NOW SHOWING: LONDON SCREEN GUIDE w/c 24.03.17

To help your hunt for adventurous moving pictures, RADIANT CIRCUS hand-picks screen highlights for the week ahead*. This is a week for exquisite black and white cinema, from our featured film to early masterpieces by Andrzej Wajda and RW Fassbinder.

Our featured film is THE EYES OF MY MOTHER. A.V. Club had the words: “If Ingmar Bergman had helmed The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, it might look something like this exquisite nightmare”.

FRIDAY 24 MARCH 2017, INSTITUTE OF LIGHT, 18:45

THE LOVE WITCH by multi-tasking director-writer-producer-editor Anna Biller is a lush tribute to 1960s pulp novels, Technicolour melodramas and 1970s Italian horror.

Looking for an alternative? GHOST IN THE SHELL (1995) in Japanese with English subs runs at Picturehouse Central. Catch it late at night (23:10) for full effect.

SATURDAY 25 MARCH 2017, PICTUREHOUSE CENTRAL, 18:30

The Final Girls serve up acclaimed monochrome nightmare, THE EYES OF MY MOTHER in 35mm, as rich a slice of American gothic as most stomachs can handle. (Or, it could be a one star “squelchy, silly revenge horror” if you believe what The Guardian made of it…).

Looking for an alternative? SKIN DEEP PRESENTS: I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO (PREVIEW) + DISCUSSION (20:50) at Genesis Cinema. Narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, this doc explores the lives and assassinations of James Baldwin’s friends, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Medgar Evers, creating a “a radical narration about race in America”.

SUNDAY 26 MARCH 2017, BARBICAN, 16:30

THE INFERNO UNSEEN + LIVE ELECTRONIC SCORE by Rollo Smallcombe is a world premiere as part of FASHION IN FILM. A newly mastered cut of rushes from Henri-Georges Clouzot’s unfinished 1964 film, THE INFERNO UNSEEN draws on “some twelve hours of film footage, showing abstract kinetic experiments and… a number of screen and optical effects tests.”

Looking for an alternative? PINTU TERLARANG (aka ‘FORBIDDEN DOOR’) (19:00). Deptford Cinema continues their FILMS OF THE ARCHIPELAGO strand with this Indonesian mashup of “a Hitchcockian plot, elements of body-horror and set design that resembles early David Cronenberg”.

MONDAY 27 MARCH 2017, BFI, 20:35

RAW (PREMIERE) + Q&A with Director Julia Ducournau bolsters our week with another nerve-jangling horror film directed by a woman in the form of this “feminist cannibal coming-of-age story”. Need we say more?

Looking for an alternative? Try THE ANCHORAGE in 35mm (18:45) at Picturehouse Central for a Swedish film of subtle mysteries that are “uncommonly profound and deeply felt“.

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NIGHTCRAWLERS OF PHNOM PENH screens at Doc Heads at The Horse Hospital, 29 MARCH.

TUESDAY 28 MARCH 2017, PECKHAMPLEX CINEMA, 20:30

SERPENTINE CINEMA: JOHN LATHAM AND LAURE PROVOST screens a number of short films by both artists as part of Serpentine Gallery’s A WORLD VIEW: JOHN LATHAM which runs until 21 May at the Kensington Gardens venue.

Looking for an alternative? Revisit the evolution of modern skateboarding with DOGTOWN AND THE Z-BOYS at Rich Mix (21:00).

WEDNESDAY 29 MARCH 2017, THE HORSE HOSPITAL, 19:00

DOC HEADS go all shortform with a programme of stories of “the excluded or marginalized”. Evening includes discussion with directors Max Cutting and James Dougan, as well as a screening of their film NIGHTCRAWLERS OF PHNOM PENH.

Looking for an alternative? Try ALL THESE SLEEPLESS NIGHTS (18:30) at Barbican, part of the bi-monthly NEW EAST CINEMA series. If you’re short of cash, try the FREE screening of FATAL INTUITION (19:30) at Deptford Cinema with their partners, Korean Cultural Centre UK.

THURSDAY 30 MARCH 2017, CLOSE-UP, 19:30

PRISMATIC MUSIC: THE FILMS OF JOSPEH BERNARD according to Brand New Blinkers is an evening of “the most maximalist home movies ever made”. Bernard describes his own work as follows: “These films are not based on the page or the theatre, they don’t tell a story and, in fact, are (all but one) intentionally without sound… just something purely, emphatically visual… the movement of light and color.”

Looking for an alternative? HOW WE USED TO LIVE + Q&A with Director Paul Kelly (19:30) is a documentary celebration of post-war London at Regent Street Cinema. Includes a screening of the short WEATHER THE STORM.

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INNOCENT SORCERERS screens at Close-Up (24 MARCH, 19:30) as part of KINOTEKA.

FESTIVALS / LONGER RUNS / TALKS

BFI finishes FLARE, London’s LGBT film festival. Best day for availability at time of writing was the final one, SUNDAY 26 MARCH.

BFI also launches a new RW FASSBINDER season in two parts across APRIL and MAY. Get familiar with the prolific auteur’s work at the launch lecture by Dr Martin Brady, RAINER WERNER FASSBINDER: WUNDERKIND, ICONOCLAST, STAR (TUESDAY 28 MARCH, 18:10).

CLOSE-UP hosts MASTERPIECES OF POLISH CINEMA: ANDRZEJ WAJDA (24 to 26 MARCH) as part of the Polish Film Festival. KINOTEKA continues across London until 5 APRIL.

ESSAY FILM FESTIVAL runs from 24 MARCH to 01 APRIL at various London venues. ICA have a multi-buy ticket offer for their screenings.

JW3 continue their splendid CINETALKS with PSYCHEDELICS AND BEYOND including a screening of Terry Gilliam’s FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS (27 MARCH, 19:00).

And finally…

Prince Charles Cinema hosts movie marathon THE FILMS THAT INSPIRED ‘STRANGER THINGS’. Cuddle up with your favourite insomniac on SATURDAY 25 MARCH, 21:00 for the following: STAND BY ME, THE GOONIES, E.T. – THE EXTRA TERRESTRIAL, FIRESTARTER, POLTERGEIST, THE THING. Some screenings from 35mm prints.


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: THE EYES OF MY MOTHER (2016).