This 35mm presentation is part of the Christopher Nolan (35mm) season at the Screen on the Green and is also being screened on Saturday June 17th. Full details here.
Time Out review: Funny things, dreams. Fascinating for the dreamer, but as dull
as a late morning in Slough for anybody else, unless, of course, your
guide is Freud. Or, as it turns out, Christopher Nolan, the 39-year-old
British director of ‘Memento’ and ‘The Dark Knight’, whose solution to
the boredom of other people’s dreams is to collide their woozy,
ever-changing, upside-down and roundabout nature with the thrust of a
fast-paced, men-on-a-mission movie and a startling visual language that
mirrors their strangeness. Better still, the dreams preferred by Nolan
include images of Paris folding in on itself and a trackless train
thundering through a city. The limited, sleepworld excitements of
retaking your A levels ad infinitum or forever missing a flight at the
airport don’t figure here. Nolan throws a perfect
storm of stunts, effects, locations and actors at one big idea: that
it’s possible to pilfer ideas from dreams by a process called
‘extraction’, which involves hooking yourself up to a drip, falling
asleep and entering the world of the subconscious. The holy grail of
this process is to reverse it, which is ‘inception’, the planting of a
new idea in another’s mind. That’s the trick that experts Dom (Leonardo
DiCaprio) and Arthur (Joseph Gordon Levitt), aided by new recruits
Ariadne (Ellen Page) and Eames (Tom Hardy), try to pull off while
hopping from Tokyo to Paris to Mombasa. They’re working for Saito (Ken
Watanabe) in pursuit of business magnate Robert (Cillian Murphy), and
their motives vary, from financial to intellectual. But DiCaprio has
another driver: the memory of his wife Mal (Marion Cottilard) is
haunting him and it’s going to take a lot of psychological
spring-cleaning for him to reconnect with that lost world. All
hail Nolan for mastering a higher class of mass entertainment. Like all
good science fiction, ‘Inception’ demands we pay serious attention to
pure fantasy on the back of strong ideas and exquisite craft – but it
also combines fantasy with real observations about our sleeping lives.
Like a dream, Nolan’s film fades swiftly in the light – but while it
lasts, it feels like there’s nothing more important to decipher. Dave Calhoun Here (and above) is the trailer.
Tonight's pick is a TGirlsonFilm & Funeral Parade presentation…
Prince Charles Cinema introduction: Devilish drag queen, Dominita
(Dorian Wayne) force feminises ex-solider, Albert Rose (Leslie
Marlowe), and blackmails him for deserting during action in the
Korean War. This pre-stonewall exploitation classic takes the
previous decades Jorgensen mania and ranks it up a notch, an early
credit by Bob Clark of Black Christmas cult fame and a bizarre but
charming attempt at tolerance towards trans identities. Both lead
actors were popular drag queens of their day, with a cameo from 60s
trans performer, Hans Crystal. The film is part exploitation,
part psychodrama and part kinky fantasy. The films original tagline
read “Is he?..or Isn’t she? Only the doctors know for sure”
Well, its 2023 now darling so resident trans film hosts Sarah &
Jaye have sent the doctors packing and taken over, for the next in
there trans-exploitation series.
This 35mm screening also screens on May 30th. Details here.
Time Out review: Paul Thomas Anderson's second feature - a dazzling, highly confident,
atmospherically original and refreshingly non-prurient take on the LA
porn movie community - may not be a '90s Citizen Kane, as some
claim, but in terms of sweep, ambition and precocious cinematic
competence, it heralds the arrival of a new talent. Charting the rise
and fall of well-endowed teenage ingénu Dirk Diggler (Mark Wahlberg), from
dishwasher to subcultural skinflick superstar, and back to washed-out
junkie, the film is less a cautionary tale than a freewheeling,
talent-showcasing homage to the glitter, tack and kitsch excesses of the
drug-fuelled late '70s and the hangover '80s. The sense of
homage/pastiche goes further still: if the rambling ensemble
construction derives from Nashville, the swooping long takes
and whiplash pans come courtesy of Scorsese. But it's the music that
calls the tune with the energetic soul and disco records of the period
dictating the editing, pacing and the slightly sleazy, morally neutral
tone. This is style condescending magnificently to content, but what
stiffens this unashamedly exhibitionist movie's muscles are the 'family'
of beautifully judged performances, from Burt Reynolds' stand-out as
porn-king auteur/father figure, to Julianne Moore's superb cokehead survivor-star
and William H. Macy's humiliated cuckold, right down to Philip Seymour Hoffman's gut-wrenching
gay crew member. Wally Hammond
Time Out review: Despite
cries of outrage from hard-line Raymond Chandler purists, this is, along with
Howard Hawks' The Big Sleep, easily the most intelligent of all screen
adaptations of the writer's work. Robert Altman in fact stays pretty close to
the novel's basic narrative (though there are a couple of crucial
changes), but where he comes up with something totally original is in
his ironic updating of the story and characters: Philip Gould's Marlowe is a
laid-back, shambling slob who, despite his incessant claim that
everything is 'OK with me,' actually harbours the same honourable ideals
as Chandler's Marlowe; but those values, Altman implies, just don't fit
in with the neurotic, uncaring, ephemeral lifestyle led by the 'Me
Generation' of modern LA. As Marlowe attempts to protect a friend
suspected of battering his wife to death, and gets up to his neck in
blackmail, suicide, betrayal and murder, Altman constructs not only a
comment on the changes in values in America over the last three decades,
but a critique of film noir mythology: references, both ironic and
affectionate, to Chandler (cats and alcoholism) and to earlier
private-eye thrillers abound. Shot in gloriously steely colours by Vilmos Zsigmond with a continually moving camera, wondrously scripted by Leigh Brackett (who worked on The Big Sleep), and superbly acted all round, it's one of the finest movies of the '70s. Geoff Andrew
Here (and above) is the trailer. Here is the theme tune, sung by Jack Sheldon.
