• Friday 21 January for 2 weeks

A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT (15)

(France 2004) dir.Jean-Pierre Jeunet. 133m. Subtitles.
Audrey Tautou, Gaspard Ulliel, Jean-Pierre Becker, André Dussollier, Dominique Pinon, Chantal Neuwirth.

“Told that her sweetheart and fiancé (Gaspard Ulliel) has been court-martialled and sent, with four others, to the certain death of no-man's-land, orphaned dreamer Mathilde (Audrey Tautou) refuses to give up hope he will return. So begins her odyssey through the vile memories of World War I and across the pastures of rural France, to discover the truth of his crime and punishment, driven only by the power of her devotion. The frothy AMELIE, the fantastic THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN, the murky satire of DELICATESSEN all swim with the vivid wonder of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s imagination. With A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT, however, his strokes are far stronger and cut deeper. In the midst of his trademark brio, Jeunet invests this tall tale with a sharp reality. By the rain-washed opening credits' conclusion we've been introduced to the dark side — there's nothing fizzy about this brute vision of life and combat in the French trenches. The French maestro courageously rubs his light romance up against unflinching warfare — and the jarring cuts from windswept pastoral visions, as gilded as a Monet, to the deranged clutter of a killing field strike straight at the heart. Mathilde is headstrong, lamed by childhood polio, and prone to losing her rag, but determined to clutch at her love like a life raft. You care for Mathilde and you yearn for the truth, whatever form it might take. And as shadowy as the journey becomes, Jeunet, the optimist, also shows us a world of light. Inventive and lyrical, A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT is a joyous contradiction in terms: a war-torn romantic comedy.”
(Ian Nathan, Empire)

• Friday 4 February for 1 week

CLOSER (15)

(US 2004) dir.Mike Nichols 104m.
Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Julia Roberts, Clive Owen.

"Sparky young Alice (Natalie Portman) meets the bookish journalist Dan (Jude Law) when she's hit by a car on the streets of London. Romance ensues, Dan blossoms into a confident and sexy author, and he falls for the photographer Anna (Julia Roberts). She's just come out of a bad marriage, and is just about to fall in love with a doctor, Larry (Clive Owen). These four people crisscross each others' lives, manipulating and being manipulated, loving and being loved. Mike Nichols orchestrates it beautifully, shooting and editing impeccably, demonstrating his expertise without resorting to showy filmmaking. And he's also got Patrick Marber's almost too-clever words and a terrific four-person cast. All of the characters are slowly unpeeled in front of us. Roberts finds real resonance in Anna's inability to truly open her heart and commit to someone. Law gives Dan a lovely pathetic charm — he simply can't get a grip on his own passions. Owen gives his best performance in ages as the smiling-but- manipulative Larry. And Portman steals the show with an astonishingly layered performance as the spiky but vulnerable Alice. Even without the rest of the film's genius, she's worth the price of a ticket."
(Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall)

• Friday 4 February for 1 week

2046 (12A)

(Hong-Kong/China/Fr/It 2004) dir.Wong Kar Wai 129m. Subtitles.
Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Gong Li, Takuya Kimura, Faye Wong, Zhang Ziyi, Carina Lau, Chang Chen.

“Wong Kar Wai’s long awaited, sumptuous follow-up to IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE makes for a rapturous cinematic experience. It’s not just the stunning production design, exquisite camera-work and superbly used music, which together give the film the febrile intensity of a nineteenth-century opera. It’s also the subtlety and complexity that distinguish Wong’s charting of the emotional odyssey undergone by Chow Mo Wan (Tony Leung) as he goes through a series of relationships with different but likewise lovely women: a prostitute (Ziyi Zhang), a gambler (Gong Li), a cabaret singer (Carina Lau), and his landlord’s daughter (Faye Wong). With such beauties surrounding him, you’d expect Chow to be happy but the film mainly takes place in the mid-’60s, the years immediately following his heart-breaking encounter with a married woman (Maggie Cheung in IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE). It’s a relationship that still shades and shapes his reactions to every woman he meets, and it therefore also influences the allegorical sci-fi novel he’s writing, set in the year 2046... Wong builds layer upon bittersweet layer of meaning in a work as cerebrally rewarding as it is sensually seductive. It may help you if you grasp the many allusions to Wong’s earlier films but it’s far from necessary. This after all is undeniably real cinema.”
(Geoff Andrew, Time Out)

• Friday 11 February for 2 weeks

THE SEA INSIDE (PG)

(Spain 2004) dir.Alejandro Amenábar 126m. Subtitles.
Javier Bardem, Belén Rueda, Lola Dueñas, Celso Bugallo, Clara Segura, Mabel Rivera.

