Art Exhibitions Listings
Group show: Subversion
Marwa Arsanios, Sherif El-Azma, Wafaa Bilal, Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, Khaled Hafez, Larissa Sansour, Tarzan and Arab, Sharif Waked and Akram Zaatari.
A unique group show of new and recent contemporary art that explores and rethinks modern Arab identity. Subversion features work from eleven emerging and established artists who use autobiographical arratives amalgamated with fiction, popular culture and subversive parody to reveal contrasts of existence in a disputed political region. Rather than conforming, they approach the various social masks they are expected to wear with a sense of humour – making reference to the duplicitous performances of their everyday lives. Spanning an array of techniques including installation, video, photography and sculpture, the work illustrates fragments of the distorted imagination that often preoccupies the Arab world. Curated by Omar Kohleif.
Ends Tuesday 5 June. Free entry, shown in Galleries 1, 2 & 3.
Rachael Elwell & Tom Harnett O’Meara: Forming A Line
Forming A Line brings together two artists based in Manchester and Todmorden who are both using the immediacy of drawing to explore open-ended processes and narratives. Rachael Elwell’s work explores the connections between line, form and space through a set of drawing processes and systems. Elwell focuses on the dynamic between chance and control / structure in the composition of her images. Often presented in series, they are random, generative and transformative, with the final result an unknown entity until the process is complete.
Elwell has recently graduated from an MA in Contemporary Fine Art at University of Salford. She has exhibited widely across the UK and undertaken a number of European residencies. Tom Harnett O’Meara’s selection of recent and new black and white drawings are intertwined with a sense ofnarrative. As he creates them, stories issue forth about the characters and the places they inhabit, linking together in unusual ways across pictures. Sometimes during breaks between drawing he will write down these strange tales. O’Meara’s inspiration comes from art nouveau, Japanese prints, Indian art, and the fine draughtsmen of Victorian illustration. His drawings have been exhibited at select venues in Manchester, and he has been published in several magazines.
Until Tuesday 29 May. It's free, at Café & Bar.
Curator’s Tour: Subversion
Exhibition curator Omar Kholeif will discuss his selection of the participating artists and his reasons for offering an alternative presentation of the ‘imagined’ Arab world. Suitable for all levels.
Sunday 20 May, 14:00 – 15:00. It's free but early booking is recommended.
Creative Industries Listings
Cornerhouse is an informal social hub for a whole host of creatives in Manchester, but it also offers a formal programme aimed at inspiring, supporting and informing creative industry practitioners and those who aspire to work in the creative world.
Twitter – Make it Work for You
Are you on Twitter but want to use it more effectively? From creating lists to deciding which browser is best for you, co-organiser of Manchester Social Media Café Josh R gives you the tips and tools you need to make your 140 characters work for you.
Monday 21 May, 18:00 – 20:00 Price £4 full / £3 concessions.
Courses
Cornerhouse courses offer you the chance to explore the ideas and issues at the heart of their film and visual art programme in a relaxed and sociable setting. Cornerhouse Members receive a £5 discount off all prices. Courses are very popular and early booking is highly recommended.
Performing Identities: Examining Hitchcock’s Cinema
Beginners' level - no prior knowledge required
By examining some key motifs in Hitchcock’s films, this course will seek to read his work as an auteur. It will look at the films in chronological order using clips, slides and secondary material in order to unpick the specific themes that might inform Hitchcock’s work. By the end of the course, it is hoped that attendees will have a greater insight into the work of The Master. The course will include screenings of Psycho and North by Northwest. Led by Alan Fair, Freelance Film Lecturer.
Starts Wednesday 9 May, 18:30 – 20:30 £70 full / £50 concessions, 8 weeks.
Film Listings
Damsels in Distress
Cast includes; Greta Gerwig, Adam Brody, Analeigh Tipton, Megalyn Echikunwoke and Carrie MacLemore. Director Whit Stillman.
Whit Stillman (Metropolitan and The Last Days of Disco) returns after a 13-year hiatus with a typically acerbic and offbeat satire dissection of preppie university campus life. Greta Gerwig (Greenberg) stars as Violet, a student who, in addition to promoting a new dance craze, is determined to make her alma mater a more respectable place and rescue her fellow students from depression, grunge and low standards. With a super sharp script, this beautifully crafted film takes an utterly delightful and unique look into the psyche of privileged American youth.
Monsieur Lazhar
Cast includes; Mohamed Fellag, Sophie Nélisse, Émilien Néron, Danielle Proulx, Brigitte Poupart and Evelyne de la Cheneliér.
