This is a film still from: THE 400 BLOWS by François Truffaut, 1959.

THE BALLY #135: What to see in London this week [07 to 13 JAN 2022]

Welcome to THE BALLY where we help you find what to see in London this week with our hand-picked highlights across DIY, indie & alternative cinema events, online & in venues.

By RADIANT CIRCUS // Twitter @radiantcircus / Instagram @radiantcircus

It’s great to be back. Have you been out there yet? What did you see? My last cinema trip of 2021 on NYE was to see TITANE (again…), and my first trip of 2022 on NYD was to see SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME. Sometimes you just need your cinema-going to be loud and, well, full of contrast…

A little earlier this week I posted my first epic rep roundup of the year. You can read that post for a full account of the month/year’s new season, but I particularly like the look of the 1982 and BLACK & WHITE seasons at The Prince Charles, JONAS MEKAS 100! and TAKE TWO: JÖRN DONNER at Close-Up Film Centre, and PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON 35MM LATE NIGHTS at Everyman Screen On The Green. My Featured Attraction Of The Month goes to BOWIE: STARMAN & THE SILVER SCREEN at BFI Southbank for strictly personal reasons.  

In venue news, Riverside Studios has undertaken some internal refurbishing of their Studio 3, transforming it into “a cabaret-style cinema & bar” for the month. They’ll be using this space for a season of CONCERT FILMS I missed when putting my roundup together (sorry guys!). Seating is unallocated, and tables will be socially distanced. The venue is also discounting all their cinema tickets for January to £6.50. Elsewhere, the Brigadoon of new venue openings, The Garden Cinema, is now posting an official opening date of March 2022. Can’t wait.

Tuesday is a busy night for film clubs, with Sands Films showing Chaplin’s LIMELIGHT in-venue and online, Tufnell Park Film Club showing BLUE VELVET in tribute to Dean Stockwell, Deptford Film Club screening a programme of artists’ films, and Foreign Film Club showing DOGTOOTH (all 11 JAN). Many others seem to be getting ready for the year ahead. Wimbledon Film Club will start their 2022 with a members’ choice screening of Lee Isaac Chung’s MINARI at Curzon Wimbledon (18 JAN), and Talkies Community Cinema will celebrate their 200th event with a special screening of John Landis’ THE BLUES BROTHERS, complete with live musical intro from St Harmonica’s Blues Club at St John’s Hall (29 JAN). And just in case anyone thinks we’ve been ignoring them (far from it!) Richmond Film Society will resume their (currently) members only screenings with Nora Twomey’s THE BREADWINNER at The Exchange (18 JAN). Let’s hope the evolving COVID situation allows them to throw their doors wide open in due course.

COVID wasn’t the only cause of disruption to our screens last year… The opening night of Ryan Ninesling’s student season HUMAN RESOURCES – Margot Benacerraf’s ARAYA at Close-Up – was postponed in December 2021 due a power cut on Brick Lane. The screening now takes place on 13 JAN and is re-booking now. Also postponed from last year, the final part of The Care-fuffle Collective’s Repeated Apparitions programme, Six Shorts + Mengqi He, will now take place online (09 JAN0. A little further ahead in our schedules, World Wide Weird! will try for a second time to stage their next All-Dayer on 29 JAN, the programme living up to the film club’s name with North Korean kaiju flick PULGASARI (1985), Wei Tung’s MAGIC COP (1990), and Norman J Warren’s PREY (1977) plus a Mystery Film, VJ set and expert intros. Entry is £5 for a raffle ticket, all proceeds go to Macmillan Cancer Support.

Because of the peculiarities of festive release schedules, a lot of venues are only just starting to screen LICORICE PIZZA and THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH. You’ll already know if these titles are playing near you… New releases this week include Jamila Wignot’s documentary AILEY, Philip Barantini’s ‘single-take’ thriller, BOILING POINT, Asghar Farhadi’s A HERO, and Eric Steel’s LGBTQ+ drama, MINYAN. Check our GRIND SHOWS section for full details.

I’ve chosen the 4K restoration and re-release of THE 400 BLOWS as my Featured Attraction of The Week, because it’s both an incredible slice of cinema and an open doorway to the immense treasures on screen as part of Ciné Lumière and BFI’s celebration of the films – and inspirations – of François Truffaut. January’s offerings at BFI are split between films about Truffaut’s semi-semi-autobiographical character Antoine Doinel and “those displaying the influence of Truffaut’s beloved Renoir”. February’s programme will look at the influences of another of his heroes, Alfred Hitchcock. The BFI has also aligned their perennial BIG SCREEN CLASSICS strand to look at the important films in Truffaut’s life. There are plenty of talks and intros on both the Southbank and in South Ken to get you in the mood.

