Films normally start at 7.30pm in The Guildhall of St George, King Street. Members and their guests can sign in from approx 7pm.
Forthcoming Film Dates for your Diary
▓ Special Events
▓ We are delighted to once again be working in partnership with the King’s Lynn Festival and have arranged these films as part of the Festival. Tickets for these films will be £4 for members and £5 for the public and will be available from the Corn Exchange. Details will be sent to you on how to purchase at the reduced rate.
Thursday 13th June — SWIMMING WITH MEN
Thursday 11th July — THE OLD MAN AND THE GUN
▓ Monday 15th July 2pm — STAN AND OLLIE
▓ Thursday 18th July 1pm — FIRST MAN
▓ Wednesday 24th July 2pm — COLETTE
Thursday 8th August — SHOPLIFTERS
▓ Thursday 22nd August — THE PRODUCERS
Thursday 12th September — GREEN BOOK
Thursday 10th October — GREAT EXPECTATIONS
▓ Thursday 31st October — CRAZY RICH ASIANS
Thursday 13thJune 7.30pm
SWIMMING WITH MEN
Drama, Comedy — (2018) — 97 mins — Cert 12A
infrequent strong language, moderate sex references
Director: Oliver Parker
Cast includes Rob Brydon, Charlotte Riley, Rupert Graves, Jim Carter, Daniel Mays, Nathaniel Parker, Thomas Turgoose, Jane Horrocks, Peter Coe, Adfeel Akhtar, Steve Carroll
His job is a drag, his wife may be cheating on him, and he’s not getting any younger. Accountant Eric (Rob Brydon) is simply treading water when he discovers a newfound sense of purpose thanks to an unexpected source: a group of similarly stuck-in-a-rut guys who have found camaraderie and self-worth through synchronized swimming. Sure, they may be a bit paunchy, but they’re determined to prove they have what it takes to be a whirling, twirling, scissor-kicking aquatic dream team. And they’ve set their sights on the ultimate prize: the world championship. Showcasing the sharp wit of The Trip series’ Rob Brydon, Swimming With Men is a big-hearted, delightfully offbeat ode to answering your calling, no matter where you are in life.
TRIVIA
This film is based on a true story. The real Swedish team, that won the Men’s Synchronised Swimming World Championships in 2007, reprised their roles for this film.
A French movie based on the same true story, Sink or Swim (2018), was released the same year.
Filmed at Cottonmill Lane Scube Club, St Albans and at the sports club at James Allen’s Girls’ School.
Thursday 11thJuly 7.00pm
AGM
Thursday 11thJuly 7.30pm
THE OLD MAN AND THE GUN
Drama — (2018) — 89 mins — Cert 12
infrequent strong language
Director: David Lowery
Cast includes Robert Redford, Casey Affleck, Sissy Spacek, Danny Glover, Tom Waits, Tika Sumpter, John David Washington
The Old Man And The Gun is based on the true story of Forrest Tucker (Robert Redford), from his audacious escape from San Quentin at the age of 70 to an unprecedented string of heists that confounded authorities and enchanted the public. Wrapped up in the pursuit are detective John Hunt (Casey Affleck), who becomes captivated with Forrest’s commitment to his craft, and a woman (Sissy Spacek), who loves him in spite of his chosen profession.
TRIVIA
Robert Redford’s final role before retiring from acting.
In an interview he gave during the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival, Robert Redford talked about this comedic film being a good note to end on, since the actor wanted his “last acting job to be fun.”
There are several “Easter egg” references to Robert Redford’s earlier films, including the opening legend, which is nearly identical to the one that opens “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (“Not that it matters, but most of what follows is true”) and the scene between Redford and Casey Affleck, where Affleck runs a finger over the side of his nose, which was the signal in “The Sting” between the con men that they were fellow-travelers.
The opening credits are also written in the same font as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
The title of the movie is obviously a play on Hemingway’s book, The Old Man and the Sea.
