This week’s title is rhetorical, of course, as we know who won the US Presidential election, and we’re showing the Trump biopic The Apprentice to celebra…er, no that’s wrong, since The Man himself described those who made the film, with typically restrained wit, as ‘human scum.’ Are they worthy of that badge of honour? You’ll have to see for yourselves at our Sunday matinee screening. This week we are showing an unprecedented five films, including matinees on Thursday and Sunday, another chance to see Saoirse Ronan’s performance in The Outrun, Harry Lime aka Orson Welles in The Third Man and Francis Ford Coppola’s megalomaniac decades-in-the-making sci-fi extravaganza.
Here is this week’s timetable. Bar opens at 6pm for the 7pm screenings but please note that Megalopolis will be starting promptly at 6.30pm.
The Outrun
Thursday 14th November at 4.15pm
A second chance to see The Outrun, based on Amy Liptrot’s best-selling 2016 book. Saoirse Ronan plays Rona, who returns to her childhood home in the Orkneys to rehabilitate after becoming an alcoholic in London, and struggles to achieve a life of normalcy, while flashbacks tell the story of how she came to be where she is – her relationships, excessive lifestyle, alcoholism, injury and rehab. The New York Times notes that the film avoids the standard ‘brash or hyperbolic’ portrayals of addiction, instead making it ‘a thing of beauty and hard-won joy.’ Showing with captions for the hard of hearing.
The Crime Is Mine
Thursday 14th November at 7pm
The Crime is Mine is an excellent French crime comedy, written and directed by François Ozon, and starring Nadia Tereszkiewicz and Isabelle Huppert. In the upper echelons of 1930s Parisian society, Madeleine (Tereszkiewicz) find herself standing trial for murder, subsequently achieving infamy and celebrity stardom as a result. A labyrinthine murder plot unfolds, wrapped in biting satire and a scathing-but-humorous depiction of the hypocrisies of polite society. With knowing nods to Renoir, Truffaut, Capra and Blake Edwards, the film has 98% on Rotten Tomatoes and the assessment that it’s ‘alluring razzmatazz and superlative stars will seduce farce lovers and Francophiles.’
No.6’s Greatest Films Of All Time: The Third Man
Friday 15th November at 7pm
Talk to anyone about The Third Man, showing in our No.6’s Greatest Films Of All Time series, and it’s Orson Welles who bags the headlines, even though his appearances are minimal, and we don’t even see him till an hour in. Joseph Cotten does the hard graft, as great here as working with Welles on Kane, Ambersons and Journey Into Fear (and brilliantly sinister in Hitchcock’s Shadow Of A Doubt.) This Cold War thriller is endlessly inventive, with a superb supporting cast including Alida Valli, and off-kilter direction by Carol Reed. But of course it’s Harry Lime’s first appearance, to THAT theme tune, the cuckoo clock speech and the ferris wheel ride that are the stuff of movie legend.
Megalopolis
Saturday 16th November at 6.30pm
We imagine Coppola, furious that Cimino keeps going bigger than him during the 70s, deciding ‘right, I’m going to spend forty years making the biggest epic ever seen, let’s see him top that’. The result: Megalopolis, a science fiction extravaganza, conceived back in 1983, an eventual budget of $135M and a cast of stars so lengthy we can only mention Adam Driver in the starring role. Modelling the future of the USA on the Roman Empire, New York (now known as New Rome) is to be revitalised by Driver’s building of the futuristic utopia Megalopolis and opposed by the always-excellent Giancarlo Esposito. The Film website calls it ‘an unapologetically earnest film aching to be seen on the biggest screen possible’ – hey, that’s us! So get yourselves down here for the spectacle of a lifetime.
Please note: due to its length the film will start at 6.30pm sharp.
The Apprentice
Sunday 17th November at 3pm
The Apprentice, written by Gabriel Sherman, directed by Ali Abbasi and starring Sebastian Stan as Trump, is a biopic focusing on the formative years of the tycoon turned reality show host turned President. The film has drawn praise for its depiction of its subject’s many flaws, and criticism for softening and sentimentalising Trump, showing him as both human and monster. Does it matter now that Trump himself has overcome the sting of previous defeat? It may make more sense to see this as pure entertainment with Stan, as Hollywood Reporter states, going ‘beyond impersonation to capture the essence of the man.’ This will be our only showing and well worth your attention.
Up next week:
The Teacher, Small Things Like These, The Room Next Door
Coming soon:
Common decency and basic humanity seem to be in short supply, so we’re pleased to screen two films on upcoming Thursdays that promote tolerance and understanding where it’s most needed: On 21st November we present The Teacher, directed by British-Palestinian film-maker Farah Nabulsi, a ‘human drama set in a political landscape’ about a teacher caught between political resistance and the emotional support he provides to one of his students. This film is being promoted by University of Portsmouth in collaboration with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. On 28th November, backed and part-funded by no less a body than UNESCO, along with University of Portsmouth’s Centre for Blue Governance, we present the Oscar-nominated Io Capitano, directed by Matteo Garrone. Senegalese youths Seydou and Yaya seek to escape poverty by journeying from Dakar to Europe by boat, based on actual stories of African migrants and depicting the appalling conditions they have to contend with enroute. More details can be found on our news page.
