Screening on Friday & Saturday February 24-25 at 7.30pm. Saturday at 3pm.

Then Thursday March 1 at 3pm and 7.30pm.

Dir: Woody Allen; USA; 2011; 1hr 34m

Stars: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Michael Sheen, Kurt Fuller, Mimi Kennedy, Carla Bruni, Tom Hiddleston, Kathy Bates, Corey Stoll, Alison Pill, Adrien Brody

Back by popular demand, Woody Allen hits the right notes in this funny, astute comedy about artistic creation and personal dreams. And Wilson turns out to be one of the best on-screen Allen surrogates in years.

Blocked writer Gil (Wilson) is visiting Paris with his wife Inez (McAdams) and her high-achieving parents (Fuller and Kennedy). When they run into Inez’s know-it-all ex (Sheen), Gil starts having second thoughts about everything. He also begins to wish he’d lived in Paris in the artistic heyday of the 1920s, and is stunned one night to find himself in some kind of magical time-warp, rubbing shoulders with F Scott Fitzgerald (Hiddleston), Gertrude Stein (Bates) and Ernest Hemmingway (Stoll). He also begins to fall for Adriana (Cotillard), a muse for Picasso and Modigliani.

Intriguingly, Allen never over-eggs the fantasy elements, cutting in and out of them in a way that makes it clear that we shouldn’t take them too seriously. This is a witty nod to the film’s more interesting deeper plot, and it allows the magical realism to develop a hilariously farcical tone as Gil encounters a blinding array of artistic icons from Cole Porter (Yves Heck) to Salvador Dali (Brody).

Meanwhile, Allen and cinematographer Darius Khondji give the film a vivid visual style. An opening montage gorgeously explores Paris’ picture-postcard beauty, while the 1920s scenes are rendered in a way that’s both richly textured and unfussy. Even more impressive are some skilful long takes, such as a conversation at Versailles in which four characters engage in a lively, often ridiculous discussion that tells us more about the characters than we realise at the time.

And the cast is terrific. Owen Wilson plays the standard Allen character, a writer with a messy personal life who struggles against the pull of art and commerce. As the story progresses, Gil not only gets to indulge in his 1920s fantasy, but he’s also confronted with a gentle moral conundrum in 2011. Scenes are packed with sparky, amusing characters and although some gags go on a bit too long they at least keep us laughing. And despite the breezy tone, it’s one of those rare films that’s complex enough to reward repeat viewings.

Friday & Saturday February 24-25 at 7.30pm. Saturday at 3pm.

Then Tuesday-Wednesday February 28-29 at 7.30pm. Thursday March 1 at 3pm only.

Dir: Roman Polanski; USA; 2011; 1hr 20m

Stars: Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz, John C Reilly

Based on Reza’s play God of Carnage, this claustrophobic film features only four characters in a single New York apartment. But the acting and directing, as well as a fiendishly entertaining script, make it absolutely riveting.

After their 11-year-old sons are involved in a playground fight, their parents meet to make sure everything is fine. Penelope and Michael (Foster and Reilly), parents of the injured boy, are happy to let bygones be bygones until they begin to suspect that Nancy and Alan (Winslet and Waltz) aren’t properly punishing their son. Over the course of the next hour or so, liaisons shift as their civilised surface gives way to seething bitterness. And it certainly doesn’t help that they open a bottle of Scotch.

Nothing about this sounds very cinematic: four people in one room bickering, bonding and bickering some more. And indeed, the script is fairly theatrical as it circles and pounces on big issues, pushes each of the characters to the limit and seeks to provoke rather than explain. But Polanski creates a set that allows for remarkably clever camera movement, as we share the characters experience of being stuck in this place. And this gives the actors space to create memorable interaction.

The standouts are the women, who are more expressive as mothers concerned about fiercely protective of their children, and also annoyed with their husbands. Liberal-minded writer Foster is like a wounded tiger, holding back until she has no choice but attack and draw blood. In a role that has more kick than when the play was first staged in 2006, Winslet is an investment banker who’s trying to keep the peace, at least until she gets a stomach bug (perhaps from Penelope’s cobbler?). Meanwhile, Waltz is a lawyer who is constantly on his mobile and Reilly is a salesman whose hatred of hamsters causes another ruckus.

This blackly hilarious script is packed with attempts to be polite (“We are not going to get into these children’s quarrels”), backhanded judgements and, eventually, open hostility. A continual stream of running gags keeps us laughing because they’re both hilarious (“Doodle” vs “Darjeeling”) and brutally real (“Why does everything have to be so exhausting?”). And as the hysteria escalates, it’s only comical because of what it reveals about each of us.

