A poignant story of one woman's search for meaning in the vast and harsh American wilderness – Robin Wright’s compelling directorial debut.

After a terrible personal tragedy grief-stricken Edee (Robin Wright) retreats to the magnificent but unforgiving wilds of the Rockies. She sets herself up in a remote cabin but she is unprepared for the challenges ahead. She can’t chop wood or shoot a gun. The harsh winter and local wildlife take their toll until Miguel (Demián Bichir) shows up to nurse her back to health and teach her valuable survival skills. The cinematography is extraordinary – could it be anything but, given the location? Wright’s internalised performance is phenomenal and she commands this compassionate, poignant and affecting film. Given the restrictions we have all undergone, ‘Land’ offers simple lessons and stunning landscapes that may feel like a welcome balm.

USA 2021 Robin Wright 89m

This fantastic new production of Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca follows the publication of musicologist Roger Parker’s critical edition for Ricordi.

The Music Director Riccardo Chailly presents Puccini’s work in the light of this most recent research, building on the great success of La Scala’s Turandot, La Fanciulla del West, Madama Butterfly and Manon Lescaut. Giacomo Puccini’s masterpieces have so far been presented in versions that often bear the burden of tradition. With the return of Director Davide Livermore, already highly acclaimed for Attila, this inaugural version of Tosca will be first and foremost at a music festival. Combined with the stunning stage set design of Giò Forma and the powerful voices of Anna Netrebko and Luca Salsi, this thrilling spectacle is not to be missed. Sung in Italian with English subtitles

Tosca: Anna Netrebko Cavaradossi: (tbc) Scarpia: Luca Salsi, Angelotti: Vladimir Sazdovski Sagrestano: Alfonso Antoniozzi Spoletta: Carlo Bosi Sciarrone: Giulio Mastrototaro . Running time: 160 minutes including  2 intervals with interviews

Emma Stone stars in this riotously fun live-action film about the rebellious early days of one of cinemas most notorious villains, Cruella de Vil.

Set in 1970s London amidst the punk rock revolution, we follow a young grifter named Estella, a clever and creative girl determined to make a name for herself with her designs. She befriends a pair of young thieves who appreciate her appetite for mischief, and together they are able to build a life for themselves on the London streets. She befriends a pair of young thieves (Emma Thompson and Joel Fry), and together they build a life for themselves on the London streets.

USA 2021 Craig Gillespie 134m

Swedish-speaking Finnish artist Tove Jansson created The Moomins. This affectionate and engaging film follows a wild decade in the free-spirited artist’s life and the creation of the Moomin books.

The Moomins, with their hippo-like silhouettes, are beloved cartoon characters familiar to readers around the globe. But less is known about their creator, the bisexual, Swedish-speaking, Finnish visual artist and author Tove Jansson and her surprisingly unconventional life. Alma Pöysti gives a mesmerising performance as Tove in this sensuously textured film that concentrates on a formative decade in her life from the mid-40s to the mid-50s. The film explores evolving definitions of art through her tense relationship with her father but the deeper focus is on Tove as a person and the fascinating milieu in which she lives. You’re left with an admiration for a charming, spirited woman who, thankfully, didn’t listen to her father. Subtitles

Finland 2020 Zaida Bergroth 103m

The Truffle Hunters explores a world most viewers will know nothing about -- with delightfully savoury results. A near-perfect documentary film for those who love Italian cuisine and dogs.

This film is also a heart-wrenchingly sweet study of the pure love that exists between old men and their dogs. In the forests of Piedmont in northern Italy there is to be found a certain exquisite form of white truffle prized by connoisseurs and gourmands and restaurateurs the world over – and they are prepared to pay big money. The film shows auctions for these dusty, bulbous fungi with buyers showing the kind of overexcitement more associated with sales of wine or contemporary art. The stars are the dogs but not far behind is a boisterous gallery of ageing oddballs whose eccentricity, because it is rooted in a passion for the natural world, has an innate dignity.

Italy 2020 Michael Dweck / Gregory Kershaw 84m

A love letter to the joys and pleasures of champagne.

Director, Frank Mannion, was able to shoot the documentary during the lockdown because champagne producers were classified as essential workers. The film features many of Champagne’s great producers including Taittinger, Bollinger and Dom Perignon. There are also contributions from Stephen Fry and the great grandson of Winston Churchill Nicholas Soames. Churchill favoured Pol Roger and they named their prestige vintage after him.

UK 2020 Frank Mannion 88m

La Nuit des Rois

Director Phillipe Lacôte brings magical realism and Ivorian narrative custom to an unlikely setting in this dazzling prison movie.

Young Roman, (Bakary Koné) has been incarcerated in La Maca penitentiary in Ivory Coast. He soon meets Blackbeard the de facto ruler of the inmates. Blackbeard is a man on the verge of death. He is too sick to lead. And the laws of the prison dictate that a Dangôro, who can no longer lead, must take his own life. Such a transfer of power cannot come easily, of course; usurpers, are already nipping at his heels. So it’s up to Roman to keep the inmates distracted through the night by telling stories. He must tell them as if his life depends on it - because, like Blackbeard’s, it does. This is magical stuff, tense and feverish and unforgettable. Subtitles

France 2020 Philippe Lacôte 93m

The Education Section of Chichester Cinema at New Park present an illustrated talk on the partnership of composer Richard Rodgers & lyricist-dramatist Oscar Hammerstein II.

The presentation, by Cinema Trustee Michael Cox and Projectionist Paul Stanley, covers Rodgers & Hammerstein’s prolific and revolutionary collaborations which provided a historic contribution to the world of musical theatre and film. Among their portfolio of successes are State Fair, Oklahoma, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, Flower Drum Song, The Sound of Music.Background information on their musical dramas will be highlighted as well as the technical innovations of film which were used.

Special Offer

Look out for Rodgers & Hammerstein’s ‘South Pacific’ Open Air Screening at Priory Park on Fri 6 Aug 20:45.

See the Film and attend the talk for £13.00 (Friends £11.50)

The prehistoric family the Croods are challenged by a rival family the Bettermans, who claim to be better and more evolved.

Searching for a safer habitat, the prehistoric Crood family discovers an idyllic, walled-in paradise that meets all of its needs. Unfortunately, they must also learn to live with a family that’s a couple of steps above on the evolutionary ladder. As tensions rise, a new threat soon propels both clans on an epic adventure that forces them to embrace their differences, draw strength from one another, and survive together.

USA 2020 Joel Crawford 95m

James Norton tries to find a home for his young boy when a cancer diagnosis gives him only a few months to live.

John (Norton), a 35-year-old window cleaner, has dedicated his life to bringing up his 4-year-old son, Michael, after the child’s mother left them soon after giving birth. John’s cancer diagnosis propels him into a search for the perfect family to bring up his son. And so begins a series of encounters with potential adopters. Set in contemporary Belfast with a fantastic cast of unknowns, the film really succeeds via the chemistry between Norton and Daniel Lamont who plays the son. Although this sounds like a slog through somebody’s misery, ‘Nowhere Special’ is never melodramatic or heavy-handed but an intimate and touching character study. That said, you ought to bring the tissues.

UK/IT 2020 Uberto Pasolini 96m

A woman in her sixties who, after losing everything in the Great Recession, embarks on a journey through the American West, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad.

Frances McDormand stars as Fern, a widow and former substitute teacher in Empire, Nevada – a town wiped off the map by a factory closure – who is forced into piling some possessions into a tatty van and heading off, something she accepts with an absolute lack of self-pity. She roams an almost post-apocalyptic landscape finding temporary work here and there while learning how to survive from her fellow ‘nomads’. This is perhaps Mcdormand’s finest performance bringing extraordinary empathy to her character’s human need to find connections against a background of desolation. Director Chloé Zhao’s gaze is humanistic and understanding and she surely has a big career ahead of her.

USA 2020 Chloé Zhao 107m

When a young American nurse from Little Rock (Mitzi Gaynor) meets the handsome and mysterious French plantation owner (Rossano Brazzi) on a South Pacific island during World War II, they find refuge from the battles around them as their romance blooms, in this finely crafted, Oscar-Winning musical.

Rogers and Hammerstein wrote many great musicals, but the score of South Pacific is one of the strongest, producing many 'old standards'. ‘There is Nothing' Like a Dame’, ‘Younger than Springtime’, ‘Bali Hai’, ‘Gonna Wash that Man Right outa my Hair’, and the eternal ‘Some Enchanted Evening’ are major highlights, but many other delightful and strong songs help fill this impressive musical. Its racial stance was also ahead of its time. The wonderful supporting cast included Ray Walston, Juanita Hall, and Bill Kerr. When it opened at the London Dominion in 1958 not surprisingly it ran for over 5 years - those were the cinema days! Presented in a newly restored digital version on our huge outdoor screen.

USA 1958 Joshua Logan 157m

Advance Tickets £10 (£12 on the day if available)  

Kids £7 (£8 on the day if available)

Fri 6 Aug 20:45 (approx) at Priory Park  

PRIORY PARK OPEN AIR SCREENINGS

- The only Open-Air events where the films are screened from equipment just as you would get in a cinema. (Not from a DVD/BluRay).

- The Screen is huge, and most importantly, stable (i.e. not inflatable).

- The screenings take place at Chichester's beautiful Priory Park.

- They form part of the prestigious Chichester International Film Festival.

OPEN AIR SCREENINGS AT PRIORY PARK:

Book early. Sold Out in 2016, 2017, 2018 & 2019!

Musical Entertainment from 19:45 - Gates open 19:00

Films start at Dusk (app. 20:45) Bring a Picnic Blanket or Chair, and a Picnic Basket filled with your favourite goodies.

Fenwick's Café will be open for Drinks & Snacks

Mona Fastvold’s love story stars Katherine Waterston and Vanessa Kirby as 19th-century farmers’ wives seeking escape from drudgery and husbands in rural New York.

Abigail and Tallie are women ahead of their confined, frustrated time. Abigail is reeling from the death of her daughter. They identify in each other a kindred spirit, but also an impulsive and reckless connection. They snatch a few stolen hours in the woods amid their daily chores. Their husbands Dyer and Finney emerge as unideal husbands – a lesser film would have them as uniform oppressors but Fasvold’s movie gives them depth as well as menace. The power of this film creeps up on you and doesn’t let go. Boasting fiercely committed performances, subtle direction and painterly design, ‘The World to Come’ is brimful of passion and pain.

USA 2020 Mona Fastvold 105m

The creator of ‘Hamilton’ invites you to the event of the summer, where the streets are made of music and little dreams become big. Casting, choreography, songs, and story all come together ‘In the Heights’ to offer pure joy in modern movie musical form.

The streets are made of music and little dreams become big. Lights up on Washington Heights... The scent of a cafecito caliente hangs in the air just outside of the 181st Street subway stop, where a kaleidoscope of dreams rallies this vibrant and tight-knit community. At the intersection of it all is the likable, magnetic bodega owner Usnavi (Anthony Ramos), who saves every penny from his daily grind as he hopes, imagines and sings about a better life. ‘In the Heights’ fuses Lin-Manuel Miranda’s kinetic music and lyrics with director Jon M. Chu’s lively and authentic eye for storytelling to capture a world very much of its place, but universal in its experience. This is everything a movie musical should be - a gorgeous spectacle with likeable leads and memorable characters - a tasty ‘coquito’ (traditional Puerto Rican drink) in the summer heat.

USA 2021 Jon M. Chu 143m

Advance Tickets £10 (£12 on the day if available)  

Kids £7 (£8 on the day if available)

Sat 7 Aug 20:45 (approx) at Priory Park  

PRIORY PARK OPEN AIR SCREENINGS

- The only Open-Air events where the films are screened from equipment just as you would get in a cinema. (Not from a DVD/BluRay).

- The Screen is huge, and most importantly, stable (i.e. not inflatable).

- The screenings take place at Chichester's beautiful Priory Park.

- They form part of the prestigious Chichester International Film Festival.

OPEN AIR SCREENINGS AT PRIORY PARK:

Book early.

Sold Out in 2016, 2017, 2018 & 2019!

Musical Entertainment from 19:45 - Gates open 19:00

Films start at Dusk (app. 20:45) Bring a Picnic Blanket or Chair, and a Picnic Basket filled with your favourite goodies.

Fenwick's Café will be open for Drinks & Snacks

Live recording

With one of the finest scores ever written by Rodgers & Hammersmith including; Whistle a Happy Tune, Getting to Know You and Shall We Dance. Winner of 4 Tony Awards, including Best Musical Revival.

Featuring a company of over 50 world-class performers, The King and I is a testament to the lavish heritage of gloriously romantic musical theatre made famous by the Hollywood classic of 1956 starring Yul Brynner. Making their West End debuts are the original Broadway stars; reprising her Tony Award-winning performance as ‘Broadway musical’s undisputed Queen’ (The Sunday Times), Kelli O’Hara (Anna), Tony and Oscar nominee Ken Watanabe (The King).

Set in 1860's Bangkok, the musical tells the story of the unconventional and tempestuous relationship that develops between the King of Siam and Anna, a British schoolteacher whom the modernist King, in an imperialistic world, brings to Siam to teach his many wives and children.

180m approx including interval

Ticjets £17.50 (Friends/Students £15)

Casting, choreography, songs, and story all come together ‘In the Heights’ to offer pure joy in modern movie musical form.

The film of the summer, where the streets are made of music and little dreams become big. Lights up on Washington Heights... The scent of a cafecito caliente hangs in the air just outside of the 181st

Street subway stop, where a kaleidoscope of dreams rallies this vibrant and tight-knit community. At the intersection of it all is the

likable, magnetic bodega owner Usnavi (Anthony Ramos), who saves every penny from his daily grind as he hopes, imagines and sings about a better life. ‘In the Heights’ fuses Lin-Manuel Miranda’s kinetic music and lyrics with director Jon M. Chu’s lively and authentic eye for storytelling to capture a world very much of its place, but universal in its experience. This is everything a

movie musical should be - a gorgeous spectacle with likeable leads and memorable characters - a tasty ‘coquito’ (traditional

Puerto Rican drink) in the summer heat.

USA 2021 Jon M. Chu 143m

Welcome to the jam at Priory Park, where global NBA superstar LeBron James teams up with Bugs Bunny and the rest of the Looney Tunes for our family film open air screening.

When LeBron and his young son Dom (Cedric Joe) are trapped in a digital space by a rogue A.I., LeBron must get them home safe by leading Bugs, Lola Bunny and the whole gang of notoriously undisciplined Looney Tunes to victory over the A.I.’s digitized champions on the court: a powered-up roster of professional basketball stars as you’ve never seen them before. It is Tunes versus Goons in the highest-stakes challenge of his life, that will redefine LeBron’s bond with his son and shine a light on the power of being yourself. The ready-for-action Tunes destroy convention, supercharge their unique talents and surprise even “King” James by playing the game their own way.

USA 2021 Malcolm D. Lee

Advance Tickets £10 (£12 on the day if available)  

Kids £7 (£8 on the day if available)

Sun 8 Aug 20:45 (approx) at Priory Park  

PRIORY PARK OPEN AIR SCREENINGS

- The only Open-Air events where the films are screened from equipment just as you would get in a cinema. (Not from a DVD/BluRay).

