The Kite Runner February…

THE KITE RUNNER

FEBRUARY…

“possibly Britain’s most beautiful cinema...” (BBC)

FEBRUARY 2008 Issue 35 www.therexcinema.com 01442 877759 Mon-Sat 10.30-6pm Sun 4.30-6.30pm To advertise email [email protected] WELCOME

Gallery 5 February Evenings 9-18 Coming Soon 19 February Films at a glance19 February Matinees 21-26 Dear Mrs Trellis 29, 31 SEAT PRICES: Circle £7.00 Concessions £5.50 At Table £9.00 Concessions £7.50 Royal Box (seats 6) £11.00 or for the Box £60.00 BOX OFFICE: 01442 877759 Mon to Sat 10.30 – 6.00 Sun 4.30 – 6.30 (Credit/Debit card booking fee 50p) Disabled and flat access: through the gate on High Street (right of apartments)

Some of the girls and boys you see at the Box Office and Bar:

Rosie Abbott Linda Moss Karina Gale Louise Ormiston This is us... 'In the Shadow of The Moon' (Tues 19th 12.30 mat & 20th 7.30) Don't miss... Jemma Gask Julian Paredes Holly Gilbert Amberly Rose Beth Hannaway Tina Thorpe FEBRUARY… Sarah Holloway Olivia Wilson once thought of it as the worst month of the year. On the contrary, days get Jo Littlejohn Keymea Yazdanian longer, the first flowers of Spring push through, birdsong fills the sky and Bethany McKay Iit has Valentines Day with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Take a day off – talk to each other or better; spend two hours where you don’t Sally Thorpe In charge have to… Alun Rees Chief projectionist (Original) Jon Waugh 1st assistant projectionist MATINEES MAY CONTAIN BABIES… Martin Coffill Part-time assistant projectionist This is a parody of health warnings usually to do with nuts. Perhaps we should Jacquie Rose Chief Box Office & Bar use both. An irate moment to treasure came when someone claimed it was Jane Clucas & Lynn Hendry illegal to let babies (six months and under) ‘watch’ a 15-certificate! One caller PR/Marketing/FoH observed: “They are babes-in-arms it can’t be good for them.” The idea of new Oliver Hicks Bar supervisor mothers and their babies at matinees came from London independents such as Ian Muirhead Accountant The Electric, Portobello. They have ‘Scream’ screenings or Screamings, where Resident creative builders you need a baby to get in! Darren Flindall We tried this early on but there weren’t enough to go round. So in sleepy Michael Glasheen Berkhamsted we decided to invite everybody. A baby is not essential. Artists Now the audience is fully integrated. I understand most matinee audiences Andrew Dixon have grown-up children and long finished with babies. Paul Rowbottom Hence we ask two things: one, like each other and tolerate gurgling. Advisors and Investors Secondly, if your baby is criticising the film with loud yelling then please Paul Fullagar Alan Clooney bring them upstairs to the foyer, where it’s warm and friendly, until they settle. Simple. Our, matinees will continue to welcome everybody from nought to… Ed Mauger Genius Demiurge Design Designers 01296 632366 LOOSE CHANGE… Allison Nunn Publisher 07786 540418 Still a pain for us. You don’t spend that much so we don’t need that much, but James Hannaway CEO 01442 it’s swallowed up quicker than you can say diet coke and a cappucino. I still 877999 refuse to buy change. Not mean, it is simply preposterous. How did we ever Betty Patterson Company Secretary and agree to pay for money when money/coin/note promises to “pay the bearer…” THE ORIGINAL VISIONARY of The Rex. the legal equivalent? The Rex We’ll be stupid enough to pay for football and films on TV next! High Street (Three Close Lane) Just spoil the hang of your trousers – ugh, on second thoughts, bring a woman Berkhamsted HP4 2FG with a purse… www.therexcinema.com GALLERY www.therexcinema.com

TAKING THE LEAK…

here was a burst water main in the road near where I live. I left it a week or two - too long. It was gushing from the road, Twasting gallons a second. Reception at Hemel Dacorum Civic Centre very efficiently put me through to Thames Water. They answered surprisingly quickly. That was the last time the word ‘quickly’ was involved. A boy answered. Thames W: Hello could I have your postcode please? Me: Well yeah but I want to report a burst water main in the road… Its been gushing for weeks. Thames W: Has it already been reported? Me: I don’t know but I’m sure it has. Thames W: So I’ll need your postcode. Me: It doesn’t matter, it’s in the middle of the road. My postcode wont help but I can give you the name of the road. Thames W: Sorry sir I need a postcode to progress. We need a name, a house number and a postcode. Fashionable pullovers and tank-tops Me: I can give you my name (told him… ‘how do you spell that sir?’) knitted furiously by mothers, aunts and but where I live has nothing to do with the leak. It is in the middle of a grans to make us look this good – hair by Jemma at Armitage Shanks. side road on busy crossroads of … street and lane Pic: courtesy of Gangsta Rapper inc. Thames W: Sorry sir I can’t register a leak without a postcode. (The best caption wins a free lemonade Me: Okay here’s my postcode and address in March) Seen in Oxfam window Jan 08. (I knew instinctively this would do it, and sure enough…) Another of Sylvie’s witty, understated Thames W: Thank you, please hold the line… (minutes later) drawings. Her particular artistic Sorry sir no leak has been reported at that postcode or address. license enjoys a little exaggeration in Would you like to report one? the umbrella dept. For commissions. Me: With the greatest respect, I told you my postcode would be no E-mail: [email protected] use. I’m standing here on a mobile phone ankle deep in water in the middle of the effing road. It is nowhere near my house. There is no leak at my effing postcode. It is in the middle of the road miles away from any effing post… Thames W: …If you use that kind of language again sir… these calls are recorded for… Me: …I’m sorry, its not you, but please listen… There has been thousands of gallons of water from a burst water main, not a house - its in the middle of the road. Thames W: I understand but we need a postcode to register the job. Me: It doesn’t matter. I’ve given you the name of every street corner. I could have been passing through from North Wales, but that would be outside your area… Please use mine… but it wont do you any good. Thames W: Okay sir… Well erm what is the nearest street address to the leak with a postcode if you have it… I rang again the next day… Thames W: New voice: Morning, could I have your postcode…? Sure enough a week later a card came through my door… “You have reported a leak at this address. Please contact….. urgently”. Most of this is true. But the main truth; it took a further three weeks a dozen phone calls and two gangs of six with four or five lorries to fix it in two stages, not counting the man who came to spray the blue arrows. FEBRUARY EVENINGS 10 Box Office: 01442 877759 FEBRUARY EVENINGS American Gangster The Golden A Prairie Fri 1 7.30 Compass Sat 2 7.00 Home Director: Chris Weitz Starring: Nicole Kidman, Eva Green, Sam Elliott, Daniel Craig Companion Certificate: 12A Sun 3 6.00 Duration: 114 mins For anybody who loved Garrison Origin: USA 2007 Keillor’s “Lake Wobegon Days” on By: Entertainment Film Distribution BBC wireless 10/15 years ago, Based on Philip Pullman’s award- you’ll love this. If you missed it, winning trilogy: His Dark you’ll love it instantly – any age! “The loudest (dressed) man in the Materials, The Golden Compass is So too it is a fitting end to Robert room is the weakest…” a fantasy adventure. In a parallel Altman’s maverick and prolific career This is the ‘true’ tale of a Harlem world where people’s souls manifest (spanning 56 years) that he should henchman whose uncompromising themselves as small animals, where join Keillor in this beautifully played loyalty and loathing of ‘bling’ made talking ice-bears fight wars and whimsical tale of live entertainment him the drug kingpin of the early 70’s. children mysteriously disappear, 12- on the radio. As always Altman Nobody noticed Frank Lucas year-old Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards coerces a star-studded ensemble cast (Washington), until his underworld – poor kid, ‘Linda’ would have done, - this one last time - to bring Keillor’s boss died. only ‘pushies’, WAGs or nutters National Public Radio’s long-running From nowhere, he sets a new would name a child after a programme to full screen life. standard. Without blinking, Frank geographical shag) sets out on an It is an intricately woven, and very ruthlessly claims his status as extraordinary quest to rescue her funny, backstage fable imagining the Harlem’s most dangerous and friend. antics of the last show at the old innovative drug dealer by delivering “This beautifully made, spectacularly Fitzgerald before the final curtain it pure and cheaper – direct from designed family movie asks serious falls. On the radio the real ‘A Prairie Vietnam to the treacherous envy of questions about good and evil, free Home Companion’ somehow his competitors, family, friends and will and adolescent sexuality” managed to survive the television age corrupt cops. (Standard) Hmmm. to reach a colossal audience every Enter Russell Crowe’s dishevelled, “It’s a convoluted, enjoyable, very Saturday night live from the stage of philandering, but unbendingly straight mad, deeply conservative and, at one the historic Fitzgerald Theatre in St. cop (Richie Roberts) and Frank’s moment, horribly violent Paul, Minnesota. empire begins to rattle from the extravaganza…. Kidman steals the “A fittingly affectionate epitaph from outside too. show - pure blonde evil… hear the a film-maker who took more chances But it is more complex. crackle of her stockings as she than most, and so often succeeded in Here are two stories with different sashays threateningly on to the screen making the risk worthwhile” notions of family but with the same - a ridiculous coupling of Darth Vader (Derek Malcolm) integrity, stubborn egos and extreme and Veronica Lake…” (PB Guardian) “A late, minor addition to the Robert loyalty. Each is used to violence and If nothing else, come for 007’s Altman collection – but a treasure all its results. school-gates beard. Oddly 12A is a the same…” (New York Times) It is a surprisingly compelling film ‘provisional certificate’. So bring Forget the rest of Sunday and leave with much more to it than its non-stop your provisional twelve year olds (but the children in the bath or bring heartbeat from start to finish. don’t let them read this). them. You will love it. Absolutely not to be missed on the Robert Altman died on 20th big screen. Probably won’t be back November 2006 aged 81. again. The rest are still alive.

