https://www.curzonhomecinema.com/film/watch-proxima-film-online "Proxima" At play here's the transmutation of the body, like in Cronenberg’s movies. Sarah Loreau (Eva Green) must separate from 'The Earth' and from her normal 'Earth' body. She must become a space person. When we see her disinfecting her body with iodine, or when they make the mold of her body for her seat in the rocket, there's the sense of her becoming a space creature. "Proxima" is a distant galaxy and also what's close to us, like Sarah’s daughter Stella (Zélie Boulant-Lemesle). The film plays on the contrast between near and far, the intimate and the cosmic, which are both opposites and mirrors of one another. Sarah goes to a place where she has never been before. Physically, in the way she moves, she makes a very credible astronaut. Sarah is a fighting machine and that sat well with her character. Sarah’s’s path in the movie is to open up to emotions. She's in that equilibrium between mission and emotion, a precarious position to the extent that emotion puts the mission at risk at one point. The film contrasts the infinitesimally small and infinitesimally big. To bring space into daily life. Sarah is a superhero and mother, in a single body. The cinema does not often show those two states in a single person, as if being a hero and mother are incompatible. Female superheroes are always detached from issues of maternity or femininity in daily life. That’s the feminist aspect of the movie, showing that a woman can be both a mother and a high-flying professional. The best practice for becoming an astronaut is being a mother. Because a mother constantly multitasks. There's this prevailing idea, a pure social construct, that a child is primarily a mother’s responsibility. At the core of the films, there's always the relationship with the body. The film shows the mother-daughter relationship units physical dimension. For example, when they’re swimming at the hotel, as if in an amniotic pool. Also, the film shows that the human body is not cut out to live anywhere other than 'Earth'; in space, it grows 10-15 cm, our airways are not made for life up there. The intensive training sessions are a point of intersection between the documentary aspect and cinematic obsessions; the body as guinea pig, strapped into machines and centrifuges. The film explores the process of separation of a mother and daughter, which resonated with the separation of the astronaut from 'The Earth'. It's a film of liberation and conciliation. Sarah completes a journey in the face of personal obstacles as a woman and mother. She overcomes her guilt complex. Her little girl also takes flight. She frees herself from the maternal cocoon. The screenplay is structured like the separation of the stages of the rocket, there are stages in the separation from 'The Earth' as well as between mother and daughter. The real liftoff protocol includes confirmation of umbilical separation, so the metaphor is not afigment of our imagination alone. Sarah’s fighting qualities can be those of a mother, just not the kind of mother typically depicted in movies. The most difficult part is trying to reconcile the warrior side of the character, who confronts a very masculine, competitive world, with the tenderness of a mother. That's the fate of a lot of women today as they try to combine career and family life, devoting themselves equally to each. The horses symbolize the little girl’s imagination, and the idea that she remains attached to 'The Earth' while her mother has just taken off for the stars. The horses are 'The Earth'. They also represent a form of wildness, anti-conformism, that's sometimes peculiar to children. Finally, for the girl, the horses represent emancipation from her mother’s hold. Like her mother, she has come a long way to accept her mother’s departure. Her mother’s mission is part of her daily life. She's pleased for her that the takeoff went smoothly. Above all, the film is a credible, moving, very human and very modern story, which shows the turmoil of a woman torn between her passion for her work as an astronaut and her love for her daughter. Mike Shannon (Matt Dillon) is not-always likable character. That’s the difficulty of his character. Between Mike and Sarah is an ambivalence emerges, affectionate friendship. Thomas Akerman (Lars Eidinger) is a nod toward the genuine rivalry that exists between astrophysicists and astronauts, between those who stay on the ground and those who take off in the rocket. It’s two different worlds, like cast and crew in movies. Astronauts have more bling, a greater public profile, while the scientists stay behind the scenes. Wendy (Sandra Hüller) is a kind of godmother-figure. Like Mike she needs to be loved, while maintaining the cold facade that comes with her job. "Proxima" points out that international cooperation works far better in space exploration than the geopolitical sphere. That's one of the exhilarating aspects of the shoot, and the international factor is mirrored in the makeup of the crew, which mix together French, Russians, Americans, Germans and Kazakhs. That mix of nationalities make us feel united in our shared humanity. The liftoff scene, when the rocket takes off, is awe-inspiring. The audience has a physical sense of being wrenched free of 'The Earth'. Space exploration makes us realize how fragile we're, how much we belong on 'Earth'. "Ptoxima", is a singular and ambitious project in the context of French cinema. We're fascinated by space. With regard to space, however, American movies have swamped all others, and the goal is to make a European space movie. In Hollywood pictures, the astronaut verges on superhuman, but the research with 'ESA' shows us there's nothing more human and fragile than an astronaut. Going into space means experiencing human fragility and realizing just how attached we're to 'The Earth'. "Proxima" is more earthbound than spatial. For example, the film shows the very physical ordeal that the astronauts bodies endures. In that respect, Tarkovsky is more important than 'Hollywood' movies. The film tackles head-on everyday machismo in the space industry. Those scenes might seem to verge on caricature but they're still below real-life experiences. It’s a male environment, conceived by men for men. For example, spacesuits are weighted on the shoulders because men have strong shoulders, whereas women are stronger in the hips. Women have to work twice as hard to gain entry to this man’s world, but they mustn’t make their presence felt either. The film pays tribute to women who've to reconcile all this, which is exacerbated, obviously, in the business of space exploration. In movies, heroines tend to be ethereal, except perhaps "Erin Brockovich". The final credits point out to the audience numerous female astronauts they've probably never heard of. There's a kind of conciliation at the end of the journey. With space exploration as the backdrop, it’s a compelling environment, which the public only knows from the outside looking in. It's a feminist film, in the sense that it highlights the audacity of a woman who dares to follow through on her passion. It's still taboo to take a year out from raising your child to fulfill your dreams.

