Ticket price £7.00
Still Life (12A) – 6.30pm
2013 (UK / Italy) (Comedy, Drama)
Starring: Eddie Marsan, Joanne Froggatt, Karen Drury
Director: Uberto Pasolini
A Member’s Choice Film. Life for the unassuming John May (Eddie Marsan) has always revolved around his work for the local council in South London, finding the next of kin of those who have died alone. Profoundly dedicated to his work, he believes that everyone deserves a dignified exit, and writes eulogies and organizes funerals for those who wouldn’t have them otherwise. But when a new case – an elderly alcoholic in a flat directly opposite his own – hits him harder than usual, he journeys outside London to track down the man’s long-abandoned daughter (Joanne Froggatt). Against the odds, the two lonely souls are drawn to each other – and John’s outlook starts to open to life’s possibilities.
‘Still Life ‘ is beautifully crafted and exquisitely observed with an outstanding performance from Eddie Marsan in the lead.
(1hr 32min)
followed by…
Wild Tales (15) – 8.30pm
2014 (Argentina / Spain) ( Comedy, Drama, Thriller) (Spanish with English subtitles)
Starring: Darío Grandinetti, María Marull, Mónica Villa
Director: Damián Szifrón
Oscar nominated as Best Foreign Language Film of 2015, Wild Tales is a raucously entertaining collection of “six deadly stories of revenge”. The brilliance of the film lies in its combination of excess and ordinariness. There is a lot of violence here, often staged in a manner so extreme and so comical that it verges on the cartoonish. At the same time, the young Argentine writer-director Damián Szifron roots the tales in circumstances that most of us will recognise. If you’ve ever had a parking ticket or held a grudge from schooldays, you will recognise the motivations of the protagonists. However if everyone behaved the way the characters in Wild Tales behave, civilization would undoubtedly crumble. But the real take-away lesson here is how easy it might be for any of us, swept up in a moment of bloodlust, to consider pure raging hostility a fair trade.
Wickedly hilarious and delightfully deranged, Wild Tales is a subversive satire that doubles as a hugely entertaining anthology film.
(2hr 2min)