Our Eldon Building residency is developing a very cosy film club-like atmosphere, with a bunch of regulars and plenty of friendly chat. George Carlin’s maxim – “I wouldn’t join any club that would have me as a member” – doesn’t apply here, so do come along and see for yourselves. This Thursday it’s our regular shot at cultural respectability, with our first NT Live presentation at the Eldon Building, Inter Alia, and a not-too vintage cracker on Friday with 2002’s excellent Punch Drunk Love featuring the late great Philip Seymour Hoffman.
A seasonal double whammy before we break for the holidays sees us continuing our melodrama season with Douglas Sirk’s All That Heaven Allows on Thursday 18th and Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in You’ve Got Mail on Friday 19th. Christmas trees abound in these two heart-warming alternatives to the usual (admittedly excellent) Home Alone/Wonderful Life offerings.
Here is this week’s timetable. The Eldon Cafe opens at 6pm for a prompt 7pm start to the screenings.
NT Live: Inter Alia
Thursday 4th December at 7pm (prompt)
The first of our ever-popular NT Live presentations since we came to the Eldon Building is Inter Alia, written by Suzy Miller and directed by Justin Martin, and hugely acclaimed in its National Theatre run, at which this performance was filmed. ‘Inter Alia’ means, roughly, ‘among other things’, and Rosamund Pike (of Gone Girl and Saltburn fame) plays Crown Court Judge Jessica Parks seeking to balance a successful career with a full home and family life when an unexpected event occurs that threatens that delicate balance. Can she really ‘have it all’ or will things fall apart? If you enjoyed our previous showing of Prima Facie, this production by the same team provides a very different take on similar issues, and Pike gives what the London Theatre magazine terms a, “scorching rock star performance”.
Punch Drunk Love
Friday 5th December at 7pm (prompt)
When Paul Thomas Anderson came to make Punch Drunk Love (following Boogie Nights and Magnolia) he wanted to keep it around the 90-minute mark, a short by his standards. But within that tight time frame, an awful lot is packed into this delightful romantic comedy. Adam Sandler’s casting raised eyebrows at the time, but he effortlessly carries the films as the socially awkward entrepreneur whose loneliness is exacerbated by the ridicule he receives from his seven sisters, but whose life changes when he meets Lena (Emily Watson). Described by Newsweek as, “a romantic comedy on the verge of a nervous breakdown” and “an emotional jigsaw puzzle that’s missing a couple of pieces”, it is precisely this off-kilter approach that is identified as the film’s appeal. A compelling and unusual film that is not to be missed.
Up Next Week:
The Ballad Of Wallis Island, Remembering Diane Keaton: Annie Hall
The sad news of Diane Keaton’s passing immediately prompted a desire to pay tribute to one of the most unique Hollywood actresses. Six hours of suffering as Mrs Corleone would have broken our 9pm curfew, so we opted for the role that defined her personality and look for all time, Woody Allen’s Annie Hall, a film dedicated in equal measure to the titular character and the actress who plays her, inseparable as they are. That’s on Friday 12th December, and before that on Thursday 11th, we have the charmingly humorous, and ‘destined to be a cult classic’, The Ballad Of Wallis Island.