A publishing phenomenon, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the first book in the best-selling Millennium trilogy written by the Swedish journalist and author Stieg Larsson. Now adapted for the big screen in its native Sweden, the film version has gone on to win awards and smash box office records around Europe and is now set to repeat this success in the UK.

As fans of the novel will know, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a tense, gripping thriller that neatly turns the conventions of the genre on its head, giving us a kick-ass anti-heroine in the form of computer hacker Lisbeth Salander.

Facing prison time for slander, discredited journalist Mikael Blomkvist is hired by a reclusive industrialist for one last job; to solve a long unresolved family disappearance. Aided by the mysterious and troubled Lisbeth the two uncover a dark world of brutality, deception and ritualistic murder. On their own and not knowing who to trust, the pair's attempt to uncover the truth leads to a fight for their very survival...

A heady mix of intrigue, murder, violence and romance set against a wintry Scandanavian backdrop, this is a hugely enjoyable, darkly gripping yarn.

With film sequels planned for release later in 2010 (The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest) the Milliennium Trilogy could be one of the biggest must-sees of the new decade.

The story of how one man set out to film the un-filmable. And failed.

The latest film from Amélie creator Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Wild, wacky and enormously entertaining.

A new film from Jean-Pierre Jeunet, director of the much-loved Amélie, is always something to look forward to and Micmacs does not disappoint. Full of the same wild inventiveness and wacky charm, Micmacs is an ingenious blend of boys own adventure and slapstick comedy with a surreal political edge.

Dany Boon (Welcome to the Sticks), the hugely popular French comic, stars as Bazil, a lowly video store clerk who finds himself with a bullet in his head as a result of a freak accident. It's the final straw for Bazil, still mourning the death of his solider father, and he sets out on a one man campaign against the arms traders ultimately responsible for his misfortune. On his quest for revenge he encounters a rag-tag bunch of scavengers, ‘Micmacs', (who include some very familiar faces) and gradually Bazil becomes part of their ‘family' and draws them in to his mission.

As one would expect from a Jeunet film, Micmacs is full of ideas and invention; from the junkyard home of the Micmacs themselves, full of ingenious thingamajigs, through to the increasingly convoluted scams Bazil plays on the hapless arms traders - Jeunet packs more creativity into one film than most directors manage in a career. Crammed with more visual gags, Heath Robinson-esque contraptions and quirky characters than you can shake a stick at, Micmacs is outrageously enjoyable and utterly unlike anything you have ever seen before.

One of the opening films of the 2009 Venice Film Festival, acclaimed drama Francesca is the debut of Bobby Paunescu, a leading Romanian film-maker. Francesca is a young kindergarten teacher whose dream is to leave Romania and migrate to Italy for a better life. She is relying on her boyfriend Mita to join her in Italy as soon as he finishes a small business he's involved in, but her plans are threatened as painful truths come to light. Paunescu expertly builds a tragic sense of entrapment around Francesca's flight.

More details at http://www.icr-london.co.uk/ 
 

A matinee screening of John Huston's classic film 'The African Queen' to raise funds for the Omari project in Malindi on the Kenyan coast.

Come to QFT on Saturday 20 March from 1.15pm - 4.30pm  for a fundraising event for the Omari project.

Ticket price includes introduced screening of the classic film 'The African Queen' and wine and nibbles after the film.

Tickets are available for a exciting range of prizes in the raffle after the film in the QFT foyer. Prizes include QFT membership for year, holistic therapy sessions including reiki, massage therapy, reflexology and more, meals for two in fabulous restaurants and much more.

The Omari Project was established in 1995 to provide drugs education and services to addicts, families, and communities. It is one of only 2 drug detox facilities in sub-Saharan Africa.

Your money will go towards funding Caroline Dunne along with two other volunteers from Belfast who are visiting the Omari project for three weeks in August 2010 to teach massage therapy skills/reflexology skills to the carers working in the project.

