Frankenstein (Whale, 1931): Apollo Cinema, Piccadilly Circus, 3.30pm
This horror classic is screening as part of the excellent Sci-Fi London season that runs in the capital from May 1-May 7. The full details of an expansive programme are here.
Chicago Reader review:
'Mary Shelley's modern Prometheus story is altered (giving the monster
the brain of a madman) to produce one of the most deservedly famous and
chilling horror films of all time (1931). Boris Karloff as the monster
and James Whale's direction (he was to top himself with Bride of Frankenstein
four years later) combine to create an effectively frightful mood. Even
after all these years, it's still not all that camp or funny.' Don Druker
Here is the trailer.
Capital Celluloid 2012 - Day 123: Wednesday May 2
Stalker (Tarkovsky, 1979): Renoir Cinema, 7pm
This is a A Nos Amours film club event hosted by film makers Joanna Hogg and Adam Roberts. The film is also screening at Curzon Richmond on Sunday May 6 at 11.30am. A Nos Amours presents a 35mm screening of Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1979 metaphysical and moral quest Stalker, introduced by Geoff Dyer, author of the recently published book about the film, ‘Zona’ described by J.Hoberman of the New York Times as an ‘at once audacious post-postmodernist memoir and après-DVD monograph’.
Here is the Curzon introduction to the evening: Curzon Cinemas is proud to welcome A Nos Amours, a new collective
founded by filmmakers Joanna Hogg and Adam Roberts dedicated to
programming over-looked, under-exposed or especially potent cinema. A Nos Amours
invites filmmakers to advocate and present films that they admire or
would like to see on a big screen. For this special event, A Nos Amours presents Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker, bringing a 35mm print sourced from Russia especially for this screening. Author Geoff Dyer whose most recent book Zona about the film, will be joining us for an extended intro. To find out more about the collective please check anosamours.co.uk.
Chicago Reader review:
'Andrei Tarkovsky's 1979 masterpiece, like his earlier Solaris, is a free and allegorical adaptation of an SF novel, Arkady and Boris Strugatsky's Roadside Picnic.
After a meteorite hits the earth, the region where it's fallen is
believed to grant the wishes of those who enter and, sealed off by the
authorities, can be penetrated only illegally and with special guides.
One of them (Aleksandr Kaidanovsky), the stalker of the title, leads a
writer and a professor through the grimiest industrial wasteland you've
ever seen. What they find is pretty harsh and has none of the usual
satisfactions of SF quests, but Tarkovsky regards their journey as a
contemporary spiritual quest. His mise en scene is mesmerizing, and the
final scene is breathtaking. Not an easy film, but almost certainly a
great one.' Jonathan Rosenbaum
Here is a trailer/tribute.
Capital Celluloid 2012 - Day 122: Tuesday May 1
Damsels in Distress (Stillman, 2011): Various venues throughout London from Friday April 27.
No apologies for suggesting a trip to see a new film as widely anticipated as this one. In the run-up to the release of Whit Stillman's first movie for 13 years there have been a number of excellent articles welcoming back this distinctive film maker. I especially enjoyed this feature by Michael Newton in the Guardian and this by Richard Brody in the New Yorker. Enjoy. This is the release I have most looked forward to so far in 2012.
Guardian review:
'Missing, believed defunct, writer-director Whit Stillman returns to the fray like an emissary from an older, gentler, more well-mannered America – a land that surely never existed outside of his own wistful imaginings. Damsels in Distress, his first feature since 1998's The Last Days of Disco, is an unabashed joy, a weightless soap bubble in the guise of a campus comedy. Don't draw too close. A single breath might make it pop.
Stillman's tale comes to us in blushing, hyper-real colours, disporting itself at length around the Arcadian splendour of fictitious Seven Oaks University, where the students mislay their morals amid the Greek Revival architecture. Happily help is at hand in the form of Violet (deliciously played by Greta Gerwig), the wide-eyed queen of the Samaritan set. Violet establishes the "suicide prevention centre", dispenses free donuts and tap-dance lessons and earnestly lobbies for the preservation of the frat-houses on the basis that its boorish members are "morons" and therefore "handicapped". And yet Violet, like everyone else in her orbit, is prone to the odd misstep and tumble. She confuses intrigue with charity and is halfway in love with the boys that she helps. "He's lying," she remarks of one feckless Lothario. "I find that very attractive."
If it's possible for a picture to be at once ideal and imperfect, then Damsels fits the bill. The script meanders from pillar to post. The focus, at times, turns milky and indistinct. No doubt a more ruthless, profit-driven film-maker would have tightened the bolts and press harder on the accelerator. And yet this would have risked destroying the tale's peculiarly airy, buoyant magic. Nobody creates characters as wonderfully wonky as Stillman's: these star-crossed, hopelessly articulate Corinthians have a habit of confounding even themselves. The director keeps them in a holding pattern, testing our patience, pushing us to the brink of exasperation, before pairing them off with a lordly, casual elegance in the final few moments. He leaves them dancing jubilantly over the closing credits, lost in the moment, in harmony at last.' Xan Brooks
Here is the trailer.
