Love For Sale

As Oscar contender ‘Anora’ returns to Chichester Cinema, this talk will explore the rich and varied history of sex work on the big screen.

Sean Baker’s demi-monde caper ‘Anora’ is a hotly tipped Oscar contender, and success on the night would put it in a long tradition of Academy Award-winning films about sex work. Why does playing a lady of the night so often guarantee Oscars success? And why is the cinema so fascinated with the oldest profession? Where society turns a blind eye, movies, from Fellini’s ‘Nights of Cabiria’ (1957) to Alan Pakula’s ‘Klute’ (1971) to the hit romcom ‘Pretty Woman’ (1990), sprinkle stardust on the street corner. Alongside films that glamorise the brothel, there is also a complementary lineage of feminist cinema advocating for sex workers’ rights, and illuminating a little-understood world, both in documentary and fiction, going right back to the silent era. In this illustrated lecture with clips, Pamela Hutchinson will explore the portrayal on screen of what Beeban Kidron’s scandalous 1993 documentary called ‘Hookers, Hustlers, Pimps and their Johns’.

100m inc Q&A

Tickets £7.50

Sat 22 Feb 10:30 - In the Auditorium

During the 1972 Munich Olympics, an American sports broadcasting crew finds itself thrust into covering the hostage crisis involving Israeli athletes.

After another day of Mark Spitz winning swimming gold medals, gunshots are heard at the Olympic Village, just a few blocks away from ABC’s temporary headquarters. The broadcast team includes the executive in charge Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard); smart and testy head of operations Marvin (Ben Chaplin); local German translator Marianne (Leonie Benesch); and young producer Geoff (John Magaro), meant to cover an uneventful day of boxing and volleyball, who winds up landing on something much more significant. The film details all the logistical hurdles the team needed to scale so they could capture the crisis as it happened, relying on massive TV cameras, smuggled 16mm film stock, a slew of walkie talkies and plenty of ingenuity. Even more importantly, the movie tackles the tough questions faced by several hardworking newsmen - and one vital female translator - as they dealt with a situation in which many human lives hung in the balance. The film focuses mainly on the coverage of the situation, not really concerning itself with the politics behind it – it can be compared to Spielberg’s ‘The Post’. (Some subtitles)

Germany 2024 Tim Fehlbaum 91m

Legendary British filmmaker Mike Leigh skilfully presents a tragicomic study of human strengths and weaknesses.

Reunited with Leigh for the first time since Oscar-nominated ‘Secrets and Lies’, the astonishing Marianne Jean-Baptiste plays Pansy, a woman wracked by fear, tormented by afflictions and prone to raging tirades against her husband, son, and anyone who looks her way. Meanwhile, her easy-going younger sister (Michele Austin), is a single mother with a life as different from Pansy's as their clashing temperaments. After ‘Mr. Turner’ (2014) and ‘Peterloo’ (2018) Leigh returns to the contemporary world with a fierce, compassionate, and often darkly humorous study of family and the thorny ties that bind us. Marianne Jean-Baptiste delivers what is sure to be one of the best performances of the year, in this stunning film full of heart and compassion.

UK 2024 Mike Leigh 97m

2024 Palme d’Or Winner! A young sex worker from Brooklyn meets and impulsively marries the son of an oligarch, but once the news reaches Russia, her fairytale is threatened as the parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled.

Anora (Mikey Madison) is a New York escort and table dancer. One night, her club manager announces that a high roller is in the house, asking for a dancer who can speak Russian. Ani, who is from an Uzbek background, volunteers. The man is the sweet-faced but otherwise appalling and entitled son of an oligarch, and he quickly takes her back to his luxurious apartment and proposes a Vegas marriage. When Vanya’s less-than-delighted father hears the news, he sends some goons round to sort out the situation with his boneheaded son. Scene-stealing leading lady Madison is surely destined for stardom thanks to her role in this high-energy panic comedy that offers a more realistic take than ‘Pretty Woman’.

USA 2024 Sean Baker 139m

A musical drama directed by Barry Jenkins (‘Moonlight’) that sees a lost cub meet a sympathetic lion named Taka, and their chance meeting setting in motion an expansive journey of a group of misfits searching for their destiny.

‘Mufasa: The Lion King’ enlists Rafiki to relay the legend of Mufasa to young lion cub Kiara, daughter of Simba and Nala, with Timon and Pumbaa lending their signature schtick. Told in flashbacks, the story introduces Mufasa as an orphaned cub, lost and alone until he meets a sympathetic lion named Taka - the heir to a royal bloodline. This is a prequel to ‘The Lion King’ story we all love, set in the pride lands of Tanzania. Aaron Pierre voices Mufasa, a lion who grows up to become the future king and the father of Simba, and Kelvin Harrison Jr. voices Taka, who later becomes known as Scar.