“After his remarkable ghost story THE OTHERS, Amenabar shifts gears drastically for this intensely moving drama about a difficult subject: assisted suicide. And superb filmmaking and devastating performances make it a must-see. Ramon Sampedro (Javier Bardem) has spent the past 26 years as a quadriplegic. His life isn't bad — he's cared for by his loving brother, sister-in-law, nephew and father, plus a curious neighbour (Lola Dueñas). But he's had enough of life, so he contacts the Die With Dignity foundation, and a volunteer there (Clara Segura) takes his case. His lawyer Julia (Belén Rueda) also suffers from a disability, and the two develop a close bond as they challenge the court for his right to choose death. What sounds rather gloomy is actually a life-celebrating movie, focussing closely on the characters rather than bogging down in the political or moral issue at hand. And it's also filled with sharp humour. Bardem is simply wonderful, radiating energy and wit from his bed-prison ... and then starkly contrasting this in flashback scenes of Ramon as a robust young man. And he's matched by terrific acting from everyone around him. Amenabar films this with a lyrical beauty — his camera sweeps through the scenes smoothly, quietly, subtly catching tiny details and revealing Ramon's inner thoughts, glimpses of the world he's created inside his head just to survive for the next hour. This is a film about respect, friendship and real love — not the gooey, romantic stuff we're used to seeing in movies, but much darker and tougher. It's a complex, provocative approach to an extremely sensitive topic. And while never moralising or dipping into sentimentality, Amenabar beautifully traces the complex relationships between struggling people who so desperately need each other. Ultimately this is both delicately tender and overwhelmingly powerful.“
(Rich Kline, Shadows on the Wall)

• Friday 18 February for 1 week

VERA DRAKE (12A)

(Br 2004) dir.Mike Leigh 125m.
Imelda Staunton, Richard Graham, Eddie Marsan, Alex Kelly, Daniel Mays, Phil Davis, Adrian Scarborough, Heather Craney, Ruth Sheen.

“Even after three decades of work, Mike Leigh is still making films that bristle with honesty and life, fearlessly tackling issues that other filmmakers won't touch, and maintaining a level of integrity we rarely see on screen. This might be his best film yet. Vera (Staunton) is a middle-aged wife and mother in 1950 London. She cleans houses for her rich neighbours, but her sense of charity is so strong that she dedicates her spare time to meeting people's needs – tending to sickly shut-ins and her lonely mother, caring for her husband (Davis) and adult children (Kelly and Mays), and "helping young girls out" when they find themselves pregnant. No one knows about this last thing except her childhood friend Lily (Sheen), and when one abortion goes wrong Vera has to face the raw truth of her entire life. This is an extraordinarily strong story, and Leigh tells it with skill and beauty. This is a topic no one in Post-War Britain would ever talk about, so the repercussions here are both mind-spinning and profoundly moving. In telling the story, Leigh cuts straight to the heart of the matter, and as a result connects with us emotionally very early on, never letting up for a second ... and also never taking advantage of us either (there's not a single cheap cinematic moment)! It also helps that Staunton is such a transcendent actress – from Vera's cheerful obsession with nice cups of tea to the sudden dawning of what's at stake here. This is one of the year's most remarkable performances, and yet it never grandstands for a second. From her face alone we fully understand that her life is shattered not because she's been caught, but because she almost hurt someone. And the cast around her is note-perfect as well, brilliantly balancing the humour, class issues, confusion and inner turmoil. The film is also blessed with warmth and charm drawn out in the striking production design, lush-but-dark cinematography and minimalist score. Leigh's writing and direction are astute and insightful, lacing the film with moments of joy, irony and pain. This is masterful, earth-shaking filmmaking – complex, entertaining and so profoundly stirring that it's impossible to get it out of your mind.”
(Rich Kline, Shadows on the Wall)

• Friday 25 February for 1 week

HEAD-ON (15)

(Germany 2003) dir.Fatih Akin 122m. Subtitles.
Sibel Kekilli, Birol Ünel, Catrin Striebeck.

“If GOOD BYE, LENIN! was the feelgood version of German re-unification, Fatih Akin's HEAD-ON (the German title, GEGEN DE WAND, translates as 'up against the wall') is the mirror image: an in-your-face picture of modern Germany which takes few hostages and doesn't much care who it offends. After the distinctly soft-centred view of immigrant life in Akin's last film, SOLINO, HEAD-ON is a raw and uncompromising drama about a doomed love affair. The setting is Turkish-German but the film is ultimately about the experience of two people grappling with their emotions, a hostile world and their own sense of identity. Cahit, a 40-year-old rebel played by Akin regular Birol Ünel, agrees to marry Sibel a headstrong but much younger girl played by 22-year-old newcomer Sibel Kekilli (who was spotted in a Cologne shopping mall). The couple travel through indifference, passion, love and loss together, emerging battered and fundamentally changed on the other side. Don't expect a happy ending. Do expect two very brave performances, a strong streak of black humour and the satisfaction of seeing a major new talent fully hitting its stride.”
(Nick Roddick, London Film Festival programme)

• Friday 4 Mar for 2 weeks

KINSEY (15)

(US 2004) dir.Bill Condon 118m.
Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, Chris O'Donnell, Peter Sarsgaard, Timothy Hutton.

