PROGRAMME BRIDGE OF SPIES DECEMBER 2015 “possibly Britain’s most beautiful cinema..” (BBC) Britain’s Best Cinema – Guardian Film Awards 2014 DECEMBER 2015 • ISSUE 129 www.therexberkhamsted.com 01442 877759 Mon-Sat 10.30-6.30pm Sun 4.30-5.30pm 11th ANNIVERSARY WEEKEND CONTENTS Films At A Glance 18-19 Rants and Pants 28-29 BOX OFFICE: 01442 877759 Lady In The Van Mon to Sat 10.30-6.30 A sad funny and fabulous Rex Anniversary film. Sun 4.30-5.30 Page 10 SEAT PRICES FILMS OF THE MONTH Circle £9.00 Concessions £7.50 Table £11.00 Concessions £9.50 PARTIES WEDDINGS EVENTS Royal Box Seat (Seats 6) £13.00 Whole Royal Box £73.00 HO! HO All matinees £5, £6.50, £10 (box) HO! !...WHET HER IT ’S A SNOW WHITE FANTASY LAND, A COMPANY GET TOGETHER OR A TRADITIONAL PARTY WITH Disabled and flat access: through the gate on High Street (right of ALL THE TRIMMINGS, IT’S NEVER TO0 EARLY TO START PLANNING apartments) YOUR CHRISTMAS BASH…BONNIE MAY HAS BEEN CREATING EXCEPTIONAL Ladies In Lavender He Named Me Malala A beautiful film and our first best A heart-lifting story of courage CELEBRATIONS FOR THE LAST 26 YEARS. Director: James Hannaway 01442 877999 seller Dec 2004. grace and stubbornness. Page 11 Page 15 CALL BONNIE NOW TO TALK ABOUT YOUR FESTIVE PARTY! Advertising: Lynn Hendry BONNIE MAY FOOD + EVENTS. PARTYING & PLANNING SINCE 1989 01442 877999 Artwork: Demiurge Design 01296 668739 01494 790 777 The Rex High Street (Three Close Lane) [email protected] Berkhamsted, Herts HP4 2FG WWW.BONNIEMAYEVENTS.COM www.therexberkhamsted.com Mississippi Grind The Dressmaker “ Unhesitatingly The Rex A surprisingly good pairing Titivation torsos and twists. @BONNIEMAYEVENTS /BONNIEMAYEVENTS #PARTYWITHBONNIE is the best cinema I have dodging the bad guys and bad Surprisingly good yarn, with ever..” (STimes Culture) luck. Page 19 delicious characters. Page 21 DECEMBEROCTOBER FILMS FILMS 8 THE REX - DECEMBER BOX OFFICE: 01442 877759 Suffragette After a dramatic opening to the London Film Festival where feminist protesters set off smoke bombs, Suffragette is a film directed by a woman, written by a woman, produced by women and with a cast fronted by women. Director Sarah Gavron and screenwriter Abi Morgan reunite after 2007’s Brick Lane for a film set during the height of the uprising. It begins in London in 1912 when the leaders of the women’s suffrage movement, including Emmeline Pankhurst (cue: Meryl Streep) call for a national Director: Sarah Gavron campaign of civil disobedience after decades of Cast: Carey Mulligan, Meryl Streep peaceful protest have born no fruit. We follow foot Duration: 106 mins soldier Maud Watts (the mesmerising Carey Mulligan) Origin: UK 2015 a wrung-out laundress drawn into the struggle by her Certificate: 12A feisty colleague Violet (Anne-Marie Duff). Company: Twentieth Century Fox “Suffragette is a tart reminder to those who are casual about democratic gender equality that votes for women were not something that naturally evolved due to the ruling class’s innate decency; they had to be fought for.” (Guardian) “Mulligan is on seriously good form here, showing When... Maud’s gradual transformation from bystander to activist with riveting emotional precision.” Tue 1 2.00, 7.30 (Telegraph) “Without an ounce of flounce or make-up, Mulligan Wed 2 2.00, 7.30 gives everything to the part.” (Times) Here’s to a Thu 3 7.30 good film not a sermon. www.therexberkhamsted.com THE REX - DECEMBER 9 Spectre Paper Planes We’ve been expecting you Mr. Bond… At least, When we were young, we all dreamt of building we’ve been anticipating SPECTRE. The legalities the perfect paper plane which would soar into the are settled, and the nefarious organisation makes a air, not just plummet towards the ground. welcome return to our screen. This is the dream of 12-year-old Dylan (Ed All the ingredients are in place to make this a Bond Oxenbould) whose passion for flight leads him classic, for better or worse. We’ve got a new M to want to compete in the World Paper Plane (Ralph Fiennes) with a returning Q (Ben Wishaw) and Championships in Tokyo, but with a father grieving Moneypenny (Naomie Harris). There are gadgets, the loss of his wife, and a school bully tormenting chases and quips. Skyfall showed, with its insane box him and his dream, he is surrounded by distractions office haul, that there’s no slowing down for 007 and trying to hold him back. it helps that a lean Daniel Craig doesn’t look remotely But with the help of his best friend and his middle-aged, even though you’ll have to grit your granddad, he masters the art of flight and his epic teeth whenever he delivers a double entendre (leave journey begins. that to the experts Dan: