THE DUKE

London, 19th March 2018 Principal photography begins today on JUDY, based on the true story of Judy Garland’s final concerts in London. Renée Zellweger, Academy Award winner and three times Academy Award nominee (Bridget Jones’s Diary, Cold Mountain and Chicago), plays Judy Garland. Cast members joining Zellweger include Jessie Buckley (War and Peace), Finn Wittrock (American Horror Story) and Michael Gambon (Harry Potter). JUDY is directed by Tony nominee and two times Olivier winner Rupert Goold (King Charles III). The film is based on a script written by Tom Edge (The Crown) and is produced by BAFTA winner David Livingstone (Pride) for Calamity Films. Goold’s creative team includes Director of Photography Ole Bratt Birkeland (The Crown), Musical Director Matt Dunkley (Black Swan), Editor Melanie Oliver (Les Miserables), Costume Designer Jany Temime (Harry Potter), Make Up and Hair Designer Jeremy Woodhead (Doctor Strange) and Production Designer Kave Quinn (Far from the Madding Crowd). Winter 1968 and showbiz legend Judy Garland arrives in Swinging London to perform in a sell-out run at The Talk of the Town. It is 30 years since she shot to global stardom in THE WIZARD OF OZ, but if her voice has weakened, its dramatic intensity has only grown. As she prepares for the show, battles with management, charms musicians, and reminisces with friends and adoring fans, her wit and warmth shine through. Even her dreams of romance seem undimmed as she embarks on a courtship with Mickey Deans, her soon-to-be fifth husband. And yet Judy is fragile. After working for 45 of her 47 years, she is exhausted; haunted by memories of a childhood lost to Hollywood; gripped by a desire to be back home with her kids. Will she have the strength to go on? Featuring some of her best-known songs, including the timeless classic ‘Over the Rainbow’, JUDY celebrates the voice, the capacity for love and the sheer pizzazz of “the world’s greatest entertainer”. JUDY is a Pathé, BBC Films and Ingenious Media presentation of a Calamity Films Production. Executive Producers are Cameron McCracken for Pathé, Rose Garnett for BBC Films and Andrea Scarso for Ingenious. Laurence Myers, Lee Dean, Aaron Levene, Charles Diamond, Ellis Goodman and Hilary Williams will also receive Executive Producer credits. Pathé will distribute the film in the UK, France and Switzerland and will handle sales throughout the rest of the world. For further information contact: Annabel Hutton/Nicki Foster/Ellen Steers, Premier Firstname.surname@premiercomms.com / 020 7292 8330 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/JudyGarlandFilm/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/JudyGarlandFilm/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/JudyGarlandFilm/ PATHÉ Pathé operates as a film studio in France, the UK, the Netherlands and Switzerland. It is involved in all aspects of filmmaking, from development and production through to international sales, distribution and exhibition. Films produced/distributed by Pathé range from The Queen to Slumdog Millionaire and from Philomena to Selma. In recent years Pathé’s productions have won 16 BAFTAs (66 nominations) and 13 Oscars (46 nominations). Pathé International handles the international marketing and sales of Pathé’s own productions and also acquires third party films for worldwide representation. As one of Europe’s leading sales agents, Pathé International has a significant presence at all major film markets and festivals. www.pathe.co.uk Twitter @patheuk CALAMITY FILMS Calamity Films is an independent film and television production company set up by David Livingstone in 2010. Their first feature was PRIDE (2014) directed by Matthew Warchus and written by Stephen Beresford. The film received 7 BIFA nominations, winning Best British Film, three BAFTA nominations, including Best British Film, and a Golden Globe Nomination for Best Film. David won a BAFTA for Outstanding Debut by a British Producer alongside writer Stephen Beresford. Calamity currently has projects in development with Studio Canal, Lionsgate, Sky, EOne, BFI and BBC Films. David Livingstone was previously President of Worldwide Marketing and Distribution at both Universal Pictures International and Working Title Films. During his career in London and Los Angeles, he has been responsible for the worldwide marketing, advertising, publicity and promotional strategy for over 100 films. BBC FILMS BBC Films is at the forefront of independent filmmaking in the UK, developing and co-producing around twelve films a year. In 2015 BBC Films was awarded the Michael Balcon BAFTA for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema. Rose Garnett is the Director of BBC Films. Recent releases include the BAFTA and Oscar nominated Victoria & Abdul starring Judi Dench, William Oldroyd's Lady Macbeth, which was nominated for 2 BAFTA Awards including Best British Film and Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer, Thomas Napper's Jawbone, also nominated for a BAFTA in the Outstanding Debut category, Andy Serkis' directorial debut Breathe starring Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy and the documentary Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami. Idris Elba's directorial debut Yardie and The Happy Prince, written, directed by and starring Rupert Everett, both world premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and had their European premieres at the Berlin International Film Festival and will open in the UK later this year via Studiocanal and Lionsgate. Current and upcoming releases include Studiocanal’s The Mercy, directed by James Marsh and featuring Colin Firth and Rachel Weisz, Lionsgate's On Chesil Beach starring Saoirse Ronan coming to cinemas in June, Apostasy, directed by first time filmmaker Daniel Kokotajlo and eOne's The Children Act featuring Emma Thompson and Stanley Tucci due out in August. Currently in post-production are Chiwetel Ejiofor’s untitled directorial debut based on the novel The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, Peter Strickland’s ghost story In Fabric starring Oscar nominee Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Out of Blue directed by Carol Morley and starring Patricia Clarkson, The White Crow directed by Ralph Fiennes, Denmark starring Rafe Spall, Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir executive produced by Martin Scorsese, Stan & Ollie starring Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly, The Aftermath with Keira Knightley and Alexander Skarsgård, VS. starring Screen’s Star of Tomorrow, Connor Swindells and Iciar Bollain’s Yuli written by Paul Laverty. bbc.co.uk/bbcfilms Twitter @BBCFilms INGENIOUS For 18 years, Ingenious has been at the forefront of investing in the UK’s creative economy and in that time has raised and deployed over £9 billion. In the last decade, Ingenious has been involved in the production of a diverse and glittering slate of films, including the multi-award winning Life of Pi, Avatar (the highest grossing film of all time), Oscar®-nominated films Carol and Brooklyn, five films in the long-running X-Men franchise, the highly successful Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, breakout British hits including Suffragette and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel as well as acclaimed television programmes The Fall, Dr. Foster and The Honourable Woman, among many others. Currently in post-production are Baltasar Kormákur’s Adrift, starring Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin, and Three Seconds, from Andrea Di Stefano starring Joel Kinnaman, Rosamund Pike and Clive Owen.

