Film / Previews
Event Cinema for February 2016
Fancy seeing the great Galaxy Quest with live stand-up comedy, The Grand Budapest Hotel with a four-course banquet, or dystopian sci-fi classic Soylent Green followed by a discussion about death? You’ve come to the right place. For culture vultures, this month’s eclectic selection of event cinema also includes the NT”s new production of As You Like It, La Traviata at the Royal Opera House, Exhibition on Screen’s Renoir doc and Jonas Kaufmann’s Puccini gig at La Scala. All this plus the TED conference live in cinemas for the first time, a programme of local music docs with introductions for the BBC6 Festival, and Bristol Bad Film Club bringing back the worst film ever made. As ever, you can find more info and trailers in our detailed daily film listings starting here.
Royal Opera House: La Traviata
is needed now More than ever
Hot courtesan Violetta (Venera Gimadieva) falls for toff Alfredo (Saimir Pirgu) and they shack up together. But having sacrificed her life of luxury for love, she finds herself implored by his dad, Giorgio (Luca Salsi), to dump him for the sake of the family’s reputation. Richard Eyre’s traditional staging of the Verdi opera is one of the Royal Opera’s most popular productions. This latest revival sees Russian soprano Venera Gimadieva making her Royal Opera debut in the role of Violetta.
Screening Feb 4: Showcase Cinema De Lux, Orpheus, Odeon, Vue Longwell Green, Vue Cribbs Causeway
Encore screening Feb 7: Showcase Cinema De Lux
Ad Marginem + live Mugstar score
Scouse space rockers Mugstar perform the soundtrack to their own film. The blurb informs us that this is a “claustrophobic work with the music taking equal billing with the film, which takes much from Pythagorean philosophy, and is itself broken into five acts.” There’s also musical support from local post-rockers Falling Stacks.
Screening Feb 6: Cube
The New Black + panel discussion
A fascinating 2013 documentary that explores the African-American community in Maryland’s struggles with gay rights issues through the prism of the fight to legalise same-sex marriage. Both sides of the argument are examined, as well as entrenched homophobia in the black church and the right-wing Christian lobby’s attempt to exploit this to pursue its anti-gay agenda. The screening is part of LGBT History Month and presented in partnership with Queer Vision, Bristol Pride and Come The Revolution. It will be followed by a panel discussion.
Screening Feb 7: Watershed
The Cowards Who Looked to the Sky + Q&A
Lonely housewife Satomi (Tomoko Tabata) seeks escape through anime comic romances. While attending an anime convention – where she dresses up as her favourite character – she meets handsome high-school student Takumi (Kento Nagayama) and decides he’s the spitting image of her character’s knight in shining armour. Alas, evidence of their affair is then leaked online. Yuki Tanada’s bold modern drama tackles such issues as domestic entrapment, transgressive sex and cyber-age voyeurism in modern-day Japan. She’ll be present to talk about her film after this screening, which launches the 2016 Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme.
Screening Feb 8 :Watershed
Shy, retiring, modest Kanye West eschews the standard record launch with a big production for what it says here is “the best album of all time”. Mind you, one has to admire the fella’s chutzpah for charging his fans hard cash to sit in a cinema and watch a record being played live from Madison Square Garden, though apparently there’s also a performance by his “visual art collaborator” Vanessa Beecroft. Note that potential naughtiness has caused this screening to be rated 18, so kiddies looking to blow their pocket money further enriching Mr. West may be disappointed.
Screening Feb 11: Showcase Cinema De Lux, Vue Cribbs Causeway
As the title suggests, this is a film about a couple who live in a hole. Specifically, Scottish couple John (Paul Higgins) and Karen (Kate Dickie), who have, for reasons best known to themselves, opted to decamp to the French countryside to eke out a marginal, feral existence. In a hole. The woozy music is by Bristol band BEAK> (Portishead’s Geoff Barrow plus Billy Fuller and Matt Williams). Geoff Barrow, Billy Fuller and director Tom Geens will be present to introduce the film. This preview screening is part of Let All the Children Boogie: The Fringe at Watershed for the BBC Radio 6 Music Festival.
