A father and his daughter hit a unicorn with their car and bring it to the wilderness retreat of a mega-wealthy pharmaceutical CEO.

Elliot (Paul Rudd) and daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega) accidentally hit and kill a unicorn while en route to a weekend retreat organized by his billionaire boss (Richard E. Grant). Eventually, they realize that the unicorn’s blood and shavings from its horn can cure cancer, so some seek to exploit the creature's miraculous curative properties. The participants at the retreat (including Téa Leoni, Jessica Hynes and the hilarious scene-stealing Will Poulter) find themselves subject to the vengeful rage of the magical creature's mother. This is a fun yet dark comedy/horror that defies genre.

USA 2025 Alex Scharfman 104m

Dog Man, half dog and half man, he is sworn to protect and serve as he doggedly pursues the feline supervillain Petey the Cat.

When a faithful police dog and his human police officer owner are injured together on the job, a harebrained but life-saving surgery fuses the two of them together and Dog Man is born. Dog Man is sworn to protect and serve - and fetch, sit and roll over. As Dog Man embraces his new identity and strives to impress his Chief, he must stop the pretty evil plots of feline supervillain Petey the Cat. Petey's latest plan is to clone himself, creating the kitten Lil Petey, to double his ability to do crime stuff. Things get complicated, though, when Lil Petey forges an unexpected bond with Dog Man. In the process, they discover the power of family (and kittens!) to bring even the most hostile foes together. This is glorious fun!

USA 2025 Peter Hastings 89m

Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche headline this English language retelling of Homer's ancient epic poem the Odyssey. A story of the Trojan War, Odysseus and his return to his Queen.

After 20 years away, Odysseus (Fiennes) washes up on the shores of Ithaca, haggard and unrecognizable. The King has returned from the Trojan War, but much has changed in his kingdom. His beloved wife Penelope (Binoche) is a prisoner in her own home, hounded by suitors vying to be king. Their son Telemachus (Charlie Plummer) faces death at the hands of these suitors, who see him as merely an obstacle to their pursuit of the kingdom. Odysseus has also changed - scarred by his experience of the Trojan War, he is no longer the mighty warrior from years past - but he must rediscover his strength in order to win back all that he has lost. Fiennes makes each moment quietly riveting. Before you ask – no, the director is not related to Pier Paolo Pasolini (‘The Gospel According to St. Matthew’, ‘Nights of Cabiria’) but instead, is the nephew of famous Italian director Luchino Visconti (‘The Leopard’, ‘Death in Venice’).

Italy/Greece/UK 2024 Uberto Pasolini 116m

Renée Zellweger, Hugh Grant, Colin Firth and Emma Thompson reprise their roles as Bridget Jones, Daniel Cleaver, Mark Darcy and Doctor Rawlings, respectively, with Chiwetel Ejiofor, Leo Woodall, Isla Fisher, Josette Simon, Nico Parker and Leila Farzad joining the cast.

UK 2025 Michael Morris

In the heart of a bustling Times Square kitchen, dreams and desperation collide as the staff each chase the elusive American dream.

When money goes missing from the till, suspicion falls on Pedro (Raúl Briones), an undocumented cook who dreams of a better life and is in love with waitress Julia (Rooney Mara). Restaurant owner Rashid (Oded Fehr) has promised to help Pedro obtain legal status, but a shocking revelation about Julia compels Pedro to spiral into an act that threatens to shut down the establishment. This is a comic and tragic tribute to the invisible people who keep our restaurants running and our stomachs full. While the “kitchen drama” has become a hot genre recently (‘The Bear’, ‘Boiling Point’) ‘La Cocina’ has a different energy. It understands that the food emerging from the back of The Grill comes through a deeply broken system, one that grinds up and discards people with barely a second thought.

USA 2024 Alonso Ruizpalacios 139m

Steve Coogan stars in this poignant dramedy that follows an Englishman's personal and political awakening after he adopts a penguin during a cataclysmic period in Argentine history.

