Launching Thursday 29 October and running until the Wednesday 18 November is the BBC First British Film Festival for 2015. The UK film industry is second only to Hollywood, but often those two meld through co-productions and a crossover of talent. This festival is an opportunity to enjoy some classic, traditional British stories, alongside more local, independent and low budget features that feature iconic British actors, directors and settings.
The opening night film is Youth starring Michael Caine, the quintessential English actor, starring as a retired composer in the highly anticipated second English-speaking feature from acclaimed director Paolo Sorrentino (La Grande Bellezza). Check out the trailer on this page – it’s a masterful and touching preview that offers a small insight into the quality on offer during the festival.
Other notable highlights include closing film The Man Who Knew Infinity and Suffragette, a film about the plight of women trying to get the vote in early 20th Century England.
However, one not to miss during the season is the Irish production, Brooklyn.
This is a quaint but heartfelt story of Ellis Lacey, a young woman immigrating to the United States from Ireland in the 1950s, who leaves everything she loves behind to start a new, hopefully prosperous, life. Written by Nick Hornby (About a Boy, High Fidelity), his flair is evident through the delicately polished script and the clever, often witty and punchy dialogue, and an inevitable love story that’s both believable and captivating at the same time.
Saorise Ronan plays Ellis (pronounced Aisle-ish) a softly spoken, beautiful young woman whom we watch grow and turn from a nervous, timid and passive girl, to a someone who is confident, intelligent, charismatic and successful. Along the way she meets Tony (Emory Cohen), a Brooklyn local, and the two fall in love. It is when Ellis must suddenly return to Ireland for a family emergency a rift forms, opportunity knocks, and she must truly decide where she wants to be and who she wants to be with. ‘Brooklyn’ is truly a ‘home is where the heart is’ story.
Don’t miss it.
Brooklyn is just one of the 20 films on show at Palace Electric Cinema over the next month. As well as a featurette called Love Actually (no… not THAT film. You’ll see the original on TV come Christmas, no doubt) which is a celebration of a century of British romance. with films set in every decade from 1900 – 1990, each movie telling a unique love story of its own.
As you can see, there is so much to see in not a lot of time. One thing is for certain: at the BBC First British Film Festival there are films for everyone, and all are very much worth checking out.
For further details, click here for the full programme and session times.
