Music of maestros helps in wartime

THE beauty of music comes to the fore during cataclysmic events in Nicholas Hytner and Alan Bennett’s film The Choral (12A), out today at the Regal Picturehouse in Boroma Way, Henley.

With the First World War and the battles on the Western Front continuing, the choral society in Ramsden, Yorkshire, has seen its male cohort sent off to fight. When chorus master Dr Henry Guthrie (Ralph Fiennes) is brought in, locals are suspicious about his previous career in Germany.

As young men face the prospects of conscription, others return injured. The conditions remain bleak, but Guthrie seeks to bring out the best in his singers.

The supporting cast includes Roger Allam, Emily Fairn, Alun Armstrong, Mark Addy and Simon Russell Beale and the film has a running time of just under two hours.

The isolation of new motherhood and its strains on marriage is taken to extremes in Die My Love (15), directed by Lynne Ramsay, adapted with Alice Birch and Enda Walsh from Ariana Harwicz’s novel.

Starring Robert Pattinson and Jennifer Lawrence as couple Jackson and Grace, as Jackson’s work takes him away from home and Grace struggles to write her book, the mood turns destructive. Sissy Spacek and Nick Nolte also star. The film has a running time of just under two hours.

Now aged 85, former Python and Fawlty Towers funnyman John Cleese went on a European tour this year, travelling to five countries in six weeks. John Cleese Packs It In (12A) takes footage from behind the scenes and on the road, allowing the comic to reflect on his career lasting more than six decades. The film has a running time of one hour and 20 minutes.

Continuing are National Theatre Live: Mrs. Warren’s Profession (12A) and Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (12A).