(Release Info London schedule; March 8th, 2020, Curzon Richmond, 3 Water Ln, Richmond TW9 1TJ, United Kingdom, 11:00am) https://www.curzoncinemas.com/film-info/the-truth "The Truth" Fabienne (Catherine Deneuve) is a much loved, larger-than-life icon of French cinema. She reigns amongst men who love and admire her. She despites her momentary lapses in memory, remains a venerable force to be reckoned with. When she publishes her memoirs, her screenwriter daughter Lumir (Juliette Binoche) returns from New York to Paris with her struggling actor husband Hank (Ethan Hawke) and their inquisitive young daughter Charlotte (Clémentine Grenier); for the occasion, with her in tow. A sharp and funny battle of wits ensues between the mother-daughter duo, as Lumir takes issue with Fabienne's rose-colored version of the past. It comes as no surprise to Lumir that everything in her grand childhood home still revolves around her mother, and as she begins to read Fabienne’s book it becomes clear it’s riddled with omissions and embellishments, especially with regard to her relationship with the great artistic rival of her past, Sarah Mondavan (Manon Clavel). The reunion between mother and daughter will quickly turn to confrontation: truths will be told, accounts settled, loves and resentments confessed. Fabienne herself has no time for explanations and small talk; she’s preparing for her next film, a science-fiction drama. Reflected cleverly by Fabienne's latest role in a sci-fi drama, their strained relationship takes a poignant journey toward possible reconciliation. When Fabienne’s long-suffering assistant unexpectedly quits, she and Lumir are reluctantly forced into an awkward working relationship, with Lumir revisiting the same film studios where she spent countless hours as a child. Fabienne is shooting her newest film, "Memories of My Mother", and the on-screen and on-set worlds become increasingly and amusingly intertwined in this shrewd exploration of reality and fiction, family and forgiveness. As the on and off-set worlds begin to amusingly, and movingly, intertwine, suppressed emotions can no longer be kept in check. Fabienne’s projects act as a catalyst, forcing the women to face long-buried, painful truths, a confrontation that will either bring them closer or rupture their relationship completely. The film tells the story of a cinema actress and her daughter who gave up her dreams of becoming an actress. The screenplay is based on a script about a night in the dressing room of a theatre actress coming to the end of her career. Fabienne is cheerful, adorable and deliciously mischievous. Lumir creates the initial spark. The story takes place in autumn to superimpose what the heroine goes through at the end of her life onto the landscapes of Paris at the end of summer. People will see how the greens of the garden change subtly as winter approaches, accompanying the relationship between mother and daughter and colouring this moment of their lives. If a fresh breeze of cheerfulness and freedom blows through "The Truth", even though it takes place mainly inside a family home, it’s certainly because Fabienne and Lumir charm and kindness irradiate the film from beginning to end. The young Charlotte reveals a personality and a presence full of life. As children often do in films, the little girl watches philosophically the confrontation between these slightly overwhelmed men and these women trapped in their past. It's a film that's not only serious but also light-hearted, where drama and comedy coexist, as they do in real life. The chemistry between Fabienne, Lumir and the amused gaze of the child succeed in setting the right tone. For his first feature set outside Japan, Kore-eda lends this hugely enjoyable film the observant, tender eye audiences have come to cherish to a 'Francophile’s' dream project. "The Truth" is a very special cinema experience: a gentle, sly and moving exploration of reality and fiction, family, performance, and the great spectacle of life. The film is a love letter to mothers and daughters everywhere. Charming, bold, and imbued with endless emotional insight, "The Truth" offers a relatable look at human relationships. It's a powerful and emotional story of family conflicts and family dynamics. What makes a family a family? Truth or lies? And how would you choose between a cruel truth and a kind lie? These are the questions we never stopped asking ourselves. Everyone who sees it will take the opportunity to find his or her own answers. Ultimately this is a warm and quietly moving story that jumbles acting and real life; truth and fiction. If "Shoplifters" is a story about strangers pretending to be relatives, this is a story about relatives pretending to be strangers.

