Thursday, February 13, 2025

Feb 13th   
Dangerous Liaisons**
(15)
(Electric Palace, Harwich)

(US 1988)
Warner Bros/Lorimar.NFH. 119m.

The notorious womanising Viscomte de Valmont plays seduction games with a former lover, including the seduction of a woman of virtue...but love plays a hand.
Choderlos de Laclos's dark novel set in pre-revolutionary France, presented as an 18th century film noir, also harking back to Hollywood's costume melodramas of the 1930s and 40s, with lavish costumes and calculating performances. Lots of sex,but not especially sexy.

Written by: Christopher Hampton, from his play.
Producers: Norma Heyman, Hank Moonjean.
Director: Stephen Frears.
Starring: Glenn Close, John Malkovich, Michelle Pfeiffer, Uma Thurman, Keanu Reeves, Swoosie Kurtz, Peter Capaldi, Mildred Natwick.
Photography: Philippe Rousselot.
Music: George Fenton.
Costume: James Acheson.

+ followed by a Q&A with director Stephen Frears, as a fund raiser for the Electric Palace

Thursday, February 06, 2025

Feb 6th  
Dominique*    
(GB 1978)    
Grand Prize/Sword and Sorcery Productions. 100m.  

A glamorous rich woman is driven mad by her husband and dies, but the tables are turned...
Enigmatic psychological thriller, more cloak than dagger. The resolution is intriguing, although with most of the characters so coldly played it's difficult to care.

Written by: Edward Abraham, Valerie Abraham, based on the story "What Beckoning Ghost" by Harold Lawlor.
Producers: Andrew Donally, Milton Subotsky.
Director: Michael Anderson.
Starring: Jean Simmons, Cliff Robertson, Simon Ward, Jenny Agutter, Ron Moody, Flora Robson, Judy Geeson, Michael Jayston Jack Warner, David Tomlinson, Jack McKenzie.
Photography: Ted Moore.
Music: Paul Whittaker.