Films Programme

Saturday night films:   Doors open at 6.00 pm.  At 7.00 pm we share a meal (everyone brings a dish of food to share) and there is a bar providing wine and soft drinks.  We aim to start the film at 8.00 pm.  Those who want to see the film only without the meal should arrive by 7.45 pm.    Entrance fee is £5 for members and £6 for non-members.

Friday night films are selected from the very best of world cinema, often foreign language films which don’t always appear at the multiplexes.  There is no meal, just wine, soft drinks and snacks.

Winter  and Spring Programme  2024/2025

Saturday 4th  January 2025:  The Holdovers (2023)     (was to have been shown in December but postponed due to weather)

2hrs 13 mins         USA Drama         Cert 15

Cast includes: Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Dominic Sessa

Directed by Alexander Payne

Set in a New England boarding school, a cantankerous teacher, a troubled student and the school’s head cook, all nursing disappointments of different kinds, are forced to spend the Christmas holiday together.  A bittersweet but ultimately heartwarming film about finding family where you least expect it.

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Friday 17th January 2025 :  The Zone of Interest (2023)       

1 hr 45 mins    Germany Historical Drama     Cert 12A

Cast includes:  Christian Friedel, Sandra Huller

Directed by Jonathan Glazer

The commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Hoss, and his wife, Hedwig, live in comfort with their children in a house and garden next to the camp.  What is happening on the other side of the garden wall is never shown, but the atmospheric soundtrack conjures a visceral sense of dread.  For the director, this is a film about now: ‘The reason I made this film is to try to restate our close proximity to this terrible event that we think of as in the past… The road that so many people took is… always just a few steps away.’

In German with English subtitles.

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Saturday 1st February 2025:  American Fiction  (2023)

1 hr 57 mins      USA Comedy/Drama       Cert 15

Cast includes:    Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross

Directed by Cord Jefferson

A hilariously prickly satire about an African American novelist who finds it hard to achieve success as a writer, without giving in to a market that prefers Black storytelling to be in tired and offensive clichés.  An intelligent but entertaining film dealing subtly with race and racism.

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Friday 21st February 2025:     Perfect Days   (2023)

2 hrs 4 mins      Japan Drama     Cert PG

Cast includes:  Kôji Yakusho, Tokio Emoto

Directed by Wim Wenders

This simple story of a reserved, kind-hearted Tokyo janitor is a deeply moving and poetic reflection on finding beauty in the everyday world around us.

(In Japanese with English subtitles)

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Saturday 1st March 2025:   The Critic  (2023)

1 hr 41 mins      UK Crime Drama        Cert 15

Cast includes:   Ian McKellen, Gemma Arterton

Directed by Anand Tucker

A renowned and feared theatre critic in 1930’s London takes drastic, sordid action to protect his career in this dark and acerbically witty drama, with a powerful central performance by Ian McKellen.

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Friday 21st March 2025 :   Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry  (2023)

1 hr 50 mins           Georgia Drama         Cert 15

Cast includes:   Eka Chavleishvili, Temiko Chichinadze

Directed by Elene Naveriani

A middle-aged woman finds love and passion for the first time in her life in this drily witty, tender film, which explores themes of female independence coming up against social expectations.

(In Georgian with English subtitles)

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Saturday 5th April 2025:  Small Things Like These (2024)

1 hr 41 mins    Ireland Drama     Cert 12

Cast includes:   Cillian Murphy, Eileen Walsh, Emily Watson

Directed by Tim Mielants

A coalman in 1980’s Ireland is confronted by dark and distressing secrets connected to a local convent in this slow-burn drama concerning the tragic injustices of the Magdalene Laundry system.

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Friday 18th April 2025 :   Touch   (2023)

2 hrs 1 min      Iceland Drama         Cert 15

Cast includes:  Egill Ólafsson, Kôki

Directed by Baltasar Kormákur

Kristofer returns from Iceland to London for the first time in fifty years in search of a lost love from his youth.  A beautiful film about love and connection across the decades and across continents.

(In Icelandic, Japanese and English with English subtitles)

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Saturday 3rd May 2025 :    Conclave  (2024)

2 hrs          USA Mystery Thriller/Drama     Cert 12A

Cast includes:   Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow

Directed by Edward Berger

The responsibility to find a successor to the pope falls on a beleaguered cardinal who finds himself embroiled in a conspiracy in this sombre and tense psychological drama.

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