Based on the life of Ruth Ellis, the last woman hanged in Britain, this is the story of a stormy relationship, complicated by the strictures of 1950s social class and gender roles.

This tale of murderous revenge focuses on Ruth Ellis (Miranda Richardson), a former prostitute and single mom, who falls for David Blakely (Rupert Everett) when she meets him in a club. Although Blakely comes from an aristocratic background, compared with Ellis's hardscrabble upbringing, the two start a torrid affair. But when David starts to pull away, Ruth is overwhelmed by jealousy and turns to extreme measure to get him back. This is a film of astonishing performances and moody, atmospheric visuals - Richardson is a true highlight in what was her first feature film performance. We present this film on the 70th anniversary of Ruth Ellis’ execution.

UK 1985 Mike Newell 96m

A Formula One driver comes out of retirement to mentor and team up with a younger driver in one of the most anticipated movie releases of the year.

Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt), a Formula One driver who raced in the 1990s, has a horrible crash, forcing him to retire from Formula One and start racing in other disciplines. A Formula One team owner and friend, Ruben (Javier Bardem), contacts Hayes and asks him to come out of retirement to mentor rookie prodigy Joshua "Noah" Pearce (Damson Idris) for the Apex Grand Prix team.  The cast also features Kerry Condon (‘The Banshees of Inisherin’) as the Technical Director of the team and Kim Bodnia (‘The Bridge’, ‘Killing Eve’) as the Team Principal. Directed by Joseph Kosinski who brought us ‘Oblivion’ and ‘Top Gun: Maverick’, so expect this to be a cinematic tour de force, blending intense drama, high-speed action and intricate storytelling. Look out for some amazing cameos, as all ten Formula One teams and their drivers in the 2023 season appear as themselves including: Lewis Hamilton and George Russell (Mercedes), Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez (Red Bull Racing) as well as Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr. (Ferrari). Hans Zimmer has done the soundtrack for the film, so you know you will be coming out of the cinema fully energised.

USA 2025 Joseph Kosinski 156m

Den Sista Resan

In Sweden's entry for Best International Feature Film at the 97th Academy Awards, renowned Swedish TV-duo Filip and Fredrik embark on a trip to France, aiming to rekindle the zest for life of Filip's father.

When Lars Hammar, after 40 years as a beloved French teacher in Köping, retires, he envisions a delightful "third age" with travel, wine, and experiences together with his wife Tiina. But instead of indulging in life's pleasures, Lars becomes increasingly passive at home in his leather armchair, to the great frustration and despair of both Tiina and their son Filip. That's when Filip gets an idea - to take his frail old father to his beloved France and let him revisit the places he has loved most in life. By retracing the same road trip the family used to take when Filip was a child and secretly orchestrating some of life's most delightful moments, he hopes to reignite Lars' zest for life. With the help of his best friend Fredrik, some hefty doses of optimism and creativity, and an old orange Renault 4, the adventure can begin! This beautiful documentary - the most-watched documentary in Swedish history - will effortlessly delight and sincerely move anyone who takes a chance on it.

Sweden 2024 Filip Hammar & Fredrik Wikingsson 95m

A pilot is shot down over Italy and rescued by a girl who tells him about a local legend. Returning home to his loving wife, he is inspired to write an opera about the tale, but longs to meet his rescuer again.

Shot down over Italy and rescued by the resistance, RAF pilot and composer Richard Wilder (Michael Denison) forms a deep bond with the beautiful Alida (Valentina Cortese), who tells him about the legend of the Glass Mountain. After returning home to England, Richard uses the details from the tale to create an opera with the support of his loving wife, Anne (Dulcie Gray). Unable to forget Alida, however, Richard remains conflicted until the night of the opera's premiere, when fate intervenes. The film includes stunning use of Italian mountains, plus an unforgettable soundtrack. Italian baritone Tito Gobbi plays himself, while Denison and Gray were real-life husband and wife, giving extra gravitas to everything we see on screen.

