Capital Celluloid 2025 — Day 290: Sun Oct 19

Two Prosecutors (Losnitza, 2025): Curzon Soho, 12.15pm & 12.30pm

69th LONDON FILM FESTIVAL (8th - 19th October 2025) DAY 12

With its date at the end of the year, London is a "festival of festivals", as the Telegraph film critic Robbie Collin put it in one of his previews, so the films shown have mostly been seen and commented on by critics who have watched the features at such high-profile festivals as Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Sundance and Berlin.

So I'm making it simple with one recommendation a day. I will be concentrating on the repertory choices but I've also read the reviews of the contemporary releases and talked to and listened to the trusted critics all year and I am as confident as I can be that this is the pick of the movies within the parameters I have set. Firstly, there's no point highlighting the major gala films - they will be sold out quickly. Secondly, there is little to be gained in paying the higher Festival ticket prices to see films that are out in Britain soon. I will be returning to the London Festival films worthy of seeing and set to be released in the coming months on this blog as and when they get a general release in London.

Here then (from October 8th to October 19th) are the films you are likely to be able to get tickets for and the movies you are unlikely to see in London very soon unless you go the Festival. Here is the LFF's main website for the general information you need. Don't worry if some of the recommended films are sold out as there are always some tickets on offer which go on sale 30 minutes before each screening. Here is the information you need to get those standby tickets.

The film also screens at Curzon Mayfair on Saturday October 18th. Details here.

BFI introduction: It’s 1937 and Stalinism has reached its peak. Kornyev, a young prosecutor, attempts to seek justice for a prisoner trying to expose corruption within the regime’s secret police, only to embark on a Kafka-like odyssey that increases the threat to his liberty with every step he takes. Claustrophobic and austere, with excellent performances and a restrained aesthetic, this is a devastating account of life under totalitarianism. Diana Cipriano

Here (and above) is an extract.

Capital Celluloid 2025 — Day 289: Sat Oct 18

The Girls (Peries, 1978): BFI Southbank, NFT1, 1.15pm

69th LONDON FILM FESTIVAL (8th - 19th October 2025) DAY 11

With its date at the end of the year, London is a "festival of festivals", as the Telegraph film critic Robbie Collin put it in one of his previews, so the films shown have mostly been seen and commented on by critics who have watched the features at such high-profile festivals as Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Sundance and Berlin.

So I'm making it simple with one recommendation a day. I will be concentrating on the repertory choices but I've also read the reviews of the contemporary releases and talked to and listened to the trusted critics all year and I am as confident as I can be that this is the pick of the movies within the parameters I have set. Firstly, there's no point highlighting the major gala films - they will be sold out quickly. Secondly, there is little to be gained in paying the higher Festival ticket prices to see films that are out in Britain soon. I will be returning to the London Festival films worthy of seeing and set to be released in the coming months on this blog as and when they get a general release in London.

Here then (from October 8th to October 19th) are the films you are likely to be able to get tickets for and the movies you are unlikely to see in London very soon unless you go the Festival. Here is the LFF's main website for the general information you need. Don't worry if some of the recommended films are sold out as there are always some tickets on offer which go on sale 30 minutes before each screening. Here is the information you need to get those standby tickets.

The film also screens on Sunday October 19th at BFI Southbank. Details here.

BFI introduction: An adaptation of Karunasena Jayalath’s novel and recognised as the Outstanding Film of the Year at the 1978 London Film Festival, The Girls tells the story of Kusum, a young villager who falls in love with her cousin Nimal, a boy from a wealthy family. Hindered by social conventions and the ambitions of Nimal’s mother, their relationship drives Kusum towards loneliness and renunciation. Julie Pearce

Here (and above) is an extract.

Capital Celluloid 2025 — Day 288: Fri Oct 17

The Ice Tower (Hadžihalilović, 2025): BFI Southbank, NFT1, 6pm

69th LONDON FILM FESTIVAL (8th - 19th October 2025) DAY 10

With its date at the end of the year, London is a "festival of festivals", as the Telegraph film critic Robbie Collin put it in one of his previews, so the films shown have mostly been seen and commented on by critics who have watched the features at such high-profile festivals as Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Sundance and Berlin.

So I'm making it simple with one recommendation a day. I will be concentrating on the repertory choices but I've also read the reviews of the contemporary releases and talked to and listened to the trusted critics all year and I am as confident as I can be that this is the pick of the movies within the parameters I have set. Firstly, there's no point highlighting the major gala films - they will be sold out quickly. Secondly, there is little to be gained in paying the higher Festival ticket prices to see films that are out in Britain soon. I will be returning to the London Festival films worthy of seeing and set to be released in the coming months on this blog as and when they get a general release in London.

Here then (from October 8th to October 19th) are the films you are likely to be able to get tickets for and the movies you are unlikely to see in London very soon unless you go the Festival. Here is the LFF's main website for the general information you need. Don't worry if some of the recommended films are sold out as there are always some tickets on offer which go on sale 30 minutes before each screening. Here is the information you need to get those standby tickets.

The film also screens on Saturday October 18th at Curzon Mayfair. Details here.

BFI introduction:
Crafted with the mesmerising visual and sonic language that we’ve come to expect from Lucile Hadžihalilović, this 1970s-set drama centres on a teenage orphan, played by exciting newcomer Clara Pacini, who absconds to the city and awakens to find herself on the set of ‘The Snow Queen’. Here, she takes root with a new found family and falls under the spell of the titular monarch.
Kristy Matheson 

Here (and above) is the trailer. 

