate level of disassociation cannot continue. This is a vivid exploration of pain, love and sex featuring a typically towering Marlon Brando performance. (Some subtitles)

Italy/France 1972 Bernardo Bertolucci 129m

Claude, Romy, Michel… and the Others

With ‘Cesar and Rosalie’, starring Yves Montand and Romy Schneider screening in this year’s French Film Festival, this talk looks back at the remarkable career of its director, Claude Sautet.

Sat 23 Nov 10:30 - In the Auditorium

NT Encore

Written and directed by celebrated playwright Conor McPherson and featuring Tony Award-winning orchestrations by Simon Hale, ‘Girl From the North Country’ reimagines 20 legendary songs of Bob Dylan as they’ve never been heard before.

Sat 23 Nov 13:00

Coup de Chance

Woody Allen features in the French Film Festival UK for the first time with a thriller set in the upper-class echelons of Paris society and written, acted and filmed entirely in French.

For his 50th film Allen deals with a bored wife in Paris (Lou de Laâge) who cheats on her wealthy and aloof husband (Melvile Poupaud) with an old high school friend (Niels Schneider)… which triggers fatal consequences. Allen at 88 has more than a half-century career as a writer and director of influential classics such as ‘Annie Hall’ (1977) and ‘Crimes and Misdemeanours’ (1989). He has an affection for France and his 2011 comedy ‘Midnight in Paris’ brought him his fourth Oscar, for original screenplay. Here he has coaxed superb performances from a sterling cast especially newcomer Lou de Laâge, who has distinct traces of Diane Keaton. Stunning cinematography by Vittorio Storaro. ‘Restores the masterful filmmaker to his deserved position as one of the screen’s most profound storytellers’ - The Observer. (Subtitles)

France/USA/UK 2024 Woody Allen 96m

Met Opera

In this production of Puccini's masterpiece, extraordinary soprano Lise Davidsen stars as the volatile diva Floria Tosca for her first time at the Met.

Sun 24 Nov 14:30

Thu 28 Nov 19.15

En corps

Élise is a talented ballet dancer whose life is turned upside down – first by injury and then when she catches her boyfriend cheating with her understudy.

On a path to physical and emotional recovery, she travels from Paris to Brittany, where she embraces the artistic freedom of contemporary dance. On this journey of self-discovery, she finds friendship and new ways to reinvent herself. Cédric Klapisch (Someone Somewhere, Back to Burgundy) delivers a tale of strength and resilience. Cast includes Marion Barbeau, Hofesh Shechter, Denis Podalydès, Pio Marmaï, François Civil, Muriel Robin. (Subtitles)

France/Belgium 2022 Cédric Klapisch 117m

In this psychological thriller, two young women of religion are drawn into a game of cat-and-mouse in the house of a strange man.

Hugh Grant is arguably delivering career-best work here as the sinister Mr. Reed, a theologist who engages in a riveting game of matching wits and beliefs with Sisters Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Paxton (Chloe East), two Mormon missionaries, who visit his seemingly humble abode with the initial intention of converting him. ‘Heretic’ brings an incredibly sharp religious thriller script to life through a chilling and charismatic performance by Grant. Most of the movie's horror and tension is achieved through dialogue and conversations about faith and power. It's provocative, divisive and challenges the audience to question their own convictions when it comes to faith.

USA 2024 Scott Beck & Bryan Woods 110m

César et Rosalie

A man is in love with a woman. But she isn't making it easy for him, especially when her old flame enters the picture.

One of Claude Sautet's most celebrated films, this film reunited the director with his on-screen muse Romy Schneider. After her marriage ends in divorce, the beautiful Rosalie (Romy Schneider) begins dating César (Yves Montand), a wealthy playboy and businessman. But when her old flame, David (Sami Frey), unexpectedly re-enters her life, the two men simultaneously vie for her affections. This is a snapshot of the shifting sands in the Seventies sexual revolution. The cast also includes Bernard Le Coq, Eva Maria Meineke and Isabelle Huppert. We are screening this as a classic tribute to Claude Sautet in the centenary year of his birth. (Subtitles)

France 1972 Claude Sautet 111m

The boundary-pushing Ida Rubinstein selects Maurice Ravel to compose the music for her next ballet, leading to the creation of his greatest and most timeless success ever - Boléro. Closed the 2024 Chichester International Film Festival.

