Cinema

New Films
Populaire
Fri 31 May – Thu 13 June
This modern take on the age-old Pygmalion story is laughout-loud
funny and an absolute charmer. If you are in the need
for some sunny, summery, light-hearted French fare then
Populaire should be top of your list of must-see films.
In the late 1950s, Rose Pamphyle (Deborah Francois) dreams
of a different life. The daughter of a grocer in a small
Normandy village, engaged to the local garage owner, she
aspires to a career as a secretary. Her first job doesn’t go
exactly as planned. Her cocky, obnoxious boss Louis (Romain
Duris) threatens to fire her in the first week but agrees to keep
her on one condition – that she begins training to win the
regional typing competition and secure her future with the
company. In order to train her more efficiently, Louis moves
Rose into his country mansion, where he makes her undertake
a gruelling regime of physical fitness and typing exercises,
such as typing out entire works of literature. Naturally, the pair
begin to fall for each other, but Louis has a crippling fear of
commitment dating back to his time spent in the French
resistance and the loss of his childhood sweetheart Marie
(Bérénice Bejo) to his best friend Bob (Shaun Benson).
With the same sharp fashions and set design which we’ve
come to expect from television series like Mad Men and The
Hour, Populaire is a French take on the exploration of the
post-war period, when women were asserting themselves in
the workforce. With a superb soundtrack and some terrific set
pieces, we promise you’ll be charmed from start to finish.
Dir: Régis Roinsard
France 2012 / 1h51m / Digital / 12A
French with English subtitles
Senior Citizen Kane Club screening Thu 13 June, 10:30
10 www.dca.org.uk
A Hijacking
Kapringen
Fri 31 May – Thu 6 June
Writer-director Tobias Lindholm’s debut feature
film is an intense and engrossing high-pressure
drama about a commercial ship hijacked on
the high seas by outlaws looking for cash
in exchange for hostages. Forget any
preconceptions you might have about pirates –
this film is all about big business and focuses as
much on the company back home as it does on
the sailors they are trying to save.
The premise is cleverly set up as the film opens
with daily life on board the commercial vessel.
We don’t actually see the hijacking take place but
jump instead to the moment when the Danish
CEO Peter (Søren Malling) first learns of the crisis.
At the heart of the drama is the ship’s cook
Mikkel (Pilou Asbæk), who becomes a key player
in the negotiations along with the hijackers’
translator Omar (Abdihakin Asgar). As
circumstances become more and more
harrowing for the men on board, tensions heat
up in the boardroom at home.
Lindholm also wrote for the television series
Borgen and many of the cast will be familiar faces
to anyone who’s addicted to Danish television.
Both Malling and Asbæk are terrific as men on
opposite sides of the drama both desperately
trying to do the right thing while keenly aware of
what is driving each of them – survival.
Dir: Tobias Lindholm
Denmark 2012 / 1h43m / Digital / 15
Danish & Swedish with English subtitles
Senior Citizen Kane Club screening
Thu 6 June, 10:30