Sun 6 Dec • Seasonal Classics Double Bill

THE APARTMENT (PG) 1.00

(US 1960) dir. Billy Wilder 125m. Digital.
Jack Lemmon, Shirley Maclaine, Fred MacMurray, Ray Walston.

1960's Christmas Eve cynicism with writer/director Billy Wilder at his bitter-sweet best. Jack Lemmon is the definitive sad sack who lends out his apartment to his bosses for their illicit affairs in the hope of career advancement. But complications ensue when he falls in love with the company's elevator operator (Maclaine). The winner of five Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

+ IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (U) 3.20

(US 1946) dir. Frank Capra 130m. Digital.
James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell, Henry Travers, Beulah Bondi.

1940's Christmas optimism. George Bailey has so many problems he is thinking about ending it all even though it's the season to be jolly. Will Clarence, a down-to-earth guardian angel from up there, be able to convince George that he's had a wonderful life? Nominated for numerous Academy Awards (including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Director), Frank Capra's initial box office flop has become the quintessential Yuletide classic.

£8/£6 Concs/£5 Under 15’s

Sun 13 Dec

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE (PG) 1.30, 4.00, 6.30, 9.00

Sun 20 Dec

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE (PG) 1.30, 4.00, 6.30, 9.00

Sun 27 Dec • Military Madness Double Bill

DR STRANGELOVE (PG) 2.30

(UK 1964) dir. Stanley Kubrick 93m.
Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn.

"You can't fight here. This is the war room!" Kubrick's cold war classic remains the ultimate satire of the nuclear age and the perfect spoof of political and military insanity. When General Jack D. Ripper (Hayden) orders a squadron of US bombers to attack the Soviet Union the future of the world is in the hands of President Merkin Muffley, Captain Mandrake (R.A.F.) and mad scientist Dr. Strangelove, all the brilliant creations of the great Peter Sellers.

+ THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS (15) 4.30

(US/UK 2009) dir. Grant Heslov 94m.
George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey, Robert Patrick, Stephen Lang.

When journalist Bob Wilton arrives in Kuwait in 2003, he finds more than he bargained for in Lyn Cassady who claims to be a former member of the U.S. Army's First Earth Battalion, a unit that employs paranormal powers in their missions. Adapted from Jon Ronson's best selling book There’s plenty to enjoy not least the playful performances by Clooney as a real-life Jedi Warrior and Jeff Bridges as the Vietnam vet-turned-hippy visionary Bill Django. And don't forget: 'More of this is true than you would believe.’ Yes indeed.

£8/£6 Conc

Sun 3 Jan • Henri-Georges Clouzot Double Bill

HENRI-GEORGES CLOUZOT'S 'INFERNO' (15) 2.00

(France 2009) dirs. Serge Bromberg & Ruxandra Medrea 100m. Subtitles. Digital.
Bérénice Bejo, Romy Schneider, Jacques Gamblin, Serge Reggiani, Bernard Stora, William Lubtchansky.

A film about a film, H-G. Clouzot's unfinished 1964 INFERNO, that combines a reconstruction of the film and the story of how his vision was tragically never realised. The 185 cans of audition tapes, film tests and outdoor sequences, unopened and unseen since 1964, are at the heart of this moving portrait of a great artist seemingly incapable of coping with the pressures of his own making.

+ LES DIABOLIQUES (15) 4.00

(France 1955) dir. Henri-Georges Clouzot 112m. Subtitles.
Simone Signoret, Vera Clouzot, Paul Meurisse, Charles Vanel, Pierre Larquey, Michel Serrault.

A classic thriller that happily Clouzot did finish. The sadistic headmaster of a crumbling and tawdry boarding school gets his comeuppance when his wife and his mistress join forces. It's still one of the great scary movies: beautifully crafted and acted and atmospherically shot with its murky tones hauntingly echoing the moral ambiguity of its principal characters.

£8.50/£6.50 Concs

Sun 10 Jan • Technicolour Fantasies Double Bill

THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (U) 1.15

(UK 1940) dir. Ludwig Berger & Michael Powell 106m.
Sabu, John Justin, Conrad Veidt, Rex Ingram, June Duprez.

One of the cinema's greatest fantasies. Although he is the rightful heir to the throne, Prince Ahmad has been cast out as a beggar on the streets of Bagdad. Held captive in the city's dungeons he meets Abu, who helps him escape and so the adventure begins. A Genie in a bottle, a mechanical flying horse, an all-seeing magic jewel, a flying carpet and a beautiful princess all feature in this magnificent Technicolor spectacular which has lost none of its power to enthrall.

+ THE RED SHOES (U) 3.20

(UK 1948) dirs. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger 135m. Digital.
Anton Walbrook, Marius Goring, Moira Shearer, Leonide Massine, Robert Helpmann, Ludmilla Tcherina.