(Release Info London schedule; December 11th, 2020, Curzon Viktoria, 58 Victoria St, Westminster, London SW1E 6QW, United Kingdom) https://www.curzoncinemas.com/victoria/film-info/songbird "Songbird" In the terrifying thriller "Songbird", 'The COVID-23' virus has mutated, and the world is in it's fourth year of lockdown. Infected Americans are ripped from their homes and forced into quarantine camps known as 'Q-Zones', from which there's no escape, as a few brave souls fight back against the forces of oppression. Amid this dystopian landscape, a fearless courier, Nico (KJ Apa), who's immune to the deadly pathogen, finds hope and love with Sara (Sofia Carson), though her lockdown prohibits them from physical contact. When Sara is believed to have become infected, Nico races desperately across the barren streets of Los Angeles in search of the only thing that can save her from imprisonment; or worse. In 2024, during the COVID-23 pandemic, the wealthy continue to live comfortable, privileged lives, while the rest of the world suffers. The haves in "Songbird" are 'The Griffins'; William (Bradley Whitford) and Piper (Demi Moore); whose wealth protects them from the everyday terrors of a raging pandemic. But it doesn’t shield them from marital discord, betrayal, and corruption. William is a morally bankrupt showbiz guy, a music executive. How horrible it would be to be in a dead relationship, and stuck together, when the world suddenly shuts down. It would be excruciating for those involved, and that’s what’s going on with William and Piper. 'The Griffins' are a wealthy couple who may hold the key to Nico’s mission. William is involved in a furtive affair, if you can call it that, with a wannabe singer, May (Alexandra Daddario). With her career going nowhere, thanks to the virus. May must resort to singing online to a coterie of fans from her seedy motel room. One of May’s most appreciative fans is Michael Dozer (Paul Walter Hauser), a disabled veteran who’s isolated in his own small apartment. Dozer doesn’t know much about life outside the military, but he's accustomed to loneliness. He has a lot of self-doub and feels he has little to offer anyone else. So, Dozer uses his only friend, a drone he named Max, to help deliver packages and keep a watchful eye on the road warrior couriers. Max is Nico's best friend, his eyes and ears to a world that has left him behind. Max is Dozer’s person until he makes a surprising connection with May. Dozer’s and Nico’s boss, Lester (Craig Robinson), is the owner of a fulfillment operation that supplies both necessary and luxury items to those who can afford them. Lester has some rich clients, and some shady stuff goes on with them. Lester is terrified of the virus, so he goes to extreme lengths to stay disease-free, even donning a full Hazmat suit when he goes outside his warehouse while using a flamethrower to sterilize discarded packaging. While Lester, and much of the rest of the world, are terrified of the silent plague, those select few who've immunity enjoy unrestricted privileges and access. Some, like the city’s sanitation engineer (Peter Storemare), take it to the next level, accumulating unlimited power. He's is the corrupt head of the city’s sanitation department, which seizes those infected and transports them to 'The Q-Zone'. The first feature film to be made during 'COVID-19' in Los Angeles, and about the pandemic itself. What does a plague-ridden Los Angeles look like in the year 2024? It’s pretty empty, grungy, and nature is slowly taking over. You can see through the city’s fragility; it’s degrading little by little due to the pandemic and being unable to sustain itself. Opportunistic footage has a privileged point of view into the world of the characters, but it’s not intrusive. It has a production scale that you can never recreate because the film captures what's taking place outside of our doors. "Songbird" is a scary, hypothetical look into our future. The film depicts increasing isolation, militarized enforcement, fear and loss. It also champions values like love, courage, bravery and compassion. It's ultimate message is one of human redemption and hope. Set in Los Angeles, four years in the future, 'The Covid Virus' has mutated, culminating in a more infectious and deadlier strain; 'COVID-23'. Lockdowns are now mandatory, curfews, food shortages, and broken supply chains are a fact of life. It’s what we think would happen if the lockdown we experienced continued for another few years. But at the film’s heart, "Songbird" is a love story about two people who can’t be together; star-crossed lovers who must figure a way out of their dire circumstances to be together. It has all the thrills of a popcorn movie, but with a lot of heart and relatability. But the film not just trying to scare audiences; it's a film that will have audiences root for the heroes, hiss the villains, and realize that we’re all in this together. It’s not a dark or bleak story. "Songbird" is about the strength of the human spirit in the face of adversity. It has scope and scale, is deeply romantic, and is, in the grand tradition of 'Hollywood', making movies about momentous and dangerous times. Movies can sometimes be escapism, or hold a magnifying glass to the world we’re living in. We're completely immersed and lost in this world of "Songbird" so that every emotion is palpable and real. Limitations can foster ingenuity and this film is certainly rich with ingenuity. It’s a time capsule of the world we’re living in right now. But most of all, the film wants to be an entertaining, action-packed love story that takes audiences on a ride.