One of the best cinemas in London’s West End is hosting an all-nighter on all of its seven screens this evening harking back to the heyday of the legendary Scala Cinema in King's Cross. Picturehouse Central near Piccadilly Circus present what they are describing as 'The World’s Biggest All-Nighter!' starting at 9.30pm. There will be special introductions, games, fun and surprises – and, seven different themes for the screens at the cinema.
One of the screens will show four movies by director Gaspar Noé:
IRREVERSIBLE:Our night begins at the end. Hugely controversial upon release, Noé's breakout film and its inverse timeline remain every bit as incendiary as it was two decades ago.
ENTER THE VOID:Next up, embark on a psychotropic tour of the great beyond as only Noé could envision it.
LOVE 3D: Put on your 3D glasses for the next instalment, as Noé's bold fourth feature asks the question of whether sex can be art. Whether you agree is up to you.
CLIMAX: Dance into the darkness with the final chapter from our night of Noé, a pulsating, feverish tale of musical madness. ‘This Is Cinema’ strand: BLADE RUNNER:Start
your night stepping into the neon-lit future of Ridley Scott’s
captivating, stylish sci-fi noir. You’d have to be a replicant not to be
amazed. 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY:Next
up, the filmmaking monolith that is Stanley Kubrick sends us across
time and into the stars with his revolutionary, mind-blowing sci-fi. CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON:Follow
newly-minted Best Actress Michelle Yeoh across the breathtaking
landscapes of ancient China in Ang Lee's exhilarating martial arts epic. THE SHINING:End
the night with another Kubrick masterpiece – this time, his transfixing
take on Stephen King's peerless, terrifying horror opus. "You've always
been at Picturehouse Central..."
Blockbuster Anime: THE GHOST IN THE SHELL:Kicking
off the night with this neo-noir cyberpunk classic directed by Mamoru
Oshii and based on Masamune Shirow's hugely popular manga. PERFECT BLUE:The
lines between fantasy and reality blur to stunning effect for a
troubled pop star in Satoshi Kon's outstanding psychological thriller –
and it's grown even more relevant in the age of toxic internet fandoms. YOUR NAME:Makoto
Shinkai's a fast-rising heir to the throne of anime master. This
tender-hearted, beautifully-animated, body-swapping coming-of-age tale
is a showcase for exactly what he does best. PROMARE:
It wouldn't be an anime all-nighter without mecha. This brilliantly
bonkers slice of sci-fi is an eye-popping addition to the eternally
enjoyable genre that is 'big robots doing battle'. BELLE:
End the night with the closest thing to a modern fairytale that anime
has to offer: Mamoru Hosoda's sumptuous story of discovering your true
self in a world where you can be anyone.
Cinema Speculation (inspired by five '70s Hollywood masterworks featured in Quentin Tarantino's expansive book of the same name): THE GETAWAY:
Start your night with Steve McQueen – what better way is there? The King
of Cool unites with Sam Peckinpah for a slick, propulsive heist movie. TAXI DRIVER:Martin Scorsese's New York neo-noir needs no introduction, thanks to an
instantly indelible turn from Robert De Niro (who QT himself later
teamed up with for Jackie Brown). DELIVERANCE:Head
upriver into the heart of a violent battle between two sides of American
masculinity with John Boorman's rich, unflinching odyssey. ROLLING THUNDER:Another story of alienation made flesh by Taxi Driver scribe Paul
Schrader, this simmering exploitation tale was once declared the
greatest revenge film of all time by Tarantino. DIRTY HARRY: Last,
but certainly not least. Tarantino often pays homage to director Don Siegel, and
his most iconic film remains every bit as lean and mean as Clint
Eastwood's tough-talking anti-hero.
