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ROSALIE BLUM [FRANCE], THU 22 FEBRUARY, 8PM

By archive, Season 18 films

A sweet but never saccharine French comedy about three misfits who bring out the best in each other.

Julien Rappeneau’s enchanting directorial debut is a warm, witty and impeccably performed comedy about a random encounter that has unexpected and far-reaching consequences. Thirty-something Vincent Machot is a hairdresser whose life rotates around work, his overbearing mother and a womanising cousin constantly trying to set him up. But one morning Vincent experiences a powerful déjà-vu when he meets the gaze of a grocery store clerk, Rosalie Blum.

And so begins a search to uncover the truth behind their connection. With its themes of altruism, forgiveness and the value of compassion, Rosalie Blum is a timely reminder of the best that French cinema has to offer.

Based on the graphic-novel trilogy by French artist Camille Jourdy.

Presented with the support of the French Embassy and the Institut Français. 
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A joy! Fresh and engaging.  A feel-good film which combines humour and eccentric touches with surges of genuine emotion. Light and life-affirming.Hollywood Reporter

Click here for official website.

France, 2016 | Language: French | 95 minutes | Cert: CLUB

Director:  Julien Rappeneau

Cast:  Noémie Lvovsky, Kyan Khojandi, Alice Isaaz, Sara Giraudeau

A short Irish film, Nice Night For It, will be shown before the feature.

MIMOSAS [MOROCCO], THU 1 MARCH, 8PM

By archive, Season 18 films

***CANCELLED***  ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE IS CLOSED ON THU 1 MARCH DUE TO WEATHER CONDITIONS. THIS SCREENING IS CANCELLED.

Winner of the Critics Week Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

Oliver Laxe’s stunning new filmis a breathtakingly-shot Western that follows a mysterious caravan as it escorts an elderly and dying Sheikh trough the Moroccan Atlas Mountains. His last wish is to be buried with his loved ones. But death does not wait.

Without their leader, the company grows fearful. And at the foot of a mountain pass, they refuse to continue, entrusting the body to two men who agree to carry on and bring it to its final destination. But who are these men? And do they really know the way?

In another world, a mysterious young man is chosen to find the caravan.

Click here to watch interview with director Oliver Laxe.

Click here for The Guardian review.

Click here for Little White Lies review.

Click here for official website.

Spain, Morocco, France, Qatar, 2016 | Language:  Arabic, Galician | 96 minutes | Cert: CLUB

Director/Writer:  Oliver Laxe

Cast:  Ahmed Hammoud,  Shakib Ben Omar,  Said Aagli

A short Irish film, The Tatoo [15 minutes], will be shown before the feature.

LOVELESS [RUSSIA], THU 8 MARCH, 8PM

By archive, Season 18 films

Russian director Andrei Zvyagintsev has produced another masterpiece in this apocalyptic study of a failed marriage and the subsequent disappearance of a child.  ★★★★★ The Guardian

The latest from the director of Leviathan profiles a family torn apart by a vicious divorce, in which the parents are more interested in starting their lives over with new partners than tending to their 12-year-old son.

Among the snowy high-rises of modern Moscow lives stocky salesman Boris and Zhenya, a youthful salon owner. Having migrated to shiny new partners, the couple’s relationship is coming to a bitter end and the fate of their 12-year-old son Alyosha is the last thing on their minds. When Alyosha goes missing without a trace, his parents can barely grieve in unison.

This pristine and merciless new film begins out in the cold, and its temperature just keeps dropping from there. ★★★★★ – The Telegraph

Living in Russia is like being in a minefield. – Read The Guardian interview with the director

LOVELESS – Nelyubov

Russia, 2018 | Language: Russian | 127 minutes | Cert: CLUB

Director:  Andrey Zvyagintsev

Cast:  Maryaha Spivak, Aleksey Rozin, Varvara Shmykova

 

I AM NOT A WITCH [ZAMBIA], THU 15 MARCH, 8PM

By archive, Season 18 films

A knockout and captivatingly beautiful debut film.

