Dec 23rd  
Battle of the Bulge**    
(US 1965)    
Warner Bros/Cinerama/United States Pictures. 170m. Ultra Panavision

Crack Panzer tanks make an unexpected burst for victory through the American lines in the winter of 1944.
Gripping war actioner in places, a semi-sequel to The Longest Day with some of the same talents, although horribly commercialised in a variable production (including Cinerama interludes shot in sunny Spain rather than the wintry Ardennes), and the usual unnecessary female interest.

Written by: Philip Yordan, Miltton Sperling, John Melson.
Producers: Milton Sperling, Philip Yordan.
Director: Ken Annakin.
Starring: Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw, Robert Ryan, Dana Andrews, Telly Savalas, Charles Bronson, Hans Christian Blech, Werner Peters, Ty Hardin, George Montgomery, James MacArthur, Pier Angeli, Barbara Herle.
Photography: Jack Hildyard, and others.
Music: Benjamin Frankel.

+ next to none of the participants in the actual Battle of the Bulge are mentioned by name: this was due to a rival Columbia production started ahead of the Warners' Cinerama epic, intended to be more historically accurate, but the film was never made.

Dec 16th  
Interstellar** (12A)     
(Prince Charles Cinema, London)                   

(US 2014)
Paramount/Warner Bros/Legendary Pictures/Syncopy. 169m. Panavision

Sometime in the approaching future, a former astronaut turned farmer due to the food shortage is sent a message to transport him through a wormhole near Saturn that leads the path towards possibly saving the human race. 
Scientific gobbledygook by Nolan, his more human-centric take on 2001: A Space Odyssey with a strong cast and an intriguing premise. but with melodramatics and unnecessary plot twists getting in the way, followed by the familiar climatic bout of noise, music and sound effects to smother over the cracks in the plot.

Written by: Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan.
Producers: Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan, Lynda Obst.
Director: Christopher Nolan.
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, Jessica Chastain, Mackenzie Foy, Matt Damon, John Lithgow, Ellen Burstyn, Bill Irwin (voice of robots), William Devane, David Oyelowo, Casey Affleck.
Photography: Hoyte van Hoytema.
Music: Hans Zimmer.
Editing: Lee Smith.

Dec 12th   
The Halfway House**     

(GB 1943)          
Ealing. 95m. bw

In 1943 guests arrive at a ghostly inn that helps them come to terms with the state of their lives.
Oddly affecting semi-supernatural drama, a little preachy and sentimentally propagandistic in its final stages, but with some useful pointers to the later classic Dead of Night.

Written by: Angus MacPhail, Diana Morgan, Roland Pertwee, T.E.B. Clarke, based on the play "The Peaceful Inn" by Dennis Ogden.
Producer: Alberto Cavalcanti.
Director: Basil Dearden.
Starring: Esmond Knight, Mervyn Johns, Glynis Johns, Tom Walls, Francoise Rosay, Alfred Drayton, Guy Middleton, Sally Ann Howes, Valerie White, Richard Bird.
Photography: Wllkie Cooper.
Music: Lord Berners.

Nov 30th   
The Choral*  (12A)        
(Electric Palace, Harwich)          

(GB 2025)     
Sony Pictures Classics/BBC/Screen Yorkshire. 113m.

In 1916 an impoverished Northern choral society losing most of its young men to the Western Front hires a controversial German-educated choirmaster to conduct Elgar's Dream of Gerontius.
Semi-period drama by Bennett, wonderfully literate as always with him, and also authentically capturing the musical rehearsal process, although inconsistent as a story, with the now familiar politically correct casting out of kilter with the period.

Written by: Alan Bennett.
Producers: Kevin Lander, Nicholas Hytner, Damian Jones.
Director: Nicholas Hytner,
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Roger Allam, Amara Okereke, Taylor Uttley, Shaun Thomas, Mark Addy, Alun Armstrong, Robert Emms, Simon Russell Beale (as Elgar).
Photography: Mike Eley.
Music: George Fenton.

Nov 20th   
45 Years**    
(GB 2014)   
BFI/Film Four/Creative England/The Bureau. 95m.

A longtime married couple are affected by the unexpected duscovery of the husband's former lover before he was married.
Thoughtful drama with two veteran actors giving naturalistic performances, developing like a TV Play for Today, but ultimately with a slightly boring resolution.

Written and Directed by: Andrew Haigh, based on the short story "Another Country" by David Constantine.
Producer: Teristan Goligher.
Starring: Charlotte Rampling, Tom Courtenay, Geraldine James, David Sibley, Alexiane Cazenave.
Photography: Lol Crawley.
Music: none.

Nov 15th    
2001: A Space Odyssey***  (U)        
(Prince Charles Cinema)  

(GB 1968)                      
MGM/Hawk. 141m. Super Panavision 70

From the age of apes to the futuristic space age, Man seeks to unravel the mysteries of an enigmatic black monolith.
Kubrick's extraordinary if slightly enigmatic science fiction allegory, every bit as breathtaking and baffling as it was when first released in 1968, starting with men in fairly skilfully designed monkey suits, then jumping drastically forward to the Moon space station orbit, then the Jupiter mission with the addition of partly irrelevant psychological drama with the villainous computer HAL-9000, and then finally the climactic journey into infinity, where Kubrick loses his way with the narrative trying to replace plot with spectacle and at times overbearing music. Technologically speaking the film seems light years ahead of its time, and has not dated, in the spite of the irony of the year of its setting now being in the retrospective past. 

Written by: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clark, based on his short story "The Sentinel".
Producer/Director: Stanley Kubrick.
"Starring": William Sylvester, Keir Dullea. Gary Lockwood, Daniel Richter, Douglas Rain (voice of HAL), Robert Beatty, Leonard Rossiter.
Photography: Geoffrey Unsworth, John Alcott.
Production Design: Tony Masters, Harry Lange,Ernie Archer.
Special Photographic Effects: Douglas Trumbull.

Nov 8th   
The Ladykillers**    
(GB 1955)               
Rank/Ealing. 97m.

Sinister crooks use an old lady's boarding house as a cover for their robbery at Kings Cross, but she proves to be their undoing.
Ealing caricatures their own funnier and more entertaining Lavender Hill Mob with this seedy-looking black comedy caper, with the actors overplaying (except ironically the young Peter Sellers). The plot doesn't have far to go, but considered a cult classic by Ealing comedy enthusiasts.

Written by: William Rose.
Producer: Michael Balcon.
Director: Alexander Mackendrick.
Starring: Alec Guinness, Katie Johnson, Cecil Parker, Herbert Lom, Peter Sellers, Danny Green, Jack Warner, Frankie Howerd, Kenneth Connor, Philip Stainton.
Photography: Otto Heller.
Music: Tristram Cary.

Preceded by:
Tom and Jerry in
Fraidy Cat**
(US 1942. 8m.; d: William Hanna, Joseph Barbera, Rudolf Ising; p: Fred Quimby.)