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The Night of the Hunter
Convict Harry Powell, (Robert Mitchum), learns from a cellmate facing execution, of a stash of loot hidden at his family home. On his release Powell poses as a preacher and inveigles himself into the man’s home. Marriage and murder follow.
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Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday
It’s August and M. Hulot sets off on holiday in his ancient Amilcar. He arrives in Brittany at the beachfront hotel, where an unsuspecting assortment of holiday-makers is unaware of the impending havoc. The charm of this film lies in its benign humour: there are no victims. M. Hulot is oblivious of the trail of…
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Key Largo
Frank McCloud (Bogart) visits the family of a GI friend killed in the war and finds they have been taken hostage by gangster on the run, Rocco (Edward G. Robinson). A hurricane approaches as McCloud and Rocco face up to each other. In this fourth screen pairing of Bogart and Bacall, the chemistry is still…
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Ice Cold in Alex
Captain Anson (Mills) is assigned to escort an ambulance across the Libyan desert to Alexandria in WWII. The German advance starts to surround them will Anson lead his motley band to safety or succumb to self-doubt and whisky.
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The General
The partnership between Bruckman and Keaton created a cinematic masterpiece. Made towards the very end of the silent era, the film cost 400,000 a sum unheard of at the time – the famous bridge and train stunt alone cost 42,000. Yet while expectations were high, the film was a flop at the box office. Only…
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Control
Control is far and away the better of the two 2007 films about Ian Curtis, eulogised lead singer of Joy Division, who killed himself at 23. Based on the memoir by Deborah Curtis, Ian Curtis wife, the film covers the singer’s troubled teenage years to his death. It moves away from the glamorous portrayals of…
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El Violin
A big winner on the film festival circuit in the Americas and Europe, juries and audiences alike applauded Vargas accomplished first feature. El Violin is the kind of social realism film we don’t see so much these days. The film tells a simple story of guerrilla forces struggling against the oppression of government troops in…
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All About Eve
During 2008, film societies in the UK and around the world have been celebrating Bette Davis’s centenary. They’ve screened films from Jezebel to Now Voyager, from Dark Victory to Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. The Wimbledon Film Club has gone to huge effort to bring you Bette Davis signature performance in All About Eve, one…
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Persepolis
This Oscar-nominated, multi-award-winning animation tells the story of the coming of age of a young Iranian girl, Marji. Finding a way to express your teenage self with all its contradictions, mini-rebellions and leanings towards Western pop culture isn’t easy in the middle of an Islamic revolution. With the full implications of the mullahs crackdown on…
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Jules et Jim
To mark the 25 anniversary of Truffaut’s death, WFC brings you Truffaut’s third film, recognised now and then as a defining film of French New Wave cinema. The story tells of a menage a trois. Two young writers, Jules (Werner), an Austrian, and Jim (Serre), a Frenchman, live a decadent lifestyle in pre WWI Europe…