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The Monday Night Film Club returns with a classic drama from Hungarian director István Szabó, the Oscar®-winning director of Mephisto, Hanussen and Being Julia.
Set in Hungary in the years following the end of WW2, a young boy concocts a fantasy ideal of his father who has been killed in the war. In the boy's fertile imagination, the father attains mythical and heroic qualities. Szabó's poignant cinematic ode, combining humour with a poetic nostalgia, relates historical events through the prism of personal experience, producing a film of extraordinary warmth, intimacy and power. Chosen by Hungarian critics and writers as one of the best Hungarian films of all time, Father also boasts luminous monochrome cinematography by the great Sándor Sára. In black and white | In Hungarian with English subtitles.
"Szabó's superb second feature, a major prizewinner at the time... shot and edited with all the effervescent brio of early Truffaut" Michael Brooke, MovieMail
"A beautiful study of the need for heritage... Szabó has told his story on two levels that complement each other magnificently" The New York Times
Join us for a special screening of Hal Ashby's black comedy for the 20th Anniversary of the Monday Night Film Club. Originally called Talk Cinema the film + discussion evening was the brainchild of film lecturer Darren Connor. Darren passed away at the very young age of 40 after a charity cycle ride in June 2011. We'll be paying tribute to Darren and we'll also hear from past and present Film Club customers.
The 1971 cult classic pairs Bud Cort as a dead-pan disillusioned 20-year-old obsessed with suicide and a lovable Ruth Gordon (“I’ll never understand this mania for black”) as a fun-loving 80-year-old eccentric. They meet at a funeral, and develop a taboo romantic relationship, in which they explore the tired theme of the meaning of life with a fresh perspective.
In an era of great change and great beauty emerged the character of James McNeill Whistler. Considered by some to be one of the great innovators of 19th century art, he was a contemporary of the Impressionists, much admired by Van Gogh and Manet. Boldly experimental and famously witty, Whistler disrupted the strict conventions of Victorian society in pursuit of a new cult of beauty, creating “art for art’s sake” and earning himself a place in the history of great art. He found a parallel between painting and music, and entitled many of his paintings “arrangements”, “harmonies” and “nocturnes”, emphasizing the importance of tonal harmony in his work.
His most famous painting, Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1 (1871), commonly known as Whistler’s Mother, is a revered and often parodied portrait of motherhood. It is arguably one of the most famous paintings in history and this film will unveil the artist behind the art.
Tate Britain is now holding the first major retrospective of Whistler in three decades. This blockbuster exhibition promises to reawaken the world to just how important Whistler is to art history, uniting world-famous masterpieces with rarely seen works. Exhibition on Screen will bring these stunning works and the incredible story behind them to cinemas around the world while the exhibition is still running, bringing this truly global artist to a global audience. This will be an unmissable chance to get to know this visually spectacular artist and the influence he has had on those who followed.
Made in close collaboration with Tate Britain.
Maria, a primary school teacher doing her best to inspire a class of 10-year-olds, is stifled by one unruly and chaotic student. With her career in question and the child's behaviour spiralling, she makes a series of bad decisions that lead to her accidentally taking and locking this "bad apple" in her home. Maria tries desperately to backtrack, but when the class starts flourishing and the staff and parents are thrilled with the improvement, she finds herself in a very complicated predicament.
Bitter Christmas is the latest film from iconic director Pedro Almodóvar. The Spanish language drama tells two alternating stories, one starring Elsa, an advertising director, in 2004, during a long weekend in December. The second takes place in 2026 and stars Raúl, a screenwriter and director who is writing a script that we soon discover is the story of Elsa, her boyfriend Bonifacio, and her friends Patricia and Natalia. Mixed with fiction, Elsa is, in a way, Raúl's alter ego, who, like him, resorts to autofiction as a solution to a long period of creative drought. He looks inside himself, and he can't help but also look at the people who make up his most intimate universe: his partner and his assistant. The film narrates the close relationship between reality and fiction, between inspiration and life, exploring the limits of autofiction and stories within stories. In Spanish with English subtitles.
On Halloween Eve at Mossy Bottom Farm, excitement turns to dismay when the clumsy Farmer ruins the pumpkin patch. Shaun tries fixing it with science experiments, but things go wrong when a wild beast appears in the woods.
Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by a wealthy family and what seems like a straightforward case quickly spirals into a labyrinth of gambling debts, missing persons, murder, corruption and deception. Humphrey Bogart stars as PI Philip Marlowe in this classic American film noir directed by Howard Hawks. Lauren Bacall stars as Vivian Rutledge.
The Big Sleep, now 80 years old, is part of the Power, Corruption and Lies on Screen season as Hawks' brilliant noir exposes how wealth, influence and social status conceal criminality and moral decay and where every character is hiding something...
There are no adverts or trailers with this screening of The Big Sleep.
The ever popular French Film Festival returns to the RBC with a classic thriller from 1995. France’s master of suspense, Claude Chabrol, relishes every malevolent, icily controlled shot of this perfectly constructed thriller, right up to its terrifying, violent climax.
Adapted from Ruth Rendell's classic thriller, A Judgement in Stone, Chabrol transposes it to a remote French village. This iconic film has left a lasting mark on the cinematic landscape. Its influence transcends borders, shaping contemporary masterpieces like Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite. In French with English subtitles.
