Sun 1 Oct • Antonioni double bill

ZABRISKIE POINT (15) 1.15
(US 1970) dir.Michelangelo Antonioni 106m.
Mark Frechette, Daria Halprin, Rod Taylor, Paul Fix, G.D. Spradlin, Kathleen Cleaver.

Antonioni’s second American feature tells of a love affair between a couple of radical students against the backdrop of the late sixties student revolt in America. Highly controversial at the time of its release, the film – endowed with an amazing soundtrack by Pink Floyd and the Grateful Dead among others – is now celebrated as a cult piece that has aged better than many earlier hits.

+ THE PASSENGER (Professione: Reporter) (12A) 3.30

(Italy/US 2006) dir.Michelangelo Antonioni 126m. New print.
Jack Nicholson, Maria Schneider, Jenny Runacre, Ian Hendry, Stephen Berkoff.

“The last in a trio of English-language films Antonioni made for MGM, the dazzling THE PASSENGER has been kept out of cinematic distribution for the past two decades. Reissued here in a newly restored version, it showcases one of Jack Nicholson finest ever screen performances. He plays the burnt-out reporter Locke, who exchanges identities in Chad with a dead acquaintance. THE PASSENGER explores the impossibility of evading our own personal and national histories, and of truly knowing ourselves and our loved ones. As Locke is pursued across Europe by the authorities and by business associates, Antonioni draws on certain thriller conventions: there are car chases, assassinations, and a female romantic interest, in the form of Maria Schneider's resourceful unnnamed student. Thanks to Luciano Tovoli's magnificent cinematography of the African desert and the arid Spanish countryside, we gain a potent sense of Locke's internal emptiness.”
(Tom Dawson, BBCi Films)

Sun 8 Oct • Double bill

RENAISSANCE (15) 2.15

(France 2006) dir.Christian Volckman 105m.
Animation. Voices of Daniel Craig, Catherine McCormack, Ian Holm, Jonathan Pryce.

“Here is a beautiful-looking futuristic movie set in Paris, AD 2054. Renaissance is an animation, digitally derived from live-action footage and recreated in a kind of stylised noir monochrome. A tough cop finds himself assigned to investigate the disappearance of a beautiful scientist. She is mixed up in a secret project to find a cure for progeria, a premature-ageing disease in young children, but it soon becomes clear that the real project is something far more sinister. The feature is over-extended at its current length, but its look and style are intriguing; it is maintained with energy and panache – and its self-belief is impressive.”
(Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian)

+ A SCANNER DARKLY (15) 4.15

(US 2006) dir.Richard Linklater 100m.
Animation. Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr, Winona Ryder, Woody Harrelson.

“At last, Philip K Dick's 1977 most personal science-fiction novel has been brought to the screen with great fidelity and considerable style. The chief character is Bob Arctor, a social dropout who's also an undercover narcotics agent code-named Fred. What Dick and Linklater have created is a paranoid, anomic world where fugitives from a consumer society create their own hell of addiction while a corrupt, fascistic state seeks to control and exploit conformists and dissidents alike.”
(Philip French, The Observer)

Sun 15 Oct • Black History Month double bill

SHOOTING DOGS (15) 1.45

(UK 2005) dir.Michael Caton-Jones 115m.
John Hurt, Hugh Dancy, Claire-Hope Ashitey, David Gyasi, Dominique Horwitz.

“A powerful, based-on-fact film, SHOOTING DOGS follows John Hurt's priest and Hugh Dancy's idealistic young teacher as they watch bureaucracy, institutional racism and generations of hate lead to mass murder in Rwanda. Refugees seek shelter at the United Nations-guarded school of Father Christopher, but no one's sure how long the UN troops will stay... Hurt excels. The veteran actor makes his man of the cloth both admirable and ambiguous - the heart and soul of an unusually thoughtful film.”
(Andy Jacobs, BBCi films)

+ MAN DEM, NOR GLADY'O (The People Are Not Happy) (18) 4.00

(UK/Sierra Leone 2006) dir.Ishmahil Blagrove Jr 57m. Some subtitles.

