Screening on Friday and Saturday May 18-19 at 7.30pm and on Saturday at 3pm

Then on Tuesday to Thursday May 22-24 at 7.30pm and Thursday at 3pm

Dir: Karl Markovics; Austria; with sub-titles; 2011; 1hr 30m

Stars: Thomas Schubert, Karin Lischka, Gerhard Liebmann, Georg Friedrich, Stefan Matousch, Georg Veitl, Klaus Rott, Luna Mijovic, Reinhold G Moritz, Martin Oberhauser, Magdalena Kronschlager, David Oberkogler

With elusive writing and directing, actor-turned-filmmaker Karl Markovics inventively lets his story unfold with honest, natural pacing that quietly draws us in. It’s a remarkably thoughtful, complex approach to an important subject.

Roman (Schubert) grew up as an orphan and has been in detention for the past four years. Now 19 and on day-release to find a job, his mentor (Liebmann) worries that he’ll never be able to sustain a normal life. But it’s the new job that begins to get to Roman: he’s working for a company that transports human corpses. And as he starts to think about mortality, he decides to track down his birth mother (Kischka) to get some answers about who he really is.

With a beautifully internalised performance, Schubert lets us see into Roman’s soul. He quietly submits to a full-body search each time he returns to his prison, and hides from the other inmates while he thinks about his future. Or rather whether he has a future at all. There are moments when his spiky humour and surly stubbornness reveal themselves, as well as a tenacious yearning to make the awkward interaction with his mother mean something. And both Schubert and writer-director Markovics make sure we understand and feel every pang of his emotional journey.

But there isn’t a moment in this film that’s obvious; Markovics assembles each scene in a matter-of-fact way that relies on the tiniest details to give us the information we need. The filmmaking is subtle and expressive, full-on and unblinking and yet also intriguingly enigmatic. And you could describe the work of the entire cast in the same way. It’s mesmerising to watch Roman quietly discover his way in life and find a bit of badly needed confidence, even though everyone in the prison continues to torment him as usual.

Along the way, there are some stunningly moving sequences that draw out the tenderness in characters who are trying to be tough. Markovics proves to be seriously adept at catching moods and telling an involving story without relying on dialogue or movie manipulation. So as the plot fills in details and moves forward, he doesn’t need sentiment to make us see ourselves in the characters and situations.

Screening on Friday and Saturday May 18-19 at 7.30pm and on Saturday at 3pm

Dir: Kevin Macdonald; UK; 2012; 2hrs 04m

With: Bob Marley, Rita Marley, Cindy Breakspeare, David ‘Ziggy’ Marley, Cedella Marley, Jimmy Cliff, Chris Blackwell, Neville ‘Bunny’ Livingston, Alvin ‘Seeko’ Patterson, Neville Garrick, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Edward Seaga

This comprehensive documentary about iconic reggae artist Bob Marley traces his life with a first-hand attention to detail. Through interviews with family, friends and colleagues, it provides an entertaining, telling look at both the man and his beliefs.

As a teen Bob moved from the countryside to the slums of Trenchtown, outside Kingston, where he was confronted by his mixed-race roots (his father was a British Marine). In the 1960s, his ska band The Wailers found success in Jamaica. Then in 1972, Island Records founder Blackwell started promoting The Wailers as a rebellious rock act, leading to global celebrity. Over the next decade, Marley’s life included world tours, a re-formed band line-up and a series of huge hits. In 1981, he died after a brief battle with cancer.

Director Macdonald tells this story at a relaxed, almost Caribbean pace, letting the events unfold chronologically through reminiscences from interviewees and extensive photos, home movies, concert films, early recordings and newsreel footage. Marley himself contributes to the narrative through interviews he gave throughout his career. And along the way we begin to understand his deeply held Rastafarian beliefs and vividly relive a violent, politically motivated attack on his Kingston home. We also learn the truth behind stories of his womanising

He had 11 children by seven women, but he was actually quite shy: women pursued him, not vice versa. And Rita remained his loyal wife through all of it. Along with giving us an intimate look at his personality and relationships, the film helps us understand why he was seen as a messianic figure in the Caribbean and Africa due to the way he constantly challenged oppression and corruption. Macdonald even takes time to show us exactly what makes reggae music so infectious.