Capital Celluloid 2025 — Day 287: Thu Oct 16

Hotel London (Jamal, 1987) : ICA Cinema, 6.10pm

69th LONDON FILM FESTIVAL (8th - 19th October 2025) DAY 9 

With its date at the end of the year, London is a "festival of festivals", as the Telegraph film critic Robbie Collin put it in one of his previews, so the films shown have mostly been seen and commented on by critics who have watched the features at such high-profile festivals as Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Sundance and Berlin.

So I'm making it simple with one recommendation a day. I will be concentrating on the repertory choices but I've also read the reviews of the contemporary releases and talked to and listened to the trusted critics all year and I am as confident as I can be that this is the pick of the movies within the parameters I have set. Firstly, there's no point highlighting the major gala films - they will be sold out quickly. Secondly, there is little to be gained in paying the higher Festival ticket prices to see films that are out in Britain soon. I will be returning to the London Festival films worthy of seeing and set to be released in the coming months on this blog as and when they get a general release in London.

Here then (from October 8th to October 19th) are the films you are likely to be able to get tickets for and the movies you are unlikely to see in London very soon unless you go the Festival. Here is the LFF's main website for the general information you need. Don't worry if some of the recommended films are sold out as there are always some tickets on offer which go on sale 30 minutes before each screening. Here is the information you need to get those standby tickets.

BFI introduction:
Filmed in an actual bed and breakfast after months of research with homeless individuals, Retake Workshop’s Hotel London explores the housing crisis that plagued the city in the 1980s. Still timely, it weaves an urgent political message into an emotionally resonant, character-driven narrative, with the British South Asian film collective fusing education, training and production.
Will Fowler and Xavier Pillai 

Here (and above) is an interview with the director. 

Capital Celluloid 2025 — Day 286: Wed Oct 15

Below The Clouds (Rosi, 2025): Curzon Mayfair, 6pm

69th LONDON FILM FESTIVAL (8th - 19th October 2025) DAY 8

With its date at the end of the year, London is a "festival of festivals", as the Telegraph film critic Robbie Collin put it in one of his previews, so the films shown have mostly been seen and commented on by critics who have watched the features at such high-profile festivals as Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Sundance and Berlin.

So I'm making it simple with one recommendation a day. I will be concentrating on the repertory choices but I've also read the reviews of the contemporary releases and talked to and listened to the trusted critics all year and I am as confident as I can be that this is the pick of the movies within the parameters I have set. Firstly, there's no point highlighting the major gala films - they will be sold out quickly. Secondly, there is little to be gained in paying the higher Festival ticket prices to see films that are out in Britain soon. I will be returning to the London Festival films worthy of seeing and set to be released in the coming months on this blog as and when they get a general release in London.

Here then (from October 8th to October 19th) are the films you are likely to be able to get tickets for and the movies you are unlikely to see in London very soon unless you go the Festival. Here is the LFF's main website for the general information you need. Don't worry if some of the recommended films are sold out as there are always some tickets on offer which go on sale 30 minutes before each screening. Here is the information you need to get those standby tickets.

This film also screens at Curzon Soho on Thursday October 16th. Details here.

BFI introduction:
As with his earlier films (Fire at Sea, Notturno), Gianfranco Rosi’s latest is a masterful act of cinematic immersion. Embedding himself in the communities in and around Vesuvius, Rosi documents the humour, hopes and fears of ordinary people. Combining haunting black and white images of modern life with astonishing archive footage, Below the Clouds is a sublimely original work.
Adrian Wootton

Here (and above) is the trailer.

Capital Celluloid 2025 — Day 285: Tue Oct 14

Orphan (Nemes, 2025): Curzon Mayfair, 6pm

69th LONDON FILM FESTIVAL (8th - 19th October 2025) DAY 7

With its date at the end of the year, London is a "festival of festivals", as the Telegraph film critic Robbie Collin put it in one of his previews, so the films shown have mostly been seen and commented on by critics who have watched the features at such high-profile festivals as Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Sundance and Berlin.

So I'm making it simple with one recommendation a day. I will be concentrating on the repertory choices but I've also read the reviews of the contemporary releases and talked to and listened to the trusted critics all year and I am as confident as I can be that this is the pick of the movies within the parameters I have set. Firstly, there's no point highlighting the major gala films - they will be sold out quickly. Secondly, there is little to be gained in paying the higher Festival ticket prices to see films that are out in Britain soon. I will be returning to the London Festival films worthy of seeing and set to be released in the coming months on this blog as and when they get a general release in London.

Here then (from October 8th to October 19th) are the films you are likely to be able to get tickets for and the movies you are unlikely to see in London very soon unless you go the Festival. Here is the LFF's main website for the general information you need. Don't worry if some of the recommended films are sold out as there are always some tickets on offer which go on sale 30 minutes before each screening. Here is the information you need to get those standby tickets.

This film also screens at BFI Southbank on Thursday October 16th on 35mm. Details here.

BFI introduction:
Following the war, a boy is reunited with his mother. As he grows, so too does his longing to reconcile the identity of his father. Nemes (Son of Saul, Sunset) brings a laser focus to the boy’s dogged quest and in doing so, paints a much larger and complex portrait of a haunted Jewish community rebuilding itself as it grapples with the horror of erasure.
Kristy Matheson

Here (and above) is an extract.

