• Friday 4 December for 1 week

SERAPHINE (PG)

(France/Belgium 2009) dir. Martin Provost 126m. Subtitles. Digital.
Yolande Moreau, Ulrich Tukur, Anne Bennent, Geneviève Mnich, Nico Rogner.

A complex portrait of a woman of simple needs but great talent. In the small French village of Senlis the German art critic Wilhelm Uhde (Ulrich Tukur), an early collector of Braque and Picasso, discovers the work of Séraphine Louis (1864-1942), a cleaning lady whose only escape from a harsh marginalised life is through her painting. She buys art supplies instead of food, her red oil paint is animal blood. The First World War interrupts the relationship of artist and patron but when they are eventually reunited, the story becomes one of tragic decline. In a truly magnificent performance, Yolande Moreau brilliantly brings Séraphine to life, capturing both the purposeful, single-minded peasant woman and the primitive artist whose secret life of fervid creativity drove her towards madness. Martin Provost's film is as vivid, intricate and colourful as the paintings themselves.

• Friday 4 December for 1 week

THE WHITE RIBBON (15)

(Austria/Germany/France/Italy 2009) dir. Michael Haneke 144m. Subtitles. Digital.
Christian Friedel, Burghart Klaussner, Maria-Victoria Dragus, Leonard Praxouf, Leonie Benesch, Rainer Bock, Susanne Lothar, Ulrich Tukur, Ursina Lardi.

1913, the eve of World War I. A village in northern Germany is a microcosm of the hierarchical world outside: the baron, the steward, the pastor, the doctor, the midwife, the tenant farmers, children and teenagers, their families and a choir run by the village schoolteacher. Strange and macabre accidents occur and it begins to look as if some sort of punishment ritual is being enacted. But who is responsible? The schoolteacher observes, investigates and edges towards the truth. Told with the same chilling brilliance and icy exactitude as Haneke's HIDDEN and filmed in mesmerising black-and-white, this Cannes Palme d'Or prizewinner is a masterly and audacious portrait of a time and place in history that also offers an insight into the horrors that were still to come.

• Friday 11 December for 3 weeks

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE (PG)

(US 2009) dir. Spike Jonze 101m. Digital.
Max Records, Catherine Keener, Mark Ruffalo and the voices of James Gandolfini, Paul Dano, Catherine O'Hara, Forest Whitaker, Chris Cooper, Lauren Ambrose.

A near-perfect live-action adaptation of Maurice Sendak's 1963 much loved short story about mischievous little boy Max who escapes into a world of his own imagination. His exotic fantasy island is inhabited by fabulous wild creatures whom he tricks into believing he's "the wildest thing of all." and so they make him their ruler. But Max soon discovers that ruling is not as easy as he thought. With some visually stunning special effects and spot-on characterisations, director Spike Jonze has both boldly elaborated and richly repopulated the book whilst preserving the often dark spirit and themes of the original. Rarely has the wonderment of dreaming – and the reality of waking – been so beautifully captured. A creative triumph and the year's most beguiling and magical treat for both adults and children.

• Saturday 26 December for 13 days

NOWHERE BOY (15)

(UK 2009) dir. Sam Taylor Wood 98m. Digital.
Kristin Scott Thomas, Aaron Johnson, Anne-Marie Duff, Thomas Sangster, David Morrissey.

In 1950s Liverpool the teenage John Lennon discovers rock 'n' roll, decides to form a skiffle group, meets kindred spirit Paul McCartney and the rest is history but the Beatles play no part in this probing, perceptive screenplay by Matt Greenhalgh (CONTROL). An assured feature film debut by artist Sam Taylor-Wood centres around Lennon's relationship with, and the duel between, two women: the Tchaikovsky-loving Aunt Mimi (Kristin Scott Thomas) who has brought him up strictly with genteel, middle-class values and his mother Julia (Anne-Marie Duff) who had abandoned him at five years old. With a strong performance by Aaron Johnson as Lennon, impeccable production design and a superb soundtrack, it's an enjoyable and emotionally engaging piece of film making.

• Friday 8 January for 2 weeks

THE ROAD (15)

(US 2009) dir. John Hillcoat 112m. Digital.
Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Charlize Theron, Robert Duvall, Guy Pearce, Molly Parker, Garret Dillahunt.

A superb, haunting adaptation of the prize-winning novel by Cormac McCarthy. Ten years on from the earthquakes and fires which destroyed the world, a father and his son struggle for survival on a journey throughout a post-apocalyptic America as they seek warmer climates on the road south. Flashbacks of a past life punctuate the daily struggle for survival in a world in which bands of cannibals roam the land and everyone is a potential threat. With an outstanding performance from Mortensen, extraordinary cameos from Duvall and Pearce, striking photography and a music score by Nick Cave, this is a tale of love, faith and fortitude that is absolutely unforgettable.

• Friday 22 January for 2 weeks

A PROPHET (18)

(France/Italy 2009) dir. Jacques Audiard 155m. Subtitles. Digital.
Tahar Rahim, Niels Arestrup, Adel Bencherif, Reda Kateb, Hichem Yacoubi, Jean-Philippe Ricci.

The international award winning thriller that sees the return of the sweaty prison-gangster movie, and it's a classic. Newcomer Rahim is outstanding as wayward Moroccan youth Malik El Djebena, who enters the French prison system at the age of 19, unable to read or write. He is soon taken under the wing of Cesar Luciani (Arestrup), feared kingpin of the prison's reigning Corsican gang. The need to survive leads Malik on a path of self-improvement but it's an education that leads him to the top of the criminal hierarchy. Exciting and enthralling film making at its very best.