Our next film - 'War Horse' - 21 & 23 March

Set against a sweeping canvas of rural England and Europe during the First World War, "War Horse" begins with the remarkable friendship between a horse named Joey and a young man called Albert, who tames and trains him. When they are forcefully parted, the film follows the extraordinary journey of the horse as he moves through the war, changing and inspiring the lives of all those he meets-British cavalry, German soldiers, and a French farmer and his granddaughter-before the story reaches its emotional climax in the heart of No Man's Land.



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Our Next Film - 'The Iron Lady' - 7/8th March

"The Iron Lady" is a surprising and intimate portrait of Margaret Thatcher, the first and only female Prime Minister of The United Kingdom. One of the 20th century's most famous and influential women, Thatcher came from nowhere to smash through barriers of gender and class to be heard in a male dominated world.

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Our next film - The Deep Blue Sea - 22nd February

 
There couldn't be a better fit for playwright Terence Rattigan than film-maker Terence Davies, in his adaptation of The Deep Blue Sea, one of Rattigan's most touching plays....The film taps into the emotional thrust of the play, aided by an understated but eloquent and finally very moving performance from Weisz that's one of the best she has accomplished on screen....

Davies dares to fillet the play of some of its extraneous characters, and not all the dialogue is Rattigan's. He collapses most of the first act into a 10-minute wordless sequence and occasionally adds his own take on the affair between Rachel Weisz's Hester, married to Simon Russell Beale's High Court judge, and Tom Hiddleston's Freddie, an RAF pilot who scarcely deserves her love.

What he does tap into is the emotional thrust of the play, aided by an understated but eloquent and finally very moving performance from Weisz that's one of the best she has accomplished on screen.

Comparisons with David Lean's Brief Encounter seem obvious. And this, in its own way, has the same feeling for the period, in this case the post-war fifties, and the same sympathy with characters bound by the constraints of the time.

Our next film - 'The Ides of March' - Wednesday 1st February

The Ides of March is a serious film that reveals Clooney as a director capable of welding his fellow performers into a superb ensemble while sustaining both dramatic tension and moral focus. He's a liberal of a critical kind, and his respect for the audience takes the form of expecting us to understand that in bringing a self-critical searchlight to bear on events surrounding the Democratic party he isn't attacking the liberal left. He's simply addressing himself to the complications and vagaries of electoral politics...

...complications in which everyone ends up fighting to save themselves, their careers and ambitions, trapped by human weakness rather than being persuaded by superior arguments or circumstances. But is it better to win and deliver on half your pledges or retain your purity and achieve nothing? ....

From a review by Philip French in the Observer.


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Our next film - 'Anonymous' - Wed. 25th January

Set in the political snake-pit of Elizabethan England, Anonymous speculates on an issue that has for centuries intrigued academics and brilliant minds such as Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, and Sigmund Freud, namely: who actually created the body of work credited to William Shakespeare? Experts have debated, books have been written, and scholars have devoted their lives to protecting or debunking theories surrounding the authorship of the most renowned works in English literature. Anonymous poses one possible answer, focusing on a time when scandalous political intrigue, illicit romances in the Royal Court, and the schemes of greedy nobles lusting for the power of the throne were brought to light in the most unlikely of places: the London stage.
 

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Cameron vs Independent Cinema

Riotous debate has exploded following David Cameron’s comments on the state of the UK film industry. During a visit to Pinewood Studios, West London, the prime minister has urged film-makers to produce more films with mainstream box office appeal, in order to better distribute National Lottery funding. This situation would provide successful film companies with extra support, whereas unproven film-makers would be put in an even less fortuitous situation than they already find themselves. Therein lies the problem with Cameron’s postulation; it is difficult to predict the success of a film, as the past few years have provided box-office surprises. However, it is believed that more funding will enable certain film companies to grow, and will therefore have more influence when it comes to marketing, thus ensuring a hit at the box office.

The King’s Speech and Slumdog Millionaire are two such examples of films that were surprisingly successful at the box office, critically acclaimed, and lauded with trophies come awards season. It was impossible to foresee the success of either of these films, despite the involvement of star Colin Firth and director Danny Boyle, themselves proven successes in their own right.

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Oscars 2011 Winners - Film Critics views

The Guardian and Observer film team on the winners and losers at this year's Academy Awards, at which The King's Speech scooped four Oscars.



Best Picture: The King's Speech

Best Actor: Colin Firth

Best Actress: Natalie Portman

Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale

Best Supprting Actress: Melissa Leo

Best Director: Tom Hooper - The King's Speech

Animated Feature Film: Toy Story 3

Art Direction: Alice in Wonderland

Cinematography: Inception - Wally Pfister

Costumes: Alice in Wonderland

Documentary (feature): Inside Job

Film Editing: The Social Network

Foreign Language Film: In a Better World

Makeup: The Wolfman

Music (Original Score): The Social Network - Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Music (Original Song): Toy Story 3 - We Belong Together

Sound Mixing: Inception

Sound Editing: Inception

Visual Effects: Inception

Writing (Adapted Screenplay): The Social Network - Aaron Sorkin

Writing (Original Screenplay): The King's Speech - David Seidler

'On Yer Bike' budding film makers!

For those with a passion for tires, chains, and elegant frames, get ready: Back for an 11th year is the incomparable Bicycle Film Festival, which celebrates bike culture through art, music, and film. The international tour of annual BFF events showcases a collection of short and feature films that explore the beauty, wonder, and joy we find in one of history's most efficient machines. The ultimate goal, according to founder Brendt Barbur, is not only to have fun (though that's part of it), but also think critically about how we get around—and to elevate the position of bikes in popular culture.

As always, the BFF invites you to participate. You have until April 1, 2011, to submit a short or feature film, which might be selected to screen in some of 25 global cities—from Amsterdam to Tokyo to Washington, D.C.—on this tour. Films of any length and format are acceptable, though they must be under 10 minutes to qualify for the BFF shorts competition. Here's a look at the stunning and affecting compilation video.


Source

And just to inspire you here's a short film made by a group of young people from Nairobi.