UK/Italy 1949 Henry Cass 99m

Director Danny Boyle (‘Slumdog Millionaire’) and writer Alex Garland (‘The Beach’) reunite for ‘28 Years Later’, a terrifying new story set in the world created by ‘28 Days Later’.

It has been almost three decades since the rage virus escaped a biological weapons laboratory, and now, still in a ruthlessly enforced quarantine, some have found ways to exist amidst the infected. One such group of survivors lives on a small island connected to the mainland by a single, heavily defended causeway. When one of the group leaves the island on a mission into the dark heart of the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors as well. The astonishing cast includes Ralph Fiennes, Jodie Comer, Jack O'Connell and Aaron Taylor-Johnson.

UK/USA 2025 Danny Boyle 126m

Plus Director Q&A

Celebrating the incredible story of Ireland's contribution to the culinary and drinks world with some unexpected discoveries along the way.

This is a humorous look at the likes of Guinness, Hennessy Cognac, Irish whiskey, Muff Liquor Co and Baileys Irish Cream and how they complement Irish cuisine. It features an all-star cast including Guinness heir Rory Guinness, Deirdre O’Carroll the blender of Jameson whiskey and Peaky Blinder actor Sam Neill. Filmed in spectacular locations around Ireland including Ballymaloe House (with renowned chef JR Ryall) and Midleton Distillery and Chateau Margaux in Bordeaux (once owned by the Irish). It also features legendary Irish publican Oisín Rogers who reveals the secret behind the best pint of Guinness in England at the Devonshire Soho. This critically acclaimed and humorous film was described as “poured to perfection, raise a glass to this cinematic gem”.

UK 2025 Frank Mannion 90m

We are delighted to welcome director Frank Manion for a Q&A following the Sat 12 Jul screening.

The lives of two strangers are changed forever when they cross paths on the surfing adventure of a lifetime, discovering love, downshifting and four charismatic horses.

This is a stunning, intimate and unflinching series of love letters within a documentary - firstly, a love between two people, and secondly between humanity and the Earth. Ecologist Matty Hannon begins an incredible solo adventure, to surf the west coast of the Americas by motorbike, from the top of Alaska to the tip of Patagonia. But deep in the wilderness - alone with the wolves and the bears - the journeyman’s plans unexpectedly fall to pieces. After losing everything, and on the cusp of quitting, he meets the girl of his dreams, a permaculture farmer named Heather. Shot over 16 years, the result is an adventurous exposé on the more-than-human-world, offering a physical and spiritual odyssey to better understand our place in Nature. (Some subtitles)

Australia 2022 Matty Hannon 90m

Two school-friends join forces with a green-fingered granddad to fence a shed of weed that the old man has accidentally grown on his allotment.

The “badlands” of East Anglia. A young man is released from prison after serving time for a crime he didn't commit. Broke and looking for answers, Jayce goes into business with the elderly neighbour of his childhood friend. In doing so, he becomes embroiled in a scheme to sell a large amount of cannabis grown his neighbour’s allotment and stored in his shed. When their covert activities attract the unwanted attention of some local dimwit hoodlums, who have noticed a drop in demand for their own stash, they are forced to confront their past mistakes, discovering a mutual respect they never thought possible. An unmistakenly British comedy caper. Graham Fellows, Laurence Rickard (Horrible Histories, Ghosts) and Alistair Green (Ted Lasso, Flowers)

UK 2025 Richard Bracewell 89m

La Dégustation

A very enjoyable wine-based romantic comedy about two awkward singles who form an unlikely couple and inadvertently find love.