Capital Celluloid 2025 — Day 284: Mon Oct 13

Sirat (Laxe, 2025): BFI IMAX, 5.30pm

69th LONDON FILM FESTIVAL (8th - 19th October 2025) DAY 6

With its date at the end of the year, London is a "festival of festivals", as the Telegraph film critic Robbie Collin put it in one of his previews, so the films shown have mostly been seen and commented on by critics who have watched the features at such high-profile festivals as Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Sundance and Berlin.

So I'm making it simple with one recommendation a day. I will be concentrating on the repertory choices but I've also read the reviews of the contemporary releases and talked to and listened to the trusted critics all year and I am as confident as I can be that this is the pick of the movies within the parameters I have set. Firstly, there's no point highlighting the major gala films - they will be sold out quickly. Secondly, there is little to be gained in paying the higher Festival ticket prices to see films that are out in Britain soon. I will be returning to the London Festival films worthy of seeing and set to be released in the coming months on this blog as and when they get a general release in London.

Here then (from October 8th to October 19th) are the films you are likely to be able to get tickets for and the movies you are unlikely to see in London very soon unless you go the Festival. Here is the LFF's main website for the general information you need. Don't worry if some of the recommended films are sold out as there are always some tickets on offer which go on sale 30 minutes before each screening. Here is the information you need to get those standby tickets.

This film also screens at ICA Cinema on Tuesday October 14th. Details here.

BFI introduction:
Oliver Laxe’s hallucinatory journey drifts between road movie, political parable and ritual. Passing through ambiguous, borderless geographies, its hypnotic rhythm reorients our senses. Performances shine, from non-professional nomadic ravers to Sergi López’s grieving father. Both highly tactile and metaphysical, with meaning pulsating beneath its surface, Sirât invites us to trace our own path through the desert mirage.
Hyun Jin Cho 

Here (and above) is the trailer. 

Capital Celluloid 2025 — Day 283: Sun Oct 12

Mortu Nega (Gomes, 1988): BFI Southbank, NFT1, 12.50pm

69th LONDON FILM FESTIVAL (8th - 19th October 2025) DAY 5

With its date at the end of the year, London is a "festival of festivals", as the Telegraph film critic Robbie Collin put it in one of his previews, so the films shown have mostly been seen and commented on by critics who have watched the features at such high-profile festivals as Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Sundance and Berlin.

So I'm making it simple with one recommendation a day. I will be concentrating on the repertory choices but I've also read the reviews of the contemporary releases and talked to and listened to the trusted critics all year and I am as confident as I can be that this is the pick of the movies within the parameters I have set. Firstly, there's no point highlighting the major gala films - they will be sold out quickly. Secondly, there is little to be gained in paying the higher Festival ticket prices to see films that are out in Britain soon. I will be returning to the London Festival films worthy of seeing and set to be released in the coming months on this blog as and when they get a general release in London.

Here then (from October 8th to October 19th) are the films you are likely to be able to get tickets for and the movies you are unlikely to see in London very soon unless you go the Festival. Here is the LFF's main website for the general information you need. Don't worry if some of the recommended films are sold out as there are always some tickets on offer which go on sale 30 minutes before each screening. Here is the information you need to get those standby tickets.

This film also screens at BFI Southbank on Saturday October 18th. Details here.

Chicago Reader review:
One of the best contemporary war films I know is this singular 1988 feature, the first by Guinea-Bissau filmmaker Flora Gomes (Po di sangui). The first half, as elemental and as unadorned as Samuel Fuller’s The Steel Helmet, concentrates on women fighting alongside guerrillas at the end of Guinea-Bissau’s war of independence in 1973, attacked by Portuguese helicopters as they travel on foot close to the border. The second half, more diffuse and at times more rhetorical, deals with the ambiguous conditions of the war’s aftermath. The title means “those whom death refused,” and true to that notion the heroine (Bia Gomes) has been fighting for about a decade. Gomes (no relation to the director) manages to convey the loss of her children in a wordless and underplayed moment that shook me to my core. Flora Gomes appears in a cameo as president of a postwar sector.
Jonathan Rosenbaum

Here (and above) is the trailer. 

 

Capital Celluloid 2025 — Day 282: Sat Oct 11

Sound of Falling (Schilinski, 2025): Curzon Soho, 5.10pm

69th LONDON FILM FESTIVAL (8th - 19th October 2025) DAY 4 

With its date at the end of the year, London is a "festival of festivals", as the Telegraph film critic Robbie Collin put it in one of his previews, so the films shown have mostly been seen and commented on by critics who have watched the features at such high-profile festivals as Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Sundance and Berlin.

So I'm making it simple with one recommendation a day. I will be concentrating on the repertory choices but I've also read the reviews of the contemporary releases and talked to and listened to the trusted critics all year and I am as confident as I can be that this is the pick of the movies within the parameters I have set. Firstly, there's no point highlighting the major gala films - they will be sold out quickly. Secondly, there is little to be gained in paying the higher Festival ticket prices to see films that are out in Britain soon. I will be returning to the London Festival films worthy of seeing and set to be released in the coming months on this blog as and when they get a general release in London.

Here then (from October 8th to October 19th) are the films you are likely to be able to get tickets for and the movies you are unlikely to see in London very soon unless you go the Festival. Here is the LFF's main website for the general information you need. Don't worry if some of the recommended films are sold out as there are always some tickets on offer which go on sale 30 minutes before each screening. Here is the information you need to get those standby tickets.

This film also screens at Vue West End on Sunday October 12th. Details here.

