National Theatre Live: The Effect (2024)

The Island of Thirty Coffins

The story takes place in 1917. Véronique is a young woman of 35 years, nurse at the military hospital of Besançon. She suddenly learns of the murder of her husband, the mysterious Count Vorski, whom she has not seen for fourteen years. Her research will also lead her to the track of her father and son whom she believed to have died in a shipwreck, already a long time ago. From clue to clue, here we are in Brittany, on this island with a name so ill-fitting... Brutal deaths, enigmatic words written... by whom? A frightening prophecy, the superstitious terror of the island's inhabitants, and suddenly, Veronica d'Hergemont can no longer leave this island. She's stuck alone. Almost alone...

Children of Paradise

In a chaotic 19th-century Paris teeming with aristocrats, thieves, psychics, and courtesans, theater mime Baptiste is in love with the mysterious actress Garance. But Garance, in turn, is loved by three other men: pretentious actor Frederick, conniving thief Lacenaire, and Count Edouard of Montray.

The Edukators

Three activists cobble together a kidnapping plot after they encounter a businessman in his home.

The Science of Sleep

A man entranced by his dreams and imagination is lovestruck with a French woman and feels he can show her his world.

Insomnia

Two Los Angeles homicide detectives are dispatched to a northern town where the sun doesn't set to investigate the methodical murder of a local teen.

Head-On

With the intention to break free from the strict familial restrictions, a suicidal young woman sets up a marriage of convenience with a forty-year-old addict, an act that will lead to an outburst of envious love.

Autumn in New York

Will Keane, a Manhattan restaurateur, is content with his playboy lifestyle until he meets Charlotte Fielding, a free-spirited young woman. Together the pair pursue a passionate affair that forces them both to reevaluate what they want out of life, even as fate threatens to steal away their future.

Faust

God and Satan wager on the soul of a learned and prayerful alchemist as part of their eternal war over Earth.

The Clearing

When affluent executive Wayne Hayes is kidnapped by a disgruntled employee and held for ransom in a forest, Wayne’s wife is forced to reckon with the FBI agents as they negotiate with the kidnapper.

Tell No One

A man receives a mysterious email appearing to be from his wife, who was murdered years earlier. As he frantically tries to find out whether she's alive, he finds himself being implicated in her death.

Savage Grace

This examination of a famous scandal from the 1970s explores the relationship between Barbara Baekeland and her only son, Antony. Barbara, a lonely social climber unhappily married to the wealthy but remote plastics heir Brooks Baekeland, dotes on Antony, who is homosexual. As Barbara tries to "cure" Antony of his sexuality -- sometimes by seducing him herself -- the groundwork is laid for a murderous tragedy.

Intacto

An enigmatic tale of four people whose lives are intertwined by destiny are subject to the laws of fate. They discover that luck is something they cannot afford to be without as they gamble with the highest stakes possible in a deadly game from which only one of them will emerge intact.

Le Divorce

While visiting her sister in Paris, a young woman finds romance and learns her brother-in-law is a philanderer.

The Jacket

A military veteran goes on a journey into the future, where he can foresee his death and is left with questions that could save his life and those he loves.

Casanova

With a reputation for seducing members of the opposite sex, regardless of their marital status, a notorious womanizer discovers a beauty who seems impervious to his charms. However, as he continues to pursue the indifferent lady, he finds himself falling in love.

Bikini Blue

A historical drama set in 1950s Britain. Dora Szumski, 30, is an Englishwoman married to a Polish immigrant, Eryk, a former Polish Army officer, who is left with no choice by the post-war balance of power, condemned to die in his homeland or emigrate. After an unsuccessful suicide attempt, Eryk stays in Mabledon Park, a psychiatric hospital designed for former Polish soldiers suffering from war trauma. Erik's illness resulting from a past that has been haunted and concealed from his wife not only becomes a barrier to the couple's future, but also a threat to Erik's life. Dora decides to find out what the secret of her husband's illness is.

Dream

A young girl strives to rekindle her parent's dwindling romance at their desert town's annual carnival, and learns hard lessons about love in the process.

Nokkethadhoorathu Kannum Nattu

Kunjoonjamma Thomas is a widow living in the village all by herself. People always make fun of her because she is grumpy and depressed due to the deaths of her husband and her only child. Children irritate her by ringing her door bell and running away. One day, her granddaughter Girly, who she had never met, visits her. Initially, Kunjoonjamma does not like Girly, but they soon become close to each other.

Little Victories

Every day, a father works to accumulate the money needed to buy go-kart tires for his daughter and himself. At the racetrack or at home, nothing matters but each other's presence. But during their last autumn in the heart of nature and engines, his weakening health prompts him to reflect on the legacy he will leave to her.

Heavenly Creatures

Precocious teenager Juliet moves to New Zealand with her family and soon befriends the quiet, brooding Pauline through their shared love of fantasy and literature. This friendship gradually develops into an intense and obsessive bond.

Notes on a Scandal

A veteran high school teacher befriends a younger art teacher, who is having an affair with one of her 15-year-old students. However, her intentions with this new "friend" also go well beyond platonic friendship.

Stranger Than Fiction

Harold Crick is a lonely IRS agent whose mundane existence is transformed when he hears a mysterious voice narrating his life.

The Object of My Affection

A pregnant New York social worker begins to develop romantic feelings for her gay best friend, and decides she'd rather raise her child with him, much to the dismay of her overbearing boyfriend.

Vegas Is Calling

A chance encounter on a weekend getaway turns into a night no one will forget.