- The Screen is huge, and most importantly, stable (i.e. not inflatable).

- The screenings take place at Chichester's beautiful Priory Park.

- They form part of the prestigious Chichester International Film Festival.

OPEN AIR SCREENINGS AT PRIORY PARK:

Book early. Sold Out in 2016, 2017, 2018 & 2019!

Musical Entertainment from 19:45 - Gates open 19:00

Films start at Dusk (app. 20:45) Bring a Picnic Blanket or Chair, and a Picnic Basket filled with your favourite goodies.

Fenwick's Café will be open for Drinks & Snacks

25th Anniversary Show

Filmed live in Dublin exactly 25 years to the day when it all began, the event includes a special introduction and fascinating backstage footage and interviews.

Riverdance originally burst on to the world stage in Dublin when it premiered during the interval of the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest and overnight became a worldwide phenomenon. It’s celebrated for its Grammy award-winning score and the thrilling energy and passion of its Irish and international dance. Over the last 25 years, Riverdance has performed live to an audience of over 27.5 million. In 2020, Riverdance 25th Anniversary Show will be a powerful and stirring reinvention of the family favourite with innovative and spectacular lighting, projection, stage and costume designs. 120m inc interval.

Tickets £15 (£12.50 Friends/Students)

Je Ne Rêve Que de Vous

Teenage Jeanne Reichenbach fell in love with Socialist premier Leon Blum, who had led a French Popular Front government in the 1930s. Now that he is in the Buchenwald camp after the German invasion, she risks her life to find him.

‘Janot’ Reichenbach (Elsa Zylberstein) fell in love with Blum (Hippolyte Girardot) when she was only sixteen. Years later, when they could finally be together, the Nazis arrived in France. Janot, determined to stay close to Blum, refuses to follow her family as they flee the country, while her love-interest, Blum, is pursued by the Nazis. This touching historical drama follows Janot in her decision to abandon her comfortable life and risk everything to be by Blum’s side. Chichester Cinema at New Park is proud to continue our partnership with UK Jewish Film. (Subtitles)

France 2019 Laurent Heynemann 105m

UK Premiere       

We are delighted to open the 29th Chichester International Film Festival with the UK premiere of this wonderful British film starring Timothy Spall and Phyllis Logan. A touching story of an old man who crosses the country just using local buses.

A heart-warming tale of Tom (Timothy Spall), a pensioner whose wife Mary (Phyllis Logan) has just passed away, who travels from Britain's most Northerly point, John O'Groats, to his original home town at its most Southerly point, Land's End, using his free bus pass. He carries with him his wife's ashes in a small suitcase, travelling the length of the country to take her back home. Along the way, his adventures are recorded by the people he meets and helps, and by the end of his trip he has unwittingly become a social media celebrity.

UK 2021 Gillies MacKinnon 86m

It gives us great pleasure to welcome Timothy Spall & Phyllis Logan to open the Festival with the British Premiere of their film.

Our thanks to Parkland Entertainment for this screening.

How do a married couple rekindle their relationship and, in the process, become reconciled with their estranged daughter?

More than thirty years after they met as young scientists doing research on an isolated shore, Celice and her husband Joseph return to Baritone Bay, where the wildlife, including the rare species of bird which he discovered, is threatened by development.  When they disappear, their daughter, Syl, reluctantly joins the hunt. As their fate becomes clear she herself makes a discovery that will change her life.  Based on the novel by Jim Crace, John Meyers’ film is handsomely photographed and scored by his son, Ben.

USA 2020 John Meyers 99m

Bertrand Tavernier writes and directs this very personal documentary which looks at some of the most influential figures from French cinema during a period of 40 years up to the late 1970s.

Tavernier examines the French filmmakers that most inspired him in his youth (Jacques Becker, Marcel Carné and Jean Renoir), his favourite actors (Jean Gabin, Eddie Constantine and Lino Ventura), film composers (Maurice Jaubert and Joseph Kosma), Jean-Pierre Melville, who he worked as an assistant for, and the films he promoted when working as a publicist for Georges de Beauregard's Rome-Paris Films. It also includes an appreciation of the little known and appreciated Edmond T. Gréville and concludes with his admiration for Claude Sautet. Featuring archive clips (often beautifully restored) and rare behind-the-scenes footage. This is fascinating viewing and a privileged insight to the memories of a great film-maker and film lover. (Subtitles)

France 2016 Bertrand Tavernier 201m  

The work, lives, and personal journeys of two American literary giants coalesce with creative combustion in this innovative dual-portrait documentary.

Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote, two of America’s most famous Southern writers, were not the greatest of friends. Their paths crossed meaningfully, however, at times leading to “bitchery”, as Williams put it deliciously, but also to genuine appreciation for each other’s work. Their camaraderie and rivalry get an intelligent treatment in Lisa Immordino Vreeland’s scrupulous documentary. In the end, both men are beaten down by critics, and they reconcile out of what seems like mutual respect. Vreeland’s documentary bears out the truth that, for galvanic stars whose demons fuel their work, fame always comes at a price, and happiness proves fleeting. Interviews by Dick Cavett, and David Frost.                                                                  

USA 2021 Lisa Immordino Vreeland 86m

An intimate look at the life and work of Greek American opera singer Maria Callas, as told in her own words.

Documentary film that for the first time tells the life story of legendary Greek/American opera singer Maria Callas, completely in her own words. Tom Volf’s account, which took four years of painstaking research to assemble, includes performances, TV interviews, home movies, family photographs, private letters and unpublished memoires – nearly all of which have never been seen before. ‘Maria by Callas’ reveals the essence of an extraordinary woman who rose from humble beginnings in New York City to become a glamorous international superstar and one of the greatest artists of all time. The film transports you into the world of a great artist. Jean Cocteau, Brigitte Bardot, Edward and Wallis, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, are among those seen coming to hear her sing. (Some subtitles)

France 2018 Tom Volf 119m

Ich Bin Dein Mensch - New Release

Alma, a scientist, is to live with a humanoid robot, created to make her happy in Maria Schrader’s immensely enjoyable picture.

Alma (Maren Eggert) is a scientist at the famous Pergamon Museum in Berlin. In order to obtain research funds for her work, she is persuaded to participate in an extraordinary study. For three weeks, she has to live with a humanoid robot (Dan Stevens) tailored to her character and needs, whose artificial intelligence is designed to be the perfect life partner for her. When the odd couple begins to cohabit, the robot is a catalyst for self-reflection and self-doubt in this comedy-drama that’s as thought-provoking as it is funny. A comic-tragic tale about the questions of love, longing and what makes a human being human, this is a sensationally funny and gentle science-fictional German rom-com. (Subtitles)

Germany 2020 Maria Schrader 105m

Our thanks to Curzon for this film.

A positive exploration of dementia using an actual case study while constructing a life through home movies, and dramatized reconstruction of family memories.

The life of Sadan Ünüvar is shown intertwined with the information about Alzheimer's disease, her diagnoses, the speeches of specialists, the importance of caregivers and early diagnosis as well as the influence of Alzheimer's disease on her life. The project started in 2013 with her diagnosis of Alzheimer's and was mostly shot in Sadan Ünüvar's own house in Kadıköy Moda. Scientific support was received from the Alzheimer's Association from the beginning of the shoot. Alzheimer's disease consists of 3 basic stages. The aim was to take important and specific images of these stages of the disease, to feed them into documentary fiction and make people knowledgeable about Alzheimer's while telling an immersive life story, rather than to squeeze people into a didactic narrative. The result shows the extraordinary relationship between her doctor and this vigorous and humorous 90-year-old woman. (Subtitles)  

Turkey 2020 Göksel Gülensoy 90m

New Release  

A nearly unrecognizable Johnny Depp plays Life war photographer W. Eugene Smith in this earnest look at his mission to document a pollution-ravaged Japanese community.

In documenting what came to be known as Minamata disease, Smith showed the world what toxic chemicals were doing to a community, paving the way for a different kind of war, one of personal political activism carried forward by Andrew Levitas’ impressive  look at this high-impact last-act triumph in Smith’s career. The drama finds him in his declining years, drunk, depressed, impossible to work with – and of course ripe for redemption. By chance, he finds himself befriended by Japanese-American Aileen (Minami Hinase) who alerts him to an environmental atrocity in Japan that he could do something about, if he chose to rouse himself from his grumpy self-indulgent ennui. ‘Minamata’ is a forthright, heartfelt movie, an old-fashioned “issue picture” with a worthwhile story to tell about how communities can stand up to overweening corporations and how journalists dedicated to truthful news can help them. Great support from master composer Ryuichi Sakamoto in top form.  

UK/USA/Japan 2020 Andrew Levitas 115m

Two teenage girls are charged with murder after posting images of their crime on social media.

Based on a true story, this troubling film was shot on mobile phones by the principal actors themselves. Fuelled by drink, drugs and the addiction of simply making a mark in an otherwise vacuous existence, the girls (Rebecca McDiarmid and Brodie Young) win the confidence of, and then mete out extreme violence on, a helpless stranger. This climactic unpleasantness is redeemed to some extent by the veracity and energy of the performances and, crucially, by the film’s warning about the malignity rife on the Internet.  

Warning: Scenes of disturbing violence

UK 2019 Michael Frank 88m

‘Nashville’ follows a host of colourful characters – musicians, agents, fans, journalists, politicians, locals – during the city’s three-day country music festival in Robert Altman’s magnum opus.

A milestone in American cinema and of the key films of the 1970s, Robert Altman's ‘Nashville’ is one of the most influential and dazzling films ever made. Weaving together the stories and interactions of twenty-four major characters with astonishing fluidity, this audacious, epic vision of America circa 1975 has lost none of its freshness or excitement. Taking place over five days in the nation's music capital Nashville, Tennessee, the film follows two-dozen characters struggling for fulfilment, both personal and professional, amongst a backdrop of country and gospel musicians, outsider political campaigning, and the peripheries of life in between, building from one encounter at a time to create a wide-ranging tapestry of rich drama and human comedy.

Featuring an exhilarating central vein of musical performances (written in character by many of the actors themselves), and a phenomenal cast including Ned Beatty, Karen Black, Keith Carradine, Geraldine Chaplin, Shelley Duvall, Scott Glenn, Jeff Goldblum, Michael Murphy and Lily - now gloriously restored in 4K.

USA 1975 Robert Altman 160m

In 2017, as the last elements of ISIS were being cleared out of Mosul, a documentary team went to work.

The result is a harrowing portrait of the devastation in Iraq’s second largest city and of how the ‘brutal fingers’ of war touch ordinary people. All the more powerful for its discretion, this confident film, sheds light on a significant period of recent history with humanity at its core.  It is also a rarity, coming as it does from a cinema little known outside its own land. (Subtitles)

Iraq 2019 Horen Ghareeb/Hardi Qadir Ibrahim 69m

A mild-mannered watchmaker discovers that his son has murdered a local factory foreman. He befriends the investigating officer and tries to understand the motivations behind his son’s crime.

This film is a beautifully crafted, technically brilliant effort with a script and great acting to match. Director Bertrand Tavernier’s debut film fashions a subtle, conservative character study inserted into the framework of a crime story, based upon a George Simenon novel. It is a study of an ageing, middle-class clockmaker with a downcast disposition, played, or rather inhabited, by Philippe Noiret. This unremarkable man is stunned to find out that his only son has been arrested for murder. Tavernier’s recreation of Lyons is novel after a decade of Paris overkill, and you can feel the post-1968 political tension, the alarming shift to the right, and the straying of decent men into violence. (Subtitles)

France 1974 Bertrand Tavernier 105m

Die Getriebenen (The Driven Ones) - UK Premiere  

Angela Merkel’s decision in Autumn 2015 to open the borders for refugees split the country – some praised the moral stance; others criticized the surrender of sovereignty. This film is a non-fiction thriller on her state of mind as a refugee crisis changed the relationship between chancellor and her people.

Yet what would appear to be well-planned activity is in reality a policy of muddling along, chance, trial and error. ‘The Driven Ones’ is a chronicle of the refugee crisis which shows that the political actors are being driven along, crushed between self-imposed constraints and events that have spun out of control. The film develops a certain pull, a dramaturgy of simultaneity. In some places the screen is divided into several frames, which emphasize the interconnectedness of the various decisions and their protagonists who have to react on the spur of the moment. Imogen Kogge’s portrayal of Angela Merkel is particularly reminiscent of Helen Mirren’s Elizabeth II in Stephen Frears’ ‘The Queen’, a mixture of the private with the public and the professional is inevitable. (Subtitles)

Germany 2020 Stephan Wagner 118m

Our thanks to Bavarian Media for this film.

An illustrated talk by Patrick Hargood and Sandy Guthrie from Chichester Cinema at New Park’s Education team.

Collect a laissez-passer (safe conduct pass) to the films of Bertrand Tavernier at this year’s Film Festival and discover the astonishing variety of his work, encompassing an extraordinary range of genres, settings, and themes. Crime films, period dramas, science fiction, the war film, social realism, political satire and the swashbuckler are among the genres he tackled but there are common themes, threads and styles in his work and this talk will attempt to identify some of them, including a generous selection of clips. Tavernier despised labels and categories but we will attempt to identify the distinctive qualities of his cinema. 120m

NB. Preceding this illustrated talk there will be a separate screening of Tavernier’s debut film ‘The Watchmaker of St Paul’ in the (Studio) at 12:30.

The first film, centres on Frank Crichlow (Shaun Parkes), the owner of Notting Hill’s Caribbean restaurant Mangrove, a lively community base for locals, intellectuals and activists.

1970 - the local police raid Mangrove time after time, making Frank and the local community take to the streets in peaceful protest. When nine men and women, including Frank and leader of the British Black Panther Movement Altheia Jones-LeCointe (Letitia Wright) and activist Darcus Howe (Malachi Kirby) are wrongly arrested and charged with incitement to riot, a highly publicised trial ensues, leading to hard-fought win for those fighting against discrimination.

BBC TV 2020 Steve McQueen 127m

Mon 16 Aug 21.00 (Auditorium)

El Suspiro del Silencio

Set in the coffee fields of Latin America, the movie unfolds through the eyes of Josefina Moreno, an 18 year-old coffee picker, with a rare and amazing sense of smell.

She begins to learn all about the craft with the help of her godmother (Mercy Flores) and the owner of the coffee plantation (Boris Barraza), where she was newly hired. In the meantime, her younger brother, Alfredo Moreno (William Castillo), bursts out of control and ends up in jail. Alfredo, looking for revenge for the brutal rape of his sister, manages to convince two hoodlums to rob and kill Don Gilberto (Fernando Gaviria), the perpetrator - however, their plans go horribly wrong. The owner of the plantation tries to help Josefina get her brother out of this desperate situation. Now, with hope on the horizon, Josefina leads the way to the top coffee tasting competitions in the country. However, destiny has other plans for Josefina’s hopes and dreams. (Subtitles)

El Salvador/Canada/Colombia 2020 Alfonso Quijada 96m

Our thanks to Phoenix Films for this film.

A celebrated fashion designer returns from Moscow to the remote northern town from which he escaped ten years ago.

