Capital Celluloid 2014 - Day 140: Wed May 21

No1 Gone To Earth (Powell & Pressburger, 1950): Stratford East Picturehouse, 6.30pm

This is part of a Powell & Pressburger season at Stratford Picturehouse.

Time Out review of Gone To Earth:
'A film much maligned in its time, not least by producer David O Selznick, who issued an American version retitled The Wild Heart, incorporating additional footage directed by Rouben Mamoulian and running only 82 minutes. Mary Webb's 1917 novel was the archetypal bodice-ripper - wicked squire, pious yokels, adultery and redemption - out of which Powell and Pressburger made a visually spellbinding romance. Christopher Challis' photography evokes Shropshire and the Welsh borders so that you can smell the earth. Menace, the bloodlust of the chase (of the fox or the outcast sinner), is omnipresent as trees bend and wild creatures panic before an unseen primal force. Cruelty besides beauty sweeps these pastoral vistas. Forget Jennifer Jones' rustic English (Kentucky? Australian?) and the melodramatic clichés (boots trampling posies): the haunting, dreamlike consistency recalls that other fairy story of innocence and menace, The Night of the Hunter. '
Martin Hoyle

Here is an extract.

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No 2 Concussion (Passon, 2013): ICA Cinema, 8.40pm

This film screens at the ICA from May 16th to 22nd. Details here.

Here is the ICA introduction:
Concussion is a sexy, provocative story about a woman who turns her fantasy life into reality – and then faces the consequences.

After wealthy 40-something Abby (Robin Weigert, Deadwood) is hit on the head by her son’s baseball, she begins to yearn for something more than her banal suburban life. She buys a pied-à-terre in Manhattan, and her pent-up libido draws her into a double life as a high-class hooker for female clients. But as Abby’s decisions become increasingly reckless, we realise that she won’t be able to keep her secret for long.

Writer-director Stacie Passon’s accomplished debut features breakout performances by Weigert and Maggie Siff (Mad Men). A kind of feminised American Beauty, its mix of sensuality and poignancy examines sexual discovery as a means of finding your true self.

Here (and above) is the trailer.