Friday Five: 5 Fantastic Flicks at the BFI
Friday, July 22, 2016
One perk of being a Londoner? The BFI Southbank. Anne and I were there recently for an Indiana Jones marathon (all three films!), and I was reminded - for the 857th time - what a wonderful place it is. Pros: an unbelievable selection of movies from the timeless to the trashy. Cons: they don't sell popcorn (heathens!)
Smuggle in some Haribo and check out the website, because there's an amazing line-up for the rest of the summer. A few highlights below.
2001: A Space Odyssey (22 July, 24 July)
So, uh, not to lose my nerd cred - but I'm not a huge fan of this movie. That said, what it lacks in followable-plot or likeable characters, it gains back tenfold in glorious atmosphere and stunning cinematography. Which is to say, seeing it on the big screen is a thing.
Metropolis (25 July, 30 July, 31 July)
That tiny flailing bit of nerd cred I was clinging to? Gone. Never seen Metropolis. But, like everyone else that went to college in a certain era and read D&D, I've hung one of the posters on my wall.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (31 July)
The best of the trilogy.
The Killing (10 Aug, 12 Aug, 15 Aug)
Filmed by Kubrick. Written by Jim Thompson. Based on a book by Lionel White. That latter might not be a household name, but White wrote some cracking Gold Medal mysteries. Roger Ebert liked it:
Stanley Kubrick considered The Killing (1956) to be his first mature feature, after a couple of short warm-ups. He was 28 when it was released, having already been an obsessed chess player, a photographer for Look magazine and a director of 'March of Time' newsreels. It's tempting to search here for themes and a style he would return to in his later masterpieces, but few directors seemed so determined to make every one of his films an individual, free-standing work.
The Secret of Kells (21 Aug)
This animated film is absolutely lovely - whirly-twirly visuals straight out of the Book of Kells, plus a delightful fantasy quest about friendship and fairies (and Vikings and wolves). Beautiful in any format, I bet this knocks your socks off on the big screen.
Five more of the many, many cool films on the horizon:
- the insidious, Fleming-penned, Dahl-transformed classic, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (7 Aug, 8 Aug, 10 Aug)
- Russ Meyer's cult Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (11 Aug, 13 Aug)
- the dreamy Jodorowsky Spaghetti Western El Topo (14 Aug, 22 Aug)
- the very weird second movie from the director of Heathers, Meet the Applegates (18 Aug, 21 Aug)
- and, for those with a touch of class, Notorious (16 Aug, 20 Aug, 24 Aug)
Have fun! (And don't forget the Haribo!)