No apologies for suggesting a trip to see a new film as widely anticipated as this one. In the run-up to the release of Whit Stillman's first movie for 13 years there have been a number of excellent articles welcoming back this distinctive film maker. I especially enjoyed this feature by Michael Newton in the Guardian and this by Richard Brody in the New Yorker. Enjoy. This is the release I have most looked forward to so far in 2012.
Guardian review:
'Missing, believed defunct, writer-director Whit Stillman returns to the fray like an emissary from an older, gentler, more well-mannered America – a land that surely never existed outside of his own wistful imaginings. Damsels in Distress, his first feature since 1998's The Last Days of Disco, is an unabashed joy, a weightless soap bubble in the guise of a campus comedy. Don't draw too close. A single breath might make it pop.
Stillman's tale comes to us in blushing, hyper-real colours, disporting itself at length around the Arcadian splendour of fictitious Seven Oaks University, where the students mislay their morals amid the Greek Revival architecture. Happily help is at hand in the form of Violet (deliciously played by Greta Gerwig), the wide-eyed queen of the Samaritan set. Violet establishes the "suicide prevention centre", dispenses free donuts and tap-dance lessons and earnestly lobbies for the preservation of the frat-houses on the basis that its boorish members are "morons" and therefore "handicapped". And yet Violet, like everyone else in her orbit, is prone to the odd misstep and tumble. She confuses intrigue with charity and is halfway in love with the boys that she helps. "He's lying," she remarks of one feckless Lothario. "I find that very attractive."
If it's possible for a picture to be at once ideal and imperfect, then Damsels fits the bill. The script meanders from pillar to post. The focus, at times, turns milky and indistinct. No doubt a more ruthless, profit-driven film-maker would have tightened the bolts and press harder on the accelerator. And yet this would have risked destroying the tale's peculiarly airy, buoyant magic. Nobody creates characters as wonderfully wonky as Stillman's: these star-crossed, hopelessly articulate Corinthians have a habit of confounding even themselves. The director keeps them in a holding pattern, testing our patience, pushing us to the brink of exasperation, before pairing them off with a lordly, casual elegance in the final few moments. He leaves them dancing jubilantly over the closing credits, lost in the moment, in harmony at last.' Xan Brooks
Here is the trailer.
Capital Celluloid 2012 - Day 121: Monday Apr 30
The Thief of Bagdad (Berger, Powell & Whelan, 1940): BFI Southbank, NFT2, 6.10pm
This is a Passport to Cinema season screening and will be introduced by Ian Christie.
Time Out review:
'A delightful hocus-pocus of colour, dashing adventure, and special effects, this Korda-produced epic for grown-up kids is basically Star Wars meets The Arabian Nights with its plot of an all-seeing eye stolen from a Tibetan temple. The highlight has to be the genie (Ingram) who escapes from the bottle, thoughSabu the elephant boy lends just that dash of imperialist sentiment to lift it into camp. Magical, classically entertaining, and now revalued by Hollywood moguls Lucas and Coppola, it was made fitfully in Britain during the World War II Blitz (but completed in Hollywood) by a team of directors spearheaded by the remarkable Powell.'
Here is the trailer.
This is a Passport to Cinema season screening and will be introduced by Ian Christie.
Time Out review:
'A delightful hocus-pocus of colour, dashing adventure, and special effects, this Korda-produced epic for grown-up kids is basically Star Wars meets The Arabian Nights with its plot of an all-seeing eye stolen from a Tibetan temple. The highlight has to be the genie (Ingram) who escapes from the bottle, thoughSabu the elephant boy lends just that dash of imperialist sentiment to lift it into camp. Magical, classically entertaining, and now revalued by Hollywood moguls Lucas and Coppola, it was made fitfully in Britain during the World War II Blitz (but completed in Hollywood) by a team of directors spearheaded by the remarkable Powell.'
Here is the trailer.
Capital Celluloid 2012 - Day 120: Sunday Apr 29
Black God, White Devil (Rocha, 1964):
Lexi Cinema, 194 Chamberlayne Rd, Kebsal Rise, NW10 3JU
This is a A Nos Amours film club event hosted by film makers Joanna Hogg and Adam Roberts.
Director of screen and opera, Penny Woolcock (The Death of Klinghoffer, Tina Goes Shopping), will introduce Black God, White Devil. Here is a foretaste of her passion for the film:
Lexi Cinema, 194 Chamberlayne Rd, Kebsal Rise, NW10 3JU
This is a A Nos Amours film club event hosted by film makers Joanna Hogg and Adam Roberts.
