Film Programme Archive

Film Programme January 2024 to April 2025

Friday 5 January 2024 – Asteroid City
This showing was postponed from 29 December 2023.
Following a writer on his world famous fictional play about a grieving father who travels with his tech-obsessed family to small rural Asteroid City to compete in a junior stargazing event, only to have his world view disrupted forever. Director: Wes Anderson ..Stars: Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks https://youtu.be/28xVCdcurj4?si=09m8ZPQLRE6A9tj8

Friday 26th January 2024 – Oppenheimer
Experience the breathtaking global phenomenon that has captivated audiences around the world.Written for the screen and directed by Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer thrusts audiences into the mind of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), whose landmark work on the Manhattan Project created the first atomic bomb. An unprecedented cinematic event, Oppenheimer features an all-star cast that includes Emily Blunt, Oscar® winner, Matt Damon, Oscar® nominee, Robert Downey Jr., Oscar® nominee, Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett, and Oscar® winners Casey Affleck, Rami Malek and Kenneth Branagh.
One of the top films of 2023….but also very long 3hrs +, so I propose an early start and a break in the middle.
https://youtu.be/uYPbbksJxIg?si=j3Ribm1MuJDMESQP

Friday 23rd February 2024 – The Great Escaper
In the summer of 2014, Bernard Jordan (Michael Caine) made global headlines. He had staged a “great escape” from his care home to join fellow war veterans on a beach in Normandy, commemorating their fallen comrades at the D-Day Landings 70th anniversary. It was a story that captured the imagination of the world as Bernie embodied the defiant, “can-do” spirit of a generation that was fast disappearing. But of course, it wasn’t the whole story. It was an inspirational but sanitised retelling of one man’s need to come to terms with the lasting trauma of war. Bernie’s adventure, spanning a mere 48 hours, also marked the culmination of his 60-year marriage to Rene (Glenda Jackson) – THE GREAT ESCAPER celebrates their enduring love but always with an eye to the lessons we might learn from the Greatest Generation.
https://youtu.be/dNWp8Kq5JgI?si=VY_NPUss9f3tWI-p

Friday 22nd March 2024 (not the last Friday of the month as that’s Good Friday) – The Miracle Club
Ballygar, Dublin, Ireland, 1968: close friends Lily (Maggie Smith), Eileen (Kathy Bates), and Dolly (Agnes O’Casey) win the trip of a lifetime – a pilgrimage to Lourdes. With each woman desperately in need of a personal miracle, the trip seems like an answer to all their prayers. But when they are joined by Chrissie (Laura Linney), returning to Dublin after decades in America, deep wounds from the past are re-opened and bitter truths exposed. As they confront one another and embrace their shared past, the group reckon with revelations that will change them forever. Directed by Thaddeus O’Sullivan, The Miracle Club is a heartfelt story of friendship, family, and forgiveness.
https://youtu.be/Gp3ZFdklPCk?si=T1xowZO1pIFJMixq

Friday 26th April – Anatomy of a Fall
When her husband Samuel is mysteriously found dead in the snow below their secluded chalet, Sandra becomes the main suspect when the police begin to question whether he fell or was pushed. The trial soon becomes not just an investigation, but a gripping psychological journey into the depths of Sandra and Samuel’s complicated marriage. With conflicting evidence and inconsistent testimony, words are wielded like weapons and shocking truths come to light in this thrilling Palme d’Or winner.
https://youtu.be/_MdTMA0PetA?si=ewBcE7ah6oKXpJKw

Friday 31st May – Showing Up
Showing Up is a 2022 American comedy-drama film co-written and directed by Kelly Reichardt, in her fourth collaboration with actress Michelle Williams. The film follows a sculptor managing the competing attentions of her art, job, family, and friendships.Showing Up premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 27, 2022, where it was nominated for the Palme d’Or.
https://youtu.be/wELPTxJ2YZY?si=DgQWRsrdCMjc1RTe

Friday 28th June – Mothering Sunday
After watching the trailer several times before the last film….might be a bit spicy! On a warm spring day in 1924, house maid and foundling Jane Fairchild (Odessa Young) finds herself alone on Mother’s Day. Her employers, Mr. and Mrs. Niven (Colin Firth and Olivia Colman), are out and she has the rare chance to spend quality time with her secret lover. Paul (Josh O’Connor) is the boy from the manor house nearby, Jane’s long-term love despite the fact that he’s engaged to be married to another woman, a childhood friend and daughter of his parents’ friends. But events that neither can foresee will change the course of Jane’s life forever.
https://youtu.be/fZ9StyWHZAc?si=fnjouV6MLtq0Vv-2