Screening Feb 11: Watershed
The Pop Group’s Mark Stewart introduces this new ‘Bristol Sound’ documentary, which includes contributions from himself alongside such luminaries as Massive Attack’s Neil Davidge, Roni Size, Andy Sheppard, and Portishead’s Clive Deamer. It’s part of Let All the Children Boogie: The Fringe at Watershed for the BBC Radio 6 Music Festival.
Screening Feb 11: Watershed
Jonas Kaufmann: An Evening with Puccini
German tenor Jonas Kaufmann’s rapturously received performance, recorded live at the historic La Scala in Milan on June 14, 2015. His Puccini programme takes in arias and scenes from Tosca, Manon Lescaut, La Fanciulla del West and, of course, Turandot – including Nessun Dorma, obviously. Brian Large’s film also includes an introduction to Puccini’s life and work, narrated by Kaufmann himself.
Screening Feb 11: Vue Longwell Green
Neil Brand Presents Buster Keaton
Composer, musician and broadcaster Neil Brand assembles his selection of Buster Keaton’s funniest moments. It’s followed by a full screening of the stunt-packed classic Steamboat Bill, Jr – which includes that legendary scene where a house falls down around Old Stoneface.
Screening Feb 11: Curzon
Bristol Bad Film Club: The Room
Back by popular demand, the Bristol Bad Film Club‘s all-time biggest hit is the brainchild of one Tommy Wiseau, who wrote, directed and financed the film as well as playing the lead role. As The Guardian noted: “To make a movie that’s so bad it’s good you need vision, drive, luck and obsessive vanity. Fortuitously, The Room’s writer/producer/director/star Tommy Wiseau appears to possess all of these qualities, combined with a total lack of acting talent.” All profits from this charity screening go to Calais Refugee Solidarity Bristol. Advance tickets, price £5, are available here.
Screening Feb 12: Redgrave Theatre
Naked and Famous & Tricky Live + Intro
A double-bill of films made in 1997 featuring Knowle West’s biggest star: Tricky (or Adrian Thaws, to the Inland Revenue). Bristol-based filmmaker Mark Kidel’s Naked and Famous gets under the skin of the most experimental and interesting exponent of the ‘Bristol Sound’, tracing his roots as an asthmatic, mixed-race kid from the streets. Tricky Live was, it says here, filmed in near total darkness at the Shepherds Bush Empire, which must have presented something of a technical challenge. It features vocalists Martina Topley-Bird and Cath Coffey (Stereo MCs). It’s part of Let All the Children Boogie: The Fringe at Watershed for the BBC Radio 6 Music Festival. The screening will be introduced by Mark Kidel.
Screening Feb 14: Watershed
TED 2016: Dream – Opening Night Live
In something of an event cinema first, the opening night of the annual TED conference is broadcast live from Vancouver, allowing punters the opportunity to rub (satellite) shoulders with 1200 of the world’s leading brainiacs.They don’t announce the programme in advance, but you can expect a ‘big musical act’ to open proceedings (please non-existent god, don’t let it be U2), followed by an introduction from TED CEO Chris Anderson. Then the speakers – “artists, inventors, adventurers, global leaders and visionaries” – each get 18 minutes to set out their intellectual stalls.
Screening Feb 16: Showcase Cinema De Lux, Vue Cribbs Causeway
Steve Oram, actor/writer from Ben Wheatley’s Kill List and Sightseers, makes his directorial debut with this promising horror comedy. Pitched as Romeo and Juliet meets Planet of the Apes, it’s set in a world inhabited by people who communicate only in grunts. Naturally, he’s cast himself alongside his Sightseers co-star Alice Lowe, plus the likes of Noel Fielding, Toyah Willcox, Julian Barratt and Julian Rhind-Tutt. As a special bonus, Oram will be present for a Q&A after this screening. Advance tickets, price £5, are available here.