In the two decades between the First and Second World War, Maurice Ravel (Raphaël Personnaz) was feted as France’s greatest living composer. His work melded modernism, baroque and neoclassicism, with later compositions also embracing jazz. Ravel is best known for his 1928 composition Boléro, whose conception lies at the heart of Anne Fontaine’s elegant film. It weaves Ravel’s working process and life through his encounters with three women: the Russian dancer Ida Rubinstein (Jeanne Balibar), whose commission led to the music’s creation; his patron Misia Sert (Doria Tillier), and his pianist friend Marguerite Long (Emmanuelle Devos). (Subtitles)

France/Belgium 2024 Anne Fontaine 120m

This documentary focuses on the making of the 235-minute, silent epic ‘Napoléon’ by director/writer/actor Abel Gance.

‘Napoléon’ showcased Gance's talents with the camera, his use of multiple images (like a split screen), and his handling of crowded action scenes – all brought to the fore in this documentary by Nelly Kaplan, who became his assistant. Kaplan used vintage footage, such as Gance filming the famous snowball fight at the Brienne military school and still photographs and excerpts from Gance's production diaries. ‘Napoléon’ (the first part) was restored most recently for screening at this year’s 77th Cannes Film Festival and the “new” version is showing in its entirety in various summer festivals with music by 250 musicians from Radio France. Keep an eye out for a possible 2025 screening at Chichester Cinema. (Subtitles)

France 1984 Nelly Kaplan 60m

Sign up for the next CineCircle to discuss films seen at New Park.

Choose a warming drink, a glass of wine or beer at Brasserie Blanc.

TICKETS ARE FREE, but bookings are essential as we have limited numbers.

Brasserie Blanc, Chichester

Our Fund Raising Film Quiz is back!

After a year's hiatus, our popular annual film quiz A Mind for Movies returns. This fund-raiser will help with our on-going recovery post-Covid and a very challenging summer at the box office.

The Quiz will be hosted by Walter Francisco (Head of Programming) and Patrick Hargood (Education Officer).

Get a group of 6 together, bring your quiz partner, or come by yourself and make some new friends -  everyone is welcome!  It's a fun-night of multiple choice, great film clips and lots of laughs! Cheese and biscuits platters will be provided as before.

There will be a raffle and a trophy for the winning team

Thu 28 Nov

Doors open at 18:30 for a 19:00 start

Assembly Rooms (North St, Chichester)

Tickets £24

Book at table of 6 for £144.00

Steve McQueen’s new film follows the story of a group of Londoners during the bombings of the British capital in World War II.

Nine-year-old George (Elliott Heffernan) is evacuated to the countryside by his mother, Rita (Saoirse Ronan), to escape the bombings. Defiant and determined to return to his family, George embarks on a journey back home as Rita searches for him. His adventures see him leap from a moving train before finding charity and bigotry, air-raid wardens and criminals (the always wonderful Kathy Burke and Stephen Graham). McQueen does a great job of showing an overview of the Blitz through a series of often powerful and moving moments, somehow making the subject matter feel monumental, even though we have seen documented, honoured and reinterpreted on screen many times before.

UK 2024 Steve McQueen 120m

Follows the lives of the Charles family as they deal with themes of family legacy and more, in deciding what to do with an heirloom, the family piano.

Mississippi 4 July 1911. As the white landowners are outdoors enjoying thunderous Independence Day fireworks, young Black men, led by Boy Charles (Stephan James), break into one of their antebellum homes to take a piano with intricate carvings etching his family’s history from slavery to its wood panels. There is conflict from Boy Willie (John David Washington) who is keen to sell the heirloom, and Uncle Doaker (Samuel L Jackson) is a highlight as he takes a comically neutral - but not informed - stance to arguments over the piano and the ghosts shackled to it. This is the third film, after ‘Fences’ and ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’, that Denzel Washington has produced from playwright August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle. It’s also the finest.

USA 2024 Malcolm Washington 127m

Iris et les Hommes

Iris, a woman who has everything: a wonderful husband, two perfect daughters, a successful business - but no sex life. Perhaps the time has come to find a lover.

"They're not". This is how Iris (Laure Calamy) answers her doctor when she is asked how things are going with her husband (Vincent Elbaz). The words slip from her mouth like a brutal realization: how long has it been since they last made love? Yet everything else is great: her partner loves her, they have two happy daughters, she runs a successful medical practice, lives in a beautiful apartment and has the best friends one could hope for. But soon Iris will be turning 50. It is a stranger who whispers the seed of an idea: "Take a lover". So, she dares open Pandora's box, and hesitantly registers herself on a dating app. Immediately, men start to appear, as if it were raining...

