Seaford Community Cinema

Seaford Community Cinema has an exciting and varied programme at the Barn Theatre over the next few months, with a programme including the new West Side Story (12A) which won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar and BAFTA for Ariana DeBose. Who would think the 1961 film of forbidden love between members of rival gangs the Sharks and the Jets could be bettered! Well, the Rotten Tomatoes’ critics’ consensus was that in some ways Steven Spielberg’s movie surpasses the original, with Metacritic stating, ‘Easily the best film of 2021.’ See it on Friday 6th May at 7.30pm.

Set in Dover, After Love (12), on Friday 20th May at 7.30pm, won the BAFTA Best Actress award for Joanna Scanlan, who stars as a widow after the unexpected death of her husband. A day after the burial she discovers he had another life 21 miles across the Channel in Calais. When she poses as a cleaner, she becomes embroiled in more secrets.

In a National Theatre Live screening on Thursday 26th May at 7pm Nicholas Hytner directs Ralph Fiennes in David Hare’s Straight Line Crazy. Fiennes plays the most powerful man in New York, whose motivation is to improve the lives of the city’s workers, only to meet resistance from protest groups who have different ideas. Will the weakness of democracy be exposed in the face of his charismatic conviction?

Friday 10th June at 7.30pm sees psychological drama Spencer (12) starring Oscar-nominated Best Actress Christen Stewart as the troubled Princess Diana experiencing three fraught days at Sandringham while spending Christmas with the royal family. The film also stars Timothy Spall, Jack Nielen and Jack Farthing. From royal royalty the cinema goes to fashion royalty with director Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci (15), starring Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Salma Hayek and Jared Leto. When Patricia Reggiani (Gaga), an outsider from a humble background, marries into the empirical Gucci family her huge ambition triggers a spiral of betrayal, decadence, revenge and murder. See it on Friday 24th June at 7.30pm.

Pedro Almódovar’s turbulent picture Parallel Mothers (15, subtitled) mustn’t be missed. Starring Penélope Cruz, it is the story of two mothers who gave birth on the same day. Knotted and subversive it is, to quote Peter Bradshaw in the Guardian, ‘An autopsy of dark Spanish history dressed up as a bright baby shower, screening on Friday 1st July.

The season concludes on Friday 8th July with BAFTA’s Outstanding British Film, the amazing Belfast (12A), set in 1969 at the start of The Troubles. It is told largely through the eyes of 9-yearold Buddy (Jude Hill) and shows how his Protestant family’s secure world is ripped apart by sectarian violence, barricades and threats. His grandparents, played by Judy Dench and Ciarán Hinds are also superb, as are Caitriona Balfe and Jamie Dornan as Buddy’s parents.

Photos from top: Lady Gaga in House of Gucci; Parallel Mothers, Pedro Almódovar’s latest film; Judy Dench, Jude Hill and Ciarán Hinds in Belfast; Christen Stewart as Princess Diana in Spencer; Committee member and technical guru Adele Walshe made the stained glass flowers hanging over the Barn Theatre bar to raise money for Ukraine. At the time of writing she had sent £130 to the Red Cross’s DEC appeal. They are also available on Etsy.