Pathé are delighted to announce that the new short film, THE HUMAN VOICE, directed by Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar and starring Tilda Swinton, will be launched on 19 May 2021 at a special Event Screening in cinemas across the UK. The film will be followed by a pre-recorded Q&A with Almodóvar and Swinton hosted by film critic Mark Kermode. THE HUMAN VOICE is Almodóvar’s first work in the English language and had its World Premiere to critical acclaim at the Venice Film Festival last year. Madness and melancholy intersect to thrilling effect as Almodóvar reimagines Jean Cocteau’s short play The Human Voice for an era in which isolation has become a way of life. Laws of desire become the rules of the game as Tilda Swinton’s unnamed woman paces and panics in a glorious Technicolor apartment where décor offers a window into her state of mind. A short, sharp shot of distilled Almodóvar: passion, emotion, heartbreak, wit, and melodrama exquisitely bound up in a tale for our times. Writer/Director Pedro Almodóvar is one of Spain’s most celebrated filmmakers with numerous accolades to his name including an Academy Award®, four BAFTAs, numerous Goyas and over 100 further wins and nominations. His credits include WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN, ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER, VOLVER and most recently PAIN AND GLORY.

PATHÉ ANNOUNCES ‘THE GREAT ESCAPER’ STARRING MICHAEL CAINE & GLENDA JACKSON London, 19th February 2021 Pathé today announced that they will be presenting a new feature film, THE GREAT ESCAPER, at this year’s Berlin Film Market. Inspired by true events, the film will tell the story of Bernard Jordan’s escape from his care home to attend the 70th Anniversary of the D-Day Landings in France. The film is set to star two time Oscar winner and six time nominee, Sir Michael Caine (The Quiet American, The Cider House Rules, Hannah and Her Sisters, Educating Rita, Sleuth and Alfie) and two time Oscar winner and four time nominee, Glenda Jackson (Hedda, A Touch of Class, Sunday Bloody Sunday and Women In Love). In the summer of 2014 - the 70th Anniversary of the D-Day Landings - octogenarian Bernard Jordan (Michael Caine) made global headlines. He’d staged a “great escape” from his care home to join fellow war veterans on a beach in Normandy, commemorating their fallen comrades. It was a story that captured the imagination of the world - Bernie seemed to embody the defiant, “can-do” spirit of a generation that was fast disappearing. But of course, it wasn’t the whole story. It was the story we all tell ourselves to make war and old age bearable. The bitter-sweet script explores the reality with wit and a very big heart. Bernie’s adventure, spanning a mere 48 hours, also marked the culmination of his 60-year marriage to Irene (Glenda Jackson) - the story celebrates their love without sentimentality and with an eye to the lessons we might all learn from the Greatest Generation. The film will be directed by BAFTA nominee Oliver Parker (An Ideal Husband) from a script by BAFTA nominee William Ivory (Made in Dagenham) and is scheduled to start principal photography in June this year. Parker commented: ‘No one can resist a script that makes people both laugh and cry – I loved Billy’s writing and the story itself, so inspirational and so moving, seemed to speak to our times and our need for heroes on a human scale, whether people like Bernard Jordan or our doctors and nurses. And now to have Michael and Glenda - two iconic actors - agree to honour this story with their brilliance, it’s the cherry on the cake!’ The film will be produced by BAFTA nominees Robert Bernstein and Douglas Rae (Nowhere Boy) and is an Ecosse Films production for Pathe, BBC Film and Ingenious Media. Executive Producers are Cameron McCracken and Jenny Borgars for Pathé; Rose Garnett for BBC Film; and Andrea Scarso for Ingenious. Pathé will distribute the film in the UK, France and Switzerland and will handle sales throughout the rest of the world. Caine is represented by ICM and Management 42 and Jackson is represented by Lionel Larner. For further information contact: Sophie Glover, Head of Publicity, Pathé UK Sophie.glover@pathe-uk.com / 020 7462 4415 ABOUT PATHÉ Pathé has offices in France, the UK, the Netherlands and Switzerland. It is involved in all aspects of filmmaking, from development and production through to international sales, distribution and exhibition. Films produced and distributed by Pathé range from The Queen to Slumdog Millionaire and from Philomena to Selma. Pathe’s most recent production is Roger Michell’s THE DUKE, starring Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren, which premiered to critical acclaim at the 2020 Venice Film Festival. In recent years, Pathé’s productions have won 17 BAFTAs (70 nominations) and 14 Oscars (50 nominations). Pathé International handles the international marketing and sales of Pathé’s own productions and also acquires third party films for worldwide representation. As one of Europe’s leading sales agents, Pathé International has a significant presence at all major film markets and festivals. www.pathe.co.uk @patheuk BBC FILM BBC Film supports invigorating and imaginative filmmaking. Firmly established at the forefront of UK film, and fuelled by its public service remit, BBC Film has an ambitious slate including many of the most exciting filmmakers working today. We find, nurture and develop new talent and