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The Prince Charles Cinema

Travel the globe from the comfort of your PCC seat with masterpieces, discoveries and essential works from every corner of the cinematic world.

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La Haine
1995 98mins France (15) Crime
Directed by Mathieu Kassovitz Starring Vincent Cassel, Hubert Koundé, Saïd Taghmaoui

Hatred breeds hatred...

24 hours in the lives of three young men in the French suburbs the day after a violent riot.

In The Mood For Love
2000 98mins Hong Kong (PG) Romance
Directed by Wong Kar Wai Starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Maggie Cheung, Rebecca Pan, Lai Chen, Paulyn Sun

In 1962 Hong Kong, neighbors Su Li-zhen (Mrs. Chan) and Chow Mo-wan (Mr. Chow) discover their spouses are having an affair. As they spend time together, they develop feelings for each other, but their relationship remains chaste and unspoken, reflecting societal constraints and their own moral compass.

The Sacrifice
1986 148mins France, Sweden, UK (12A) Drama
Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky Starring Erland Josephson, Susan Fleetwood, Allan Edwall

Andrei Tarkovsky’s visionary final film unfolds in the hours before a nuclear holocaust. Erland Josephson, in an award-winning role, plays retired actor Alexander who is celebrating his birthday with family and friends when a crackly TV announcement warns of an imminent nuclear catastrophe.

Alexander makes a promise to God that he will sacrifice all he holds dear, if the disaster can be averted. The next day dawns and, as if in a dream, everything is restored to normality. But Alexander must keep his vow.

Among many other awards, The Sacrifice won the Cannes Grand Prix in 1986, the same year that Tarkovsky died of cancer in Paris at the age of 54.

Perfect Blue
1997 81mins Japan (18) Anime
Directed by Satoshi Kon| Toshi Starring Junko Iwao, Rica Matsumoto, Shinpachi Tsuji

"THE COLOUR OF ILLUSION IS PERFECT BLUE"

A young Japanese singer is encouraged by her agent to quit singing and pursue an acting career, beginning with a role in a murder mystery TV show.

Zombie Flesh Eaters [Zombi 2]
1979 91mins Italy (18) Horror
Directed by Lucio Fulci Starring Tisa Farrow, Ian McCulloch, Richard Johnson

After an abandoned boat sails into New York harbor with a zombie aboard, a reporter teams up with the daughter of the boat's missing captain to investigate the island where he was last seen conducting research—the site of an alleged zombie outbreak.

Brother
2000 114mins France, Japan, UK, USA (18) Crime / Thriller
Directed by Takeshi Kitano Starring Takeshi Kitano, Omar Epps, Claude Maki

Legendary comedian and TV host turned director Takeshi Kitano writes, directs, and stars in his first and only American co-production. Disgraced yakuza Yamamoto (Kitano) seeks refuge in Los Angeles, reconnecting with his younger half-brother Ken (Claude Maki) after his clan suffered defeat at the hands of a rival gang back in Tokyo. Cool and detached, Brother marries Japanese and American disillusionment in Kitano’s signature violent minimalist style through the growing bonds between Yamamoto and the multinational gang that he cultivates in L.A. 

Brother is featured as part of Gangsters Have Feelings Too, a season exploring the sensitive gangster film. The season is presented with the National Film and Television School’s Film Studies, Programming and Curation MA.

Fantastic Planet
1973 72mins Czechoslovakia, France (PG) Animation
Directed by René Laloux Starring Gérard Hernandez, Jean Valmont, Jennifer Drake

On the planet Ygam, the Draags, extremely technologically and spiritually advanced blue humanoids, consider the tiny Oms, human beings descendants of Terra's inhabitants, as ignorant animals. Those who live in slavery are treated as simple pets and used to entertain Draag children; those who live hidden in the hostile wilderness of the planet are periodically hunted and ruthlessly slaughtered as if they were vermin.

Akira
1988 125mins Japan (15) Anime
Directed by Katsuhiro Ôtomo Starring Mami Koyama, Mitsuo Iwata, Nozomu Sasaki

Iconic and game-changing, AKIRA is the definitive anime masterpiece! Katsuhiro Otomo's landmark cyberpunk classic obliterated the boundaries of Japanese animation and forced the world to look into the future. AKIRA's arrival shattered traditional thinking, creating space for future generations of ground-breaking movies.

