Welcome to Season 19. This Season We Have

Home , 8 Women, Miss Sadie Thompson, Richard Basehart

The Fleapit Cinema Club

elcome to Season 19. This season we have our usual mix from across the world of cinema and, while maintaining the necessary balance, Wwe’ve included several classic – and much requested - films that we have always intended to show but have never been able to find quite the right slot for them. Finally, therefore, films as diverse as Alfie (the Michael Caine original, of course); To Kill a Mockingbird ; Taxi Driver ; Cabaret , It Happened One Night and our comic opener, I’m All Right Jack (among others) get their well- deserved Fleapit debut. Silent Film Night is especially special this season. We’re screening the first film ever shown at the Swan Cinema in Westerham when it opened on 4 th March 1914 - When the Earth Trembled (Lubin Manufacturing Co. 1913), the first film to depict the great San Francisco earthquake. The film was restored last year, co-funded by The Fleapit, and the head of the restoration project, Rob Byrne, president of The San Fransisco Silent Film Festival, is flying in to introduce it. The pianist Rob chose to compose and play the score for the newly restored film was our very own Stephen Horne. We are delighted that Stephen will be joining us to accompany the screening live. It will be an historic evening. To add further excitement and break new ground, the first weekend in February 2016 will see the inaugural Fleapit UK Independent Film Festival . With the multiplexes interested solely in Hollywood schlock and flogging outrageously priced popcorn, our own indie film industry has been maginalised and forced to turn to other distribution channels. After the recent success we had screening In Love with Alma Cogan in Season 17 and The Best Little Whorehouse in Rochdale , introduced by Ian Vernon its writer and director, in Season 18, we thought a showcase of this vital part of our industry was a Fleapit necessity. All six films selected will be introduced by their producer/director. Full details can be found later in the leaflet. Enjoy the Season. The Fleapit Cinema Club Westerham Hall Quebec Avenue, Westerham, Kent. Doors and bar open 7:30pm Main Feature starts 8:00pm unless otherwise indicated † Sunday Matinée 2:30pm for 3:00pm THE SEASON AT A GLANCE I’m All Right Jack 25 th September '15 Alfie 9th October '15 La Strada 23 rd October '15 † Miss Sadie Thompson † 1st November '15 To Kill A Mockingbird 6th November '15 8 Femmes (8 Women) 20 th November '15 It Happened One Night 11 th December '15 Taxi Driver 8th January '16 † Hobson’s Choice † 17 th January '16 Mon Père Ce Héro 22 nd January '16 Fleapit UK Independent Film Festival * 5th February '16 † Cabaret † 14 th February '16 Intouchables 19 th February '16 Silent Film Night * 4th March '16 乱 (Ran) 18 th March '16 Lars and the Real Girl 1st April '16 Members Choice * 15 th April '16 *See programme for details Tickets for Members’ Guests are £4.00 payable on the door. Seats are allocated on a first come, first served basis. Film Clubs are not bound by the classification system of the British Board of Film Censors. We leave it to the personal judgement of parents and guardians to decide if a film is suitable and will gladly give additional information on any of the films being shown. For further information please contact: Mark Mountjoy on 01959-561501 [email protected] www.fleapit.info The Fleapit Cinema Club

Nineteenth Season September 2015 - April 2016 I’m All Right Jack 25/9/15 1959 / UK / 101 min. / B&W Directors: John and Roy Boulting Ian Carmichael, Dennis Price, Richard Attenborough, Terry-Thomas, Peter Sellers We kick off with one of our most requested British comedies – the Boulting Brothers’ iconic satire on British industrial relations. Featuring Peter Sellers (alongside an extraordinary cast of national treasures) in one of his most famous roles (shop steward Fred Kite), I’m All Right Jack has lost none of its appeal and, in an age of zero-hour contracts, little of its bite. Over fifty years on and nothing really has changed.

Alfie 9/10/15 1966 / UK / 113 min. / Colour Director: Lewis Gilbert Michael Caine, Shelley Winters, Millicent Martin, Vivien Merchant, Jane Asher Alfie is the quintessential anti-hero and Caine, in his breakthrough role, makes this unlovable rogue addictively compelling. It remains one of, if not the, greatest performances of his career. The film is cinematically original and uncompromisingly honest. It’s most famous stylistic trick is Alfie’s straight-to-camera commentary on his misogynistic bed-hopping and as the gap between his justification for his actions and the consequences of those actions grows ever wider, so we come to understand his own loneliness and disaffection. Self-realisation eventually strikes, but is it too late? The closing words to this true masterpiece of British cinema says it all and haunt Caine to this day: "What's it all about? You know what I mean."

