*The Final Girls is a screening series focused on
exploring feminist themes in horror cinema and highlighting the
representation and work of women in horror, both in front of and behind
the camera.
Chicago Reader review: Jennifer Jason Leigh plays the twisted and lonely roommate of Bridget Fonda in a psychological thriller directed by Barbet Schroeder, based on John Lutz's novelSWF Seeks Sameand adapted by Don Roos. As a psychological case study this is intelligent and adept, with fine performances by both of the lead actresses, and none of the Hitchcockian implications are lost on Schroeder. Jonathan Romney Here (and above) is the trailer.
This 35mm screening is part of the 'Check The Gate' season at the Prince Charles, dedicated to presenting films on film that will run at the cinema
from 9th July to August 20th. The film has been chosen by the Duke Mitchell Film Club and you can find out more details on their website here.
A.V. Club review: Robert Altman famously managed to bend countless genres and forms to his
will: musicals, comic-strip adaptations, detective movies, Hollywood
satire, the political miniseries, icy psychodrama, plays, and even
one-man shows. But according to conventional wisdom, it was the lowly
teen sex comedy, the reviled Mad Dog 20/20 of genres, that ultimately
defeated Altman in O.C. And Stiggs. The film was finished in
1984, but received such disastrous test scores that it was shelved for
three years and released to vitriolic reviews and nonexistent
box-office. Even the screenwriters distanced themselves from it. The pairing of Robert Altman and the teen sex comedy wasn't quite the
mismatch it might appear. A prankish, youthful irreverence courses
through many, if not most, of Altman's films, even his non-comedies. If
'70s cinema were a lowbrow slobs vs. snobs comedy Altman would be the
John Belushi-esque Dionysus tossing Peter Bogdanovich in the pool,
shattering his monocle, and getting his silk ascot all wet in the
process. Altman argues that audiences and National Lampoon wanted Robert Altman's Porky's and were flummoxed when he delivered a satire of teen schlock instead. I think O.C And Stiggs
is a satire, but less of teen sex comedies than of the things that
always enraged Altman: consumerism and hypocrisy and racism and the
narcissistic self-absorption of well-fed Caucasians. Here Altman
occasionally comes off like the misanthropic cheap shot artist his
critics have always accused him of being – like pretty much all '80s teen
sex comedies, this seems to think homosexuality is inherently a laff
riot – but behind the snark lies a genuine shiver of revulsion towards the
complacency and sun-baked decadence of the Reagan '80s. Nathan Rabin
Orson Welles's extraordinary debut film (also screening on August 6th) is part of a Big Screen Classics season at BFI Southbank. Full details here.Kane is being screened from a 35mm print.
Chicago Reader review: 'What can you say about the movie that taught you what movies were? The first time I saw Kane
I discovered the existence of the director; the next dozen or so times
taught me what he did—with lights and camera angles, cutting and
composition, texture and rhythm. Kane (1941) is no longer my favorite Orson Welles film (I'd take Ambersons, Falstaff, or Touch
of Evil), but it is still the best place I know of to start thinking
about Welles—or for that matter about movies in general.'Dave Kehr
Welcome to the fourth Capital Celluloid film screening, another important
landmark in the history of the blog at which I hope to see as many of
you as possible. I saw this film on release, with Nicolas Roeg in attendance. In the Q&A after the movie was screened, the director shocked the audience by telling them they were some of the very few who would see Eureka. Roeg said he couldn't elaborate on that for legal reasons but suffice to say the film received very limited distribution. This is a rare chance to see one of Roeg's finest works (voted in the top ten films of all-time by Mark Cousins) from a 35mm print.
This screening is part of the 'Check The Gate' season at the Prince Charles, dedicated to presenting films on film that will run at the cinema
from 9th July to August 20th. Jeremy Thomas, the producer of Eureka, has kindly agreed to introduce the film.