July, 1988 - World War III breaks loose. Then, in 2019, in megalopolis Tokyo...As the leader of a group of young robust delinquents, Kaneda spent his nights tearing through the urban wastes, racing his motorbike against rival groups. One night while riding with his gang, his friend Tetsuo suddenly encounters a strange boy - the product of human experimentation and is injured in the ensuing crash. Shortly thereafter, a military squadron appears on the scene to take the boy and Tetsuo away to an army research facility. Determined to free Tetsuo from capture, Kaneda sneaks into the army research lab. However, a regimen of extreme experimental procedures has awakened a new power in his friend, and now he is consumed by madness..

The Time Masters
1982 79mins France (PG) Animation / Sci-Fi
Directed by René Laloux Starring Jean Valmont, Michel Elias, Frédéric Legros

Directed by visionary science-fiction animator René Laloux (Fantastic Planet) and designed by the legendary Jean Giraud (a.k.a. Mœbius) The Time Masters is a visually fantastic foray into existentialist space adventure. After his parents are killed on the dangerous planet Perdide, young Piel (voiced by Frédéric Legros) survives by maintaining radio contact with Jaffar (Jean Valmont), a pilot transporting the exiled Prince Matton (Yves-Marie Maurin) and Princess Belle (Monique Thierry) from their former kingdom. Jaffar seeks the help of Silbad (Michel Elias), a cheerful old-timer who knows how to circumvent Perdide’s hazards, including brain-devouring insects and watery graves. Along the way, Jaffar and company encounter a pair of impish homunculi stowaways, identity-less angels controlled by an amorphous hive mind, and the Masters of Time, mysterious beings who can bend reality and perhaps reveal to the heroes their secret origins and destinies.

Restored in 4K in 2023 at the initiative of CITE FILMS in collaboration with the Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna and with the support of the CNC

Evangelion: Death (True)² + The End of Evangelion : Double Feature
1998 156mins Japan (15) Anime
Directed by Hideaki Anno Starring Megumi Hayashibara, Megumi Ogata, Yuko Miyamura

EVANGELION: DEATH (TRUE)²: A recap of the first 24 episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion. Fifteen years after the Second Impact, apathetic teen Shinji joins his father's group NERV to fight the Angels. But the truth may destroy them all.

THE END OF EVANGELION: Concurrent theatrical ending of the TV series Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995). Seele orders an all-out attack on NERV, aiming to destroy the Evas before Gendo can trigger Third Impact and Instrumentality under his control.

We Are the Night
2010 100mins France, Germany (15) Horror / Drama
Directed by Dennis Gansel Starring Karoline Herfurth, Nina Hoss, Jennifer Ulrich

Spotted and romantically pursued by the leader of a matriarchal vampire trio, down-on-her-luck Lena is bitten and turned into one of them. Overcoming the initial shock, she finds the eternal lifestyle agreeable – riches, partying, fashion – all until the bloodthirst of her companions become too much. 

Sink your teeth into this rarely screened vampire film, Wir sind die Nacht! Not officially released in the UK, director Dennis Gansel offers a campy and biting adventure set in the heart of Berlin. The film both plays with traditional vampire rules and introduces new, playful ways to depict the immortal creature. Some fans claim that they would do “anything for lesbian vampire Nina Hoss”, and for the avid vampire fan, this film has become a must-watch. 

We Are the Night is featured as part of MANEATERS, a season exploring the female supernatural on screen. The season is presented with the National Film and Television School’s Film Studies, Programming and Curation MA.

Your Name [Kimi no Na wa.]
2016 106mins Japan (12A) Anime
Directed by Makoto Shinkai Starring Ryunosuke Kamiki, Mone Kamishiraishi

Two teenagers share a profound, magical connection upon discovering they are swapping bodies. Things manage to become even more complicated when the boy and girl decide to meet in person.

Gandahar
1987 83mins France (12A) Animation / Sci-Fi
Directed by René Laloux Starring Catherine Chevallier, Pierre-Marie Escourrou, Anny Duperey

An entire civilisation must confront its destiny in alternative-animation pioneer René Laloux's final feature, a cult classic of mind-bending science fiction. In a distant world, a merciless army of automata attacks Gandahar, turning its peace-loving people to stone. Hoping to discover the source of these Men of Metal, a council of matriarchs enlists the brave yet inexperienced warrior Sylvain (Pierre-Marie Escourro), who, while journeying through his planet's outer regions, teams up with the Deformed, a race cast out from Gandahar after failed science experiments rendered them mutants. Soon, Sylvain learns that a gargantuan brain called Metamorphis (Georges Wilson) is responsible for his utopian society's strife and—together with the beautiful Airelle (Catherine Chevallier)—travels through time to defeat him, in the process risking their lives and Gandahar's very existence. Featuring stunningly surreal creatures and wondrously bizarre environments designed by renowned comic-book artist Caza, Gandahar is a visceral, visionary head-trip in which animation opens a gateway to the furthest reaches of the imagination.