(Release Info London schedule; January 15th, 2020, Curzon Home Cinema) https://www.curzonhomecinema.com/film/watch-heroes-dont-die-film-online "Heroes Don't Die" After being violently called out by a stranger, Joachim (Jonathan Caizinié) believes he's the reincarnation of a Serbian soldier who died on the very day he was born. He embarks with his friend Alice (Adèle Haenel) and a small film crew on a journey to Bosnia to track back details of his former life. In a country haunted by war, Alice will manage to make him reach immortality. The film practically starts with 'The Srebenican' burial ceremony. During the film, we don’t know where we’re going, we're even saying to ourselves that this quest for the ghost is going to fail. And you follow the belief in reincarnation through to it's conclusion, with a superb final sequence. If this story goes through to the end, it's because it's led, orchestrated in a way, by a gesture of love, of friendship. The character of Alice gives this end to Joachim. Friendship is the engine of this history. There's a really comical angle with 'The Pieds Nickelés' (French comic) or 'Thomson And Thompson' aspect of the characters, who always get off on the wrong foot with the locals. When the French characters enter a bar or car scrapyard, we could believe that it's a live documentary shot. But is the fact that those situations are scripted, and 'The Bosnians' are played by actors. This film attends the university of life as it's. In the early 2000s, 'East Bosnia' and that’s where the reincarnation story comes from. We've very striking memories of 'The Bosnian War'. We followed it on the news and we didn’t really understand it properly, but in some way it functioned as a sort of accompaniment to our childhood. We come to Sarajevo looking for what met us behind that door that day. The desire for culture, to watch films, to have access to passionate and engaging discussions. It’s clear that "Heroes Don't Die" comes from a 'Bosnia-Serbia' experience among other things. Bosnia is not exactly the other end of the world! It's really intense work on mourning and death. The idea of this proximity to death is even more evident in a country like Bosnia where the errant ghosts of the recent war float around, as if there had just never been an end to the end of the war. All that gives a film where the character travels to confront his own death without knowing much about where he's laying his feet. Do we really believe in reincarnation or is it just a good fictional engine? A bit of both. We want to believe in it, we prefer imagining there's something at the end, for us and for others. It’s a thought that reconciles nicely with the idea of life. The film starts from a science-fiction basis then continue with the fiction, sort of without the science! Srebrenica embodies all the ugliness of that war, how neighbours were able to eliminate each other with a violence that's inexplicable today. The film is a reminder that at the heart of Europe, two hours on a plane from Paris, is a country of which the capital city is muslim. Culturally, Sarajevo is European, very close to us, but it’s Turkish also, it follows the rhythms of the calls to prayer. It's a city where 'The Austro-Hungarian' empire meets 'The Ottoman Empire'. It's a country that embodies our collective European failure, still divided, still ready to implode, and now burdened with the other latent tensions with the route of refugees and a Europe preoccupied with identity. Usually, fantastical films involve very careful shots, with special effects and very careful lighting. Here, the aesthetic is more rough, raw. The film adopts those documentary methods in terms of lightness and certain rules. Lightness in the sense of a very small team which is nimble, without complex constraints. And the rules in the sense that it has to be believable that this film is capturing unforeseen situations. It's as though the film obliged us to reject direction in order to search a point of view. 

The 10th Anniversary edition of the ESFF with more short film screenings in Edinburgh, International Film Festival showcases, trophies, cash prizes and awards! We're also excited to be programming showcases of our best films for our 2021 partners: Adriatic Film Festival Budapest Short Film Festival Firenze FilmCorti Krakow Int. Film Festival Etiuda & Anima Cortoglobo Film Festival and Manipulate Theatre & Animation Festival! Max Length 25 minutes, international films welcomed, all genres eligible. Early Bird Deadline: Monday Feb 22nd Regular Deadline: Monday 17 May Late Deadline: Monday June 21st Open for entries online ESFF 2021 ENTRIES

(Release Info London schedule; February 12th, 2021, Curzon Home Cinema) https://www.curzonhomecinema.com/film/watch-barb-and-star-film-online "Barb And Star Go To Vista Del Mar" It’s been way too long since we’ve been able to get together with the people who matter most, and way too long since we’ve been able to get away from it all with a vacation to a beachy paradise. Take a trip and break out of your shell with Barb (Kristen Wiig) and Star (Annie Mumolo). Lifelong friends Barb and Star embark on the adventure of a lifetime when they decide to leave their small 'Midwestern' town for the first time ever. Romance, friendship and a villain’s evil plot hold onto your culottes. Barb and Star’s need to get away is thrown into sharp focus when they're kicked out of their 'Talking Club'. What’s a 'Talking Club? It’s a weekly group with Barb and Star and three or four other ladies. They pick a topic. It’s the kind of meetup taking place in homes and restaurants everywhere. But even if women everywhere will recognize their own relationships, Barb and Star’s 'Talking Club' might be a little different from the usual. They pick a topic out of a jar, and you can’t stray from the topic. They've a strict leader who keeps everyone in line. Women are most in their element when in a group with each other and doing something they love. But this group definitely has a lot of rules and not much wiggle room there. Barb and Star are part of an underrepresented group of women who've their own passions and dreams. The film brings them to life and get inside of them and take them on the adventure they deserve. That means not only windproof hairdos, but a thematic underpinning that’s similar to one in 'Bridesmaids' female friendship. Barb and Star are each other’s life, it’s this very sweet, dependent relationship they've. And they kind of need to go through a hiccup. Is it a culotte or a pair of culottes. Anyway, it’s Florida; it’s their paradise. As Barb and Star travel from their monotonous surroundings in Nebraska to the exciting sights of 'Vista Del Mar', the entire world shifts. The first palette the film starts with is definitely more muted. Beiges, browns, everything sort of muddy and earthy, representing their life in Nebraska. Then the film moves to a super vibrant palette where it’s pops of color everywhere and you’re totally stimulated by this tropical resort. 'Vista Del Mar' is the ultimate vacation spot for singles in their middle years. People who want to wear vacation clothes and eat shrimp and drink sugary alcoholic drinks. And ride glass bottom boats. If you like 'Tommy Bahama' and 'Jimmy Buffett', this is your place. A magical middle-aged paradise of Floridian pleasures, 'Vista Del Mar' is too good to exist in real life. It’s not just Florida, it’s Florida on steroids. Unknown to our heroes, though, an evil plot is afoot, one involving killer mosquitoes, a handsome but sexually frustrated second-in-command, a mysterious boy henchman, an inept superspy, and Mickey Ravelet (Wendi McLendon-Corey), an extremely pale and pasty female crime lord. She’s a unique villain with a tortured past, misunderstood, if you will. For instance, she suffers from 'Pigmentatia' degenera hysterica white skinaka. Her look is evil, but also pretty. She’s allergic to the sun. When Barb and Star land in Florida, they almost immediately cross paths with Edgar Pagét (Jamie Dornan), who's secretly working to advance an evil plot, and, not so secretly, a hopeless romantic. The other sidekick is known as Yoyo (Reyn Doi). Is he a sweet Barbra Streisand, loving suburban paperboy? Or a Bond villain à la 'Goldfinger’s Oddjob' He has a soul of a 95-year-old man in a little boy's body. But he's so incredibly warm and bright and funny and natural. And he’s up for anything. When Edgar fails to get the job done, the villainess brings in the big guns with the world’s worst spy, Darlie Bunkle (Damon Wayans Jr.). The film is rooted in the emotional journey of two women. Beyond the hysterically funny stuff, beyond the slapstick, there's this heartfelt story about two ladies. They’re finding their own identities, finding their way back into a friendship. And while that sounds so serious, that's our hook. At the end of the day, after all the shtick and the funny voices and the one-upmanship, we've to care about them. And if we do, then we'll go along with the rest. A main character can start emotionally singing for two and a half minutes. Even in the background. We've scenes with 500 people wearing shrimp masks. There's the shrimp queen beauty pageant. There's a woman all dressed in white with blue goggles, marching through the crowd. There's a human cannon. The script is a love story to middle-aged women, with the message that it’s never too late to find your shimmer. Sometimes all you need is to step out of your comfort zone and shake things up a bit. It's utopia of a certain-aged person that wants to get their groove back. “Vista del Mar is not spring break for 18-year-olds, and it's not like a quiet, laid-back retirement community. It's a party zone for middle-aged people. It’s for people who like to strut past the pool wearing a tube top and full jewelry. You're free to walk around in your Speedo from morning till night, if you want to. You can go to the restaurant still in your Speedo, you can parasail still in your 'Speedo'. You can be in every scene in a movie still in the exact same 'Speedo' if you want. In a way, we're going back to "The Wizard Of Oz". Basically, we're going from the beige-brown world of Kansas into the full color world of 'Oz'. So the film pulls out all the stops. 