By Mike Thatcher
Hurst Village Cinema - The Red Turtle
Onwards and upwards in February with three films and a National Theatre live screening at Hurst Village Cinema. We start with our first ever animation:
The Red Turtle (PG) on Thursday 10th February at 8pm.
There are no pyrotechnics, the story is simple and elegant and ultimately very moving, exploring the highs and lows of human nature. Beautiful to watch and with a soundtrack to match, it deserves to be seen on the big screen. It made Mark Kermode’s top five films of 2017 and was nominated for best animated feature that same year.
On a completely different track we screen For Sama (18) on Friday 25th February at 8pm.
Shot by 26-year-old journalist Waad al Kateab for her young daughter Sama, it sets out to lovingly explain why she chose to stay in Syria and not flee. We are presented with everyday tragedies and miracles, and it is impossible not to be moved.
NT Live returns on Thursday 17 February at 7pm with Phillip Pullman’s The Book of Dust – La Belle Sauvage. Set twelve years before the epic His Dark Materials trilogy, this gripping adaptation revisits Philip Pullman’s fantastical world in which waters are rising and storms are brewing. Two young people and their dæmons, with everything at stake, find themselves at the centre of a terrifying manhunt. In their care is a tiny child called Lyra Belacqua, and in that child lies the fate of the future. And as the waters rise around them, powerful adversaries conspire for mastery of Dust: salvation to some, the source of infinite corruption to others.
Finally on Sunday 27th at 3pm we screen Knives Out (12A) a hugely entertaining modern take on the murder mystery whodunnit, with the obligatory stellar cast, led by Daniel Craig as the laconic Southern private detective Benoit Blanc. The normal structure, of taking most of the film to show us that everyone is a suspect, is dodged by writer director Rian Johnson, but there’s enough cinematic tradition on display for us to know we’re watching a whodunnit; interviews in the library etc. A laugh out loud drama with an amazing cast, although the show is stolen by Ana de Armas who is simply astounding as Marta Cabrera, the nurse and confident of the murdered Harlan Thromby (Christopher Plummer).