SEASON FOURTEEN: 2012-2013
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September 2012: Beginners
October 2012: Thank You for Smoking November 2012: Coriolanus December 2012: The Hedgehog January 2013: Le Quattro Volte February 2013: Senna February 2013 (HFS AGM): The Help March 2013: Delicatessen April 2013: Incendies May 2013: A Separation |
SEPTEMBER 2012: BeginnersEwan McGregor is Oliver, a 38-year-old graphic designer, in this moving and funny exploration of the vagaries of love. His elderly widowed father (Christopher Plummer in an Oscar-winning performance) has come out as gay and throws himself joyously into a new lifestyle, forcing Oliver to re-examine his parents’ lives and his own relationships. Great jazz soundtrack.
2010 | USA | 105 mins | Cert 15
Writer and director: Mike Mills |
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OCTOBER 2012: Thank You for SmokingThis savagely satirical comedy-drama stars Aaron Eckhart as Nick, a man who excels in his career as spindoctor for Big Tobacco. He plots with colleagues how to make other dangerous products more appealing, and visits Hollywood to influence a movie producer, all the while trying to remain a role model for his young son (Cameron Bright).
2005 | USA | 92 min | Cert 15
Director: Jason Reitman | Based on a novel by Christopher Buckley |
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NOVEMBER 2012: CoriolanusIn this uncompromisingly modern version of Shakespeare’s last tragedy, Ralph Fiennes has created a forceful, intelligent Coriolanus with a powerful political relevance for our own troubled times. Shot in Serbia, the film is beautifully acted and visually striking.
2011 | UK | 123 min | Cert 15
Director and star: Ralph Fiennes |
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DECEMBER 2012: The HedgehogPaloma, an 11-year-old with a pessimistic but often hilarious outlook on life, alters her views when friendships develop with Renee, the prickly concierge of their Parisian apartment building, and Kakuro, an elderly Japanese resident.
2009 | France | 100 min | Cert PG
Director: Mona Achache | Based on the novel by Muriel Barbery |
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JANUARY 2013: Le Quattro VolteBirth, death, and transformation are examined in this profound and often comic meditation on the cycles of life on earth. Exquisitely shot in a remote Calabrian village, the film focuses as much on the life of goats and the natural world as on the human inhabitants. Totally absorbing.
2010 | Italy | 88 min | Cert U
Writer and director: Michelangelo Frammartino |
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FEBRUARY 2013: SennaYou don’t have to be a Formula One fan to enjoy this BAFTA award winning documentary on Brazilian motor-racing legend, Ayrton Senna. Featuring previously unseen behind the scenes footage, the film gives rare insight into his personal and professional journey from 1984 to his untimely death a decade later.
2010 | UK | 106 min | Cert 12A
Director: Asif Kapadia | Writer: Manish Pandey |
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FEBRUARY 2013 (HFS AGM): The HelpIn 1960s Mississippi, three extraordinary and very different women build an unlikely friendship around a secret writing project on the lives and views of African-American maids – an enterprise which puts them all at risk.
2011 | USA | 146 min | Cert 12A
Director: Tate Taylor | Based on the novel by Kathryn Stockett |
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MARCH 2013: DelicatessenHorror, sci-fi and humour are combined in this surrealistic black comedy set in a post-apocalyptic French boarding house. Visually memorable and wickedly funny, the film does contain the occasional stomach-churning image!
1991 | France | 99 min | Cert 15
Directors: Marc Caro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet |
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APRIL 2013: IncendiesTwin brother and sister make life-altering discoveries when they travel to the Middle East to fulfil their mother’s last wishes. The deeply moving story brings the extremism and violence of today’s world to a starkly personal level, delivering a powerful testament to the will to survive.
2010 | Canada | Cert PG | 130 min
Writer and director: Denis Villeneuve (Play by Majdi Mouawad) |
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MAY 2013: A SeparationThis Oscar-winning drama, set in contemporary Iran, traces the dissolution of a marriage as Simin and Nader face a major decision – whether to improve the life of their child by a moving to another country or to stay and care for a deteriorating parent with Alzheimers.
2011 | Iran | 123 min | Cert PG
Writer and director: Asghar Farhadi |
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