Last night, I headed to Firmdale Hotels’ gorgeous Ham Yard Hotel in Soho to celebrate its cool new partnership with Curzon Cinemas.
I visited just before Christmas for an event in the hotel’s cosy Drawing Room and it was a treat to discover more Kit Kemp’s beautifully-designed spaces.
Firmdale Hotels are established hubs for the film industry (I spent a lot of time in their screening rooms when I worked at Sugarscape) and there are always movie stars in residence. However, while the A-listers are there to work and promote, guests can kick back and relax watching a great film.
Curzon Cinemas selects a programme of the latest cinema releases and a curated selection of contemporary and classic films every Sunday at Ham Yard Theatre. Films are set to include award-nominated Theory of Everything, Tim Burton’s Big Eyes, Birdman and a special preview of Love is Strange.
The comfy, state-of-the-art, 190-seat theatre is super-slick with Dolby sound and XpanD Digital 3D capable screen. It’s a high-ceiling space with a mezzanine level and is lined with electric blue walls, bright fuchsia pink silk curtains and quirky tangerine orange leather seats.
We started the evening in the hotel’s cool Dive Bar, where we enjoyed glasses of Champagne and delicious canapés before moving in to the theatre for a special preview screening of Force Majeure.
Directed and written by Ruben Östlund, Force Majeure sees a young, bourgeois Swedish family take a vacation to a luxury ski resort in the French Alps. After they get caught up in a controlled avalanche gone rogue during lunch on a mountain restaurant terrace, their carefully-constructed relationship starts to unravel.
During this frightening incident, mother Ebba (Lisa Loven Kongsli) tried to protect her children, while her husband Tomas (Johannes Kuhnke) ran away, abandoning them in the drift. This becomes a major issue that Ebba can’t move past without resolving and Tomas would rather brush under the carpet.
While they clash over each other’s versions of events, the parents go through awkward moments over dinner with hotel guests, hallway breakdowns and their kids’ tantrums. Of course, the kids can feel the deep-rooted tension and fear their parents divorcing.
Things reach a head when their friend, bearded hipster Mats (Kristofer Hivju), comes out to visit with his 20-year-old girlfriend Fanni (Fanni Metelius). Unwittingly, they become embroiled in the drama and have to act as mediators. Despite the marital breakdown and emotional rawness, there are some truly hilarious moments.
Östlund closely explores the roles of men and women in relationships and questions just how instinctive they are. Ebba resents Tomas for being a ‘coward’ and trying to keep up appearances, while he is incensed by her coldness and airing their dirty laundry in public.
There are some beautifully-shot mountain scenes and I like how Östlund uses avalanche canon blasts, excerpts of Vivaldi’s ‘Storm’ and the breathtaking yet treacherous landscape to heighten the tension. Even banal activities such as teeth brushing, napping and taking the painfully slow snow travelator back to the resort are given a humorous sense of ritual.
Force Majeure is quite a journey and a darkly funny, engaging film. It’s definitely deserving of its six Guldbagge awards (Golden Beetles) – the Swedish Oscars- and a must-see film.
Sunday Cinema at Ham Yard, in partnership with Curzon Cinemas, is priced at £15 per person. Force Majeure is released in the UK in April 2015. For more information and booking, visit: www.firmdalehotels.com
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