Author: Stephen

Meetup: Dheepan

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Wednesday 13th April 5:50pm
Also showing daily until Thursday 14th

Dheepan

The Palme D’or winning Dheepan is showing every day this week but Wednesday’s screening is the latest Leeds Movie Meetup Group gathering. We asked Frankie, the group’s organiser to tell us a little more.

Since forming in September 2008 the Leeds Movie Meetup Group has grown to a substantial size (1700+) members, although a typical number of attendees for an actual movie meetup would be 6 or 7 and our record attendance remains 22 for the DiCaprio movie Inception (2010). The Hyde Park Picture House is very much our ‘home’ venue. To date we have attended over 500 movies at the cinema, with Dheepan being our next meetup. I was joking that the follow up film should be called Krispneven, and at least 1 person thought that was funny! It’s not the same when we go elsewhere, although if we do, we much prefer independent cinemas such as The Cottage Road in Far Headingley to the Vue experience – where the screens are way too big and it’s way too expensive. But the main reason we love going to HPPH is the type of movie that gets shown there. Dheepan is exactly the kind of movie that the group looks for. Sure we also like recent blockbuster films such as The Revenant, High Rise or Hail, Caesar! but it’s the award winning foreign movies that are the first to get scheduled. Palme D’or winners (such as Dheepan) are sure to get the group talking in the Royal Park backroom afterwards. It might be totally hat-stand, but The Lobster which was our Favourite Film Meetup for 2015.

It’s tricky to find the Meetup website’s discussion board on a mobile phone, but with a desktop version, then it’s easy. We nearly always put an informal review of the film (and meetup) on there, certainly this happens if it’s an event that I’ve hosted, so it’s a little weird to do a preview of Dheepan. My reasoning in stating that is that I like to go see a movie where I know as little about it as possible. Ideally someone who has similar taste in movies to me will recommend it; and then I don’t want to see any trailers or read any reviews in the media. Dheepan has an interesting premise where a Tamil soldier poses as the husband and father of two other refugees in order to escape Sri Lanka and attempts to start a new life in France, and I think I’d rather not know any more about it!! However, I’m not a fan of some of the director’s other movies, especially A Prophet (2009), which as prison dramas go, was easily the toughest stretch I’ve had to endure, and was far too long.

I want to finish by mentioning Victoria. This movie is coming to the HPPH soon (from April 15th), and our Group is going to see it. We saw it at the Leeds International Film Festival back in November. It subsequently won a Llama (Leeds Annual Meetup Awards) for the year’s best film, as voted for by the members of the Group. Now that is an amazing film. It’s a little slow to get going but when it does it grips!!

March Poll

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We’ve put up a new poll to find out what you liked the most during the month of March. With the Young Film Festival taking place and a couple of big releases there weren’t many films that got multiple screenings so there are only three choices. You can always vote for other (we can see what you enter but can’t find a way of easily sharing this with everybody – perhaps clicking through and adding comments on the results page would be the best way). It’s interesting that all three of those films  Hail, Caesar!, Anomolisa and High-Rise have proved to be divisive with both audiences and critics, which surely only make the films much more interesting. Mark Kermode discussed this and aggregated review scores in one of his recent video blogs.

This Week At The Picture House

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underground_02

It’s quite an interesting week at the cinema (isn’t it always?). There are a few more chances to catch High-Rise and Anomalisa, two films which seem to be splitting audience opinions between love and hate. The Coen Brothers latest Hail, Caesar! gets its first run at the Picture House along with beautiful and haunting The Pearl Button. The screening of The Pearl Button on Thursday 7th April will be followed by a recorded Q&A with the film’s director, recorded last month at Home, Manchester.

On Saturday at 4pm there’s chance to see Harmonieband perform live their wonderful new score to Anthony Asquith classic  Underground (1928) which is sure to delight first time viewers and old fans alike.

On Monday there’s a rare chance to see this year’s Oscar nominees for Animated Short on the big screen. I’m sure all nine films are great but personally I’m looking forward to finally seeing World Of Tomorrow a film I’ve heard so many good things about.

Tuesday’s Wonder is This Is Exile (2015), an extraordinary, intimate portrait of child refugees forced to flee from the violence of Syria’s civil war to neighbouring Lebanon. The film will be followed by a panel discussion and the screening is a “pay as you feel” event to raise money for Amnesty International and Save The Children.

Leeds Young Film Festival 2016

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lyff2016

Now in it’s 17th year, the Leeds Young Film Festival starts this Thursday and as always there’s plenty to see for people of all ages. Taking place throughout the Easter school holidays (24th-31st March) the festival is aimed at young people but every year it always impresses with a great selection of films. If you’re ignoring the programme because it’s a “Kids’ festival” you’re likely to be missing out.

For starters there’s another chance to see some of the LIFF29 films you may not have seen (or want to see again):  Assassination Classroom (2015), Breaking A Monster (2015), Landfill Harmonic (2015), Lovemilla (2015) and Crow’s Egg (2014) are all showing at the Picture House. On Good Friday, tribute screenings of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (2009) and Labyrinth (1986) allow us to remember the great work of Alan Rickman and David Bowie. Good Friday continues with 25th Anniversary screenings of the deliciously bizarre  Delicatessen (1991) and Wes Craven’s The People Under The Stairs (1991), who we also sadly lost last year.

