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 have been sent to you on how to purchase at the reduced rate.
▓ King’s Lynn Festival Event
▓ Saturday 29th July 12 noon — DEAN SPANLEY
Thursday 10th August — JACKIE
▓ Thursday 24th August — THE HANDMAIDEN
Thursday 14th September — LION
Thursday 12th October — A MAN CALLED OVE
▓ Thursday 26th October — PERSONAL SHOPPER
Thursday 9th November — FRANTZ
▓ Tuesday 21st November — MR PIP
Thursday 14th December — TRADING PLACES
This is the second of two films we are offering in partnership with the King’s Lynn Summer 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.
Saturday 29thJune 12noon
DEAN SPANLEY
Comedy, Drama — (2008) — 100 mins — Cert PG
Director: Toa Fraser
Cast includes Jeremy Northam, Peter O’Toole, Sam Neill Bryan Brown, Judy Parfitt, Dudley Sutton
Peter O’Toole adds yet another offbeat role to his long resume with the mystical comedy-drama Dean Spanley. Adapted from Lord Dunsany’s popular novella My Talks with Dean Spanley and directed by Toa Fraser, the film stars O’Toole as Horatio Fisk, an irascible, cantankerous septuagenarian living out his final days at the turn of the 20th Century. Despite his distant and slightly strained relationship with his son Henslowe (Jeremy Northam), Horatio willfully joins the young man on regular outings; the tedium and monotony of these routines eventually grow so overwhelming, however, that the two decide to attend a lecture on the Transmigration of Souls by a visiting Hindu Swami. At the meeting, their paths intersect with the eccentric Dean Spanley (Sam Neill), and a friendship blossoms between Spanley and Henslowe.
TRIVIA
Norwich Cathedral & Elm Hill
Elveden Hall, Suffolk
Holkham Hall
Wisbech, Wisbech Castle and Peckover House
New Zealand
Thursday 10thAugust
Pre-Film Meal at the Riverside 6.15pm
Details and menu can be seen here
JACKIE
Biography, Drama, History — (2016) — 97 mins — Cert 15
Brief strong violence
Director: Pablo Larraín
Cast includes Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard, Greta Gerwig, Billy Crudup, John Hurt, Max Casella, Beth Grant, Richard E. Grant
Jackie is a searing and intimate portrait of one of the most important and tragic moments in American history, seen through the eyes of the iconic First Lady, then Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy (Natalie Portman). Jackie places us in her world during the days immediately following her husband’s assassination. Known for her extraordinary dignity and poise, here we see a psychological portrait of the First Lady as she struggles to maintain her husband’s legacy and the world of “Camelot” that they created and loved so well.
TRIVIA
Director Pablo Larraín estimates that a third of the shots in the film were the first take.
Filming moved swiftly over 23 days on stages in Paris, with 10 days in Washington D.C. and Baltimore.
A challenge for costume designer Madeline Fontaine was the dark red, two-piece, bouclé wool dress Jacqueline Kennedy (Natalie Portman) wears during her White House tour that most people only associate with the greyed-out 1960s television image. “There do in fact exist some photos of the dress in colour so we were able to see the original red. But we had to make two different pieces, one red and one pink, to get just the right shade of grey for the black and white television images,” Fontaine explained.
Thursday 24thAugust
THE HANDMAIDEN
Drama, Mystery, Romance — (2016) — 144 mins — Cert 18
Korean & Japanese — Subtitled — Strong sex, sex references
Director: Park Chan-wook
Cast includes Min-hee Kim, Jung-woo Ha, Jin-woong Jo
From Park Chan-wook, the celebrated director of OLDBOY, LADY VENGEANCE, THIRST and STOKER, comes a ravishing new crime drama inspired by the novel ‘FINGERSMITH’ by British author Sarah Waters. Having transposed the story to 1930s-era colonial Korea and Japan, Park presents a gripping and sensual tale of a young Japanese Lady living on a secluded estate, and a Korean woman who is hired to serve as her new handmaiden, but who is secretly involved in a conman’s plot to defraud her of her large inheritance.