When she is dropped off at her home by Robert Redford’s character Forrest, Sissy Spacek’s face is momentarily illuminated by a bright red light, supposedly the brake light of Forrest’s car as he turns the ignition. This image is a clear reference to the climax of Spacek’s earlier film Carrie.
Partnership with The King’s Lynn Festival
This is the first of three films we are offering in partnership with the King’s Lynn Festival. Tickets are £5 but film club members and their guests can purchase them for £4 through the King’s Lynn Corn Exchange Box Office using the password which has been sent to all our members.
Monday 15thJuly 2.00pm
STAN AND OLLIE
Drama — (2019) — 95 mins — Cert PG
mild bad language
Director: Jon S. Baird
Cast includes Steve Coogan, John C. Reilly, Shirley Henderson, Danny Huston, Nina Arianda, Rufus Jones
Laurel & Hardy, one of the world’s great comedy teams, set out on a variety hall tour of Britain in 1953. Diminished by age and with their golden era as the kings of Hollywood comedy now behind them, they face an uncertain future. As the charm and beauty of their performances shines through, they re-connect with their adoring fans. The tour becomes a hit, but Stan & Ollie can’t quite shake the spectre of Laurel and Hardy’s past; the long-buried ghosts, coupled with Oliver’s failing health, start to threaten their precious partnership. A portrait of the most tender and poignant of creative marriages, they are aware that they may be approaching their swan song, trying to rediscover just how much they mean to each other.
TRIVIA
The small gold badges which Stan and Ollie wear in their lapels for much of the film relate to the Grand Order of Water Rats, a British trust through which members of the entertainment industry make donations to deserving people and charities. Stan and Ollie were Water Rats 465 and 466 respectively.
A Laurel & Hardy museum, which contains many artifacts of Stan Laurel’s career, is located in his birthplace, Ulverston, Cumbria. Laurel occasionally dropped by to visit his parents. When he and Oliver Hardy visited the town as part of their 1953 UK tour, a huge crowd welcomed them. A bronze statue of Laurel & Hardy is outside the town hall.
It may appear that the taxis outside the Savoy Hotel are driving on the wrong side of the road, but Savoy Court is the only named street in the UK where you drive on the right instead of the left. It is believed that this was to enable women to exit cars first, since they traditionally sat behind the driver of the carriage or cab.
Dedicated to the memory of Lois Laurel, Stan Laurel’s daughter, who died in 2017.
After the Second World War, Laurel & Hardy opened the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch railway in Kent. It was the smallest passenger train in the world.
Partnership with The King’s Lynn Festival
This is the second of three films we are offering in partnership with the King’s Lynn Festival. Tickets are £5 but film club members and their guests can purchase them for £4 through the King’s Lynn Corn Exchange Box Office using the password which has been sent to all our members.
Thursday 18thJuly 1.00pm
FIRST MAN
Drama — (2018) — 142 mins — Cert 12
infrequent strong language, moderate threat
Director: Damien Chazelle
Cast includes Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Jason Clarke, Pablo Schreiber, Christopher Abbott, Ciarán Hinds, Corey Stoll
In the aftermath of a crushing family tragedy amid the pressing Space Race with the Soviet Union, the humble and quiet civilian test pilot, Neil Armstrong, is recruited by the chief of the NASA astronaut office, Deke Slayton, for the ambitious Project Gemini, in the dawn of 1960s. However, eight long years filled with trials, tragedies, but also, innovations will pass before Armstrong – as the commander of Apollo 11 — along with the American astronaut, Buzz Aldrin, manage to land on the Moon the Apollo Lunar Module, Eagle, on 20th July, 1969. On the arid and eerie lunar landscape, Neil takes the first step on the unknown celestial body, some 384,400 kilometres away from the Earth. What is it like to be the first man on the Moon?
TRIVIA
In the breakfast scene just before Apollo 11 launched, the artist sketching Armstrong was played by Chris Calle, son of the NASA artist Paul Calle. Chris was playing his father, who actually sketched the crew that morning.