Director: Ridley Scott Directors: Robert Altman Starring: Cuba Jr, Denzel Starring: Meryl Streep, Kevin Washington, Russell Crowe, Josh Kline, Woody Harrelson, Lily Tomlin, Brolin John C. Reilly, Virginia Madsen Certificate: 18 Certificate: PG Duration: 157 mins Duration: 105 mins Origin: USA 2007 Origin: USA 2006 By: Universal Pictures (UK) Ltd By: The Works UK Distribution FEBRUARY EVENINGS www.therexcinema.com 11

Central Station Brick Lane Mon 4 7.30 Tue 5 7.30, Wed 6 7.30

Director: Sarah Gavron Starring: Satish Kaushik, Christopher Simpson, Tannishtha Chatterjee Certificate: 15 Duration: 101 mins Origin: UK 2007 Robert Altman on set 2005 By: Optimum Releasing

This is Sarah Gavron’s adaptation The title refers to Rio de Janeiro’s of Monica Ali’s Booker-nominated teeming central railway station first novel. where Dora (Fernanda It is faithful to the book though Montenegro), a dour, disagreeable inevitably, less subtle and wide- woman, writes letters for illiterate ranging. Its characterisations are people. She despises them as poor simpler, but its focus on the struggles wretched trash, a couple of rungs of a young Bangladeshi woman down from her. She throws them saddled with an arranged marriage in away. Never written never sent. a foreign land remains the same. Enter Josue, a nine-year-old boy left She, Nazneen (Chatterjee) is an orphan after his mother is killed seventeen and beautiful. He is by a bus. From nowhere, the two neither. From a sunny Bangladeshi make some kind of sense to each village childhood to a block of flats other. They embark on a no-frills in east London with a grown man she journey through a country, hostile in has never met. transition, to search for a father Josue Pining for her birthplace and her has never seen. Their journey ends at sister, she struggles to make sense of an enormous mass housing it all. Worse, the terrifying duty to an development on some new Brazilian unknown husband, who sorely tests economic frontier where there might her compliance. Nazneen submits as be a better life…? she must, devoting her life to raising “Walter Salles has crafted an her family and resisting the demons engrossing, lyrical road trip. It never of discontent. Until Karim, a hot- sentimentalises but builds to a deeply headed local man, bursts into her life. moving if understated, climax.” Against a background of escalating (Total Film) racial tension, they embark on an “Unsentimental but touching. affair which finally forces Nazneen to An absolute delight from start to take control of her life. There are no finish” (Channel 4) heroes and villains, only people… Salles went on to make The “unfashionably gentle, human, Motorcycle Diaries. This smaller gem optimistic” (Guardian). touches the same themes of companionship.through a journey into the unknown. It will touch you. Come.

Director: Walter Salles Starring: Fernanda Montenegro, Marilia Pera, Vinicius Oliveira, Soia Lira Certificate: 15 Duration: 113 mins Origin: Brazil 1998 By: Park Circus Films 12 Box Office: 01442 877759 FEBRUARY EVENINGS

Joe Strummer: (The Future is Unwritten) I am Legend Fri 8 7.30, Sat 9 7.00, Sun 10 6.00 Thu 7 7.30 It starts off alright. The first half is a haunting portrayal of a man Director: Julien Temple alone trying to stay alive and sane Starring: Joe Strummer, Don Letts, in a desolate, eerily concrete Mick Jones jungle:New York. Then the zombies Certificate: 15 show up and turn it into mush. Duration: 123 mins Adapted by Lawrence from Richard Origin: Ireland, UK 2007 Matheson’s much copied novelette of By: Vertigo Films the same name, it follows this last man on Earth (Smith) who is Though it went over my head, Punk inexplicably immune to the highly was at least a relief from Clapton contagious man-made virus. and Bowie. He also happens to be the brilliant It should have killed them stone dead scientist with a cure… but thirty years on, the oily Cowell Unfortunately all humanity has and manufactured Girls Aloud, etc crumbled into carnivorous have proven factory pop is like the bloodsuckers. cockroach – you can’t wipe it out. Previously seen in 1964 as The Last Through unearthed recollections from Man On Earth with the fab Vincent friends and talking-heads in odd Price and 1971 as The Omega Man locations, a complex Joe Strummer is with the unwatchable Charlton revealed. Heston. It also inspired George A. One who used his music as a Romero’s zombie classic Night Of bullhorn against injustice. The Living Dead. The film includes typical concert So Matheson has a lot to answer for. footage alongside tapes of his Who cares that they cleared the eccentric BBC World Service radio streets of Manhattan for a week of broadcasts, ‘London Calling’. It is all rush hours? a fitting soundtrack to his short life. So what that Will Smith “delivers a “A truthful and poignant tribute to a surprisingly moving performance”? ‘punk rock warlord’.” (BBC) As for Julian Temple, he never seems Come if you fancy a remake of a to go beyond what he already knows; terrifying future, where nobody can London’s music and fashion. This is win. However it is better than clearly a labour of fan-worship and Director: Francis Lawrence expected and the dog steals it. about 33minutes too long. Starring: Will Smith, Salli Nevertheless, it leaves Joe plenty of Richardson, Alice Braga room to tell his own story as a Certificate: 15 deliberately ‘glamourless rock icon’. Duration: 101 mins It’s not showing anywhere else, so Origin: USA 2007 come for the first time or see it here By: Warner Brothers again. FEBRUARY EVENINGS www.therexcinema.com 13

