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Director: Antonio Santini, Dan Sickles. 2017. USA. 103 mins.
Dina’s getting married in a few weeks and there’s still so much to do. She has to move her boyfriend, Scott, from his parents’ house to her apartment, and settle him in to only the second home he’s ever had, all while juggling his schedule as an early morning Walmart door greeter. She has to get her dress, confirm arrangements with the venue, and make peace with her family, who remain nervous for their beloved Dina after the death of her first husband and the string of troubled relationships that followed. Throughout it all, in the face of obstacles large and small, Dina remains indomitable. She’s overcome tragedy and found the man she wants and, at age 48, is bent on building the life for herself that she believes she deserves. Dina is unstoppable, a force of nature, and as the star of her own life story, she’s an unconventional movie protagonist the likes of which hasn’t been seen before.
The quintessential chase film, digitally restored. Cary Grant gives one of his finest performances as the self-satisfied, suave ad exec who is mistaken for a spy and pursued across the country by enemy agents.
At a garden party on a sunny afternoon, Alice is surprised to see her parents’ friend Lewis Carroll transform into a white rabbit. When she follows him down a rabbit hole events become curiouser and curiouser… As Alice journeys through Wonderland, she encounters countless strange creatures. She’s swept off her feet by the charming Knave of Hearts, who’s on the run for stealing the tarts. Confusion piles upon confusion. Then Alice wakes with a start. Was it all a daydream?
Christopher Wheeldon’s 'Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland' burst onto the stage in 2011 in an explosion of colour, stage magic and inventive, sophisticated choreography. Joby Talbot’s score combines contemporary soundworlds with sweeping melodies that gesture to ballet scores of the 19th century. Bob Crowley’s wildly imaginative, eye-popping designs draw on everything from puppetry to projections to make Wonderland wonderfully real.
Alice encounters a cast of extraordinary and instantly recognizable characters, from the highly strung Queen of Hearts – who performs a hilarious send-up of The Sleeping Beauty's famous Rose Adage – to a playing-card corps de ballet, a sinuous caterpillar and a tap-dancing Mad Hatter. But the ballet does not avoid the darker undercurrents of Lewis Carroll’s story: a nightmarish kitchen, an eerily disembodied Cheshire Cat and the unhinged tea party are all here in vivid detail. The delicious result shows The Royal Ballet at its best, bringing together world-class dance with enchanting family entertainment.
Directors: Tim Plester, Rob Curry. Featuring: Shirley Collins. UK 2017. 94 mins.
Shirley Collins was at the epicentre of the folk-music revival during the 1960s and ’70s before a vocal disorder robbed her of her uniquely ancestral singing voice. Granted intimate access to recording sessions for her first new album in almost four decades, and making adventurous use of a mother lode of seminal archive audio, The Ballad Of Shirley Collins chronicles one woman’s gallant battle to rise phoenix-like from long silent ashes.
Director: Armando Iannucci.
Starring: Steve Buscemi, Jeffrey Tambor, Simon Russell Beale, Michael Palin, Jason Isaacs, Andrea Riseborough, Rupert Friend. France/UK 2017. 107 mins.
The internal political landscape of 1950s Soviet Russia takes on darkly comic form in a new film by Oscar-nominated writer/director Armando Iannucci (Veep, In The Loop, The Thick Of It). In the days following Stalin’s collapse, the machinations of senior party officials and courtiers kick into overdrive. Some want positive change in the Soviet Union; others have more sinister motives. But behind all the collusion, backstabbing and strong-arming, the jostling ministers have one thing in common – they’re just desperate to stay alive. Based on the graphic novel by French writer Fabian Nury, Iannucci’s script is loaded with acerbic, politically incorrect conversation, which is delivered by some of the finest and funniest character actors from both sides of the pond.
Rob Reiner's classic 1987 fairytale with a healthy dose of tongue-in-cheek humour, THE PRINCESS BRIDE remains as fresh and as entertaining today as when it was first released.
We are delighted to host a Q&A with director Andy Serkis, actor Andrew Garfield, and producer Jonathan Cavendish.
Directed by Andy Serkis and starring Golden Globe® winner Claire Foy (The Crown, Wolf Hall) and Academy Award®-nominee Andrew Garfield (Hacksaw Ridge, Silence) and based on the true story of producer Jonathan Cavendish’s own parents, Breathe is an inspirational and highly emotional celebration of bravery and human possibility, a love story about living every breath as though it’s your last.
Adventurous and charismatic, Robin Cavendish (Andrew Garfield) has his whole life ahead of him when he is paralysed by polio whilst in Africa in 1958. Against all advice, Robin’s wife Diana (Claire Foy) brings him home from hospital where her devotion and witty determination transcends his disability. Together they refuse to be imprisoned by his suffering; dazzling others with their humour, courage and lust for life. Breathe shows how Robin’s handling of and reaction to his illness had a huge impact on mobility and access for the disabled. Against all odds, Robin’s severe illness gave him new purpose in life – fighting tirelessly for the rights of disabled people.
Starring: Patricia Clarkson, Bruno Ganz, Cherry Jones, Emily Mortimer, Cillian Murphy, Kristin Scott Thomas, Timothy Spall. UK 2017. 71 mins.
Janet (Scott Thomas) has just been appointed to a key ministerial position in the shadow cabinet – the crowning achievement of her political career. She and her husband Bill (Spall) plan to celebrate this with a few close friends. As the guests arrive at their home in London, the party takes an unexpected turn when Bill suddenly makes some explosive revelations that take everyone present by surprise. What follows is a hilarious comedy of tragic proportions in which love, friendships and political convictions are soon called into question. From acclaimed British filmmaker Sally Potter, The Party is a smart, fast-paced film full of razor-sharp one-liners that perfectly suits these turbulent times.
Director: Denis Villeneuve.
Starring: Harrison Ford, Ryan Gosling, Ana de Armas, Jared Leto. USA 2017. 163 mins.
One of the decade’s most anticipated films, the sequel to Ridley Scott’s seminal 1982 neo-noir, Blade Runner, is finally upon us. Scott himself returns as producer, freeing up the director’s chair for the supremely talented Denis Villeneuve (Arrival, Sicario), while Harrison Ford reprises his role as Rick Deckard. In 2049, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K (Gosling), uncovers a terrible secret that could throw what’s left of an already broken society into terminal chaos. His discovery leads him on a quest to find former replicant hunter Deckard, who has been missing for 30 years. In true Blade Runner style, K wants to ask him some questions – the answers to which may have a lot to do with a chilling creator of ‘disposable workforces’, Niander Wallace (Leto).
Director: Matthew Vaughn.
Starring: Colin Firth, Taron Egerton, Julianne Moore. UK/USA 2017. 141 mins.
Three years ago Kingsman: Secret Service, a spy action-comedy about ‘Kingsman’, an independent, international intelligence agency was a smash hit, raking in over $414 million at the global box office. In this sequel, again written/directed by Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman (Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class), special agent ‘Eggsy’ (Egerton), the council estate kid, chosen as a recruit for this mysterious organisation, is reunited with his pin-striped mentor (Firth) and they head over the Pond to meet their opposite numbers at ‘Statesman’. A spangly cast includes Halle Berry, Channing Tatum, Mark Strong, Jeff Bridges and Elton John while Oscar-winner Julianne Moore gets to flex her baddie muscles as Poppy, a notorious criminal mastermind, whose personal bodyguard is the inimitable Vinnie Jones. Once again the agents’ wits and nerve are tested to the limit in this cheeky, ever-so-British, pastiche-Bond caper.
Director: Darren Aronofsky.
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris, Michelle Pfeiffer. USA 2017. 121 mins.
Revisiting the psycho-chiller genre he mined so vividly in his 1998 feature debut Pi and 2010’s Oscar-winning Black Swan, writer-director Darren Aronofsky’s latest, exceedingly dark drama catapults Jennifer Lawrence into wildly different territory to her Hunger Games, X-Men and David Russell-directed roles (Joy, American Hustle). Lawrence plays one half of an apparently happy young couple – Javier Bardem being the slightly sinister other – whose tranquil existence is disrupted in terrifying fashion by some unexpected visitors (a spookily passive-aggressive Ed Harris and, continuing her impressive return to big screen stardom, Michelle Pfeiffer). Unlocking dark secrets is Aronofsky’s speciality, and with regular cinematographer Matthew Libatique and Hunger Games’ brilliant production designer Philip Messina on board, Mother! delivers plenty more of the same.
Director: Francis Lee.
Starring: Josh O’Connor, Alec Secareanu, Gemma Jones, Ian Hart. UK 2017. 105 mins.
Johnny Saxby (O’Connor) works long hours on his family’s remote farm in the north of England. He numbs the daily frustration of his lonely existence with nightly binge drinking at the local pub and casual sex. But when a handsome Romanian migrant worker (Secareanu) arrives to take up temporary work on the family farm, Johnny suddenly finds himself dealing with emotions he has never felt before. As they begin working closely together during lambing season, an intense relationship forms – one that could change Johnny’s life forever. Captivating and broodingly beautiful, God’s Own Country is the award-winning debut feature from writer-director Francis Lee. Set in the heart of rural Yorkshire, this is a bracingly openhearted romantic story marked by stunning lead performances.
Director: Taika Waititi.
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Cate Blanchett, Tom Hiddleston, Mark Ruffalo. USA 2017. 130 mins.
The latest adventure in the Marvel Cinematic Universe begins with Thor (Hemsworth) in an almighty intergalactic pickle. He’s broken his hammer, he’s stuck in prison on the far side of the universe, and the goddess of death, Hela (Blanchett), is about to unleash Ragnarok, the annihilation of Asgardian civilisation. Not cool. The problems don’t stop there, either: to get home in time, Thor must win a gladiatorial duel against fellow Avenger and “friend from work”, the Hulk (Ruffalo). Director Taika Waititi (What We Do In The Shadows, Hunt For The Wilderpeople) has been given ample creative freedom for his MCU debut, so audiences can expect plenty of laughs to go with the action. As Thor’s mischievous adopted brother Loki (Hiddleston) puts it: “This will be such fun.”
Director: Taika Waititi.
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Cate Blanchett, Tom Hiddleston, Mark Ruffalo. USA 2017. 130 mins.
The latest adventure in the Marvel Cinematic Universe begins with Thor (Hemsworth) in an almighty intergalactic pickle. He’s broken his hammer, he’s stuck in prison on the far side of the universe, and the goddess of death, Hela (Blanchett), is about to unleash Ragnarok, the annihilation of Asgardian civilisation. Not cool. The problems don’t stop there, either: to get home in time, Thor must win a gladiatorial duel against fellow Avenger and “friend from work”, the Hulk (Ruffalo). Director Taika Waititi (What We Do In The Shadows, Hunt For The Wilderpeople) has been given ample creative freedom for his MCU debut, so audiences can expect plenty of laughs to go with the action. As Thor’s mischievous adopted brother Loki (Hiddleston) puts it: “This will be such fun.”
Director: Antonio Santini, Dan Sickles. 2017. USA. 103 mins.
Dina’s getting married in a few weeks and there’s still so much to do. She has to move her boyfriend, Scott, from his parents’ house to her apartment, and settle him in to only the second home he’s ever had, all while juggling his schedule as an early morning Walmart door greeter. She has to get her dress, confirm arrangements with the venue, and make peace with her family, who remain nervous for their beloved Dina after the death of her first husband and the string of troubled relationships that followed. Throughout it all, in the face of obstacles large and small, Dina remains indomitable. She’s overcome tragedy and found the man she wants and, at age 48, is bent on building the life for herself that she believes she deserves. Dina is unstoppable, a force of nature, and as the star of her own life story, she’s an unconventional movie protagonist the likes of which hasn’t been seen before.
The quintessential chase film, digitally restored. Cary Grant gives one of his finest performances as the self-satisfied, suave ad exec who is mistaken for a spy and pursued across the country by enemy agents.
Directors: Tim Plester, Rob Curry. Featuring: Shirley Collins. UK 2017. 94 mins.
Shirley Collins was at the epicentre of the folk-music revival during the 1960s and ’70s before a vocal disorder robbed her of her uniquely ancestral singing voice. Granted intimate access to recording sessions for her first new album in almost four decades, and making adventurous use of a mother lode of seminal archive audio, The Ballad Of Shirley Collins chronicles one woman’s gallant battle to rise phoenix-like from long silent ashes.
Director: Armando Iannucci.
Starring: Steve Buscemi, Jeffrey Tambor, Simon Russell Beale, Michael Palin, Jason Isaacs, Andrea Riseborough, Rupert Friend. France/UK 2017. 107 mins.
The internal political landscape of 1950s Soviet Russia takes on darkly comic form in a new film by Oscar-nominated writer/director Armando Iannucci (Veep, In The Loop, The Thick Of It). In the days following Stalin’s collapse, the machinations of senior party officials and courtiers kick into overdrive. Some want positive change in the Soviet Union; others have more sinister motives. But behind all the collusion, backstabbing and strong-arming, the jostling ministers have one thing in common – they’re just desperate to stay alive. Based on the graphic novel by French writer Fabian Nury, Iannucci’s script is loaded with acerbic, politically incorrect conversation, which is delivered by some of the finest and funniest character actors from both sides of the pond.
Starring: Patricia Clarkson, Bruno Ganz, Cherry Jones, Emily Mortimer, Cillian Murphy, Kristin Scott Thomas, Timothy Spall. UK 2017. 71 mins.
Janet (Scott Thomas) has just been appointed to a key ministerial position in the shadow cabinet – the crowning achievement of her political career. She and her husband Bill (Spall) plan to celebrate this with a few close friends. As the guests arrive at their home in London, the party takes an unexpected turn when Bill suddenly makes some explosive revelations that take everyone present by surprise. What follows is a hilarious comedy of tragic proportions in which love, friendships and political convictions are soon called into question. From acclaimed British filmmaker Sally Potter, The Party is a smart, fast-paced film full of razor-sharp one-liners that perfectly suits these turbulent times.
