DR Suzanne Fagence Cooper, author of the biography of Effie Gray, will introduce the 1.30pm screening of Richard Laxton's film Effie Gray at City Screen, York, on October 18. She will lead a question-and-answer session at the end too.

Emma Thompson, a surprise visitor to City Screen the other day to watch the "perverts and pits" film Pride, has provided the screenplay that charts the troubled relationship of Victorian art critic John Ruskin and his teenage bride Euphemia ‘Effie’ Gray, as the Crimean War gnaws away in the background.

Thompson's husband, Greg Wise, a former pupil at St Peter'sSchool, York, plays Ruskin, while Dakota Fanning is Effie and Thompson herself takes the role of author Lady Elizabeth Eastlake, who supports Effie through a scandalous court case that turns on the question of whether the Ruskins’ loveless marriage has been consummated.

Tickets for Effie Gray (12A) can be booked on 0871 902 5726 or at picturehouses.co.uk