Jun 27th   
(BFI IMAX Cinema, London)  
D-Day: Normandy 1944** (PG)     
(Fra 2014)
N3D Land Films. 43m. IMAX 3-D

School history book-style 3-D telling of the story before, during and after the Normandy invasion to liberate Western Europe, with a few pointers to The Longest Day (including literally mentioning the film's title), but much more informative with occasional personal insights from individual letters, anc excellent use of interactive maps to describe the campaign.

Written and Directed by: Pascal Vuong.
Producers: Catherine Vuong, Pascal Vuong, Sylvain Grain.
Narrator: Francois Cluzet (English version: Tom Brokaw).
Photography: Christophe Grelie.
Music: Franck Marchal.

Jun 26th   
The Full Monty**  

(GB/US 1997)           

Unemployed Sheffield steelworkers try to raise funds and morale by performing a male striptease.
The plot of this highly successful British comedy owes a good deal (unintentionally or otherwise) to a TV film The Bare Necessities, given skilful publicity and backing for American audiences to make it an international smash hit - thanks of course to its more commercial lurid aspects. Thankfully, it still also remains a touching and poignant sentimental drama of the times, with vague echoes of Ealing but much grittier, and efficiently made with lots of funny moments.

Written by: Simon Beaufoy.
Producer: Uberto Pasolini.
Director: Peter Cattaneo.
Starring: Robert Carlyle, Tom Wilkinson, Mark Addy, Emily Woof, Lesley Sharp, Steve Huison, Hugo Speer, Paul Barber, William Snape.
Photography: John de Borman.
Music: Anne Dudley, plus various hit songs.

Jun 23rd  
As You Like It*

(GB 1936)

Young lovers are banished and escape into the Forest of Arden under disguise.
Stagy but sprightly feature film adaptation (a rarity then) of Shakespeare's play, probably taking its cue from Warner's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Interesting as a historical item, particularly of the young Olivier from his early Shakespeare days.

Written by: J.M. Barrie, R.J. Cullen, from the play by William Shakespeare.
Producer/Director: Paul Czinner.
Starring: Elisabeth Bergner, Laurence Olivier, Sophie Stewart, John Laurie, Austin Trevor, Lionel Braham, Felix Aylmer, Leon Quartermaine, Henry Ainley.
Photography: Harold Rosson.
Music: William Walton.

Jun 18th   
Marjorie Prime**   

(US 2016)             

In the near future an ageing widow copes with her remaining years with a computer hologram of her late husband from his younger days.
Coldly moving character drama (as most futuristic dramas have to be, it seems), quite well adapted from its stage origins without seeming too talky, relying on performances to sustain much of the sympathy, which they do successfully.

Written and Directed by: Michael Almereyeda, based on the play by Jordan Harrison.
Producers: Uri Singer, Daniel Turcan, Tal Vigderson.
Starring: Lois Smith, Geena Davis, Tim Robbins, Jon Hamm, Stephanie Andujar, Hannah Gross.
Photography: Sean Williams.
Music: Mica Levi, Richard Reed Parry, Bryce Dessner.

Jun 10th    
I Married a Monster from Outer Space*

(US 1958)   

A fiancee is abducted by aliens for what his wife gradually realises is a general alien invasion.
An initially tacky premise (exemplified by the title) actually gives way to an Invasion of the Body Snatchers paranoia scenario, of fairly minor intelligence, but focusing slightly more than usual on the perspective of the aliens.

Written by: Louis Vittes.
Producer/Director: Gene Fowler Jnr.
Starring: Gloria Talbott, Tom Tryon, Peter Baldwin, Robert Ives, John Eldredge, Ty Hardin.
Photography: Haskell Boggs.
Music: Various.
Special Photographic Effects: John P. Fulton.