Author: Admin

Screening

FRA | 1961 | 94 mins | dir. Henri Colpi, with Alida Valli, Georges Wilson, Charles Blavette | Cert. TBC

Drawing from a screenplay by Marguerite Duras, Henri Colpi's Une aussi longue absence depicts the unbearable longing of Thérèse Langlois for her husband, who disappeared during World War Two. One day, a tramp passes by humming a familiar tune, and Therese is convinced that the vagabond is her husband, but she soon discovers this stranger has lost his memory. Therese tries hard to make him recollect in the hope of renewing the love they once knew.

Screening

FRA | 1975 | 120 mins | dir. Marguerite Duras, with Delphine Seyrig, Michael Lonsdale, Mathieu Carrière

Delphine Seyrig plays the bored and promiscuous wife of a French diplomat in Marguerite Duras’s Calcutta based drama, now fully restored to its original glory. Set in the 1930s, the tedium of her existence is relieved when she embarks on a string of affairs, all of which are known but ignored by her husband. From intense connections to brief encounters, Duras creates a world in which the off-screen voice represents the ghostly presence of a time that once was.

The screening will be preceded by a presentation by film curator Federico Rossin on the filmic writing of Marguerite Duras.
 

Screening

USA | 1951 | 75 mins | dir.s Clyde Geronimi & Wilfred Jackson, with Kathryn Beaumont, Ed Wynn, Richard Haydn | Cert. U

Lewis Caroll’s ever celebrated, sometimes controversial, Alice in Wonderland has been adapted for the big screen several times. But Disney’s 1951 version remains one of the favourites. Take your children to Wonderland and let them hold hands with Alice to make up their own mind about it. Will they get back home? Not if the Queen of Hearts has her way.
 

Screening

FRA | 2022 | 53 mins | doc | dir. Jarmila Buzkova | in French with EN subs

This rare documentary – the first one on Milan Kundera – examines the singular and enigmatic trajectory of one of the most widely read writers in the world. From his time in Communist Czechoslovakia to his Parisian exile and writing in French, from his quest for glory to his withdrawal from public life, this moving homage conceived as an Odyssey sheds light on the author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

Preceded by an introduction by director Jarmila Buzkova.

Screening

Les années super 8

FRA | 2022 | 61 mins | dir.s Annie Ernaux & David Ernaux-Briot | in French with EN subs | Cert. TBC

In 2022, Annie Ernaux, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature, together with her son David Ernaux-Briot, created a wistful cine-memoir composed of super-8 family footage shot between 1972 and 1981. This dreamy documentary, which premiered to critical acclaim in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight, written and narrated by Ernaux herself, tells of a time when the author was in her thirties and raising two children.

Those familiar with Ernaux’s novels will recognise some overarching themes (such as female emancipation and domestic life) embedded against the backdrop of French current affairs at the time (Georges Pompidou’s death, Simone Veil’s defence of abortion rights etc.).
 

Screening

USA | 1958 | 115 mins | musical | dir. Vincente Minnelli, with Leslie Caron, Louis Jourdan, Maurice Chevalier | in English | cert. PG

Gigi, an innocent French girl, finds herself being trained by two veteran Parisian courtesans so that she can become the mistress of Gaston Lachaille, a family friend and heir to a sugar fortune. However, when Gaston actually falls in love with the young Gigi, he complicates a long-standing family tradition and throws their carefully ordered social circle into a flap. The source material for director Vincente Minnelli's ornate musical lies in Colette's 1944 novella of the same name, one of the most recognised works in her illustrious writing career.

Followed by a discussion between Leslie Caron and Professor Diana Holmes (University of Leeds)
 

Screening

Loving Highsmith is a unique look at the life of celebrated American author Patricia Highsmith, based on her diaries and notebooks and the intimate reflections of her lovers, friends and family. Focusing on Highsmith’s quest for love and her troubled identity, the film sheds new light on her life and writing. Excerpts from unpublished notes voiced by Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones, Top of the Lake), beautifully interwoven with archive material of her and the film adaptations of her most famous novels (Strangers on a Train, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Carol), create a vivid, touching portrait of one of the most fascinating female writers of the 20th Century.
 

Screening

Loving Highsmith is a unique look at the life of celebrated American author Patricia Highsmith, based on her diaries and notebooks and the intimate reflections of her lovers, friends and family. Focusing on Highsmith’s quest for love and her troubled identity, the film sheds new light on her life and writing. Excerpts from unpublished notes voiced by Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones, Top of the Lake), beautifully interwoven with archive material of her and the film adaptations of her most famous novels (Strangers on a Train, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Carol), create a vivid, touching portrait of one of the most fascinating female writers of the 20th Century.
 

Screening

USA | 2022 | 107 mins | doc | dir. Nina Menkes, with Laura Mulvey, Rosanna Arquette, Julie Dash | in English | cert. 18

‘The first step of freedom is consciousness.’ So says director Nina Menkes, introducing her compelling documentary about the systemic use of gendered techniques in filmmaking and how these subconsciously impact the representation of women in society. Building upon her influential talk Sex and Power: The Visual Language of Cinema and making use of feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey’s landmark essay Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, Menkes draws on excerpts from over 175 films to prove her point. You will never look at film the same way again after watching this brilliantly argued film that takes you on a journey through the history of cinema.
 

Screening

USA | 2022 | 107 mins | doc | dir. Nina Menkes, with Laura Mulvey, Rosanna Arquette, Julie Dash | in English | cert. 18

‘The first step of freedom is consciousness.’ So says director Nina Menkes, introducing her compelling documentary about the systemic use of gendered techniques in filmmaking and how these subconsciously impact the representation of women in society. Building upon her influential talk Sex and Power: The Visual Language of Cinema and making use of feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey’s landmark essay Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, Menkes draws on excerpts from over 175 films to prove her point. You will never look at film the same way again after watching this brilliantly argued film that takes you on a journey through the history of cinema.