Films at Plymouth Arts Centre in March and April 2018

About us

 

FILMS

Oscars Week Special:  Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Fri 2 – Wed 7 March

Fri 2, 5.45pm
Wed 7, 8.30pm

With seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actress, Three Billboards… is back by popular demand for extra screenings in March!

Oscars Week Special:  Darkest Hour

Sat 3 – Thu 8 March

Sat 3, 8pm
Tue 6, 5.45pm
Wed 7, 2.30pm
Thu 8, 5.45pm

With six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor, Darkest Hour is back by popular demand for extra screenings in March!

Phantom Thread (15)

Fri 2 – Sat 10 March

Fri 2, 8.15pm
Sat 3, 5.30pm
Tue 6, 8.15pm
Wed 7, 5.45pm
Thu 8, 8.15pm
Fri 9, 5.45pm
Sat 10, 2.30pm & 8pm

Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson, US, 2017, 130 mins. Cast. Vicky Krieps, Daniel Day Lewis, Lesley Manville.

Paul Thomas Anderson once again teams up with Daniel Day-Lewis (for his final role before his retirement from acting) to paint an illuminating portrait both of an artist on a creative journey, and the women who keep his world running. Set in the glamour of 1950’s post-war London, renowned dressmaker Reynolds Woodcock and his sister Cyril are at the centre of British fashion, dressing royalty, movie stars, heiresses, socialites, debutantes and dames. Women come and go through Woodcock’s life, providing the confirmed bachelor with inspiration and companionship, until he comes across a young, strong-willed woman who soon becomes a fixture in his life as his muse and lover. Once controlled and planned, he finds his carefully tailored life disrupted by love.

RSC Live ENCORE: Twelfth Night

Sat 3 March, 1.30pm

Twelfth Night is a tale of unrequited love – hilarious and heartbreaking. Twins are separated in a shipwreck, and forced to fend for themselves in a strange land. The first twin, Viola, falls in love with Orsino, who dotes on OIivia, who falls for Viola but is idolised by Malvolio. Enter Sebastian, who is the spitting image of his twin sister...

Christopher Luscombe, Director of the ‘glorious’ (Daily Telegraph) Love’s Labour’s Lost and Much Ado About Nothing (2014 and 2016), returns to tackle Shakespeare’s greatest comedy, a brilliantly bittersweet account of "the whirligig of time", with Adrian Edmondson (Bottom, The Young Ones) in the role of Malvolio and Kara Tointon (ITV’s Mr Selfridge and Sound of Music Live!) in the role of Olivia. 

 

The Mercy (12A) + archive shorts from SWFTA

Friday 9 – Tuesday 20 March

Fri 9, 8.30pm
Sat 10, 5.30pm
Tue 13, 5.30pm
Wed 14, 2.30pm & 6pm
Thu 15, 8.30pm
Sat 17, 5.30pm
Tue 20, 6pm

Dir. James Marsh, UK, 2017, 102 mins. Cast. Colin Firth, Rachel Weisz, David Thewlis.

This is the incredible true story of Donald Crowhurst, the amateur sailor who competed in the 1968 Sunday Times Golden Globe Race in the hope of becoming the first person in history to single-handedly circumnavigate the globe without stopping. With an unfinished boat and his business and house on the line, Donald left his wife and children behind, embarking on an adventure on his boat the Teignmouth Electron.  The tragic story of his solo voyage and the struggles he confronted on the epic journey is one of the most enduring mysteries of recent times and one which many people in the South West will remember. We will be screening archive footage of Crowhurst and the race from SWFTA before the film.

 

Bird’s Eye View presents

Professor Marston and the Wonder Women (15)

Dir. Angela Robinson, US, 2017, 108 mins. Cast. Luke Evans, Rebecca Hall, Bella Heathcote

Tuesday 13 – Wednesday 21 March

Tue 13, 8pm (Join us for a very special screening introduced by Mia Bays, Oscar-winning producer and Anna Smith, Film Editor of Time Out magazine)
Wed 14, 8.30pm
Thu 15, 6pm
Fri 16, 6pm
Wed 21, 8.30pm

This is the mind-blowing backstory of Wonder Woman creator Dr William Moulton Marston and the two women who almost certainly inspired her. In 1941, psychologist Marston pseudo-nymously published Wonder Woman as ‘propaganda for a new type of woman who should rule the world’. Marston’s secret, kept from his neighbours in their quiet suburban enclave, is that he lived in a long-term polyamorous relationship with two women, Olive Byrne, niece of famous suffragette Margaret Sanger and his wife, fellow psychologist and lawyer Elizabeth. Robinson’s film seductively imagines the years leading up to the emergence of the comic superheroine and it is a rivetingly good yarn, one that underlines just how much Wonder Woman was intended as feminist and queer disrupter of mainstream values. You’ll never see the golden lasso in quite the same way again!

