Supported by Wiltshire Council’s Future High Streets Fund
The Best in Classic & Independent Cinema
Programme
St Valentine's Day Friday 14th February at 8pm​
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NOTTING HILL (1999) Cert 15
Julia Roberts, Hugh Grant, Hugh Bonneville, Emma Chambers. Directed by Roger Michell. 1hr 59m
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For Valentine's Day, a special treat. Even now, a little over 25 years on, Notting Hill stands apart as one of the best and most warm-hearted romantic comedies of all time. It's the finest by far of the trio of films - the others being Four Weddings & A Funeral and Love, Actually - which established the reputation of both Hugh Grant as an actor and Richard Curtis as a writer. But its greatest strength is the luminous presence of Julia Roberts in what is still her career-best performance, playing... well, herself. She is Anna Scott, world-famous movie star, visiting London to promote her new film when she falls for shy bookshop owner Will Thacker, played of course by Hugh Grant. Despite rumours that they didn't get on in real life, you'd never know it from the delightful chemistry the two stars have together on-screen. It all looks like a relationship made in heaven until the media find out and threaten to ruin everything, especially when Anna's equally famous film star boyfriend (Alec Baldwin) arrives in town. Adding extra lustre is the film's superb supporting cast of familiar faces, not just scene-stealer supreme Rhys Ifans, but also the much-missed Emma Chambers and Hugh Bonneville when he was still stuck playing bumbling idiots. It's a total delight. Come and see it with us as your Valentine's Day treat and fall in love all over again.
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Why not make the evening complete and join us for a delicious Valentine's Day dinner before the movie?
Friday 21st February at 8pm​
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CONCLAVE (2024) Cert 12
Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Isabella Rossellini. Directed by Edward Berger. 2hrs.
Power is power, and the church is as prone to political intrigue, ruthless back-stabbing and games-playing as any parliament. More so perhaps, because at its highest level this is global power which hides behind a mask of innocent piety. When the pope dies in what may or may not be suspicious circumstances, Ralph Fiennes is the senior cardinal and Vatican administrator tasked with overseeing a conclave of his peers from all over the globe to elect their new leader. Yet none of the leading contenders is quite what he seems and all are intent on sabotaging their rivals' chances by any means fair or foul. At the same time, a terrorist attack beyond the walls of the Vatican adds further urgency to the task. The clock is ticking... but the cardinals' final selection of a new pope threatens to change everything that we have ever understood about the Catholic faith. Despite its holy setting, Conclave is as gripping as any thriller, given additional force by superb performances from a starry cast, not least Ralph Fiennes in a career-highlight role, and muscular direction by Edward Berger, whose All Quiet On The Western Front was the star of last year's awards season. Conclave looks set to repeat that feat, with multiple nominations at both the BAFTAs and Oscars. This is quality filmmaking at every level, adapted by Peter Straughan (who brought Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall to our television screens) from the novel by Robert Harris, author of Fatherland, Enigma, The Ghost and Pompeii. A special mention goes to the film's stunning sound design, in which every footstep and every breath ratchets up the tension to fever pitch. Your heart will be racing.
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