The official blog of The Cinema at Gloucester Guildhall and its Film Club. News, reviews and everything to do with the films showing at Gloucester Guildhall.
Sleeper (PG) is this month's film for the Gloucester Cinematics Film Club.
Come along on Thursday 7th June. We meet in The Place at The Guildhall at 7.15pm
If you fancy coming along to the film club, our format is: meet at The Guildhall, watch the film and then as a group head over to The Regal (formally a cinema back in the 60s) to have a chat about the film just watched and films in general.
This club is a great opportunity to meet people who love film and have the opportunity to discuss films over a casual drink.
We're also trying to up the presence of the film club on Twitter so if you tweet us @glosguildhall please also #gloscinematics.
As a member you will have access to a concession priced ticket (£4.50). If writing a review for this blog is something you'd like to have the opportunity to contribute drop Chloe an email at chloe.homer@gloucester.gov.uk
A great accompaniment to The Purple Rose Of Cairo in our Woody Allen season this week is another classic gem from the archive, the 1973 madcap sci-fi comedy Sleeper.
Containing many elements that parody notable works of science fiction such as George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and H.G. Wells' The Sleeping Man, the film stars Allen as a jazz musician and health-food store owner Miles Monroe who enters hospital to undergo a routine gall bladder operation. When the operation goes wrong, Miles' sister requests that his body be congenically frozen (without his consent). 200 years later he is revived by a group of scientists and awakens to a "brave new world" in which society has been rendered to a level of deadening conformity, ruled with an iron fist by an omni-present leader.
It emerges that the scientists are in fact a group of revolutionary activists whose mission is to infiltrate a secret plan, implemented by the leader, known as the Aires Project. With Miles having no biometric identity, they try to persuade him to act as their espionage agent...
Whilst certainly one of the more visual examples of Allen's early filmography, relying more on conceptual/slapstick gags than his trademark verbal wit, it is still undeniably one of his funniest films of his career with practically every joke and every one-liner hitting the target. If you've seen Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey, then the actor playing the voice of the evil computer in Sleeper will be instantly recognisable. Sleeper also acts as a fitting love letter to two of Woody Allen's comedy inspirations: Benny Hill (for his slapstick comedy, raucous music, and sped-up motion scenes) and Bob Hope (for his one-liner comic delivery).
Don't miss the chance to see the film that was voted the 30th greatest comedy of all time by Total Film Magazine.
Check out the trailer below:
Sleeper (PG) runs on Saturday 2nd and Thursday 7th at 7:45pm
**Sleeper is the next film to viewed by the Gloucester Cinematics Film Club. Come along to the Guildhall cafe/bar for 7:15pm on Thursday 7th June**
Screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author and playwright, with a plethora of awards and more than 40 films to his name, Woody Allen's career spans over half a century. Throughout June we're giving you the chance to revisit four of his classic works that achieved so much critical acclaim, re-mastered in traditional 35mm glory on the big screen, starting with The Purple Rose Of Cairo.
Blurring the boundaries between the real and the unreal, this unique comedic fantasy stars Mia Farrow (Rosemary's Baby) as Cecelia, a woman living in a small town in Depression-era America. Trapped in a dead-end job and an abusive marriage, she regularly seeks refuge in the local picture house. After she becomes enraptured by the latest big screen attraction, an RKO screwball comedy called The Purple Rose Of Cairo, she returns to the cinema day after day. During what seems like a normal visit, the film's main character Tom Baxter (Jeff Daniels,Terms Of Endearment) turns towards the audience and says directly to Cecelia "My God, you must love this picture!" only then to climb out of the movie itself and into the theatre, much to the amazement of the audience and the other characters on screen. Freed from his mundane black and white surroundings, he and Cecelia take a tour of the town and they eventually fall for each other. There's only small problem: Tom Baxter isn't real.
Originally released in 1985 at the Cannes Film Festival to rave reviews from the critics, Allen himself regards The Purple Rose Of Cairo as one of only a few of his films that ended up being "fairly close to what I wanted to do" when he set out to write it. Judging from the end result, it's no surprise why this film remains one of his personal favourites. The screenplay is hilariously funny but it also makes way for some truly touching scenes as well. In short, it's the perfect embodiment of the classic Woody Allen formula: a great cast and a great story.