Argentina’s 1976 military coup d’état, along with the sustained period of violence and forced disappearances that it ushered in, isn’t an obvious historical backdrop for a heartwarming tale of human-animal bonding. But that’s how the timing worked out for Tom Michell, an English teacher stationed at an elite Buenos Aires private school, at the time of the turmoil: With the country in chaos and many of his colleagues in crisis, he was figuring out what to do with the Magellan penguin he had accidentally adopted on a weekend jaunt to Uruguay. Director Cattaneo is best known for ‘The Full Monty’ and ‘Military Wives’, and Coogan brings his signature dry irony to proceedings, but the penguin is the real star here.

UK 2024 Peter Cattaneo 110m

A unique take on a seminal time in the lives of one of music’s most famous couples, exploring the eighteen months John Lennon and Yoko Ono spent living in Greenwich Village in the early 1970s.

1972, New York. In John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s apartment, the TV is permanently on, acting as a ‘window to the world’. Through their television this inventive documentary explores the America of that time, the Lennons’ evolving politics and their complex personal life as they search for Yoko’s estranged daughter Kyoko against the backdrop of the Nixon-McGovern election. Featuring previously unheard phone recordings and music from John’s only post-Beatles concert, it reveals the world that John and Yoko inhabited and the couple’s relevance, which still stands today. You may remember director Kevin MacDonald from his brilliant ‘Touching the Void’ (documentary) and ‘The Last King of Scotland’ (feature).

UK 2024 Kevin Macdonald & Sam Rice-Edwards 100m

Vingt Dieux

A carefree teenager’s life takes a turn when he must provide for his little sister. Seeking income, he channels his energy into producing an award-winning cheese.

After the tragic death of his father, 18-year-old Totone (Clément Faveau) is thrust into the unexpected and very adult role of looking after his younger sister Claire (Luna Garret) and their failing family farm in the Jura region of France. When he hears about the prize money that can be earned in competitions from making the local Comté cheese, he decides to go for it. He realises that good milk is a factor in success and not being able to afford it, he has the idea of stealing it from the farm where he is working, where he submits to a relationship with the sexually eager Marie-Lise (Maïwene Barthelemy). A "verité" look at the life of French agriculture, simultaneously a moving love story and above all an ode to the love of cheese. In showing the techniques of artisan cheese-making, you almost feel you know enough to do it yourself after watching it. (Subtitles)

France 2024 Louise Courvoisier 92m

Director James Mangold (‘Walk the Line’, ‘Ford v Ferrari’) takes on the enigmatic life of Bob Dylan in a fresh, unconventional biopic. Starring Timothée Chalamet as the iconic folk singer, the film explores Dylan’s transformative journey through fame, identity and reinvention during the 1960s.

Following Dylan’s rise from a Greenwich Village poet to a global music icon, we see the chaos, ambition and uncertainty of a young artist challenging himself and his audience. Chalamet embodies Dylan’s charisma and intensity, while scenes with real-life performances and legendary figures - from Joan Baez to Johnny Cash - anchor the story in music history. Mangold’s direction blends period detail with a restless energy, making this an intimate, raw look at an artist in constant evolution.

USA 2024 James Mangold 141m

A group of renegade surfers challenges the male-dominated professional surfing world for the shared goal of equality and change.

It's the 1980s and the world of professional surfing is a circus of fluoro colours, peroxide hair and radical male egos. The sport treated women like second-class athletes: competition organisers saved the best waves for the boys, often scheduling women’s heats during the lunch break. Not to mention the chauvinist-pig arrogance of many male surfers, who saw themselves as bronzed gods – and the role of women to worship at their feet. Women surfers Jodie Cooper and 1993 world champ Pauline Menczer are but two who feature, with Cooper poignantly commenting: “We never made a lot of money, but we did what we loved”. A documentary with a with a giddy, punk rock energy.

