Capital Celluloid 2026 — Day 164: Sat Jun 13

Death of a Bureaucrat (Alea, 1966): BFI Southbank, NFT1, 6pm

This screening will be introduces by Ketty Rodríguez, Founder & Artistic Director of the London Latino Film Festival.

Time Out review:
This arresting early work by one of Cuba's foremost film-makers is a black comedy about institutionalised bureaucracy at its most pedantic. After a model factory worker is killed in an accident at work, he's buried with his union card as a mark of eternal solidarity; trouble is, when his wife applies for a pension, she's told she must present the card before she can get any money - and there's a law forbidding exhumation within the first two years of burial. It's a surprising piece to have been made in the Cuba of the mid-'60s, but the laughs come as much from a Buñuelian sense of absurdity as they do from any outright criticism of Castro's regime.
Trevor Johnston

Here (and above) is the trailer.

Capital Celluloid 2026 — Day 163: Fri Jun 12

Sisters (De Palma, 1972): Rio Cinema, 11.30pm

This double-bill, part of the Rio Forever season at the cinema, is a Category H Film Club presentation, and also includes the 1994 film Almost Dead.

Try not to miss this ultra-rare screening of a key early Brian De Palma film which the late, great critic Robin Wood described as “one of the key American films of the 1970s”.

After ten years and a number of ambitious works (commercially successful and critically controversial) such as Carrie, Dressed to Kill and Blow Out, Sisters arguably remains Brian De Palma's most completely satisfying film. Like Dressed to Kill, it is an elaborate variation on Psycho; unlike it, its attachment to the feminine viewpoint is much less compromised. Like all De Palma's films, it invites a psychoanalytic reading (‘the wound' as symbolic castration). Few Hollywood films (and perhaps no other horror film) have explored so rigorously the oppression of women under patriarchy and its appalling consequences for both sexes. 
Robin Wood

Here (and above) is the trailer. 

Capital Celluloid 2026 — Day 162: Thu Jun 11

Zama (Martel, 2017): Garden Cinema, 8pm

This film, part of the Argentinian film season at the Garden Cinema, also screens on June 2nd. Tonight's presentation will be introduced by Dr Alma Prelec.

Chicago Reader review:
After a hiatus of nearly a decade, the brilliant Argentine filmmaker Lucrecia Martel (The Holy Girl, The Headless Woman) returns with an entrancing 17th-century period drama. The title character, a magistrate in rural Argentina, longs to return to his native Spain so he can be reunited with his wife and children; waiting on his deliverance, he idles away his time with native women and petty political squabbles until he’s sent into the jungle on a suicide mission to capture a violent bandit. As always with Martel, the story is opaque but the atmosphere is rich and immersive, with meticulously designed frames that balance one’s attention between the principal characters and marginalized individuals (in this case women, slaves, and Native Americans). The soundtrack is also characteristically vibrant, as Martel conjures up a vivid world beyond the frame.
Ben Sachs

Here (and above) is the trailer.

Capital Celluloid 2026 — Day 161: Wed Jun 10

Barren Lives (Santos, 1963): BFI Southbank, NFT1, 6.10pm

This film, part of the Brazilian film season at BFI Southbank, is introduced by Dr Tiago de Luca, University of Warwick, and is also screened on June 2nd (details here). 

BFI introduction:
A migrant family and their dog cross the drought-stricken arid Sertão region in a desperate bid to survive. Pereira dos Santos adapts Graciliano Ramos’ acclaimed 1938 novel, one of Brazil’s key literary works, employing stark landscapes and non-professional performances to stunning effect. It is regarded as a foundational Cinema Novo work – a devastating yet deeply humane portrait of poverty, endurance and cyclical displacement.

Here (and above) is an extract. 

Capital Celluloid 2026 — Day 160: Tue Jun 9

 Latin Quarter (Sewell, 1945): BFI Southbank, NFT2, 6.10pm

This 35mm screening is part of the 'Projecting the Archive' strand at BFI Southbank. There will be an introduction by Jason Morell, actor and son of Joan Greenwood.

BFI introduction:
When a young dancer has her career cut short by illness, she marries an eminent sculptor whose cruelty drives her into the arms of another man. This early role for Joan Greenwood sees her perfectly cast as the fragile ballerina trapped in an abusive relationship. Sewell’s atmospheric evocation of the fin de siècle decadence of bohemian Paris is enhanced by the camerawork of silent horror veteran Günther Krampf. Based on a French play, which the director adapted four times across his career, this macabre tale exploring jealousy and spiritualism serves up a shocking final twist.

Capital Celluloid 2026 — Day 159: Mon Jun 8

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Hawks, 1953): BFI Southbank, NFT1, 6.10pm

This film, part of the Marilyn Monroe season at BFI Southbank, also screens on June 25th. Details here.
Tonight's screening features and introduction by BFI Film Programmer Rógan Graham.

Chicago Reader review:
Howard Hawks's grand, brassy 1953 musical about two girls from Little Rock—Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell—gone gold digging in Paris. The male sex is represented by a bespectacled nerd (Tommy Noonan), a dirty old man (Charles Coburn), and a 12-year-old voyeur (the unforgettable George "Foghorn" Winslow), all of whom deserve what they get. The opening shot—Russell and Monroe in sequins standing against a screaming red drape—is enough to knock you out of your seat, and the audacity barely lets up from there, as Russell romances the entire U.S. Olympic team to the tune of "Ain't There Anyone Here for Love?" and Hawks keeps topping perversity with perversity. A landmark encounter in the battle of the sexes.
Dave Kehr

Here (and above) is the trailer.

Capital Celluloid 2026 — Day 158: Sun Jun 7

Ugetsu (Mizoguchi, 1953): Prince Charles Cinema, 3.15pm

Chicago Reader review:
The mood of Kenji Mizoguchi’s 1953 masterpiece is evoked by the English translation most often given to its title, “Tales of the Pale and Silvery Moon After the Rain.” Based on two 16th-century ghost stories, the film is less a study of the supernatural than a sublime embodiment of Mizoguchi’s eternal theme, the generosity of women and the selfishness of men. Densely plotted but as emotionally subtle as its name, Ugetsu is one of the great experiences of cinema.
Dave Kehr

Here (and above) is the trailer.