The Flipside | Chappaqua + Triptych in Four Parts
Sat 21st June 6:20pm | BFI Southbank | £(will update)
A psychedelic, LSD-fuelled stream-of-consciousness collage, beautifully shot by Robert Frank and with a great Ravi Shankar soundtrack, overloaded with beautiful imagery to blow your mind.
This screening will be introduced by William Fowler and Vic Pratt, Curators, BFI National Archive. Afterwards, freak out for free to the swirling psychodelic sounds od DJs Mariko and Anti-Gravity Man (The Girls in the Garage) in benugo bar Continue reading ‘Chappaqua + Triptych in Four Parts’
Film Knights | Killer of Sheep | Dir. Charles Burnett | 1977 | USA
Tue 3rd June 7pm | Curzon Soho | Free
(rsvp essential filmknights ‘at’ littlewhitelies.co.uk)
Killer of Sheep examines the black Los Angeles ghetto of Watts in the mid-1970s through the eyes of Stan, a sensitive dreamer who is growing detached and numb from the psychic toll of working at a slaughterhouse.
Frustrated by money problems, he finds respite in moments of simple beauty: the warmth of a coffee cup against his cheek, slow dancing with his wife in the living room, holding his daughter. The film offers no solutions; it merely presents life — sometimes hauntingly bleak, sometimes filled with transcendent joy and gentle humor.
For the past few months the Curzon Soho and ‘Under the Influence’ have been reviving the lost art of the midnight movie. Since its launch back in February the regular monthly night has screened at the witching hour such gems as VHS cult classic Society and Tarantino/ Rodriguez’s Grindhouse (in its full double bill glory) . Continue reading ‘Midnight Movies: Skidoo’
Close Up | Un condamné à mort s’est échappé (A Man Escaped) | Dir. Robert Bresson | 1956 | France
Mon 26th May 9:15pm | Cafe 1001 | £3/ £2 members
Robert Bresson’s 1956 masterpiece, A MAN ESCAPED, is based on a book by André Devigny, a Catholic French Resistance fighter in WWII. The book recounts Devigny’s true-life laborious escape attempt from the Gestapo’s Fort Montluc prison in occupied Lyon in 1943. A MAN ESCAPED was the filmmaker’s first film with an entirely non-professional cast and it crystallized his mature aesthetic: automatic and barely-emotive performances, a heavy dependence on sound effects, isolated instances of music, brief dialogue, and elliptical editing that omits narrative detail in order to provoke mystery or avoid sensationalism.
Close Up | Akahige (Red Beard) | Dir. Akira Kurosawa | 1965 | Japan
Monday 19th May 9:15pm | Cafe 1001 | £3/£2 member
A testament to the goodness of humankind, Akira Kurosawa’s RED BEARD chronicles the tumultuous relationship between an arrogant young doctor and a compassionate clinic director. Toshiro Mifune, in his last role for Kurosawa, gives a powerhouse performance as the dignified yet empathic director who guides his pupil to maturity, teaching the embittered intern to appreciate the lives of his destitute patients. Perfectly capturing the look and feel of 19th-century Japan, Kurosawa weaves a fascinating tapestry of time, place, and emotion.
It was the title that intrigued me and made me take a chance on a ticket when it was screened at the NFT (before it became BFI Southbank) as part of the huge John Berger season a few years ago. I knew nothing of the film and had I known it was about May ‘68 I would never have gone, it’s a topic that personally leaves me cold.
Continue reading ‘1968 Highlight | Jonah, Who Will be 25 in the Year 2000′
In a 2nd hand shop somewhere in the UK sit many a Don Bluth VHS from my own childhood collection. Although kind of a 80/90’s B grade Disney there were still some classics in the Bluth back-cat, The Land Before Time (followed up by endless sequels, and sing along cash ins), An American Tale (I think we can safely skip Rock a Doodle) and most of these still have a special space in my heart…
Continue reading ‘The Secret of Nimh | Electric Cinema’
