Nov 30th   
The Choral*  (12A)        
(Electric Palace, Harwich)          

(GB 2025)     
Sony Pictures Classics/BBC/Screen Yorkshire. 113m.

In 1916 an impoverished Northern choral society losing most of its young men to the Western Front hires a controversial German-educated choirmaster to conduct Elgar's Dream of Gerontius.
Semi-period drama by Bennett, wonderfully literate as always with him, and also authentically capturing the musical rehearsal process, although inconsistent as a story, with the now familiar politically correct casting out of kilter with the period.

Written by: Alan Bennett.
Producers: Kevin Lander, Nicholas Hytner, Damian Jones.
Director: Nicholas Hytner,
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Roger Allam, Amara Okereke, Taylor Uttley, Shaun Thomas, Mark Addy, Alun Armstrong, Robert Emms, Simon Russell Beale (as Elgar).
Photography: Mike Eley.
Music: George Fenton.

Nov 20th   
45 Years**    
(GB 2014)   
BFI/Film Four/Creative England/The Bureau. 95m.

A longtime married couple are affected by the unexpected duscovery of the husband's former lover before he was married.
Thoughtful drama with two veteran actors giving naturalistic performances, developing like a TV Play for Today, but ultimately with a slightly boring resolution.

Written and Directed by: Andrew Haigh, based on the short story "Another Country" by David Constantine.
Producer: Teristan Goligher.
Starring: Charlotte Rampling, Tom Courtenay, Geraldine James, David Sibley, Alexiane Cazenave.
Photography: Lol Crawley.
Music: none.

Nov 15th    
2001: A Space Odyssey***  (U)        
(Prince Charles Cinema)  

(GB 1968)                      
MGM/Hawk. 141m. Super Panavision 70

From the age of apes to the futuristic space age, Man seeks to unravel the mysteries of an enigmatic black monolith.
Kubrick's extraordinary if slightly enigmatic science fiction allegory, every bit as breathtaking and baffling as it was when first released in 1968, starting with men in fairly skilfully designed monkey suits, then jumping drastically forward to the Moon space station orbit, then the Jupiter mission with the addition of partly irrelevant psychological drama with the villainous computer HAL-9000, and then finally the climactic journey into infinity, where Kubrick loses his way with the narrative trying to replace plot with spectacle and at times overbearing music. Technologically speaking the film seems light years ahead of its time, and has not dated, in the spite of the irony of the year of its setting now being in the retrospective past. 

Written by: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clark, based on his short story "The Sentinel".
Producer/Director: Stanley Kubrick.
"Starring": William Sylvester, Keir Dullea. Gary Lockwood, Daniel Richter, Douglas Rain (voice of HAL), Robert Beatty, Leonard Rossiter.
Photography: Geoffrey Unsworth, John Alcott.
Production Design: Tony Masters, Harry Lange,Ernie Archer.
Special Photographic Effects: Douglas Trumbull.

Nov 8th   
The Ladykillers**    
(GB 1955)               
Rank/Ealing. 97m.

Sinister crooks use an old lady's boarding house as a cover for their robbery at Kings Cross, but she proves to be their undoing.
Ealing caricatures their own funnier and more entertaining Lavender Hill Mob with this seedy-looking black comedy caper, with the actors overplaying (except ironically the young Peter Sellers). The plot doesn't have far to go, but considered a cult classic by Ealing comedy enthusiasts.

Written by: William Rose.
Producer: Michael Balcon.
Director: Alexander Mackendrick.
Starring: Alec Guinness, Katie Johnson, Cecil Parker, Herbert Lom, Peter Sellers, Danny Green, Jack Warner, Frankie Howerd, Kenneth Connor, Philip Stainton.
Photography: Otto Heller.
Music: Tristram Cary.

Preceded by:
Tom and Jerry in
Fraidy Cat**
(US 1942. 8m.; d: William Hanna, Joseph Barbera, Rudolf Ising; p: Fred Quimby.)