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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…
She’s So Giallo: ‘Four Flies on Grey Velvet’
This new four-week run looks at the role of women in Italian giallo movies – classic slasher and supernatural flicks from the 1960s and ’70s characterised by high style, vivid colours, great soundtracks and amazing titles (other films playing in this season include ‘All the Colours of the Dark’ and ‘One on Top of the Other’). First up it’s this transitional classic from the Godfather of the genre, Dario Argento. The maestro’s last ‘straight’ giallo flick before he turned horror on its head with ‘Deep Red’, ‘Four Flies’ follows a rock drummer and his wife as they deal with a masked stalker.
Barbican Centre, Silk St, EC2Y 8DS. Tue Jun 7, 8.30pm. £9.50, £8.50 concs.
Kes
It’s been more than 40 years since Ken Loach shot ‘Kes’ in South Yorkshire, taking in school and home life in an area where nature meets the mining industry on the skyline. It’s the story of Billy Casper, a smart but wayward schoolboy who lives near Barnsley with his mother and older brother and who, despite a quick mind and tongue, has a reputation as a rogue. It’s a bird that gives the film its name and the scenes with Billy and his falcon are undoubtedly special and tender. But in the end, ‘Kes’ is one of the most astute, engaged films about education and what it takes for kids to be excited about learning or passionate about anything, really, whether in the classroom or roaming the fields with a feathered friend.
Hackney Picturehouse, 270 Mare St, E8 1HE. Sun Jun 12, 3pm. £12, £11 concs.
Tufnell Park Film Club: ‘The Last Seduction’
When Wendy arrives out of the blue in a small, cow-country town near Buffalo, New York, the locals – notably not-too-bright Mike – don't know what's hit them. She’s smart, sexy, and refuses to use the customary verbal niceties. More importantly, unknown to Mike, who soon falls in love with her, she’s not Wendy but Bridget, in hiding from her husband ever since she ran out on him, taking the entire proceeds of a drug deal. And that’s just the start of this tortuous, well-acted, witty, crisply photographed and immensely enjoyable thriller.
The Star, 47 Chester Rd, N19 5DF. Tue Jun 7, 8pm. £15 m’ship.
Time Out Loves... ‘This is Spinal Tap’
You’re asking, how much more funny could this be? And the answer is none. None more funny. Rob Reiner’s genre-setting mockumentary – or, if you will, rockumentary – about England’s largest-livin’, heaviest-riffin’, filthiest-lyric-singin’, biggest-hair-havin’, fluffiest-jumper-ownin’ heavy rock combo topped Time Out’s recent list of the 100 Best Comedy Movies. Sporting arguably the most quotable script in movie history (‘these go to 11’) and some of the meatiest metal melodies this side of Bon Scott-era AC/DC, this is simply a perfect film.
The Bussey Building, 133 Rye Lane, SE15 4ST. Sun Jun 12, 9pm. £16.50. Get tickets.
Anachron Film Club: Mario Bava Double Bill
For students of horror, 1960 is remembered as the year of ‘Peeping Tom’ and ‘Psycho’. But Mario Bava’s monochrome masterpiece ‘Black Sunday’ fully deserves to be set alongside them: while Hitchcock and Powell were revolutionising the genre by bringing the terror closer to home, Bava was doing the opposite, creating a boldly imaginative and dreamlike world inspired by the Universal classics, while at the same time using groundbreaking special effects to ensure that the horrors depicted on screen were more graphically disturbing than ever before. It screens tonight alongside Bava’s later ‘Baron Blood’
Muse Gallery, 269 Portobello Rd, W11 1LR. Tue Jun 7, 7pm. Free.
For the full list, go to Time Out’s film events page.