Don't miss your chance to see the film critics called (and would no doubt call today):
"A gem"
Newsweek
"Masterpiece"
TIME Magazine
"The funniest, most polished picture in Cannes"
Observer
Check out the trailer below:
The Purple Rose Of Cairo (PG) runs on Friday 1st June at 7:45pm and Wednesday 6th June at 2:00pm (Screen Tea)
Gloucester Cinematics Film Club met on Thursday to watch Headhunters. Here's what film club member Simon Barton thought of the film...
Headhunters is a compelling, darkly comic thriller, based on the novel Hodejegerne by Norwegian author Jo Nesbo. It tells the story of Roger Brown ( Aksel Hennie), a headhunter for high-powered business clients - a man whose main preoccupations are maintaining his fearsome reputation and keeping his wife supplied with all the Scandinavian furniture and expensive jewellery she needs. This lifestyle comes with a high price, however, so Roger has a second, lucrative career as an art thief. When he steals a priceless Rubens from ex-mercenary Clas Greve (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) he finds himself becoming the hunted...
As Roger's life spirals into an ever-worsening series of disasters, we find ourselves rooting for this originally unsympathetic character and his desperate attempts to evade the seemingly-unstoppable Clas Greve. The film veers from violent thriller to black comedy as the bodies pile up and the story twists and turns to an unexpected and clever finale. Aksel Hennie is wonderful as the outwardly confident but inwardly vulnerable Roger and there are fine performances by Synnove Macody Lund as Diana and Eivind Sander as Roger's psychotic partner-in-crime, Ove.
The inevitable American remake of Headhunters is probably already underway, but I would recommend seeing this film in its original, quirky Norwegian version, with its almost cartoon-like violence, beautiful landscapes, amoral characters and a demented chase scene involving a tractor and a very unlucky dog...
Once Upon a Time inAnatolia is a film about three men, who drive through the Anatolian countryside. The three men - a police commissioner, a prosecutor and a doctor - light the way along the serpentine roads and rolling hills. The reason for the trip is to search for a corpse, the victim of a brutal murder. The suspect, who claims he was drunk, can’t remember where he buried the body. The night wears on, details about the murder emerge and the investigators’ own secrets come to light. In the Anatolian steppes nothing is what it seems, and when the body is found the real questions begin.
Back in 2011 Once Upon a Time in Anatolia was the Winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes. During its run at film festivals it was also nominated and won various different awards. One of these was the Best Director award at Dublin International Film Festival. During this release at film festivals and while on general release the film has been critically acclaimed.
The director Nuri Bilge Ceylan has an interesting list of films which he has directed before Once Upon a Time inAnatolia such as Three Monkeys, Climates and Distant. The actors within the film are popular and well-known on film and in television shows within Turkey.
Our second Oscar nominated film this week is Albert Nobbs which was released in America back in 2011, receiving very positive press, leaving us wondering when it might be released in the United Kingdom. During its release Albert Nobbs has won and been nominated for various awards.
Albert Nobbs is based on the short story by George Moore and with an Oscar-nominated performance from Glenn Close, centred on the experiences of a 19th century Irish woman who poses as a man in order to work as a butler at an opulent Dublin hotel for the upper class. Albert Nobbs struggles to survive in late 19th century Ireland, where women aren't encouraged to be independent. Maintaining her elaborate ruse over the course of two decades, Albert suddenly finds her dedication to the role challenged by the unexpected arrival of a painter who turns out to understand Albert better than she could have imagined. Meanwhile, Albert finds her attempts to help pretty hotel maid Helen (Mia Wasikowska) thwarted when Helen becomes enamoured with a charming but callous handyman.
The film was nominated for three Oscars: Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (Glenn Close), Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role (Janet McTeer) and Best Achievement in Makeup. In respect the awards the film has had another nine wins & 20 nominations. Some of these wins were at the Irish Film and Television awards for Best International Actress, Best Makeup & Hair (Film/TV Drama) and Best Original Score (Film/TV Drama).
Glenn Close is a distinguished actress which audiences have seen on our screens since the 1970s. Not only does she play the lead character, she has been involved in writing of the screenplay. During her career she has been nominated for six Oscars, and another 29 wins & 45 nominations at different awards, including various film festivals.
The director has been involved with various films and television shows including Six Feet Under from 2001 - 2005. Albert Nobbs sees rising star Mia Wasikowska come back to our screen - you would have recently seen her in the 2011 Jane Eyre film adaptation.
Have a look at the trailer (below):
Albert Nobbs is screened at the following times:
Saturday 26th at 7.45pm, Monday 28th at 2pm (Screen Tea), Tuesday 29th at 2pm (Screen Tea), Tuesday 29th at 7.45pm and Thursday 31st at 7.45pm.