Lady Bird (15)

Friday 16 – Friday 23 March

Fri 16, 8.30pm
Sat 17, 2.30pm & 8pm
Tue 20, 8.30pm
Wed 21, 2.30pm & 6pm
Fri 23, 11am (Bringing in Baby) & 6pm

Dir. Greta Gerwig, US, 2017, 94 mins. Cast. Saoirse Ronan, Timothee Chalamet, Laurie Metcalf.

Greta Gerwig's critically adored directorial debut is a sweet, funny ode to adolescence, small towns and the relationship between mothers and daughters. Set in 2002, it stars Saoirse Ronan as confused, precocious teenager, Lady Bird. She's in her last year at Catholic school and dreams of a life of cosmopolitan culture and Ivy League colleges. Fighting with her mother, falling in and out of love, and navigating the pressure of friendship versus popularity - how can Lady Bird grow up and be true to herself? This is a loving, funny look at the relationships that shape us and the place we call home. And it might just be one of the defining coming of age films of its generation.

NT LIVE: Julius Caesar

Thursday 22 March, 7pm

Ben Whishaw (The Danish Girl, Skyfall, Hamlet) and Michelle Fairley (Fortitude, Game of Thrones) play Brutus and Cassius, David Calder (The Lost City of Z, The Hatton Garden Job) plays Caesar and David Morrissey (The Missing, Hangmen, The Walking Dead) is Mark Antony. Broadcast live from The Bridge Theatre, London. Caesar returns in triumph to Rome and the people pour out of their homes to celebrate. Alarmed by the autocrat’s popularity, the educated élite conspire to bring him down. After his assassination, civil war erupts on the streets of the capital. Nicholas Hytner’s production will thrust the audience into the street party that greets Caesar’s return, the congress that witnesses his murder, the rally that assembles for his funeral and the chaos that explodes in its wake.

The Shape of Water (15)

Fri 23 March – Thu 5 April

Fri 23, 8.30pm
Sat 24, 2.30pm & 8pm
Tue 27, 6pm
Wed 28, 8.30pm
Thu 29, 6pm
Fri 30, 8.30pm
Wed 4, 2.30pm
Thu 5, 11am (Bringing in Baby)

Dir. Guillermo Del Toro, Canada/US, 2017, 123 mins. Cast. Sally Hawkins, Octavia Spencer, Michael Shannon.

Drawing on classic 1950s sci-fi B-movies and the on-going fascination with Area 51 conspiracy theories, Del Toro’s tale of the inexplicable is an old-school cinematic joy. At the height of the Cold War, in a secret US laboratory, a young, mute woman begins to communicate with a strange, aquatic creature. Intertwining sci-fi, horror and gothic romance to spellbinding effect, Del Toro’s singular vision is enhanced by Hawkins who is a marvel, showing that Elisa’s fierce desire to fight for what’s right never eclipses her sense of innocence. Love takes many shape-shifting forms and this intoxicating film is a pure celebration of tolerance and human connection.

 

Journey’s End (12A)

Sat 24 – Thu 29 March

Sat 24, 5.30pm
Tue 27, 8.30pm
Wed 28, 2.30pm & 6pm
Thu 29, 8.30pm

Sat 31, 8pm

Dir. Saul Dibb, UK, 2017, 108 mins. Cast. Asa Butterfield, Sam Claflin, Toby Jones, Paul Bettany.

March, 1918. C-company arrives to take its turn in the front-line trenches in northern France led by the war-weary Captain Stanhope. A German offensive is imminent, and the officers and their cook distract themselves in their dugout with talk of food and their past lives. Stanhope, meanwhile, soaks his fear in whisky, unable to deal with his dread of the inevitable. A young new officer, Raleigh, has just arrived, fresh out of training and abuzz with the excitement of his first real posting – not least because he is to serve under Stanhope, his former school house monitor and the object of his sister’s affections. Each man is trapped, the days ticking by, the tension rising and the attack drawing ever closer…

 

 

A Fantastic Woman (15)

Friday 30 March – Wednesday 4 April

Fri 30, 6pm
Sat 31, 2.30pm
Tue 3, 6pm
Wed 4, 8.30pm

Dir. Sebastian Lelio, Chile/Spain, 2017, 104 mins, subtitled. Cast. Daniela Vega, Francisco Reyes, Luis Gnecco.

When her lover Orlando dies suddenly one night, Marina is left in a state of shock. Still raw with grief, she must navigate the horrors of recounting the night to Orlando’s family, whose responses to the fact that she’s a transwoman range from frosty to scabrous and even hostile. Marina must fight for her rights, her home and even custody of her dog, while the police only offer a new set of humiliations. Lelio proves himself a successor to Almodóvar as an explorer of female-centred, emotionally intelligent terrain. Marina, thanks to Vega’s absolute knockout performance, is a vision of resistance. This is essential arthouse cinema.