His intended triumphal visit, arranged by the mayor to mark the centenary of the local House of Culture, turns into something approaching a nightmare as he confronts the horrors of his childhood: the classmates who mocked him at school; the teacher who scored him with a ‘Fail’ and the chaos of his own family. This irresistible black comedy, with vivid imagery and strong performances, is the first feature from its director, herself a prominent fashion designer. (Subtitles)

Russia 2019 Jana Nedzvetskaya 83m

A woman working as a film censor in the 80s is shocked to discover a horror movie that recreates a traumatic incident from her childhood. Brit-horror at its creepy best.

Enid spends her days trawling through horrible films, watching violence and gore and deciding what to pass and what to censor. But Enid is haunted by a childhood trauma the disappearance of her sister only recently declared dead. While watching a nasty movie called Don’t Go Into the Church she recognises scenes from the film as horrifying flashbacks to the incident from her past. Do the filmmakers hold the key to the mystery? “With production designer Paulina Rzeszowska and cinematographer Annika Summerson, Bailey-Bond creates something almost unbearably close and oppressive, like the bottom of a murky fish tank. It’s a very elegant and disquieting debut.” The Guardian

UK 2021 Prano Bailey-Bond 84m

British POWs are forced to build a railway bridge across the river Kwai for their Japanese captors, not knowing that the allied forces are planning to destroy it. Malcolm Arnold won an Oscar for his marvellous film score

Based on the true story of the building of a bridge on the Burma railway by British prisoners-of-war held under a savage Japanese regime in World War II, this is one of the greatest war films ever made. The film received seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Director, Performance (Alex Guinness), for Sir Malcolm Arnold's superb music, and for the screenplay from the novel by Pierre Boulle. The story does take considerable liberties with history, including the addition of an American saboteur played by William Holden, and an entirely fictitious but superbly constructed and thrilling finale. Made on a vast scale, the film reinvented the war movie as something truly epic, establishing the cinematic beachhead for ‘The Longest Day’ (1962), ‘Patton’ (1970) and ‘A Bridge Too Far’ (1977). Showing in a digitally restored print.                        

UK/USA 1957 David Lean 161m

The dramatic story of a family in rural Turkey dealing with the intergenerational clash of traditions and ambitions.

The orphaned teenager Burak has been brought up by his uncle, Cemil, and his grandmother on a smallholding in rural Turkey. While Cemil contents himself with a primitive life of religious observance, his nephew dreams of the city and university; but he must settle for running a roadside fruit stall.   When the grandmother falls seriously ill, tough decisions are required for both man and boy. Minimal dialogue and striking photography add to the mood of quiet desolation in this impressive directorial debut. (Subtitles)

Turkey 2020 Sevgi Hirschhäuser 106m

Lo Sceicco Bianco

A charming screwball comedy in which Ivan brings his new bride to Rome to introduce her to his family, but Wanda is more interested in meeting The White Sheik - hero of her favourite fotoromanzo.

An early film from Fellini, with a script by Antonioni ‘The White Sheik’ tells the story of a newlywedded couple’s honeymoon that turns into disaster when the virginal bride runs away in search of the eponymous hero, a soap-opera actor who fulfils her naïve romantic ideals. With his first solo effort, parting ways with Rossellini but not entirely from neo-realism, he went back to one of his passions — comic-book writing. ‘The White Sheik’ is one of Fellini's funniest films that deals with the relationship between fantasy and reality with a satirical deft touch. (Subtitles)

Italy 1952 Federico Fellini 86m

MALCOLM ARNOLD - A STORY OF SURVIVAL

Tony Palmer’s illuminating documentary won the audience award for best documentary when it was first premiered at the Chichester International Film Festival in 2004.

This documentary celebrates Malcolm Arnold, one of Britain's most underestimated and yet most popular composers, who wrote scores to altogether 132 films including 'Whistle Down the Wind', 'Hobson's Choice' and the Oscar winning 'Bridge Over the River Kwai'. Sir Malcolm also composed ballets, symphonies and operas. The film features interviews with friends and family, and includes extracts from his works, however, it does not shirk the darker side of Arnold's life full of complications caused by mental illness.

We are delighted to welcome Tony Palmer to introduce his documentary

UK 1910 Tony Palmer 133m

Every Sunday, an old painter living in the country is visited by his son Gonzague, and his wife and his three children. Then, his daughter Irene arrives, and tensions begin to rise.

‘A Sunday in the Country’ is exactly that – the action takes place on a single day, and mostly in the house and garden of the artist Monsieur Lamiral (Louis Ducreux) An elderly widower, he lives alone except for Sunday, the day when his son and family visit from Paris. On the face of it nothing much happens, apart from the unexpected arrival of his daughter, and yet by the end we know much more about these characters, and their relationships with each other. ‘A Sunday in the Country’ has a haunting, sweet, sad quality. It is about this family, and many families. It is told by Tavernier with great attention to detail, and the details add up to the way life is. (Subtitles)

France 1984 Bertrand Tavernier 90m  

Adieu les Cons - New Release

A French comedy-drama that morphs into an unexpected romance-drama, where an unlikely trio set off on a hilarious and poignant helter-skelter journey through Paris in search of a long-lost child.

A seriously ill woman tries to find her long-lost child with the help of a man in the middle of a burnout, and a blind archivist. The film follows Suze Trappet (Virginie Efira), a 45-year-old hairdresser diagnosed with an auto-immune disease that leaves her little time to live. Her longing (and now dying) wish is to meet the child she gave up for adoption when she was merely 15-years-old. On her madcap bureaucratic quest she crosses paths with JB (Albert Dupontel), a 50-year-old man in the middle of a burnout, and Mr. Blin (Nicolas Marié), a blind archivist prone to overenthusiasm. With its autumn-coloured grading, cleverly linked dialogue and successful running jokes, writer director Albert Dupontel creates a heart-warming film that touches on themes of life, death, and love. (Subtitles)

France 2021 Albert Dupontel 87m

Our thanks to Curzon for this screening.

‘What does a perfect life look like? Do I want too much? Am I too greedy?’ These are perhaps the central questions posed by Johannes Suhm in his impressive adaptation of a 2009 stage play about a corrosive and ambivalent father-son relationship.  

This is a story about male hubris, repressed feelings, unconscious depression and the hard struggle for success in a world where fragility has no place. At times painful to watch, the film is carried by energetic direction, gritty photography and outstanding performances.  One concludes that in circumstances such as those experienced by the principals, the answer to questions two and three is ‘Yes’. Above all, redemption is hard won. (Subtitles)

Germany 2020 Johannes Suhm 80m

The fortunes of two boxers are used as an allegory for the challenges facing people of colour and immigrants in the United States.

This absorbing documentary, shot entirely at a gym in the small town of Conroe, Texas, follows a small boy and a young woman as they prepare for their respective fights.  It is not a film about boxing; it is, rather, a study of dedication, even desperation, through unpacking the concept of American optimism and the unrealistic expectations that accompany it. Their struggles are mirrored by that of the gym itself, which is threatened with closure.

USA 2020 Wojciech Lorenc 89m

New Release

Ben Sharrock’s delicious culture-clash chamber piece finds the wit as well as the heartache in four migrants’ exile to the dampest corner of Europe.

Written and directed by Ben Sharrock, ‘Limbo’ exquisitely explores the experience of asylum seekers. The film is staggeringly poignant and thoughtful as it weaves together a story of a Syrian refugee who is stuck in, well, limbo. Omar can’t go back to his past life in Syria, where it’s still in the throes of civil war and devastating human loss, but he doesn’t know what’s in store for his future. The film is set on an unnamed remote island in Scotland. Population: very few. Omar (the brilliant Amir El-Masry) is awaiting news on his asylum papers - whether or not they are approved could change his life even more than it already has. He keeps in touch with his parents, who are now living in Turkey, over the phone, while his estranged brother remained in Syria to fight in the war. ‘Limbo’ handles its themes with enormous grace, balancing despair with levity and a realism that makes this drama emotionally intense and worthwhile.  

UK 2020 Ben Sharrock 103m

Our thanks to MUBI for this screening.

Ten years after the end of the Spanish Civil War partisans continue to fight in the mountains against the Fascists.

In a village down on the plains their womenfolk suffer, too, from repression and crises of conscience. This thoughtful film, made almost exclusively in black and white, repays our concentration throughout long takes with striking imagery and an unconventional approach to a familiar theme. As the director puts it: ‘In every house there is a conflict that nobody wants to talk about.’ And there is not a man to be seen. (Subtitles)

Spain 2020 Rubén Buren 107m

A care-free girl (Giulietta Masina) is sold to a travelling entertainer, consequently enduring physical and emotional pain along the way.

Sold by her impoverished mother to Zampanò (Anthony Quinn), a brutish fairground wrestler, waif-like Gelsomina (Giulietta Masina) lives a life of drudgery as his assistant. After taking to the road with a travelling circus, a budding relationship with Il Matto, a gentle, tightrope walking clown, offers a potential refuge from her master’s clutches. Trapped by her own servile nature, Gelsomina waivers, and Zampano’s volcanic temper erupts with tragic consequences. ’La Strada’ is a simple but beautifully crafted story that transcends itself to encompass the big themes in life: love, hope, loneliness, regret, loss and dreams. Masina is mesmeric and the final scene, with Quinn’s Zampanò briefly gazing up at the sky, is mysterious and unbearably moving. (Subtitles)

Italy 1954 Federico Fellini 104m

UK Premiere

In a country where it is forbidden for women and girls to play music, a group of young women risk their lives every day to pursue their passion, both for music and gender equality in Afghanistan.  

‘Sisters’ follows UK musician, Dan Blackwell to Kabul to meet Afghanistan's first ever female orchestra, 'Zohra'. How and why do these young women risk their lives to play classical music? Are these brave women paving the way for the future of equality in Afghanistan? What threats do they face? ‘Sisters’ looks into the lives of the Zohra members and their two young leaders - Negin Khpalwak and Zarifa Adiba. Negin sticks with and leads Zohra as the country's first female conductor despite multiple death threats and family disputes. Zarifa is nowhere to be seen until Dan tracks her down. Discovering her precarious situation, Dan stays with her as she prepares to flee Afghanistan leaving close friends and family behind.

UK/Afghanistan 2021 Dan Blackwell 80m

We hope to welcome the producer Tony Klinger to introduce his film.

Our thanks to Tony Klinger and Phoenix Films for this film.

UK Premiere

The protagonist, after years spent in war-torn Syria, decides to return to Italy, to finally put behind his terrible experiences, and regain his life. But in order to do so, he will have to pay a very high price.

‘Code: Karim’, like the film ‘Traitor’ (2008) which also follows an undercover Muslim secret agent, opens up the discussion about the role of the Muslim identity working to capture terrorist groups. But what crimes and sins must be committed in getting to the position to help the security services? There are never simple answers to these complex questions, and this film touches on these topics, but it is mainly an action thriller. The story moves at a fast pace, the directing is sharp, the cinematography and editing are most very well done, and the film looks very polished for its budget. The performance of Mohamed Zouaoui, the title character, is charismatic, subtle, and unmissable - a combination of Omar Sharif’s talent and Steve McQueen’s charisma!. (Subtitles)

Italy/Syria 2021 Federico Alotto 103m

Our thanks to Minerva Sales for this film.

Mixing the historic and the Romanesque, the film charts a military debacle as well as the revelation of a destiny.

May 1940. France is facing a disastrous military situation against the German army. De Gaulle (Lambert Wilson), newly appointed General, joins the Government in Paris while Yvonne (Isabelle Carré), his wife, and their three children remain in the East. Faced with the defeatist attitude of Marshal Pétain who wants to negotiate with Hitler, de Gaulle has one intention only: to continue fighting. Alongside thousands of French families, Yvonne and the children are soon forced to flee the advancing German troops. Without any contact, doubt arises: will the de Gaulle family be sacrificed for the sake of France? (Subtitles)  

France 2019 Gabriel Le Bomin 105m

La Nuit Venue

Paris, 2018. Jin (Guang Huo), a young undocumented immigrant, drives at night in a fraudulent taxi scheme for the Chinese mafia in order to pay his ‘debt’.

His rides are punctuated by sophisticated electro music, a vestige of his past as a DJ in Beijing. One night, the bewitching Noémie (Camélia Jordana) climbs aboard his taxi. Intrigued by Jin’s silence and aura, transported by his music, she decides to make him her appointed driver for her night activities. The love story that develops between them pushes Jin to break some rules and attempt to set himself free. Using classic ingredients of film noir (the criminal gang, the femme fatale, the twists of fate, the dead end, the risky choices taken to find a way out, etc), Frédéric Farrucci unveils a cruel society of man’s exploitation by man, to a César awarded score composed by Rone. (Subtitles)

France 2020 Frédéric Farrucci 95m

Lovers Rock tells a fictional story of young love at a Blues party in 1980. Intoxicating and nostalgic loaded with tactile, sensuous storytelling.

The film is an ode to the romantic reggae genre, Lovers Rock, and to the young black people who found freedom and love in its sound in London house parties when they were unwelcome in white nightclubs.  Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn makes her screen debut opposite the Bafta’s 2020 Rising Star award recipient Michael Ward (‘Top Boy’). Shaniqua Okwok (‘Boy’s), Kedar Williams-Stirling (‘Sex Education’), Ellis George (‘Dr Who’), Alexander James-Blake (‘Top Boy’), and Kadeem Ramsay (‘Blue Story’) also star, as well as Francis Lovehall and Daniel Francis-Swaby who make their screen debuts.

BBC TV 2020 Steve McQueen 70m

Mon 16 Aug 21.00 (Auditorium)

An ambitious life coach is confronted by a millionaire wishing to demolish the cooperative of garages in which the former keeps his prized Jaguar.

The author of a tutorial ‘Predator Psychology’ an ambitious life coach unexpectedly becomes confronted by a millionaire who wants to demolish the garage cooperative in which he keeps his Jaguar car. Now he has to prove to people who have trust in him that he is able to lead them into battle. Calling yourself a predator you have to be able to show your teeth. A game with no rules begins - blackmail, forgery, kidnapping… and a huge St. Bernard. Problems grow like a large snowball turning the story into a cascade of unforeseen comic situations. (Subtitles)

Russia 2020 Stepan Sokolov 88m

Eight-year-old Tarik has survived a car accident in which his father died. His mother lies in hospital, in a coma.

The family lived in the city, but now he is with his grandparents in a village where the limit of his horizon is the care of an orphaned donkey foal. He has no memory of the crash and his past exists only in fragments in his dreams. A fascinating melding of social realism and magical realism, Murat Çeri’s first feature, based on a true story, has already been lauded at several festivals, not least for its often lyrical photography. (Subtitles)

Turkey 2020 Murat Çeri 100m

Le Notti Di Cabiria

A waifish prostitute wanders the streets of Rome looking for true love but finding only heartbreak. Fellini’s classic visual study of romantic resilience and faith in human nature.

Practising the world's oldest profession against the archaeological backdrop of Rome's Parco di Porta Capena, the trusting and stubbornly optimistic streetwalker, Cabiria, (Giulietta Masina) refuses to lose faith in love. After escaping death by the skin of her teeth, hurt, and momentarily disenchanted, Cabiria continues to confront life with a mixture of naivety and arrogance, lurching from one improbable relationship to another. A brief dalliance with a film star affords her a brief glimpse of how the other half live. ‘Nights of Cabiria’ is a depiction of one person’s circumstances, whether created through her own doing or by bad luck, and how Cabiria must continue to struggle for the attainment of a dignified life. (Subtitles)

Italy/France 1957 Federico Fellini 110m

Hine Anachnu - New Release      

Aaron has devoted his life to caring for his autistic son, Uri. Together they’ve settled into a comfortable routine, but Uri is beginning to reach adulthood with the authorities questioning whether Aaron is capable of handling Uri’s growing needs.

