Lots of movie treats to tempt filmic sorts to the big screen this week, including…

Alleluia

Director Fabrice Du Weiz’s free adaptation of a news item that shook the United States from 1947 to 1949; the story of Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez, or how a young nurse and a swindler, small-time gigolo, will fall into a deadly tragedy. Laurent Lucas and Lola Duenas star. The official French/English website is here but it will be showing at the the Vue West End as part of the Fright Fest season only.

Charulata

A classic cinema fan can always rely on the BFI to screen forgotten gems that are also favourites of the maestro’s who created them. Indian director Satyajit Ray’s own personal fave has been given a good dusting off, a Victorian-era drama about a wife neglected by her husband. The BFI’s page about the film is here and it contains details about where across the UK it will be screened.

Deliver Us From Evil

For those who like the impossibly sexy Eric Bana, he teams up here with also rather fetching Edgar Ramirez in a thriller about a cop and a priest who join forces to fight supposed demonic crimes and murders in modern day New York. The Exorcist meets NYPD Blue. The official UK site with all the details is here and the film will be showing across most UK cinema screens.

God Help the Girl

God Help The Girl is a musical feature film, written and directed by Stuart Murdoch, lead singer of the group Belle and Sebastian. Stuart aspired to tell the story of “a better summer, or at least a summer when something happened. It happened to a boy and a girl and a girl in a city roughly the same size and population of Glasgow. Perhaps the canals were a bit grimier, the high-rise buildings taller, the streets emptier when you needed them to be, and the beat clubs busier than the ones around here. But on the whole the city was this one.” The film will be screening at key cities only and the details are on the official website here.

Into the Storm

The disaster movie genre has never achieved the prestige of illustrious 1970’s productions such as the Airport series, The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Earthquake and The Towering Inferno (both 1974) when a different calamity battered international movie audiences seemingly every fortnight. Here, the city of Silverton is ravaged by furious twisters. Most people seek shelter, while others run toward the vortex, testing how far a storm chaser will go for that once-in-a-lifetime shot. Richard Armitage, Sarah Wayne Cailles and Jeremy Sumpter star and the film will screen all over the place. The official website is here. 

Lucy

Luc Besson directs the delectable Scarlett Johansson as a seemingly normal woman whose super-intelligence is suddenly untapped with horrific consequences. Besson has spoken recently of Johansson’s charm, acting taken and beauty in overly fulsome, slightly creepy, terms. The film will be shown all across UK movie screens and the official website is here.

The Police Officer’s Wife

Director Philip Groning’s stark drama about a policeman and his wife who stays at home and cares for their little girl, an alert and curious child, always looking up inquisitively at her mother. This seemingly ordinary family live a frugal life of simple joys. It is also a life of increasing violence measured by the dark bruises of the police officer’s wife. On a limited release, the official Soda Pictures webpage is here.

Sin City 2: A Dame To Kill For

Slight cinematic censor nonsense recently when the studios were accused of revealing rather more than was palatable for mainstream audiences of sensuous French/English star Eva Green, with body revealing photos (see Daily Mail claptrap here). All extra, fantastic publicity! The official website for this Frank Miller graphic thriller sequel are here; for this week in the UK, the film will be screening in London for previews only. (Please click on the official trailer link for the most eye-popping, arresting movie trailer you’ll see this year – AWESOME).

Two Days, One Night

Ooh la la This French film follows Marion Cotillard, a young woman assisted by her husband, who has only one weekend to convince her colleagues to give up their bonuses so that she can keep her job. No official website, but the film will be playing across the UK so check out your big multiplexes for details. IMDb has more technical details here

Wednesday 27 August…

Let’s Be Cops

Damon Wayans and Jake Johnson star in the ultimate buddy cop movie, except for one thing: they’re not cops. When two struggling pals dress as police officers for a costume party, they become neighborhood sensations. But when these newly-minted “heroes” get tangled in a real life web of mobsters and dirty detectives, they must put their fake badges on the line. The official website is here and the film will be showing at basically every cinema screen available.