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Important Information About Our New Season

By archive, Season 23 films

We are delighted that the Gate Cinema has welcomed us so warmly and in conjunction with their team, we’ll follow government regulations to minimise risk and provide a safe and enjoyable experience for our members.

For this, our 23rd season, we have a new venue, new day, new time, new prices, new booking system, and new rules, so please read to the end.

Location:       The Gate Cinema, North Main Street, Cork City
Day:                Wednesdays
Time:              6:30pm
Frequency:    Monthly
Price:              €10/€9 concession

SOCIAL DISTANCING
A maximum of 50 people will be admitted to each film. The theatre in which we will show our films has a much larger capacity in normal times.  If you book a single ticket, 12 surrounding seats are blocked off to maintain a two metre social distance. Please note that those wishing to sit together must book tickets as one group.

Sadly, we must skip our customary glass of wine as gatherings in public areas are not allowed. Hand sanitisers are located throughout the Gate, and the screening room will be sanitised before our films. We ask that everyone leave the cinema without delay after the film, while practicing social distancing.

MASKS
Masks are required in all public areas such as foyers and bathrooms. Once seated, you may remove your mask to drink or eat, but otherwise we ask that you wear your mask during the film.

ONLINE AND ADVANCE BOOKING
Online booking is now available with a new ticket price of €10/€9 concession.  We urge you to book in advance to assure a seat. Options:

  • Online via gatecinemas.com  [50 cent booking fee per ticket]
  • By phone at 021 427 9890 [50 cent fee per booking]
  • In person in advance [no booking fee]
  • In person on the night – no guarantee of a seat

The Gate uses a dynamic assigned seating programme, so all bookings are automatically socially distanced. Again, note that those wishing to sit together must book tickets as one group.

Tickets will go on sale two weeks in advance of each film. However, they will not be announced to the general public until one week in advance to give our members a ‘head start’ to purchase tickets.  [Subscribe to our e-newsletter if you’d like to receive a reminder of when tickets go on sale.]

If booking online, you can print your tickets at home; collect at the ticket counter; or collect from the ticket kiosk by the stairs.

If there is another lockdown, tickets may be refunded except for the booking fee.

THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD [UK], WED 30 SEPTEMBER, 6:30PM and 6:45PM

By archive, Season 23 films

We have added a second screening.  Now at 6:30 and 6:45pm.

A fresh and distinctive take on Charles Dickens’ semi-autobiographical masterpiece, The Personal History Of David Copperfield, set in the 1840’s, chronicles the life of its iconic title character (played by Dev Patel) as he navigates a chaotic world to find his elusive place within it. From his unhappy childhood to the discovery of his gift as a storyteller and writer, David’s journey is by turns hilarious and tragic, but always full of life, colour and humanity.

Armando Iannucci delivers a minor miracle…maybe the best Dickens film adaptation since David Lean.The Irish Times [Donald Clarke] ★★★★★

Armando Iannucci both respects and reinvents the novel in a wonderfully entertaining adaptation full to bursting with fantastic comic performances.The Guardian [Mark Kermode] ★★★★★

Armando Iannucci’s souped-up, trimmed-down adaptation of the Dickens novel is an exuberant, heartfelt delight.  – New York Times

A vivacious adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic, this is as wide-eyed and open-hearted as they come. Independent UK ★★★★

93% Rotten Tomatoes

UK, 2020 | Language: English | 119 minutes | Cert: PG

Director: Armando Iannucci

Cast: Dev Patel, Peter Capaldi, Hugh Laurie, Tilda Swinton, Ben Whishaw, Gwendoline Christie

Foreign language films are subtitled.  Cert: CLUB for over 18s.

cancelled: A WHITE, WHITE DAY [ICELAND], WED 21 OCTOBER, 6:30PM

By archive, Season 23 films

Due to Covid-19 restrictions, we have cancelled this screening.  We hope to reschedule in January 2021.

In a remote Icelandic town, an off-duty police chief begins to suspect a local man of having had an affair with his late wife, who died in a tragic accident two years earlier. Gradually his obsession for finding out the truth accumulates and inevitably begins to endanger himself and his loved ones. A story of grief, revenge and unconditional love.

