Kingsbridge Kino

Previous Films

Season:  2015

Featured image for “Silent Sonata”

Silent Sonata

Director : Janez Burger

Country : Slovenia

Release Date : 2010

Duration : 77 mins

Language : No dialogue

Subtitles : No

A man stays alone with his children in a half-demolished house in the middle of a desolate field. His wife has just been killed by a grenade in a military battle. He is expecting a new attack. Instead a wandering circus caravan stops by the house. They bring along the dying director of the circus. Is it possible for anything beautiful to happen in a landscape of war and death? Can life go on? Is it possible to realise that death does not exist?

A Fellini-esque silent fable which tackles the horrors of war with a refreshing sense of the absurd.”  (Simon Crook – Empire Magazine)

Featured image for “Haider”

Haider

Director : Vishal Bhardwaj

Country : India

Release Date : 2014

Duration : 154 mins

Language : Hindi

Subtitles : Yes

An adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Haider – a young man returns home to Kashmir on receiving news of his father’s disappearance. Not only does he learn that security forces have detained his father for harbouring militants, but that his mother is in a relationship with his very own uncle. Intense drama follows between mother and son as both struggle to come to terms with news of his father’s death. Soon Haider learns that his uncle is responsible for the gruesome murder, what follows is his journey to avenge his father’s death.

This radical Indian version of Hamlet gives the story compelling political angles and musical surprises. A palpable hit, in any language.”  (Mike McCahill – The Guardian)

Featured image for “Au revoir les enfants”

Au revoir les enfants

Director : Louis Malle

Country : France

Release Date : 1987

Duration : 104 mins

Language : French

Subtitles : Yes

WINNER : GOLDEN LION AT 1987 VENICE FILM FESTIVAL

In 1943, Julien (Gaspard Manesse) is a student at a French boarding school. When three new students arrive, including Jean Bonnett (Raphael Fejto), Julien believes they are no different from the other boys. What Julien doesn’t know is that the boys are actually Jews who are evading capture by the Nazis. Although Julien doesn’t care for Jean at first, the boys develop a tight bond – while the head of the school, Père Jean (Philippe Morier-Genoud), works to protect the boys from the Holocaust.

Not only the best movie on the subject of the Occupation … it is also one of the best pictures ever made about childhood. The performances that Malle has drawn … are not to be faulted.”  (Philip French – The Observer)

Featured image for “Of Horses and Men”

Of Horses and Men

Director : Benedikt Erlingsson

Country : Iceland

Release Date : 2013

Duration : 90 mins

Language : Icelandic

Subtitles : Yes

WINNER : 2014 NORDIC COUNCIL FILM PRIZE

A hugely enjoyable and original tale, set in the wilds of Iceland, as romance between humans is kindled by a bond with horses.

Something truly and seductively strange … tenderly attuned to the weather and landscape, both of which are captured in you-could-almost-be-there vividness, and underscored by a heady swirl of choral works and primal drumming.”  (Robbie Collin – Daily Telegraph)

Featured image for “Leviathan”

Leviathan

Director : Andrey Zvyagintsev

Country : Russia

Release Date : 2014

Duration : 140 mins

Language : Russian

Subtitles : Yes

WINNER : PALME D’OR AT 2014 CANNES FILM FESTIVAL

SHORT-LISTED : BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM AT 2015 OSCARS

A Russian fisherman fights back when a corrupt mayor tries to seize possession of his ancestral home. The house and land have been in his family for years; he lives there with his wife and son, and doesn’t intend to leave. He summons an old friend from Moscow, now a lawyer, to help him fight the case. But corruption is a way of life in the community, and even the clever attorney has trouble outfoxing the unscrupulous mayor and his loyal bureaucracy.

The great trial of Job is reborn in this magnificent Russian movie, compelling in its moral seriousness, with a severity and force that escalate into a terrible, annihilating sort of grandeur. Zvyagintsev combines an Old Testament fable with something like Tarkovsky’s ‘The Sacrifice’.”  (Peter Bradshaw – The Guardian)

Featured image for “’71”

’71

Director : Yann Demange

Country : UK

Release Date : 2014

Duration : 99 mins

Language : English

Subtitles : No

’71 takes place over a single night in the life of a young British soldier (Jack O’Connell) accidentally abandoned by his unit following a riot on the streets of Belfast in 1971. Unable to tell friend from foe, and increasingly wary of his own comrades, he must survive the night alone and find his way to safety through a disorientating, alien and deadly landscape.

’71 offers a lapel-grabbing, immersive viewing experience likely to shake up audiences who couldn’t otherwise care less about the boredom-factor whys and wherefores of Northern Ireland’s bitterest years.”  (Trevor Johnstone – Sight and Sound)

Featured image for “Bicycling with Molière”

Bicycling with Molière

Director : Philippe Le Guay

Country : France

Release Date : 2013

Duration : 104 mins

Language : French

Subtitles : Yes

A warm, funny, literate comedy in which two French actors portray two French actors, friends at odds with one another in every possible way, except their love of Molière’s The Misanthrope. When not arguing or rehearsing scenes while biking, they consider their options as personified by a local porn actress and an attractive Italian divorcée, as well as the lure of island real estate.

Thank God, or the Comédie-Française, whichever is older and senior, that good French performers still know how to make ancient French literature come alive for the popcorn crowd.”  (Nigel Andrews – Financial Times)

Featured image for “The Innocents”

The Innocents

Director : Jack Clayton

Country : UK

Release Date : 1961

Duration : 100 mins

Language : English

Subtitles : No

In this lugubrious but brilliantly realised adaptation of Henry James’ classic novella The Turn of the Screw, 19th century British governess Miss Giddens (Deborah Kerr) arrives at a bleak mansion to take care of Flora (Pamela Franklin) and Miles (Martin Stephens), the wealthy household’s two children. Outwardly the children are little darlings, but the governess begins to feel that there’s something unwholesome behind those beatific smiles …

Oozing ambiguity, Jack Clayton’s shimmering gem is a masterclass in suggestion, a flawless evocation of the uncanny which pits the subconscious against the supernatural to genuinely hair-raising effect.”  (Mark Kermode – The Observer)

Featured image for “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Director : Howard Hawks

Country : USA

Release Date : 1953

Duration : 88 mins

Language : English

Subtitles : No

A classic musical featuring a tight script and a fabulous collection of song and dance numbers (often copied but seldom bettered).  A cynical plotline is wonderfully belied by generous sentiment and the Monroe / Russell sexual stereotypes are used ironically to generate a whole range of erotic gambits: innocence, brashness, temptation and seduction.  Interesting too that the male roles remain mere foils to the sympathetic sparring relationship of the female leads.

One of the top ten best films ever made.”  (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)