BFI introduction:
Vignettes of Alma, Erika, Angelika and Lenka capture generational shifts and haunting parallels of loneliness, lost innocence and misogynistic abuse. A watchful, ghost-like camera observes them and the small intimate details of their worlds. This is a mesmerising film of memories and tremendous cinema that is achingly present, which has seen Mascha Schilinski deservedly heralded as a great new German auteur.
Kristy Matheson

Here (and above) is the trailer. 

Capital Celluloid 2025 — Day 281: Fri Oct 10

The Blue Trail (Mascaro, 2025): Curzon Soho, 8.30pm

69th LONDON FILM FESTIVAL (8th - 19th October 2025) DAY 3 

With its date at the end of the year, London is a "festival of festivals", as the Telegraph film critic Robbie Collin put it in one of his previews, so the films shown have mostly been seen and commented on by critics who have watched the features at such high-profile festivals as Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Sundance and Berlin.

So I'm making it simple with one recommendation a day. I will be concentrating on the repertory choices but I've also read the reviews of the contemporary releases and talked to and listened to the trusted critics all year and I am as confident as I can be that this is the pick of the movies within the parameters I have set. Firstly, there's no point highlighting the major gala films - they will be sold out quickly. Secondly, there is little to be gained in paying the higher Festival ticket prices to see films that are out in Britain soon. I will be returning to the London Festival films worthy of seeing and set to be released in the coming months on this blog as and when they get a general release in London.

Here then (from October 8th to October 19th) are the films you are likely to be able to get tickets for and the movies you are unlikely to see in London very soon unless you go the Festival. Here is the LFF's main website for the general information you need. Don't worry if some of the recommended films are sold out as there are always some tickets on offer which go on sale 30 minutes before each screening. Here is the information you need to get those standby tickets.

This film also screens at BFI Southbank on Friday October 10th and 17th. Details here.

BFI introduction:
In near future Brazil, elderly citizens are forced into living facilities to avoid hindering their offspring’s productivity. Having reached the fateful age, Tereza dreams of flying in a plane, so she seeks to fulfil this fantasy of embarking on an illegal journey through the Amazon. There she will find something even better than flight: independence. Political and unsentimental yet profoundly human, The Blue Trail is a transfixing journey you won’t easily forget.
Diana Cipriano

Here (and above) is the trailer.

Capital Celluloid 2025 — Day 280: Thu Oct 9

La Paga (Duran, 1962): BFI Southbank, NFT1, 3.20pm

69th LONDON FILM FESTIVAL (8th - 19th October 2025) DAY 2 

With its date at the end of the year, London is a "festival of festivals", as the Telegraph film critic Robbie Collin put it in one of his previews, so the films shown have mostly been seen and commented on by critics who have watched the features at such high-profile festivals as Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Sundance and Berlin.

So I'm making it simple with one recommendation a day. I will be concentrating on the repertory choices but I've also read the reviews of the contemporary releases and talked to and listened to the trusted critics all year and I am as confident as I can be that this is the pick of the movies within the parameters I have set. Firstly, there's no point highlighting the major gala films - they will be sold out quickly. Secondly, there is little to be gained in paying the higher Festival ticket prices to see films that are out in Britain soon. I will be returning to the London Festival films worthy of seeing and set to be released in the coming months on this blog as and when they get a general release in London.

Here then (from October 8th to October 19th) are the films you are likely to be able to get tickets for and the movies you are unlikely to see in London very soon unless you go the Festival. Here is the LFF's main website for the general information you need. Don't worry if some of the recommended films are sold out as there are always some tickets on offer which go on sale 30 minutes before each screening. Here is the information you need to get those standby tickets.

This presentation, which also includes the 1972 film Safar, directed by Bahram Beyzaïe, also screens at BFI Southbank on Monday October 13th. Full details here.

BFI introduction:
A Colombian peasant struggles to support his family under conditions of extreme exploitation. Banned after one screening and thought lost for decades, this stark portrait of peasant life is a political film of denunciation of perpetual poverty and inequality.
Giulia Saccogna

Capital Celluloid 2025 — Day 279: Wed Oct 8

Enzo (Campillo, 2025): Curzon Soho, 6pm

69th LONDON FILM FESTIVAL (8th - 19th October 2025) DAY 1 

Today is the opening day of the London Film Festival. With its date at the end of the year, London is a "festival of festivals", as the Telegraph film critic Robbie Collin put it in one of his previews, so the films shown have mostly been seen and commented on by critics who have watched the features at such high-profile festivals as Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Sundance and Berlin.

So I'm making it simple with one recommendation a day. I will be concentrating on the repertory choices but I've also read the reviews of the contemporary releases and talked to and listened to the trusted critics all year and I am as confident as I can be that this is the pick of the movies within the parameters I have set. Firstly, there's no point highlighting the major gala films - they will be sold out quickly. Secondly, there is little to be gained in paying the higher Festival ticket prices to see films that are out in Britain soon. I will be returning to the London Festival films worthy of seeing and set to be released in the coming months on this blog as and when they get a general release in London.

Here then (from October 8th to October 19th) are the films you are likely to be able to get tickets for and the movies you are unlikely to see in London very soon unless you go the Festival. Here is the LFF's main website for the general information you need. Don't worry if some of the recommended films are sold out as there are always some tickets on offer which go on sale 30 minutes before each screening. Here is the information you need to get those standby tickets.

