2016 Cambridge Film Festival Brochure

Opening
Night Film
Closing Night Films
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Thu 20
7.30
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Fri 21
10.00am
I, DANIEL BLAKE | 15
UK 2016. 100 mins.
Loach’s second Palme d’Or winner after The Wind That Shakes
The Barley is a coruscating portrait of a contemporary Britain
in which the working class continue to suffer deprivation and
the added indignity of a Tory government that treats them as
scrounging criminals worthy of mistrust and contempt. Focusing
around an aged, ailing handyman’s battle to survive after being
denied his government health allowance and the relationship he
strikes up with a young single mother also being unceremoniously
shoved around by the vagaries of the benefits system, I, Daniel
Blake is a film of heart, passion and brutal honesty. It’s a savage
indictment of Britain that Loach, working with regular scriptwriter
Paul Laverty, was forced to come out of retirement to make it.
As the eponymous Daniel Blake, Dave Johns gives an incredibly
committed performance, an affable, generous man pushed to
the limits by his situation. As Katie, the single mum from London
relocated to a council flat in Newcastle because of the cheaper cost
of living, Hayley Squires is equally adept, creating a character whose
sacrifices for her children further highlights a broken Britain of food
banks and curmudgeonly-given hand outs. Essential viewing that
reminds the viewer both of the singular greatness of Loach and of
the hopelessness of the current climate in the U.K.
Director Ken Loach
Starring Dave Johns, Hayley Squires
PRINT SOURCE Entertainment One
Blunt, dignified and brutally moving.
PETER BRADSHAW, THE GUARDIAN
Perceptive and funny… intensely moving.
THE INDEPENDENT
An Immediate Classic.
THE TIMES
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Thu 27
8.00
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Thu 27
5.00
INTO THE
INFERNO | CFF 15
UK/Austria 2016. 104 mins.
Director Werner Herzog
With Werner Herzog,
Clive Oppenheimer
PRINT SOURCE
Netflix
Described as an exploration of active volcanoes around the world, in the hands of
acclaimed filmmaker Werner Herzog Into The Inferno is far, far more. “Obviously there
is the scientific side to our journey,” says Herzog. “But what we are really chasing is the
magical side, the demons, the new gods. This is the itinerary we have set for ourselves no
matter how strange things may eventually get.” Herzog is joined by Clive Oppenheimer,
a volcanologist from Cambridge University who first met the director when he was
in Antarctica to film Encounters at the End of the World and Oppenheimer was there
to study Mt. Erebus. They each recognized a kindred spirit - in 1976 Herzog made La
Soufrière on the island of Guadaloupe, where a volcano threatened to engulf the island.
The pair travel to multiple locations including Indonesia, Iceland, Ethiopia and North
Korea to ruminate on volcanoes and their meaning. A satisfying blend of reportage,
history, and philosophy, It’s also a visual wonder to behold, and is of course accompanied
by Herzog’s own singular narration which characteristically paints its own picture of the
futility of humankind compared to the magnificence of the natural world.
We are delighted that Clive Oppenheimer will introduce the screening
and meet the audience for a Q&A.
A QUIET PASSION
| CFF 12
UK/Belgium 2016. 125 mins.
Director Terence Davies
Starring Cynthia Nixon,
Jennifer Ehle, Keith
Carradine, Jodhi May,
Catherine Bailey
PRINT SOURCE
Soda Pictures
A Quiet Passion, directed by acclaimed filmmaker Terence Davies, is the life story of the
celebrated American poet Emily Dickinson, from her youth as a headstrong schoolgirl
through to her reclusive adulthood where poetry was solace. Actress Cynthia Nixon
gives a great performance as the legendary poet Emily Dickinson, who led a deeply
introverted life, except for her encounters with her mother, father and sister.
We hope to welcome guests from the film to the screening.
You will see no more beautiful a film this year —
beautiful in its sumptuous photography, but also in
the respect and love that it brings to its subject. The
internal lives of poets are hard to visualize,
yet Davies, a magician when it comes to
understanding the inner workings of the most sensitive
of minds, has created an extraordinarily moving
account of Emily Dickinson’s particular genius.
TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
GOG 3-D | CFF PG
USA 1954. 85 mins.
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Thu 27
1.00
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Thu 27
8.00
We continue our retro 3-D series with the European Premiere of
this amazing new restoration of a golden-age 3-D title. Scientists
are being killed at a secret underground space research base
and a security agent is sent to investigate the compound,
where he encounters its two new and experimental robots,
Gog and Magog. The film has never been seen in the UK in
3-D and so this is the premiere in its original format. We
are thrilled to welcome Mr Bob Furmaneck, award-winning
producer, author, motion picture archivist and founder of
the 3-D Film Archive, responsible for this restoration, which
has saved the film from totally disappearing in its 3-D original
format. Mr Furmaneck has told us that he may bring some
stereoscopic surprises from his huge vault with him, including an
extremely rare clip of Money from Home in 3-D, a Lewis/Martin
film never seen in 3-D in the UK.
Director Herbert L. Strock
Starring Richard Egan, Constance Dowling, Herbert Marshall
PRINT SOURCE Bob Furmaneck (3D Film Archive)
Gog, in all its 1950s jumpsuit 3-D glory,
was like agatha christie, sigmund freud
and harlan ellison got high together
and made a movie. THE NITRATE DIVA
Box office: 0871 902 5720 Festival Highlights | CambridgeFilmFestival2016 | 5