It’s the Summer of Lurve at the David Lean Cinema, at least for a week or so at the end of next month, when the Save the David Lean Cinema Campaign’s regular screenings resume after a brief summer hiatus with a couple of movies from 50 years ago to kick off a programme which includes a few more contemporary attractions.
Dustin Hoffman had his first major screen role in The Graduate, starring alongside Anne Bancroft as Mrs Robinson (cue the Simon and Garfunkel sound track), in 1967, the same year that The Trip saw Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda (rather than Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon) teamed up together. Both films feature in Croydon’s Clocktower cinema next month.
So, too, does Dunkirk, on release this weekend, the acclaimed account of one of the signal events of the Second World War, while Colin Farrell appears in The Beguiled, another re-make of an earlier movie but updated with all the cinematic techniques available of the 21st century.
- For details of the films being shown at the David Lean Cinema in the next few weeks, just click here
- Unless otherwise stated, tickets for all screenings are £8. Concessions (Freedom Pass-holders, full-time students, claimants and disabled) £6.50
- Bookings can be made by clicking here
David Lean Cinema programme for August and September
All films are at 2.30 and 7.30pm unless stated
Tue Aug 22 THE TRIP (18) (7.30pm)
1967 USA 82min. Director: Roger Corman
Stars: Peter Fonda, Susan Strasberg, Bruce Dern, Dennis Hopper
‘Summer of Love’ screening. Fonda plays an LA advertising director, whose impending divorce causes him to try LSD, guided by a bearded ‘trip sitter’ (Dern). His resulting visions – including spectral figures on horseback, medieval torture and ladies wearing body paint – make The Trip one of the wildest depictions of 1960s counterculture you’re ever likely to see. Corman’s visual flair, Jack Nicholson’s script and a great soundtrack (featuring The Electric Flag) ensured a major US hit, but BBFC refusals meant it was largely unseen in UK until 2002. Plus IN Gear (1967 UK 9 mins), featuring London’s most stylish boutiques.
Thu Aug 24 THE GRADUATE (15)
1967 USA 106min. Director: Mike Nichols
Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross
‘Summer of Love’ screening. Benjamin Braddock (Hoffman) has just finished college and is trying to avoid the one question everyone keeps asking: what does he want to do with his life? An unexpected diversion crops up when he is seduced by his parents’ friend Mrs. Robinson (Bancroft). Their tryst turns complicated when Benjamin falls for the one woman she demanded he stay away from, her daughter Elaine (Ross). 50th anniversary 4K restoration of this Sixties classic.
Tue Aug 29 BABY DRIVER (15) (7.30pm)
2017 UK/USA 112min. Director: Edgar Wright
Stars: Ansel Elgort, Kevin Spacey, Lily James, Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx
Wright’s music-driven feature introduces Elgort as the eponymous Baby – the young getaway driver using his iPod to control his life and drown out his tinnitus. Indebted to callous criminal kingpin Doc, Baby awaits his day of freedom. After meeting a charming waitress (James), the two bond over their love of music. Baby soon decides to whisk her off on a never-ending road trip after his last job, but Doc has other plans. Baby Driver is a captivating thrill-ride featuring a stellar cast.
Thu Aug 31 THE MIDWIFE (12A)
2017 France 117min (subtitled). Director: Martin Provost
Stars: Catherine Deneuve, Catherine Frot, Olivier Gourmet
Tense midwife Claire (Frot) finds her routine turned upside down when her late father’s free-spirited mistress Béatrice (Deneuve) suddenly reappears. Claire is furious when the homewrecker asks for her help with money and health problems, yet the possibility emerges of a bond between these two very different women and a new start for Claire. Both lead actresses shine, with Deneuve “vivid and supercharged” (The Telegraph).
Sat Sep 2 IN THIS CORNER OF THE WORLD (12A) (2.30pm)
2016 Japan 129min (subtitled). Director: Sunao Katabuchi
Stars: Non, Yoshimasa Hosoya, Daisuke Ono
Entering an arranged marriage at the age of 18, quiet, artistic Suzu moves from sleepy Hiroshima to the port city of Kobe. As she adapts to a new way of life, the privations and dangers of the Second World War gradually creep closer to home. This beautifully animated drama movingly explores family life in a corner of the world that was in some ways similar and in other ways very different to our own.
