The cinema adaptation of the Posy Simmonds‘ Guardian graphic novel series is in the safe hands of director Stephen Frears (The Queen, High Fidelity, The Grifters), with Gemma Arterton as the eponymous heroine, with support from Dominic Cooper, Roger Allam and Tamsin Greig on show-stealing form.
Unlike the rest of his companions at the South Pole, Jasper the penguin believes there is a greater world beyond the edge of the ice. He is proved right when he finds himself aboard an ocean liner in the company of the rarest of birds, the Kakapo, whose main trait is that when frightened she wells up like a balloon. Along with Emma, the captain’s daughter, Jasper becomes embroiled in a rescue mission to save the Kakapo’s eggs from the menacing Dr Block and his sidekick Rolf. Just for laughs, here’s the French version of the trailer…(the English version isn’t quite finished)
If the finest things in life are written on an empty stomach, as an agent claims here, Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett must have been ravenous when they penned “Sunset Boulevard”.
Not so much biting the hand that fed them as devouring both arms, their gothic melodrama remains the bitterest attack ever launched on Hollywood.
Wilder finished the 50s by writing the funniest final line ever (in “Some Like it Hot“). And he started it here with one of the most audacious set-ups: a flashback movie narrated by a corpse. That’s right, dead man talking.
The corpse in question is struggling screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden). Needing to lie low for a while, he chances upon a run-down mansion on Sunset Blvd.
The creepy residence is home to just two people: faded movie star Norma Desmond (the hypnotic Gloria Swanson), and devoted manservant Max (Erich von Stroheim, who’d pass for miserable if he lightened up a little).
Desmond is planning an unlikely movie comeback, and wants Cecil B DeMille to direct her hapless version of “Salome”.
Eyeing an easy buck, Joe offers his writing services to the deluded one-time great. She covets more than just his editing skills, however…
“Sunset Boulevard” is both a savage indictment of the star system (and the monsters it produces), and an all-too-knowing depiction of a writer’s impotence in Hollywood – the more Gillis takes from Desmond, the more emasculated and powerless he becomes.
Classic scene unspools after classic scene (tick off those priceless one-liners), with the most chilling moment arriving when Wilder pans past hundreds of photos of Desmond – Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong-il could learn something about iconography from this woman.
Now re-released in a new print, get ready for your close-up with the finest movie ever made about the narcissistic hellhole that is Hollywood.
Evoking the empowered spirit of ERIN BROKOVICH and CLOSER, Julia Roberts gives a memorable performance in this bittersweet drama from director Ryan Murphy (RUNNING WITH SCISSORS). Just don’t call it a chick flick. Based on Elizabeth Gilbert’s bestselling memoir, EAT, PRAY, LOVE follows the incredible journey of a disenchanted divorcee who travels around the world to rediscover herself. Sampling the culinary delights of Italy, the sanctuary of prayer in India, and the meaning of true love in Bali, she quickly discovers that sometimes in order to fully find yourself, you have to lose yourself first. Filled with the same wry wit and spiritual exuberance that saw the book receive international acclaim, EAT, PRAY, LOVE is an educational and heart-warming affair.
In the eternal battle between cats and dogs, one crazed feline has just taken things a paw too far. Kitty Galore, a former elite agent for spy organisation MEOWS, has gone rogue. In 48 hours, she plans to unleash a diabolical device designed not only to bring her canine enemies to heel but take down her former kitty comrades and make the world her scratching post.
Faced with this immediate and unprecedented threat, cats and dogs will be forced to work together for the first time in history in an unlikely alliance to save themselves – and their beloved humans – from global cat-astrophe. It’s time for fur to fly…
12-year-old Dre Parker (Jaden Smith) could’ve been the most popular kid in Detroit, but his mother’s latest career move has taken them to China. Dre immediately falls for his classmate Mei Ying, but cultural differences make such a friendship impossible. Even worse, Dre’s feelings make an enemy of the class bully, and kung fu prodigy, Cheng. In the land of kung fu, Dre knows only a little karate, and Cheng puts “the karate kid” on the floor with ease. With no friends in a strange land, Dre has nowhere to turn but maintenance man Mr. Han (Jackie Chan), who is secretly a kung fu master. As Han teaches Dre that kung fu is not about punches and skill, but maturity and calm, Dre realizes that facing down the bullies will be the adventure of a lifetime.
The Tipping Point Film Fund continues at The Lexi on Monday 20 September with a screening of Stephanie Black’s award-winning LIFE AND DEBT. The film, which starts at 7.15pm, will be followed by a panel discussion and includes guest speaker, broadcaster and academic, Dr Robert Beckford.
