Cheers! A new season of movies from around the world is set to open at a Welwyn Garden City cinema.
Welwyn Garden City Film Society begins its 2023/24 season of eight films on Sunday, September 17.
The opening film of the society's 77th year is the lively, comic study of camaraderie, Another Round, from Danish director Thomas Winterberg.
It will be shown in Screen 3 – the main theatre – at the Campus West Cinema at 7.30pm.
Mads Mikkelsen stars as Martin in Another Round. He and his teacher colleagues decide to put into practice a theory that the natural blood alcohol level in humans is too low and should be rectified where possible - by drinking!
Initial results are positive, but as the units are knocked back and stakes are raised, it becomes increasingly clear that some bold acts carry severe consequences.
What could possibly go wrong?
The season continues on October 15 with Decision to Leave by South Korean director Park Chan-wook.
A man plummets to his death from a mountain peak. Did he jump, or was he pushed? When detective Hae-joon (Park Hae-il) arrives on the scene, he begins to suspect the dead man's wife Seo-rae.
But as he digs deeper into the investigation, he finds himself trapped in a web of deception and desire.
Corsage, to be screened on November 19, is the story of Empress Elisabeth of Austria – known as ‘Sissi’ (Vicky Krieps) – famous for her beauty and fashion plate status.
But in 1877, celebrating her 40th birthday, she’s finding it harder than ever to tighten her corsets to the required 18 inches and to maintain her desirable public image.
Her husband, Emperor Franz Joseph (Florian Teichtmeister) is unfaithful. This is not your standard period biopic: it is refreshingly irreverent.
This will be the final film of 2023 with the season continuing on January 14 with the American film The Outfit.
Mark Rylance stars as former Savile Row tailor Leonard, who runs a small shop in a rough part of Chicago in 1956. Gangsters are the only people who can afford his beautiful bespoke suits.
Gentle and accommodating, Leonard tries to turn a blind eye to their criminality, but he and his assistant Mable (Zoey Deutch) are soon embroiled more deeply than they could ever have imagined.
Everything Went Fine from acclaimed French director François Ozon will be shown on February 18, 2024.
When 85-year-old André (André Dussollier) has a stroke, his daughter Emmanuèle (Sophie Marceau) hurries to see him in hospital.
Sick and half-paralysed, he asks her to help organise the end of his life.
This is a candid, finely wrought and very affecting study of complicated family ties and the realities of assisted dying.
The Worst Person in the World (March 17) is a Norwegian black comedy drama about the quest for love and meaning in contemporary Oslo.
It chronicles four years in the life of Julie (Renate Reinsve), a young woman who navigates the troubled waters of her love life and struggles to find her career path, leading her to take a realistic look at who she really is.
Benediction (April 14), by British director Terence Davies, is about the life of Siegfried Sassoon (Jack Lowden and Peter Capaldi).
He was decorated for bravery in the First World War, but became a vocal critic of the government's continuation of the war.
One of the leading war poets, he was adored by London's literary and stage world. His war experiences and his homosexuality led him on a lifelong quest for salvation, trying to find it within the conformity of marriage and religion.
The season finishes with the Irish film The Quiet Girl on May 19.
This is the story of a young girl, Cáit (Catherine Clinch), who is sent away for the summer from her dysfunctional family to live with ‘her mother's people’, whom she has never met.
Slowly, in the care of this couple, Cáit blossoms and discovers a new way of living. Yet in this house where affection grows, she discovers a secret.
All eight shows, some including a discussion, can be seen at the Campus West Cinema Screen 3 for a membership fee of just £40 (students £20).
There is nothing else to pay. Members can also visit all 12 shows at the Letchworth Film Club free of charge.
Non-members may attend any of the WGC shows, as guests, for £7. All shows are on Sundays, and start at 7.30pm.
For information about joining, email membership secretary Viv Wearing at WGCFSmembership@gmail.com, visit the society’s website at www.wgcfs.org.uk, or just come along to any show.
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