(Release Info London schedule; March 7th, 2020, BFI Southbank, Belvedere Rd, South Bank, London SE1, United Kingdom, 18:15 PM) https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/Online/default.asp (Release Info UK schedule; March 8th, 2020, Curzon Canterbury, Westgate Hall Rd, Canterbury CT1 2BT, United Kingdom, 1:30 PM) https://www.curzoncinemas.com/canterbury/film-info/radioactive "Radioactive" From the 1870s through to modern day, "Radioactive" is a journey through Marie Curie’s (Rosamund Pike) enduring legacies, her passionate partnerships, scientific breakthroughs, and the consequences that follow. In late '19th Century' Paris, Marie met fellow scientist Pierre Curie (Sam Riley). The pair went on to marry, raised two daughters and changed the face of science forever by their discovery of radioactivity. In 1903, the pair jointly won 'The Nobel Prize' in physics for their discovery, making Marie the first woman to win the esteemed prize. After the death of her beloved Pierre, Marie’s commitment to science remained unwavering and her work went on to win her a second 'Nobel Prize', taking with it the responsibility for discoveries which changed the world. This is a bold, visionary depiction of a legacy of an extraordinary life, the transformative effects and ensuing fallout of the Curie’s work and an exploration of how this impacted the defining moments of 'The 20th Century'. "Radioactive" is a cutting-edge historical drama which delves deeply into Marie Curie’s life and the aftermath of her discoveries. The film has three historical eras; 1893-1906 which forms the main part of the story; 1906-1911/12 after Pierre's fatal accident; and finally 1914 to Marie's death in 1934. The film starts in 1934 with the aged Marie Curie and then goes in two directions, back through her life and from the beginning of her life forward, in an overlapping narrative. Usually a film takes place in one place or period and there’s one language, but here we’re dealing with so many different languages, even 'The French' content spans a 50-year timespan. She arrives in Paris from Poland as Maria Skłodowska and reinvents herself as Marie Curie. 1886 is an era of huge discovery, whereas now we live in a world of innovation where we just enhance the discoveries that we already have. It's an extremely exciting time and you can see it in the way the women are received. When she arrives in Paris and enrolls at 'The Sorbonne', she's one of only 23 women in a science faculty of 4,000. At the time, in France, the word étudiante, the feminine version of 'The French' for student, is only used to describe the girlfriend of a male student; there isn't even a word for a female student. But Marie excelles and comes top of her class. But she's noted for being quite odd and outspoken and having no real gentleness in her approach to things, because she didn’t really see any point. She wants to get things done, and she's only really interested in science. Her discovery which she names radioactivity is the single most extraordinary discovery of 'The 20th Century'. The '1900s' are actually a moment of freedom and liberation for women. In 1903 Marie and Pierre Curie win 'The Nobel Prize' in physics for their discovery of radioactivity, marking the first time the prestigious award has been bestowed on a woman. After Pierre's sudden death, Marie continues her work and wins a second 'Nobel Prize' in 'Chemistry' in 1911. Marie Curie is an icon of the scientific world, a pioneer not just as a scientist but also as a woman working within a man's world whilst women were still campaigning for the right to vote. Together, 'The Curies' discover two new scientific elements, radium and polonium, with remarkable properties which would have consequences, both good and bad, that are still impacting us today; nuclear weapons, radiation for medical treatment and nuclear energy. Their working and romantic relationship turn them into celebrities, but after Pierre's death in 1906, Marie's reputation takes a blow after she has an affair with a married man. Marie grows up in Russian-occupied Poland, where she and her sister were forced to study the Russian curriculum. She led an uncompromising life. She never let her femininity get in the way of her achievements. She's also relentlessly honest, relentlessly true to herself. And she's poetic and represents the ultimate marriage of arts and science, and perhaps even more, the ultimate marriage of love and science. She has a scientific mind being a mathematician. And she really understands the connection between the science, our make up as human beings and our emotional lives. Marie Curie never defines herself as a successful woman. She defines herself as a successful scientist. Gender is irrelevant to her, and is very much of that mindset as well. She has no filter, she’s outspoken, she’s bold, she’s not essentially charming, and yet she’s charming because of all her oddities. On the page Marie Curie is very