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Spanish film

The Beasts, Spain, 26 Oct

THE BEASTS [Spain], Thursday 26 October, 8pm

By archive, Season 24 Autumn 2023

Online booking is appreciated and we cover the cost of your booking fee.  Click here to buy your ticket for The Beasts.

A French couple’s dream of the good life in rural northern Spain descends into all-out war with the locals in Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s superbly acted drama.

A French couple are living their dream of moving to the Galician countryside and setting up their own small farm. Their refusal to sell their land to developers has created tensions with local brothers who want the money for a chance at a new life. Tensions boil over after an act of sabotage leads to increasingly tense and violent confrontations between the neighbours.

Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s engrossing thriller is a slow-burn in the best possible way. Aided by remarkably naturalistic performances, this is a methodical film where the tension builds and builds in a manner that’s utterly compelling. It dominated Spain’s Goya film awards, where it won in nine categories including Best Film.

🏆Dublin International Film Festival, 2023 – Best Film (Dublin Film Critics’ Circle)

🏆Goya Awards, 2023 – Winner of nine awards including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Original Screenplay

🏆César Awards, 2023 – Best Foreign Film

A terrific, gripping drama that will cross cultural borders with ease. – Irish Times

★★★★★ a breathtakingly tense Galician thriller The Guardian

From its very first minute, this searing drama of rural strife, xenophobia and cultural hostility is filled with almost unbearable tension. – Hollywood Reporter

Sorogoyen has made a brilliantly written, superbly acted film with the grave heft of non-fiction: a glimpse of stark truths behind that lush Galician landscape. – Financial Times

Sorogoyen uses long, single-take scenes to capture the explosive buildup of tension; it’s a breathlessly compelling device that showcases the phenomenal quality of the acting. – Observer

98% Rotten Tomatoes

  • THE BEASTS
  • Spain/France 2022 | Language: Spanish/French | 137 minutes | Cert: CLUB
  • Director: Rodrigo Sorogoyen
  • Cast: Denis Ménochet, Marina Foïs, Luis Zahera, Diego Anido
  • Foreign language films are subtitled.  Cert: CLUB for over 18s.
  • A short film may be shown before the feature.
  • BOOKING
  • Tickets: €8.50/€7 concession
  • Cork Cine Club is absorbing cost of online booking fees.
  • Book online: https://bit.ly/TheBeasts-26thOct
  • Pay at the door by card or cash. Exact change is appreciated.

OFFICIAL COMPETITION [Spain], Thursday 23 February, 8pm

By archive, Season 24 films

ALL ONLINE TICKETS ARE NOW SOLD OUT. A LIMITED NUMBER OF TICKETS WILL BE AVAILABLE AT THE DOOR. CARD PAYMENT WILL BE ACCEPTED.

Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas star as two egomaniacs commissioned by a millionaire to make a movie together in this sharp comedy skewering wealth, art, and pride.

In this Spanish comedy, a millionaire decides on his eightieth birthday that he needs something more memorable than business success to guarantee his legacy. He decides to produce a film and after securing the rights to a Nobel Prize-winning novel, engages acclaimed but unconventional auteur Lola Cuevas (Penelope Cruz) to direct. She in turn casts two very different actors – global movie star Felix (Antonio Banderas) and distinguished thespian Iván (Oscar Martínez) – as her leads. Before long, methods, personalities and egos clash.

Official Competition is a clever satire that pokes fun at various elements of film culture, but also has some genuine laugh-out-loud moments. All three actors are clearly enjoying themselves, but it is Cruz that is the standout here.

An uproarious comedy that’s also deliciously well-performed… this Spanish-language gem cleverly gets away with being both roast session and sneaky celebration at once. – Tim Robey, Daily Telegraph

[Cruz] has rarely been stronger on screen, as an idiosyncratic martinet who nonetheless finds moments of genius and tenderness between her leading men. A blast. – Kevin Maher, Times [UK]

A sly satire of cinema that also manages to be a showcase for the comedic chops of its stars: Penélope Cruz, Antonio Banderas and Oscar Martínez. – Michael O’Sullivan, Washington Post

It dismantles the lofty ambitions of cinema as great, important and significant, a monument on the cultural landscape. Instead, it shows us art for ego’s sake, and it has a lot of wickedly spiteful fun doing so. – Wendy Ide, Observer