Director: Denis Villeneuve.
Starring: Harrison Ford, Ryan Gosling, Ana de Armas, Jared Leto. USA 2017. 163 mins.
One of the decade’s most anticipated films, the sequel to Ridley Scott’s seminal 1982 neo-noir, Blade Runner, is finally upon us. Scott himself returns as producer, freeing up the director’s chair for the supremely talented Denis Villeneuve (Arrival, Sicario), while Harrison Ford reprises his role as Rick Deckard. In 2049, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K (Gosling), uncovers a terrible secret that could throw what’s left of an already broken society into terminal chaos. His discovery leads him on a quest to find former replicant hunter Deckard, who has been missing for 30 years. In true Blade Runner style, K wants to ask him some questions – the answers to which may have a lot to do with a chilling creator of ‘disposable workforces’, Niander Wallace (Leto).
Serpentine Cinema presents the London premiere of Bouchra Khalili’s, The Tempest Society (2017).
The Tempest Society is not a documentary or a fiction, but a hypothesis: Nowadays in Athens, three Athenians from different backgrounds form a group to examine the current state of Greece, Europe, and the Mediterranean. To do so, they gather together on a theatre stage, defined as a civic space. They name themselves The Tempest Society to pay homage to Al Assifa (‘The Tempest’ in Arabic), a theatre group active in Paris in the 70's composed of North-African immigrant workers and French students. Through the format of the "theatrical newspaper", Al Assifa addressed the daily struggle against inequality and racism in France.
40 years after, the forgotten legacy of Al Assifa and its "theatrical newspapers" find a site for reactivation in Greece. On a theater stage, members of The Tempest Society and their guests - Ghani, an spokesperson for immigrants' right, Katerina born in Greece but undocumented, Malek a young Syrian refugee - call together for equality, civic belonging, and solidarity.
19.00Ad and Trailer Free: No advertisements or trailers will play ahead of this screening. You are recommended to arrive promptly.
Serpentine Cinema: Screenings and special events presented by the Serpentine Gallery.
Director: Matthew Vaughn.
Starring: Colin Firth, Taron Egerton, Julianne Moore. UK/USA 2017. 141 mins.
Three years ago Kingsman: Secret Service, a spy action-comedy about ‘Kingsman’, an independent, international intelligence agency was a smash hit, raking in over $414 million at the global box office. In this sequel, again written/directed by Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman (Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class), special agent ‘Eggsy’ (Egerton), the council estate kid, chosen as a recruit for this mysterious organisation, is reunited with his pin-striped mentor (Firth) and they head over the Pond to meet their opposite numbers at ‘Statesman’. A spangly cast includes Halle Berry, Channing Tatum, Mark Strong, Jeff Bridges and Elton John while Oscar-winner Julianne Moore gets to flex her baddie muscles as Poppy, a notorious criminal mastermind, whose personal bodyguard is the inimitable Vinnie Jones. Once again the agents’ wits and nerve are tested to the limit in this cheeky, ever-so-British, pastiche-Bond caper.
Director: Darren Aronofsky.
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris, Michelle Pfeiffer. USA 2017. 121 mins.
Revisiting the psycho-chiller genre he mined so vividly in his 1998 feature debut Pi and 2010’s Oscar-winning Black Swan, writer-director Darren Aronofsky’s latest, exceedingly dark drama catapults Jennifer Lawrence into wildly different territory to her Hunger Games, X-Men and David Russell-directed roles (Joy, American Hustle). Lawrence plays one half of an apparently happy young couple – Javier Bardem being the slightly sinister other – whose tranquil existence is disrupted in terrifying fashion by some unexpected visitors (a spookily passive-aggressive Ed Harris and, continuing her impressive return to big screen stardom, Michelle Pfeiffer). Unlocking dark secrets is Aronofsky’s speciality, and with regular cinematographer Matthew Libatique and Hunger Games’ brilliant production designer Philip Messina on board, Mother! delivers plenty more of the same.
Director: Francis Lee.
Starring: Josh O’Connor, Alec Secareanu, Gemma Jones, Ian Hart. UK 2017. 105 mins.
Johnny Saxby (O’Connor) works long hours on his family’s remote farm in the north of England. He numbs the daily frustration of his lonely existence with nightly binge drinking at the local pub and casual sex. But when a handsome Romanian migrant worker (Secareanu) arrives to take up temporary work on the family farm, Johnny suddenly finds himself dealing with emotions he has never felt before. As they begin working closely together during lambing season, an intense relationship forms – one that could change Johnny’s life forever. Captivating and broodingly beautiful, God’s Own Country is the award-winning debut feature from writer-director Francis Lee. Set in the heart of rural Yorkshire, this is a bracingly openhearted romantic story marked by stunning lead performances.
Director: David Lowery.
Starring: Casey Affleck. Rooney Mara. USA 2017. 92 mins.
The latest film from acclaimed director David Lowery (Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, Pete’s Dragon) is a singular exploration of legacy, loss, and the essential human longing for meaning and connection. A white-sheeted ghost (Affleck) returns to his suburban home to console his bereft wife (Mara), only to find that in his spectral state he has become unstuck in time, forced to watch passively as the life he knew and the woman he loves slowly slip away. Increasingly unmoored, the ghost embarks on a cosmic journey through memory and history, confronting life’s ineffable questions and the enormity of existence. An audacious, unforgettable meditation on the passage of time, A Ghost Story emerges ecstatic and surreal – a wholly unique experience that lingers long after the credits roll.
Contains infrequent strong language, images of dead bodies.
22.15Discover 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.
Director: Stanley Kubrick.
Starring: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood. USA/UK 1968. 150 mins.
Heralded in 1968 as the most striking sci-fi film ever, Stanley Kubrick’s epic meditation on human evolution shines brilliantly 46 years later in a new BFI restoration.
The film opens with the discovery of a mysterious monolith by prehistoric, ape-like hominids. The narrative then jumps to the 21st century, when a scientist (William Sylvester) landing on the moon discovers an identical obelisk. Eighteen months later, a pair of astronauts (Dullea and Lockwood) journey to Jupiter in search of the monoliths with the aid of their omnipresent speaking computer, known as HAL 9000 (eerily voiced by Douglas Rain). The mission is fraught with tension and murderous intent as HAL begins to endanger the astronauts’ lives.
Often regarded as a metaphor and moral allegory, Kubrick’s film is a visual tour de force with a stunning soundtrack.
19.0070mm: Playing from a 70mm print
Culture Shock: Dedicated to bringing you the best in cult and genre films.
Keepin' It Reel: Culture Shocks monthly programming strand screening cult classic films on old-school 35mm or 70mm.
Grace Jones: Bloodlight & Bami - Live with Friends promises to be thrilling and enlightening evening with the inimitable icon, as she discusses her life and work with some of her closest collaborators from the worlds of music, fashion, art and film. The discussion follows an exclusive preview of Sophie Fiennes’ highly anticipated new film Grace Jones: Bloodlight And Bami.
Grace Jones: Bloodlight And Bami takes the viewer on an intimate and electrifying journey that moves between four cinematic layers – performance, family, artist and gypsy – to explore the fascinating world of a pop-culture phenomenon. Here we see the daughter, mother, sister and grandmother behind the mask, and she takes to the stage for a specially commissioned performance that showcases legendary hits like Pull Up To The Bumper and Slave To The Rhythm. Larger than life, bordering on cartoon, wild, scary and androgynous – Grace Jones plays all these parts.
Director: Taika Waititi.
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Cate Blanchett, Tom Hiddleston, Mark Ruffalo. USA 2017. 130 mins.
The latest adventure in the Marvel Cinematic Universe begins with Thor (Hemsworth) in an almighty intergalactic pickle. He’s broken his hammer, he’s stuck in prison on the far side of the universe, and the goddess of death, Hela (Blanchett), is about to unleash Ragnarok, the annihilation of Asgardian civilisation. Not cool. The problems don’t stop there, either: to get home in time, Thor must win a gladiatorial duel against fellow Avenger and “friend from work”, the Hulk (Ruffalo). Director Taika Waititi (What We Do In The Shadows, Hunt For The Wilderpeople) has been given ample creative freedom for his MCU debut, so audiences can expect plenty of laughs to go with the action. As Thor’s mischievous adopted brother Loki (Hiddleston) puts it: “This will be such fun.”
Director: Taika Waititi.
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Cate Blanchett, Tom Hiddleston, Mark Ruffalo. USA 2017. 130 mins.
The latest adventure in the Marvel Cinematic Universe begins with Thor (Hemsworth) in an almighty intergalactic pickle. He’s broken his hammer, he’s stuck in prison on the far side of the universe, and the goddess of death, Hela (Blanchett), is about to unleash Ragnarok, the annihilation of Asgardian civilisation. Not cool. The problems don’t stop there, either: to get home in time, Thor must win a gladiatorial duel against fellow Avenger and “friend from work”, the Hulk (Ruffalo). Director Taika Waititi (What We Do In The Shadows, Hunt For The Wilderpeople) has been given ample creative freedom for his MCU debut, so audiences can expect plenty of laughs to go with the action. As Thor’s mischievous adopted brother Loki (Hiddleston) puts it: “This will be such fun.”
Director: Antonio Santini, Dan Sickles. 2017. USA. 103 mins.
Dina’s getting married in a few weeks and there’s still so much to do. She has to move her boyfriend, Scott, from his parents’ house to her apartment, and settle him in to only the second home he’s ever had, all while juggling his schedule as an early morning Walmart door greeter. She has to get her dress, confirm arrangements with the venue, and make peace with her family, who remain nervous for their beloved Dina after the death of her first husband and the string of troubled relationships that followed. Throughout it all, in the face of obstacles large and small, Dina remains indomitable. She’s overcome tragedy and found the man she wants and, at age 48, is bent on building the life for herself that she believes she deserves. Dina is unstoppable, a force of nature, and as the star of her own life story, she’s an unconventional movie protagonist the likes of which hasn’t been seen before.
Directors: Tim Plester, Rob Curry. Featuring: Shirley Collins. UK 2017. 94 mins.
Shirley Collins was at the epicentre of the folk-music revival during the 1960s and ’70s before a vocal disorder robbed her of her uniquely ancestral singing voice. Granted intimate access to recording sessions for her first new album in almost four decades, and making adventurous use of a mother lode of seminal archive audio, The Ballad Of Shirley Collins chronicles one woman’s gallant battle to rise phoenix-like from long silent ashes.
Director: Armando Iannucci.
Starring: Steve Buscemi, Jeffrey Tambor, Simon Russell Beale, Michael Palin, Jason Isaacs, Andrea Riseborough, Rupert Friend. France/UK 2017. 107 mins.
The internal political landscape of 1950s Soviet Russia takes on darkly comic form in a new film by Oscar-nominated writer/director Armando Iannucci (Veep, In The Loop, The Thick Of It). In the days following Stalin’s collapse, the machinations of senior party officials and courtiers kick into overdrive. Some want positive change in the Soviet Union; others have more sinister motives. But behind all the collusion, backstabbing and strong-arming, the jostling ministers have one thing in common – they’re just desperate to stay alive. Based on the graphic novel by French writer Fabian Nury, Iannucci’s script is loaded with acerbic, politically incorrect conversation, which is delivered by some of the finest and funniest character actors from both sides of the pond.
Twenty-eight-year-old Jennifer Brea is working on her PhD at Harvard and months away from marrying the love of her life when a mysterious fever leaves her bedridden and looking for answers. Refusing to accept the limitations of life stuck in bed, Jen turns her camera on herself and a hidden community of millions confined to their homes and bedrooms by ME, commonly called chronic fatigue syndrome. She shares her pain and her most intimate moments in order to offer hope and visibility to those who suffer alone in dark, silent rooms. At its core, Unrest is a love story – a heartbreaking, inspiring and funny account of how Jen and her new husband forge their life together while dealing with her illness.
Starring: Patricia Clarkson, Bruno Ganz, Cherry Jones, Emily Mortimer, Cillian Murphy, Kristin Scott Thomas, Timothy Spall. UK 2017. 71 mins.
Janet (Scott Thomas) has just been appointed to a key ministerial position in the shadow cabinet – the crowning achievement of her political career. She and her husband Bill (Spall) plan to celebrate this with a few close friends. As the guests arrive at their home in London, the party takes an unexpected turn when Bill suddenly makes some explosive revelations that take everyone present by surprise. What follows is a hilarious comedy of tragic proportions in which love, friendships and political convictions are soon called into question. From acclaimed British filmmaker Sally Potter, The Party is a smart, fast-paced film full of razor-sharp one-liners that perfectly suits these turbulent times.
Director: Denis Villeneuve.
Starring: Harrison Ford, Ryan Gosling, Ana de Armas, Jared Leto. USA 2017. 163 mins.
One of the decade’s most anticipated films, the sequel to Ridley Scott’s seminal 1982 neo-noir, Blade Runner, is finally upon us. Scott himself returns as producer, freeing up the director’s chair for the supremely talented Denis Villeneuve (Arrival, Sicario), while Harrison Ford reprises his role as Rick Deckard. In 2049, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K (Gosling), uncovers a terrible secret that could throw what’s left of an already broken society into terminal chaos. His discovery leads him on a quest to find former replicant hunter Deckard, who has been missing for 30 years. In true Blade Runner style, K wants to ask him some questions – the answers to which may have a lot to do with a chilling creator of ‘disposable workforces’, Niander Wallace (Leto).
Director: Matthew Vaughn.
Starring: Colin Firth, Taron Egerton, Julianne Moore. UK/USA 2017. 141 mins.