Tue Sep 5 LONDON SYMPHONY (PG) (7.30pm)
2017 UK 72min. Director: Alex Barrett
This is a spellbinding new city symphony – an entirely silent movie that swoops around more than 300 locations in the capital to the tune of a newly composed musical score, celebrating its culture and diversity. After its nomination for the Michael Powell Award for Best British Film at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, we mark London Symphony’s theatrical release by hosting a Q&A with director/editor Alex Barrett.
Thu Sep 7 A MAN CALLED OVE (15) (11am and 7.30pm)
2015 Sweden 116min (subtitled). Director: Hannes Holm
Stars: Rolf Lassgård, Bahar Pars, Filip Berg, Ida Engvoll
An isolated retiree with strict principles and a short fuse, Ove (Lassgard) passes his days grumpily enforcing housing association rules and visiting his wife Sonja’s grave. His new neighbours – pregnant Parvaneh (Pars) and her lively children – are the last thing Ove thinks he needs, and soon incur his wrath. But an unlikely friendship blooms and Ove’s past happiness and heartbreaks come to light. This Best Foreign Language Oscar nominee is a wistful, heart-warming reminder that life is sweeter when it’s shared.
Tue Sep 12 IN THIS CORNER OF THE WORLD (12A) (7.30pm)
2016 Japan 129min (subtitled). Director: Sunao Katabuchi
Stars: Non, Yoshimasa Hosoya, Daisuke Ono
As Sep 2 above.
Thu Sep 14 THE BEGUILED (15)
2017 USA 93min. Director: Sofia Coppola
Stars: Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning
In the Virginia of 1864, teachers Martha (Kidman) and Edwina (Dunst) shelter their boarding school girls from the Civil War. They take in a wounded enemy soldier (Farrell), providing refuge and tending to his wounds. However, an air of sexual tension builds and dangerous rivalries ensue after an unexpected turn of events. With her distinctive slow burning style, Coppola (Lost In Translation) adapts Thomas Cullinan’s 1966 novel (which was first made as a piece of Southern Gothic in 1971 by Don Siegel, and featuring Clint Eastwood and Geraldine Page) into a darkly entertaining drama brimming with wonderfully nuanced performances.
Tue Sep 19 KEDI (U) (7.30pm)
2016 Turkey/USA 79min (subtitled). Director: Ceyda Torun
While Istanbul is developing rapidly, cats both domestic and wild still run freely through the old quarters. We meet kedi (cats) as different as fearsome neighbourhood queen Psikopat and mild-mannered deli mascot Duman, and the artists, fishermen and market traders who live with them and care for them on the streets. This charming, ingeniously filmed documentary is a hymn to both the bond between humans and animals, and the rhythms of life in this ancient and magical city.
Wed Sep 20 DUNKIRK (12A)
2017 UK/Netherlands/France/USA 106min. Director: Christopher Nolan
Stars: Fionn Whitehead, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Kenneth Branagh
In May 1940, Germany advanced into France, trapping Allied troops on the beaches of Dunkirk. A heroic evacuation mission, using every serviceable naval and civilian vessel that could be found, rescued 330,000 French, British, Belgian and Dutch soldiers. This meticulous yet thrilling recreation by Nolan (Memento, Inception, Interstellar and the Dark Knight trilogy) puts a group of soldiers awaiting evacuation in the centre of a vast canvas, with a striking blend of youth and experience among his all-British cast.
*The 2.30pm screening will be subtitled for those with hearing loss.
Tue Sep 26 THE DEATH OF LOUIS XIV (12A) (7.30pm)
2016 France/Spain/Portugal 115min (subtitled). Director: Albert Serra
Stars: Jean-Pierre Léaud, Patrick d’Assumçao, Marc Susini
Confined to his sumptuous chambers, the Sun King is fussed over by courtiers and valets, and there’s a worrying mark developing on his foot. To make matters worse, the finest minds in 18th-century medicine are at his service. Léaud poignantly portrays the aged monarch’s world-weariness, with flashes of his old charisma and lust for life, and the sets, costumes and supporting cast are impeccably convincing. A rich vein of dark humour complements the otherwise sombre tone of this fine account of Louis’s last days.
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