La Strada (The Road) 23/10/15 1954 / Italy / 104 min. / B&W Director: Federico Fellini Anthony Quinn, Giulietta Masina, Richard Basehart This remarkable and powerful drama remained Fellini’s most personal film – he called it “a dangerous representation of my identity”. Winner of the inaugural Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, it regularly features in the top ten lists of our greatest films. Arguably the first road movie, it follows an itinerant, thuggish street performer strongman (Quinn) travelling with a naive young woman (Masina) he has bought from her mother, a journey punctuated by encounters with The Fool, a fellow street performer and his rival. Compelling stuff... s i c n m K * 1 D i D T W T w A ( W ? d A v M s c t 乱 a c s a d i s i D 2 L T R 1 n t r u e s t o h a R 9 e o ’ a o s a n o f 9 a h o 0 u i a i r

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h n 3 9 i n n u o t t t h y 6 a e i a i l r 6 l ) ) 0 g g o o h a e ’ 6 s t g y g p t t l e e . , , , s t ¡ Membership Application

Title: Initials:

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Please complete the above and send with your cheque, made payable to: THE FLEAPIT CINEMA CLUB , c/o Mark Mountjoy, The Manor House, Westerham, Kent, TN16 1TN

Membership entitles entrance to all films at no extra cost. Family membership covers two or more adults and/or children living at the same address. being just about the best romantic comedy the world has ever been treated to. Why? Simple - a snappy script; perfect casting; a pre-Hays Code sassiness and the ease with which it entertains both male and female sensibilities. It has a heart and an edge and is, even after 80 years, fabulous entertainment.

Taxi Driver 8/01/16 1976 / USA / 113 min. / Colour Director: Martin Scorsese Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, Cybill Shepherd Scorsese and De Niro were made for each other and everything that has made this enduring director/actor partnership so productive is on display in this gritty, engrossing tale of Travis Bickle’s descent into his own dystopian hell. Full of now iconic set pieces (“Are you looking at me?”), Taxi Driver is part fable, part morality play, part strong-blooded vigilante thriller. The film lays out all the facts and leaves it to each of us to decide whether Bickle is an avenging angel or psychopathic thug.

Hobson’s Choice 17/01/16 1954 / UK / 107 min. / B&W Sunday Matinée - 3:00pm Director: David Lean Charles Laughton, John Mills, Prunella Scales, John Laurie David Lean’s penultimate film before he embarked on his trilogy of epics is a delightful romantic comedy about the no- win domestic and professional dilemma facing the eponymous Victorian bootmaker – brilliantly played by the scandalously forgotten Charles Laughton. An excellent and familiar cast all do their bit to ensure the film remains one of the most entertaining ways of spending a Sunday afternoon in winter.

Mon Père ce Héro (My Father the Hero) 22/01/16 1992 / France / 105 min. / Colour Director: Gérard Lauzier Gérard Depardieu, Marie Gillain, Catherine Jacob A Depardieu comedy has become a regular feature at The Fleapit and this season it’s the turn of a typically French romp in which the newly divorced Depardieu takes his teenage daughter on holiday to Mauritius where said daughter falls for a local lad and, in order to impress him, tells him first that her father is her lover, then that he is a mercenary and finally that he is a spy. When these stories spread to the other holiday- makers and Depardieu is forced to go along with the deception the fun really starts... Rebels Without a Clue 5/02/16 2010 / UK / 80 min. / Colour 7:30pm/8:00pm Director: Ian Vernon Rik Barnett, Stefan Gumbs, Asher Baynard, Clive Bonelle In this off-beat comedy, Damian and Mark, two bored 16-year- olds, long to escape village life high on the Northern moors. They spend their time idly taking pot-shots at sheep and passing cars with Damian's air rifle. Everything changes when they stumble upon a clandestine meeting between a thug and his cocaine-dealing 'business associate'. Now all they have to do is buy a spade and dig a hole to bury the dealer’s body; appease Damian's mouthy girlfriend; get off the moors and head South to Spain. Easier said than done when the killer is in hot pursuit...

The War I Knew 6/02/16 2014 / UK / 97 min. / Colour 1:30pm/2:00pm Director: Ian Vernon Paul Harrison, Guy Wills, Adam Woodward Ian Vernon’s second film in the festival offers a dramatic contract. D-Day: A unit of British paratroopers is dropped off- target and wiped out. Private Johnny Barrows is the only survivor; inexperienced, scared and lost behind enemy lines. After days of avoiding German forces he is found by a rag-tag band of three dysfunctional British soldiers also trying to get back to safe territory. Amid the growing tensions within the group, deftly manipulated by their German POW, Johnny must grow-up quickly and become a leader if he is to survive and reach safety.

