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In the Heat of the Night
It’s the 1960s, an African-American detective (Poitier) from Philadelphia becomes reluctantly involved in a murder investigation in a small Mississippi town where the racial tension is almost palpable. With his life under threat and his Southern police partner (Steiger) holding dubious views on race, this is going to be the toughest of assignments. Adapted by
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Frantz
A change of tone again from prolific director Ozon, (Potiche, 8 Women, Swimming Pool) this time a romantic mystery with a plot that twists and turns like a slinky. French veteran, Adrien, journeys to a small German village a year after the end of World War I, to visit the grave of his friend Frantz
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The Heiresses
It’s a shame. Chela (Brun) and Chiquita (Irun) are down on their luck, when money’s so short what can you possibly do? They both come from wealthy families, so they start to sell the possessions they’ve inherited, but it’s still not enough. Chiquita’s solution lands her in jail and Chela, alone and aloof, has to
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Summer 1993
It’s summer and Frida (Artigas), a 6 year old orphan is bereft. Her uncle’s family take her from Barcelona to give her a fresh start in the countryside of Catalonia. Frida finds her new world hard to adjust to: unfamiliar people and places. Will she allow herself to take the risk of reconnecting as the
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Free Solo
Outstanding Oscar-winning documentary of climber Alex Honnold’s solo, ropeless ascent of sheer 3000 feet El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. We watch the meticulous preparations and planning, the false starts and setbacks in a study of courage, skill and the single-mindedness of striving to achieve what no one else has. This crowd-pleasing doc with stunning
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Red Joan
A film of non-linear story-telling as pensioner Joan (Judi Dench) remembers her time at Cambridge, its communist circles that drew her in and what followed. Could this unassuming old lady have been a spy sending classified information to the Soviet Union? Red Joan wonderfully realises 1930s Cambridge and Britain at war, while Sophie Cookson’s shy,
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Faces Places
Unlikely couple 88 year-old director Agnes Varda and photographer and muralist JR (33) create a visual essay on the French in this quirkiest of road movies. Travelling throughout France with a box truck equipped with a portable photo booth and printing facility, they take photographs of the people they meet and places they see, and
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The Pawnbroker
Rod Steiger (On the Waterfront, Dr Zhivago, In the Heat of the Night) launched a stellar career as a serious actor with his Oscar-nominated performance as an embittered concentration camp survivor running a pawnshop in 1960s Harlem. A powerful drama from director Sidney Lumet, who made some of Hollywood’s most visionary political/social dramas (12 Angry
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Transit
Transit is based on a 1944 novel by German-Jewish writer Anna Seghers, who draws on her own experience as a refugee. Petzold situates the drama in an historically indeterminate moment, superimposing past and present. There are no period trappings; the opening sirens could be sounding today, and the soldiers storming Paris look like contemporary French
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Philadelphia
For a decade after it was identified, victims of HIV faced early death, treated like pariahs while the virus ravaged the gay community. Philadelphia was the first major film to address the related issues of HIV, homophobia and discrimination and is widely credited with changing the national discourse. Tri-Star Pictures banked on celebrity director Demme,
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