collaborate with some of the industry's most revered writers and directors. We work with diverse partners to bring our films to the widest possible audiences in the UK and worldwide. ABOUT ECOSSE Ecosse Films is a long-standing award-winning film company whose successes include Mrs Brown featuring an Oscar nominated Judi Dench, Becoming Jane starring Anne Hathaway, the BAFTA nominated Nowhere Boy and Andrea Arnold's mould-breaking Wuthering Heights. http://www.ecossefilms.com/ ABOUT INGENIOUS For 22 years, Ingenious Media has been at the forefront of investing in the global creative economy and in that time has raised and deployed over $10 billion. Ingenious has been involved in the production of a diverse slate of films, including the Academy Award® winning Judy, Life of Pi, Avatar, Selma, Academy Award® nominated Carol, Brooklyn and At Eternity’s Gate, five films in the successful X-Men franchise, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, breakout British hits Military Wives, Blinded by the Light, Suffragette and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, as well as acclaimed television programmes such as The Fall, Dr. Foster and Watership Down. Titles currently on release or coming soon include The Secrets We Keep, Honest Thief, War with Grandpa, Breaking News in Yuba County, Pixie, Dream Horse and Voyagers. The 2020 Venice Film Festival included the premieres of Ingenious funded Roger Michell’s The Duke and Mona Fastvold’s The World to Come, which is currently on release in the US through Bleecker St.

Pathé are delighted to launch the UK trailer and new images from Pedro Almodóvar’s next feature film PARALLEL MOTHERS, starring his long-time collaborators Penélope Cruz, Rossy de Palma and Julieta Serrano as well as Milena Smit, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón and Israel Elejalde. Parallel Mothers will be released on 28 January 2022 in cinemas across the UK. PARALLEL MOTHERS is Almodóvar’s 22nd feature film and tomorrow will screen as the Closing Night selection of the 59th New York Film Festival. The film had its World Premiere as the opening night film at this year’s Venice International Film Festival. The film received an enthusiastic response from the critics, and Penélope Cruz won the Best Actress Award for her performance. Two women, Janis and Ana, meet in a hospital where they are about to give birth. Both are single and became pregnant by accident. Janis, middle-aged, has no regrets and is exultant. The other, Ana, an adolescent, is scared and repentant. Janis tries to encourage her as they move like sleepwalkers through the hospital corridors. The few words they exchange in these hours will create a very close link between them, which by chance will develop and complicate, changing their lives in a decisive way. Writer/Director Pedro Almodóvar is one of Spain’s most celebrated filmmakers with numerous accolades to his name including an Academy Award®, four BAFTAs, numerous Goyas and over 100 further wins and nominations. His credits include WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN, ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER, VOLVER, PAIN AND GLORY and most recently THE HUMAN VOICE. For further information please contact organic. Abi Fiedler / abi.fiedler@organic-publicity.co.uk / +44 (0) 781 663 1916 Katy Sharp-Watson / katy.sharp-watson@organic-publicity.co.uk / +44 (0) 789 133 6136

The Little Stranger opens in the UK and Ireland to a wealth of critical acclaim The Little Stranger review: One of the most original British horror films of recent times ★★★★ The Independent Geoffrey Macnab The Little Stranger is one of the most original British horror films of recent times – although whether it can really be classified as horror is a moot point. Based on the novel by Sarah Waters, this is a story about class, envy and self-loathing. It is set in the austerity-era Britain of 1948, when the country was in debt and drained of colour and when the old aristocracy was on its knees. Beautifully directed by Lenny Abrahamson, the film evokes this period in a way that is both nostalgic and frequently chilling. Domhnall Gleeson plays the youngish Dr Faraday, an aloof and diffident figure who has opportunities in Clement Attlee’s Britain that would have been denied him before the war. He is from a very humble background, the son of a housemaid, but has risen up the social scale and is now a fully qualified country doctor. Faraday has a morbid obsession with Hundreds, the decaying, Brideshead-like pile where his mother worked before he was born. He has vivid memories of visiting the country house for an Empire Day celebration as a child in 1919 when it was still in its pomp. His mother had friends working there and he was allowed inside. What he can’t acknowledge, and what the film takes a long time to tell us about, is his vicious resentment and loathing of his upper class patrons. Abrahamson shows Gleeson as the type who will always lurk in the corner at any social event. He is an awkward and repressed man but seemingly a decent and sympathetic one. With his red hair and pale face, he is not handsome at all. Nor is he charming but he does have a good bedside manner. He is the type others feel comfortable confiding in but who will rarely share any secrets about himself. The Ayres family, the owners of Hundreds, are in dire financial straits. They can’t afford the death duties on the house. The son of the family, Roderick (Will Poulter), is