Loveless (15)

Saturday 31 March – Wednesday 4 April

Sat 31, 5.30pm
Tue 3, 8.30pm
Wed 4, 6pm

Dir. Andrey Zvyagintsev, Russia/France/Belgium, 2017, 127 mins, subtitled. Cast. Maryana Spivak, Alexey Rozin, Matvey Novikov.

Still reluctantly sharing their apartment, Boris and Zhenya can’t wait to end their unhappy marriage and begin anew with their respective lovers. Such is their mutual dislike however, they’re oblivious to the terrible effect their constant arguments are having on their lonely 12-year-old son. When one day they discover that he has disappeared, they find themselves having to work together in dealing both with the police and with a group of volunteers who search for missing children. A stark, mysterious and terrifying story of spiritual catastrophe, Loveless is one of this year’s must-see films. Universally lauded by critics, Russian director  Zvyagintsev’s latest masterpiece confirms him as the greatest Russian filmmaker working today.

NT LIVE: Hold the date! Event unconfirmed.

Thu 5 April, 7pm

I, Tonya (15)

Friday 6 – Thursday 12 April

Fri 6, 6pm
Sat 7, 8pm
Tue 10, 6pm
Wed 11, 2.30pm & 8.30pm
Thu 12, 6pm

Dir. Craig Gillespie, US, 2017, 119 mins. Cast. Margot Robbie, Allison Janney, Bobby Cannavale.

The Goodfellas of figure skating films, I,Tonya is an absurd, irreverent, and piercing portrait of the life and career of Tonya Harding. Margot Robbie gives an amazing performance as the infamous ice skater, with Allison Janney (who took home a Golden Globe for this) giving a brilliantly surly performance as Harding's cruel and unfeeling mother. The film charts Harding's rise against the odds through the ranks of American Figure Skating with her ground breaking routines and ultimately how her legacy became forever defined by the attack on her fellow competitor Nancy Kerrigan.

Finding Your Feet (12A)

Friday 6 – Thursday 12 April

Fri 6, 8.30pm
Sat 7, 2.30pm & 5.30pm
Tue 10, 8.30pm
Wed 11, 6pm
Thu 12, 2.30pm (relaxed), 8.30pm

Dir. Richard Loncraine, UK, 2017, 111 mins. Cast. Imelda Staunton, Joanna Lumley, Timothy Spall, Celia Imrie, David Hayman.

When 'Lady' Sandra Abbott discovers that her husband of forty years is having an affair with her best friend she seeks refuge in London with her estranged, older sister Bif. The two could not be more different - Sandra is a fish out of water next to her outspoken, serial dating, and free-spirited sibling. But different is just what Sandra needs at the moment, and she reluctantly lets Bif drag her along to a community dance class, where gradually she starts finding her feet and romance as she meets her sister's friends, Charlie, Jackie and Ted. This is the perfect feel-good film.

Walk Like A Panther (tbc)

Friday 13 – Thursday 19 April

Fri 13, 6pm
Sat 14, 5.30pm
Tue 17, 6pm
Wed 18, 2.30pm & 8.30pm
Thu 19, 6pm

Dir. Dan Cadan, UK, 2018, ? mins. Cast. Stephen Graham, Sue Johnson, Julian Sands, Stephen Tomkinson.

If you grew up in the 70’s and 80’s you will remember the glory days of terrible wrestling on TV. And recently the US series Glow showed how fun this still is – if you liked that, you are going to love this. When their local pub is threatened with closure, a group of wrestling stars from the 1980s find themselves slipping into lycra one last time to try and save it. A big-hearted British comedy, one that sees friendships, community and family ties rekindled as the battle to save the pub begins.

You Were Never Really Here (15)

Friday 13 – Thursday 19 April

Fri 13, 8.30pm
Sat 14, 2.30pm & 8pm
Tue 17, 8.30pm
Wed 18, 6pm
Thu 19, 8.30pm

Dir. Lynne Ramsay, UK/US, 2017, 95 mins. Cast. Joachin Phoenix, Ekaterina Samsonov, Alessandro Nivola.

Lynne Ramsay’s stark inversion of the noir thriller is a devastatingly brutal portrayal of one man’s battle with repression and abuse. Joe is a Gulf War veteran and former FBI agent turned killer-for-hire. When Nina, a US Senator’s daughter is kidnapped, he is contracted to save the girl. Having located her in a seedy New York brothel, his escape plan derails; unleashing a maelstrom of violence that ultimately takes him deeper into a hallucinatory darkness. Ramsay is more concerned with the psyche of her unhinged protagonist than she is with the action, rejecting exploitation, cutting away from the action rather than to it.

The Square (15)

Friday 20 – Thursday 26 April

Fri 20, 5.30pm
Sat 21, 8pm
Tue 24, 5.30pm
Wed 25, 2.30pm
Thu 26, 8.15pm (Introduced by Ben Borthwick, Plymouth Arts Centre Artistic Director)

Dir. Ruben Ostlund, Sweden/Germany, 2017, 150 mins, some subtitles. Cast. Claes Bang, Elisabeth Moss, Dominic West.

The winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes finally arrives on our screens marking a return from Ruben Östlund, the brilliant director of Force Majeure. Casting a satirical eye onto the art world, as the Stockholm Palace has been converted into an art museum following the abolition of the Monarchy of Sweden. Christian is a curator at the museum, who finds his progressive world view shaken when his mobile phone is stolen. The Square is a potent comedy drama that explores the boundaries of political correctness, artistic liberty and free speech in provocative ways.

Psycho Vertical (tbc)

Friday 20 – Wednesday 25 April

Fri 20, 8.30pm
Sat 21, 5.30pm
Wed 25, 8.30pm

Dir.Jen Randall, UK, 2017, 64 mins. Cast: Andy Kirkpatrick.

Based on his best-selling auto-biography of the same name, Psycho Vertical is a raw and emotive exploration of the complex life and motivations of writer, funny-man and Britain's unlikeliest hero-mountaineer, Andy Kirkpatrick. Winner of Best Climbing Film at Banff Mountain Film Festival 2017. The filmmaker successfully employs some unorthodox techniques and the filmmaking feels fresh, at times even bordering on experimental. It is a 'warts and all' profile that leaves an audience with a true rendering of a well-known climber.

Dark River (tbc)

Saturday 21 – Thursday 26 April

Sat 21, 2.30pm
Tue 24, 8.30pm
Wed 25, 6pm
Thu 26, 6pm

Dir. Clio Barnard, UK, 2017, 89 mins. Cast. Ruth Wilson, Mark Stanley, Sean Bean.

After a 15-year absence, Alice returns to the family farm following the death of her father. She finds the place in complete disrepair. Her troubled brother, Joe is in charge, but appears to be in no state to make smart decisions. The two siblings have become like strangers to each other. Alice, bold and decisive, bolts into Joe's life, determined to impose order and give the farm a future. Joe bristles at her every move, and sparks fly as years of resentments resurface. Slowly, layers of their past are stripped away to expose a dark secret between them.

 

Isle of Dogs (tbc)

Friday 27 April – Thursday 3 May

Fri 27, 6pm
Sat 28, 8pm
Tue 1, 6pm
Wed 2, 2.30pm & 8.30pm
Thu 3, 11am (Bringing in Baby) & 6pm

Dir. Wes Anderson, US, 2017, tbc mins. Voice Cast. Bryan Cranston, Greta Gerwig, Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton.

Wes Anderson’s stop-motion Isle of Dogs tells the story of Atari Kobayashi, twelve-year-old ward to corrupt Mayor Kobayashi. When, by Executive Decree, all the canine pets of Megasaki City are exiled to a vast garbage-dump, Atari sets off alone in a miniature Junior-Turbo Prop and flies to Trash Island in search of his bodyguard-dog, Spots. There, with the assistance of a pack of newly-found mongrel friends, he begins an epic journey that will decide the fate and future of the entire Prefecture. Entirely delightful as we have come to expect from Anderson.

 

Here to be Heard: The Story of The Slits (tbc)

Friday 27 April – Thursday 3 May

Fri 27, 9pm (+ performance by Suck My Culture at 8.30pm)
Sat 28, 5.30pm
Thu 3, 8.30pm

Dir. William Badgley, UK/US, 2017, 86 mins. With. Viv Albertine, Tessa Pollitt, Paloma McLardy.

A riveting film about the world’s first all-girl punk band, formed in London in 1976. Contemporaries of The Clash and The Sex Pistols, The Slits are the pioneering godmothers of punk. Fronted by the irrepressible and iconoclastic Ari Up, the band has inspired generations of artists, from Sonic Youth to Sleater Kinney. Drawing on stunning personal archives and including interviews with key surviving band members, Here to be Heard tells the story of a group that literally changed the cultural landscape of Britain in the patriarchal 1970s with their furious feminist battle cry.

Friday night’s film screening will be preceded by a performance by Suck My Culture, Plymouth’s very own Feminist punk band.

 

Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story (12A)

Saturday 28 April – Wednesday 2 May

Sat 28, 2.30pm
Tue 1, 8.30pm
Wed 2, 6pm

Dir. Alexandra Dean, US, 2017, 88 mins.

What do the most ravishingly beautiful actress of the 1930s and 40s and the inventor whose concepts were the basis of cell phone and bluetooth technology have in common? They are both Hedy Lamarr, the glamour icon who was the inspiration for Snow White and Cat Woman and a technological trailblazer who perfected a radio system to throw Nazi torpedoes off course during WWII. Weaving interviews and clips with never-before-heard audio tapes of Hedy speaking on the record about her incredible life; from her beginnings as an Austrian Jewish emigre to her glittering Hollywood life to her ground-breaking, but completely uncredited inventions to her latter years when she became a recluse, impoverished and almost forgotten.