This film also screens at Curzon Soho on Wednesday October 15th. Details here.

BFI introduction:
Enzo, a teenager from a wealthy family, dodges his class expectations by dropping out of school and apprenticing as a builder. Feeling out of place in the family’s elegant villa and disconnected from his peers, Enzo finds himself attracted to fellow builder Vlad, who is from Ukraine. Driven by newcomer Eloy Pohu’s youthful energy, Enzo is a perfect blend of social concern and seductive sensuality.
Laure Bonville

Here is the trailer (with English subtitles).

Capital Celluloid 2025 — Day 278: Tue Oct 7

Body Snatchers (Ferrara, 1993): Prince Charles Cinema, 8.45pm

This film will be preceded by a recorded introduction from Garth Marenghi.

Time Out review:
This remake of the classic '50s paranoia movie, Don Siegel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers, is evidence that the end of the Cold War hasn't dispelled fears of creeping authoritarianism and loss of individuality. The story is relocated to a southern military base - a more credible breeding ground for insurgency than the San Francisco of Phil Kaufman's chilling 1978 version - with disaffected teenager Anwar at the centre of the drama. At first this seems like a sop to Hollywood fashion, but in fact it's a switch which lends an intriguing perspective as the nuclear family approaches meltdown. Tilly (and her body double) are excellent as the teenager's stepmom; and there's a good tight script from Stuart Gordon, Dennis Paoli and long-time Ferrara collaborator Nicholas St John. This slick, polished film is a change of pace for Ferrara, but fans of his more abrasively challenging work are unlikely to feel short-changed - 'I always loved Martian movies,' Ferrara has said. 'I used to dress up as a Martian when I was a kid and go out and terrify the neighbours...'
Tom Charity

Here (and above) is the trailer.

Capital Celluloid 2025 — Day 277: Mon Oct 6

Phantom of the Paradise (De Palma, 1974): Prince Charles Cinema, 12.15pm

This film, part of the Horroctober at the Prince Charles Cinema, also screens on October 24th. Full details can be found here.

Time Out review:
Despite the dread MOR dirges given to Jessica Harper's crooning ingenue, arguably De Palma's finest film. A highly inventive updating of the Phantom of the Opera story to the rockbiz world - complete with borrowings from Faust and The Picture of Dorian Gray - it tells of rock composer William Finley's desire for revenge after he is cheated by a nightclub and record label mogul (Paul Williams). Nothing that remarkable about the plot in itself, but De Palma employs his love of gadgetry to imaginative effect (making terrific use of split screens and video technology), and casts a satirically beady eye upon the money-hungry foibles of the music industry. Best, in fact, is the cameo by Gerrit Graham as the camp, 'Producers'-style glamrock star, although Memmoli's world-weary manager and the piss-take of Alice Cooper are also memorable.
Geoff Andrew

Here (and above) is the trailer.

Capital Celluloid 2025 — Day 276: Sun Oct 5

Three Men and a Cradle (Serreau, 1985): Cinema Museum, 2pm

This is a 35mm screening in the French Sundaes strand at the Cinema Museum. 

Chicago Reader review:
Directed by Coline Serreau (Why Not?), this was a box office sensation in France, though from this side of the Atlantic it seems little more than a passable imitation of a 50s situation comedy. Roland Giraud, Michel Boujenah, and Andre Dussollier are three carefree bachelors who learn a lot of Important Lessons about life, responsibility, and respect for women as they take care of a baby abandoned on their doorstep. How do you say, corny? Serreau directs for maximum freneticism, with her actors rushing around and regurgitating great torrents of imperfectly subtitled dialogue (a gratuitous subplot involving drug traffickers seems to have been inserted just to double the hysteria), and while there are more than a few laughs, most of them are laughs of recognition—seeing these gags again is like coming across long-lost (and vaguely embarrassing) relations. The film’s only eccentricity is its jarringly anomalous, dark, claustrophobic visual style—it’s as if Abbott and Costello had invaded the world of The Godfather.
Dave Kehr

Here (and above) is the trailer.

Capital Celluloid 2025 — Day 275: Sat Oct 4

Daughter of the Dragon (Corrigan, 1931): BFI Southbank, NFT3, 6.20pm

This 35mm screening (also being shown on September 13th) is part of the Anna May Wong season at BFI Southbank. Full details here.

BFI introduction:
A rare collaboration between Anna May Wong and silent-era matinee idol Sessue Hayakawa, Daughter of the Dragon is an intriguing cross between the popular Fu Manchu and Charlie Chan film series. Paramount exploited Wong’s fame in Europe, making her newly acquired British accent a selling point in this early sound horror, which was released in the same year as Dracula and Frankenstein.

Capital Celluloid 2025 — Day 274: Fri Oct 3

No1: Committed (Tillman/McLauglin, 1984): Close-Up Cinema, 8.30pm

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with Lynne Tillman moderated by Gareth Evans 

Close-Up Cinema introduction:
To mark the publication of Lynne Tillman’s new selected stories Thrilled to Death, published by Peninsula Press, we will be hosting a rare screening of Committed, her 1984 film, co-directed by Sheila McLauglin. Committed is the story of movie star and leftist iconoclast Frances Farmer. In 1935, Farmer became an overnight Hollywood sensation; within ten years she was in a state mental hospital. This highly stylized film offers a multi-layered look at the life of this culturally defiant woman that goes beyond the personal story to explore the political and social attitudes of the time.