scarred and near crippled by war wounds. The mother, Mrs Ayres (Charlotte Rampling) is haughty in a Miss Havisham-like way but even she is struggling to keep up appearances. The daughter, Caroline (Ruth Wilson), is spirited and intelligent but seems to have been left behind by the world. Their once grand home isn’t just shabby and falling apart. It appears to be haunted. Mrs Ayres’ beloved daughter Susan (‘Suki’), who came face to face with Faraday on his visit to the house, died as a child. Her spirit seems to be behind the strange and terrifying happenings in the house. Abrahamson shows an anthropologist’s eye in the detail with which he depicts the aristocratic family fallen on hard times but desperately trying to cling to its status and dignity. The Ayres can’t pay their bills. They’ve lost the “trick of company” but they have their codes of behaviour. Try as he might, Faraday can’t crack them. In their eyes, he will always be a “common village boy.” Lucinda Coxon’s screenplay picks up on the tiny mannerisms and tics of speech that distinguish the Ayres from less well-born outsiders like Faraday. This is as much an account of a thwarted love affair as it is a ghost story. If it wasn’t so awkward, there would be a certain humour in Faraday’s courtship of Caroline. He is gauche but very dogged. The misfortunes that multiply around her give him his chance. It is not clear, though, whether he is in love with her or is looking to control her. The mood here is similar to that in The Innocents, Jack Clayton’s film adaptation of Henry James’ The Turn Of The Screw. We don’t see any monsters. The terror is in the minds of the protagonists. Abrahamson includes a few familiar devices from more conventional haunted house stories – bells in the servants’ quarters that ring of their own accord, doors that will suddenly slam shut, fires that start from nowhere. Generally, though, the creaks aren’t in the night but are in the tormented psyches of the film’s main protagonists. The Little Stranger doesn’t scare us as often as might have been expected but it is still a disturbing affair. It’s a ghost story in which politics, class and money are the most frightening elements. Domhnall Gleeson may be best known for playing General Hux in Star Wars but he was superb as the traumatised, shell-shocked AA Milne in last year’s Goodbye Christopher Robin. He gives an equally affecting performance here as the repressed and uptight Dr Faraday. He is matched by Ruth Wilson as Caroline, the “awfully brainy” upper class girl treated in such chauvinistic fashion by all the men around her. Wilson shows us Caroline’s resilience, her passion and her fatalism. She is as much a prisoner in the house as any princess in a castle in a fairy tale. The Little Stranger has received a very muted response in the US, where it was released late last month. It is too idiosyncratic and subdued to appeal to fans of the teen-oriented horror movies that dominate the box office. Abrahamson’s approach is the polar opposite to that found in Jason Blum movies. This, though, is a consummately crafted and very subtle film which ends with quite a kick. The Little Stranger — the power of suggestion ★★★★ Nigel Andrews The Financial Times Horror thrillers are teasing duels between the known and unknown. We want their mysteries explained; yet simultaneously we don’t. Explanation can be so banal. Some films present the perfect solution. Keep the audience teased. Right up to, and possibly including, the end. What on earth is happening, for instance, in Hundreds Hall, the decaying English mansion in The Little Stranger? Dr Faraday, cold, shy and neurotic (another repressed Englishman master-crafted by Ireland’s Domhnall Gleeson of Goodbye Christopher Robin), ministers to the tormented lady of the house ( Charlotte Rampling), the war-disfigured son (Will Poulter) and even the malingering maid. The rational but troubled daughter (Ruth Wilson) is the only human easy to handle, so Faraday courts her. His mum used to work in the Hall. Here might be a leg up into the upper class. It is 1948, when such things mattered to some. The storm clouds of socialism are gathering — including the birth of the National Health Service — and Faraday, even unwittingly, wants to play on with the ghosts of the past. Ghosts? Might they include Rampling’s little daughter, dead in childhood? Or is some other spirit rattling the upstairs doors, ringing the servant bells, inspiring a nasty accident to befall another little girl at a party? Sarah Waters’ novel (Man Booker-shortlisted) delivers the subtle frissons to director Lenny Abrahamson. He’s the right man: he makes spooked human comedies/dramas tinged with apocalypse (Frank, Room). Shades of The Innocents (ghosts as psychic projections of the haunted) and Don’t Look Now (little daughter lost) stalk this house. The story doesn’t require visible ghouls. It requires hint, suggestion and a kind of pressure-building restraint. Cinematographer Ole Bratt Birkeland’s muted colours match the mansion’s peeling pastels. Once or twice a fog seems to creep in, opacity’s democratic pall routing the hierarchical contrasts of chiaroscuro. With Gleeson, the female stars clinch this drama of dread and desperation. Rampling, bereavement-haunted, seems to be gnawing herself to death without moving a muscle. Wilson plays a whole set of subtle variations on “normalcy”, their notes encrypting fear, frigidity, passion, longing and — finally perhaps (but watch this ghost space) — the triumph of self-liberation. Film review: The Little Stranger ★★★★ Daily Mail Brian Viner It is 1948. Hundreds Hall in Warwickshire has belonged to the Ayres family for centuries, but crippling death duties have turned it into a slowly crumbling wreck. 