Zambian-born, Welsh-reared director Rungano Nyoni is set to make her mark on British cinema with her ground-breaking first feature. Sharply satirical and boldly provocative, the film garnered incredible praise from audiences and critics alike at the Cannes 2017 Directors’ Fortnight.

When eight-year-old Shula turns up alone and unannounced in a rural Zambian village, the locals are suspicious. A minor incident escalates to a full-blown witch trial, where she is found guilty and sentenced to life on a state-run witch camp. There, she is tethered to a long white ribbon and told that if she ever tries to run away, she will be transformed into a goat. As the days pass, Shula begins to settle into her new community, but a threat looms on the horizon. Soon she is forced to make a difficult decision – whether to resign herself to life on the camp, or take a risk for freedom. At times moving, often funny and occasionally surreal, I Am Not a Witch offers spellbinding storytelling with flashes of anarchic humour. Audacious and unforgettable, it showcases Rungano Nyoni as a fresh and fearless new voice in British film.

Watch Mark Kermode’s video review.

Click here for official website.

a knockout debut ★★★★ The Irish Times

UK, France, Zambia, 2017 | Language: French, English, Bemba, Nyanja, Tonga | 93 minutes |Cert: 12A

Director:  Rungano Nyoni

Cast:  Margaret Mulubwa, Henry Phiri, Nancy Mulilo, John Tembo

A short animated Irish film, Deposits, will be shown before the feature.

 

DARK RIVER [UK], THU 22 MARCH, 8PM

By archive, Season 18 films

Ruth Wilson stars in British filmmaker Clio Barnard’s atmospheric and layered drama about the old wounds and bitter new grievances that come to light when a woman returns home to settle the tenancy of her family’s Yorkshire farm.

Five years after her provocative breakthrough, The Selfish Giant, director Clio Barnard returns with a highly atmospheric and emotionally charged drama that proves she is one of England’s most distinctive new voices. With Dark River, Barnard uses the Yorkshire countryside as a beautiful silent witness to the troubling tale of a family that, though previously ripped apart, is now trying to reconcile.

After a 15-year absence, Alice (Ruth Wilson) returns to the family farm following the death of her father. She finds the place in complete disrepair. Her deeply troubled brother, Joe (Mark Stanley), is ostensibly in charge, but appears to be in no state to make smart decisions. The two siblings have become like strangers to each other. Alice, bold and decisive, bolts into Joe’s life, determined to impose order and give the farm a future. Joe bristles at her every move, and sparks fly as years of resentments resurface. Slowly, layers of their past are stripped away to expose a dark secret between them. But life goes on. Landlords come knocking.

Barnard is both an energetic and a reflective filmmaker — deeply poetic, but with a realist’s eye. Here she has carefully brought to life the story of damaged people trying to cope with the past while reassembling their lives. – Toronto International Film Festival

Click here for The Guardian review.

UK, 2017 | Language: English | 89 minutes | Cert: CLUB

Director:  Clio Barnard

Cast:  Ruth Wilson, Mark Stanley, Sean Bean

A short Irish film, Take Me Swimming, will be shown before the feature.

Please note there is no film on 29 March or 5 April.

 

CALL ME BY YOUR NAME [ITALY, USA, FRANCE], THU 12 APRIL, 8PM

By archive, Season 18 films

Voted 2017 film of the year by The Guardian’s critics.  

It’s the summer of 1983 in the north of Italy. Elio Perlman (Timothée Chalamet) is a precocious 17-year-old American who spends his days in his family’s 17th century villa lazily transcribing music and flirting with his friend Marzia (Esther Garrel).  Oliver (Armie Hammer), a handsome graduate student working on his doctorate arrives as the annual summer intern tasked with helping Elio’s father (Michael Stuhlbarg), an eminent professor specializing in Greco-Roman culture.

Elio and Oliver discover a summer that will alter their lives forever.

Directed by Luca Guadagnino, written by James Ivory, and based on the novel by André Aciman.