Time Out review:
A low-budget independent alternative to the Jessica Lange Frances made a couple of years earlier, this sees Sheila McLaughlin as Hollywood actress Frances Farmer, reliving her memories while incarcerated in the mental institution to which she has been committed, and employs her as a litmus with which to measure American attitudes to political commitment, mental health, and strong women. It's become fashionable to regard Farmer as something of a martyr, and although she was certainly a talented actress treated abysmally by Hollywood, family and friends, it is hard now to ascertain the truth behind her downfall. That apart, this is an original and stylish movie, austere and bitter. 
Geoff Andrew

*****************************************************************************

No 2: The Blair Witch Project (Myrick/Sanchez, 1999): Prince Charles Cinema, 5.30pm

This is a 35mm presentation.

Chicago Reader review:
A pretty impressive horror film in the form of a documentary, supposedly made up of footage shot by three film students on a trek through Maryland's Black Hills Forest to investigate legends about a witch. What gives the film much of its force and its mounting sense of queasy uncertainty is its narrative method, which ensures that we know no more about the proceedings than the characters do and that our imaginations play as active and ambiguous a role as theirs. Written, directed, and edited by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez; with Heather Donohue, Michael Williams, and Joshua Leonard, all of whom do fine jobs.
Jonathan Rosenbaum

Here (and above) is the trailer.

Capital Celluloid 2025 — Day 273: Thu Oct 2

Portrait in Black (Gordon, 1960): BFI Southbank, NFT2, 8.30pm

This 35mm screening (also being shown on October 6th) is part of the Anna May Wong season at BFI Southbank. Full details here. Tonight's prersentation will feature an introduction by Professor Yiman Wang, University of California, Santa Cruz.

BFI introduction:
A pair of lovers conspire to murder the woman’s husband in this colourful thriller. Invariably cast as a middle-aged maid in wealthy white families, Wong remains a formidable presence in this Lana Turner vehicle despite fleeting screen time. Shot on location in San Francisco, this Eastmancolor film is Wong’s big-screen swan song and the only colour feature she appeared in after The Toll of the Sea.

Here (and above) is the trailer.

Capital Celluloid 2025 — Day 272: Wed Oct 1

Race with the Devil (Starrett, 1975) + The Brotherhood of Satan (McEveety, 1971):
Prince Charles Cinema, 6pm

This horror double-bill is part of the Garth Marenghi curated season at the Prince Charles Cinema. Marenghi will present a live introduction to the films.

Time Out review of Race with the Devil:
Less a race than a chase, with holidaymaking Peter Fonda, Warren Oates and wives fleeing a bunch of Texas Satanists whose human sacrifice they've barged into. A crescendo of near-miss car smashes, horrible discoveries in the caravan, and out-of-order telephones, convinces the quartet that the whole state's bent; by which time we think so too, and dread the outcome. A wittily efficient quickie, the film is a winner all the way - a surprise, since Starrett's career thus far had been the movie director's equivalent of a criminal record. But it was scripted by Lee Frost and Wes Bishop, who produced another jolly horror, The Thing With Two Heads and who started classically by making sex films in a garage.
Andrew Nickolds

Here (and above) is the Race with the Devil trailer.

Capital Celluloid 2025 — Day 271: Tue Sep 30

The White Ribbon (Haneke, 2009): Prince Charles Cinema, 8.30pm

This is a 35mm screening, part of the Michael Haneke season at the Prince Charles Cinema.

Chicago Reader review:
Michael Haneke's black-and-white period drama, which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes festival in 2009, has been described as a treatise on the root causes of German fascism. I'll leave that to the historians, but there's no denying this is a coldly commanding tale in which Haneke's signature obsessions—bourgeois control, sexual repression, emotional cruelty, cathartic violence—simmer quietly as subtext before bursting into the open in the final reels. On the eve of World War I, a northern village seems quiet and sedate but secretly roils with, as one character puts it, "malice, envy, apathy, and brutality." The title refers to the custom of a strict father who's respected in the community: after he's viciously caned his children, his wife ties a white ribbon on each of them to remind them of their newly won innocence and purity.
JR Jones

Here (and above) is the trailer.

Capital Celluloid 2025 — Day 270: Mon Sep 29

A City of Sadness (Hou, 1989): Garden Cinema, 8pm

This film, part of the Taiwanese Cinema: Now and Then 2025 season, will feature a pre-recorded introductions from Tony Rayns.

Chicago Reader review:
This beautiful family saga by the great Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien begins in 1945, when Japan ended its 51-year colonial rule in Taiwan, and concludes in 1949, when mainland China became communist and Chiang Kai-shek's government retreated to Taipei. Perceiving these historical upheavals through the varied lives of a single family, Hou proves himself a master of long takes and complex framing, with a great talent for passionate (though elliptical and distanced) storytelling. Given the diverse languages and dialects spoken here (including the language of a deaf-mute, rendered in intertitles), this 1989 drama is largely a meditation on communication itself, and appropriately enough it was the first Taiwanese film to use direct sound. It's also one of the supreme masterworks of the contemporary cinema, the first feature of Hou's magisterial trilogy (followed by The Puppet Master and Good Men, Good Women) about Taiwan during the 20th century.
Jonathan Rosenbaum

Here (and above) is the trailer.

Capital Celluloid 2025 — Day 269: Sun Sep 28

Throne of Blood (Kurosawa, 1957): Genesis Cinema, 3pm

This is a 35mm screening.