Benjamin Britten, Peace & Conflict 6/02/16 2013 / UK / 105 min. / Colour 4:30pm/5:00pm Director: Tony Britten John Hurt, Alex Lawther, Mykola Allen This drama-documentary for cinema explores the pacifism that was such a powerful influence on composer Benjamin Britten's life and work. The story begins in 1929 at Gresham's School in Norfolk, England. Our young actors take us into a world where social and political issues are actively addressed and young Ben Britten's hatred of all things militaristic is formed. As we explore the music derived from that hatred, illustrated by new performances and unique observations from experts and friends, we frequently return to dramatic interludes at Gresham's, which cement the narrative - spoken by John Hurt. The transcendent music of the War Requiem accompanies the climax of the film and we return to Gresham's School 2012. ChikLit 6/02/16 2015 / UK / 97 min. / Colour 7:30pm/8:00pm Director: Tony Britten Christian McKay, Dakota Blue Richards, Caroline Catz ChickLit is a comedy drama about four men trying to save their local pub from closing down. They group-write a chick lit, or more specifically a ‘mummy porn’ novel in the style of Fifty Shades of Grey and it gets snapped up. The only snag is that the publisher insists that the young woman ‘author’ does press and publicity. The four have to keep their involvement a secret and so engage an out of work actress to play the part of the author. This leads to her becoming the star of the film of the book and the tables are turned. She is in control – leaving them with the awful prospect of having to secretly churn out sex novels for the foreseeable future...

My Accomplice 7/02/16 2014 / UK / 92 min. / Colour 1:30pm/2:00pm Director: Charlie Weaver Rolfe Dimitrina Elliott, John Fitzmaurice, Alan Gilchrist My Accomplice is an quirky comedy about falling in love. Set in Brighton, it features songs and live performances from local bands Transformer , Bob Wants His Head Back and The Mountain Firework Company ; an ill-starred search for the village of Wivelsfield; the personal politics of perestroika in the wider context of David Hasselhoff; apricot flapjacks; abruptly unpredictable weather; gathering evidence of a seagull conspiracy and a small cast of everyday eccentrics that usually don't make it into films: Bulgarians, adults with learning disabilities, very tall women and elective mutes. In a city of this many vulnerable adults, Frank and Ilse might never have met.

Common People 7/02/16 2013 / UK / 89 min. / Colour 4:30pm/5:00pm Director: Stewart Alexander & Kerry Skinner Sam Kelly, Diana Payan, Iarla McGowan When Princess Parroty escapes her cage, she soars through the south London skies and into the lives of the Common people. Here begins a unique and enchanting story which sees the lives of those people changed forever. Common People weaves together six stories and over thirty characters into a dramatic, humorous and sometimes magical tale of romance, crisis and adventure on a London common. With raw, funny and compelling performances from a talented cast aged seven to seventy, Common People is a heartfelt, poignant and ultimately uplifting celebration of everyday humanity. The First Fleapit UK Independent Film Festival 5th ~ 7 th February 2016 Welcome to the First Fleapit UK Independent Film Festival. As well as all the main-stream studio productions, be they classic, iconic or obscure, independent cinema from around the globe has been a staple of The Fleapit for almost twenty years. As we learned from Ian Vernon last season at our screening of The Best Little Whorehouse in Rochadale , UK independent film production companies are under ever- increasing pressure and, with decreasing funding, are finding themselves marginalised and excluded from mainline distribution. The Fleapit cannot, of course, change this, but we can establish our own celebration of this vital and essential part of the UK film industry - and what better way than to expand our season with a festival. We have been delighted at the response we have received from the production companies approached resulting in a total of six feature films to be screened over the weekend. Biffa Productions (Ian Vernon) and Capriol Films, creators of In Love with Alma Cogan, screened in Season 17, are both fielding two diverse titles. We are equally proud to introduce John Said Productions with their film My Accomplice and Common People Productions with Common People . All have generously agreed to attend the festival to introduce their films and hold a Q&A session afterwards. The first film of the festival, on Friday night, will remain part of the main season and be free to members. Rather than increase membership rates to cover this new venture we have decided to charge a festival surplus of £10 for those members wishing to attend and a full ticket price to non- members of £4.00 per film or £20 for the festival. Screening times are 2:00pm, 5:00pm and 8:00pm with doors opening half an hour before. With such a concentrated programme we have arranged for the front meeting room of the Westerham Hall to become the Fleapit Film Café for the weekend where hot and cold snacks, teas and coffees will be available to sustain you between films and fuel discussion. The Fleapit bar will, of course, remain open at all times. In order to plan for this we will be making tickets available through the Ticket Source internet booking system via our website at www.fleapit.info or by direct booking by email or phone. Cabaret 14/02/16 1972 / USA / 124 min. / Colour Sunday Matinée - 3:00pm Director: Bob Fosse Liza Minnelli, Michael York, Joel Grey 1931 Berlin and the last years of the Weimar Republic. Enter Brian Roberts (York), a shy English academic, who finds rooms at the same boarding house as Sally Bowles (Minnelli), an American burlesque performer. Their highly charged and ambiguous affair is the driving force of the film’s narrative but the decadent song-and-dance of the Kit Kat club is at its heart. And all the while, the shadows cast by the Nazis grow ever longer. Fosse at his best - a thoroughly grown-up, froth-free musical.

