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Tag: film

From Norwich, its the film of the week

Tucked away on a Wednesday morning there is often a treat to be had at the Corn Hall in a way that feels a little like bunking off school. This Wednesday, Creative Arts East filled… read more
Posted in Film

Small things like these - a preview

Anyone used to seeing Cillian Murphy head up the Birmingham underworld, or run for his life chased by zombies, or invent the atomic bomb, is in for a shock as he brings to the screen… read more
Posted in Film

Charlie Haycock Digs out his anecdotes

After Charlie Haycock's hugely entertaining talk on dialects back in April, it came as no surprise that he, once again, enjoyed a full house for his return visit to the Corn Hall, regaling his audience… read more
Posted in Film, Word

Painting the Modern Garden

The Royal Academy’s exhibition ‘Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse‘ traced the emergence of the modern garden using a vast collection of works by some of the most important Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and Avant-Garde artists… read more
Posted in Art, Film

Bah Humbug!

Just when you thought it was safe to put away the tinsel and the baubles, Simon Callow pops up with a version of Charles Dickens's classic, ghostly tale to remind us that the spirit of Christmas… read more
Posted in Film, Theatre

Return of the Romcom

Shekhar Kapur, probably best known as the director of Elizabeth returns after an extended period with the  romcom What’s Love Got to Do with It? It's the sort of fun, frothy and good-natured romp that… read more
Posted in Film

James Norton's Challenging Little Life

The Corn Hall frequently showcases the best the National Theatre has to offer, and it's always a treat seeing what London is enjoying, presented in a way that faithfully captures the theatrical experience.  Filmed at the… read more
Posted in Film, Theatre, Uncategorised

Mark Rylance fits the Outfit like a glove

Single set dramas – anything from 12 Angry Men to Reservoir Dogs – are compelled to do something interesting with words, and The Outfit is no exception. Mark Rylance is reliably excellent as the cutter… read more
Posted in Film

Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis is caught in a trap

Baz Luhrmann’s latest movie is a kaleidoscopic biopic of Elvis Presley, audaciously telling the story of his rise to fame through the distorted prism of Colonel Tom Parker. There have been so many attempts to… read more
Posted in Film, Music

This riveting documentary perfectly complements the Corn Hall's latest Art Exhibition

  Paula Rego, Secrets and Stories, a documentary made by her son Nick Willing, was never going to be the usual detached academic dissection of a painter and their work, but neither is this a… read more
Posted in Art, Film

Licorice Pizza is a tasty treat

Fans of Paul Thomas Anderson films won’t be disappointed by this leisurely exploration of dysfunctional young love. Like Punch-Drunk Love, Boogie Nights and Inherent Vice it takes its time to work its way into your… read more
Posted in Film

First Cow is a triumph of gentle story telling

Based on screenwriter Jonathan Raymond’s novel, director Kelly Reichardt film is not a story that gets told in a hurry. As much a collage of scenes as a narrative, it is shot with simplicity and… read more
Posted in Film

The Peanut Butter Falcon is a delightful buddy movie that plucks on your heartstrings

Anyone who remembers Huckleberry Finn fondly will find much to love in The Peanut Butter Falcon. Set in the North Carolina Outer Banks, this delightful buddy movie is a film that plucks on your heartstrings… read more
Posted in Film

Bait is a true original in both form and content

Shot with clockwork cameras on grainy 16mm stock, which Cornish film-maker Mark Jenkin hand-processed in his studio in Newlyn, Bait is a true original in both form and content. Clearly influenced by Nicolas Roeg, this… read more
Posted in Film

Horrible Histories is a fun packed romp through Roman Britain

The Horrible Histories book series has sold over 25 million copies, inspiring toys, magazines, and video games. In 2009, CBBC showcased a sketch show based on the franchise which continues to this day. Perhaps inevitably,… read more
Posted in Comedy, Family, Film

Downton Abbey film - a lavishly produced treat for the series many fans

Fans of Downton Abbey won’t be disappointed by this big screen opportunity to catch up with old friends. Gifted a bigger budget, Julian Fellowes’s drama about upstairs/downstairs has been turned from a show where thoughtful… read more
Posted in Film, Review

Rocketman - screening tomorrow - is bold, imaginative and original

Considering that both David Furnish and Elton John were producers of this film, it’s a remarkably frank and unflinching examination of Reg Dwight’s rocky path to fame and its almost disastrous consequences. Even more remarkable… read more
Posted in Film, Review

The Keeper - a watchable, engaging story of hope & humanity triumphing over bitter resentment

Marcus H Rosenmüller’s robust, no nonsense account of Bert Trautmann’s improbable, but true, journey towards a role as Manchester City’s post war goalie is a loving tribute to reconciliation and forgiveness that is a paean… read more
Posted in Film, Review

Cast your prejudices aside, you’ll be cheering over this heart-warming tale with family, East Anglia & wrestling at its heart

If you’re wondering whether a film about wrestling is for you, then wonder no more, and not just because it largely takes place in East Anglia. This heart-warming tale of a close knit, loving family… read more
Posted in Film, Review

Can You Ever Forgive Me? - you will, after seeing next week's hugely enjoyable film

