Pan's Labyrinth
From December 22nd
Director Guillermo del Toro / Mexico-Spain-USA / 113 minutes
This gothic fairy tale unfolds through the eyes of Ofelia, a dreamy little girl who is uprooted to a rural military outpost commanded by her new stepfather. Powerless and lonely in a place of unfathomable cruelty, Ofelia lives out her own dark fable as she confronts monsters both otherworldly and human. From the creator of The Devil’s Backbone and Hellboy comes this richly imagined epic set against the post-war repression of Franco’s Spain.
"Compelling from first to last...There can be no excuses. See this film"
BBCi
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Requiem
from December 22nd
Director Hans-Christian Schmid / Germany / 93 minutes
Requiem is a story of a young woman torn between family, faith and illness. Michaela has grown up in a small town in 1970's Germany and moves to university after battling with epilepsy. Her new found freedom brings joy but also more attacks; this time a frightening onrush of grotesque faces and voices. Michaela seeks help from a priest who reinforces her conviction that she is possessed. inspired by true events.
"Absolutely astonishing...See it if you possibly can" Salon.com
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SHORTBUS
from January 5th
Director John Cameron Mitchell / USA / 101 minutes
This controversial and darkly humorous film follows various New York City characters as they navigate the comic/tragic intersections between sex and love in and around an underground salon called Shortbus. The film suggests new strategies for reconciling the unique pressures of post-9/11, Bush-exhausted New York City life with questions of the mind, pleasures of the flesh and imperatives of the heart.
"A frank exploration of mind, body and soul...a delightfully cheeky film"
Movie Review
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Goya's Ghosts
From January 12th
Director Milos Forman / Spain / 114 minutes
This latest film from the director of Amadeus is set in a time of great
political upheaval characterised by the Spanish Inquisition and the
Napoleonic wars. Javier Bardem plays Brother Lorenzo, ruthless, both as
Inquisitor and evolutionary. Natalie Portman is Goya's teenage muse, Ines, who becomes involved with Lorenzo when she is accused and imprisoned for heresy. Stellan Skarsgård plays Spanish painter Goya, through whose eyes we witness Milo Forman's great epic.
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London to Brighton
from January 19th
Director Paul Andrew Williams / UK / 85 minutes
It's 3:07am and two girls burst into a run down London toilet. Joanne is
crying her eyes out and her clothing is ripped. Kelly's face is bruised and
starting to swell. Duncan Allen lies in his bathroom bleeding to death.
Duncan's son, Stuart, has found his father and wants answers. Derek, Kelly's pimp, needs to find Kelly or it will be him who pays. Kelly and Joanne need to get through the next 24 hours alive...
"The best British film of the Century" The Big Issue
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Into Great Silence
from January 26
Director Philip Gröning / France-Switzerland-Germany / 164 minutes
Filmmaker, Philip Gröning approached the monks of the Grande Chartreuse Monastery, located high in the French Alps, to inquire if he could make a documentary of their lives - lived for the most part under a vow of silence - and their faith. 16 years later, they answered him: this film is the result. Watching Gröning's film you soon acclimatise to its rhythm and come to appreciate the virtues of a life lived outside the noise and chaos of the modern world.
"Mesmerising...( a) quite unique film experience" european-films.net
dec/jan at kino cinema
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