We had no idea when we booked No Other Land that it would go on to be an Oscar winner. Following our showing last October of The Teacher, this is a fantastic and moving documentary on the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes in the occupied West Bank, providing seeds of hope via its central relationship between Palestinian activist Basel Adra and Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham. A selection of Palestinian products will be on sale in the bar beforehand: Zaytoun foodstuffs (e.g. olive oil, dates, almonds), a range of hand made ceramics, olive oil soaps and keffiyehs, courtesy of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
Watch the Oscar acceptance speeches by Adra and Abraham here.
Here is this week’s timetable. The bar opens at 6pm for the 7pm screenings.
The Brutalist
Thursday 13th March at 3pm
Another chance to see Adrien Brody’s Oscar-winning Hungarian accent as Holocaust survivor Laszlo Toth in this matinee showing of The Brutalist. Produced, directed and co-written (with Mona Fastvold) by Brady Corbet, this three and a half hour epic stars Brody as the Bauhaus-trained architect who finds fame in America (not THAT Bauhaus, 4AD buffs). Set over several decades, the film provides a huge sweeping, and highly emotional portrait of the latter half of the 20th century as experienced by immigrants to the USA.
Please Note: the film will start promptly at 3pm, includes an intermission, and has captions for the hard of hearing.
No Other Land
Thursday 13th March at 7pm
Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham has been at pains to point out that just because it is a joint production by himself and Palestinian activist Basel Adra, No Other Land in no way promotes a false equivalence, both sides, argument. Rather he notes, and the film makes clear, that the conditions of existence of the two men are radically different, even while united by a common cause. Yuval lives under Israeli civil law and is a free man, while Basel exists under military law and is hugely restricted. This magnificent, award-winning, documentary about the expulsion of Palestinians from the occupied West Bank, deserves your time like no other film released this year, and is a much needed expression of humanity in the face of the barbarism that is currently prevalent.
Hard Truths
Friday 14th March at 7pm
After fifteen years and two period dramas, Mike Leigh returns, with comedy drama Hard Truths, to the milieu that made his name, contemporary working class Britain. Marianne Jean-Baptiste, teaming with Leigh for the first time since 1996’s Secrets & Lies, plays Pansy, a depressed, anxious and often angry woman who compares her life with that of her easygoing sister Chantelle (Michele Austin). A typically forensic examination of the minutiae of family ties and duties, Leigh brings us, in the Guardian’s words, ‘a deeply sober, somber, compassionate drama about a black British family.’
Audience Choice: Frenzy
Saturday 15th March at 7pm
When we offer an Audience Choice, they (you) always come up with a goodie.Your Hitchcock pick is 1972’s Frenzy, the penultimate and perhaps most overtly horror-oriented film from Leytonstone’s finest. It also finds the Director returning to London after thirty glorious years of Hollywood feature-making. This gruesome shocker features Barry (Van der Valk) Foster and a host of other familiar faces - Billie Whitelaw, Barbara Leigh-Hunt, Anna Massey, Vivien Merchant, Jean Marsh - and Bernard Cribbins. Sordid, atmospheric, claustrophobic, and featuring some nifty cinematic tricks to heighten the already unbearable suspense, this is an underrated and rarely seen masterpiece.
Mary Poppins Returns
Sunday 16th March at 3pm
A frothy, frivolous, fun filled fantasy for all the family, Mary Poppins Returns to the big screen at the ideal time, a 3pm Sunday afternoon matinee. This belated sequel to Disney’s 1964 classic stars Emily Blunt (‘practically perfect’ according to Variety) and Lin-Manuel Miranda (currently sticking it to a certain orange Neanderthal) in the iconic lead roles, along with Meryl Streep, Ben Whishaw, Julie Walters and Colin Firth. Plus: have fun spotting actors from the original movie in different roles (but be warned, Angela Lansbury subs for Julie Andrews). A feast in every department - music, costume, set design, animation, special effects, Dick Van Dyke - it’s the perfect entertainment for an afternoon out at the flicks.
Please Note: all tickets for this film are just £5, so bring the whole family.
Up next week:
Memoirs Of A Snail, I’m Still Here, No.6’s Greatest Films Of All Time: Goodfellas
Coming Soon:
Martin Scorsese has directed many films since, but there’s a good argument to be made for Goodfellasas the culmination of his classic period. Completing a sequence that takes in Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver (1976), and Raging Bull (1980), Goodfellas (1990) was the perfect realisation of his reflections on life growing up in Little Italy, and an inarguable entry as one of No.6’s Greatest Films Of All Time. Liotta, De Niro, Pesci et al mesh perfectly into this world and deliver some of their most memorable performances. Showing on Saturday 22nd March.
