Get out of the house on the third Wednesday evening of each month and enjoy films on the big screen with us!

The Drill Hall Film Society screens classic films at an affordable price in comfortable tiered seating in our air-conditioned theatre. Grab a delicious snack and beverage from the bar, and be part of our lively film discussions after each show.

Become a Film Society subscriber for just $75 and gain entry to 11 films/year (or $60 if you’re a Drill Hall Theatre Company associate member). Casual guest rates cost $10/film.

Renewals due in July.

Contact Peter on [email protected] for more information or to become a member.

Wednesday 20th August @ 7pm

In the late fifties, during the height of the Cold War, Tom Lehrer wrote his great satirical song We Will All Go Together When We Go and by 1962 Stanley Kubrick had bought the film rights to the thriller Red Alert, by the retired RAF navigator Peter George. He meant to direct an action film about a nuclear war triggered by a solitary madman, but some way into his work on the script he realised the story was too appalling for serious treatment and decided to recast it as an out-and-out satire. It has become, without doubt, the fiercest, political, satirical farce of all times.

Dr. Strangelove and 2001: A Space Odyssey are Kubrick’s masterpieces and share a common theme: Humans design machinery that functions with perfect logic to bring about a disastrous outcome. The U.S. nuclear deterrent and the Russian “doomsday machine” function exactly as they are intended and so destroy life on earth. The computer HAL 9000 serves the space mission by attacking the astronauts.

In real life in 1962 a Russian submarine officer, Vasili Arkhipov, is credited with averting a nuclear catastrophe during the Cuban Missile Crisis, when he refused to authorise the launch of a nuclear torpedo when the submarine was under attack by U.S. ships. His decision to surface the submarine and await orders from Moscow is widely seen as having prevented a nuclear war.

Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove could hardly be more appropriate to screen today as madmen from all sides continue to hold the world to ransom with their fingers on the button.

Wednesday 24th September @ 7pm

A tremendous central duo breathe life into Paul McGuigan’s endearing retelling of the real-life romance between a struggling young actor and Oscar-winner Gloria Grahame.

Gloria Grahame (Annette Bening) played the Femme Fatale in many Noir films and even the kooky Ado Annie in Oklahoma! Sadly, she passed away of stomach cancer at the early age of 57 in Liverpool while on a theatrical tour of Britain. This film focuses on her rather melancholy final days and real-life romance with Peter Turner, a young actor 30 years her junior (Jamie Bell).

Director Paul McGuigan finds the balance between pathos and humour, working from Matt Greenhalgh’s screen adaptation of Peter Turner’s memoir.

Peter and Gloria have a yearning to play Romeo and Juliet, and there is a Capulet/Montague tribal division: Britain and American, young and not-young, famous and not-famous. There is an interesting scene when Peter takes Gloria down to the local pub for a couple of pints of beer. Gloria goes off to the loo while Peter pays for the drinks, and the barman asks, with an air of disbelief: “Isn’t that Gloria Grahame …?”

There is a real spark between Bell and Bening, who give wonderfully relaxed performances and are tremendous as the star-crossed lovers. Also, great performances from Julie Walters and Stephen Graham. Oh, and you may need to bring a tissue.

Wednesday 22nd October @ 7pm

“Don’t give in to nostalgia,” Alfredo, projectionist.

A coming-of-age comedy-drama film written and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore.

In a small Sicilian town, a young boy, Savatore, and an aging projectionist become friends. When learns that Alfredo has died Salvatore dreams of his childhood and his girlfriend Elena. He returns for Alfredo’s funeral and discovers footage Alfredo has shot of Elena. And all the kissing scenes, the town priest ordered to be cut from films, spliced together in a reel.

The Italian-French co-production stars Philippe Noiret, Jacques Perrin, Antonella Attili, Pupella Maggio and Salvatore Cascio. The film score was composed by Ennio Morricone and his son, Andrea, the beginning of a collaboration between Tornatore and Morricone that lasted until Morricone’s death in 2020.

The film was not popular when first released. A second release, of an edited version, was also a flop. It was only when Cinema Paradiso won the Cannes Fim Festival’s Grand Prix that the film became an international hit.

It is now credited with revitalizing Italy’s film industry and Cinema Paradiso has been cited as one of the greatest films of all time, and a world cinema classic. The ending is considered among the greatest endings in film history. It was a commercial success, and won several awards, including the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the Cannes Film Festival’s Grand Prix. It was nominated for 11 BAFTA Awards and won five; including Best Actor for Philippe Noiret, Best Supporting Actor for Salvatore Cascio, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Foreign Language Film, a record for a foreign language feature until it was broken by All Quiet on the Western Front in 2023.

The film itself is a nostalgic reminder of the explosion of French and Italian cinema in the 1950’s and ‘60’s. They don’t make movies like they used to. The famous ‘kissing scene ‘ at the end of the film was parodied in a Simpsons episode.

Wednesday 19th November @ 7pm

Even though Edward Albee’s play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was a huge theatrical hit, winning five Tony awards, the general consensus was that it was going to be too hard to adapt to the silver screen. Its coarse language and uncompromising theme was deemed to be too big an obstacle for Hollywood, still influenced by the rigid Hays Production Code of 1934. The only studio that saw the project as a challenge worth the trouble was Warner Bros, and the maverick decision to transform Albee’s work into a film turned out to be a success of seminal importance. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton arguably played the greatest performances of their entire careers in a film nobody expected them to get involved with. Taylor enjoyed the full status of a major film star, with critics eager to note her off-stage persona overshadowed whatever talent she might possess. Burton, on the other hand, was famous for playing strong, brave, powerfully masculine characters a whole world apart from what Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? offered. They saw the film as a professional challenge and a personal test they passed with flying colours.

Adapted for the screen by the celebrated screenwriter Ernest Lehman (Sabrina, North by Northwest, Sweet Smell of Success) and directed by the newcomer Mike Nichols (The Graduate, Charlie Wilson’s War), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was a phenomenal hit, impressing both the critics and the audience, being nominated for 13 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Mike Nichols. It is one of only two films to be nominated in every eligible category at the Academy Awards. It won five Oscars, including: a second Academy Award for Best Actress for Taylor, Best Supporting Actress for Sandy Dennis, Best Cinematography and Best Black & White Art Direction.

Given the talent of the people involved – not only Nichols, Lehman and the star-studded supercast, but also Haskell Wexler, one of the most important cinematographers of the years that followed this film – It might seem strange to label the project as risky. But the truth is, it took a lot of courage even to set it up, and even more skill to pull it off the way they did. 60 years later, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is considered one of the most accomplished play adaptations in Hollywood history.