Australia 2020 Christopher Nelius 108m

Met Opera

Mozart's sparkling comedy follows clever Figaro and his fiancée Susanna as they outwit Count Almaviva's advances, navigating love, deception and forgiveness in a day of romantic chaos.

Sun 27 Apr 14:00

Wed 30 Apr 18:45 (TimeTBC)

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

Miséricorde

Returning to Saint-Martial for his late boss's funeral, Jérémie's stay with widow Martine becomes entangled in a disappearance, a threatening neighbour and an abbot's shady intentions.

The latest feature from the director of ‘Stranger by the Lake’ stars Félix Kysyl as a man who returns to his French village and stirs up considerable trouble. Jérémie (Félix Kysyl) plans to attend the funeral of his former boss, the village baker. He decides to stay for a few days with Martine (Catherine Frot), the man's widow. A mysterious disappearance, a threatening neighbour and a priest with strange intentions make Jérémie's short stay in the village take an unexpected turn. ‘Naturalistic performances reminiscent of Robert Bresson with the macabre humour and underlying suspense of Hitchcock’ - The Hollywood Reporter. (Subtitles)

France/Spain/Portugal 2024 Alain Guiraudie 103m

In this delightful ‘dramedy’, struggling novelist finds himself taking care of three eccentric older women - and his own mother - over the course of one chaotic weekend in Dublin.

Edward, a novelist saddled with caring for his elderly mother, finally finds himself on the brink of literary success. With pressure to go on a US book tour mounting, the last thing Edward needs is his friends jetting off to Spain for an impromptu Pride holiday, leaving their mothers on his doorstep! Over a chaotic weekend, he has to juggle his burgeoning career with the care of four eccentric, combative, and wildly different ladies. By the time the credits roll, you will realise while the son might be in the centre of the film, it is the enigmatic mothers driving this heartwarming and witty caper.

Ireland 2024 Darren Thornton 89m

A CIA cryptographer manages to blackmail his agency into training him to let him go after a group of terrorists who killed his wife.

Charlie Heller (Rami Malek) is a brilliant, but deeply introverted decoder for the CIA working out of a basement office at headquarters in Langley whose life is turned upside down when his wife is killed in a London terrorist attack. When his supervisors refuse to take action, he takes matters into his own hands, embarking on a dangerous trek across the globe to track down those responsible, his intelligence serving as the ultimate weapon for eluding his pursuers and achieving his revenge.

USA 2025 James Hawes 123m

A documentary which shines a light on the trailblazing role of women war artists, on the front lines round the world, championing the female perspective on conflict through art and asking: when it's life or death, what do women see that men don't?

Traditionally a male domain (think Eric Ravilious), war art by women has been largely unrecognized. Until now. Culture breaks the taboo, crosses borders - tells the truth to power. Artists featured include Dame Rachel Whiteread, Zhanna Kadyrova, Maggi Hambling, Assil Diab, Dame Laura Knight, Marcelle Hanselaar, Cornelia Parker, Maya Lin, Shirin Neshat and Lee Miller. An entirely female cast of contributors makes this film a unique undertaking - telling vital truths in turbulent times. This is the third instalment in Kinmonth's trilogy of films about how artists depict war, following the acclaimed ‘Eric Ravilious - Drawn to War’ (2022) and ‘War Art with Eddie Redmayne’ (2015).

UK 2025 Margy Kinmonth 89m

20th Anniversary Remaster

Sparks fly when spirited Elizabeth Bennet meets single, rich, and proud Mr. Darcy. But Mr. Darcy reluctantly finds himself falling in love with a woman beneath his class. Can each overcome their own pride and prejudice? This is a stunning 4K remaster to celebrate Austen’s 250th birth anniversary.

