Jan 5: Movie- MRS LOWRY & SON

Guardian UK 3/5 Stars  “An entertaining showcase for two first-class performers.” 

Official Selection: 2019 New Zealand International Film Festival 

RAGLAN MOVIES at the OLD SCHOOL, 5 Stewart Street, Raglan

MRS LOWRY & SON 91 mins PG Nudity UK

• Saturday 30th November 8.00pm
• Sunday 1st December 4.30pm
• Sunday 5th January 5.00pm

Book online: raglanmovies.nz, call into the Old School office Mon-Fri 10am to 2pm.

Door sales from 30 mins before session times.

Licensed bar & homemade snacks on sale at all screenings.

Adults $15, Concession $12, RCAC Members $12, Children $8.
The reduced concession rate is for $12 concession (student, seniors or CS cards).

MRS LOWRY & SON: Oscar winner Vanessa Redgrave and Cannes best actor winner Timothy Spall star in this British drama about artist L.S. Lowry and his domineering mother.

Having already played J.M.W. Turner to great acclaim, Timothy Spall takes on another English painter with equally compelling results. Laurence Stephen (L.S.) Lowry was a Lancashire artist whose depictions of industrial life only found an audience and admiration once he reached middle age.

Bed-ridden and bitter, his mother Elizabeth (Redgrave) actively tried to dissuade her bachelor son from pursuing his ambitions, whilst never failing to voice her opinion at what a disappointment he was to her.

NZIFF: “Focusing on the mid-1930s, the period just before Lowry was discovered, theatre director Adrian Noble’s film looks at the relationship between the then Pendlebury rent collector and his bed-ridden, domineering mother Elisabeth (Vanessa Redgrave). Struggling to pay off debts his father left behind, ‘Laurie’ also bears the brunt of his mum’s fragile physical and emotional state. “I’m never cheerful, not since 1868,” she opines, while grumbling about their working-class neighbours, her son’s apparent lack of ambition and his ‘hobby’. Seemingly taking delight in reading aloud a scathing review of one of his works in the local paper, she also casts doubt on the authenticity of a letter from London proposing an exhibition of his works. “Why can’t you paint something picturesque, tasteful? What about a bowl of fruit?”, Elizabeth chides.”

“Essentially a two-hander, Mrs Lowry & Son is a terrific, slow-burning showcase for the acting skills of Redgrave and Spall. Their scenes together crackle with tension and barely repressed anger, as Laurie finds his attempts to evolve stymied by his almost maniacal mum. The svelte Spall is particularly impressive, whether with brush in hand, or using the canvas of his face to portray the flickers of an artist’s pent up emotions.” — James Croot.

DIRECTOR: Adrian Noble
PRODUCER: Debbie Gray
SCREENPLAY: Martyn Hesford
PHOTOGRAPHY: Josep M. Civit
EDITOR: Chris Gill
PRODUCTION DESIGNER: Catrin Meredydd
COSTUME DESIGNER: Jenny Beavan
MUSIC: Craig Armstrong
WITH
Vanessa Redgrave (Elizabeth Lowry), Timothy Spall (L.S. Lowry), Stephen Lord (Mr Stanhope), David Schaal (man in Bath), Wendy Morgan (Mrs Stanhope), Michael Keogh (Mr Lowry), John Alan Roberts (art critic), Joanne Pearce (wife of man in Bath)