2012 – Wimbledon Film Club

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

Newly restored for its fortieth anniversary, this influential Oscar-winning classic constitutes one of the finest achievements of one of cinema’s greatest directors, working in his intensely creative late period. This comedy of manners centres on a group of vividly drawn and outwardly respectable upper middle-class friends, who are continually thwarted in their attempt to have…
The Great White Silence

This stunning documentary, beautifully restored by the BFI, charts Captain Scott’s ill-fated Polar Expedition of 1910-12. Herbert Ponting (1870-1935) set sail with the British Antarctic Expedition on the former whaling ship Terra Nova, as the Expedition’s official photographer and cinematographer, both for documentary purposes and because the sale of photographic and cinema rights helped pay…
Tyrannosaur

Admired British actor Paddy Considine, known for his collaborations with Shane Meadows, turns his hand to writing/direction with this award-winning feature debut. Considine grew up on a Midlands council estate and acknowledges personal echoes in the material. Shot over four weeks in Leeds, the director drew on detailed observation of local residents, with extras including…
In the Mood for Love

Kar Wai Wong has strong, nostalgic recollections of his formative years in Hong Kong where, having been born in Shanghai, he grew up from the age of five. In The Mood For Love is the second in a loose triptych of Hong Kong based, 1960s stories, beginning with Wong’s 1990 breakthrough film, Days Of Being…
Enduring Love

Adapted by Joe Penhall from the novel by celebrated British author Ian McEwan, brought to the screen by British director Roger Michell (Notting Hill). On a beautiful cloudless day a young couple celebrate their reunion with a picnic. But as Joe and Claire prepare to open a bottle of champagne, their idyll comes to an…
Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975

Swedish documentary film directed by Göran Olsson, that examines the evolution of the Black Power movement in American society from 1967 to 1975 as viewed through Swedish journalists and filmmakers. It features footage of the movement shot by Swedish journalists in the United States at that time, with appearances by Angela Davis, Bobby Seale, Huey…
The Source

Set in current times in a Muslim “North African or Arabian village”, this comedy-drama film tells the story of the local women who dare to defy tradition. Following a series of accidents along the treacherous trek they must tread to fetch water for their community from a distant spring, the women go on ‘love strike’…
The Fall

In 1915 Los Angeles, stuntman Roy Walker is hospitalized, bedridden and possibly paralyzed after taking a jump in his first film. He meets Alexandria, a young Romanian-born patient in the hospital who is recovering from a broken arm, and begins to tell her a story about her namesake, Alexander the Great. Alexandria is told she…
A Separation

Written and directed by Asghar Farhadi, A Separation is a powerful Iranian drama about a middle-class couple who are faced with a difficult decision – to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer’s disease. The tension between…
Benda Bilili

Benda Bilili means See Beyond in English and is the name of a Congolese band of homeless disabled and able bodied musicians. This uplifting and moving film documents their daily struggle to survive on the streets of the Congo capital, Kinshasa, through to achieving global recognition as artists, with some riveting twists and turns along…