'The Labour government won't be happy until we're begging for our lives on street corners,' grunts Roderick Ayres (Will Poulter), a dreadfully disfigured war veteran, who lives in the house with his brisk, spinster sister Caroline (Ruth Wilson) and their grand matriarch of a mother (Charlotte Rampling). The film opens with a village doctor arriving to treat the family maid, Betty (Liv Hill). This is Dr Faraday (Domhnall Gleeson), whose late mother was herself once a servant at Hundreds Hall. Faraday has broken free of his working-class origins. But as he befriends the family, and in particular Caroline, he can never quite escape the nuances of the English class system. In some striking ways, the story, based on the 2009 novel by Sarah Waters, is reminiscent of L. P. Hartley's The Go-Between. Hundreds Hall is a place full of memories, not all of them pleasant. Faraday is fixated by the recollection of a boyhood visit to the house, nearly 30 years earlier, while the family appear to be haunted by another Ayres daughter, Susan, who died as a child. All this coalesces into an effective blend of ghost story, social history and psychological thriller, which is no less compelling for being rather relentlessly gloomy. Gleeson reprises the repressed Englishman role that he performed in last year's Goodbye Christopher Robin, except more so. He possibly could have injected just a little more animation into stiff Dr Faraday, who generally makes an Easter Island statue look like a song-and-dance man. But maybe that's the point. In the parlance of the time, he's rather a queer cove. At any rate, director Lenny Abrahamson and screenwriter Lucinda Coxon have done a fine and powerful job with their source material and are rewarded with one truly mesmerising performance. All the acting is good, but Wilson, as dutiful, unhappy Caroline, stands apart. The Little Stranger review: A very British ghost story that is compellingly strange rather than scary ★★★★ Evening Standard Charlotte O'Sullivan For fans of the uncanny, revenge is a dish best served with no hands. Think of Magneto, Matilda or Carrie. These characters, initially marginalised and abused, use their hurt feelings and indignant brains to bring the powerful to heel. The Little Stranger (an adaptation of Sarah Waters’ 2009 novel) contains just such an upstart. Yet it’s only at the end that we discover whose mind is running the show. (The film, in case you’re wondering, works even better on second viewing.) The Ayres family live in a once grand Warwickshire mansion (imagine a beautiful mouth full of black teeth). Angela (Charlotte Rampling) is still traumatised by the loss of Suki, her preternaturally attractive little daughter. Son Roderick has had his body and nerves shattered in the Second World War. Daughter Caroline (Ruth Wilson) is plain. That’s not actually a tragedy, but people act as if it is. By the way, in the book, Caroline’s legs are “unshaven”. It’s a shame that quirky detail doesn’t make it into the film, but let’s not split hairs. The point is, the family are failing to keep up appearances and worse is to come. In a shockingly vivid scene, a pretty girl is savaged in their home. Our narrator, the pallid local doctor Faraday (Domhnall Gleeson, excellent), knows all about the Ayres family; his mother once worked for them as a maid. He’s clever and diligent. He’s also kind to the poor and respectful towards the Ayres’ current drudge, Betty (newcomer Liv Hill, a revelation). But can he stop the haunting of Hundreds Hall? Faraday, never allowed to forget he’s a prole, is a great character. Sometimes, as if unable to decide whether to swoon or seethe, he goes into a kind of trance, which the camera feasts on. Caroline is even better, stomping through her shabby home like a farmer who’s just spotted a dead sheep. Wilson never overdoes the galumphing; Caroline’s playfulness and loneliness are conveyed just as keenly. Lenny Abrahamson’s last film, which reworked Emma Donoghue’s Room, earned Brie Larson a best actress Oscar. Wilson deserves a nomination at the very least. The Little Stranger has been described as a very British ghost story. Abrahamson (who’s Irish) has now adapted two books by out-and-proud lesbians. He’s fascinated by what insiders fear. He’s not interested in making us jump (actually, he tries it once and bungles it). If you love strange little things, you’ll be smitten. Film Review The Little Stranger ★★★★ Dan Jolin Time Out Lenny Abrahamson adapts Sarah Waters’ ghost story into an understated but satisfyingly spooky snapshot of class in post-War England. Director Lenny Abrahamson knows how to turn small spaces into big drama. His last film (‘Room’) focused on a single, small shed. The one before (‘Frank’) primarily took place in a remote music-studio cabin. With ‘The Little Stranger’ – adapted from Sarah Waters’ gothic novel – he’s expanded to the rather grander scale of an old, English manor house. But it feels no less effectively claustrophobic. That manor house is Hundreds Hall, a decaying, 18th-century estate whose old-money residents, the Ayres family, can barely manage its upkeep during the late ’40s. When their sole maid falls ill, they summon Dr. Faraday (Domhnall