Wondrous Wes: THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL: First up, check in with a concierge and his loyal lobby boy for the beautifully bittersweet confection that is Wes's portrait of life at one perfectly pink hotel. RUSHMORE: Our second film is also Wes's second film: a sparkling story of love and war (in the form of hit high school plays, that is) that made frequent Wes collaborator Jason Schwartzman a star. He saved Latin! THE FRENCH DISPATCH:Next up, cross the Channel to pick up the latest issue of a star-studded magazine filled with all the news that's fit to print. Consider us loyal subscribers. THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS: To end the celebrations, we're throwing a family reunion: get together with a rag-tag New York family to laugh, cry, and enjoy what might be cinema's most perfect use of a Nico song.
Killer Queens:
CARRIE:Want
to start your night with some blood-soaked thrills? Take Stephen King
and Brian De Palma's Carrie to the prom – she'll make it a date to
remember.
ALIEN:The
mother of all sci-fi horrors continues our night, with Sigourney
Weaver’s intergalactic final girl fighting to survive as a stowaway
Xenomorph nemesis picks off her crewmates.
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN:Revenge
doesn't get sweeter than Emerald Fennell's Oscar-nominated,
pastel-toned tale of female redemption. Come for the karmic punishment,
stay for a truly wild twist.
MAD MAX: FURY ROAD:Ready
for some action? Channel your road rage and set out across the desert
with a never-madder Max – even if we all know the real hero is Charlise
Theron's Furiosa.
JENNIFER'S BODY:Last
but certainly not least, Diablo Cody's cult horror-comedy ends the
night with laughs, screams, and one hell of a high school cheerleader.
Pot Luck Surprise Screenings:
This cinematic Pot Luck all-nighter promises nothing but big-screen hits – but you'll only know what you're watching when the titles roll. (They might even have something completely new for you...)
Chicago Reader review: Oddly enough, Jean Renoir’s 1946 Hollywood version of Octave Mirbeau’s
novel was a lot crueler and more “Buñuel-esque” than this, Buñuel’s own
remarkable and neglected 1964 French version. It was the first of his
many fruitful collaborations with screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere and
producer Serge Silberman, and, if I’m not mistaken, his only encounter
with ‘Scope (in black and white). Formally and thematically, this is one
of Buñuel’s subtlest and most intriguing late works; the novel’s action
is updated to the 30s and includes a commentary on the French fascism
of the period. Jeanne Moreau plays the heroine, and others in the cast
include Michel Piccoli, Georges Geret, and Francoise Lugagne. The
absence of a musical score makes Buñuel’s use of sound especially
beguiling. Jonathan Rosenbaum
Only
Angels Have Wings is a major American movie and a pivotal film in the
great Howard Hawks's career. Indeed, Robin Wood, in his BFI book on
Hawks, describes the movie as a "completely achieved masterpiece". Cary
Grant leads a group of pilots who regularly take their life in their
hands flying mail planes across the Andes. They are joined by a sparky
Jean Arthur, who drops in for a steak but fascinated by the life and
times of Grant's team stays on and witnesses the adventures of one of
Hawks's archetypal male groups. Only Angels Have Wings mixes tragedy and
comedy in typical Hawks style and has an atmosphere all its own. Chicago Reader review: Howard
Hawks's 1939 film represents the equilibrium point of his career: the
themes he was developing throughout the 30s here reach a perfect clarity
and confidence of expression, without yet confronting the darker
intimations that would haunt his films of the 40s and 50s. The setting
is a South American port where a group of fliers, led by Cary Grant,
challenges the elements nightly by piloting mail across a treacherous
mountain range. This all-male existential ritual (Grant almost seems the
high priest of some Sartrean temple) is invaded by an American showgirl
(Jean Arthur) who stops off for a steak and remains, fascinated by the
heightened, heady atmosphere of primal struggle. The film's moral
seriousness (which sometimes approaches overt didacticism) is balanced
by the usual Hawks humor and warmth, and as Grant and Arthur are drawn
into a romance, the film moves toward a humanistic softening of its
stark premises. Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader review: Jacques Demy’s highly personal aesthetic coincided with public taste exactly once—on the 1963 The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,
which became an international success. But later audiences never quite
accepted Demy’s conception of a musical cinema, which combines location
shooting, naturalistic narratives, and psychologically complex
characters with the high stylization of sung dialogue. When released in
France in 1982, A Room in Town died at the boxoffice, yet it is
one of the most beautiful, assured, and cinematically inventive films of
its period, a stylistic tour-de-force that doesn’t distort and destroy
the real (as did Diva) but inflects and accentuates it—that
brings out the lyricism, nobility, and tragedy inherent in ordinary
situations. The action takes place in Nantes in 1955, during a violent
ship-builders strike; one of the strikers (Richard Berry), though he is
engaged to marry his pregnant girl friend, finds himself drawn to his
landlady’s unhappily married daughter (Dominique Sanda). The epic,
social background provides a counterpoint (literally, because the
strike, too, is carried on in song), to the intimate domestic tragedy of
the foreground, where the same broad issue (the relationship of workers
and bourgeoisie) is replayed. But the simple material is not played
