Guys & Dolls

The Christmas film, Guys and Dolls will be shown tonight. Please note the earlier than usual start time of 7:30pm.

Decemcer Film - Loved You So Long (Il y a longtemps que je t'aime) (12A)

Léa (Elsa Zylberstein) and Juliette (Kristin Scott Thomas) are sisters. The film begins with Léa, the younger sister by 15 years, picking Juliette up at the airport. We soon realise that the two sisters are almost complete strangers to each other. Juliette has just been released from prison after serving a long sentence.

A fine-tuned psychological insight, walking-on-eggs narrative finesse and a devastating, career-best performance by Kristin Scott Thomas make I’ve Loved You So Long a more than impressive achievement by debut director Philippe Claudel. This is a topof-the-range family melodrama sparingly told and austerely framed, Claudel’s tale of guilt, grief and redemption will have viewers thinking deep and long.

110 minutes, dir. Philippe Claudel,
released 2008.

December 5th at Broughton Hall. 7:45 pm

November Film - Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Love, pain and the tricky workings of the human heart are all familiar subjects for Woody Allen but the move to Spain has put an extra spring in his step. Friends Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) are Americans who have decided to spend the summer in Barcelona.

Cristina is a free spirit open to any possibility. Vicky is sensible, cautious and soon to be married. Then the duo meet Spanish painter Antonio (Javier Bardem),
a silver-tongued charmer who immediately invites them to join him for a romantic weekend. The temptation to accept is irresistible.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona is pure pleasure and finds Allen back on top form. It is smart, sunny, frisky and extremely funny.
96 minutes, dir. Woody Allen, released 2008.

Sunday 8th Nov. Broughton Hall

Visitors welcome. Doors open at 7:30pm - main film starts at 8:15pm.

October Film - The Pope's Toilet

Films for 2009 - 2010

Sat 5th Sept - Slumdog Millionaire FREE special
Sat 3rd Oct - The Pope’s Toilet (El baño del Papa)
Sun 8th Nov - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Sat 5th Dec - I’ve Loved You So Long (Il y a longtemps que je t'aime)
Sun 27th Dec - Guys & Dolls CHRISTMAS Special
Sat 6th Feb - Age of Stupid
Sat 6th Mar - Sleep Furiously
Sat 10th Apr - Looking for Eric

Upper Tweed Community Cinema – from Slumdog to Ooh Aah Cantona

The new season at the club starts next month with emotionally stunning masterpiece Slumdog Millionaire, which for many people, was the film of the year. Don’t be put off by the hype surrounding this film, it really is a great movie; an old fashioned story that fizzes with excitement from start to finish. As a special opening offer, entry is free, with a collection for the charity Plan India being made. See it at Broughton Hall on 5th September.

Bouncing between moments of humour and gentle drama, The Pope’s Toilet from Uruguay is set in a small town that is anxiously awaiting the arrival of Pope John Paul II. While the swell of visitors promises to be a boon for the local economy, small-time crook Beto (César Troncoso) thinks he has worked out a unique way to capitalise on the pope's visit. An offbeat charmer, The Pope's Toilet is a humorous, well-crafted tale with plenty of heart as well as a poignant social message, which will be shown on October 3rd.

November’s film on the 8th is Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona. It is a clever, sunny, frisky and extremely funny film starring Rebecca Hall and Scarlett Johansson as two American friends tempted into a romantic weekend with silver-tongued charmer Spanish painter Antonio (Javier Bardem).

December 5th sees the screening of the French film I’ve Loved You So Long. This top-of-the-range family melodrama, sparingly told and austerely framed, with grief and redemption, will have viewers thinking deep and long.

The Christmas special on 27th December takes us back to the 1950’s with the classic musical Guys and Dolls starring Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra and Jean Simmons.

Age of Stupid, being shown on 6th February, is set in 2055, in a world in which almost all life has ended on earth. Pete Postlethwaite stars as an archivist, who looks back to the early 2000s, seeing how we got to a state in which the environment caused the collapse of civilisation. Its use of science fiction is also both effective and emotional: it's as if director Franny Armstrong hopes that the future can come to the aid of the present. Bold, supremely provocative, and hugely important, her film is a cry from the heart as much as a roar for necessary change.

Rural Wales is the setting for Sleep Furiously, showing on 6th March. Quietly observing the inhabitants of the sleepy hamlet of Trefeurig, the film builds a poetic picture not only of what stands to be lost through thoughtless modernisation, but how rapidly whole ways of life are being eroded. The film has received almost universal critical acclaim being called “entertaining and lovely", "quiet, off-beat, tender poetry", “unusually tender and eccentric” and “the most beautifully elemental documentary film to have emerged in Britain in over a decade”.

The season finishes on 10th April with Looking for Eric. Ken Loach is not generally described as an all-round crowd-pleaser, but with his latest film, Looking For Eric, he’s produced a masterpiece. It tells the story of a depressed, dysfunctional postman with a problematic family that threatens to drag him into even deeper waters. An apparition in the form of 90’s cult French footballer Eric Cantona proves to be the emotional lift to get his life back on track. A heady mix of high comedy, gritty realism, and the nonlinear philosophy of Eric Cantona, this film is an offbeat clever and moving piece of cinema.

To join or get more information contact Lesley Mason, Oliverbank East, Tweedsmuir, ML12 6QS, tel. 01899 880200. Membership costs just £18 per person (£30 for two family members). This gives free entry, with a glass of wine, to six standard screenings. All shows are in Broughton Village Hall, doors open at 7:30pm with the main feature at 8:15pm. Shorts are usually shown at about 8pm.

Have a good summer

The film club takes a break now for the summer.

Seachd: The inaccessible Pinnacle (PG) - Sunday 22nd March

"Gorgeously-realised blend of magic realism and family drama" THE HERALD

"Dramatic, funny, spectacular and steeped in Gaelic mythology" THE LIST

"Glows with warmth and humanity" THE OBSERVER

"Visually breathtaking" BBC

The Visitor - Saturday, 28 February

The film being screened this month(Saturday 28th February) is The Visitor from the director of The Station Agent and the producer of Sideways. Both these films were hugely popular with film club members, so expectations are high. In the film, a widowed college professor travels to New York City to attend a conference and returns to find a young couple, who turn out to be illegal immigrants, living in his apartment. Their developing relationship provides a fascinating, uplifting and entertaining experience.

The Visitor, which was featured last week on BBC’s Film 2009 as one of the few truly independent films to gain a commercial cinema release last year, has had excellent reviews and won plaudits at many of the major international film festivals.

Once - Saturday, 24 January

This month it’s back to the ‘talkies’ with the Irish musical film Once. This low budget film has had fantastic reviews, and tells a gentle and touching love story against a backdrop of Dublin, accompanied by an Oscar winning soundtrack.

Christmas Special - Monday, 29 December

The Christmas social is always special and on December 29th there is something very special. The club will be recreating the era of silent movies by showing films accompanied by a live piano player (a character well know in the local music scene). This promises to be an exciting and novel evening.

Edge of Heaven - Saturday, 29 November

Edge of Heaven on November 29th is a German/Turkish film following the story of struggling immigrants in Germany. Full of sensitive characterisations and fine performances, the film examines the ever-changing concept of ‘European identity’, a subject as relevant in the Scottish Borders as it is in the rest of Europe.