The Sea Inside Once Enchanted Mon 11 7.30 Tue 12 7.30 Wed 13 7.30

Director: John Carney Starring: Markéta Irglová, Gerard Hendrick, Hugh Walsh, Glen Hansard Certificate: 15 Duration: 87 mins Origin: Ireland 2007 By: Entertainment Film Distribution

A rock-bottom budget, nil to start but eventually made for £80,000 Classic Disney animation meets with no pay for anyone, this Irish contemporary urban chaos when a charmer stole the heart of the princess is banished from her Audience Award at Sundance 2007. magical animated homeland to On Grafton Street in Dublin, a modern-day New York. Princess “When you can’t escape and you careworn busker (Hansard) strikes up Giselle (Adams, an Oscar nominee for depend on others so much, you a friendship with a sparky young Junebug) lives in the blissful cartoon learn to cry by smiling”. Based on Czech immigrant (Irglová). He is world of Andalasia, where magical real events, Ramon has lain in bed nursing a broken heart and stalled beings frolic freely and musical paralysed from the neck down for 28 ambitions; she is getting by on interludes punctuate every interaction. years. He wants to end this non-life cleaning jobs and chutzpah. As their She is engaged to the handsome but he is loved… An underwater relationship evolves, Hansard’s heart Prince Edward (Marsden) but her fate accident as a fit young man has left searing songs weave themselves into takes a turn for the worse when the him languishing into middle age the narrative so naturally you hardly villainous Queen Narissa (Sarandon) without moving a finger, thus the sea notice you are watching a musical. banishes her to the unforgiving inside. The horror of such Anchored by simple narrative, real metropolis of New York… imprisonment is unthinkable (for and lovely faces, easy non-acting and “Enchanted embodies the best Nelson Mandela it was a mere 27 haunting songs this film is so rare - traditions of Disney - while gently years). Great faces. Enter Belén perhaps unique - with a warm but mocking its legacy… She (Adams) Rueda and you start to melt. gutsy grace all of its own. can play both toughness and wide- Everyone touches you without force. No subplots, no narrative twists, and eyed innocence, with finely calibrated Javier is astonishing, Belén is little else. timing to make her a great screen astonishing, the whole film is “Shows what you can do with a comedienne - up there with early- astonishing and unforgettable… decent story.” period Goldie Hawn (oh no!). Like all tales of personal tragedy it is “A sublime, visual album of Whether or not, hers is the star-making interrupted by bright moments of unassuming and self-assured performance of this year.” (Telegraph) everyday humour. “This is certain to eloquence” (mixed crits) “The best adult romantic comedy and be one of the finest films of the It is real rags-to-riches. From a child’s fairy tale we’ve had for a long year…” (2004) scraggly kid, banging out Dylan time. It’s the sheer force of her PS… “No matter how close to yours covers on the streets of Dublin, to the (Adams) compelling charm that makes another’s steps have grown, in the end real Bob calling Glen to support his Enchanted so enchanting’ (Times) there is one dance you’ll do alone…” Australian tour! “It is sentimental, quite silly and (Jackson Browne) See Bardem in a We wish them all the best and will determinedly old-style Disney, while very ‘different mood’ in No Country show it here ‘until everybody has maintaining a gentle knowing and for Old Men (Fri 29th). seen it’. ironic touch.” (Standard)

Director: Alejandro Amenabar Director: Kevin Lima Starring: Belen Rueda, Celso Starring: Patrick Dempsey, Amy Bugallo, Clara Segura, Javier Bardem, Adams, Susan Sarandon, James Lola Duenas, Mabel Rivera Marsden Certificate: PG Certificate: PG Duration: 125 mins Duration: 108 mins Origin: Spain 2005 Origin: USA 2007 By: Entertainment Film Distribution By: Buena Vista International 14 Box Office: 01442 877759 FEBRUARY EVENINGS

Top Hat VALENTINES Thu 14 7.30 Charlie Wilson’s War Fri 15 7.30, Sat 16 7.00 Director: Mike Nichols This adaptation of George Crile Starring: Julia Roberts, Amy III’s incendiary bestseller tells the Adams, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, remarkable story of the Texas Tom Hanks congressman whose efforts to Certificate: 15 prevent the Red Army from Duration: 102 mins overtaking Afghanistan eventually Origin: USA 2007 led to the collapse of the Soviet Union and at the same time fuelling the rise of radical Islam! (well done Charlie from Texas). In the early 1980s, a hastily assembled army of Afghan ‘freedom fighters’ achieved the remarkable feat of fending off Soviet invaders against overwhelming odds. Wilson spearheaded an effort to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in weapons and training to the Mujahadeen with more than a little “Can’t act, can’t sing. Can dance a help from suspect CIA man Gust little…” (legend - Fred’s first screen Avrokotos (Hoffman) whose test). nefarious bunch of CIA outcasts were Perhaps the best known of the Astaire- handpicked to bend Agency rules to Rogers films, TOP HAT is loved for its breaking point. wonderful Irving Berlin score and “This is intelligent political breathtaking dance routines set against filmmaking of the highest class.” stunning white modern sets. “There “Aaron Sorkin’s masterful script are two numbers in TOP HAT where combines insight, wit and political the dancing on the screen reaches such nous but never forgets its own perfection… Isn’t This a Lovely Day? underlying seriousness.” (Channel 4) and Cheek to Cheek. Astaire believed “Hanks and Roberts have fun that movie dance numbers should be harnessing their screen personas to shot in unbroken takes. It is artistry these juicy roles; Hoffman’s feverish through endurance. Where many ranting is yet another glowing dancers would be gasping for breath, testament to his skills at playing Astaire and Rogers are smiling. charismatic ass-holes” (Time Out) It is watching hard work elevated to Come and laugh and be very scared. effortless joy: He knows they can do no better than this, and nor can anyone else.” (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times). It is also very funny, a little corny and to a twelve year old watching a crackerly 13 inch early sixties television screen with the whole family… it was the best thing ever!

