FLICKS IN THE STICKS
D L R WO A RANGE OF FILMS WITH A BIT OF EXTRA KICK
SCREENINGS SEPTEMBER–DECEMBER 2016 YOUTH [15]
FLICKS IN THE STICKS
Richard E. Grant on Hollywood cinema:
“Audiences will queue round the block to see an unimaginably highly paid film star running away from a fantastically expensive explosion.”
FLICKS IN THE STICKS WORLD is a new scheme to give rural audiences access to a wide range of recent films with a bit of extra kick – it will bring you award-winning world cinema, British and US independent feature films and documentaries that only get limited UK release. These are the films you always want to see, and never get to. Try something different – you may find some of the films challenging, but they will be as entertaining, stimulating and rewarding as anything else you see this year. Playing at selected Flicks in the Sticks venues in Herefordshire, Shropshire, Worcestershire, Powys and Cheshire.
Full details at
ARTSALIVE.CO.UK
We are grateful to The BFI for their support.
BLACK MOUNTAIN POETS 15 Director: Jamie Adams
Alice Lowe, Dolly Wells, Tom Cullen UK, 2015, 85 mins
Fri 9 Sep 7.30pm Knighton Community Centre Tue 11 Oct 7.30pm Garway Village Hall Wed 19 Oct 7.30pm Escleyside Hall, Michaelchurch Escley Shot in just five days in the Black Mountains, Cardiff-based director Jamie Adams’s film stars the superb Alice Lowe (Sightseers) and Dolly Wells as Lisa and Claire, a pair of sisters on the run. Seeking refuge at a weekend poetry retreat, they assume false identities. Downton Abbey’s Tom Cullen co-stars as the poet who comes between them. The improvised dialogue – including some magnificent one-liners – is fresh, hilarious and witty, and the scenery soars.
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“a delightfully shaggy mistaken-identity comedy…” Variety
CAROL 15 Director: Todd Haynes
Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Kyle Chandler US/UK, 2015, 118 mins
Fri 18 Nov 7.30pm Lady Emily Hall, Tarrington Sat 26 Nov 7pm Clifton on Teme Village Hall 1950s New York, Christmas-time, Carol (Cate Blanchett), an assured and sophisticated woman singles out shop-girl and aspiring photographer Therese (Rooney Mara) while buying gifts in a department store. The much younger and timid Therese is drawn, almost beyond her will, into intimacy with Carol and discovers a new fearlessness in a love that defies social conventions. Based on Patricia Highsmith’s ground-breaking novel, this adaptation is simply luscious, immaculately lit and beautifully art-directed to match the awakening of overwhelming romantic love.
CHICKLIT 15 Director: Tony Britten
Christian McKay, John Hurt, Eileen Atkins, Miles Jupp, Dakota Blue Richards UK, 2015, 96 mins
Sat 29 Oct 7.30pm Aston-on-Clun Village Hall Riding on the ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ phenomenon, this British comedy drama hinges on the incongruity of four domino-playing blokes trying to save their local pub from closing down by writing a chick lit or, more specifically, ‘mummy porn’ novel. The book is snapped up but the snag is that the publisher insists that the ‘author’, notionally a young woman, does press and publicity. The guys engage an out-of-work actress to roleplay the author, but as her involvement grows, so does her power. A strong cast and some great gags.
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DHEEPAN 15 Director: Jacques Audiard
Antonythasan Jesuthasan, Kalieaswari Srinivasan, Claudine Vinasithamby France, 2015, 115 mins, subtitles
Mon 10 Oct 7.30pm The Edge Arts Centre, Much Wenlock Dheepan is a Tamil Tiger in the latest from French auteur Jacques Audiard (A Prophet, Rust & Bone, The Beat That My Heart Skipped). As the civil war in Sri Lanka ends and the Tigers face defeat, he decides to flee to France, taking with him two strangers – a woman and a young girl. He hopes that, posing as a family, it’ll be easier for them all to claim asylum in France. Arriving in Paris, they move between homes until Dheepan finds work in a run-down housing estate on the outskirts of the city. Working hard to build a new life for his pretend family, he finds inescapable violence all around him – so much so that it seems inevitable that his old psychological war wounds will be tragically reopened. “Immensely powerful” **** The Guardian Winner Palme d'Or, Cannes Film Festival 2015
THE DAUGHTER 15 Director: Simon Stone
Odessa Young, Geoffrey Rush, Anna Torv, Sam Neill, Miranda Otto, Paul Schneider Australia, 2015, 95 mins
Tue 22 Nov 8pm All Stretton Village Hall This radical adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s The Wild Duck transposes the story to contemporary rural Australia, with a keenly observed sense of small town sensibilities. Christian returns to his hometown to attend his father Henry’s wedding to a much younger woman. There's an icy, unresolved tension between him and his father, but he enjoys catching up with childhood friend Oliver, and meeting Oliver’s teenage daughter Hedvig. As the wedding draws closer, old family secrets threaten to implode. Rising star Odessa Young as Hedvig is mesmerising, full of youthful effervescence and an emotional authority that powers the entire action.
