From our manager, Neil:

I saw this documentary in September 2024 when it screened at London Film Festival and I have been on the lookout ever since in the hope that we could screen it at The Riverside. It was not necessarily an easy watch, but it moved me and left me thinking about the film for days afterwards. I cannot personally recommend this film enough and would strongly advise you give the film a chance, and come and see it.

Six women return to the now abandoned Holloway Prison to take part in a women’s circle. Sharing some of the most intimate experiences of their lives, they each unravel what led them to prison, building an eye-opening portrait of failing systems and trauma, while discovering their extraordinary capacity to heal through sisterhood.

Directed by BAFTA Breakthrough Daisy-May Hudson and EMMY nominated Sophie Compton, this deeply moving and transformational documentary feature was made via a unique process of a trauma-informed co-creation with six contributors, a group of incredibly talented, high profile women who are running charities and using their lived-experience to call for change. They are Aliyah Ali, Mandy Ogunmokun, Sarah Cassidy, Lady Unchained, Gerrah, and Tamar Mujanay.

The film had its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award for Best Documentary. Its international premiere was at Hot Docs Film Festival in Canada, in competition for the Academy Award Qualifying Best International Documentary.

HOLLOWAY is a profound, meditative, eye-opening and ultimately inspiring exploration of trauma and the immense human capacity for recovery.

    ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Financial Times 'Hugely powerful..hard to shake'

    ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Guardian: ' Essential viewing for policy makers' and 'an astonishing new documentary'

    ⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Times ' Moving...the stakes rarely get higher'

From Celine Song, the Academy Award-nominated writer and director of Past Lives, comes Materialists: the story of a young, ambitious New York City matchmaker torn between the perfect match and her imperfect ex.

Lucy (Dakota Johnson) is the star matchmaker at a boutique New York agency, and believes love is a numbers game. Her beliefs are put to the test when two potential suitors for her come along at once.

One is Harry (Pedro Pascal), a suave, wealthy bachelor who's perfect on paper, and can offer her the lifestyle she covets. The other is her ex: John (Chris Evans), a struggling actor working as a cater-waiter, whose messy lifestyle is her biggest hindrance. But how do you choose between the life you want and the love you need?

The forthcoming film of David Gilmour's 2024 return to Rome's historic Circus Maximus as part of the Luck and Strange tour, his first in nearly a decade, was directed by long-time Gilmour collaborator Gavin Elder.

The sublime spectacle, filmed against the backdrop of the ancient ruins of Rome, blends solo tracks from David’s most recent album Luck and Strange including a stirring rendition of Between Two Points with Romany Gilmour as well as classic Pink Floyd anthems such as Sorrow, High Hopes, Breathe, Time, Wish You Were Here, and Comfortably Numb.

The Luck and Strange tour spanned twenty-three dates in five cities and was instantly sold out. With no new shows on the horizon, David Gilmour Live at the Circus Maximus, Rome is the best and only way to experience the master of his art on stage.

A richly textured essay film on landscape, art, history, life and loss, Patience (After Sebald) offers a unique exploration of the work of internationally acclaimed writer W.G. Sebald, tracking his most influential book, The Rings of Saturn. Grierson award winning filmmaker Grant Gee directs the first film about Sebald, with contributions from major writers, artists and film-makers including Tacita Dean, Robert Macfarlane, Sir Andrew Motion, Rick Moody, Iain Sinclair and Marina Warner, with a haunting soundtrack by acclaimed composer and sound artist The Caretaker, and narration by Jonathan Pryce.

Sebald, who was born in 1944, taught for much of his adult life in this country, mainly at the University of East Anglia, and was killed in a motor accident in 2001. The Rings of Saturn was first published in German in 1995, translated into English three years later and is an account of a walking tour of Suffolk, the people he meets, the places he visits, and the historical and literary reflections prompted by what he sees and senses, taking his mind around the world. Suffolk becomes a sort of palimpsest for his eloquent, precise, lugubrious, often drily witty meditations about war, death, destruction and decay, about memories and continuities and the feeling that nothing entirely disappears.