Actor Ryan Gosling first discovered Neil Armstrong’s love of the theremin during his background research with Armstrong’s family and friends. He brought it to Damien Chazelle and Justin Hurwitz’s attention, who later chose to include the strange instrument in the score.
Common errors were avoided in this film: Earth and the moon are always lit by the sun at the same angle, no clouds appear at high altitudes, the paradoxical nature of accelerating and braking rockets in orbit, no obtrusive lights hidden inside astronaut helmets to show their faces, and no ambient sound in the vacuum of space.
Director Damien Chazelle was particularly attached to making his film as authentic as possible. This care for detail was maintained, until it came to the reproduction of the space capsules. He and chief designer Nathan Crowley agreed that no ship would be enlarged by more than ten percent, even if it sacrificed the comfort of the actors. This also caused complications for framing. The solution was to create a decor that fit in several detachable parts. In fact, the technicians had to break the seats in two to be able to integrate the cameras with the capsule.
Partnership with The King’s Lynn Festival
This is the third of three films we are offering in partnership with the King’s Lynn Festival. Tickets are £5 but film club members and their guests can purchase them for £4 through the King’s Lynn Corn Exchange Box Office using the password which has been sent to all our members.
Wednesday 24thJuly 2.00pm
COLETTE
Drama — (2018) — 109 mins — Cert 15
sexual scenes, nudity
Director: Wash Westmoreland
Cast includes Keira Knightley, Eleanor Tomlinson, Dominic West, Fiona Shaw, Aiysha Hart, Denise Gough
After marrying a successful Parisian writer known commonly as “Willy” (Dominic West), Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (Keira Knightley) is transplanted from her childhood home in rural France to the intellectual and artistic splendour of Paris. Soon after, Willy convinces Colette to ghostwrite for him. She pens a semi-autobiographical novel about a witty and brazen country girl named Claudine, sparking a bestseller and a cultural sensation. After its success, Colette and Willy become the talk of Paris and their adventures inspire additional Claudine novels. Colette’s fight over creative ownership and gender roles drives her to overcome societal constraints, revolutionising literature, fashion and sexual expression.
TRIVIA
The location shoot in Budapest was so warm at times, Dominic West wore a water vest inside his heavy costume that functioned like a car radiator, circulating cool water around his upper body. The contraption was recommended to him by John C. Reilly who used such an apparatus while playing the rotund Oliver Hardy in the biopic Stan & Ollie
It was illegal for women to wear men’s clothing during that time period in France, hence the scandal over Collette’s choice to begin wearing trousers. Ironically, homosexuality itself was legal, and had been since 1791.
The actual author, Colette, wrote the novella “Gigi” which served as the basis for the stage production and film of the same name.
The outer shots were shot in Paris but the French countryside was reconstructed in the regions of Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire. Due to the lack of budget needed to shoot entirely in Paris, the team also moved to Budapest where it shot in natural settings and Origo studios.
Thursday 8thAugust 6pm
Pre-Film Meal at the Riverside
Thursday 8thAugust 7.30pm
SHOPLIFTERS
Drama — (2018) — 121 mins — Cert 15
In Japanese with subtitles — some sexual content and nudity
Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
Cast includes Lily Franky, Sakura Andô, Kirin Kiki
After one of their shoplifting sessions, Osamu and his son come across a little girl in the freezing cold. At first reluctant to shelter the girl, Osamu’s wife agrees to take care of her after learning of the hardships she faces. Although the family is poor, barely making enough money to survive through petty crime, they seem to live happily together until an unforeseen incident reveals hidden secrets, testing the bonds that unite them.
TRIVIA
First Japanese movie to win the Palme d’Or since The Eel in 1997.
Director Hirokazu Koreeda said that he developed the story for Shoplifters when considering his earlier film Like Father, like Son, with the question “what makes a family”? He had been considering a film exploring this question for years before making Shoplifters. Koreeda described it as his “socially conscious” film. With this story, Koreeda said he did not want the perspective to be from only a few individual characters, but to capture “the family within the society”, a “wide point of view” in the vein of his 2004 film Nobody Knows. He set his story in Tokyo and was also influenced by the Japanese Recession, including media reports of how people lived in poverty and of shoplifting. To research the project, Koreeda toured an orphanage and wrote a scene inspired by a girl there who read from Swimmy by Leo Lionni.
