Sun 9 Dec • Double bill

12:08 EAST OF BUCHAREST (15) 2.30

(Romania 2006) dir. Corneliu Porumboiu 89m. Subtitles.
Mircea Andreescu, Teodor Corban, Ion Sapdaru.

A delightfully satirical comedy of the absurd. Sixteen years after the end of despotic Communist rule in Romania (announced officially at 12.08), a TV talk show is in production to commemorate the event but the only two available panellists, Manescu, an alcoholic schoolteacher and Piscoci, a lonely old-timer living in the past, are perhaps less than suitable for the occasion...

+ YELLA (12A) 4.30

(Germany 2007) dir. Christian Petzold 90m. Subtitles.
Nina Hoss, Devid Striesow, Hinnerk Schönermann.

A tightly wound spring of a metaphysical thriller that confirms Christian Petzold as one of Germany's finest directors. A tense metaphysical thriller with a mesmerising central performance. Yella is a young woman caught between an uncertain future and a past that won't go away. She may move west from the old East Germany, but the past moves with her and her new life is soon under threat.

Sun 16 Dec • Gérard Depardieu double bill

LOULOU (18) 2.00

(France 1980) dir. Maurice Pialat 105m. Subtitles.
Isabelle Huppert, Gérard Depardieu, Guy Marchand.

With its two outstanding star performances from Depardieu and Huppert, Maurice Pialat's atmospheric portrait of low-life Paris won him international recognition and acclaim in 1980. Sexual tension quickly reaches boiling point when petty criminal Loulou (Depardieu) meets middle-class Nelly (Huppert) in a night club. Raw and risky then and still fresh and poignant today.

+ THE SINGER (12A) 4.05

(France 2006) dir. Xavier Giannoli 113m. Subtitles.
Gérard Depardieu, Cecile De France, Mathieu Amalric.

Depardieu gives his best performance in years as a fifty something, overweight provincial dance hall circuit singer who meets Marion, a young woman who, with her son, is trying to rebuild her life after a failed marriage. It's a character-driven, bittersweet and emotionally truthful film with Depardieu's performance of the elegiac title song 'Quand J'etais Chanteur' worth the price of admission alone.

RATATOUILLE (U) 2.30

(US 2007) dirs. Brad Bird & Jan Pinkava 111m. Digital.
Voices of Ian Holm, Peter O'Toole, Janeane Garofalo, Patten Oswalt.

Pixar Animation recaptures the delights of the treat for all ages that was TOY STORY. Their latest warm and irresistible mix combines verbal and visual wit with perfect slapstick timing and is served with just a soupcon of Gallic sophistication. Moving to Paris to fulfill his dream of being a chef, young rat Remy discovers it's a tough profession for a rodent – especially when his culinary hero Auguste Gusteau passes away. But by forming an unlikely allegiance with trainee chef Linguini, Remy finds a way to put his gastronomic skills to good use – all the while battling his family's scepticism, a crazy head chef, and the rat-hating world of humans to produce the finest Ratatouille in all of France!

STARDUST (PG) 2.30

(UK/US 2007) dir. Matthew Vaughn 128m. Digital.
Charlie Cox, Claire Danes, Robert DeNiro, Rupert Everett, Ian McKellan, Sienna Miller, Peter O’Toole, Michelle Pfeiffer, David Walliams.

With tongue-in-cheek humour, and famous faces acting outrageously, this adventure story should never be mistaken for a strictly-for-kids movie! Tristan (Cox) tries to win the heart of Victoria (Miller) by going on a quest to retrieve a fallen star. His journey takes him to a mysterious and forbidden land. On his quest Tristan encounters a variety of magical and fantastical characters, each of whom also have a desire for the star. Showcasing the vast and beautiful landscapes of Iceland and Scotland, STARDUST is that glittering, spectacular magical fantasy for which the movies were invented.

VELVET GOLDMINE (18) 12.00

(UK/US 1998) dir. Todd Haynes 124m.
Ewan McGregor, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Christian Bale

The kitschy world of 1970's glam rock is back as Todd Haynes, director of the Dylan biopic I‚M NOT THERE, takes another off the wall look at the music world. Christian Bale is a reporter sent to investigate the legend of bisexual rock legend Brian Slade (a Bowie-like Jonathan Rhys-Meyers), who disappeared a decade ago after staging his own mock assassination. But it's Ewan McGregor who steals the show as punk pioneer Curt Wild (Iggy Pop meets Kurt Cobain) and it's all as flashy and flamboyant as the era itself.