France 2023 Caroline Vignal 98m

Andrea Arnold’s latest film premiered in Cannes and stars probably the most impressive British actor of current times – Barry Keoghan.

Bailey (Nykiya Adams) lives with her brother Hunter (Jason Buda) and her father Bug (Keoghan), who raises them alone in a squat in northern Kent. Bug doesn't have much time to devote to them, so Bailey looks for attention and adventure elsewhere, including with a mysterious man named Bird (a riveting Franz Rogowski). Keoghan is superbly attuned to Arnold’s naturalistic style, and in turn, Arnold brings out the best of his softness and charisma. Arnold’s filmmaking is typically robust, buoyed by another great soundtrack of course, and she leaves us with the sentiment that the kids, regardless of life’s trivial circumstances, are going to be all right.

UK 2024 Andrea Arnold 119m

Le Procès du Chien

A young lawyer goes to great lengths to save her client, a repeat-offender dog, from capital punishment. This dog helps Avril accept her own human complexity.

Feisty, feminist lawyer Avril (Laetitia Dosch), who specialises in the defence of animals, is prepared to do anything to save her client, Cosmos, a dog that has been convicted of biting three people. She has no choice but to win the case, as otherwise her unusual client risks being put down. Avril begins to question her belief in justice and discovers the contempt some humans show for animals. Perhaps it is this dog (played by four-legged star Kodi and recipient of the Palm Dog award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival) who will help Avril accept her inner demons. Marking the directorial debut of Swiss-French actress and writer Laetitia Dosch the film (based on several real cases) mixes both comedy and drama while raising questions about our relationships with animals. This is a film that will make you laugh, think… and just hang out with Cosmos the dog.

Switzerland/France 2024 Laetitia Dosch 80m

In 1960, sixteen newly independent African countries enter the United Nations. To the rhythms of a jazz soundtrack, Congo becomes the arena in which the battle over the UN is fought.

As Nikita Khrushchev pounds his shoe at the UN in reaction to the neo-colonial grab of the resources of newly independent Congo, UN delegates from African Countries are blackmailed. In an incredulous twist Patrice Lumumba’s assassination unites the Afro-Asian block, demanding the UN General Assembly to vote for immediate worldwide decolonisation. In this highly explosive context, the United States government dispatches Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie and Nina Simone as Jazz Ambassadors around the world – as a diversion from CIA-backed coups. Cutting between home movies, official texts, historical footage and Patrice Lumumba’s speeches, the film uses an endless rhythm of rumba and jazz to unravel colonial machinations of power in 1960. ‘Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat’ is a huge achievement, one that intertwines the history of jazz and colonisation. (Some subtitles)

Belgium/France 2024 Johan Grimonprez 150m

Shichinin no samurai

New 4K restoration. A poor village under attack by bandits recruits seven unemployed samurai to help them defend themselves in Kurosawa’s influential classic.

Kambei the samurai assembles his team of reluctant warriors to participate in a probable suicide mission that will bring them neither money nor fame. The second act explores the strained relationship between villager and warrior class while the last act depicts the epic final battle when the bandits attack the village. The shoot lasted a year, but the results are there to be seen with its sublime photography and choreography. Kurosawa’s approach to historical realism was utterly committed with meticulously researched sets and costumes with masterful deployment of natural lighting and weather conditions to enhance the drama.

Japan 1954 Akira Kurosawa 206m

Spectateurs

What does it mean, to go to the movies? Why have people been going for over one hundred years? This is an unmissable film for lovers of cinema.

Arnaud Desplechin set out to celebrate cinemas and their manifold magic. He walked in the footsteps of his young alter ego Paul Dédalus, as if in a filmgoer’s coming-of-age story. Memories, fiction, discoveries come together in an irrepressible torrent of pictures. The warm, inviting tone of the film and Desplechin’s use of a stunning selection of movie clips should make this hugely appealing for cinephiles who will consider it must-see. ‘Cheerfully makes the point that we grow with cinema, and cinema with us’ – Variety.