A Confucian Confusion
1994 125mins Taiwan (18) Comedy
Directed by Edward Yang Starring Chen Shiang-chyi, Chen Yi-wen, Danny Deng

Art versus commerce, friendship versus status, independence versus conformity—values clash and collide in Edward Yang's study of an increasingly Westernized country heading into the twenty-first century without moral guideposts. Moving from breakout hit A Brighter Summer Day's investigation of the past to a critical survey of the present, A Confucian Confusion charts the tangled web of emotional and professional manipulations among a group of young urbanites. At its center is Molly (Ni Shu-chun), director of a floundering public-relations firm. Alienated by the childish fiancé (Bosen Wang) who bankrolls her enterprise—and frustrated by the demands of an assistant, Qiqi (Chen Shiang-chyi), and her own fiancé, Ming (Wang Wei-ming)—Molly lashes out at everyone in her path and threatens to dismantle the company altogether. Meanwhile (amid several other subplots), Molly's talk-show-host sister (Chen Li-mei) attempts to dissuade her separated husband from continuing to write a dark novel about the return of Confucius to a jaded modern society. Injecting comedic elements into his patented brand of earnest soul-searching, Yang finds humor as well as pathos in the desperate behavior of a lost and lonely generation.

Amelie - 25th Anniversary
2001 123mins France (15) Romance/Comedy
Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet Starring Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz, Rufus

23-year-old Amélie is lonely. After an isolating childhood, she moves to Paris and becomes a waitress at the Café des Deux Moulins, a bar restaurant filled with a colourful cast of diners and employees. One night, Amélie happens across a box of treasures hidden in her apartment, left by a little boy in the Fifties, that changes the course of her life. Henceforth, she dedicates herself to giving back to her community, tracking down the owner of these keepsakes, consoling a widowed neighbour and befriending a reclusive artist. When completing these good deeds, she crosses paths with Nino, a photobooth collagist who shares her oddball sensibilities. She quickly falls in love with him.  

The Worst Person in the World
2022 128mins Denmark, Norway, Sweden (15) Romance/Comedy
Directed by Joachim Trier Starring Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie, Herbert Nordrum

On the verge of turning thirty, Julie is faced with a series of choices that force her to pursue new perspectives on her life in contemporary Oslo. Over the course of four years, she navigates love affairs and existential uncertainty as she starts deciding who she wants to become.

2046
2004 128mins Hong Kong (12A) Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Directed by Wong Kar Wai Starring Gong Li, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Ping Lam Siu, Carina Lau, Zhang Ziyi, Chen Chang, Tony Leung, Takuya Kimura, Faye Wong, Maggie Cheung, Wang Su

Wong Kar Wai’s loose sequel to In the Mood for Love combines that film’s languorous air of romantic longing with a dizzying time-hopping structure and avant-sci-fi twist. Tony Leung Chiu Wai reprises his role as writer Chow Mo-Wan, whose numerous failed relationships with women who drift in and out of his life (and the one who goes in and out of room 2046, down the hall from his apartment) inspire the delirious futuristic love story he pens. 2046’s dazzling fantasy sequences give Wong and two of his key collaborators—cinematographer Christopher Doyle and editor/costume designer/production designer William Chang Suk Ping—license to let their imaginations run wild, propelling the sumptuous visuals and operatic emotions skyward toward the sublime.


The Umbrellas of Cherbourg [Les parapluies de Cherbourg]
1964 91mins France, Germany, West Germany (PG) Musical / Romance
Directed by Jacques Demy Starring Catherine Deneuve, Nino Castelnuovo, Anne Vernon

An angelically beautiful Catherine Deneuve was launched to stardom by this dazzling musical heart-tugger from Jacques Demy. She plays an umbrella-shop owner’s delicate daughter, glowing with first love for a handsome garage mechanic, played by Nino Castelnuovo. When the boy is shipped off to fight in Algeria, the two lovers must grow up quickly. Exquisitely designed in a kaleidoscope of colors, and told entirely through the lilting songs of the great composer Michel Legrand, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is one of the most revered and unorthodox movie musicals of all time.

A Tale of Winter
114mins (15) Romance/Comedy
Directed by Éric Rohmer Starring Charlotte Véry, Frédéric van den Driessche, Michel Voletti

Felicie and Charles have a whirlwind holiday romance. Due to a mix-up on addresses they lose contact, and five years later at Christmas-time Felicie is living with her mother in a cold Paris with a daughter as a reminder of that long-ago summer. For male companionship she oscillates between hairdresser Maxence and the intellectual Loic, but seems unable to commit to either as the memory of Charles and what might have been hangs over everything.