Here is our Film Night programme for 2015/16. All films start at 7.30pm and are FREE!
8/9/15 Continental Season: Summer With Monika (1953) 29/9/15 British Seaside Season: The Magnet (1950) 6/10/15 French Season: A Toute de Suite (2004) 27/10/15 London Season: West 11 (1961) 10/11/15 French Season: La Grande Illusion (1937) 24/10/15 British Seaside Season: The System (1964) 8/12/15 French Season: Le Mepris (1963) 12/1/16 London Season: Night & The City (1950) 26/1/16 British Seaside Season: The Entertainer (1960) 9/2//16 French Season: Last Year In Marienbad (1960) 23/2/16 London Season: Small World Of Sammy Lee (1963) 8/3/16 British Seaside Season: The Punch & Judy Man (1963) 29/3/16 French Season: Cite des Enfants Perdus (1995) 12/4/16 London Season: It Always Rains On Sundays (1947) 26/4/16 British Seaside Season: Quadrophenia (1979) 10/5/16 French Season: Angel-A (2005) 24/5/16 London Season: Nothing But The Best (1963) 8/9/16 British Seaside Season: The Fruit Machine (1988) 27/9/16 French Season: Buffet Froid (1979) 11/10/16 London Season: Blow-Up (1966) 25/10/16 French Season: Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) 8/11/16 British Seaside Season: Oh! What A Lovely War (1969) 29/11/16 London Season: Frenzy (1972) 8/12/16 French Season: Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
Our Film Nights return tomorrow [Tuesday] with the Swedish classic, Summer With Monika [1953]. The film, directed by Ingmar Bergman, sparked controversy abroad for its frank description of nudity. Along with 'One Summer Of Happiness' the year before it helped to create the reputation of Sweden as a sexually liberated place. The film made a star of the leading actress, Harriet Andersson. Bergman had been intimately involved with Anderson at the time and conceived the film as a vehicle for her. The two of them would continue to work together, even after their romantic relationship had ended.
For our next Film Club show, we will be showing by popular request The Magnet 1950 as part of a British Seaside season of films
The Magnet is a 1950 Ealing Studios comedy film, and gave James Fox his first starring role. The story revolves around a young Wallasey boy, Johnny Brent (Fox), whose deceptive obtaining of a magnet leads to confusion and ultimately him being hailed as a hero, but feeling guilt at his slyness.
The Magnet was filmed on location in and around New Brighton, Wirral, Cheshire and Liverpool, and at Ealing Studios, London, in black and white.
Please note that we will be showing a recent digitally restored version of the film. If you haven't seen this film before then you are in for a treat seeing Merseyside in 1950. If you know the film then it is worth seeing again for the newly restored version which has much better print quality than previous versions on DVD, VHS video and TV.
Our Film Night tonight is the 2004 French thriller, A Toute De Suite. "In 1975, a young bourgeois woman falls in love with a bank robber. She follows him and his partner on the run after a bank heist resulted in a death and hostage taking. Using fake IDs, they leave Paris and travel to Spain, Morocco, and Greece."
Our next Film Night is the 1961 Michael Winner crime thriller 'West 11'. The film features Alfred Lynch, Kathleen Breck, Eric Portman, Diana Dors, and Kathleen Harrison. Set in West London, the title is taken from the postcode W11, and it was filmed on location in Notting Hill.
Please note the new start time of 6pm. There will be a raffle and teas and coffees available. All money raised goes back into the library. Everyone is welcome!
Tomorrow night's Film Night is the British-Italian 1966 film Blow Up, directed by Michelangelo Antonioni about a fashion photographer, played by David Hemmings, who believes he has unwittingly captured a murder on film. It was Antonioni's first entirely English-language film.
The film also stars Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles, John Castle, Jane Birkin, Tsai Chin and Gillian Hills as well as sixties model Veruschka.
