23rd February 2010
The Lives of Others 2006 Director Florian Henckel von Donnersmark Cert. 15 Subtitles

The realities of state repression and the moral dilemmas it creates are powerfully conveyed in this brilliant German drama film, which won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film. It is set in East Germany in 1984. A Stasi (state security) captain is ordered to secretly monitor the activities of one of East Germany’s top playwrights and his girlfriend

23rd March 2010 Double Bill!!!!
La Jetée 1966 (28 mins) Director: Chris Marker Cert PG
The Man with a Movie Camera 1929 (67 mins) Director: Dziga Vertov Cert E
Guest Speaker Dr Jon Kear: Lecturer in History and Philosophy of Art/Film

La Jetée (The Jetty), 1966
This highly-influential science fiction film won the Prix Jean Vigo for short film. In just 28 minutes of mostly still black and white scenes it tells the haunting story of a post-nuclear experiment in time travel which spans many centuries. In a destroyed post-apocalyptic Paris after World War III, some survivors in underground tunnels investigate time travel. A male prisoner is selected to travel back in time to re-enact a violent childhood scene, he is then projected into the far future where he meets highly-advanced technological people who give him the power to regenerate his own society. The story unfolds in a heartbreakingly despairing way as it explores the relationship between the personal and the universal.

The Man with a Movie Camera, 1929.
Set in various Soviet cities, this film is an experimental documentary with no story and no actors. In so far as there are any characters, these are the cameraman of the title and the people of the modern Soviet Union. As there are no actors, story or set, the film is regarded as ‘absolute cinema’ on the basis of its complete separation from theatre and literature. The film is famous for the range of cinematic techniques invented or further developed by Vertov, including double exposure, fast motion, slow motion, freeze frames, jump cuts, split screens, Dutch angles, tracking shots, and stop-motion animations amongst others. These pioneering techniques, together with a (more-recently added) impressive soundtrack, provide a unique montage of Soviet life.

20th April 2010
Room with a View 1986 Director: James Ivory Certificate 15

Winner of three Academy Awards, four BAFTAs and several other major awards, this brilliant film is an adaptation of E. M. Foster’s novel set in Florence and the English countryside during Edwardian times. Lucy, a young Englishwoman (Helena Bonham Carter) is on holiday in Italy with her cousin Charlotte (Maggie Smith) where they meet a bohemian, Mr Emerson (Denholm Elliott) and his son George (Julian Sands). George tries to seduce Lucy but Charlotte sees the incident and both women return to England prematurely. Lucy then becomes engaged to the wealthy but uptight Cecil (Daniel Day-Lewis). At the same time the Emersons rent a cottage nearby and George again tries to seduce Lucy. An abundance of humour, both subtle and overt, is woven into the unfolding story. But the true brilliance of this film is the way in which it makes a barbed attack on the English class system while telling a touching love story set in splendid surroundings.