Tuesday Night Arthouse 2023

Tuesday Night ARTHOUSE October 3rd to December 12th 2023

All films showing at 8:00pm unless otherwise advertised

View our Arthouse Season programme 2023 here (PDF)

Past Lives

Showing Tuesday 3rd, October @ 8pm
105 minutes, USA, 2023, Cert 12A
Director: Celine Song
Language: Korean
Cast: Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, John Magaro
Trailer: Past Lives

Nora and Hae Sung, classmates at a primary school in Seoul, have their deep friendship ended abruptly when Nora’s family emigrates to Canada.
Two decades later, they meet in New York and over one week address notions of chance and circumstance and the choices people make that create a life. Past Lives is an authentically beautiful romantic debut feature from playwright Celine Song. Exploring “In Yun’’, a Korean notion of connection between people – the string of fate which tangles together across different lifetimes, it subtly addresses the tension between a life longed for and the life lived. With spellbinding performances from Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, and John Magaro it brims with compassion for how complicated the human condition can be.

Festivals:
Edinburgh International Film Festival 2023
Berlin International Film Festival 2023
Sundance Film Festival 2023
Awards:
-
Quotes:
★★★★★ ''It’s a beautiful, transporting film but one made with both feet firmly on the ground.''
-Benjamin Lee, The Guardian
‘’It is a very tough thing indeed to make a film that is at once restrained and brimming with feeling, a movie that could be fairly described as both big and small.’’
-Peter Debruge, Variety
★★★★★ Celine Song’s tender, time-spanning romance is an exquisitely judged wonder. A directorial debut of remarkable poise and power.
-Matt Maytum, Total Film

The Innocent L'Innocent

Showing Tuesday 10th, October @ 8pm
99 mins, France, 2022 Cert: 15A
Director: Louis Garrel
Language:French
Cast: Roschdy Zem, Anouk Grinberg, Noémie Merlant, Louis Garrel
Trailer: The Innocent

Aquarium worker Abel is furious when he learns his mother Sylvie is marrying a recently paroled inmate named Michel. Abel is determined to protect his mother, and is deeply suspicious about his new stepfather. He ropes in his friend Clemence to help spy on the newly-released Michel. They discover Michel is indeed still involved in crime, but before long they become embroiled in his plan to pull off ‘one last heist’ - a risky effort to steal a truckful of imported caviar.
Louis Garrel directs, co-writes and stars in this enjoyable French comedy-thriller. Consistently funny without ever undermining its dramatic core, this crime farce playfully toys with expectations through an abundance of amusing twists and surprisingly nuanced characters.

Awards & Festivals:
César Awards, 2023 - Best Supporting Actress (Noémie Merlant) and Best Original Screenplay

Quotes:
“A humanistic story wrapped in a fun, punchy exterior” - The New York Times
“Louis Garrel’s film, with its story of knotty love and escalating bouts of petty thievery, is his strongest to date” - Slant Magazine

The Eight Mountains Le otto montagne

Showing Tuesday 17th,October @ 8pm
147 minutes, Italy, Belgium, France, 2022, Cert 15A
Director: Felix van Groeningen, Charlotte Vandermeersch
Language: Italian
Cast: Luca Marinelli, Alessandro Borghi
Trailer: The Eight Mountains

Over one summer in a remote village in the Italian Alps, 12-year-old city boy Pietro meets and befriends Bruno, the only remaining local child.
The strong bond that the pair form becomes a close friendship that will last over the future decades, with Pietro and Bruno returning to the mountains every summer to reconnect, no matter how their lives are unfolding.
Oscar-nominated Felix van Groeningen (The Broken Circle Breakdown) co-directs with his partner Charlotte Vandermeersch on this rich adaptation of the award-winning 2016 novel by Italian author Paolo Cognetti. Their film is a sweeping yet intimate epic, set against the spectacular backdrop of the Alpine region. Definitely has to be seen on the big screen!

