Capital Celluloid 2021 — Day 3: Wed May 19

Olivia (Audry, 1951): Cine Lumiere, 6.35pm

The screening of this film on 19 May will be introduced by Professor Ginette Vincendeau (King’s College London). Full detsils of all the screenings can  be found here.

Time Out review:
Based on the novel by Dorothy Bussy (originally published pseudonymously), Olivia is set in a French girls' boarding school late in the 19th century, and deals with suppressed love, idolatry and inner conflict, a million miles away from infantile crushes on 'Miss'. Perhaps a little long, it narrowly misses being maudlin and hammy thanks to the performance by Edwige Feuillère as the charismatic head teacher, Mademoiselle Julie, on whom Olivia more than dotes. Although the main theme is self-control and self-will, references and innuendoes point to lesbian love, and it's not hard to imagine that in the '50s the censors' eyebrows would have shot up (eleven minutes were in fact cut on its first release in this country).

Here (and above) is the trailer.

Capital Celluloid 2021 — Day 2: Tue May 18

The Tango Lesson (Potter, 1997): BFI Southbank, NFT2, 8.45pm

 
This 35mm screening is part of the Big Screen Classics season at BFI Southbank and is also being shown on June 9th.

Chicago Reader review:
If James Cameron (Titanic) is entitled to risk making a fool of himself, why not Sally Potter? The writer-director of the wonderful if much-reviled The Gold Diggers (her first black-and-white musical) and the mediocre if much-praised Orlando plays herself in this second black-and-white musical, a wistful pipe dream set in Paris, London, and Buenos Aires, about her learning the tango from a master (Pablo Veron, also playing himself). She's always dreamed of being a dancer, he's always dreamed of being in a film, and the main problem between them in this joint enterprise is who gets to lead--a metaphorical premise that's milked for everything it's worth, and then some. Meanwhile Potter is seen writing a script for what appears (in color snatches) to be a godawful film combining the worst elements of her first two features, and there's some enigmatic material about both characters supposedly being Jewish. The film's division into 12 "lessons" might at times seem a little arch, but when Potter and Veron are dancing--which is at least half the time--the movie becomes rapturous and joyful, so who cares if she's being presumptuous? I don't know whether this is autobiographical or made-up, and I don't care; Robby MŸller's luscious cinematography, Veron's remarkable dancing, and--dare I say it?--Potter's filmmaking, for all its ups and downs, wind up carrying the day. Potter also helped compose the music and sings a song at the end.
Jonathan Rosenbaum

Here (and above) is the trailer.

Capital Celluloid 2021 — Day 1: Mon May 17

Clerks (Smith, 1994): Prince Charles Cinema, 12.30pm

This great 90s indie film is aprt of the 35mm programme at the Prince Charles. Details here.

Time Out review:
Shot in a New Jersey convenience store for $27,575, this talky, scabrous and very funny first feature is a bargain-price comedy. Store clerk Dante (O'Halloran) and his pal Randal (Anderson), who minds the adjacent video shop, use the gaps between awkward customers to discuss their career trajectories, the ending of Return of the Jedi, the oral excesses of Dante's current girlfriend, and the impending nuptials of his high-school ex. If it's fancy packaging you want, forget it; if scuzzy talk and laugh-out-loud humour are your bag, check this out. Nigel Floyd

Here (and above) is the trailer for Clerks.

Capital Celluloid intermission

Entertainment venues in the capital will be closed from Wednesday December 16 for the forseeable future owing to the latest coronavirus restrictions and thus we will be closing down Capital Celluloid for now. Keep safe and look forward to bringing you the best of the repertory London film scene when it’s wise to do so.

Capital Celluloid 2020 — Day 134: Fri Dec 18

Entertainment venues will be closed from Wednesday so this screening will be cancelled.

A Christmas Story (Clark, 1983): Prince Charles Cinema, 1.30pm

This 35mm screening is of a quirky, popular holiday hit from the director behind Black Christmas and the excellent Murder By Decree. All in all, highly recommended.

Chicago Reader review:
As a follow-up to his excoriated Porky's and Porky's II, director Bob Clark teamed with nostalgic humorist Jean Shepherd for this squeaky clean and often quite funny 1983 yuletide comedy, adapted from Shepherd's novel In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash. The bespectacled young hero (Peter Billingsley) lives with his parents and younger brother in northeast Indiana and craves a BB gun for Christmas; the old man (Darren McGavin in one of his best roles) wins a newspaper contest and insists on displaying his prize—a table lamp shaped like a woman's leg in fishnet stockings. Shepherd provides the voice-over of the grown hero narrating, and his prominence on the sound track forces Clark to focus on visual humor, resulting in some wild Our Gang-style slapstick.
JR Jones

Here (and above) is the trailer.

Capital Celluloid 2020 — Day 133: Thu Dec 17

Entertainment venues are closed from Wednesday so this screening will be cancelled.

Carol (Haynes, 2015): Prince Charles Cinema, 6.15pm

This beautifully crafted film is well worth catching in this 35mm presentation.

Chicago Reader review:
Todd Haynes's Far From Heaven (2002) slayed critics with its provocative presentation of modern racial and sexual issues through the lens of a high-Hollywood 50s melodrama. Haynes returns to that formula with this adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's 1952 novel The Price of Salt, which deals with a lesbian affair. Cate Blanchett is the title character, a New York wife and mother struggling to escape from her straight marriage, and her mix of bravado and vulnerability has seldom been used to greater effect; Kyle Chandler is moving as her anguished husband, who refuses to accept the truth about her sexuality and leverages custody of her daughter against her. Unfortunately their fine work is weighed down by Rooney Mara's inert performance as Carol's young lover, a countergirl at Bloomingdale's who suggests a doll with the battery removed. As a love story this left me unsatisfied, though I enjoyed the lush period trappings (from costumer Sandy Powell and production designer Judy Becker) and the flattering sense of how enlightened I am compared to people in the 1950s.
JR Jones

Here (and above) is the trailer.

Capital Celluloid 2020 — Day 132: Wed Dec 16

Entertainment venues will be closed from Wednesday so this screening will be cancelled.

Dance, Girl, Dance (Arzner, 1940): BFI Southbank, NFT3, 6pm

 
This 35mm presentation (part of the Big Screen Classics season) is also being shown on December 21st. Full details here.

BFI Southbank introduction:
Focusing on the professional and romantic rivalry between two very different dancers – a cynical chorus girl working in a burlesque joint (Lucille Ball) and an idealistic aspiring ballerina (Maureen O’Hara) – this classic comedy-drama is at the same time a proto-feminist landmark in directly addressing the issue of the male gaze. Fine performances ensure that the film is far more than a simplistic statement.

Here (and above) is an extract.