Three years ago Kingsman: Secret Service, a spy action-comedy about ‘Kingsman’, an independent, international intelligence agency was a smash hit, raking in over $414 million at the global box office. In this sequel, again written/directed by Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman (Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class), special agent ‘Eggsy’ (Egerton), the council estate kid, chosen as a recruit for this mysterious organisation, is reunited with his pin-striped mentor (Firth) and they head over the Pond to meet their opposite numbers at ‘Statesman’. A spangly cast includes Halle Berry, Channing Tatum, Mark Strong, Jeff Bridges and Elton John while Oscar-winner Julianne Moore gets to flex her baddie muscles as Poppy, a notorious criminal mastermind, whose personal bodyguard is the inimitable Vinnie Jones. Once again the agents’ wits and nerve are tested to the limit in this cheeky, ever-so-British, pastiche-Bond caper.
Filled with sparkling, Tarantino-esque dialogue, this grim animated noir from China begins when a young construction worker steals a case filled with cash and finds himself pursued by a rogues’ gallery of punk rockers, crazed inventors, and a hammer-wielding hit man.
Director: Darren Aronofsky.
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris, Michelle Pfeiffer. USA 2017. 121 mins.
Revisiting the psycho-chiller genre he mined so vividly in his 1998 feature debut Pi and 2010’s Oscar-winning Black Swan, writer-director Darren Aronofsky’s latest, exceedingly dark drama catapults Jennifer Lawrence into wildly different territory to her Hunger Games, X-Men and David Russell-directed roles (Joy, American Hustle). Lawrence plays one half of an apparently happy young couple – Javier Bardem being the slightly sinister other – whose tranquil existence is disrupted in terrifying fashion by some unexpected visitors (a spookily passive-aggressive Ed Harris and, continuing her impressive return to big screen stardom, Michelle Pfeiffer). Unlocking dark secrets is Aronofsky’s speciality, and with regular cinematographer Matthew Libatique and Hunger Games’ brilliant production designer Philip Messina on board, Mother! delivers plenty more of the same.
Director: Francis Lee.
Starring: Josh O’Connor, Alec Secareanu, Gemma Jones, Ian Hart. UK 2017. 105 mins.
Johnny Saxby (O’Connor) works long hours on his family’s remote farm in the north of England. He numbs the daily frustration of his lonely existence with nightly binge drinking at the local pub and casual sex. But when a handsome Romanian migrant worker (Secareanu) arrives to take up temporary work on the family farm, Johnny suddenly finds himself dealing with emotions he has never felt before. As they begin working closely together during lambing season, an intense relationship forms – one that could change Johnny’s life forever. Captivating and broodingly beautiful, God’s Own Country is the award-winning debut feature from writer-director Francis Lee. Set in the heart of rural Yorkshire, this is a bracingly openhearted romantic story marked by stunning lead performances.
Director: Taika Waititi.
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Cate Blanchett, Tom Hiddleston, Mark Ruffalo. USA 2017. 130 mins.
The latest adventure in the Marvel Cinematic Universe begins with Thor (Hemsworth) in an almighty intergalactic pickle. He’s broken his hammer, he’s stuck in prison on the far side of the universe, and the goddess of death, Hela (Blanchett), is about to unleash Ragnarok, the annihilation of Asgardian civilisation. Not cool. The problems don’t stop there, either: to get home in time, Thor must win a gladiatorial duel against fellow Avenger and “friend from work”, the Hulk (Ruffalo). Director Taika Waititi (What We Do In The Shadows, Hunt For The Wilderpeople) has been given ample creative freedom for his MCU debut, so audiences can expect plenty of laughs to go with the action. As Thor’s mischievous adopted brother Loki (Hiddleston) puts it: “This will be such fun.”
12.40Silver Screen: Aged over 60? Join the Silver Screen Club for discounted tickets and a free tea or coffee at these shows. Usual ticket prices apply to non-Members.
Director: Taika Waititi.
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Cate Blanchett, Tom Hiddleston, Mark Ruffalo. USA 2017. 130 mins.
The latest adventure in the Marvel Cinematic Universe begins with Thor (Hemsworth) in an almighty intergalactic pickle. He’s broken his hammer, he’s stuck in prison on the far side of the universe, and the goddess of death, Hela (Blanchett), is about to unleash Ragnarok, the annihilation of Asgardian civilisation. Not cool. The problems don’t stop there, either: to get home in time, Thor must win a gladiatorial duel against fellow Avenger and “friend from work”, the Hulk (Ruffalo). Director Taika Waititi (What We Do In The Shadows, Hunt For The Wilderpeople) has been given ample creative freedom for his MCU debut, so audiences can expect plenty of laughs to go with the action. As Thor’s mischievous adopted brother Loki (Hiddleston) puts it: “This will be such fun.”
15.303D.
Silver Screen: Aged over 60? Join the Silver Screen Club for discounted tickets and a free tea or coffee at these shows. Usual ticket prices apply to non-Members.
Director: Antonio Santini, Dan Sickles. 2017. USA. 103 mins.
Dina’s getting married in a few weeks and there’s still so much to do. She has to move her boyfriend, Scott, from his parents’ house to her apartment, and settle him in to only the second home he’s ever had, all while juggling his schedule as an early morning Walmart door greeter. She has to get her dress, confirm arrangements with the venue, and make peace with her family, who remain nervous for their beloved Dina after the death of her first husband and the string of troubled relationships that followed. Throughout it all, in the face of obstacles large and small, Dina remains indomitable. She’s overcome tragedy and found the man she wants and, at age 48, is bent on building the life for herself that she believes she deserves. Dina is unstoppable, a force of nature, and as the star of her own life story, she’s an unconventional movie protagonist the likes of which hasn’t been seen before.
The quintessential chase film, digitally restored. Cary Grant gives one of his finest performances as the self-satisfied, suave ad exec who is mistaken for a spy and pursued across the country by enemy agents.
14.0040th Anniversary Restoration: This special 40th anniversary restoration comes with a recorded introduction from J.J. Abrams, Denis Villeneuve, and director Steve Spielberg.
Directors: Tim Plester, Rob Curry. Featuring: Shirley Collins. UK 2017. 94 mins.
Shirley Collins was at the epicentre of the folk-music revival during the 1960s and ’70s before a vocal disorder robbed her of her uniquely ancestral singing voice. Granted intimate access to recording sessions for her first new album in almost four decades, and making adventurous use of a mother lode of seminal archive audio, The Ballad Of Shirley Collins chronicles one woman’s gallant battle to rise phoenix-like from long silent ashes.
Director: Armando Iannucci.
Starring: Steve Buscemi, Jeffrey Tambor, Simon Russell Beale, Michael Palin, Jason Isaacs, Andrea Riseborough, Rupert Friend. France/UK 2017. 107 mins.
The internal political landscape of 1950s Soviet Russia takes on darkly comic form in a new film by Oscar-nominated writer/director Armando Iannucci (Veep, In The Loop, The Thick Of It). In the days following Stalin’s collapse, the machinations of senior party officials and courtiers kick into overdrive. Some want positive change in the Soviet Union; others have more sinister motives. But behind all the collusion, backstabbing and strong-arming, the jostling ministers have one thing in common – they’re just desperate to stay alive. Based on the graphic novel by French writer Fabian Nury, Iannucci’s script is loaded with acerbic, politically incorrect conversation, which is delivered by some of the finest and funniest character actors from both sides of the pond.
14.05Silver Screen: Aged over 60? Join the Silver Screen Club for discounted tickets and a free tea or coffee at these shows. Usual ticket prices apply to non-Members.
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16.35Silver Screen: Aged over 60? Join the Silver Screen Club for discounted tickets and a free tea or coffee at these shows. Usual ticket prices apply to non-Members.
Twenty-eight-year-old Jennifer Brea is working on her PhD at Harvard and months away from marrying the love of her life when a mysterious fever leaves her bedridden and looking for answers. Refusing to accept the limitations of life stuck in bed, Jen turns her camera on herself and a hidden community of millions confined to their homes and bedrooms by ME, commonly called chronic fatigue syndrome. She shares her pain and her most intimate moments in order to offer hope and visibility to those who suffer alone in dark, silent rooms. At its core, Unrest is a love story – a heartbreaking, inspiring and funny account of how Jen and her new husband forge their life together while dealing with her illness.
Starring: Patricia Clarkson, Bruno Ganz, Cherry Jones, Emily Mortimer, Cillian Murphy, Kristin Scott Thomas, Timothy Spall. UK 2017. 71 mins.
Janet (Scott Thomas) has just been appointed to a key ministerial position in the shadow cabinet – the crowning achievement of her political career. She and her husband Bill (Spall) plan to celebrate this with a few close friends. As the guests arrive at their home in London, the party takes an unexpected turn when Bill suddenly makes some explosive revelations that take everyone present by surprise. What follows is a hilarious comedy of tragic proportions in which love, friendships and political convictions are soon called into question. From acclaimed British filmmaker Sally Potter, The Party is a smart, fast-paced film full of razor-sharp one-liners that perfectly suits these turbulent times.
15.00Silver Screen: Aged over 60? Join the Silver Screen Club for discounted tickets and a free tea or coffee at these shows. Usual ticket prices apply to non-Members.
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16.50Silver Screen: Aged over 60? Join the Silver Screen Club for discounted tickets and a free tea or coffee at these shows. Usual ticket prices apply to non-Members.
Director: Denis Villeneuve.
Starring: Harrison Ford, Ryan Gosling, Ana de Armas, Jared Leto. USA 2017. 163 mins.
One of the decade’s most anticipated films, the sequel to Ridley Scott’s seminal 1982 neo-noir, Blade Runner, is finally upon us. Scott himself returns as producer, freeing up the director’s chair for the supremely talented Denis Villeneuve (Arrival, Sicario), while Harrison Ford reprises his role as Rick Deckard. In 2049, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K (Gosling), uncovers a terrible secret that could throw what’s left of an already broken society into terminal chaos. His discovery leads him on a quest to find former replicant hunter Deckard, who has been missing for 30 years. In true Blade Runner style, K wants to ask him some questions – the answers to which may have a lot to do with a chilling creator of ‘disposable workforces’, Niander Wallace (Leto).
14.00Silver Screen: Aged over 60? Join the Silver Screen Club for discounted tickets and a free tea or coffee at these shows. Usual ticket prices apply to non-Members.
Director: Matthew Vaughn.
Starring: Colin Firth, Taron Egerton, Julianne Moore. UK/USA 2017. 141 mins.
Three years ago Kingsman: Secret Service, a spy action-comedy about ‘Kingsman’, an independent, international intelligence agency was a smash hit, raking in over $414 million at the global box office. In this sequel, again written/directed by Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman (Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class), special agent ‘Eggsy’ (Egerton), the council estate kid, chosen as a recruit for this mysterious organisation, is reunited with his pin-striped mentor (Firth) and they head over the Pond to meet their opposite numbers at ‘Statesman’. A spangly cast includes Halle Berry, Channing Tatum, Mark Strong, Jeff Bridges and Elton John while Oscar-winner Julianne Moore gets to flex her baddie muscles as Poppy, a notorious criminal mastermind, whose personal bodyguard is the inimitable Vinnie Jones. Once again the agents’ wits and nerve are tested to the limit in this cheeky, ever-so-British, pastiche-Bond caper.
15.25Silver Screen: Aged over 60? Join the Silver Screen Club for discounted tickets and a free tea or coffee at these shows. Usual ticket prices apply to non-Members.
We are delighted to welcome Cinematographer Kim Hyungkoo for a Q&A following this screening.
The Day After
Director: Hong Sangsoo
Writer: Hong Sangsoo
Producer: Hong Sangsoo
Cast: Kwon Haehyo, Kim Minhee, Kim Saebyuk
Production Company: Jeonwonsa Film
International Sales: Finecut
Drama / 2017 / 92 min / Cert. 18 / DCP / B&W
The unhappily-married Bongwan (Kwon Haehyo) runs a small publishing house and has been having an affair with a young female employee. His wife finds out about it on the very day that heÕs hiring the new employee Areum (Kim Minhee). In this shimmering, monochrome movie a weak, middle-aged man comes up against a strong-willed and determinedly positive young woman who simply wonÕt let herself be bruised by the encounter.
Director: Darren Aronofsky.
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris, Michelle Pfeiffer. USA 2017. 121 mins.
Revisiting the psycho-chiller genre he mined so vividly in his 1998 feature debut Pi and 2010’s Oscar-winning Black Swan, writer-director Darren Aronofsky’s latest, exceedingly dark drama catapults Jennifer Lawrence into wildly different territory to her Hunger Games, X-Men and David Russell-directed roles (Joy, American Hustle). Lawrence plays one half of an apparently happy young couple – Javier Bardem being the slightly sinister other – whose tranquil existence is disrupted in terrifying fashion by some unexpected visitors (a spookily passive-aggressive Ed Harris and, continuing her impressive return to big screen stardom, Michelle Pfeiffer). Unlocking dark secrets is Aronofsky’s speciality, and with regular cinematographer Matthew Libatique and Hunger Games’ brilliant production designer Philip Messina on board, Mother! delivers plenty more of the same.
Director: Francis Lee.
Starring: Josh O’Connor, Alec Secareanu, Gemma Jones, Ian Hart. UK 2017. 105 mins.
Johnny Saxby (O’Connor) works long hours on his family’s remote farm in the north of England. He numbs the daily frustration of his lonely existence with nightly binge drinking at the local pub and casual sex. But when a handsome Romanian migrant worker (Secareanu) arrives to take up temporary work on the family farm, Johnny suddenly finds himself dealing with emotions he has never felt before. As they begin working closely together during lambing season, an intense relationship forms – one that could change Johnny’s life forever. Captivating and broodingly beautiful, God’s Own Country is the award-winning debut feature from writer-director Francis Lee. Set in the heart of rural Yorkshire, this is a bracingly openhearted romantic story marked by stunning lead performances.
13.00Silver Screen: Aged over 60? Join the Silver Screen Club for discounted tickets and a free tea or coffee at these shows. Usual ticket prices apply to non-Members.
Director: Stanley Kubrick.
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd. UK/USA 1980. 119 mins.
All work and no play makes Oscar-winning actor Jack Nicholson—the caretaker of an isolated resort—go way off the deep end, terrorising his young son and wife (Shelley Duvall).