Following the sudden and traumatic death of one of the teachers, middle-aged Algerian immigrant, Bachir Lazhar, is hired to work as a supply teacher in a Quebec elementary school. Monsieur Lazhar's firm yet sensitive manner of working with these young children affords the class of troubled kids the opportunity to come to terms with their loss. Monsieur Lazhar is himself suffering tragedy and personal loss and thisOscar-nominated film presents his story with emotion, and deftly avoids over sentimentality. Monsieur Lazhar will be a hit with audiences who enjoyed Etre et avoir.
From Friday 4 May.
Two Years at Sea
Cast includes; Jake Williams
Using old 16mm cameras, artist and Jarman Prize nominee Ben Rivers creates work from stories of real people, often those who have disconnected from the normal world and taken themselves into wilderness territories. Two Years at Sea extends Ben Rivers' relationship with Jake, a man first encountered in his short film This is My Land. The title refers to the work Jake did in order to finance his chosen state of existence. He lives alone in a ramshackle house, in the middle of the forest. It's full of curiosities from a bygone age, including a beloved old gramophone. Jake has a tremendous sense of purpose, however eccentric his behaviour seems to us and Rivers' witty and gracefully-constructed film creates an intimate connection with an individual who would otherwise be a complete outsider to us.
From Friday 11 May.
Beloved (Les Bien-Aimés)
Cast includes; Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Ludivine Sagnier, Louis Garrel and Milos Forman.
From Paris in the 1960s to Prague then Paris and London in the 90’s, then onto the 21st century, Madeleine and her daughter Véra waltz in and out of the lives of the men they love. But love can be light and painful, cheerful and bitter in Christophe Honoré's delightful musical. An excellent ensemble cast, a gem for French film fans.
From Friday 18 May
Robert Mugabe… What Happened?
Charting the rise and fall of the man who led a very successful African country and then destroyed it, this documentary explores the story behind the headlines. Damned as a terrorist and suspended from the Commonwealth, Mugabe remains in power after 30 years. This insightful film assembles archive material alongside interviews with some of the leader’s closest colleagues, shedding light on how a man who once brought hope turned into a ruthless dictator.
Shown on Thursday 24 May.
Moonrise Kingdom
Cast includes; Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray, Harvey Keitel, Frances McDormand, Jason Schwartzman
Quite possibly Wes Anderson’s most ambitious film to date, Moonrise Kingdom follows the escapades of the Khaki Scout brigade in 1965 New England, where two love-struck twelve-year-olds make a secret pactto run away together into the wilderness. The stellar cast features Anderson’s most eclectic ensemble since The Royal Tenenbaums including old hands Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman. With Anderson and Roman Coppola on screenplay duties, expect meticulously stylised chaos to ensue.
From friday 25 May.
Free Men (Les Hommes libres)
Cast includes; Tahar Rahim, Michael Lonsdale, Mahmoud Shalaby, Lubna Azabal
1942, in German-occupied Paris. Younes, a young unemployed Algerian, earns his living as a black marketeer. Arrested by the French police, Younes agrees to spy on the Paris Mosque. The police suspects the Mosque authorities, among whom Si Kaddour Ben Ghabrit, its Rector, of helping Resistance fighters and Jews by giving them false certificates. At the Mosque, Younes meets the Algerian singer Salim Halali. Younes is moved by Salim’s beautiful voice and forceful personality and they become friends. Soon after, he discovers that Salim is Jewish. In spite of the risks it entails, Younes stops collaborating with the police. Confronted by the horrors unfolding around him, Younes gradually evolves from being a politically ignorant immigrant worker into a fully-fledged freedom fighter.
From friday 25 May.
Café de Flore
Cast includes; Vanessa Paradis, Kevin Parent, Helene Florent, Evelyne Brochu, Marin Gerrier
Director Jean-Marc Vallée (The Young Victoria, C.R.A.Z.Y.) returns with a vibrant film telling two interconnected love stories. Café De Flore is first and foremost an epic love story between a man and a woman. And between a mother and her son. Two people from two different eras who live two extraordinarymoments of passion that shake their lives. A mystical and supernatural odyssey of love.
Angel and Tony
Cast includes; Clotilde Hesme, Grégory Gadebois, Evelyne Didi
Delaporte’s debut feature is a wholly absorbing and quietly emotional film that follows two lonely souls whose lives are brought together by a personal ad. Angel is a desperate young woman, looking to reconnect with her young son and Tony is a fisherman who lives with his widowed mother, trapped in emotional solitude. Together they form a fractured relationship, but will the secret that Angel harbours threaten their future?
Goodbye First Love (Un amour de jeunesse)
Cast includes; Lola Créton, Sebastian Urzendowsky, Magne-Håvard Brekke, Valérie Bonneton, Serge Renko
Goodbye First Love is a sincere and heart-felt story of teenage love and loss from critically acclaimed French director Mia Hansen-Løve (The Father of My Children). Fifteen-year-old Camille and her boyfriend Sullivan enjoy an idyllic romantic summer, but when Sullivan heads off travelling alone Camille’s world comes crashing down. Based in part on her own life, Mia Hansen-Løve constructs an emotional portrait of the aftermath of Camille’s first taste of love.