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LOVE & FRIENDSHIP U Director: Whit Stillman
Kate Beckinsale, Stephen Fry, Chloë Sevigny, Xavier Samuel, Tom Bennett US, 2016, 93mins
Tue 4 Oct 7.30pm The Talbot Theatre, Whitchurch Sat 8 Oct 7.30pm Clun Memorial Hall Fri 14 Oct 7.30pm Bosbury Parish Hall Fri 21 Oct 7.30pm Whitchurch & Ganarew Memorial Hall Wed 16 Nov 7.30pm Escleyside Hall, Michaelchurch Escley Tue 29 Nov 7.30pm Much Birch Community Hall Tue 13 Dec 7.30pm Garway Village Hall Tue 13 Dec 7.30pm Ashford Carbonel Village Hall Wed 14 Dec 10.30am The Market Theatre Ledbury US indie director Whit Stillman (Damsels in Distress, The Last Days of Disco) has adapted Jane Austen’s lighthearted early novella Lady Susan into a deliciously sharp comedy of manners. Set in the 1790s, it's a gloriously witty and acerbic tale of matchmaking and manipulation. The scheming but beautiful young widow Lady Susan Vernon has come to Churchill, her in-laws’ estate, to wait out the colourful rumours about her dalliances. Aided and abetted by her loyal friend Alicia, she decides to secure husbands for herself and her long-suffering daughter Frederica. But the arrival of two men at Churchill, handsome and eligible Reginald DeCourcy and wealthy Sir James Martin severely compromises their plans.
OUR KIND OF TRAITOR 15 Director: Susanna White
Ewan McGregor, Naomi Watts, Stellan Skarsgård, Damian Lewis UK/France, 2016, 108 mins
Sat 29 Oct 7.30pm Clun Memorial Hall Tue 1 Nov 7.30pm Lydbury North Village Hall Fri 11 Nov 7.30pm Knighton Community Centre Well-crafted, strongly acted and intriguing, this is contemporary – not Cold War – John Le Carré, but nonetheless compelling for that. On holiday in Marrakech, Peter and Gail, an ordinary, though distinctly well-heeled British couple, meet Dima, a flamboyant Russian money-launderer. He’s on the run from the Russian Mafia and persuades Peter to broker sanctuary for himself and his family in the UK with the British intelligence services. Drawn into a deadly, back-stabbing spy game, the couple find themselves on a perilous journey through Europe, with violence just around the corner.
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RAMS 15 Director: Grímur Hákonarson
Sigurður Sigurjónsson, Theodór Júlíusson, Charlotte Bøving Iceland, 2015, 93 mins, subtitles
Wed 21 Sep 7.30pm Escleyside Hall, Michaelchurch Escley Fri 7 Oct 7.30pm Knighton Community Centre Tue 11 Oct 8pm All Stretton Village Hall Fri 21 Oct 7.30pm Lady Emily Hall, Tarrington
“Wonderfully wry, charmingly understated comic moments” Variety
Tue 29 Nov 7.30pm Garway Village Hall In a remote Icelandic valley, Gummi and Kiddi are brothers who live on neighbouring sheep farms but haven’t spoken to each other for forty years. Then disease threatens the health and ancient lineage of their beloved rams and the livelihood of the whole community. Rams is a naturalistic portrait of rural life that utilises both the austere beauty of the country’s landscape and its people’s native and deliciously mordant humour. A real treat.
SING STREET 12A Director: John Carney
Aidan Gillen, Jack Reynor, Maria Doyle Kennedy Ireland, 2016, 106 mins
Fri 30 Sep 7pm The Talbot Theatre, Whitchurch Thu 1 Dec 7.30pm Brilley Village Hall Growing up in Dublin, Conor is a skinny kid forced to survive at an inner-city school where the kids are rough and the teachers rougher. With the aim of winning the heart of the mysterious, super-cool Raphina, he invites her to star in his (notional) band’s music videos. When she agrees, Conor must deliver what he has promised. This is a beautiful valentine to Dublin that combines warmth and humour with a nostalgic celebration of ’80s music.