Time Out review:
Akira Kurosawa's adaptation of Macbeth is reckoned by many, Peter Brook among them, to be one of the very few successful efforts at filming Shakespeare. Translating the familiar story to medieval Japan, with Macbeth as the samurai Washizu (Toshiro Mifune), the adaptation deletes most of the minor characters, transforms the witches' scenes into a magical encounter with an old woman spinning in a forest glade, perches 'Cobweb Castle' high in the hilly moorland where the clouds roll by like ground-fog, and conceives a stunningly graphic fate for the usurper, clinging stubbornly to his promise of glory even as he is being turned into a human pin-cushion by volleys of arrows. It's visually ravishing, as you would expect, employing compositional tableaux from the Noh drama, high contrast photography, and extraordinary images of rain, galloping horses, the birds fleeing from the forest; all of which contribute to the expression of a doom-laden universe whose only way out for its tragic hero is auto-destruction.
Rod McShane

Here (and above) is the trailer.

Capital Celluloid 2025 — Day 268: Sat Sep 27

The Quatermass Xperiment (Guest, 1955) & Quatermass 2 (Guest, 1957):
Regent St Cinema, 6pm

Regent Street Cinema introduction:
Join us for a thrilling double bill of two classic British science fiction horrors, presented in partnership with the team behind The Evolution of Horror. Experience the ground-breaking terror of The Quatermass Xperiment followed by the chilling continuation in Quatermass 2. Between the films, enjoy an engaging discussion with the Evolution of Horror team, exploring the impact, legacy, and lasting influence of these genre-defining works. A must-see for fans of horror, sci-fi, and British cinema history.

Time Out review of The Quatermass Xperiment:
It was the enormous success of this Hammer version of Nigel Kneale's TV series which began the whole horror boom in Britain. As a result of its popularity, the company decided to tackle the Frankenstein monster, and subsequently discovered that the public's appetite for myth and fantasy was practically insatiable. The theme of the film (man returns from space as a kind of monster) is by now fairly stereotyped, but it's amazing how impressive Richard Wordsworth's performance remains. Phil Leakey's make-up manages to convey the idea of a whole body in the process of decomposition; and staggering over bombsites, his deformed arm wrapped pathetically in an old overcoat, Wordsworth's Victor remains one of the most sympathetic monsters in movie history. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the film, in retrospect, is the way in which its opening sequence mirrors so precisely the intrusion of Hammer into the cosy middle class domesticity of British cinema in the late '50s. Two insipid lovers are sent screaming from their haystack bower as a huge tubular rocket ship (looking less like a spacecraft than an enormous phallus) plunges into the ground where they have been lying...
David Pirie

Time Out review of Quatermass 2:
An eerie political fable on the lines of Siegel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and despite some clumsy moments that have not worn well, it remains one of the more bizarre and impressive of the early British horror pictures. Photographed by Gerald Gibbs in a sombre monochrome that nicely evokes an aura of muted hysteria and despair, it describes Quatermass' discovery that virtually the whole of Britain has been taken over by things from another world, and that the government has already begun laying waste the countryside. Provided you steel yourself against the familiar faces (like Bryan Forbes and Sidney James), the chill is still there.
Chris Peachment

Here (and above) is the trailer for Quatermass 2.

Capital Celluloid 2025 — Day 267: Fri Sep 26

The Ice Storm (Lee, 1997): BFI Southbank, NFT 2.30pm & NFT1, 6.10pm

This re-release is getting an extended run at BFI Southbank. Full details here.

Time Out review:
With its meticulous script by James Schamus, strong performances and elegant direction, this tragi-comic look at the lives of a couple of comfortably-off small town Connecticut families in the winter of 1973 is a gem of witty, perceptive observation. Unbeknown to Joan Allen his wife, Kevin Kline is carrying on with neighbour Sigourny Weaver, an affair discovered when he comes across his teenage daughter Christina Ricci playing her own sexually explorative games with Weaver's sons. Cue marital discord, adolescent disenchantment and family crises in a thoroughly enjoyable blend of comedy and melodrama which is spot-on both in its evocative re-creation of the fads, habits and attitudes of the early '70s, and in its sense of an America at a particular point in its socio-political history.
Geoff Andrew

Here (and above) is the trailer.

Capital Celluloid 2025 — Day 266: Thu Sep 25

The Fall of the House of Usher (Epstein, 1928): Nickel Cinema, 7 & 9pm

Cine-List review:
A director and film theorist affiliated with the French Impressionist movement of the 1920s, Jean Epstein is credited with laying the groundwork for many cornerstone concepts in cinema studies, such as the notion of medium specificity, or what he referred to as photogénie. As film scholar Malcolm Turvey details in his history of the "revelationist" tradition, at the heart of the French Impressionist approach is the belief that film holds the ability to transcend the fallibility of human vision and reveal the true nature of reality via cinematic techniques like editing and close-ups. While viewers may take these ideas for granted today, Epstein and his contemporaries are responsible for no less than realizing cinema's potential as a bona fide art form. It's fitting that Epstein chose to adapt Edgar Allen Poe, a major influence for the French symbolist poets, who in turn offered a reference point for the Impressionist filmmakers. Co-written by Luis Buñuel, THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER remains just as eerie today as it was over eighty years ago. Epstein's use of chiaroscuro lighting and deep space lend the film a haunting, atmospheric quality and the actors involved (including Abel Gance's wife) give suitably hypnotic performances. The story, about a man obsessed with immortalizing his dying wife in a painting, is all too apropos for a filmmaker who wrote extensively about the boundaries between reality and representation.

