JULY 2009 @ RBCFT

July Quick View - click on film for full film details:

This year’s winner of the prestigious T S Eliot prize for poetry, Jen Hadfield is making a special stop-off on her prize-winning tour to read in Dumfries. ‘Nigh-No-Place’, her winning collection, was described by the former Poet Laureate Andrew Motion as “a revelation; jaunty, energetic, iconoclastic - even devilmay- care”.

Created in 1993 by the Poetry Book Society, previous prizewinners include Seamus Heaney, Carol Ann Duffy, Don Paterson and Ted Hughes.

Michael Caine has long been one of the wonders of the British film industry. He never gives a bad performance but here he is on exceptional form giving a subtle, endearing performance as Clarence, an elderly magician and widower reluctantly taking up residence in an old folks home run by Anne-Marie Duff and husband David Morrissey.

The establishment’s saving grace is the couple’s 11 year-old son Edward, a lonely lad obsessed with the possibility of life after death. The unexpected bond between the morbid young boy and the grumpy old man is the basis of a poignant drama.

10.45am on Thursday 2 July

A return for the climate change documentary starring Pete Postlethwaite as the futuristic keeper of humankind’s archive looking back from a devastated 2055 and asking ‘what went wrong?’.

Combining ‘archive footage’ with animated and dramatic inserts, it’s a sobering film on the follies of the twentieth century.

Seductive period drama based on Colette’s novel boasting stunning cinematography and sumptuous costumes. Set in the luxurious demimonde of pre-war Paris, ‘Chéri’ is the story of the love affair between the beautiful retired courtesan Léa (Pfeiffer) and Chéri (Rupert Friend), the son of her old colleague and rival, Madame Peloux (Kathy Bates). Léa has educated the spoilt and callow boy in the ways of love, but after six years, Madame Peloux has secretly arranged a marriage between him and the daughter of a rich courtesan. As the inevitable moment of parting approaches, Léa and Chéri begin to understand, too late, how much they mean to one another.

10.45am on Thursday 9 July

* If you’re not going to Rome on your holidays, come to ‘Roman Holiday’ and indulge in a visual, culinary and literary taste of la dolce vita at the RBC with our special summer Italian themed film, literature and lunch event.

Filmed on location in a sun-kissed Rome, ‘Roman Holiday’ (dir Dir William Wyler 1953, 2h, U) is one of most enchanting romantic comedies ever made. Audrey Hepburn is at her most beguiling as an incognito Princess who escapes her overprotected life and cautious entourage for a brief, giddy taste of freedom in the company of handsome, hardboiled reporter Gregory Peck.

After a Mediterranean buffet lunch, join broadcaster Giancarlo Rinaldi who has written extensively on the local Italian community in a discussion about Rome in response to the film and ‘Fleeting Rome: In Search of La Dolce Vita’, a posthumous book by writer and painter Carlo Levi. The book is a portrayal of everyday life in post-war Rome. Levi skilfully and lovingly sketches a portrait of the capital city and of its inhabitants through changing seasons and changing times. The author revels in the riotous celebrations for New Year and the many festivals through the year, and rejoices in the beauty of the city in its many fugitive guises.

- Film £5.50, Talk £5.50 (£4.10 concession)
- Italian themed lunch and glass of wine £12
- Combined film, lunch, talk ticket £20, £18

Pre-booking by 30 June for lunch essential - call 01387 264808.
We cannot take any further lunch bookings after this date.

This workshop gently introduces young people (aged 8-11) to the wonders of animation.

The workshop is designed to encourage imagination and unleash creativity. The workshop is hands-on: students learn the basic techniques of stop frame animation and create their own characters using a variety of textures and materials, and the finished pieces will be edited together to complete a simple story. They will be given a DVD of their animation to take home at the end of the session.

Spaces are strictly limited - book early on 01387 264808 to avoid disappointment.
Price £10. Please bring your own snack.

Subtle and absorbing thriller about Elsa, a divorcée attempting to secure custody of her ten-year-old son, and who lives with the tragic loss of her baby girl seven years earlier. When she meets seven-year-old Lola, she begins to believe that the child’s her own long-lost daughter, and befriends her mother Claire in order to stay as close to the girl as possible. Before long, Elsa’s interest in young Lola has begun to unnerve Claire, and she’s forced to try to curtail contact. But by then, Claire has secrets of her own to reveal…

You are never too old to fall in love. That’s the message of this expert romantic comedy featuring the dream team of multi Oscar-winners Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman. Both stars have received Golden Globe nominations for their performances and it is their magical chemistry that makes ‘Last Chance Harvey’ that little bit special.