This is a fascinating, gripping film. There’s so much amazing footage that we can hardly take it all in. Anecdotes are recounted with wit and personality, and Marley’s prophetic zeal is captivating. If there’s anything missing, it’s the music: the famous songs are here, but only in snippets until a couple of extended tracks over the closing credits. Perhaps we also need a new concert film. There’s a thought…

Silent Cinema (U)
With live piano accompaniment by Wendy Hiscocks

Part of the Ip-Art Festival
Venue: Christchurch Park

Experience two masters of cinema in three classic movies
SHERLOCK JR (40 minutes)
Buster Keaton A film projectionist longs to be a detective, and puts his meagre skills to work when he is framed by a rival for stealing his girlfriend’s father’s pocketwatch.
ONE WEEK (20 minutes)
Buster Keaton Buster and Sybil exit a chapel as newlyweds. Among the gifts is a portable house you easily put together in one week. It doesn’t help that Buster’s rival for Sybil switches the numbers on the crates containing the house parts.
EASY STREET (23 minutes)
Charlie Chaplin A reformed tramp becomes a police constable who must fight a huge thug who dominates an inner city street.
Tickets: Full £7.50 / Concs £5.50 available from Ip-Art. Click here for details

Presented by Neil Brand

Part of The Pulse Fringe Festival
Venue: Cinema 1

After co-starring with Paul Merton in the UK tour of Paul Merton’s Silent Clowns and receiving critical acclaim for his appearances on Radio 4′s Film Programme, Neil Brand, the ‘doyen of silent film pianists’ is proud to present his own critically acclaimed show.
Neil uses clips from some of the greatest moments in silent cinema to illustrate his 25 year career and the special place of music with silent film. From the earliest, earthiest comedies and thrillers, through a silent cine-verité classic scripted by a young Billy Wilder which the audience gets to score, to the glories of Hollywood glamour and the sublime Laurel and Hardy, Neil provides improv accompaniment and laconic commentary on everything from deep focus to his own live cinema disasters.

“This is a show which is never ever dull and you are in the company of a master of art and technique” ?one4review

Tickets available from The Pulse Festival – click here for details

Screening on Friday and Saturday May 11-12 at 7.30pm and Saturday at 3pm.

Then on Tuesday to Thursday May 15-17 at 7.30pm and on Thursday at 3pm.

Dir: Rene Feret; France; 2010; 2hrs

Stars: Clovis Fouin, David Moreau, Delphine Chuillot, Lisa Feret, Marc Barbe, Marie Feret

This revisionist account of Mozart’s early life reclaims one of history’s lost women. We all know the story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: The child prodigy started playing music when he was six, had written symphonies and sonatas by his early teens, grew up to resemble a braying Tom Hulce and produced a canonical body of work before his death at age 35.

Far less known is the tale of Maria Anna Walburga Ignatia Mozart, Wolfgang’s older sibling. Nannerl, as she was commonly known, was also an outstanding musician. She is reduced to the status of Wolfgang’s accompanist, despite having, she claims, contributed to her brother’s compositions. Then a quirk of fate leads to her friendship with the King’s younger daughter Louise, played by Féret daughter, Lisa Féret.

Anyone doubting this thesis should proceed directly to Ren Fret’s biopic of the elder Mozart, which goes to great pains to reiterate how the era’s misogyny robbed us of an extraordinary talent.

This revisionist, speculative account of Mozart’s early life is not so far away from Milos Forman’s Amadeus. It has a seriousness that commands attention, and a very believable sense of the hardship and bitterness Mozart Sr put his family through.

We watch as Nannerl (Marie Fret, the director’s daughter) must live in the shadow of her bratty younger brother (Moreau) while futilely begging Dad (Barb) for more in-depth tutelage. She also dresses up as a man to see her true love, Louis de Bourbon (Fouin).

Casting the two girls a family affair gives their performances an artless quality and a kind of rough-hewn authenticity that is attractive and lends the film an intended atmosphere of intelligence.

Screening on Tuesday to Thursday May 15-17 at 7.30pm and on Thursday at 3pm.

Dir: Rodrigo Garcia; USA; 2012; 1hr 51m

Stars: Glenn Close, Janet McTeer, Mia Wasikowska, Aaron Johnson, Pauline Collins, Brendan Gleeson, Mark Williams, Brenda Fricker, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Bronagh Gallagher, Kenneth Collard

Based on a true story, this introspective film seems to suggest that these events aren’t perhaps as extraordinary as they appear. In 1898, Albert (Close) works at an upscale Dublin hotel, and no one suspects that he’s actually a woman. Quietly going about his work while saving to open a tobacco shop, Albert is unassuming and relentlessly polite. Then he’s asked to share his room with visiting painter Hubert (McTeer), who learns his secret and reveals one of his own: he’s a woman too. But Hubert has managed to have a normal married life. This inspires Albert to pursue the hotel maid Helen (Wasikowska), which is complicated by her lusty relationship with handyman Joe (Johnson).