Director: Mark Sandrich Starring: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers Certificate: U Duration: 100 mins Origin: USA 1935 By: British Film Institute FEBRUARY EVENINGS www.therexcinema.com 15

In The Shadow of The Kite Runner the Moon Wed 20 7.30 Sun 17 6.00, Mon 18 7.30, Tue 19 7.30 In a divided country on the verge of war, two childhood friends, Amir and Hassan, are about to be torn apart … It is a glorious afternoon in Kabul and the skies are filled with the exhilarating joy of a kite-fighting tournament. But in the aftermath of the day’s victory, one boy’s fearful act Dismissing conspiracy theories - of betrayal will mark their lives that it was all an elaborate hoax set forever and set in motion an epic on a vast sound stage somewhere in quest for redemption. the Nevada desert - Sington’s After 20 years of living in America, elegant and breathtaking Amir (Abdalla) returns to a perilous documentary lets the surviving Afghanistan under Taliban rule to crew members of the Apollo space face the secrets still haunting him and missions tell their own stories take one last daring chance to set accompanied by rare and unseen things right. footage. “When I read The Kite Runner, I felt In the four remarkable years between Khaled Hosseini gave a voice to 1968 and 1972, of the nine NASA people who have been voiceless and spacecraft to reach the moon, these faceless for so long…[Afghan] twelve new-age explorers became the people felt it was a love letter to first and only men to set foot on Afghanistan…They were so happy a ground beyond the Earth. “Poignant Hollywood movie was not in English, viewing at a time when American and gave a face other than a villain or power mongers seem to have hit the terrorist to their part of the world.” Destruct Button.” (uh oh, beware cool-trendy film Director: Marc Forster “Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins are makers – saying all the right things Starring: Zekeria Ebrahimi, Khalid witty and wise… a joy to behold - before they move on to make a Abdalla, Ahmad Mahmidzada all of them…” (Time Out) Bond!). Certificate: 12A “Many untold stories, ie; not even See rest page 24 Duration: 128 mins Aldrin’s wife of 19 years knew his Origin: USA 2007 pause halfway down the lunar ladder By: Paramount International Pictures was to take a pee in his space suit.” (Channel 4) Watch for the pre-recorded ‘sorrowful’ announcement by President Nixon in case Apollo 11 never made it back! A sincere Tricky Dickie mouthing a scripted obituary ahead of one’s demise is enough to make any self-respecting spaceman wet himself.

Director: David Sington Starring: John Young, Jim Lovell, Alan Bean Certificate: U Duration: 100 mins Origin: USA 2007 By: Vertigo Films 16 Box Office: 01442 877759 FEBRUARY EVENINGS

The Darjeeling In The Valley of Everything is Limited Elah Illuminated Thu 21 7.30 Fri 22 7.30, Sat 23 7.00 Sun 24 6.00

Director: Paul Haggis Starring: Tommy Jones, Susan Sarandon, Charlize Theron Certificate: 15 Duration: 121 mins Origin: USA 2007 By: Optimum Releasing

When a model soldier who recently Free of the slowly-creaking cogs of returned to the U.S. from the his last movie – The Life Aquatic, frontlines of Iraq goes AWOL, his ‘The Darjeeling Limited’ is more veteran father (Tommy Lee Jones) energetic. It is a road-movie set on a enlists the police woman in charge train. Adrien Brody and Jason (Charlize Theron) to help him find Everyone must see this… Schwartzman are brothers cajoled by the truth. Director/screenwriter Come for Eugene Hutz’s perplexed their domineering older sibling Haggis’s follow-up to the Oscar- Ukranian ‘guide’ and his gorgeous (Owen Wilson) – an unhappy winning Crash. Inspired by a narration. (much of the haunting businessman with a bandage around Playboy Magazine article written by filmscore is his too, as is the band at his head – to take a trip to India a Mark Boal. Incidently, this is a far the station.) year after their father’s death. It’s better film than the over-praised On its first outing here in February time for some serious bonding with Crash, but will win nothing. Haggis’s 2006, it made us all sit still. escapades, snakes, a little romance fictionalised version of real events Now two years later it is probably and a dose of straight-faced tragedy. asks various challenging questions, even better. You must come. “It doesn’t matter where Anderson not least about how humanity is Taken from Jonathan Safran Foer travels; he always brings Americans compromised by warfare and the role best-seller, it sounds like a true story, for company. And often the same of women in patriarchal American beautifully told. Americans, mostly men, usually Bill society. The performances from the ‘Jonfen’ (Elijah) is an obsessive Murray sometimes Schwartzman, two leads are exceptional, and as collector, who journeys from America always Wilson…” (Time Out) always Susan Sarandon as the mother in search of the woman he believes Here are all three with a little Natalie permanently scarred by grief, can do saved his grandfather during the Nazi Portman for luck! no wrong. massacre of a lost Ukrainian village. “Anderson’s stylish approach divides “Jones gives the drama a ragged, With only a creased b&w photograph – you either love his hipster heartfelt sense of poetry” (Time Out). he begins his search with the unlikely credentials or hate his whimsy. This is one of two Tommy Lee films Eugene, his grandfather (the brilliant Darjeeling looks likely to polarise its in Feb – the other ‘No Country…’ Leskin) and his “seeing-eye” bitch. audiences just as violently…” (Fri 29th). While Eugene’s butchery of the (Knowledge, Times) Neither should be missed. In fact English language and passion for all It is here again in case you missed it. don’t miss anything he is in. things American, grates on Jonfen, he True, it is whimsical but there is wins the screen and Jonfen with every something special about it. word and gesture. Endearing, surprising and warm with It is heartlifting, heartbreaking, funny a great sound track and crystal clear and a beautiful surprise - and one of photography. Come and see. our best films in three years. It will stay with you. Director: Wes Anderson Starring: Adrien Brody, Amara Director: Liev Schreiber Karan, Jason Schwartzman, Owen Starring: Eugene Hutz, Elijah Wood, Wilson Boris Leskin Certificate: 15 Certificate: 12A Duration: 106 mins Duration: 105 mins Origin: USA 2007 Origin: USA 2005 By: Twentieth Century Fox By: Warner Brothers FEBRUARY EVENINGS www.therexcinema.com 17