The Caretaker’s music in the film is deeply atmospheric, creating a haunting and introspective soundscape. It skillfully captures the contemplative and melancholic themes found in Sebald’s writing. The album’s unique approach to sound design immerses listeners in a dreamlike and introspective experience, making ‘Patience (After Sebald)’ a poignant journey into themes of memory, time, and the intricacies of the human psyche.

Drawing inspiration from Franz Schubert’s 1827 composition ‘Winterreise’, The Caretaker employs his signature perplexing processes. He transforms the source material, smudging and rubbing isolated fragments into a dust-caked haze of plangent keys, strangely resolved loops, and de-pitched vocals. The result is a haunting and atmospheric soundscape that mirrors the ethereal nature of Sebald’s literary world, with elements fading in and out, much like memories.

Screening as part of Woodbridge's Ambient Music Festival - more details about the festival here

If you have an Ambient Music Festival pass then you can purchase the cheaper ticket and show your pass at the cinema when arriving.

Life seems easy for picture-perfect couple Ivy (Olivia Colman) and Theo (Benedict Cumberbatch): successful careers, a loving marriage, great kids. But beneath the façade of their supposed ideal life, a storm is brewing – as Theo’s career nosedives while Ivy’s own ambitions take off, a tinderbox of fierce competition and hidden resentment ignites.

The Roses is a reimagining of the 1989 classic film The War of the Roses, based on the novel by Warren Adler

In Nobody 2, Hutch Mansell is still paying off a $30 million debt to the Russian mob with a steady stream of international hits. Burnt out and growing distant from his wife Becca (Connie Nielsen), Hutch agrees to a family trip to Plummerville, the site of his only childhood vacation with brother Harry (RZA).

But what begins as a wholesome getaway spirals into madness when the Mansells clash with a corrupt theme park owner (John Ortiz) and a crooked sheriff (Colin Hanks). Things escalate when the town’s unhinged crime boss—played by none other than Sharon Stone—makes Hutch her next target.

Bob Odenkirk reprises his role as the mild-mannered suburban dad turned lethal assassin in a sequel that cranks up the chaos, comedy, and carnage.

In July 1969, the space race ended when Apollo 11 fulfilled President John F. Kennedy’s challenge of “landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.” No one who witnessed the lunar landing will ever forget it. Twenty years later, Al Reinert constructed a documentary that imparts the unforgettable story of the twenty-four astronauts who traveled to the moon as part of NASA’s Apollo program—told in their words and in their voices, using the images they captured. With its awe-inspiring, otherworldly footage and a haunting atmospheric soundtrack by Woodbridge's very own Brian Eno, For All Mankind stirs us with a profound sense of compassion for the “pale blue dot” that is our home, and it remains the most radical, visually dazzling work of cinema that has been made about this earthshaking event.

Screening as part of Woodbridge's Ambient Music Festival - more details about the festival here

If you have an Ambient Music Festival pass then you can purchase the cheaper ticket and show your pass at the cinema when arriving.

Meticulously restored and remastered in 4K for its 60th anniversary, the beloved classic is more brilliant than ever with pristine picture and sound.

In this true-life story, Julie Andrews lights up the screen as Maria, a spirited young woman who leaves the convent and becomes a governess to the seven unruly children of Captain von Trapp (Christopher Plummer). Her warmth, charm and songs soon win the hearts of the children and their father. But when the threat of war rises, Maria is forced to attempt a daring escape with her new family.

One of the most successful movie musicals of all time, “The Sound of Music” features unforgettable treasures like “Edelweiss,” “My Favorite Things,” “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” and “Do-Re-Mi.”

Hitchcock’s audacious film sets out to prove there’s no such thing as getting away with murder, even if the central couple Brandon and Philip arrogantly believe they can. With the coded language and looks between the two men more than hinting at a love that was illicit in 1948, the tension rises as their perfect plan starts to unravel. Will it just be one murder before the night is through?