(Subtitles)

France 2024 Arnaud Desplechin 88m

We hope to welcome French filmmaker Mathieu Almaric for a Q&A after the screening. (tbc)

International Panorama: Japan

Gojira -1.0

Termed by critics as the best Godzilla film in decades - an instant classic with terrific special effects and a really entertaining story to match. Re-released in recognition of its Oscar earlier this year.

Post war Japan is at its lowest point when a new crisis emerges in the form of a giant monster, baptized in the horrific power of the atomic bomb.

Kamikaze pilot Koichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) stumbles into a Godzilla attack at the start of the film, and his cowardice costs lives. So, when the creature stirs again a few years later, Shikishima has a chance to redeem himself and save his new family, but can he face his greatest fear? A tough call, as this Godzilla is an elemental, uncaring force, a manifestation of Japan's darkest psychology.

It is the rare kaiju (giant monster genre) movie that cares this deeply about the inner lives and motivations of the people scurrying out of the way of the monster’s giant thudding feet.

An instant classic with terrific special effects and a really entertaining story to match.

Japan 2023 Takashi Yamazaki 124m

98% - Rotten Tomatoes

Winner of five Oscars, including Best Film, Director, Actor and Actress. A true classic which must be seen by all lovers of quality film.

1963. When Korean War veteran Randle Patrick McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) gets transferred for evaluation from a prison to a mental institution, he assumes it will be a less restrictive environment. But the tyrannical Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher) runs the psychiatric ward with an iron fist, keeping her patients cowed through abuse, medication and sessions of electroconvulsive therapy. The battle of wills between the rebellious McMurphy and the inflexible Ratched soon affects all the ward's patients. This nearly flawless film makes us question our judgments on who is mad and who is sane.

USA 1975 Milos Forman 133m

L'amour Ouf

Set in the 1980s in northern France, actor turned director Gilles Lellouche charts an improbable relationship between Jackie (Adèle Exarchopoulos) from an upper-middleclass family and Clotaire (François Civil) from a modest background.

They grow up in the same town and attend the same high school. Whilst she is dedicated to her studies, he plays truant and becomes involved in a gang. Their paths cross later in life in adulthood and they fall madly in love. Lellouche (who previously came to the French Film Festival with ‘Sink or Swim’), returns with an emotional rollercoaster spanning over 15 years in the lives of star-crossed lovers, leaving us questioning the nature of love or an amour fou. ‘Lellouche’s stages action sequences and tender scenes of young love with finesse and ingenuity’ – IndieWire. (Subtitles)

France/Belgium 2024 Gilles Lellouche 116m

Spot the film-making talents of tomorrow in this selection of garlanded francophone shorts, curated by Martine Pierquin. Full film details are online.

How Do I Know? / Comment Savoir …? - Best short film Cabourg Film Festival 2024. France 18m

Danavan - Apprehension about the arrival of the new next-door neighbour in Quebec. Canada 12m

Montsouris Park / Montsouris - Winner, Leitz Cine Discovery Prize, Cannes Film Festival 2024. France 14m

Sira / Langue Maternelle - Best Film in French, Dakar Court, Senegal 2023. France 24m

Pumpkin / Pupuce - Brussels Short Film Festival –Prix de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles 2024. Belgium 19m

Summer 96 / Été 96 - Animation - Winner of César for Best Animated Short Film, 2024. France 12m

Caregiver / Auxiliaire - A caregiver must break the news of his departure. France 24m

Various 123m

From legendary director Ridley Scott, ‘Gladiator II’ continues the epic saga of power, intrigue and vengeance set in Ancient Rome. Be prepared for the biggest spectacle of the season.

Years after witnessing the death of the revered hero Maximus at the hands of his uncle, Lucius (Paul Mescal from ‘All of us Strangers’) is forced to enter the Colosseum after his home is conquered by the tyrannical Emperors who now lead Rome with an iron fist. With rage in his heart and the future of the Empire at stake, Lucius must look to his past to find strength and honour to return the glory of Rome to its people. The amazing cast includes Denzel Washington as Macrinus, Connie Nielsen as Lucilla, Pedro Pascal as Marcus Acacius plus Derek Jacobi, Matt Lucas and Tim McInnerny.

USA 2024 Ridley Scott 147m

Chiara Mastroianni transforms herself into her father Marcello in this self-reflexive confection from Christophe Honoré.

