• Friday 3 August for 1 week

THE SIMPSONS MOVIE (PG)

(US 2007) dir. David Silverman 87m.
Voices of Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer.

It takes a wide screen to fully capture Homer Simpson's stupidity, and THE SIMPSONS MOVIE does it. The eagerly awaited feature film based on the hit TV series is finally here!
Springfield is on the brink of an environmental disaster. Lisa, as always, is concerned and tries to get the people of Springfield to change their polluting ways. But Homer is more interested in his pet pig Spider-Pig than Lisa's efforts, and his actions cause Springfield to be imprisoned under a giant glass dome by President Arnold Schwarzenegger... In this jump from TV to the big screen, the team behind The Simpsons has scored a victory. Packed full of absolutely cracking gags, new characters (an evil government villain, and perhaps even a boyfriend for Lisa?) and shocking moments (check out Bart's naked skateboard ride!) this movie is the must-see of 2007. Bring a spare pair of pants. Hilarious.

• Friday 10 August for 1 week

WAITRESS (12A)

(US 2007) dir. Adrienne Shelly 108m.
Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion, Cheryl Hines, Jeremy Sisto, Adrienne Shelly.

Bittersweet comedy with an edge from late writer-director-actor Adrienne Shelly.
Jenna is the genius baker at Joe's Pie Diner, creating a new recipe every day based on her own life. So when she discovers she's pregnant, the daily special is Bad Baby Pie. Because she certainly doesn't want to have a baby with her self-absorbed loser of a husband Earl. As she squirrels away money and makes plans to escape her miserable life, her fellow waitresses are fully supportive of her. And her new doctor turns out to be a bit too charming for her to resist. A sharp edge, an astute and intelligent script, provocative twists and emotional finale make this film much more than a female-empowerment comedy. A delicious bittersweet cherry pie of a film.

• Friday 17 August for 1 week

THE SEVENTH SEAL (PG)

(Sweden 1957) dir. Ingmar Bergman 92m. Subtitles. Digital.
Max von Sydow, Gunnar Björnstrand, Bengt Ekerot, Nils Poppe.

A medieval knight battles death and seeks God in the late Ingmar Bergman's timeless masterpiece.
A battle-weary knight returns from the crusades to find his country riddled with the Black Death and terrorised by witchhunts. His journey home is cut short by the black-cloaked figure of Death. His time has come. But the knight wins a reprieve by challenging Death to a game of chess.
Bergman's "little film I and my friends made one summer" has now been digitally restored. The superbly shot wintry images print themselves indelibly on the mind, while the Knight's search for a God who never answers foreshadows much of the director's later work. A great, thought-provoking and highly enjoyable piece of cinema history which remains a relevant and intensely moving parable for all time, and a modern masterpiece.

TRANSYLVANIA (15)

(France 2006) dir. Tony Gatlif 102m. Subtitles. Digital.
Asia Argento, Amira Casar, Birol Ünel, Alexandra Beaujard.

A beautifully filmed and powerful story of love and adventure in Eastern Europe's Roma community.
Abandoned by a passionate Romanian musician who has left her pregnant, Zingarina ventures from Paris to Transylvania and the heart of the Roma community to track him down. But things don't go as planned and she's left alone in this strange and foreign land. She is rescued by Tchango, an enigmatic salesman who lives on the road. As winter sets in, the two must figure out a way to make a home in a snowy countryside that is full of foreboding. And Zingarina must learn to cast off her old life and start afresh.

Set in the hallucinatory landscapes of post-Communist Romania, this is a compelling and haunting love story. Director Tony Gatlif is the French-Algerian chronicler of European Roma who, with LATCHO DROM, GADJO DILO and EXILS, has mined gypsy tradition to tell stories that are exotic, hypnotic and darkly romantic with characters who are never simplistically stereotyped. Raw and ragged, with a soul that is pure rock n' roll, this gorgeously shot film is an unmissable odyssey.

• Friday 24 August for 2 weeks

LADY CHATTERLEY (18)

(France 2006) dir. Pascale Ferran 168m. Subtitles. Digital.
Marina Hands, Jean-Louis Coullo'ch, Hippolyte Girardot, Hélène Alexandridis.

Sensual and intelligent multi-award winning French adaptation of DH Lawrence’s story.
Constance Chatterley is married to a war-wounded rich English gentleman and feels lonely and trapped in their 1920s mansion. One day she meets gamekeeper Parkin in the woods, and their attraction is mutual. From tentative beginnings an intimate relationship develops, opening Constance up physically and emotionally in ways she never imagined possible. Based on DH Lawrence's second version of this story (he wrote three), this film takes a much more intimate, sensual and natural approach to the familiar story. Beautifully filmed, with strikingly raw performances, this hypnotic gem is not to be missed.

• Friday 7 September for 2 weeks
& Friday 28 September for 1 week

ATONEMENT (15)

(UK 2007) dir. Joe Wright 123m.
Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Romola Garai, Brenda Blethyn, Vanessa Redgrave.

Dazzling adaptation of Ian McEwan's award winning novel.
On a hot summer day in 1935, thirteen-year-old fledgling writer Briony Tallis observes a flirtation between her older sister, Cecilia, and Robbie Turner, the son of a servant and Cecilia's childhood friend. By the end of that day the lives of all three will have been changed forever. Robbie and Cecilia will have become victims of the younger girl's scheming imagination, the consequences following them through World War II. And Briony will have committed a dreadful crime, the guilt for which will colour her entire life. With committed performances and a wonderful screenplay by Christopher Hampton, ATONEMENT is a dazzlingly impressive decade-spanning tour-de-force.

• Friday 21 September for 2 weeks

DEATH PROOF (18)

(US 2007) dir. Quentin Tarantino 114m.
Kurt Russell, Rosario Dawson, Vanessa Ferlito, Jordan Ladd, Rose McGowan, Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Tracie Thoms.

An intoxicating mix of thrilling action. sexy girls, 70s classic cars and blood and gore, this is classic Tarantino.
Stuntman Mike is a sinister, scar-marked aging ex-stuntman who has a fetish for killing whilst driving his ‘death-proof’ 1970 Chevy Nova. He strikes up a flirtatious friendship with a bevy of young women, with horrific results. But a second and entirely different posse will get some payback on Stuntman Mike  - on behalf of all babekind. Originally part of Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse double bill experiment, this car-crashing carnival of mayhem is now released in the UK on its own. Packed full of twisted-humour bleakness, Tarantino’s usual showmanship ensures DEATH PROOF delivers a lethal roar of entertainment..