The Skin I Live In, One Day, R: Hit First, Hit Hardest, Children Of The Revolution and other UK releases

Wednesday 24th of August 2011 

Conan The Barbarian (3D) (15) (D) 

Director: Marcus Nispel 

Cast: Jason Momoa, Rose McGowan

“I live.  I love.  I slay…I am content.” 

Conan The Barbarian 

The most legendary Barbarian of all time is back this Summer.  Having thrived and evolved for eight consecutive decades in the public imagination- in prose and graphics, on the big screen and small, in games and properties of all kinds- Conan’s exploits in the Hyborian Age now come alive like never before in a colossal 3D action-adventure film. A quest that begins as a personal vendetta for the fierce Cimmerian warrior soon turns into an epic battle against hulking rivals, horrific monsters, and impossible odds, as Conan realizes he is the only hope of saving the great nations of Hyboria from an encroaching reign of supernatural evil.   Deftly adapted from the original works of Robert E. Howard and faithful to the mythology and psychology of his iconic character, CONAN THE BARBARIAN stars Jason Momoa, Rachel Nichols, Stephen Lang, Rose McGowan, Saïd Taghmaoui and Ron Perlman. 

The film is directed by Marcus Nispel, and written by Thomas Dean Donnelly & Joshua Oppenheimer and Sean Hood. 

 Distributor: Lionsgate UK

 Venue: UK wide

 One Day (12A) (D)

 

Director: Lone Scherfig 

Cast: Anne Hathaway, Jim Sturgess 

Twenty years. Two people… 

Directed by Lone Scherfig (director of An Education, Academy Award-nominated for Best Picture), the motion picture One Day is adapted for the screen by David Nicholls from his beloved bestselling novel One Day. 

After one day together – July 15th, 1988, their university graduation – Emma Morley (Academy Award nominee Anne Hathaway) and Dexter Mayhew (Jim Sturgess of Across the Universe) begin a friendship that will last a lifetime. She is a working-class girl of principle and ambition who dreams of making the world a better place. He is a wealthy charmer who dreams that the world will be his playground. 

For the next two decades, key moments of their relationship are experienced over several July 15ths in their lives. Together and apart, we see Dex and Em through their friendship and fights, hopes and missed opportunities, laughter and tears. 

Somewhere along their journey, these two people realize that what they are searching and hoping for has been there for them all along. As the true meaning of that one day back in 1988 is revealed, they come to terms with the nature of love and life itself. 

Cast and crew  

Premiere

 

Distributor: Universal Pictures 

Venue: UK wide 

Thursday 25th of August 2011 

Kill The Irishman (18)  (D)

Director: Jonathan Hensleigh
Cast: Ray Stevenson, Christopher Walken, Val Kilmer


Over the summer of 1976, thirty-six bombs detonate in the heart of Cleveland while a turf war raged between Irish mobster Danny Greene (Ray Stevenson) and the Italian mafia. Based on a true story, Kill the Irishman chronicles Greene’s heroic rise from a tough Cleveland neighborhood to become an enforcer in the local mob. Turning the tables on loan shark Shondor Birns (Christopher Walken) and allying himself with gangster John Nardi (Vincent D’Onofrio), Greene stops taking orders from the mafia and pursues his own power. Surviving countless assassination attempts from the mob and killing off anyone who went after him in retaliation, Danny Greene’s infamous invincibility and notorious fearlessness eventually led to the collapse of mafia syndicates across the U.S. and also earned him the status of the man the mob couldn’t kill.


Distributor: Anchor Bay Films
Venue: Key Cities

Friday 26th of August 2011 

The Skin I Live In (15) (D)

 

Director: Pedro Almodóvar 

Cast: Antonio Banderas, Elena Anaya Acclaimed 

Spanish writer/director Pedro Almodóvar returns with his latest film THE SKIN I LIVE IN, reuniting him with three of his previous collaborators: Antonio Banderas (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down), Elena Anaya (Talk to Her) and Marisa Paredes (All About My Mother, Talk to Her, The Flower of My Secret). 

The film is produced by Agustín Almodóvar (Broken Embraces, Bad Education) and features music by Alberto Iglesias (Broken Embraces, Volver). Twentieth Century Fox will release THE SKIN I LIVE IN for Pathé in the UK on 26 August 2011, following its world premiere in competition at the 64th Cannes International Film Festival.

 

Ever since his wife was burned in a car crash, Dr. Robert Ledgard, an eminent plastic surgeon, has been interested in creating a new skin with which he could have saved her. 

After twelve years, he manages to cultivate a skin that is a real shield against every assault. In addition to years of study and experimentation, Robert needed a further three things: no scruples, an accomplice and a human guinea pig. Scruples were never a problem. Marilia, the woman who looked after him from the day he was born, is his most faithful accomplice. 

