Cube microplex relaunches after refurb

Now easier on the eye and comfier on the arse, Bristol’s unique, volunteer-run Cube microplex throws open its doors on Friday, August 26 after several weeks of intensive refurbishment. The Cubesters raised enough cash to buy the building back in 2014, which means that they’re now able to invest in improvements. Here’s what punters can look forward to at the city’s bijou single screen cinema

• A brand new cinema screen, plus new auditorium lighting rig.
• Upgraded cinema sound system with new surround speakers and a new live PA system with digital sound desk.
• Re-upholstered seats. The traditional old cinema seats have been given a makeover with super-comfy padding – ideal for those bum-numbing Bela Tarr retrospectives.
• A full upgrade of the analogue 35mm projection equipment, replacing the old Kalee 35 with 2 x Kinoton FP30Ds. In nerd-lite language, this means the Cube now has access to the BFI’s entire catalogue of prints.
• A lick of paint in the bogs.

There’s also a packed, typically diverse programme of events and screenings to look forward to, beginning with a performance by folk hero Alasdair Roberts. Here’s a selection of upcoming film highlights:

Suspiria (Aug 28)

Dario Argento’s lurid, grandiose 1977 horror movie Suspiria is considered a classic of the giallo genre. For the uninitiated, it’s the tale of an American ballet student who arrives at a storm-lashed dance academy in Germany only to find that it’s run by a coven of witches. ‘Orrible murders ensue, while Argento breaks out his palette of primary colours. Key to the film’s success was the fabulous soundtrack composed by Italian progressive rockers, and Argento’s frequent collaborators, Goblin.

Gary Numan: Android in La La Land + Q&A (Aug 31)

Having enjoyed hits with Cars and Are ‘Friends’ Electric, Gary Numan was considered something of a joke by the snooty music press back in the late 1970s, what with his funny wig and pasty-faced android look. Today, most of his hipper peers are justly forgotten while Numan has enjoyed a career renaissance with a harder-edged musical style and is hailed as the father of heavy industrial rock. Steve Reed and Rob Alexander’s documentary follows Numan as he relocates to California. It also explores how he coped with Asperger’s syndrome at a time when the condition was little known or understood, as well as his career ups and downs and marriage to a member of his fan club. The Cube’s screening will be followed by a director Q&A.

Repulsion (Sept 1)

Roman Polanski’s brilliantly realised portrait of the mental disintegration of a shy young Belgian girl (Catherine Deneuve) left alone in her sister’s Kensington flat. It features arguably the earliest outing for that great ‘hands groping from walls’ horror movie cliché.

Bobby Sands: 66 Days (Sept 9 & 11)

Back in 1981, Irish Republican Bobby Sands managed to get the attention of the world focused on his cause by embarking on a 66-day hunger strike for the right to be treated as a political prisoner. Brendan J. Byrne’s thorough, well-received documentary draws on Sands’ own prison diaries to paint a portrait of the man behind the martyr. These are the first local screenings.

Belladonna of Sadness (Sept 12 & 13)

After being violently gang-raped by a village lord and his cronies on her wedding night, peasant girl Jeanne is visited by a little cock-shaped demon who transforms her into black-robed vision of madness and desire. Based on the book Satanism and Witchcraft by French writer Jules Michelet, Belladonna of Sadness is the third and final film in the erotic animated Animerama trilogy, a forgotten masterpiece produced by the godfather of Japanese anime & manga Osamu Tezuka and directed by Eiichi Yamamoto (Astro Boy). Mostly animated in the form of a series of scrolling watercolour paintings, this transgressive psychedelic headtrip failed to find an audience on release back in 1973. It’s now been lovingly restored in 4K from the original 35mm camera negative, with eight minutes of censored naughtiness returned to its rightful place.

In the Mouth of Madness (Sept 15)

There’s more than a hint of Stephen King about this Lovecraftian final film in what director John Carpenter describes as his Apocalypse Trilogy, which began with The Thing and Prince of Darkness. Sam Neill plays an insurance investigator who’s hired to look into the disappearance of horror writer Sutter Cane. This is a matter of some urgency, since Cane’s novels appear to be turning people bonkers. Before long, things take a turn for the fantastical as our hero finds himself trapped in Cane’s fictional town of Hobb’s Corner.

Tickled (Sept 19 & 20)

Kiwi journalist David Farrier specialises in odd and unusual stories. So when he came across the world of ‘competitive endurance tickling’, he naturally thought all his Christmases had come at once. But a polite request for an interview with the company behind online videos of these contests was met with a stream of homophobic abuse. That was particularly odd given that the whole idea of grown men being tied up and tickled is, well, rather gay. So naturally, he decided to dig deeper. What started out as a bit of fun swiftly turns serious as he uncovers a world of lies, deceit and cyberbullying with some genuinely extraordinary twists and turns. It’s a documentary for anyone who thought Catfish was too vanilla.

Peter De Rome: Grandfather of Gay Porn (Sept 22)

Bottoms and willies ahoy as this jolly documentary celebrates the life of the charming English pornographer who was churning out gay pornos in New York at a time when homosexuality was illegal and died, aged 89, just after Ethan Reid’s film was premiered two years ago. It’s all very frank and explicit, so our friends the Easily Offended should probably stay away. On the other hand, if you fancy more of this stuff, the screening will be followed by an undisclosed “live performance”.

Read more: Our comprehensive daily film listings start here