FILMS

Oscars Week Special:  Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Fri 2 – Wed 7 March

Fri 2, 5.45pm
Wed 7, 8.30pm

With seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actress, Three Billboards… is back by popular demand for extra screenings in March!

Oscars Week Special:  Darkest Hour

Sat 3 – Thu 8 March

Sat 3, 8pm
Tue 6, 5.45pm
Wed 7, 2.30pm
Thu 8, 5.45pm

With six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor, Darkest Hour is back by popular demand for extra screenings in March!

Phantom Thread (15)

Fri 2 – Sat 10 March

Fri 2, 8.15pm
Sat 3, 5.30pm
Tue 6, 8.15pm
Wed 7, 5.45pm
Thu 8, 8.15pm
Fri 9, 5.45pm
Sat 10, 2.30pm & 8pm

Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson, US, 2017, 130 mins. Cast. Vicky Krieps, Daniel Day Lewis, Lesley Manville.

Paul Thomas Anderson once again teams up with Daniel Day-Lewis (for his final role before his retirement from acting) to paint an illuminating portrait both of an artist on a creative journey, and the women who keep his world running. Set in the glamour of 1950’s post-war London, renowned dressmaker Reynolds Woodcock and his sister Cyril are at the centre of British fashion, dressing royalty, movie stars, heiresses, socialites, debutantes and dames. Women come and go through Woodcock’s life, providing the confirmed bachelor with inspiration and companionship, until he comes across a young, strong-willed woman who soon becomes a fixture in his life as his muse and lover. Once controlled and planned, he finds his carefully tailored life disrupted by love.

RSC Live ENCORE: Twelfth Night

Sat 3 March, 1.30pm

Twelfth Night is a tale of unrequited love – hilarious and heartbreaking. Twins are separated in a shipwreck, and forced to fend for themselves in a strange land. The first twin, Viola, falls in love with Orsino, who dotes on OIivia, who falls for Viola but is idolised by Malvolio. Enter Sebastian, who is the spitting image of his twin sister...

Christopher Luscombe, Director of the ‘glorious’ (Daily Telegraph) Love’s Labour’s Lost and Much Ado About Nothing (2014 and 2016), returns to tackle Shakespeare’s greatest comedy, a brilliantly bittersweet account of "the whirligig of time", with Adrian Edmondson (Bottom, The Young Ones) in the role of Malvolio and Kara Tointon (ITV’s Mr Selfridge and Sound of Music Live!) in the role of Olivia. 

 

The Mercy (12A) + archive shorts from SWFTA

Friday 9 – Tuesday 20 March

Fri 9, 8.30pm
Sat 10, 5.30pm
Tue 13, 5.30pm
Wed 14, 2.30pm & 6pm
Thu 15, 8.30pm
Sat 17, 5.30pm
Tue 20, 6pm

Dir. James Marsh, UK, 2017, 102 mins. Cast. Colin Firth, Rachel Weisz, David Thewlis.

This is the incredible true story of Donald Crowhurst, the amateur sailor who competed in the 1968 Sunday Times Golden Globe Race in the hope of becoming the first person in history to single-handedly circumnavigate the globe without stopping. With an unfinished boat and his business and house on the line, Donald left his wife and children behind, embarking on an adventure on his boat the Teignmouth Electron.  The tragic story of his solo voyage and the struggles he confronted on the epic journey is one of the most enduring mysteries of recent times and one which many people in the South West will remember. We will be screening archive footage of Crowhurst and the race from SWFTA before the film.

 

Bird’s Eye View presents

Professor Marston and the Wonder Women (15)

Dir. Angela Robinson, US, 2017, 108 mins. Cast. Luke Evans, Rebecca Hall, Bella Heathcote

Tuesday 13 – Wednesday 21 March

Tue 13, 8pm (Join us for a very special screening introduced by Mia Bays, Oscar-winning producer and Anna Smith, Film Editor of Time Out magazine)
Wed 14, 8.30pm
Thu 15, 6pm
Fri 16, 6pm
Wed 21, 8.30pm

This is the mind-blowing backstory of Wonder Woman creator Dr William Moulton Marston and the two women who almost certainly inspired her. In 1941, psychologist Marston pseudo-nymously published Wonder Woman as ‘propaganda for a new type of woman who should rule the world’. Marston’s secret, kept from his neighbours in their quiet suburban enclave, is that he lived in a long-term polyamorous relationship with two women, Olive Byrne, niece of famous suffragette Margaret Sanger and his wife, fellow psychologist and lawyer Elizabeth. Robinson’s film seductively imagines the years leading up to the emergence of the comic superheroine and it is a rivetingly good yarn, one that underlines just how much Wonder Woman was intended as feminist and queer disrupter of mainstream values. You’ll never see the golden lasso in quite the same way again!