Hoffman brings all his rumpled charm to bear on the role of Harvey Shine, an aspiring jazz pianist who barely endures his job as a jingle writer. He arrives in London for his daughter’s wedding only to learn that she has chosen to have her stepfather walk her down the aisle. Devastated Harvey heads home early, stopping to drown his sorrows in an airport bar, where he meets a kindred spirit in sensitive, 40-something, Kate (Emma Thompson). Warmly witty and surprisingly touching, ‘Last Chance Harvey’ has a humanity that is often missing from modern comedies. Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson make you believe in the characters and root for cupid’s arrow to find its mark. Last ‘Chance Harvey’ is a treat for incurable romantics.

1pm on Wednesday 15 July

10.45am on Thursday 16 July

Sequel to ‘The Da Vinci Code’, ‘Angels and Demons’ finds Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) summoned to Vatican City to investigate a murder.

On 15 May 1959, the announcement of the major prizes at the Cannes Film Festival heralded the start of a new era when ‘The 400 Blows’, the directorial debut of 27-year-old François Truffaut, carried off the award for Best Director.

The most autobiographical of Truffaut's films, ‘The 400 Blows’ follows a few months in the life of 12-year-old Antoine Doinel who, misunderstood and mistreated by his neglectful parents and repressive schoolteachers, seeks refuge in truancy, petty crime, and the cinema. The film's original title comes from the French expression “faire les 400 coups” which actually means 'raising hell', and Antoine's rebellion against rigid social norms, breaking out from the confinement of stifling classrooms or his parents' cramped flat, is exhilaratingly captured in Henri Decaë's lyrical location shooting on the streets of Paris.

‘The 400 Blows’ was released to worldwide acclaim and now fifty years on, the film that launched the French New Wave is regarded as one of cinema’s best representations of childhood.

Screening with ‘François Truffaut, Une Autobiographie’, dir Anne Andreu, 2004, 1h18m, subtitles) to add a deeper insight into our Nouvelle Vague screening. François Truffaut kept everything. He wanted to preserve his tracks. Anne Andreu sets off on these tracks in order to relate them to the director’s favourite themes, those that appear in film after film. Taking full account of his legacy, the film reveals the hidden yet highly present relationship that links François Truffaut with today’s audiences.

Thanks to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the French Institute for this screening.

Ken Loach’s latest is a gritty, magical comedy with a difference. Eric the postman is slipping through his own fingers... His chaotic family, his wild stepsons, and the cement mixer in the front garden don't help, but it is Eric's own secret that drives him to the brink. Can he face Lily, the woman he once loved? Despite outrageous efforts and misplaced goodwill from his football fan mates, Eric continues to sink. In desperate times it takes a spliff and a special friend to challenge Eric to journey into the most perilous territory of all - the past.

As a certain Frenchman says, "He who is afraid to throw the dice, will never throw a six." A crowd-pleaser with heart and soul.

A beautiful lyrical documentary about a small hill-farming community in mid Wales. The landscape and population are changing rapidly as small-scale agriculture is disappearing and the generation who inhabited a pre-mechanised world is dying out. Soundtrack by electronic musician Aphex Twin.

With a loving marriage, a beautiful son and a quiet existence in Paris, life feels supremely happy for Julien and Lisa. But their world is shattered when the police storm into the couple’s home one morning and arrest Lisa for a brutal murder. After three years of unsuccessful pleas to the French bureaucracy and one attempted suicide by his wife, Julien is pushed to the brink, willing to do whatever it takes to get her out of prison. What follows is a taut, tense and thrilling chain of events that sees this ordinary man resort to extraordinary measures to prove his wife’s innocence.

An overwhelming account of the WWII massacre of Polish officers at the hands of Soviet troops in the Katyn forest and the families who, unaware of the crime, were still waiting for their husbands, fathers, sons, and brothers to return. It is a film about the continuing struggle over History and memory, and an uncompromising exploration of the Russian cover up of the massacre that prevented the Polish people from commemorating those that had been killed. Andrzej Wajda waited many years to make this deeply personal film, and it’s a must-see for fans of European cinema.

Tibet Film Festival 2009

This evening of screenings marks the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising against China’s rule and 50 years in exile for the Tibetan exile community.

Each screening will include a short film and we hope the Tibet Film Festival director will be in attendance.

This film offers a unique portrait of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual and temporal leader, and one of the leading moral and spiritual authorities in the world today. Filmed over three years with unprecedented access, ‘The Unwinking Gaze’ provides a behind-the-scenes insight into His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s work towards a peaceful resolution of the Tibet issue through dialogue with the Chinese Government.

Filmed over the course of a year, from March 2007 to March 2008, this film offers an account of Tibet’s history and its present, exploring many of the human rights and environmental issues facing Tibet today as a result of more than 50 years of Chinese occupation.

This is one of the most recent and comprehensive overviews of the Tibet issue and its current situation.

Adaptation of the tear-jerker novel by Jodi Picoult. A tale of moral dilemmas as a family is torn apart by chronic illness. When their daughter is diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia, the parents conceive another child to be a genetic match to save Kate's life. Their desperate decision raises both ethical and moral questions and rips away at the foundation of their relationship.