History/Drama
Saturday 8 July, 7pm

Viceroy’s House

The End of an Empire. The Birth of Two Nations. Viceroy’s House tells the true story of the final months of British rule in India.
Viceroy’s House was the home of the British rulers of India in Delhi. After 300 years, that rule was coming to an end. For 6 months in 1947, Lord Mountbatten, great grandson of Queen Victoria, assumed the post of the last Viceroy, charged with handing India back to its people. The story unfolds within that great House. Upstairs lived Mountbatten together with his wife and daughter; downstairs lived their 500 Hindu, Muslim and Sikh servants. As the political elite – Nehru, Jinnah and Gandhi – converged on the House to wrangle over the birth of independent India, conflict erupted. A decision was taken to divide the country and create a new Muslim homeland: Pakistan. It was a decision whose consequences reverberate to this day.
Viceroy’s House is a story that is deeply personal to the film’s director Gurinder Chadha, whose own family was caught up in the tragic events that unfolded as the Raj came to an end. Starring Gillian Anderson, and Hugh Bonneville as the Mountbattens, and also features Michael Gambon and Simon Callow.

 

Animation/Action/Adventure
Thursday 13 July, 11am
Saturday 15 July, 3pm

Despicable Me 3 (PG)

The team who brought you Despicable Me and the biggest animated hits of 2013 and 2015, Despicable Me 2 and Minions, returns to continue the adventures of Gru, Lucy, along with their adorable daughters—Margo, Edith and Agnes—and the Minions.
In Despicable Me 3, Gru (Steve Carell) faces off against Balthazar Bratt, a former child star who has grown up to become obsessed with the character that he played in the ’80s. Gru gets into some sibling rivalry when he meets his long-lost charming, cheerful, and more successful twin brother Dru, who wants to team up with him for one last criminal heist to steal the diamond that Bratt has stolen. Also featuring the voices of Kristen Wiig, Steve Coogan and Julie Andrews.

 

Drama/Mystery/Romance
Saturday 15 July, 7pm

My Cousin Rachel (PG)

Rachel Weisz and Sam Claflin star in writer-director Roger Michell’s (Notting Hill) adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s classic mystery, My Cousin Rachel.
A young Englishman (Claflin) plots revenge against his mysterious and beautiful cousin (Weisz), believing that she murdered his guardian. But his feelings become complicated as he finds himself falling under the beguiling spell of her charms. My Cousin Rachel co-stars Iain Glen (Game of Thrones) and Holliday Grainger.

 

Drama/Romance
Sunday 16 July, 7pm

Frantz (PG)

This month’s offering of the Dungog Film Society is Frantz.
Director François Ozon’s latest masterpiece is a hypnotic tale of love and remembrance. In a small German town in the wake of the First World War, Anna, a young woman mourning the death of her fiancé (Paula Beer, in a Venice award-winning performance), forms a bond with an unknown Frenchman (Pierre Niney) who has arrived to lay flowers on her beloved’s grave.
The arrival of this enigmatic Frenchman raises suspicions and ignites passions in Anna’s war-wounded home town, and as the mystery deepens, secrets long-buried in the past threaten to surface and change everything…

 

Crime/Thriller/Comedy
Saturday 5 August, 7pm

Baby Driver (MA 15+)

Talented getaway driver Baby (Ansel Elgort) relies on the beat of his personal soundtrack to be the best in the game. After meeting the woman (Lily James) of his dreams, he sees a chance to ditch his shady lifestyle and make a clean break. Coerced into working for a crime boss (Kevin Spacey), Baby must face the music as a doomed heist threatens his life, love and freedom. Written and directed by Edgar Wright, Baby Driver also stars Jon Bernthal, Jon Hamm and Jamie Foxx

 

Drama/History/Romance
Saturday 12 August, 7pm

The Promise (M)

Empires fall, love survives. Set in 1914, during the last days of the Ottoman Empire, The Promise follows a love triangle involving Michael, a brilliant medical student (Oscar Isaac), and the beautiful and sophisticated dance instructor Ana (Charlotte Le Bon). Their attraction explodes into a romantic rivalry between Michael and Ana’s boyfriend (Christian Bale), an American photojournalist who’s dedicated to exposing the truth.
As the Ottoman Empire crumbles into war-torn chaos, their conflicting passions must be deferred as they join forces to get themselves and their people to safety. Inspired by the true events, and set against the background of the Armenian genocide, The Promise is directed by Academy Award winning filmmaker Terry George (Hotel Rwanda).

 

Action and Adventure/Drama
Saturday 19 August, 7pm

Dunkirk (M)

Acclaimed auteur Christopher Nolan (Dark Knight Trilogy) directs this World War II thriller about the evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk before German forces can take hold. In May 1940, Germany advanced into France, trapping Allied troops on the beaches of Dunkirk. Under air and ground cover from British and French forces, troops were slowly and methodically evacuated from the beach using every serviceable naval and civilian vessel that could be found.
Tom Hardy, Kenneth Branagh and Mark Rylance co-star, with long time Nolan collaborator Hans Zimmer providing the score.

 

Crime/Drama/History
Sunday 20 August, 7pm

Neruda (MA 15+)

A glorious mix of history and imagination, Neruda is the enthralling new film from award-winning director Pablo Larraín, a lavishly mounted and grandly entertaining depiction of the manhunt for exiled Chilean poet and politician Pablo Neruda.
It’s 1948, and the Cold War has reached Chile. Following the President’s outlawing of communism, Neruda (Luis Gnecco,) and his artist wife Delia (Mercedes Morán) are forced into hiding. Beloved by the populace, they slip underground and are pursued by incompetent, vainglorious police inspector Oscar Peluchonneau (Gael García Bernal), hoping to make a name for himself by capturing the country’s most infamous fugitive.
Whilst life on the run holds little charm for the cultured and hedonistic Neruda, he uses the opportunity to reinvent his work and life, leaving clues for his pursuer designed to make their game of cat-and-mouse even more dangerous and thrilling. Thwarting Peluchonneau at every turn, it’s almost as if the detective is the man Neruda would have written to chase himself…
Blending visual grandeur and literary wit, Neruda is a beguiling reinvention of the ‘standard’ cinematic biography. Gripping, funny and ingeniously conceived, this is undoubtedly Larraín’s finest achievement

 

Foreign Film Festival
Friday 1 September, 7pm
Saturday 2 September, all day

Agog! A Feast of Foreign Films

Agog! A Feast of Foreign Films, returns to the James Theatre Dungog on 1 and 2 September 2017.
Starting at 7pm on Friday 1 September with hit French film Monsieur Chocolat, about the life and career of the clown Chocolate, the first black circus artist in France, Agog continues with four films on Saturday 2 September, commencing at 11am.
Our famous Supper behind the Screen also returns, prior to the final film on Saturday night.
Tickets are now available to purchase online here, and get in fast for the early bird special.

Ticket prices are:
Early bird until August 15 – 10% discount on bookings
All five films regular price – $70
Single films – $15
Supper behind the Screen $30
(A small booking fee is also charged at the time of purchase.)

The full program is:
7pm, Friday 1 September – Monsieur Chocolat (M), France
11am, Saturday 2 September – Perfect Strangers (M), Italy
1.30pm, Saturday 2 September – Chicken People (PG), US
3.30pm, Saturday 2 September – A Man Called Ove (M), Sweden
6.00pm, Saturday 2 September – Supper behind the Screen
7.30pm, Saturday 2 September – The Trip to Spain (M), UK

For full program information ckick here.

 

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