Chester Film Society

Season: 2026 Summer Season

  • Inside Llewyn Davis

    Inside Llewyn Davis

    Synopsis:

    The emerging folk scene has yet to produce a star, although it does not want for talent, notably singer-songwriter Llewyn Davis. But it’s hard to stay positive when your career is flailing, you’ve outstayed your welcome on all your friends’ couches, and you may have got your best mate’s girlfriend pregnant.

    List of Awards:

    Cannes Film Festival: Grand Prix

    Critic Quote(s):

    The direction is pitch-perfect; the characters unique and eccentric yet fully realised and the script, woven with absurdist comedy, a marvel. (Larushka Ivan-Zadeh, Metro)

  • The Double Life of Veronique

    The Double Life of Veronique

    Synopsis

    Two parallel stories about two identical women; one living in Poland, the other in France. They don’t know each other, but their lives are nevertheless profoundly connected.

    List of Awards

    Cannes Film Festival: Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, FIPRESCI Prize

    Critic Quote(s)

    The elusiveness of the film is precisely the point: it is as beautiful and mysterious as a poem and its formal elegance and conviction are unarguable. (Peter Bradshaw)

  • Cologne 75

    Cologne 75

  • Diva

    Diva

    Critical Reception

    The movie is filled with so many small character touches, so many perfectly observed intimacies, so many visual inventions—from the sly to the grand—that the thriller plot is just a bonus. In a way, it doesn’t really matter what this movie is about; Pauline Kael has compared Beineix to Orson Welles and, as Welles so often did, he has made a movie that is a feast to look at, regardless of its subject. […] Here is a director taking audacious chances, doing wild and unpredictable things with his camera and actors, just to celebrate moviemaking. (Roger Ebert)

    Awards

    César Awards: Best Debut (Beineix), Music, Cinematography and Sound

    Conclusion

    Jean-Jacques Beineix’s wonderfully stylish thriller was largely responsible for the renaissance of foreign language film in the UK in the early 80s and remains impressive viewing today.” – David Wood, BBC