Thursday 29 January - 7.00 for 7.30pm

“Cinema Paradiso” (1988)

Winner of the Oscar for best foreign film, this is a wonderfully evocative celebration of the lost world of communal cinema-going and the rituals of small-town life in a picturesque Sicilian town.  A successful film director (Jacques Perrin) looks back on his boyhood and his friendship with the projectionist at the local cinema, his memories triggered by the old man’s death. Philippe Noiret stars as the projectionist, with Salvatore Cascio as his devoted young assistant.  The closing montage sequence is so powerfully moving that it cannot fail to bring a lump to the throat or a tear to the eye. This is a wonderfully nostalgic film, enhanced by Ennio Morricone’s sublime soundtrack score - a remembrance of times past, but with more than a hint of that underlying pain that marks a child’s journey into adulthood.  Director Giusseppe Tornatore, who also wrote the screenplay, has given us a truly inspirational film - a bittersweet hymn to lost love and a nostalgic remembrance of things past, never to be regained. This film is one of the cinema’s truly satisfying emotional experiences, and one that is unlikely to be bettered. (122 mins. Italian with sub-titles)

Thursday  26 February – 7.00 for 7.30pm

“Good Night and Good Luck” (2005)

This incisive, insightful drama is set in early 1950’s America at the height of the Communist witch-hunts orchestrated by Senator Joseph McCarthy’s Committee of Un-American Activities. It shows how the highly respected TV broadcaster Edward R Murrow (David Strathairn) and his colleagues on the CBS TV news programme ‘See It Now’ confronted and exposed McCarthy’s assault on individual liberties and bullyboy tactics and resisted attempts to trivilialize the medium. George Clooney, who received an Oscar nomination as Director of the film, also co-wrote the script and appears as the TV news boss Fred Friendly.  “A passionate, serious, impeccably-crafted movie tackling a subject Clooney cares about deeply: the duty of journalism to speak truth to power.” – David Ansen, Newsweek.   (93 mins.)

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Thursday  26 March – 7.00 for 7.30pm

“Mamma Mia!” (2008)

Having beaten Titanic as the highest-grossing film ever released in Britain, as well as becoming the highest-grossing movie musical of all time worldwide, Mamma Mia!  is Director Phillida Lloyd’s amazingly popular film adaptation of her stage musical based on the songs of the Swedish pop group ABBA.  Meryl Streep is on form playing a scatty single mother and impoverished owner of a dilapidated taverna on an idyllic Greek island, and is about to celebrate the wedding of her only daughter (Amanda Seyfried). Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard have great fun as the three possible fathers and Julie Walters and Christine Baranski do the same as her two best friends. The whole thing is tremendously enjoyable and plot is less important than the chance to hear again those hugely popular ABBA songs.  Outrageously successful in the teeth of some mixed reviews – although the Times reviewer wrote “Mamma Mia! is actually rather wonderful. It is sharp, hilarious and so beautifully shot that you can almost smell the Ambre Solaire” – this is a superb feelgood tonic for a damp spring night in the middle of a recession. (108 mins.)

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Thursday 30 April – 7.00 for 7.30pm

“The Outlaw Josey Wales” (1976)

Clint Eastwood’s eighth Western and fifth film as Director, this is a tough, sprawling post-Civil War epic of a wronged Confederate farmer journeying westward bent on revenge after the murder of his family by renegade Union troops. The excellent cast includes a drily humorous scene-stealing performance from Chief Dan George as a wily old Cherokee Indian, Lone Watie, with Eastwood giving us a much more complex hero than his earlier ‘man with no name’ persona.  Although it did not garner similar critical praise when it was released, Eastwood considers this film to be the equal of his Oscar-winning “Unforgiven” (1992), and his personal favourite of all his films.  This film, much requested by members, is given a four-star rating by the Radio Times. (130 mins.)

Thursday 14 May – 7.00 for 7.30pm

SPECIAL EVENT -The Life of a Stuntman

We are delighted to welcome professional stuntman  Julian Spencer to talk about his 20 year career in the movies, during which he has worked on such films as “Braveheart”, “The English Patient”, “Saving Private Ryan”, “The Mummy”, the Bond films and numerous TV series, including the prestigious “Band of Brothers”.  Julian will tell us about the tricks of the trade and his role as a stunt coordinator in modern films, illustrating his talk with extracts from his work. 

Thursday 28 May - 7.00 for 7.30pm

“The Darjeeling Limited” (2007)

Co-written and directed by American film ‘auteur’ Wes Anderson, this drama-comedy is about the unpredictable physical and emotional journey of three estranged oddball American brothers (Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman). The three meet again a year after the accidental death of their father to take a train across India with the idea of ‘bonding’, before a reunion with their mother (Angelica Houston), who had run away from home and is abbess of a monastery in the foothills of the Himalayas.  Filled with all of Anderson’s trademark quirkiness, this is a strange, whimsical and eccentric film with some brilliantly funny moments. (91 mins.)

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Thursday 25 June – 7.00 for 7.30pm

 “The World’s Fastest Indian” (2005)

This is the true story of elderly New Zealander, Burt Monro (Anthony Hopkins on top form) who, against all odds, modifies his 1920 Indian Scout motorcycle and takes it to Bonneville Flats, Utah to attempt the world speed record.  It is a delightful tale, beautifully told by New Zealand writer/director Roger Donaldson.   Hopkins gives a “generous, genial and utterly approachable performance… he nails the backyard eccentric genius dead centre… he has inhaled the nature of a mid-century Kiwi bloody good bloke and he inhabits the part to perfection,” wrote the reviewer in the New Zealand Morning Herald. “A charming, old-fashioned underdog story.”- Halliwell’s Film Guide.  (127 mins.)

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