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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…
Check the Gate opening gala: ‘Apocalypse Now’
For the next six weeks, the Prince Charles’s Check the Gate season will screen a stunning selection of classic movies – all from 35mm film prints. Like an old vinyl record, a film is a physical object, complete with pops and crackles that let you know it’s been enjoyed for generations. Season highlights include Richard Ayoade presenting Paul Thomas Anderson’s extraordinary ‘Magnolia’ and The Duke Mitchell Film Club with Robert Altman’s whacked-out comedy ‘OC and Stiggs’, but for opening night the PCC programmers gone for a real crowdpleaser: eye-scorching Vietnam war masterpiece ‘Apocalypse Now’. If you’ve never seen it on the big screen – let alone on film – it’s a whole new experience.
Prince Charles Cinema, 7 Leicester Place, WC2H 7BP. Sat Jul 9, 8.30pm. £10.
Steven Spielberg season: Indiana Jones Day
A chance to catch all four Indiana Jones movies back to back – or, y’know, just watch the first three then enjoy a nice drink in the bar. The original ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ is still the best by a country mile: action movies had never before been this supercharged, nor would they be, by virtually anyone else. It’s a perfect entertainment machine, and might be more of a masterpiece than any of Spielberg’s other triumphs, simply for unearthing the treasure of the chase, running down the magic for a perfect two hours and then, suggestively, hiding it in a dusty warehouse as if to say: now it’s your turn. Go find it.
BFI Southbank, Belvedere Rd, SE1 8XT. Sat Jul 9, 12.30pm. £30, £24 concs.
Anachron Film Club: ‘Story of a Prostitute’ + ‘Red Angel’
Another terrific double bill from this bold and unpredictable film club, focusing on the struggles of Japanese women during World War II. ‘Story of a Prostitute’ is a visually sumptuous melodrama from master director Seijun Suzuki, whose later films would revitalise the gangster genre. It’s the story of a young woman in a Manchurian ‘comfort house’ who begins a dangerous affair with a junior officer. ‘Red Angel’, directed by Suzuki’s contemporary Yasuzo Masumara, is the brutal tale of a nurse who experiences rape but doesn’t stop trying to help the soldiers under her care.
Muse Gallery, 269 Portobello Rd, W11 1LR. Tue Jul 5, 7pm. Free.
The Nomad: ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’
Outdoor cinema experts The Nomad kick off two weekends of screenings in Grosvenor Square by the IUS embassy. Titles to follow include female-fronted smashes ‘Bridesmaids’ and ‘Thelma and Louise’ (plus ‘The Hangover’ if you need a bit more testosterone). But for a communal outdoor experience, you can’t get much better than John Hughes’s feisty high school comedy ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’. Yes, we know you’ve seen it a million times – so one more won’t hurt.
Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, W1K 6JP. Thu Jul 7, 8pm. £15.
‘The Hard Stop’ + Q&A
Join filmmaker George Amponsah, writer-producer Dionna Walker and prominent members of the Tottenham community for this early screening of ‘The Hard Stop’, an intimate documentary about the shooting by police of 29-year-old Tottenham resident Mark Duggan, whose death sparked riots across London. For 28 months, Amponsah filmed in and around the Broadwater Farm estate where Duggan grew up. His film focuses on two of Mark’s best friends, Marcus Knox and Kurtis Henville, whose lives have been changed for ever.
Bernie Grant Arts Centre, Tottenham Green, N15 4RX. Thu Jul 7, 7.30pm. £12.
For the full list, go to Time Out’s film events page.