It's Film Night again tomorrow. We'll be showing 1964 British film, The System. It was called the Girl-Getters in the US. The film stars Oliver Reed, Jane Merrow and was directed by Michael Winner. "A handsome, jaded photographer tutors his friends in fine points of seducing and abandoning beautiful young women in this cynical British comedy. These lessons come back to haunt him when one of his friends, overcome with jealousy, uses the same techniques to plot the photographer's downfall."
Our Film Nights resume for 2016 tonight. We'll be showing the underated British thriller, Night & The City [1950] "Night & The City is a 1950 British film noir directed by Jules Dassin and starring Richard Widmark, Gene Tierney and Googie Withers. It is based on the novel of the same name by Gerald Kersh. Shot on location in London and at Shepperton Studios, the plot revolves around an ambitious hustler whose plans keep going wrong."
Our next Film Night is tomorrow evening. We'll be showing 'The Entertainer'. Filmed on location in Morecambe, this 1960 drama was directed by Tony Richardson, based on the stage play of the same name by John Osborne. It stars Laurence Olivier as a failing third-rate music-hall stage performer who tries to keep his career going even as the music -hall tradition fades into history and his personal life falls apart. The theme is considered to be an allegory for the decay of Great Britain in the 1950's. Olivier, reprising his mesmerising stage performance in the same role, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
This 1962 comedy has been chosen for National Libraries Day because it's set in a library! Based on the novel 'That Uncertain Feeling' by Kingsley Amis, the film is directed by Sidney Gilliat from Bryan Forbes' screenplay. Peter Sellers stars as a bored, hen-pecked library worker. When he seeks promotion, Liz, wife of a local councillor [Mai Zetterling] sets her sights on him. But this is risky stuff in a Welsh valleys town - if they manage to consummate their affair, that is!
Saturday 6th February 2.30pm FREE!
There will also be a coffee morning 10-12 to raise money for the library. We'll have lots of homemade cakes to buy. Come along and meet some of the Friends. There'll be lots of books for sale too.[i][/i]
L'Année dernière à Marienbad (released in the US as Last Year at Marienbad and in the UK as Last Year in Marienbad) is a 1961 French film directed by Alain Resnais from a screenplay by Alain Robbe-Grillet.
Last Year at Marienbad is famous for its enigmatic narrative structure, in which truth and fiction are difficult to distinguish, and the temporal and spatial relationship of the events is open to question. The film's dreamlike nature has both fascinated and baffled viewers; many have hailed the work as a masterpiece, while others consider it incomprehensible.
The next film in our London series is the excellent and little known Small World Of Sammy Lee - a 1963 British crime film directed by Ken Hughes and starring Anthony Newley, Julia Foster and Robert Stephens. A peep-show compere is hunted across the seedy underworld of London by debt collectors. A relentlessly paced film with some great acting shot on location in Soho and Whitechapel.
Tuesday 23rd February. Doors open at 5.45pm - film starts 6.00pm.
We will be showing a Saturday matinee this weekend. It's part of our short Matinee Season. If it's popular, we may look to extend the number of films we show on a Saturday.
'I'm All Right Jack' [1959] British comedy film directed and produced by John and Roy Boulting. The film is a sequel to the Boultings' 1956 film Private's Progress and Ian Carmichael, Dennis Price, Richard Attenborough, Terry-Thomas and Miles Malleson reprise their characters. Peter Sellers played one of his best-known roles, as the trades union shop steward Fred Kite and won a Bafta Best Actor Award. The film is a satire on British industrial life in the 1950s. The trade unions, workers and bosses are all seen to be incompetent or corrupt to varying degrees. The film is one of a number of satires made by the Boulting Brothers between 1956 and 1963.'
Sat 27th Feb 2.30pm FREE!
12/3/2016 'The Rebel' (Tony Hancock)
19/3/2016 'The Man Who Fell To Earth' (David Bowie) please note will have to start at 2.15 as 137 minutes in length.
