RETROSPECTIVE

OLIVIA COLMAN RETROSPECTIVE

Oscar and Bafta-winning actress Olivia Colman was born in Norwich in 1974. While studying teacher training at Cambridge she joined the Footlights club. Her first screen roles were in TV comedy, including ‘Peep Show’ and ‘The Mitchell and Webb Look’. After taking a role in Paddy Considine’s debut ‘Tyrannosaur’ (2011), she broke into more dramatic roles, such as ‘Broadchurch’ and ‘The Night Manager’, but also international arthouse films including Yorgos Lanthimos’s ‘The Lobster’ (2015) and ‘The Favourite’ (2018) – which earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress. She is set to appear in Sam Mendes’s forthcoming film ‘Empire of Light’ and as Miss Havisham in ‘Great Expectations’ for the BBC.

Sat 13 August 13:15 – Studio

OLIVIA COLMAN: A VERY BRITISH FILM STAR: ANILLUSTRATED TALK BY PAMELA HUTCHINSON

The actress who rose to small-screen fame in comedy has revealed herself to be one of our finest dramatic actors, working with acclaimed directors in world cinema, yet always putting the national industry first. This unpretentious, self-effacing actress claims no celebrity status yet is widely beloved – and capable of astonishing performances in films as diverse as ‘Tyrannosaur’ and ‘The Favourite’. She has a rare ability to convey vulnerability and uncompromisingly complex emotions, yet she also has the gravitas to play a royal. So, it’s time to stop wasting time, and admit that, whatever she might say to the contrary, Olivia Colman is a bona fide film star. Pamela Hutchinson is a freelance writer, critic, film historian and curator who lives and works in West Sussex. She writes for Sight and Sound, Criterion, the Guardian and Empire and regularly appears on BBC radio. 100M NB Following this talk, ‘Tyrannosaur’ will be screened, separately, also in the Studio at 15:30

Sun 14 Aug 10:30

THE FAVOURITE

Olivia Colman in her Oscar/Bafta winning role is simply dazzling as a fragile, volatile and sometimes dotty Queen Anne. A frail Queen Anne occupies the throne and her close friend Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz) governs the country in her stead while tending to Anne’s ill health and mercurial temper. When a new servant Abigail (Emma Stone) arrives, her charm endears her to Sarah. As the politics of war become quite time consuming for Sarah, Abigail steps into the breach to fill in as the Queen’s companion. This winner of nine Baftas is a wicked delight! IRELAND/UK 2018 YORGOS LANTHIMOS 120M

Booking Ref

Sat 13 Aug 15:30 – Studio Thu 18 Aug 10:30 – Studio

Booking Ref

Sun 14 Aug 15:45 – Studio Mon 15 Aug 10:30 – Studio

Booking Ref

Mon 15 Aug 15:45 – Auditorium Joseph, a man plagued by violence and a rage that is driving him to self-destruction, earns a chance of redemption that appears in the form of Hannah, a Christian charity shop worker. Peter Mullan plays an ageing, greying guy living out a sad endgame of a life. One day, to escape from a violent fiasco of his own making, Joe seeks refuge in a charity shop and finds himself being befriended by the shop’s manager Hannah, superbly played by Olivia Colman. ‘Tyrannosaur’ is far from a love story, but it is not a simply a hate story, either; it is certainly a very impressive debut from Considine. UK 2011 PADDY CONSIDINE 92M

GROW YOUR OWN

A group of Merseyside gardeners take umbrage to the arrival of some refugees, but they find common cause to resist a devious corporate takeover. Eddie Marsan, Omid Djalili and Olivia Colman star in this charming Ealing-esque comedy drama scripted. Refugee Kung Sang (Benedict Wong) and his family are given a plot at a Merseyside allotment to help with his rehabilitation and integration into British society. Some of the longstanding residents take umbrage, but eventually rapprochement is found; initially over the joys of gardening but then to fight the common cause of an invading mobile phone company. A gentle, astute, life-affirming British comedy. Dig in. UK 2007 RICHARD LAXTON 101M

THE FATHER

An elderly man struggles with daily life as dementia tightens its hold on him. Anthony Hopkins delivers a devastating, heartbreaking performance. Anne (Olivia Colman) is losing patience with her 80-year-old father, Anthony (Hopkins), whose grip on reality is fading but who refuses to allow a carer to look after him. She is moving to France and needs to find a carer. What makes this depiction of dementia so bone-chillingly brilliant is that it tells the story from Anthony’s point of view. When he is confused, so is the audience such as when he suddenly doesn’t recognise his daughter who is played by another actress. There are constant tweaks to the layout and decor of his apartment. This sleight of hand is what cinema can do so well – empathise. 2020 UK FLORIAN ZELLER 97M

Tue 16 Aug 16:00 – Auditorium New Release JOYRIDE

Two lovable but mismatched rogues – Joy (Olivia Colman) and Mully (Charlie Reid) – are on an adventure, coming full circle... and having their dreams come true. Cheeky twelve-year-old Mully also has a mum-shaped void in his life, as well as a conman dad. He knicks his dad’s stash of cash and steals a taxi in a bid for freedom. But there is an almighty yell from the back seat… Joy – hungover, freaking out, and holding a baby! As they tear up the road on their riotous misadventure, we follow these roguish ‘outlaws’ during the summer solstice festivities in a feel-good, chaotic fairy-tale. IRELAND 2022 EMER REYNOLDS 95M Our thanks to Vertigo for this screening.

