Irish Film Institute -Review Roundup – Lawrence of Arabia and I Am Not a Witch

Review Roundup – Lawrence of Arabia and I Am Not a Witch

Two new films open at the Irish Film Institute on Friday the 20th of October, with a classic and future classic in the mix.

We’re delighted to be able to add another 70mm title to our roster for 2017 with the return of Lawrence of Arabia, presented from a brand new print. We’ve just been testing it in Cinema 1 and the picture is incredibly clear, while the sound, and Maurice Jarre’s score, boom through the speakers. The film has a limited run to October 26th only.

We’re also opening I Am Not a Witch, the first film from director Rungano Nyoni which takes a fantastical look at a young girl who is accused of witchcraft in modern day Zambia.

Read on for some reviews of this films, and pop into the IFI to make up your own mind!

LAWRENCE OF ARABIA 70MM
“Peter O’Toole’s impossibly charismatic debut performance remains a mesmeric marvel in this digitally restored version of the exhilarating historical drama”
5/5 – Guardian

“Lean and photographer Fred A. Young have combined their artistic talents in an evocation of the Arabian desert that makes it both terrifying and deeply moving in its lonely grandeur”
4/4 – New York Daily News

“It combines an astute character study with some of the most jaw-dropping images captured on film”
5/5 – Total Film

“Approach it from whatever angle you like, performances, script, cinematography, score; David Lean’s sweeping biography of T.E. Lawrence is unarguably magnificent”
4/4 – Minneapolis Star Tribune

“This deserves to be seen again on the big screen”
4/5 – Time Out

“It is O’Toole who continually dominates the screen, and he dominates it with professional skill, Irish charm and smashing good looks”
Time Magazine

“It’s an astonishing, unrepeatable epic”
Chicago Tribune

I AM NOT A WITCH
“An extravagant flight of fancy that functions equally well as an anthropological curiosity, engrossing drama, feminist allegory, tart political satire and dire warning against xenophobia”
4/5 – Irish Times

“A magic realist fable set in present-day Zambia that has plenty to say about gender and superstition”
4/5 – Time Out

“It’s rare and exhilarating that a new filmmaker arrives on the scene so sure of herself and so willing to take bold, counter-intuitive chances”
Variety

“Blends deadpan humor with light surrealism, vivid visuals and left-field musical choices”
Hollywood Reporter

“A fascinating witch’s brew of absurdism, realism, satire and fairy tale”
Metro

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