Director of screen and opera, Penny Woolcock (The Death of Klinghoffer, Tina Goes Shopping), will introduce Black God, White Devil. Here is a foretaste of her passion for the film:
“I first saw this delirious film when I was a teenager over forty years ago and I’ve never forgotten Rosa traipsing around a bleak landscape in a stolen wedding veil, crazy Corisco wheeling and brandishing his sword and the music that made me want to turn the world upside down with them… It has the joy and the horror of revolution and the hallucinatory quality of a very Latin American mix of mysticism and politics. It’s both naturalistic and insane, based on a peasant revolt in the North East of Brazil in the 1940’s; it’s the first spaghetti western, the first magical realist movie, formally inventive and absolutely beautiful. We are so tame these days, so well behaved.”
Time Out review:
'Rocha's first major film introduced most of the methods, themes and even characters that were developed five years later in his Antonio das Mortes. Set in the drought-plagued Brazilian Sertao in 1940, it explores the climate of superstition, physical and spiritual terrorism and fear that gripped the country: the central characters, Manuel and Rosa, move credulously from allegiance to allegiance until they finally learn that the land belongs not to god or the devil, but to the people themselves. The film's success here doubtless reflects the 'exoticism' of its style, somewhere between folk ballad and contemporary myth, since the references to Brazilian history and culture are pervasive and fairly opaque to the uninitiated. But Rocha's project is fundamentally political, and completely unambiguous: he faces up to the contradictions of his country in an effort to understand, to crush mystiques, and to improve.' Tony Rayns
Here is a clip from this remarkable film.
Capital Celluloid 2012 - Day 119: Saturday Apr 28
River's Edge (Hunter, 1986): Sundance London Festival at O2 Cineworld
Director Tim Hunter and star Crispin Glover will be on hand to introduce this US indie classic as the Sundance Festival comes to London from April 27 to 29. Details here.
Chicago Reader review:
'Something very odd about this 1986 feature: a teen problem drama fighting David Lynch battles with its own right-thinking consciousness. Teenpic auteur Tim Hunter (Tex) isn't one to shirk his sentimental lessons, but the cautionary outlines of his story, about a gang of high school drifters who try to cover up a murder by a hulking 16-year-old psycho, have a hard time pushing through the surreal atmospherics of the images (by Blue Velvet cinematographer Frederick Elmes: maybe they should have called this Nightmare on Elmes Street or Blue Velveteen?). It's not easy keeping track of all the contradictory tensions, and the film seems forever on the verge of spinning totally out of control, though whosecontrol—Hunter's? Elmes's? anyone's?—it's hard to say. Still, it's more a success than a failure, if only because the confusions are so protean.' Pat Graham
Here is the trailer.
Director Tim Hunter and star Crispin Glover will be on hand to introduce this US indie classic as the Sundance Festival comes to London from April 27 to 29. Details here.
Chicago Reader review:
'Something very odd about this 1986 feature: a teen problem drama fighting David Lynch battles with its own right-thinking consciousness. Teenpic auteur Tim Hunter (Tex) isn't one to shirk his sentimental lessons, but the cautionary outlines of his story, about a gang of high school drifters who try to cover up a murder by a hulking 16-year-old psycho, have a hard time pushing through the surreal atmospherics of the images (by Blue Velvet cinematographer Frederick Elmes: maybe they should have called this Nightmare on Elmes Street or Blue Velveteen?). It's not easy keeping track of all the contradictory tensions, and the film seems forever on the verge of spinning totally out of control, though whosecontrol—Hunter's? Elmes's? anyone's?—it's hard to say. Still, it's more a success than a failure, if only because the confusions are so protean.' Pat Graham
Here is the trailer.
Capital Celluloid 2012 - Day 118: Friday Apr 27
Unrelated (Hogg, 2008) & Archipelago (Hogg, 2010):
BFI Southbank NFT2 6.30pm & Studio 8.50pm
These films are screening as part of the Made in Britain season at BFI Southbank. The first in their new annual series is dedicated to contemporary British cinema focuses on women filmmakers with a bold approach to cinematic form and a tangible, demonstrated vision. Full details of the season here. Tonight offers cinemagoers a great chance to catch celebrated British director Joanna Hogg's two features.
