• Friday 3 April for 2 weeks & Fri 17 April

BOLT (PG)

(2008) dirs. Byron Howard & Chris Willams 103m. Digital.
Voices of John Travolta, Miley Cyrus, Susie Essman, Mark Walton, Malcolm McDowell, James Lipton.

A delightful Disney animated movie about being special. Bolt is the heroic canine star of a hit TV show, a superdog with superpowers. He is completely devoted to his human co-star Penny, so when she is captured by the evil Dr. Calico in their latest television episode Bolt sets off to save her. But he fails to realise that in the ‘normal’world, he is just a normal dog. There's help from his number-one-fan, an overweight hamster, and a streetwise alley cat, but will Bolt survive the journey and find Penny? An all-star voice cast, including John Travolta and Miley Cyrus, makes BOLT a fun film for audiences of all ages.

• Friday 3 April for 1 week

IN THE CITY OF SYLVIA (PG)

(Spain 2007) dir. José Luis Guerin 85m. Digital. Subtitles.
Pilar Lopez de Ayala, Xavier Lafitte.

An almost wordless film portrait of one man’s pursuit of lost love shot on the streets of Strasbourg. A pensive young writer glimpses a woman he once knew, and follows her, desperate to revive their liaison from years before. But does she remember him? Did he really know her at all? And is he really looking for her, or will any beautiful woman do…? Mood and moment, with a touch of suspense, are captured in real time in this ravishingly dreamy and sophisticated hymn to love.

• Friday 3 April for 1 week

RELIGULOUS (15)

(US 2008) dir. Larry Charles 101m. Digital.

Religious + Ridiculous = Religulous. Writer and comedian Bill Maher's look at the religions of the world is powerful, intelligent, thought provoking, educational and HILARIOUS! The fast-moving, globe-trotting (Amsterdam, the Vatican, Jerusalem. Hyde Park Corner) movie leaves few religions unscathed: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Mormonism, TV evangelism, Scientology, pagan cults and ancient Egypt are all subjected to Maher's dogged questions about the illogical and negative nature of doctrines that advocate violence or shun scientific evidence or marginalize minorities or punish anyone who disagrees with any religion's extreme tenets. Along the way he encounters everyone from US truckers to maverick Vatican priests as he pursues his own belief that many of the world's major religions are rife with hypocrisy, completely self-referential, and destructive to the collective good. Controversial but essential viewing.

• Friday 10 April for 2 weeks

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (15)

(Sweden 2008) dir. Tomas Alfredson 114m. Digital. Subtitles.
Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson, Per Ragnar, Henrik Dahl, Karin Bergquist, Peter Carlberg, Ika Nord.

Extraordinary, original, powerful and hypnotic LET THE RIGHT ONE IN is a gentle story of friendship, adolescence... and the curse of vampiric immortality. Oskar, a brutally bullied schoolboy, finds his soulmate in Eli, a beautiful but mysterious girl. Together they bond while the world around them quickly spirals out of control. Set against the beautifully atmospheric background of a dark Swedish winter, the supernatural is always bubbling under the surface of this mysterious tale but its heart lays in the emotional depths of the relationship between Oskar and Eli. Terrifying and endearing, often at the same moment, this is one of the most persuasive and haunting movie experiences of the year.

• Friday 24 April for 1 week

EAST END FILM FESTIVAL

The East End Film Festival returns to the Rio. Showcasing hot new talent, homegrown films alongside larger independent releases, and special events, all to inform and inspire a new generation of filmmakers and audiences from across London and beyond, and to raise the profile of this vibrant and diverse area - London’s East End. Writer and filmmaker Iain Sinclair will take over the Rio Cinema for a weekend to show the cinematic roots of his new book. Screenings and discussions present a secret Hackney history that spans from Orson Welles to Patrick Keiller, Joseph Losey to John Smith, Miranda Pennell to Tony Grisoni , as well as screening key films MR ARKADIN (Welles) and THE CRIMINAL (Losey). There will be a a Q+A with Sinclair on the Saturday following the double bill and a roundtable discussion with leading Hackney and East End filmmakers on the Sunday.

See www.eastendfilmfestival.com for further details.

• Friday 24 April for 2 weeks

IN THE LOOP (15)

(UK, 2009) dir. Armando Iannucci 106m. Digital.
Peter Capaldi, James Gandolfini, Tom Hollander, David Rashe, Gina McKee, Chris Addison, Anna Chulmsky, Mimi Kennedy.