TRIVIA
Based on the novel “Fingersmith” by Sarah Waters (published in 2002 by Virago Press). The novel is set in London during the 19th century, but the film is set in Korea in the 1930s, under Japanese colonial rule.
Actress Tae-ri Kim was selected for her role through auditions which had approximately 1,500 applicants.
The film title in Korean (Ah-ga-ssi) means ”The Lady” referring to Lady Hideko, while the English/International title is The Handmaiden referring to Sook-hee.
Thursday 14thSeptember
LION
Drama — (2016) — 118 mins — Cert PG
Scenes of emotional intensity, mild threat
Director: Garth Davis
Cast includes Rooney Mara, Nicole Kidman, Dev Patel, David Wenham, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Aditya Roy Kapoor
The true story of a life lost and found.
Five-year-old Saroo gets lost on a train which takes him thousands of miles across India, away from home and family. Saroo must learn to survive alone in Kolkata, before ultimately being adopted by an Australian couple. Twenty-five years later, armed with only a handful of memories, his unwavering determination, and a revolutionary technology known as Google Earth, he sets out to find his lost family and finally return to his first home.
TRIVIA
The film was developed by Australian producers Andrew Fraser and Shahen Mekertichian. They stubbornly refused to change the Australian setting of the film to America and hereby received several rejections from American film production companies. By the time of release, the two producers had spent four years on the film.
Based on Saroo Brierley’s memoir “A Long Way Home“, the true story of his own search for his childhood home. The film was originally set to feature the same title as the book on which it is based.
Dev Patel’s initial audition lasted six hours. There was concerns among the producers that he was too obvious a choice for a lead role with Indian heritage. This has also previously prevented Patel from possible roles, as he was refused an audition for “Life of Pi” and other parts.
Thursday 12thOctober
A MAN CALLED OVE
Swedish, subtitled — Drama, Comedy — (2015) — 116 mins — Cert 15
Some disturbing images, and language
Director: Hannes Holm
Cast includes Rolf Lassgård, Bahar Pars, Filip Berg
Stepping from the pages of Fredrik Backman’s international best-selling novel, Ove is the quintessential angry old man next door. An isolated retiree with strict principles and a short fuse, who spends his days enforcing block association rules that only he cares about, and visiting his wife’s grave, Ove has given up on life. Enter a boisterous young family next door who accidentally flattens Ove’s mailbox while moving in and earning his special brand of ire. Yet from this inauspicious beginning an unlikely friendship forms and we come to understand Ove’s past happiness and heartbreaks. What emerges is a heartwarming tale of unreliable first impressions and the gentle reminder that life is sweeter when it’s shared.
TRIVIA
The film was nominated for six awards, winning two, at the 51st Guldbagge Awards in 2016. It was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film and Best Make-up and Hairstyling categories at the 89th Academy Awards.
Two different ragdoll cats, Magic and Orlando, were used in the movie. After a casting, Magic was selected due to his adherence, curiousness and never could be startled away. Orlando was a stand-in used for the scenes when required to stay put or be carried for long periods of time. Both cats were born in Poland.
Rolf Lassgård, the actor playing Ove, was 59 years old when the shooting of the movie begun. The same age as the character he plays.
Thursday 26thOctober
PERSONAL SHOPPER
Horror, Drama — (2016) — 105 mins — Cert 15
Strong language, threat, infrequent bloody images
Director: Olivier Assayas
Cast includes Kristen Stewart, Lars Eidinger, Sigrid Bouaziz, Anders Danielsen Lie, Ty Olwin, Hammou Graïa, Benjamin Biolay
A brazenly unconventional ghost story.
Olivier Assayas, the internationally-acclaimed director of Clouds of Sils Maria and Summer Hours, returns with this ethereal and mysterious ghost story starring Kristen Stewart as a high-fashion personal shopper to the stars who is also a spiritual medium. Grieving the recent death of her twin brother, she haunts his Paris home, determined to make contact with him.
