Ace in the Hole - MatthewHunt

Céline and Julie Go Boating
(Jacques Rivette, 1974)
Two eccentric women run amok in Paris. Jacques Rivette's three hour feature is whimsy on
an epic scale, mannered, playful and inspired by turns. Madonna's movie career might have
been different without it: Susan Seidelman was inspired by Céline and Julie when she came
to make Desperately Seeking Susan, in which Madge had the best part.
The Cement Garden
(Andrew Birkin, 1993)
Ian McEwan has rarely had a better showcase than this heated and haunting adaptation of
his Lord of the Flies-style analysis of suburban anarchy. Against the backdrop of a forbidding
concrete house, a husband and wife die of natural causes, leaving their children to cover up
their deaths and explore their new freedoms, sexual and otherwise, in ways that defy
convention and - especially - the law.
Central Station
(Walter Salles, 1998)
The film that kicked off Latin America's cinematic renaissance, and the most emotionally
honest. Fernanda Montenegro's seasoned turn as a cynical ex-schoolteacher, and newcomer
Vinicius de Oliver as the nine-year-old she is forced to care for, fuse into a film with all the
tough social credentials of the "buena onda".
La Cérémonie
(Claude Chabrol, 1995)
In Claude Chabrol, France's master of suspense, Ruth Rendell found the perfect cinematic
interpreter for her classic A Judgment In Stone about an illiterate young woman hired as a
cleaner in a well-off bourgeois household. She forms a dangerous friendship with the local
postmistress who is enviously resentful of the family's local prestige.
The Charge of the Light Brigade
(Tony Richardson, 1968)
Tony Richardson fashioned a MASH-like anti-war film set in the Crimean era. Many of
Britain's finest actors are on display, most of them sporting facial hair to die for. Trevor
Howard is wonderfully bad-tempered as Lord Cardigan, Charles Wood's dialogue is barbed
and witty, and the charge itself is staged with elan. The cartoon sections (courtesy of Richard
Williams of Roger Rabbit fame) aren't bad either.
Chariots of Fire
(Hugh Hudson, 1981)
Iconic running scenes accompanied by Vangelis score. The film tells the true story of British
athletes, Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson) and Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) who overcame
personal difficulties to compete in the 1924 Olympics. What with all the slow-mo action by top
toff totty, it's easy to get carried away with all the flag-waving.
The Chess Players
(Satyajit Ray, 1977)
Elegant, lavish, but emotionally understated satire from the great Indian film-maker about the
British Raj in 1850. Richard Attenborough plays the British General Outram, and Saeed
Jaffrey and Sanjeev Kumar play two noblemen whose passion for chess means they won't
wake up to the clear and present danger from the rapacious British. They are about to be
checkmated.
Chicken Run
(Peter Lord, Nick Park, 2000)
Aardman's attempt to court America could have led to dilution of their homegrown vision. But
despite drafting in Mel Gibson to lead a group of chickens, Great Escape-fashion, to safety,
Lord and Park retained the eccentricity and delicate characterisation of their best work, as
well as unbelievably intricate technical prowess.