Gleeson), a shy, awkward fellow, who soon confesses to having a lifelong obsession with the crumbling mansion since visiting during his childhood and befriends the eldest of the Ayers offspring, the earthy, practical Caroline (Ruth Wilson). But as the stiff, white-collar doctor draws closer to the welly-wearing Caroline and begins to rather creepily exercise his aspiration for the life of the landed gentry, it also becomes evident there is a malevolent presence lurking in the shadows of Hundreds Hall – something seemingly set on accelerating House Ayres’ decline. True to Waters’ book, Abrahamson valiantly resists turning ‘The Little Stranger’ into a full-on horror show, teasing its ghostly strands by delicate degrees, while Gleeson and Wilson’s increasingly uncomfortable relationship occupies the bulk of your attention. Those hoping for ‘Insidious’-like shocks and jump scares may find their patience tested, but to succumb to such frustration is missing the film’s fine point: there may possibly be a spectral threat here, but this is really a story about people haunted by something very different, but just as intangible: namely, class. Film Review The Little Stranger ★★★★ Andy Lea The Express Irish director Lenny Abrahamson allows dread to build very slowly in this handsome period chiller. In the opening scene, Abrahamson, nominated for an Oscar in 2016 for Room, seems to be setting up a typical upstairs, downstairs drama. It is 1948 and we are gazing upon Hundreds Hall, a mansion in rural Warwickshire, through the awestruck eyes of Dr Faraday (Domhnall Gleeson). It is the first time the good doctor has entered the gates since he was a child when his now-deceased mother worked there as a maid. Like all aristocrats, the Ayres family is suffering under the Labour government's death taxes. But the doctor is still transfixed by the crumbling mansion. Faraday is making a house call after being informed that one of the servants has been taken ill. "One of?" laughs Roderick Ayres (Will Poulter), the master of the house and a former RAF pilot who was badly burned in combat during the Second World War. "You'll see." It turns out that the ailing Betty (Liv Hill) is now the only servant who is working in this once-thriving country estate. Like all aristocrats, the Ayres family is suffering under the Labour government's death taxes. But the doctor is still transfixed by the crumbling mansion. A series of flashbacks hint at the root of this obsession. As a child he stole into the house and on a strange impulse broke a plaster flower off one of the ornate cornices. This crime was witnessed by the doctor's mother and Susan (Tipper Seifert-Cleveland), Roderick's long-dead sister. It was a crime that horrified his mother and she could never forgive him for it. Before leaving the house, Faraday meets Mrs Ayres (Charlotte Rampling), Roderick's haughty mother. He also discovers that Roderick's hardworking sister Caroline (Ruth Wilson) is the one who is really running the mansion. Slowly, an awkward romance begins to spark between the stuffy doctor and the free-spirited aristocrat. As the class divisions begin to blur, strange incidents start to happen in the house. A girl is left horribly injured at a dinner party and strange symbols start appearing on the walls. The doctor tries to find rational explanations. But as the strange occurrences pile up, Faraday's stiff upper lip appears to quiver. In the finale, Abrahamson resorts to the twists and turns of the typical haunted house movie. But it is that slow build-up that will stay with you.

THE GUARDIAN'S PETER BRADSHAW GIVES THE LITTLE STRANGER 4 STARS The haunts of childhood are revisited in this oppressively macabre ghost story, set in the miserable austerity of late-40s Britain and in some ways a metaphor for the nation’s complex sense of sacrificial loss. Screenwriter Lucinda Coxon has adapted the 2009 novel by Sarah Waters and Lenny Abrahamson directs, bringing to it the sense of enclosing dread and claustrophobic dysfunction familiar from his previous picture, the abduction-abuse nightmare Room. The Little Stranger is fluently made and really well acted, particularly by Ruth Wilson, though maybe a bit too constrained by period-movie prestige to be properly scary. Domhnall Gleeson plays Faraday, a young Warwickshire country doctor: first name unmentioned, second name perhaps an allusion to the famous scientist, given his belief in electric-current massage for pain-relief and his non-belief in ghosts. He has a ramrod-straight bearing, a clipped moustache and equally clipped manner of speaking, very different from the relaxed, worldly manner of his fellow medics. Gleeson’s performance suggests he’s affecting a severe professionalism to cover up his lowly origins. It’s the summer of 1948 and Faraday finds himself back in the village where he grew up, and one of his very first house-calls is to the grand mansion that fascinated him as a boy, Hundreds Hall. A maidservant there, Betty (Liv Hill) has stomach pains, but Faraday’s no-nonsense examination reveals them to be exaggerated or invented. A female-hysteric case of nerves, as often airily diagnosed by the male profession of the day – or something darker, weirder? At the same time, Faraday makes the acquaintance of the family. The notional master of the house is Rod Ayres (Will Poulter), a former RAF pilot badly burned in combat, who now has depression, and is grumpily obsessed with the way the house is deteriorating and the