Despite Aaron’s protests, it is decided that Uri is to be moved into a specialised home facility for young adults. Knowing that Uri isn’t ready to be separated from him, Aaron decides to run away with his son. Together, they embark on an adventure of self-discovery and Aaron begins to learn that it was perhaps he who is not ready to be separated from Uri. Noam Imber is thoroughly convincing in the role of Uri and his performance is so real that it often feels like a documentary while Avivi handles the role of his father with grace and sensitivity. Though the story may not sound uplifting, in Bergman’s skilful hands, its sadness is balanced with humour and buoyed by the strength and dignity of its characters. This was to be shown at the 2020 Cannes Film Festival, but, unfortunately, it was cancelled due to the pandemic. (Subtitles)

Israel 2020 Nir Bergman 94m

Tout simplement Noir

In this politically incorrect comedy for which Jean-Pascal Zadi was awarded the Most Promising Actor César, JP, a wannabe actor, decides to organise the first large Black-Lives-Matter style protest in France to fight what he perceives as bigotry and racism.

As he comically struggles to put together his march, which is set to take place in Paris’ Place de la République, he makes various encounters, often burlesque, sometimes tragic, with members of the community, activists, the police. ‘Simply Black’ is funny throughout; the mockumentary angle works, but every laugh gained comes with a pinch of salt because there is an element of truth behind each calamity that Jean-Pascal Zadi experiences. (Subtitles)

France 2020 John Wax and Jean-Pascal Zadi 90m

English Premiere

A boy, a building, and a looming big bang: Out of these elements, French directors Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh create a wondrous debut feature.

It derives such a crackle of authenticity from the physical reality of its setting that its starry-eyed metaphysics seem uncannily plausible too. A fiction set and shot around a real event - the August 2019 demolition of the huge Cité Gagarine, a 370-apartment housing project in Ivry-sur-Seine on the outskirts of Paris. Gagarine is a dream built from debris, a rocket ship made from rubble, and a touching tribute to stratospheric aspirations thriving against the odds in even the most maligned and marginalized communities. We may be in the suburbs, but some of us are looking at the stars. (Subtitles)

France 2021 Fanny Liatard/Jérémy Trouilh 98m

Our thanks to Curzon for this screening.

A black British man who in the 1980s abandoned a career in science to become a police officer, despite – or in some agonisingly redemptive sense, because of – the fact that his father was once beaten up by racists in uniform.

When he sees his father assaulted by two policemen, he finds himself driven to revisiting a childhood ambition to become a police officer - an ambition borne from the naïve hope of wanting to change racist attitudes from within. First, Leroy must face the consequences of his father’s disapproval, never mind the blatant racism he finds in his new role as a despised - yet exemplary - Constable in the Metropolitan Police Force. John Boyega and Steve Toussaint star.

BBC TV 2020 Steve McQueen 80m  

Tue 17 Aug 18:30 (Studio)

UK Premiere

An Iranian abduction thriller, ‘The Badger’ follows mother Soodeh Sharifzadegan as she tirelessly gathers a ransom for her kidnapped son Matiar.

Soodeh (Vishka Asayesh) is in the midst of her planning for her second marriage and dealing with her termite-infested rental home. She applies to the U.S visa lottery and hires a termite extermination company that uses badgers to seek out the core of the infestation. Soodeh must confront both her estranged father and ex-husband for help to pay the ransom. In the end, ‘The Badger’ is not what it seems, and the true kidnapper is not who you would expect. Mollaie’s film is brilliantly paced, and he layers his story with foreboding images. A helmeted man on a motorcycle who seems to be following Soodah, the increasing cracks on the wall of her house, the camera constantly circling Soodah as her own cracks begin to show. A smart and incisive thriller and a fascinating look at modern Iran. (Subtitles)

Iran 2020 Kazem Mollaie 93m

A gifted saxophonist with a drinking problem, leaves behind New York and his estranged family and relocates to Paris. Possibly the greatest film ever made about American Jazz- and made by a European!  

In 'Round Midnight,’ real-life jazz legend Dexter Gordon brilliantly portrays the fictional tenor sax player Dale Turner (a hybrid invention of Lester Young and Bud Powell), a musician slowly losing the battle with alcoholism, estranged from his family, and hanging on by a thread in the 1950s New York jazz world. Dale gets an offer to play in Paris, where, like many other black American musicians at the time, he enjoys a respect not based upon the colour of his skin. A Parisian man who is obsessed with Turner's music befriends him and attempts to save Turner from himself. Although for Dale the damage is already done, his poignant relationship with the man and his young daughter re-kindles his spirit and his music as the end draws near. One of the joys in watching this film is spotting who’s who in the cast of supporting musicians, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Wayne Shorter, etc, — a roll call of jazz talent.

France 1986 Bertrand Tavernier 127m

Three postwomen deliver their mail. Each has an amazing story to tell.

This modest triptych is described by its director as ‘a family album, which allows you to plunge into the past, return to childhood, think about the soul’.   Refreshingly devoid of any political agenda, it simply offers a romantic view of what constitutes happiness by reminding us of the important things in life: kindness, friendship, love – and a belief in miracles.  This debut from a director who trained as an actress at St Petersburg Theatre Academy is both unpretentious and visually charming. (Subtitles)

Russia 2020 Svetlana Sukhanova 100m

Probably Fellini’s most acclaimed work. This tale of a harried filmmaker retreating into memories and fantasies strikes the perfect balance between fantasy and reality.

Troubled Italian filmmaker Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni) struggles with creative stasis as he attempts to get a new movie off the ground. Overwhelmed by his work and personal life, the director retreats into his thoughts, which often focus on his loves, both past and present, and frequently wander into fantastical territory. As he tries to sort out his many entanglements, romantic and otherwise, Anselmi finds his production becoming more and more autobiographical. The result is a dazzling array of themes and images which make 8 1/2 the quintessential Fellini movie as well as the most potent movie about filmmaking. (Subtitles)
Italy/France 1963 Federico Fellini 138m

Nolan’s first big-budget, star driven thriller, Insomnia, is a remake of the 1997 Norwegian movie of the same name, relocated to another land of the midnight sun - Alaska.

It sticks in many ways to the template of the original, blending its themes with more familiar Hollywood genre elements, while breathing new life into these conventions. Taking refuge from an Internal Affairs Investigation, LA detectives Will Dormer (Al Pacino) and Hap Eckhart (Martin Donovan) fly to the small town of Nightmute to help the local cops, including the ambitious young Ellie Burr (Hilary Swank), investigate the murder of a schoolgirl. A series of clues points to local thriller writer Walter Finch (Robin Williams), the dead girl’s former secret mentor. The action takes place in midsummer, so the sun never sets, reversing the usual lighting scheme of the classic noir, and acting as a catalyst for the insomnia which afflicts the main characters. Nolan expresses this insomnia with some audacious flourishes of sound and editing and proves his assurance in handling his first big picture.

USA 2002 Christopher Nolan 118m

An inept police chief is humiliated by everyone around him. When things become too much, he decides to take matters into his own hands with deadly results.  

Adapted from the novel “Pop.1280" by Jim Thompson set in North Carolina, this is a riveting noirish film set in Senegal in 1938. At that time, it was a French colony that exhibited similar social and racial patterns as in the American South. Tavernier's black comedy is about a bumbling West African police chief who decides to take revenge on his oppressors. Stationed in a remote town in Senegal, ineffectual police chief Lucien Cordier (Philippe Noiret) is routinely harassed by thugs and nagged by his adulterous wife Huguette (Stéphane Audran). Pushed to the edge, Lucien finally flips, embarking on a killing spree aimed at ridding himself of his tormentors and anyone else who has ever slighted him. Featuring pitch-perfect performances by Philippe Noiret and Isabelle Huppert, this striking noir straddles the line between violence and lyricism with dark humour and visual elegance. (Subtitles) France 1981 Bertrand Tavernier 128m

The fourth and penultimate film in the Small Axe series tells the true story of Alex Wheatle, now a celebrated author, who turned his life around after being jailed over the Brixton riots in 1981.

Having spent his childhood in a mostly white institutional care home with no love or family, he finally finds not only a sense of community for the first time in Brixton, but his identity and opportunity to grow his passion for music and DJing. When he is thrown in prison during the Brixton Uprising of 1981, he confronts his past and sees a path to healing. Sheyi Cole stars opposite Jonathan Jules.

BBC TV 2020 Steve McQueen 66m

Wed 18 Aug 18.15 (Studio)

With elections looming, four journalists from Moscow set out to test the political climate in a remote village with a population of 46.

The local factory used to meet half the entire country’s demand for cardboard, but times are hard and Udarnik now hides a terrible secret.  The culture-clash between the supposedly sophisticated metropolitans and the intensely reticent villagers is conveyed with a clever script and atmospheric photography, showing once again how Russian cinema continues to keep open a prized space for black comedy.  (Subtitles)

Russia 2020 Kirill Kotelnikov 93m

Neidentificat - UK Premiere

An unsolved case. An unknown criminal. An obsessed cop. His investigation plunges him into a world of darkness and violence, pulling everyone around him into a web of destructive passion and revenge.

‘Unidentified’ is the story of Florin, a hot-headed cop (Bogdan Farcas) who grows fixated on cracking open a mysterious case of arson that left two women dead. Determined to pin the blame on a young Romani man (Dragos Dumitru), he begins to lose control, driven less by the evidence than by racism and his cold-blooded pursuit of revenge. As we then learn, Florin (and the film’s narrative structure) has been concealing further unflattering information about his professional and personal life. He is in enormous debt, with the local bank threatening to repossess his car, and his school music teacher wife has left him. These strands afflicting him converge in a climax where his behaviour is almost comically unrealistic. A film torn between competing tones of heightened satire and character-based realism. A dark, propulsive thriller about corruption and racism in Romania’s police force. (Subtitles)

Romania/Latvia/Czech Republic 2020 Bogdan George Apetri 123m

Our thanks to Wide Sales Company for this film.

The lives of ten people intersect. As they do so, images of self are shattered, with inevitable consequences for the protagonists’ sense of purpose.

There are echoes of Schnitzler’s La Ronde in this edgy work from a director who specialises in immersive storytelling. The restless point-of-view camerawork adds to the feeling of subversion and the episodic structure makes demands of the viewer, but the characters and their conflicts ensure that this well-acted and intense psychodrama is well worth our engagement. (Subtitles)

Austria 2020 Gerda Leopold 86m

O2 - UK Premiere

A spy thriller in the John Le Carre mode, about an Estonian intelligence officer, who has to track down a mysterious Soviet double agent on the eve of WWII.

August 23, 1939. The Soviet Union and Hitler’s Germany, bitter enemies so far, shock the world by signing a non-aggression pact. Europe fears an imminent war. At that very moment, an Estonian agent is murdered and a Soviet source claims that there is a mole in their ranks. Feliks Kangur (Priit Võigemast), an Estonian spy in Helsinki, will be assigned to catch the traitor. At the same time, global political and military events start to unfold at a dizzying speed and Feliks finds out that the Red Army has kicked off a secret operation to annex Estonia. But Feliks is also burdened by a secret regarding his lover Maria, a young Polish art historian. (Subtitles)

Estonia 2020 Margus Paju 100m

Our thanks to Kaleidoscope Pictures for this film.

An illuminating documentary focusing on the 2017 staging and rehearsing of Richard Wagner’s opera Die Walküre which will be a reconstructed performance of its 1967 original, conducted by Karajans former student Maestro Christian Thielemann.

The film unveils the story of the foundation of Karajan's personal festival, his passion for Wagner's Ring and for building a historical monument together with legendary stage designer Schneider-Siemssen. In 2017, the festival celebrated its 50th anniversary. The Salzburg Easter Festival is an annual festival of opera and classical music held in Salzburg, Austria during Easter week. For most of the festival's history, the resident orchestra of the Easter Festival has been the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, of which Karajan was music director at the time, with Karajan also serving as the Easter Festival's artistic director. (Subtitles)  

Austria 2017 Hannes M. Schalle 55m

During his military service in 1990’s Southeast Turkey, Ahmet experiences something that will haunt him for the rest of his life.

A beautifully made slow burn drama with excellent production values and performances. Adapted from a Turkish novel, Ahmet, a soldier with PTSD is coming to terms with life as a writer, attempting to fuse painful memories with current reality whilst awaiting surgery for a brain tumour Just as the lines between dream and the reality start to blur, he meets Serap; a ‘mirage’ like the meaning of her name, the love of his life. But time is ticking as his painful past weighs down on him every day, (Subtitles)

Turkey 2020 Uluç Bayraktar 117m

A Holocaust memoir that might not be all it’s cracked up to be. Misha Defonseca’s book is a smash hit but questions arise over its authenticity.

This is the dramatic tale of a woman whose holocaust memoir took the world by storm, but a fallout with her publisher - who turned detective - revealed an audacious deception created to hide a darker truth. There are no winners in the story of Misha Defonseca, a woman who became an international bestselling author by lying about her experience during the Holocaust and turning her tall tale of survival into a memoir. Exploring the lines between naivety and sensitivity, pity and reproach, Sam Hobkinson’s film excels in its selection of contributors – some of them Misha’s friends, others who helped expose the truth – each of whom offers a telling insight into why people often believe what they do. To tell anymore would spoil the shocks and surprises at the heart of Sam Hobkinson's roller coaster film. The combination of archive footage, fresh interviews and extensive dramatic reconstructions is tightly edited. Hobinkson makes the most of a hugely involving story and a collection of fascinating individuals.                        

Belgium/UK 2021 Sam Hobkinson 90m

UK Premiere

A story of renowned Finnish painter Helene Schjerfbeck, and the love affair between her and a younger art critic Einar Reuter.

The movie, set during 1915-1923, opens with a brief prologue showing how Schjerfbeck (Laura Birn) was often underrated and overlooked at that time. We subsequently see Schjerfbeck’s daily life with her old mother in their house. Except for the sincere support from her close friend Helena (Krista Kosonen), Schjerfbeck’s artistic career does not look that optimistic, until well-known art dealer Gösta Stenman (Jarkko Lahti) shows up with a young art critic/amateur painter (Johannes Holopainen), and they extremely impressed by Schjerfbeck’s work. Leisurely gliding us from one small moment to another, the screenplay by director/co-producer/co-writer Antti Jokinen, who adapted the novel thoughtfully and sensitively depicts its heroine’s emotional journey, which is often accompanied with a number of gorgeous visual moments filled with authentic period atmosphere and details. The cinematography by Rauno Ronak is often stunning in its serene poetic beauty unfolded onto the screen. The film ends with examples of her work - an artist who should really be better known. (Subtitles)

Finland 2020 Antti Jokinen 122m

Our thanks to Picture Tree International for this film.