uncompromising, rude, confrontational, brash, arrogant. The character of 'Marie Curie' is an antidote to the stereotypes usually found on the big screen. Pierre Curie was raised in a non-religious family which was quite unusual for the time and when he meets and fell in love with Marie Curie, he's working with his brother Jacques (Ed Fleroff) on the invention of the quadrant electrometer, which measured the electrical values of different materials. Pierre comes from an extremely open-minded background, not the average 'Catholic French' family, and he wants a wife who he can work with and who challenge him. Marie is not his muse but rather they're two brilliant spirits, for the time they're an absolutely modern couple. It's so rare for two people to have a complete meeting of minds, to work to the common goal. And when he died so tragically, it crushes her. "Radioactive" doesn’t really conform to any existing genre of cinema, because it goes narratively in different directions, in different countries and in different time periods. The film creates a hospital complex where you can seamlessly go from 1874 Poland through a door into 1960s America, and then through another door into the hospital ward in 'Pripyat' near 'Chernobyl', after the explosion in 1986, and then through another door, through a part of 'Chernobyl' now, and down this enormous corridor, 120 metres of corridor, which is where her death plays out and the end of the film happens. The corridors of the hospital are mirrored in the several tunnels that feature in the film, including in metal tunnels in 'The Chernobyl' plant and the tunnel as Marie Curie buries her mother as a child in Poland in 'The 1870s'. So there are things fizzling in test tubes in very small detailed shots, and as we go through the film, the colours get more saturated and a glow of radium suffuses the film. Marie's costumes in the first section comprise simple white shirts with 'Peter Pan' collars and pin tucks and wide, full-length skirts. By 'The First World War', corsets are beginning to become less common and there's a much looser, more shapeless silhouette by 1920s and the 1930s. The color palette for all Marie's costumes range from greys, black and white to blues and greens, a visual link to Marie's great love for science in the costumes. The film is based on Lauren Redniss's graphic novel ‘Radioactive: A Tale Of Love And Fallout' in 2012. Beautiful, poetic, deeply serious about the science, unafraid of getting into an emotional journey around science, and about a really inspirational woman. It's a grippy story of the life and the work of Marie and Pierre Curie. But it’s also the story of the consequences of their work. So at once, it’s an historical biopic of a great woman and her husband and a story of the impact of their discoveries on 'The 20th Century' and beyond. The film aims to give audiences a sense of how important Marie Curie is and the vital role she played in changing the course of human history. Everybody knows her name but hardly anyone can tell you much about her. Marie and Pierre Curie are very important. They changed the history of the world with their discovery of the twin elements of radium and polonium and that there's a fundamental instability at the heart of the universe. As we say in the story, they picked up the pebble and they cast it in the pond, but they’re not responsible for the ripples. The consequences of their discoveries and the immense power that can been harnessed through them have been put to terrible use and to very good use; radioactivity at once causes cancer and cures cancer. At the heart of this story is an extraordinary mind that's able to get to grips with how the universe was formed, and how mankind could interact with two of it's most powerful elements. "Radioactive" creates a pretty complex time frame, where we go forward in time to beyond Marie’s death, or we go back to when she’s a child. We move around quite freely within the story; it travels from the 1870s to the 1980s and includes almost every decade in between, from 'Chernobyl', to 'Hiroshima', to the introduction of radiography machines, the first mobile X-ray units. We see the good and the bad consequences of Marie and Pierre’s discoveries, the discovery of an element and then the consequences of that discovery in a scene which is utterly unrelated. It’s like a biopic at once, of a woman, but also of her scientific discoveries. Most of the time we blame the scientist for the discovery of something. Science is for me synonymous with being human and curious, and the film addresses the lasting effects of a discovery which is highly important to talk about. We live in a world where we’ve known about this all our lives. But imagine you’d never seen inside the human body, and suddenly there's the skeleton! You can see why at the same time as the science is taking off, the world of supernaturalism and spiritualism is also taking off. Suddenly the spirit world seems to be very close to us.

