Let The Festivities Begin!

The True Gifts of Christmas...

We're in the mood for giving here at Filmhouse, so we're bringing you a seasonal selection with traditional classics mixed with some not-so-traditional films that'll keep everyone happy. Beginning Friday, we'll be screening Frank Capra's heart-warming It's a Wonderful Life, which reviews the life of small-town resident George Bailey. This film remains essential for Christmas viewing! Meanwhile, what's better than Michael Caine surrounded by fuzzy felt creatures? The Muppets Christmas Carol is a comedic take on the classic tale by Charles Dickens. Saturday’s Filmhouse Junior screening is Home Alone in which an eight-year-old troublemaker (played by Macaulay Culkin) must protect his house from a pair of burglars when he is accidentally left home alone by his family during Christmas vacation.

Meet Me in St Louis is a glorious musical telling the story of an upper-middle-class family living in St Louis in 1903 and starring a young Judy Garland as Ester Smith. Also screening on Sunday and Monday is Comfort and Joy, 1984 Scottish comedy about a radio host who becomes embroiled into struggle between two Italian families, the Bernardis and the Rossis, over whose ice cream vans can sell where in Glasgow. 

We're also gifting you a special preview screening The Magic Flute, Ingmar Bergman's take on Mozart's masterpiece and one of the greatest screen versions of an opera ever made. This is your only chance to see it ahead of its 2018 re-release. Also next week is White Christmas, which charts the story of a successful song-and-dance team who become romantically involved with a sister act and team up to save the failing Vermont inn of their former commanding general. To top it all off next Thursday we'll be screening Die Hard, a firm Christmas favourite starring Bruce Willis and the late great Alan Rickman. Yippee-ki-yay!

Dark Xmas

Friday sees the beginning of Dark Xmas, an unusual and exciting alternative to the standard heart-warming Christmas fare, selected by EIFF. We'll be kicking things off with Stanley Kubrick's final film, Eyes Wide Shut, in which a doctor (Tom Cruise) begins a dangerous exploration of his own psyche after his wife (Nicole Kidman) reveals that she almost slept with another man. This will be followed by The City of Lost Children on Wednesday, a macabre fairy tale about a scientist who steals children's dreams, which is directed by Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet whose film Delicatessan we'll be screening in January as part of our Uncanny Valley season. 

New Releases 

Arriving at Filmhouse this week we have Sally Potter’s star-laden satire The Party, a sophisticated soiree which slowly goes disastrously wrong, whilst Human Flow is a visceral documentary showing the true extent of the global refugee crisis, directed by internationally renowned artist Ai Weiwei. Beginning on Monday is Thelma, Joachim Trier’s fascinating and confounding coming-of-age supernatural drama following a student who discovers her seizures are a symptom of uncontrolled supernatural powers. Finally, screening on Wednesday and Thursday is Trophy, a documentary looking into the powerhouse industries of big-game hunting, breeding and wildlife conservation.

States of Danger and Deceit: European Political Thrillers in the 1970s 

Screening as part of HOME Manchester's season is Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, in which an 'untouchable' police official frames himself for murder... The Mattei Affair is a classic investigative thriller from Francesco Rosi, focusing on the death of Enrico Mattei, an influential businessman who made enemies in the mafia. The final film of this season is a great example of a 1970s Nordic Noir film, Man on the Roof, which is adapted from the Martin Beck novel The Abominable Man. 

Special Events

This week’s Uncanny Valley screening is Bound, a neo-noir crime thriller from the Wachowskis about an ex-con who falls for the girlfriend of the mobster next door, and together they plot to steal millions in mob money and frame him. This Saturday is Victor Victoria, a gender-swap comedy starring Julie Andrews as both Victoria and Victor and showing as part of our Over The Rainbow season whilst our Herzog of the Month is Fitzcarraldo, starring Klaus Kinski as a dreamer who plans to bring opera and Enrico Caruso to the South American jungles.