Thursday 22ndAugust 7.30pm
THE PRODUCERS
Comedy musical — (1967) — 85 mins — Cert PG
mild sex references, violence, language, discriminatory terms
Director: Mel Brooks
Cast includes Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Kenneth Mars, Dick Shawn, Lee Meredith, Estelle Winwood
Max Bialystock is a washed up Broadway producer. Leo Bloom is a mousy public accountant. When the two meet, their combined expertise points them toward the ultimate scam: Raise more money than you need for a sure-fire flop Broadway Show. No one will expect anything back and you can pocket the difference. They need the worst play to do this. They find it in the musical “Springtime for Hitler”.
TRIVIA
Mel Brooks cannot read music. “Springtime for Hitler” and “Prisoners of Love” (as were all the songs Brooks writes for his films) were hummed into a tape recorder and transcribed by an expert. When Brooks adapted the movie into a stage musical, he wrote the entire score by himself using the same method.
Roger Ebert recounted how he was in an elevator with Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft in New York City after the film premiered. A woman got onto the elevator, recognised him and said, “I have to tell you, Mr. Brooks, that your movie is vulgar.” Brooks replied, “Lady”, he said, “it rose below vulgarity.”
Gene Wilder said in an interview on TCM that at the first reading of the script, he excused himself to leave for a dentist appointment he could not miss, when in fact he had to go to the unemployment office to collect a cheque for $55 he desperately needed at the time.
Thursday 12thSeptember 6.30pm
Annual Birthday Party
Members are invited to enjoy some cake and a glass of fizz to toast our ninth successful year of film-going.
Thursday 12thSeptember 7.30pm
GREEN BOOK
Drama, Comedy — (1967) — 127 mins — Cert 12A
infrequent strong language, moderate violence, discriminatory behaviour
Director: Peter Farrelly
Cast includes Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali, Linda Cardellini, Dimeter Marinov, Mike Hatton, Iqbal Theba
In 1962, Tony “Tony Lip” Vallelonga, a tough bouncer, is looking for work when his nightclub is closed for renovations. The most promising offer turns out to be the driver for the African-American classical pianist Don Shirley for a concert tour into the Deep South states. Although hardly enthused at working for a black man, Tony accepts the job and they begin their trek armed with The Negro Motorist Green Book, a travel guide for safe travel through America’s racial segregation. Together, the snobbishly erudite pianist and the crudely practical bouncer can barely get along with their clashing attitudes to life and ideals. However, as the disparate pair witness and endure America’s appalling injustices on the road, they find a newfound respect for each other’s talents and start to face them together. In doing so, they would nurture a friendship and understanding that would change both their lives.
TRIVIA
The pizza scene is drawn from real life: Nick Vallelonga said Tony Lip used to order a whole, unsliced pizza pie, fold it and eat it. Upon hearing the anecdote, Viggo Mortensen insisted they try to fit it into the movie. Peter Farrelly protested, saying there were enough funny eating scenes, but agreed to try it. When the crew burst out laughing, he agreed to leave the scene in.
Nick Vallelonga pulled a fast one in hiring his real life family members to play the onscreen family members. He let Viggo Mortensen believe Peter Farrelly had cast them, but suggested to Farrelly that Viggo had vouched for them as actors. The two only figured out the truth a month into the press tour.
The title and subject matter are a reference to “The Negro Motorist Green Book,” also known as “The Negro Travellers’ Green Book.” Published from 1936-1966, the guide helped African-American travellers find lodging, restaurants, and other businesses that would serve them. It eventually covered most of North America, plus Bermuda and the Caribbean.
