Maestro among the New Park films in Chichester

Maestro is a love story depicting the lifelong relationship of conductor-composer Leonard Bernstein (Westside Story, On the Waterfront, On The Town, The Chichester Psalms) and his wife, the Costa-Rican-Chilean actress and social activist Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein.

This symphonic, sparkling love-story is sure to garner major awards attention for director/actor Bradley Cooper and his co-star Carey Mulligan.

The inscrutable and enigmatic Isabelle Huppert plays the two-time mayor of a Paris suburb in Promises, an engaging drama of power games which is part of the ongoing French Film Festival at the Chichester Cinema at New Park..

Another tasty French morsel is The Taste of Things, a mouth-watering and sensual exercise in haute cuisine and late-flowering romance, set in a rustic French kitchen in 1885 and starring the luminous Juliette Binoche. Her dazzling career is also celebrated with a talk in the cinema auditorium on Saturday, Dec 9.

The documentary Tish is presented with humanity and warmth and is a riveting tribute to Tyneside photographer Tish Murtha, nicknamed “the Demon Snapper”. She captured the reality of poverty and deprivation, but also the humour and optimism in the lives of working class people in the 70s and 80s.

Inspired by the magical realism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The Met premiere of Florencia en el Amazonas is sung in Spanish and stars soprano Allyn Perez.

Anne-Marie Flynn