Featuring our pick of the films for July……
Raavan (MA15+) 138 mins
Director: Mani Ratnam
Cast: Beera Munda, Aishwarya Rai, Prithviraj, 'Chiyaan' Vikram
Synopsis: Raavan is not a story but a world.
Dev (Vikram), a police officer, falls in love with Ragini (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan), a classical dancer. They are both unconventional. They get married and he takes her to his new post in Lal Maati, a small town in northern India. Lal Maati is a town where the word of law is not the police but Beera (Abhishek Bachchan), a tribal leader who has over the years shifted the power from the ruling to the have-nots of the area. Dev knows that the key to bringing order to any place is to vanquish the big fish, in this case - Beera. In one stroke Dev manages to rip open Beera's world, and set in motion a chain of events which will claim lives, change fortunes. Beera, injured but enraged hits back starting a battle that draws Dev, Beera and Ragini into the jungle. The story goes on to tell the sequence of events that follow.
Subtitles: Hindi/English
I Am Love (MA15+) 120 mins
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Cast: Tilda Swinton, Flavio Parenti, Edoardo Gabbriellin
Synopsis: I Am Love tells the story of the wealthy Recchi family, whose lives are undergoing sweeping changes. Eduardo Sr., the family patriarch, has decided to name a successor to the reigns of his massive industrial company, surprising everyone by splitting power between his son Tancredi, and grandson Edo. But Edo dreams of opening a restaurant with his friend Antonio, a handsome and talented chef. At the heart of the family is Tancredi's wife Emma (Tilda Swinton), a Russian immigrant who has adopted the culture of Milan. An adoring and attentive mother, her existence is shocked to the core when she falls quickly and deeply in love with Edo's friend and partner Antonio, and embarks on a passionate love affair that will change her family forever.
Mother and Child (MA15+) 121 mins
Director: Rodrigo García
Cast: Annette Benning, Naomi Watts, Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson
Synopsis: From director Rodrigo Garcia (Nine Lives) and executive producer Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Babel, 21 Grams), Mother and Child is a drama centred around three women whose paths will cross and change them forever: Karen (Benning) a reserved 50-year old nurse, who was forced to give up her daughter Elizabeth (Watts) for adoption 35 years ago; the daughter who's grown into a singe-minded career woman; and Lucy (Washington), desperate to adopt a child of her own. A moving tale about forgiveness, the choices we make, the chances we miss, the opportunities we seize and the power of the unbreakable bond between a mother and child.
Lou (M) 80 mins
Director:Belinda Chayko
Cast:John Hurt, Emily Barclay, Lily Bell Tindley,
Synopsis: Eleven-year-old Lou (newcomer Lily Bell-Tindley)'s life was instantly turned upside down when her father walked out on her mother and two sisters ten months earlier. Feeling abandoned, she copes by building a tough shell around her heart – afraid to let anyone hurt her again. Lou blames her mother (Emily Barclay, Suburban Mayhem, In My Father's Den) for her father's departure and refuses to let her get close.
Life suddenly becomes more interesting when her estranged grandfather (John Hurt, Alien, Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Proposition) moves in to the family's rickety, rented home. Doyle brings chaos with him, not least because he is ill and befuddled – living largely in the past.
In his confused state, Doyle mistakes his granddaughter for his long departed wife, showering her with attention in an attempt to win her affections. Lou, intrigued, plays along with the fantasy, using her bond with Doyle against her mother.
Mademoiselle Chambon (M) 96 mins
Director: Stéphane Brizé
Cast: Vincent Lindon, Sandrine Kiberlain, Aure Atika
Synopsis: After the international success of Not Here To Be Loved, Stéphane Brizé returns with his usual elegance and subtle scriptwriting, in a story that echoes in each and everyone of us.
Jean leads a pretty ordinary life: he spends his days happily between his construction sites and his house, with his loving wife and son. He feels comfortable in his routine. One day, as he's picking up Kevin from school, he stumbles upon Mademoiselle Chambon, his son's teacher. She's discreet, elegant, mesmerizing, unlike any woman he has ever met before.
This chance encounter will be a turning point in his well-organized life. Is this an opportunity to change or a folly to regret? A woman, a revelation and then a decision.
Subtitles: French/English
Farewell (M) 109 mins
Director: Christian Carion
Cast: Emir Kusturica, Guillaume Canet, Alexandra Maria Lara
Synopsis: In the vein of The Lives of Others and based on an incredible true story, Farewell is an espionage film about events that changed history. Directed by Christian Carion (Joyeux Noel) and starring two of Europe's respected actor/ directors Emir Kusturica and Guillaume Canet.
In 1981, Colonel Grigoriev (Kusturica) of the KGB, disenchanted with the Communist ideal, decides he is going to change the world. Discreetly, he makes contact with Pierre (Canet), a French engineer working in Moscow and little by little passes on documents to him - mainly concerning the United States - containing information which would constitute the most important Cold War espionage operation known to date. During a period of two years, French President, Francois Mitterrand and US chief Ronald Reagan were to personally vet the documents supplied by this source in Moscow, to whom the French Secret Service gave the codename 'Farewell'.
Subtitles: French/Russian/English
