IN SEARCH OF A MIDNIGHT KISS [15] - 1 hour 30 mins

Director: Alex Holdridge
Cast: Brian McGuire, Katy Luong, Sara Simmonds, Scoot McNairy
This is a charming, quirky, romantic comedy with some wonderful acting that is well worth seeing, despite its slightly cumbersome title. It is very funny at times and the evolution of the relationship of the two excellent leads is entirely believable. Wilson (Scoot McNairy) is a neurotic and lonely would-be script writer who is facing the prospect of spending New Years Eve alone in Los Angeles. His friend persuades him to place an advert on an internet dating service and he finds himself spending an evening walking around the city with the chain smoking, feisty, equally neurotic, Vivian (Sara Simmonds) exchanging frank theories of love and life. Vivian informs Wilson that she has already seen several men that day and will spend New Year Eve with the most promising, and, of course, this turns out to be him. They bitch, flirt and get to know each other as they travel on the subway and wander about the historic theatres and art deco architecture of downtown Los Angeles; a view of the city that is rarely portrayed on film.

This is a "sparkling black and white gem" (Nicholas Barber - Independent) and "easily one of the best films of the year" (Matthew Turner - View London)

REVOLUTIONARY ROAD [15] - 1 hour 59 mins

Director: Sam Mendes
Cast: David Harbour, Kate Winslet, Kathryn Hahn, Kathy Bates, Leonardo DiCaprio
Sam Mendes' beautifully crafted film is a perceptive tale of a relationship in meltdown, as two people start to unravel the ties that bind them together and end up wondering what they ever had in common in the first place.
Based on a novel by writer Richard Yates and describing with great subtlety the breakdown of a 7 year marriage between Frank (DiCaprio) and April (Winslet), a handsome young middle class couple living in 1955 America, the excellent cinematography convincingly recreates the period.
April once had ambitions to be an actress but now feels stranded in her nice middle class home, while Frank is bored and discontented with his job in the city. A plan to move to Paris briefly restores their relationship but all comes to nothing when Frank is offered a promotion he cannot refuse.
Kate Winslet is outstanding and gives a confident and harrowing performance. Her stillness and coiled reserve are countered by DiCaprio's rage and frustration.
This is "a deeply felt, moving and genuinely tragic study of a marriage tearing itself apart" (Peter Bradshaw - Guardian) exploring the dark side of the American dream.

THE RED SHOES [U] - 1 hour 53 mins
New Restored Version - 2009 Cannes Film Festival

Directors: Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell
Cast: Anton Walbrook, Marius Goring, Moira Shearer
This deeply moving film is a complex romantic tragedy about the power struggles in an international ballet company. Moira Shearer is the young unknown dancer who is catapulted into the position of prima ballerina. She and her ruthless, but charismatic, producer have a sensational worldwide success with their ballet, but then everything begins to go wrong when she falls in love with the composer who has written the music for the ballet. The ballet sequence is 20 minutes long and nothing short of brilliant.
"This is one of the greatest pictures by one of the greatest of all film making teams" (Phillip French - Observer)

THE PAGE TURNER [15] - 1 hour 25 mins [subtitled]

Director: Denis Dercourt
Cast: Catherine Frot, Deborah Francois, Jacques Bonaffe, Pascal Greggory
This elegant psychological thriller, full of suspense is a treat for lovers of intelligent cinema.
Melanie was psychologically damaged by an incident in her childhood when she failed an important music exam and blamed her examiner and concert pianist Ariane who distracted her at a vital moment. A decade later Melanie obtains a position in Ariane's household. She becomes indispensible to Ariane, who is attempting a comeback. Melanie becomes her page turner, and has a secret plan to destroy Ariane and get her revenge.
"A devastating, subtly reticent thriller that matches Hitchcock twist by twist" (Phillip French - Observer)

BRIGHT STAR [PG] - 1 hour 59 mins

Director: Jane Campion
Cast: Abbie Cornish, Ben Whishaw, Kerry Fox, Paul Schneider, Thomas Sangster
This is an exquisite piece of film making about the doomed love affair between John Keats and Fanny Brawne.
They met when they became neighbours, and their slow burning love affair continued for the next 3 years until John's tragic death aged only 26. Fanny is a spirited but sensitive young woman passionately in love but constrained by the social mores of the time. There is only ever one kiss. Don't miss a fine reading of "Ode to a Nightingale" as the credits roll
"Jane Campion's calm, subtle and measured film is the best of her career" (Peter Bradshaw - Guardian)

MAN ON WIRE [12A] - 1 hour 34 mins

Director: James Marsh
Cast: Philippe Petit

This wonderful, gripping documentary tells the story of Phillipe Petit, the high wire artiste who in 1974 walked between the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York.
Petit was obsessed by the idea and it took 7 years of extraordinarily detailed planning, followed by considerable deception and skulduggery in smuggling in the necessary gear. This is an inspirational story of a larger than life genius told with affection and restraint, and for good measure there is also a lovely haunting score from Michael Nyman.
"An absorbing, mischievously amusing yarn, whose climax unfolds with unexpected emotional force" (Ann Hornaday - Washington Post)