Sorry, but there will be no film for July2024

Friday 29th November 2024 – Joyride
JOYRIDE follows 12-year-old Mully (Charlie Reid), who, after fleeing his father, steals a taxi and is shocked to find a woman, Joy (Olivia Colman), in the back seat with a baby. Joy has decided to give her child away to a friend, and Mully needs some distance from his debt-ridden dad, who’s after the cash Mully has with him. And so two lovable rogues — a complicated middle-aged mother and a troubled adolescent — go on a journey across Ireland, gradually finding in each other the friendship, love and learning they never knew they needed.
https://youtu.be/lkVDCiJdGAg?si=mFei4rY9bVt3exJU

Friday 3rd January – The English Patient
A chance to see this classic on the big screen.
The sweeping expanses of the Sahara are the setting for a passionate love affair in this adaptation of Michael Ondaatje’s novel. A badly burned man, Laszlo de Almasy (Ralph Fiennes), is tended to by a nurse, Hana (Juliette Binoche), in an Italian monastery near the end of World War II. His past is revealed through flashbacks involving a married Englishwoman (Kristin Scott Thomas) and his work mapping the African landscape. Hana learns to heal her own scars as she helps the dying man.
https://youtu.be/Xk_LRcOFT0c?si=LsTaT9-SeRZsP5Kl

Friday 24th January 2025 – Licorice Pizza
Licorice Pizza is the timeless story of Alana Kane and Gary Valentine growing up, running around and falling in love in the San Fernando Valley, 1973. “This hypnotically gorgeous, funny, romantic movie freewheels its way around from scene to scene, from character to character, from setpiece to setpiece, with absolute mastery.
“* “Paul Thomas Anderson’s most lovable and magical work to date. The breakthrough performances from Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman are so magnetic and natural that they feel like some kind of miracle.
“** “Watching Licorice Pizza is like watching life with all the boring parts cut out and like watching movies with all the phony parts cut out.
” *** Featuring performances by Bradley Cooper, Sean Penn, Tom Waits and Benny Safdie.
https://youtu.be/ofnXPwUPENo?si=vd91WB0hCA7-GDzI

Friday 28th February 2025 – Summerland
Summerland follows the story of fiercely independent folklore investigator, Alice (Gemma Arterton) who secludes herself in her clifftop study, debunking myths using science to disprove the existence of magic. Consumed by her work, but also profoundly lonely, she is haunted by a love affair from her past. When spirited young Frank (Lucas Bond), an evacuee from the London Blitz, is dumped into her irritable care, his innocence and curiosity awaken Alice’s deeply buried emotions. Bravely embracing life’s miraculous unpredictability, Alice learns that wounds may be healed, second chances do occur, and that, just perhaps – magic really does exist.
https://youtu.be/7p-jNw9jZvc?si=RSRrwZjB792BtocF

Friday 28th March 2025 – Conclave
CONCLAVE follows one of the world’s most secretive and ancient events — selecting the new Pope. Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is tasked with running this covert process after the unexpected death of the beloved Pope. Once the Catholic Church’s most powerful leaders have gathered from around the world and are locked together in the Vatican halls, Lawrence uncovers a trail of deep secrets left in the dead Pope’s wake, secrets which could shake the foundations of the Church.
https://youtu.be/JX9jasdi3ic?si=ydzQtD_gi9ZRQTuB

apr 2025

Film Programme, February 2023 – November 2023

Febrary 24th 2023 – Ticket to Paradise – with George Clooney and Julia Roberts. Doors 19.15, Start 19.30. £5 for refreshments and raffle.