Not For Rental is a programme of films curated by 15-19 year olds that runs throughout the year. Their selection for the festival are all showing at the Picture House and includes Studio Ghibli’s latest (and possibly last) When Marnie Was There (2014) and Boy and the Beast (2015) from the makers of Wolf Children and Summer Wars which have both screened at LIFF. Not For Rental have also programmed this week’s Creatures Of The Night and Tuesday Wonder slots. The late night (but slightly earlier than usual at 10:30pm) screening of Aliens (1986) should be great after seeing Alien at LIFF a few years ago and on Tuesday He Named Me Malala (2015) is the inspirational documentary about the the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate, 17 year old Malala Yousafzai. Continue reading →

Philosophy and Film: Badlands

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Showing Tuesday 22nd March 6:15pm

badlands
Badlands (1973)

Terrence Malick’s directorial film follows two young lovers on a road trip across South Dakota, as they kill people along the way. It is a beautiful film, and touches upon many things that will occupy Malick throughout his career – nature, wonder, innocence, love and morality.

Dr. Joe Saunders (University of Leeds) will provide a short talk after the film, exploring Malick’s treatment of love and morality. This will be followed by a discussion with the audience.

This is the inaugural session of a philosophy and film series at the Hyde Park Picture House. The series explores philosophical issues raised by some of cinema’s most engaging films.

Mavis!, USA 2015

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Showing Sunday 13th March 4pm
Mavis

Committee member, Bill Walton, urges you to go and see Mavis! this Sunday.

I haven’t seen the film Mavis! yet, but I have seen the trailer and, even better, I saw Mavis Staples performing live at Glastonbury last year. Loads of charisma, great songs, a sensational voice, an excellent backing band, and a powerful advocate of Black Lives Matter. If you like gospel and soul music, and want to learn more about the part the Staples Singers played in the Civil Rights movement, make sure that you catch Mavis!

We don’t normally share trailers on this blog but this one is a great taster of what to expect from the film featuring Prince, Bob Dylan and Chuck D.

Keswick Film Festival

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Long before I joined the Friends of Hyde Park Picture House committee I got involved with Keswick Film Club and their annual film festival. I grew up near Keswick in the Lake District and the film club played a big part in enlightening me on the wonders of art house cinema.

Now in it’s 17th year Keswick Film Festival starts on Thursday and runs through until Sunday. There are 29 films spread across themes such as Best Of The Fests, highlighting popular films from other festivals such as The Assassin (2015), The Wolfpack (2015) and A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (2015). The Jazz theme includes a 35mm screening of Round Midnight (1986), one of the more authentic and affectionate presentations of the jazz world on the silver screen. Four films look at Memory in different ways including Imaginaerium (2015), a gothic fantasy based on the music Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish and described as a visual and aural spectacle. Another film dealing with Memory is Karen Guthrie’s The Closer We Get (also showing at the Picture House on Tuesday 1st March). Described by Mark Kermode as “a poignant examination of the bonds of family love”, Karen will be at Keswick to introduce and talk about her personal film.

Two other female directors will also be at the festival with their films. On Friday, British novelist Helen Walsh’s The Violators (2015) is “an intriguing directorial debut with a class-crossing tale of teen ennui” (Variety). Lapse Of Honour (2015) from Rayna Campbell is a gritty urban drama based in Manchester’s Moss Side and sees MOBO nominated rapper Lady Leshurr makes a seamless move into film. There are 13 other films at the festival directed by women and many more F-Rated films featuring significant roles for women both behind and in front of the camera.

Continue reading →

January Poll

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We’ve added a Poll section to the website, you’ll see it in the sidebar (or at the bottom of the page if you’re looking on your mobile). For the first question we’re asking you to look back at January and pick your highlight. Was it one of the award season contenders such as The Revenant, Room and Joy or catching up with Sunset Song or The Lady In The Van or the sold out screenings of Labyrinth made even more poignant by the sad death of Bowie. You can also vote “Other” for anything else such as one of the great Tuesday Wonders (Forbidden Room, Taxi Tehran, Güeros).

Committee’s Films Of The Year

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As we reach the end of 2015 we thought it would be interesting to find out which films our committee considered the highlights of the year. Amazingly there were more than 350 different films screened at the Picture House throughout the year and (nearly?) all of them were  interesting in some way.

After a quick poll we came up with the following top 5 (which in the grand tradition of film lists contains 6 films).

1. 45 Years
2. Girlhood
3. The Falling
4= Carol
4= The Tales Of Princess Kaguya
4= Wild Tales

Other films highlighted by the committee include: Alphaville, Amy, Diary Of A Teenage Girl, A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, Mommy, Our Little Sister, A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, Selma, Taxi Tehran, Timbuktu, We Are Many.

So how did we do? Is this a good representation of film in 2015? It’s great to see a strong female presence in our selection alongside more mainstream films (Mad Max: Fury Road, The Force Awakens, Sicario, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation).

We’d also like to hear your Top 5 films shown at the Picture House throughout 2015, if we get enough responses we’ll collate a Members List. Let us know in the comments below or over on Twitter using #FOHPPH2015 or Facebook.

Disclaimer: Not all of the committee were available to take part in this poll and it may be updated in the future to include their responses.