'Cancun' has gorgeous oceans, 'The Caribbean Sea' is this magical turquoise, It's a place filled with strange columns and wrought-iron balconies and pools upon pools with footbridges and skylights. It has very much the classic 'Hollywood Busby Berkeley' overhead patterns, It’s very much the intent of the movie to evoke those classic moments, but it’s also wrapped up in a very contemporary, modern kind of storytelling. .

(Release Info London schedule; March 7th, 2021, Curzon Home Cinema) https://www.curzonhomecinema.com/film/watch-spring-blossom-film-online (Previews 7 March - 9 March as part of the Glasgow Film Festival 2021) https://glasgowfilm.org/glasgow-film-festival/shows/spring-blossom-n-c-12 "Spring Blossom" Suzanne (Suzanne Lindon) is 16. She's bored with people of her age. Every day on her way to high school, she passes a theater. There, she meets Raphaël Frei (Arnaud Valois), an older man, and becomes obsessed with him. Despite their age difference, they find in each other an answer to their ennui and fall in love. But Suzanne is afraid she’s missing out on life; that life of a 16-year-old, which she had struggled so much to enjoy in the same way as her peers. At the beginning of the movie Suzanne certainly does not know her desires or what she wants. She's naive because she's young but she's never afraid of saying what she wants, or to be who she's with him. She's not a seductress, she's seductive without knowing it. She achieves her ends because he starts to become a sort of obsession for her. She fantasizes about him and she's so intrigued by him that meeting him and knowing him becomes a need. Suzanne seems out of step with her friends and people of her age. She gets bored with people her age, and finds something in Raphaël that she can’t find elsewhere. She's burning with envy and desire but she's still a child and not yet ready to live such an adult life. Raphaël’s life is very repetitive; the same props, the same troupe, the same play, the same place. The arrival of Suzanne and their love story is a kind of new breath given to this place. It's the most common place in the world for him, and the most intriguing in the world for her. So the theater is to a symbol of excitement and desire but at the same time a symbol of weariness. Through the character of Raphael, the film approaches difficulties linked to the acting career; the weariness of rehearsals, the loss of meaning in the face of a meticulous director. At 16, it's the daily life of our age that bores us, that's to say high school. Adults, this is different, it's our job. But a profession, and especially that of an actor, is something that we choose. The film likes the difficulty the character has in continuing to do what he has chosen to do, and what he's supposed to be passionate about. So it's also a way of emphasizing the feeling of boredom and emptiness in Raphaël’s life. This is her meeting with Raphaël that makes her grow up and realize that she's burning with envy and desire. On the other hand, she knows what she does not want, what does not correspond to her; this adolescent life to which she feels a complete stranger. The characters are drawn together around the 'Theatre of L’Atelier', both a place of weariness for Raphael and a place for expression of desire and the emerging intimacy between the couple. There's a gentleness and courtesy between Suzanne and Raphael as they become more familiar, for example the kisses on the neck rather than the lips. The modesty in their relationship is obvious because we've always think that modesty is a sign of respect, and Suzanne and Raphael are respecting each other a lot. Talk about the universal topic of adolescence and the romantic encounter, it's necessary that everyone, from all eras combined, be able to identify with this story. This is why there's no era marker in the film. No phones, no computers. In the movie, this is their language, they kiss on the neck or on the hand, they dance. They've their own sensuality, their own way of living their love story. The film likes the idea that they don’t rush each other, that they pay attention to each other. The most beautiful and sincere human relationships are those that are unfamiliar. We know that when we're moved by someone, we don’t dare reveal everything, and at the same time we feel more ourself than with anyone else. This is exactly the same with Suzanne and Raphaël, the two characters of the movie. They're moved by each other and they treat their relationship really preciously, as if it's fragile because it's rare. Furthermore it's important to show a certain form of courtesy and modesty in the movie because we live in a time where everyone allows themselves to be familiar with everybody. The character of Suzanne’s father (Frédéric Pierrot) Is really important, because it's the only male figure she has, so he's her way to learn a little more about what a man would like or want. He's the only point of comparison she has, and we've to understand that she asks him questions because they've a relationship of trust even if they've trouble showing that they understand each other. Between them, there's a lot of modesty, tenderness. More than being a mentor to her, he's just a reassuring figure who looks at her with a lot of respect because he never wants to know too much about his daughter. He just takes what she gives to him, without even understanding sometimes. What's interested with Suzanne and Raphaël’s relationship is that they don’t want or desire anything before they desire each other. The question of living an adult life is important in the movie. The thing she's not yet ready to do is to completely abandon the teenage life that she thought she's having such a hard time enduring. This daily adolescent life that she feels foreign, she now feels ready to face it and to live it fully thanks to the meeting she has with him, because it helped her to discover her envy, her desire, what she wants and who she really is. Suzanne, despite her naivety and lack of experience, seems very determined and achieves her ends; she seduces Raphael, and it's she who later puts an end to their story. The fact that she's the one who puts an end to their story is very important, because it's a way to show how this love story allows her to move forward, and it gives her hope, energy and the desire to face her real life and not to be bored by it anymore. She does not ride a scooter when she does not want to, she never forces herself to do something she does not feel, and she has the strength to leave a man she loves if she feels that it will make her move forward with her life. How does it feel to fall in love? What does it mean to meet someone, to be yourself with someone else? It's the summer before starting high school; about this certain age, where you're not totally a child anymore, but not really an adult yet. Adolescence is a difficult period because you discover new things before really discovering who you're and what you really want. It does not mean that we've to fight or rebel ourselves against our parents or family in general. Relationships at that age are more complex than just rebelling against people with no reasons. It's about two people, a young girl and an older man who are not the same age but who are living exactly the same routine. In a way they're at the same point of their lives. At 16, we sometimes fall in love with an idea more than a person. And we really want to talk about that, about the fact that they find each other, and they fall in love because they're no longer bored when together. The sixteen year-old girl we talking about in the movie is a misfit, she does not really know how to live or behave with people her own age. Being sixteen is also the moment when love stories start to become more important. This is always about legitimacy, which is kind of a vicious circle. Especially today, in the times we live in, the film shows a balanced and respectful relationship between these two. Today with the telephone and social networks, we've the feeling we know people before even meeting them.