TRIVIA
Stewart and the crew were filming in Paris and left to start filming in Prague just 48 hours before the 2015 Paris attacks. They were together when the news broke on TV with many of the crew frantically making phone calls to check on the safety of family and friends.
Olivier Assayas describes this as a companion piece of sorts to Clouds of Sils Maria (2014). In both films, Kristen Stewart plays a woman on the fringes of wealth and celebrity.
Olivier Assayas didn’t originally intend to make two consecutive films with Kristen Stewart. However, in 2015 he was working on a American production, which fell apart and subsequently created the script for this film in a short matter of time. In an interview, Assayas said he didn’t think he would’ve written the Personal Shopper screenplay if he hadn’t known Stewart.
Thursday 9thNovember
FRANTZ
Romance, Drama — (2016) — 114 mins — Cert 12A
French & German, subtitled — Infrequent moderate violence
Director: François Ozon
Cast includes Pierre Niney, Paula Beer, Ernst Stötzner, Marie Gruber, Johann von Bülow, Anton von Lucke
In 1919 Quedlinburg, Germany, a young woman named Anna is still mourning the death of her fiance, Frantz Hoffmeister, in the Great War while living with his equally devastated parents. One day, a mysterious Frenchman, Adrien Rivoire, comes to town both to pay his respects to Frantz’s grave and to contact that soldier’s parents. Although it is difficult for both sides with the bitterness of Germany’s defeat, Adrian explains that he knew Frantz and gradually he wins Anna and the Hoffmeisters’ hearts as he tries to connect with them.
This is the first of two films we are offering in partnership with the King’s Lynn Winter 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.
Tuesday 21stNovember
MR. PIP
Drama — (2012) — 116 mins — PG13
Director: Andrew Adamson
Cast Includes: Hugh Laurie, Xzannjah Matsi, Healesville Joel, Eka Darville, Kerry Fox, Florence Korokoro Florence Korokoro
Based on the best-selling novel, Mr. Pip is a film by Andrew Adamson (Chronicles of Narnia, Shrek) and stars Hugh Laurie as Mr. Watts, the last Englishman remaining in a tropical village in Bougainville during its civil war in the 1990s. He begins to teach the local children by reading them Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens. Matilda, an imaginative young girl (played by newcomer Xzannjah), is transported into the story of the novel, believing that Dickens’ character Pip is her friend. Matilda’s “Pip” world is an extraordinary fusion of Dickens’ Victorian London with the environment and people she knows on the island. This wildly imaginative hybrid place is set alongside the film’s unflinching portrayal of the horrors of war. Matilda’s passion for storytelling brings terror to the village when Pip’s identity is misunderstood by the invading army. Ultimately, her courage and imagination must sustain her if she is to survive.
TRIVIA
Thursday 14thDecember
TRADING PLACES
Feature — (1983) — 116 mins — Cert 15
Contains strong language, drug use and nudity
Director: John Landis
Cast includes Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ralph Bellamy, Don Ameche, Denholm Elliott, Maurice Woods
Brothers Mortimer and Randolph Duke are wealthy commodity brokers, who decide to mix one of their bets with a little social experiment. So after setting up one of their leading employees, Louis, for crimes he didn’t commit, they give his job and home to a homeless hustler, to see what happens to both of them.
TRIVIA
The film was conceived as a vehicle for Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor. But when Pryor dropped out and Eddie Murphy came on board, he made a motion to get Wilder replaced because he didn’t want people to think he was just trying to be another Pryor.
Several funny moments in the film came about by accident. The scene where Mortimer is trying to catch the money clip and having trouble wasn’t supposed to happen that way, but both kept going with it and not breaking character, so it was kept in.
Ophelia’s “Swedish” disguise came about because Jamie Lee Curtis couldn’t do the correct Austrian accent.
Randolph and Mortimer always wear matching suits and tie patterns, only Randolph with a bow tie and Mortimer a necktie.
This was Ralph Bellamy’s 99th film and Don Ameche’s 49th film. This was Eddie Murphy’s second film and he joked: “Between the three of us, we’ve made 150 movies!”.
The original title: “Black and White”.