simplistically: though Demy offers melodramatic figures of good (the
innocent girl friend) and evil (Sanda’s husband, the cruel owner of a
small electronics shop, played with operatic fury by Michel Piccoli),
the emotional center of the film is an apparently marginal figure—the
landlady, magnificently incarnated by Danielle Darrieux, who must
witness the conflict, divided between her affection for Berry and her
love for her daughter, between the romantic fulfillment that Berry
promises and the financial security providedby Piccoli. All of the
expressive tensions of Demy’s cinema are focused on her: a sober
acceptance of reality undermined by a yearning for the absolute, an
epiphaic romanticism in trragic collision with incontrovertable facts. Jonathan Rosenbaum
Time Out review: A
not uninteresting attempt to make a film about ordinary, everyday
minutiae, with Michel Piccoli as an average sensual man, vaguely torn
between a demanding mistress (Romy Schneider) and an ex-wife (Lea
Massari) to whom he still feels bound. Quietly and deftly, Claude Sautet
sketches in the portrait of a man gradually becoming aware that he is
coming to a crossroads in his life. But since the opening sequence
reveals that he is shortly to die in a car crash, his attempt to make
some decision about his life is much ado about nothing - which is
precisely the point of the film. Difficult to make a film about banality
without being boring in the process, but Sautet all but pulls it off,
thanks to a beautifully understated performance from Piccoli which
manages to extract a whole lifetime of meaning from a simple gesture
like lighting a cigarette, and to illuminate the film's meticulously
detailed naturalistic surface. Tom Milne Here (and above) is the trailer.
Sergio Leone originally envisaged Once Upon A Time in America as two three-hour films, then a single
269-minute (4 hours and 29 minutes) version, but was convinced by
distributors to shorten it to 229 minutes (3 hours and 49 minutes). The
American distributors, The Ladd Company, further shortened it to 139
minutes (2 hours and 19 minutes), and rearranged the scenes into
chronological order, without Leone's involvement. The shortened version was a critical and commercial flop in the
United States, and critics who had seen both versions harshly condemned
the changes that were made. The original "European cut" has remained a
critical favorite. Over time, more of the original footage has been found, so this new
"extended director's cut" runs 251 minutes and is said to be the closest
we'll ever get to seeing the filmmaker's original version of the film.
Chicago Reader review: Like Once Upon a Time in the West, Sergio Leone's
3-hour-and-47-minute gangster epic (1984) is a foundation myth, though
the quality of the myth is very different: the focus here is individual
rather than collective, and the form is cyclical and subjective rather
than linear and expansive. The relationship of Robert De Niro and James
Woods—the brothers who betray—is an amalgam of Roman mythology,
Christian parable, and Hollywood cliche; though the intricate flashback
structure follows the memories of one man, the film also represents a
kind of cultural recall—the fiction remembering itself. Every gesture is
immediate, and every gesture seems eternal. Leone accomplishes all of
this within the framework of a superb popular entertainment: it's a
funny, rousing, brilliant piece of work. With Elizabeth McGovern, Joe
Pesci, Burt Young, Tuesday Weld, and Treat Williams; the score, of
course, is by Ennio Morricone. Dave Kehr
This blog, as befits the name, has always favoured screenings from
celluloid for our daily picks of the best in repertory screenings in
London so the four-day festival at BFI Southbank dedicated solely to
film presentations is the most exciting season of the year in London as
far as we are concerned. You can read about the full programme here. Today's screening selection is sold out currently but do get there early and queue up for returns on the day.
BFI introduction to the season: BFIFilm on Film Festival is a brand new film festival to take place atBFISouthbank, 8 to 11 June 2023 and the first film festival in theUKwholly
dedicated to screen works solely on film, spanning film formats
including 16mm, 35mm and 70mm as well as rare nitrate. While the
majority of films are now shown digitally in cinemas, the experience of
film projection from film is a very different one. For contemporary
filmmakers like Christopher Nolan (Tenet), Mark Jenkin (Enys Men) or
Greta Gerwig (Little Women), the decision to shoot on film is primarily
an artistic one on how their film will look to the viewer when
projected.BFIFilm on Film Festival celebrates this materiality of film, recognising the uniqueness of film as a physical medium.BFIFilm on Film Festival will comprise screenings of new and vintage film prints, programmed by theBFINational Archive’s curators from the national collection, giving audiences access to work held in theBFINational
Archive which can only be seen on film and which would otherwise never
been seen. The full festival programme will be announced in 2023. Like
the experience of listening to a great album on vinyl rather than a
digital platform, part of the pleasure and meaning of watching a film on
a film print comes from the different look and emotional impact when
projected. A whole generation of young filmgoers have grown up not
seeing film projected on film, theBFIFilm
on Film Festival is designed to deliver a unique, cinema-based
experience enabling audiences to enjoy the physical materiality of film
in all its glory, exploring its aesthetics and challenges – and
celebrating the skills required to work with it, with expert voices from
theBFI’s world-leading conservation and projection teams.