A very welcome big screen debut for the talents of Armando Iannucci, creator, co-writer, producer of such modern comedy landmarks as news parody The Day Today and political satire The Thick of It. The latter is the jumping off point for this look at the ‘special relationship’ between the UK and US in the run-up to a proposed war in an unnamed Middle-Eastern country. Mistakes, misunderstandings and blunders ensure plot complexities abound as Iannucci presents a humorous, acerbic observation on contemporary political spin. Peter Capaldi returns as the unforgettable Malcolm Tucker, still in scatalogical overdrive and perfectly embodying the movie's exuberant and boundless laugh-out-loud cynicism.

• Friday 8 May for 11 days

CHÉRI (15)

(UK 2009) dir. Stephen Frears 97m. Digital.
Rupert Friend, Michelle Pfeiffer, Kathy Bates, Felicity Jones, Frances Tomelty.

In a game of seduction, never fall in love. Twenty years after DANGEROUS LIAISONS, director Stephen Frears, writer Christopher Hampton and star Michelle Pfeiffer are reunited for a further tale of sexual duplicity. Set in 1920s Paris and based on a novel by the scandalous Colette, CHÉRI is the story of the end of a six-year affair between an aging retired courtesan, Léa (Pfieffer) and the pampered young man, Chéri (Friend) who has received his adult education from her. However, it is Chéri not Léa who wears the silk pajamas and pearls, and who is the
object of attention. Sexual stereotypes are explored and overturned when he's forced to marry a wealthy young woman and the threesome set out to explore uncharted territory.

• Friday 15 May for 2 weeks

SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK (15)

(US 2008) dir. Charlie Kaufman 124m.
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Samantha Morton, Michelle Williams, Catherine Keener, Emily Watson, Dianna Wiest.

From Charlie Kaufman, the writer of ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND and BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, comes a new collection of imaginative idiosyncracies set in the blury world between fantasy and reality. Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a writer much troubled in both his personal and professional lives. When a sizable financial grant falls into Caden's lap, he takes up the challenge to create a massive theatrical production, assuming control of a cavernous warehouse to erect a replica of New York City, and a mirror image of his life that will elude the cruel realities of love and death. A dream cast of independent cinema all stars, including Jennifer Jason Leigh, Emily Watson and Samantha Morton as Caden's lifelong object of desire, bring Kaufman's eccentricities into focus.

• Friday 22 May for 1 week

O’HORTEN (12A)

(Norway/Germany/France 2007) dir. Bent Hamer 90m. Subtitles. Digital.
Bård Owe, Espen Skjønberg, Ghita Nørby, Henny Moan, Bjørn Floberg.

With its dry, deadpan humour and frequently surreal plot, this is a box of delights full of magical moments. As the film opens on a train gliding through the beautiful, snow-covered Norwegian landscape, we learn that driver Horten is about to retire after forty years service on the railways. But then fate takes a hand and a series of strange and unusual events lead to some encounters of the most revealing kind. How does he end up wearing a pair of red ladies high-heeled shoes? Will he survive being driven by a blindfolded man? You don't have to be Norwegian to recognise and appreciate this wonderfully skewed view of the human condition, an absurdist vision presented with great warmth, a little melancholy and universal appeal.

• Saturday 23 May for 8 days

MONSTERS Vs ALIENS (PG)

(US 2009) dir. Rob Letterman & Conrad Vernon 94m. Digital.
Voices of Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogan, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Kiefer Sutherland, Rainn Wilson.

When she is hit by a meteorite from out of space and turned into a giantess, young Susan Murphy is whisked away by the government to a secret camp where she meets an assorted group of monsters who have all been rounded up over the years and suffered the same fate. But now with the Earth under alien attack and threat of imminent destruction, the only hope is to call the Monsters into action – will this motley crew be able to save the planet? Featuring the voices of Hollywood’s hottest stars, Dreamworks’ latest offering is one of their best, and sure to delight audiences young and old this May half term.

• Friday 29 May for 1 week

THE GIRL CUT IN TWO (15)

(Germany/France 2007) dir. Claude Chabrol 115m. Subtitles. Digital.
Ludivigne Sagnier, Benoit Magimel, Francois Berleand, Mathilda May, Caroline Silhol, Marie Bunel, Valeria Cavalli.

For fifty years Claude Chabrol has been the master of the tense, razor-sharp and darkly seductive disection of the seedier side of the French bourgeoisie. His 51st film is fine vintage Chabrol: beautifully plotted, effortlesly free-flowing and fiendishly entertaining. Gabrielle Deneige (Ludivine Sagnier) is an independent, ambitious TV weather girl torn between her love of a distinguished author several decades her senior (Francois Berléand), and the attentions of a headstrong, potentially unstable young suitor (Benoit Magimel). An unspoken past between the two men heightens tensions that must lead to a shocking clash of violence and passion. A rich, textured divertissement from a master of his art.