Screening on Tuesday – Thursday February 21-23 at 7.30pm. Thursday at 3pm.

Dir: Tate Taylor; USA; 2011; 2hrs 26m

Stars: Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Bryce Dallas Howard, Octavia Spencer, Jessica Chastain, Aunjanue Ellis, Allison Janney, Sissy Spacek, Ahna O’Reilly, Anna Camp, Cicely Tyson, Mary Steenburgen

*Pre-booking is advised for this movie as business has been very brisk. Please have your credit cards handy when collecting tickets. Thank You

A strongly issue-based story gives a terrific cast plenty to play with in this hugely engaging drama about the American South in the 1960s.

After graduating from university, Skeeter (Stone) returns home to Jackson, Mississippi, to seek work as a journalist. But one theme from her childhood haunts her: the maid (Tyson) who actually raised her. But her similarly raised close friends (Howard, O’Reilly and Camp) now take their own maids for granted, and Skeeter wonders why this story has never been told from the help’s point of view. After finding an interested New York editor (Steenburgen), it takes awhile to convince Aibileen (Davis) to tell her story, especially as both know it will upset the status quo.

Narrated by Aibileen, the film is populated by a range of lively women who give us a glimpse at the various aspects of Southern life just before the turbulence of the civil rights movement. Behind their warm, smiley hospitality, these ladies are a bundle of bigotry that extends beyond racism: they not only lack respect for their employees, but they harshly shun any outsider who dares question their power. In the film, this is represented by Celia (Chastain), a seemingly loose woman who emerges as the most complex character.

We also meet maids with other stories, including the hilariously sharp-tongued Minny (Spencer) and the vulnerable Yule Mae (Ellis), plus a few telling women from an older generation (Janney and Spacek). Each of these roles features at least one show-stopping moment, and all of the actresses are simply fantastic.

As the intense central plot builds, the filmmakers release tension with a generous dose of earthy humour. Spencer is especially funny, with her sassy attitude and expressive physicality. She also gets the story’s biggest punchline. Yet while she’s merrily stealing the laughs, the other female characters are equally memorable. And in the warm, emotional final act, the story carries a powerfully resonant final punch.

Screening on Tuesday – Thursday February 21-23 at 7.30pm. Thursday at 3pm.

Dir: Michel Hazanavicius; France; 2011; 1hr 40m

Stars: Jean Dujardin, Berenice Bejo, James Cromwell, John Goodman, Penelope Ann Miller, Missi Pyle, Malcolm McDowell, Bitsie Tulloch, Beth Grant, Ed Lauter, Stuart Pankin, Ken Davitian

*Pre-booking is advised for this movie as business has been very brisk. Please have your credit cards handy when collecting tickets. Thank You

What can we say about this film that hasn’t already been written? Awards season favourite, Oscar frontrunner and likely BAFTA winner. It’s undoubtedly one of the eagerly awaited films of the year.

Made as a 1920s-style silent movie, this hugely enjoyable film is already a classic. And while it’s far from mainstream, it’s also packed with more wit, passion and invention than all of the films in any given multiplex combined.

In 1927, George (Dujardin) is Hollywood’s top star, swashbuckling through adventure blockbusters with his faithful sidekick dog Uggy. At one of his premieres he meets Peppy (Bejo), a mystery girl who gets her own shot at stardom as a dancing extra in one of George’s films. His grumpy wife (Miller) isn’t happy about this. And there’s more trouble when the studio boss (Goodman) decides to switch to talkies. So George walks out to make his own silent film, while Peppy becomes a sound-movie star. But she doesn’t forget that he gave her a break.

Filmmaker Hazanavicius tells the story in pristine black and white with an expressive musical score and title cards to convey the dialog. There are constant visual sight gags that hark back to a very different time in the movies, and yet the film also has a surprisingly realistic edge to it, as these characters also have off-screen lives that are complicated and rather messy. The clever direction is funny and sweet, continually taking our breath away with inspired moments of comedy or pathos.

And at the centre, Dujardin creates one of the year’s best movie characters: a man who’s knee-weakeningly dashing and knows it, but doesn’t have a mean bone in his body. His first experience of the talkies is an unforgettable cinematic moment that he plays exquisitely, and he’s just as effective when things escalate into a surreal Fellini-style dream or descend into a dark, lost weekend. Meanwhile, his chemistry with Bejo is goosebump-inducing. Her deep yearning is so beautifully played that she wins our heart too.