Time Out review (35mm Nitrate print screening): One of the great colour films (with Rouben Mamoulian taking the
inspiration for his lush visuals from Spanish masters like Goya,
Velasquez and El Greco), this is melodramatic romance of the first
order. The story is hardly a stunner, taken from Ibañez and telling of a
young man's rags-to-riches rise as a matador, only to fall under the
spell of Rita Hayworth's aristocratic temptress, who lures him away from
virginal childhood sweetheart Linda Darnell. What makes the film so enjoyable
is the sheer elegance of the execution, with Mamoulian's sense of
rhythm, the rich Technicolor, and Richard Day's sets conjuring up an imaginary Spain of the heart, poignant location of love in the shadows and death in the afternoon. Geoff Andrew
This blog, as befits the name, has always favoured screenings from
celluloid for our daily picks of the best in repertory screenings in
London so the four-day festival at BFI Southbank dedicated solely to
film presentations is the most exciting season of the year in London as
far as we are concerned. You can read about the full programme here.
BFI introduction to the season: BFIFilm on Film Festival is a brand new film festival to take place atBFISouthbank, 8 to 11 June 2023 and the first film festival in theUKwholly
dedicated to screen works solely on film, spanning film formats
including 16mm, 35mm and 70mm as well as rare nitrate. While the
majority of films are now shown digitally in cinemas, the experience of
film projection from film is a very different one. For contemporary
filmmakers like Christopher Nolan (Tenet), Mark Jenkin (Enys Men) or
Greta Gerwig (Little Women), the decision to shoot on film is primarily
an artistic one on how their film will look to the viewer when
projected.BFIFilm on Film Festival celebrates this materiality of film, recognising the uniqueness of film as a physical medium.BFIFilm on Film Festival will comprise screenings of new and vintage film prints, programmed by theBFINational Archive’s curators from the national collection, giving audiences access to work held in theBFINational
Archive which can only be seen on film and which would otherwise never
been seen. The full festival programme will be announced in 2023. Like
the experience of listening to a great album on vinyl rather than a
digital platform, part of the pleasure and meaning of watching a film on
a film print comes from the different look and emotional impact when
projected. A whole generation of young filmgoers have grown up not
seeing film projected on film, theBFIFilm
on Film Festival is designed to deliver a unique, cinema-based
experience enabling audiences to enjoy the physical materiality of film
in all its glory, exploring its aesthetics and challenges – and
celebrating the skills required to work with it, with expert voices from
theBFI’s world-leading conservation and projection teams.
Chicago Reader review of The Swimmer (35mm): The only John Cheever story ever adapted to the big
screen, this drama follows the eccentric journey of a suburban New York
man who appears at the house of some old friends and resolves to take a
dip in each of the backyard swimming pools that lead across the county
back to his stately home. It's an unlikely movie property, but this 1968
feature imposes a dramatic shape on the story while preserving
Cheever's characteristic sense of suburban rot. Burt Lancaster plays the
title character, whose encounters with his upper-class neighbors (among
them Kim Hunter and Joan Rivers) grow increasingly weird and disturbing
as he approaches a cruel homecoming. A resounding commercial flop, this
has since been recognized as a signature 60s film, prescient in its
view of American self-deception. Frank Perry directed a screenplay by
his wife, Eleanor, though the studio brought in Sydney Pollack for
extensive reshoots. JR Jones
This blog, as befits the name, has always favoured screenings from
celluloid for our daily picks of the best in repertory screenings in
London so the four-day festival at BFI Southbank dedicated solely to
film presentations is the most exciting season of the year in London as
far as we are concerned. You can read about the full programme here.
BFI introduction to the season: BFIFilm on Film Festival is a brand new film festival to take place atBFISouthbank, 8 to 11 June 2023 and the first film festival in theUKwholly
dedicated to screen works solely on film, spanning film formats
including 16mm, 35mm and 70mm as well as rare nitrate. While the
majority of films are now shown digitally in cinemas, the experience of
film projection from film is a very different one. For contemporary
filmmakers like Christopher Nolan (Tenet), Mark Jenkin (Enys Men) or
Greta Gerwig (Little Women), the decision to shoot on film is primarily
an artistic one on how their film will look to the viewer when
projected.BFIFilm on Film Festival celebrates this materiality of film, recognising the uniqueness of film as a physical medium.BFIFilm on Film Festival will comprise screenings of new and vintage film prints, programmed by theBFINational Archive’s curators from the national collection, giving audiences access to work held in theBFINational
Archive which can only be seen on film and which would otherwise never
been seen. The full festival programme will be announced in 2023. Like
the experience of listening to a great album on vinyl rather than a
digital platform, part of the pleasure and meaning of watching a film on
a film print comes from the different look and emotional impact when
projected. A whole generation of young filmgoers have grown up not
seeing film projected on film, theBFIFilm
on Film Festival is designed to deliver a unique, cinema-based
experience enabling audiences to enjoy the physical materiality of film
in all its glory, exploring its aesthetics and challenges – and
celebrating the skills required to work with it, with expert voices from
theBFI’s world-leading conservation and projection teams.