Il Casanova di Federico Fellini      

The myth of Giacomo Casanova, the notorious womaniser, is presented as a pitiable and terrifying figure. A sex scandal lands him in prison, but an escape to Paris provides him a new lease of life.

Fellini’s version of Casanova possesses a rare visual daring and imagination. The film features a breath-taking performance from the sultry Sutherland as the original playboy in his latter days as he travels through Europe engaging in a variety of amorous adventures which mostly take place in 18th century Italy. Giacomo Casanova is a modestly wealthy adventurer who leads a futile existence; his only strengths lie in seduction and sexual performance. His life becomes increasingly meaningless as lovers slip away. The film is loosely based on the biography by Giacomo Casanova himself, although, like all of Fellini's literary adaptations (post ‘8 ½’), the film is decorated with a wreath of absurdity. (Subtitles)    

Italy 1976 Federico Fellini 155m

An Evening with Spike Wells and the QOW Trio

Film and Live Jazz at the Guildhall, Priory Park, Chichester

Spike Wells and the QOW Trio

Live Gig At 8.00

A couple of years ago, I was looking for a new musical adventure and found this in the form of “QOW” (so named after a tune composed by Dewey Redman). Instead of the usual piano trio, This group is formed of tenor saxophone, bass and drums. The saxophonist is the brilliant young virtuoso Riley Stone-Lonergan and the bassist is my old friend Eddie Myer. We play in a deliberately wide range of styles, ranging from the swing era, through be-bop to the avant-garde, slipping in the odd calypso, standard and ballad on the way! Our first CD was recently released on the Ubuntu label to great critical acclaim, and we hope that the cinema audience will really love our music.

A Love Supreme (Adv15)

The story of a creatively driven and spiritually motivated man, this film traces the unique career of Spike Wells, renowned jazz drummer, aka Fr. Michael Wells.

Anglican Spike achieved early success on the drums during the 1960s and 70s with the Tubby Hayes Quartet. He also toured with Stan Getz, Roland Kirk and Ronnie Scott and did stints as house drummer at Ronnie's club. After too many late nights and miles on the motorway, he opted for a secure day job by qualifying as a lawyer, but music didn't take a back seat for long. He was soon back, joining the bands of Peter King and Bobby Wellins. Then another twist. In his mid-40s, a religious conversion led swiftly to the priesthood. After this, he happily combined parish work with his beloved jazz gigs. And still does. The film was first released in 2000 featuring interviews with the drummer, his family, Bobby Wellins and others. This 2020 edit has been updated and extended with additional interviews from Simon Spillett, Art Themen and Wells reflecting on his life to date.

UK 2000/20 Gary Barber 60m

Thu 19 Aug 20:00-22:30

Guildhall, Priory Park, Chichester  

Tickets £15.00 (unreserved)

Following the first instalment of his Batman reboot, Batman Begins, Nolan took on another adaptation, this time of British novelist Christopher Priest’s award-winning tale of rival illusionists in 19th century London.

Christian Bale, Nolan’s Batman, returns for him as Alfred Borden, the working class ‘Professor’ who competes with Hugh Jackman’s Robert Angier, — ‘The Great Danton’ — an aristocratic magician. The supporting cast includes Michael Caine as Cutter, the stage engineer, who explains to Borden’s daughter how magic tricks are founded on a three-act structure: the pledge, the turn and the prestige, Nolan implicitly suggesting that filmmakers are in the great tradition of illusionists. Also featured are Scarlett Johansson as Angier’s assistant and David Bowie as the real-life inventor Nikola Tesla. Nolan employs a deft sleight of camera in a non-linear narrative in which both the audience in the film and the cinema audience are willing dupes in a bravura battle of wits.

USA/UK 2006 Christopher Nolan 131m

Thu 19 Aug 20.30 (Slindon Cinema)

A few families remain in the tower-blocks of a social housing project in Oporto. Their days there are numbered.

As the demolition teams moved into the run-down Aleixo estate to execute part of a ‘gentrification’ programme, André Guiomar began the six-year shoot which resulted in this poignant study of lives being lived under imminent threat from the wrecking-ball. If the first half of the film is a celebration, then the second half is a lamentation. Filmed six years later, it depicts an area that has become a ghost town. The wind howls through empty buildings. ‘Our Land, Our Altar’ is never explicitly political. It allows the viewer to draw their own conclusions but there is no doubting the forces of gentrification and the casual disregard for lives that don’t seem to matter. (Subtitles)

Portugal 2020 André Guiomar 78m

Preview

Based on the true story of the Dutch born Antonia Brico, who in the late 1920’s was the world’s first woman successfully conduct a large symphony orchestra. Another opportunity to see this film which opened the 2018 CIFF as a UK premiere, but still unreleased here.

United States 1926: The Dutch, 24-year-old Antonia Brico (Christanne de Bruijn) was a child when she and her parents (Annet Malherbe and Raymond Thiry) immigrate to the United States. She dreams of becoming a conductor, but nobody takes her ambition seriously. Her piano teacher advises her against taking the entrance exam for the conservatory. Because she has little to lose, she returns to her motherland, where she begs the famous conductor Mengelberg (Gijs Scholten van Aschat) to give her conducting lessons. Mengelberg is not comfortable with the idea and sends her to Berlin where she, against all expectations, has a better chance as a woman to make it. After a two-year study at the State Academy of Music she becomes the first woman to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. NB. For the first time in Dutch history, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra appointed a woman as its Chief Conductor Karina Canellakis and the film contains superb and enticing extracts of classical music especially performed for ‘The Conductor’.

Netherlands 2019 Maria Peters 137m

An American oil-rig roughneck travels to Marseille, France, to visit his estranged daughter, in prison for a murder she claims she didn't commit.

Director Tod McCarthy’s first film since ‘Spotlight’ stars Matt Damon as Bill Baker, a man out of his depth in a foreign country beset by cultural differences, language barrier and a complex legal system. Nevertheless, he makes it his mission to exonerate his daughter. Enlisting help from a French woman he must decide how far he will go for justice.

Federico Fellini's monumental and outlandish tribute to his beloved Rome, The Eternal City, in which he builds a narrative that has the city for a protagonist.

Travelogue, memoir, and outrageous cinematic spectacle converge in this kaleidoscopic valentine to the Eternal City, composed by one of its most iconic inhabitants. Leisurely one moment and breathless the next, this urban fantasia interweaves recollections of the director’s young adulthood in the era of Mussolini with an impressionistic portrait of contemporary Rome. Remarkable images of sex, food and nightlife affirm Fellini’s aphorism that Rome is “the most wonderful movie set in the world.”  Here, through a series of vignettes brimming with satire and spark, the filmmaker penetrates the myth and mystique of Italy’s capital city. (Subtitles)

Italy 1973 Federico Fellini 114m

UK Premiere

Jazz musician Django Reinhardt and his family escape from German-occupied Paris in 1943.

The year is 1943 in Nazi-occupied Paris and Django Reinhardt is at the pinnacle of his art. The brilliant and carefree jazz guitarist, king of ethereal swing, plays to standing-room-only crowds in the capital's greatest venues. Meanwhile his gypsy brethren are being persecuted throughout Europe. His life takes a turn for the worse when the Nazi propaganda machine wants to send him on tour in Germany. Based on the 2013 novel Folles De Django by Alexis Salatko, this is a partly fictionalized account about Django’s wartime experiences as a Belgian-born Romani in occupied France; The film has some serious things to say about the Nazis’ assault on Romani peoples and Reinhardt’s frontline position in this war. A tremendous bonus is the authentic music with extended musical numbers by Reinhardt's Quintette du Hot Club de France wonderfully re-created. Although world premiered in the Berlinale of 2017, this is its UK premiere. (Subtitled)

France 2017 Etienne Comar 117m

Our thanks to Gaumont for this screening.

We are pleased to welcome Gypsy Jazz duo 'Balcon Manouche' to play a short gig before Friday's screening.

Fri 20 Aug 17:30 - £12.00

Sat 21 Aug 21:00 - £9.50

UK Premiere + Q&A

A political home invasion thriller which explores the horrors our world could face if society stays as divided as it is today.

The Britain of ‘Election Night’ is a society where the public are fed up with traditional politicians and the “establishment”. Many believe in a new optimism coming from Lucy Brabbant’s alliance of left-leaning parties. But worryingly a new populist far-right movement is on the rise, the New Britain Party, headed by former newspaper baron Dominic Drummond. As the election results pour in, five liberal-minded friends gather to watch the TV coverage. It is a drink-fuelled night of celebration. But outside NBP supporters are rioting, claiming a rigged election. And then there's a knock on the door. Three people desperately seeking shelter from the violence. It is only when the visitors are welcomed in that they show their true colours. As the tight election result turns in favour of the NBP, the visitors seize control and suddenly we're into a full-on home-invasion movie.

UK 2021 Neil Monaghan 95m

We hope to welcome the director Neil Monaghan to introduce his film.

Our thanks to Phoenix Films for this screening.

Henry Blake's assured, sweatily atmospheric debut feature casts its 14-year-old protagonist into the wilds of cross-country drug trafficking. 

Tyler (Conrad Kahn) is disengaged from his studies and the target of bullies, so when his single mother loses her job, he feels obliged to step up and falls under the spell of Simon, (portrayed chillingly by rising star Harris Dickinson). A cycle of debt and exploitation unfolds in which Tyler’s mother Toni (Ashley Madekwe) struggles to save him from becoming collateral damage in a ruthless drugs trade. This is an astounding debut which combines a vivid, empathetic approach to the working-class characters as well as a thriller master’s ability to unsettle. ‘A short, sharp jab to the national conscience.’ (Screen International)

UK 2019 Henry Blake 90m

Dirk Bogarde gives a finely understated performance in a collaboration between director Joseph Losey and playwright Harold Pinter.  Often acknowledged as the pinnacle of Losey’s distinguished career, ‘Accident’ is a compelling and unforgettable masterpiece.

Stephen (Dirk Bogarde) is a middle-aged professor at Oxford University. Stifled by academia and marriage, he yearns for an affair with his beautiful and enigmatic student Anna (Jacqueline Sassard). He is locked into a battle for her affection with her fiancé, William (Michael York), whose youthful vitality he envies, and with his friend and academic rival Charley (Stanley Baker), whose media profile and sexual success he covets. Bogarde plays the leading man with complete conviction, even down to his unassuming pipe-smoking, withstanding the minutest scrutiny. Also watch out for his unmistakable trademark expression in a scene with Baker, never has a simple mannerism conveyed so much more than words ever could. This exemplifies perfectly Bogarde's belief that the camera could capture thought. The deep, intelligent, at times challenging Pinter script is a work of creative brilliance without an ounce of fat, providing the viewer with an overview of the situations, human problems and emotions that confront the characters, yet deftly allowing us to fill in the gaps and draw our own conclusions - a class act that few can match.

UK 1957 Joseph Losey 105m

Fri 20 Aug 20.30 (Slindon Cinema)

Screened in a rare 35mm print at Slindon Cinema

Nuevo Orden

A near-future dystopia that navigates a fractured society hours away from collapse, Michel Franco’s “New Order” is a relentless and blood-soaked study of social injustice, gripping to watch despite its graphic and escalating brutality. 

On the day of Marianne’s (Naian Gonzaléz Norvind) wedding, a former employee of her family comes to Marianne's family to ask for help, only to be rebuffed. Marianne wants to do more, but her altruism is interrupted by city-wide protests that force her to hide. The government, looking to foment more hatred between the haves and have-nots, kidnap some members of the rich, Marianne included. Almost nihilistic in its critique of military force, ‘New Order’ portrays both sides as both innocent victims and heartless aggressors, with the rich turning to armed forces for a semblance of order and the poor protestors executing members of the ruling class with equal violence. In Franco’s bleak vision of the future, no one gets justice or peace. “New Order may split audiences who require a more conventional approach, but this is dynamic cinema which takes no prisoners outside the hostages on screen: loud and violent, it lures the viewer into a place where there can be no bystanders. In that way, it’s quite magnificent – an outlet for those boiling in our times” - Screen Daily. (Subtitles)

Mexico 2020 Michel Franco 86m

Our thanks to MUBI for this film.

A stuttering teenager, who aspires to be James Bond but has anxiety problems when around girls he fancies, does his best to bring order to his dysfunctional family.

Set in County Kildare in the New Romantic summer of 1981, this delightful quirky romcom with a witty script and a warm heart provides a bright snapshot of how the young wrestle with small-town life.  Darragh Byrne, as the awkward and initially lovelorn Danny, leads an excellent cast in a story told in primary colours against a propulsive and entirely appropriate score.    

Ireland 2019 Ferdia MacAnna 97m

While recovering in Venice, sickly composer Gustav von Aschenbach (Dirk Bogarde) becomes dangerously fixated with teenager Tadzio.

Based on the classic novella by Thomas Mann, this late-career masterpiece from Luchino Visconti (The Leopard) is a meditation on the nature of art, the allure of beauty, and the inescapability of death. A fastidious composer reeling from a disastrous concert, Gustav von Aschenbach (Dirk Bogarde, in an exquisitely nuanced performance) travels to Venice to recover. There, he is struck by a vision of pure beauty in the form of a young boy (Björn Andresen), his infatuation developing into an obsession even as rumours of a plague spread through the city. Setting Mann’s story of queer desire and bodily decay against the sublime music of Gustav Mahler, ‘Death in Venice’ is one of cinema’s most exalted literary adaptations, as sensually rich as it is allegorically resonant. Presented in a digitally restored print.

Italy/France 1971 Luchino Visconti 130m

Bogarde and the Europeans:

An illustrated conversation

In the latter part of his career Dirk Bogarde collaborated memorably with some of the giants of European cinema: Visconti, Fassbinder, Cavani, Resnais and Tavernier. To mark Bogarde’s centenary his nephew, Brock Van den Bogaerde, and his official biographer, John Coldstream, meet to discuss a distinguished body of work, illustrated with extracts selected from ‘The Damned’ (1969), ‘Death in Venice’ (1971), ‘The Night Porter’ (1975), ‘Providence’ (1977), ‘Despair’ (1978) and Bogarde’s poignant 1990 swansong, ‘Daddy Nostalgie’ (These Foolish Things).

Preview

A homeless man, Daniel, searching for his lost dog forges an unexpected bond with a young boy. A deeply poignant film about mental illness in today’s society. With beautiful performances by Diarmaid Murtagh and Woody Norman.

We encounter Daniel first living with his dog Bruno in a garage lock-up from which he is evicted shortly thereafter. While seeking other accommodation, he witnesses a group of men trashing a local playground, with which we discover later he has a traumatic connection. When Daniel intervenes, he suffers a severe beating and ends up in hospital, losing his dog Bruno along the way. When he returns to the playground in an attempt to find Bruno, he encounters a young run-away boy called Izzy sleeping there. When Izzy insists on following Daniel around the city and helping him find Bruno, Daniel is forced to come to terms with a horrific moment of personal loss in his life. Bruno is marked often by a lack of dialogue or communication; indeed, Daniel hardly speaks throughout the entire film (until forced to do so), but yet in his gait and expression he communicates a deeper trauma, only revealed much later in the work. While homelessness may be prominently featured here, Bruno is above all a moving and sensitively told excavation of personal loss.

Ireland 2019 Karl Golden 90m

Thanks to Bulldog Pictures for this screening.