And the film gets to us on other levels too, layering in thoughtful observations about progress, most notably the bittersweet fact that everyone must make way for the young. As George struggles to overcome his pride, the film dips into some very dark places that are wrenchingly real. His deep-seated fear is that no one wants to hear him speak, so we root for him to get the courage to dance into a whole new world.

(* But were afraid to ask!)

 Starting Tues 28 Feb at 7.30pm for 4 weeks

Back by popular demand, Everything You Always Wanted… is the film course which takes the pain out of understanding films in a roller-coaster ride through the ins and outs, the highs and lows, the good, the bad and the ugly of movie making and viewing.

The first 3 sessions will examine how films are conceived, constructed and received, ranging from technical trickery to great film clichés, with the aim to give you the knowledge to impress friends at parties and get more out of your viewing. Week 4 (20 March) you watch a film (Singin’ In the Rain) and afterwards apply your newly learned knowledge in a post-screening discussion.

So if you love going to the cinema and talking about films – whether Hollywood blockbusters or forgotten films which only you remember – come along and join tutor Nigel Herwin for four pleasurable and informal sessions of film talk, ideas and information.

Tickets (which include admission to Singin’ In the Rain) are available now and cost £20.

Screening on Tuesday-Thursday February 14-16 at 7.30pm. Thurs Feb 16 at 3pm.

Dir: Jan Svankmajer; Czech Republic; 2011; 1hr 49m

Stars: Klara Issova, Vaclav Helsus, Zuzana Kronerova

Jan Svankmajer’s animated comic fantasy is a film that might remind you of the Woody Allen joke about sex. Is it dirty? Only if you’re doing it right. This combines live action and animated cutouts, reminiscent of Terry Gilliam. A married middle-aged man has an affair, in his dreams, with a beautiful young mistress; he causes a psychic crisis, and virtually a rip in the reality-dream time-space continuum, by getting this dream-mistress pregnant. He periodically visits an aghast psychoanalyst, on whose study walls are rather unfunny pictures of Freud and Jung, appearing to gasp or heckle or quarrel. But the film interestingly and subversively takes its stand on the idea that dreams are the real thing; waking life is an exotic, strange tissue of unreal diversions.

One of the most imaginative and visually arresting films of the year. Essential viewing.

Screening on Tuesday-Thursday February 14-16 at 7.30pm. Thurs Feb 16 at 3pm.

Dir: Daniel Auteuil; France; 2011; 1hr 47m

Stars: Daniel Auteuil, Astrid Berges-Frisbey, Kad Merad, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Sabine Azema, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Emilie Cazenave, Marie-Anne Chazel, Coline Bosso, Chloe Malarde, Brune Coustellier, Ilona Porte

For his directing debut, actor Auteuil remakes Marcel Pagnol’s 1940 classic into a twisty, involving romance. It’s thoroughly engaging all the way through, leaving us with a surge of emotion we rarely get at the cinema.

In rural pre-War France, Pascal is a widower (Auteuil) with six daughters. The oldest is 18-year-old Patricia (Berges-Frisbey), who’s starting to notice boys. She’s reluctant about a plan to fix her up with Pascal’s employee Felipe (Merad), and instead flirts shamelessly with Jacques (Duvauchelle), a dashing pilot who literally sweeps her off her feet. But her secret courtship with Jacques doesn’t go as planned. Then war breaks out and both men are called to battle, leaving Patricia pregnant. And Jacques’ parents (Azema and Darroussin) don’t want to know

The film is shot with a lovely attention to detail and an unrushed pace that carries us lightly into the story using gentle humour and a vivid sense of the characters. When Patricia is lured to Jacques’ private room, we sharply feel her fear about violating the rules of propriety, even as we never think that Jacques is up to anything nasty. When she finally gets up the courage to tell her father what has happened, the scene is heart-wrenching.

The dialogue is beautifully written, while the themes of clashing classes and family reputation quietly build in intensity. So much of the story takes place in between the lines that the film holds us tightly in its grip. As things progress, and pride and tradition rear their ugly heads, the story takes turns that are both harsh and gorgeously tender. This allows the Auteuil to develop lovely layers of complexity that move us deeply.

A rich mix of characters and a timeless story make this film hugely entertaining as well, with strong waves of emotion and brittle humour and moments in which we hold our breath wondering which way things might go. This is a film about people trying to navigate a tricky situation with honour and honesty, and the point where fundamentally decent people clash on principles that they have no control over. It also reminds us that sometimes the route to doing the right thing is extremely difficult to navigate.