Another exuberant, spectacular Technicolor fantasy now restored to its original brilliance, Powell and Pressburger's tale of the ballerina (Shearer) torn between the career created by a manipulative impresario (Walbrook) and her love of a young composer (Goring) is cinema at its most sublime. The combination of dance and drama is still moving, vibrant, surreal, exhilarating and inspirational. Quite simply a masterpiece.

£8.50/£6.50 Concs/£5 Under 15’s

Sun 17 Jan • Relationships and Discoveries Double Bill

AWAY WE GO (15) 2.00

(US/UK 2009) dir. Sam Mendes 98m.
John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, Catherine O'Hara, Jeff Daniels, Allison Janney, Maggi Gyllenhaal, Melanie Lynskey.

The comedic twists and turns in thirty-somethings Burt and Verona's journey across modern America. In the search to find their perfect home the longtime couple set off to visit friends and family in order to find their perfect home before the birth of their first child. The result is a humorous, witty, touching and beautifully acted journey of discovery as the couple search out old friends and reconnect with long lost relatives.

+ AN EDUCATION (12A) 4.00

(UK 2009) dir. Lone Scherfig 95m.
Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina, Cara Seymour, Emma Thompson.

Nick Hornby's adaptation of journalist Lynn Barber's memoir of teenage seduction wittily captures the time and the place. In 1960s London suburbia, bright, pretty and hard-working 16-year old Jenny Mellor is focused on achieving her father's goal: a place at Oxford. But Jenny can't wait for adult life to begin, and with the arrival of the urbane, witty and twice her age David Goldman, it does. The perfectly pitched performances include a star-making one from Carey Mulligan as Jenny.

£8.50/£6.50 Concs

Sun 24 Jan • Roads Movies Double Bill

HOME (15) 1.30

(Switzerland/France/Belgium 2008) dir. Ursula Meier 98m. Subtitles. Digital.
Isabelle Huppert, Olivier Gourmet, Adélaïde Leroux, Madelaine Budd, Kacey Mottt Klein.

Described by the director as 'a road movie in reverse', this outstanding debut feature finds a family's peaceful rural existence destroyed by the opening of a major motorway alongside their house. Suddenly they're subjected to a nonstop barrage of noise, exhaust, and stress. Calm becomes chaos and both people and events become unpredictable. With a memorable performance from Isabelle Huppert, this is a powerful parable for our times.

+ KATALIN VARGA (15) 3.30

(Romania/UK/Hungary 2009) dir. Peter Strickland 85m. Subtitles. Digital.
Hilda Peter, Tibor Pálffy, Norbert Tanko, Melinda Kantor, Sebastian Marina, Roberto Giacomello.

An exciting combination of road movie, noirish revenge tale and compassionate pyschological study, independent British film maker Peter Strickland’s Transylvania set drama is a major achievement. Hilda Péter is spellbinding in the title role of a woman whose life is irrevocably altered when she reveals a violent secret from her past. Kicked out by her husband, Katalin sets out to confront her demons – an odyssey which draws her into danger, uncertainty and possible redemption.

£8.50/£6.50 Concs

Sun 31 Jan • Different Worlds Double Bill

BIRDWATCHERS (15) 1.00

(Italy/Brazil 2008) dir. Marco Bechis 104m. Subtitles. Digital.
Claudio Santamaria, Alicélia Batista Cabreira, Chiara Caselli, Fabiane Pereira Da Silva, Abriso Da Silva Pedro.

A powerful story of the struggle for survival that is the lot of the indigenous Guarani people who eke out a harsh, nomadic living on the fringes of the the Brazilian rainforest. When a small group decide to re-inhabit the ancestral land which lies on the border of a wealthy landowner's fields, tensions escalate between the two conflicting cultures. The cast is made up of Guarani tribespeople which results in naturalistic performances that are a major contribution to a revealing and vigorous film.

+ TULPAN (12A) 3.00

(Germany/Kazakhstan/Poland/Russia/Switzerland 2008) dir. Sergei Dvortsevoy 100m. Subtitles. Digital.
Askhat Kuchinchirekov, Samal Yeslyamova, Ondasyn Besik.

The dusty steppes of Kazakhstan are the setting for a simmering tale of romantic and familial intrigue as the delightfully blundering, untalented and big-eared Asa alights upon enigmatic local beauty Tulpan in his search for a bride. At the same time writer-director Sergei Dvortsevoy's delightful film quietly raises wider issues about a slowly disappearing way of life. Often humorous, always surprising, this is a world rarely seen on film. It all adds up to a magical and moving experience.

£8.50/£6.50 Concs