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John and Laura Baxter are living in Venice when they meet a pair of elderly sisters, one of whom claims to be psychic. She insists that she sees the spirit of the Baxters' daughter, who recently drowned. Laura is intrigued, but John resists the idea. He, however, seems to have his own psychic flashes, seeing their daughter walk the streets in her red cloak, as well as Laura and the sisters on a funeral gondola. Nicolas Roeg’s thriller, evoking an aura of menace throughout, has a sexual honesty that is startling even today.
Tarantino’s assured debut is visceral and funny, evoking Stanley Kubrick's THE KILLING with a fractured, time-jumping narrative about robbery and betrayal among thieves. Six men, all professional criminals, are brought together by a shadowy mastermind to carry out a jewellery heist. None of them know each other. Each is given a code name, so that if one is caught he cannot divulge the identities of the others or the man who hired them. The heist goes ahead smoothly, but on the way out the police ambush them. The surviving members of the team meet up at the designated rendezvous – a disused warehouse – and this is where the drama really begins. In an atmosphere of mutual distrust, each one tries to analyse what happened. One of them is a traitor, but who is it?
20.30Culture Shock: Dedicated to bringing you the best in cult and genre films.
Quentin Tarantino Season: In the lead up to Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, released Wed 14th Aug, we look back at some of Quentin's best films.
When James Fox's gangster on the run hides out from ex-colleagues in a Notting Hill basement he intrudes upon a reclusive pop star (Mick Jagger) brooding in drug-bolstered exile with his sexual camp followers (Anita Pallenberg, Michelle Breton). In the initial confrontation each recognises something of himself in the other and with Fox waiting vainly for his chance of escape as retribution closes in, all borders between reality and fantasy – and sexual and psychic barriers – break down. Unique, psychedelic and kaleidoscopic, establishing Roeg at a stroke as a major and inimitable talent in British cinema in the 70s.
To some it’s a flashy, gratuitously violent triumph of style over content; to others it’s the film that confirmed Tarantino as one of the most distinguished and talented contemporary American directors. Unquestionably it’s one of the most influential films of its time. PULP FICTION is a superbly written, complex, ultra-violent, almost unbearably tense and often hilarious thriller with an outstanding cast and some surprising performances, most notably from John Travolta. Drawing his inspiration from the lurid low-life characters found in the cheap yellow-paged crime novels of the 1930s and ’40s, Tarantino weaves together three tales of small-time criminal life in Los Angeles.
21.00Culture Shock: Dedicated to bringing you the best in cult and genre films.
Quentin Tarantino Season: In the lead up to Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, released Wed 14th Aug, we look back at some of Quentin's best films.
Acclaimed at the time of its release forty years ago as the most exciting, stirring and perceptive youth film since REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, QUADROPHENIA was the sensational feature debut from Franc Roddam, a successful TV director who has gone on to create AUF WIEDERSEHN PET and MASTERCHEF.
Like TOMMY before it, the film was based on a concept album by ‘The Who’ and became an instant cult classic both in the UK and in America, influencing an entire generation of filmmakers. Deliberately naturalistic, the film centres on a remarkable recreation of the world of the Mods and Rockers in the mid ’60s, brilliantly capturing the essence of the era and starkly portraying the notorious pitched battles on the Brighton seafront.
Dramatic, moving & deeply human, this is the definitive story of Neil Armstrong – the first man on the moon. Narrated by Harrison Ford, and featuring breath-taking NASA footage, re-mastered archive material and never-before-seen home movie footage, this intimate and often surprising documentary, tells the incredible untold story of a determined family man who became a reluctant world icon, brought to you by the team behind the box-office hit 'Spitfire' and the award winning 'The Last Man On The Moon'.
ARMSTRONG also includes major interviews with his family, an exceptional cast of fellow astronauts and aviators, those who knew him in his youth and later life, together with newly filmed sequences at some of the key locations from his life story.
Perfectly timed as part of the 50th Anniversary celebrations of mankind's greatest achievement our special one-night-only event on 9th July will feature exclusive additional footage recorded at the World Premiere and will be followed by a Q&A hosted by Dara O Briain alongside Mark Armstrong (Neil's son), Maggie Aderin-Pocock MBE and the filmmakers.
One of Nicolas Roeg’s most elliptical, not to say intractable, films, in which he takes his cross-cutting, kaleidoscopic style to its furthest limits. A simple story by Walter Tevis, about a disorientated alien visitor (Bowie) trying to get back to his own planet, is transformed into a dense extravaganza - part road movie, part corporate thriller, part sci-fi fantasy.
The seaside town of Amity, Massachusetts depends on its summer tourist trade. So when a swimmer is killed by a great white shark, no one wants to take up Sheriff Brody’s (Scheider) suggestion of closing the beach.
Soon Brody himself, along with a mercenary shark hunter (Shaw) and an oceanographer (Dreyfuss), is locked in an unbearably tense duel at sea with the deadly creature.
