SUN 5 Feb • A Masterpiece Restored

LES ENFANTS DU PARADIS (PG) 2.00

(France 1945) dir. Marcel Carné 190m. Subtitles. Digital.
Arletty, Jean-Louis Barrault, Pierre Brasseur, Marcel Herrand, Maria Casares, Louis Salon.

Poetic Realism reaches sublime heights. Set in the theatrical world of Paris in the 1840's, LES ENFANTS DU PARADIS centres around four men's love & lust for the beautiful Garance (Arletty). Only one is genuine. Mime artist Deburau (Jean-Louis Barrault) truly cares for her and because of this is the one who suffers most at the feet of a woman he will never obtain. This intricate and multi-layered tapestry – tragic, farcical, melancholy, magical, immediate, other-worldly – was filmed clandestinely during the Nazi occupation of Paris. It is still regularly voted as the best French film ever and has now been fully restored to reflect all of it's pure cinematic magic.

Trailer

£9/£7 Concs/£5.50 Under 15's

SUN 12 Feb • Questions of Guilt Double Bill

DREAMS OF A LIFE (12A) 1.30

(UK 2011) dir. Carol Morley 93m. Digital.
Zawe Ashton, Jonathan Harden, Daren Elliot Holmes, Neelam Bakshi, Lee Colley.

Nobody noticed when Joyce Vincent died in her bedsit above a shopping mall in North London in 2003. Her body was discovered three years later, surrounded by the Christmas presents she had been wrapping. Carol Morley's imaginative, powerful, multilayered docu-drama is as much about contemporary life as it is about one woman and the life she led. Same problems, same questions, few answers. Fresh Meat's Zawe Ashton brings Joyce Vincent hauntingly to life in a very special movie.

Trailer

+ MARGARET (15) 3.30

(US 2011) dir. Kenneth Lonergan 150m. Digital.
Anna Paquin, Mark Ruffalo, Jean Reno, Kieran Culkin, Matt Damon, Matthew Broderick.

Lisa (Anna Paquin) is a bright, self-absorbed New York teenage but her carefree existence is shattered when she's partly the cause of a fatal bus accident, after which she begins to emotionally brutalise her family, her friends, her teachers, and most of all, herself. Kenneth Lonergan's extraordinary movie has itself experienced an equally nightmarish existence but this no-holds-barred psychodrama is finally receiving a richly deserved bouquet of critical accolades. Paquin too deserves the highest praise for her fiery unforgettable performance. On the edge film making at its finest: stunning: provocative and brilliant.

£9/£7 Concs

SUN 19 Feb • True Stories? Double Bill

ME & ORSON WELLES (12A) 2.00

(UK 2008) dir. Richard Linklater 114m. Digital.
Ben Chaplin, Claire Danes, Zac Efron, Zoe Kazan, Eddie Marsan, Christian McKay.

Broadway 1937 and unbelievably 17 year old Richard Samuels finds himself a part of a revolutionary modern dress production of Julius Caesar. He has a lot to learn: cues, staging, rehearsals, romance, rivalries. But the first thing to learn is never upstage the Mercury Theatre's genius director/dictator, 22-year-old Orson Welles. It's one of those might/might not have happened tales (see below) but Richard Linklater's fascinating and enjoyable movie certainly does present the definitive Orson Welles characterisation. In look, voice and attitude, Christian McKay's is quite simply Orson Welles.

Trailer

+ MY WEEK WITH MARILYN (15) 4.15

(UK/US 2011) dir. Simon Curtis 99m. Digital.
Michelle Williams, Eddie Redmayne, Kenneth Branagh. Dominic Cooper, Judi Dench, Dougray Scott, Derek Jacobi, Zoe Wanamaker.

London 1956 and the most famous movie star in the world arrives to make a film with the greatest actor of his generation. When Marilyn Monroe meets Laurence Olivier, 23 year old Colin Clark is the production dogsbody who witness the demands and the tantrums, the difficulties and the desperation on and off the the set of THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL. But did Clark's relationship with MM gradually become more intimate? With a dazzling performance by Michelle Williams as the troubled Marilyn, a wicked impersonation of Olivier by Kenneth Branagh and some spot-on caricatures by an unbeatable gallery of acting talent, whatever the truth, this version of it is never less than very enjoyable.