Juan of the Dead (Juan de los muertos)
Cast includes; Alexis Días de Villegas, Jorge Molina, Andrea Duro, Andros Perugorría
Returning to our screens following our ¡Viva! Festival preview, this zombie comedy horror brings Cubanindependent filmmaking to an inter-national audience. Juan is a forty-year-old slacker living a laid-back life in Havana with his close-knit group of friends. When violence springs up around the city, and inhabitants start to attack one another, talk of a political dissident uprising is rife. But Juan and his gang soon discover their enemy is more dangerous than any ideological opponent, and armed with some home-made weapons and the desire to make a quick buck, Juan sets out to rid Havana of the undead.
The Source ((La source des femmes)
Cast includes; Leila Bekhti, Hafsia Herzi, Biyouna, Hiam Abbas, Saleh Bakri, Sabrina Ouazani
With a backdrop of stunning Maghrebi landscapes, La Source is a heart-warming contemporary fable of female empowerment from Radu Mihaileanu (Le Concert). Set in a remote village where the women must trek across the drought-ridden land for water every day while their unemployed husbands sit idle, La Source sees the inventive mutiny of these female villagers who one day refuse to work any longer.
Even the Rain (También la lluvia)
Cast includes; Gael García Bernal, Luis Tosar, Karra Elejalde, Raúl Arévalo
Returning to our screens following two sold-out ¡Viva! Festival previews, this multi-layered film from awardwinning Spanish actress and director Icíar Bollaín (Take My Eyes) explores contemporary political and environmental debates alongside poignant historical concerns. Sebastián (Gael García Bernal) is an idealistic film director hoping to realise a complex historical film about the Caribbean Indians driven to rebellion by the cruelty of the conquistadors. Despite budget problems, things go well until life begins to imitate art a little too closely, and the crewbecome embroiled in a bitter local conflict over water privatisation, the real-life Cochabamba Water Wars from the year 2000.
Contemporary Arab And Lebanese Cinema
Programmed to accompany our exhibition Subversion, this season of contemporary cinema from Lebanon highlights some of the most critically acclaimed films to come out of the Arab world. Produced by a generation of filmmakers whose memories of Lebanon’s bloody civil war remain omnipresent, these recentexamples illustrate one of the Arab world’s most emblematic nations, from a transitional stage of posttraumatic crisis through to post-revolutionary catharsis. For more information click here.
UK Premiere: Okay, Enough, Goodbye (Tayeb, khalas, yalla)
Dirs Rania Attieh, Daniel Garcia/AE LB 2011/93 mins/Arabic wEng ST/CTBA
Cast includes; Daniel Arzrouni, Nadimé Attieh, Walid Ayoubi, Nawal Mekdad
In the small, tightly-knit city of Tripoli, Lebanon, where family bonds run deep, a forty-year-old man still lives with his elderly mother and has given up on the idea of becoming independent. But when one day his mother suddenly leaves him, the man is left with nothing but the company of the small city and what itoffers. A dark and melancholic yet wistful comedy of an adult man’s coming of age. Event: We hope to welcome members of the filmmaking teams for post-screening Q&As to accompany the screenings of Okay, Enough, Goodbye and The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosni. For further details click here.
Thursday 3 May, 18:20.
The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosni (Ikhtifa’aat Soad Hosni el-Thalaathat)
This haunting and beautifully formed documentary is a meditation of the life of Egyptian screen legendSoad Hosni, who starred in eighty-two feature films between 1959 and 1991. Using filmic montage director Rania Stephan, a politically driven video artist, reveals the diverse modes of female representation embodied in Hosni’s charismatic roles and creates an ebullient picture of the iconic actress who captivated the modern Arab imagination. Event: We are pleased to welcome director Rania Stephan for a postscreening Q&A following The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosni. This discussion will be chaired by Subversion curator Omar Kholeif.
Thursday 10 May, 18:30.
Stray Bullet
Cast includes; Nadine Labaki, Takia Chamoun, Badih Bouchakra
This politically charged family melodrama is set in a northern suburb of Beirut at the end of summer in 1976, just as Lebanon’s long civil war is about to commence. It follows bride-to-be Noha (played by Lebanese screen icon and director/star of Caramel, Nadine Labaki) in the run up to her wedding. Her family is relieved she is set to be a married woman and revel in arranging the last minute touches for the big day. To escape the pre-wedding frenzy, Noha sneaks off to the woods with her lover and discovers something devastating that changes her mind completely and forces her to take control of her life. Winner of the Best Arab Feature award at the 2010 Dubai Film Festival.
Tuesday 22 May, 18:30.