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SON OF SAUL 15 Director: László Nemes
Géza Röhrig, Levente Molnár, Urs Rech Hungary, 2015, 107 mins, subtitles
Mon 14 Nov 7.30pm The Edge Theatre, Much Wenlock Saul Ausländer is a Hungarian-Jewish prisoner in Auschwitz whose horrific job in the Sonderkommando – a group of prisoners given special tasks and minor privileges – is to help burn the camp’s dead. Finding a body he takes to be his own son’s, he tries to arrange a clandestine burial. Placing his camera mainly on Saul’s agonised face, Nemes forces us to witness his unutterable suffering amid scenes of complete emotional and moral devastation. It’s an uncompromising watch that spares viewers none of the Holocaust’s horror, and marks Nemes, whose feature debut this is, out as a notable new voice in cinema. “An outstanding, excoriating look at evil in Auschwitz... extraordinary focus and courage” ***** The Guardian Winner, Best Foreign Language Film Oscar 2016
YOUTH 15 Director: Paolo Sorrentino
Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel, Rachel Weisz Italy/France/UK/Switzerland, 2015, 118 mins
Sat 24 Sep 7pm Neston Civic Hall Tue 27 Sep 7.30pm Garway Village Hall Tue 11 Oct 7.30pm Ashford Carbonel Village Hall Thu 20 Oct 7.30pm Much Birch Community Hall Fri 9 Dec 7.30pm Whitchurch & Ganarew Memorial Hall Returning to the questions of ageing that consumed his Oscar-winning The Great Beauty, Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth assembles a stellar cast in a Swiss health spa for some unsanitary issues. His second English-language feature sees Michael Caine take centre stage. He plays an apathetic composer and conductor, living a life of dissolution. His companions in the health spa are a Hollywood star (Paul Dano) and a film director (Harvey Keitel) struggling to finish his latest film, along with Rachel Weisz as Caine’s jilted daughter. Regret for lost time is at the forefront of all of the characters’ minds, paired, as ever with Sorrentino, with effortless, dazzling and fantastical visual indulgence.
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SCREENINGS
• Shropshire • Herefordshire • Powys • Worcestershire • Cheshire
09 Sep 7.30pm
Black Mountain Poets
15
Knighton Community Centre LD7 1DJ
21 Sep 7.30pm
Rams
15
Escleyside Hall, Michaelchurch Escley HR2 0PT
24 Sep 7.00pm
Youth
15
Neston Civic Hall CH64 9PQ
27 Sep 7.30pm
Youth
15
30 Sep 7.00pm
Sing Street
04 Oct 7.30pm
Love & Friendship
U
The Talbot Theatre, Whitchurch SY13 2BY
07 Oct 7.30pm
Rams
15
Knighton Community Centre LD7 1DJ
08 Oct 7.30pm
Love & Friendship
U
Clun Memorial Hall SY7 8NY
10 Oct 7.30pm
Dheepan
15
The Edge Arts Centre, Much Wenlock TF13 6NB
11 Oct 7.30pm
Youth
15
Ashford Carbonel Village Hall SY8 4DB
11 Oct 7.30pm
Black Mountain Poets
15
Garway Village Hall HR2 8RQ
11 Oct 8.00pm
Rams
15
All Stretton Village Hall SY6 6JR
14 Oct 7.30pm
Love & Friendship
U
Bosbury Parish Hall HR8 1PX
19 Oct 7.30pm
Black Mountain Poets
15
Escleyside Hall, Michaelchurch Escley HR2 0PT
20 Oct 7.30pm
Youth
15
Much Birch Community Hall HR2 8HT
21 Oct 7.30pm
Rams
15
Lady Emily Hall, Tarrington HR1 4EX
21 Oct 7.30pm
Love & Friendship
U
Whitchurch & Ganarew Memorial Hall HR9 6DJ
29 Oct 7.30pm
ChickLit
15
Aston on Clun Village Hall SY7 8EH
29 Oct 7.30pm
Our Kind of Traitor
15
Clun Memorial Hall SY7 8NY
01 Nov 7.30pm
Our Kind of Traitor
15
Lydbury North Village Hall SY7 8AU
11 Nov 7.30pm
Our Kind of Traitor
15
Knighton Community Centre LD7 1DJ
14 Nov 7.30pm
Son of Saul
15
The Edge Arts Centre, Much Wenlock TF13 6NB
16 Nov 7.30pm
Love & Friendship
U
Escleyside Hall, Michaelchurch Escley HR2 0PT
18 Nov 7.30pm
Carol
22 Nov 8.00pm
The Daughter
26 Nov 7.00pm
Carol
12A
29 Nov 7.30pm
Rams
15
Garway Village Hall HR2 8RQ
29 Nov 7.30pm
Love & Friendship
U
Much Birch Community Hall HR2 8HT
01 Dec 7.30pm
Sing Street
09 Dec 7.30pm
Youth
15
Whitchurch & Ganarew Memorial Hall HR9 6DJ
13 Dec 7.30pm
Love & Friendship
U
Ashford Carbonel Village Hall SY8 4DB
13 Dec 7.30pm
Love & Friendship
U
Garway Village Hall HR2 8RQ
14 Dec 10.30am
Love & Friendship
U
The Market Theatre, Ledbury HR8 2AQ
12A
Arts Alive is a member of the NRTF (National Rural Touring Forum)
15
12A
Garway Village Hall HR2 8RQ The Talbot Theatre, Whitchurch SY13 2BY
Lady Emily Hall, Tarrington HR1 4EX All Stretton Village Hall SY6 6JR Clifton On Teme Village Hall WR6 6DN
Brilley Village Hall HR3 6JZ
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12A