Luca Guadagnino’s tale of budding gay romance in 1980s Italy is one of the most mesmerizing films of the year.The Atlantic

This gorgeous gay love story seduces and overwhelms.  ★★★★The Guardian

Elle Decor Magazine feature on the Italian villa in the film.

looking like the film of 2017RTE

ravishing film-making and piercing wisdom  – Los Angeles Times

some of the richest chemistry I’ve ever witnessed in a movie…sublime – Huffington Post

a knockout! casts a beautifully erotic, sensual spell – Entertainment Weekly

Read a New York Times article about Crema, Italy where the film was made.

Click here for official website.

Italy, USA, Brazil, France, 2018 | Languages English, Italian, French | 130 minutes | Cert: 15A

Director:  Luca Guadagnino

Cast:  Armie Hammer, Timothée Chalamet, Michael Stuhlbarg, Amira Casar, Esther Garrel, Victoire Du Bois

IN BETWEEN [ISRAEL, FRANCE], THU 26 APRIL, 8PM

By archive, Season 18 films

THIS FILM HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED TO THURSDAY 26 APRIL.  THE ORIGINAL SCREENING DATE WAS 19 APRIL.

Three female flatmates in Tel Aviv fight the constraints of their Muslim faith and families in an inspiring directorial debut.

While films and TV series about the trials and tribulations of female friends living, loving, and working in a big city may be fairly common (‘Sex and the City’ and ‘Girls,’ to name two), Arab-Israeli writer-director Maysaloun Hamoud refreshes the genre’s tropes with her energetic feature.

Layla, Salma, and Nour – three Palestinian women with Israeli citizenship – share an apartment in the vibrant center of Tel Aviv. Despite being ‘independent’, each of them struggles with the restrictions imposed on their lives by a blinkered society

What makes this spiky dram/comedy so compelling are the Palestinian-Israeli protagonists, whose split lives have rarely been depicted on screen. These strong, modern, sexually active women, living away from their families and the weight of tradition, struggle to be true to themselves when confronting the expectations of others.

Director Maysaloun Hamoud on why her Palestinian film ‘In Between’ is universal.

A brave film befitting its brave depiction of women. ★★★★ The Irish Times

It’s great fun, with a powerful sense of narrative.  ★★★★ – The Times

Israel, France, 2016 | Language: Hebrew, Arabic | 103 minutes | Cert: CLUB

Director:  Maysaloun Hamoud

Cast:  Mouna Hawa, Shaden Kanboura, Sana Jammalie

THE MIDWIFE [FRANCE], THU 28 SEPTEMBER, 8PM

By Season 17 films

A tale of two Catherines.

Director Martin Provost (Violette, Seraphine) unites two of France’s favourite actors in his tender comedy drama about female friendship and rediscovery.  Catherine Deneuve and Catherine Frot play very different women whose shaky reconnection after a number of decades allows them to learn valuable life lessons from one another. Claire (Frot) is the conscientious Midwife of the title, a single mother whose reservations and self-restraint have left her living an isolated life.   Until the day her deceased father’s ex-girlfriend makes contact.  Beatrice (Deneuve) is a free-spirited, professional gambler who wishes to reconnect with Claire’s father.  Shocked at the news that he has passed away, she implants herself into Claire’s life instead, bringing chaos, joy and memories of happier times.

‘A bittersweet delight…rich, thoughtful, frequently funny.’ – Screen International

‘Offering plum roles to Catherine Frot and Catherine Deneuve…a crowd-pleaser about friendship, forgiveness and rolling with the punches.’ – Indie Wire

‘Provost has once again proven to be a sensitive and sure-handed director of what used to be called “women’s films,” with this one somewhat of a cross between Douglas Sirk and the Dardennes.’ – The Hollywood Reporter

‘Deneuve and Frot excel as contrasting women with an account to settle in a tale that combines realism and melodrama.’ – ★★★★ The Guardian

SAGE FEMME | France, 2017 | Language: French | 117 minutes | Cert: 15A

Director: Martin Provost

Cast: Catherine Deneuve, Catherine Frot, Olivier Gourmet

THE SALESMAN [IRAN], THU 19 OCTOBER, 8PM

By archive, Season 17 films

Academy Award Winner, Best Foreign Language Film, 2017.