(Release Info UK schedule, July 20th, 2021, Picturehouse Bromley, 242 High St, Bromley BR1 1NZ, United Kingdom, ● 19:45) https://www.picturehouses.com/movie-details/000/HO00010884/riders-of-justice "Riders Of Justice" "Riders Of Justice" follows recently-deployed Markus (Mad Mikkelsen), who's forced to return home to care for his teenage daughter Mathilde (Andrea Heick Gadeberg) after his wife Emma (Anne Birgitte Lind) is killed in a tragic train accident. But when a survivor of the wrecked train surfaces claiming foul play, Markus begins to suspect his wife was murdered and embarks on a mission to find those responsible. The film starts with a series of sad events, a stolen bike, dismissal, a train accident. Coincidence or a causal link? Data analyst Otto (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) examines the matter aided by his eccentric colleague Lennart (Lars Brygmann) and their even stranger friend Emmenthaler (Nicolas Bro). Together with professional soldier Markus, the men develop into angels of wrath. When Otto suggests the deadly accident was really something more sinister, his certainty sets Markus on the path to revenge against biker gang, The mission leads to results, though perhaps not the intended ones. "Riders Of Justice" is a fable, set in a framework of realism. It's the tale of a group of people all of whom, on the same day, lose their sense of security as well as their lives foundation. In meeting each other they eventually respectively find: love, self-respect, trust and the feeling of belonging to a place. Everyone ends up experiencing a kind of trust, whether that's in themselves, in 'God' or in life’s coincidences. In "Riders Of Justice" there's also a lot of serendipity. A group of hurt people come together and along the way they help heal each other. Markus is a wounded animal, who would prefer to go into hiding. Life has exhausted his faith and deprived him of his youthful naivety. He has lost his hopes and dreams of having a big family around him. But coincidences, the accident, gives him what he desired as a young man, albeit in a completely different way. And maybe it isn’t coincidences, perhaps it's 'God', or something else entirely. The film creates a drama with both touching moments and humour, which unfolds around a father and daughter, Markus and Mathilde. We stay with them in the extreme situation they find themselves in following the sudden loss of their wife/mother. "Riders Of Justice" depicts how our lives are affected when the unthinkable occurs. How do we keep our faith in life, when we no longer believe in anything? Life can seem utterly meaningless, especially when we lose our loved ones. But is there any pivotal reason why we should fully understand the point of it all? Is it not so, that if we accept, we will never understand death, then being present, grateful and among those we love, is the most meaning we can aspire to in life? And is that in itself not enough?.Accepting that all around us, even our very existence, is solely governed by chance, is a tough realization. Because if everything is random, it can be argued, that everything is also irrelevant. And irrelevant is not far from meaningless. But perhaps everything isn’t all together random. Humans are pack animals, we're meant to gather and the more we dare to devote ourselves to each other, the more significant and fuller our lives will be. The film's bone-dry humour and inimitable logic makes it another absurdist, yet educational and moving highlight in 'Danish' cinema. It's a cocktail of uproarious black comedy and shocking violence. A moving tale of the quest to mend broken lives. The core of the story is pretty dark and serious. The underlying theme is quite monumental. The meaning of life. That kind of subject matter is daunting. It has to be communicated with humour, otherwise it's hard to cope with the gravity of it.

