Gloucester French Film Festival

By Pamela WeaverNovember 5, 2021November 5, 2021 Odds and ends, Uncategorized Leave a comment

Starting on November 8, Gloucester Guildhall is showing six relatively recent French films that have so far had limited or no release in UK. The highlight of the festival, ahead of its release date of December 31 is Titane, the winner of the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Titane is the story of a… [continues]

Films around Cheltenham from 6 November 2021

By John MorrishNovember 5, 2021November 5, 2021 Films around Cheltenham, Uncategorized Leave a comment

The Cineworlds The new film this week at the Cineworlds is Eternals, another from the everlasting fount of mediocrity that is Marvel Studios. This one is directed by Chloé Zhao, the Chinese-born, LA-educated, director of the multi-Oscar-winning Nomadland (2020). It stars two Brits: Gemma Chan, who made her name with Channel Four’s android saga Humans,… [continues]

Hallowe’en Roundup

By Steve SasanowOctober 29, 2021October 29, 2021 Films of the Week, Uncategorized Leave a comment

(Films in bold are on television this weekend.) It’s almost Halloween, so it must be time for a few scary movies. But what is a scary movie? Is a movie that startles you scary – or does it just have good timing? Is what was scary 80 years ago still scary enough – or do modern filmmakers have… [continues]

Films around Cheltenham from 23 October

By John MorrishOctober 23, 2021October 30, 2021 Films around Cheltenham, Uncategorized Leave a comment

The Cineworlds I suppose the big event of the week in terms of mainstream cinema was the opening of Dune. I went to Cineworld Cheltenham on Thursday, which was the opening night, and saw it in 2D (nearly £12) at the 18:20 screening. The auditorium was only two-thirds full, despite the hype. The picture was… [continues]

Young Ahmed

By John MorrishOctober 16, 2021 Films of the Week, Topical films, Uncategorized Leave a comment

Young Ahmed (2019), directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. French/Arabic. 85 minutes. BBC4, Sunday (17/10), 23:40. Well, with terrible inevitability, the decision to cut and run from Afghanistan and the replacement of boots on the ground with megaphone rhetoric seems to have led to a supposed terrorist attack on British soil. All of which makes… [continues]

Freeview films 2/10/21 to 8/10/21

By Film Cheltenham TeamOctober 1, 2021 Freeview highlights, Uncategorized 2 Comments

FILM OF THE WEEK This week’s film of the week is The Truth (La vérité), 2019, French and English with subtitles. On Saturday (2/10) at 21:00 on BBC4. Here’s the preview by John Russell. World Cinema Saturday (2/10) 00:30 BBC2 The Gangster, The Cop,… [continues]

CIFF Lecture Invitation

By John MorrishSeptember 27, 2021September 27, 2021 Uncategorized Leave a comment

Leslie Sheldon, the indefatigable director of Cheltenham International Film Festival, is putting on his first annual festival lecture at the Parabola Arts Centre of Cheltenham Ladies College on Tuesday October 4, which is next week, at 5.30pm. He has kindly invited readers of this page or the newsletter to attend the talk, which is being… [continues]

Summer Survivors interview

By John MorrishSeptember 10, 2021September 10, 2021 Film news, Uncategorized Leave a comment

This week I made my debut as a Zoom interviewer, talking to Marija Kavtaradze, brilliant young director of the Lithuanian film Summer Survivors, which is still available on YourScreen. Don’t take too much notice of their blurb. It makes it sound formulaic and depressing. It is neither. Here’s my write-up about it. Please excuse the… [continues]

Freeview films 21-28 August

By John MorrishAugust 20, 2021August 20, 2021 Freeview highlights, Uncategorized Leave a comment

FILMS OF THE WEEK The Guardians by John Russell The Guardians (Les Guardians), from 2017, is on BBC2 at 00:00 (Midnight) on Saturday 21/8. Set during WW1, the film features Nathalie Baye (la scripte in Truffaut’s Day for Night), who is superb as Hortense, the matriarch of a French farming family coping without their men, who… [continues]

Films around Cheltenham from 21/8/21

By John MorrishAugust 20, 2021August 20, 2021 Uncategorized Leave a comment

YourScreen.net A reminder that two of YourScreen‘s season of films are coming to an end on Saturday (22/8/21), The Outside Story and Summer Survivors. I hear that YourScreen are trying to extend the run of Summer Survivors, and I have been in touch with the distributors about the possibility of an actual screening of it… [continues]

Films around Cheltenham from 14/8/21

By John MorrishAugust 12, 2021August 20, 2021 Uncategorized Leave a comment

14/8/21 to 20/8/21 YourScreen.net The YourScreen ‘Summer of Hope’ season continues online. Details here. The new film becoming available this week is Calamity. Calamity (2020) A biography of the true-life Calamity Jane, real name Martha Jane Cannary. Directed by Rémi Chayé in what is referred to as an ‘outline-less’ animation style, with rather beautiful backdrops… [continues]

On YourScreen: ‘Summer of Hope’

By John MorrishAugust 6, 2021September 10, 2021 Uncategorized, YourScreen Leave a comment

YourScreen, the Cheltenham-based streaming service, has an interesting collection of new foreign-language and independent films at the moment, under the ‘Summer of Hope’ banner. This is part of ‘Film Feels’ project devised by the BFI Film Hub Midlands, which funnels money from the National Lottery, the film industry and the Department of Culture, Media and… [continues]