30 April 2013

www.winchesterfilmsociety.co.uk … why not visit our website to join in the discussion after each screening? Sightseers

UK 2012 Every season when the committee Ben Wheatley is the outstanding young whittle down a long, long list to just British film-maker who got himself Directed by 16 films, there are one or two that talked about with his smart debut Down Ben Wheatley really intrigue us and we can’t wait to Terrace; then he scared the daylights out Director of Photography see. Sightseers is that film for 12/13! of everyone, as well as amusing and Laurie Rose baffling them, with his inspired and There is no direct French translation for ambiguous chiller Kill List. His talent Original Music and signature are vividly present in every Jim Williams the word ‘sightseers’, so Ben Wheatley’s new film is titled Touristes in Cannes, frame of this new movie, Sightseers, a Screenplay where it has screened as part of grisly and Ortonesque black comedy Alice Lowe Directors’ Fortnight. In a way, that’s about a lonely couple played by co- Steve Oram perfectly fitting: this flesh-creepingly writers Steve Oram and Alice Lowe. funny comedy turns into something that, Again, Wheatley is adept at summoning Cast rather worryingly, you can’t imagine an eerie atmosphere of Wicker Man Alice Lowe happening in any other country but disquiet; the glorious natural Tina England. Lowe and Oram’s script surroundings are endowed with a golden

Steve Oram balances nimbly on the thread of razor sunlit glow and the trips to quaint Chris wire between horror and farce: the film venues of local interest are well

Eileen Davies is frequently laugh-out-loud funny but observed: particularly Tina's heartbroken Carol the couple’s crimes are never trivialised, solo excursion to the Pencil Museum.

Richard Glover and many of the death scenes are All this makes an ineffably strange Martin squirmingly vivid. Director Ben combination with the fear and the violence and the bizarre sociopathy. The Wheatley, whose outstanding hit man 88 min thriller Kill List was another problem is that the combination can accomplished genre-straddler, wisely only go so far: it doesn't seem to s plays things dead straight, and his develop into anything else. These The last screening this season… director of photography Laurie Rose reservations are offset by the absolute Where do We Go gives the Yorkshire and Cumbrian confidence and visual style that Now? (Lebanon) landscapes a dewily gorgeous sheen. Wheatley always shows. From the very first, as Tina's mother keens and growls Tue 14 May 2013 Tina and Chris’s odyssey feels like a strange regression into Britain’s dark and with grief and despair at the departure of Dir: Nadine Labaki feral roots, and it has the terrifying ring her beloved Puppy, he creates a weird Women try to ease of truth. world, entirely of itself. religious tensions in their village. Comedy-drama. Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

Voting for The Guard: A-40 B-14 C-6 D-4 E- 1 Attendance: tbc Rating: 83.8%