Award-winning director Asghar Farhadi (A Separation) returns with the 2017 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar winner The Salesman, a characteristically taut drama exploring how unexpected cracks can form in the foundations of a seemingly happy marriage.

Set in modern-day Tehran, the future looks promising for amateur actors Emad (Shahab Hosseini) and Rana (Taraneh Alidoosti) as they prepare for opening night on their production of Arthur Miller’s ‘Death of a Salesman’. However, when dangerous work on a neighbouring building forces the couple to leave their home and move into a new apartment, a case of mistaken identity sees a shocking and violent incident throw their lives into turmoil.

What follows is a series of wrong turns that threaten to destroy their relationship irreparably.

Winner of the Best Screenplay and Best Actor awards at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, Farhadi’s study on the potent power of pride, guilt and shame treads the line between arresting drama and revenge thriller with masterful ease.

Flawlessly acted…Farhadi trades in the poetry of the unsaid. – ★★★★ The Irish Times

Farhadi remains a master of pace and tension, slowly upping the stakes in an unsettling narrative fuelled by a lingering sense of powerlessness, paranoia and the possibility that you never entirely know the person you love. – Screen International

Mr. Farhadi’s control is astonishing, as is the discipline of the actors. – The New York Times

Read here about Mr. Farhadi’s decision to boycott the Academy Awards as a protest against Trump’s travel ban.
Click here for official website.

Iran, France |Language: Persian | 125 minutes | Cert: 12A

Director: Asghar Farhadi

Cast: Shahab Hosseini, Taraneh Alidoosti, Babak Karimi

 

MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE [FRANCE], THU 26 OCTOBER, 8PM

By archive, Season 17 films

The first-ever animated (stop motion) film shown by Cork Cine Club!  Academy Award nominee, Best Animated Feature 2017.

“Here is a little miracle of gentleness, tenderness and intense, traditional Frenchness. It was an Oscar nominee for best animated feature earlier this year, losing out, probably unjustly, to Zootopia. The screenwriter Céline Sciamma [Girlhood] has adapted the 2002 novel Autobiography of a Courgette by Gilles Paris for this beguiling stop-motion animation.  Director Claude Barras makes his feature debut.

The characters’ faces are big, almost like Charles Schulz’ Peanuts figures, and very expressive and subtle. It is the story of a little boy fond of kites who is interestingly named Icare but goes by his nickname: Courgette. A terrible accident means he is taken to a home in the country for orphaned kids, where everyone has a grim, secret story and the children’s growing awareness that no one really wants them manifests itself in all sorts of tough behaviour.

But after a rough start, Courgette makes friends with Simon and forms a tendresse for Camille. Meanwhile, the lonely, unhappy cop who dealt with Courgette’s case, Raymond, has taken a kindly interest in his continued welfare.

It is a lovely little film, coming in at a novella-size 66 minutes. I loved the home’s emotional wallchart, the Météo des Enfants, showing their mood swings from sunny to cloudy.” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

‘A beautifully balanced visual marvel…full of decency and kindness’. – ★★★★★ The Irish Times

‘A frank and affecting animation about abused youngsters finding strength through solidarity… this beautifully tender and empathetic film addresses kids and adults alike in clear and compassionate tones that span – and perhaps heal – generations…only the most hard-hearted viewer could fail to love these youngsters’. – ★★★★★ The Telegraph

MA VIE DE COURGETTE |Switzerland, France, 2017 | Language: French | 70 minutes | Cert: 12A

Director: Claude Barras

Cast:  Gaspard Schlatter, Sixtine Murat, Paulin Jaccourd

A short Irish film, Breathe, [14 minutes] will be shown before the feature.  A macho Traveller [John Connors] becomes increasingly concerned that his young son is soft.  Director: James Doherty