During a summer that sees her reality fall into disarray, Chiara decides to live as her father. She dresses like him. She speaks like him. She breathes like him. Chiara’s impersonation is so convincing that people around her begin to believe. They call her “Marcello”. For Mastroianni, it’s not just one of her best roles yet, but a way to connect with the father she lost while making sense of her own life. Honoré’s is a comedy as gently silly as it is sincerely sweet. With a delightful cast playing versions of themselves, this film is a funny look at acting, performance, and familial legacy. Cast also includes Catherine Deneuve, Benjamin Biolay, Melvil Poupaud, Nicole Garcia, Fabrice Luchini, Stefania Sandrelli and Hugh Skinner. (Subtitles)

France 2024 Christophe Honoré 120m

Anouk Aimée (1932–2024)

Enigmatic Icon of European Cinema

Following her recent passing, we celebrate the extraordinary film career of this fine actor with a talk, illustrated with a range of clips from her most memorable films.

Sat 7 Dec 10:30 - In the Auditorium

This powerful documentary tells the inspiring story of a Brazilian big-wave surfer and her journey to break records and shatter gender barriers in the world of extreme sports.

At its core, the film follows Maya Gabeira as she trains and competes, battling both physical challenges and societal expectations in her quest to ride the biggest waves in the world. Alongside her, we meet key figures in her life who have influenced her remarkable career. Through breathtaking cinematography and emotional depth, ‘Maya and the Wave’ showcases not just the sport but the human spirit behind it. Johnes skilfully blends action and introspection, delivering a documentary that is both visually stunning and deeply inspirational. The film has garnered widespread praise for its thrilling footage and uplifting portrayal of perseverance.

USA/Brazil 2024 Stephanie Johnes 95m

Un Homme et Une Femme

Written and directed by Claude Lelouch and starring the late Anouk Aimée and Jean Louis Trintignant this romantic classic shows a widow and widower who meet by chance at their children's boarding school and whose budding relationship is complicated by the memories of their deceased spouses.

Lush photography and a memorable musical score by Francis Lai combined to make it one of the most successful French films of all time and launch Aimée’s career on the international arena as well as giving Lelouch his first Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1966 and an Oscar for best foreign film. Screened in honour of Aimée who died earlier this year with a filmed tribute by Claude Lelouch. The beautiful French star Anouk Aimée is appropriately mysterious and glamorous. We present an illustrated talk on Anouk Aimee - ‘Enigmatic Icon of French Cinema’ as a companion piece to this classic. (Subtitles)

France 1966 Claude Lelouch 102m

2024 Berlin Film Festival Golden Bear winner. The journey of plundered treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey exhibited in Paris, now being returned to Benin.

From acclaimed filmmaker Mati Diop (‘Atlantics’), this is a poetic and immersive work of art that delves into real perspectives on far-reaching issues surrounding appropriation, self-determination and restitution. Set in November 2021, the documentary charts 26 royal treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey that are due to leave Paris and return to their country of origin: the present-day Republic of Benin. Using multiple perspectives Diop questions how these artifacts should be received in a country that has reinvented itself in their absence. Winner of the coveted Golden Bear prize at the 2024 Berlinale, this is an affecting though altogether singular conversation piece that is as spellbinding as it is essential.

France/Senegal/Benin 2024 Mati Diop 68m

Royal Ballet

This Christmas, be transported into an ethereal world where a sprinkling of fairy dust makes dreams come true.

Tue 10 Dec 19:15

Sun 15 Dec 14:30

Bernadette

Legendary French actress Catherine Deneuve plays Bernadette Chirac in this uproarious comedy based on actual events. A wonderful film to close this year’s French Film Festival.

In 1995 Jacques Chirac (Michel Vuillermoz) is elected President of the French Republic. When Bernadette Chirac (Catherine Deneuve) steps into the Elysée, she is ready for the recognition she’s earned, having always worked in his shadow and tirelessly supported her husband’s journey to the presidency. Instead, she finds herself set aside and brushed off as old fashioned, cold and sour-tempered. With the help of her chief of staff, Bernard Niquet (Denis Podalydès) Bernadette embarks on a campaign to restore her reputation and assert her role as first lady by becoming a major media figure. Léa Domenach’s directorial debut skilfully blurs the lines between fact and fiction. A tale of female 'empowerment', ‘Bernadette’ is a chronicle of the Chirac years, with delightful gags and bright colours. (Subtitles)

France 2023 Léa Domenach 95m