Capital Celluloid 2016 - Day 251: Thu Sep 8

Metropolis (Lang, 1927): BFI Southbank, NFT2, 5.55pm

This film screens as part of BFI Southbank's Big Screen Classics season and is also being shown on September 13th. Full details here.

Chicago Reader review:
Fritz Lang's 1927 silent epic about class struggle in a city of the 21st century still has a lot of popular currency, but it's never been a critics' favorite. This 124-minute version is the longest since the German premiere, and the unobtrusive use of intertitles to fill in the blanks makes it more coherent. The restoration clarifies the relationships among the hero (Gustav Fröhlich); his late mother, who died giving birth to him; his father, the ruler of Metropolis (Alfred Abel); and the father's bitter romantic rival (Rudolf Klein-Rogge), an inventor who creates a robot in the mother's image. Later the robot is upgraded to impersonate the hero's heartthrob (Brigitte Helm), a radical preacher who helps organize the city's exploited workers. The film looks fabulous, and Gottfried Huppertz's original score is another worthy addition.
Jonathan Rosenbaum

Here (and above) is the trailer.

Capital Celluloid 2016 - Day 250: Wed Sep 7

Pusher (Winding Refn, 1996): Prince Charles Cinema, 9pm

This 35mm screening is part of a Nicolas Winding Refn selectrospective at the Prince Charles Cinema. You can find the full details here.

Chicago Reader review:
Everybody in Copenhagen loves Frank, who sells heroin and gives away charm. Business hums along—with evenings free for hypermacho bonding that both evokes and transcends Tarantino in every line and gesture—until Frank trusts someone he shouldn't. This disturbing, insightful drama about the relationship between ethics and luck insists that we identify with Frank even when we'd prefer to distance ourselves. And it has lots of humor and even irony, though these aren't its main objectives. Jens Dahl wrote the screenplay with director Nicolas Winding Refn; with Kim Bodnia, Zlatko Buric, Laura Drasbaek, Slavko Labovic, and Mads Mikkelsen.
Lisa Alspector

Here (and above) is the trailer.

Capital Celluloid 2016 - Day 249: Tue Sep 6

 No1: Lilith (Rossen, 1964): Prince Charles Cinema, 6.15pm

This 35mm screening is part of the Warren Beatty season at the Prince Charles. Details here.

Chicago Reader review:
Robert Rossen's last film (1964) is a masterpiece, and also a complete contradiction of his career. The social critic (All the King's Men, The Hustler) suddenly blossoms into a hothouse romantic, through the dreamy story of an apprentice psychoanalyst (Warren Beatty) who falls in love with one of his patients (Jean Seberg) and the sweet morbidity she represents. Photographed by the great Eugen Schufftan, the film is conceived in shades of white so delicate and elusive that the picture barely seems to brush the screen (a scratched or even mildly dirty print can be fatal to the mood). With Peter Fonda, Kim Hunter, Jessica Walter, and Gene Hackman.
Dave Kehr

Here (and above) is an extract.

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No2: Ace In The Hole (Wilder, 1951): BFI Southbank, NFT2, 8.40pm

This screening is part of the Kirk Douglas season at BFI Southbank and is also being shown on September 10th. Full details here.

"I've seen some hard-boiled eggs in my time but you're 20 minutes," someone says to central character Chuck Tatum, played by Kirk Douglas. You'll know you could add another 20 great lines to that once you've seen this jet-black film, even by Billy Wilder standards.

Chicago Reader review:
Billy Wilder being bitter, without Billy Wilder being funny. This 1951 film, about a cynical reporter who seizes on the plight of a man trapped in a mine shaft to promote his career, is cold, lurid, and fascinating, propelled by the same combination of moral outrage and sneaky admiration that animates the paperback novels of Jim Thompson and James M. Cain. Kirk Douglas stars, and his psychotic charm is perfect for the part; Jan Sterling is unforgettable as the victim's hard-bitten wife, who's willing to go along with Douglas's scheme.
Dave Kehr

Here is an extract.

Capital Celluloid 2016 - Day 248: Mon Sep 5

A Letter to Three Wives (Mankiewicz, 1949): BFI Southbank, NFT2, 8.40pm

This screening is part of the Kirk Douglas season at BFI Southbank and is also being shown on September 3rd. Full details here.

Time Out review:
Traditional wisdom has Jospeh Mankiewicz as more writer than director, but consider the marvellously cinematic opening of A Letter to Three Wives: shots of a prosperous town and its stately avenues of rich men's houses, all placidly awaiting the start of the country club season, as the venomously honeyed voice of an unseen female narrator (beautifully done by Celeste Holm) begins spinning a web of speculation and suspicion round three married women, shortly to be completed by their receipt of a poisonous letter indicating that the narrator has run away with one of the husbands. With the three wives trapped for the day supervising a children's picnic, flashbacks start exploring their marital worries, perceptively probing sensitive areas of social and cultural unease. Glitteringly funny at one end of the scale (Kirk Douglas and Ann Sothern), dumbly touching at the other (Paul Douglas and Linda Darnell), it's absolutely irresistible.
Tom Milne

Here (and above) is the trailer.

Capital Celluloid 2016 - Day 247: Sun Sep 4

The 400 Blows (Truffaut, 1959): Prince Charles Cinema, 8.45pm

This 35mm screening is part of the European Favourites season at the Prince Charles Cinema. You can find all the details here.

Chicago Reader review:
'More conventional than Godard and more sentimental than Chabrol, Francois Truffaut spearheaded the breakthrough of the French New Wave with this highly autobiographical first feature (1959). Jean-Pierre Leaud is the wide-eyed boy who flees his battling parents only to find himself irrevocably alone. Distinguished by its intensity of feeling and freewheeling use of the wide-screen frame, the film ranks among Truffaut's best.'
Dave Kehr

Here (and above) is the trailer.

Capital Celluloid 2016 - Day 246: Sat Sep 3

Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953): Prince Charles Cinema, 6pm

This film is part of the Classic Film season at the Prince Charles.

Chicago Reader review:
The film that introduced Yasujiro Ozu, one of Japan's greatest filmmakers, to American audiences (1953). The camera remains stationary throughout this delicate study of conflicting generations in a modern Japanese family, save for one heartbreaking moment when Ozu tracks around a corner to discover the grandparents, alone and forgotten. A masterpiece, minimalist cinema at its finest and most complex.
Dave Kehr

Here (and above) is the trailer.

Capital Celluloid 2016 - Day 245: Fri Sep 2

Out of the Past (Tourneur, 1947): BFI Southbank, NFT3, 8.30pm

This 35mm screening is part of the Kirk Douglas season at BFI Southbank and is also being shown on September 9th. You can find all the details here.

Chicago Reader review:
The most delicate and nuanced of film noirs (1947), graced with a reflective lyricism that almost lifts it out of the genre. Robert Mitchum, a former private eye, has taken refuge from life as the owner of a small-town gas station. A gangster (Kirk Douglas) presses him back into service to search for his wandering mistress (Jane Greer). This is no expressionist thunderstorm of guilt and fate, but a film of small, finely textured effects, centered on subtle grades of morality. The cool, feathery photography is by Nicholas Musuraca; the director is Jacques Tourneur. With Rhonda Fleming, Steve Brodie, and Richard Webb.
Dave Kehr

Here (and above) is an extract.