Apr 16th   
Back to Black* (15)   
(Strand Arts Centre, Belfast)          

(GB 2024)    
Studio Canal/Monumental. 122m.

Young English jazz/blues singer Amy Winehouse emulates her musical family and becomes a star, at the cost of her own stormy love life and use of drugs.
Entertaining combination of hagiography and the high life, emphasising generally the more positive aspects of a relatively recent career (Winehouse died in 2011 at the age of only 27) for the sake of fans and family, and the music - of all kinds - is well assembled and performed.

Written by: Matt Greenhalgh.
Producers: Alison Owen, Debra Hayward, Nicky Kentish-Barnes.
Director: Sam Taylor-Johnson.
Starring: Marisa Abela, Jack O'Connell, Eddie Marsan, Lesley Manville, Juliet Cowen, Sam Buchanan, Spike Fearn.
Music: Polly Morgan.
Music: Nick Cave, Warren Ellis.
Music Producer: Giles Martin.
Editing: Martin Walsh, Laurence Johnson.

Apr 9th   
The Scapegoat**      
(GB 1958)                  
MGM/Du Maurier-Guinness. 92m. bw

An aimless wanderer in France is encountered by his ne'r do well aristocratic double, who takes advantage of the situation.
Illustriously cast but apparently a troubled production, well acted but not entirely satisfying on the surface, with Ms. Davis relegated to cutaways in a small role that would have better suited Margaret Rutherford.

Written by: Robert Hamer, Gore Vidal, from the novel by Daphne Du Maurier.
Producer: Michael Balcon.
Director: Robert Hamer.
Starring: Alec Guinness, Bette Davis, Nicole Maurey, Irene Worth, Annette Bartlett, Pamela Brown, Geoffrey Keen, Noel Howlett, Peter Bull, Alan Webb, Eddie Byrne, Peter Sallis.
Photography: Paul Beeson.
Music: Bronislau Kaper (a late addition).

Preceded by:
Galaxy of Stars*
(US 1936. MGM. bw; 3 minute segment of an MGM promo to European audience, with the famous duo dubbed into French in the surviving footage.; s: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, James Finlayson.)