My Kid Could Paint That Lust Caution Mon 25 7.30 Tue 26 7.30, Wed 27 7.30, Director: Amir Bar-Lev Certificate: 12A This film is being talked about in Duration: 84 mins only one dimension, but you don’t Origin: UK, USA 2007 win a Golden Lion at Venice for a By: Sony Pictures Releasing dirty groping scene, or perhaps you do. Most four year olds paintings hang This is the latest from Ang Lee on the refrigerator, but by then whose repertoire includes such Marla Olmstead was on show in diverse curiosities as Brokeback New York. Born only seven years Mountain, and Crouching Tiger, ago (2000!!!), Marla first picked up Hidden Dragon. a paintbrush when she was one and This one’s a political thriller, a copying her father, himself an melodrama and a dark tale of amateur painter. Soon she was obsessive love, set in occupied creating large canvases with Shanghai during the Second World unexpected skill and enthusiasm. War. A young woman, Wang Jiazhi Her ‘work’ has been shown all over (Tang), is persuaded to join a plot America with pieces fetching as against government minister and much as $25,000. Inevitably Japanese collaborator MrYee (Tony questions have been raised about Leung), but her mission fails. talent versus ‘pushy mother’ parents. Years later she gets a second Others have ‘questioned’ reviews chance… Superbly photographed by comparing her work with Pollock and Rodrigo Prieto, as he did Brokeback Picasso! Mountain, this is a beautiful tale of “A fascinating psychological study of repressed passion and its devastating family life, media manipulation, and effects. a shrewd reflection on his own What is the nature of love and/or motives as a film-maker… desire? He knows how to tell a story With all the horrible fascination of a in either language. slow-motion car-crash, Amir Bar- “In newcomer Tang Wei, he has made Lev’s documentary shows us a a tremendous discovery. Fiercely painful, even tragic story of family intelligent and hauntingly beautiful, dysfunction and denial…” she gives a passionate, courageous (Guardian) performance that deserves a shelf-full “Amir Bar-Lev’s thoughtful of awards…It is another resounding documentary is at once a fiercely success for Ang Lee, whose film- annotated essay on art, and a making has such mass and compassionate portrait of a family substance… His movies are like caught in the centre of a media huge, exciting new buildings for us storm” (Channel 4) You choose… to gather round and wonder at.” What total bollocks (Guardian) “You leave the theatre a trifle exhausted but rewarded by a resonance few films possess” Take a day off Derek (Standard) It’s a long film so if you’re coming Director: Ang Lee for the rude bit you’ll have to wait till Starring: Tony Leung, Joan Chen, the end. Wei Tang Certificate: 18 Duration: 158 mins Origin: China, Taiwan, USA 2007 By: Universal Pictures (UK) Ltd 18 Box Office: 01442 877759 FEBRUARY EVENINGS L’Ivresse de No Country for Old Men Pouvoir (The Comedy of Power) Fri 29 7.30 Thu 28 7.30 Its 70s something, its small-town Texas. A Vietnam vet stumbles across the bloody aftermath of a drugs deal Director: Claude Chabrol gone horribly wrong. Business as usual Starring: Francois Berleand, Isabelle for the Coens. Huppert Moss (Brolin) discovers a bullet-strewn Certificate: PG truck surrounded by corpses and finds Duration: 110 mins $2 million in the boot (uh oh). Enter Origin: Germany/France 2006 Javier Bardem’s enigmatic almost By: Institute of Contemporary Arts wordless killer in cold pursuit of the Isabelle Huppert is character istically money. In the meantime disillusioned captivating in her latest Sheriff Bell (Lee Jones) struggles to collaboration with veteran director contain the escalating violence that Claude Chabrol. A Comedy Of Power seems to be consuming his once- was inspired by a recent chapter in peaceful Lone Star State town. French history, when an examining A distinctly Coen-esque crime story magistrate exposed massive fraud and exploring timeless Biblical themes with bribery carried out by oil executives. a welcome return to Blood Simple Huppert plays the crusading magistrate, territory in this brilliantly executed, and the engaging narrative shows how stripped-down, dark and deadly affair. she suffers and enjoys the power and “Kelly Macdonald is terrific as Moss’s trailer-trash wife with a heart of gold. attention of the case, and how it affects Ethan and Joel her personal life. (To force the Coens to notice her, she In French law an examining turned the inflection and notes of her magistrate has power-absolute, own Scots accent into a pin-sharp therefore very frightening if your on correct regional Texan dialect!) the receiving end. “Woody Harrelson delivers an icy “There are two knockout performances cameo as a corrupt private investigator. here, and the French title, L’Ivresse de And Jones is in his element as the Pouvoir, conveys more accurately how sheriff who doesn’t miss a trick but power intoxicates its possessor… a fails to grasp the big picture” (Times) smooth, perceptive thriller tinged with “No Country… is beautifully suave Gallic cynicism and resigned structured… the spectacle of two great Director: Coen Brothers anger.” (Observer) directors in total command of their Starring: Tommy Jones, Woody “Huppert who, in her seventh filmaking” (Time Out) Harrelson, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin collaboration with Chabrol, manages It is Bardem who excels as the totally Certificate: 15 to embody in a single character all the absorbed hitman. To see how good he Duration: 122 mins hunger, cruelty, delusion, isolation and is, don’t miss his complete opposite in Origin: USA 2007 vulnerability that power brings” the heartbreaking Sea Inside (11th By: Paramount International Pictures (Channel 4) Feb). A gem from start to finish - a ‘true’ political thriller. Huppert is always mesmerising and beautiful, Chabrol a visual genius. Absolutely not to be missed. FEBRUARY LISTINGS AND COMING SOON

Coming Soon FEBRUARY FILMS AT A GLANCE Please check times carefully and watch out for early shows. New releases FRI 1 AMERICAN GANGSTER 7.30 Sweeney Todd SAT 2 MR MAGORIUM 2.00 The Diving Bell and the SAT 2 GOLDEN COMPASS 7.00 Butterfly SUN 3 PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION 6.00 4 Months 3 weeks and 2 MON 4 CENTRAL STATION 2.00, 7.30 days TUE 5 BRICK LANE 12.30, 7.30 Before the Devil Knows WED 6 MRS BROWN 2.00 you're Dead WED 6 BRICK LANE 7.30 There will be Blood THU 7 STARDUST 2.00 Juno THU 7 JOE STRUMMER 7.30 FRI 8 I AM LEGEND 7.30 Back by demand SAT 9 ENCHANTED 2.00 Away From Her SAT 9 I AM LEGEND 7.00 No Country for Old Men SUN 10 I AM LEGEND 6.00 The Kite Runner MON 11 ENCHANTED 2.00 MON 11 THE SEA INSIDE 7.30 TUE 12 GOLDEN COMPASS 12.30 TUE 12 ONCE 7.30 WED 13 ENCHANTED 2.00, 7.30 THU 14 BEE MOVIE 2.00 THU 14 TOP HAT (VALENTINE) 7.30 FRI 15 CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR 7.30 4 months 3 weeks and 2 days SAT 16 BEE MOVIE 2.00 SAT 16 CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR 7.00 SUN 17 THE KITE RUNNER 6.00 MON 18 CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR 2.00 MON 18 THE KITE RUNNER 7.30 TUE 19 IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON 12.30 Sweeney Todd TUE 19 THE KITE RUNNER 7.30 WED 20 THE KITE RUNNER 2.00 Before the Devil WED 20 IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON 7.30 knows you're Dead THU 21 TOP HAT 2.00 THU 21 DARJEELING LIMITED 7.30 FRI 22 IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH 7.30 SAT 23 GOLDEN COMPASS 2.00 SAT 23 IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH 7.00 SUN 24 EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED 6.00 The Diving Bell MON 25 EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED 2.00 and the Butterfly MON 25 MY KID COULD PAINT THAT 7.30 TUE 26 WORLD'S FASTEST INDIAN 12.30 TUE 26 LUST CAUTION 7.30 WED 27 CLOSING THE RING 2.00 WED 27 LUST CAUTION 7.30 THU 28 COMEDY OF POWER 2.00, 7.30 FRI 29 NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN 7.30 FEBRUARY MATINEES

ALL MATINEES: Balcony £5.00 • Table seats £6.50 • Royal Box seats £10.00 FEBRUARY MATINEES www.therexcinema.com 21