Last year one of our volunteers raised funds to visit the project to teach Indian Head Massage to the carers which had such a positive effect on the patients that they have asked for a group to come back this year to continue the training.

Tickets can be purchased by phone, online or directly from the Queen's Film Theatre box office - tickets are available for purchase - they are £6 each which includes introduced screening, wine and nibbles.

Date: Sat-March 20th

Time: 11.-3pm

Location:Queens Film Theatre www.queensfilmtheatre.com

Phone: 02890 971097 after 6pm

Thank you, see you all there,

Caroline Dunne

Holistic Practitioner/Metaphyisical Teacher /Trainer
Life changing workshops available for your personal growth...

Filmed with special microscopic cameras and high-resolution microphones, Microcosmos brings us closer to nature than ever before, with bees collecting nectar, ladybirds eating mites, snails mating and a mosquito hatching.

Ireland`s first post-apocalyptic film and the first feature by Factotum.

Northern Ireland, the future: in a post-apocalyptic landscape of decaying towns and primitive technology, two people set out on a journey in search of medicine.

Ulster has become a depopulated, feudal and dangerous wilderness where its inhabitants have forgotten the past and are confused about the ruins that surround them and feel threatened by the world they do not understand.

Along the way the travellers find themselves encounter a cast of unpredictable characters including a wise hermit, a tribe of cannibals, a dysfunctional army and an entrepreneurial priestess. What fate will await them at the end of their journey?

http://www.ditching.co.uk/

http://www.factotum.org.uk/

On meeting Michael, Rory decides that they must change their lives and so concocts a plan to beat the system. Rory's dynamic and rebellious nature soon sparks a flame in Michael, introducing him to a whole new world outside of Carrigmore.

Set in contemporary Dublin Perrier's Bounty is a fast paced comedy-thriller featuring three unlikely fugitives on the run from a gangster supremo.

Michael (Cillian Murphy) owes money to Dublin's meanest gangster, Darren Perrier (Brendan Gleeson). When the debt is called in Brenda (Jodie Whittaker), Michael's recently dumped and suicidal best friend, accidentally shoots dead one of his goons. To make matters worse Michael's estranged father, Jim (Jim Broadbent), arrives just in time to witness the scene. With a bounty on their heads Michael, Jim and Brenda flee to the mountains.

On the run with his eccentric father, who's convinced he'll die the next time he sleeps, and an increasingly morose Brenda, Michael is about to lose his mind. But as the net tightens and the helter skelter chase reaches its climax he is forced to forgive his father and confront his true feelings for Brenda. With every hard man in Dublin on their trail it looks like Michael won't make it through the next 24 hours; however, the Grim Reaper and a gang of savage dogs have a funny way of intervening.

With only 24 hours to escape certain death, the trio must beat the clock, stay awake, and above all, pay Perrier's bounty.

No one said saving the planet would be easy, but does it have to be this hard?!

QFT is delighted to welcome cast and crew from Beyond the Pole to introduce and discuss the film on Friday 26 March at 7pm.

As the first carbon neutral,organic, vegetarian expedition ever to attempt the North Pole, Mark (Stephen Mangan) and Brian (Rhys Thomas) have high hopes of not only doing their bit for global warming, but also, if all goes well, of getting into the Guinness Book of Records.

Unfortunately, not only is this a world first: it's a first for them too. Brian and Mark have never done anything like this before. Luckily they are followed by Steve, their hardened arctic cameraman, to follow their journey for the digital channel, Adventure Plus. That is until they accidentally shoot him.

Touching the Void with laughs, Withnail & I on ice. Funny and subversive, it's the story of two men trying to find their place in the world before the end of the world.

Mark Lewis is a cameraman with a penchant for hiring prostitutes only to murder them and film the reactions of their deaths. When his lodger Helen asks to see his work he shows her home video footage of abuse at his father's hands. It becomes clear that he is psychologically damaged but he continues his pattern even under police surveillance.