According to Greta

Dumped on her grandparents for the summer by her indifferent mother, acerbic and self-destructive teenager Greta disrupts the elderly couple's staid life on the Jersey Shore. Eventually, a romance helps Greta face down her demons.

Mad Love

The tragic fate of Juana I of Castille, Queen of Spain, madly in love to an unfaithful husband, Felipe el Hermoso, Archduke of Austria.

Love Mocktail

Love Mocktail is a 2020 Indian Kannada-language romantic drama film directed by Krishna in his director debut and jointly produced by Krishna, Milana Nagaraj. The film stars Krishna, Milana Nagaraj in the lead roles. The film was released on 31 January 2020.

Fishy

An unemployed misfit falls in love with Freddie, her goldfish and as her search for work flounders her love for Freddie deepens and she feels her place is at his side…

Posthumous

After false reports of his demise put him and his work on the map, an artist decides to continue the charade by posing as his own brother. Soon, a reporter enters his life and has a profound effect on him.

The Whispers

Few hours after their first meeting at a party, a girl and a boy are lying next to each other.

External Exchange

An orphan kid with the dream of becoming a writer, is adopted by a ranch-owner. There meets the love of his life. Not everything is quite all right. both discover the mysteries of the ranch, and something more meaningful for their lives

The Very Same Munchhausen

A philosophical and poetic portrait of the famous (or maybe infamous?) Baron Munchhausen. His crazy, yet very merriment, stories, views and behavior is what sets him apart from others. He becomes alienated from the society that failed to grasp his brilliance. In fact, his brilliance is what underlines the faults with the society itself. It's a beautiful yet tragic story that is filled with dense and intellectual dialogue.

As Green As It Gets

Georg "Schorsch" Kempter is a gardener in a small Bavarian town, working day-in, day-out in his nursery, which is facing bankruptcy. He doesn't like to talk much. He never has. His marriage has long lost all its magic and on top of that, he has trouble to connect with his daughter. Only when he is flying in his own rickety biplane, Schorsch feels truly free. When the owner of the local golf course tries to cheat Schorsch for his money, claiming the shade of green of the grass Schorsch has planted on the golf course is not right, insolvency seems unavoidable. So just when his airplane is about to be impounded, Schorsch grabs the control stick and flies away in an attempt to save his plane and himself. He embarks onto a journey into the unknown, to places he has never seen before, full of odd and special encounters - and with every take-off and every landing, this tough man's heart slowly warms up to what you might call an idea of happiness.

Æ.ly

When a teenage boy meets Æ.ly; who he thinks is the love of his life.. he has to go through the realities of what a relationship can do, for and against you.  He has to figure out who he is even fighting for.  His true life began with her, but will it end the same way?

The Unknown

On the lam, criminal Alonzo hides in the circus as The Armless Wonder – a performer who uses his feet to hurl knives. Alonzo keeps the arms he really has concealed to hide his identity. Meanwhile, ringmaster's daughter Nanon has a phobia of being touched by men, but is romantically pursued by not only Alonzo but the strongman Malabar. Alonzo's desperation to remain with Nanon will only end in tragedy.

Laugh, Clown, Laugh

A despairing clown suffering a broken heart and a self-indulgent count who uncontrollably laughs learn to help each other with their problems, but both fall in love with the same young woman.

He Who Gets Slapped

After a baron steals his scientific discoveries, runs away with his wife, and slaps him in public, a man joins a Parisian circus sideshow as a clown whose act consists of being slapped repeatedly and becomes infatuated with a showgirl colleague whose father intends to marry her off to the baron.

Forms of Forgetting

Nesrin and Erdem talk about their relationship, which they don’t remember in exactly the same way. Çevik’s visually stunning essay uses their conversations to forge a pensive treatise on what it means to forget, where word and image play an equal role.

We All Lie My Darling

Five Sydney-based youngsters navigate life, experience friendship, seek love, delve into their sexuality, and face the challenges of being a part of the LGBTQ+ community.

Ben-Hur

In 26 AD, Judah Ben-Hur, a Jew in ancient Judea, opposes the occupying Roman empire. Falsely accused by a Roman childhood friend-turned-overlord of trying to kill the Roman governor, he is put into slavery and his mother and sister are taken away as prisoners.

Faces

Middle-aged suburban husband Richard abruptly tells his wife, Maria, that he wants a divorce. As Richard takes up with a younger woman, Maria enjoys a night on the town with her friends and meets a younger man. As the couple and those around them confront a seemingly futile search for what they've lost -- love, excitement, passion -- this classic American independent film explores themes of aging and alienation.

Water and Fire

A pretty young girl falls for an enigmatic, shy man who sweeps her off her feet. She becomes pregnant but is not allowed to tell him. His advisers are adamant. Back home, they have set up a wedding with the daughter of an antagonistic family and marriage will put an end to the blood feud between them.

The Illusionist

With his eye on a lovely aristocrat, a gifted illusionist named Eisenheim uses his powers to win her away from her betrothed, a crown prince. But Eisenheim's scheme creates tumult within the monarchy and ignites the suspicion of a dogged inspector.

Summertime

In 1971, a young woman moves from the French countryside to Paris and begins a passionate love affair with a feminist leader.

The Story of Adèle H.

In the 19th century a mysterious woman named Adele H. crosses the ocean, from Europe to North America, to relentlessly pursue an handsome officer that denies her satisfaction.

Sabrina

After her return from school in Paris, a playboy finally takes notice of his family's chauffeur's daughter Sabrina, who's long had a crush on him, but he questions his more serious brother's motives when he warns against getting involved with her.