Supported by Wiltshire Council’s Future High Streets Fund
The Best in Classic & Independent Cinema
Programme
Friday 16th May at 8pm​
​
MR BURTON (2025) Cert 12A
Toby Jones. Harry Lawtey, Lesley Manville. Directed by Marc Evans.
Richard Burton was widely regarded to be the greatest actor of British post-war theatre and cinema, the heir to Laurence Olivier's crown. Yet his path to glory was littered with obstacles, not least his turbulent, neglected upbringing in an impoverished Welsh mining family, and the multiple demons in his own personality which he was never able to escape and which were eventually to contribute to his untimely, alcohol-soaked death at the age of just 58. As this beautifully acted origin story reveals, he owed all his later success to his inspirational English teacher Philip Burton, whose own frustrated dreams of the theatre were poured into the bright young miner’s son Richard Jenkins. “Without Philip Burton there would never have been a Richard Burton,” Elizabeth Taylor later observed. “That great rolling voice that cracked like wild Atlantic waves would never have been heard outside the valley.” Mr Burton coached him in drama and later even made him his legal ward, persuading the boy to change his surname in order to facilitate an Oxford University scholarship. Harry Lawtey -- one of the breakout stars of BBC TV series Industry -- is superb as the young Richard, gradually transforming from a lanky, needy kid into the sonorous prince of the English stage. Yet the always wonderful Toby Jones is the real heart of the film as the quietly supportive Mr Burton, the counsellor, coach and therapist who gradually crafted a giant of the stage out of humblest of clay.
​​
Why not make the evening complete and join us for a delicious dinner before the movie?
Friday 6th June at 8pm​
​​
THE RETURN (2024) Cert 15
Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Charlie Plummer. Directed by Uberto Pasolini. 1hr 56m
​
Uberto Pasolini’s The Return offers a stripped back, powerful retelling of the final chapters of Homer’s Odyssey, eliminating the poem's mythical elements to focus on the emotional and psychological aftermath of armed conflict. Despite a resounding victory in the Trojan War, the Greek army led by Odysseus, king of Ithaca, has been wiped out during their long journey home in a series of perilous encounters with mythical creatures and angry gods. Odysseus is finally washed up on his home island, alone and both physically and psychologically scarred. There he finds his kingdom in disarray and his wife Penelope besieged by multiple suitors wanting to claim her hand. Hiding his identity, he must rebuild his strength and his confidence to reclaim his realm. Reunited for the first time since The English Patient 30 years ago, Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche deliver superb performances as the long-separated lovers. Fiennes especially underwent an extraordinary physical transformation to play the sinewy and battle-worn general, and the film features gorgeous location photography. Corfu, shot with a tawny late-summer glow, doubles beautifully for Ithaca brilliantly transforms Homer's classic myth into a poignant exploration of trauma, loyalty, and identity.
​​