Nicholson plays Jack Torrance, who's come to the elegant, isolated Overlook Hotel as off-season caretaker. Torrance has never been there before—or has he? The answer lies in a ghostly time warp of madness and murder.
Master filmmaker Stanley Kubrick's visually haunting chiller, based on the bestseller by master-of-suspense Stephen King, is an undeniable contemporary classic. Newsweek called The Shining "the first epic horror film," full of indelible images, and a signature role for Nicholson whose character was recently selected by AFI as one of their 50 Greatest Villains.
Preceded by Work and Play: a short film about The Shining (2017).
Picturehouse Central is delighted to welcome producer Jan Harlan and critic Kim Newman for a Q&A after the screening
We are delighted to welcome director Kang Yun-Sung for a Q&A following this screening.
Crime City
Director: Kang Yun-sung
Writer: Kang Yun-sung
Producer: Kim Hong-baek, Billy Acumen
Cast: Don Lee, Yoon Kye-sang, Cho Cha-yun
Production Company: Hong Film, BA Entertainment
International Sales: M-Line Distribution
Action / 2017 / 121 min / Cert. 18 / DCP / Colour
Based on the 2004 Chinese-Korean gangster mop-up operation in Seouls Garibong neighbourhood, during which 32 gang members were arrested, Kang Yun-sungs work of fiction sees Don Lee using his fists like he did in the gargantuan box office hit Train to Busan. This time, the star is not up against zombies but ruthless Chinese-Korean gangsters, when new thug on the block Jang Chen and his two sadistic sidekicks try to seize control of the local area. A hard-boiled cop Ma Suk-do is determined, together with his team, to bring peace to the area, which means hunting down Jang and his gang. Full of humour, this crime action-thriller is certainly violent but it never takes itself too seriously.
We are delighted to welcome Korean cinema expert Anton Bitel to introduce this screening.
Warriors of the Dawn
Director: Chung Yoon-chul
Writer: Shin Doyeong
Producer: Won Dong-yeon, Kim Ho-sung
Cast: Lee Jung-jae, Yeo Jin-gu, Kim Mu-yeol
Production Company: Realies Pictures, 20th Century Fox International Productions
International Sales: M-Line Distribution
Drama, Historical / 2017 / 130 min / Cert. 15 / DCP / Colour
The Warriors of the Dawn are a band of mercenaries who assist the young Prince Gwanghae (Yeo Jin-gu), forced to defend the Joseon Kingdom against Japanese invaders during the Imjin War in 1592. An uneasy relationship between the gruff mercenary leader (Lee Jung-jae) builds into one of mutual respect as they fight side by side on the battlefield. The film is the latest Korean production by 20th Century Fox International Productions, who were also responsible for last years hit The Wailing.
We are pleased to welcome director Sophie Fiennes for a post-film discussion.
Grace Jones: Bloodlight And Bami takes the viewer on an intimate and electrifying journey that moves between four cinematic layers – performance, family, artist and gypsy – to explore the fascinating world of a pop-culture phenomenon. Here we see the daughter, mother, sister and grandmother behind the mask, and she takes to the stage for a specially commissioned performance that showcases legendary hits like Pull Up To The Bumper and Slave To The Rhythm. Larger than life, bordering on cartoon, wild, scary and androgynous – Grace Jones plays all these parts.
Come, Together
Director: Shin Dong-il
Writer: Han Ji-su, Shin Dong-il
Producer: Shin Dong-il
Cast: Im Hyeong-gook, Lee Hee-eun, Chae Bin
Production Company: Biashin Pictures
International Sales: Finestory
Drama / 2017 / 113 min / Cert. 15 / DCP / Color
Koreas highly competitive nature goes under the microscope in Shin Dong-ils heated new drama about a harried family of three. Following 18 years of loyalty, the patriarch of the family is suddenly fired from his desk job, while his credit card saleswoman wife winds up in hot water when she cuts corners to entice customers. Both parents are desperate for their daughter to get into Korea University, but when she ends up on the waiting list, pressure mounts as the deadline looms. Continuing his exploration of characters struggling to toe the line of Korean society, Shin crafts another tense microcosm of modern Seoul.
We are delighted to welcome Korean cinema expert Tony Rayns to introduce this screening.
Merry Christmas Mr. Mo
Director: Lim Dae-hyung
Writer: Lim Dae-hyung
Producer: Park Du-hui
Cast: Gi Ju-bong, Oh Jung-hwan, Go Won-hee
Production Company: Film Run
International Sales: Indiestory
Drama / 2016 / 101 min / Cert. 12A / DCP / B&W
Lim Dae-hyungs tragi-comic debut feature stars veteran character actor Gi Ju-bong as a taciturn, lonely widower with a secret or two. Mo Geum-sans provincial life seems orderly and governed by routine: undemanding days in his small barber-shop, daily visits to the local swimming pool for his fitness, a drink and a snack on the way home and nights spent wrestling with a pillow thats too lumpy. But Mr Mo is semi-estranged from his son, a student in Seoul, and only bad news from a doctor makes him want to reconnect. Lim tells Mr Mos story across five chapters, using images which seem classically restrained but at the same time startlingly precise.
We are delighted to welcome Korean Cinema expert Tony Rayns to introduce this screening.
A Confession Expecting a Rejection
Director: Park Jeong-hoon
Writer: Park Jeong-hoon
Producer: Park Jeong-hoon
Cast: Kim Dong-won, Kim Hyun-jin, Kim Pan-kyum
Rights Holder: Park Jeong-hoon
Drama / 2017 / 112 min / Cert. 15 / DCP / Colour
Park Jeong-hoons second feature (after 2012s "December") presents itself as one single, uninterrupted take. The camera is set up in a small, plain studio. Young men and women enter, sit, respond to off-screen questions from the crew, and leave. Or rather, thats whats supposed to happen. But it turns out that one female subject has a prior, broken relationship with a member of the crew which brings submerged tensions to the surface.
New World
Director: Park Hoon-jung
Writer: Park Hoon-jung
Producer: Kim Woo-taek
Cast: Lee Jung-jae, Choi Min-sik, Hwang Jung-min
Production Company: Sanai Pictures
International Sales: Contents Panda
UK Distributor: Eureka Entertainment
Crime, Drama / 2013 / 134 min / Cert. 18 / DCP / Color
The second directorial feature from Park Hoon-jung, the screenwriter behind The Unjust and I Saw the Devil. A noirish gangster epic in which undercover cops and corrupt policemen plot from the shadows to gain control of Koreas biggest crime syndicate, Goldmoon, when its CEO is killed in a suspicious car accident. With a succession crisis mounting, police chief Kang (Choi Min-sik) launches Operation New World in which he hopes to manoeuvre his long-term undercover agent, Lee Ja-sung (Lee Jung-jae), into the top spot by taking out the two main factions led by flashy gangster Jung Chang (Hwang Jun-min) and the unscrupulous Lee Joong-gu (Park Sung-woong).
Can’t get a date? Make one! Rejected by their peers and desperate to be liked, two misfit teens design their ideal woman on a computer – and then accidentally bring her to life.
13.00We ♥ John Hughes: Brain, athlete, basket case, princess or criminal - revisit your misspent youth in 2017 with our We ♥ John Hughes season
Vintage Sundays: Classic films back on the big screen where they belong.
My Turn
Director: Kim Na-kyung
Writer: Kim Na-kyung
Producer: Lee Seung-hyun, Kwon Soon-sang
Cast: Joo Ga-young, Kim Hannah, Jeong Hee-jeong
Rights Holder: Kim Na-kyung
Drama / 2017 / 15 min / Cert. 12A / DCP / Colour
The films SIWFF Audience Award rewarded its smart dramatic approach to hot topics in Korean media: the pregnancy order system used in some female-dominated workplaces, and abortion access. When Hyun-jung gets pregnant out of turn, there are rows with her boss, her pregnant colleague, and the nurse who is next on the roster.
Mild Fever
Director: Park Sun-joo
Writer: Park Sun-joo
Producer: Ahn Do-young
Cast: Jeon Seok-ho, Han Woo-yeon
International Sales: Central Park Films
Fiction, Drama / 2017 / 36 min / Cert. 12A / DCP / Colour
Winner of the Asian Short Film and Video Competition Grand Prize at SIWFF. Eun-ju, a writer with a young child, finds her confidence, independence and loving relationship with her husband and mother overshadowed by the return of a violent incident from her past. Beautifully performed, the film offers an everyday grace set against a cleverly maintained tone of unease, as Eun-ju and her family respond unpredictably to the shattering news.
Night Working
Director: Kim Jungeun
Writer: Kim Jungeun
Producer: Lee Hoyeon
Cast: Sreng Vuchny, Kim Yae-eun, Gil Haeyeon
Rights Holder: Kim Jungeun
Drama / 2017 / 28 min / Cert. 12A / DCP / Colour
A dreamy study of Lyn, a young Cambodian worker in Korea and her friendship with Yeonhee, her co-worker at a small factory as they navigate their boss insidious harassment and face Yeonhees decision to move to Australia. Framed by Lyns letters to her mother, the film offers an intimate depiction of female-female relationships and of immigrant and working-class Korea.
Director: Werner Herzog. Starring: Klaus Kinski, Isabelle Adjani, Bruno Ganz. West Germany/France 1979. 107 mins. German with English subtitles.
Jonathan Harker (Ganz) leaves his young wife Lucy (Adjani) at home in Wismar and travels to Transylvania to meet the mysterious Count Dracula (Kinski), who is buying a house in Wismar opposite his own. After a terrifying ordeal in Dracula’s castle, Jonathan returns home a broken man, leaving Lucy to contend with their death-dealing new neighbour in the only way she can. In many ways a remake of F. W. Murnau’s horror masterpiece, Herzog’s film nonetheless owes more to the tradition of German Romanticism than to Murnau’s Expressionism, with long, lush sequences in the Carpathian Mountains, darkly luminous images of the Count, and ghastly scenes of the plague-stricken town. Kinski gives an exquisite performance as the weary Count; his languid glide through the darkness underscores this beautiful film’s sinister, dreamlike atmosphere.
Contains moderate horror and gore.
Leaving the world of J-pop behind her, Mima Kirigoe begins life as an actress on a crime drama show called Double Blind. When offered a lead role in the show as a rape victim, Mima accepts in spite of her manager’s reservations. However, the backlash from fans over her career change and a strange website called ‘Mima's Room’, written by a fake Mima, begin to worry her. When a stalker appears and people involved in Double Blind begin turning up dead, with all the evidence pointing to her, Mima is thrown into a state of confusion, madness and paranoia.
On the 31st October 1977, a group of squatters in Freston Road, Notting Hill, declared independence from the British state in the face of impending eviction by the Greater London Council. Inspired by classic Ealing comedy Passport to Pimlico, 'The Free and Independent Republic of Frestonia' was declared, the UN were lobbied for recognition, and passports, stamps and a coat of arms were designed.
The 100 or so citizens of Frestonia included David Rappapart (Time Bandits) as Minister of Foreign Affairs and the late, great Heathcote Williams as Ambassador to Great Britain. A two year old was designated Education Minister.
Join us at Picturehouse Central to mark the 40th anniversary of the founding of Frestonia, with a screening of the film that inspired it - Passport to Pimlico.
We are delighted to welcome director Kim Il-rhan for a Q&A following this screening.
Two Doors
Director: Kim Il-rhan, Hong Ji-you
Producer: PINKS
Cast: Kwon Yeongguk, Kim Hyeongtae, Ryoo Juhyeong
Production Company: Pinks
International Sales: Cinema DAL
Documentary / 2012 / 101 min / Cert. 15 / DCP / Colour
Following the Yongsan Tragedy, when a sit-in rally in central Seoul against forced eviction resulted in the deaths of five protesters and one police officer, three people involved in the demonstration were arrested and deemed responsible for the lives lost. This documentary is an investigation into what took place and questions the actions of the police who took part in the suppression of the demonstration, as well as the role of the government. The high public visibility of the incident made hours of CCTV footage and recordings from both the press and onlookers being available to the filmmakers.
We are delighted to welcome the directors of this film for a Q&A after the screening.
The Remnants
Director: Kim Il-rhan, Lee Hyuk-sang
Producer: Kim Il-rhan, Lee Hyuk-sang
Cast: Kim Ju-hwan, Kim Chang-su, Lee Chung-yeon
Production Company: Pinks
International Sales: Cinema DAL
Documentary / 2016 / 116 min / Cert. 15 / DCP / Colour
A follow-up to "Two Doors", which investigated the events that took place in Yongsan, amassing documents to question the use of force against the people involved in the occupation of a watchtower, as a protest against the redevelopment of a local neighborhood in central Seoul. "The Remnants" turns to the personal stories of five people involved in the demonstrations, who were accused of legal violations. Where the first film seeks to provide material evidence against the use of violence by state police, "The Remnants" focuses instead on the personal accounts of what happened.
A Winding Road: A Ramble with Richard Thompson + Q&A
Dir. Edmond Deraedt, US, 2016, 43mins.
Director Q&A featuring Richard Thompson
Named by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the Top 20 guitarists of all time, Richard Thompson is also one of the world’s most critically acclaimed and prolific songwriters. Co-founding the ground-breaking group Fairport Convention as a teenager in the 1960s, Thompson and his mates virtually invented British folk rock. By the age of 21 he left Fairport to pursue a solo career. This tour film is a kaleidoscopic look at the hardworking and multifaceted musician through cascading visual and sonic experiences collected on the road with Thompson and his band in 2015.
After the screening we'll be joined by director Nick Wells for a Q&A.
