Film / News
Event Cinema for July 2016
July is generally a fairly quiet month for cinema, with wall-to-wall blockbusters. Not this year. In addition to all the event cinema stuff below, we’ve got the Cary Grant Comes Home for the Weekend festival on July 15/16 and the multi-venue Cinema Rediscovered, which climaxes with a concentrated flurry of events on the weekend of July 29-31.
Kendal Mountain Festival Bike Night
The Kendal Mountain Film Festival hits the road for a tour hosted by adventure sports photographer, mountain biker and filmmaker Dan Milner. Joining him will be bike adventure gurus Aneela and Andy McKenna, sharing their experiences of mountain bike exploration around wild Scotland; and Stephen Fabes, recently returned from his epic six year, six continent bike trip. Expect plenty of bike-related films and “general tomfoolery”. Go here for more details and ticket info.
Screening July 1: Redgrave Theatre
Queer Vision Presents Facets: Scrum + Q&A
First local screening of Australian director Poppy Stockell’s documentary exploring masculinity and sexuality through the prism of the Sydney Convicts gay rugby team. Expect mud, sweat and testosterone as team members confront homophobia and vie for a place in the gay rugby world cup. The Watershed’s screening kicks off the Queer Vision Presents Facets season to complement the Bristol Pride festival. It’s followed by a Q&A with Pearse Egan, 2nd XV Forward for the Sydney Convicts Rugby Team.
Screening July 2: Watershed
The Battle of the Somme + discussion
A huge box office hit on release in 1916, with nearly 20 million people flocking to see it, this British government propaganda film blends real footage with sequences that were staged for the cameras. This Festival of Ideas screening has live musical accompaniment from pianist Stephen Horne and percussionist Martin Pyne. It’s followed by panel discussion between David Miller, Professor Of Sociology, University of Bath; Humberto Perez-Blanco, Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at UWE and June Hannam, Professor Emeritus of Modern British History, UWE. Chaired by Andrew Kelly, director of Bristol Festival of Ideas and Bristol 2014.
Screening July 3: Watershed
Based on Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla and The Room in the Dragon Volant and shot on location in France, Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1932 vampire flick has been acclaimed as one of the very first psychological horror films. Many of the familiar images from horror iconography can be traced back to the eerie, dreamlike Vampyr, in which a young student of the occult witnesses the effects of vampires on the owner of a spooky remote castle and his two young daughters. The film was financed by a Dutch toff and amateur actor on condition that he could play the lead role under a pseudonym. This screening benefits from a live score composed and performed by Minima in collaboration with renowned BFI silent film pianist Stephen Horne. (Actually, Vampyr was Dreyer’s first sound film, but there’s very little dialogue in it for budgetary reasons.)
Screening July 3: Cube
St. Peter’s and the Papal Basilicas of Rome
The last in the current run of Discover Arts HD documentaries from Sky explores Rome’s four basilicas for the first time on screen. From the comfort of your cinema seat, you can nose around the basilicas of St Peter’s, St John in the Lateran, St Mary Major and St Paul Outside The Walls, savouring the works of Michelangelo, Bernini and Borromini. Your guides are Vatican museums director Antonio Paolucci, architect Paolo Portoghesi, art historian Claudio Strinati, and Micol Forti, director of the Vatican Museums Collection Of Contemporary Art.
Screening July 4: Showcase Cinema De Lux, Vue Cribbs Causeway
Branagh Theatre Live: Romeo and Juliet
Following the huge box office success of his The Winter’s Tale with Judi Dench, Ken Branagh heads Bardwards once again for a modern version of Romeo and Juliet that reunites the stars of his Cinderella. Richard Madden – aka Robb Stark from Game of Thrones – stars opposite Lily James – aka Lady Rose MacClare from Downton Abbey – as the star-crossed lovers in a cast that also includes Sir Derek Jacobi as Mercutio. The play is broadcast live from the Garrick Theatre on July 7, but as with The Winter’s Tale we can expect plenty of encore screenings.
Screening July 7: Showcase Cinema De Lux, Everyman, Curzon, Odeon, Orpheus, Vue Cribbs Causeway, Vue Longwell Green, Cineworld Hengrove
Encore screening July 19: Orpheus
Wet Hot American Summer + live comedy
The Standup Picture Show presents the belated UK premiere of this cult satirical American romcom. A US box office flop on release in 2001, this slyly subversive send-up of teen sex comedies is set during the last day of the fictional, dysfunctional Camp Firewood summer camp in 1981. It’s a place where campers die meaninglessly, counsellors get hooked on heroin, and everyone’s desperate to have sex. Way ahead of its time, the film secured a cult following on DVD over the years and inspired a Netflix prequel series. It also boasts a terrific cast. Back then, the (relatively) big names were Janeane Garofalo and David Hyde Pierce. But lurking further down the cast list you’ll find a pre-Parks and Regulation Amy Poehler, Paul Rudd before he hooked up with Judd Apatow and even a fresh-faced Bradley Cooper in his debut film role, twelve years before he received his first Oscar nomination. The City Farm is being transformed into Camp Firewood for the evening, with the film on screen at around 9.30pm. But the chuckling commences at 8pm with live comedy from frequent Daniel Kitson collaborator Gavin Osborn and whimsical storyteller Sam Schafer, hosted by Alice Taylor-Matthews. Advance tickets, price £8, are available now from Bristol Ticket Shop. Admission on the door will be £10.
Screening July 9: Windmill Hill City Farm
The first part of Francis Ford Coppola’s (mostly) magnificent mafia saga. That great mumbler Marlon Brando gives a commanding performance as Don Vito Corleone, his cheeks stuffed with cotton wool to make him appear like an especially menacing hamster. At the Curzon, they’ll have Sicilian meatballs, cannoli pastries and prosecco on sale. Leave your horse’s head at home, mind.
