To save paper, cut costs and give us flexibility in selecting films at short notice, we no longer produce printed programmes. All of our films are listed on the Buxton Opera House Cinema website as well as our own. If you’d like to receive a weekly alert for our Monday film please subscribe to our newsletter.
Here is our diary – we update it as soon as new films are confirmed. You won’t find a more varied and interesting programme anywhere!
| Monday 2/9/24 | Crossing (15) | In his stunning film And Then We Danced (shown by Buxton Film in 2021), director Levan Akin explored the margins of acceptability in Georgian society. He returns to this theme in his new film which is a moving and tender tale of identity, acceptance and unlikely connection that transcends borders and generations. A retired schoolteacher living in Georgia, sets off to Istanbul to bring home her estranged niece. Exploring the hidden depths of the city, they cross paths with a transgender lawyer called Evrim, who helps them in their search. Humanistic and compassionate, Crossing is a heartfelt portrayal of overcoming the degrees of separation that divide us. With a wonderful soundtrack a road journey through Turkey, the bridge over the Bosphorus into the seldom-seen areas of Istanbul together with fantastic performances the film is a must see. |
| Monday 9/9/24 | The Echo (12A) | This gorgeous, poetic film from acclaimed director Tatiana Huezo (Prayers for the Stolen shown by Buxton Film in 2022) is a documentary but could easily be mistaken for drama. It’s set in El Eco (the echo), a remote village in the Mexico highlands, where Huezo embedded herself for 18 months to film three families going about their lives and won her the 2023 Berlinale Documentary Award. A harsh and extraordinary place, El Eco exists in a land full of mythology where people are necessarily deeply involved in the natural world. Conditions change drastically between seasons, as the children tend to the sheep amid frost and drought and also take care of their elders. Right from the start, they learn to understand death, illness and love, interpreting every word and silence from their parents. Huezo’s camera lingers on their faces, and those of the women of the village in particular, focusing on the rhythms, hardships and communal joys that make up their lives. Beautifully shot, The Echo is a deeply immersive study of tough but tender realities. |
| Monday 16/9/24 | The Conversation (12A) | This film, re-released and restored in 4K for its 50th anniversary, is arguably more relevant now than it was in the 70s when mass surveillance was in its relative infancy. A taut psychological thriller in which a secretive surveillance expert (Gene Hackman with lots of cutting-edge analogue equipment of the time) has a crisis of conscience when he suspects that the couple he is spying on will be murdered. Said to be a passion project for American New Wave director Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather) it reflected the paranoia in American society at the time. It was nominated for an OSCAR and won awards at the BAFTAs and Cannes in 1975. A classic of American cinema and not to be missed. |
| Monday 23/9/24 | Ama Gloria (12) | Six-year-old Cléo lives with her widower Dad Arnaud and her nanny Gloria in Paris. She loves her father, but Gloria is the emotional centre of her world, and when Gloria must return to her home in Cape Verde to attend to her own family, she’s heartbroken – and desperate to be reunited. An acutely affecting drama powered by a really astounding child actor whose performance takes you into the intensity of a small child’s emotions and instincts. A film that works both as a simple heartfelt drama and as a clear allegory (and critique) of colonialism and a child’s steep learning curve in coming to terms with the wider world. |
| Monday 30/9/24 | Paradise is Burning (15) | In a working-class area of Sweden, sisters Laura (16), Mira (12) and Steffi (7), get by on their own, left to their own devices by their absent mother. With summer on the way and no parents around, life is wild and carefree, vivacious and anarchic. But when social services call a meeting, Laura has to find someone to impersonate their mother, or the girls will be taken into foster care and separated. Laura keeps the threat a secret, so as not to worry her younger sisters. But as the moment of truth draws closer, new tensions arise, forcing the three sisters to negotiate the fine line between the euphoria of total freedom and the harsh realities of growing up. Reviewed by one critic to be “one of the best Swedish films in recent memory”, it won Best Director and Screenplay at the Venice film festival and The Sutherland Award at the London film festival. |
| Monday 7/10/24 | Rosalie (15) | 1870s, Northern France: Rosalie has a secret. She’s concealed her hirsutism all her life, shaving to ensure she’s accepted in polite society. But her perspective changes when Abel, an indebted bar owner unaware of her secret, marries her for her dowry. Will the conservative Abel be able to love the real her? If not, why not? And what might happen if she were to reject embarrassment entirely and go public? Interrogating feminine beauty Rosalie is played as a sensuous, indomitable woman embarking on a rebellion that’s both intimate and public. An optimistic, open-hearted story about the power of self-acceptance and the truism that we are more alike than we are different, the film is beautifully shot in gorgeous rural France and features an airy, emotive soundtrack. Loosely based on a true story |
| Monday 14/10/24 | My Favourite Cake (12A) | coming soon |