Festivals:
Cannes Film Festival 2022
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2022
Tallin Black Nights Film Festival 2022
Sundance Film Festival 2023
Dublin International Film Festival 2023

Awards:
Winner - Jury Prize, Cannes Film Festival 2022

Quotes:
“★ ★ ★ ★ ★ This film has mystery and passion, it climbs mountainous heights and rewards you with the opposite of vertigo: a sort of exaltation."
- Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
"★ ★ ★ ★ As beautiful in its visuals as it is poetic in its homage to friendship."
- Rafa Sales Ross, Little White Lies

Return to Seoul Retour à Séoul

Showing Tuesday 24th, October @ 8pm
119 mins, Cambodia / France / Germany / South Korea, 2022, Cert: 15A
Director:Davy Chou
Language: Korean, French
Cast:Park Ji-min, Oh Kwang-rok, Guka Han
Trailer: Return To Seoul

Born in Korea but raised by her adoptive parents in France, 25-year-old Freddie is at an uncertain time in her life when she impulsively travels to her birth country. She discovers there’s an agency that works to connect adopted children with their biological parents. Mere days later, Freddie meets her birth father. However, she quickly discovers her own crisis of identity won’t be so easily resolved…
Following Freddie during several different visits to Korea over the course of a decade, Davy Chou’s Return to Seoul is a fiercely intelligent film about the messiness of identity and the uncertainty of what ‘home’ means. It’s anchored by remarkably raw yet nuanced work by Park Ji-min in her extraordinary debut screen performance.

Festivals & awards:
Asia Pacific Screen Award - Best Director (Davy Chou) and Best New Performance (Park Ji-min)
Belfast Film Festival, 2022 - Best Film (International Competition)
Athens International Film Festival, 2022 - Golden Athena / Best Film award

Quotes:
“Return to Seoul is a startling and uneasy wonder, a film that feels like a beautiful sketch of a tornado headed directly toward your
house” - The New York Times
“Park Ji-min’s… debut performance [is] so piercing it makes the entire film move like a breathing poem” - Vulture

Pamfir

Showing Tuesday 31st, October @ 8pm
106 Mins, Ukraine, France, Poland, Germany, Chile 2022 Cert: TBC
Director: Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk
Language: Ukrainian
Cast: Oleksanddr Yatsentyuk, Stanislav Potiak, Solomiia Kyrylova
Trailer: Pamfir

When reformed ex-smuggler Pamfir returns to home to his village on the Ukrainian border after working abroad for several years, he’s determined to earn an honest living and set a good example for his beloved teenage son Nazar. But in a town where corruption runs deep and crime and religion are inextricably linked, his plan is quickly thwarted when Nazar sets fire to the local church in a misguided effort to keep him at home. To pay for the damage, Pamfir must take on one last job for a crime syndicate operating a risky smuggling venture in a place where all the rules have changed.

Part drama, part thriller, part noir-inflected fairytale, Pamfir is violent, raw and bloody, but also a tender portrait of a family man trying to raise his son well despite his own shady past. Shot in long takes and set amid forests swirling with mist in the run up to the traditional ‘Malanka’ carnival — a wild pagan festival featuring straw costumes, wooden masks and centuries-old rites and traditions — this is a propulsive, genre-defying debut exploring the thin line between good and evil and fate vs free will in our complex modern world.

Winner:
Best Cinematography at Raindance Film Festival 2022

Festivals
Raindance Film Festival 2022

Love According to Dalva

Showing Tuesday 7th, November @ 8PM
83 minutes, Belgium / France, 2022, Cert: 15A
Director: Emmanuelle Nicot
Language: French
Cast: Zelda Samson, Alexis Maneti, Fanta Guirassy
Trailer: Love According To Dalva

After her abusive father is arrested,12-year-old Dalva is taken into care. Acting more like an adult than a child, her social workers and new roommates find it difficult to connect with Dalva. Gradually with their help, she accepts that her relationship with her father was not normal, allowing her to experience the joys of childhood she was previously denied.

Tackling difficult subject matter with the utmost care and sensitivity, Love According to Dalva is a remarkable film about one young girl’s journey as she emerges from the most horrific situation. Writer / director Emmanuelle Nicot has made an exceptional and assured debut - a compassionate exploration of hope and recovery. Young Zelda Samson excels in an extraordinarily challenging lead role.