Preview: Where Do We Go Now? (Et maintenant, on va où?)
Cast includes; Nadine Labaki, Claude Baz Moussawbaa, Layla Hakim, Yvonne Maalouf
Lebanese director-actor Nadine Labaki’s follow-up to the box office record-breaking Caramel is a feminist film about village women who are hell bent on keeping their hotheaded men out of a religious war. But when events take a tragic turn, just how far will the women go in order to prevent bloodshed and turmoil? Set against the backdrop of a war-torn country, Where Do We Go Now? tells the tale of a group of women’s determination to protect their isolated and encroached community from the omnipresent and discordant forces that threaten to destroy it from within. Supported by The University of Manchester and British Academy International Partnerships with the curatorial collaboration of the Arab Film Festival, Liverpool.
Matinee Classics
New Print
Laura
Cast includes; Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb
Preminger’s film noir masterpiece about erotic obsession, jealousy and deadly betrayal follows police detective Mark McPherson, as he investigates the recent murder of beautiful advertising executive, Laura. Through the testimonies of Laura’s nearest and dearest Mark soon becomes infatuated – can his final judgement really be trusted given that he has fallen for a dead woman? Laura is a brilliantly witty and taut social satire, and a superb example of the subtelty and sophistication of Hollywood crime movies.
Wednesday 2 May.
New Print
Ordet (The Word)
Cast includes; Henrik Malberg, Emil Hass Christensen, Preben Lerdorff Rye
Adapted from Kaj Munk’s play set in a remote Danish farming community, Ordet tells the story of Johannes – a young man who, after studying the radical Christian philosopher Kierkegaard, comes to believe he is Jesus Christ with miraculous powers. Written and directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer, his penultimate film is at once a wise exploration of pride, prejudice and pretensions to devout faith, and an emotionally arresting hymn to the power of earthly passion and love.
Sunday 13 and Wednesday 16 May.
New Print
La Grande Illusion
Cast includes; Pierre Fresnay, Erich von Stroheim, Jean Gabin, Dita Parlo
To celebrate 75 years since its original release, Jean Renoir’s masterpiece of pacifist cinema has been remastered in a digital restoration. Set during World War I, La Grande Illusion recounts the experiences of three French prisoners of war and the complex relationships with their German captor Von Rauffenstein (Erich von Stroheim). Sharing bonds of class and tradition, the French and German officers soon realise they have more in common than they had imagined. This powerful indictment of war boasts sensitive performances from its cast and assured direction from Renoir.
Sunday 27 and Wednesday 30 May.
Film Events Listings
Monthly Film Quiz
So you think you’re a movie buff? Join us for our latest monthly film quiz and test your movie knowledge to the limit. Top scorers can win a host of fantastic prizes from DVDs, books, CDs and film memorabilia and more. Limited availability, early booking recommended. In association with Fopp.
Tuesday 1 May / Tuesday 12 Jun, 20:00. £14 per team of four, the Annexe.
UK Premiere: Okay, Enough, Goodbye (Tayeb, khalas, yalla)
Cast includes; Daniel Arzrouni, Nadimé Attieh, Walid Ayoubi, Nawal Mekdad.
In the small, tightly-knit city of Tripoli, Lebanon, where family bonds run deep, a forty-year-old man still lives with his elderly mother and has given up on the idea of becoming independent. But when one day his mother suddenly leaves him, the man is left with nothing but the company of the small city and what itoffers. A dark and melancholic yet wistful comedy of an adult man’s coming of age. Event: We hope to welcome members of the filmmaking teams for post-screening Q&As to accompany the screenings of Okay, Enough, Goodbye and The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosni. For further details click here.
Thursday 3 May, 18:20.
The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosni (Ikhtifa’aat Soad Hosni el-Thalaathat)
This haunting and beautifully formed documentary is a meditation of the life of Egyptian screen legend Soad Hosni, who starred in eighty-two feature films between 1959 and 1991. Using filmic montage director Rania Stephan, a politically driven video artist, reveals the diverse modes of female representation embodied in Hosni’s charismatic roles and creates an ebullient picture of the iconic actress who captivated the modern Arab imagination. Event: We are pleased to welcome director Rania Stephan for a postscreening Q&A following The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosni. This discussion will be chaired by Subversion curator Omar Kholeif.
Thursday 10 May, 18:30,
The Reel Deal
Mondays and Tuesdays don’t get any better than this. Kick-start your week and treat yourself to a film, a homemade pizza and a glass of wine or pint of Becks Vier for just £12.50. Limited availability, early booking recommended.
Every Monday & Tuesday Evening.
Monday Night Quiz
Grab your friends and test your knowledge of random bobbins in our weekly quiz. Every team wins a prize.
Every Monday, 20:30.Entry is free, Ground Floor Bar.