The next two films showing at Gloucester Guildhall are both Oscar nominated. The first film In Darknessis an adaptation of the book by Robert Marshall. This film is a dramatisation of the true story of one man’s rescue of Jewish refugees in the Nazi-occupied Polish city of Lvov.The story focuses on Leopold Soha who risks his own life to save a dozen people from certain death.
It was Oscar nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, from acclaimed director Agnieszka Holland and based on a true story. Leopold Socha, a sewer worker and petty thief in Lvov, a Nazi occupied city in Poland, encounters a group of Jews trying to escape the liquidation of the ghetto. He hides them for money in the labyrinth of the town’s sewers beneath the bustling activity of the city above. What starts out as a straightforward and cynical business arrangement turns into something entirely unexpected as the enterprise seeps deeper into Socha’s conscience.
In Darkness was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film in the 2011 Oscars. Along with this nomination the film has had a presence at various film festivals, during which the film won the audience award at St. Louis International Film Festival and has been nominated for it at Dublin International film festival.
The actor Robert Wieckiewicz, who in the film plays Leopold Socha, is a well-known Polish actor. The director Agnieszka Holland is again a well-known director. She is the director of The Killing (English language) and some episodes of The Wire.
This
week sees the arrival of Headhunters
onto the screen at Gloucester Guildhall. The film is showing from 22nd May
(tonight), 23rd May and 24th May, 7:45pm each night. This film is a cool
adaptation of Jo Nesbø's novel Scandinavian thriller.
Roger
is a man who apparently has it all; he's Norway’s most successful headhunter,
he's married to a beautiful and stylish gallery owner, he has a far too
expensive villa. To keep his head above water financially, steal a little too
much art. Roger who is an
accomplished
headhunter decides to risk everything in order to obtain a valuable painting
owned by a former mercenary.
The
film provides audience members with pacy plot twists, bursts of
stomach-churning viscerality and the odd dash of humour. These all make for an
irresistible combination, and the audience are presented with an intelligent
rollercoaster.
The
director Morten Tyldum had his first feature film Buddy and this film
screened at the London Film Festival. Askel Hennie appears in Headhunters
as Roger, who is an established Norwegian
actor and has won a number of awards.
‘Headhunters
is firmly rooted in the Scandinavian experience, and it moves with the speed of
a demented lemming heading for the cliff-edge of a fjord.’ (Philip French, The
Guardian)
‘this
satisfyingly suspenseful and handsome film’ (Sandra Hebron, BFI)
Watch
the trailer and see for yourself, what a superb night’s entertainment this film
will be.
Don’t
forget to join the film club on Thursday 24th at 7:15 in the Guildhall Bar to
watch Headhunters and then a chat
about films.
Following the success of The Muppets, we're putting on THREE family screenings of The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists during the June half term. Mums, dads and grandparents can enjoy a nice cup of tea and piece of cake with a Screen Tea ticket, while kids under 16 can get in for just £3! And have we got a treat for you in July...!
The Cinema at Glouester Guildhall continues its May programme with the British romantic comedy-drama Salmon Fishing In The Yemen, the new film from director Lasse Hallestrom (The Cider House Rules, Chocolat, Dear John) penned by the award-winning Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionarie, 127 Hours) and adapted from the best-selling novel by Paul Torday.
When Britain's leading
fisheries expert (Ewan McGregor- Beginners, Trainspotting, Big Fish) is approached by a consultant (Emily Blunt The Adjustment Bureau, The Devil Wears Prada, The Young Victoria) to
help realize a sheikh's (Amr Waked- Syriana, Contagion) vision of bringing the sport of fly-fishing
to the desert, he immediately thinks the project is both absurd and unachievable.
But when the Prime Minister's overzealous press secretary (Kristin Scott
Thomas- Sarah's Key, I've Loved You So Long, Leaving) latches on to it as a "good will" story, this unlikely team
will put it all on the line and embark on an upstream journey of faith and fish
to prove the impossible, possible.
Premiereing at last year's Toronto Film Festival, this is a little charmer of a film and one that encapsulates the sheer beauty of the Yemense landscape. Brilliant performances from everyone in the principal cast, especailly a reliably sharp and witty Kristin Scott Thomas, combine to make a film that is sweet, funny, slightly bizzare but also a feel-good night at the cinema.
