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.

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

Director: Kenneth Branagh
Cast: Joseph Kaiser, Benjamin Jay Davis, Amy Carson, René 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