Capital Celluloid 2021 — Day 95: Thu Aug 19

Big Wednesday (Milius, 1978): BFI Southbank, NFT1, 5.50pm

This 35mm presentation, part of the Big Scxreen Classics season at BFI Southbank, is also being screened on August 29th. Full details here.

Chicago Reader review:
John Milius's paean to the art and discipline of hot dog surfing is marred by pushy philosophizing and a fair number of overripe lines, but its sincerity is deep and seductive. Jan-Michael Vincent, Gary Busey, and William Katt, three surfing buddies who grow up but never entirely outgrow their sport, reunite to face the once-in-a-lifetime challenge of a giant ocean swell. Milius can be faulted for reviving a number of ostensibly dead macho myths, but in the context of the subculture his film deftly re-creates, they take on the aura of eternal values. The breathtaking surfing footage, rather than the slightly stunted characters, makes his most eloquent argument.
Dave Kehr

Here (and above) is the trailer.

Capital Celluloid 2021 — Day 94: Wed Aug 18

The American Friend (Wenders, 1977): Prince Charles Cinema, 5.45pm

This 35mm presentation is part of the Wim Wenders season at the Prince Charles Cinema this summer. You can find the full details here.

Chicago Reader review:
This gripping 1977 American thriller from Wim Wenders turns back on itself with deadly European irony. Dennis Hopper is an international art smuggler, Bruno Ganz is a Hamburg craftsman. Together they commit a murder and briefly become friends. The film has a fine grasp of tenuous emotional connections in the midst of a crumbling moral universe. Wenders's films (Kings of the Road, Alice in the Cities) are about life on the edge; this is one of his edgiest.
Dave Kehr

Here (and above) is the trailer.

Capital Celluloid 2021 — Day 93: Tue Aug 17

Cutter's Way (Passer, 1981): BFI Southbank, NFT1, 2.30pm

This film is part of the Big Screen Classics season at BFI Southbank and is also being screened on August 11th (with Geoff Andrew introduction, 20th and 27th. Full details here.

Time Out review:
In Hollywood, decades aren’t so much periods of time as states of mind. So, just as early-’70s moviegoers might have been fooled into thinking it was still swinging 1967, cinema in the early ’80s was still suffused with the doubt and melancholy which had defined the preceding decade. One of the archetypal figures in that mood-shift was Jeff Bridges, his keen, frisky but oddly lonesome persona defined in new-Hollywood masterpieces like ‘The Last Picture Show’ and ‘Fat City’. By 1981, Bridges was showing signs of wear and tear, but this only enriched his performances: sadder even than a lonely teenager is a lonely thirtysomething who still tries to live like one. ‘Cutter’s Way’ feels like a farewell to the ’70s: to honest political activism, social responsibility, excessive but essentially good-natured drug and alcohol abuse, Vietnam, California and the young Bridges. His character, Richard Bone, clings to his fading prime the way his best friend and mentor, crippled war veteran Alex Cutter (John Heard) clings to his walking stick. Together, the two men attempt to solve a murder, but that’s window dressing: this is a tale of friendship, endurance and loss, and one of the saddest movies ever made. Everything in the film feels tuned to capturing this spirit: Czech director Ivan Passer’s use of late-summer light is rich and entrancing, while Bridges and Heard give their all: the latter delivers a performance of spectacular rage and intensity. The result is nothing less than a modern masterpiece, and a film ripe for rediscovery.
Tom Huddleston

Guardian film writer John Patterson, who has seen it around 30 times, labelled the movie a "cinematic masterpiece" in his article here. Do not miss.

Here (and above) is the trailer.

Capital Celluloid 2021 — Day 92: Mon Aug 16

Desert Hearts (Deitch, 1985): Prince Charles Cinema, 8.45pm

This screening is part of the Unicorn Nights season at the Prince Charles Cinema. You can find all the details here.

Time Out review:
To Reno (in 1959) comes a mid-thirtyish New York teacher, her hair in a bun and her nerves in shreds, in search of a divorce from a stultified marriage. She puts up at a local ranch, and it's not long before she is succumbing to the advances of a much younger woman, though not without resistance. Suspicions that the film will simply be a period piece, viewed through the modern lens of post-feminist wishful thinking, are soon allayed however. Redneck Reno might still adhere to the old frontier notions of anything-goes morality, but it still harbours enough of the puritan spirit to make life uncomfortable for lesbians. Moreover, the ranch is more of an emotional snake-pit than first appears. Donna Deitch is well served by Helen Shaver as the teacher and Patricia Charbonneau as the young seducer. Best of all, however, is the way the movie dignifies all its characters. There is also an incendiary consummation of the affair, and Patsy Cline on the soundtrack; two features which had this paleneck by the throat.
Chris Peachment

Here (and above) is the trailer.

Capital Celluloid 2021 — Day 91: Sun Aug 15

The Star (Heisler, 1952): BFI Southbank, NFT2, 6.30pm

This 35mm presentation, part of the Bette Davis season at BFI Southbank, also screens on August 25th. You can find full details here.

BFI Southbank introduction:
In a role said to have been based on her nemesis Joan Crawford, Bette Davis plays Margaret, a struggling movie star desperate to relaunch her career despite being caught drink-driving. With the help of her daughter (Natalie Wood) and former actor Jim (Sterling Hayden), Margaret tries to find work but is unable to function outside of the industry she knows so well. None of Davis’ films in the 50s delivered the box-office success of All About Eve, but The Star did provide her with yet another Oscar® nomination.

Here (and above) is the trailer.

Capital Celluloid 2021 — Day 90: Sat Aug 14

Marked Woman (Bacon, 1937): BFI Southbank, NFT1, 2.45pm

This 35mm presentation, which is part of the BFI Southbank Bette Davis season, is also being screened on August 12th and 14th. Full details here.

Chicago Reader review:
Inspired by Thomas Dewey's indictment of Lucky Luciano—at a trial where many prostitutes who suffered at the gangster's hands testified against him—this gritty 1937 Warners crime movie is one of the least compromised melodramas of the period in expressing solidarity with women. Costarring Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart, written by Robert Rossen and Abem Finkel, and directed by Lloyd Bacon, it's one of the key films discussed in the 1995 video documentary Red Hollywood, and it packs a serious punch. With Jane Bryan, Eduardo Cianneli, and Isabel Jewell.
Jonathan Rosenbaum

Here (and above) is the trailer.

Capital Celluloid 2021 — Day 89: Fri Aug 13

Thelma & Louise (Scott, 1991): Prince Charles Cinema, 8.30pm

This 35mm presentation is on an extended run at the Primce Charles Cinema. Full details here.

Chicago Reader review:
A coffee-shop waitress (Susan Sarandon) and a beleaguered housewife (Geena Davis) in the southern sticks take off for a weekend holiday and eventually find themselves fleeing the law and society in a buoyant feminist road movie (1991) directed by Ridley Scott from a script by Callie Khouri. Scott, who usually offers a style in search of a subject, makes the most of the southwestern landscapes in handsome 'Scope framing and shows an uncharacteristic flair for comedy in fleshing out Khouri's script with a memorable cast of male rednecks (including Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen, Christopher McDonald, Stephen Tobolowsky, Brad Pitt, and Timothy Carhart); his eye may get a little fancy and fussy in spots, but this is still one of his better pictures after Blade Runner, and Sarandon and Davis bring a lot of unpredictable verve and nuance to their parts.
Jonathan Rosenbaum

Here (and above) is the trailer.