News & Star - Part of Your Daily Life
0:24 - 17 April 2005

There’s no such thing as normal

By Kate Rees

CUMBRIA isn’t lucky enough to get all the new film releases as soon as they appear.

Invariably those indie or foreign gems that come recommended by Jonathan Ross on Film 2005 or we read about in the weekend supplements pass us by on their opening weekend.

Which is where events such as the Monday Alternative, at Carlisle’s Lonsdale City cinema, come in, showing the best of the recent left-field, independent and foreign language movie releases (and a few oldies thrown in).

The newly-announced April to July Monday Alternative season is as follows:

April 4 – Napoleon Dynamite (PG). Geeky but cult comedy about the biggest nerd at an Idaho school. Comes across like Todd Solondz doing Dude Where’s My Car?

April 11 – 2046 (12A). In the Mood For Love’s director, Wong Kar-Wai, draws mesmerising performances from Tony Leung and the unmissable Zhang Ziyi (Crouching Tiger/Hero) in this strange, timeless romance.

April 18 – Koktebel (12A). First-time directors Boris Khlebnikov and Alexei Popogrebsky deliver a trailblazing road movie across Russia.

April 25 – The Door in the Floor (15). Jeff Bridges and Kim Bassinger star in this adaptation of John Irving’s novel of Widow for One Year.

May 2 – The Life Aquatic (15). Director Wes Andersen (Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums) indulges his childhood love of Jacques Cousteau by getting Bill Murray to play an underwater adventurer.

May 9 – The Yes Men (15). Two anti-globalisation activists impersonate members of the World Trade Organisation to make fools of corporate culture.

May 16 – 5 X 2 (15). Swimming Pool director François Ozon tells the story of a French couple backwards from the moment of their divorce to their first meeting.

May 23 – The Woodsman (15). Controversial but widely-praised drama about a newly-released from prison paedophile (Kevin Bacon) coming to terms with his crimes.

May 30 – Melinda and Melinda (12A). Will Ferrell (Elf, Old School) as Woody Allen’s latest leading man? Such a bizarre idea, it just might work.

June 6 – The Machinist (15). The weight Christian Bale lost to play a man who hasn’t slept for a year grabbed the headlines but The Machinist also has a satisfying twist in the tale.

June 13 – Maria Full of Grace (15). Newcomer Catalina Sandino Moreno excels as a pregnant, 17-year-old, Colombian drug mule busted at US customs.

June 20 – Duck Season (15). Two Mexican teenagers while away the day in what is still a satisfying story.

June 27 – Life is a Miracle (15). Bosnian director Emir Kusturica pulls the heart strings with this story of a man who must choose between his son and his lover in a wartime prisoner exchange.

July 4 – The Keys to the House (PG). Italian tear-jerker about a man who meets his handicapped son for the first time.

July 11 – The Edukators (15). German social satire about the evils of materialism.

July 18 – What the #$*! do We Know? (15). Surreal “documentary” in English and Spanish, and black and white, the area where “the distinction between science and religion becomes increasingly blurred”.

A season ticket is available, priced £35.

A six-film ticket costs £18. Call 01228 514654 (up to seven days before) for screening times or see The List in the News & Star.

n Keswick Film Club is showing Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise (15) and Before Sunset (15) on Sunday, at the town’s Alhambra cinema, at 4pm and 6pm.

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