Jan 27th   
The Elephant Man**    
(National Film Theatre)

(GB 1980)  
EMI/Brooksfilms. 118m. bw Panavision

A horribly deformed man is taken out of a fairground freak show and looked after by a young doctor.
Unpleasant and uncomfortable to watch in phases, with the director indulging himself in the steamy Victorian atmosphere, this nonetheless richly absorbing hospital drama generally compels through its sincerity, mainly due to Hurt's moving performance under the prosthetics. The most astounding aspect of all this is that it is based quite closely on fact. 

Written by: Christopher De Vore, Eric Bergren, David Lynch.
Producer: Jonathan Sanger.
Director: David Lynch.
Starring: John Hurt, Anthony Hopkins, Freddie Jones. John Gielgud, Wendy Hiller, Anne Bancroft, Michael Elphick, Hannah Gordon, Dexter Fletcher, Kenny Baker.
Photography: Freddie Francis.
Music: John Morris.
Elephant Man Make-up: Christopher Tucker (taken from the original Elephant Man's skeleton).

+ screening followed by an engaging interview with Dexter Fletcher, who turned 14 years old during the making of the film

Jan 14th    
Hamnet** (12A)    
(Curzon Colchester)              

(GB/US 2025)     
Universal/Focus Features/Amblin/Hora Pictures. 126m.

The Shakespeares' youngest son dies unexpectedly of the plague, but his father writes a play to help his wife come to terms with the loss.
Visually poetic drama which consciously avoids the biopic cliche of name dropping its main figure (the name William Shakespeare is only mentioned once), essentially a powerful and rather sombre romance of a broken couple who happen to be based on real-life figures, with some visceral performances.

Written by: Chloe Zhao, Maggie O'Farrell, from her novel.
Producers: Liza Marshall, Pippa Harris, Nicholas Ganda, Steven Spielberg, Sam Mendes.
Director: Chloe Zhao.
Starring: Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Emily Watson, Joe Allwyn, Jacobi Jupe (as Hamnet Shakespeare), David Wilmot, Olivia Lynes,  Noah Jupe.
Photography: Lukasz Zal.
Music: Max Richter.
Producton Design: Fiona Crombie.

                               

Jan 3rd      
The Roaring Twenties**         
(US 1939)  
Warner Bros. 107m. bw     

The adventures of an unemployed soldier who turns bootlicker during the Prohibition years. 
Clunky inter-scene narration mars this otherwise typically forceful Warner gangster morality fable, tailored as a vehicle for tough guy Cagney as well as upcoming star Priscilla Lane, but Bogart is also an unexpected scene-stealing menace in his 'pre-likeable' days.

Written by: Jerry Wald, Richard Macaulay, Robert Rossen, from a story by Mark Hellinger.
Producers: Hal B. Wallis, Samuel Bischoff.
Director: Raoul Walsh. 
Starring: James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Gladys George, Priscilla Lane, Jeffrey Lynn, Frank McHugh, Paul Kelly, Joseph Sawyer.
Photography: Ernest Haller.
Music: Ray Heindorf, Heinz Roehmheld.

+ OPENING NARRATION, which could unnervingly apply to the present decade as well:
"Today, while the Earth shakes beneath the heels of marching troops, while a great portion of the world trembles before the threats of power-mad men, we of America have little time to remember an astounding era in our own recent history. An era which will grow more and more incredible with each passing generation, until someday people will say it never could have happened at all."

Dec 23rd  
Battle of the Bulge**    
(US 1965)    
Warner Bros/Cinerama/United States Pictures. 170m. Ultra Panavision

Crack Panzer tanks make an unexpected burst for victory through the American lines in the winter of 1944.
Gripping war actioner in places, a semi-sequel to The Longest Day with some of the same talents, although horribly commercialised in a variable production (including Cinerama interludes shot in sunny Spain rather than the wintry Ardennes), and the usual unnecessary female interest.

Written by: Philip Yordan, Miltton Sperling, John Melson.
Producers: Milton Sperling, Philip Yordan.
Director: Ken Annakin.
Starring: Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw, Robert Ryan, Dana Andrews, Telly Savalas, Charles Bronson, Hans Christian Blech, Werner Peters, Ty Hardin, George Montgomery, James MacArthur, Pier Angeli, Barbara Herle.
Photography: Jack Hildyard, and others.
Music: Benjamin Frankel.

+ next to none of the participants in the actual Battle of the Bulge are mentioned by name: this was due to a rival Columbia production started ahead of the Warners' Cinerama epic, intended to be more historically accurate, but the film was never made.

Dec 16th  
Interstellar** (12A)     
(Prince Charles Cinema, London)                   

(US 2014)
Paramount/Warner Bros/Legendary Pictures/Syncopy. 169m. Panavision

Sometime in the approaching future, a former astronaut turned farmer due to the food shortage is sent a message to transport him through a wormhole near Saturn that leads the path towards possibly saving the human race. 
Scientific gobbledygook by Nolan, his more human-centric take on 2001: A Space Odyssey with a strong cast and an intriguing premise. but with melodramatics and unnecessary plot twists getting in the way, followed by the familiar climatic bout of noise, music and sound effects to smother over the cracks in the plot.

Written by: Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan.
Producers: Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan, Lynda Obst.
Director: Christopher Nolan.
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, Jessica Chastain, Mackenzie Foy, Matt Damon, John Lithgow, Ellen Burstyn, Bill Irwin (voice of robots), William Devane, David Oyelowo, Casey Affleck.
Photography: Hoyte van Hoytema.
Music: Hans Zimmer.
Editing: Lee Smith.

Dec 12th   
The Halfway House**     

(GB 1943)          
Ealing. 95m. bw

In 1943 guests arrive at a ghostly inn that helps them come to terms with the state of their lives.
Oddly affecting semi-supernatural drama, a little preachy and sentimentally propagandistic in its final stages, but with some useful pointers to the later classic Dead of Night.

Written by: Angus MacPhail, Diana Morgan, Roland Pertwee, T.E.B. Clarke, based on the play "The Peaceful Inn" by Dennis Ogden.
Producer: Alberto Cavalcanti.
Director: Basil Dearden.
Starring: Esmond Knight, Mervyn Johns, Glynis Johns, Tom Walls, Francoise Rosay, Alfred Drayton, Guy Middleton, Sally Ann Howes, Valerie White, Richard Bird.
Photography: Wllkie Cooper.
Music: Lord Berners.

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.