Thursday 10thOctober 7.30pm
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
Feature — (1946) — 118 mins — Cert PG
Contains mild violence and scary moments
Director: David Lean
Cast includes John Mills, Anthony Wager, Valerie Hobson, Jean Simmons, Bernard Miles, Francis L. Sullivan, Finlay Currie, Martita Hunt, Alec Guinness, Ivor Barnard, Freda Jackson, Eileen Erskine, George Hayes, Hay Petrie, John Forrest, Torin Thatcher, O.B. Clarence, John Burch, Richard George, Grace Denbigh-Russell
As a young orphan boy, Pip lives with Joe Gargery, the local blacksmith, and his shrewish wife. He’s not yet fourteen-years-old, at which point he will begin his apprenticeship as a blacksmith, so he lives a carefree life. He meets two people who will have a great impact on his future: an escaped convict from a prison ship destined to Australia, and Estella, a young girl who lives with Miss Havisham in a dusty falling down old mansion. After several years, Pip receives tremendous news: a secret benefactor has decided to fund his becoming a gentleman, and Pip promptly moves to London, where he shares rooms with Mr. Pocket and learns to become a man of great expectations, all on the two hundred fifty pounds per year he receives from his benefactor. He also becomes a snob however, something that shames him later on. As he learns the identity of his secret benefactor, he also learns the true meaning of joy and life.
TRIVIA
John Mills, playing Pip from the age of nineteen to twenty-five, was thirty-eight at the time of filming.
David Lean wanted his movie to have a feeling of heightened realism. Working closely in conjunction with Art Director John Bryan and Cinematographer Guy Green, he employed several tricks, such as forced perspective, to achieve this effect. The famous opening shot in the graveyard, for instance, features a brooding church in the background, which, in reality, was only 10 feet high.
David Lean was not a particularly well-read man, and only became aware of the power of Charles Dickens’ story when his wife Kay Walsh dragged him along to a stage production of “Great Expectations” in 1939. Incidentally, playing Herbert Pocket in that production, was a young Alec Guinness, whom Lean subsequently cast in the same role in the movie version. Aside from bit parts, it was Guinness’ first major screen role, and was also the first of six movies he made with Lean. Martita Hunt was also in the stage production, playing Miss Havisham, a role she reprised in this movie.
During one scene where she had to carry a candle while walking up the stairs, Jean Simmons’ apron caught on fire.
Thursday 31stOctober 7.30pm
CRAZY RICH ASIANS
Feature — (2018) — 118 mins — Cert 12
infrequent strong language, moderate sex references
Director: Jon M. Chu
Cast includes Constance Wu, Michelle Yeoh, Henry Golding, Gemma Chan, Awkwafina, Ken Jeong
The story follows native New Yorker Rachel Chu (Wu) as she accompanies her boyfriend, Nick Young (Golding), to his best friend’s wedding in Singapore. Excited about visiting Asia for the first time but nervous about meeting Nick’s family, Rachel is unprepared to learn that Nick has neglected to mention a few key details about his life. It turns out that he is not only the son of one of the country’s wealthiest families but also one of its most sought-after bachelors. Being on Nick’s arm puts a target on Rachel’s back, with jealous socialites and, worse, Nick’s own disapproving mother (Yeoh) taking aim. And it soon becomes clear that while money can’t buy love, it can definitely complicate things.
TRIVIA
Director Jon M. Chu revealed that Michelle Yeoh was dissatisfied with the mock-up ring that her character, Eleanor, was going to wear. She showed him a ring from her personal collection and this eventually became the emerald and diamond ring Eleanor wears in the movie.
Netflix wanted to produce the film and offered a much bigger budget, but Kevin Kwan deliberately turned down the offer in favour of a modest $30-million budget from Warner Bros. This was done to send a message that Asian-American studio movies are commercially viable.
In the book, one of Goh’s three dogs is named after Donald Trump. In the film, the name is changed to Rockefeller.
That amazing 3-tower hotel featured in the movie is very real and is called the Marina Bay Sands. It is famous for having the world’s largest rooftop infinity pool.