Screening July 9: Curzon
Brown Willy + Three Cane Whale
Billed as Cornwall’s answer to Withnail and I, this micro-budget comedy-drama was filmed on location on Bodmin Moor. It follows two old schoolfriends as they embark on a disastrous stag weekend together. The Watershed’s screening is followed by a performance from Bristol trio Three Cane Whale, who provided the film’s wistful music.
Screening July 10: Watershed
Glyndebourne: Die Meistersinger Von Nurnberg
Big chuckles are not what springs to mind when one thinks of Wagner. But he knocked off this grand comic opera in the middle of his epic Ring Cycle. It’s set in 16th century Nuremberg, where goldsmith’s daughter Eva (Amanda Majeski) falls for hunky knight Walther von Stolzing (Michael Schade). But there’s always a catch, right? Turns out her dad, Pogner (Alastair Miles), has promised her to the winner of the guild of mastersingers’ song contest, as you do. In the manner of one of those rubbish reality TV shows, Walther has just 24 hours to become a mastersinger, with the assistance of cobbler-poet Hans Sachs (Gerald Finley). This is a revival of David McVicar’s 2011 Glyndebourne production of Wagner’s only comedy, which updates the setting from the mid-16th century to the post-Napoleonic Germany of the composer’s childhood. This being Wagner, it’s no brief sprint, running for the best part of six hours.
Screening July 12: Showcase Cinema De Lux, Everyman, Orpheus, Vue Cribbs Causeway, Vue Longwell Green
Royal Opera House: Il Trovatore
Opera doesn’t get any bigger, grander or – frankly – dafter than Verdi’s Il Trovatore. The plot makes no sense whatsoever, even by operatic standards: woman seeking revenge for the burning to death of her mother for witchcraft snatches the baby son of the man she holds responsible, but accidentally throws her own nipper onto the pyre by mistake. Easily done. So naturally, she raises the surviving child as her own. As you do. Still, never mind the implausibility, this is fabulously overblown stuff, best known for its Anvil Chorus. David Bosch‘s new production sets the four-act opera against the backdrop of war. This is the final screening in the 2016 BP Big Screens season, organised in partnership with the Royal Opera House. The pre-performance screening starts at 6.45pm and admission to Millennium Square is free but on a first come, first served basis. See our news story here for more information.
Screening July 14: Millennium Square
If you missed the V&A’s exhibition of the contents of the late Ziggy’s dressing up box, here’s a repeat screening of Hamish Hamilton’s documentary, which was originally broadcast live on the closing night. Curators Victoria Broackes and Geoffrey Marsh are your guides, while various celebs pitch up to stick their oar in. These include Japanese fashion designer Kansai Yamamoto and the inevitable Jarvis Cocker.
Screening July 14: Vue Cribbs Causeway, Vue Longwell Green
Almeida Theatre Live: Richard III
Voldemort himself, Ralph Fiennes, takes the title role in Olivier-winning Ameida Artistic Director Rupert Goold’s production of Richard III, which also stars Vanessa Redgrave as Queen Margaret. This marks the Almeida’s belated first venture into the lucrative world of live event cinema.
Screening July 21: Everyman, Orpheus, Vue Cribbs Causeway, Vue Longwell Green, Curzon, Cineworld Hengrove
Andre Rieu’s 2016 Maastricht Concert
The alarmingly popular, bouffant-haired, self-styled ‘king of the waltz’ returns with for his summer concert live from the Vrijthof in Maastricht, accompanied as usual by his Johann Strauss Orchestra and sundry sopranos, tenors and guests. Expect the usual programme of light popular classics.
Screening July 23: Showcase Cinema De Lux, Curzon, Orpheus, Vue Cribbs Causeway, Vue Longwell Green, Cineworld Hengrove
Encore screening July 24: Showcase Cinema De Lux, Vue Cribbs Causeway, Vue Longwell Green
Bristol Bad Film Club: Chopping Mall/Runaway
This month, those generous folks at the Bristol Bad Film Club are giving us two mid-80s killer robot movies for the price of one. “Where shopping costs you an arm and a leg!” screamed the tagline for 1986’s enjoyable Chopping Mall, which, to be fair, was always intended as a horror comedy. It follows eight teens trapped after hours in a US shopping mall where the security robots have gone bonkers. The Other BBFC tried to persuade local supermarkets to allow them to screen this one in their aisles, but the poor sports all refused. Runaway, from Jurassic Park creator Michael Crichton, is a 1986 film starring Tom Selleck and his amazing moustache opposite Gene Simmons (of KISS) and his incredible wig. This one has cop Selleck uncovering a dastardly plot to unleash killer robots. It boasts the first of Bad Film staple Simmons’ string of ’80s bad guy roles. The screening will be preceded by a special panel of film and horror experts eager to share their knowledge of killer robots. As usual, you’re strongly advised to bag your tickets early for this one, as Bristol Bad Film Club screenings always sell out well in advance. They cost £8 in advance here. All profits go to Smile With Siddy.
Screening July 28: Arnolfini
Because Hinger-land have apparently been rather crap for the last half-century, despite all that vocal support for over-paid ball kickers from our drunken friends wrapped in their flags of St. George, we’re still celebrating the 1966 World Cup victory. Broadcast live from Wembley Arena, this event sets out to re-live the cup final minute-by-minute, with additional guff about Swinging Sixties fashions and music. Excitingly, modern popular music combos will also be performing the hits of 1966. So if you yearn hear Paint It Black covered by Reef, Sunny Afternoon performed by the cast of Sunny Afternoon or James doing something TBC, this is the show for you.
Screening July 30: Showcase Cinema De Lux, Curzon, Vue Cribbs Causeway, Cineworld Hengrove
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