Beneath The Bassline brings together some of the finest bass players on the planet. Via visits to Fodera Guitars in Brooklyn, Sadowsky Guitars in Long Island City and Aguilar Amplification in Manhattan’s SoHo district, and featuring interviews with Will Lee, Richard Bona, Billy Sheehan, Bootsy Collins, Duff McKagan, Felix Pastorius, Mark King, Lee Sklar, John Patitucci, Larry Graham, Marcus Miller, Robert Trujillo, Nathan East, Stanley Clarke and many others, the film is packed with never-before-told stories and anecdotes as well as behind-the-scenes footage and impromptu jam sessions. “This is a film for anyone who loves the bass guitar,” says director Nick Wells. “We wanted to get to grips with what really makes these guys tick, find out how they evolved their respective sounds and styles, and get a glimpse into their world in a way that I don’t think any other documentary has.”
Starring: Patricia Clarkson, Bruno Ganz, Cherry Jones, Emily Mortimer, Cillian Murphy, Kristin Scott Thomas, Timothy Spall. UK 2017. 71 mins.
Janet (Scott Thomas) has just been appointed to a key ministerial position in the shadow cabinet – the crowning achievement of her political career. She and her husband Bill (Spall) plan to celebrate this with a few close friends. As the guests arrive at their home in London, the party takes an unexpected turn when Bill suddenly makes some explosive revelations that take everyone present by surprise. What follows is a hilarious comedy of tragic proportions in which love, friendships and political convictions are soon called into question. From acclaimed British filmmaker Sally Potter, The Party is a smart, fast-paced film full of razor-sharp one-liners that perfectly suits these turbulent times.
Director: John Hughes
Starring: Matthew Broderick, Mia Sara, Alan Ruck USA 1986 103 mins
Ferris is a boy who gets anything he wants, screws over anyone who gets in his way, and gets patted on the back for doing so. Gathering his best friend (Ruck) and his best girlfriend (Sara), he skips school for a day out in Chicago.
13.00We ♥ John Hughes: Brain, athlete, basket case, princess or criminal - revisit your misspent youth in 2017 with our We ♥ John Hughes season
Vintage Sundays: Classic films back on the big screen where they belong.
Director: Alexandre O. Philippe. Featuring: Guillermo del Toro, Peter Bogdanovich, Bret Easton Ellis. USA 2017. 92 mins.
After the screening join Central DOCS Club for a discussion about the film hosted by marketing manager Milana Vujkov, in association with the UCL Film & TV Society.
In 78 setups and 52 cuts, the deliriously choreographed two-minute shower sequence in Psycho ripped apart cinema’s definition of horror. With a shocking combination of exploitation and high art, Alfred Hitchcock upended his own acclaimed narrative structure by violently killing off a heroine a third of the way through his film. Psycho played out like a horrific prank, forcing audiences to recognise that even the most banal domestic spaces were now fair game for unspeakable mayhem. With the help of film buffs and filmmakers, Alexandre O. Philippe breaks down this notorious scene shot for shot. 78/52 examines Janet Leigh’s terrified facial expressions and the blink-and-you-miss-it camera work, not just within the context of the film but also with an eye toward America’s changing social mores – revealing how one bloody on-screen death killed off chaste cinema and eerily predicted a decade of unprecedented violence and upheaval.
The award-winning UCL Film & TV Society provides a forum for both cinema lovers and emerging filmmakers at University College London. The Society's Documentaries strand produces non-fiction films, works on videographic projects and hosts documentary events across the capital.
Director: Theo Angelopoulos. Starring: Bruno Ganz, Isabelle Renauld, Achileas Skevis. 1999. 137 mins. Greek, English, Italian with English subtitles
A dying author (Ganz) prepares to leave his beloved family home by the sea, and settle things with his daughter; his feelings of despair are interrupted, complicated and finally, to some extent, banished by memories of happier times with his wife (Renauld) and by an encounter with a young Albanian orphan. Angelopoulos' film, a deserving winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes '98, is a characteristically elegant, eloquent and idiosyncratic meditation on the relationships between personal and political histories, and between life and art. More intimate than, say, The Travelling Players or Ulysses' Gaze, the film nevertheless reaches out, as its long, fluid takes escort us through space and time, to universal themes and broader topicalities, effortlessly fending off charges of hermetic aestheticism.
Following the screening, we welcome director Gerry Fox who will be in discussion with Sandy Nairne CBE, former Director of the National Portrait Gallery and current Chair of the Fabric Advisory Committee at St Paul’s Cathedral.
A portrait of the world’s most influential video artist, the American Bill Viola and his wife and collaborator, Kira Perov. The husband and wife team are captured on their twelve-year odyssey to create and install two permanent video installations, Mary and Martyrs (Earth, Air, Fire, Water) on either side of the High Altar in St Paul’s Cathedral. This film, made by the award-winning arts documentary director Gerard Fox, also looks back over Viola’s groundbreaking work over the last forty years including a 2007 Venice Biennale show and full retrospective at the Grand Palais in Paris in 2014. He offers a deep insight into the creative process involved in the making of these complex, large-scale video installations as well as the nature of the pair’s working relationship. A powerful take on an artist who has taken video installations to new levels of acceptance in contemporary art.
Director: John McTiernan.
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Jesse Ventura. USA 1987. 108 mins.
Take everything you could want from an ’80s action movie – guns, muscles, sweat, fire, mud, choppers, one-liners – and drop in a highly intelligent extra-terrestrial warrior and you’ve got John McTiernan’s timeless Predator. Holding up superbly in its 30th year, this multi-faceted Rambo-esque action thriller sees an in-his-pomp Arnold Schwarzenegger lead a team of commandos through a remote jungle to rescue potential survivors of a downed helicopter. They soon discover their superiors lied about the true nature of their mission, but this turns out to be the least of their problems: a shape-shifting otherworldly killer is stalking them, and begins to pick them off one by one. By the end, it’s just Arnie and the alien – and the alien’s picked the wrong man to hunt.
This feature-length documentary captures the turbulent life and unique talent of Joe Cocker, who died of cancer at 70 in 2014. Rock music’s most incendiary white soul singer, he had a voice that could rage, bellow, rasp, screech, or – if circumstances demanded – sound unexpectedly yearning and vulnerable, and he could take any song and make it his own.
A gas fitter from the hard-drinking back streets of Sheffield, in the early 1960s Cocker sang in the city’s pubs in the style of his hero Ray Charles. He was catapulted to stardom at Woodstock in 1969 with his legendary performance of The Beatles’ “A Little Help from My Friends”, and his 1970 “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” tour of America is seen as a milestone in rock history. But as his stardom grew, pressures mounted. In the 1970s, his inner demons nearly killed him.
His personal battles were sometimes played out in plain sight. At a key comeback gig after going off-radar, songwriting legend Jimmy Webb recalls, a brandy bottle-wielding Cocker sabotaged his own performance. Yet whenever it seemed he had hit rock bottom, he conjured up more of what singer Rita Coolidge called his “god-given talent”. With chart hits in the 1980s, never-ending tours in the 1990s and a triumphant performance at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Concert in 2002, Cocker’s was one of the great comeback stories in rock history.
Investigative documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney – best known for 2008’s Oscar-winning Taxi To The Dark Side, Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room and at least a dozen others – turns his attention to the 1994 Loughinisland massacre, a cold case that remains an open wound in the Irish peace process. The victims were murdered while watching the World Cup in their local pub. Their families were promised justice, but 20 years later they were still in the dark about who killed their loved ones. Gibney uncovers a web of secrecy, lies and corruption that so often results when the powerful insist they are acting for the greater good.
Investigative documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney – best known for 2008’s Oscar-winning Taxi To The Dark Side, Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room and at least a dozen others – turns his attention to the 1994 Loughinisland massacre, a cold case that remains an open wound in the Irish peace process. The victims were murdered while watching the World Cup in their local pub. Their families were promised justice, but 20 years later they were still in the dark about who killed their loved ones. Gibney uncovers a web of secrecy, lies and corruption that so often results when the powerful insist they are acting for the greater good.
Focusing on the phenomenon of her extraordinary voice, this film pays tribute to The First Lady of Song – Ella Fitzgerald – on what would have been her 100th birthday on 25 April 2017. Fitzgerald’s voice is a phenomenon and unrivalled to this day. With absolute pitch and perfect intonation, her voice spanned three octaves, her phrasing seemed effortless, and the odd moments in her nearly 60-year career when she sang off-key were few and far between. There is almost no style of music in which she did not excel, and her numerous – now legendary – recordings of the Great American Songbook with pieces by US composers such as George and Ira Gershwin, Harold Arlen, Cole Porter and Duke Ellington remained a benchmark for the interpretation of those songs for generations of singers. Ira Gershwin is rumoured to have said: “I didn’t realise how good our songs were until Ella sang them.” Duregger unravels the secret of Fitzgerald’s voice via insights from singers Dianne Reeves and Dee Dee Bridgewater, jazz drummer and producer Terri Lyne Carrington, jazz violinist Regina Carter, author Tad Hershorn and the eminent jazz critic Will Friedwald, among others. They describe the impact her voice had and continues to have on their lives.
As part of the year long "Spike is 60" film festival, events company We Are Parable will screen Spike Lee's devastating documentary "When The Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts". This 2006 film takes a comprehensive look at Hurricane Katrina, the storm that ravaged New Orleans in August 2005. From first hand accounts from residents caught in the tragedy to looking at the exceptionally slow response from George W Bush and his administration to act quickly and save lives, this documentary shows the resilience and resolve of those who call New Orleans home. The event will also feature elements of poetry and dance for a truly immersive cinematic experience that is not to be missed.
This will be the eighth event in the "Spike is 60" film festival, which has seen the man himself, Spike Lee, attend one of the events in a special "audience with" forum at Picturehouse Central.
Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger.
Starring: Moira Shearer, Anton Walbrook, Marius Goring.
UK 1948. 135 mins.
The ultimate ballet film returns to the big screen digitally restored, having been championed by Martin Scorsese, for whom it was a great inspiration after he saw it as a child. Based on Hans Christian Andersen’s sinister fairy tale, THE RED SHOES fuses glamour, back stage detail and stunning dance sequences into an audacious, intoxicating melodrama about the competing claims of life and art. Introducing the young Scottish ballerina Moira Shearer whose flaming red hair becomes a dominant visual motif, THE RED SHOES survived damning reviews and producer betrayal to take its place as a milestone in film history. Possibly Technicolor’s finest hour.
13.00Ad Free: No advertisements will play ahead of this screening. You are recommended to arrive promptly.
The Enchanted Screen: Picturehouse presents a season of folk and fairytale films
Vintage Sundays: Classic films back on the big screen where they belong.
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel. Starring: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara. Germany 2004. 155 mins. German with English subtitles.
Nominated as Best Foreign language film, Downfall faced huge controversy as well as acclaim in its native Germany. Adolf Hitler’s final stenographer, Traudl Junge, tells of the Nazi dictator's final days in a Berlin bunker as his world slowly crumbles around him. His advisers Albert Speer and Joseph Goebbels are wrought with conflict as Hitler clearly begins to lose his grip on reality. At the centre of the film is the towering performance of Bruno Ganz (Wings Of Desire), who not only bears an eerily uncanny likeness to Hitler, but manages to both absorb and emanate the seething mass of contradiction that this most destructive of historical figures must have been.
Director: Jim Henson
Starring: David Bowie, Jennifer Connelly, Toby Froud. USA 1986. 101 mins
Frustrated with babysitting on yet another weekend night, Sarah – a teenager with an active imagination – summons the Goblins from her favourite book, Labyrinth, to take her baby step-brother away.
When little Toby actually disappears, Sarah must follow him into the world of the fairy tale to rescue him, in hope that their loyalty isn't just another illusion in a place where nothing is as it seems!
Combining music, adventure, comedy and fantasy, this beloved family film boasts a cast of incredible creatures created by the Jim Henson Creature Shop, and stars the late, great David Bowie, who performs five original songs in the role of the Goblin King.
18.30Ad Free: No advertisements will play ahead of this screening. You are recommended to arrive promptly.
The Enchanted Screen: Picturehouse presents a season of folk and fairytale films
Culture Shock: Dedicated to bringing you the best in cult and genre films.
Straight Into A Storm centres around Deer Tick's 2015 10th anniversary run in New York City. It is a portrait of a hard-rocking band known for their substance-fuelled live performances on their evolutionary journey to become one of the greatest cult rock bands of our time. Anchored by a fan-chosen setlist and New Year's Eve performance, the film weaves in and out of time over the past 10 years, utilising never before seen archive footage from their booze-drenched early days to the successful touring/recording band they are now - and everything in between.
Director: Timothy George Kelly. UK/Russia 2017. 84 mins.
In the wake of the most momentous event in modern British history, Brexitannia presents a complex panorama of fifty Leavers and Remainers from across the UK. Renewing the art of documentary interview, Timothy George Kelly’s meticulous black-and-white framing and sensitive portrayals of ordinary Britons gives an insightful and at times uncomfortable portrait of Britain today. The film ends with a sobering analysis from theorists including Noam Chomsky, Saskia Sassen and Nick Srnicek.
Stephen Sondheim’s legendary musical is staged for the first time at the National Theatre and broadcast live to cinemas. New York, 1971. There’s a party on the stage of the Weismann Theatre. Tomorrow the iconic building will be demolished. Thirty years after their final performance, the Follies girls gather to have a few drinks, sing a few songs and lie about themselves. Tracie Bennett, Janie Dee and Imelda Staunton play the magnificent Follies in this dazzling new production. Featuring a cast of 37 and an orchestra of 21, it’s directed by Dominic Cooke (The Comedy of Errors). Winner of Academy, Tony, Grammy and Olivier awards, Sondheim’s previous work includes A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd and Sunday in the Park with George.
Dir. Wolfgang Pfoser-Almer, Austria/US, 2017, 90mins
Followed by director Q&A
Born in 1932 in rural segregated Mississippi, blues and gospel singer Leo “Bud” Welch was a poor man all his life, working hard in the cotton fields and the woods. But 2013, after decades of missed opportunities and gigs in local juke joints and churches, a Gulf War veteran management rookie teams up with him to take the blues world by storm.