Continuing the current fashion for true tales that are stranger than fiction, Marielle Heller turns Lee Israel’s improbable career as a forger into a jolly, breathless romp that skips from scene to scene. Israel’s wobbly… read more
Posted in Film, Review

Green Book - in spite of its hard hitting subject matter - is an absolute delight from beginning to end

Loosely based on Don Shirley’s tour of the Deep South of America, Peter Farrelly’s film - showing on Wednesday 21st August - is an absolute delight from beginning to end, notwithstanding its hard hitting subject… read more
Posted in Film, Review

Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie give powerful performances as the rivals in next week's Wednesday film

Mary Queen of Scots The rivalry between Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I has been repeatedly dramatized and documented, but most often from the perspective of the English monarch and the furore surrounding the… read more
Posted in Film, Review

All is True - Branagh & Dench are magnificent in this film which seeks to explain the great mystery of why Shakespeare retired so suddenly

All is True (12A) Kenneth Branagh’s career is so closely associated with Shakespeare, it was perhaps inevitable that he would one day play the man himself. To that extent this is very much Branagh’s film,… read more
Posted in Film, Review

Stan & Ollie - next Wednesday's film - is a warm, affectionate delight

Stan & Ollie Jon S Baird’s gentle, unassuming biopic of the most famous double act the world has ever seen, is a warm, affectionate delight that touches on far broader issues than the pair’s final… read more
Posted in Film, Review

The Favourite - screening next Wednesday - is an eccentric, intriguing delight from beginning to end

The Favourite (15) - a review Set in the court of Queen Anne, the last of the Stuart monarchs, Yorgos Lanthimos’s quirky, profane and shamelessly anachronistic period drama is an eccentric, intriguing delight from beginning… read more
Posted in Film, Review

Ryan Gosling is excellent as Neil Armstrong in next Wednesday's film, First Man

First Man Adapted from James R Hansen’s book by Spotlight screenwriter, First Man is similar in tone to Philip Kaufman’s The Right Stuff. Sombre and respectful, this is a film that is immersed in its… read more
Posted in Film, Review

Next Wednesday: Bohemian Rhapsody - with a roster of superb concert recreations - is hugely enjoyable

After the much-publicised troubles that have beset this movie, it comes as a pleasant surprise that Bohemian Rhapsody is such a fun ride, with a roster of superb concert recreations, including Life Aid – where… read more
Posted in Film, Music, Review

Mary Poppins flies into the Corn Hall this Wednesday

Mary Poppins Returns Fans of the original Mary Poppins who approach this belated sequel with some trepidation need not worry. The film has been created with them in mind as much as a family audience… read more
Posted in Family, Film, Review

Lady Gaga CAN act - See her in 'A Star is Born'

A Star is Born Bradley Cooper’s version of this much told story is more a reimagining than a remake, with his fading rock star crossing paths with Lady Gaga’s ascendance as an all singing, all… read more
Posted in Film, Review

Next Wednesday's film - a master class in screen acting that is as enjoyable as it is compelling

When Joe Castleman wins the Nobel Prize for Literature his wife is delighted for him – who wouldn’t be – and yet there is something niggling away at her that isn’t fully explained by his… read more
Posted in Film, Review

Stranger than fiction, Wednesday's film BlacKkKlansman, is probably the best Spike Lee film in 20 years

Probably the best Spike Lee film in 20 years, this stranger than fiction story of a black man infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan mixes absurd comedy with jaw-dropping racism to brilliant effect. Both a social… read more
Posted in Film, Review

Hotel Salvation - anyone who has spent time with an ageing parent will find much that is achingly resonant.

In this story of an ex-schoolteacher who decides to spend his final days in Varanasi on the banks of the Ganges, Shubhashish Bhutiani’s directorial debut presents a world that will be alien to European viewers,… read more
Posted in Film, Uncategorised

East Anglian film premiere brought to life George Butterworth - a man who might have become one of Britain’s foremost composers

The Corn’s Hall’s presentation of Stewart Hajdukiewicz’s biography of composer George Butterworth may not have been quite the world premiere, but it was only the third public outing for the film, and was attended by… read more
Posted in Film, Heritage, Music

Fire your imagination at ARCADIA!

This arresting collage of archive footage is notionally a movie that explores our changing relationship with the land, and opens with scenes of a bucolic and idealised countryside that will have the viewer settling in… read more
Posted in Film, Heritage, Review

Next Wednesday’s film - The Shape of Water – is a modern fairy tale that is both startling and uplifting

The cinema of Guillermo del Toro is notoriously dark and troubling and, although his latest film is notionally set in the US of the 1960s, it is a typically fantastical alternative version of those troubled… read more
Posted in Diss, Film, Review

Authentic and truthful, A Fantastic Woman holds a mirror up to society

If there was any doubt where director Sebastián Lelio’s was going with the Oscar Award-winning A Fantastic Woman, there’s a big clue in the film’s ironic title.  While some might find transgender Marina Vidal, played… read more
Posted in Film, Review

Christopher Plummer - a brilliant performance as cantankerous Getty in next Wednesday's film