New Yorker review of Aloah, Bobby and Rose (screening from 35mm): Few directors have begun their careers as auspiciously as Floyd Mutrux did. His first feature, “Dusty and Sweets McGee,”
from 1971, is a blend of fiction and documentary, about heroin addicts
in Los Angeles, that is the West Coast counterpart to that year’s “The Panic in Needle Park”
but with an even sharper edge. His second feature, from 1975, “Aloha,
Bobby and Rose” (which I discuss in this clip) is that rarest of films—a
tough, uncompromising, and inventive independent film that cleaned up
at the box office. These numbers
are no misprint: it cost about sixty thousand to make, and took in
thirty-five million dollars. That meteoric success should have launched
Mutrux into an orbit that would keep him in action to this day. Instead,
his directorial career soon came to a halt: he made the exhilarating
fifties-rock musical “American Hot Wax,”
but it was a commercial flop; he made “The Hollywood Knights,” with
Michelle Pfeiffer in her first leading role (I haven’t seen it), but it,
too, was no hit—and he has made only one feature since then. I’ve
complained here often about the misplaced nostalgia for the New
Hollywood of the nineteen-seventies, which squandered as much talent as
it fostered, and Mutrux is one of the prime examples. Richard Brody
This blog, as befits the name, has always favoured screenings from celluloid for our daily picks of the best in repertory screenings in London so the four-day festival at BFI Southbank dedicated solely to film presentations is the most exciting season of the year in London as far as we are concerned. You can read about the full programme here. Tonight's screening is sold out currently but do get there early and queue up for returns on the day.
BFI introduction to the season: BFIFilm on Film Festival is a brand new film festival to take place atBFISouthbank, 8 to 11 June 2023 and the first film festival in theUKwholly dedicated to screen works solely on film, spanning film formats including 16mm, 35mm and 70mm as well as rare nitrate. While the majority of films are now shown digitally in cinemas, the experience of film projection from film is a very different one. For contemporary filmmakers like Christopher Nolan (Tenet), Mark Jenkin (Enys Men) or Greta Gerwig (Little Women), the decision to shoot on film is primarily an artistic one on how their film will look to the viewer when projected.BFIFilm on Film Festival celebrates this materiality of film, recognising the uniqueness of film as a physical medium.BFIFilm on Film Festival will comprise screenings of new and vintage film prints, programmed by theBFINational Archive’s curators from the national collection, giving audiences access to work held in theBFINational Archive which can only be seen on film and which would otherwise never been seen. The full festival programme will be announced in 2023. Like the experience of listening to a great album on vinyl rather than a digital platform, part of the pleasure and meaning of watching a film on a film print comes from the different look and emotional impact when projected. A whole generation of young filmgoers have grown up not seeing film projected on film, theBFIFilm on Film Festival is designed to deliver a unique, cinema-based experience enabling audiences to enjoy the physical materiality of film in all its glory, exploring its aesthetics and challenges – and celebrating the skills required to work with it, with expert voices from theBFI’s world-leading conservation and projection teams.
Time Out review of Mildred Pierce (screening from an original 1945 nitrate release print): James Cain's novel of the treacherous life in
Southern California that sets house-wife-turned
waitress-turned-successful restauranteur (Joan Crawford) against her own
daughter (Ann Blyth) in competition for the love of playboy Zachary Scott, is brought fastidiously and bleakly to life by Michael Curtiz' direction, Ernest Haller's camerawork, and Anton Grot's
magnificent sets. Told in flashback from the moment of Scott's murder,
the film is a chilling demonstration of the fact that, in a patriarchal
society, when a woman steps outside the home the end result may be
disastrous. Phil Hardy
Time Out review: Only partly autobiographical, this account of a film director's brief affair with a young neighbour, and his involvement in the social and political ramifications of a tenancy dispute in an apartment block, still carries the weight of Tavernier's convictions about the injustices everyone (including film-makers) is forced to contest, domestically and at work. A striking performance from Christine Pascal and the familiar leonine one from Michel Piccoli. More 'parochial' than most Tavernier, but worth catching up with. Martyn Auty
This film is part of the Queer 90s season at the Barbican. Full details here.
Barbican introduction:Take a walk on the wild side with this one-of-a-kind queer sci-fi
extravaganza from Austria, featuring vengeful lesbians, sexed up
pryomaniacs and reptile-loving aliens. It’s the year 2700 in the fictional burned-out city
of Asche. Spy, a comic book artist, is dismayed when her printing
presses and destroyed by pyromaniac Volley and seeks revenge. But when
an amoral alien in a red plastic suit and a reptile obsession enters the
story, things go even more off the rails.