With an iconic score by John Williams, this is the film that put Spielberg on the map.
Firmly stamped with Tarantino's trademark visual flair, hip dialogue, supreme soundtrack and cool stars, JACKIE BROWN is also his most mature and emotionally satisfying work. Brilliantly adapted from Elmore Leonard's novel RUM PUNCH, the film stars ’70s icon Pam Grier as an airline stewardess who, caught smuggling cash by the Feds, is offered the chance to save herself by leading them to Ordell Robbie (Samuel L. Jackson), the arms dealer she works for. With the help of a sympathetic bail bondsman (an Oscar-nominated Robert Forster), she comes up with a bold, almost foolhardy plan to play the violent Ordell off against the determined cops and walk away with a fortune.
Brilliantly adapted from Elmore Leonard's novel Rum Punch, the film stars '70s icon Pam Grier as an airline stewardess who, caught smuggling cash by the Feds, is offered the chance to save herself by leading them to Ordell Robbie (Samuel L. Jackson), the arms dealer she works for.
With the help of a sympathetic bail bondsman (an Oscar-nominated Robert Forster), she comes up with a bold, almost foolhardy plan to play the violent Ordell off against the determined cops and in doing so walk away with a fortune.
Influenced by the '70s chic, colourful characters, pumped-up music and non-stop action that were hallmarks of classic Blaxploitation films, Tarantino has imbued JACKIE BROWN with his distinctive touch.
But the real success of the film lies in the masterful performance of Pam Grier as a strong woman with the ability to take retribution on the men who challenge her.
21.00Culture Shock: Dedicated to bringing you the best in cult and genre films.
Quentin Tarantino Season: In the lead up to Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, released Wed 14th Aug, we look back at some of Quentin's best films.
The Vinyl Revival explores the renaissance in all things vinyl. We hear from passionate new record shops owners as well the established die-hards still going and thriving. We speak with musicians and music industry pundits, experts on culture and music history. The film discusses the importance of the record shop and vinyl as a whole. We answer the why’s of vinyl’s revival, the human need for belonging, the love of history, and the stories of how the humble little record shop has shaped so many lives.
Contributors include: Philip Selway (Radiohead), Jen Otter Bikerdike (Rock and Roll Historian), Nick Mason (Pink Floyd) and Ade Utley (Portishead)
Each screening will be followed by a Q&A.
18.30World Premiere + Q&A with Pip Piper & Graham Jones: The world premiere at Hackney Picturehouse for THE VINYL REVIVIAL, Piper's follow up to Last Shop Standing, will be followed by a Q&A with author of Last shop Standing and The Vinyl Revival Graham Jones, director Pip Piper and special guests.
Picturehouse Docs: Bringing you the best in new and topical documentaries covering issues around the world.
Whilst undertaking a highly publicised tour of Europe, a cloistered and naive princess rebels against her restrictive schedule.
One night she escapes her luxurious confinement and stumbles upon an American journalist posted to Rome. Peck and Hepburn (in her breakthrough role) make for one of cinema's most charming couples in this whimsical fantasy with a bittersweet finale.
After surviving a bullet in the head on her wedding day, The Bride, aka Black Mamba (Uma Thurman), a former assassin, emerges from a coma and swears revenge on her old boss and his deadly squad of trained killers (played by Lucy Liu, Daryl Hannah, Vivica A Fox and Tarantino regular Michael Madsen).
Tarantino’s first feature for six years after JACKIE BROWN, KILL BILL marked a welcome return from one of American cinema’s most visually inventive and zeitgeist-attuned filmmakers. Married to the director’s love of the minutiae of popular culture (there are a number of neat gags revolving around Charlie Brown, cereal and the hippest brands of trainers) is an indulgence of his love of the samurai genre, incorporating some stunning martial arts set pieces featuring choreography courtesy of the CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON team. In her Bruce Lee tracksuit, Thurman (for whom Tarantino wrote the part) makes a feisty heroine with Liu perhaps her most notable foil.
In KILL BILL: VOL. 2, as The Bride continues her vengeful assault on the four assassins who left her for dead, she inches ever closer to her ultimate goal of laying waste to her former employer – and the man who ordered the hit on her – Bill (David Carradine). Bringing some of the peripheral characters from the first instalment to the fore, KILL BILL: VOL. 2 is another bravura, adrenalin-inducing exercise in genre filmmaking.
18.15Culture Shock: Dedicated to bringing you the best in cult and genre films.
Quentin Tarantino Season: In the lead up to Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, released Wed 14th Aug, we look back at some of Quentin's best films.
After the screening, there will be a recorded Q&A with director Nick Broomfield hosted by Jools Holland.
