My Favourite Films of 2017

It's been a pretty awful year in politics, so I find looking back at my year in film is a pleasant diversion. The following is a list of my current 2017 favourites, but before I go through them, there are a few special film-related highlights to mention: In January I hosted a Q&A with producer …

Screen St Ives and a Very Special Screen 2 Opening Event

In August 2017, community cinema Screen St Ives (SSI) launched 'Screen 2' - a new specially curated strand which Amanda Randall and myself are leading on - with a special screening of the British romantic comedy, Dead Cat. The local director of the film and good friend of SSI, Stefan Georgiou, came along to introduce …

Girl on Girl: Reel Women, Taking Over The Cambridge Film Scene

This gives an excellent overview of the work done by local co-operative Reel Women. They represent what is so inspirational about a quiet revolution taking place in cinema exhibition: where people passionate about a greater diversity in film are coming together and introducing audiences to a rich and rewarding culture that can be so easily …

That Ealing touch

At Screen St Ives we recently showed the 1942 classic WENT THE DAY WELL?, to a packed and extremely enthusiastic audience. It is a testament to Ealing, the relatively small, independent studio that produced this film, that their output is still delighting audiences some 70 years later. Perhaps part of what still captivates us in …

A quick look at Monsoon Wedding…

It was a pleasure to see Monsoon Wedding (2001) again on the big screen, courtesy of this month's Screen St Ives presentation, particularly when the audience reaction was so warm and enthusiastic (average audience rating a very strong 4.3 out of 5). In preparation for my brief introduction to the film I checked out the …

A brief look at documentary…

The Screen St Ives film for July was Senna. Since I somehow missed this documentary when first released, I was very pleased to catch-up with it at this friendly community cinema. I have very little interest in sport - one reason I probably didn't rush out to see the film on release - but this documentary …

Fellini’s La Strada

This month's very well attended Screen St Ives presentation was Fellini's La Strada. The average audience rating for the film was a very reasonable 4 out of 5. There was a particularly interesting post-film discussion reflecting a range of reactions to the movie. Some of the observations emerging from that discussion are reflected in the …

My Favourite Films of 2011

The usual caveats apply: a) there are many important 2011 films which I haven't yet seen; b) I tend to change my mind about films, so this is a snap shot of my opinions at this point in time; c) I find it almost impossible to rank films in any great detail, so I tend …