Time Out review: The usual nervy Nicolas Roeg cross-cutting has almost vanished in favour of a
cleaner but just as distanced narrative, in two plain parts: a
prospector (Gene Hackman) in Canada in the '20s finally strikes it lucky,
engulfed in a river of gold; and then the rest of his life, immured in
his house ('Eureka') in the Bahamas and wondering what on earth there is
left. While the weight of Roeg's success is usually stylistic, this is
more of a harkback to the cosmic scale of The Man Who Fell to Earth,
with enormous themes streaming through a strange tale. Alongside the
bass-line of a man who 'once had it all, and now just owns everything',
there are games of knowledge and power (voodoo, cabbalahs, magick), a
devouring relationship with his daughter (Theresa Russell), and a nebulous
running battle with business competitors who want their own share of the
planet. The man who raped the earth and lost his demon is finally the
victim of 'business interests' in the same way that Jagger was in Performance. It's a great, Kane-like notion - the price we pay for gaining what we want - and overflowing with awkward ideas and strange emotion. Chris Peachment
This 35mm screening is part of the 'Check The Gate' season at the Prince Charles, dedicated to presenting films on film that will run at the cinema
from 9th July to August 20th. Prince Charles members can buy tickets for just £1.
Time Out review: Ann (MacDowell) is not happy: her husband John (Gallagher) is a lawyer
who, unbeknownst to her, is having an affair with her virtually
estranged sister (San Giacomo). The deception only comes to light with
the arrival of John's old friend Graham (Spader), a shy, impotent
eccentric who gets his kicks from watching interviews he has taped with
women about their sexual experiences... Soderbergh's first feature is
impressively mature, less concerned with actions per se than with
the gulf between deed and motivation, between what we feel and what we
say we feel. Despite the title, there is almost no explicit nudity or
sexual activity; by avoiding sensationalism, Soderbergh leaves himself
free to focus unblinkingly on moral and psychological complexities. No
character is entirely without dishonesty or hang-ups; all initially
shrink from taking full responsibility for their actions. The actors are
superb; working from Soderbergh's funny, perceptive, immaculately
wrought dialogue, they ensure that the film stimulates both
intellectually and emotionally. Geoff Andrew
This 35mm screening is part of the 'Check The Gate' season at the Prince Charles, dedicated to presenting films on film that will run at the cinema
from 9th July to August 20th. Prince Charles members can buy tickets for just £1.
Time Out review: Ann (MacDowell) is not happy: her husband John (Gallagher) is a lawyer
who, unbeknownst to her, is having an affair with her virtually
estranged sister (San Giacomo). The deception only comes to light with
the arrival of John's old friend Graham (Spader), a shy, impotent
eccentric who gets his kicks from watching interviews he has taped with
women about their sexual experiences... Soderbergh's first feature is
impressively mature, less concerned with actions per se than with
the gulf between deed and motivation, between what we feel and what we
say we feel. Despite the title, there is almost no explicit nudity or
sexual activity; by avoiding sensationalism, Soderbergh leaves himself
free to focus unblinkingly on moral and psychological complexities. No
character is entirely without dishonesty or hang-ups; all initially
shrink from taking full responsibility for their actions. The actors are
superb; working from Soderbergh's funny, perceptive, immaculately
wrought dialogue, they ensure that the film stimulates both
intellectually and emotionally. Geoff Andrew
Chicago Reader review: Prince directed himself in this 1986 drama, in which he plays a Cote d'Azur gigolo romancing an inaccessibly rich French lass. TheMarienbadpretension hangs thick and heavy over everything—Michael Ballhaus's glossy black-and-white cinematography, the would-be elegance, the relentless dissociation of image and meaning (though for Prince, dissociation and linearity are the same thing: every impossible scene invites a literal reading). But why pick the wings off flies? Prince's narcissism is easier to take than than that of his contemporaries Sylvester Stallone or Rob Lowe: he doesn't regard the rest of the world as an insult to his estimable self. With Kristin Scott-Thomas. Pat Thomas