See you in the darkness,

Richard // RADIANT CIRCUS 

THE 400 BLOWS aka Les Quatre cents coups d. François Truffaut, 1959 at various venues inc: BFI / Ciné Lumière / ICA / JW3 / Picturehouse Cinemas.

“François Truffaut’s first feature and a cinematic recreation of his own childhood is one of the defining films of the French New Wave. Misunderstood and neglected, 13-year-old outcast Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud) seeks to rebel against the oppressive social norms of school and home. Turning to petty crime, Antoine skips school to traverse the streets of Paris.”

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FRIDAY

THE QUICK AND THE DEAD 35mm d. Sam Raimi, 1995 at The Prince Charles (07 JAN 18:00).

This is a film still from: CRASH d. David Cronenberg, 1996 at Ciné Lumière (08 JAN 20:30).

SATURDAY

CRASH d. David Cronenberg, 1996 at Ciné Lumière (08 JAN 20:30 / 09 JAN 20:00).

TITANE, Julia Ducournau’s Palme d’Or winning film was inspired by David Cronenberg’s CRASH & screens at the same venue & across town.

This is a film still from: WALDEN d. Jonas Mekas, 1969 (09 JAN 16:00 & 19:15) / Part of JONAS MEKAS 100! at Close-Up.

SUNDAY

WALDEN d. Jonas Mekas, 1969 (09 JAN 16:00 & 19:15) / Part of JONAS MEKAS 100! at Close-Up.

This is a film still from: FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH Amy Heckerling, 1982 (10 JAN 18:20) / Part of 1982 SEASON at The Prince Charles.

MONDAY

FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH 35mm d. Amy Heckerling, 1982 (10 JAN 18:20) / Part of 1982 SEASON at The Prince Charles.

This is a film still from: THE RED TENT by Mikhail Kalatozov, 1969 - Part of TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH at BFI (11 JAN 2022).

TUESDAY

THE RED TENT aka Krasnaya palatka d. Mikhail Kalatozov, 1969 + intro by BFI curator Simon McCallum (11 JAN 18:00) / Part of TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH at BFI Southbank.

This is a film still from: CASQUE D’OR d. Jacques Becker, 1953 - Part of BIG SCREEN CLASSICS at BFI (12 JAN 2022).

WEDNESDAY

CASQUE D’OR d. Jacques Becker, 1953 + Recorded intro by film critic & historian Pamela Hutchinson (12 JAN 17:50) / Part of BIG SCREEN CLASSICS: THE FILMS IN TRUFFAUT’S LIFE at BFI Southbank.

THURSDAY

The Cinema of Edward Owens (13 JAN 18:15) / Part of EXPERIMENTS IN FILM at Barbican.

Full daily listings in this week’s SCREEN GUIDE.

FRANÇOIS TRUFFAUT: FOR THE LOVE OF FILMS at BFI Southbank

FRANÇOIS TRUFFAUT REVISITED at Ciné Lumière

More rep seasons listed in this week’s SCREEN GUIDE.

COMING SOON!

THE 400 BLOWS aka Les Quatre cents coups d. François Truffaut, 1959.

AILEY d. Jamila Wignot, 2021.

BOILING POINT d. Philip Barantini, 2020.

More new releases in this week’s SCREEN GUIDE.

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*THE SMALL PRINT: Opinions author’s own. // As accurate as we could make it. Apologies for any errors. Updates & corrections will be made to the online version only. // Event dates/times/formats are subject to change by the venue/organiser. Events may already be sold out at the time of posting, so please click quickly. // We try to list as many original format screenings as we can (8 to 70MM), but sometimes formats change due to age of the print, availability, logistics etc, so please check ahead with your venue if the format is your thing. // All images are used in the spirit of fair use for reporting & review – no ownership is implied or intended / unless otherwise credited to RADIANT CIRCUS as the original rights holder. We will remove any images immediately upon request – just get in touch. // We don’t filter our listings by age/certification: all readers & subscribers should therefore be 18+. // Finally, we always try to follow The Carny Code by “not screwing up anyone else’s game”, but everyone can make mistakes… If something does go wrong, we will always do our best to put it right. //.