Film Showing in the Forum Cinema, September 2020
In association with Hexham Town Twinning Association there were two showings of 'Portrait of a Lady on Fire' (French: 'Portrait de la jeune fille en feu'), a 2019 historical drama film written and directed by Céline Sciamma. It was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. The showings were on 22nd and 23rd September 2020.
In the 1770s Marianne, a young painter, is teaching painting lessons. One of her students asks her about a painting of hers, which Marianne calls 'Portrait of a Lady on Fire'. Years prior, Marianne arrives on an isolated island in Brittany. She had been commissioned to paint a portrait of a young woman named Héloïse before Héloïse is married off to her dead sister's ex-fiancé. Her sister threw herself off of a cliffside before Marianne's arrival. Marianne is informed that Héloïse has previously refused to sit for portraits as she does not want to be married. Marianne acts as Héloïse's hired companion to be able to paint her in secret, and accompanies her on daily walks to memorise Héloïse's features.
Completing the portrait in secret, observing the resistant Héloïse by day and painting her by night, the two women grow closer. Their intimacy and attraction begins to blossom into a profoundly charged romance.
In the 1770s Marianne, a young painter, is teaching painting lessons. One of her students asks her about a painting of hers, which Marianne calls 'Portrait of a Lady on Fire'. Years prior, Marianne arrives on an isolated island in Brittany. She had been commissioned to paint a portrait of a young woman named Héloïse before Héloïse is married off to her dead sister's ex-fiancé. Her sister threw herself off of a cliffside before Marianne's arrival. Marianne is informed that Héloïse has previously refused to sit for portraits as she does not want to be married. Marianne acts as Héloïse's hired companion to be able to paint her in secret, and accompanies her on daily walks to memorise Héloïse's features.
Completing the portrait in secret, observing the resistant Héloïse by day and painting her by night, the two women grow closer. Their intimacy and attraction begins to blossom into a profoundly charged romance.
March 2020: we regret to announce the death of one our most loyal and longest-serving members, David Hindley
David was Chair of our association from 1999 to 2001 and as Secretary from both 1995 to 1999 and again from 2006 to 2009. Hewas a life-long advocate for the ideals of town twinning and continued to support our activities long after his terms of office. David and his wife Susan never missed the opportunity to join in town twinning visits to both Noyon and Metzingen, making the most of travelling overland to stop at various destinations en route. In October 2012 Metzingen's Bürgermeister Dr Ulrich Fiedler presented David with a Bürgermedaille, a rare honour for a British citizen, equivalent perhaps to our being awarded the freedom of the city. David is in the light jacket on the left of the photograph, Dr Ulrich Fiedler is on the right, behind are Hexham town councillors.
David's death has been marked by newspapers in the Metzingen area and by an obituary from Metzingen town council
Image copyright K. Weitnauer
David was Chair of our association from 1999 to 2001 and as Secretary from both 1995 to 1999 and again from 2006 to 2009. Hewas a life-long advocate for the ideals of town twinning and continued to support our activities long after his terms of office. David and his wife Susan never missed the opportunity to join in town twinning visits to both Noyon and Metzingen, making the most of travelling overland to stop at various destinations en route. In October 2012 Metzingen's Bürgermeister Dr Ulrich Fiedler presented David with a Bürgermedaille, a rare honour for a British citizen, equivalent perhaps to our being awarded the freedom of the city. David is in the light jacket on the left of the photograph, Dr Ulrich Fiedler is on the right, behind are Hexham town councillors.
David's death has been marked by newspapers in the Metzingen area and by an obituary from Metzingen town council
Image copyright K. Weitnauer
Film Showing in the Forum Cinema, Hexham, 11th February 2020
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Hexham Town Twinning Association and the Forum Cinema presented Never Look Away (German: ,Werk ohne Autor', lit. 'Work Without Author'), a 2018 German coming-of-age romantic drama film written and directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. It was nominated for a Golden Lion at the 75th Venice International Film Festival and for a Golden Globe by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. It was nominated for two Academy Awards at the 91st Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film and Best Cinematography categories. This was only the second time that a German-language film by a German director was nominated for an Oscar in multiple categories, the other film being Wolfgang Petersen's Das Boot 36 years previously.