Don't miss the chance to see the film critics are calling:
"A fantastic feel-good charmer" (Sunday Mirror)
"The British comedy of the year" (Woman & Home)
"Lifts your spirits, leaves you feeling good about life and even better about the movies" (Los Angeles Times)
"Pure delight. A smart, original comedy treat. This is one to see!" (Box Office Magazine)
Check out the trailer (above) as well as an interview with director Lasse Hallestrom from last year's TIFF (below):
Salmon Fishing In The Yemen (12A) runs from Friday 18th-Monday 21st May on selected dates including Saturday night (19th) where the first 20 tickets are just £2.50 each but once they're gone, they're gone.
**UPDATE** All £2.50 tickets for Saturday night are now SOLD OUT.
We're currently looking into upgrading the chairs in the cinema so if you come to see a film here over the next few of weeks you may notice a couple of sample chairs at the back. Please feel free to test these out and let us know what you think. Hopefully we'll have more samples coming soon, but one of the current samples is a rather plush "proper" cinema seat, so there could well be a bit of a fight over the best seat in the house!
In keeping with our mission statement of bringing you the best in foreign and independent cinema, The Cinema at Gloucester Guildhall continues its May programme this week, alongside our other release Hunky Dory, with the award-winning Belgian drama, The Kid With A Bike. Produced, written and directed by the critically acclaimed Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne- better known as the Dardenne Brothers (La Promesse, Le Fils, L’Enfant and The Silence Of Lorna), this marks the Belgian duo’s first film in nearly 4 years....and it goes without saying that it’s an absolutely triumphant return.
Premiering at last year’s Cannes Film Festival where it took the prestigious Grand Prix, as well as picking up a Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, the film features the Dardennes brothers hallmark naturalistic style as demonstrated in their earlier works. It does however, mark their first film to ever feature music- an aspect that they hesiated to use, but later argued would benefit the film’s fairytale-esque structure: "In a fairytale there has to be a development, with emotions and new beginnings. It seemed to us that music, at certain points, could act like a calming caress for Cyril.” Boasting fantastic performances from the cast, especially from young Thomas Doret, The Kid With A Bike is heart-wrenching, thematically and spiritually rich drama that is quite simply the best film about childhood since Ken Loach’s Kes and can also be equally and favorably compared to the 1948 De Silca classic The Bycicle Thieves.
Don’t miss your chance to see the film critics are calling:
“A wholly gripping, emotionally acute work of humanistic cinema...****”
(The Telegraph)
“****”
(Time Out)
“****”
(The Times)
“Intriguing, exciting, amusing, moving”
(Nick Roddick, Evening Standard)
Check out the trailer (above) as well as an interview with one half of the Dardennne duo, Luc Dardenne, from Cannes 2011 (below):
The Kid With A Bike (12A) runs from Saturday 12th-Thursday 17th on selected dates with Screen Tea peformances on Saturday (10:45am) and Monday (2pm).
Thursday, 10 May 2012
Nice letter to The Citizen from a member of the Focus Group. Thanks Chris!
We're very excited to announce our first mini film season, a look back at some of Woody Allen's classics from the 70s and 80s.
Screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author and playwright, with a plethora of awards and more than 40 films to his name, Woody Allen's career spans over half a century. Starting out as a comedy writer in his teens, before the age of twenty he had sold twenty thousand jokes to New York newspapers and by 23 he was writing for one of television's biggest comedy stars, Sid Caesar. By the mid-1960s Allen was writing and directing films - his first writing credit was on What's New Pussycat in 1965, while he earned his directorial debut with What's Up, Tiger Lily in 1969 - first specializing in slapstick comedy before moving into more dramatic material influenced by European art films during the 70s and 80s, pioneering a new brand of romantic comedy with work such as Annie Hall and Manhattan. His later work has attracted some criticism, although Midnight In Paris performed incredibly well in both America and the UK, and earned him an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. One of America's most prominent filmmakers he is widely regarded as one of the most versatile and remarkable figures in cinema today. Whether you are a long-standing fan or new to Allen’s work, don’t miss this fleeting chance to revisit four of his classic works that achieved so much critical acclaim, re-mastered in traditional 35mm glory on the big screen!
The Cinema
at Gloucester Guildhall continues its May programme this week with the British
musical filmHunky Dory,produced by Jonathan Finn (Billy
Elliot)and under the helm of
Welsh director Marc Evans (House Of America, Resurrection Man, My
Little Eye).It'sthe summer of 1976 --the hottest summer the UK has ever seen. At a comprehensive school in Swansea, Vivienne, an idealistic drama
teacher, played by Minnie Driver (Good Will Hunting),attempts to single-handedly
fight the sweltering heat and the general teen apathy by putting on an end of
year rock and roll musical of Shakespeare'sThe Tempestusing
contemporary music of the time to engage her students and knock
them into shape....a task made hard enough by the relentless sunshine and
enticing beaches of Swansea. The musical magic is created however when the kids finally come together
lead by Davey, played by Aneurin Barnard, and perform with their hearts and
souls.
