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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 the best of the bunch this week.
‘The Warriors’ + costume party
Are you a Warrior? A Lizzie? A Gramercy Riff? A Baseball Fury? Walter Hill’s action classic is the ultimate costume party movie, crammed with bizarre, spectacular but easy-to-imitate fashion statements. From its powerhouse opening, in which all the gangs of New York gather in tribal splendour in Riverside Drive Park, to the last ditch stand in dilapidated Coney Island, Hill elevated his story of a novice gang on the run into a heroic epic of Arthurian dimensions, with sex as sorcery and the flick-knife as sword. Mixing ironic humour, good music, and beautifully photographed suspense, it’s one of the best American films of the ’70s.
Deptford Cinema, 39 Deptford Broadway, SE8 4PQ. Sat Jan 14, 7.30pm. £5, £3.50 concs.
Cinema Matters: Industrial Light & Magic
Throughout 2017, the Barbican will be hosting Cinema Matters, an exploration into the art of filmmaking, with workshops, talks, exhibitions and screenings. The first part, titled Industrial Light and Magic, looks at the technology of cinema. This kick-off screening comes in three parts: first, a screening of early cinema doc ‘Eadweard Muybridge: Zoopraxographer’, about one of the great film pioneers. It’s followed by 16-minute collage ‘The History of Motion in Motion’ and Chris Marker’s dizzying apocalyptic short ‘La Jetée’.
Barbican Centre, Silk St, EC2Y 8DS. Thu Jan 12, 8.30pm.
London Short Film Festival: Youth Through the Decades
The London Short Film Festival returns with ten days of the best new shorts from around the world, plus workshops, discussions, parties and a fistful of classic screenings. Among the latter is this two-part look at youth culture via the medium of short films. The first part covers the 1950s to 1970s and includes Karel Reisz’s iconic London-shot teen doc ‘We Are the Lambeth Boys’. The second brings things right up to date with 2016 subculture doc ‘With Teeth’, and also includes one of the greatest short films ever made, hilariously hirsute rock doc ‘Heavy Metal Parking Lot’.
ICA, Nash House, The Mall, SW1Y 5AH. Sat Jan 14, 1pm. £11, £7 concs per session.
The Badlands Collective: ‘Wonder Boys’
Celebrate the life and work of filmmaker Curtis Hanson – who died last year aged 71 – with a screening of this crumpled, likeable drama starring Michael Douglas as a struggling author and Tobey Maguire as his brilliant pupil. Douglas gives one of the most appealing performances of his career as the well meaning but hopelessly befuddled Tripp, who seven years after his first novel was hailed a ‘modern classic’ is still struggling to finish the follow-up. A quarter of the proceeds will go to support Alzheimer’s charities – the illness forced Hanson to retire a few years ago.
Prince Charles Cinema, 7 Leicester Place, WC2H 7BP. Thu Jan 12, 6.30pm. £7.50.
‘Romancing the Stone’ + ‘The Jewel of the Nile’ + Q&A
Okay, so they’re pretty old fashioned now, particularly when it comes to the depiction of native peoples – there’s a tribal dance sequence in ‘Jewel of the Nile’ that’ll have you chewing your knuckles in horror. But in all other aspects these goofy comedy-action flicks have stood up remarkably well. Kathleen Turner is the adventure author who freaks out when confronted with actual excitement, while Michael Douglas is the bargain-basement Indiana Jones who falls for her. Editor Michael Ellis will be along afterwards to discuss his work on ‘Jewel’.
Phoenix Cinema, 52 High Rd, N2 9PJ. Sun Jan 15, 1.10pm. £12, £10 concs.