Lady Bird (15)

Friday 16 – Friday 23 March

Fri 16, 8.30pm
Sat 17, 2.30pm & 8pm
Tue 20, 8.30pm
Wed 21, 2.30pm & 6pm
Fri 23, 11am (Bringing in Baby) & 6pm

Dir. Greta Gerwig, US, 2017, 94 mins. Cast. Saoirse Ronan, Timothee Chalamet, Laurie Metcalf.

Greta Gerwig's critically adored directorial debut is a sweet, funny ode to adolescence, small towns and the relationship between mothers and daughters. Set in 2002, it stars Saoirse Ronan as confused, precocious teenager, Lady Bird. She's in her last year at Catholic school and dreams of a life of cosmopolitan culture and Ivy League colleges. Fighting with her mother, falling in and out of love, and navigating the pressure of friendship versus popularity - how can Lady Bird grow up and be true to herself? This is a loving, funny look at the relationships that shape us and the place we call home. And it might just be one of the defining coming of age films of its generation.

NT LIVE: Julius Caesar

Thursday 22 March, 7pm

Ben Whishaw (The Danish Girl, Skyfall, Hamlet) and Michelle Fairley (Fortitude, Game of Thrones) play Brutus and Cassius, David Calder (The Lost City of Z, The Hatton Garden Job) plays Caesar and David Morrissey (The Missing, Hangmen, The Walking Dead) is Mark Antony. Broadcast live from The Bridge Theatre, London. Caesar returns in triumph to Rome and the people pour out of their homes to celebrate. Alarmed by the autocrat’s popularity, the educated élite conspire to bring him down. After his assassination, civil war erupts on the streets of the capital. Nicholas Hytner’s production will thrust the audience into the street party that greets Caesar’s return, the congress that witnesses his murder, the rally that assembles for his funeral and the chaos that explodes in its wake.

The Shape of Water (15)

Fri 23 March – Thu 5 April

Fri 23, 8.30pm
Sat 24, 2.30pm & 8pm
Tue 27, 6pm
Wed 28, 8.30pm
Thu 29, 6pm
Fri 30, 8.30pm
Wed 4, 2.30pm
Thu 5, 11am (Bringing in Baby)

Dir. Guillermo Del Toro, Canada/US, 2017, 123 mins. Cast. Sally Hawkins, Octavia Spencer, Michael Shannon.

Drawing on classic 1950s sci-fi B-movies and the on-going fascination with Area 51 conspiracy theories, Del Toro’s tale of the inexplicable is an old-school cinematic joy. At the height of the Cold War, in a secret US laboratory, a young, mute woman begins to communicate with a strange, aquatic creature. Intertwining sci-fi, horror and gothic romance to spellbinding effect, Del Toro’s singular vision is enhanced by Hawkins who is a marvel, showing that Elisa’s fierce desire to fight for what’s right never eclipses her sense of innocence. Love takes many shape-shifting forms and this intoxicating film is a pure celebration of tolerance and human connection.

 

Journey’s End (12A)

Sat 24 – Thu 29 March

Sat 24, 5.30pm
Tue 27, 8.30pm
Wed 28, 2.30pm & 6pm
Thu 29, 8.30pm

Sat 31, 8pm

Dir. Saul Dibb, UK, 2017, 108 mins. Cast. Asa Butterfield, Sam Claflin, Toby Jones, Paul Bettany.

March, 1918. C-company arrives to take its turn in the front-line trenches in northern France led by the war-weary Captain Stanhope. A German offensive is imminent, and the officers and their cook distract themselves in their dugout with talk of food and their past lives. Stanhope, meanwhile, soaks his fear in whisky, unable to deal with his dread of the inevitable. A young new officer, Raleigh, has just arrived, fresh out of training and abuzz with the excitement of his first real posting – not least because he is to serve under Stanhope, his former school house monitor and the object of his sister’s affections. Each man is trapped, the days ticking by, the tension rising and the attack drawing ever closer…

 

 

A Fantastic Woman (15)

Friday 30 March – Wednesday 4 April

Fri 30, 6pm
Sat 31, 2.30pm
Tue 3, 6pm
Wed 4, 8.30pm

Dir. Sebastian Lelio, Chile/Spain, 2017, 104 mins, subtitled. Cast. Daniela Vega, Francisco Reyes, Luis Gnecco.

When her lover Orlando dies suddenly one night, Marina is left in a state of shock. Still raw with grief, she must navigate the horrors of recounting the night to Orlando’s family, whose responses to the fact that she’s a transwoman range from frosty to scabrous and even hostile. Marina must fight for her rights, her home and even custody of her dog, while the police only offer a new set of humiliations. Lelio proves himself a successor to Almodóvar as an explorer of female-centred, emotionally intelligent terrain. Marina, thanks to Vega’s absolute knockout performance, is a vision of resistance. This is essential arthouse cinema.