UK Premiere  

France, 1789, just before the Revolution. With the help of a mysterious young woman, a chef who has been sacked by his master finds the strength to free himself from his position as a servant and opens the first ever restaurant in France.

In 1789 France, revolution is brewing. But aristocrats confident of their inborn right to rule continue to indulge themselves in fantasies of inherent superiority and of their privileged lives’ unassailability. One such is the Duke of Chamfort (Benjamin Lavernhe), who dismisses his talented cook, Pierre Manceron (Grégory Gadebois), when he refuses to apologise for presenting a dish whose ingredients displease one of the Duke’s guests. Manceron leaves his culinary life behind for a life as keeper of a small wayfarers’ inn with his son, Benjamin (Lorenzo Lefèbvre). Into this backwater comes the mysterious Louise (Isabelle Carré), determined to apprentice herself to Manceron. Louise suggests, and Benjamin agrees, that Manceron could entice the Duke to ask him back by offering delicious meals to passing travellers. ‘Delicious’ is as good as its title’s promise: leaving aside the exquisite cinematography of haute cuisine, the movie is filled with dangers overt and covert, tensions sexual and political, swift turns of events, and humour. Between keeping secrets, creating serious mishaps, and cooking up marvellous foods and vengeance plots, the film has never a dull moment. (Subtitles)

France 2021 Éric Besnard 112m

Our thanks to SND Films for this screening.

Three French policemen preside over a delicate status quo that soon escalates to boiling point.

By-the-book cop Stephane (Damien Bonnard), only just arrived from Cherbourg, joins the anti-criminality brigade of Montfermeil in a sensitive district of the Paris suburbs. Paired up with Chris (Alexis Manenti) and Gwada (Djebril Zonga) whose methods are less scrupulous, he witnesses the tensions between the various neighbourhood groups. The theft of a lion cub from a travelling circus is the catalyst for violence. Throw in a cop with a hair-trigger the ingredients for a full-blown riot are ready to stir. Propelled by Pink Noise’s electronic score, Ladj Ly’s debut is a deft depiction of the escalation of chaos. Victor Hugo would have greatly approved, from the joyful opening to the unforgettable final fadeout. (Subtitles)

France 2019 Ladj Ly 104m

Eight years after Batman took the fall for Two Face's crimes, a new terrorist leader, Bane, overwhelms Gotham's finest, and the Dark Knight resurfaces to protect a city that has branded him an enemy. This is the epic conclusion to filmmaker Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy. Leading an all-star international cast, Christian Bale again plays the dual role of Bruce Wayne/Batman. The film also stars Anne Hathaway, as Selina Kyle; Tom Hardy, as Bane; Marion Cotillard as Miranda Tate; and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as John Blake. Returning to the main cast, Michael Caine plays Alfred; Gary Oldman is Commissioner Gordon; and Morgan Freeman reprises the role of Lucius Fox, and written by Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan. We are screening the film in 35mm, Christopher Nolan's preferred format.
USA 2012 Christopher Nolan 164m

Screening at Slindon Cinema on 35mm.

Federico Fellini’s career achieved new levels of eccentricity and brilliance with this remarkable, controversial, extremely loose adaptation of Petronius’s classical Roman satire, written during the reign of Nero.

After his young lover, Gitone (Max Born), leaves him for another man, Encolpio (Martin Potter) decides to kill himself, but a sudden earthquake destroys his home before he has a chance to do so. Now wandering around ancient Rome, Encolpio encounters one bizarre and surreal scene after another. He's invited to a poetry reading that ends in violence; is taken hostage by pirates; and is even forced to battle a gladiator disguised as a minotaur in a giant labyrinth. Audacious and ambitious and full of Fellini’s abundant affection for human grotesques, this is a visual adventure you are unlikely to forget.

Italy/France 1969 Federico Fellini 130m

Between 1968 and 1974 Britain removed the entire Creole population of the Chagos Archipelago. This clandestine operation took place in order that the largest island, Diego Garcia, could be leased to the US Navy for a military base.  

Olivier Magis’s understated documentary focuses on the efforts by the exiles’ descendants to affect a return to their Indian Ocean idyll – a campaign led from Crawley, home to some 3,000 second-generation Chagossians, by a charismatic and indomitable NHS worker, Sabrina Jean, whose father was one of those treated so cynically half a century ago. She strives to keep the flame of hope alive in her community with one single goal: to return home. But as the elders die out and memory fades, time is running out. (Subtitles)

Belgium 2019 Olivier Magis 82m

Fellini’s semi-autobiographical comedy-drama about Titta, an adolescent boy growing up among an eccentric cast of characters in the fictional town of Borgo – a nostalgic and joyful treat.

The title translates as “I remember” and the film is a carnivalesque reminiscence of Fellini’s hometown and its circus of social rituals, adolescent desires, male fantasies and political subterfuge. The film is saturated with Fellini’s affection for his characters with stories loosely centring on a teenager named Titta and his household including his adolescent brother, his ever-supportive mother who is always defending him against his father, his freeloading maternal Uncle Lallo and his paternal grandfather who slyly has eyes and hands for the household maid. One of Fellini’s best-loved productions, weaving together Giuseppe Rottuno’s colourful cinematography, Danilo Donati’s extravagant costumes and sets and Nino rota’s nostalgia-tinged score. Shown in a rare 35mm print. (Subtitles)

Italy 1974 Federico Fellini 124 m

'Education' is the coming-of-age story of 12-year-old Kingsley (Kenyah Sandy) with a fascination for astronauts and rockets.

When Kingsley is called to the headmaster’s office for being disruptive in class, he discovers he’s being sent to school for those with 'special needs'. Distracted by working two jobs, his parents (Sharlene Whyte, Daniel Francis) are unaware of what was the unofficial segregation policy at play that is preventing many Black children from having the education they deserve - until a group of West Indian women take matters into their own hands. Bafta-award winning Naomi Ackie also stars. Education was co-written by Alastair Siddons and Steve McQueen

BBC TV 2020 Steve McQueen 63m

Sun 22 Aug 13.00 (Studio)

“If You Are the Big Tree …”

Contextualising Small Axe within Black British culture and film

Following the screening of ‘Education’, join film programmer Grace Barber-Plentie for an illustrated talk about the culture and influences that helped shape Steve McQueen’s anthology, the often-forgotten pioneers of Black British Cinema, and her experiences of hosting weekly forums discussing the anthology within the Black British community.

Grace Barber-Plentie is a film programmer currently working on BFI London Film Festival. Her passion is films of the Black diaspora, with a particular interest in films directed by Black women, and Black queer film.

Sun 22 Aug 15.00 (Studio)

Preview  

Life for an entrepreneur and his American family begins to take a twisted turn after moving into an English country manor. A beautifully understated film starring Jude Law and Carrie Coon.

Rory (Jude Law) is an ambitious entrepreneur who brings his American wife (Carrie Coon) and kids to his native country, England, to explore new business opportunities, with dreams of profiting from booming 1980’s London. After abandoning the sanctuary of their safe American suburban surroundings, the family is plunged into the despair of an archaic '80s Britain and their unaffordable new life in an English manor house threatens to destroy the family. ‘The Nest’ is a complex movie, despite its economical size. At initial glance, it is mostly just the story of a family moving, and not finding what they like in their new environment. But what writer/director Durkin does so smartly is fill the picture with a creeping atmosphere that implies deeper, danker things beyond what we are seeing in literal form. Movies almost never deal with the intricacies of marriage: finances, schooling, finding the right work-life balance. By contrast, ‘The Nest’ burrows into the minutiae, and the rewards of going along with the O’Haras are worth it, and it’s atmosphere of animosity is palpable enough that it’s wicked fun simply watching the family become unglued.

UK/Canada Sean Durkin 107m

Our thanks to Picturehouse   for this screening.

In 1971, due to the world premiere of ‘Death in Venice’, Italian director Lucino Visconti proclaimed his Tadzio as the world's most beautiful boy. A shadow that today, 50 years later, weighs Björn Andresen's life.

It was a face that launched a thousand fanatics – Björn Andrésen was dubbed “the most beautiful boy in the world” by director Luchino Visconti, who had scoured Europe in search of the perfect Tadzio for his adaptation of Thomas Mann’s short story ‘Death in Venice’. Andrésen’s waves of flaxen hair, dark eyes and prominent cheekbones captivated an audience across the world, from arthouse cinema lovers to Japanese manga artists, who saw him as the embodiment of ‘bishōnen’. This film by Kristina Lindström and Kristian Petri offers a particularly moving insight into Andrésen’s personal history of tragedy, and the trauma inflicted by such a limelight in his youth, a documentary piece that inspires real affection for its subject and exposes the ways abuse can be easily inflicted in stardom. (subtitles)

Sweden 2021 Kristina Lindström, Kristian Petri 93m

Christopher Nolan’s first film based on a real historical event with the infamous evacuation told from three different perspectives: land, sea and air.

Unlike his previous films, which often featured individual characters with extraordinary skills and powers, this focuses on the ordinary soldiers and civilians caught up in the mayhem of that summer in 1940, conveying instead a sense of communal heroism. What the film sets out to do is to put you on that beach, being strafed by the Luftwaffe, and to put you on the civilian pleasure craft and fishing vessels who responded to a War Office appeal and saved so many lives. It features a stellar cast of British actors, including Kenneth Branagh as a naval commander, Tom Hardy as an RAF pilot, Mark Rylance as the skipper of a small boat and Cillian Murphy as the soldier he rescues. Nolan’s shortest film since his debut feature ‘Following’, it is tightly edited and beautifully constructed, combining a real sense of authenticity with a visceral tension throughout, based on a screenplay with minimal dialogue which offers no backstory to any character.

USA/UK 2017 Christopher Nolan 107m

Sun 22 Aug 20.30 (Slindon Cinema on 35mm)

Faced with a parental battle over split custody, an elder daughter kidnaps her hostile sister and embarks on a road journey.

This first feature by an accomplished director of commercials and rock videos finds him very much at home in a long-form study of catastrophic family fall-out. Inspired by a tragedy in his own life, he has written two juicy roles for the two young principals, Ruby (Bridgerton) Barker and Lily Rose Aslandogdu, from whom he extracts convincing and moving performances. Dedicated ‘to all families’.

UK 2020 Edward Morris 83m

L’Homme Qui a Vendu Sa Peau - Preview

‘The Man Who Sold His Skin’ uses the tension between art and commerce as powerful fuel for a sobering story about freedom and human dignity. A Syrian refugee turns his body into an artwork, but at what cost?

Sam Ali, a Syrian young man, took refuge in Lebanon to flee the Syrian civil war. There, he meets Jeffrey Godefroi, a famous tattoo artist, who makes Mr Ali’s back his canvas for a piece of work. Soon, Mr Ali becomes a living work of art, worth an astronomical sum on the art market. Collectors are interested, auction goes up, human rights activists are outraged. Mr Ali must get out of the predicament he is in; the man who sold his skin, Tunisia’s ambitious entry from female writer-director Kaouther Ben Hania offers a provocative contemporary take on a Faustian bargain. An audacious mix of drama, tragedy, romance, satire and dark humour, the plot centres on Sam (newcomer Yahya Mahayni), a displaced Syrian with a chip on his shoulder who allows a cryptic art-world guru to use his back as a canvas. Paradoxically, it becomes easier for him to travel to Europe as an artwork than as a refugee. But what he thought of as freedom turns out to be anything but. (Subtitles)

Tunisia / France / Belgium/ Germany / Sweden / Turkey 2021 Kaouther Ben Hania 104m

Our thanks to (Studio) Soho for this film.

UK Premiere

Observing the great director through the eyes and the lenses of Ferruccio Castronuovo, Fellini's trusted partner, who filmed him between the '76 and '86.

The year 2020 marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Federico Fellini. Enter the world of Federico Fellini. The documentary juxtaposes never-before-seen material of the maestro at work with testimonies by some of Fellini’s most devoted coworkers and friends, among these, Lina Wertmüller, Nicola Piovani, Dante Ferretti, Maurizio Millenotti, Ferruccio Castronuovo and Norma Giacchero. In doing so, the film reveals some of Fellini’s heretofore unknown and, at times, contradictory character traits, thereby uncovering the man behind the genius. Combining behind-the-scenes footage of Fellini at work with contemporary testimonies, thus creating a compelling narrative that binds past and present in an exquisite and unique creation. This is a special treat for Fellini fans and all fans of Italian cinema.

Italy 2020 Silvia Giulietti 78m

Our thanks to Wide Sales Company Sales for this film.

A 17th-century drama, based on a Japanese novel and set in a shoreline village beneath towering rockfaces.

Fifteen-year-old Alan must grow up fast in order to help his mother and look after his two siblings when, with the family facing ruin, his father gives himself up to two-year indentured service. While stoking the village’s all-important fire during the night, he will learn what it takes to survive and discover the true purpose of the bonfire’s ritualistic guardianship. Often ravishes the eye thanks to the consistently lush photography.

France 2020 Dominique Lienhard 94m

Martha (Vanessa Kirby) and Sean (Shia LaBeouf) are a Boston couple on the verge of parenthood whose lives change irrevocably when a home birth ends in tragedy.

Thus begins a yearlong odyssey for Martha, who must grieve while working through fractious relationships with Sean and her domineering mother (Ellen Burstyn), along with the publicly vilified midwife (Molly Parker), whom she must face in court.

Kirby was nominated for an Oscar, and deservedly so. She draws us into Martha's emotional journey as she navigates her way through her grief. Ellen Burstyn is marvellous as Martha’s overbearing mother, delivering a tour de force of coiffed toxicity.This is an emotionally demanding piece of cinema that will test your mettle and reward you in equal measure.

Canada/Hungary 2020 Kornél Mundruczó 126m

Exploring the Weird Worlds of Fellini through his Dream Diary

An illustrated lecture by film historian Ian Christie

In 1960, Fellini scored his greatest popular and critical success with ‘La Dolce Vita’. But he was also beset with doubts, and on the advice of his Jungian analyst, began to record his dreams. 

Over the next thirty years, he would explore a bizarre fantasy life in drawings and texts, recalling his early career as a cartoonist; and many of these fantasies found their way into his later work, including ‘8 ½’, ‘Fellini Roma’, ‘Satyricon’ and ‘Casanova’. An immense edition of those diaries was published in 2020 to mark the centenary of Fellini’s birth, and armed with it we can explore afresh ‘Fellinia’, the inner world that the filmmaker brought to life on screen. Picasso, Chaplin, Hitler, Anita Ekberg, the Kennedys, and his wife Giuletta Masina, all mingle among a huge cast of characters in this extraordinary testament to cinema as a dream life – rarely realised with such uninhibited exuberance.

Based on the book by Naoki Higashida, this immersive film explores the experiences of non-speaking autistic people around the world.  