Here and above is an extract.

Capital Celluloid 2025 — Day 265: Wed Sep 24

Sitting Target (Hickox, 1972): Cinema Museum, 7.30pm

This is a Lost Reels screening. Lost Reels is an independent film organisation dedicated to bringing forgotten, lost, or unavailable films back to UK cinemas. Visit Lost Reels at lostreels.co.uk

Cinema Museum introduction:
After earning the dubious distinction of being one of the first British films to be given an ‘X’ rating entirely for on-screen violence, Douglas Hickox’s Sitting Target was overshadowed by Get Carter (1971) and Villain (1971) as just another grim, seedy British crime thriller and is now mostly forgotten. Oliver Reed plays the brutish convict Harry Lomart who after learning his wife Pat (Jill St. John) has become pregnant by another man, plans a daring prison escape with his friend Birdy (Ian McShane) so he can kill her in murderous revenge. A truly nail-biting breakout sequence is followed by a series of audacious action set-pieces including fist fights, shootings and thrilling motorcycle and car chases, with the near-maniacal Reed unrelenting in his quest for vengeance. Strikingly filmed by Edward Scaife, director Hickox keeps the film moving at breakneck speed and provides a heavy dose of gun-fetishism along with the action for good measure. Never released on Blu-ray and unavailable in any format in the UK, Lost Reels is proud to present a special screening of this fast-paced hard-bitten action thriller from a rare high-definition 35mm scan sourced from the US. 

Here (and above) is the trailer. 

Capital Celluloid 2025 — Day 264: Tue Sep 23

Dangerous to Know (Florey, 1938): BFI Southbank, NFT2, 8.50pm

This 35mm presentation, which also screens on October 4th, is part of the Anna May Wong season at BFI Southbank. The film will be introduced by season curator Xin Peng.

BFI introduction:
Anna May Wong reprised her stage role as the mistress of an Al Capone-inspired gangster, in this Paramount adaptation of British writer Edgar Wallace’s Prohibition-era, Chicago-set play On the Spot. Confined in the mansion, Lan Ying haunts the story of a social-climbing gangster’s rise and fall. The film culminates in a harrowing finale that evidences Wong’s constant refining of her craft as a performer.

Capital Celluloid 2025 — Day 263: Mon Sep 22

Night Tide (Harrington, 1961): Rio Cinema, 6.30pm

Rio Cinema introduction: This event is part of the Sailors are Gay! queer film season at The Rio Cinema, presented in association with The National Film and Television School’s Film Studies, Programming and Curation MA. More information on instagram: @filmsaregay. The evening consists of screenings of two short films, a Q&A and the main feature, Night Tide.

Fireworks (1947, dir. Kenneth Anger, 15mins) An avant-garde homoerotic dream of sexy sailors and strategically placed roman candles, Kenneth Anger’s experimental short is considered the oldest surviving narrative gay film from the USA. Smothered in queer and occult symbology, we follow a dreamer’s sensually violent encounter with a gang of handsome seamen. Not only are these transfixing 15 minutes noteworthy for their place in gay sailor cinema, but integral for the first American court case to rule homosexuality to be a “non-obscene” subject of art. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to experience what Tennessee Williams described as, “the most exciting use of cinema I have ever seen.” 

Fireworks Revisited (dir. Bev Zalcock, 1994, 9 mins) This lesbian reworking of Kenneth Anger’s Fireworks (1947) by experimental duo Bev Zalcock and Sara Chambers (Space Dog Assassin, East End Underground Moment), pulls in a panoply of references, from Eisenstein to Prisoner Cell Block H, to proclaim that it’s not just gay cis-men who can make sailors objects of homerotic desire. Structurally mirroring Fireworks, this revisitation’s dreamscape of grainy London is occupied by leatherclad motorcyclists, butch bodybuilders, and a catherine wheel in the place of the original roman candle. The short will be followed by a discussion with its filmmakers, Bev Zalcock and Sara Chambers. 

After our discussion with Bev Zalcock and Sara Chambers, we will have a 15 minute intermission before our screening of Night Tide. 

Night Tide (dir. Curtis Harrington, 1961, 86 mins) Johnny Drake, a sailor on shore leave (Dennis Hopper) falls in love with Mora, (Linda Lawson) a woman posing as a mermaid for tourists on the Santa Monica pier. When a retired sea captain convinces Johnny that Mora’s siren persona is more than just a hoax attraction, his leave takes a dark turn in this fantasy exploring gender, identity and the beliefs we hold of ourselves. Often interpreted as a trans allegory, gay filmmaker Curtis Harrington’s debut feature pulls inspiration from the gothically queer literature of Edgar Alan Poe, the occult arcana of lifelong friend Kenneth Anger, and the supernatural feminine found in Cat People (1942). 

Chicago Reader review (of Night Tide):
Dennis Hopper had his first starring role in this odd and arresting black-and-white mood piece about a young sailor who falls in love with a carnival worker who may be a mermaid. Made in 1960 but not released until 1963, it was the first feature of Curtis Harrington. A poetic, low-budget independent effort, it can't be called an unqualified success but certainly deserves to be seen. At moments it evokes some of the early magic of Jacques Demy, and as with Demy's first feature, Lola, it's questionable whether Harrington ever topped it in his subsequent, more commercial efforts.
Jonathan Rosenbaum 

Here (and above) is the trailer.