In this adaptation of Jane Austen's beloved novel, Elizabeth Bennet (Keira Knightley) lives with her mother (Brenda Blethyn), father (Donald Sutherland) and sisters in the English countryside. As the eldest, she faces mounting pressure from her parents to marry. When the outspoken Elizabeth is introduced to the handsome and upper-class Mr. Darcy (Matthew Macfadyen), sparks fly. Although there is obvious chemistry between the two, Darcy's overly reserved nature threatens the fledgling relationship. This was Joe Wright’s explosion into the directorial world, which saw him subsequently give us ‘Atonement’ and ‘The Darkest Hour’.

UK 2005 Joe Wright 129m

Theatre Royal

A visually stunning production featuring spectacular tap dance numbers, superbly choreographed moments, and a sizzling chemistry between the titular characters.

Sun 4 May 15:00

The film traces the journeys of the four members of Led Zeppelin through the music scene of the 1960s and their meeting in the summer of 1968, culminating in 1970.

Interviews, performances and never-before-seen footage provide insight into the origins of Led Zeppelin and their meteoric rise to musical stardom. This is a guide that stops at the release of their second album, ‘Led Zeppelin II’, which may leave some fans disappointed that the film quits before the iconic ‘Stairway to Heaven’, but once you hear the colossal opening chords to ‘Whole Lotta Love’, no power on earth will stop you nodding along. The documentary is structured around archive clips and good-humoured interviews with the surviving members (Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones) of the band plus voice recordings of John Bonham who died in 1980.

UK 2025 Bernard MacMahon 121m

In this 1980’s cult classic, a cocky high schooler is determined to enjoy an epic day skipping school around his favourite Chicago sites, enlisting his best friend and girlfriend to join him on the adventure.

Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) has an uncanny skill at cutting classes and getting away with it. Intending to make one last stand before graduation, Ferris calls in sick, "borrows" a Ferrari, and embarks on a one-day adventure through the streets of Chicago. On Ferris' trail is not only his school principal Rooney (Jeffrey Jones), but also his infuriated sister (Jennifer Grey), both determined to catch him in the act. John Hughes (‘The Breakfast Club’, National Lampoon’s Vacation’ films and ‘Home Alone’ to name but a few) delivers some unforgettable scenes that have become part of social culture – the Chicago Parade scene where Ferris sings ‘Twist and Shout’ being a standout. Take advantage of this very rare opportunity to see the film on the big screen.

USA 1986 John Hughes 103m

The highly anticipated concert film recorded live in Lisbon, hits cinemas worldwide on Wed 7 May for a limited time only!

Wed 7 May 20:00

Join us in celebrating Sir David Attenborough's 99th Birthday in style as the celebrated broadcaster explores the planet's undersea habitats emphasizing the ocean's vital importance while highlighting opportunities for marine life recovery.

This powerful documentary takes viewers on a breathtaking journey showing there is nowhere more vital for our survival, more full of life, wonder or surprise, than the ocean. In the film the celebrated broadcaster and filmmaker reveals how his lifetime has coincided with the great age of ocean discovery. Through spectacular sequences featuring coral reefs, kelp forests and the open ocean, Attenborough shares why a healthy ocean keeps the entire planet stable and flourishing. Stunning, immersive cinematography showcases the wonder of life under the seas and exposes the realities and challenges facing our ocean as never-before-seen, from destructive fishing techniques to mass coral reef bleaching. Yet the story is one of optimism, with Attenborough pointing to inspirational stories from around the world to deliver his greatest message: the ocean can recover to a glory beyond anything anyone alive has ever seen. This special presentation includes 15 minutes of theatrically exclusive content.

UK 2025 C. Butfield/T. Nowlan/K. Scholey 100m

When a Cardinal is tasked with leading one of the world's most secretive and ancient events, selecting a new Pope, he finds himself at the centre of a conspiracy that could shake the very foundation of The Church.

Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is tasked with running this covert process after the unexpected death of the beloved Pope. Once the Catholic Church’s most powerful leaders have gathered from around the world and are locked together in the Vatican halls, Lawrence uncovers a trail of deep secrets left in the dead Pope’s wake, secrets which could shake the foundations of the Church. This is a skilfully crafted film with stunning cinematography and a beautiful score that takes many surprising turns, culminating in a climactic reveal that will leave audiences astonished. The A-list cast also includes Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow and Isabella Rossellini.