(Release Info London, ICA Cinema,.Institute of Contemporary Arts, The Mall, St. James's, London SW1Y 5AH, United Kingdom, Fri 13th Aug @ 18:40) https://we-love-cinema.com/cinemas/418-ica-cinema/ "New Order" In a 'Mexico City' of the near future, violent street protests continue to wreak havoc. But the residents of a glamorous walled estate in an elegant district barely notice. The lavish wedding reception of Marianne (Naian González Norvind) and her fiance Daniel (Diego Boneta) is in full swing; willfully ignoring the violent class protests raging outside their community’s heavily guarded perimeter. But it doesn’t take long for the chaos to spill into this seemingly impervious enclave of privilege, with shocking, bloody results. Bride-to-be Marianne impulsively leaves the party to aid a former employee, unwittingly setting in motion a series of events that will ensnare both her well-connected family members and their working-class servants. The city’s high society is in the middle of an intoxicating celebration when a former, faithful employee of the family unexpectedly turns up desperately begging Marianne for help. While the protests of the lower classes escalate and the military reacts with counter violence, Marianne finds herself caught between the two fronts. As things take their irreversible course, a new era begins for both the family and the city as a whole. At first, only splatters of green paint and the appearance of Rolando (Manuel Bueno), a former employee seeking emergency medical funds, intrude on the festivities. But soon the party is unable to keep the reckoning at bay, and what follows is a swift disintegration of law and order defined first by class lines, then by disastrous government recapitulation. Just beyond the walls of a heavily guarded home where a lavish upper-class wedding is underway, protests, chaos, and violence have seized the streets. The shocking outburst of class warfare soon bleeds into the party, setting into motion a brutal coup d’état, all seen through the eyes of the sympathetic young bride and the servants who work for, and against, her wealthy family. Imagine 'The French Revolution' transposed on contemporary 'Mexico City'. The film drags us mercilessly into a dystopian maelstrom. The grippy thriller succinctly depicts what happens when the gap between rich and poor widens. Vividly immersing viewers in an imagined class uprising and it's even more terrifying aftermath, the film bears eerie parallels to real-life uprisings and government crackdowns across the globe. Unsparing in it's depiction of brutality and the corrosive effects of power, The film feels ripped from headlines that haven’t yet been written. Deploying a salvo of arresting images, "New Order" breathlessly traces the collapse of one political system as a more harrowing replacement springs up in it's wake. While protests rage in the streets, "New Order" is a deeply unsettling yet trenchant and thoughtfully crafted descent into a dystopian future that’s all the more terrifying because it feels so sickeningly real. The resul is a riveting and prescient drama that serves as a disquieting cautionary tale for a society marked by extreme class divisions, but it's only slightly off from reality. Social and economic disparity are currently becoming widespread and unsustainable. It's not the first time this country and the world have faced a similar scenario and corrupt governments have historically responded to all protest with dictatorial violence. "New Order" is a warning, if inequality is not addressed by civic means, and if all dissenting voices are silenced, chaos ensues.

(European Premiere of PIG, EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18TH 8:00 PM) https://birkscinema.co.uk/whats-on/on-screen/pig-edinburgh-international-film-festival/ "Pig" "Pig" tells the story of Robin Feld (Nicholas Cage), a 'truffle' hunter, who lives alone in 'The Oregonian' wilderness. Rob is gifted at caring for animals. When his beloved foraging pig is kidnapped, he must return to his long-abandoned past in Portland in search of his pig, to recover her. He looks more bushy-bearded and hobo-like than usual. He returns to the city to track down the swine, so to speak, who stole his 'truffle' pig. In these dark and uncertain times, at least we can still worship at the church of Rob. In terms of oinktastic cinema the pig faces stiff competition in another film released this year about an even-toed ungulate, which was sow good; the amazing 'Gunda'. The film chronicles the life of a truffle hunter in crisis; after his pig is kidnapped. Set against the stunning backdrop of 'Oregonian' wilderness, "Pig" shows thé search of a small-scale truffle hunter for his beloved pig. Deeply immersive, the film is a poetic snapshot, a contemplation on compassion, ethics, and the changing landscape. In intimate detail, it captures the.hunter’s personal upheaval as he questions his own morality and the value of life. 'Truffle' hunters will camp out on their porches at night, shotgun in hand, to fend off competing hunters trying to steal their valuable pigs and dogs. What? That's one of those facts that felt otherworldly yet immediately relatable to us, and that’s where "Pig" starts. It get us imagining what sort of person would be so attached to their truffle pig that this would be a quest worth following. There's the image of this tattered old man, alone in the woods with only his pig. Where did he come from? Then his world and history starts to unfold around him, and "Pig" begins to take shape. And as the story grows, something from our own life inevitably creeped it's way in. It throws us into a state of feeling like the world is a dream. We're going to wake up from. Everything feels a little like we watching it from outside ourself, and it's hard to fully commit to the reality of the world and other people. We expect the feeling to go away one day, but as we get older, we find it doesn’t naturally go away. You just get used to it and integrate it into your worldview. Different people integrate grief into their world in different ways, and it shapes how they see themselves and the people around them. We see this with our own immediate family; how the loss trickles into everyone's life in various ways, and how after many years those ways have just become our disparate realities. Not the immediate effects of grief, but the long-term, perception-defining aspects that weave into our lives and the bedrock of our consciousness. How that can make us build walls around ourselves that separate us from others, even others that are going through the same thing in their own ways. The hunter's’ inner reflections share his struggle to align life with values, and through the story’s simple intimacy, the hunter's moral quandary quietly becomes our own. "Pig" is conceived as a meditation on life, death and personal values. The film is intended as an immersive experience where the viewer shares the character’s daily life and growing anxiety. It unfolds unhurriedly, often in real time, immersing the viewer in the life of a truffle hunter. The pace of the film allows time and space to experience one's own thoughts. Quietly, the viewer embarks on an intimate journey of their own. We don’t get a lot of things to really care about in this life. For much of our society, there's a huge disconnect between what we eat and the source of that food. The film moves deep into a hipster city’s glamorous foodie culture. It's about kitchen staff in the city’s fey, foodie-favored fine-dining eateries. Who better to help explore that disconnect, and inspire compassion for all beings, than a truffle hunter experiencing his own evolution of thought? Through it's intimacy, this story has the power to reach an audience that might not have contemplated these issues. .