After the great success of the TPFF hosted screening of Oliver Stone’s ‘South of the Border’ in July, and the accompanying panel discussion, where a packed cinema audience passionately debated radical Latin American leadership until we had to throw them out, we’re looking forward to many more packed-house events!
So join us for the launch of the TPFF Film Club (an exciting opportunity to get together with like-minded individuals, to discuss the issues of the day through the medium of film). All Tipping Point Film Fund regular givers will receive a free ticket to the event on 20 September and a free glass of wine too – courtesy of The Co-operative. For more information about the TPFF Film Club click here.
We do hope you can join us!
Jamaica, land of sand, sea and sun… and a prime example of the complexities of economic globalisation on the world’s developing countries.
With twenty-five years of “help” from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank intended to bring Third World nations such as Jamaica into the fold of free market economies, these restructuring policies have crippled Jamaica’s efforts toward self-reliant development while enriching the lenders.
This scathing film is an unapologetic look at the new world order from the point of view of Jamaican workers and farmers, as well as government and policy officials. Featuring interviews with former Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley and former President of Haiti Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Life and Debt portrays the relationship between Jamaican poverty and the practices of international lending agencies while driving home the devastating consequences of globalisation.
The film was made a decade ago and re-released on DVD in August but it remains as relevant today as when it was first released.
‘When will rich countries own up to their responsibility in keeping developing nations poor in order to grow their own wealth?’
The panel discussion after the film will delve deeper into the truth behind why many developing nations are still under-developed. It will explore just ‘who owes who’ in the relationship between the rich north and the poor south – especially in light of the recent petition of France to return to poverty stricken post-earthquake Haiti, the 90 million gold francs (£14bn) it took as ‘compensation’ to French slave-owners for Haiti’s independence in 1804.
Dr. Robert Beckford is an academic and award winning broadcaster based in Birmingham. He has authored half-a-dozen books in the field of theology and culture and made over 20 documentaries for the BBC and Channel 4, averaging two films per year with Channel 4, becoming a regular fixture on the prime time television slots of Christmas Day and Easter Sunday.
Nick Dearden is Director of Jubilee Debt Campaign. Before, he worked at War on Want (special focus on labour national rights, including campaigning for justice for the people of Palestine); Amnesty International UK, with a lead role on their campaign on poverty and economic, social and cultural rights and joined Jubilee Debt Campaign in 2008 as its Director.
Dr. Patricia Daley is a lecturer in Human Geography at Oxford University. She is the author of Gender and Genocide in Burundi: The Search for Spaces of Peace in the Great Lakes Region. Another of her projects examines the condition of new African diaspora communities in Great Britain. Her charitable work includes acting as a member of the advisory panel of the Windle Trust, a non-governmental organization that provides scholarships to African Refugees. She is also a Trustee of Fahamu.
The cinema adaptation of the Posy Simmonds‘ Guardian graphic novel series is in the safe hands of director Stephen Frears (The Queen, High Fidelity, The Grifters), with Gemma Arterton as the eponymous heroine, with support from Dominic Cooper, Roger Allam and Tamsin Greig on show-stealing form. Tickets on sale soon…
“CYRUS is a film about letting go, losing inhibitions and following new paths – the kind of cheese regularly mishandled by ham-fisted Hollywood rom-coms. But under the sophisticated guidance of an expert cast and crew, here it proves both charming and enlightening, with a mix of observational humour and heartbreak that stays with you.”
CYRUS is also a wickedly funny comedy. John C. Reilly thinks his luck is in, when his drunken party rendition of Don’t You Want Me is enough to convince single mum Marisa Tomei that he’s different enough from other guys to be interesting. The two hit it off, much to the disgruntlement of Tomei’s twenty-something, stay-at-home son, Cyrus – a brilliantly creepy but hilarious Jonah Hill. Mumblecore kings The Duplass brothers keep the camera right up in their subjects faces and let the actors improvise to great effect.
“The past continually forces its way into the present in “The Secret in Their Eyes,” an attractive, messy drama riddled with violence and edged with comedy that comes with a hint of Grand Guignol, a suggestion of politics and three resonant, deeply appealing performances. Set primarily in contemporary Argentina with intermittent flashbacks to the 1970s when the country was descending into a military dictatorship, the film is by turns a whodunit (and why), a romance and something of a ghost story. A young dead woman lies at the center of the mystery, but she’s scarcely the only thing here haunting the living.” – New York Times
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