Apr 11th  
The Magic Faraway Tree*  (U)      
(Century Clacton)        

(GB/US 2026)                       
Elysian/Ashland Hill Media. 110m. ws

A young father takes his dysfunctional family to their new woodland home where the children investigate a mysterious tree leading them to magical adventures.
Modernization of Enid Blyton's stories where the adults are more moving and engaging than the children, with the transition from fantasy to reality a little overstylised in design and performance (with a belated brief villain), and lacking the whimsy of the original.

Written by: Simon Farnaby.
Producers: Pippa Harris, Nicholas Brown, Danny Perkins, Jane Hooks.
Director: Ben Gregor.
Starring: Andrew Garfield, Claire Foy, Delilah Bennett-Cardy, Billie Gadson, Phoenix Laroche, Nicola Coughlan, Nonso Anozie, Mark Heap, Lenny Henry, Michael Palin, Simon Russell Beale, Jennifer Saunders, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Farnaby.
Photography: Zac Nicholson.
Music: Isabella Summers.

Apr 1st   
Three Fugitives**   
(US 1989)       
Touchstone. 96m.

A serial bank robber is released from prison but has the misfortune to be taken hostage by an incompetent thief trying to raise funds for his mute daughter.   
Practically a scene-for-scene remake of Veber's own comedy Les Fugitifs from 1986, and just as funny with the American cast and settings giving it the right amount of comic energy.

Written and Directed by: Francis Veber.
Producer: Lauren Shuler Donner.
Starring: Nick Nolte, Martin Short, Sarah Rowland Doroff, James Earl Jones, Kenneth McMillan, Alan Ruck, Bruce McGill.
Photography: Haskell Wexler, David McHugh.

THREE FUGITIVES. The poster, for once, is not an exaggeration: there is a scene in the film where Nick Nolte literally carries both Martin Short and Sarah Rowland Doroff up a flight of stairs! 

Mar 24th   
Wonderland*   
(US 2003)
Lions Gate Films/Flirt Pictures. 104m. 

Porn film star John Holmes becomes implicated in the Wonderland murders in July 1981 among the drug-fueled Los Angeles underworld.
Stylized in the manner of Rashomon to show different perspectives on an unsolved murder case, and hardly a good advertisement for LA justice, but carried along in a certain glitzy nostalgia to hold the attention, and also a barely cohesive plot.

Written by: James Cox, Captain Mauzaer, Todd Samovitz, D. Loriston Scott.
Producers: Michael Paseornek, Holly Wiersma.
Director: James Cox.
Starring: Val Kilmer, Kate Bosworth, Dylan McDermott, Lisa Kudrow, Josh Lucas, Christina Applegate, Eric Bogosian, Carrie Fisher, Ted Levine, Janeane Garofalo.
Photography: Michael Grady.
Music: Cliff Martinez.

Preceded by:
A Hole Lot of Trouble*
(GB 1969. Monarch Film. 27m.; Builders dig a hole in the wrong part of the road, in this weaker but almost as engaging variation on The Plank.; w: Ian Flintoff, Francis Searle; d: Francis Searle; s: Victor Maddern, Arthur Lowe, Bill Maynard, Ken Parry, Tim Barrett; ph: Terry Maher; m: Peter Jeffries.)

Mar 19th  
Mother's Pride**  (12A)
(Odeon Colchester)

(GB 2025)       
EFD/Circus/Media Finance Capital Founding/Flying Fish/Twickenham Film Studios. 93m. ws

A local boy returns to his home village and revives the family ale to help their threatened traditional old pub.
Heartwarming Ealing-style parochial British comedy in attractive surroundings, with most of the cliches firmly in place, some good performances, and fresh enough to make it above the average.

Written by: Meg Leonard, Nick Moorcroft.
Producer: James Spring.
Director: Nick Moorcroft.
Starring: Martin Clunes, Jonno Davies, James Buckley, Mark Addy, Gabriella Wilde, Luke Treadaway, Lana Moorcroft, Josie Lawrence, Miles Jupp.
Photography: Toby Moore.
Music: Simon Boswell.

+ filmed mainly around Norton St. Philip in Somerset

Mar 18th  
The Student of Prague*     
(Ger 1926)   
Sokal-Fiml Gmbh. 91m. bw. silent

An impoverished fencing student exchanges his other self for riches to a mysterious man in order to pursue his dream, but his doppelganger proves to be his undoing. 
Semi-supernatural drama with elements of Faust and Jekyll and Hyde, and some lapses in characterisation and variable Expressionistic performances, but some innovative camera trick work. The middle of three versions of this story, the others in 1913 and 1935.

Written by: Henrik Galeen, Hanns Heinz Ewers.
Producer: Henry Sokal.
Directror: Henrik Galeeb.
Starring: Conrad Veidt, Agnes Esterhazy, Elizza Le Porta, Werner Krauss, Ferdinand von Alten, Fritz Alberti.
Photogtaphy: Gunther Kramp.

THE STUDENT OF PRAGUE (1926). Seven years after The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919, above), Conrad Veidt is still under the control of Werner Krauss

Feb 24th   
Living in the Material World**    
aka. George Harrison: Living in the Material World

(US 2011)
Grove Street/Spitfire/Sikelia. 208m.

Scorsese's 3-hour documentary of The Beatles through the prism of George Harrison, with the collaboration of the family and therefore giving little in the way of an edge to what was admittedly the gentlest of the "Fab Four". Says nothing that other TV documentaries or films have not alrady said, but a useful record as a compendium with a wide variety of interesting contributors.

p: Olivia Harrison, Martin Scorsese, Nigel Sinclair
d: Martin Scorsese
contributions by: George Harrison(stock footage), Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono, Phil Spector, Dhani Harrison, Olivia Harrison, George Martin, Ray Cooper, Jacekie Stewart, Eric Idle,Terry Gilliam, and others
ph: Robert Richardson, Martin Kenzie, Peter Susdchitzky, and others
m: George Harrison (and others)
ed: David Tedeschi, Tessa Schoonmaker

Feb 15th     
The Time Traveler's Wife*      

(US 2008 - released 2009)    
New Line/Plan B Entertainment. 107m. ws

A young girl meets a man who suffers from a genetic disorder of jumping back and forth in time; she later meets and marries him as an adult. 
Sentimental fantasy romance with too easily good-looking stars, and some interesting supporting characters and scenes are only mere incidentals. The time travel element itself works more as Cupid than as catalyst.

Written by: Bruce Joel Rubin, from the novel by AudreyNiffenegger.
Producers: Nick Wechsler, Dede Gardner.
Director: Robert Schwentke.
Starring: Eric Bana, Rachel McAdams, Arliss Howard, Michelle Nolden, Stephen Tobolowsky, Ron Livingston, Hailey McCann, Brooklyn Proulx.
Photography: Florian Ballhaus.
Music: Michael Danna.
Editing: Thom Noble.