March 31st – The Father – a British drama in which a man who is suffering from dementia resists his daughter’s attempts to help him. Starring Anthony Hopkins and Oliva Coleman. https://youtu.be/OFnoRaLAclg

April 28th – Living – with Bill Nighy, Tom Burke, Aimee Lou Wood.LIVING is the story of an ordinary man, reduced by years of oppressive office routine to a shadow existence, who at the eleventh hour makes a supreme effort to turn his dull life into something wonderful.
https://youtu.be/OVo5kLt_-BU

May 26th – The Duke – with Anna Maxwell Martin, Helen Mirren, Fionn Whitehead, Jim Broadbent.In 1961, Kempton Bunton, a 60 year old taxi driver, stole Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London. It was the first (and remains the only) theft in the Gallery’s history. https://youtu.be/2B2bxcnt4S4

June 30th – The Banshees of Inisherin with Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson. Neighbours Padraic (Farrell) and Colm (Gleeson) have always been friends, until one day Colm abruptly declares that their friendship is over and he wants nothing more to do with Padraic.
https://youtu.be/uRu3zLOJN2c

July 28th – What’s Love Got To Do With It? – For documentary-maker and dating app addict Zoe (Lily James), swiping right has only delivered an endless stream of Mr Wrongs, to her eccentric mother Cath’s (Emma Thompson) dismay. For Zoe’s childhood friend and neighbour Kaz (Shazad Latif), the answer is to follow his parents’ example and opt for an arranged (or “assisted”) marriage to a bright and beautiful bride from Pakistan. As Zoe films his hopeful journey from London to Lahore to marry a stranger, chosen by his parents, she begins to wonder if she might have something to learn from a profoundly different approach to finding love.https://youtu.be/0LqOp2MNwao

August 25th – The Fablemans – Inspired by Steven Spielberg’s own childhood, rediscover the magic of movies in The Fabelmans, a coming-of-age story about a young man uncovering a shattering family secret and the power of film and imagination to help us see the truth about ourselves and each other. With a star-studded cast featuring Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Gabriel LaBelle and Judd Hirsch, The Fabelmans tells a timeless tale of heartbreak, healing, and hope for the dreamer inside all of us.
https://youtu.be/D1G2iLSzOe8

September 29th – ALLELUJAH is a warm and deeply moving story about old age. When the geriatric ward in a small Yorkshire hospital is threatened with closure, the hospital decides to fight back by galvanizing the local community: they invite a news crew to film their preparations for a concert in honour of the hospital’s most distinguished nurse. What could go wrong? ALLELUJAH celebrates the spirit of the elderly patients whilst paying tribute to the deep humanity of the medical staff battling with limited resources and ever-growing demand.
https://youtu.be/KGektpTIYqo

Friday 27th October – The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry.
A retiree impulsively decides to walk across the country to visit his terminally ill friend in this poignant drama. Directed by Hettie Macdonald. It is based on the 2012 novel of the same name by Rachel Joyce. The film stars Jim Broadbent and Penelope Wilton.
https://youtu.be/xeSrRrA4dXw?si=GpRnEhECn2inF1tV

Friday 24th November – The Bookshop
A 2017 drama film written and directed by Isabel Coixet, based on the 1978 novel of the same name by Penelope Fitzgerald, in which the lead character attempts against opposition to open a bookshop in the coastal town of Hardborough, Suffolk (a thinly-disguised version of Southwold).
The film stars Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson and Bill Nighy. It won three Goya Awards, including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay.
https://youtu.be/y5pbuzNpZUo?si=HdDE7ID9rEzQJSuQ

Friday 5th January 2024 (postponed from 29th Dec 2023) – Asteroid City
Following a writer on his world famous fictional play about a grieving father who travels with his tech-obsessed family to small rural Asteroid City to compete in a junior stargazing event, only to have his world view disrupted forever. Director: Wes Anderson ..Stars:Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks
https://youtu.be/28xVCdcurj4?si=09m8ZPQLRE6A9tj8

Film Programme, May 2021 – August 2021

Fri 28 May. A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood (2019) Biography; Drama; 109 mins; PG
Starring Tom Hanks. A timely story of kindness triumphing over cynicism.

Fri 11 June. The Perfect Candidate (2019) Drama; 104 mins; PG (with Subtitles)
A determined young Saudi doctor’s surprise run for office in the local city elections sweeps up her family and community as they struggle to accept their town’s first female candidate.

Fri 25 June. Layer Cake (2004) Action; Crime; Drama; 105 mins; 15
Starring Daniel Craig. A successful cocaine dealer gets two tough assignments from his boss on the eve of his planned early retirement.

Fri 23 July. Can you ever Forgive Me? (2018) Biography; Comedy; Crime; 106 mins; 15
A biographer has fallen on hard times and decides to turn her writing talent to deception.