A documentary about how the United Nations and other international supporting bodies dealt with the consequences of war in Sierra Leone but failed to deal with the causes. Filmed in Sierra Leone, the film gives the viewer an insight into the people, their lives, the political divisions and active campaigns leading up to the forthcoming 2007 elections.
A documentary about how the United Nations and other international supporting bodies dealt with the consequences of war in Sierra Leone but failed to deal with the causes. Although the guns are presently silent, the issues of poverty, corruption and bad governance are still endemic and may yet again be the igniting factors of a future conflict. Filmed in Sierra Leone, the film gives the viewer an insight into the people, their lives, the political divisions and active campaigns leading up to the forthcoming 2007 elections.

+ discussion with the director

Adm £6/£4 Concessions

Sun 22 Oct • The Times BFI 50th London Film Festival

37 USES FOR A DEAD SHEEP (*) 1.30

(UK 2006) dir.Ben Hopkins 87m. Documentary. Subtitles.

This multiple award-winning documentary takes a droll and affectionate look at the last hundred years in the history and culture of the Pamir Kirghiz, a semi nomadic tribe originating in Central Asia. Resistant to Communism, facing violence and imprisonment, the tribe were driven from country to country until an appeal for international assistance led them to Eastern Turkey, where they have lived for the last 27 years (a counter offer from the USA would have seen them shipped off to Alaska). Working in collaboration with Ekber Kutlu, a Kirghiz sculptor and intellectual, Ben Hopkins (The Nine Lives of Thomas Katz) mixes new documentary footage with dramatic re-constructions filmed in a variety of cinematic styles and acted out by the Kirghiz. These make for an engaging glimpse into the tribe's past, showing their resilience and humour, and also touching on the younger generation's very different hopes for the future. The film's warm-hearted tone is a delight, exemplified in the running gag which gives the film its title.”
(Sandra Hebron, LFF)

THE LIVES OF THE SAINTS (15) 3.45

(UK 2006) dirs.Rankin & Chris Cottam 101m.
James Cosmo, David Leon, Emma Pierson.

“A magical realist fable set amidst Tottenham's criminal underworld is the pleasingly ambitious result of the combined talents of celebrated London photographer Rankin, co-director Chris Cottam, and scriptwriter Tony Grisoni. Mr Karva runs some dodgy rackets on North London's mean streets, employing the fleet footed Roadrunner as his courier. Karva's stepson Othello has ambitions to take the old man's place, and his dim mate Emilio has aspirations of his own. When Roadrunner stumbles across a weird feral looking kid in the park, something strange happens: for the first time ever he is able to stop moving. This is just the start of a series of transformations, in which the boy wordlessly demonstrates his power to grant people their heart's desire. But not everyone is happy with this threat to the status quo, and events take a tragic turn. Good looking (we'd expect nothing less) and darkly comic, this auspicious debut leaves us with a moral: be careful what you wish for.”
(Sandra Hebron, LFF)

£7 (tickets available in advance from The Times BFI 50th London Film Festival on 7928 3232 or on the door)

Sun 29 Oct • Pedro Almodóvar double bill

ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER (Todo sobre mi madre) (15) 1.30

(Spain 1999) dir.Pedro Almodóvar 101m. Subtitles.
Cecilia Roth, Marisa Paredes, Toni Cantó, Candela Peña, Antonia San Juan, Penélope Cruz.