Loveless (15)

Saturday 31 March – Wednesday 4 April

Sat 31, 5.30pm
Tue 3, 8.30pm
Wed 4, 6pm

Dir. Andrey Zvyagintsev, Russia/France/Belgium, 2017, 127 mins, subtitled. Cast. Maryana Spivak, Alexey Rozin, Matvey Novikov.

Still reluctantly sharing their apartment, Boris and Zhenya can’t wait to end their unhappy marriage and begin anew with their respective lovers. Such is their mutual dislike however, they’re oblivious to the terrible effect their constant arguments are having on their lonely 12-year-old son. When one day they discover that he has disappeared, they find themselves having to work together in dealing both with the police and with a group of volunteers who search for missing children. A stark, mysterious and terrifying story of spiritual catastrophe, Loveless is one of this year’s must-see films. Universally lauded by critics, Russian director  Zvyagintsev’s latest masterpiece confirms him as the greatest Russian filmmaker working today.

NT LIVE: Hold the date! Event unconfirmed.

Thu 5 April, 7pm

I, Tonya (15)

Friday 6 – Thursday 12 April

Fri 6, 6pm
Sat 7, 8pm
Tue 10, 6pm
Wed 11, 2.30pm & 8.30pm
Thu 12, 6pm

Dir. Craig Gillespie, US, 2017, 119 mins. Cast. Margot Robbie, Allison Janney, Bobby Cannavale.

The Goodfellas of figure skating films, I,Tonya is an absurd, irreverent, and piercing portrait of the life and career of Tonya Harding. Margot Robbie gives an amazing performance as the infamous ice skater, with Allison Janney (who took home a Golden Globe for this) giving a brilliantly surly performance as Harding's cruel and unfeeling mother. The film charts Harding's rise against the odds through the ranks of American Figure Skating with her ground breaking routines and ultimately how her legacy became forever defined by the attack on her fellow competitor Nancy Kerrigan.

Finding Your Feet (12A)

Friday 6 – Thursday 12 April

Fri 6, 8.30pm
Sat 7, 2.30pm & 5.30pm
Tue 10, 8.30pm
Wed 11, 6pm
Thu 12, 2.30pm (relaxed), 8.30pm

Dir. Richard Loncraine, UK, 2017, 111 mins. Cast. Imelda Staunton, Joanna Lumley, Timothy Spall, Celia Imrie, David Hayman.

When 'Lady' Sandra Abbott discovers that her husband of forty years is having an affair with her best friend she seeks refuge in London with her estranged, older sister Bif. The two could not be more different - Sandra is a fish out of water next to her outspoken, serial dating, and free-spirited sibling. But different is just what Sandra needs at the moment, and she reluctantly lets Bif drag her along to a community dance class, where gradually she starts finding her feet and romance as she meets her sister's friends, Charlie, Jackie and Ted. This is the perfect feel-good film.

Walk Like A Panther (tbc)

Friday 13 – Thursday 19 April

Fri 13, 6pm
Sat 14, 5.30pm
Tue 17, 6pm
Wed 18, 2.30pm & 8.30pm
Thu 19, 6pm

Dir. Dan Cadan, UK, 2018, ? mins. Cast. Stephen Graham, Sue Johnson, Julian Sands, Stephen Tomkinson.

If you grew up in the 70’s and 80’s you will remember the glory days of terrible wrestling on TV. And recently the US series Glow showed how fun this still is – if you liked that, you are going to love this. When their local pub is threatened with closure, a group of wrestling stars from the 1980s find themselves slipping into lycra one last time to try and save it. A big-hearted British comedy, one that sees friendships, community and family ties rekindled as the battle to save the pub begins.

You Were Never Really Here (15)

Friday 13 – Thursday 19 April

Fri 13, 8.30pm
Sat 14, 2.30pm & 8pm
Tue 17, 8.30pm
Wed 18, 6pm
Thu 19, 8.30pm

Dir. Lynne Ramsay, UK/US, 2017, 95 mins. Cast. Joachin Phoenix, Ekaterina Samsonov, Alessandro Nivola.

Lynne Ramsay’s stark inversion of the noir thriller is a devastatingly brutal portrayal of one man’s battle with repression and abuse. Joe is a Gulf War veteran and former FBI agent turned killer-for-hire. When Nina, a US Senator’s daughter is kidnapped, he is contracted to save the girl. Having located her in a seedy New York brothel, his escape plan derails; unleashing a maelstrom of violence that ultimately takes him deeper into a hallucinatory darkness. Ramsay is more concerned with the psyche of her unhinged protagonist than she is with the action, rejecting exploitation, cutting away from the action rather than to it.

The Square (15)

Friday 20 – Thursday 26 April

Fri 20, 5.30pm
Sat 21, 8pm
Tue 24, 5.30pm
Wed 25, 2.30pm
Thu 26, 8.15pm (Introduced by Ben Borthwick, Plymouth Arts Centre Artistic Director)

Dir. Ruben Ostlund, Sweden/Germany, 2017, 150 mins, some subtitles. Cast. Claes Bang, Elisabeth Moss, Dominic West.

The winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes finally arrives on our screens marking a return from Ruben Östlund, the brilliant director of Force Majeure. Casting a satirical eye onto the art world, as the Stockholm Palace has been converted into an art museum following the abolition of the Monarchy of Sweden. Christian is a curator at the museum, who finds his progressive world view shaken when his mobile phone is stolen. The Square is a potent comedy drama that explores the boundaries of political correctness, artistic liberty and free speech in provocative ways.

Psycho Vertical (tbc)

Friday 20 – Wednesday 25 April

Fri 20, 8.30pm
Sat 21, 5.30pm
Wed 25, 8.30pm

Dir.Jen Randall, UK, 2017, 64 mins. Cast: Andy Kirkpatrick.

Based on his best-selling auto-biography of the same name, Psycho Vertical is a raw and emotive exploration of the complex life and motivations of writer, funny-man and Britain's unlikeliest hero-mountaineer, Andy Kirkpatrick. Winner of Best Climbing Film at Banff Mountain Film Festival 2017. The filmmaker successfully employs some unorthodox techniques and the filmmaking feels fresh, at times even bordering on experimental. It is a 'warts and all' profile that leaves an audience with a true rendering of a well-known climber.

Dark River (tbc)

Saturday 21 – Thursday 26 April

Sat 21, 2.30pm
Tue 24, 8.30pm
Wed 25, 6pm
Thu 26, 6pm

Dir. Clio Barnard, UK, 2017, 89 mins. Cast. Ruth Wilson, Mark Stanley, Sean Bean.

After a 15-year absence, Alice returns to the family farm following the death of her father. She finds the place in complete disrepair. Her troubled brother, Joe is in charge, but appears to be in no state to make smart decisions. The two siblings have become like strangers to each other. Alice, bold and decisive, bolts into Joe's life, determined to impose order and give the farm a future. Joe bristles at her every move, and sparks fly as years of resentments resurface. Slowly, layers of their past are stripped away to expose a dark secret between them.

 

Isle of Dogs (tbc)

Friday 27 April – Thursday 3 May

Fri 27, 6pm
Sat 28, 8pm
Tue 1, 6pm
Wed 2, 2.30pm & 8.30pm
Thu 3, 11am (Bringing in Baby) & 6pm

Dir. Wes Anderson, US, 2017, tbc mins. Voice Cast. Bryan Cranston, Greta Gerwig, Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton.

Wes Anderson’s stop-motion Isle of Dogs tells the story of Atari Kobayashi, twelve-year-old ward to corrupt Mayor Kobayashi. When, by Executive Decree, all the canine pets of Megasaki City are exiled to a vast garbage-dump, Atari sets off alone in a miniature Junior-Turbo Prop and flies to Trash Island in search of his bodyguard-dog, Spots. There, with the assistance of a pack of newly-found mongrel friends, he begins an epic journey that will decide the fate and future of the entire Prefecture. Entirely delightful as we have come to expect from Anderson.

 

Here to be Heard: The Story of The Slits (tbc)

Friday 27 April – Thursday 3 May

Fri 27, 9pm (+ performance by Suck My Culture at 8.30pm)
Sat 28, 5.30pm
Thu 3, 8.30pm

Dir. William Badgley, UK/US, 2017, 86 mins. With. Viv Albertine, Tessa Pollitt, Paloma McLardy.

A riveting film about the world’s first all-girl punk band, formed in London in 1976. Contemporaries of The Clash and The Sex Pistols, The Slits are the pioneering godmothers of punk. Fronted by the irrepressible and iconoclastic Ari Up, the band has inspired generations of artists, from Sonic Youth to Sleater Kinney. Drawing on stunning personal archives and including interviews with key surviving band members, Here to be Heard tells the story of a group that literally changed the cultural landscape of Britain in the patriarchal 1970s with their furious feminist battle cry.

Friday night’s film screening will be preceded by a performance by Suck My Culture, Plymouth’s very own Feminist punk band.

 

Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story (12A)

Saturday 28 April – Wednesday 2 May

Sat 28, 2.30pm
Tue 1, 8.30pm
Wed 2, 6pm

Dir. Alexandra Dean, US, 2017, 88 mins.

What do the most ravishingly beautiful actress of the 1930s and 40s and the inventor whose concepts were the basis of cell phone and bluetooth technology have in common? They are both Hedy Lamarr, the glamour icon who was the inspiration for Snow White and Cat Woman and a technological trailblazer who perfected a radio system to throw Nazi torpedoes off course during WWII. Weaving interviews and clips with never-before-heard audio tapes of Hedy speaking on the record about her incredible life; from her beginnings as an Austrian Jewish emigre to her glittering Hollywood life to her ground-breaking, but completely uncredited inventions to her latter years when she became a recluse, impoverished and almost forgotten.