Festivals:
Cannes Film Festival Critics’ Week, 2022
Sao Paulo International Film Festival, 2022

Awards:
Cannes Film Festival Critics’ Week, 2022 - winner of Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award (Zelda Samson) and FIPRESCI Prize
Sao Paulo International Film Festival, 2022 - Special Jury Prize for Best Actress (Zelda Samson)

Quotes:
“Made with painstaking care and sensitivity” - The Guardian, ★★★★
“This assured French-language debut from director Emmanuelle Nicot negotiates its disturbing subject matter with delicacy, sensitivity and honesty. In the central role, the magnetic Samson is a revelation.” - The Observer, ★★★★
“Handled with delicacy and bravery, Nicot has crafted a powerful anatomy of the imprint of sexual abuse” - Little White Lies
“[Zelda Samson] is luminous as Dalva, able to capture the continued bewilderment that comes as this young girl reexamines everything she’s ever known” - Variety
“Dalva isn’t always an easy watch, but it’s a rewarding and thought-provoking one that marks Nicot as a promising talent” - Deadline

L'immensita

Showing Tuesday 14th, November @ 8PM
99 minutes, Italy, France, 2022, Cert: TBC
Director: Emanuele Crialese
Language: Italian
Cast: Penélope Cruz, Vincenzo Amato, Luana Giuliani
Trailer: L'Immensita

In 1970s Rome, Adriana (Luana Giuliani) is a teenage girl who identifies as a boy named Andrea. His affluent upbringing is shadowed by his short-tempered authoritarian father (Vincenzo Amato) and his increasingly isolated mother, Clara (Penélope Cruz).
As Clara succumbs to the crushing expectations around marriage, desire, and gender, a glimmer of hope emerges for Andrea when he stumbles upon a Romani encampment near their apartment. Here, sparking a hesitant romance with Sara (Penelope Nieto Conti).
Giuliani and Cruz are captivating in a story of quiet desperation and secret yearning, as they defiantly love and protect one another. In mixing genres and staging musical numbers, L’immensita becomes a freewheeling, effortless meditation on growing up, fitting in and breaking the mould.

Festivals:
Venice Film Festival, 2022
Sundance Film Festival, 2023

Quotes:
★★★ "….quite spectacular and a treat for Italian pop connoisseurs.." - Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
“L’immensità is a sun-dappled nostalgia trip marked by young Andrew’s hot temper and robust inner fantasy life...” – Beatrice Loayza, The New York Times.

Close

Showing Tuesday 21st, November @ 8PM
105 minutes, France, Neverland, 2023 Cert: 15A
Director: Lukas Dhont
Language: French
Cast: Eden Dambrine, Gustav De Waele, Emilie Dequenne, Léa Drucker
Trailer: Close

Winner of the Grand Prix award at Cannes 2022 and selected as the Belgian entry for the 2023 Academy Awards, CLOSE is an elegant, poetic and empathetic study of youth from acclaimed writer-director Lukas Dhont. Thirteen-year-olds Léo and Rémi are inseparable; best friends, as close as brothers. However as they start a new school year, the pressures of burgeoning adolescence challenge their bond with unexpected and far-reaching consequences. With incredible performances from newcomers Eden Dambrine and Gustav De Waele, Dhont’s evocative second film is a profoundly moving coming of age story that will have an enduring impact.

Awards:
2022 Cannes Film Festival: Grand Prix [Winner]

Festivals:
2022 Cannes Film Festival
2023 Academy Awards Best International Feature Film [Nominee]

Quotes:
"Explores the fragile world of childhood bonds" - The Hollywood Reporter
★★★★★ "An exceptional film of empathy and vision" - BBC
★★★★★ "Miraculously subtle" – The Telegraph
★★★★★ "Touching and empathetic" – CineVue
★★★★ "A quiet gem of a film... Sensitive, graceful and impeccably restrained" Total Film
★★★★ "Eden Dambrine and Rémi Gustav de Waele are a revelation" - Radio Times

War Pony

Showing Tuesday 28th, November @ 8PM
114 minutes, USA, 2022,Cert: 15A
Director: Gina Gammell, Riley Keough
Language: English
Cast: Iona Red Bear, LaDainian Crazy Thunder, Jojo Bapteise Whiting
Trailer: War Pony