Fri 20 Aug. Madame (2017) Comedy; Drama; Romance; 91 minutes; 15
Starring Toni Collette. Misbehaviour is on the menu as the maid is rather too successful at being a mysterious noble woman.

Film Programme, September 2020 – February 2021

Fri 25 Sept 2020 – Personal history of David Copperfield (2019) Comedy; Drama; 119mins; PG

A modern take on Charles Dickens’s classic tale of a young orphan who is able to triumph over many obstacles.

Fri 16 Oct 2020 – JoJo Rabbit (2019) Comedy; Drama; War 109 mins; 12

A young boy in Hitler’s army finds out his mother is hiding a Jewish girl in their home.

Fri 13 Nov 2020 – The Good Liar (2019) Crime; Drama; Mystery; 109 mins; 15

Consummate con man Roy Courtnay has set his sights on his latest mark: the recently widowed Betty McLeish, worth millions. But this time, what should have been a simple swindle escalates into a cat-and-mouse game with the ultimate stakes.

Fri 11 Dec 2020 – Military Wives (2019) Comedy; Drama; Musical; 112 mins; 12A

With their partners away serving in Afghanistan, a group of women on the home front form a choir and quickly find themselves at the center of a media sensation and global movement.

Fri 8 Jan 2021 – 1917 (2019) Drama; War; 119 mins; 15

As a regiment assembles to wage war deep in enemy territory, two soldiers are assigned to race against time and deliver a message that will stop 1,600 men from walking straight into a deadly trap.

Fri 19 Feb 2021 – The Farewell (2019) (Chinese with subtitles) Comedy; Drama; 100mins; PG

A Chinese family discovers their grandmother has only a short while left to live and decide to keep her in the dark, staging an impromptu wedding to see grandma one last time.

Film Programme, March 2020 – August 2020

Fri Mar 27 – Farmageddon (2019) Animation; adventure; comedy; 86 mins; U

When an alien with amazing powers crash-lands near Mossy Bottom Farm, Shaun the Sheep goes on a mission to shepherd the intergalactic visitor home before a sinister organization can capture her.

Fri Apr 24 – Edie (2017) drama; 102 mins; 12A

83 year old Edie believes that it is never too late – packing an old camping bag, leaving her life behind and embarking on an adventure she never got to have – climbing the imposing Mount Suilven in Scotland.

Fri May 22 – Downton Abbey (2019) drama; romance; 122 mins; PG

The continuing story of the Crawley family, wealthy owners of a large estate in the English countryside in the early twentieth century.

Fri June 19 – Pain and Glory (2019) Spanish with subtitles; drama; 113 mins; 15

A film director reflects on the choices he’s made as past and present come crashing down around him.

Fri July 24 – Knives Out (2019) comedy; crime; drama; 131mins; 12A

A detective investigates the death of a patriarch of an eccentric, combative family

Fri Aug 7 – Ladybird (2017) comedy; drama; 94mins; 15

Christine “Lady Bird” MacPherson is a high school senior from the “wrong side of the tracks.” She longs for adventure, sophistication, and opportunity, but finds none of that in her Sacramento Catholic high school. LADY BIRD follows the title character’s senior year in high school, including her first romance, her participation in the school play, and most importantly, her applying for college.

Film Club Programme, September 2019 – February 2020

Fri 13 Sept – All is True (2018) Drama; biography; history; 101 mins; 12A

In 1613 William Shakespeare Retired. He Still Had One Last Story To Tell – His Own. Starring Kenneth Branagh and Judi Dench it is a film full of interest and mischief.

Fri 25 Oct – Green Book (2018) comedy; drama; biography; 130 mins; 12A

A working-class Italian-American bouncer becomes the driver of an African-American classical pianist on a tour of venues through the 1960s American South

Fri 22 Nov – Yesterday (2018) comedy; fantasy; music; 116 mins; 12A

A struggling musician realizes he’s the only person on Earth who can remember The Beatles after waking up in an alternate timeline where they never existed..

Fri 03 Jan – Fighting with my family (2019) biography; comedy; drama; 108 mins; 12A

A new Stephen Merchant film based on a true story where a former wrestler and his family make a living performing at small venues around the country while his kids dream of joining World Wrestling Entertainment.

Fri 31 Jan 2020 – The Breadwinner (2017) Animation; drama; family; 94mins; 12

In 2001, Afghanistan is under the control of the Taliban. When her father is captured, a determined young girl disguises herself as a boy in order to provide for her family.