The plot revolves around German artist Kurt Barnert who has escaped East Germany and now lives in West Germany but is tormented by his childhood under the Nazis and the GDR-(East German)-regime. The writer/director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck explained extensively that Never Look Away is a work of fiction but that the point of inspiration had been an article by famed German investigative reporter Jürgen Schreiber about the German painter Gerhard Richter. Richter's aunt Marianne Schönfelder had been murdered by the Nazis because she developed schizophrenia. Richter immortalised her in a painting titled Aunt Marianne in which the aunt is holding Gerhard Richter as a baby. Trailer here. |
Film Showing in the Forum Cinema, Hexham, 3rd December 2019
Hexham Town Twinning and the Forum Cinema presented the film Joyeux Noël ('Merry Christmas'), an epic war drama based on the Christmas truce of December 1914, depicted through the eyes of French, Scottish, and German soldiers. It was written and directed by Christian Carion. The film was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 78th Academy Awards.
It is a fictionalised account of an actual event that took place in December 1914, when Wilhelm, German Crown Prince, sent the lead singer of the Berlin Imperial Opera company on a solo visit to the front line. Singing by the tenor, Walter Kirchhoff, to the 120th and 124th Württemberg regiments led French soldiers in their trenches to stand up and applaud. Württemberg is the region where our twin town of Metzingen is situated.
It is a fictionalised account of an actual event that took place in December 1914, when Wilhelm, German Crown Prince, sent the lead singer of the Berlin Imperial Opera company on a solo visit to the front line. Singing by the tenor, Walter Kirchhoff, to the 120th and 124th Württemberg regiments led French soldiers in their trenches to stand up and applaud. Württemberg is the region where our twin town of Metzingen is situated.
Hexham visits Metzingen in October 2019
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A group of nearly 20 people has recently returned from a very successful visit to Hexham’s twin town of Metzingen. Hexham’s German twin is a somewhat larger town of some 22,000 inhabitants, once noted for its tanning, textile manufacture and wine production, but today famous for its ever expanding Outlet City . It does, however, still produce some excellent wine made from the grapes cultivated on the Weinberg overlooking the town and on sale in one of the historic Keltern or wine presses in the heart of the old town.
It was mayor Bob Hull’s first visit to the town and his strong European credentials after 30 years at the Council of Europe made a powerful impression. At an informal reception in Metzingen’s oldest building, the newly refurbished Family Centre, both mayors spoke with feeling about the need to maintain and expand the strong links and friendships built up between individuals and groups in the 2 towns over the past 30 years. With the threat of Britain’s imminent departure from the EU uppermost in their minds, Dr Fiedler asserted that we must remain friends, whether or not our two countries remain in a shared concept of Europe; Councillor Hull maintained that Britain will always be a part of Europe, whatever the future brings. Councillor Hull mentioned the importance of engaging young people from both towns in shared activities and Mon Richford, chair of Hexham Town Twinning Association, looked forward to the visit next July of a group of young musicians from Metzingen High School to Hexham. The visitors were blessed with perfect late summer weather for their Sunday outing to Waldenbuch, an old village with timbered houses and a large hunting lodge/castle in the heart of the Swabian Alp. A typical hearty Swabian lunch had been prepared for hosts and their guests before they adjourned to the Museum of Everyday Life housed within the castle. An English guide talked the group expertly through the exhibits and these provoked much discussion about shared memories. A perfect day was then rounded off by a short visit to a chocoholic’s paradise – a factory shop selling the delicious and world famous Ritter chocolate. Photographs: upper © Mon Richford; lower © Thomas Kiehl courtesy of SWP.DE Neckar-Alb |
Noyon visits Hexham in June 2019
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Well over 100 people of all shapes, sizes and ages dancing together in Hexham Abbey’s Great Hall is something wonderful to behold. When they’re ceilidh-dancing to Hexham’s very own Village Band and consist of French and English folk in equal measure, it’s something even more magical. Hexham has just been hosting friends old and new from its twin French town Noyon in Picardy, and neither their difficult journey nor the inclement weather did anything to dampen their enthusiasm.
