Too early for a Christmas movie? Not if you’re on the streets of LA with Sean Baker, whose sex workers (trans or otherwise), pimps and drug dealers enjoy Christmas Eve in a manner very different to the McAllisters. Tangerine is as modern as it gets, even 10 years on, and shows the endless creativity of the American Indie sub-genre. Meanwhile, to celebrate the centenary of Richard Burton’s birth, we opted to get all geezerish and pre-Guy Ritchie by showing Villain rather than going with Shakespeare or Beckett – proof of the genius of the man. Two terrific films well worth your time, so please come along and help keep the numbers up, our continuing to do this depends on getting the audiences – every seat filled helps. We’re pleased to report also that we’ve fixed the sound glitch that afflicted our screenings a couple of weeks back.
If our Melodrama On Film: Too Much season and the return of NT Live (see the website for details of both) were not enough, our other big thing at the moment is anniversaries. We’re awash with them, and not just the 10th birthday of Tangerine or the 100th of Richard Burton. Upcoming we have the 50th anniversary showing of Jaws (20/11), the 75th of Sunset Boulevard (27/11), the 60th of The Ipcress File (28/11) and the 70th of All That Heaven Allows (18/12). Come and see them all, candles and cake optional.
Here's the schedule for this week. The Eldon Cafe opens at 6pm for a prompt 7pm start to the screenings.
Tangerine
Thursday 13th November at 7pm
Tangerine was the fourth film by the hottest director on the planet, Sean (Anora) Baker, and it was the one that first made his reputation. Famously shot solely on iphone, this comedy-drama has a uniquely vivid colour and fluidity. The shooting is not just a gimmick, though, it is entirely aligned to the fast-moving, neon-lit subculture it portrays. Situated among the LA sex trade milieu, trans-gender sex worker Sin-Dee (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) discovers on Christmas Eve that her pimp boyfriend has been cheating on her, and the ensuing tale of friendship and betrayal is as old-fashioned at heart as that sounds. The genius of the film is exactly its relocation of universal truths to a startlingly diverse and modern setting. Ground-breaking and thoroughly enjoyable film-making, Tangerine has a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Richard Burton Centenary Film: Villain
Friday 14th November at 7pm
After our showing earlier in the year of the great Richard Burton biopic, Mr Burton, we celebrate the centenary of the birth of Port Talbot’s finest with 1971 British gangster flick Villian. Riding a wave of gangsterism at the time (Get Carter, Performance, The Reckoning), does any of them match Burton’s vicious and sadistic Vic Dakin? With high stakes robberies, compromised MP’s and inter gang rivalries, Michael Tuchner’s film, based on the 1968 James Barlow novel Burden Of Proof, breathlessly shunts you though a side of late sixties London that never heard of peace and love. Burton reportedly relished the idea of following in the footsteps of Edward G, Cagney and Bogie, and it shows. Also featuring Ian McShane and Donald Sinden, the script, bizarrely (or maybe not, on reflection), was written by kings of TV comedy Clement and Le Frenais.
Up Next Week:
You all know what Jaws is about, and we’ve mentioned it as one of our anniversary films above, so let’s also squeeze in a big up for our new film next week (Friday 21st), Drop. An exciting mystery thriller directed by Christopher Landon and starring Meghann Fahy and Brandon Sklenar, Drop is for any of you that love a good murder mystery laced with humour, satire and loads of suspense a la Hitchcock. Book now for any and all - preferably all - of the films mentioned here on the website. .
