This week's Hyde Park Pick
HPPH recommends That They May Face the Rising Sun as the film you can't miss this week.
Robb Barham
Contrary to what Hollywood might have you believe (or think you’d prefer), the cinema experience is not all about extended universes, Hans Zimmer-esque musical explosions and clichéd story-telling.
Whilst of course these films have their place, at the Picture House we’re also keen on the quiet, the reflective, the small scale detail.
We’ve a brace of these tiny wonders coming up in the next two months, with the first being That They May Face the Rising Sun, a faithful adaptation of the final novel from John McGahern, one of Ireland’s greatest novelists.
The film captures the rural setting in an almost documentary-like way, with lines taken directly from the book scattered throughout. There is also a graceful poignancy in its day-to-day realism and the shifting of the seasons, imbued with melancholia and a tender care for each other - particularly at the point of death.
In keeping with the small and perfectly formed, I’ll keep this writing short and sweet, but also keep a look out for Here (2023) & Ama Gloria (2023), two other quietly wonderful and wonderfully quiet films in our June/July programme.
That They May Face the Rising Sun is showing at HPPH from Friday 31st May. Book tickets here.
