Jul 30th   
Song Without End*       
(US 1960)                                       

Franz Liszt risks giving up his performing career and his family for love and future compositions.
Lavish musical biopic (historically largely correct, but of course romanticised), with typical Hollywood grandure almost in every frame and musical pieces that follow one after like a Cinemascope period concert. A failed attempt to make a Hollywood star of Dirk Bogarde.

Written by: Oscar Millard (and Walter Bernstein).
Producer: William Goetz.
Director: Charles Vidor (and George Cukor).
Starring: Dirk Bogarde, Capucine, Genevieve Page, Martita Hunt, Lou Jacobi, Lyndon Brook (as Wagner), Walter Rilla, Ivan Desny, Marcel Dalio, Abraham Sofaer.
Photography: James Wong Hoe, Charles Lang.
Musical Direction: Morris Stoloff.

+ piano solos on the soundtrack played by Jorge Bolet

Jul 19th     
Yellow Submarine* (U)   
(Curzon Colchester - first visit!)                         

(GB 1968)
The Beatles travel to a faraway parallel land to rescue it from tyrannical killjoys.
50th anniversary re-release of this "far-out" animation fantasia (often cheap looking) with the unofficial participation of The Beatles who provide the soundtrack only. Their music and the images are entertaining but don't always match together, and the plot soon dissolves into a series of psychadelic images awaiting the next song number. A curio, to be sure.

Written by: Lee Minoff, Al Brodax, Jack Mendelsohn, Erich Segal, Roger McGough.
Producer: Al Brodax/
Director: George Dunning.
Voices of: Paul Angelis, Dick Emery, Lance Percival, John Clive, Dick Hughes.
Music: The Beatles, George Martin.

Jul 17th  
The Promise**       

(US/Spa 2016)

In 1914 an Armenian medical student in Constantinople falls in love with a fellow Armenian who is with an American journalist covering the Turkish genocide at the beginning of World War I.
Beautifully scenic (shot mostly in Spain) romantic drama, powerfully acted and movingly made, if grinding on during its narrative, the political aspects of a still controversial subject (holocaust denial by Turkey) slightly distracted from time to time by that old staple of war drama: the love triangle.

Written by: Terry George, Robin Swicord.
Producers: Eric Esrailian, Mike Medavoy, William Horberg.
Director: Terry George.
Starring: Oscar Isaac, Charlotte Le Bon, Christian Bale, Marwan Kenzari, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Tom Hollander, James Cromwell, Jean Reno.
Photography: Javier Aguirresarobe.
Music: Gabriel Yared.
Editing: Steven Rosenblum.

Jul 7th  
(Odeon Colchester) 
Patrick* (PG)               
(GB 2018)

A dysfunctional young schoolteacher inherits a pet dog from her grandmother, that helps her with her love life.
Engaging enough English canine comedy where the pug(s) inevitably steal the show, although disappearing for a while as romantic comedy conventions take over (and a plot vaguely influence by Jane Eyre), with lots of familiar British comedy faces only occasionally getting a look-in.

Written by: Vanessa Davies, Mandie Fletcher, Paul de Vos.
Producers: Vanessa Davies, Paul de Vos, Sue Latimer, James Spring.
Director: Mandie Fletcher.
Starring: Beattie Edmondson, Emily Atack, Ed Skrein, Tom Bennett, Jennifer Saunders, Adrian Scarborough, Gemma Jones, Bernard Cribbins, Emilia Jones.
Photography: Chris Goodger.
Music: Michael Price.