Trailer

£9/£7 Concs

SUN 26 Feb • Celebrating Cinema Double Bill

A USEFUL LIFE (U) 1.45

(Uruguay/Spain 2010) dir. Federico Veiroj 63m. Subtitles. Digital.
Jorge Jellinek, Manuel Martinez Carril, Paola Venditto.

A wry, affectionate and charming comedy comedy-drama on the relationship between the movies and real life. It centres on a middle-aged movie buff Jorge who has for years been doing every job imaginable at the Cinemateca Uruguaya, an ailing institution where audiences are dwindling fast. As the threat of closure looms, Jorge must rethink his ways but maybe all those movies will help him survive after all... Beautifully shot in black-and-white, A USEFUL LIFE is a sheer delight from start to finish.

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+ CINEMA PARADISO (PG) 3.10

(Italy/France 1988) dir. Giuseppe Tornatore 122m. Subtitles. Digital.
Philippe Noiret, Enzo Cannavale, Antonella Attili, Jacques Perrin.

A celebration of Cinema and a beautiful depiction of small-town Italian life as the inhabitants of a Sicilian village escape the grim realities of post-war life with visits to the local picture house. Salvatore is now a famous film director but 30 years ago as a small boy he learned most of what he'll ever know about love, loss and loyalty from Alfredo the cinema's projectionist, not to mention the art of cutting the censorable bits from each movie. A wonderful performance from the great Philippe Noiret is the icing on this wonderfully bitter-sweet tale of friendship, love, inspiration and memories.

£9/£7 Concs/£5.50 Under 15's

SUN 4 Mar • Pain and Pleasure Double Bill

BELLE DE JOUR (18) 1.45

(France/Italy 1967) dir. Luis Buñuel 100m. Subtitles. Digital.
Catherine Deneuve, Jean Sorel, Michel Piccoli, Geneviève Page, Pierre Clémenti, Francisco Rabal.

As effective and erotic as it was when it was first released over 30 years ago, BELLE DE JOUR tells the story of Severine (the stunning Catherine Deneuve), a young wife who remains virginal with her husband while secretly enjoying a rich fantasy life in which she imagines being forced to have sex. A stunning psychological drama, featuring a career-best performance from Catherine Deneuve.

+ HOUSE OF TOLERANCE (18) 3.45

(France 2011) dir. Bertrand Bonello 126m. Subtitles. Digital.
Hafsia Herzi, Celine Sallette, Jasmine Trinca, Adele Haenel.

Welcome to the world of L'Apollonide, a Parisian brothel at the beginning of the 20th century. It's a world seeped in opium and syphillis and smelling of sperm and champagne. The routines and rituals of the prostitutes – veterans and newcomers, romantics and cynics, schemers and innocents – are recorded with a painstaking attention to period detail, but this is subversively upended by director Bertrand Bonello's use of split screens, time shifts and a modern soundtrack that becomes an exploration of how the past is remembered, and a brief, but certainly provocative, history of time and space.

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£9/£7 Concs

SUN 11 Mar • The Complete Jean Vigo

A PROPOS DE NICE (U) 2.15

(France 1930) dir. Jean Vigo 25m. Digital.

Trailer

+ TARIS (U)

(France 1931) dir. Jean Vigo 10m. Digital.
Jean Taris.

+ ZERO DE CONDUITE (U)

(France 1933) dir. Jean Vigo 42m. Digital.
Jean Dasté, Robert Le Flon, Du Verron, Delphin, Léon Larive.