UK/USA 2024 Edward Berger 120m

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, a communist family discovers a bunker full of money soon to be worthless. With the help of their neighbours, they embark on a race against time to enter the capitalist world in style.

In 1990 East Germans were given exactly six days after their currency was replaced by the West German Mark to exchange any ‘old’ coins and banknotes. As our East German heroes outsmart formidable opponents, the heist takes an unexpected turn when money officially unrecognized in the GDR circulates. Sandra Huller (‘Anatomy of a Fall’, ‘Zone of Interest’) takes the central role in this sentimental heist comedy, whose title was taken from the unfavourable exchange rate that was imposed on ‘Ostmark’ swaps. Look out for the amazing locations, surviving examples of socialist modern architecture, public art and stylishly hip interiors that act as backdrops to this sunny power-to-the-people crowd-pleaser.

Germany 2024 Natja Brunckhorst 116m

In the lead up to Holocaust Memorial Day (27 Jan), we present this story of mismatched cousins who reunite for a tour through Poland to honour their beloved grandmother.

David Kaplan (Jesse Eisenberg) is a married Manhattan tech worker with a young son, who decides to bid the family goodbye and take a week-long road trip to Poland with his screwup cousin Benji (an off-the-charts great Kieran Culkin), whose default mode happens to be, obnoxious. Their beloved, recently deceased grandmother yearned for them to see her native Poland and understand how she grew up in a nurturing Jewish culture and escaped a Nazi death camp. The adventure takes a turn when the odd-couple's old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history. This is a film that manages to be ruefully perceptive and laugh-out-loud funny, often at the same time: and that’s not easy.

USA/Poland 2024 Jesse Eisenberg 90m

A genre-bending comedy about a frustrated and misanthropic newlywed who discovers certain feral impulses that land her in unlikely situations.

A newly arranged marriage sees an oddball couple shoved together in a small Mumbai shack with paper-thin walls. They are alone, awkward and together. Cranky Uma does her best to cope with the heat, her complete lack of domestic skills, nosy neighbours and her bumbling spouse until one night she discovers strange new feral cravings. Radhika Apte is sensational in the lead role, a gifted physical comedian who puts the dead into deadpan and loads every gesture with an aggressive, almost demented slap-stick infused humour. “It's very, very sharp, very funny, and very surprising.” – Mark Kermode.

UK/India 2024 Karan Kandhari 107m

Women Artists and Architects in Film

With two of the latest films about women artists screening this month, this talk, illustrated with a range of clips, will consider why this subject has been proving so popular with filmmakers.

This talk, from Professor Maggie Andrews of the cinema education team, explores cinema’s portrayal of women artists and architects, groups increasingly celebrated in films of recent years. Biopics, such as ‘Frida’ (2002) rescue women from obscurity, but do so by focusing on the complexity of these women’s personal lives, rather than their artistic significance. Alternatively, fictional dramas, including ‘Nightbitch’ (2024), suggest women’s creativity may ultimately be fuelled by the constraints of motherhood, marriage and men.

100m inc Q&A

Tickets £7.50 (In the Auditorium)

SPECIAL OFFER:

FILM & TALK ONLY £15

Sat 10 May 10:30

La Plus Précieuse des Marchandises

An unflinching but elegant Holocaust fable about a lumberjack's wife who finds an abandoned baby girl, adapted from Jean-Claude Grumberg’s 2019 novella of the same name.

Once upon a time there was a poor lumberjack and his wife who lived in a deep Polish forest. The poor woman moaned that she had no children. Day and night, trains passed through the woods. One day, as the woman was watching a train that she thought was a cargo train, a package was thrown out and fell into the snow… The film has an exquisite aesthetic, and director Hazanavicius pushes beyond the forest, into the train itself and in through the gates of the concentration camp, juxtaposing the beautiful visuals with the ugliness of mankind.

