The Big CityPG

Directed by Satyajit Ray | India | 1964 | 2h 15m | Bengali w/ English subtitles | Starring Anil Chatterjee, Madhavi Mukherjee, Jaya Bachchan, Haren Chatterjee

In 1960s Calcutta, a middle-class housewife is compelled to take the job of a saleswoman in order to support her family. She not only takes a job but proves a huge success in the workplace, relishing her new-found independence and thoroughly upsetting the family dynamic. Satyajit Ray builds a powerful human drama that is at once a hopeful morality tale and a commentary on the identity of the modern Indian woman.

Reviews

‘An utterly absorbing and moving drama about the changing worlds of work and home in 1950s India, and a hymn to uxorious love acted with lightness, intelligence and wit.’
★★★★★
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

‘A bustling urban drama about the conflicts of work, gender and money, richly believable in the details and fascinating in its social vision.’
★★★★
Tim Robey, The Telegraph

Sorry - you missed it!

We showed The Big City between September 11, 2022 and September 12, 2022.

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What else is on?

Today (Sunday 5th May)

15:00

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife... 18
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Revenge is the dish of the day in Peter Greenaway's stylish and provocative gastronomical crime-drama satirising the social, moral, and political decay of Britain during the 1980s.

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17:45

The Teachers' Lounge 12A
1h 39m | German w/ English subtitles
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20:00

The Sweet East 18
1h 44m
Jacob Elordi and Ayo Edebiri star in this hazy road-movie about a teenager on a cross-country trip across America where she encounters pseudo-intellectuals, wannabe artists, and a gang of Neo-Nazis.

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Tomorrow (Monday 6th May)

17:45

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife... 18
2h 4m
Revenge is the dish of the day in Peter Greenaway's stylish and provocative gastronomical crime-drama satirising the social, moral, and political decay of Britain during the 1980s.

Book here

20:30

Monkey Man 18
Deaf/HOH Subtitles
2h 1m
In an underground boxing club, a young fighter unleashes furious rage on the city’s corrupt elite who destroyed his family. A bone-crunching action revenge thriller directed by Dev Patel (The Green Knight).

Book here


Plan your visit

Our beautiful art deco inspired auditorium can be found just off East Oxford's Cowley Road. We are open 7 days a week. We open the cinema and box office 30 minutes before the scheduled start time of each film, and the Box Office then closes 10 minutes after the film starts. We don’t show adverts, just a couple of trailers, so don't be late as the film itself starts very close to the advertised time!