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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 this week’s top five…
The Best Worst Night of Your Life All-Nighter
There are shedloads of Halloween movie pop-ups this weekend – you can find a thorough list of them right here. But one that initially slipped under our radar was this superb all-nighter at the Electric, kicking off with Hitchcock’s timeless 1960 game-changer ‘Psycho’ and climaxing in the wee hours with the original ‘Friday the 13th’. But it’s the two blood-soaked spaghetti shockers sandwiched in between that get us most excited: ‘What Have You Done With Solange’ sports one of Ennio Morricone’s finest scores, while ‘Blood and Black Lace’ finds original giallo director Mario Bava at the very peak of his powers.
Electric, 191 Portobello Rd, W11 2ED. Sat Oct 30, 11.45pm. £40.
‘Elena’ + Andrey Zvyagintsev Q&A
As part of a short season of his works, Russian master Zvyagintsev will make a rare UK appearance to discuss his bleak 2012 melodrama. The story has an eerie, powerful simplicity: a well-meaning former nurse from a modest background, Elena lives with her wealthy husband Vladimir in a luxury, modern home. Her penniless son from her first marriage wants money for his son’s schooling, but Vladimir is uninterested: he controls their finances with a calm, iron will. But when Vladimir falls ill and questions of inheritance arise, Elena must act to secure her future. This is smart, gripping cinema.
ICA, Nash House, The Mall, SW1Y 5AH. Sun Nov 1, 6pm. £12, £8 concs.
BFI Love: 'Fatal Attraction'
The BFI’s Love season goes dark and twisted with one of the most infamously anti-romantic films ever made. It’s a glossy thriller, with Michael Douglas as a happily married New York attorney whose clandestine weekend of passion with business associate Glenn Close provokes the wrath of a woman scorned when he tries to give her the brush-off. Angered by his insensitive chauvinism, Close becomes increasingly unhinged, progressing from insistent phone calls to acid attacks on Douglas' car, and finally to physical attacks on his family. Accusations of misogyny are hard to refute, but it’s a memorable watch.
BFI Southbank, Belvedere Rd, SE1 8XT. Mon Nov 2, 8.40pm. £8.35–£11.75.
Classic Cinema Club: ‘A Matter of Life and Death’
Powell and Pressburger’s magnificent post-war film grew out of the Ministry of Information’s desire for a film celebrating British-American relations. RAF pilot Peter Carter (David Niven) falls in love with Boston-born radio operator June (Kim Carter) at an unfortunate moment: just as he’s plunging to the ground in a burning plane. It’s after he hits the ground that the conceit kicks in: colour disappears and we’re in a black-and-white heaven. Powell and Pressburger apply the weight of six years of war to this loopy love story.
Ealing Town Hall, New Broadway, W5 2BY. Fri Oct 30, 7.30pm. £7, £6 concs.
‘Brazil’ & ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’
A sterling double bill of very British lunacy, despite the fact that one-and-a-half of these films were made by an American. ‘Brazil’ is Terry Gilliam’s masterpiece, conjuring up a discomforting retro-futuristic world with a nod to the 1940s and George Orwell. Whatever the period, at the film’s heart is the eternal battle between free will and society, alongside a slap-to-the-head conception of what today’s reliance on technology and bureaucracy says about what the future might hold. ‘Holy Grail’, meanwhile, is… you really don’t need us to tell you, do you?
Regent Street Cinema, 309 Regent St, W1B 2UW. Sun Nov 1, 6.20pm. £11, £10 concs.
For the full list, go to Time Out’s film events page.