Fri 21 Feb – Fisherman’s friends (2018) comedy; drama; music; 112mins; 12A

Ten fisherman from Cornwall are signed by Universal Records and achieve a top ten hit with their debut album of Sea Shanties.

Film Club Programme, Mar 2019 – Aug 2019

Fri 22 Mar 2019 – A star is born (2018) Drama; music; romance; 136mins; 15

A musician helps a young singer find fame, even as age and alcoholism send his own career into a downward spiral.

Fri 26 Apr – Swimming with Men (2018) comedy; drama; romance; 96mins; 12A

A man who is suffering a mid-life crisis finds new meaning in his life as part of an all-male, middle-aged, amateur synchronised swimming team.

Fri 24 May – Leave no trace (2018) drama; 109mins; 12

A father and his thirteen year-old daughter are living an ideal existence in a vast urban park in Portland, Oregon, when a small mistake derails their lives forever.

Fri 28 June – Burn, Burn, Burn (2015) comedy; drama; 106 mins; 15

Following the death of their friend, two girls in their late twenties embark on a road trip to spread his ashes. Seph and Alex take turns driving. Dan is in the glove compartment, in tupperware, decreasing in volume as the trip progresses.

Fri 19 July – Faces, Places (2017) French with subtitles; documentary; 94mins; PG

Agnes Varda, one of the leading lights of France’s honored French New Wave cinema era, and professional photographer and muralist, J.R., collaborate on a special art project. Together, they take photographs of people around the country and create special colossal mural pictures of individuals, communities and places they want to honour and celebrate. Along the way, the old cinematic veteran and the young artistic idealist enjoy an odd friendship as they chat and explore their views on the world.

Fri 23 Aug 2019 – The old man and the gun (2018) Biography; comedy; crime; 93mins; 12A

Based on the true story of Forrest Tucker (Robert Redford), tracing his history…. from an audacious escape from San Quentin at the age of 70, to an unprecedented string of heists that confounded authorities and enchanted the public.

Film Club Programme, Sept 2018 – Feb 2019

Friday 21 Sep 2018 – Phantom Thread (2017) Drama; romance; 130mins; 15

Set in 1950’s London, Reynolds Woodcock is a renowned dressmaker whose fastidious life is disrupted by a young, strong-willed woman, Alma, who becomes his muse and lover.

Friday 12 Oct – 3 Billboards outside Ebbing Missouri (2017) Comedy; crime; drama, 115mins; 15

A darkly comic crime drama in which a woman pressures the police into continuing the investigation into her daughter’s murder

Friday 23 Nov – Coco (2017) Animation; adventure; comedy; 105mins; PG

Aspiring musician Miguel, confronted with his family’s ancestral ban on music, enters the Land of the Dead to find his great-great-grandfather, a legendary singer.

Friday 04 Jan 2019 – Call me by your Name (2017) Romance; drama, 132mins; 15

In 1980s Italy, a romance blossoms between a seventeen year-old student and the older man hired as his father’s research assistant..

Friday 25 Jan 2019 – The Shape of Water ( 2017) Drama; adventure; fantasy, 123mins; 15

At a top secret research facility in the 1960s, a lonely janitor forms a unique relationship with an amphibious creature that is being held in captivity

Friday 22 Feb 2019 – The Post (2017) Biography; drama; history, 116mins; 12A

A cover-up that spanned four U.S. Presidents, pushed the country’s first female newspaper publisher and a hard-driving editor to join an unprecedented battle between the press and the government.

Film Club Extra (open to everyone), Programme to November 2018

Screening of Blade Runner 2049 (15)

Helmdon Reading Room, 7.30pm Thursday 29 November 2018 (Doors open 7:10pm)

Some additional film screenings are coming to Helmdon to complement the existing film club programme. These films will either be longer or more art house (or both) than the usual film club programme.

We’ll be showing a series of three films on a Thursday night during the winter months, starting with ‘Blade Runner 2049’ on 29 November 2018.

Relax with some popcorn and a beer/glass of wine and be surprised by the quality of the surround sound in Helmdon’s Reading Room!

Right on your doorstep and at the bargain price of £3, or free to film club members.
Please do join us and bring your friends along too. Hope to see you there!
Emma Gray

Film Club Programme, Jan 2018 – Aug 2018

Programme Archive, Jan 2017 and earlier (on www.helmdonhistory.com)