France/Belgium 2024 Michel Hazanavicius 81m

An enthralling Chinese documentary about the torpedoing of a Japanese freighter carrying 1,816 British PoWs in the second world war, excavating the emotional wreckage on all sides.

Just hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese began their takeover of Hong Kong, at that time under English custody. Many British soldiers were captured and, as prisoners of war, packed in ships to Japanese labour camps. One such ship was the Lisbon Maru. The film reveals the long-buried truth of the 1942 sinking where 828 Allied prisoners died. Over seven years, filmmaker Fang Li's search for the wreckage and interviews with families uncovered the heartbreaking stories of Allied prisoners, Japanese brutality and heroic Chinese fishermen. (Some subtitles)

China 2023 Fang Li/Ming Fan/Lily Gong 123m

New McGregor / The Age of Anxiety / New Wheeldon

ROH Ballet

This programme includes two world premieres by Resident Choreographer Wayne McGregor and Artistic Associate Christopher Wheeldon, marking each artist’s first foray into Bernstein, including a dance version of the Chichester Psalms.

Leonard Bernstein was one of the first classical composers in America to achieve both popular and critical acclaim. He was eclectic in his sources – drawing on jazz and modernism, the traditions of Jewish music and the Broadway musical – and many of Bernstein’s scores are remarkably well suited to dance. He was particularly associated with Jerome Robbins, their credits together including ‘Fancy Free’ and ‘West Side Story’. To celebrate the centenary year of the composer’s birth, The Royal Ballet united all three of its associate choreographers to celebrate the dynamic range and danceability of Bernstein’s music. At the heart of the programme is the first revival of Artist in Residence Liam Scarlett’s ‘The Age of Anxiety’, created in 2014 to Bernstein’s soul-searching Second Symphony. Both symphony and ballet are inspired by W.H. Auden’s masterful modernist poem, itself written in response to the atmosphere of disillusionment and uncertainty that followed the end of World War II.

180m inc 2 intervals

We are delighted to be able to screen this incredibly rare programme to complement Chichester Cathedral’s 950th Anniversary celebrations and the accompanying visit of the Bernstein family.

Tickets £19.50

Kuraudo

A young man who resells goods online finds himself at the centre of a series of mysterious events that put his life at risk.

By tracing the fallout of an online scalper, Yushii (Masaki Suda), who gets his comeuppance from the people he’s ripped off, this modern thriller parable subverts the safety people feel when enacting cruelty from behind the screen. Yushii scams unsuspecting buyers with fake goods to make a profit, but the scammers’ schemes quickly produce a growing list of vengeful enemies… with grudges that must be settled. This riveting and highly unusual thriller is a sophisticated send-up of social commerce culture, with a second half resembling a Tarantino production. (Subtitles)

Japan 2024 Kiyoshi Kurosawa 123m

When a solitary writer adopts and bonds with a Great Dane that belonged to a late friend, she begins to come to terms with her past and her own creative inner life.

Writer and teacher Iris (Naomi Watts) finds her comfortable, solitary New York life thrown into disarray after her closest friend and mentor (Bill Murray) dies suddenly and bequeaths her his beloved 70-kilogram Great Dane. The regal yet intractable beast, named Apollo, immediately creates practical problems for Iris, from furniture destruction to eviction notices, as well as more existential ones, his looming presence constantly reminding her of her friend's problematic choices in both life and death. Yet as Iris finds herself unexpectedly bonding with the animal, she begins to come to terms with her past, her lost friend, and her own creative inner life. Content expanded. Based on the award-winning 2018 novel, you will find a sweetness in the film that is rare in cinema today… and you may find yourself wanting to adopt a Great Dane.

USA 2024 Scott McGehee/David Siegel 120m

A fascinating, all-consuming film about a doctor in Georgia who faces serious accusations after a newborn's death.