Dubbed as ‘the British Psycho' and released in the same year as Hitchcock's masterpiece, Peeping Tom shocked its contemporary critics with this unsettling subject matter. Watching it today only heightens our awareness of such realities.

Narrated by Morgan Freeman, March of the Penguins is an amazing, true-life tale touched with humour and alive with thrills.

Andy Warhol's Blow Job is a single take of a man's face as he receives the sexual act of fellatio. Warhol's films often desire to challenge their viewers in terms of duration as well as content. Although not a long film, the endurance is in the fixed shot that forces the spectator to notice the minute changes of facial expression as the act is carried out off-screen.

A fantastical merge of several genres and influences, Godard's Alphaville is a delectable mesh of 1950s American film noir nostalgia, Orwellian themes, surrealist nuances, and New Wave cinematography. This film famously denies just about every filmic convention and should be celebrated for it.

Saturday 27 March, 9pm - pre-film fun, 10pm - film screening.

CLUE 1: Our story starts in 1992 when our original bad guy ended up stuck in the middle of a shootout stand off...

More clues will be released over the coming weeks - watch the streets, the skies, your PC, and listen in to Citybeat to find out more!

Tickets £10 - book online using the orange link below.

This film may suggest that we are not always paranoid enough, but at what cost do we deny ourselves blissful ignorance?

Commissioned for the BBC and produced by Danny Boyle, Elephant was originally one of four stand-alone dramas about the ‘Troubles'. Containing no dialogue or explanations for the murders it depicts, Alan Clarke's televised play comments on the everydayness of sectarian killings at the height of the Northern Irish conflict.

Doherty's Dublin commissioned work Three Potential Endings was partly inspired by the finality seen in Elephant's short segments. The film includes notions of ambiguity between sides of the conflict and perpetrators and victims, themes often covered in Willie Doherty's earlier video and photographic pieces.

Based on the novel by J.G. Ballard, David Cronenberg's Crash can be seen as a 1990s metaphor for human adjustment to changing modern technologies and a disturbing way of reacting to both trauma and disillusionment.

This film forms part of Lars von Trier's ‘Advance Party' project where he challenged others to create characters to be incorporated into different films made by different directors, played by the same actors each time.

Inspired by Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tale The Little Mermaid, Ponyo is a little goldfish who embarks on a quest to become human. An enchanting and visually stunning blend of imagination, humour, action, mystery and romance, Ponyo was the top film in Japan in 2008 and is the eighth highest grossing film in Japanese history.

Please take care when booking to choose your preferred version.

Academy Award winning writer-director Neil Jordan returns with a lyrical modern fairy tale which tells the story of Syracuse (Colin Farrell), a loathsome, irresponsible, Irish fisherman who is separated from his former wife and distanced from Annie (Alison Barry), his wheelchair-bound daughter.

His life is transformed when he catches a beautiful and mysterious woman (Alicja Bachleda) in his nets. She appears to be dead but, miraculously, comes back to life before his eyes. His daughter Annie comes to believe that the woman is a magical creature.

The world-weary Syracuse soon finds himself believing that this charming lady may well be a myth come true, a woman sent to change his life, as he begins to fall hopelessly in love with her. However, like all fairy tales, enchantment and darkness go hand in hand.

One of the most charming and entertaining Hollywood musicals, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes showcases the talents of Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell at their glamorous best.

Based on the book by Anita Loos, Lorelei Lee (Monroe) and her wisecracking friend Dorothy (Russell) are a pair of man-hunting showgirls on a transatlantic cruise. While Dorothy is on a quest for true love Lorelei, however, has her sights set on a millionaire... 

With its stunning technicolor cinematography and a legendary selection of musical numbers including 'Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend', Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is a timeless joy.

Drawing heavily on real-life producer Humbert Balsan (who produced among others Youssef Chahine, Claire Denis and Bela Tarr) this deceptively lightly handled film carries a real emotional wallop as it unfolds.