Jean Vigo is one of cinema's great legends. The son of a notorious French anarchist, he died in 1934 aged 29 after completing just four films. Vigo never played by the rules: his work was poetic, daring and often touched by Surrealism. A PROPOS DE NICE is an absurdist, angry rhythmic look at life on the French Riviera; TARIS, an inventive experimental portrait of a swimming champion; and ZERO DE CONDUITE, is a radical, tale of boarding-school rebellion initially banned in France but which still continues to influence filmmakers worldwide. Each is a witty, visually adventurous work by a great original film artist.

Trailer

+ L'ATALANTE (PG) 3.55

(France 1934) dir. Jean Vigo 89m. Subtitles. Digital.
Michel Simon, Dita Parlo, Jean Dasté, Gilles Margaritis, Louis Lefebvre.

Vigo's only feature, and a film like no other. A simple love story becomes an achingly romantic reverie of desire and hope as two newlyweds begin their life together on a canal barge, together with an earthy first mate and a multitude of mangy cats. It's both a surprisingly erotic idyll and a clear-eyed meditation on love. Much mutilated on its first release, it has now been gloriously restored.

Trailer

£9/£7 Concs/£5.50 Under 15's

SUN 18 Mar • Tales of Today Double Bill

MARGIN CALL (15) 12.15

(US 2011) dir. J. C. Chandor 106m. Digital.
Kevin Spacey, Stanley Tucci, Jeremy Irons, Demi Moore, Paul Bettany.

A tragi-comedy of our times as over a 24-hour period a New York investment bank foresees the impending financial crisis of 2008 and tries to save itself, effectively screwing over everyone else in the process. It's a powerhouse of a seat edge drama with a super ensemble cast revelling in the tension and intrigue. Kevin Spacey is superb as the guy with a conscience that the system keeps him from using as he grapples with the ethical issues. All very believable and probably true.

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+ TAKE SHELTER (15) 2.20

(US 2011) dir. Jeff Nichols 121m. Digital.
Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain, Tova Stewart, Shea Whingham.

Jeff Nichols' powerful psychological thriller is another disturbing tale for our times. Michael Shannon is the haunted protagonist, an average guy living in an average small town in Ohio with wife and young daughter. Then the nightmares take over and become waking hallucinations as he becomes convinced that a great disaster is coming. His obsessive behaviour affects both the family and the community. With outstanding performances from Shannon and Jessica Chastain, TAKE SHELTER is a chillingly atmospheric and believable real-life story with an ending to talk about.

Trailer

£9/£7 Concs

SUN 25 Mar • The Bard Revisited Double Bill

THE TEMPEST (PG) 2.00

(US 2010) dir. Julie Taymor 106m. Digital.
Helen Mirren, David Strathairn, Felicity Jones, Ben Wishaw, Tom Conti, Alan Cumming, Chris Cooper, Russell Brand, Alfred Molina.

The magical island of Shakespeare's final play is filled with more than just strange noises in maverick theatre director Julie Taymor's twisted version of THE TEMPEST. Prospero becomes Prospera (Helen Mirren, as magnificent as ever), a sorceress who flees with her young daughter after being convicted of witchcraft. An unexpected cast that ranges from Ben Wishaw's mercurial spirit Ariel to Russell Brand's clownish shipwrecked sailor, treats the text with respect and brings all the villains, lovers and fools in this tale of identity and revenge, gloriously to life.

Trailer

+ CORIOLANUS (15) 4.05

(UK 2011) dir. Ralph Fiennes 123m. Digital.
Gerard Butler, Ralph Fiennes, Jessica Chastain, Brian Cox, Vanessa Redgrave, John Snow.

This bold and bloody modern updating of Shakespeare's Roman play of knotty moral conflicts is the directorial debut of actor Ralph Fiennes, and it's a triumph. Filmed in Serbia, CORIOLANUS is the story of a national hero whose honesty and failure to compromise leads to his banishment and an alliance with a guerilla leader, a former adversary but now someone with whom he shares a warrior's code and a homoerotic attraction. Magnificently acted, not least by Fiennes himself, this is excitingly staged, visually inventive classic drama with contemporary resonances that raise the passion, intensity and relevance to even greater heights.

Trailer

£9/£7 Concs