Category: entertainment and leisure news

THAME CINEMA 4 ALL presents Bright Star UK/ USA 2009, 119 minutes, PG certificate – Directed by Jane Campion, Starring Ben Wishaw, Abbie Cornish, Kerry Armstrong, John Schneider.

JANE Campion makes a welcome return to the cinema with this heartbreakingly beautiful love story – one of the great love stories of English literature that remained a secret until years after both its protagonists were dead. It tells the story of John Keats and Fanny Brawne, the woman who never quite became his wife thanks to his untimely death in Rome from tuberculosis in 1821.

Fanny and Keats frequent the same Hampstead literary circles and become neighbours: playful banter and mutual suspicion lead to friendship that soon develops into ardent affection. Unable to marry her thanks to his lack of income or position, their frustrated love is destined to express itself in an intense and passionate correspondence, and in a shared love of poetry. Their relationship is also the subject of suspicion – the gossip of their local community, and the solicitous jealousy of Keats’ writer companion Charles Brown, who fears the consequences for Keats’ poetry of his attachment to Fanny.

Campion’s feminism – more explicit in her best known film, The Piano – is still very much in evidence in this movie, albeit less strident. Fanny is imprisoned by society and convention, even in a relatively bohemian social milieu, and Campion beautifully depicts the circumscribed life of an early 19th century woman, confined to feminine rituals that feel frustrating and suffocating: the domestic interior, the fastidious needlework – beautifully realised in close ups of needle and thread and linen – her clothing and corsetry and household duties. The love affair, in contrast, offers the potential for liberation and self expression: it is conducted largely out of doors in woodland and meadow, where she is allowed to move and breathe. A truly lovely and swooningly romantic film of doomed love and beautiful verse.
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This Saturday 12th June 2010 – Doors open 7.30pm Film 8pm. Admission

HAVE YOUR SAY MEETING – The following Have Your Say Meeting is to be held at Thame Police Station, greyhound Lane, Thame, on Tuesday, July 13, 2010, between 16:00 & 18:00hrs.

Unfortunately, the meeting scheduled for June 15, has had to be cancelled because of a PCSO training day.

This is your opportunity to meet your Neighbourhood Officers and discuss any local issues of concern you may have. Please come along, no appointment is necessary.

BUCKS Open Studio Exhibition at Obsidian Art – June 10 – July 11, 2010.

The Bucks Goat Centre, Layby Farm
Old Risborough Road, Stoke Mandeville, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire HP22 5XJ, United Kingdom
01296 612 150

TOMORROW – First Thursday in June, so its First Thursday Music Club tomorrow, June 3, 2010, in The Old Stables, behind the James Figg in Cornmarket, Thame. So check your strings, both instrument and vocal, and get on down to the James Figg, or just go along and watch and let the vibes sink in while you enjoy a beer or two.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m. and the music kicks off at 8pm. The evening is generally divided into 15 minute slots with 2 categories:

Walk ups:

Come along on the night with your instrument and sign up onto the list for a slot between 8pm and 9:30 pm, allocated by the evening?s host. Sign up starts at 7:45 p.m. Depending on numbers of people wanting to play you can get 2/3 or 4 song slots.

Pre-booked:

The host is responsible for scheduling seven acts for the final section from 9:30 pm, who get 15 minutes each. These people may be ‘out of towners’, specially invited guests or an act who has proved popular previously at the club.

SEE YOU THERE!

Photo: First Monday Club regular, Rob Lowen (copyright Sonja Francis)

AT Thame Cinema 4 All, Nelson Street, Thame – this Saturday, June 5, 2010 – Nowhere Boy and Sex and Drugs & Rock ‘n’ Roll – Both 15 cert.

Nowhere Boy, the debut feature of Sam Taylor-Wood, tells the never seen before story of John Lennons childhood. Young John (Alex Ambrose) is a bright but sharp-tongued boy living in Liverpool during the 1950s with his aunt Mimi (Kristin Scott Thomas) and uncle George (David Threlfall). John’s father walked out on the family when he was four years old, and the boy was given to Mimi to raise, even though his mother, Julia (Anne-Marie Duff), was still alive. Julia’s personality is a much closer fit to John than Mimi, and she encourages his love for writing and music, teaching him to play the banjo. However, John’s renewed relationship with Julia brings up a number of unanswered questions, and causes new tensions between Mimi and John. It’s an affecting movie about coming of age and leaving home, and about the radical changes in British life since the Second World War.

Sex and Drugs & Rock ‘n’ Roll features a barnstorming, passionate performance from Andy Serkis bringing 1970s

AS Thame’s first Arts and Literacy Festival (TAL) draws ever closer, June 25-27, big name contributors are being announced and they don’t come much bigger – in the literary sense, than the renowned author, Philip Ziegler. He has written, what is going to be one of the most important – if not the most important -political books of the year: the authorised
biography of Edward Heath.