At the age of thirteen Naoki Higashida, whose autism had rendered him aphasic, managed to write a book detailing exactly how he viewed the world thereby giving readers a first-person account of what living with his condition really felt like. Travelling from Europe to America to Africa, Jerry Rothwell's superb documentary uses Higashida's insightful prose as a springboard, guiding viewers through what amounts to a foreign land while at the same time introducing us to the people who inhabit it. What emerges is a chaotic swirl of sensory overload, fear, and overwhelming frustration in which the autistic person's array of defences, including outbursts, repetitive behaviour, and word salad are misinterpreted as mental illness or even demonic possession. “An excellent and educational work” The Guardian (Subtitles)

USA 2021 Jerry Rothwell 82m

Prova d'orchestra

Made in 1978 for Italian television, Orchestra Rehearsal is possibly Fellini s most satirical and overtly political film. and the last collaboration between Fellini and the legendary composer Nino Rota

An allegorical pseudo-documentary, the film depicts an Italian television crew s visit to a dilapidated auditorium (a converted 13th-century church) to meet an orchestra assembling to rehearse under the instruction of a tyrannical conductor. The TV crew interviews the various musicians who each speak lovingly about their chosen instruments. However, as petty squabbles break out amid the different factions of the ensemble, and the conductor berates his musicians, the meeting descends into anarchy and vandalism. By turns amusing and thoughtful and abounding with its director s trademark rich imagery and expressive style, the film is often interpreted as a metaphor for Italian politics.

Italy 1978 Federico Fellini 72 m    

What happens to a relationship if a partner suddenly becomes severely disabled after an accident? Gosia will stand by her boyfriend Tomek no matter what so as to let him live as normal and fulfilled a live as possible.

Time and again she becomes painfully aware of her own limits, as well as of those of a society that talks a lot about inclusion but often does not seem to be ready for it. A moving, engaging film about caring for a very disabled partner that gives insights into the difficult situation rarely seen. ‘GOSIA@TOMEK’ is based on more than 3000 emails that Gosia has been writing to Tomek daily since his accident. Shown at this year’s online Berlinale. (Subtitles)              Germany/Poland 2020 Christine Jezio 90m

An Evening of Billie Holiday

Vimala Rowe/John Etheridge/Andrew Cleyndert play Billie Holiday

Film and Live Jazz

Billie (15)

Billie Holiday’s remarkable career was cut short in 1959 aged 44 with 77 cents in her bank account. In 1971, journalist Linda Kuehl set out to write the definitive biography of Billie Holiday. The book was never finished, and the 200 hours of extraordinary interviews remained unheard until now.

Interviews with friends and family, insight from Tony Bennett and even an arresting officer from one of her notorious drug busts provide unprecedented appraisal of the legendary jazz singer. Testimony from a chuckling pimp who pressed her into prostitution at the age of 16 is particularly troubling. Other interviewees include musicians Charles Mingus, and Count Basie, as well as actress Sylvia Syms. “What was essential to me was to make sure there was enough room in the film to sit back and admire her power, her genius, and also to ensure the audience grasped that Billie’s story was told through the songs she sang,” Director - James Erskine. Holiday died of cirrhosis having been arrested in her hospital bed just a month earlier. A fascinating documentary about a troubled genius.

USA 2019 James Erskine 95m

Proceeded by

Vimala Rowe, John Etheridge and Andrew Cleyndert play Billie Holiday

To accompany the film ‘Billie’ is a very special tribute to Billie Holiday led by the sensation vocalist Vimala Rowe together with two of the UK’s finest jazz exponents on their respective instruments, John Etheridge (Guitar) and Andrew Cleyndert (bass).

Vimala’s performances are never less than expressive, engaging and sensational. She has already performed at the Film Festival in a tribute to Annie Ross illustrating her infectious natural feel for the music. This tribute gives Vimala the opportunity to express her respect for one of the 20th century’s most important musical icons and to bring a unique insight into Billie Holiday’s music. Vimala’s ‘kinship’ with this particular artist has already found critical acclaim through the Café Society show at theatre Royal Stratford, and an appearance by this trio at the Scarborough Jazz Festival reviewed in jazz journal:

“The highlight on Saturday, if not the whole weekend had to be the … performance by Vimala Rowe (who) once again blew the house down with her impassioned vocals … Numbers included ‘God Bless The Child’, ‘Them There Eyes’, ‘Pennies From Heaven’ and ‘Travelling Light’. … Rowe completely changed the tempo with ‘Strange Fruit’. What a set!.” Jazz Journal

Cleyndert and Etheridge need no introduction to regular jazz fans. John’s musical partnership with Vimala has already produced the album ‘Out of the Sky‘ which was elected in the Top Ten critic’s choice of album of that year in both the Guardian and the Sunday Times with the track ‘Detour Ahead’  in the Top Five in the Guardian .’A rare mix of visceral emotion and jazzy intelligence’ (Sunday Times)

NB. The bar will be open during the 30-minute interval at 9.00 approx between film and live gig, and after  

Mon 23 Aug 19:30-22:45 (Auditorium)

Film at 19:30; Gig at 21:30

Tickets £17.50

The clue to the title lies in the 200-year-old term for a steam locomotive. This strangely haunting documentary follows two photographers as they journey across America.

Two artists set out on journeys across America to capture traces of locomotives in vast landscapes, intimate stories from passengers onboard and the experience of slow travel in today's increasingly fast-paced society. One waits patiently in the wide-open spaces for the tell-tale sound of a train which might or might not even materialise. The other elicits stories from his fellow-passengers. In an era when slow travel, like slow radio and television, is especially rewarding, Alex Nevill’s unusual film grips gently in glorious black and white.

UK 2021 Alex Nevill 76m

The story of a man from Verona countryside who devoted his life and political experience to his communist ideals culminating in the kidnapping of a NATO general.

Armando Lanza, once an altar boy later a member of the Italian revolutionary group, Red Brigades, who was imprisoned and tortured after being involved in the kidnap of a NATO general, James Dozier, from his apartment in Verona.  Using a substantial amount of contemporary footage, the film provides an important record of political agitation, ranging from small-scale guerrilla initiatives to mass strikes, as well as a revealing portrait of one of its protagonists. (Subtitles)

Italy 2020 Tomaso Aramini/Rafiqfuad Yarahmadi 104m

The gripping true story of an unassuming British businessman Greville Wynne recruited into one of the greatest international conflicts in history – The Cuban Missile Crisis.

Benedict Cumberbatch plays Wynne, an engineer and a family man, recruited by MI6 in 1960 to connect with a member of Russian military intelligence named Oleg Penkovsky - here played by the superb Georgian actor Merab Ninidze - who, alarmed by escalating tensions between the U.S.S.R. and the West, had offered secret information about his country’s nuclear capabilities. The movie is honest about the decidedly unglamorous side of spying: chiefly, that it is a line of work in which human beings are often treated as easily discarded pawns. There are echoes here of Spielberg’s ‘Bridge of Spies’ and Cumberbatch delivers a compelling performance in a film that brilliantly encapsulates the time that it is set.

UK 2020 Dominic Cooke 112m

Our thanks to Lionsgate for this screening.

A young Jewish man pretends to be Iranian to avoid being executed in a concentration camp.

1942. Gilles, (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart), Lars Eidinger a young Belgian man, is arrested by the SS alongside other Jews and sent to a concentration camp in Germany. He narrowly avoids execution by swearing to the guards that he is not Jewish, but Persian. This lie temporarily saves him, but then Gilles is assigned a seemingly untenable mission: to teach Persian to Koch (Lars Eidinger), the officer in charge of the camp's kitchen, who dreams of opening a restaurant in Persia (Iran) once the war is over. Gilles finds himself having to invent a language he doesn't know, word by word. As the unusual relationship between the two men begins to incite jealousy and suspicion, Gilles becomes acutely aware that one false move could expose his swindle. An unusual premise underpins a tension-filled two hours, culminating in a virtuoso climax. (Subtitles)

Russia / Germany / Belarus 2020 Vadim Perelman 127m

During World War I, a group of British miners are recruited to tunnel underneath no man's land and set bombs from below the German front in hopes of breaking the deadly stalemate of the Battle of Messines.

The depiction of the claustrophobic and dangerous conditions the miners faced are well conveyed with the feisty individuals that many of them were. The trench scenes above ground are atmospherically also very good. The cast includes Sam Hazeldine (Peaky Blinders), Tom Goodman-Hill and Kris Hitchen.

UK 2020 J.P Watts 96m  

Our thanks to Vertigo for this screening.

A powerful and salutary portrait of perseverance, as a small group of LGBT activists in Tbilisi attempts to hold a Pride demonstration.

Against overwhelming opposition from the Georgian government, the Orthodox Church and far-right organisations, the campaigners strive to make themselves visible and heard in a country which is at a turning-point in its history.  Does it amplify its overtures towards the EU or concede to greater Russian influence? This compelling first feature from a London-based documentary maker packs much detail into a relatively short running-time. (Subtitles)

UK 2020 John Eames 75m

(…Or, when the Revolution could not be televised)

Deftly interweaving incredible live footage with a series of revealing interviews, Summer of Soul captures the spirit and context of a watershed moment while tying it firmly to the present.

‘Summer Of Soul’ is a feature documentary about the legendary 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival which celebrated African American music and culture and promoted Black pride and unity. Premiered at Sundance Film Festival to great acclaim, where it won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award. ‘Summer Of Soul’ shines a light on the importance of history to our spiritual well-being and stands as a testament to the healing power of music during times of unrest, both past and present. It is a piece of power-to-the-people-art, featuring dizzyingly rich footage that has been forgotten and neglected until now. A brief glance at the line-up reveals a remarkable list of talent including BB King, Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Gladys Knight and Sly and the Family Stone. It is touching to witness concertgoers who were just kids at the time watching these terrific images.

US 2021 Questlove 117m

Tue 24 Aug 20.45 (Auditorium)

Goodbye Europe is a travel documentary about one woman and her dog making a farewell journey across Europe in the final summer before Brexit.

In July 2019, the 37-year-old multilingual Lancastrian set out in a campervan with her dog Bruce and an iPhone to ‘say goodbye to being a European citizen’ by compiling a personal love letter to the continent. She travelled as far as Bohemia, always curious, always good-humoured, and never dogmatic, with the result that this quiet, impressively shot home movie achieves a status worthy of festival screening. Its attractive and witty animations are a bonus. (Subtitles)

UK 2020 Lara Hewitt 101m

Gemma Arterton gives a knockout performance as a crotchety loner who takes in a child evacuee. Director Jessica’s uplifting debut film.

Gemma Arterton is Alice a reclusive writer living on the south coast who is regarded with suspicion by the village. One morning she finds herself burdened with a young London evacuee, Frank. Her initial hostility turns to grudging affection for the boy against the background of the war and the antipathy of the village.  Haunted by memories of a painful break-up Alice begins to discover a shared history with Frank. Filmed in Kent and Sussex, ‘Summerland’ delivers nostalgia, humour and melancholy while never straying into the sentimental. Arterton and young Lucas Bond are a triumph as the odd couple while Tom Courtney, Penelope Wilton and the coastal landscape co-star.  

UK 2020 Jessica Swale 99m

Mestari Cheng - English Premiere

Following the death of his wife, professional chef Cheng (Pak Hon Chu) travels with his young son (Lucas Hsuan) to a remote village in Finland to connect with an old Finnish friend he once met in Shanghai.

Upon arrival, nobody in the village seems to know his friend but local café owner Sirkka (Anna-Maija Tuokko) offers him accommodation and in return Cheng helps her in the kitchen surprising the locals with the delights of Chinese cuisine. Gradually his cooking encourages these vastly different cultures to connect, and Cheng is soon a celebrated member of the community. Unfortunately, his tourist visa is soon to run out and it’s up to the villagers to come up with a plan to help him stay. Warm, with Finnish humour and beautiful Lapland landscapes exploring culinary art as a means of meeting people and bringing cultures together. (Some subtitles)

Finland 2019 Mika Kaurismäki 116m

Our thanks to Parkland Entertainment for this screening.

New Release

An otherworldly journey through a Europe in decline - a collection of darkly humorous, fantasy tales about ill-fated characters and doomed fortune-with echoes of Lynch and Gilliam.

Film fans are so accustomed to post-apocalyptic wastelands these days that it is a relief when writer/director Chino Moya cuts away from the grim, Chernobyl-esque setting that opens his portmanteau and dives into the first of several bizarre stories. It focuses on a familiar motif: the domestic intruder who seems to slowly take over. But this familiarity is made engaging by compelling performances, an eerie visual style, and Wojciech Golczewski's alternately pounding and woozy synth score. Soon, new characters weave in and fresh stories are told (or half-remembered) as the gothic fairy tales of E.T.A Hoffmann are invoked in a very Lynchian way. Intelligent production design heightens a glum, post-modern vision of Europe, and, by the time an excellent Adrian Rawlins and Kate Dickie pop in for a comic re-tread of previous events, the nightmare logic of this strikingly loopy film almost makes sense.   Belgium/UK 2020 Chino Moya 93m

Our thanks to Modern films   for this film.

Preview

Souad, a 19-year-old young Egyptian woman, leads a double life. While remaining conservative and veiled among her family and society, she is obsessed with her image on social media. Razor-sharp and non-judgemental.

In a small city on the Nile Delta, 19-year-old Souad (Bassant Ahmed) leads a double life. Conservative and veiled in public, online she obsesses over her appearance and embarks on secret virtual romances. As the reality of her personal situation comes increasingly into conflict with her digital life, she struggles to rectify her ambitions with her future until tragedy strikes. A film that gently casts a sharp eye on the challenges faced by women in a strongly patriarchal society. Indeed, tradition and modernity collide in uneasy ways here, Souad and her friends discuss boys, sex and more just like any other women their age, though they have to be more discreet lest their elders take punitive action. Featuring astonishing performances from a cast of non-professionals, the film - co-produced by Wim Wenders - acutely examines the contradictions of teenage life in contemporary Egypt and the challenges of combining traditional values with social media. ‘Souad’ is a moving testament to human compassion and resilience. A favourite at the Festival de Cannes 2020 and Berlinale 2021. With with hard of hearing subtitles).

Egypt/Tunisia/Germany 2020 Ayten Amin 96m

Our thanks to the BFI for this film.

Preview

Starring stalwarts like James Cromwell, Jackie Weaver and Jack Thompson, this enjoyable Aussie comedy follows a group of seniors as they plan to break out of their retirement home.

Jack (James Cromwell - ‘Babe’) leads a crew, a multi-national special forces team billed as “The Chain Breakers,” as they were once captured and then escaped out of a Vietnamese POW camp. Some 50 years later, Jack is willing to fake a stroke and skulk in a wheelchair to get into a nursing home and get close to the nurse (Jacki Weaver – ‘Silver Linings Playbook’) he used to know, way back then. He gets just enough time with Norma to realize she is beginning to suffer from dementia. Needing to escape the Hogan Hills Retirement Home for Returned Servicemen and Women, there is nothing for it, then, but to get the old team back together - and in the same nursing home. But Wendell (Roy Billing) is in a wheelchair, Angus (screen veteran Jack Thompson) is “forgetting” things and the Brit, Caine (Dennis Waterman) has even more serious health concerns. So the slapstick and scheming set-up is a “Great Escape” comedy, but it also aims to probe the serious. The movie evokes ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ as much as it does ‘Grumpy Old Men.’ Irresistible, it is impossible not to be charmed.

Australia 2021 Mark Lamprell 95m

Our thanks to Soho (Studio) for this film.

This latest feature from the multiple-prizewinning Vladimir Kott might have been made to define the term ‘meta’.

