FOR PARENTS MAROONED WITH THEIR BABIES, STARVED OF THE CHANCE TO SEE EXCELLENT FILMS FOR MONTHS ON END, COMES FOR CRYING OUT ALLOWED. ONCE A MONTH, THE IFI WILL PUT ON A SPECIAL SCREENING FOR PARENTS-WITH BABIES.
Simply bring your bundle with you, park your buggy or pram with us, and enjoy the best film we have on that week. As the title suggests, there is no need to worry about the noise. Baby-changing facilities are provided, and we have a cafe for lunch afterwards. Babies must be 12 months or younger, and adults pay normal admission price. RESERVATIONS STRICTLY REQUIRED: 01-6795744

OCTOBER SCREENING:I’VE LOVED YOU SO LONG

A CAREER-BEST PERFORMANCE FROM KRISTIN SCOTT THOMAS (WHICH IS SAYING SOMETHING) ANCHORS THIS SUBTLE BUT INSIDIOUSLY WATCHABLE FRENCH FAMILY DRAMA ABOUT THE CORROSIVE EFFECTS OF A PAST WHICH WON’T STAY THERE.
When we first see Scott Thomas’s Juliette she’s far from alluring, a chain-smoking, drably turned-out middle-aged woman who greets her sister Lea (Elsa Zylberstein) with wary reserve. When they get back to the latter’s family home she shares with her lexicographer hubby and two adopted Vietnamese daughters, there’s some explaining to do. Where has Auntie Juliette been all these years? On a journey, away in England, explains Lea, but we know there’s something more to it. Perhaps something sinister… More than that it would be unfair to say, since it’s a good half-hour before writer-director Philippe Claudel, a novelist making his feature debut, drops his first major bombshell, with more to follow. What can be revealed is that the acting is really quite special, as Scott Thomas, initially spiky but softened by this new immersion into domestic routine, works wonders as a woman in thrall to yet resisting the grip of her shadowy history. In a supporting role, Zylberstein (once young Romaine Bohringer’s foil in the wonderful Mina Tannenbaum) also does well as the sibling tainted by feelings of betrayal yet needing to assert her role as confessor and confidante. When it does eventually explode, this is the stuff of melodrama, yet it’s so well-judged, so grown-up in its unshowiness, you can’t but help envisage a stellar directorial career to follow. In the meantime, the film is certain to garner some acting awards. — Trevor Johnston.