Marianne & Leonard - Words of Love is a beautiful yet tragic love story between Leonard Cohen and his Norwegian muse Marianne Ihlen. Their love began on the idyllic Greek island of Hydra in 1960 as part of a bohemian community of foreign artists, writers and musicians. The film follows their relationship from the early days on Hydra, a humble time of ‘free love’ and open marriage, to how their love evolved when Leonard became a successful musician. It was on Hydra in 1968 that director Nick Broomfield, then aged 20, first met Marianne Ihlen. Marianne introduced him to Leonard Cohen’s music and also encouraged Nick to make his first film and was an enormous influence on him. Marianne and Leonard's was a love story that would continue for the rest of their lives. Along the way we learn of the tragedy that befell those that could not survive the beauty of Hydra, the highs and lows of Leonard’s career, and the inspirational power that Marianne possessed. Marianne and Leonard died three months apart.
When Steve Bannon left his position as White House chief strategist less than a week after the Charlottesville "Unite the Right" rally in August 2017, he was already a notorious figure in Trump's inner circle, and for bringing a far-right ideology into the highest echelons of American politics. Unconstrained by an official post - though some say he still has a direct line to the White House - he became free to peddle influence as a perceived kingmaker, turning his controversial brand of nationalism into a global movement. THE BRINK follows Bannon through the 2018 mid-term elections in the United States, shedding light on his efforts to mobilize and unify far-right parties in order to win seats in the May 2019 European Parliamentary elections. To maintain his power and influence, the former Goldman Sachs banker and media investor reinvents himself - as he has many times before - this time as the self-appointed leader of a global populist movement. Keen manipulator of the press and gifted self-promoter, Bannon continues to draw headlines and protests wherever he goes, feeding the powerful myth on which his survival relies.
18.30True Stories: - A season of films exploring true stories: from individuals challenging society’s dominant cultural and political stories, no matter the risk to their own liberty; looking in from the outside at those seeking to sow stories of fear; artists telling stories on film, canvas and landscapes; and stories of death-defying courage in acts from the pioneering to the everyday. Playing across all Picturehouse cinemas from June to September.
Discover Tuesdays: Discover stunning cinema. Whether it's a cult classic, an art-house gem or a riveting documentary, there will always be a chance to see something different and brilliant in our weekly slot.
Tati's most consistently enjoyable comedy, a portrait of the gentle, clumsy, well meaning Hulot on vacation in a provincial seaside resort. A delight of quiet, delicately observed slapstick.
Featuring one of the most gripping opening scenes in recent memory and a breakout performance from Christoph Waltz as SS Colonel Hans ‘Jew Hunter’ Landa, Tarantino’s epic alternative history of the Second World War is bold, bloody and wildly entertaining. Set in Nazi-occupied France, the film tracks the converging fates of a marauding gang of American soldiers led by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), and Shosanna (Melanie Durant), a vengeful Jewish orphan living under an alias in Paris.
“Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds is a big, bold, audacious war movie that will annoy some, startle others and demonstrate once again that he’s the real thing, a director of quixotic delights.” – Roger Ebert
20.30Culture Shock: Dedicated to bringing you the best in cult and genre films.
Quentin Tarantino Season: In the lead up to Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, released Wed 14th Aug, we look back at some of Quentin's best films.
Tarantino’s first period western stars Jamie Foxx as freed slave turned bounty hunter Django. Aided by German gunslinger Dr King Schultz (Christoph Waltz), Django sets out to rescue his wife from brutal Mississippi plantation boss Calvin Candle (Leonardo DiCaprio). Django’s campaign of cold-blooded revenge is shot through with the director’s trademark black humour, sparky dialogue and visual flair, and features a star-studded cast at the top of their game. A cinematic treat from breathless start to brutal finish.
20.15Culture Shock: Dedicated to bringing you the best in cult and genre films.
Quentin Tarantino Season: In the lead up to Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, released Wed 14th Aug, we look back at some of Quentin's best films.
Based on Nicholas Pileggi’s book Wiseguy, Martin Scorsese’s mob-movie masterpiece marked a revival of Hollywood interest in gangsters and gangsterdom. It chronicles three decades of a life in crime, following Brooklyn youngster Henry Hill’s graduation from petty criminal to big-time thief. Widely regarded as one of the greatest films in the crime genre, this is essential viewing for any movie fan.
A legendary warrior's stolen magic sword becomes the centerpiece of epic, intertwining love stories, set against the breathtaking landscapes of ancient China.
Inspired by the serialised matinee action films Steven Spielberg loved as a child, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK became one of the defining action/adventure films of its day and remains a hugely enjoyable movie experience.
Harrison Ford, fresh from his propulsion to super-stardom through the STAR WARS series, embodied the reluctant yet capable adventurer Indiana Jones, a serious and scholarly archaeology professor who is hired by the US government to track down the Ark of the Covenant ahead of their Nazi rivals.
The action set-pieces, tongue-in-cheek humour, impressive production values and a sheer love of cinema make RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK an irresistibly enjoyable big-screen treat.
Paul thomas Anderson reunites with several of his Boogie Nights stars in this ensemble drama comprised of six interwoven stories dealing with parents, children, love and lonliness. An epic mosaic of several interrelated characters in search of happiness, forgiveness, and meaning in the San Fernando Valley.
