Sep 27th   
La Bataille de Gaulle** (15)
Part Two: J'ecris ton Nom 

GB title: De Gaulle: Liberte
(Curzon Colchester) 

A more laboured second half of the De Gaulle epic(qv), covering the later North Africa campaign to the eventual hard-fought liberation of Paris, with pausing for speeches and an uncertain grasp of whose main story we are following, whether from De Gaulle himself or the Resistance, or from General Leclerc (who takes  a strong part in the early narrative.) Cutting would help to make  the film as a whole a more digestible experience, but still as gripping, for all its lengthy double running time.; with Felix Kysyl, Pip Torrens (as Montgomery), Tom Mison (as Eden), Daniel Beits (as Eisenhower), Stephen Campbell Moore (as Harold McMillan). 
Music: Theo Casio.

Sep 16th   
Violent Playground*     
(GB 1958)   
Rank. 108m. bw

A Liverpool police detective switched to the Juvenile Prevention department suspects that a series of arsons are the work of young teenage gang leader.
Half-baked working class thriller, from the time just before the "kitchen sink" era came along. Some fine authentic locations and a tense finale, all undercut by a sanitised plot and delivery of lines in polite English accents.

Written by: James Kennaway.
Producer: Michael Relph.
Director: Basil Dearden.
Starring: Stanley Baker, David McCallum, Peter Cushing, Anne Heywood, Clifford Evans, John Slater, Moultrie Kelsall, Michael Chow, Tsai Chin, Melvyn Hayes.
Photography: Reg Wyer, Reg Johnson.
Music: Philip Green.
Editing: Arthur Stevens.

Sep 6th   
La Bataille de Gaulle** (15)
Part One: Resistance
GB title: De Gaulle: Resistance
(Picturehouse Central, London)    

(Fra/Bel/Canada 2026)
Pathe/Tf1/Belvedere. 160m. ws

After the submission of France to Germany in 1940, exiled General Charles de Gaulle vows to fight on  and lead a fledgling Free French force with some pockets of fellow resistors in Paris. 
Epic and compelling war drama with the usual variable period details taken with history (especially the American element, for once), with heightened emphasis on certain  notable events such as the siege of Bir Hakeim near Tobruk.

Written by: Antonin Baudry, Berenice Vila, based on the book "A Certain Idea of France: The Life of Charles De Gaulle" by Julian Jackson.
Producers: Axelle Boucai, Ardavan Safaee, Jerome Seydoux.
Director: Antonin Baudry.
Starring: Simon Abkarian, Simon Russell Beale (as Churchill), Florian Lesieur, Matthieu Kassovitz (as Admiral Darlan), Niels Schneider, Thierry Lhermitte, Anamaria Vortolome, Campbell Scott (as Franklin Roosevelt).
Photography: Pierre Cottereau, Giora Bejach.
Music: Volker Bertelmann.

+ Part Two: Sep 27th

Aug 31st  
One Night Only* (15)
(Vue Colchester)                           

(US 2026)   
Universal/Olive Bridge Entertainment. 102m.

In New York where pre-marital sex is permitted only one night of the year, a pizza parlour owner and a TV jingle singer look for love but end up finding each other.
The director's dig at modern Conservative America serves as dressing for a modern but engaging romantic comedy on predictable lines, mainly winning through its central performances, that hark back to Woody Allen or When Harry Met Sally.

w: Travis Braun.
p: Will Gluck, Jacqueline Moretta
d: Will Gluck
s: Monica Barbaro, Callum Turner, Maya Hawke, Molly Ringwalk, LeVar Burton
ph: Yoran Orbach
m: Este Haim, Christopher Stracey

Aug 11th   
My Summer of Love**    
(GB 2004)          
BBC Films/The Film Consortium/Baker Street Media Finance/UK Film Council/Take Partnerships/Apocalypso Pictites. 86m.

Mutually dysfunctional teenage girls meet in a Northern country town, and fall in love in defiance of their mutually disinterested families. 
A nostalgic rites-of-passage novel about a certain time and place in the 1980s is turned by this noted director into a lyrical lesbian love story, slow and going nowhere in places, but with a powerful ending and formative performances.

Written by: Pawel Pawlikowski, Michael Wynne, based on the novel by Helen Cross.
Producers: Chris Collins, Tanya Seghatchian.
Director: Pawel Pawlikowski.
Starring: Natalie Press, Emily Blunt, Paddy Considine, Dean Andrews, Michelle Byrne, Paul-Anthony Barber, Lynette Edwards, Kathryn Sumner.
Photography: Ryszard Lenczewski.
Music: David Charup.

Preceded by:
It Might Be You*   
(GB 1946. Crown Film Unit. 17m. bw; Clunkily obvious road safety short film, an interesting rare post-war find for some pre-stardom talents.; p: Basil Wright; d: Michael Gordon; s: Peter Cushing, Alfie Bass, Peter Madden; ph: Fred Gamage.)

Jul 25th  
A Private Life** (15)   
(Vie Privee)
(King Street Cinema, Ipswich)    

(Fra 2025)
Les Films/France 3 Cinema/others. 104m.

An American psychiatrist living in Paris suspects her absent patient's suicide is actually murder, but slightly drives herself crazy trying to find out.
Psychological mystery which promises to go in various directions (with Foster resembling her character from The Silence of the Lambs), but ultimately goes down a rather ordinary route with the psychiatrist coming to terms with her own humanity. 

Written by: Rebecca Zlotowski, Anne Berest, Gaelle Mace.
Producer: Frederic Jouve.
Director: Rebecca Zlotowski.
Starring: Jodie Foster, Daniel Auteuil, Matthieu Amalric, Virginie Efira, Noam Morgensztern, Sophie Guillermin, Luana Bajrami, Vincent Lacoste, Aurore Clement, Irene Jacob.
Photography: George Lechaptou.
Music: Rob.
Editing: Goaldine Mangenot.

Jul 8th   
City of God**        
(Brazil/Fra/Ger/US 2002)         
O2 Films/Hank Levine Film/Globofilmes/Studio Canal/Wild Bunch. 130m. ws

In the slums of Rio de Janeiero, a young boy grows up among drug-fuelled young hoodlums, and photographs the oncoming gang war.
Stylishly brutal but compelling crime drama, in some ways a Mean Streets for Brazilian ghetto survivors, also based on true events. When released in cinemas, the English subtitles had the good sense to be displayed at the top of the screen, to keep focus on the action.

Written by: Braulia Montavani, from the novel by Paulo Lins.
Producers: Andrea Barato Ribeiro.
Director: Fernando Meirelles.
Starring: Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino, Seu Jorge, Renato de Souza, Alice Braga, Phellipe Haagensen, Mattheu Nachtergaele.
Photography: Cesar Cgarlone. 
Music: Antonio Pinto, Ed Cortes.
Editing: Daniel Rezende.