(Showtimes The Night House..2021 | 1h 48m | Horror, Thriller, Fri 20 AUG ● Vue Cinemas - Finchley Road (O2 Centre) O2 Centre, 255 Finchley Road, • 20:45 ● Vue Cinemas - Shepherds Bush West 12 Shopping and Leisure Centre, Shepherd's Bush Green, • 20:45 ● Vue Cinemas - Westfield Ariel Way - Westfield Shopping Centre, • 20:45 ● Vue Cinemas - Westfield Stratford City, 2 Stratford Place, • 20:45 ● Vue Cinemas - Romford, The Brewery, 1-15 The Brewery, • 20:45) https://we-love-cinema.com/movies/54626-the-night-house/ "The Night House" Reeling from the unexpected death of her husband Owen (Evan Jonigkeit), Beth (Rebecca Hall) is left alone in the lakeside home he built for her. She tries as best she can to keep it together; but then nightmares come. Disturbing visions of a presence in the house calling to her, beckoning her with a ghostly allure. Against the advice of her friends, she begins digging into her husband’s belongings, yearning for answers. What she finds are secrets both strange and disturbing; a mystery she’s determined to unravel.   Beth is feverishly confrontational, interrogating the world around her in a way we understand but could barely keep up with. Often, we feel less like we're in her shoes and more like we're watching someone we care about teeter on the edge of a cliff. What’s particularly scary about it's that the forces attacking Beth are exploiting her grief, using that wound to enter her world. There’s a solitary, eerie atmosphere that we might expect in a genre movie. But in this case, it’s often the result of Beth seeking out the thing that frightens her rather than running from it, which creates opportunities to subvert the usual genre expectations. She's being haunted but is witty and dangerous and you don’t sit there going get out of the house! Because she’s saying ‘this is my house. Come and get me. Come on'! Beth is a woman bound by her doubts and fears after all. The idea of using decoys of both Beth and her home to trick the Entity away from it's target feeels within various magical traditions. Because Beth is seeking out an entity, it inherently creates a sense of uneasiness and suspense over what she might find. And the more we care for Beth, the more heightened the suspense. The film plays on the notion we’ve all experienced where you wake up in the middle of the night and think you see something amidst the shadows, then realize your eyes are playing tricks on you. The result is that these subtle manipulations leave the audience feeling unsteady and unsure of what they’re seeing, which is exactly the state of mind that Beth descends into. The character swings wildly from confrontation and fatalistic wit to extreme vulnerability and a yearning for connection, often several times within the same scene. In Beth’s case she was left to wonder if she ever knew the man she was married to. It takes that idea and pushes it to extremes. 'The Calvary Cross' ironically serves as Beth’s wedding song with dark and ominous lyrics. The song later startles her awake one morning following her husband’s death, providing a stark juxtaposition between the unrivaled bliss of a wedding day and of the paralyzing misery of a loved one’s passing. Just as Beth wrestles with the absence of Owen, her mind begins to play tricks on her. And ultimately, the film is about watching a woman come to terms with something life destroying and working out how to accept it, let it go and survive it. Sometimes, especially in the wake of hardship or tragedy, people want to feel bad. They need to. To wallow and wrap themselves in their pain. It’s better than feeling nothing. Beth loved her husband. She lost him. Now, against her better judgment, she finds herself falling for the absence of him. As Beth begins to question everything in the wake of Owen’s death, who he was and who they're together, his architectural constructions evolve. We see the idyllic lakeside home turn into an uncanny reverse structure across the lake, only to descend into a literal labyrinth as Beth gives in to madness. The best genre stories use elements of the fantastic to illustrate relatable concepts or emotions. We’ve all been in 'The Night House' at one time or other. We’ve all feel the sense of dislocation.   As such, we know the house has to have character. To be recognizable. And, a place Owen built full of his things. Like Owen himself, the house becomes a bit of a mystery to Beth. The house is both a monument to Owen’s love and, when we introduce its mirror image, a monument to the secrets and darkness he was harboring. The house, in this case, takes on an ominous life of it's own, integral to the plot and the unraveling mystery. It becomes clear that this is not a safe space and being there's a hurtful reminder to Beth of the life she has lost. It's important to portray the house as an integral representation of the relationship between Beth and Owen. The film constructs a history of the marriage up to present day, focusing on the details of their daily routines to create a momentary snapshot of their lives; like a museum depicting the final days of their marriage. As an audience, we follow Beth back and forth, until we don’t know what’s real anymore. The amount of alcohol she consumes throughout the story just further clouds our vision. The couple’s past is viewed through old home video footage that Beth watches while she drinks alone late into the night. However, every other character that surrounds her is wearing patterns. Her friend Claire (Sarah Goldberg) wears patterned tops, as well as everyone at the school Beth works at and her neighbor Mel (Vondie Curtis-Hall). "The Night House" is inspired and shaped by actual mythology, specifically 'Welsh' turf mazes and an 'Egyptian' voodoo doll from 'The 4th Century A.D'. currently housed in 'The Louvre'. 'Welsh' shepherds built simple mazes called 'Caerdroia' on hilltops to perform ritual dances. 'Caerdroia' literally translates to 'Walls Of Troy', which is a reference to the city of 'Greek' myth whose streets were simple enough for the enemy to enter, but ultimately too complex for them to find their way out. On the topic of turf maze the labyrinths served as a unique and tangible means of spell craft, the ambulatory equivalent of a chant. The idea that space or movement through space could have just as much ritual power as magic words is intriguing. Ultimately, the deeper meaning of these mazes becomes the driving force behind the irony of the house itself. A maze built to confound malevolent forces, and your own home in the aftermath of tragedy as a maze that confounds you. The space is familiar but it’s wrong. Owen built a house to lose what was haunting him, but left Beth lost and haunted in the house he built for her. We always beennattracted to the horror genre. Something about the script lingers. The script is supernatural puzzle that's slowly unlocked by a combination of demons and duplicates. The conflicts and the metaphors dig into the mechanics of the story, continually get lost in the subterranean regions of the narrative, which is as confounding as it's exciting. On the surface, there's a compelling mystery about one woman’s recently deceased husband and the question of whether we can ever truly know our loved ones. There's the awkwardness of grief, and the responsibilities we've for one another in times of emotional peril. And, of course, there's the ghost story; the kind that plays fast and loose with haunt tropes in the way that any horror fan would have a blast running with. The story is like a labyrinth that you enter at your own risk, a harrowing tale of unraveling that carried at least a few dark, quiet truths. A ghost story with shades of gothic romance, and a portrait of a deeply troubled marriage. It’s a mysterious and harrowing tale of unravelling; a labyrinth that you enter at your own peril. "The Night House' is a descent into madness through the classic lens of a haunted house film. The film leaves sinister clues throughout; an undecipherable suicide note, multiple photos of unknown women, reverse architectural plans, and a disturbing sculpture found in a secret location. "The Night House" tackles themes of grief, depression, self-destruction, and the sacredness of relationships. The film explores the many ways we affect one another in a relationship; how vulnerable we can be to each other’s demons and the facades we maintain. The story explores the universal themes of mortality and the afterlife, whether you can ever truly know someone, the tendency people have toward darkness and self-destructive behavior, depression, anxiety. Being unable to understand what’s real is simply more frightening than the thing that’s out to get you. "The Night House" is a terrifying, chilling ghost story that reflects our fraught times. It’s about what frightens you most. It's the idea that ghosts actually exist, or the realization that they don’t.