Labour government’s punitive death duties. His mother, Mrs Ayres, is in situ: enigmatic, reserved, disquieting and played by Charlotte Rampling. But the real boss is Rod’s hardworking sister, Caroline, outstandingly played by Wilson. She is friendly and unselfconsciously careless of her appearance in ways that will seem eccentric as she grows older, an English countrywoman of the sort imagined by Nancy Mitford. But all three seem to be going slowly mad in their own ways, driven to the brink by something in the house itself. Faraday’s own secret is that his late mother was a maid at Hundreds Hall and he has come to think of this strange, dilapidated place and its strange, dilapidated family as exemplars of prewar innocence: a bizarre version of Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead. And as his friendship with Caroline blossoms into a nervous, protective romance, there is the thrill of a romantic or sexual conquest over his own humble beginnings. But there is something else. Faraday is obsessed with the memory of attending a party there as a child, breaking an ornate picture frame and being caught in the act by Rod and Caroline’s adored sister Suki – who later died of diphtheria at eight years old. Has Faraday’s remembered transgression and present-day quasi-haunting accelerated a supernatural crisis? Abrahamson shows how the awful tensions and rigidities of the English class system create the right atmosphere of denial – they incubate the horror. A stratum of society that holds on to the past is ripe for haunting. There is an excruciating scene in which Faraday is invited to an evening drinks party there (black tie, naturally) and the other attendees have to be periodically reminded that he is there as a guest, an equal, and no one is ill. But then there is a grisly incident, a moment of nightmarish horror in which Faraday’s qualifications turn out to be vital. It is at an event like this that poor Rod, unable or unwilling to leave his chaotic room, reveals himself to be paralysed with fear at what the house contains. Wilson’s Caroline is the beating heart of the film and she is superb, not least in a scene at a local dance, where she is thrilled to recognise a female friend from wartime and dances extravagantly with her – to Faraday’s chagrin – hinting at a sexual identity she has concealed from everyone, especially herself. And all the time, the sinister presence in the house grows, like mould on the walls. An elegant, sinister tale of the uncanny, with its own streak of pathos.

London, 28 October 2019 Pathé today announced that they will be presenting at the American Film Market a new feature film, THE DUKE, to be directed by BAFTA winner Roger Michell (Notting Hill) and set to star Academy Award Winners Jim Broadbent (Iris) and Helen Mirren (The Queen) as husband and wife, KEMPTON and DOROTHY BUNTON. The screenplay for the dramatic comedy has been written by Richard Bean (One Man, Two Guvnors) and Clive Coleman and is based on a remarkable true story of one man’s attempt to make a better world: In 1961, Kempton Bunton, a 60 year old taxi driver, stole Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London. It was the first (and remains the only) theft in the Gallery’s history. Kempton sent ransom notes saying that he would return the painting on condition that the government agreed to provide television for free to the elderly. What happened next became the stuff of legend. Only 50 years later did the full story emerge - Kempton had spun a web of lies. The only truth was that he was a good man, determined to change the world and save his marriage - how and why he used the Duke to achieve that is a wonderfully uplifting tale. THE DUKE will start principal photography in January 2020. The film will be produced by Nicky Bentham (Moon) and is a Neon Films production for Pathé, Ingenious Media and Screen Yorkshire. Executive Producers are Cameron McCracken and Jenny Borgars for Pathé; Andrea Scarso for Ingenious Media; and Hugo Heppell for Screen Yorkshire. Pathé will distribute the film in the UK, France and Switzerland and will handle sales throughout the rest of the world. For further information contact: Sophie Glover, Head of Publicity, Pathé UK Sophie.glover@pathe-uk.com / 020 7462 4415 ABOUT PATHÉ Pathé operates as a film studio in France, the UK, the Netherlands and Switzerland. It is involved in all aspects of filmmaking, from development and production through to international sales, distribution and exhibition. Films produced/distributed by Pathé range from The Queen to Slumdog Millionaire and from Philomena to Selma. Pathe’s most recent production is Judy starring Renee Zellweger. In recent years Pathé’s productions have won 16 BAFTAs (66 nominations) and 13 Oscars (46 nominations). Pathé International handles the international marketing and sales of Pathé’s own productions and also acquires third party films for worldwide representation. As one of Europe’s leading sales agents, Pathé International has a significant presence at all major film markets and festivals. www.pathe.co.uk @patheuk ABOUT INGENIOUS MEDIA For 21 years, Ingenious Media has been at the forefront of investing in the global creative economy and in that time has raised and deployed over $10 billion. Ingenious Media has been involved in the production of a diverse slate of films, including the award-winning Life of Pi, Avatar, Oscar-nominated Carol, Brooklyn and Selma, five films in the successful X-Men