Jigsaw Lounge website review of Unrelated by Tribune film critic Neil Young:
'This is easily one of the most accomplished and unmissable new releases of 2008: a simple, supremely well-observed story of ordinary human emotions, with performances and dialogue that are, from the first scene to the last, painfully accurate and convincing. Shot in and around Sienna, it's primarily a detailed character-study of Anna (Worth), a mousy woman in her early forties who's experiencing unspecified marital problems. Keen to escape the stresses of home, she visits her long-time best pal Verena (Mary Roscoe) – who's holidaying in a well-appointed villa with her husband, children and some family friends. Feeling awkward among the dull, bourgeois adults, Anna gravitates towards the party's younger members – rapidly, and unwisely, allowing herself to become smitten with flirtatious, twentyish Oakley (Hiddleston). Shot on digital video on what was clearly a minimal budget,Unrelated shows just what can be achieved with the most limited and unpromising means. Hogg clearly has very intimate, first-hand knowledge of the specific social strata she is exploring and dramatising here, and the result is one of those rare works where we feel more like casual eavesdroppers than detached spectators. She's already working on her follow-up – and if this stunning debut (which has inspired comparisons with established masters such as Michael Haneke and Eric Rohmer) is any sort of guide, Hogg may develop into one of the major names in British cinema over the next few years.'
===================================
Time Out review of Archipelago:
'In ‘Archipelago’, the pretty landscapes of Siena give way to the brooding, changing landscapes of a tiny island in the Isles of Scilly. Patricia (Kate Fahy) and her two children, young adults Edward (Tom Hiddleston) and Cynthia (Lydia Leonard), arrive for a break at a holiday cottage. As rain and wind lash against the windows, Patricia grows exasperated at the absence of her husband, who remains an unheard voice on the phone. Good-natured Edward struggles to hide his angst at where his life is heading and assumes a fatherly role while becoming weirdly familiar with Rose (Amy Lloyd), the family’s hired cook. Cynthia, meanwhile, looms like a dark cloud and snaps and lashes out for no clear reason. Hogg draws another strong performance from Hiddleston, who plays a very different character from the ballsy recent school leaver in ‘Unrelated’, but again elicits internal screams of horror at his inappropriate relationship with someone outside his gang and over whom he holds a power he may not perceive. Most of all, ‘Archipelago’ confirms Hogg as a daring and mischievous artist, and a major British talent whose next move will be intriguing.'
Dave Calhoun
Here is the trailer.
BFI Southbank NFT2 6.30pm & Studio 8.50pm
These films are screening as part of the Made in Britain season at BFI Southbank. The first in their new annual series is dedicated to contemporary British cinema focuses on women filmmakers with a bold approach to cinematic form and a tangible, demonstrated vision. Full details of the season here. Tonight offers cinemagoers a great chance to catch celebrated British director Joanna Hogg's two features.
Jigsaw Lounge website review of Unrelated by Tribune film critic Neil Young:
'This is easily one of the most accomplished and unmissable new releases of 2008: a simple, supremely well-observed story of ordinary human emotions, with performances and dialogue that are, from the first scene to the last, painfully accurate and convincing. Shot in and around Sienna, it's primarily a detailed character-study of Anna (Worth), a mousy woman in her early forties who's experiencing unspecified marital problems. Keen to escape the stresses of home, she visits her long-time best pal Verena (Mary Roscoe) – who's holidaying in a well-appointed villa with her husband, children and some family friends. Feeling awkward among the dull, bourgeois adults, Anna gravitates towards the party's younger members – rapidly, and unwisely, allowing herself to become smitten with flirtatious, twentyish Oakley (Hiddleston). Shot on digital video on what was clearly a minimal budget,Unrelated shows just what can be achieved with the most limited and unpromising means. Hogg clearly has very intimate, first-hand knowledge of the specific social strata she is exploring and dramatising here, and the result is one of those rare works where we feel more like casual eavesdroppers than detached spectators. She's already working on her follow-up – and if this stunning debut (which has inspired comparisons with established masters such as Michael Haneke and Eric Rohmer) is any sort of guide, Hogg may develop into one of the major names in British cinema over the next few years.'
===================================
Time Out review of Archipelago:
'In ‘Archipelago’, the pretty landscapes of Siena give way to the brooding, changing landscapes of a tiny island in the Isles of Scilly. Patricia (Kate Fahy) and her two children, young adults Edward (Tom Hiddleston) and Cynthia (Lydia Leonard), arrive for a break at a holiday cottage. As rain and wind lash against the windows, Patricia grows exasperated at the absence of her husband, who remains an unheard voice on the phone. Good-natured Edward struggles to hide his angst at where his life is heading and assumes a fatherly role while becoming weirdly familiar with Rose (Amy Lloyd), the family’s hired cook. Cynthia, meanwhile, looms like a dark cloud and snaps and lashes out for no clear reason. Hogg draws another strong performance from Hiddleston, who plays a very different character from the ballsy recent school leaver in ‘Unrelated’, but again elicits internal screams of horror at his inappropriate relationship with someone outside his gang and over whom he holds a power he may not perceive. Most of all, ‘Archipelago’ confirms Hogg as a daring and mischievous artist, and a major British talent whose next move will be intriguing.'
Dave Calhoun
Here is the trailer.
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