I’ve been in Ireland and I like the way they talk. Pamela has her take on The Guildhall and The Roses. I’ve done the rest. (JM)
The Roses
Starting on Monday, The Roses is offering five screenings of Mrs Harris Goes to Paris, directed by Anthony Fabian and based on a novel by Paul Gallico. Lesley Manville (pictured above) plays Mrs Harris, a widowed charwoman who, after scrimping and saving as charwomen do, makes her way to Paris in search of a couture Dior dress, on which she has set her heart. Then on Saturday, presumably with a nod towards half term is the opening showing of Tad the Lost Explorer and the Emerald Tablet, an animated adventure (part of a franchise) in the style of Indiana Jones, directed by Enrique Gato. (PW)
The Guildhall
The Guildhall is back in action: it is also showing Mrs Harris next week, alongside See How They Run directed by Tom George. There is an all-star cast including Saoirse Ronan, Sam Rockwell and Ruth Wilson. It is comedy whodunit: the film version of a hit play is halted when a member of the crew is murdered. The main police character is called Inspector Stoppard and his eager sidekick is Constable Stalker. Oh dear. It is apparently a spoof of Agatha Christie, in case you hadn’t guessed, and nothing whatever to do with the farce called See How They Run written by Philip King and last revived in the West End theatre in 2006. As if life weren’t confusing enough…
Two films new to the Guildhall, but which have been doing the rounds elsewhere, open on Friday 21st: Don’t Worry Darling and The Lost King. Both of them seem to have achieved more publicity for the off-screen, behind-the-scenes arguments and scandal than for the quality of the work. (PW)
The Sherborne
Tad the Lost Explorer this weekend, then Mrs Harris all week alongside Ticket to Paradise, the creaky vehicle currently conveying George Clooney and Julia Roberts in the style to which they are accustomed. Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile turns up on Friday. That’s a CGI film based on a children’s book that means nothing over here. Or does it? Parents, correct me. It won’t stop the merchandise machine, either way. (JM)
The Tivoli
I’ve got a policy of Omertà towards the upholstered bunker known as The Tivoli, but it is worth knowing, perhaps, that is showing Emily. This is a sort of biopic of an imaginary version of Emily Brontë, giving her a romance, etc. Here’s the blurb: ‘The film stars Emma Mackey as Emily, a rebel and misfit, as she finds her voice and writes the literary classic Wuthering Heights. EMILY explores the relationships that inspired her – her raw, passionate sisterhood with Charlotte and Anne; her first aching, forbidden love for Weightman and her care for her maverick brother whom she idolises.’
Weightman? What sort of name is that? Emily Brontë had no aching, forbidden love. If you’re interested in her rather than fantasies concocted by old fat men to appeal to adolescent girls, you’d do better to read her Wiki entry; ‘Emily became a teacher at Law Hill School in Halifax beginning in September 1838, when she was twenty. Her always fragile health soon broke under the stress of the 17-hour work day and she returned home in April 1839. Thereafter she remained at home, doing most of the cooking, ironing, and cleaning at Haworth. She taught herself German out of books and also practised the piano.’
Writers’ lives are dull, or they should be. They sit scribbling for an unconscionable amount of time and when they get bored they go out and drink, shout at people and behave inappropriately. If they’re lucky, and they have rich and influential friends and live in New York, Paris, Berlin or London in the various Golden Ages, society applauds. If they’re poor in Victorian Haworth or nobody special in post-imperial Cheltenham, which amounts to the same, they’re just considered a nuisance. (JM)
The Cineworlds
Lots and lots of apparently random stuff at The Cineworlds, including Emily and Lyle, Lyle, lots of Halloween horrors, some revivals, some pop shows, some kids’ stuff, etc. Who chooses it? Why? Cineworld is a zombie corporation. It’s dead, but it keeps on walking. For now.
Running a cinema is not the same as running a pound shop. You don’t just dump a lot of cheap stock in your premises and hope people rummage around in it until they find something they like. Not unless you want to go spectacularly bust and release a lot of inner city property into the hands of would-be developers. A strategy of sorts when people want inner city property and can borrow limitless amounts of money for almost nothing. How’s that going to work now? (JM)