Documenting the most exciting times in the life of one of the last real bluesmen, Late Blossom Blues is a film of historic dimension for music lovers: a moving account of a hard-working man, who, despite countless adversities, never wavered from his passion and waited more than 70 years to live his dream.
After taking a DNA test, Latin America’s most acclaimed artist, Rene Perez, aka Residente, embarks on a global odyssey to trace the footsteps of his ancestors and record his latest album. This self-directed documentary reveals how he grew from struggling art student into the founder of the region’s most influential rap group, Calle 13, and how he became one of Latin America’s most outspoken critics of injustice and corruption. We learn why he left Calle 13 at the peak of its success and then undertook a journey through Siberia, the Caucasus, China and West Africa, after mapping out his DNA. Music becomes the film’s primary focus, framing each destination and informing every conversation.
Director: Jean Cocteau.
Starring: Jean Marais, Josette Day, Mila Parély.
France 1946. 95 mins. French with English subtitles.
Despite the stringent conditions of its making in post-liberation France, Cocteau’s exquisite version of the 18th-century fairy tale remains one of the greatest films of the fantasy genre. Beauty gives herself to the Beast who has held her father to ransom. Through love, and to her slight disappointment, he turns into a handsome prince. Romantic, erotic, hallucinatory and almost tragic, this is an intelligent, grown-up retelling of a ‘children’s’ tale.
13.00Ad Free: No advertisements will play ahead of this screening. You are recommended to arrive promptly.
The Enchanted Screen: Picturehouse presents a season of folk and fairytale films
Vintage Sundays: Classic films back on the big screen where they belong.
Director: Alex Reuben.
Starring: Eleanor Sikorski, Professors Chris Frith and Natalie Sebanz. UK 2017. TBC mins.
Alex Reuben’s (Routes: Dancing To New Orleans) fascinating new essay film explores the meaning of dance and synchronisation, with a narrative thread that weaves together more than thirteen interpretations of the Cinderella story.
It centres on the contemporary story of a dancer, Gingerella, who has lost the will to dance and her quest to recover her ability to move. The world of modern neuroscience is Gingerella’s map and her guides are two of its foremost practitioners: Professors Chris Frith and Natalie Sebanz.
In an age when physical proximity to machines can be more common than with people, we journey with Gingerella through landscapes of earth, body and mind, exploring how we dance and what it is to be close to each other.
Supported by the Wellcome Trust and Arts Council of England.
Picturehouse Central is delighted to host screenings in this year's Russian Film Week.
Arrhythmia
Director: Boris Khlebnikov
Screenplay: Natalya Meshchaninova, Boris Khlebnikov
Producers: Ruben Dishdishyan, Sergey Selyanov,Natalya Drozd
Cast: Aleksandr Yatsenko, Irina Gorbacheva, Anna Kotova, Nikolay Shrayber
Oleg is a young gifted paramedic. His wife Katya works at the hospital emergency department. She loves Oleg, but is fed up with him caring more about patients than her; she wants a divorce. Oleg's new boss, a cold-hearted manager, got new strict rules to implement. Oleg couldn't care less - he's got lives to save. Caught between emergency calls, alcohol-fueled off-shifts, trouble at work and search for a meaning in life, Oleg and Katya have to find the binding force that keeps them together.
This screening will be followed by a Q&A with the film’s director, Mercedes Grower, and cast including Noel Fielding, Julia Davis and Steve Oram.
Director: Mercedes Grower.
Starring: Noel Fielding, Julian Barratt, Julia Davis, Steve Oram, Paul McGann, Mercedes Grower. UK 2016. 96 mins.
Brakes is a raw, dark and unconventional comedy. Split into two halves, it follows the tumultuous stories of nine couples, plunging straight into the brutal and absurd endings of their relationships first, before travelling back to the moments when the spark of love between them first emerged. Using London as their matchmaker, each of their stories is unique yet familiar to us all.
Please note: the list of guests attending the Q&A is subject to change.
Director: Aro Korol. Starring: Jenny Runacre, Stephen Fry, Peter Tatchell, Pandemonia, Philip Sallon. 2017. UK. 100min.
After the screening we're joined by Director Aro Korol, Peter Tatchell and Philip Sallon for a Q&A hosted by Clare Lynch, Editor of The Soho Clarion and presenter on Soho Radio. The Q&A will focus on London’s housing crisis, as one of the most creative places in the World, London is now at considerable risk of being overrun with luxury flats at the expense of small office and studio spaces where the artistic communities that inhabit it can thrive.
Inspired by the closure of Madame Jojos, Battle of Soho addresses gentrification within Soho, areas surrounding London, and other major global cities. Soho is world renowned for its exciting and varied nightlife and venues such as Madame Jojos nurtured this image and the budding performers of tomorrow in its unique, offbeat and extravagant fashion. Despite half a century of enthralling entertainment encompassing Paul Raymond's legacy, Madame Jojos licence was revoked and it was subsequently closed in November 2014 following a violent incident in what was seen as a draconian move by Westminster Council. Amidst London’s major redevelopments exists the impending threats of closure to a multitude of London's iconic entertainment and social spaces. The resounding impact on performance art and culture is at the heart of Battle of Soho's message.
18.30Ad Free: No advertisements will play ahead of this screening. You are recommended to arrive promptly.
Picturehouse Docs: Bringing you the best in new and topical documentaries covering issues around the world.
We are delighted to host screenings for this year's Russian Film Week at Picturehouse Central
Blockbuster
Year: 2017
Country: Russia
Director: Roman Volobuev
Screenplay:Roman Volobuev
Producers: Murad Osmann, Ilya Stewart
Cast: Svetlana Ustinova, Anna Chipovskaya, Evgeniy Tsyganov, Mikhail Efremov, Svetlana Khodchenkova, Alexandr Ilin
A wannabe model from a small Russian town robs a local bank to fund her modeling career and takes hostage an accidental witness of the crime, Lisa, who herself has recently experienced a mental breakdown and ran away from her daily life.
Director: Isao Takahata.
Japan 2013. 137 mins.
Please check in cinema whether the subtitled or English-language version is showing.
This timeless masterpiece from the legendary Studio Ghibli is based on a tenth–century Japanese fable. A peasant discovers a miniature girl growing inside a bamboo shoot and takes her home.
She quickly grows to become the most beautiful young woman in the land, and is wooed by a series of suitors, including the Emperor himself. But it soon emerges that she is in fact exiled from the Moon, to which she is bound one day to return.
This haunting story is brought to the screen by Ghibli co-founder and genius animator Isao Takahata (GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES), and is undoubtedly one of the studio’s finest works. Exquisitely drawn in a style that recalls washed-out Japanese watercolours, the story is spellbinding and melancholic – an instant classic.
13.00Ad Free: No advertisements will play ahead of this screening. You are recommended to arrive promptly.
The Enchanted Screen: Picturehouse presents a season of folk and fairytale films
Subtitled: This show is in the original language and will have English subtitles
Vintage Sundays: Classic films back on the big screen where they belong.
After the screening join Central DOCS Club for a discussion about the film hosted by marketing manager Milana Vujkov, in association with the UCL Film & TV Society.
Drawing from over 100 hours of never-before-seen footage that has been tucked away in the National Geographic archives for over 50 years, award-winning director Brett Morgen tells the story of Jane, a woman whose chimpanzee research challenged the male-dominated scientific consensus of her time and revolutionized our understanding of the natural world. Set to a rich orchestral score from legendary composer Philip Glass, the film offers an unprecedented, intimate portrait of Jane Goodall — a trailblazer who defied the odds to become one of the world’s most admired conservationists.
The award-winning UCL Film & TV Society provides a forum for both cinema lovers and emerging filmmakers at University College London. The Society's Documentaries strand produces non-fiction films, works on videographic projects and hosts documentary events across the capital.
Stephen Sondheim’s legendary musical is staged for the first time at the National Theatre and broadcast live to cinemas. New York, 1971. There’s a party on the stage of the Weismann Theatre. Tomorrow the iconic building will be demolished. Thirty years after their final performance, the Follies girls gather to have a few drinks, sing a few songs and lie about themselves. Tracie Bennett, Janie Dee and Imelda Staunton play the magnificent Follies in this dazzling new production. Featuring a cast of 37 and an orchestra of 21, it’s directed by Dominic Cooke (The Comedy of Errors). Winner of Academy, Tony, Grammy and Olivier awards, Sondheim’s previous work includes A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd and Sunday in the Park with George.
Director: Alain Tanner. Starring: Bruno Ganz, Teresa Madruga, Julia Vonderlinn. Germany 1983. 108 mins. German, English, Portuguese & French with English Subtitles.
Ganz, that great loner of modernist cinema, here plays a Swiss seaman who jumps ship in Lisbon, gets involved with a barmaid, and sends reels of home movies back to his wife. Adrift in the exotic White City, he is robbed and then stabbed, loses the barmaid after a passionate fling, and finally hitting rock bottom he raises the fare home. The home movies, accompanied by Jean-Luc Barbier's beautiful, hard-edged jazz score, terrifyingly reflect the disintegration of a man in flight from himself. But this is no idling tract on alienation, more an intrigue built around silences, blankness, deceptions of space and time. A teasingly simple film that compels and stimulates. TIME OUT
Preceded by short film Nice Time, also by director Alain Tanner
18.30Ad Free: No advertisements will play ahead of this screening. You are recommended to arrive promptly.
The Enchanted Screen: Picturehouse presents a season of folk and fairytale films
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.
Director: Renny Rye.
Starring: Devin Stanfield, Robert Stephens, Patrick Troughton.
UK 1984. 180 mins + intermission.
The wolves are running in Picturehouse cinemas this Yuletide. Open the Box of Delights and take a wondrous step back in time to Christmas 1984 with Kay Harker, the Punch and Judy Man, Herne the Hunter, Mouse, and co. for a vintage television marathon of the complete six-episode BBC children’s series. Splendiferous!
15.00Ad Free: No advertisements will play ahead of this screening. You are recommended to arrive promptly.
The Enchanted Screen: Picturehouse presents a season of folk and fairytale films
Director: Neil Jordan.
Starring: Angela Lansbury, David Warner, Sarah Patterson, Brian Glover.
UK 1984. 95 mins.
Adapted from short stories drawn from Angela Carter’s revisionist fairytale collection The Bloody Chamber, director Neil Jordan’s second feature was one of the most surprising and startling British films of the early eighties. Centred on the troubled sexual awakening of a young girl, Rosaleen, the film’s modern-day frame opens up to reveal a dark dream world – a fairytale village nestled in the depths of a primeval forest where young men, both desired and feared, turn into werewolves on the prowl. At once sensual and seductive, genuinely eerie, and with eruptions of alarming violence, this exquisitely designed film is destined to linger in the memory.
13.00Ad Free: No advertisements will play ahead of this screening. You are recommended to arrive promptly.
The Enchanted Screen: Picturehouse presents a season of folk and fairytale films
Vintage Sundays: Classic films back on the big screen where they belong.
Director: Pablo Berger.
Starring: Macarena García, Maribel Verdú, Daniel Giménez Cacho. Spain/France 2012. 105 mins. Silent.
Berger’s take on the Grimms’ tale of Snow White is one of the darkest, but also perhaps the most imaginative. Snow White is now Carmen, born in 1920s Seville to a badly gored bullfighter whose wife dies in childbirth. Initially raised by her grandmother, she’s eventually enslaved by her wicked stepmother, who now tends to her crippled father. But having inherited her father’s skills, Carmen joins a troupe of bullfighting dwarfs – yes, bullfighting dwarfs – leading to fame, if not fortune. Until, that is, her stepmother decides to deal decisively with this threat to her inheritance. Sofía Oria and Macarena García are marvellous as the young and adult Carmens, as is Maribel Verdú as the stepmother, and the dwarfs are as beguiling as you might expect in this weird but very wonderful black and white, silent film.
Contains bullfighting scenes and infrequent moderate sex references.
The young Clara creeps downstairs on Christmas Eve to play with her favourite present – a Nutcracker doll. But the mysterious magician Drosselmeyer is waiting to sweep her off on a magical adventure. After defeating the Mouse King, the Nutcracker and Clara travel through the Land of Snow to the Kingdom of Sweets, where the Sugar Plum Fairy treats them to a wonderful display of dances. Back home, Clara thinks she must have been dreaming – but doesn’t she recognize Drosselmeyer’s nephew?
Peter Wright’s nigh-on definitive production for The Royal Ballet ranks as one of the most enduring and enchanting versions of 'The Nutcracker'. With its festive period setting, dancing snowflakes and enchanting stage magic, Lev Ivanov’s 1892 ballet has become the perfect Christmas entertainment, with Tchaikovsky’s sumptuous, sugar-spun music the most recognizable of all ballet scores.
Loosely based on the story by E.T.A. Hoffmann, the ballet opens with a lively Christmas party, its Victorian setting captured in opulent detail by Julia Trevelyan Oman’s designs. Wright’s choreography ingeniously incorporates surviving fragments of the ballet’s original material, including the sublime pas de deux for the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Prince. But in emphasizing the relationship between Clara and the Nutcracker Prince, the production also gains a touching subtext of first love.
Rory Kinnear (The Threepenny Opera, Penny Dreadful, Othello) is Marx and Oliver Chris (Twelfth Night, Green Wing) is Engels, in this new comedy written by Richard Bean and Clive Coleman. Broadcast live from The Bridge Theatre, London, the production is directed by Nicholas Hytner and reunites the creative team behind Broadway and West End hit comedy One Man, Two Guvnors.
1850, and Europe’s most feared terrorist is hiding in Dean Street, Soho. Broke, restless and horny, the thirty-two-year-old revolutionary is a frothing combination of intellectual brilliance, invective, satiric wit, and child-like emotional illiteracy. Creditors, spies, rival revolutionary factions and prospective seducers of his beautiful wife all circle like vultures. His writing blocked, his marriage dying, his friend Engels in despair at his wasted genius, his only hope is a job on the railway. But there’s still no one in the capital who can show you a better night on the piss than Karl Heinrich Marx.
