Having lost her parents, Anna has been brought up in a convent where she has taken the decision to become a nun herself. Before she takes her final vows the Mother Superior insists that Anna meets her sole surviving relative. Her aunt inhabits a world that is very different from the calm seclusion of the convent and together they discover the remarkable history of Anna’s family with explosive consequences for each of the women. Winner of the best foreign language film at the 2014 Oscars.
Cert 12A – Poland 2013 – Director: Pawel Pawlikowsky
Running time: 115 minutes – Language: Polish
Cast: Agata Kuleza, Agata Trzebuchowska
Filmed over 12 years with the same cast, Richard Linklater’s Boyhood is a groundbreaking story of growing up as seen through the eyes of a child named Mason (a breakthrough performance by Ellar Coltrane), who literally grows up on screen before our eyes. Starring Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette as Mason’s parents and newcomer Lorelei Linklater as his sister Samantha, Boyhood charts the rocky terrain of childhood like no other film has before.
Sixteen year-old Marieme is an immigrant girl living in the Paris suburbs. Having failed in school, she sees a future cleaning hotel rooms like her mother. However, joining a girl gang gives her a taste of a different life and we follow her through the exhilarating yet dangerous world of the ghetto as she swings between love, music, violence and an illusory sense of empowerment.
A compilation of six stories with themes ranging from air travel to car clamping, society weddings to road rage. If there is a common theme it may be that beneath the respectable, calm veneer of modern life there is a suppressed animal passion in each of us. These dazzling tales are replete with black humour, social comment, explosions, farce and above all a remarkable twist in each plot line which never fails to confound our expectations.
Testament of Youth is based on the First World War memoir by Vera Brittain, which has become the classic testimony of that war from a woman’s point of view. A searing journey from youthful hopes and dreams to the edge of despair and back again, it’s a film about young love, the futility of war and how to make sense of the darkest times. With its beautiful filming and stunning performance by Swedish actress Alicia Vikander as Vera, it serves as a worthy tribute to Ms. Brittains’ timeless writing.
Based on the harrowing memoir of Eric Lomax, who was one of thousands of Allied Prisoners of war forced to work on the construction of the Thai/Burma Railway during WWII. Colin Firth plays a buttoned-down introvert who is helped by his new wife to finally confront the horrible events of his captivity which he has tried to blot out. An unforgettable story about cruelty, endurance, courage and making peace with demons from the past.
In this award winning, warm and affectionate film, Saajan, a Mumbai office worker nearing retirement is delivered the wrong lunch by a dabbawala. Young housewife ,Ila, had intended it for her emotionally indifferent husband. To Saajan’s surprise, the food is a vast improvement on his usual meal. When he finds a note from Ila enclosed with another meal, he decides to write back. So begins Ritesh Batra’s exquisite comedy-drama.
Immature New Jersey party boy Jon gives his female conquests scores out of ten but none of them can compare with the women in the porn he is infatuated with. His family and friends, even his local priest, wonder if he will ever grow up and have a relationship based on mutual respect. Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s directorial debut is an endearing comedy with a thought-provoking message
Small-time con-man Irving (Christian Bale) and his seductive British partner Sydney (Amy Adams) are forced into working with a rogue FBI agent (Bradley Cooper) who pushes them into a world of shady New Jersey powerbrokers and Mafia that’s as dangerous as it is alluring. Filled with rich characters, sharp dialogue, big hairstyles and knockout 70’s soundtrack, American Hustle earned David O. Russell a Golden Globe for Best Film Comedy and three Baftas for Make-up and Hair, Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress for Jennifer Lawrence.
Adapting his 2008 one-man stage show for the big screen, the award-winning French theatre actor Guillaume Gallienne revisits his sexually confused youth in this flamboyant farce, which premiered to rapturous applause in Cannes. The 41 year old Gallienne plays himself from school-age child to awkward adolescent to young man. There are shades of Pedro Almodovar, as Gallienne unpicks his complicated love-hate relationship with his domineering mother, who raised him more like a daughter than a son. Despite all the indignities suffered during his formative years, he maintains a cheeriness and perseverance that reward him in the end.