This is a French language film and will be subtitled.

In Olivier Peyon’s powerfully emotional drama, a successful novelist returns home for the first time in decades, invited to become the brand ambassador for his hometown’s famous cognac distillery. 

But on his arrival, Stéphane (Guillaume de Tonquédec) is stunned to discover that one of the distillery’s executives is Lucas (Victor Belmondo), the son of his first love. Triggering vivid memories of their passionate but secret teenage affair – at a time when homosexuality was kept in the shadows – Stéphane begins to repair the deep wounds of his adolescence, while Lucas learns more about his father’s truth.

A moving meditation on the intoxicating force of first love and the pain of repressed identities, Lie with Me is a superbly acted adaptation of Philippe Besson’s best-selling, semi-autobiographical novel.

Screenings:

Adaption of Virginia Wolf's biography inspired by the poet and novelist Vita Sackville-West.

A gender shifting noble person in Elizabethan times who searches for love and the meaning of life throughout history.

The Towner is screening Queerama, created from the BFI archive which explores a century of gay British life on film.

Here is a brisk documentary about Noël Coward, who sailed to New York aged 20 with £17 in his pocket, and by his 30th birthday was the highest-paid author in the western world.

In his lifetime he wrote 500 songs and 60 plays – acting in more than 70.

At its best, this is an efficient film that does a solid, succinct job of fitting a lot of life into a little over 90 minutes. 

Noël Coward died aged 73 in 1973. But in some ways this feels like a Wikipedia entry read out loud, never quite getting under the skin of a complicated man.

Review by The Gardian

Townercinema

                                   The Garden

Derek Jarman, 1990 (12A) 88m

Saturday 5^th October 2019 @ 2pm

Intro by Dr Niall Richardson, University of Sussex