+ CONTROL (15) 2.20

(UK 2007) dir. Anton Corbijn 122m. Digital.
Sam Riley, Samantha Morton, Alexandra Maria Lara, Toby Kebbell.

The story of Ian Curtis, the enigmatic singer/songwriter of Joy Division whose troubled personal and professional life ended in suicide at the age of 23. Photographer Anton Corbijn's wonderful first feature traces the musician's life from an isolated teenage world of poetry and song lyrics to his obsession for the woman who shared his life and his emergence into the Manchester music scene of the late 1970s. With spellbinding performances from both Sam Riley and Samantha Morton, CONTROL is a riveting, visually arresting portrait of the tormented soul who wrote 'Love Will Tear Us Apart,' his best known song and his epitaph.

SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE (PG) 12.45

(Spain 1973) dir.Victor Erice 98m. Subtitles.
Fernando Fernan-Gomez, Terésa Gimpera, Ana Torrent, Isabel Telleria, Laly Soldevilla.

Erice’s remarkable one-off sees rural Spain soon after Franco’s victory as a wasteland of inactivity. The single, fragile spark of ‘liberation’ exists in the mind of little Ana, who dreams of meeting the gentle monster from James Whale’s FRANKENSTEIN, and befriends a fugitive soldier. A haunting mood-piece that works its spells through intricate patterns of sound and image.

+ BLAME IT ON FIDEL (12A) 2.40

(Italy/France 2006) dir. Julie Gavras 99m. Subtitles.
Nina Kervel-Bey, Julie Depardieu, Stefano Accorsi.

An engagingly comic look at life in early 1970's Paris seen through the eyes of 9 year old Anna (an astonishing performance from Nina Kerval-Bay), whose life is thrown into chaos when her parents become radical political activists. She finds that life is a mixture of contradictory information and beliefs, but she is shrewd enough to question everything. So could it be that it‚s only the dogma that changes but the dogmatism that stays the same ? A little gem of a first film from director Julie Gavras.

TRANSYLVANIA (15) 2.00

(France 2006) dir. Tony Gatlif 102m. Subtitles.
Asia Argento, Amira Casar, Birol Ünel, Alexandra Beaujard.

A beautifully filmed and powerful story of love and adventure in Eastern Europe's Roma community.
Abandoned by a passionate Romanian musician who has left her pregnant, Zingarina ventures from Paris to Transylvania and the heart of the Roma community to track him down. Set in the hallucinatory landscapes of post-Communist Romania, this is a compelling and haunting love story. Raw and ragged, with a soul that is pure rock n' roll, this gorgeously shot film is an unmissable odyssey.

+ THE BAND'S VISIT (12A) 4.00

(Israel/France 2006) dir. Elan Kolirin 89m. Subtitles.
Sasson Gabai, Saleh Bakri, Ronit Elkabetz.

A real charmer of a movie that has delighted audiences world-wide. In the early 1990s an Egyptian police band booked to perform at a new Arab Cultural Centre arrives in a remote Israeli desert town. When no one turns up to meet them and they find themselves stranded. Dina, the local café owner, takes them under her wing and there follows a very strange night during which both visitors and hosts learn something about each other and about themselves. Striking performances hit just the right note in this affectionate and entertaining debut feature from writer-director Eran Kolirin.

RESCUE DAWN (12A) 12.30

(US 2006) dir. Werner Herzog 125m.
Zach Grenier, Marshall Bell, Christian Bale.

Director Werner Herzog continues his fascinating series of documentary/fictional portraits of madmen and obsessives with the real-life story of U.S. fighter pilot Dieter Dengler (a powerful performance from Christian Bale) the German-American pilot shot down and captured in Laos during the Vietnam War. Echoes of more recent conflicts are invoked, but mostly this is a well-told ripping yarn, spectacularly filmed in Thailand.

+ INTO THE WILD (15) 3.00

(US 2007) dir. Sean Penn 148m.
Emile Hirsch, Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt.

An intriguing and thought-provoking true story, adapted from Jon Krakauer's best-selling book. After graduating from university, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless (Hirsch) abandons possessions and money and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness. Adventures and encounters along the way gradually shape his life. Sean Penn‚s meditative  movie poses many questions, but he portrays McCandless' journey as neither pointless nor poignant. It‚s a journey well worth taking.