Jul 31st  
Forever and a Day**    
(US 1943)                                   
RKO. 104m. bw

Episodes of those living in a London house from the time of Napoleon to the time of Hitler.
Steady wartime propaganda, a multi-generational period compendium piece where the message is sometimes all too obvious, but individual scenes and performances are eye-catching, with a record number of credited writers. The final result is not as disjointed as might be feared (the well designed house is a star throughout), and as Hollywood adaptations of Britain go, this one does a little more of its homework.

Written by: Charles Bennett, Alan Campbell, Norman Corwin, C.S. Forrester, Peter Godfrey, Jack Hartfield, Lawrence Hazard, S.M. Herzig, James Hilton, Michael Hogan, Christopher Isherwood, Emmet Lavery, W.P. Lipscomb, Gene Lockhart, Frederick Lonsdale, Alice Duer Miller, R.C. Sherriff, Donald Ogden Stewart, John Van Druten, Claudine West, Keith Winter.
Producers: Victor Saville, Herbert Wilcox.
Director: Frank Lloyd, Herbert Wilcox, Robert Stevenson, Rene Clair, Cedric Hardwicke, Edward Goulding.
Starring: Kent Smith, Ruth Warrick, Herbert Marshall; C. Aubrey Smith, Ray Milland, Anna Neagle, May Whitty, Gene Lockhart, Claud Allister, Claude Rains, Halliwell Hobbes; Jessie Matthews, Ian Hunter, Charles Laughton, Cedric Hardwicke, Buster Keaton, Montagu Love; Ida Lupino, Brian Aherne, Wendy Barrie, Edward Everett Horton, June Duprez; Merle Oberon, Una O'Connor, Gladys Cooper, Roland Young, Nigel Bruce, Robert Coote, Robert Cummings, and others.
Photography: Robert de Grasse, Lee Garmes, Russell Metty, Nicolas Musuraca.
Music: Anthony Collins.

FOREVER AND A DAY. A rare moment of cinematic luminaries all on screen together: Ian Hunter, Montague Love, Cedric Hardwicke, Charles Laughton, Jessie Matthews, and propping up the bath is the unmistakable Buster Keaton

Jul 18th   
Yesterday* (12A) 
(Curzon Colchester)     

(GB 2019)
Universal/Perfect World/Decibel Films/Working Title. 116m. Panavision

A luckless Lowestoft singer-songwriter has an accident during a global blackout, and becomes a star because no-one else has heard of The Beatles.
A neat idea for a musically comedic Twilight Zone that is never really explored as it should be. The satirical possibilities are also threadbare as the film opts to spend most of its time rehashing the familiar Four Weddings sentimental scenario all over again. Of worth for music fans to enjoy the famous tunes, reasonably well presented.

Written by: Richard Curtis.
Producers: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Bernie Bellow, Matthew James Wilkinson, Richard Curtis, Danny Boyle.
Director: Danny Boyle.
Starring: Himesh Patel, Lily James, Joel Fry, Ed Sheeran, Kate McKinnon, Robert Carlyle (uncredited - as John Lennon), Sanjeev Bhaskar, Meera Syal, Sarah Lancashire.
Photography: Christopher Ross.
Music: Daniel Pemberton.

Jul 17th
The Theory of Everything**                         
(GB 2014)
Universal/Working Title. 123m. ws

The academic life of Stephen Hawking coupled with his crippling motor neurone disease, taken from the perspective of his first wife Jane.
The onset of the disease comes surprisingly early into a film that, for its interest in Time, seems to spend a lot of it labouring along, often carefully selecting its moments in Hawking's life story (made while he was still alive) with some of the personal moments and the science wishy-washy, and shot in nostalgiclly rose-tinted brigt colours, with moments of pictorial imagination and meticulous, hard-working central performances.

Written by: Anthony M. Carten, from the book "Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen Hawking" by Jane Hawking.
Producers: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce, Anthony McCarten.
Director: James Marsh.
Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, David Thewlis, Charlie Cox, Simon McBurney, Emily Watosn, Harry Lloyd, Adam Godley.
Photography: Benoit Delhomme.
Music: Johann Johannsson.

Preceded by:
Cricket**
(GB 1950. Pathe/British Council. 17m. bw; Evocative information documentary about the game, revolving around the 1948 Lord's Test between England and Australia; w: Jack Howells, John Arlott; p: Peter Baylis; d: Grahame Tharp; narr: John Arlott, Ralph Richardson.)

+ opening message: "The purpose of this film is not to teach cricket to the unbeliever - but merely to give pleasure to the converted. But, if there be an unbeliever, then his discerning eye perhaps may see something of those virtues that explain the enthusiasm of so many."

Jul 3rd  
The Captain's Paradise**         
(GB 1953)                   
British Lion/London Films. 89m. bw

A Gibraltar cruiser captain keeps two wives in separate ports, until their respective personalities start to switch places...
Contrived and easy going if slightly predictable comedy, with actors who enjoyably let their hair down.     
                          
Written by: Alec Coppel, Nicholas Phipps.
Producer/Director: Anthony Kimmins.
Starring: Alec Guinness, Celia Johnson, Yvonne de Carlo, Charles Goldner, Miles Malleson, Bill Fraser, Nicholas Phipps.
Photography: Ted Scaife.
Music: Malcolm Arnold.

Preceded by:
Dead on Time*
(GB 1982. 31m.;  A man is misdiagnosed as being terminally ill, and rushes around Covent Garden to spend his last 30 minutes. Frantically overwritten experimental short vehicle for an actor who generally found better effect as a mainly visual comedian.; w: Richard Curtis, Rowan Atkinson; p, d: Lyndall Hobbs; s: Rowan Atkinson, Nigel Hawthorne, Robin Bailey, Jim Broadbent, Greta Scacchi, and others.)