NOW SHOWING: LONDON SCREEN GUIDE w/c 14.04.17
To help your hunt for adventurous moving pictures, RADIANT CIRCUS hand-picks London’s screen highlights for the week ahead*.
This is a week with some epic screening times (pack your cushions for 1900 at Regent Street Cinema) and a loaded tiffin of delights from INIDA ON FILM at the BFI.
Our featured – TV – film of the week is Fassbinder’s WORLD ON A WIRE.
FRIDAY 14 APRIL 2017, 20:30, PRINCE CHARLES CINEMA
It’s Easter, so fight off the sugary eggcess by battling some face-hugging foes. ALIEN (THEATRICAL CUT) & ALIENS (DIRECTOR’S CUT) projects two essential versions of two essential science fiction films on the big walls of the Prince Charles. Two films for £15 can’t be bad either.
Looking for an alternative? ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST (various times) begins a revival run at BFI (and elsewhere) to celebrate Jack Nicholson’s 80th birthday (22 APRIL 2017). There’s something sublime about BFI’s invitation to anaesthetise your tired brain with a “Ratched or McMurphy” cocktail at the bar afterwards.
SATURDAY 15 APRIL 2017, 14:00, BFI
WORLD ON A WIRE is RW Fassbinder’s Matrix meets Bladerunner sci-fi TV mini series. “Stylistically dazzling, disquieting and hugely enjoyable”, this 1973 two-parter (1hr 42min & 1hr 48min + interval) screens as part of BFI’s continuing FASSBINDER retrospective.
Looking for an alternative? Tuck in at KINO VINO for their cinema supper club screening of Bertolucci’s 1900 (14:00) at Regent Street Cinema. If you grab the £45 supper club ticket, you’ll get a rustic Italian buffet bite in the interval. No matter how great Bertolucci’s historical epic, at 5hrs 17min, you might be glad of the nourishment…
SUNDAY 16 APRIL 2017, 17:30, BFI
SHAHID is a 2013 biopic looking at the oppression of Muslims in modern India. Based on the life of lawyer and human rights activist Shahid Azmi, who was assassinated in 2010 in Mumbai, the film screens as part of INDIA ON FILM.
Looking for an alternative? India’s first international Muslim movie megastar, Sabu, appears in Powell & Pressburger’s BLACK NARCISSUS (16:00) at Deptford Cinema. We love the cinema’s understated summary: “it hardly needs saying that the repressed desires of nuns was not a common – or safe – subject for a British film in 1947”. Served with a Sunday tea and sarnies.
MONDAY 17 APRIL 2017, 14:15, BFI
KAPOOR & SONS (SINCE 1921) gives us an Indian modern family, tackling issues of homosexuality, parental infidelity and death.
Looking for an alternative? Head to The Alibi for their free screening of EVIL DEAD (19:00). Whilst it doesn’t have the character – or the chin! – of Raimi & co’s blistering original, this 2013 remake can still give you the countryside creeps.
TUESDAY 18 APRIL 2017, 19:00, THE HORSE HOSPITAL
The Horse Hospital presents VENOMS & VICTIMS, an evening of video, Super8 & 16mm movies from Spanish experimental filmmaker HH (aka Oriol Sánchez). Includes a live “music intervention” and “noise concert” (whatever that might be) from ZUZUSHIIMONKEY.
Looking for an alternative? Continuing the night’s experimental vibe, how about an evening of KENNETH ANGER FILMS (18:45) at Picturehouse Central? Anger is the homosexual occultist par excellence and the evening includes some of his greatest hits: FIREWORKS, EAUX D’ARTIFICE, SCORPIO RISING, KUSTOM KAR KOMMANDOS and LUCIFER RISING.
WEDNESDAY 19 APRIL 2017, 18:30, CURZON BLOOMSBURY
It’s a day for collaborations. Celebrate NATIONAL CANADIAN FILM DAY (who knew?) with the Bertha Dochouse screening of ANGRY INUK. The doc about the hunting rights of indigenous populations screens in partnership with Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and will be introduced by Sonya Thissen, Minister-Counsellor for Political and Public Affairs at the High Commission of Canada.
Looking for an alternative? Across the city, ICA stage their own juicy collab with Little White Lies and Mubi to bring you THE HAPPIEST DAY IN THE LIFE OF OLLI MAKI (18:20). The film about a famous Finnish boxer fighting and falling in love, will be followed by a Q&A with director Juho Kuosmanen.
THURSDAY 20 APRIL 2017, 18:10, BFI
INDIA IN A DAY + Q&A with director Richie Mehta, editor Beverley Mills and producers Cassandra Sigsgaard and Jack Arbuthnot. Spend 24hrs in India with this compilation of clips submitted by people from across the country, reminding us of “the immense power of small, everyday stories”.
Looking for an alternative? LIBERAMI + Q&A (19:30) at Regent Street Cinema is the UK premiere of a doc looking at the everyday conventions of Catholic exorcism.
FESTIVALS / LONGER RUNS / TALKS
BFI continues their INDIA ON FILM: BOLLYWOOD 2.0 and FASSBINDER seasons.
Close-Up continues their DAVID LYNCH retrospective. Try – if you haven’t already – WILD AT HEART (14 APRIL, 19:30), TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME in double bill with Otto Preminger’s LAURA (15 APRIL, 17:30) and INLAND EMPIRE (16 APRIL, 19:00).
More places to shelter from the storm in next week’s GUIDE.
*As accurate as we could make it. Apologies for any mistakes.
Featured image: WORLD ON A WIRE (1973).