Subject to change. For up-to-date details and show times, see the Odeon’s website.
ODEON Cinema
piazza Strozzi 2, tel. 055/295051
October 1–7
EVEREST
Never let go. Semi-documentary drama based on the true story of the extreme weather disasters that befell two 1996 Himalayan expeditions that set out to conquer the notoriously hostile peak. ‘With its perilous central premise and gallery of individuals some of whom are destined not to make it, you could say Everest is a disaster movie in the old Hollywood sense of the term, but it doesn’t feel like one. And that’s a good thing’ (The Hollywood Reporter). ‘Despite some lurches and shocks, it doesn’t quite deliver the edge-of-your-seat thrills that many were hoping for’ (Guardian).
October 12–14THE PROGRAMWinning was in his blood. As were illegal substances, of course. The story of disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong and the long-held façade of his sporting success, finally exposed by journalistic tenacity. Who didn’t know? ‘It’s a fluid and nippy telling of a tale that still seems strangely urgent’ (Guardian). ‘You sense structural uncertainty about what the Armstrong saga connotes and how exactly it was begging to be told. But you can’t take your eyes off Foster’ (Telegraph).
October 15–18, 21
WOMAN IN GOLD
Bradley Cooper is driven chef Adam Jones, enfant sauvage of Parisian restauranteurs, whose Michelin two stars are unsatisfactory, so with a lot of bad behaviour and determination—and a little help from some friends—he does everything to get the three-star rating for his own outfit in London.
Justice is priceless. Austrian American war refugee Maria Altmann teams up with a young lawyer to reclaim the painting of her aunt Adele Bloch-Bauer I by Gustav Klimt, stolen by the Nazis. ‘Though perhaps lacking in a real sense of dramatic tension; veering towards the schmaltzy at times and needing a far tighter ending, Woman in Gold is still a thoroughly enjoyable story, engagingly told and with a nice line in gentle humour to balance the legal battle structure which can veer to dryness at times’
October 20 – Free entrance
THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST
Martin Scorsese’s controversial movie based not on the New Testament but on Nikos Kazantzakis’s novel. The movie traces the familiar narrative but importantly focuses on the ordinariness of the man fulfilling his destiny. ‘In an age of post-Christian facetiousness, Martin Scorsese’s work daringly attempts to restore passion and melodrama to the Gospel story. Protests notwithstanding, the film is an affirmation of faith in the power of both the Gospel and the movies’ (Time). ‘The Last Temptation of Christ, Martin Scorsese’s provocative, punishing, weirdly brilliant adaptation of Nikos Kazantzakis’ novel, has a feverish intensity. And undeniably, there’s a prodigious greatness on display here. But just as undeniably, it is failed work’ (Washington Post).
October 23–25
THE WALK
Every dream begins with a single step. The story of French high-wire artist Philippe Petit’s attempt to walk the tightrope between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in 1974. Not a walk in the park, but does the documentary Man on a Wire really need feature film treatment? Can it fill the gaps the documentary couldn’t avoid having? Is the technical challenge of delivering (literally) suspenseful thrills and spills really worth the effort?