Publication of this title has been brought forward to June, and Philip Ziegler has agreed to share a platform with Douglas Hurd at the TAL literary dinner on Sunday, June 27, 2010.

TAL founder member,Yvonne Maxwell, said: “This is a great coup for Thame, as it will be one of his first appearances talking about this major title. Don’t miss what will certainly be a most memorable evening!”

Don?t miss your opportunity to attend one of the literary events of the year.

Tickets for the Festival Dinner at the Spread Eagle Hotel can be obtained from the Box Office by email or by telephone.

THE largest vineyard in Berkshire, Stanlake Park Wine Estate near Twyford is celebrating English Wine Week(May 29 to June 6) with a unique Wine and Chocolate Experience in partnership with Rumsey?s Hand-made Chocolates from Thame, Oxfordshire.

Vineyards throughout Oxfordshire and Berkshire are throwing open their cellars and vineyards for wine tastings, open days and winery tours. English Wine Week is a perfect time to enjoy award-winning wines from the best vineyards in the area.

In Oxfordshire the Bothy Vineyard at Frilford Heath near Abingdon has Vineyard Open Days on Bank Holiday weekend 29 to 31 May, and also 5 and 6 June. Visitors are welcome to bring a picnic to eat in the vineyard, join the guided tours and enjoy free tastings.

Wine makers Sian and Richard Liwicki at Bothy Vineyard have a wide range of wines. In addition to their popular still whites – Oxford Dry 2009 and Renaissance 2009 – and ros

Sat 22nd Fun Day. Haddenham Community Infant School PTA is holding its annual Family Fun Day. Between 12.30 and 4.00pm you are invited to visit the Science Dome and see live shows using the digital planetarium – journey to the stars and the solar system – suitable for all ages, pre-school to adult. There will also be plenty of children’s fun and games, with chances to win lots of prizes, as well as face painting, craft, tombolas, home produce stall, a barbecue and bar. You can also buy a book of raffle tickets for a chance to win our fabulous 1st prize of a Hot Air Balloon Flight, plus many other super prizes.

Tues 25th Give Blood. A Blood Donor session will be held on Tuesday (1.-3 and 3.45-6.30pm) at Haddenham Village Hall. New donors need to arrive at least half-an-hour before the end of a session to give time for registration.

Wed 26th Open Evening. All will be welcome at Haddenham Community Junior School?s open evening (6-8pm).

A SINGLE MAN – USA 2009, 99 minutes, 12A certificate
Directed by Tom Ford, Starring Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Nicholas Hoult.

TOM Ford was, until very recently, better known for his profile as a fashion designer, having turned around the fate of the Gucci fashion house. He can now add film director to his list of accomplishments following the success of A Single Man, his stunning debut feature based on Christopher Isherwood?s novel of the same name.

Colin Firth plays Professor George Falconer, an expat teaching English at a Californian university in the early 1960?s. George is impeccably turned out, polite, respected yet aloof. But his polished and restrained exterior is a carefully controlled facade, necessary to obscure a devastating grief that he cannot acknowledge. His lover of many happy years is dead, killed in a sudden car accident, but because of his homosexuality he is unable to publicly express his loss, prevented even from attendance at the funeral, and forced to bury his sadness in a fake life of careful ritual and maintenance of control. The film follows George over the course of one day at the end of semester, a day that may or may not be his last. His private moments of painful recollection are interspersed with his interactions with a handful of people, some who come close to scratching the surface: a handsome stranger who shares a cigarette; a charismatic and provocative student; and his old and trusted friend, lush divorcee and fellow Brit Charley, played with typical allure by Julianne Moore.

The film has many pleasures, not least the staggering loveliness of the visuals, each frame perfectly composed, George?s home a modernist masterpiece, all smooth red woods and walls of glass, an irony given what its occupant must strive to conceal. But foremost is Firth?s career best performance: reticent, stoic, self deprecating, with occasional flashes of acerbic wit, Firth gives us a heartbreaking and compassionate portrayal of George, his grief almost unbearably tangible: so much is conveyed with great subtlety and apparently effortless grace.

THIS summer, Thame Youth Theatre is running a holiday project for anyone in the area aged from 7 ? 18, culminating in a perforance of the musical, Hairspray.

Spend a week working with TYT?s Directors, making friends and having fun ? before performing HAIRSPRAY at The Phoenix Performing Arts Studio, Thame! No experience needed!

Monday 16th ? Friday 20th August 2010
10am ? 4pm (Performance Friday 20th at 7pm)

The Phoenix Performing Arts Studio, Lord Williams?s Lower School, Thame
Cost: only