96% Rotten Tomatoes

  • Official Competition (Competencia Oficial)
  • Spain, Argentina 2021 | Language: Spanish | 115 minutes | Cert: 15A
  • Directors: Mariano Cohn, Gastón Duprat
  • Cast: Penélope Cruz, Antonio Banderas, Oscar Martínez
  • Foreign language films are subtitled.  Cert: CLUB for over 18s.
  • Tickets: €8.50/€7 concession
  • Cork Cine Club is absorbing all booking fees.
  • Book online: https://bit.ly/OfficialCompetition-Spain
  • Pay at the door by card or cash. Exact change appreciated.

cancelled: PAIN AND GLORY (SPAIN – DOLOR Y GLORIA), THU 19 MARCH, 8PM

By archive, Season 22 films

CANCELLED

Life meets art in this wistful film about a director whose physical powers are in decline as he recalls the passions that gave him meaning and hope.  Antonio Banderas and Penélope Cruz reunite with Pedro Almodóvar in his most personal movie to date.

The latest, wonderful film from Pedro Almodóvar asks what a director does when he runs into a creative blockage…Banderas excels in Almodóvar’s personal drama…a take on Fellini’s 8½.Irish Times ★★★★★

The director delivers another sensuous and deeply personal gem as Antonio Banderas’s ageing film-maker faces up to death.The Guardian.★★★★

97% from Rotten Tomatoes.

Spain, 2019 | Language: Spanish | 113 minutes | Cert: 16

Director: Pedro Almodóvar

Cast: Penélope Cruz, Antonio Banderas, Asier Etxeandia

EVERYBODY KNOWS [TODOS LO SABEN – SPAIN], THU 24 OCTOBER, 8PM

By archive, Season 21 films

Oscar-winning filmmaker Asghar Farhadi’s (A Separation) intimately painful and powerfully acted drama centres on a shocking crime that interrupts a family wedding.  Starring Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem.

Laura (Cruz) returns to Spain with her children for her sister’s wedding. There she is reunited with her former lover Paco (Bardem) now happily married and running a successful vineyard on land once owned by Laura’s family. Whilst Laura’s husband, Alejandro (Ricardo Darín) stayed behind in Argentina, an old rumour of her jilting Paco reignites. Moreover, within Laura’s family, resentment simmers over the manner in which Paco acquired the vineyard.

A seething mystery unfurls as secrets, lies and unhealed wounds spanning generations are brought to light. Everybody Knows is an unforgettable portrait of love, loss, and betrayal.

This is Iranian auteur Asghar Farhadi’s eighth feature and his first in Spanish.

Explores the unhealed wound at the heart of a Spanish family with pitiless efficiency and sheer muscular flair…the performances are so intelligent, mature and yet uninhibited…Farhadi’s storytelling has overpowering force.The Guardian  ★★★★

The characters, observations and performances make this film shine.The Independent ★★★★★

Spain, 2018 | Language: Spanish | 133 minutes | Cert: 15A

Director: Asghar Farhadi

Cast: Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Ricardo Darín

SUMMER 1993 [ESTIU 1993 – SPAIN], THU 4 OCTOBER, 8PM

By archive

Six-year-old Frida faces the death of her parents and integration into a new nuclear family during a long Catalonian summer.  Beguiling, unsentimental and deeply personal.  

Winner, Best First Feature, Berlin Film Festival 2017.

In the summer 1993, following the death of her parents, six-year-old Frida moves from Barcelona to the Catalan province to live with her aunt and uncle, who are now her new legal guardians. The country life is a challenge for Frida – time passes differently in her new home and the nature that surrounds her is mysterious and estranging. She now has a little sister she has to take care of and must deal with new feelings, such as jealousy. Often, Frida is naively convinced that running away would be the best solution to her problems.

The family does what it can to achieve a fragile new balance and bring normality to their life. Occasional family outings to a local fiesta or a swimming pool, cooking or listening to jazz in the garden bring them moments of happiness. Slowly, Frida realizes that she is there to stay and has to adapt to the new environment.

Stunning drama of a childhood ripped apart…Carla Simón’s brilliantly realised story of a six-year-old traumatised by the death of her parents features miraculous child performances.The Guardian ★★★★★ 

A film that movingly looks at an orphaned six-year-old’s loneliness and confusion without the usual dip into sentimentality. – Variety

Childhood memoirs always are under threat from self-indulgence and sentimentality, but 1993 successfully sidesteps both, establishing Simon as a talent to watch.  A delicately crafted, moving filmic memoir. True and captivating. – The Hollywood Reporter

Spain, 2017 |Language: Catalan | 97 minutes | Cert: CLUB

Director:   Carla Simón

Cast:  Laia Artigas, Paula Robles, Bruna Cusí