Wed 17 Aug 15:30 – Studio Thu 18 Aug 18:30 – Pic Palace

MOTHERING SUNDAY

Set mostly over a hot and sultry day in 1924, for Jane Fairchild, a maid in the Niven household, this will be her last day with her lover before he marries another. Odessa Young plays Jane, the maid at a grand house ruled over by the sad Mr and Mrs Niven (Colin Firth and Olivia Colman) whose children were killed in the war. Jane is enjoying an affair with a well-born young neighbour who is destined to marry someone else. This is a languorous, dreamy film that draws you into an irresistible and sensual story that is beautifully shot and acted. UK/GERMANY 2021 EVA HUSSON 104M

Sat 20 Aug 16:15 – Studio Sun 21 Aug 18:00 – Pic Palace

THE IRON LADY

In her twilight years, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (Meryl Streep) reflects on her life and career as she finally prepares to dispose of the belongings of her late husband. This is a personal, essentially feminist story, about how a shopkeeper’s daughter conquered a very patrician world, how she was torn between ambition and family, and how hard it was to become the first woman ruler of Britain since Queen Anne. While Meryl’s physical impression of the British PM in her blue-bloused prime is bang on the money, it is the way in which she captures Thatcher’s unshakeable inner certainty that really pays off in the film’s favour. Olivia Colman plays daughter Carol Thatcher, and Jim Broadbent stars as husband Denis Thatcher. UK/FRANCE 2011 PHYLLIDA LLOYD 107M

Booking Ref

Thu 18 Aug 18:00 – Studio Fri 19 Aug 14:00 – Pic Palace

Booking Ref

Sun 21 Aug 13:30 – Studio Wed 24 Aug 16:15 – Studio

Booking Ref

Tue 23 Aug 20:30 – Studio The story of the love affair between FDR and his distant cousin, centred around the visit of the King and Queen. In June 1939, the reigning British king (Samuel West) and queen (Olivia Colman) visit President (Bill Murray) and Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt (Olivia Williams) at their New York home. War with Germany looms, and England desperately needs the president’s support. An unforgettable weekend unfolds as FDR tries to juggle international affairs with the complexities of his domestic arrangement, as seen through the eyes of the president’s intimate confidant (Laura Linney). Gently amusing with a stand-out performance from Murray. UK 2012 ROGER MICHELL 94M

CONFETTI

Three couples engage in a no-holds-barred battle to win a magazine’s coveted title of ‘Most Original Wedding of the Year.’ Confetti Magazine decides to host a competition to find the Most Original Wedding of the Year. Matt and Sam envision a ceremony filled with music and dancing, Josef and Isabelle want a tennis theme, and nudists Michael and Joanna would like their nuptials to be clothes-free. Reminiscent of Christopher Guest’s films (‘Best in Show’ & ‘This is Spinal Tap’), deliciously mean and fluffy and includes Jimmy Carr, Martin Freeman, Stephen Mangan, Jessica Stevenson and Robert Webb. UK 2006 DEBBIE ISITT 100M

THE LOBSTER

European arthouse film par excellence – precisely the kind of project you can’t imagine ever being made in Hollywood. In a dystopian near future, single people are taken to The Hotel, where they are obliged to find a romantic partner in forty-five days or are transformed into beasts and sent off into The Woods. David has a sheepdog as companion. “He’s my brother. He was here a couple of years ago but he didn’t make it,” Olivia Colman is the brisk and bossy manager channelling Prunella Scales while Colin Farrell is paunchy and hilarious in this surreal and unpredictable film. Must see. IRELAND/UK/GREECE 2015 YORGOS LANTHIMOS 119M

ALAIN RESNAIS CENTENARY (1922-2014)

Premieres, Previews & New Releases

Alain Resnais (1922- 2014) is better known for the iconic ‘’Hiroshima Mon Amour’ (1959) and ‘Last Year in Marienbad’ (1961) but he left us twenty feature films and many documentary shorts including the haunting ‘Night and Fog’ (1956) about the Holocaust. Resnais grew up in Brittany in a conservative family where cinema was seen as vulgar entertainment. During the Occupation, he studied editing at the new ‘Institut des Hautes Études Cinématographiques’ (now Fémis). It is then not surprising that bold yet subtle editing is central to his experimental approach to film, some which he made with his friend Chris Marker. Marker and Resnais, along with Agnès Varda and Jacques Demy, belonged to the ‘Left Bank’ group of radical filmmakers associated with the French New Wave, and Godard and Truffaut regularly commended Resnais’s films in Cahiers du Cinéma. While Resnais gained the reputation of an intellectual filmmaker for his collaboration with innovative writers like Marguerite Duras (‘Hiroshima Mon Amour’) and Alain Robbe-Grillet (‘Last year in Marienbad’), he loved absurdist comedy and popular art forms like cartoons or popular songs. This made for a unique and eclectic body of work that gained him international praise as one of the great innovators of twentieth century cinema.

