Night Train To Lisbon
By his own admission, Raimund Gregorius (Jeremy Irons) is a boring man. We first meet him playing chess by himself before setting off to work teaching classics at a Swiss university. That day in the rain he saves a Portuguese girl from committing suicide. She vanishes, leaving her red coat, a book and a train ticket to Lisbon. Raimund, intrigued, starts reading and impulsively abandons his job and hops on that train.
Bille August’s adaption of Pascal Mercier’s Paul Auster-like novel then takes quite a turn, not only into the stunningly photographed Portuguese capital but back into that country’s recent past, its ‘70s dictatorship.
This is a movie within a movie, the second charting the exciting lives of a group of resistance fighters (Jack Huston, Bruno Ganz, Mélanie Laurent), their ideals, struggles, tangled love lives and betrayals. As we flit from past to present the reason for Raimund’s trip does unfold; even the suicidal girl turns up. But what this masterfully crafted enigma all means isn’t revealed till the very last line.
Also starring Charlotte Rambling and Lena Olin.
M15+ from Dec 5.
Thanks to Pinnacle Films we have 10 double in-season passes to give away.
For details on how to enter, see our Giveaways page.
Ender’s Game
Parents worried about their teens spending too much time online playing games can relax, they’re in training to save the human race. At least that’s the premise of Gavin Hood’s futuresque morality tale aimed squarely at the Twilight and Hunger Games crowd.
Asa Butterfield plays Ender Wiggin, a pale faced and shy teen who finds himself anointed by cynical and calculating Colonel Graph (Harrison Ford) to lead the Earth’s resistance to the alien “Formies,” a breed of giant intergalactic ants who (we are told) have evil designs on the Earth. Mere adults, lacking youthful prowess at video gaming, just can’t do the job, hmmm… Ender distinguishes himself brilliantly in the brutal training, is promoted rapidly and before long becomes a ruthless and brilliant leader himself.
There’s a neat twist to all this, and readers of Orson Scott Card’s tangled but masterful SF novel will know it. If not, like our hero, you’ll have to wait till the end!
M15+ from Dec 5.
Thanks to Icon Films we have 5 double in season passes to give away.
For details on how to enter, see our Giveaways page.
On My Way
Writer-director Emmanuelle Bercot has tailor-made his new comedy-drama for Catherine Deneuve. And she’s a perfect fit as Bettie, a mature woman in full-blown late-life crisis.
At first, as in so many of her roles, she’s clipped and cold. But after being jilted by her long time lover and finding her restaurant business in deep merde, she soon loosens up. In fact she goes right off the rails – just gets in her car and drives – out of the frying pan into the fire, as it turns out.
After a few darkly comic drunken interludes, before long she’s ferrying her estranged and angry daughter’s (the singer Camille) son Charley (Nemo Schiffman) across France to his grandfather’s house. He’s clearly fed-up with all the hopeless adults in his life, and they fight. But it is this young boy who in the end helps Bettie find a way forward.
Deneuve really does deserve all the praise she’s getting for this difficult role. She’s not afraid to show her age and vulnerability but she’s still beautiful… just as stunning as the French scenery we pass through.
M15+ on now.
Thanks to Umbrella Entertainment we have 10 double in season passes to give away.
For details on how to enter, see our Giveaways page.
Kill Your Darlings
Wow, here’s Harry Potter all grown up, hipster (1944 version) and (gasp) gay.
As the young poet Allen Ginsberg, pre-Howl and just discovering the Beats in John Krokidas’ startlingly candid biopic, Daniel Radcliffe really is a revelation. So too is Jack Huston (as Kerouac) and especially Dane DeHaan, who plays Allen’s charismatic but deeply bent classmate.
The plot, which involves a real-life grisly murder which implicates them all, takes its time to unfold but it’s a slow burn sizzler!
MA15+ from Dec 5.
How I Live Now
Kevin Macdonald’s (Last King Of Scotland) film is far grittier and way more realistic than the glossy Hunger Games franchise, though it does have one thing in common – a teenage girl as an accidental hero in the dystopian future.
Soarise Ronan (so fantastic in Atonement and Hanna) stars as Daisy, a sulky American girl who has come to stay with relatives in the UK just as terrorists explode a nuclear bomb over London. Her journey in the devastating aftermath does betray its YA novel origins, but it’s still a disturbing, chilling, and very moving story of personal growth.
This little gem won’t get the attention it deserves, not now that Katniss Everdeen has conquered the known universe – but it is good! Don’t let it slip by.
MA15+ on now.
The Gilded Cage
If you haven’t checked out Palace’s sleek new cinema complex on Norton Street yet, here’s a good reason to.
Writer/director Ruben Alves’ enormously charming, semi-autobiographical Parisian comedy, The Gilded Cage tells the story of a loving, hardworking married couple whose long-held dream of returning to their homeland in Portugal finally comes true – only to be secretly undermined by their friends and neighbours.
It’s a warm-hearted delight and is bound to be one of the most popular films of the forthcoming summer holiday season.
We have double passes to see THE GILDED CAGE [CTC] during the two preview weekends
(valid Friday to Sunday, Nov 29-Dec 1 & Dec 6-8) to give away.
For details on how to enter, see our Giveaways page.
Reviews: Russell Edwards
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