AN EDUCATION   (2009)   [12A] - 1 hour 40 mins

Director: Lone Scherfig
Cast: Alfred Molina, Carey Mulligan, Dominic Cooper, Emma Thompson, Olivia Williams, Peter Sarsgaard, Rosamund Pike

This highly enjoyable and very funny film tells the true story of how a clever 16 year old school girl, destined for Oxford, is seduced by an older man. He introduces her to glamour, travel and excitement and somehow manages to seduce her parents with his wit and worldly charm. Despite the subject matter this film is not remotely prurient and is great fun to watch.
Carey Mulligan, who plays the part of Jenny gives a wonderful performance that won her the best actress award at the 2010 BAFTA's
"Offers plenty to enjoy and admire and is full of first rate performances." (Cosmo Landesman - Sunday Times )

THELMA & LOUISE   (1991)   [15] - 2 hour 9 mins

Director: Ridley Scott
Cast: Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis, Harvey Keitel, Brad Pitt

Two life-weary 30-something women in middle America escape their oppressive lives for a weekend of fun and freedom only to find themselves on the run through the sun-drenched desert lands of Utah. Adventures along the way - some sweet and some tragic - test their mettle and their friendship as the two friends discover they possess undreamed of resources and capabilities.
The clever and funny script sees Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon delivering bravura performances

"An entertaining fable that reaches out to an audience far larger than its natural feminist constituency" (Richard Schickel - Time)

THE QUEEN   (2006)  [12A] - 1 hour 43 mins

Director: Stephen Frears
Cast: Helen McCrory, Helen Mirren, James Cromwell, Michael Sheen, Sylvia Syms

Helen Mirren brilliantly captures the Queen's physicality without ever descending into caricature. Unable to comprehend the scale of the public mood, the Queen retreats behind the walls of Balmoral in an attempt to keep the family's grief private, whilst the Prime Minister [Michael Sheen], in increasingly desperate telephone calls, attempts to persuade her to make a statement. A humorous critique of a stuffy Royal Family becomes an unexpectedly sympathetic portrait of the woman who carries the weight of the nation on her shoulders. The fact that we know the final outcome in no way detracts from the enjoyment of this excellent film.

"It is intelligent, hilariously funny and, ultimately, rather moving" (Philip French - Guardian)

THE MAGIC FLUTE   (2006)   [PG] - 2 hour 15 mins

Director: Kenneth Branagh
Cast: Joseph Kaiser, Benjamin Jay Davis, Amy Carson, Rene Pape, Lyubov Petrova, Tom Randle, Silvia Moi, Liz Smith

Kenneth Branagh sets Mozart's phantasmagorical opera on the battlefields of the First World War. He turns the opera into a metaphor for the struggle between dark and light in a Europe undergoing a loss of innocence, although it is also in many ways a pantomime, albeit a very fine and lofty one, it makes for a very entertaining film. The new libretto, in rhyming couplets, is by Stephen Fry and generally closely follows the original plot. The Chamber Orchestra of Europe under the baton of James Conlon play the score faultlessly.

"I can't remember the last time I was so engrossed by Mozart's opera" (Dave Paxton - Music OMH)

COCO BEFORE CHANEL   (2009)   [12A] (sub-titles) - 1 hour 45 mins

Director: Anne Fontaine
Cast: Alessandro Nivola, Audrey Tautou, Benoit Poelvoorde, Emmanuelle Devos, Marie Gillain, Regis Royer

Telling of Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel's troubled early years before she became the Grande Dame of Parisian haute couture and her life until around the end of WW1, when she was in her mid 20's. A wilful, manipulative and increasingly confident woman, Chanel revolted against the exploitation of women and the restrictive fashion of the time, considering it uncomfortable and cumbersome and designed primarily to please men

"Brought alive by the magnetic performance of Tautou" (Sarah Boslaugh - Playback)

GOSFORD PARK   (2001)   [15] - 2 hour 17 mins

Director: Robert Altman
Cast: Alan Bates, Derek Jacobi, Emily Watson, Helen Mirren, Kristin Scott Thomas, Maggie Smith

Applying Agatha Christie's murder mystery format to a rigorous analysis of British Society in the early 1930's, a stellar cast of 48 portray a sharply satirical view of the British class system. Set on a magnificent estate (Gosford Park) in 1932 showing a society and way of life on the verge of extinction. Completely oblivious to any outside political reality family and guests are obsessed by their own petty greed, personal agendas and sexual obsessions

"Altman works to a muscular, ambitious script, crammed with sparkling lines and terrific cameo turns for a star-studded cast" (Peter Bradshaw - Guardian)