Nina (Ia Sukhitashvili) works in a small provincial town hospital as an obstetrician-gynaecologist. Single and in abstinence from personal relationships, she is unconditionally devoted to her Hippocratic oath. When a newborn dies within seconds of being delivered under her supervision, she is accused of wrongdoings. She is well known for supplying under-the-counter contraceptive pills and carrying out unofficial, illegal abortions in outlying villages, and the grieving father – furiously and disapprovingly aware of her reputation – is now demanding an inquiry into her alleged malpractice.

Under investigation, every detail of Nina's personal and professional life is scrutinized, and despite the risks, she remains devoted to her duty as a doctor. “This is a formidable, defiantly esoteric work. It demands considerable investment from the audience, but does repay it.” – Screen International. (Subtitles)

Georgia 2024 Dea Kulumbegashvili 134m

After garnering acclaim with ‘The Great Beauty’ and ‘The Hand of God’, Paolo Sorrentino, known for his stunning visuals and meditative storytelling, dives once more into themes of memory and regret, painting a story as visually stunning as it is emotionally raw.

The film’s title character, Parthenope (Celeste Dalla Porta), is a stunning young woman named after a mythological siren inextricably linked with the city of Naples, where she lounges through idle summers and on the nearby island of Capri. There, five years later, she encounters the writer John Cheever (Gary Oldman), an author she’d been reading and quoting for years. Sorentino’s last film, 2021’s ‘The Hand of God’, was a love letter to his hometown of Naples with lots of autobiographical elements, and this one removes the personal story but retains the sense that it’s a tribute to the place. ‘Parthenope’ is both a tribute to Naples and a lushly poetic reflection on the creative process, carried by unforgettable performances and a mesmerizing score. Sorrentino, as ever, delivers unforgettable, immersive and ravishing cinema. (Subtitles)

Italy/UK 2024 Paolo Sorrentino 121m

A platoon of Navy SEALs embarks on a dangerous mission in Ramadi, Iraq, with the chaos and brotherhood of war retold through their memories of the event.

Written and directed by Iraq War veteran Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland, the film embeds audiences with a platoon of American Navy SEALs in the home of an Iraqi family, overwatching the movement of US forces through insurgent territory. A visceral, boots-on-the-ground story of modern warfare, told like never before: in real time and based on the memory of the people who lived it. Co-Director Alex Garland comes with very high credentials after last year’s excellent ‘Civil War’ and the much-lauded 2014 thriller ‘Ex Machina’.

USA/UK 2025 Alex Garland/Ray Mendoza 95m

Iris et les Hommes

A fun comedy about a woman who has everything: a wonderful husband, two perfect daughters, a successful business - but no sex life.

Iris (Laure Calamy) has a busy life with a loving husband and two daughters living in a beautiful Parisian apartment. She is a successful, if somewhat eccentric, dentist. But, and it’s a big BUT, Iris has not had sex with her husband for a long time. The spark has gone. A mother at parent-teacher night overhears Iris complaining on the phone about the lack of sex and quietly suggests she take on a lover. So “pourqoi pas?”, Iris begins to delve into the world of dating apps for married people and after an awkward start, embraces this advice with gusto. This is cheeky, joyous and a feel-good summer delight of a film which includes an all-singing all-dancing French version of ‘It’s Raining Men’ where Calamy shines bright. (Subtitles)

France 2023 Caroline Vignal 98m

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

Royal Ballet & Opera

Conductor Antonio Pappano and director Barrie Kosky reunite to continue the mythical adventure that began with ‘Das Rheingold’ in 2023. Gods and mortals battle in the second chapter of Wagner’s Ring cycle.

Sun 18 May 12:15

Met opera

This biblical story - already filtered through the beautiful and strange imagination of Oscar Wilde’s play - is a psychologically perceptive Victorian-era setting rich in symbolism and subtle shades of darkness and light.

Mon 19 May