2025 – 2026 Season

The Charlemagne Ciné-Club meets eight times per year and offers an eclectic mix of the classic and the modern, the serious and the funny, black & white and colour, in French and German. All films are shown in the West Worthing Baptist Church hall with a brief introduction with projection starting at 19.15. Individual WTA annual membership is £10 and the cost of £5 per film night, payable at the door, covers a glass of wine/fruit juice and something to nibble as well as the film.

9th October                   Le Fille sur le Pont                    1999

is unusual in that the director – Patrice Leconte – chose to make it in black and white and that does have a certain effect – though I’m not sure what it is! Its stars are Daniel Auteuil whose film credits are countless and Vanessa Paradis about whom I knew nothing but who is actually rather good. It’s not a film that is easy to classify for the distributors’ description of it as a “romantic comedy” does not quite hit the spot

13^th November               Les Visiteurs                       1993

This film spawned a sequel, imaginatively named “Les Visiteurs 2” and both enjoyed great success in France if not internationally. This one was described by one critic as a “messy mash-up”. A French review described it as “un vrai navet, une catastrophe industrielle” but for another (English) critic it was “one of the funniest films ever”. I’m not sure that it is in fact either of those but it does have its moments and, if you don’t know it, it’s worth seeing! At least you’ll then know on which side of the fence you are. 

11th December              Die Blechtrommel (the tin drum)              1979

This is a German “classic” – “The Tin Drum” based on the novel by Günter Grass. It won the Academy award in its year (1979) as the Best Foreign Language Film and has also been described as one of the most important German films made since the end of the war. Like “Les Visiteurs” – though for very different reasons – it divides opinions and certainly does not make for easy viewing. I first (and last) saw it more than 30 years ago and, though I remember not much enjoying it, there are images that have stuck in the mind when other more immediately enjoyable films have turned into memory dust

8^th January         De Battre mon Coeur s’est Arrêté              2005

This is a French neo-noir drama film directed by Jacques Audiard and starring Romain Duris. It is a remake of the 1978 American film Fingers. It explores the life of Tom, a shady realtor torn between a criminal life and his desire to become a concert pianist

12^th February                Intouchables                            2011

another film that garnered a very large number of awards and commendations. It dates from 2011, is described – rather unwinningly –as a “buddy comedy-drama” and became the second highest-grossing French film ever (after “Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis”) and was voted by the French as THE cultural event of 2011

12^th March                    Barfus                                       2005

This film won the German Film Award for best film of 2005 and covers the life of Nick Keller can hardly be called well sorted. He stumbles from one temporary job to the next, and he has very serious problems with Heinrich, his rich and influential stepfather, as well as with his brother Viktor. Nick’s latest temporary job is as a cleaner in a psychiatric clinic, where he prevents the barefooted patient Leila from committing suicide just as he is being fired from this latest employment.

APRIL – THERE IS NO FILM NIGHT

14^th May                        Trois Couleurs – Rouge           2004

Trois couleurs: Rouge, is a 1994 romantic psychological drama mystery, co-written, produced and directed by Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieślowski. It is the final installment of the Three Colours trilogy, which examines the French Revolutionary ideals; it is preceded by Blue and then by White.

11^th June                        La Grande Vadrouille               1966

is a 1966 French-British comedy film directed by Gérard Ouryabout French civilians who, in 1942, help the crew of a Royal Air Force bomber that has been shot down over Paris make their way through German-occupied France to safe territory.