Royal Ballet & Opera

Prince Siegfried chances upon a flock of swans while out hunting. When one of the swans turns into a beautiful woman, Odette, he is enraptured. But she is under a spell that holds her captive, allowing her to regain her human form only at night.

Sun 2 Mar 14:30

The masterful Steven Soderbergh gives us a thriller about a family hoping for a fresh start after a period of unease. They becomes convinced they are not alone after moving into their new home.

A family - Rebekah (Lucy Liu), Chris (Chris Sullivan) and teen kids Chloe (a phenomenal Callina Liang) and Tyler (Eddy Maday) - arrive at their new home in the suburbs with excess baggage and tensions they hope will dissipate. Chloe, grieving the recent loss of a friend, can see a “presence”, which starts interacting with her in unexpected ways. Shot entirely from the first-person perspective of a haunting spirit, the slow-burn thriller might have collapsed in less experienced hands, but Soderbergh expertly puts a terrific ensemble through their paces. Thirty-five years after his Palme d’Or for ‘Sex, Lies, and Videotape’ it is so inspiring that Soderbergh is still here making movies the way he wants to make them, playing with form in fresh and exciting ways, reminding us that he is one of film's more remarkable storytellers.

USA 2024 Steven Soderbergh 85m

A woman is driven to shroud her identity, caught in a web of secrecy. As she conceals herself, the intricate layers of her hidden life unravel.

Kawabe Ichiko (Sugisaki Hana) is in her mid-20s when she disappears without a trace the day after her boyfriend Hasegawa (Wakaba Ryuya) proposes to her. When he tries to file a report, the police inform him that no record of her exists in the Kawabe family register. As Hasegawa tracks down her whereabouts and obtains testimonies from people who had associated with her, Ichiko’s unfathomable past emerges, along with a sad but shocking truth – the harsh fate she had to bear. Based on director Toda Akihiro’s own award-winning stage play and fronted by one of Japan’s most sought-after actors, Sugisaki Hana, as an unfathomable femme fatale, this is a gripping psychological thriller that tackles issues of poverty, child neglect and abuse, as well as the dark social injustice that exists in Japan. (Subtitles)

Japan 2023 Toda Akihiro 126m

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

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

Inugami-ke no Ichizoku

Money makes the world go around – and so it drives people to murder. This is legendary Japanese director Ichikawa Kon’s 1976 classic which holds a very special place in Japan’s long tradition of supernatural suspense.

Just after World War II, the patriarch of the affluent Inugami family dies. The families of his three direct descendants gather, eager to know how his vast assets are distributed in his will. Their anticipation turns to despair, however, when things are revealed to be less straightforward than they expected: the only way of inheriting his fortune is through the marriage of one of his three grandchildren to Tamako, who is an outsider but lives with the deceased.  Ichikawa, one of Japan’s legendary directors, made a name for himself with his skilful use of colours, and here he sets a new standard for the Japanese noir with this multi award-winning blockbuster. Starring Ishizaka Koji, Takamine Mieko, Sanjo Miki and Kusabue Mitsuko. (Subtitles)

Japan 1976 Ichikawa Kon 146m

Nozomi

What would be worse - your son being a murderer or the murdered? This tense drama skilfully navigates a family through this very dilemma.

Architect Ishikawa Kazuto (Tsutsumi Shinichi) and his proofreader wife Kiyomi (Ishida Yuriko) live peacefully in a stylish luxury home with their high school son Tadashi (Okada Kenshi) and daughter Miyabi (Kiyohara Kaya). One day, Tadashi leaves home and doesn’t return, news breaks that one of Tadashi’s classmates has been murdered and the police suspect Tadashi’s involvement. The family dynamic is placed under intense strain – Kazuto desperately wants to believe in his son’s innocence, while Kiyomi is determined to protect him at any cost, even if he’s guilty. This suspenseful drama meticulously dissects and reassembles the thought processes of an ordinary family torn to shreds by juvenile crime and the ensuing ruthless media frenzy that purports to represent social justice. (Subtitles)

Japan 2020 Tsutsumi Yukihiko 108m

Bake-neko Anzu-chan

This award-winning animation is what you get when you combine the fantasy of ‘My Neighbour Totoro’ with the deadpan humour and reality of everyday life.

When a temple's chief priest finds a kitten crying, he names it Anzu and decides to look after it. 30 years later, it turns out that the cat is no ordinary cat, it can now speak and live like a human. Anzu (voiced by Moriyama Mirai) travels around on a moped and works part-time as a masseuse. One day, the head priest's son (Aoki Munetaka), a long-estranged and shifty widower with huge debts, returns to the temple with his 11-year-old daughter Karin (Goto Noa). Anzu the cat reluctantly accepts his request to look after the emotionally-drained girl. This is an incredibly charming French-Japanese co-production brings together two directors from different mediums to create this irreverent fable about bridging the human world and the afterlife. Audience Award winner for Best Animated Feature at the Fantasia International Film Festival 2024. (Subtitles)

Japan 2024 Kuno Yoko & Yamashita Nobuhiro 97m

Samurai Taimusurippaa

A clever, funny and distinctly Japanese time-travel film that sees a real samurai crash-lands in the middle of a jidaigeki (Japanese period drama) production.

As the Edo period (1603-1868) draws to its dramatic close, two swordsmen clash with a political foe. They are interrupted by a flash of lightning, heralding a bizarre paranormal event, and Kosaka Shinzaemon (Yamaguchi Makiya) awakens to find himself... in a quiet lane in Kyoto. His confusion turns to alarm when among the locals clad in the robes of old Japan, he sees people wearing unfamiliar attire. Even the folks who seem ordinary to him are behaving oddly – it turns out he’s travelled several centuries forward in time, landing right in the middle of a 21stcentury film set! Award-winning director Yasuda Junichi offers a remarkably poignant comedy drama, nailed down by the subtle and convincing performance of experienced jidaigeki actor Yamaguchi Makiya. The film is more than just a fun fish-out-of-water fantasy: it’s an homage to the waning genre of samurai cinema. Audience Award winner for Best Asian Feature at the 2024 Fantasia International Film Festival. (Subtitles)

Japan 2024 Yasuda Junichi 131m