An edge-of-seat psychological drama-thriller.The Guardian ★★★★

The accumulating melange of social unease and psychological torment is transfixing…quietly startling visual coups.Irish Times ★★★

An eerily gripping study of grief — and impotence in its face — with the trappings of a revenge thriller.New York Times Critic’s Pick

Delivers a superb psychological puzzle worth piecing together.Los Angeles Times

96% Rotten Tomatoes

Iceland, 2019 | Language: Icelandic | 1 hour & 49 minutes | Cert: 15A

Director: Hlynur Pálmason

Cast: Ingvar Sigurdsson, Ída Mekkín Hlynsdóttir, Hilmir Snær Guðnason

Foreign language films are subtitled.  Cert CLUB for over 18s.

cancelled: LES MISÉRABLES [FRANCE], WED 11 NOVEMBER, 6:30PM

By archive, Season 23 films

Inspired by the 2005 riots in Paris, Les Misérables – directed by Ladj Ly – follows Stéphane, a recent transplant to the impoverished suburb of Montfermeil, as he joins the local anti-crime squad. Working alongside his unscrupulous colleagues Chris and Gwada, Stéphane struggles to maintain order amidst the mounting tensions between local gangs. When an arrest turns unexpectedly violent, the three officers must reckon with the aftermath and keep the neighborhood from spiraling out of control.

Academy Award Nominee, Best International Feature Film, 2020

A wild and electrifying modern French drama…better than La Haine, more incendiary than Do the Right Thing. – Irish Times ★★★★★

The ghosts of Victor Hugo’s downtrodden 19th-century rebels haunt Ladj Ly’s César-winning contemporary urban drama, a streetwise tale of France’s dispossessed masses, brought once again to the brink of rebellion.The Guardian ★★★★

A cross between The Wire, Do the Right Thing and Training Day, Les Misérables is brilliantly paced, unbearably tense and a reminder that there are so many great actors who go under the radar.RTE ★★★★★

New York Times interview with director Ladj Ly:  A Movie Torn From the Pages of His Life.

88% Rotten Tomatoes

France, 2019 | Language: French, Bambara | 104 minutes | Cert: CLUB

Director: Ladj Ly

Cast: Damien Bonnard, Alexis Manenti, Djebril Zonga, Issa Perica, Al-Hassan Ly

Foreign language films are subtitled.  Cert CLUB for over 18s.

cancelled: THE PERFECT CANDIDATE [SAUDI ARABIA], WED 2 DECEMBER, 6:30PM

By archive, Season 23 films

A revealing look at the changing roles of women in Saudi Arabia from director Haifaa Al-Mansour (Wadjda), The Perfect Candidate follows Maryam, a determined young doctor who runs for city council after the male incumbent repeatedly ignores her request to fix the muddy road leading to her clinic. Maryam and her family mobilise their determination and creativity to move their traditional society forward.

In this assured and watchable picture, al-Mansour gives her audience a fine lesson in some key ingredients of political life in Saudi or anywhere else: nepotism, cynicism, sexism and chaos.The Guardian ★★★★

Saudi feminist drama is forthright and free from poeticism. For Haifaa al-Mansour, it’s an opportunity to reflect on the progress made by courageous women like her.Independent UK ★★★★

A subtle message movie from one of the world’s most important filmmakers.NME ★★★★

93% Rotten Tomatoes

Saudi Arabia, 2019 | Language: Arabic | 101 minutes | Cert: CLUB

Director: Haifaa Al Mansour

Cast: Nora Al Awadh, Dae Al Hilali, Mila Al Zahrani

Foreign language films are subtitled.  Cert CLUB for over 18s.

LE BRIO [FRANCE], THU 23 JANUARY, 8PM

By archive, Season 22 films

In Paris, a law student of Algerian descent clashes with a controversial professor who uses language tainted with racist slurs.  He is given one chance to redeem himself.  They both must overcome their prejudices.

Camelia Jordana and Daniel Auteuil prove to be a winning pair.Hollywood Reporter

Click here for Rotten Tomatoes.

France, 2017 | Language: French | 95 minutes | Cert: CLUB

Cast: Camélia Jordana, Daniel Auteuil, Yasin Houicha, Nozha Khouadra

Presented with the support of the French Embassy and the Institut Français.

TRANSIT [GERMANY], THU 30 JANUARY, 8PM

By archive, Season 22 films

This thriller about refugees, riot police and stolen identities in 1940s Germany has a chilling topicality. From Christian Petzold [Barbara], the director renowned as a modern master of suspense and a poet of Germany’s divided self. 

German refugee Georg has fled Paris to escape the impending war. He has assumed the identity of a famous but deceased writer and plans to use the man’s documentation to obtain a transit visa and immigrate to Mexico. But when Georg encounters the dead man’s wife in Marseille, he finds himself dangerously drawn to her.