This is a film about ordinary people doing their best to make themselves and those they love as happy as real life permits. A real treat.

As the race between Chinese intelligence agents and the nannies gathers pace, the undercover caper takes to the streets of London when the nannies decide to hijack dinosaur!

Inspired by Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tale The Little Mermaid, Ponyo is a little goldfish who embarks on a quest to become human. An enchanting and visually stunning blend of imagination, humour, action, mystery and romance, Ponyo was the top film in Japan in 2008 and is the eighth highest grossing film in Japanese history.

Please take care when booking to choose your preferred version.

As well as a special screening of Invictus, there will be a pre-film reception, which will be attended by Ulster Rugby players and the team mascot. You can also find out more about the Bank of Ireland Ulster Rugby Mastercard, which helps to nurture homegrown talent and support the development of rugby in Ulster and enter our competition for special rugby and film-themed prizes!

Director Clint Eastwood tells the inspiring true story of how Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) joined forces with the captain of South Africa's rugby team, Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon), to help unite their country.

Newly elected President Mandela knows his nation remains racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing he can bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africa's underdog rugby team as they make an unlikely run to the 1995 World Cup Championship match.

"It's an exciting sports movie, an inspiring tale of prejudice overcome and, above all, a fascinating study of political leadership." - NEW YORK TIMES

When their mother needs to leave in order to find their estranged father, seven-year-old Jin and her younger sister, Bin, are left to live with their Big Aunt for the summer. With only a small piggy bank and their mother's promise to return when it is full, the two young girls are forced to navigate life on their own.

Growing up in Harlem,16-yearold Claireece Precious Jones (Sidibe) endures unimaginable hardships in her young life. Not only is she suffering from
obesity and illiteracy but she has been constantly raped and impregnated twice by her father, and has suffered years of mental, physical and sexual abuse from her mother.

Precious decides to get away from the monster she calls her mother (a terrifying performance from comedian Mo'Nique) and seek a better life for her children and herself. Precious is certainly a tough watch but it is ultimately an uplifting and powerful film, gaining a well-deserved six Oscar nominations.

Breakfast at Tiffany's is Blake Edwards' adaptation of Truman Capote's much loved novella of the same name, and follows the adventures of good time girl Holly Golightly (a luminous and iconic Audrey Hepburn) as she breaks hearts around Manhattan while trying to make her fortune. A young George Peppard (to be reincarnated 20 years later as 'Hannibal' Smith in The A Team) provides Holly's romantic interest, following her and her unnamed Cat around a beautiful early 1960s New York, a city full of cocktail bars, brownstones and chic parties. Henry Mancini's ravishing score includes Hepburn singing the now classic "Moon River", and Hepburn as Holly is hypnotic in her most famous role.

Sun 11 April at 12 noon
Breakfast at Tiffany's screening - 2pm

Silver Screen presents A Vintage Afternoon in association with the QFT.

Dress to impress in your best vintage from any era that grabs you, and watch Audrey Hepburn in her most memorable role on the big screen.

Tickets are £8 each and include the film, tea/coffee, yummy cakes and buns.

The very talented Clare Afshar, from Vintage Rocks Hair Parlour, will be available on the day to transform your locks into vintage styles.

Limited number of tickets available.

Treat yourself to A Vintage Afternoon at the QFTea

Known as the Angola 3. Herman Wallace, Albert Woodfox and Robert King spent almost a century between them in solitary confinement in Angola, the Louisiana State Penitentary. Herman and Albert are still in solitary confinement after thirty six years.

In the Land of the Free... examines the story of these extraordinary men who appear to have been targeted by the prison officers for being members of the Black Panther Party because they fought against the terrible conditions and systematic sexual slavery that was rife in the prison.

They were subsequently convicted of the murder of a prison guard, although there was no physical evidence against them. Visit http://www.angola3.org/  to find out more about their case.