"Creates a palpable sense of unease that fully justifies the shockingly violent finale." - Time Out
You can see two other films by Claude Chabrol as part of the Power, Corruption and Lies on Screen season, La Femme infidèle and Le Boucher, thrillers which explore moral, rather than political, corruption and where polite society and dark secrets entwine to murderous effect.
An unforgettable road trip across Europe, from the Atlantic to Istanbul… Director Mathias Mlekuz stars in a fictionalised version of the real-life bike pilgrimage he took with his co-star and actor friend Philippe Rebbot. They travel from the west coast of France to Istanbul to pay homage to Mathias’ son Youri after his untimely and shocking death.
Filled with moments of intense emotions and occasionally bursting with laughter, this journey becomes an opportunity for these two friends to explore their friendship and pay tribute to Youri’s memory. Audience Award, best director and best music at Angoulême Francophone Film Festival 2024. In French with English subtitles.
"Bittersweet middle-aged bromance." The Guardian
There will be no adverts or trailers with this screening.
A leading member of the French New Wave, who came to be regarded as the 'French Hitchcock', for many years Claude Chabrol's classic thrillers have been missing from UK screens. A mid-career masterpiece within Chabrol's remarkable run of bourgeois psychological thrillers, La Femme infidèle traces the fallout following a husband’s discovery of his wife’s affair and his quiet, unnerving and devastating act of revenge. In French with English subtitles.
La Femme infidèle is part of the Power, Corruption and Lies on Screen Season, a themed run of films exploring how power can be misused, how corruption develops, and how truth can be manipulated. Alongside classics like The Big Sleep and All the President's Men the season brings together three of Chabrol’s most disturbing works, from La Femme infidèle, 1970's impeccable Le Boucher and 1995's La Cérémonie (based on Ruth Rendell's novel A Judgement in Stone), these are thrillers which explore moral, rather than political, corruption and where polite society and dark secrets entwine to murderous effect.
Set against the backdrop of mass protests in Paris, Case 137 follows Stéphanie, a meticulous internal affairs investigator assigned to investigate a teenager critically injured by police fire. Stéphanie is tasked with uncovering the truth, but her inquiry collides with institutional resistance and pressure mounts as the case turns personal, forcing her to confront the fragile lines between truth, loyalty, and justice. In French with English subtitles.
Case 137 is part of our Power, Corruption and Lies on Screen Season, a themed run of films exploring how power can be misused, how corruption develops, and how truth can be manipulated. You can see films like All The President's Men, Klute, and The Parallax View as well as rereleases of several of legendary French director Claude Chabrol's films which explore moral, rather than political, corruption and where polite society and dark secrets entwine to murderous effect.
From the makers of Coraline, Wildwood is a sweeping, darkly magical adventure about Prue, a young girl who journeys into a hidden forest to rescue her younger brother. Along the way she encounters warring factions, extraordinary creatures, and a world unlike anything she's ever known.
From Oscar®-nominated and BAFTA®-winning LAIKA, Wildwood is a sweeping adventure about love, sacrifice, and the magic that reveals itself when we dare to look beyond the familiar.
A vanished wife. A borrowed name. A house in the Portuguese countryside. Grieving and aimless, quiet geography teacher Fernando slips into another man's identity as a gardener — and finds, in the friendship that follows, a life that isn't his own. A tender and hopeful story about connection and purpose. In Spanish and Portuguese with English subtitles.
“Gently but determinedly pulls the rug from beneath you at every turn… one of the most delicately observed relationships in recent cinema… a small, enigmatic marvel of a film, and a worthy swansong for Solo, an actor possessed of the most soulful gaze in Spanish cinema” - 8/10 UNCUT
A leading member of the French New Wave, who came to be regarded as the 'French Hitchcock', for many years Claude Chabrol's classic thrillers have been missing from UK screens. Chabrol’s most celebrated and sinister film sees a tender friendship between a schoolteacher and local butcher darken as a series of murders unsettles life in their village. In French with English subtitles.
Le Boucher is part of the Power, Corruption and Lies on Screen Season, a themed run of films exploring how power can be misused, how corruption develops, and how truth can be manipulated. Alongside classics like The Big Sleep and All the President's Men the season brings together three of Chabrol’s most disturbing works, from 1969's La Femme infidèle and 1995's La Cérémonie (based on Ruth Rendell's novel A Judgement in Stone), these are thrillers which explore moral, rather than political, corruption and where polite society and dark secrets entwine to murderous effect.
PLEASE NOTE Change to Tuesday Night Film Club. FATHERLAND centres on the relationship between the Nobel Prize-winning writer Thomas Mann (Hanns Zischler) and his daughter Erika (Sandra Hüller) - actress, writer and rally driver. In the summer of 1949, at the height of the Cold War, father and daughter embark on a challenging and emotional road trip in a black Buick taking them across a Germany in ruins - from US dominated Frankfurt to Soviet controlled Weimar. Returning home after sixteen years of exile in the US, Thomas Mann has to face not only a divided fatherland, but also a deep fracture within his own family.
With FATHERLAND, Pawlikowski picks up where he left off with his award-winning Ida and Cold War, exploring – in his elliptic, distilled style - the themes of identity, family, love and guilt amid the turmoil and confusion of post-war Europe. In German, French, English and Russian with English subtitles | In Black and White.