USA 2024 Barry Jenkins 120m

NT Live

Three-time Olivier Award-winner Sharon D Clarke is joined by Ncuti Gatwa (‘Doctor Who’, ‘Sex Education’) in this joyful reimagining of Oscar Wilde’s most celebrated comedy.

Thu 20 Feb 19:00

Sun 23 Feb 14:30

Gobangiri

Japan’s beloved period film genre is taken into contemporary hands. This is a lovingly conceived and meticulously executed throwback that revitalizes the genre.

Yanagida Kakunoshin (Kusanagi Tsuyoshi) was accused of a crime he did not commit. Having lost his wife and been chased out of his hometown of Hikone, he now lives with his daughter Okinu (Kiyohara Kaya) as a ronin (unemployed samurai) in a poor tenement house in Edo. Kakunoshin is an honest man, and also an expert go player; even on the go board is he a paragon of samurai virtue, never stooping to tricks to win. One day, Kakunoshin learns the truth about the false accusation that brought these tragic circumstances upon him from his former colleagues. Together, he and his daughter resolve to take revenge for the sake of their honour. This period drama shines a contemporary light on the genre’s very traditional subject matters, presenting conflicts of honour and revenge punctuated by emotional abysses, flashes of violence and battles on the go board. (Subtitles)

Japan 2024 Shiraishi Kazuya 129m

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

A beautifully made drama exploring the complex dynamics of a sprawling family near the wartime border with Germany.

The lush and breathtaking beauty of the Alps, filmed with painterly grace under natural light from frigid winter to redemptive spring, provides the physical and emotional backdrop for Maura Delpero’s visionary film. In the last days of WWII, we see a series of dramatic, consequential events after the arrival of deserting Sicilian soldier (Giuseppe De Domenico). Including a romance with Lucia (Martina Scrinzi). This was a richly deserving winner of the 2024 Grand Jury prize at the Venice film festival. It is a richly compassionate, emotional and detailed drama of family secrets in wartime Italian countryside, in the manner of Ermanno Olmi or the Taviani brothers. It is wonderfully acted with unaffected naturalism by its cast of professionals and newcomers and plays an extravagant pizzicato on the audience’s heartstrings. (Subtitles)

Italy 2024 Maura Delpero 119m

Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain

The third Film Club (18-25’s) screening of the season is a vibrant French modern classic that sees a young lady on a quest to spread joy, leading her on a journey to true love.

Amélie Poulain (Audrey Tatou) lives in Montmartre, where she works as a waitress in an old-style café. Her life is changed forever when she discovers a box of toys in her house, and decides to try to track down the boy, now a man, and return his childhood treasures. On her quest she helps those around her and changes their lives, including quirky characters played by Dominique Pinon and Matthieu Kassovitz. Shot in over 80 Parisian locations, acclaimed director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (‘Delicatessen’) invokes his incomparable visionary style to capture the exquisite charm and mystery of modern-day Paris through the eyes of a beautiful ingenue. This is a sheer delight and will entrance everyone who sees it. (Subtitles)

France 2001 Jean-Pierre Jeunet 122m

Dane-ye Anjir-e Ma'abed

A mesmerisingly gripping and controlled parable-thriller in which the paranoia, misogyny and rage of the Iranian state are mapped seamlessly onto an ordinary family unit.

Iman (Missagh Zareh) is a judge who sees the benefits for his family in his career’s rapid advancement, but his student daughters (Setareh Malek and Mahsa Rostami) are suspicious of his increasing collaboration with the regime. He is warned not to confide in his wife (Soheila Golestani) as he is encouraged to wave through death sentences without considering the evidence. Iman’s divided loyalties are exposed when his government-issued handgun goes missing, and suspicion falls on the women in his home. Having debuted at Cannes following Rasoulof fleeing Iran in fears for his safety, this film was many critics’ picks for best of the festival. It combines an electrifying generational battle with real-life footage of Iran’s protest movement, and reveals the reasons why people accept toxic regimes and the courage it takes to resist them. (Subtitles)

Germany/France 2024 Mohammad Rasoulof 168m

At 11:30pm on October 11th, 1975, a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers changed television forever. Find out what happened behind the scenes in the 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live.

Full of humour, chaos and the magic of a revolution that almost wasn't, we count down the minutes in real time until we hear those famous words… "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!". This seems like a foolhardy challenge of finding sufficiently funny people to play some of TV’s most beloved - actors who could channel the frailties and insecurities of their counterparts, taking icons and making them human. Who plays Chevy Chase? Or Gilda Radner? Or John Belushi, for that matter? Reitman finds just the right ensemble to capture the lunacy from which ‘SNL’ was born.

USA 2024 Jason Reitman 109m