Sit back and enjoy the mayhem of this jaw-dropping pop sci-fi lesbian marvel, co-directed by A. Hans Scheirl (Dandy Dust, 1998), Ursula Puerrer and Dietmar Schipek,
who also star in the film. Connoisseurs of inventive DIY cinema will be
in heaven. Trepidatious viewers may heed the advice of critic B. Ruby Rich - “Imagine the film that J.G. Ballard might have made if he’d been born an Austrian dyke, and don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Plus:ScreenTalk with co-director and actor Ursula Puerrer, hosted by film programmer Jaye Hudson @tgirlsonfilm
Chicago Reader review: John Cassavetes's career of risk taking comes to a climax in this rich,
original, emotionally magnificent 1984 film about a brother who is
unable to love (Cassavetes) and a sister who loves too much (Gena
Rowlands). For half its length the film follows their separate
experiences—he as a celebrated novelist living a life of desperate
dissolution in Los Angeles; she as a wife and mother undergoing a
painful divorce in Chicago—and then brings them together for a rocky
reunion. At the climax they trade roles, and each is alone again in a
new way. Cassavetes follows his vision to the limit, a course that takes
him through extravagance, indulgence, and hysteria—yet for all of his
apparent disdain for classical construction, there isn't a moment in the
film that doesn't find its place in a grand design. With Seymour Cassel
and Diahnne Abbott. Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader review: 'Howard Hawks's 1944 answer toCasablanca(which
he was originally set to direct but lost to Michael Curtiz) is a far
superior film and every bit as entertaining. Humphrey Bogart, the
captain of a charter boat in a Nazi-held French colonial port, gradually
grows into the Hawksian ethos of action and responsibility as he
reluctantly enters World War II in order to protect a rummy (Walter
Brennan) and win a woman (Lauren Bacall). In many ways the ultimate
Hawks film: clear, direct, and thoroughly brilliant.' Dave Kehr
Time Out review: Marvellous performance from Barbara Stanwyck, all snap, crackle and pop as the
brassy nightclub entertainer Sugarpuss O'Shea who seeks refuge with
seven crusty old professors (plus Gary Cooper) to escape unwelcome attentions
from a gangster, and whose vocabulary (not to mention charms) excite
delighted wonderment in the professors since they have just reached
'Slang' in the encyclopaedia they are compiling. Rather surprisingly,
Hawks slightly muffs the sequence in which the gangster and his aides
get their comeuppance; otherwise his handling of the sparkling
Brackett-Wilder script and its subversions of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is pure joy. Tom Milne
Chicago Reader review: A wide-open San Francisco, circa 1890, is the background for one of Howard Hawks’s intelligent love triangles: Miriam Hopkins is a mail-order bride whose husband-to-be is killed on the night of her arrival; gambler Edward G. Robinson offers her protection, drifter Joel McCrea offers her solace. A boisterous film with a serious undertone provided by Hawks’s preoccupation with the moral compromise necessary for survival. Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur scripted (1935). Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader review: To register a minority opinion, I find this knockdown screwball farce (1934), directed by Howard Hawks four years before Bringing Up Baby, six years before His Girl Friday, and fifteen before I Was a Male War Bride,
a great deal funnier than all three. It costars John Barrymore and
Carole Lombard at their hyperbolic best as egomaniacal theatrical
monsters, a director and a star in a series of duels. The story comes
from a play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur that lampoons theatrical
excess as much as The Front Page lampoons
journalistic excess—a subject that Hawks can view with greater
familiarity. The show here belongs almost entirely to the fast-talking
stars, mainly having it out on the cross-country train of the title, and
the movie is a veritable concerto for their remarkable talents, put
across by Hawks with maximal energy and voltage. Jonathan Rosenabum
Here (and above) Peter Bogdanovich recommends the film.
Cinema Museum introduction to the evening's entertainment: The Classic Horror Experience presents a brand new and never-before
seen film experience starring Vincent Price and based on the classic
1959 thriller The Bat, with a new original score performed live-to-picture by composer Jason Frederick. Who is the mysterious murderer terrorising the citizens of Oakdale – The Bat! Who is The Bat? Come and find out! Vincent Price is at his malevolent best in this completely new edit
of the 1950’s horror classic, which also stars Agnes Moorhead (Citizen Kane, Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte) and John Sutton (The Invisible Man Returns, Return Of The Fly), and features a twist ending that even the most experienced horror fan won’t expect! Watch the trailer here. And as an added bonus, there is also an opening short film and
introduction to the world of classic horror scores. Don’t miss it!
Jason Frederick’s film and television credits include Disney’s 101 Dalmatians 2: Patch’s London Adventure, Top Gear USA and the recently updated classic documentary Bela Lugosi:The Forgotten King, amongst many others.
This 35mm presentation - also being screened on June 13th - is part of the Martin Scorsese 80s season at the Prince Charles Cinema. Full details here.