The latest film from Christian Petzold [Barbara, Phoenix] is adapted from the 1944 novel by Anna Seghers. The result is a thrilling and unique piece of work.

In Christian Petzold’s superbly deft drama, a fugitive steals someone else’s identity with deeply disturbing results.The Guardian ★★★★

An existential thriller about loss, trauma, statelessness and historical amnesia, the brilliant Transit is the latest from the German director Christian Petzold.  – New York Times

An extraordinary film that uses the occasion of Georg’s fraught journey to depict his state of being, the anxious limbo in which he finds himself trapped. – Wall Street Journal

Click here for website.

Germany, 2018 | Language: German | 102 minutes | Cert: 12A

Director: Christian Petzold

Cast: Franz Rogowski, Paula Beer, Godehard Giese

ROJO [ARGENTINA], THU 6 FEBRUARY, 8PM

By archive, Season 22 films

Set in 1970s Argentina just before the coup that installed the military junta.  The life of a seemingly honest lawyer unravels as middle-class society turns a blind eye to the brutality of an emerging dictatorship.

The life of esteemed lawyer Claudio begins to unravel when Chilean private detective Sinclair starts asking questions about the disappearance of a mysterious stranger. Sinclair proceeds to lift the veneer of respectability under which Claudio, like many of the town’s other apparently honest citizens, operates.

Part mystery, part thriller, Rojo swiftly escalates from the intriguing to the alarming. It simmers with malevolence.

Shame and fury in the land of the disappeared… a disturbing parable of iniquity. – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian ★★★★

A South American Colombo in a bravely staccato film. – The Irish Times ★★★★

A society manoeuvers to stay at the dinner table while getting its unsavoury elements thrown out, and finding ways to stop them ever coming back. – The Telegraph ★★★★

When neighbours disappear… An elegant but disjointed thriller unravels a tale of personal guilt in the political dark days of 70s Argentina. – Wendy Ide, The Guardian ★★★★

98% from Rotten Tomatoes.

Argentina, 2018 | Language: Spanish | 109 minutes | Cert: CLUB

Director: Benjamín Naishtat

Cast: Darío Grandinetti, Andrea Frigerio, Alfredo Castro

A FAITHFUL MAN (FRANCE – L’HOMME FIDÈLE), THU 13 FEBRUARY, 8PM

By archive, Season 22 films

Marianne, Abel’s girlfriend of three years, tells him that she is pregnant. Unfortunately for Abel, the father is his best friend, whom Marianne is now going to marry. A delightfully playful and truly French romantic comedy.

Shifting points of view as nimbly as its players switch partners, the sophomore feature from actor/director Louis Garrel—co-written with the legendary Jean-Claude Carrière—is at once a beguiling bedroom farce and a playful inversion of the patriarchal tropes of the French New Wave.

Slyly shifts from fake murder mystery to romantic comedy to family melodrama…stylish shenanigans and a highly entertaining love triangle.Irish Times ★★★

France, 2018 | Language: French | 75 minutes | Cert: CLUB

Director: Louis Garrel

Cast: Louis Garrel, Laetitia Casta, Lily-Rose Depp

SO LONG, MY SON (CHINA – DI JIU TIAN CHANG), THU 27 FEBRUARY, 6PM

By archive, Season 22 films

Event cinema!  We show this film in two parts on one night, starting at 6pm.  There will be a 20-minute interval during which we’ll serve wine and a nibble. Total running time including the interval is 3 hours and 20 minutes.

 A sprawling yet personal portrait of human resilience that traces the lives of two interconnected Chinese families over three decades from the 1980s to the present.

The epic story of two married couples enduring personal tragedy and state-imposed suffering is an almost unbearably poignant, profound masterpiece. – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian ★★★★★

A gorgeous, melancholy masterpiece. So measured is the pacing, so sinuous the timeline, so understated the subtle ache of the performances that you don’t immediately realise that Wang Xiaoshuai’s exquisite three-hour drama has been performing the emotional equivalent of open-heart surgery on the audience since pretty much the first scene. – Wendy Ide,  The Guardian  ★★★★★

Intimate in focus yet epic in size and scope, So Long, My Son sets a heartbreaking saga of family tragedy against the changing face of modern China. – 100% from Rotten Tomatoes ★★★★★

Wang Xiaoshuai’s expansive drama contains phenomenal central performances. – Irish Times ★★★★

China, 2019 | Language: Chinese | 185 minutes | Cert: CLUB

Director: Wang Xiaoshuai

Cast: Wang Jingchun, Yong Mei