Screening Feb 20: Club Haus
Cannoli & Gun: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Ralph Fiennes shows off his unexpected comic talents in Wes Anderson’s beautifully designed comedy, which bagged four Oscars (mainly for production and costume design) but deserved a great deal more. Fiennes plays Gustave H, legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars, who embarks on a series of adventures with a young lobby boy. Cannoli & Gun‘s screening at the Rummer Hotel includes a four-course banquet starting with rabbit terrine, soup and saddle of lamb (or more palatable veggie alternatives) and concluding with a Mendl’s cake – as seen in the film – conjured up by Bristol cake-maker Ahh Toots. Go here for ticket info.
Screening Feb 22: The Rummer Hotel
By 1880, Pierre-Auguste Renoir had become fed up with his impressionist paintings of Paris. “Hope you like my new direction,” he probably didn’t say. It certainly succeeded in dividing public opinion, but greatly inspired the likes of Picasso and Matisse, who went on to become titans of 20th century art. This latest Exhibition on Screen documentary biography draws on the world’s largest collection of Renoirs – 181 paintings brought together by Philadelphia’s Barnes Foundation – to reveal how the artist became a vital bridge between the old and new.
Screening Feb 23: Vue Cribbs Causeway
The Phantom of the Opera + live score
The original 1925 silent adaptation of Gaston Leroux’s novel, which was a troubled production but remains a masterpiece of gothic splendour, with Lon Chaney still unrivalled as the screen’s best Phantom. The Curzon’s screening is accompanied by a live score performed by silent film soundtrack specialists Minima.
Screening Feb 24: Curzon
With her Duke dad in exile, Rosalind (Rosalie Craig) and her cousin Celia scarper into the Forest of Arden. This being Shakespearian comedy, she naturally disguises herself as a boy and falls in love. Cross-dressing shenanigans ensue. Polly Findlay’s production of what has been described as the earliest sketch show – and is certainly one of the Bard’s weirdest plays – has been hailed by critics as something of a triumph. It’s the first staging of As You Like It at the National Theatre in 36 years.
Screening Feb 25: Showcase Cinema De Lux, Orpheus, Odeon, Cineworld, Vue Cribbs Causeway, Vue Longwell Green, Curzon
Backstage at a frighteningly authentic fan convention, the stars of long-since-cancelled second-rate TV science fiction show Galaxy Quest (Star Trek in all but name) await their cue to perform for the nerds who keep the wolf from their doors. Gwen DeMarco (Sigourney Weaver), who’s cast as dim-yet-buxom sci-fi totty Tawny Madison, complains that TV Guide only wants to interview her about her breasts. Bitter former Shakespearian actor Alexander Dane (Alan Rickman), who plays the half-reptilian Spock figure Dr. Lazarus with a stupid lump of plastic on his head, vows never to recite his popular catchphrase again. And everybody’s pissed off with Jason Nesmith (Tim Allen), the vain, Kirk-esque Commander Peter Quincy Taggart, who’s late as usual and is the only cast member who seems to revel in the fans’ attention. During the convention, a bunch of particularly geeky Questies, all clad in identical body suits, approach Nesmith and explain that they need help to save their planet. Needless to say, this turns out to be absolutely true. By studying the “historical documents” transmitted every week these friendly Thermians have managed to build a real working version of the spaceship Protector. Now the bickering crew have to play their parts for real, without benefit of a script. This Stand-Up Picture Show screening is preceded by live comedy from Matthew Highton, Amy Howerska, Paul Duncan McGarrity, Sarah Keyworth and Jack Heal (one of Bristol 24/7’s ’16 faces for 2016′). Your host is Alice Taylor-Matthews.
Screening Feb 27: Cube
Richard Fleischer’s adaptation of Harry Harrison’s satirical and distinctly plausible novel Make Room! Make Room!, which is set in the over-crowded New York of 2022. Charlton Heston plays a cop who’s alarmed to discover the truth about the synthetic foodstuff, known as Soylent Green, which is keeping the teeming, hungry population fed. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion about the film and “the current thinking about the future of death and the dead body.” Participants include Dr John Troyer, Director of the Centre for Death and Society at University of Bath, and splendidly named Bristol Museum Curator Lisa Graves. This event complements the Death: The Human Experience at Bristol Museum and the locally based Future Cemetery project.
Screening Feb 28: Watershed
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