Mr Margorium’s Central Station Brick Lane Wonder Eporium Mon 4 2.00 Tue 5 12.30 Sat 2 2.00 Director: Sarah Gavron Starring: Satish Kaushik, Director: Zach Helm Christopher Simpson, Tannishtha Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Natalie Chatterjee Portman Certificate: 15 Certificate: U Duration: 101 mins Duration: 94 mins Origin: UK 2007 Origin: USA 2007 By: Optimum Releasing By: Icon Film Distribution Ltd This is Sarah Gavron’s adaptation Mr Margorium's Wonder The title refers to Rio de Janeiro’s of Monica Ali’s Booker-nominated Emporium is the strangest, most teeming central railway station first novel. wonderful toy store in the world. where Dora (Fernanda It is faithful to the book though In fact, it’s a magic store and Montenegro), a dour, disagreeable inevitably, less subtle and wide- everything in it comes to life, woman, writes letters for illiterate ranging. Its characterisations are including the store itself. people. She despises them as poor simpler, but its focus on the struggles Natalie Portman plays a clerk in the wretched trash, a couple of rungs of a young Bangladeshi woman store who must decide whether she down from her. She throws them saddled with an arranged marriage in wants to run the store after its current away. Never written never sent. a foreign land remains the same. owner Mr Margorium (Dustin Enter Josue, a nine-year-old boy left She, Nazneen (Chatterjee) is Hoffman) passes away. an orphan after his mother is killed seventeen and beautiful. He is neither. “Full marks to the film-makers for by a bus. From nowhere, the two From a sunny Bangladeshi village conjuring that rarest of Christmas make some kind of sense to each childhood to a block of flats in east treats: a family-oriented, toy-focused other. They embark on a no-frills London with a grown man she has Hollywood production that contains journey through a country, hostile in never met. virtually nothing in the way of transition, to search for a father Josue Pining for her birthplace and her product placement” (Guardian) has never seen. Their journey ends at sister, she struggles to make sense of “Writer-director Zach Helm has an enormous mass housing it all. Worse, the terrifying duty to an pulled off no less than a miracle, development on some new Brazilian unknown husband, who sorely tests conjuring from the air an original economic frontier where there might her compliance. Nazneen submits as story that feels as familiar as an be a better life…? she must, devoting her life to raising ancient, well-thumbed children’s “Walter Salles has crafted an her family and resisting the demons book… This is an hour-and-a-half of engrossing, lyrical road trip. It never of discontent. Until Karim, a hot- joyous awe” (Channel 4) sentimentalises but builds to a deeply headed local man, bursts into her life. Sorry, a bit late in the Christmas dept, moving if understated, climax.” Against a background of escalating but a great little fantasy all the same. (Total Film) racial tension, they embark on an Bring your grandparents “Unsentimental but touching. An affair which finally forces Nazneen to absolute delight from start to finish” take control of her life. There are no (Channel 4) heroes and villains, only people… Salles went on to make The “unfashionably gentle, human, Motorcycle Diaries. This smaller gem optimistic” (Guardian). touches the same themes of companionship.through a journey into the unknown. It will touch you. Come.

Mrs Brown Stardust Enchanted Wed 6 2.00 Thu 7 2.00 Sat 9 2.00, Mon 11 2.00, Wed Matinee Warning: May contain babies Wed 13 2.00 Director: Matthew Vaughn Wed Matinee Warning: May contain babies Starring: Claire Danes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Charlie Cox, Robert De Niro, Ricky Gervais, Mark Strong, Sienna Miller, Peter O’Toole Certificate: PG Duration: 128 mins Origin: UK, USA 2007 By: Paramount International Pictures Classic Disney animation meets Tristan tries to win the heart of the MRS BROWN is a richly detailed contemporary urban chaos when a village beauty by promising to drama based on rumours which princess is banished from her bring her a falling star. When he scandalized polite society and magical animated homeland to finds the star, he is stunned to threatened disgrace for the modern-day New York. Princess discover that it is not a lump of rock, Monarchy in the last years of Queen Giselle (Adams, an Oscar nominee for but an angry, injured blonde who has Victoria’s reign. Distraught by the Junebug) lives in the blissful cartoon no desire to be dragged across the death of her beloved Albert, Ma’am world of Andalasia, where magical world as a spoilt girlfriend’s dowry. withdraws from public view. Billy beings frolic freely and musical But others are after the star: a dying Connolly as Albert’s loyal hunting interludes punctuate every interaction. king’s four sons – not to mention the guide John Brown is summoned to She is engaged to the handsome ghosts of their three dead brothers – Windsor to lift the Queen’s deep Prince Edward (Marsden) but her fate and three wicked witches… depression, not her skirts. A man of takes a turn for the worse when the As Tristan and Yvaine are forced to fierce spirit and pride, Brown speaks villainous Queen Narissa (Sarandon) run he discovers the meaning of true his mind, refusing to treat the Queen banishes her to the unforgiving love, but does not realise mortal with kid gloves. Despite their social metropolis of New York… danger she is in...! polarity, a friendship grows as Brown “Enchanted embodies the best The writing is childish and the starry becomes the Queen’s trusted traditions of Disney - while gently cast indulgently wasted. Apart from companion… mocking its legacy… She (Adams) Gervais playing (with) himself, it is A superbly acted, emotionally can play both toughness and wide- very funny. The scenery is powerful and beautifully photographed eyed innocence, with finely calibrated breathtaking and the special effects love story. timing to make her a great screen truly fantastical on the big screen. “Two superlative performances, by comedienne - up there with early- All in all it is great romp and a Judi Dench and Billy Connolly, elevate period Goldie Hawn (oh no!). Whether proper fairytale where everybody this costume yarn above the ‘well- or not, hers is the star-making gets what they deserve. Ms Pffff, mounted’ into a tightly focused, performance of this year.” (Telegraph) DeNiro and Ashridge are the real emotionally rewarding film” (Variety) “The best adult romantic comedy and treats. “Dench is magnificent as Victoria… child’s fairy tale we’ve had for a long Connolly’s Brown is hardly less fine, a time. It’s the sheer force of her cast-iron portrait of a man teetering on (Adams) compelling charm that makes the edge of ridicule and disgrace, but Enchanted so enchanting’ (Times) never flinching” (Time Out) “It is sentimental, quite silly and Above all, from Dame Judi herself, determinedly old-style Disney, while she had a great time… has never maintaining a gentle knowing and laughed so much on set. Watch ironic touch.” (Standard) carefully… Director: Kevin Lima Director: John Madden Starring: Patrick Dempsey, Amy Starring: Judi Dench, Billy Connolly, Adams, Susan Sarandon, James Geoffrey Palmer, Anthony Sher Marsden Certificate: PG Certificate: PG Duration: 104 mins Duration: 108 mins Origin: UK 1997 Origin: USA 2007 By: Buena Vista International By: Buena Vista International FEBRUARY MATINEES www.therexcinema.com 23

The Golden Bee Movie Charlie Wilson’s Compass Tue 12 12.30 Thu 14 2.00, Sat 16 2.00 War Mon 18 2.00 Directors: Steve Hickner, Simon Smith Starring: Matthew Broderick, Renee Zellweger, John Goodman, Jerry Seinfeld Certificate: U Duration: 108 mins Origin: USA 2007 By: Paramount International Pictures This adaptation of George Crile III’s incendiary bestseller tells the remarkable story of the Texas Based on Philip Pullman’s award- congressman whose efforts to winning trilogy: His Dark prevent the Red Army from Materials, The Golden Compass is overtaking Afghanistan eventually a fantasy adventure. In a parallel led to the collapse of the Soviet world where people’s souls manifest Union and at the same time fuelling themselves as small animals, where the rise of radical Islam! (well talking ice-bears fight wars and done Charlie from Texas). children mysteriously disappear, 12- In the early 1980s, a hastily year-old Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards Barry B. Benson (Seinfeld) is your assembled army of Afghan ‘freedom – poor kid, ‘Linda’ would have done, average honeybee who is fed-up with fighters’ achieved the remarkable feat only ‘pushies’, WAGs or nutters humans stealing their honey, so he of fending off Soviet invaders against would name a child after a does something about it…. overwhelming odds. geographical shag) sets out on an Wilson spearheaded an effort to extraordinary quest to rescue her provide hundreds of millions of friend. dollars in weapons and training to the “This beautifully made, spectacularly Mujahadeen with more than a little designed family movie asks serious help from suspect CIA man Gust questions about good and evil, free Avrokotos (Hoffman) whose will and adolescent sexuality” nefarious bunch of CIA outcasts were (Standard) Hmmm. handpicked to bend Agency rules to “It’s a convoluted, enjoyable, very breaking point. mad, deeply conservative and, at one “This is intelligent political moment, horribly violent filmmaking of the highest class.” extravaganza…. Kidman steals the “Aaron Sorkin’s masterful script show - pure blonde evil… hear the combines insight, wit and political crackle of her stockings as she nous but never forgets its own sashays threateningly on to the screen underlying seriousness.” (Channel 4) - a ridiculous coupling of Darth Vader “Hanks and Roberts have fun and Veronica Lake…” (PB Guardian) harnessing their screen personas to If nothing else, come for 007’s these juicy roles; Hoffman’s feverish school-gates beard. Oddly 12A is a ranting is yet another glowing ‘provisional certificate’. So bring testament to his skills at playing your provisional twelve year olds (but charismatic ass-holes” (Time Out) don’t let them read this). Come and laugh and be very scared.

