[title]
Each week, we round up the most exciting film events happening in London over the coming week, from pop-ups and one-offs to regular film clubs, outdoor screenings and festivals. Here’s a seasonal special covering now until New Year...
Martin Scorsese season: ‘A Personal Journey Through American Movies’
The BFI Southbank’s two-month tribute to one of American cinema’s longest-serving godfathers begins with a screening of Scorsese’s slick ‘The Colour of Money’, and continues with pretty much his entire filmed back catalogue. It’ll be amazing to see masterpieces like ‘Taxi Driver’, ‘Goodfellas’ and ‘The Age of Innocence’ back on the big screen. But we’re also fascinated to revisit his near-four-hour documentary ‘A Personal Journey Through American Movies’. As the title suggests, it’s Scorsese’s own look at the history of American film.
BFI Southbank, Belvedere Rd, SE1 8XT.
Mon Jan 2, 3.30pm. £8.30, £7.45 concs.
Bill & Ted double bill
The week after Christmas can be gloomy. You’re living on cold turkey and warm Baileys, there’s always a relative or two lurking about and the skies are uniformly grey. We honestly can’t think of a better cure for the post-festive blues than the most cheerful, colourful, breezily goofy sci-fi double bill of all time. Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are endlessly charming as the California metalheads who travel first through time, then down to hell to meet Satan.
Prince Charles Cinema, 7 Leicester Place, WC2H 7BP.
Wed Dec 28, 7.45pm. £10.
Rochester Kino: ‘Black Christmas’
A rare 35mm print of Bob Clark’s underrated Canadian horror classic, the film that invented the seasonal slasher genre four years before ‘Halloween’. Just who is making all those obscene phone calls and murdering the inmates of a sorority house before the girls go off on their Christmas holidays? The answer may not surprise you, but this still manages a good slice of old-fashioned suspense.
Genesis Cinema, 93–95 Mile End Rd, E1 4UJ.
Thu Dec 22, 7pm. £8, £7 concs.
‘The Gospel According to St Matthew’
Need a bit of old-time religion this Christmas? Here’s your chance to catch the greatest, most persuasive Biblical movie of all time, on the big screen where it belongs. Taking his dialogue direct from the gospel and shooting in neo-realist style on found locations in southern Italy, the agnostic communist gay writer-director Pier Paolo Pasolini created an unadorned, deeply moving, at times even persuasive retelling of the scripture.
ICA, Nash House, The Mall, SW1Y 5AH.
Tue Dec 27, 6.15pm. £11, £7 concs.
New Year’s Eve: ‘When Harry Met Sally...’
We’re not completely sure we approve of going to the pictures on New Year’s Eve – what’s wrong with the pub? But if you absolutely have to, this is the number one choice. Pretty much everything about the film is perfect, from Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan’s just-this-side-of-smug central couple to Carrie Fisher and Bruno Kirby as the petri-dish of marital dysfunction, from Harry Connick Jr’s just-the-other-side-of-smug crooning to the gorgeous photography of New York through the changing seasons. Bliss.
Prince Charles Cinema, 7 Leicester Place, WC2H 7BP.
Sat Dec 31, 6.30pm. £11, £8.50 concs.