Gina Gammell and Riley Keough's debut follows the interlocking stories of two Lakota boys growing up on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Bill (Jojo Bapteise Whiting), at twenty-three, just wants to make something of himself and is determined to hustle his way to a better life through odd jobs and get-rich-quick schemes. Twelve-year-old Matho (LaDainian Crazy Thunder) is desperate for approval from his young father. A series of impulsive decisions turns Matho's life upside down, and he finds himself unequipped to deal with the harsh realities of the adult world. 'War Pony' is a tender portrait of two boys' troubled passage into adulthood and a deserving winner of the top prize in the Cannes Film Festival's Un Certain Regard.

Festivals:
Cannes Film Festival, 2022
International Film Festival Rotterdam, 2023
South by Southwest Film Festival, 2023

Awards:
Winner, Caméra d'Or, Gina Gammell, Riley Keough, Cannes Film Festival, 2022

Quotes:
★★★★ "…. there is in their lives something genuinely uplifting and heroic." - Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
★★★★ “This Caméra d’Or winner (for best debut feature at Cannes) is a keenly observed, subtle, and challenging drama about a corner of society never included in the American dream, one that reveals both the spirit and longing found there..” – Hilary White, Irish Independent.

Afire Roter Himmel

Showing Tuesday 5th, December @ TBA
103 minutes, Germany, 2023, Cert: TBC
Director: Christian Petzold
Language: German
Cast: Thomas Schubert, Paula Beer, Langston Uibel
Trailer: Afire

Writer Leon and photographer Felix travel to a holiday home on the Baltic coast for the summer - Leon needs to finish his second book, while Felix works on his portfolio, Their plans are upended when they arrive to find Nadja, an unexpected houseguest, already settled in.
Initially irritated by the fun-loving Nadja and her “could-be” boyfriend Devid, the stand-offish Leon finds himself gradually intrigued by and attracted to her. As the holidays progress, so too does the dynamic of the group. But everything is disrupted when the area’s forest fires, once far away, draw closer.
Afire, the second instalment, after Undine, in Christian Petzold’s so-called “elemental trilogy” is an intelligent and compelling film, full of humour and tragedy.

Festivals:
Berlin International Film Festival 2023
Sydney Film Festival 2023
Tribeca Film Festival 2023

Awards:
Winner - Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize, Berlin International Film Festival 2023

Quotes:
“… on one level, it seems to belong to international cinema’s increasingly prevalent strain of climate catastrophe dramas, on another it’s a brittle character piece, a comedy of social embarrassment with a dark and ultimately tragic undertow.”
- Jonathan Romney, Screen International

"Christian Petzold returns with something lighter, funnier and more instantly-lovable … a film that’s much lighter and outwardly entertaining than what we’ve come to expect from him.”
- Marina Ashioti, Little White Lies

Scrapper

Showing Tuesday 12th, December @ TBA
84 mins, UK, 2023,Cert: 12A
Director: Charlotte Regan
Language: English
Cast: Harris Dickinson, Lola Campbell, Alin Uzun
Trailer: Scrapper

12-year-old Georgie is determined to fend for herself following the death of her mother Vicky. She lies to teachers and social workers in a bid to keep under the radar. That precarious balance is upset when her estranged dad Jason suddenly arrives back from Ibiza to look after her. Their relationship is initially hostile, but father and daughter soon discover their reluctant reunion might be exactly what they each needed.
Charlotte Regan’s acclaimed debut feature is a welcome shot in the arm for British indie filmmaking. While it tackles some emotive and potentially bleak subject matter, it does so with real humour, warmth and stylistic invention. The lead performances
from Harris Dickinson and young Lola Campbell are particularly delightful.

Festivals:
Sundance Film Festival, 2023
Sydney Film Festival, 2023

Awards:
Sundance Film Festival, 2023 - Grand Jury Prize, World Cinema Dramatic Competition (winner)

Quotes:
“Regan has announced herself as a feature filmmaker with style, and this energetic feel-good film is a lovely cure for the winter blues” - Little White Lies
“A picture packed full of ideas and fizzing energy” - Screen international