Merab (Levan Gelbakhiani) is a promising young dancer in the National Georgian Ensemble. Yet when new student Irakli (Bachi Valishvili) walks in, Merab starts to develop new feelings and longings. And Then We Danced is a coming out story with a twist. Levan Akin’s third feature charts a young man slowly embracing his homosexuality played out against the backdrop of toxic straight culture in Georgia, alive to the crushing weight of traditional identities and values on a new generation. It’s an engrossing rites of passage tale that occasionally gets tangled up in cliché but wins out thanks to a talented young cast (especially lead Levan Gelbakhiani), offering a fascinating glimpse into a rarely seen society and numerous sequences of Georgian dance that are both crucial to the drama and thrilling. Prefaced by archival footage of traditional Georgian folk dancing, the film opens in a rehearsal studio with Merab (Gelbakhiani) dancing with longtime partner and kinda girlfriend, Mary (Ana Javakishvili in a paper-thin role). As Merab brings sensitivity and grace to the movements, he is constantly berated by his strict instructor. “Georgian dance is based on masculinity,” his teacher tells him. “There is no room for weakness in Georgian dance.” His life away from dance is no less tough; waiting tables in a crummy restaurant, fighting with his volatile brother and tending to his grandmother and unemployed mother. Things looks up, however, when bad boy Irakli (Bachi Valishvili) steps into the studio (we know he’s a rebel because he wears an earring). Merab initially considers him a threat in the upcoming National championships — he is particularly annoyed when Irakli usurps his place in a duet — but there is something about the kid he is drawn to. The film really hits its stride in a lengthy party sequence that takes place in a huge, shabby but chic manor. Hopped up on homemade wine, the pair share an intimate moment in the woods that opens Merab’s eyes to new delights and a new world — to celebrate, Merab dances with wild abandon to Robyn’s ‘Honey’ sporting a big fur hat, an intoxicating expression of new love. But after furtive glances in the car on the way back home, it soon becomes clear that the path of true love is not going to run smooth. Akin’s script steers a predictable course through gay love story tropes and flirts with melodrama. But, helped by a terrific performance from Gelbakhiani, he never loses sight of Merab’s inner life, which bursts out in a final dance sequence of uncomfortable intensity. Juxtaposing a coming-of-age flick with the confines of traditional Georgian culture, And Then We Danced is a film about the political and the personal. And oftentimes, a pretty powerful one too. Update: Happy Wheels 3D.

(Release Info UK schedule; May 31st, 2020, The Gulbenkian Theatre, Gulbenkian, University of Kent, Candterbury CT2 7NB, United Kingdom, 4:15 pm) https://film.list.co.uk/listing/1503798-les-miserables/ Les Misérables" Stéphane (Damien Bonnard) has recently joined 'The Anti-Crime Squad' in Montfermeil, in the suburbs of Paris, where Victor Hugo set his famed novel 'Les Misérables'. It's one of the most sensitive districts on the outskirts of the city. He finds himself thrown into a community rife with tension and nearing a breaking point. Alongside his new colleagues Chris (Alexis Manenti) and Gwada (Djebril Zonga), both experienced members of the team, he quickly discovers tensions are running high between local gangs. He soon sees the neighborhood’s fiery routine, the unorthodox methods his partners use to cope with.criminals, the gangs, and the rivalries between them. When the partners join an arrest gone awry, they find themselves in the midst of a full-blown battle between the police force and raging citizens; the result of years of tension. An act of spontaneous violence at the hands of one of Stéphane’s colleagues pushes them deep into the fractured realities of the neighborhood and immigrant communities they're meant to protect. A drone captures the encounter, threatening to expose the reality of everyday life. The title refers to Victor Hugo, and the film begins with French fags during the night following 'The World Cup' victory. It’s a pity there's no other bond for the people but at the same time, those are incredible moments to experience. The film starts with this, before shifting back to the bleaker reality of daily life, where each person lives their lives according to skin colour, religion, social class. The first forty minutes of the film is a calm immersion into the neighborhood. It’s like you’re strolling along, familiarising yourselves with the characters and the fabric of the neighborhood. Indeed, the music is more electro than hip-hop. Even the way they speak, they predictable suburb-film clichés. Between Chris, a white racist cop, and ‘The Mayor’, a black neighborhood figure, things are also complex; they hate each other but have little arrangements because they need each other. The Chris character is a real asshole. He’s really good in this part, and despite his hateful side, the audience still grows attached to him. The cops are often obliged to make compromises with the residents, or else it would be permanent war. Most of these cops aren’t well-educated, they themselves live in diffcult conditions, and in the same neighborhood. It seems everything happens against a backdrop of unemployment and poverty; the root of all the problems. It’s easy to live with each other when you've money. When you don’t, it’s a lot more complicated, you need compromises, arrangements, little deals, it’s a matter of survival. For the cops too, they're in survival