Fri 12 Aug 13:30 – Studio

Martine Pierquin TIME, PLACE AND MEMORY

An illustrated talk by Martine Pierquin “In a film, even if it’s a documentary, I like to feel that we’re at the cinema, that the acting and the sets are visible, and that it doesn’t resemble life.” Alain Resnais. This illustrated talk will look at Alain Resnais’s earlier films (‘Night and Fog’, ‘Hiroshima Mon Amour’, ‘Last Year in Marienbad’, ‘Muriel’), and how they deal with the recurring themes of trauma, time and memory while breaking the rules of conventional narrative cinema. We will further discuss Resnais’s refusal of cinematic naturalism and examine how other cultural forms influenced his work, from experimentations with the theatrical form, to popular songs and even the operetta . Martine Pierquin has taught French cinema at Edinburgh and Stirling universities. She is a curator for French Film Festival UK’s short film programme 100M NB. Preceding the talk, we are screening separately the complete ‘Hiroshima Mon Amour’ in the Auditorium – Fri 12 Aug at 11:00.

Booking Ref

Fri 12 Aug 11:00 – Auditorium

Booking Ref

Sat 13 Aug 10:30 – Auditorium A French actress filming an anti-war film in Hiroshima has an affair with a married Japanese architect as they share their differing perspectives on war. ‘Hiroshima Mon Amour’ is brilliantly made and brilliantly acted, with a thoughtful, poetic script by the great French writer, Marguerite Duras. Its images are lyrical, disturbing, fascinating, and its anti-war message is profound and still frighteningly relevant. A cornerstone of French cinema, Alain Resnais’ first feature is one of the most influential films of all time. A French actress (Riva) and a Japanese architect (Okada) engage in a brief, intense affair in post-war Hiroshima, their consuming fascination impelling them to exorcise their own scarred memories of love and suffering. Utilizing an innovative flashback structure and an Oscarnominated screenplay by novelist Marguerite Duras, Resnais delicately weaves past and present, personal pain and public anguish, in this moody masterwork. (Subtitles) FRANCE/JAPAN 1959 ALAIN RESNAIS 90M

LAST YEAR IN MARIENBAD

L’ANNÉE DERNIÈRE À MARIENBAD

In a strange and isolated chateau, a man becomes acquainted with a woman and insists that they have met before. “A” (Delphine Seyrig), a beautiful woman and “X” (Giorgio Albertazzi), with movie-idol good looks, who insists they met last year and arranged to meet again this year and “M” (Sascha Pitoeff), who may be A’s husband or lover, all stay at a Spa in Mariendbad. At a weekend gathering X tries to convince the woman that they had met there and spent some time together the previous year. What plot there is simply provides the material for a meditation on the uncertainty of knowing. The screenplay is from another novelist Alain Robbe-Grillet, and its array of startling images from cinematographer Sacha Vierny, with its unprecedented exploration of architectural space and teasingly complex narrative structure, “Last Year at Marienbad” is a challenge that divided audiences when it was released in 1962 and continues to do so today. A classic. (Subtitles) FRANCE 1962 ALAN RESNAIS 103M

ALAIN RESNAIS CENTENARY (1922-2014)

Mon 15 Aug 10:00 – Auditorium

STAVISKY

A swindler’s activity (Jean-Paul Belmondo) indirectly caused a political crisis in France in the last years before World War II. Based upon real events. Irresistible charm and talent help Serge Alexandre alias Stavisky, small-time swindler, to make friends with even the most influential members of the French industrial and political elite during the early ‘30s. But nothing lasts forever and when his great scam involving hundreds of millions of francs gets exposed, the result is an unprecedented scandal that almost caused a civil war. This film makes the central character likeable, largely by emphasizing the ambient anti-Semitism that surrounds him (and of course by casting Belmondo in the role). The film features a host of actors whose careers only grew from there including a young Depardieu. For fans of beautiful cars and beautiful women in beautiful clothes, especially in the Thirties. And the score is by the late Stephen Sondheim. (Subtitles) FRANCE 1974 ALAIN RESNAIS 120M

FILMS BY WOMEN DIRECTORS

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- It Snows in Benidorm - Where the Crawdads Sing - Sweet Disaster - Anaïs in Love - Her Way - To the Ends of the World - Both Sides of the Blade - First Snow - Girls Girls Girls