Film starts at 8.30, I suggest we still meet at 7 onwards at Doctor Okells, this is across from the city library on the Headrow and does real ales. You may wish to buy your ticket before meeting us at the pub. Probably leave there 8ish to head to the cinema. Let me know when/where you want to meet us so we know who to look out for!! Please let me know if/if not you want to meet at the pub so as I am not there on my own eg if no takers then I will catch you at cinema 8pm. Then back to pub after the film.

Nominated for eleven (or there abouts) baftas. Winner in the following categories, production design, special visual effects, make up & hair,

Adapted from a story by Great Gatsby author F Scott Fitzgerald, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button tells the tale of a man who is born in his eighties and ages backwards. We follow his life from the end of World War I in 1918 and into the 21st century, following a journey that is as unusual as any man's life can be.

This film has a promising cast, Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Julia Ormond and has received a 8.4/10 from IDMB, so I think it is worth a look! Please refer to http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0421715/plotsummary if you want to read more about the plot etc.

I dare say the evening will be finished off over a few pints in the pub.

Looking forward to this and would be fab to see more new faces! I can promise you a great night. If you cannot make the film but want to meet us in the pub after, please text me.

Love jules 07766218105

I suggest we meet outside at 6.20pm(ish)...

Brief synopsis...

Turner Prize-winning British artist Steve McQueen makes his big-screen debut with Hunger, an account of the 1981 hunger strike in Northern Ireland's Maze Prison. Hunger follows the last six weeks in the life of Republican Bobby Sands who died 66 days into the strike. Hunger also depicts the conditions within the prison, not only through the experiences of the hunger strikers but also through the prison wardens with whom they were in constant battle.

Here's what Empire had to say about this film...

What is the grimmest movie ever? Bergman’s Cries And Whispers? Aronofsky’s Requiem For A Dream? Wayans’ White Chicks? Maybe, but you would be hard-pressed to find a film bleaker than Hunger, artist Steve McQueen’s debut feature detailing the starvation strikes in the Maze prison that resulted in the death of Bobby Sands in 1981 (SPOILER!) .Yet this unrelenting darkness should not be held against it. For Hunger is a powerful, difficult piece that announces McQueen as a singular talent, and Michael Fassbender as an actor of note.

This is as far from bog-standard docudrama as you can get. In the early sections, as McQueen intercuts prison officer Raymond Lohan (Stuart Graham)’s routine and inmates Davey Gillen (Brian Milligan) and Gerry Campbell (Liam McMahon) taking part in a blanket protest, the filmmaking is strangely beautiful and technically stunning. Cells covered in muck are vividly evoked, Sean Bobbitt’s camera lingering over swirly patterns of shit. McQueen punctures the languorous artsy feel with visceral handheld violence when Sands is brutally forced to cut his hair. Later, a shot of a prison guard mopping a urine-filled corridor literally lasts minutes.

The effect of this is to make Hunger’s central set-piece all the more startling. Around halfway through, McQueen gets to grips with the issues in a 22-minute locked-off camera shot in which Sands reveals his plan to go on hunger strike to Father Moran (Liam Cunningham), with both debating the merits and ethics of the protest. Despite bravura performances from both actors, the static camera, rather than funnelling your focus, feels distancing, creating a barrier to the ideas and emotions.

On the other side of this talk marathon, McQueen doesn’t shy away from the minutiae of Sands’ starvation, focusing on the bedsores and the prisoner’s withering frame. Some of McQueen’s lapses into religious symbolism towards the end undo the oblique approach of the first third. But, just as Hunger offers no easy pleasures, it offers no simple analysis, and delivers a gruelling, compelling experience. One you probably won’t want to go through again.

Verdict
Anchored by Fassbender’s turn, Hunger is as much about the personal as the political. The real breakthrough, though, is McQueen, who turns in a film that dazzles and challenges in equal measure.

Meet at Gillian's or Julie's as soon after 6pm as possible. Laura and Emily I can pick you up if you are struggling to get there, but Laura knows where Julie lives and Emily knows where Gillian lives, so a sensible plan. If people are struggling I'll try to pick up on way from Kirkstall to Meanwood 07985 780284 is my mobile. OK, I've got tickets booked already, but we need to set off asap due to Friday night rush hour. 7pm is film start time in Castleford, we'll see Arjun there. We'll get back to Leeds asap afterwards, I think Joseph's Well is the best venue and we can move on from there into town via Jules karaoke bar, she loves it there! Frankie

I've switched this to Wednesday 21st as Thursday had no take ups.

http://www.myvue.com/cinemas/film_info_detail.asp?SessionID=E4CD66CF4D214B9E83113BD818542D34&cn=1&ci=62&ln=1&fi=8500

Golden Globe Winner. Best Supporting Actress, Kate Winslet.

Starring Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes, The Reader opens in post-WWII Germany when teenager Michael Berg becomes ill with Scarlet Fever and is helped home by Hanna, a stranger twice his age.

Frankie, on behalf of Marta