mode, things are tough for them too. "Les Misérables" is neither pro-low life nor pro-cops. It's more a departure then an arrival. Everything is based on actual events, the jubilation of 'The World Cup' victory of course, the arrival of the new cop in the neighborhood, the drone, even the stolen lion and the gypsies. The film tends to view all the protagonists without preconceptions or judgements, because reality is always complex. There's bad and good on both sides. We operate in such a complex world that it’s diffcult to make quick and defnitive judgments. The neighborhoods are powder kegs, there are clans, and despite all this we all try to live together and to avoid everything spinning out of control. The daily accommodations everyone makes to get by. There's still hope in the suburbs, despite all the problems, that the people of these neighborhoods have talent and don’t always fit with the clichés they’re labelled with. It's an incredible diversity of these neighborhoods. "Les Misérables" is based on the web documentaries '365 Days In Clichy-Montfermeil' and '365 Days In Mali'. These documentaries were shot during the 2005 riots. All 'Kourtrajmé' films are available for free on the Internet, before 'YouTube' or 'Dailymotion'. Mali has become the most dangerous place on earth because of 'Al Qaïda' and the so-called 'Islamic State'. We've similar principles with 'Go Fast Connection' and 'A Voix Haute'. 'Go Fast' is a docu-fiction made three years after the riots, about the subject of the media’s treatment of the suburbs. A 'Voix Haute' is initially an indie project that 'France Television' eventually joined. The film, which won 'The Grand Jury Prize' at Cannes 2019, is an extraordinarily suspenseful and captivating drama. Inspired by the 2005 Paris riots the film is a thrilling and provocative insight into the tensions between neighborhood residents and police in contemporary France. How could the politicians ever be able to bring solve our problems when they don’t actually know us or how we live? Another reality shown in the film, which contrasts with the usual clichés, is the depiction of ethnicities. People from everywhere hanging out together. The film avoids video-promo editing, the stereotypical hip-hop music. It's important to let the narrative and the shots speak for themselves. "Les Misérables" is a humanist, political film, in the sense that you don’t judge individuals but implicitly denounce a system in which everyone ends up being a victim, residents and cops alike. Responsibility falls to the politicians. You could almost say things are going from bad to worse. Despite everything, we’ve all learned to live together in these neighborhoods; with 30 different nationalities living side to side. Life in the suburbs is light years away from what the media shows you. The film is far from an adaptation of Victor Hugo’s masterpiece, but it carries the same social critique of French society’s attitude toward it's marginalized citizens. Provocatively drawing a line between Hugo’s classic and the country’s contemporary realities, it's a thrillingly timely look at the crippling tensions at the core of modern France. We're young and crazy. Today we might be a little less crazy, but you always have to keep a bit of madness. We don’t want to be stuck inside a box, which is unfortunately sometimes the case in the world of cinema.

(Release Info London schedule; June 25th, 2020, Curzon Home Cinema) https://www.curzonhomecinema.com/film/watch-young-ahmed-film-online "Young Ahmed" In Belgium, today, the destiny of young Ahmed (Idir Ben Addi), caught between his imam’s ideals of purity and life’s temptations. It's the story of the fruitless attempts made by various characters to dissuade the young fanatic Ahmed, the main character, from carrying out his murderous plan. Whoever these characters may be, his teacher Inès (Myriam Akhecktou), his mother (Claire Bodson), his brother Mathieu (Laurent Canon), his sister Rachel (Amine Hamidou), his caseworker (Oliver Bonnaud), the judge (Marc Zinga), the psychologist at the detention centre (Eva Zingano), his lawyer (Baptiste Sornin), the owner of the farm (Brazil Jail) where he's placed, his daughter Louise (Victoria Bluck) not one of them manages to reach the hard, mysterious core of this boy ready to kill his teacher in the name of his religious convictions. Ahmed is such an inscrutable character, capable of eluding us to such an extent, of leaving us without any possibility of a dramatic construction to catch up with him and bring him out of his murderous madness. Even Youssouf (Othmane Moumen), the imam at 'The fundamentalist Mosque', this magnetic figure who has harnessed the energy of the adolescent’s ideals to focus it on purity and hatred of impurity, even he, the master, is surprised by his disciple’s determination. But could it be any different? Could it be any different when the fanatic is so young, almost a child, and when, moreover, his charismatic master encourages him to venerate a martyred cousin, a dead man? How to halt the headlong rush towards murder of this fanatical boy, cut off as he's from the kindness of his educators, from the love of his mother, from the friendship and romantic games of young Louise? How can he be stopped in a moment when, without resorting to naïve optimism or an implausible happy ending, he could open up to life, converting to the impurity he has loathed until that point? What scene, what shots, could allow to film that transformation and trouble the gaze of the audience that has entered Ahmed’s night, as close as possible to that which possesses him, and to that from which he would finally be delivered.