I am sure you will have been hoping by now to have received more news of the short programme of five films I wrote to you about a few weeks ago.  It has been an extremely challenging task for our Booking Secretary to secure the screening licences from the distributors and he is still working on it.  Incidentally, I learn that this is now a common problem with film clubs like ours throughout the country.  So I thought it would be encouraging for you to know where we are so far.

We will start the first screening on Monday 3 April with LIVING  (2022), directed by Oliver Hermanus and starringBill Nighy.  With a screenplay by Kazuo Ishiguro, via Kurosawa’s ‘Ikiru’ and Leo Tolstoy’s ‘The Death of Ivan Illych’, it is set in the London of 1953. Bill Nighy is Rodney Williams, a civil servant diagnosed with terminal cancer who, through a chance meeting with a woman in a cafe, finds hope and a new purpose to his life.

The film lasts for 102 minutes.

As in the past, the films will start at 8.00 pm and the Studio Theatre (aka ‘The Cramphorn’) will be open from 7.00 pm.

To remind you, the other four dates are Monday 17 April, Tuesday 25 April, Wednesday 3 May and Tuesday 9 May.  As soon as I have confirmation of the titles of the films, I will let you know.

Best wishes

Peter Bunyan
Chair – CFC

PS: As advised in our previous newsletter, we will be offering a 2023 membership of £22 for all five films. Membership for the curtailed 2019-20 Season will still be valid for all 5 films without additional charge (nnd don’t worry if you’ve lost/mislaid your membership card: as long as your name is on our Membership List you’ll be allowed in!), and Guests are still very welcome.

Dear CFC Members

It is now more than three months since I wrote you all, so the first thing to say is that we on the Committee hope you are all in good health and coping with – should I say ‘enduring’ – the strictures imposed by ‘Lockdown Mk.2’.

In August I had hoped that by now, as we approach Christmas, there would be some good news to report on the prospects for planning a further season of CFC. Sadly, this is not the case. The Cramphorn Studio, our venue, is still closed and looks like remaining so in to the New Year. But it is not all gloom and doom. As you know, this month heralded the prospect of a vaccine which could be rolled out in early 2021 and which might well mean that our club, and the Arts in general, could start to flourish again. Let’s live in hope!

The on line streaming platforms which I mentioned in August are still providing a rich diet of recent films. The BFI player is particularly rewarding. There is now another service, Your Screen, aimed at audiences such as ourselves, which is being provided by the Electric Picture House of Wotton. It costs £9.99 a film (£2 discount if you use the code WOTTON20) and the revenue generated is to be shared with independent cinemas. Go to www.WOTTONCINEMA.com and explore! This does put the CFC subscription of just over £4 a film into perspective!

I note also that some cinemas have (had) opened, such as the Odeon in Chelmsford, for limited bookings and reduced audience numbers and will, I assume, be open again after December 2. Terrestrial TV, especially the BBC, continues to make extra efforts to show classic movies and, albeit late at night, some recent independent ones. Another useful on-line tool is tv-films.co.uk which provides a comprehensive list of films for the coming week and shows the IMDB rating as well as other helpful information.

The Club’s collection of books, DVDs and CDs which many of you so kindly donated for our Foyer stall has been languishing in my garage since March and, as the winter comes upon us, was in danger of becoming damp and mouldy. I can therefore report that it has been donated to charities, including Oxfam and Books to Africa. Again, optimistically, a new collection will be needed when, not if, we start a new season of the club.

It remains for me to wish you all a Merry Christmas, hoping that we can spend it with friends and family, and a better New Year.

Take care.

Peter Bunyan
(Chair of Chelmsford Film Club Committee)