Screening from Friday February 24

Dir: Roman Polanski, US, 2011, 80 mins
Stars: Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz,

Roman Polanski’s latest was a huge hit at the Venice Film Festival. The story of two couples who meet to discuss a fight between their sons, what begins as a civilised attempt to resolve the event descends into outright hostility as the veneer of politeness is gradually stripped away. Jodie Foster and Kate Winslet feature in this acting tour de force.

A Dangerous Method (15)

Screening from Friday March 2

Dir: David Cronenberg, UK, 2011, 100 mins

Stars: Michael Fassbender, Keira Knightley, Viggo Mortensen

A Dangerous Method takes us back to Vienna and the beginnings of psychoanalysis. Adapted by Christopher Hampton from his own play and directed by David Croneberg, it turns history into absorbing drama with its tale of the relationship between Freund and Jung. Keira Knightley, as a troubled patient, gives a performance of astonishing depth and power.

Screening on Tuesday to Thursday February 7-9 at 7.30pm and Thursday at 3pm.
Dir: Pablo Giorgelli; Argentina; 2011; 1hr 26m

Stars: German de Silva, Hebe Duarte, Nayra Calle Mamani

A genre-straddling gem from south America which leaves you breathless despite being almost wordless.

A relationship movie, a road movie, a silent movie: Las Acacias is all these. Pablo Giorgelli has made a film that unfolds almost wordlessly, but very eloquently, and the unforced performances of its two leads make it absolutely beguiling.

German de Silva plays Ruben, a middle-aged truck driver who has the regular task of hauling lumber from Paraguay to Buenos Aires. Yet this time he has a passenger, a young woman called Jacinta, played by Hebe Duarte, whom he is taking as a favour for a friend. To Ruben’s very obvious dismay, however, Jacinta is bringing along her five-month-old baby. This was not part of the deal. With tremendous skill and easy charm, De Silva and Duarte show how the relationship between the two gradually changes.

We appear to be living with Ruben and Jacinta in real time: just sitting there with them, mostly in silence. And yet, something is going through Ruben’s head he is formulating an idea, and when we found out what that idea is, at the very end, it is exhilarating and moving.

This is a very satisfying love story.

Screening on Tuesday to Wednesday February 7-8 at 7.30pm and Thursday Feb 9 at 3pm. Dir: Ralph Fiennes; UK; 2011; 2hrs 03m

Stars: Ralph Fiennes, Gerard Butler, Vanessa Redgrave, Brian Cox, Jessica Chastain, James Nesbitt, Paul Jesson, John Kani, Lubna Azabal, Ashraf Barhom, Harry Fenn, Jon Snow 

In his directorial debut Ralph Fiennes has created a vivid, intelligent Coriolanus with powerful political relevance. Actor-director Fiennes sets Shakespeare’s military tragedy in a modern-day war setting, which gives it a meaty kick of recognition.

Amid political and social turmoil, Martius (Fiennes) is a blunt Roman soldier, subduing insurrections in the surrounding kingdoms, making an enemy of Volscian leader Tullus (Butler) but returning home a war hero and crowned Coriolanus.

Despite the help of his military-leader mother (Redgrave), his loyal wife Virgilia (Chastain) and a respected senator (Cox), Martius is unable – and unwilling – to play the political game, insulting both the senate and the public. Banished from public life, he joins with Tullus and sets about conquering Rome his own way.

In setting the story in the present day, Fiennes captures the current global atmosphere in ways he couldn’t have anticipated. The film opens with riots about injustice and oppression in the streets of Rome, so the ensuing military crackdown and invasions of neighbouring cities look eerily like news footage we see every day. Indeed, much of the movie is framed by a TV screen, as we see reports of the momentous events reported by Channel 4 newscaster Jon Snow (in Shakespearean verse, of course).

While Fiennes rages at the centre as the soldier blinded by pride and disdain, the cast around him give much more measured, layered performances that make the dialog spring to life. Redgrave and Cox are particularly effective at baring their souls on screen in ways that continually take us aback. In a smaller role, Chastain is equally honest, while Nesbitt and Jesson are strong as Martius’ political nemeses. And even Butler manages to engage our sympathies in a few quiet moments.

At once visceral and intelligent, this beautifully acted, vividly staged film brings a powerful, challenging honesty to bear on class, political life and the demands we make on our leaders. It reaches out in many different directions, and in ways that Shakespeare could never have foreseen.