(Showtimes in London, Curzon Bloomsbury,The Brunswick Centre, London WC1N 1AW, United Kingdom, Wed 25th Aug @ 19:00 /Thu 26th Aug @ 15:30/ Fri 27th Aug @ 14:50/Sat 28th Aug @ 14:50/Sat 28th Aug @ 20:30/Sun 29th Aug @ 14:20 Sun 29th Aug @ 14:20/Mon 30th Aug @ 14:00/ Mon 30th Aug @ 19:00/Tue 31st Aug @ 14:50Tue 31st Aug @ 19:00/Wed 1st Sep @ 14:50/ Wed 1st Sep @ 19:00/Thu 2nd Sep @ 14:40/Thu 2nd Sep @ 19:00/ Thu 2nd Sep @ 20:50) (The Chiswick Cinema, Chiswick High Road, Chiswick, 94-96 Chiswick High Rd, Chiswick, London W4 1SH, United Kingdom, Fri 27th Aug @ 11:50/Wed 1st Sep @ 11:55) "The Father" Anthony (Anthony Hopkins) is 80, mischievous, living defiantly alone and rejecting the carers that his.daughter, Anne (Olivia Coleman), encouragingly introduces. Yet help is also becoming a necessity for Anne; she can’t make daily visits anymore and Anthony’s grip on reality is unravelling. As we experience the ebb and flow of his memory, how much of his own identity and past can Anthony cling to? How does Anne cope as she grieves the loss of her father, while he still lives and breathes before her? "The Father" warmly embraces real life, through loving reflection upon the vibrant human condition; heart-breaking and uncompromisingly poignant; a movie that nestles in the truth of our own lives. It's an inescapable fact of life that for every relationship between a parent and a child, there's a moment in time where the child becomes a carer, and the parent a dependent. This is at the core of "The Father". It's a wrought family drama of what happens when a relationship which has colored our every waking moment for decades suddenly and irrevocably changes. An elderly father and his middle-aged daughter struggling to adapt to changed circumstances. What we see on the screen does not necessarily give us a true version of the world. The film experiences the world through the prism of the character Anthony's confusion, as his dementia sets in motion a gradual decline effecting every part of his reality. But this is not just a film about dementia, and he's more than an unreliable narrator. He's at the center of a struggle which gives "The Father" elements of both thriller and horror; with Anthony’s mind as the unremitting nemesis. In a way it's like a thriller. It asks the audience to be part of the story by building a narrative. The story is about that moment when you become your parent's parent, and Anne is at the heart of the narrative. She has to decide if she's going to lead her life or lead her father's life. It's not about a medical condition and the people who suffer from it. "The Father" tries to find an artistic way of presenting the way dementia affects the people around the patient, those who suffer the fall-out. The script shows what it must be like to live the life of a man suffering from 'Alzheimers', when there are moments of clarity mixed with moments of obscurity. You see that Anthony starts off comfortable and at home in his flat, but gradually he sees that there has been a series of small, incremental changes. It's terrifying to think of your world shifting beneath your feet when you’ve lost the ability to comprehend the change. Anne wants to care for her father, but she also has to live her life. She must make some very hard decisions. Paul (Rufus Sewell) is Olivia's husband. You've to see Paul through something of a cracked lens. He's ostensibly a loving husband to Anne. He’s not unkind but he's concerned for his wife and that doesn't always bring out the best in him. Laura (Imogen Poots) is brought in to care for Anthony as his condition deteriorates. She provides a portal to his youth, which brings about both joyful and painful memories of his past. The character’s experience is one of walking on eggshells, one long tightrope where she's often uncertain of how Anthony will behave or respond as his mood shifts and changes. She want him to feel like he could trust her, but without patronizing him,.as often the smallest trigger can precipitate the fear and distress that Anthony often experiences. Equally there are also touches of a comedy of menace and the fragmentation of the comedy of menace. It's as if Anthony's brain is beginning to splinter. He's terrified because he doesn't know who Bill (Mark Gatiss) is, and he becomes a threatening character. The set becomes another character, with it's own story to tell. At times it's cosy and comforting, at times cold and unfamiliar, but always changing and shifting around Anthony. The film shifts the colors and tone from golds, creams, yellows and browns towards blues. Despite such apparently dark subject matter, the film is built on a foundation of human empathy, with moments of laughter and even a sense of joy. What matters is the nature of the characters you see; ordinary people who are trying to deal with basic issues. It's about making amends and the changing relationship we've with our parents. It celebrates the unbreakable bond between parent and child as they're locked together on a journey into the unknown. While it’s sometimes funny or silly to observe, imagine how appalling every moment must be when it’s happening to you. Life for someone with dementia is like living in a horror movie all the time, not knowing who’s going to come through the door. One of the ideas expressed in the script of "The Father" is it's universal application; how few of us are likely to escape some kind of direct exposure to the themes of the film. It's about loss and love, and the way you suffer when the person you love no longer knows you. The film can at times sit somewhere on the plane between reality and fantasy, yet the fascinating window into the life of a man suffering from dementia, and the repercussions upon his family invites one to have a deeply human experience. You’re not mean to find your way out of the maze.