On the Saturday morning Hexham’s recently appointed new mayor, Bob Hull, hosted a welcome reception in the Beaumont Hotel for the French visitors. Mr. Hull, speaking in French and in English, in the presence of Mme Catherine Naour, Deputy Mayor of Noyon said: “Town twinning will be an important and relevant part of Hexham and the UK’s relations with our European friends, whatever the outcome of the Brexit negotiations. There is a need to strengthen relations to allow both towns to become even closer and to involve young people from our respective towns more”. Members then attended a meet-the -author event with Noyon poet and writer Anick Baulard. The visitors from Noyon had expressed a wish to visit the seaside so Sunday’s excursion to Tynemouth turned out to be a huge success. Shopping in Tynemouth’s weekend market, visiting its iconic priory and tucking into a traditional fish and chip lunch made for a perfect day for the majority. The time passed all too quickly and by Monday morning no-one wanted the visit to end. Invitations for a return visit to Noyon next year came thick and fast and a date for this will soon be fixed. |
Mayor Bob Hull, extreme left, with Andy and Kate Gessey and their guests Martine and Franc in Tynemouth
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Metzingen visits Hexham in September 2018
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“A wonderful weekend” was the verdict of one of Hexham’s town twinners after hosting Metzingen visitors; “a really positive experience” said another. In all, 16 people of all ages came over to Hexham from its twin town in the Schwäbische Alb region of southern Germany. Arriving on various flights to Newcastle, the group had a varied programme organised for them by Hexham Town Twinning Association and their Hexham hosts. Fortunately the visit coincided with 2 important events in the local calendar – the Hexham Abbey Festival and the Allendale Folk Festival, so there was plenty of music on offer to suit all tastes and guests were able to choose which concerts they wished to attend with their hosts. In addition, the programme included a mayor’s reception on the Saturday afternoon, a Sunday outing to Alston that included a traditional roast beef dinner and a return steam train ride to Slaggyford. The visit was rounded off with a ceilidh on Sunday evening in Hexham Community Centre.
In the group were three mothers with their daughters, ranging in age from 12 to 15 to early twenties. Some twinning relationships have been forged over time, with members returning again and again to renew contacts with their old friends. New friendships develop each time, too, however, as word of mouth draws in a younger set to enjoy twinning for the first time. Over the past year Kay Cooper from Allendale has been teaching herself German through the internet, so that she’ll be able to hold a conversation with her son’s German girlfriend. Hosting one of the mothers with her 15-year-old daughter, Chiara was a perfect opportunity for her to try out her new-found German skills, even though she found her guests very fluent in English. She and husband Andy took pride in showing off our wonderful Northumberland countryside to their guests and the weekend gave them an insight into the value of twinning, especially with BREXIT looming. Kay couldn’t believe how well matched she and Andy had been with their guests and how appreciative, helpful and curious they were about everything. “Every town should get more involved with twinning”, asserted Kay. It’s important to show that we’re not insular, that we’re still a part of Europe; we need to make up for the impact of Brexit. One lovely feature of the visit is the way our Metzingen friends have in recent years been supporting local Hexham charities and community interest groups. On their last visit Metzingen presented a cheque to the Hextol Foundation and so it was fitting that this time round Hexham mayor Tom Gillanders should host an informal reception for both guests and hosts in the Hextol-supported Tans café. On this occasion the beneficiary of Metzingen council’s generosity was Core Music, who are just celebrating their first ten years of community-based music. Hexham Town Twinning Association has a long-standing relationship with the Hexham Village Band whose base is within Core Music and this band was very much in evidence over the weekend, some of its members involved in hosting and the band providing the music for the successful ceilidh that concluded the weekend. Metzingen’s mayor, Dr. Ulrich Fiedler, made a short but significant impact during the visit. At the reception he made an impassioned defence of the European Union’s role in maintaining peace and harmony since the second world war and he also stressed the importance of building friendships between individual citizens throughout Europe: something that is dear to the heart of all who are involved in twinning. At the ceilidh Dr. Fiedler was the recipient of a very special gift from Hexham’s youngest twinning member, Elspeth Corder. She and her mother Marianne had noticed that the German mayor wore no mayoral chain, unlike his counterpart, Tom Gillanders. They set about addressing the problem, making a very special hand-made version that they presented to the mayor, accompanied by their own very special rendition of Aretha Franklin’s Chain Chain Chain. Needless to say the words had been adapted for the occasion and included a reference to BREXIT. Hexham’s relationship with Metzingen now goes back 29 years. For those who want to get involved when Hexham visits its German twin town next year, or who fancy practising their German speaking skills in the meantime, HTTA is the organisation to join. For details phone Mon Richford on 07985 184581 or go to their website: hexhamtowntwinning.co.uk. The association has flourishing conversation groups running for both French and German, each organised by native speakers, and has an equally successful exchange with its French twin town, Noyon. |
Hexham town-twinners with their Metzingen guests at Slaggyford railway station
Kay and Andy Cooper with guest Chiara
Hexham mayor Tom Gillanders, chair of HTTA Mon Richford, Director of Core Music Mike Coleman, Metzingen mayor Dr Ulrich Fiedler at the Tans Café
Dr. Fiedler with his hand-made mayoral chain
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Hexham visits Noyon in May 2018
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43 people from Hexham, including the mayor Tom Gillanders, 4 students and members of the Hexham Village Band went by bus to Noyon. The party was taken to spectacular limestone quarries at Montigny that had been used during WW1 as shelter behind enemy lines for the French army
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