The plot is involving, as are the issues it explores. The film continually finds present-day resonance in 19th century Ireland, mainly because it avoids politics: both Albert and Hubert have turned to cross-dressing for deeply personal reasons that have more to do with who they are than the harsh environment for single women. And the film throws in sideways comments that these issues are just as relevant in the upper classes.

But the film stumbles slightly when the filmmakers get distracted by Helen and Joe’s alluring romance. It’s well-played by Wasikowska and Johnson, but its passion and complexity serve to undermine Albert’s journey, which should be even more wrenchingly emotional.

This certainly isn’t Close’s fault: she approaches the role from the inside out, conveying everything with a flick of an eye or a slight tilt of the head. And her brave, raw scenes with McTeer are electric, partly because McTeer’s uncanny performance bursts with imposing physicality in stark contrast to the mousy Albert. In one exquisite scene, these two “men” go for a stroll in frilly dresses, showing just how distant their femininity has become.

Screening on Tuesday to Thursday May 8-10 at 7.30pm and on Thursday at 3pm.

Dir: Mateo Gil; Spain, 2012; 1 hr 42m

Stars: Sam Shepard, Eduardo Noriega, Stephen Rea, Magaly Solier, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Padraic Delaney, Dominique McElligott, Luis Bredow, Cristian Mercado, Daniel Aguirre, Martin Proctor, Maria Luque

Plaintive and deliberately slow-moving, this finely made Western cycles through a rather long, complex narrative. But it’s thoroughly involving, with terrific characters and an engaging emotional punch.

It turns out that Butch Cassidy didn’t die in a hail of gunfire in 1908 Bolivia after all. Now calling himself James Blackthorn (Shepard), he’s still living there 20 years later with his girlfriend Yana (Solier). But after he decides to return home, he’s waylaid by Eduardo (Noriega), a city-slicker who has embezzled thousands from a brutal businessman. Their ensuing adventures spark memories of Blackthorn’s days as a young outlaw (Coster-Waldau in flashbacks) with the Sundance Kid (Delaney) and Etta Place (McElligott), chased to South America by the dogged lawman McKinley (Rea).

The film is shot in a dusty Western style, although director Gil never indulges in flashy action or post-modern cynicism. He lets the story play out in low-key, gritty ways that echo Blackthorn’s gruff, level-headed approach to each situation. He also beautifully captures the Bolivian landscapes and culture. Gorgeously shot by Juan Ruiz Anchia, the film expertly places its increasingly likeable characters in a series of striking locations, from the altiplano to what an endless salt flat.

Into these settings, Shepard brings considerable charm, gently developing a lively chemistry with Noriega that twists and turns as the plot progresses. Despite Eduardo’s cocky self-assurance, Blackthorn is in control of every messy situation they find themselves in. And Shepard adds an underlying pathos as Blackthorn thinks about his past and his desire to travel to San Francisco to see the son he’s never met. So its a joy to watch him rediscover the adrenaline rush of fighting for his life.

After years spent considering himself just counting out the days he has left, Blackthorn not only finds the will to live, but also realises that he’s not washed-up yet. Meanwhile, Eduardo struggles to find the strength to finish what he started. But there are surprises in store for both of them. And these themes make this film thoroughly watchable as both men tenaciously persevere against the odds to find some sort of redemption. Even if that might mean dying a noble death.

Screening on Tuesday to Thursday May 8-10 at 7.30pm and Thursday at 3pm.

Dir: Pal Sletaune; Norway; 2011; 1hr 36m

Stars: Noomi Rapace, Kristoffer Joner, Vetle Qvenild Werring, Stig R Amdam, Maria Bock, Torkil Johannes Swensen Hoeg, Henrik Rafaelsen, Bjorn Moan

This unsettling Norwegian thriller is extremely inventive. It successfully gets into the mind of its central character in ways that are rather haunting.

Anna (Rapace) moves into a new flat with her 8-year-old son Anders (Werring). Fleeing her abusive ex, she is consumed with paranoia that Anders isn’t safe. Her social workers (Amdam and Bock) force her to put him back in school. While she waits for him every day, she quietly befriends Helge (Joner), a nice guy who works in an electronics shop where she buys a Babycall monitor to keep an ear on Anders. But while listening one night she overhears what sounds like another child being violently abused and maybe killed.

As the story progresses, it becomes increasingly clear that Anna’s mind is slipping. People and places don’t quite stay in the proper space and time. Is she psychic? Is she traumatised from her past experiences? Or is she just crazy? Indeed, Anders seems a bit wary of her. And Helge also begins to have doubts, especially when he meets a strange boy (Hoeg) who passes himself off as Anders.

Writer-director Sletaune shifts perspective from Anna to Helge, and we witness several scenes through Helge’s eyes, makes us as an audience distrust the evidence of our own eyes.

