JUNE SCREENING: Monday 13th June - Vortex -

Connaught Cinema        

Date: Monday 13th June 2022

Place: Connaught Cinema

Time: 8.00pm

Free for members

Non-members: £7.50/Students £6.50

Membership is £35 per year for 10 screenings

 

We here at WFC are super excited to bring you the latest from France's renowned enfant terrible director Gasper Noe - Vortex. A change in pace for the usually frenetic director it promises to still have all his hallmark intensity. A painfully bleak portrait of an elderly couple at the end of their lives, Vortex is brutally matter-of-fact about the indignities of old age. The film’s one concession to Noé’s normally showy directing style is a split-screen device, used to convey the disengagement and disorientation of dementia – the wife (Françoise Lebrun) struggles to recognise her husband and anxiously prowls their labyrinthine Parisian apartment, hoping to find an anchor of familiarity. The husband (neither character is named) is a petulant intellectual, played by the writer-director Dario Argento. Here death is the vortex: the dark focus, whose gravitational pull gets stronger – and harder to avoid thinking about – with every passing year. Vortex is arguably more devastating than Noé’s former provocations because it is firmly grounded in the world as we know it.

Dark devastating and quietly profound we think it really isn't a screening to be missed so hope to see you there.

'Vortex steers away from much of the shocking violence of Noé’s previous films, it still retains a particular kind of cold horror that burrows deep and takes hold.' CAITLIN QUINLAN - Empire

Watch the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L-ZcCFePAs

MAY SCREENING: Tuesday 17th May - The 400 Hundred Blows -

Connaught Cinema         

                                                                    

Date: TUESDAY 17th May 2022

Place: Connaught Cinema

Time: 8.15pm

Free for members

Non-members: £7.50/Students £6.50

Membership is £35 per year for 10 screenings

Francois Truffaut said over and over that Cinema literally saved his life, It took a delinquent student and gave him something to love. With the encouragement of his mentor Andre Bazin Truffaut became a film critic and then made The 400 Blows by his 27th birthday. If the New Wave marks the dividing point between classic and modern cinema (and many think it does), then Truffaut is likely the most beloved of modern directors - the one whose films resonated with the deepest, richest love of moviemaking.  The palpable feeling of intense intimacy can be explained by the fact that the film was Inspired by Truffaut's own early life, it shows a resourceful boy growing up in Paris and apparently dashing headlong into a life of crime. Beautifully and shot in black and white, in a  matter-of-fact neutrality that borders on the documentary The 400 Blows demolishes the barriers between autobiography and fiction, actor and character, performance and personality. It is one of the most intensely touching stories ever made about a young adolescent. with an astonishingly natural performance from its young star Jean-Pierre Leaud. It is very poignant but never marred by being sentimental.

As landmark films go, this is one unassuming masterpiece: intimate, accessible, funny, honest, fresh and heartbreaking.This semi-autobiographical tale allows Truffaut to excel with material only he knows best and create a film that will remain a classic.

‘Jean-Pierre Léaud dazzles at the heart of an autobiographical opus that invites new waves of adulation with each viewing’ Peter Bradshaw - The Guardian

'Truffaut's masterful debut is one of the all-time-great coming-of-age movies and concludes with the most expressive freeze-frame in the history of the medium.’ Time Out

Watch the trailer here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICGZfU-9Yl0

***Don't forget you can join our film club with membership still only £35 for 10 screenings. PLUS use of our extensive DVD library, priority booking with any other on location or WFC screening and exclusive invite to our lavish Christmas party. You KNOW it makes sense!***

MARCH SCREENING: Tuesday 5th April: A Banquet - Connaught Studio                                                                                                                                                                         

           

              

A BANQUET (2021)                                                                                 

Date: TUESDAY 5TH APRIL 2022

                                                                                 Place: Connaught Studio

                                                                                 Time: 8.30pm

                                                                                 Free for members

                                                                                 Non-members: £7.50/Students £6.50

                                                                                 Membership is £35 per year for 10 screenings

This dark and engaging British horror film is the debut feature of Scottish director Ruth Paxton. It deals with widowed mother Holly (Sienna Guillory) being radically tested when her teenage daughter Betsey (Jessica Alexander) experiences a profound enlightenment and insists that her body is no longer her own, but in service to a higher power. Bound to her newfound faith, Betsey refuses to eat but loses no weight. In an agonizing dilemma, torn between love and fear, Holly is forced to confront the boundaries of her own beliefs. The film is an unnerving and unsettling exploration of what lies below the surface of the supposedly happy family, while raising interesting questions about faith and destiny. A real slow-burner it will be one not to miss. 

 ‘Paxton is in expert control of her film, achieving her effects with economy and force. It really is unnerving.’  Peter Bradshaw - The Guardian 

‘The film’s slow-burn magic lies in the many questions it raises’ The NYTimes

Watch the trailer here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVZfglJ6bS0

MARCH SCREENING: Monday 14th March : FLEE : Connaught Studio

 FLEE

Bafta nominated animated documentary

Date: MONDAY 14th MARCH 2022

Place: Connaught Studio

Time: 8.15pm

free for members

non members £7.50/£6.50

Membership is £35 per year for 10 screenings

An animated documentary telling the true story about a man’s need to confront his past in order to truly have a future. Amin arrived as an unaccompanied minor in Denmark from Afghanistan. Today, at 36, he is a successful academic and is getting married to his long-time boyfriend. A secret he has been hiding for over 20 years threatens to ruin the life he has built for himself. For the first time, he is sharing his story with his close friend.