Supervising Director: David Hand.
Voices: Adriana Caselotti, Lucille La Verne, Pinto Colvig.
USA 1937. 83 mins.
Eighty years after release, Walt Disney’s first ground-breaking animated cartoon feature continues to captivate audiences young and old with its unique blend of fairy tale, fantasy, laughter, thrills and tears. Boldly reworking the Brothers Grimm tale, this hand-crafted Technicolor masterpiece was the gorgeous result of the years of love bestowed upon it by perfectionist Disney and his dedicated studio team. By turns charming, creepy, cute and comical - and jam-packed with wonderful characters - this evergreen story of a beautiful princess, a wicked witch and those dauntless dwarfs took the world by storm, and remains a timeless treat for all the family.
13.00Ad Free: No advertisements will play ahead of this screening. You are recommended to arrive promptly.
The Enchanted Screen: Picturehouse presents a season of folk and fairytale films
Vintage Sundays: Classic films back on the big screen where they belong.
Director: Tim Burton.
Starring: . Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, Vincent Price, Dianne Wiest, Anthony Michael Hall. USA 1990. 105 mins.
In a creepy abandoned castle, an Avon Lady discovers Edward (Depp), the unfinished creation of kindly Franken-scientist (Price), in solitary mourning for his inventor/father whose untimely death has left him with scissors in the place of hands. Taking pity on this shy and innocent child-man, she adopts him into her suburban home. Naïve, artistic, and inescapably nonconformist, Edward learns that social and physical difference can inspire celebrity and mistrust in equal measure. Comedic and tragic in turns, this poignant celebration of a visionary spirit struggling to survive in an unforgiving world remains Burton’s most original and beguiling contemporary fairy story.
18.4570mm: Playing from a 70mm print
Ad Free: No advertisements will play ahead of this screening. You are recommended to arrive promptly.
The Enchanted Screen: Picturehouse presents a season of folk and fairytale films
Culture Shock: Dedicated to bringing you the best in cult and genre films.
Director: Matteo Garrone.
Starring: Salma Hayek, John C. Reilly, Toby Jones, Vincent Cassel.
Italy/France/UK 2015. 134 mins.
Rooted in Italian folktales, director Matteo Garrone’s (Reality, Gomorrah) first English-language film is a gloriously Gothic story of obsession. The Queen of Longtrellis (Hayek) is determined to have a child whatever the cost. To achieve her goal, she is told she must eat the heart of a sea serpent, an item her husband (Reilly) is sent off into the deep to collect. Meanwhile, the King of Highhills (Jones) is besotted with his pet flea, while the lusty King of Strongcliff (Cassel) pursues two elusive sisters. Visually the film is stunning, but for every moment of beauty there is a glimpse of the grotesque: Tale Of Tales’ moments of horror are all the more effective for their scarcity. Nominated for the Palme D’Or and the FIPRESCI prize at Cannes 2015, this is a daring, darkly witty film that stimulates the senses.
18.30Ad Free: No advertisements will play ahead of this screening. You are recommended to arrive promptly.
The Enchanted Screen: Picturehouse presents a season of folk and fairytale films
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.
Director: Tim Burton.
Starring: . Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, Vincent Price, Dianne Wiest, Anthony Michael Hall. USA 1990. 105 mins.
In a creepy abandoned castle, an Avon Lady discovers Edward (Depp), the unfinished creation of kindly Franken-scientist (Price), in solitary mourning for his inventor/father whose untimely death has left him with scissors in the place of hands. Taking pity on this shy and innocent child-man, she adopts him into her suburban home. Naïve, artistic, and inescapably nonconformist, Edward learns that social and physical difference can inspire celebrity and mistrust in equal measure. Comedic and tragic in turns, this poignant celebration of a visionary spirit struggling to survive in an unforgiving world remains Burton’s most original and beguiling contemporary fairy story.
18.4570mm: Playing from a 70mm print
Ad Free: No advertisements will play ahead of this screening. You are recommended to arrive promptly.
The Enchanted Screen: Picturehouse presents a season of folk and fairytale films
Culture Shock: Dedicated to bringing you the best in cult and genre films.
Director: Rian Johnson. Starring: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac. USA 2017. TBC mins.
How do you follow The Force Awakens – a film that raked in two billion dollars at the box office and made the world fall in love with Star Wars all over again? That’s the mammoth task in the charge of The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson (Looper), who has lined up an epic adventure that challenges heroes old and new and delves deep into the mythology of the Force. Plot details are scarce, but the late Carrie Fisher plays a major role, and Kelly Marie Tran, Laura Dern and Benicio del Toro join the cast. The film’s beating heart, however, is the relationship between Rey and Luke. Rey finally comes face to face with the Jedi master on the island of Ahch-To, but he’s not the man she was expecting to find.
Director: Rian Johnson. Starring: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac. USA 2017. TBC mins.
How do you follow The Force Awakens – a film that raked in two billion dollars at the box office and made the world fall in love with Star Wars all over again? That’s the mammoth task in the charge of The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson (Looper), who has lined up an epic adventure that challenges heroes old and new and delves deep into the mythology of the Force. Plot details are scarce, but the late Carrie Fisher plays a major role, and Kelly Marie Tran, Laura Dern and Benicio del Toro join the cast. The film’s beating heart, however, is the relationship between Rey and Luke. Rey finally comes face to face with the Jedi master on the island of Ahch-To, but he’s not the man she was expecting to find.
Director: Rian Johnson. Starring: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac. USA 2017. TBC mins.
How do you follow The Force Awakens – a film that raked in two billion dollars at the box office and made the world fall in love with Star Wars all over again? That’s the mammoth task in the charge of The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson (Looper), who has lined up an epic adventure that challenges heroes old and new and delves deep into the mythology of the Force. Plot details are scarce, but the late Carrie Fisher plays a major role, and Kelly Marie Tran, Laura Dern and Benicio del Toro join the cast. The film’s beating heart, however, is the relationship between Rey and Luke. Rey finally comes face to face with the Jedi master on the island of Ahch-To, but he’s not the man she was expecting to find.
Director: Rian Johnson. Starring: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac. USA 2017. TBC mins.
How do you follow The Force Awakens – a film that raked in two billion dollars at the box office and made the world fall in love with Star Wars all over again? That’s the mammoth task in the charge of The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson (Looper), who has lined up an epic adventure that challenges heroes old and new and delves deep into the mythology of the Force. Plot details are scarce, but the late Carrie Fisher plays a major role, and Kelly Marie Tran, Laura Dern and Benicio del Toro join the cast. The film’s beating heart, however, is the relationship between Rey and Luke. Rey finally comes face to face with the Jedi master on the island of Ahch-To, but he’s not the man she was expecting to find.
Director: Rian Johnson. Starring: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac. USA 2017. TBC mins.
How do you follow The Force Awakens – a film that raked in two billion dollars at the box office and made the world fall in love with Star Wars all over again? That’s the mammoth task in the charge of The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson (Looper), who has lined up an epic adventure that challenges heroes old and new and delves deep into the mythology of the Force. Plot details are scarce, but the late Carrie Fisher plays a major role, and Kelly Marie Tran, Laura Dern and Benicio del Toro join the cast. The film’s beating heart, however, is the relationship between Rey and Luke. Rey finally comes face to face with the Jedi master on the island of Ahch-To, but he’s not the man she was expecting to find.
Director: Rian Johnson. Starring: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac. USA 2017. TBC mins.
How do you follow The Force Awakens – a film that raked in two billion dollars at the box office and made the world fall in love with Star Wars all over again? That’s the mammoth task in the charge of The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson (Looper), who has lined up an epic adventure that challenges heroes old and new and delves deep into the mythology of the Force. Plot details are scarce, but the late Carrie Fisher plays a major role, and Kelly Marie Tran, Laura Dern and Benicio del Toro join the cast. The film’s beating heart, however, is the relationship between Rey and Luke. Rey finally comes face to face with the Jedi master on the island of Ahch-To, but he’s not the man she was expecting to find.
Director: Rian Johnson. Starring: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac. USA 2017. TBC mins.
How do you follow The Force Awakens – a film that raked in two billion dollars at the box office and made the world fall in love with Star Wars all over again? That’s the mammoth task in the charge of The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson (Looper), who has lined up an epic adventure that challenges heroes old and new and delves deep into the mythology of the Force. Plot details are scarce, but the late Carrie Fisher plays a major role, and Kelly Marie Tran, Laura Dern and Benicio del Toro join the cast. The film’s beating heart, however, is the relationship between Rey and Luke. Rey finally comes face to face with the Jedi master on the island of Ahch-To, but he’s not the man she was expecting to find.
Director: Rian Johnson. Starring: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac. USA 2017. TBC mins.
How do you follow The Force Awakens – a film that raked in two billion dollars at the box office and made the world fall in love with Star Wars all over again? That’s the mammoth task in the charge of The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson (Looper), who has lined up an epic adventure that challenges heroes old and new and delves deep into the mythology of the Force. Plot details are scarce, but the late Carrie Fisher plays a major role, and Kelly Marie Tran, Laura Dern and Benicio del Toro join the cast. The film’s beating heart, however, is the relationship between Rey and Luke. Rey finally comes face to face with the Jedi master on the island of Ahch-To, but he’s not the man she was expecting to find.
Director: Francesco Stefani.
Starring: Christel Bodenstein, Charles Hans Vogt, Eckart Dux, Richard Krüger.
East Germany 1957. 71 mins. English narrated version.
A proud and beautiful princess is punished for her arrogance when a bewitched suitor (in the form of a bear) steals her away to an enchanted garden. There, through a series of gripping trials, she learns that kindness, humility and bravery are the routes to friendship, love and happiness. Inspired by stories by the Brothers Grimm, this East German fairy tale enchanted a generation when broadcast as a three-part black-and-white miniseries under the BBC’s ‘Tales from Europe’ banner in the 1960s. Today’s viewers are in for an even greater treat; prepare to be bowled over by the original feature’s joyous riot of colour.
13.00Ad Free: No advertisements will play ahead of this screening. You are recommended to arrive promptly.
The Enchanted Screen: Picturehouse presents a season of folk and fairytale films
Vintage Sundays: Classic films back on the big screen where they belong.
Director: Rian Johnson. Starring: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac. USA 2017. TBC mins.
How do you follow The Force Awakens – a film that raked in two billion dollars at the box office and made the world fall in love with Star Wars all over again? That’s the mammoth task in the charge of The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson (Looper), who has lined up an epic adventure that challenges heroes old and new and delves deep into the mythology of the Force. Plot details are scarce, but the late Carrie Fisher plays a major role, and Kelly Marie Tran, Laura Dern and Benicio del Toro join the cast. The film’s beating heart, however, is the relationship between Rey and Luke. Rey finally comes face to face with the Jedi master on the island of Ahch-To, but he’s not the man she was expecting to find.
Director: Rian Johnson. Starring: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac. USA 2017. TBC mins.
How do you follow The Force Awakens – a film that raked in two billion dollars at the box office and made the world fall in love with Star Wars all over again? That’s the mammoth task in the charge of The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson (Looper), who has lined up an epic adventure that challenges heroes old and new and delves deep into the mythology of the Force. Plot details are scarce, but the late Carrie Fisher plays a major role, and Kelly Marie Tran, Laura Dern and Benicio del Toro join the cast. The film’s beating heart, however, is the relationship between Rey and Luke. Rey finally comes face to face with the Jedi master on the island of Ahch-To, but he’s not the man she was expecting to find.
Director: Ingmar Bergman.
Starring: Josef Köstlinger, Irma Urrila, Håkan Hagegård, Elisabeth Erikson.
Sweden 1975. 135 mins. Swedish with English subtitles.
A sparkling new restoration of Ingmar Bergman’s Oscar-nominated screen adaptation of Mozart’s much-loved opera, in which the Queen of the Night tasks our hero Tamino with rescuing her beautiful daughter from a wicked sorcerer. THE MAGIC FLUTE synthesises Bergman’s expertise as one of the finest European film directors of his generation and as an experienced and highly acclaimed stage director. Framing his film as a theatre show, and eschewing movie stars in favour of new and established stage opera performers, he interfuses top-notch vocal performances with a stunning visual experience. Long absent from British cinema screens, our advance previews of this glorious reissue promise an unmissable festive treat.
18.15Ad Free: No advertisements will play ahead of this screening. You are recommended to arrive promptly.
The Enchanted Screen: Picturehouse presents a season of folk and fairytale films
Director: Rian Johnson. Starring: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac. USA 2017. TBC mins.
How do you follow The Force Awakens – a film that raked in two billion dollars at the box office and made the world fall in love with Star Wars all over again? That’s the mammoth task in the charge of The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson (Looper), who has lined up an epic adventure that challenges heroes old and new and delves deep into the mythology of the Force. Plot details are scarce, but the late Carrie Fisher plays a major role, and Kelly Marie Tran, Laura Dern and Benicio del Toro join the cast. The film’s beating heart, however, is the relationship between Rey and Luke. Rey finally comes face to face with the Jedi master on the island of Ahch-To, but he’s not the man she was expecting to find.
Director: Rian Johnson. Starring: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac. USA 2017. TBC mins.
How do you follow The Force Awakens – a film that raked in two billion dollars at the box office and made the world fall in love with Star Wars all over again? That’s the mammoth task in the charge of The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson (Looper), who has lined up an epic adventure that challenges heroes old and new and delves deep into the mythology of the Force. Plot details are scarce, but the late Carrie Fisher plays a major role, and Kelly Marie Tran, Laura Dern and Benicio del Toro join the cast. The film’s beating heart, however, is the relationship between Rey and Luke. Rey finally comes face to face with the Jedi master on the island of Ahch-To, but he’s not the man she was expecting to find.
Director: Rian Johnson. Starring: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac. USA 2017. TBC mins.