“After the death of her beloved teenage son in an accident, Manuela leaves Madrid for Barcelona to cope with her grief, hook up with old friends, and contact the long-estranged father the boy never knew. As she gradually regains the will to live through her involvement with the lives of others, Almodóvar piles on the coincidences, contrivances and twists so that the film succeeds best as a beautifully crafted, semi-ironic melodrama (it cleverly alludes to - and integrates - All About Eve, Streetcar..., Capote, etc). Though the film has a fair share of camp humour, it's the formal and emotional sophistication that really impresses; like Live Flesh, it displays a depth and maturity lacking in Almodóvar's earlier work.”
(Geoff Andrew, Time Out)

+ VOLVER (15) 3.30

(Spain 2006) dir.Pedro Almodóvar 121m. Subtitles.
Penélope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas, Blanca Portillo, Yohana Cobo, Chus Lampreave, María Isabel Díaz.

“With its overwhelming richness, its colour and warmth, Almodóvar's new movie is set to capture your heart. The picture's ingenuities and contrivances just seem to float out of the screen, like psychedelic moodshapes. Penélope Cruz is Raimunda, a hard-working woman with a teenage daughter, Paula, and a feckless, layabout husband, whose family life shatters with one terrible act of violence. No other director has as much swoon factor as Pedro Almodóvar. What a triumph for this great European director who just seems to get better and better.”
(Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian)

Sun 5 Nov • Double bill

BREATHLESS (À bout de souffle) (PG) 1.30

(France 1960) dir.Jean-Luc Godard 89m. Subtitles.
Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg, Daniel Boulanger, Jean-Pierre Melville.

“Godard's first feature, adapted from an existing scenario written by François Truffaut, spins a pastiche with pathos as joyrider Belmondo shoots a cop, chases friends and debts across a night-time Paris, and falls in love with a literary lady. The ultimate night-time film noir noir noir. More than any other, this was the film which epitomised the iconoclasm of the early Nouvelle Vague.”
(Chris Auty, Time Out Film guide)

+ REGULAR LOVERS (Les Amants Réguliers) (18) 3.15

(France 2005) dir.Philippe Garrel 184m. Subtitles.
Louis Garrel, Clotilde Hesme.

“Shot in lustrous black and white, this is a melancholy meditation upon both the events of May 1968 in Paris and a doomed love affair. Writer-director Philippe Garrel's son Louis (star of Bertolucci's THE DREAMERS) plays 20-year-old poet and student protester François, who falls for the beautiful sculptor Lilie (impressive newcomer Clotilde Hesme) during the numbed aftermath of the revolution.”
(Tom Dawson, BBCi films)

Sun 12 Nov • Double bill

ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW (15) 1.45

(US 2005) dir.Miranda July 91m. John Hawkes, Miranda July, Miles Thompson.

“July’s feature-film debut is a tender, funny, intelligent, and passionate meditation on the search for love and belonging in the modern world. Christine, is a struggling artist and one-woman taxi service for the elderly. Richard is a salesman who is breaking up with the mother of his two boys. July as the film’s pivot is the key to its success; she is the film’s heart and soul, and she can also make us laugh – a lot.” (Dave Calhoun, Time Out)

+ LOOK BOTH WAYS (12A) 3.35

(2006 Australia) dir.Sarah Watt 101m.
Justine Clarke, William McInnes, Anthony Hayes, Lisa Flanagan, Andrew S. Gilbert.

“Only an Australian could make such a warm, gentle comedy about how death is all around us. Meryl is a sympathy card illustrator with a pessimistic streak, imagining disaster around every corner. When she witnesses a fatal train incident, she meets newspaper photographer Nick, who has lived life to the full and has just been diagnosed with cancer. The central idea is that everyone is living on the brink, and no one can really know what anyone else is facing. Watts examines this theme in an artful, effective way that gets far beneath our skin. What emerges is an involving, thoughtful examination of how people connect with each other.”
(Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall)

Sun 19 Nov • Double bill

SHANGHAI DREAMS (15) 12.45

(China 2005) dir.Wang Xiaoshuai 121m. Subtitles.
Gao Yuanyuan, Li Bin, Yan Anlian, Tang Yang, Xueyang Wang, Yao Anlian.