Director: Chris Weitz Director: Mike Nichols Starring: Nicole Kidman, Eva Starring: Julia Roberts, Amy Adams, Green, Sam Elliott, Daniel Craig Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Tom Hanks Certificate: 12A Certificate: 15 Duration: 114 mins Duration: 102 mins Origin: USA 2007 Origin: USA 2007 By: Entertainment Film Distribution By: Universal Pictures (UK) Ltd 24 Box Office: 01442 877759 FEBRUARY MATINEES

In The Shadow Of The Kite Runner Top Hat The Moon Wed 20 2.00 Thu 21 2.00 Tue 19 12.30 Matinee Warning: May contain babies Director: Mark Sandrich Starring: Fred Astaire, Ginger Director: David Sington Rogers Starring: John Young, Jim Lovell, Certificate: U Alan Bean Duration: 100 mins Certificate: U Origin: USA 1933 Duration: 100 mins By: British Film Institute Origin: USA 2007 By: Vertigo Films “Can’t act, can’t sing. Can dance a little…” (legend - Fred’s first screen From page 15 Dismissing conspiracy theories - test). Marc Forster fought with that it was all an elaborate hoax set Perhaps the best known of the Astaire- DreamWorks to use the Dari dialect on a vast sound stage somewhere in Rogers films, TOP HAT is loved for its instead of English. “Luckily, the the Nevada desert - Sington’s wonderful Irving Berlin score and studio realised the book - eight elegant and breathtaking breathtaking dance routines set against million copies sold - is the star.” documentary lets the surviving stunning white modern sets. “There (Marc Forster interview Screen Intl crew members of the Apollo space are two numbers in TOP HAT where Jan 08). missions tell their own stories the dancing on the screen reaches such Patronising ass? He is a film director accompanied by rare and unseen perfection… Isn’t This a Lovely Day? after all. He will walk red carpets footage. and Cheek to Cheek. Astaire believed with the new Bond movie while his In the four remarkable years between that movie dance numbers should be young actors are in exile (where are 1968 and 1972, of the nine NASA shot in unbroken takes. It is artistry their parents? Is Paramount looking spacecraft to reach the moon, these through endurance. Where many after them?) twelve new-age explorers became the dancers would be gasping for breath, They are running from dangerous first and only men to set foot on Astaire and Rogers are smiling. men (it is never women!!!) for ground beyond the Earth. “Poignant It is watching hard work elevated to making a film about life before the viewing at a time when American effortless joy: He knows they can do brainwashed bastards told them they power mongers seem to have hit the no better than this, and nor can anyone (too) dare not think without Destruct Button.” else.” (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun permission. “Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins are Times). It is also very funny, a little These dangerous men have never witty and wise… a joy to behold - corny and to a twelve year old read the Koran properly. Like Bush’s all of them…” (Time Out) watching a crackerly 13 inch early Republican ‘End-timers’ who believe “Many untold stories, ie; not even sixties television screen with the whole all this current shite is their god’s will Aldrin’s wife of 19 years knew his family… it was the best thing ever! pause halfway down the lunar ladder (the Bible’s book of Revelation was to take a pee in his space suit.” ‘predicts’ this global chaos. (Channel 4) They embrace it as ‘gospel truth’, so Watch for the pre-recorded aid it on its way). ‘sorrowful’ announcement by The only thing separating them is the President Nixon in case Apollo 11 ‘wrong god’. Isn’t there supposed to never made it back! A sincere Tricky be only One? Dickie mouthing a scripted obituary It is best, though not safe, to despise ahead of one’s demise is enough to them all. “still a man hears what he make any self-respecting spaceman wants to hear and disregards the rest” wet himself. (The Boxer: Simon & Garfunkel)

Director: Marc Forster Starring: Zekeria Ebrahimi, Khalid Abdalla, Ahmad Mahmidzada Certificate: 12A Duration: 128 mins Origin: USA 2007 By: Paramount International Pictures FEBRUARY MATINEES www.therexcinema.com 25

The Golden Everything is The World’s Compass Tue 12 12.30 Illuminated Fastest Indian Mon 25 2.00 Tue 26 12.30

Director: Liev Schreiber Starring: Eugene Hutz, Elijah Wood, Boris Leskin Certificate: 12A Duration: 105 mins Origin: USA 2005 By: Warner Brothers

Everyone must see this… Since we re-opened four Come for Eugene Hutz’s perplexed Christmases ago this along with Based on Philip Pullman’s award- Ukranian ‘guide’ and his gorgeous Little Miss Sunshine has seen the winning trilogy: His Dark narration. (much of the haunting ‘happiest’ audiences leave; smiling Materials, The Golden Compass is filmscore is his too, as is the band at through a few tears. a fantasy adventure. In a parallel the station.) It is a true gem. Everyone who has world where people’s souls manifest On its first outing here in February seen it, young, old and children; themselves as small animals, where 2006, it made us all sit still. easy-going or the chronically talking ice-bears fight wars and Now two years later it is probably miserable, have loved it. It is almost children mysteriously disappear, 12- even better. You must come. faultless, it even sidesteps oily year-old Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards Taken from Jonathan Safran Foer sentimentality. It had an unscheduled – poor kid, ‘Linda’ would have done, best-seller, it sounds like a true story, screening last year when the Pink only ‘pushies’, WAGs or nutters beautifully told. Panther print was too damaged to would name a child after a ‘Jonfen’ (Elijah) is an obsessive show. Everyone agreed it was fab. geographical shag) sets out on an collector, who journeys from America Lucky we had this and not St extraordinary quest to rescue her in search of the woman he believes Trinians! Hopkins describes it as his friend. saved his grandfather during the Nazi best, most enjoyable part. It is an “This beautifully made, spectacularly massacre of a lost Ukrainian village. inspiring, real-life drama about an old designed family movie asks serious With only a creased b&w photograph man’s stubborn refusal to give up. questions about good and evil, free he begins his search with the unlikely In 1967, after a lifetime perfecting will and adolescent sexuality” Eugene, his grandfather (the brilliant his vintage ‘Indian’, New Zealander (Standard) Hmmm. Leskin) and his “seeing-eye” bitch. Burt Munro works his passage to “It’s a convoluted, enjoyable, very While Eugene’s butchery of the Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats to mad, deeply conservative and, at one English language and passion for all attempt a new world land-speed moment, horribly violent things American, grates on Jonfen, he record. He charms everybody in his extravaganza…. Kidman steals the wins the screen and Jonfen with every way. show - pure blonde evil… hear the word and gesture. Old-age, a healthy contempt for too crackle of her stockings as she It is heartlifting, heartbreaking, funny many safety standards, a ‘dickie sashays threateningly on to the screen and a beautiful surprise - and one of ticker’, and even the failure to - a ridiculous coupling of Darth Vader our best films in three years. It will register for the competition, can’t and Veronica Lake…” (PB Guardian) stay with you. beat him. If nothing else, come for 007’s Come, it is not about motorbikes or school-gates beard. Oddly 12A is a speed. It is about hope, love, ‘provisional certificate’. So bring gentleness, undying optimism and all your provisional twelve year olds (but things in between. don’t let them read this).