Jacques (Bernard Campan) is divorced and runs a small wine shop on the verge of bankruptcy in a small French town. Hortense (Isabelle Carré) is also single, full of life and eager to find true love. One day she walks into his store looking for a good drop of wine to share with a group of homeless people that she regularly cooks for, and before too long she has signed up for a tasting workshop at Jacques’ store. The road to romance though, is not exactly smooth, especially when both of them are harbouring secrets – and nursing past hurts. Carré ('L'Enfant de Personne') and Campan ('Tous Inconnus') are both César award-winning actors and have convincing on-screen chemistry for an unlikely couple. Just like a good wine, ‘The Tasting’ has a lasting finish. (Subtitles)

France 2023 Ivan Calbérac 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

The Church and Cinema in a Secular Age

As a new Pope was elected in Rome, the film ‘Conclave’ became the most successful in the history of Chichester Cinema - a perfect time for a talk looking back at the Church in film.

Sat 19 Jul 10:30 – In the Auditorium

A compelling portrait of an artist obsessed, this documentary follows German auteur Werner Herzog as he deals with difficult actors, bad weather and getting a boat over a mountain, all in an effort to make a film.

German director Werner Herzog begins work on his 1982 epic ‘Fitzcarraldo’ (also screening this week) but soon runs into serious setbacks, from casting problems to his own stubborn refusal to use special effects. After having to reshoot much of the film because the lead actor was recast, his crew must then haul an old steamboat over a mountain using manpower alone. With a resolve bordering on insanity, Herzog struggles to realize his vision, vowing to see the film completed - even if it leads to his undoing. Critics consider this one of the best – if not the best – documentaries on the making of a film. (Subtitles)

USA/West Germany 1982 Les Blank 95m

A young man fraught with guilt longs to defect from the IRA. He is drawn to the widow of a slain Protestant policeman but must hide his secret that he was involved in her husband's murder and evade the authorities.

1980s Northern Ireland: Cal (John Lynch) is a member of the Irish Republican Army, but has no stomach for the jobs he is asked to do, including driving the getaway car of the killer of a Protestant police officer. With his guilt eating away at him, he longs to defect from the organization, but Cal meets librarian Marcella (Helen Mirren), the widow of the slain officer, and is instantly drawn to her. Their mutual feelings of confusion and distress bring them together, but their relationship faces obstacles as Cal must hide his secret from Marcella, while also dodging the police. The two leads give their individual characters great substance, which only adds to the irresistible chemistry which is more than evident on screen.

UK/Ireland 1984 Pat O'Connor 102m

A horse trainer living in an isolated and picturesque location is dealing with a personal tragedy, when her daughter arrives at her doorstep, frightened, trembling and covered in someone else's blood.

In this edge-of-your-seat thriller, Kate (Julianne Moore) is a mother struggling to make peace with her troubled daughter Claire (Sydney Sweeney) - a situation that becomes even more perilous when Claire shows up on Kate's doorstep in a hysterical state. As Kate pieces together the shocking truth of what happened, she learns just how far a mother will go to try to save her child in this gripping tale of love, sacrifice and survival from BAFTA-winning director of ‘Beast’ Michael Pearce. Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney are at different points in their careers, but they are both equally able to play complicated, emotional characters capable of holding secrets until the moment they explode to the surface.

USA 2025 Michael Pearce 83m

Werner Herzog’s monumental marvel of a film is the story of an extremely determined man who intends to build an opera house in the middle of a jungle.

Opera-loving European Brian Fitzgerald (Klaus Kinski) lives in a small Peruvian city. Better known as Fitzcarraldo, this foreigner is obsessed with building an opera house in his town and decides that to make his dream a reality he needs to make a killing in the rubber business. To become a successful rubber baron, Fitzcarraldo hatches an elaborate plan that calls for a particularly impressive feat - bringing a massive boat over a mountain with the help of a band of natives. This is a truly remarkable film with a production as audacious as the feat it's depicting, ‘Fitzcarraldo’ is nothing short of an awe-inspiring spectacle. We also screen the documentary on the troubled making of this film ‘Burden of Dreams’, which really lays bare the love-hate relationship between Herzog and Kinski. (Subtitles)

West Germany/Peru 1982 Werner Herzog 158m