Connery and Moore). Winning the title of the most feel good, uplifting Christoph Waltz’s Hanz Oberhauser is almost too film ever made, this Australian children’s film is one good a choice for Bond’s foil, yet their dark, tangled for the kids and the parents alike, one to see for past forms the yin and yang of the story, and by plenty of harmless fun and some fantastic paper keeping the stakes personal it ups the action. Spectre plane designs. never buckles under its own weight. ‘Kudos to this bright and breezy Aussie kid’s flick Casino Royale may still be the ace in the hole for for realising that competitive paper plane flying can Craig’s era (and one of the best in the entire series) unleash young imaginations.’ (Time Out) but Spectre hits the target. (research Jack Whiting) ‘Parents are likely to find it a welcome reprieve You will have to be the judge of that. Next Bond: from dancing penguins, cuddly safari animals and Alan Bennett. merchandise tie-ins.’ (Guardian) (research Matt Snowden) Director: Sam Mendes It sounds fantastic. Don’t miss. Cast: Daniel Craig, Monica Bellucci Duration: 150 mins Director: Robert Connolly Origin: USA/UK 2015 Cast: Sam Worthington, Ed Oxenbould Certificate: 12A Duration: 97 mins Company: Sony Pictures Releasing Origin: Australia 2015 Certificate: U Company: Lionsgate UK Ltd When... Thu 3 2.00 When... Fri 4 7.30 Tue 29 2.00 Sat 5 2.00 10 THE REX - DECEMBER BOX OFFICE: 01442 877759 Illustration Mary Casserley Illustration ANNIVERSARY EVENT Lady In The Van As with The History Boys, Nicholas Hytner has adapted a stage hit for the big screen from his time as the artistic director of the National Theatre. The Lady in the Van sees Maggie Smith reprise the role she first played in the 1999 stage production of the Alan Bennett play. She is Miss Shepherd, who lived in a van on the driveway of Alan Bennett’s north London home between 1974 and 1989. If the set looks authentic, that’s because the movie was shot on location in the Director: Nicholas Hytner real street and Bennett’s real house. Cast: Maggie Smith, Alex Jennings Bennett is simultaneously irritated, kindly and secretly Duration: 104 mins delighted to have such a rich and pungent source of Origin: UK 2015 material on his doorstep. Miss Shepherd’s mysterious Certificate: 12A past, her fear of policemen and the rumour that she Company: Columbia Pictures Corporation Ltd was a pianist or a nun, all fascinate him. The excellent Alex Jennings plays two versions of Bennett the One screening will literary observer and the participant. “I live, you write, include a Q&A and that’s how it works,” says Bennett to Bennett. introduction. “This is a lavish gift of a role for Ms Smith, a layered When... In aid of the gateau handed to her on a plate. She makes this hardy actor’s retirement troglodyte a tottering, staggering force of nature, Sat 5 7.00 home, Denville determined to owe nothing to anybody.” (Telegraph) Mon 7 7.00 Hall Oh shut up Telegraph. www.therexberkhamsted.com THE REX - DECEMBER 11 REX CLASSIC Burnt Ladies In Lavender For Adam Jones (Bradley Cooper) life outside the kitchen is much like life in it: a continuous, This ran and ran when we first opened and clattering storm of heat and meat. Jones, the lead introduced us to the most feared of audiences. character in Burnt, is a Michelin-starred chef with Charles Dance was one of our first Q&A guests, an impossible temper and a reputation that can no who later and unforgettably, brought Judi Dench to longer justify it. our stage. He came across this short story while on A few years ago, things were very different: Jones filming on location in a library. was a member of a sainted circle of young cooks The interminable waiting on-set allowed him to read working in an haute Paris kitchen under Jean-Luc, and absorb it. their gastronomic mentor. But then came drugs, After a thousand set-backs and the usual ups drink and dramatic self-combustion followed by a and downs, it stubbornly emerged as this small, self-imposed penance preparing oysters in a Louisi- beautifully shot, independent film. It cleverly transcends the sentimental through its warm ana gumbo joint. sketches of genuine people. In exquisitely judged As the film begins, Adam is splitting his millionth mol- performances, Dame Judy tries to suppress carnal lusc: a spiritual milestone that means he’s ready for a desires and Dame Maggie tuts in sisterly disdain. comeback. His stage will be London, and his enabler Their world is simple and uncomplicated. Their his old maître d’ (Daniel Brühl) now gliding serenely words are measured, manners perfect and repression around the restaurant floor at the Langham hotel, in absolute.