Director: Chris Weitz Director: Roger Donaldson Starring: Nicole Kidman, Eva Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Chris Green, Sam Elliott, Daniel Craig Lawford, Annie Whittle Certificate: 12A Certificate: 12A Duration: 114 mins Duration: 127 mins Origin: USA 2007 Origin: USA 2005 By: Entertainment Film Distribution By: Icon Film Distribution Ltd 26 Box Office: 01442 877759 FEBRUARY MATINEES

Closing the Ring We 27 2.00 L’Ivresse de Pouvoir Matinee Warning: May contain babies (The Comedy of Power) Thu 28 2.00 Isabelle Huppert is character istically Director: Claude Chabrol captivating in her latest Starring: Francois Berleand, Isabelle collaboration with veteran director Huppert Claude Chabrol. A Comedy Of Certificate: PG Power was inspired by a recent chapter Duration: 110 mins in French history, when an examining Origin: Germany/France 2006 magistrate exposed massive fraud and By: Institute of Contemporary Arts bribery carried out by oil executives. Huppert plays the crusading magistrate, and the engaging narrative shows how Academy Award-winning director, she suffers and enjoys the power and actor and all-round national attention of the case, and how it affects treasure Attenborough brings a her personal life. wealth of experience to this warm- In French law an examining hearted epic romance spanning 50 magistrate has power-absolute, years and two continents. therefore very frightening if your on In a story of love, loss and the receiving end. reconciliation, MacLaine plays Ethel “There are two knockout performances Ann, a woman whose first beloved here, and the French title, L’Ivresse de husband, Teddy, was a casualty of war. Pouvoir, conveys more accurately how Before his death Teddy had made a power intoxicates its possessor… a pact with his friend Chuck that he smooth, perceptive thriller tinged with would look after Ethel Ann should suave Gallic cynicism and resigned anything happen to Teddy. anger.” (Observer) Ethel Ann duly married Chuck, “Huppert who, in her seventh burying her heartache, until a chance collaboration with Chabrol, manages discovery thousands of miles away to embody in a single character all the forces her long-hidden secrets out hunger, cruelty, delusion, isolation and into the open. vulnerability that power brings” An unashamedly romantic film that (Channel 4) serves as a timely reminder that war A gem from start to finish - a ‘true’ and conflict can cost the human political thriller. Huppert is always heart. mesmerising and beautiful, Chabrol a “Closing the Ring is well-acted visual genius. throughout and it has a romantic Absolutely not to be missed. appeal that is not to be sneered at” (Derek Malcolm) It sounds delightful; even perfect for a Wednesday afternoon in late February.

Director: Richard Attenborough Starring: Christopher Plummer, Shirley Maclaine, Mischa Barton Certificate: 12A Duration: 118 mins Origin: Canada, UK, USA 2007 By: The Works UK Distribution DEAR MRS TRELLIS... www.therexcinema.com Rants and Pants

hil Sobell – 31st December bordering on irate. Apparently as This is not a profession, it’s a job 2007 – to all the lovely staff his anger became enflamed by his and luckily one I can do. Ironically P(and that funny fellow you own voice the encounter went no ‘profession’ would ever have let speak before the films) thanks something like this: employed me. In the world of for a great year! “In London theatres I have no business and commerce I would problems getting one” regaling his have been a joke at 55, with no Sue Dyson – 18th December 2007 friends with our professional comprehension of strategies, – I love the way you care for us, inadequacies ever more loudly for expansion or ‘going forward’. but am I alone in finding it a tad even the auditorium to hear. In the arts, though I have a Masters too warm?! Perhaps it’s the red “I am a ‘professional’ in the in Arts Administration (City Univ wine… business… you would be mocked 1988), I would have had to be 28 to in London for such ineptitude…” 35, black, female with a waxed toe Thanks Phil (who saw over ninety and so on. due to an abused childhood, or gay films here in 2007!). There are a with a lilo for a brain. few we don’t like to start without, love being accused of We restored The Rex with fag he and his dad are two of them… unprofessional, non packet drawings to make every seat as is Sue. Yes it does get warm… Iprofessional or just anything to the best. but it is the wine. do with the word. Clearly there are favourites but we If “patriotism is the last bastion of don’t care. For friends and people SEATING PLANS… the scoundrel”, then ‘professional’ we like, we will try. Shout and you I seem to miss the best moments. is its colleague. The only shout into the wind. With 294 Early in January a man demanded professionals I understood and luxury sell-out seats, there is the box office for a seating plan. respected were Stanley Matthews currently no space or time to be On learning he couldn’t have one to and Rocky Marciano… and the picky. So no we don’t give out take home he became cross, lovely Rita down the road. seating plans.

HIS, OUR FIRST TSOUNDTRACKS CD, IS NOT JUST FOR CHRISTMAS, BIRTHDAYS, ANNIVERSARIES OR THOSE SPECIAL NIGHTS ALONE WITH VALIUM, CIDER AND A RAZOR… THEY ARE (NOT QUITE) REX SOUNDTRACKS – BUT ORIGINAL IN SPIRIT WITH A GREAT SLEEVE.

That special gift for that special someone you hope you will never see again… DEAR MRS TRELLIS... www.therexcinema.com OBITUARY

KAY SNEL… n historic snapshot… Here Kay cashes up for the Alast time at the end of the very last show on 28 February 1988. Can you see her kiosk is now where our side box office window sits? From the long foyer shot, you can see it on the left at the far end. Visiting the site with Mr Rees during the last months of building work, she had a word or two to say about the ‘reconstruction’ of her little tuck shop!

Kay was usher, box office and front-of-house, usually all at once, from the mid-70s until the end. Alun Rees tells of eleven weeks of queuing around the block for ET in 1982 – eleven weeks for one film! From time to time cries of ‘get to the back’ and ‘there’s a queue here yer know’ as Kay and Alun had to push their way through to unlock the front doors and let them in.

At her lovely funeral service at St Mary’s Northchurch on 4th January, her son Jamie spoke of how, when they were kids, his mum would sneak him and his brother and their friends into the stalls. And how she was so popular in the town, they would dread the three hours it would take to walk THOSE MEADOWS GIRLS HAVE BEEN along the High Street to Tescos and USING BIG WORDS AGAIN… back! I think that the Rex is a lovely place. Her partner of over twenty years, I am very impressed that it is improved Alun Rees was chief Projectionist from my last visit last year. Faye age 8 when the Rex closed in 1988 and remains in charge of the ‘new’ The Rex is just how I last remembered projection box to this day. it: clean organised and beautiful. The Sadly Kay passed away in the early engravings on the wall are very hours of 16th December 2007. impressive and I thoroughly enjoyed myself! Our best wishes go to Mr Rees, her Ellen age 11 family and many friends. Thank you girls. Don’t leave it so long next time.