“A deftly handled mixture of personal drama and social history, Kinsey sculpts a compelling film from the life of the pioneering scientist who devoted himself to the study of human sexuality. Beautifully judged and paced, it is both intellectually stimulating and emotionally satisfying. A previous Oscar-winner for his screenplay of Gods And Monsters, Bill Condon brings a similar sensitivity and imagination to condensing the essence of Kinsey’s life into a two-hour film. He begins with Kinsey (Liam Neeson) acting as a guinea pig for his team of researchers. Intimate questions sketch in his upbringing by a tyrannical preacher father (John Lithgow). Eventually, he rebels and sets off on his journey, becoming a cultured biologist who devotes himself to research into wasps. When Kinsey starts his ground-breaking study of American sexuality, he is a revolutionary seeking to divorce human behaviour from moral judgment and provide solid scientific evidence on the reality of everyday sexual experience. The film invites modern audiences to laugh at attitudes and educational films that seem to belong to the dark ages, but do not seem that far removed from some of the moral crusaders currently on the march in America. Kinsey is also expertly acted with Neeson capturing the emotional complexity of a man driven by his work and vulnerable in his private life. Laura Linney offers a characteristically warm and vibrant performance as Kinsey’s emotional rock and Peter Sarsgaard continues to prove himself one of the most versatile supporting actors currently working in American film.”
(Allan Hunter, Screen International)

* Friday 11 Mar for 1 week

THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU (15)

(US 2004) dir.Wes Anderson 119m.
Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Cate Blanchett, Anjelica Huston, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Michael Gambon, Bud Cort, Noah Taylor, Seu Jorge, Robyn Cohen, Seymour Cassel.

"Only The Beatles' YELLOW SUBMARINE (1968) equals THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU for brilliant, psychedelic surrealism. Bill Murray lends a sobering edge to Wes Anderson's vividly imagined tale of a washed-up oceanographer hunting a mythical shark while struggling to make a human connection with his long-lost son Ned (Owen Wilson). It's impossible to avoid getting swept up in the romance and sheer whimsy of it all. Using stop-motion animation, Anderson invents all manner of weird and wonderful marine life from candy-coloured sugar crabs to crayon pony fish, but it's the fearsome jaguar shark that Steve Zissou (Bill Murray) is obsessed with. Having witnessed the fanged fishy devour his best friend, he's bent on revenge. But bringing Ned on the expedition only complicates matters, especially as they both have an eye for enigmatic journalist Jane (Cate Blanchett) who's writing a feature article on Zissou. A hilariously doltish Willem Dafoe is also part of the motley crew of the Belafonte, a rust bucket that comes complete with Swedish sauna and a strangely familiar yellow submarine. It's part of a seductive fantasy world where poignant human drama unfolds. Murray is delightfully deadpan with a tragic twist, so that as he bops to smooth electronica - piped into his diving helmet for relaxation - you can't help but laugh and feel sorry for him all at once. For the most part THE LIFE AQUATIC will have you gleefully immersed."
(Stella Papamichael , BBCi Films)

• Friday 18 Mar for 2 weeks

5x2 (15)

(France 2004) dir.François Ozon 91m. Subtitles.
Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Stéphane Freiss, Françoise Fabian, Michael Lonsdale, Géraldine Pailhas.

“5x2 is not only François Ozon’s most adult film to date but a masterpiece by any standards. 5x2 could easily be called Scenes From a Marriage — it's certainly the closest Ozon has yet come to Bergman territory. As the title suggests, the film gives us five glimpses of two people — married couple Marion and Gilles, first seen uneasily sitting down for divorce proceedings. We see the couple's story backwards — from its unhappy ending, through an uneasy dinner party, childbirth and their wedding, to the moment the couple meet. Rather than being playful or perplexing, the reverse structure works to subtly devastating effect, unfolding the couple's dissatisfactions and tensions, then taking us back to discover their sources in rifts or in seemingly innocent moments that seed the eventual separation. Intellectually trenchant and emotionally brutal, the film is also a feast of outstanding acting, with subtly powerful lead performances from Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi and Stéphane Freiss, and strong support including veterans Michael Lonsdale and Françoise Fabian. A film guaranteed to leave couples thinking 'There but for the grace of God.' — 5x2 is not to be missed.”
(Jonathan Romney, London Film Festival programme)