Although loosely based on John Pearson’s book, Painfully Rich: The Outrageous Fortune and Misfortunes of the Heirs of J Paul Getty, the antecedence of Ridley Scott’s film has been largely overshadowed by the reshooting of… read more
Posted in Film, Review

Gary Oldman’s Oscar winning performance invests the character of Churchill with doubt, humanity and righteous anger - Darkest Hour Preview

Churchill has been so lionised in reason times, that it’s both a surprise and a shock to be reminded how tenuous his authority was at the outset of the Second World War, and how capricious… read more
Posted in Diss, Film, Norfolk, Review

This Wednesday's film - heart-warming and beautifully judged

Breaking Away When movies seem split between brainless big budget blockbusters and narrow gauge art house fodder, it’s tempting to harken back to a golden age of intelligent, offbeat, cinema intended for a mainstream audience.… read more
Posted in Film, Review

In Between - David Vass previews this Wednesday's film

The idea of a dope-smoking, leather-jacketed lawyer and an aspiring DJ, opening up their home to a strait-laced, studious, ultra-conservative Muslim sounds like the setup for a credulity stretching social drama, but in the hands… read more
Posted in Film, Review

Wednesday's film is a gloriously cinematic rollercoaster ride

Murder on the Orient Express Kenneth Branagh’s film adaptation of Agatha Christie’s 1934 novel is a big budget, gloriously cinematic, giddy rollercoaster ride of a movie. A nostalgic indulgence that is not just for a… read more
Posted in Film, Review

This Wednesday's film will keep you gripped until it's surprising conclusion

Loveless Filmed in the perpetual gloom of a snowy Russian autumn, Andrey Zvyagintsev’s latest movie paints a sombre, melancholy picture of a self-centred and supremely unsympathetic couple in the midst of an acrimonious breakup, oblivious… read more
Posted in Film, Review

Get Out! - an intelligent thriller says reviewer David Vass

It’s a truism that the characters in thrillers frequently act irrationally, leaving their frustrated audience mute with impotent rage. All we want them to do is get out, yet they rarely follow this advice. Jordan… read more
Posted in Film, Review

Oscar & BAFTA winning film is a beautifully photographed love letter to Northern Italy

Call Me By Your Name Set during a hot and seemingly endless summer, this beautifully photographed film is a love letter to Northern Italy, telling the minutely observed story of Elio, a grumpy teenager played… read more
Posted in Film, Review

A preview of The Party, screening this Wednesday

Sally Potter’s first film since 2012 voyeuristically takes a peek at a group of self-satisfied, champagne socialists, as they tear lumps out of each other in an increasingly farcical, middle-class nightmare of social niceties,  acid… read more
Posted in Film, Review

This Wednesday's film - Goodbye Christopher Robin - previewed

Anyone expecting a sugar-coated period drama needs to approach this film with caution. Director Simon Curtis has instead delivered something altogether more substantial and troubling. Based on local author, Ann Thwaite’s biography of A A… read more
Posted in Film, Review

Wednesday film preview - La Belle et la Bête (Beauty and the Beast)

La Belle et la Bête was directed by Jean Cocteau, one of the most multi-talented artists of the 20th century. In addition to being a director, he was a poet, novelist, painter, playwright, set designer,… read more
Posted in Film, Review

Churchill - A preview of the Wednesday film

Winston Churchill, consumed with guilt over the tragedy of Gallipoli, remained opposed to the D-day Normandy invasion of 1944 up until the eve of the landing. Famously, it was judged the turning point of the… read more
Posted in Film, Review

A preview of Wednesday film - A Man Called Ove

Hannes Holm’s adaptation of Fredrik Backman’s bestselling novel is that rarest of things, a film that improves on its source material. In place of Backman’s broad brush comedy, Holm presents an altogether more nuanced take… read more
Posted in Film, Review, Screening

My Cousin Rachel - a preview

Screening this Wednesday 24th January, Corn Hall previewer David Vass praises this new adaptation of du Maurier's classic tale. There must be something about Daphne du Maurier’s lean prose that lends itself to film adaptation,… read more
Posted in Film

Dunkirk - A Preview

The story of the Dunkirk evacuation, which saw a flotilla of small civilian vessels assist in the rescue of stranded troops from France in 1940, has been told many times before, but never with such… read more
Posted in Film, Review, Screening

The Sense of an Ending - A Preview

Notionally based on Julian Barnes’s novel of the same name, Ritesh Batra has refashioned Barnes’s meta-story of intrigue and misdirection into a compact and arresting puzzle that progresses with a pleasingly oblique trajectory. In place… read more
Posted in Film, Review, Screening

Baby Driver - A preview

Edgar Wright is best known for his collaboration with Simon Pegg on the Cornetto trilogy, and though his first solo venture, Scott Pilgrim, was a cult success it was also a commercial disaster. This time… read more
Posted in Film, Music, Review, Screening

Departure (15) - A Preview

Writer/director Andrew Stegall’s debut feature is a brittle, delicate window into the stifling relationship between a mother and her son, pregnant with ennui and the unspoken sadness of unfulfilled dreams and broken promises. Many will… read more
Posted in Film