“Guiyang, 1983, capital of Guizhou province, has little to offer the Wu family other than a nest of simmering resentments. Teenage Qinghong and her younger brother have grown up in limbo, indefinitely primed for a return to a ‘home’ they’ve never seen. A downbeat but humane portrait of lives in which individual agency is the stuff of dreams.”
(Ben Walters, Time Out)

+ THREE TIMES (12A) 3.00

(Taiwan 2006) dir.Hou Hsiao-Hsien 135m. Subtitles.
Shu Qi, Chang Chen, Mei Fang, Su-jen Liao, Mei Di, Chen Shi-Zheng.

“For its reticence, its control, its quietism, and perhaps for its serene mystery, THREE TIMES deserves to be seen. In 1966, a young guy about to report for military service moons around a pool-hall and falls in love with one of the hostesses. In 1911, a young republican activist visits a beautiful courtesan. And lastly, in modern Taipei, a hip young photographer falls in love with a singer. This is connoisseur's cinema – but it's a connoisseurship worth cultivating.”
(Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian)

Sun 26 Nov • Double bill

THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED (18) 2.00

(US 2006) dir.Kirby Dick 98m. Documentary.

“The workings of the US movie industry's ratings system receive an overdue critique in this documentary, a revealing documentary whose playful tone does not detract from its serious purpose. By putting what it perceives to be the ratings body's hidden agenda under scrutiny, director Kirby Dick strikes a blow for every independent filmmaker who has ever been forced to comply with its restrictive mandates.” (Neil Smith, BBCi Films)

+ THE NOTORIOUS BETTY PAGE (18) 4.00

(US 2006) dir.Mary Harron 91m.
Gretchen Mol, Chris Bauer, Jared Harris, Sarah Paulson.

“The pin-up who titillated the libido of ’40s and ’50s America, Bettie Page emerges from this picaresque account of her life as a sympathetic, even wholesome victim of reputation. As played terrifically by Gretchen Mol, Bettie is sweet-natured and tolerant, God-fearing and sincere but proud to provide a little pleasure and have some fun along the way. Harron proves her aptitude for period pop culture with spot-on soundtrack choices and design details.”
(Ben Walters, Time Out)

Sun 3 Dec • Double bill

TAXI DRIVER (18) 1.30

(US 1976) dir.Martin Scorsese 114m.
Robert de Niro, Cybill Shepherd, Peter Boyle, Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, Leonard Harris.

“Robert De Niro's insomniac New York taxi driver, Travis Bickle, driven mad by driving around the hellish streets at night, becomes a would-be assassin, moreover conceiving an obsession with an underage prostitute, unforgettably played by Jodie Foster. No other movie can plunge you, so sensuously and so completely, into the forgotten 70s New York of checkered cabs and porno-chic, with all the extraordinary sights and sounds. Robert De Niro is almost radioactive with charisma, and the charm and magnetism of his extended dialogue scenes with Shepherd and Foster have a relaxed directness that later he was, sadly, to lose by acquiring repetitious tics and mannerisms. What a mad and brilliant film it is: 1,000-degree proof Seventies cinema.”
(Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian)

+ HARSH TIMES (15) 3.40

(US 2006) dir.David Ayer 115m.
Christian Bale, Freddy Rodriguez, Tammy Trull, Adriana Millan, Eva Longoria.

“The directorial debut of TRAINING DAY screenwriter David Ayer features yet another sensational and transformational performance from Christian Bale. Disturbed ex-US Ranger Jim spends his days either south of the border with his Mexican fiancée, or riding around LA with his childhood friend Mike getting wasted. When Jim’s eventually offered a post with Homeland Security, he must choose between being a Fed and being with his mamisita. Ayer goes for the jugular at all times and the grainy, handheld camerawork adds to the scuzzy authenticity.” (Mark Salisbury, Time Out)