It tells of a director, Mitya, who suddenly abandons the set of a TV series.   In the grip of a midlife crisis, he discusses his lot with the shade of Marcello Mastroianni. He needs to know the answer to a crucial question: what kind of a director does he wish to be?   Inevitably, chaos reigns.  Inevitably, too, audiences will be reminded by its quirkiness, its drollery and its surrealistic tone of vintage Woody Allen. Often very funny!

Russia 2020 Vladimir Kott 102m

In Nolan’s first wholly original film since Memento, Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is an industrial spy who, with the help of his accomplice Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), extracts information from his sleeping targets by entering their dreams.

Entrapped by one of his marks, Japanese businessman Mr Saito (Ken Watanabe), Dom is given a new mission, involving an act of ‘inception’ — the planting of an idea in the mind of another, in this case Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy), heir to a monopolist empire and a rival of Saito. The idea is that Cobb will convince Fischer to dismantle this empire and, in return, Saito will have the murder charge preventing Cobb from returning to America dismissed. In the time-honoured trope of the ‘mission’ action movie, Cobb hires a team of dream specialists to assist him, played by Elliot (then Ellen) Page, Tom Hardy and Dilip Rao. Nolan, in what was perhaps his most ambitious project at that time, revels in the opportunity to create multiple levels of reality in a kind of apotheosis of the Hollywood dream factory.

USA/UK 2010 Christopher Nolan 148 m

What would you do with your life in a limited body and with limited time? The members of the popular band The Tap Tap, all of whom are disabled (or as they cynically call themselves, crippled) have a pretty clear idea.

A moving, unsentimental documentary on a Czech band composed of members with physical/mental/emotional special needs. The band was founded 21 years ago, and its members want to enjoy every minute and, however improbable, to taste fame as rock stars. The Tap Tap orchestra is a vivacious example of how some of life's most difficult obstacles can be overcome. Very absorbing, positive, often joyous. (Subtitles)

Czech Republic 2020 Radovan Síbrt 80m

Julie Dash’s majestic first feature is a poignant portrait of three generations of Gullah women (descendants of West African slaves) at the turn of the 20th century as their family struggle with the decision to migrate from their sea island home off the coast of South Carolina to the mainland.

‘Daughters’ portrayed a new type of blackness and black identity – one located in a pastoral island setting still informed by myth and ancestral traditions. Dash’s perspective is determinedly feminist as she fuses together image, sound, authentic dialect and traditions of African oral storytelling to portray the power, beauty, and resilience of black women. Her vision and aesthetic sensibilities perfectly capture a forgotten moment of the African American experience and charts new ground in the representation of black women on screen. One of the key inspirations for the film work that accompanied Beyoncé’s Lemonade, this is a timely re-release for Dash’s powerful film.

USA 1991 Julie Dash 112m

Two of our Surprise Films have recently won the Audience Award for Best Film (‘Untouchable’ and ‘Pride’), so don’t miss what will surely be an unforgettable experience.

Following the launch of a Surprise Film in the Festival in 2012, we continue this idea where you settle down for a film, not knowing what it will be, and finding out along with your fellow patrons once the opening scene or credits give it away.

In past years our surprise films have been ‘Julie & Julia’ (which became one of our most popular films when it was finally released), ‘Jane Eyre’, ‘Untouchable’ (which became the most popular French film in 2012), ‘Blue Jasmine’, and ‘Pride’ - an impressive list. So what will we have on Thursday 26th August?

Join in the fun and take the opportunity to gamble by booking in advance for hopefully a very worthwhile surprise!

- Roger Gibson.

This brilliant coming-of age-film shows a young girl’s abrupt conversion from teenage innocence to adulthood and responsibility. Authentic and honest, Rocks received a 5-star review from Empire The Guardian and The Telegraph.

Set amongst the concrete council houses of a vibrant Hackney, a young teenage girl finds herself struggling to take care of herself and her younger brother after being abandoned by their single mother. Determined not to be taken into care, the titular 'Rocks' attempts to fend for herself. The film could easily have taken a turn for the miserable but instead director Sarah Gavron delivers a surprising portrait of resilience that avoids all the usual tropes of poverty porn. This is the must-see British film of 2020. ‘A wonderful, heart-breaking, life-affirming gem of a movie’ - Mark Kermode.

UK 2019 Sarah Gavron 93m

With live piano accompaniment by John Sweeney at the Guildhall, Priory Park, Chichester

An iconic early horror masterpiece, Paul Wegener’s ‘Der Golem’ (1920) is presented with amazing piano accompaniment by John Sweeney, master of bringing silent films to life. Prepare to be chilled and thrilled in the atmospheric Guildhall.

In the Jewish ghetto in 16th century Prague, Rabbi Low (Albert Streinruck) creates a forbidding clay Golem (played by director Paul Wegener) to protect his people from the tyrannical Emperor Luhois (Otto Gebuhr). Brought to life with a demon spirit and an amulet placed in the centre of the creature’s chest, the Golem is a seemingly indestructible juggernaut, performing acts of great heroism. But when the Rabbi s assistant attempts to control the Golem for selfish gain, it becomes a terrifying force of destruction, rampaging through the ghetto leaving fire and death in its wake. A landmark film in the horror canon, influencing most notably James Whale’s 1931 adaptation of ‘Frankenstein’, ‘Der Golem, Wie er in Die Welt Kam’ (The Ghoul, How He Came into the World) is also a pre-eminent example of German Expressionism, and an important contribution to the golden age of Weimar Cinema. It was created one year after ‘The Cabinet of Caligari’. Also, because alleys, rooms and furniture are angled, bent and without right angles, ‘Der Golem’ is considered one of the most important so-called expressionist films; the setting and the numerous dramatic lighting effects reflect the fear and psychological inner life of the participants. It presented in a brand new 4K restoration.

The earth has become depopulated by famine; a group of NASA scientists, led by Professor Brand (Michael Caine) has discovered a wormhole that leads to a distant solar system containing potentially inhabitable planets. NASA needs a former pilot, Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) to lead a dangerous mission, accompanied by Brand’s daughter Amelia (Anne Hathaway), on their last remaining craft, to follow up previous expeditions and determine which of those planets offers the best option of a new home. Nolan admitted to being obsessed by this film for years and in shooting it stuck resolutely to his personal style - no green screen, but real locations, combined with miniatures, creating a spectacle which many compared to Kubrick’s ‘2001’. But for all its grand themes Nolan regards it himself as his most personal and emotionally harrowing film - about family and separation and loss. USA/UK 2014 Christopher Nolan 169m

Inspiring biopic about a young Ukrainian athlete who lost much of her eyesight in a car crash but attempts against all odds to win at the Beijing Paralympic Games.

A young Ukrainian field athlete living in a small town has a big dream – to take part in the Olympics. Her nascent competitive career is proving promising. But after a terrible car accident in which she loses most of her eyesight, it seems Oksana has no other choice but to forget about the Olympics. However, she is not going to give up and wishes to prove that there are no obstacles on the way to make the real dream come true. (Subtitles)

Ukraine 2020 Sergii Chebotarenko 100m

La Fine Fleur - UK Premiere

Eve (Catherine Frot) used to be one of the most famous rose creators in the world. Today, her company is on the verge of bankruptcy.

The magnificent Catherine Frot (‘Marguerite’) takes centre stage as Eve, a world-renowned rose farmer dealing with hard times. In this easy-going and good-natured comedy, Eve allows herself to reluctantly accept help from an unlikely source and by doing so, discovers new aspects of life that are worth nurturing. Eve used to be content living almost in complete isolation to focus on her passion of growing roses. When financial ruin threatens her business and livelihood, desperate measures are required. The solution comes in the form of three new workers, who are recruited cheaply from back-to-work program. There is just one small problem: they know absolutely nothing about growing roses, or really anything at all. Eve is going to have to tend to a lot more than just her rose bushes to keep her head above water. Funny and kind-hearted, ‘The Rose Maker’ makes full use of casting veteran actor Frot alongside a diverse ensemble of emerging actors to play the hapless farmhands; emphasising how underneath all the obvious differences, there is a shared humanity and the potential for friendship. (Subtitles)

France 2021 Pierre Pinaud 95m

Our thanks to Charades for this screening.

Imaginative feature documentary about the life and work of MC Escher.

Written and directed by Robin Lutz, this is a rare feature that takes the trouble not just to understand its subject and communicate his significance, but find ways to show us, visually, how his style evolved, and the principles behind that evolution.  Escher was a rare artist who managed to combine his influences into something genuinely new. His work is a geometric/mathematical surrealist vision of the objectively perceivable world, but also a subjective interior, evoking ancient Arabic-North African graphics; the Salvador Dali-Pablo Picasso-Georges Braque anti-realist sensibilities of the '20s and '30s, and computer models that would not become popular until decades after Escher’s own experiments. Lutz and his collaborators, including a team of graphic designers and animators, make Escher's art come to life in surprising and amusing ways, from having one of his trademark salamanders appear in an otherwise "realistic" frame and travel across increasingly "unreal" panoramas until we're in an Escher print! Escher's letters, performed in voice-over by Stephen Fry, make it clear that he challenged himself to improve his abilities. (Subtitles)

Netherlands 2021 Robin Lutz 81m

As quietly vital a political document as it is a gloriously entertaining sprint through that long weekend. The best live jazz concert ever made.

This documentary concert film captures the sounds and performances of some of the major jazz artists at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival. Unlike earlier jazz movies that had been filmed in smoky black and white, this is shot in vibrant color. While musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Thelonious Monk, Anita O'Day and Mahalia Jackson perform, images of beaches, sailboats on water, dancing couples and the faces of joyful audience members are intercut into the proceedings. The film has been beautifully and extensively restored in 4K.  

USA 1958 Bert Stern 85m

While ‘Inception’ dealt with industrial espionage, ‘Tenet’ is Christopher Nolan’s first entry in the political spy thriller genre, dealing with the efforts of the titular secret agency,

The hero, named only as The Protagonist (John David Washington) is recruited, to thwart the plan of embittered Russian oligarch Andrei Sator (Kenneth Branagh) to destroy the world. Nolan’s fascination with temporal phenomena, which has been a thread running through all his films, here manifests itself in such devices as ‘time inversion,’ ‘entropy reversal’ and ‘time pincer movements.’ The cast also includes Robert Pattinson as the Protagonist’s British ally, Elizabeth Debicki as Sator’s abused wife and Michael Caine, in his eighth Nolan movie, as a British intelligence officer. As Nolan himself advises, don’t treat this film like a puzzle to be solved, just sit back and enjoy the ride. And if you don’t understand every twist… it’s not the end of the world!

USA/UK 2020 Christopher Nolan 150m

An illustrated talk by Dr Stuart Joy of Solent University, with Patrick Hargood, Deputy Education Officer, Chichester Cinema

Produced during a break while filming his debut feature. Following (1998), Christopher Nolan’s short film Doodlebug has attracted comparatively little critical attention when set against the backdrop of his feature filmmaking. The first part of this talk attempts to address this perceived imbalance by offering an in-depth discussion of Doodlebug. Dr Stuart Joy of Solent University, author of a recent study of Nolan’s films, The Traumatic Screen, will explore the short film form’s relationship to the passing of time and interpret the visual and thematic terrain of Doodlebug as being indicative of the pre-occupations that would come to dominate Nolan’s later career.

In the second part of this event Patrick Hargood of the cinema’s education team will take the reverse perspective, looking in detail at Nolan’s latest film, ‘Tenet’, and the ways in which it develops themes from Nolan’s earlier work.

In Vino Veritas - UK Premiere

A downtrodden man (Joe Pantoliano) experiences an ethical crisis and travels back to his hometown in rural Italy to recalibrate his moral compass.

There he finds new purpose in reviving his grandfather’s old vineyard, offering the small town of Acerenza a sustainable future, and reconnecting with his estranged family in the process. In a rare leading role, Joe Pantoliano (‘Memento’, ‘The Matrix’) stars as Marco Gentile, an Italian born CEO of a Canadian automobile company. He is at a crossroads in his life. Tired of the grind and troubled by an unkept promise he made years ago; he throws it all away. Without consulting his wife Marina (Wendy Crewson) he quits his high-paying job and hopes to reconnect to a way of life that will help him find his centre and regain his moral compass. But will his new beginning spell an end to old relationships? ‘From the Vine’ breathes the same fragrant air as ‘Under the Tuscan Sun,’ ‘A Good Year’ and any number of other movies that offer up beautiful scenery and a stripped-down way of life as a tonic for the soul. (Some subtitles)

Italy / Canada 2020 Sean Cisterna 97m

Our thanks to Parkland Entertainment for this screening.

An Italian wine tasting session will be held prior to the Saturday screening of this vine-focused film with a big heart.

Sat 28 Aug 16:30 (Jubilee Hall - New Park Centre)

£12 for the tasting.

Preview

A globally acclaimed opera singer and a stand-up comedian have their first child, and their lives are completely changed. Served as perfect curtain-raiser for the recent 74th Cannes Film Festival.

Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard - both absolutely terrific – star as celebrated stand-up comedian Henry McHenry, and world-famous opera singer Ann Defrasnoux.

In the guise of a musical, we follow their initial passionate, overwhelming love for one another, before moving to the next step and having a daughter, their beloved Annette, who is represented by a creepy doll that might have dropped in from a horror film. But things begin to go wrong. Henry is accused by six women of historic abuse and his career starts to stutter while Ann's continues to fly. The musical format proves a natural fit for Leos Carax's love of the visual fantasies created by the cinema's most basic means of illusion. A dreamy, delicate dance between farce and fantasia, ‘Annette’ is a magnificently ludicrous rock opera with an experimental approach to its emotional extremes. The musical format proves a natural fit for Carax's love of the visual fantasies in this ambitious, if not peculiar, return since his ‘Holy Motors’ (2012).

USA 2021 Leos Carax 139m

Special Preview

We are proud to close our 29th Chichester International Film Festival with the special preview of this superb British film, starring Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren, which premiered in last year’s Venice Film Festival. Roger Mitchell’s warm take on the true story of how Kempton Bunton acquired the National Gallery’s new Goya, features a glorious performance by Jim Broadbent.

In 1961, Kempton Bunton, a 60-year-old taxi driver, stole Goya's portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London. He sent ransom notes saying that he would return the painting on condition that the government invested more in care for the elderly. What happened next became the stuff of legend. Broadbent’s wonderful Kempton Bunton is a wannabe playwright and soapbox revolutionary, a man who prefers Chekhov to Shakespeare because he feels that the Bard wrote too many plays about kings. By night he is sitting up in bed reading books by George Orwell. By day he is tilting at windmills, squabbling with shop-floor managers and getting under the feet of his pinched, knackered wife (a wonderfully un-regal Hellen Mirren). An uplifting true story about a good man who set out to change the world and managed to save his marriage. What a lovely, rousing, finally moving film this is. ‘The Duke’ is unashamedly sentimental and resolutely old-fashioned in the best sense of the term: a design classic built along the same lines as 50’s Ealing comedies.            UK 2020 Roger Mitchell 96m

We hope to welcome director Roger Mitchell (‘Notting Hill’) to Chichester and introduce his film.

Our thanks to Warner Bros for this screening.

Gala Tickets £34

Sun 29 Aug: Gala Dinner 18:00 - film at 20:00 approx