Rapace is terrific as a woman so dazed by what has happened that she forgets to even run a comb through her hair. The way she clings to Anders draws us into her worldview even as we begin to suspect that she perhaps is seeing something either imaginary or supernatural. And Werring is terrific as the gentle nerd who can’t quite believe his luck at meeting such a gorgeous woman and thinks maybe he can help her get through this nightmare. These superb performances, and Sletaune’s unblinking filmmaking style, at least mean that the final scenes pack a powerful punch

Screening on Friday and Saturday May 4-5 at 7.30pm and Saturday at 3pm.

Dir: Markus Schleinzer; Austria; 2011; 1hr 36m

Stars: Michael Fuith, David Rauchenberger, Gisela Salcher, Christine Kain, Ursula Strauss, Victor Tremmel, Margot Vuga, Samuel Jung, Simon Jaritz, Florian Eisner, David Oberkogler, Martin Schwehla

This story of a paedophile kidnapper is told in such a matter-of-fact way that it chills us to the bone. It’s so impeccably shot and acted that it continually elicits our sympathies in ways we really don’t want it to.

Michael (Fuith) is a nerdy insurance office worker who’s hoping for a promotion. Privately, he keeps to himself, spinning stories to maintain some distance from his colleagues and family. But he has a very dark secret: there’s a young boy (Rauchenberger) locked in his basement. In between unseen sexual assaults, Michael tries to create a normal home life for Wolfgang, cooking dinner, watching TV and taking him on outings. But Wolfgang grows increasingly annoyed at his imprisonment. Then one day Michael’s hit by a car and wakes up in hospital.

This is only the first event that changes the dynamic between the man and child, as both are emboldened by their time apart. But this isn’t a film about plot or action: it’s about the mundane details of this horrifying situation, focussing on the loneliness both characters endure for very different reasons. The sexual abuse is only hinted at, sometimes with shocking force, but even this is presented as an element in the power struggle between the two. As horrific as the situation is, writer-director Schleinzer refuses to sensationalise it.

And this stark sense of realism quietly erodes our own confidence as viewers. Especially when we begin to understand Michael’s dark impulses and self-doubt, or when we see glimpses of the startlingly cheerful, needy boy in him. With Wolfgang, it’s the opposite, as we watch the defiance grow inside him, standing up verbally and then physically to Michael. And both actors give beautifully understated performances.

Through all of this, writer-director Schleinzer forces us to make the logical leaps in the story; by dropping hints and foreshadowing future twists of fate, we begin to think like both Michael and Wolfgang. Normality takes on a different meaning for these two characters. And the film’s most haunting element is in the final act, as Michael’s friends and family so understandably fail to see what’s really been going on all this time.

On Landguard Point – A film About Home
Presented by: Pacitti Company
Director:  Robert Pacitti
Original music by: Michael Nyman
Supporter: On Landguard Point is East of England’s contribution to Artists taking the lead, a major project at the heart of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad funded by Arts Council England

Plus, Q & A with Robert Pacitti

On Landguard Point is a film by Pacitti Company featuring performance, prose, myth, music and spectacular visuals.  Inspired by the histories and culture of the East of England, On Landguard Point exists at an intersection between live performance, community and cinema – where local people and places really do become the stars of the show.

Michael Nyman has written 5 new pieces as composer and performer of the original soundtrack for On Landguard Point which he performs with the Michael Nyman Band and Soprano Marie Angel. These songs are built around a cycle of texts written by Robert Pacitti and Sheila Ghelani, and explore themes of work, the sea, and the region’s rich folk heritage.

On Landguard Point also features work by internationally acclaimed artists, Julia Bardsley, Rajni Shah, Kira O’Reilly, Giovanna Maria Casetta, Harminder Judge and Mark Peter Wright.

Created by Suffolk raised Robert Pacitti – founder of the award winning SPILL Festival of Performance and maker and curator of performance art for over 20 years – On Landguard Point explores how we construct diverse ideas of home, what home means to us, and what it means to host others in our home.

The content of the film features some aspects of a series of community events took place across 2011 and 2012. One of these was a region wide call out for A People’s Encyclopedia for the East of England. Of the many entries, 205 were turned into symbols, offering a visual lexicon of people’s shared stories, memories and local knowledge. Many of these symbols appear throughout the film.

Another of the community events was a series of 205 archaeological digs in people’s back gardens across the region, searching for traces of home. At the end of each dig one of the symbols was then buried in the form of a handmade silver charm. This literal and metaphorical act of excavating and sowing appears throughout the film connecting the present with the past.

On Landguard Point is Robert Pacitti’s first feature film and we are delighted to welcome him to tonight’s screening to introduce the film and answer audience questions.