franchise, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, breakout British hits Suffragette and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, as well as acclaimed television programmes such as The Fall, Dr. Foster and The Honourable Woman. Titles currently on release or coming soon include Judy starring Renée Zellweger, Peter Cattaneo’s Military Wives starring Kristin Scott Thomas, Benedict Andrews’s Seberg starring Kristen Stewart and Jack O’Connell. ABOUT SCREEN YORKSHIRE Screen Yorkshire champions the film, TV, games and digital industries in Yorkshire and the Humber, UK. Its aim is to secure and support the very best projects, companies and individuals, helping to make the region one of the most sought-after destinations for production in the UK. Screen Yorkshire offers production financing through its Yorkshire Content Fund. Credits include: Official Secrets, Hope Gap, All Creatures Great and Small, Ackley Bridge, Dark River, Yardie, Ghost Stories, Stardog & Turbocat, Journeyman, Dad’s Army, Swallows and Amazons, Testament of Youth, ’71, National Treasure, The Great Train Robbery, Peaky Blinders, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and Hank Zipzer. Screen Yorkshire delivers the Film Office services for Yorkshire & Humber and has been leading the development of the Yorkshire Screen Hub, a cluster for the screen industries, recognised by the BFI in 2016 as the first awardee of funds from its Creative Cluster Challenge Fund. Screen Yorkshire also works with ScreenSkills, NFTS and the BFI to develop regional and UK wide talent by devising and delivering industry schemes www.screenyorkshire.co.uk @screenyorkshire

PATHÉ ANNOUNCES ‘MISBEHAVIOUR’ Pathé today announced that they will be presenting at AFM the feature film MISBEHAVIOUR, to be directed for Left Bank Pictures by two-time BAFTA winner Philippa Lowthorpe (THREE GIRLS). Philippa is one of only two women to have won a BAFTA for direction. The warm, funny and provocative screenplay was written by Rebecca Frayn with revisions by Gaby Chiappe and is based on an inspirational true story: In 1970, the Miss World competition took place in London, hosted by US comedy legend, Bob Hope. At the time, Miss World was the most-watched TV show on the planet with over 100 million viewers. Claiming that beauty competitions demeaned women, the newly-formed Women’s Liberation Movement achieved overnight fame by invading the stage and disrupting the live broadcast of the competition. Not only that, when the show resumed, the result caused uproar: the winner was not the Swedish favourite but Miss Grenada - the first black woman to be crowned Miss World. In a matter of hours, a global audience had witnessed the patriarchy driven from the stage and the Western ideal of beauty turned on its head. The film features an ensemble cast that will be led by Keira Knightley (Oscar nominated for THE IMITATION GAME and PRIDE & PREJUDICE) and includes BAFTA nominee Gugu Mbatha-Raw (BELLE) and Jessie Buckley (WILD ROSE). The film is being produced for Left Bank Pictures by BAFTA nominee Suzanne Mackie (THE CROWN, CALENDAR GIRLS) and by Sarah-Jane Wheale. Executive Producers include Andy Harries and Rebecca Frayn for Left Bank; and Cameron McCracken and Jenny Borgars for Pathé. Pathé will distribute the film in the UK, France and Switzerland and will handle sales throughout the rest of the world.

Trailer and Poster released for MISBEHAVIOUR. YOUTUBE TRAILER LINK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUa0Mtdv1HQ&feature=emb_logo TRAILER DOWNLOAD LINK https://wetransfer.com/downloads/9761f767d581158f624eb5c77a66bdc320191218121615/12d707 RELEASED ON 13 MARCH 2020 IN THE UK DIRECTED BY Philippa Lowthorpe STARRING Keira Knightley ● Gugu Mbatha-Raw ● Jessie Buckley Greg Kinnear ● Lesley Manville ● Keeley Hawes ● Rhys Ifans ● Phyllis Logan The film is directed by BAFTA winner Philippa Lowthorpe (Three Girls) and stars Keira Knightley, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Jessie Buckley, Greg Kinnear, Lesley Manville, Keeley Hawes, Rhys Ifans and Phyllis Logan. A politically relevant, inspirational true story, the film skilfully combines humour with drama to celebrate all women, however they choose to navigate a male-dominated world: In 1970, the Miss World competition took place in London, hosted by US comedy legend, Bob Hope. At the time, Miss World was the most-watched TV show on the planet with over 100 million viewers. Claiming that beauty competitions demeaned women, the newly formed Women’s Liberation Movement achieved overnight fame by invading the stage and disrupting the live broadcast of the competition. Not only that, when the show resumed, the result caused uproar: the winner was not the Swedish favourite but Miss Grenada, the first black woman to be crowned Miss World. In a matter of hours, a global audience had witnessed the patriarchy driven from the stage and the Western ideal of beauty turned on its head. The film was written by Rebecca Frayn and Gaby Chiappe, and produced by Suzanne Mackie and Sarah Jane Wheale. MISBEHAVIOUR is a Pathé, Ingenious Media, BBC Films, BFI presentation of a Left Bank Pictures production. UK cinema release date: 13 March 2020 Running time: 1 hour 46 minutes Certificate: 12A For images please go to: https://panther4.dmsukltd.com/ For press information, please contact: Nicki Foster / Oliver Lavery / Simon Bell / Harriet Gilholm Tel: + 44 20 7292 8330 / Email: Firstname.surname@premiercomms.com