Chicago Reader review: Martin Scorsese transforms a debilitating convention of 80s
comedy—absurd underreaction to increasingly bizarre and threatening
situations—into a rich, wincingly funny metaphysical farce. A lonely
computer programmer (Griffin Dunne) is lured from the workday security
of midtown Manhattan to an expressionistic late-night SoHo by the vague
promise of casual sex with a mysterious blonde (Rosanna Arquette). But
she turns out to be a sinister kook whose erratic behavior plunges Dunne
into a series of increasingly strange, devastating incidents, including
encounters with three more treacherous blondes (Verna Bloom, Teri Garr,
and Catherine O'Hara) and culminating in a run-in with a bloodthirsty
mob of vigilantes led by a Mr. Softee truck. Scorsese's orchestration of
thematic development, narrative structure, and visual style is stunning
in its detail and fullness; this 1985 feature reestablished him as one
of the very few contemporary masters of filmmaking. Dave Kehr Here (and above) is the trailer.
Time Out review: A colleague recently remarked that there’s plenty to admire in Dario Argento’s
movies; you just need to look past the acting, writing and
incomprehensibility. That compli-sult has actually been a mantra for the
Italian horror legend’s fans, who’ve admired the maestro’s singular
gift for stylistic Grand Guignol even when everything else descended
into camp. They’ve held on to the hope that the man behind such genius
giallos as The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) might
suddenly reappear. Their patience has paid off, sort of. This
over-the-top thriller offers extended flashes, if not a full-blown
homecoming, of the artist his long-suffering devotees know and love. For
the rest of us, this is simply tasty supernatural goulash served with a
side of Fangoria pictorials. The filmmaker
immediately dives in and goes for baroque: After workers unearth a
mystical urn, deafening chants fill the soundtrack and an archaeologist
is graphically strangled by demons with her own intestines. The victim’s
coworker (Asia Argento) is spotted by an evil monkey—damn you, Satan’s
li’l simian!—and the chase is on. Meanwhile, a demonatrix (Atias) and
some witches fresh out of the coven turn Rome into Hell’s Disneyland. Argento
conjures up such hyperventilating, high-pitched delirium that it’s
tempting to forgive the dialogue (“Hey, dere’s sumpin’ down dere!”) and
the fact that all the performers besides Dario’s daughter can’t act
their way out of a sack with a map. But this is the man who gave us the
classic Suspiria, and to treat this as anything other than the
director’s return to watchability is disingenuous. That old Argento
black magic, literally and figuratively, is still AWOL. David Fear
This is the UK premiere of the new restoration and will be introduced by Ehsan Khoshbakht
Close-Up introduction: István Szabó's
agile camera is an uninvited guest peeking into the private and
collective memories of the residents of an apartment building in
Budapest that is due to be demolished the next day. In a Cocteauesque
quest into the inner life of a house (which also bears trace of early
surrealists in its splendid and puzzling juxtapositions) some 50 years
is remembered overnight. The breath-taking long takes that have the
fluidity of a dream reconstruct the recent history of nation through
bricks, windows, walls and wooden panels. Like Jacques Tati's Playtime,
architecture is both the starting point and what frames every movement –
it's a living organ. But here the building reflects people's desires
and traumas more than similar voyeuristic investigations of architecture
and film as it even bears the subtitle of a "Dream About a House". A milestone in film history for its intricate narrative and free-form imagery, 25 Fireman's Street was partly inspired by Szabó's discovery of Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood.
Each image can be seen as a metaphor of something larger, but perhaps,
more rewardingly, as a photographic representation of a poetic probe
which, at first, seems impossible to decipher but gradually allows for a
pattern of thoughts to emerge in which history and personal memory of
Hungarians fully complement each other. Ehsan Khoshbakht
Time Out review: Christopher Nolan’s
films (‘Following’, ‘Memento’, ‘Insomnia’) are about the dependence of
identity on narrative: we know who we are only because of the stories
we make of our own lives. With ‘Batman Begins’, Nolan successfully
applies this mode to a character who is essentially a self-crafted
living legend – and, in the process, reinvigorates a franchise that had
been lost in self-pastiche. ‘Batman Begins’ is a film of two halves,
if not quite dual identity. Nolan’s touch is more plainly evident in
the first hour, a confidently non-chronological narrative covering
Bruce Wayne’s privileged childhood, his parents’ murder and the
self-doubt that leads him from Gotham’s underworld to a Himalayan
backwater, where Liam Neeson pops up to offer enlightenment and ninja training on behalf of mysterious guru-potentate Ra’s al Ghul. Suitably honed, Bruce (Christian Bale)
returns home to take advantage of Wayne Enterprises’ curiously
neglected combat research facilities. Only then does the familiar
pointy-eared persona coalesce and the narrative straighten out
accordingly. The latter half offers a more conventional (and cluttered)
city-in-peril plot, pitching the novice crimefighter against Cillian Murphy’s psycho psychiatrist, ‘the Scarecrow’, whose fear toxin threatens to plunge Gotham into anarchy. Ben Walters
