To close out 2024, our cinephile screen team share some of the movies and experiences that have shaped their year, particularly spotlighting those independent efforts that found a home at Nottingham cultural hotspots, like Broadway Cinema. If you’re eager to experience new cinematic worlds, learn about people from different walks of life, or just remind yourself what an excellent offering we have in our local cinemas, read on…
Halloween on Halloween
As Nicole Kidman once (in)famously said about cinema, “We come to this place for magic.” Sure, she may have been talking about a certain chain of multiplexes, but the statement is perhaps even more applicable to Broadway, the independent hub of culture in the heart of our city.
This was no more true than on Halloween night this year, when I went to check out a 4K restoration of, fittingly, Halloween. Hanging out in the glorious Café Bar before the showing, drinking a pint of Ease Up IPA while a giant fake spider watched over me from the corner of the room, surrounded by like-minded creative types having a grand old time, was bliss. And the film screening packed full of excitable nerds was even better.
As one of those nerds myself, who doesn’t do the whole ‘dressing up and going out partying’ thing, it was a blessing to have a place where I could celebrate a holiday like Halloween on my own terms, in a place that was somehow both peaceful and buzzing at the same time. Screenings like this emphasise the importance of institutions like Broadway - they not only provide a chance to check out art from across the years, but a cosy, friendly place to do so. We really do come to this place for magic, and it delivers every time.
George White
The Teacher at Broadway Cinema
Recently shown at Broadway, writer and director Farah Nabulsi makes her feature-length debut with The Teacher, as we witness one of the most devastating conflicts develop on our screens.
The plot emerges from the West Bank, following Palestinian school teacher Basem (Saleh Bakri) as he tries to restore his commitment to political resistance through his father-figure relationship to one of his most hopeful pupils, Adam (Muhammad Abed Elrahman).
From the beginning, we are given differing visuals as to what everyday life is like in the West Bank: beautiful scenic car journeys through winding mountain roads, bustling city centres full of life, and lively markets packed with citrus-coloured produce; these are starkly juxtaposed with images of checkpoints and home raids.
Beyond the main characters, there are portraits of nameless street sellers who evoke an undeniable power. In one particular scene, a slow-motion camera shot on their faces looking directly toward the camera could have been clichéd. Instead, you can almost feel the weighted expressions, altered by a history of living under occupation.
This feature is a tense and gripping narrative, offering humanity to a place dominated by headlines.
Yasmin Turner-Markovics
I Saw the TV Glow at Broadway Cinema
Rarely has a cinema experience been so emotionally complex than when I visited Broadway to see I Saw the TV Glow on its opening night. Despite not knowing much about the film’s plot, I had heard online about its unsettling and stark portrayal of coming to terms with one's transness, something which I did myself months prior to watching it.
The film’s utterly raw theme of harbouring a buried desire to break out of your assigned gender, into an entirely new body, deeply affected me. However, I wasn’t captivated by the film’s aesthetic style. Whilst I related to the film’s intense images of its central character grappling with being trans, it never felt cohesive on a formal level.
When I watched Jane Schoenbrun’s first film, which I ultimately preferred, I knew deep within me I was trans but I wasn’t able to admit it to myself yet. I watched the film in my bedroom, alone, with the faint glow of the laptop cutting through the darkness. When watching TV Glow, I was surrounded by other people, acutely aware of my own gender, but was scared of plunging into the seemingly unknown abyss. Despite not enjoying the film much, it proved a poignant reminder that none of us are alone in our fears of the world we step into when deciding to transition, in whatever form that takes.
Autumn Parker
La Chimera at Broadway Cinema
Italian auteur Alice Rohrwacher delivers yet another assured and masterful piece of cinema, this time starring Josh O’Connor as a down-and-out British archaeologist Arthur, who hunts through rural Italian towns for Etruscan treasures. There’s plenty here to enjoy in this fable - like picaresque, from rag-tag grave robbers that provide comedic relief with their endless fighting, falling and singing silliness, to the surreal 1980s Italian landscape punctuated now and then by ghosts of the past and haunting dreams.
Travelling from decrepit shanty towns to crumbling aristocratic mansions, we follow Arthur as he deals with his troubled past and attempts to survive by plundering invaluable artefacts and sell them on to shady dealers, all with the hopes of discovering something new and never before seen. In the end his criminal activity and dealings with gangs soon takes a terrible turn when his troupe unearth a priceless tomb, and they end up with more than they bargained for. Sadness and grief persist alongside the hilarity, this is Rohrwacher’s love letter to Italian culture and the beautiful Etruscan history, a past that is still being unearthed and understood.
It’s stylistic, lively, romantic, hilarious, nostalgic and a downright masterpiece from a director who's just hitting her stride.
Alexander Mobbs-Iles
Shane Meadows live interview and other cinema delights
My cinema experience this year has been a varied one spent in many different places. I went to Scotland with Saorise Ronan in The Outrun and cried as much as her. I zipped back to the 60s Venice in a mini cooper with Michael Caine in The Italian Job. I wasn’t sure where I travelled when I watched Kinds of Kindness at Broadway, stumbling onto Broad Street afterwards, a little lost for words. That feeling of confusion lingered as I tried to swallow the film’s meaning over a pint at The Angel: “so what do you think that whole bit was about…?”
Perhaps one of my favourite experiences was staying right here in Nottingham when I went to see local legend Shane Meadows at Nottingham Central Library. The library was transformed from books and quiet, into a perfect event space. He discussed his mighty oeuvre with modesty and humour that made it feel as though making his films were light work. As Shane chatted about recasting the same midlands actors and the specialness of the Television Workshop, it reminded me that Nottingham and the midlands is as good a place as any to be.
Sofia Jones
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