What shall we see on Wednesday 23rd October?

The choice of film is made by villagers, through asking on social media at our Facebook page and via email through our newsletter.

We have some excellent choice for October, all focused on the wonderful late Dame Maggie Smith. Which one gets YOUR vote? We have provided some of her older classics into the mix, as well as her more recently released titles.

Read on - each film TITLE links to IMDB so you can read more about the film and make an informed vote.

The VIPs (1963)

As fog delays departure for a group of travelers bound for New York City, they wait at the lounge of London's Heathrow airport, each passenger at a moment of crisis in his or her life. A 1963 British comedy-drama film in Metrocolor and Panavision. It was directed by Anthony Asquith, produced by Anatole de Grunwald, and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film was written by Terence Rattigan, with a music score by Miklós Rózsa.

It has an all-star cast, including Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Louis Jourdan, Elsa Martinelli, Maggie Smith, Rod Taylor, Orson Welles, and Margaret Rutherford, who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture. The costumes are by Pierre Cardin.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)

Eccentric well-meaning Scottish schoolteacher Jean Brodie's extravagantly romantic ideas about life--and love--overly impress her young pupils and bring her into direct conflict with her school's conservative headmistress Miss MacKay. A 1969 British drama film directed by Ronald Neame from a screenplay written by Jay Presson Allen, adapted from her own stage play, which was in turn based on the 1961 novel of the same name by Muriel Spark. The film stars Maggie Smith in the title role as an unrestrained teacher at a girls' school in Edinburgh. Celia Johnson, Robert Stephens, Pamela Franklin, and Gordon Jackson are featured in supporting roles.

Travels With My Aunt (1972)

At his mother's funeral, banker Henry meets his Aunt Augusta, an eccentric old woman who takes him on a wild adventure to rescue an old lover. A 1972 American comedy film directed by George Cukor, written by Jay Presson Allen and Hugh Wheeler, and starring Maggie Smith. The film is loosely based on the 1969 novel of the same name by Graham Greene. The film's plot retains the book's central theme of the adventurous, amoral aunt and her respectable middle class nephew drawn in to share her life, and also features her various past and present lovers who were introduced in the book, while providing this cast of characters with different adventures to the ones thought up by Greene, in different locales (North Africa rather than the book's South America).

A Room With a View (1985)

Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter) shares a brief romance with George Emerson in Florence. Yet as she tries to move on with her life and look for marriage elsewhere, can she truly forget the events of that summer? A 1985 British romance film directed by James Ivory and produced by Ismail Merchant. It is written by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, who adapted E. M. Forster's 1908 novel A Room with a View. Set in England and Italy, it is about a young woman named Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter) in the final throes of the restrictive and repressed culture of Edwardian England and her developing love for a free-spirited young man, George Emerson (Julian Sands). Maggie Smith, Denholm Elliott, Daniel Day-Lewis, Judi Dench and Simon Callow feature in supporting roles. The film closely follows the novel by the use of chapter titles to distinguish thematic segments.

The Last September (1999)

In the heart of a young woman, lies a secret that divides a nation. The Last September is a 1999 British drama film directed by Deborah Warner and produced by Yvonne Thunder from a screenplay by John Banville. It is based on the 1929 novel of the same name by Elizabeth Bowen. The film stars an ensemble cast, which includes Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Keeley Hawes, David Tennant and Lambert Wilson. It was filmed in Dowth Hall, County Meath along the banks of the River Boyne.

Ladies in Lavender (2004)

Two sisters befriend a mysterious foreigner who washes up on the beach of their 1930s Cornish seaside village. A 2004 British drama film written and directed by Charles Dance. The screenplay is based on a 1908 short story by William J. Locke. The film stars Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Natascha McElhone and Miriam Margolyes.

The Lady in the Van (2015)

A 2015 British comedy-drama film directed by Nicholas Hytner, and starring Maggie Smith and Alex Jennings, based on the memoir of the same name created by Alan Bennett. It was written by Bennett, and it tells the mostly true story of his interactions with Mary Shepherd, an elderly woman who lived in a dilapidated van on his driveway in north London for 15 years. He had previously published the story as a 1989 essay, 1990 book, 1999 stage play, and 2009 radio play on BBC Radio 4. Smith had previously portrayed Shepherd twice: in the 1999 stage play, which earned her a Best Actress nomination at the 2000 Olivier Awards, and in the 2009 radio adaptation.

Nothing Like a Dame (2018)

A 2018 British documentary film directed by Roger Michell, with Sally Angel serving as executive producer. It was produced by Sally Angel and Karen Steyn. The film documents conversations between actresses Eileen Atkins, Judi Dench, Joan Plowright and Maggie Smith (all of whom are Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire) interspersed with scenes from their careers on film and stage.

Please cast your vote here.

Thanks to all villagers who meet together each month, enjoy good company, a drink (or two), watch a good film and support their hall.

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