Screening as part of our Around the World in Technicolor Season

Barry Lyndon is Stanley Kubrick's epic costume drama based on William Makepeace Thackeray's beautiful novel. It tells the story of a young rogue who wanders through life getting lost in various adventures, meeting his share of women and oddball characters. When Redmond Barry becomes jealous of Captain Quin's advances on his beloved cousin, he challenges the man to a duel. Winning the duel, young Barry is forced to leave his home and his mother. He meets thieves, lonely soldier brides, Prussian army leaders, and British widows, inventing new stories about himself at every turn of the road.

Barry Lyndon is more breathtaking than ever in this special 50th anniversary 4K restoration presented by Park Circus.

The cinematic return of the global phenomenon, follows the Crawley family and their staff as they enter the 1930s. When Mary finds herself at the center of a public scandal and the family faces financial trouble, the entire household grapples with the threat of social disgrace.

The Crawleys must embrace change as the staff prepares for a new chapter with the next generation leading Downton Abbey into the future in this final film in the series.

Sarah is a powerful and emotionally resonant film that tells the story of a young Maasai girl navigating the delicate balance between tradition and modernity. The film addresses critical issues such as female genital cutting (FGC), girls’ education, and the financial hardships that shape family decisions. Through Sarah’s journey, the film aims to ignite vital conversations about the importance of education, the right of girls to make their own choices, and the urgent need to eliminate harmful cultural practices like FGC.

Sarah is the first-ever feature film in Kimaasai, created using the stories of real women from Maasai communities. Sarah is more than a film. It’s a movement for change that will contribute to local, national, and international efforts to promote gender equality through FGC abandonment. This is an issue of health, gender, and environmental justice.

A Q&A with the film’s director and producer Nick Reding will follow the screening.

On September 25th the Riverside will be 110 years old and we would like you to join us on the evening of Saturday 27th to celebrate with a look back at film from the Riverside archive along with a few recently filmed interviews with Pat Betts, Stuart Saunders and Tina Wiseman.

Our current manager, Neil, and Technical assistant, Will, have for the past few years been working on researching the cinema’s history and collecting all the material together to make a book (available on the evening!), a documentary and a page on our website to record our history.

Tonight will be a special birthday celebration of our little cinema/theatre and we’d be delighted to share its past with you.

On the edge of Chinatown stands the only independent cinema left in Central London. Grey and black, dotted with poster frames, and lit by an overhanging readograph, its presence is tucked away from the other,  brighter multiplexes of Leicester Square. There, within its small interior, a team of ushers push through the day.

Based on the real-life experiences and stories from those that work at the Prince Charles Cinema, Fil Freitas - a former usher turned manager himself - has put together a feature length comedy drama that  follows a day in the life of its hapless employees. During their shift they watch movies, argue with customers, and above all, deal with each other.

In war-torn Rome, Floria Tosca and Mario Cavaradossi live for each other and for their art. But when Cavaradossi helps an escaped prisoner, the lovers make a deadly enemy in the form of Baron Scarpia, Chief of Police. At the mercy of Scarpia’s twisted desires, Tosca is forced to make a horrific bargain: sleeping with the man she hates in order to save the man she loves. Can she find a way out?

A star-studded cast includes soprano Anna Netrebko performing the role of Tosca, tenor Freddie De Tommaso as Cavaradossi, and bass-baritone Gerald Finley as Scarpia, with Music Director of The Royal Opera Jakub Hrůša conducting his first new production in the role. An alternative, modern-day Rome provides the backdrop for Oliver Mears’ unmissable, gripping new production of Puccini’s thriller.

Cast:  

Floria Tosca ANNA NETREBKO

Mario Cavaradossi FREDDIE DE TOMMASO

Baron Scarpia GERALD FINLEY

Spoletta CARLO BOSI

Cesare Angelotti OSSIAN HUSKINSON

Sacristan ALESSANDRO CORBELLI

Sciarrone SIPHE KWANI

Creatives:

Music GIACOMO PUCCINI

Conductor JAKUB HRŮŠA

Director OLIVER MEARS

Set Designer SIMON LIMA HOLDSWORTH

Costume Designer ILONA KARAS

Lighting Designer FABIANA PICCIOLI

Movement Director ANNA MORRISSEY