Intouchables (Untouchable) 19/02/16 2011 / France / 113 min. / Colour Directors: Olivier Nakache & Éric Toledano François Cluzet, Omar Sy A truly life-affirming true story of Philippe, an extremely rich quadriplegic, and his new carer Driss, an ex-con who only applied for the job so he could get his benefit form signed. But Driss has found his métier and proves an admirable, if idiosyncratic, carer. The bond between the two grows and through each other, they find redemption and happiness. Perhaps only the French could take this subject matter, strip it of all sugary sentiment and create a unique, satisfying and uplifting film.

Silent Film Night XV 4/03/16 We welcome Rob Byrne, President of the San Fransisco Silent Film Festival, and, as our accompanist, Stephen Horne. When the Earth Trembled (or The Strength of Love) 1913 / USA / 43 min. / B&W Director: Barry O'Neil Harry Myers, Ethel Clayton, Richard Morris Pianist: Stephen Horne 102 years to the day we will be screening the newly restored version of the very first film ever screened here in Westerham. When the Earth Trembled, featuring original footage of the devastation of the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906, it tells the story of a mother and her two children surviving the earthquake, their journey and eventual reunion with their father. Introduced by Rob Byrne, who led the restoration project and commissioned Stephen Horne to recreate the score. All-in-all, this will be an evening to remember. Miss Sadie Thompson 1/11/15 1953 / USA / 91 min. / Colour Sunday Matinée - 3:00pm Director: Curtis Bernhardt Rita Hayworth, Aldo Ray and José Ferrer Here’s a recipe for a lazy Sunday afternoon: take a bar girl from Hawaii; a religious zealot and a love-struck Marine; give each of them a personal battle with sin and salvation; offer the lead to the wonderful Rita Hayworth and throw in a handful of catchy tunes. The perfect opening Matinée film. To Kill a Mockingbird 6/11/15 1962 / USA / 129 min. / B&W Director: Robert Mulligan Gregory Peck, Mary Badham, Robert Duvall Gregory Peck as the quiet, determined and supremely human lawyer, Atticus Finch, is simply magnificent – as befits the lead role in one of the greatest films to come out of Hollywood. The story of racial bigotry leading to appalling injustice is beautifully balanced, not least by the poignant but knowing innocence of the Finch’s two children. Yes, the film is as concerned with assuaging white guilt as it is with highlighting black suffering; but it makes compelling viewing. 8 Femmes (8 Women) 20/11/15 2002 / France/Italy / 111 min. / Colour Director: François Ozon Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert, Emmanuelle Béart, Fanny Ardant 8 Femmes has something for everyone. Inspired by the screwball comedies of Cukor & co. and by Hitchcock’s classic thrillers, writer/director François Ozon effortlessly blends murder-mystery, comedy, farce, melodrama and even a few musical numbers. Set in the 1950s, eight eccentric women (played by a who’s who of French actresses) gather to celebrate Christmas in an isolated, snowbound cottage only to discover that someone has stuck a knife into the back of their patriarch. All have a motive and any one could have done it...

It Happened One Night 11/12/15 1934 / USA / 105 min. / B&W Director: Frank Capra Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert It Happened One Night is famous for three things... First, it was the first film to win all five major Academy Awards (Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Screenplay). Second, it ruined the American vest industry thanks to Gable taking off his shirt and revealing a bare torso to the world. And third, for