How do you follow The Force Awakens – a film that raked in two billion dollars at the box office and made the world fall in love with Star Wars all over again? That’s the mammoth task in the charge of The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson (Looper), who has lined up an epic adventure that challenges heroes old and new and delves deep into the mythology of the Force. Plot details are scarce, but the late Carrie Fisher plays a major role, and Kelly Marie Tran, Laura Dern and Benicio del Toro join the cast. The film’s beating heart, however, is the relationship between Rey and Luke. Rey finally comes face to face with the Jedi master on the island of Ahch-To, but he’s not the man she was expecting to find.
Director: Rian Johnson. Starring: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac. USA 2017. TBC mins.
How do you follow The Force Awakens – a film that raked in two billion dollars at the box office and made the world fall in love with Star Wars all over again? That’s the mammoth task in the charge of The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson (Looper), who has lined up an epic adventure that challenges heroes old and new and delves deep into the mythology of the Force. Plot details are scarce, but the late Carrie Fisher plays a major role, and Kelly Marie Tran, Laura Dern and Benicio del Toro join the cast. The film’s beating heart, however, is the relationship between Rey and Luke. Rey finally comes face to face with the Jedi master on the island of Ahch-To, but he’s not the man she was expecting to find.
Director: Rian Johnson. Starring: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac. USA 2017. TBC mins.
How do you follow The Force Awakens – a film that raked in two billion dollars at the box office and made the world fall in love with Star Wars all over again? That’s the mammoth task in the charge of The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson (Looper), who has lined up an epic adventure that challenges heroes old and new and delves deep into the mythology of the Force. Plot details are scarce, but the late Carrie Fisher plays a major role, and Kelly Marie Tran, Laura Dern and Benicio del Toro join the cast. The film’s beating heart, however, is the relationship between Rey and Luke. Rey finally comes face to face with the Jedi master on the island of Ahch-To, but he’s not the man she was expecting to find.
Director: Rian Johnson. Starring: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac. USA 2017. TBC mins.
How do you follow The Force Awakens – a film that raked in two billion dollars at the box office and made the world fall in love with Star Wars all over again? That’s the mammoth task in the charge of The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson (Looper), who has lined up an epic adventure that challenges heroes old and new and delves deep into the mythology of the Force. Plot details are scarce, but the late Carrie Fisher plays a major role, and Kelly Marie Tran, Laura Dern and Benicio del Toro join the cast. The film’s beating heart, however, is the relationship between Rey and Luke. Rey finally comes face to face with the Jedi master on the island of Ahch-To, but he’s not the man she was expecting to find.
The corruption of innocence is at the heart of Verdi’s potent tragedy in David McVicar’s production for The Royal Opera. Rigoletto, court jester to the libertine Duke of Mantua, is cursed by the father of one of the Duke’s victims for his irreverent laughter. When the Duke seduces Rigoletto’s daughter Gilda, it seems the curse is taking effect…
David McVicar’s production highlights the cruelty at the heart of the court of Mantua. Richly dressed courtiers engage in orgies and revelries to Verdi’s heady, spirited dances. The opera’s many musical highlights include the ebullient ‘La donna è mobile’, in which the Duke boasts of his disregard for women; Gilda’s exquisite, plangent duets with Rigoletto and the Duke; and the gorgeous Act III quartet that beautifully weaves the voices together as the story quickens to its shattering conclusion.
Giuseppe Verdi wrote in 1855 that Rigoletto was his ‘best opera’. He had had to overcome state censorship to stage it – the censors objected to its depiction of an immoral ruler – but he was vindicated by the premiere’s huge success in 1851. Rigoletto was performed 250 times in the next 10 years and has remained one of the most popular of all operas.
'Tosca' is one of the great evenings of opera, and from its strident opening chords conjures up a world of political instability and menace.
Jonathan Kent’s production for The Royal Opera captures the dangerous political turbulence of Rome in 1800. The Chief of Police, Scarpia – one of the most malevolent villains in opera – ruthlessly pursues and tortures enemies of the state. His dark, demonic music contrasts with the expansive melodies of the idealistic lovers, Tosca and Cavaradossi, who express their passion in sublime arias, including ‘Vissi d’arte’ and ‘E lucevan le stelle’. Giacomo Puccini’s dramatic work was a hit with audiences on its 1900 premiere and it remains one of the most performed of all operas – with its gripping plot and glorious music, it’s easy to see why.
A candle-lit church, Scarpia’s gloomy study with its hidden torture chamber and the false optimism of a Roman dawn: this handsome production throws into relief the ruthlessly taut drama, as the tension is wound up towards a fateful conclusion. Puccini’s meticulously researched score is infused with the same authentic detail, from distant cannon fire during the Act I Te Deum to tolling church bells and the sounds of a firing squad.
'I am all the daughters of my father's house,
And all the brothers too.'
Twelfth Night is a tale of unrequited love – hilarious and heartbreaking. Two twins are separated in a shipwreck, and forced to fend for themselves in a strange land. The first twin, Viola, falls in love with Orsino, who dotes on OIivia, who falls for Viola but is idolised by Malvolio. Enter Sebastian, who is the spitting image of his twin sister...
Christopher Luscombe, Director of the ‘glorious’ (Daily Telegraph) Love’s Labour’s Lost and Much Ado About Nothing (2014 and 2016), returns to the Royal Shakespeare Company to tackle Shakespeare’s greatest comedy, a brilliantly bittersweet account of "the whirligig of time".
Tennessee Williams’ twentieth century masterpiece Cat on a Hot Tin Roof played a strictly limited season in London’s West End in 2017. Following his smash hit production of A Streetcar Named Desire, Benedict Andrews’ ‘thrilling revival’ (New York Times) starred Sienna Miller alongside, Jack O’Connell and Colm Meaney.
On a steamy night in Mississippi, a Southern family gather at their cotton plantation to celebrate Big Daddy’s birthday. The scorching heat is almost as oppressive as the lies they tell. Brick and Maggie dance round the secrets and sexual tensions that threaten to destroy their marriage. With the future of the family at stake, which version of the truth is real – and which will win out?
Captured live on stage, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof will screen in cinemas around the world from 22 February 2018.
Christopher Wheeldon, Artistic Associate of The Royal Ballet, created his adaptation of Shakespeare’s late great romance 'The Winter’s Tale' for The Royal Ballet in 2014. Building on the success of 'Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland', T'he Winter’s Tale' received ecstatic praise at its premiere, acclaimed by critics and audiences alike for its intelligent, distinctive and emotionally powerful story, told through exquisite dance. It is now widely judged to be a modern ballet classic.
The story follows the destruction of a marriage through consuming jealousy, the abandonment of a child and a seemingly hopeless love. Yet, through remorse and regret – and after a seemingly miraculous return to life – the ending is one of forgiveness and reconciliation. With powerful designs by Bob Crowley and atmospheric music by Joby Talbot, The Winter’s Tale is a masterful modern narrative ballet.
'Carmen' is the best-known work by French composer Georges Bizet, and one of the most famous operas in the entire art form – numbers such as the Habanera and the Toreador Song have permeated the popular consciousness as little else has. The opera’s heady combination of passion, sensuality and violence initially proved too much for the stage, and it was a critical failure on its 1875 premiere. Bizet died shortly after, and never learned of the spectacular success his Carmen would achieve: the opera has been performed more than five hundred times at Covent Garden alone.
This ever-popular opera is given a fresh point of view in Barrie Kosky’s highly physical production, originally created for Frankfurt Opera. The Australian director is one of the world’s most sought-after opera directors, whose Royal Opera debut with Shostakovich’s The Nose in 2016 was greeted with delight. For Carmen he has devised a far-from-traditional version, incorporating music written by Bizet for the score but not usually heard, and giving a new voice to the opera’s endlessly fascinating central character.
Leonard Bernstein was one of the first classical composers in America to achieve both popular and critical acclaim. He was eclectic in his sources – drawing on jazz and modernism, the traditions of Jewish music and the Broadway musical – and many of Bernstein’s scores are remarkably well suited to dance. He was particularly associated with Jerome Robbins, their credits together including Fancy Free and West Side Story. To celebrate the centenary year of the composer’s birth, The Royal Ballet has united all three of its associate choreographers to celebrate the dynamic range and danceability of Bernstein’s music.
The programme includes two world premieres by Resident Choreographer Wayne McGregor and Artistic Associate Christopher Wheeldon, marking each artist’s first foray into Bernstein. At the heart of the programme is the first revival of Artist in Residence Liam Scarlett’s The Age of Anxiety, created in 2014 to Bernstein’s soul-searching Second Symphony. Both symphony and ballet are inspired by W.H. Auden’s masterful modernist poem, itself written in response to the atmosphere of disillusionment and uncertainty that followed the end of World War II.
Ben Whishaw (The Danish Girl, Skyfall, Hamlet) and Michelle Fairley (Fortitude, Game of Thrones) play Brutus and Cassius, David Calder (The Lost City of Z, The Hatton Garden Job) plays Caesar and David Morrissey (The Missing, Hangmen, The Walking Dead) is Mark Antony. Broadcast live from The Bridge Theatre, London.
Caesar returns in triumph to Rome and the people pour out of their homes to celebrate. Alarmed by the autocrat’s popularity, the educated élite conspire to bring him down. After his assassination, civil war erupts on the streets of the capital.
Nicholas Hytner’s production will thrust the audience into the street party that greets Caesar’s return, the congress that witnesses his murder, the rally that assembles for his funeral and the chaos that explodes in its wake.
Verdi’s life-long love affair with Shakespeare’s works began with Macbeth, a play he considered to be ‘one of the greatest creations of man’. With his librettist, Francesco Maria Piave, Verdi set out to create ‘something out of the ordinary’. Their success is borne out in every bar of a score that sees Verdi at his most theatrical: it bristles with demonic energy.
The warrior Macbeth fights on the side of the King of Scotland – but when a coven of witches prophesy that he shall become king himself, a ruthless ambition drives Macbeth and his wife to horrific acts.Murder makes Macbeth king, and intrigue and butchery are the hallmarks of his brief, doomed reign. The witches make another prediction, which also comes true: Macbeth and his lady lose their lives, and justice is restored.
Phyllida Lloyd’s 2002 production for The Royal Opera is richly hued, shot through with black, red and gold. The witches – imagined by designer Anthony Ward as strange, scarlet-turbaned creatures – are ever-present agents of fate. Lloyd depicts the Macbeths’ childlessness as the dark sadness lurking behind their terrible deeds. The Royal Opera’s production uses Verdi’s 1865 Paris revision of the opera, which includes Lady Macbeth’s riveting aria ‘La luce langue’.
Returning home from battle, the victorious Macbeth meets three witches on the heath. Driven by their disturbing prophecies, he sets out on the path to murder.
This contemporary production of Shakespeare’s darkest psychological thriller marks both Christopher Eccleston’s RSC debut and the return of Niamh Cusack to the Company.
Manon’s brother Lescaut is offering her to the highest bidder when she meets Des Grieux and falls in love. They elope to Paris, but when Monsieur G.M. offers Manon a life of luxury as his mistress she can’t resist. With the Lescauts’ encouragement Des Grieux cheats at cards in an attempt to win Monsieur G.M.’s fortune. They are caught. Manon is arrested as a prostitute and deported to New Orleans, followed by Des Grieux. On the run, Manon dies from exhaustion.
Kenneth MacMillan’s source for Manon was the 18th-century French novel already adapted for opera by Massenet and Puccini. The premiere was given on 7 March 1974, with the lead roles danced by Antoinette Sibley and Anthony Dowell. The ballet quickly became a staple of The Royal Ballet’s repertory, and a touchstone of adult, dramatic dance.
MacMillan found new sympathy with the capricious Manon and her struggle to escape poverty. Designs by his regular collaborator Nicholas Georgiadis reflect this, depicting a world of lavish splendour polluted by miserable destitution. MacMillan’s spectacular ensemble scenes for the whole Company create vivid, complex portraits of the distinct societies of Paris and New Orleans. But it is Manon and Des Grieux’s impassioned pas de deux – recalling the intensity of MacMillan’s earlier Romeo and Juliet – that drive this tragic story, and make Manon one of MacMillan’s most powerful dramas.
'Swan Lake' has had a special role in the repertory of The Royal Ballet since 1934. This Season The Royal Ballet creates a new production with additional choreography by Artist in Residence Liam Scarlett. While remaining faithful to the Petipa-Ivanov text, Scarlett will bring fresh eyes to the staging of this classic ballet, in collaboration with his long-term designer John Macfarlane.
Prince Siegfried chances upon a fl ock of swans while out hunting. When one of the swans turns into a beautiful woman, Odette, he is enraptured. But she is under a spell that holds her captive, allowing her to regain her human form only at night.
'Swan Lake' was Tchaikovsky’s first ballet score. Given its status today as arguably the best loved and most admired of all classical ballets, it is perhaps surprising that at its premiere in 1877 Swan Lake was poorly received. It is thanks to the 1895 production by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov that Swan Lake has become part of not only ballet consciousness but also wider popular culture. That success is secured not only by the sublime, symphonic sweep of Tchaikovsky’s score, but also by the striking choreographic contrasts between Petipa’s royal palace scenes and the lyric lakeside scenes created by Ivanov.
What if your first true love was someone you’d been told you must hate?
Set in a world very like our own, this Romeo & Juliet is about a generation of young people born into violence and ripped apart by the bitter divisions of their parents.
The most famous story of love at first sight explodes with intense passion and an irresistible desire for change, but leads all too quickly to heartbreaking consequences.
Down on his luck in the suburbs, John Falstaff plans to hustle his way to a comfortable retirement by seducing the wives of two wealthy men.
Unknown to him, it’s the women of Windsor who really pull the strings, orchestrating Falstaff’s comeuppance amidst a theatrical smorgasbord of petty rivalries, jealousies and over-inflated egos.
For a fat Englishman, a Welshman and a Frenchman, the only way is Windsor…