Here;s the trail to whet your apetitte:

https://youtu.be/GtB03JONqXY

★★★★★ Flee is a remarkably humanising and complex film The Guardian
★★★★★ An unfortunately timely film, Flee uses animation primarily to sharpen the dangerous edges of its refugee story Observer
★★★★★ Flee morphs from a tale of dispossession to a testament to the power of narrative – to overtake a life, and to liberate it. The Washington Post

FEBRUARY: Dario Argento's BIRD WITH A CRYSTAL PLUMMAGE (1970) remastered

 

BIRD WITH A CRYSTAL PLUMMAGE

>MONDAY 7th FEBRUARY

>CONNAUGHT STUDIO
>8.15pm

Tickets: £7.5/6.5 non members
members FREE / membership £35 for 10 screening/year

A rare treat to see this stunning genre-defining cult classic in 4K!!!! 

An American expatriate in Rome witnesses an attempted murder that is connected to an ongoing killing spree in the city, and despite himself and his girlfriend being targeted by the killer, he conducts his own investigation.

Dario Argento’s debut, credited as popularising the ‘Giallo’ genre, is an unsettling horror that still thrills 50 years after it’s original release. The building blocks that Argento would capitalise on for his more well known Suspiria or Tenebrae are all on display here. With a top notch soundtrack from ENNIO MORRICONE, don't miss this opportunity to see this on the big screen.

 JANUARY Tuesday 11th: DRIVE MY CAR - Connaught Cinema 

WFC first screening of 2022 will be Japan's Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Drive My Car (2021) at the Connaught Cinema.

Date: TUESDAY 11th January 2022

Tickets: free to members/ member's one guest £5

£7.50 for adults £6.50 for seniors and students

Doors open: 8.00pm

WFC are really excited about this one. Nominated for the Best International Feature in the 94th Academy Awards and Winner of the Best Screenplay at 2021's Cannes Film Festival it will be one not to miss. Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi adapts a short story by Haruki Murakama into a highly moving meditation on life and art. The story sees avant garde theatre director Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima) mourning the death of his wife Oto (Reika Kirishima) - whose infidelity he has just discovered. Accepting an assignment to direct a new multilingual production of Uncle Vanya in Hiroshima, he reluctantly consents to being chauffeured around by the taciturn Misaki (Tôko Miura). And thus the journey begins. Phil Hord of the Guardian says it is 'Vast in philosophical scope but intimate; beautifully controlled but pulsing with erotic undercurrents, it marks Hamaguchi’s emergence as a new cinematic master.'

We really hope you can attend because we think this is going to be a total cracker!

Watch the trailer here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BPKPb_RTwI

'With its eddying, fluid score and judicious use of silence, its satisfying layers of storytelling, this is a supremely confident piece of film-making from Ryûsuke Hamaguchi' - Wendy Ide - The Guardian

'A thoughtful and tearful ride in which the destination is a spiritual confrontation with oneself, “Drive My Car” devastates and comforts through its vehicular poetry of the sorrow from which we run, the collisions that awaken us, and the healing gained from every bump in the road.' Carlos Aguilar - Robert Ebert.com

Just a quick aside - if you want to join or its time to renew then if you do if before 12/01/22 you can have your year membership for £30. As of 12/01 we will be rising our prices to £35 for a year membership. For the membership we will now be invited to 10 screenings next year, as well as the annual xmas party and access to our terrific DVD library! And if you are stuck for a xmas or birthday gift for the discerning film person in your life why not give them a WFC membership? If you want to join either email the club or come along to a screening and sign up on the night!

We really hope to see you all soon. Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year from Caroline, Mary and Christian!

               WFC XMAS PARTY: MONDAY 6th DECEMBER  7pm

   

The time is almost upon us to make merry at the annual WFC Xmas Party! It will be at perennial fav Coast and doors open at 7pm. We really hope to see you all there, its been a while!

There will be the usual WFC party fare - free buffet, complimentary drink, the annual film quiz, a selection of short films hand picked by the committee members for your delight and delectation, music and of course great company. Hopefully it will be a lovely ending to a not so great few years and the beginning of better times. 

We will be screening a fabulous Japanese film in January 2022 (date to follow later) called Drive my Car at the Connaught. Nominated for the Best International Feature in the 94th Academy Awards and Winner of the Best Screenplay at 2021's Cannes Film Festive it will be something you won't want to miss. Total Film gave it 4 stars and state that 'it is a journey well worth taking'.  

 

Watch the trail here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BPKPb_RTwI

We at WFC are really looking forward to seeing you all again firstly at the Xmas Party and at

all our screenings next year, in which we promise the usual excellence.

Anyone wishing to join can turn up at the party or any of our screenings and join up there and then. Or if you wish to sign up before contact the club by email.

***Don't forget you can join our film club with membership still only £30 for a year of screenings! Pay cash or cheque on the night, with at least FOUR screenings at the Connaught included in your subscription PLUS use of our extensive DVD library, priority booking with any other on location or WFC screening and exclusive invite to our lavish Christmas party. You KNOW it makes sense!***