Making its premiere at the 55th London Film Festival last year, and accepted for this year's SXSW festival in America, the film features an eclectic catalogue of memorable songs of the 70s by artists such as David Bowie, The Who, ELO, Roxy Music, The Velvet Underground & 10cc all immortalised in brilliantly by the cast. If this music is your bag, this film is definitely one worth checking out....and fear not, it is not as saccharine and cheesy as the likes of Disney's High School Musical.
Don't miss your chance to see the film critics are calling:
"Charming....A Welsh blend of Glee and School Of Rock with a great soundtrack. ****"
(Mark Adams, Sunday Mirror)
"Touches the heart in a way that a more polished production might not."
(Anthony Quinn, The Independent)
Check out the trailer (above) as well as an Q&A session with Minnie Driver and the film's creative team from the LFF (below)
Hunky Dory (15) runs from Friday 11th-Monday 14th on selected dates at 7.45pm including Saturday 12th where the first 20 tickets are just £2.50!! But remember, once they're gone. they're gone.
Friday, 4 May 2012
We're not the biggest fan of the transition to digital, so we found this story about how a press screening of Marvel Avengers Assemble was delayed due to the film being accidentally deleted particularly amusing!
Check out this link (before Tuesday) to hear Guildhall Film Programmer Chloe talking about Saturday night screenings on BBC Radio Gloucestershire about 9 minutes into the programme.
It might be the start of the crazy summer blockbuster season but for The Cinema at Gloucester Guildhall at Gloucester Guildhall, May marks the equally exciting start of not only a new programme that features the best in foreign and independent film, but also the return of an age old tradition. As The Drifters famously once sung:
# Saturday night at the movies, Who cares what picture you see when you're huggin' with your baby in the last row in the balcony? #
That’s right, fellow cinema lovers. After a three year absence we are proud to bring back film screenings on Saturday nights, with the first 20 tickets to each performance available at the unbelievably good price of just £2.50.
We begin our May programme this week with one of the hot ‘In Competition’ picks of last year’s Cannes Film Festival, This Must Be The Place, the long awaited and much anticipated return of acclaimed Italian director Paolo Sorrentino following the success of the award-winning Il Divo in 2008.
Marking his first English language film, this comedy-drama stars Academy Award winner Sean Penn (Mystic River, Milk) as Cheyenne, a former lead singer of an iconic goth rock band, who at the age of 50 still dresses “Goth” and lives in Dublin off his royalties. Although fabulously rich and living in an extravagant estate with his wife Jane, played by Academy Award winner Frances McDormand (Fargo), Cheyenne still feels apathetic and disconnected from life. Learning that his father is close to death, he decides to travel back home to New York in the hope of being reconciled with him during his final hours, only to arrive too late. However he discovers that his father had a secret obsession: to seek revenge against former SS Officer and ex-Nazi war criminal Aloise Muller who tormented and humiliated him in the concentration camps at Auschwitz. Determined to make things right, Cheyenne decides to track down his father’s nemesis now hiding out in America as a refugee. So begins a life-altering journey across the heartland of America, which as the quest unfolds, transforms into one reconciliation and self-discovery through the people that he encounters. But as his date with destiny arrives and he eventually tracks down Muller, Cheyenne must answer the ultimate question: does he seek redemption...or revenge?
Presented in the ‘Spotlight’ section of this year’s Sundance Film Festival, This Must Be The Place is a gripping examination of a man on the precipice of obsession, effortlessly captured in Penn’s terrific central performance. It may be understated, unlike his previous outspoken roles, yet he is just as stirring and memorable. Equally stunning and impressive (especially for fans of new wave band Talking Heads) is the score composed by founding member and principal songwriter, David Byrne-that and Sorrentino’s direction are worth the admission price alone. All in all, this is a beautiful little film that is consistently quirky, often laugh-out loud funny and sometimes surprisingly poignant.
Check out the trailer (above) as well as this live performance by Talking Heads on Later...With Jools Holland of the song that inspired the film’s title (below):
This Must Be The Place (15) runs from Friday 4th-Thursday 10th May on selected dates at 7.45pm including Saturday 5th May where the first 20 tickets are just £2.50, but once they’re gone...they’re gone.