And as for the human guinea pig...

 

THE SKIN I LIVE IN is presented by El Deseo.

 

Distributor: Fox/Pathe 

Venue: UK wide

Powder (15) (D)

 

Director: Mark Elliot 

Cast: Alfie Allen, Liam Boyle, Al Weaver, Ralph Little 

POWDER captures all the energy and excitement of a band breaking through, following the story of Liverpool band The Grams on an unflinching journey through the machinations of the music industry. Made by the team behind Awaydays and filmed on location in Ibiza, London, Liverpool and live at the V Festival, Powder is an authentic rock 'n' roll story based on the best-selling novel by Kevin Sampson. 

Distributor: Soda Pictures 

Venue: Key Cities

As Blood Runs Deep (15) (D)

 

As Blood Runs Deep is a meticulously crafted murder mystery in which detective Noah Cordin (Nick Stahl) must return to his home town and confront the life he left behind… 

"Meskada" is meticulously crafted murder mystery surrounding a small-town juvenile homicide. When the investigation leads detective Noah Cordin (Stahl) to his impoverished hometown, Cordin is forced to confront the life he left behind... 

Small-town detective Noah Cordin is called to solve a juvenile homicide that occurred during a home burglary in the affluent town of Hilliard. The dead boy's mother, Allison Connor, is a powerful woman in Hilliard and rallies the township together in solidarity to support her and Detective Cordin's efforts to find the killers. 

But things aren’t always what they seem and some crimes find their criminals. 

A gripping crime drama in the tradition of No Country for Old Men and Mystic River, As Blood Runs Deep is a poignant meditation on solidarity and salvation in modern-day America. 

Distributor: Metrodome 

Venue: Key Cities

R: Hit First, Hit Hardest (18) (D)

Director: Michael Noer, Tobias Lindholm

Cast: Pilou Asbaek, Dulfi Al-Jabouri, Roland Moller, Jacob Gredsted, Omar Shargawi 

The R of the title stands for the young protagonist, Rune, fearlessly played by Pilou Asbæk. Imprisoned for violent assault, he's a cocky, good-looking young man placed in the hardcore ward, where his survival depends on quickly learning the prison's parallel world of rules, honor, and obligations. R also stands for Rachid, a young Muslim prisoner who becomes Rune's friend and accomplice, defying the rigid racial stratifications among the inmates. 

Written by Los Angeles Film Festival 

Distributor: Soda Pictures 

Venue: Key Cities 

Children Of The Revolution (D)

 

Director: Shane O 

Documentary: Ulrike Meinhof, Fusako Shigenobu, Bettina Rohl, May Shigenobu, Leila Khaled, Astrid Proll 

Children of the Revolution tells the stories of Ulrike Meinhof and Fusako Shigenobu, two women who emerged from the student revolutions of 1968 to become the leading female revolutionaries of their time. 

Appalled by the killing in Vietnam, they worked with Palestinian freedom fighters to destroy capitalist power through world revolution, as leaders of the Baader Meinhof Group and the Japanese Red Army. 

Packed with extraordinary archive footage, the film sees journalists Bettina Röhl and May Shigenobu explore the lives of their mothers, Ulrike and Fusako. As a child, Bettina was kidnapped by the Baader Meinhof Group to be re-educated in Palestine. May lived her first 28 years "underground", changing schools and changing names to avoid assassination. 

With capitalism in crisis and revolution sweeping the Arab world, we ask: what were they fighting for and what have we learned? 

Shot in Tokyo, Beirut, Jordan and Germany, the film is a co-production between Transmission Films, the Irish Film Board and German broadcaster WDR. It premiered at the prestigious IDFA festival in Amsterdam and was directed and produced by Shane O'Sullivan, director of RFK Must Die (2008). 

Cinema release: August 26th | DVD/VOD release: September 5th 

Distributor: E2 Films 

Venue: Key Cities 

Final Destination 5 (3D) (15) (D)

 

Director: Steven Quale 

Cast: Nicholas D’Agosto, Emma Bell, Miles Fisher, Arlen Escarpeta, David Koechner, Tony Todd, Courtney B. Vance, P.J. Byrne, Ellen Wroe, Jacqueline MacInnes-Wood 

In “Final Destination 5,” Death is just as omnipresent as ever, and is unleashed after one man’s premonition saves a group of coworkers from a terrifying suspension bridge collapse. But this group of unsuspecting souls was never supposed to survive, and, in a terrifying race against time, the ill-fated group frantically tries to discover a way to escape Death’s sinister agenda. 

Distributor: Warner Bros. 

Venue: UK wide 

 Trailers and stills © The Distributors

Almodóvar's THE SKIN I LIVE IN

A film by Pedro Almodóvar

THE SKIN I LIVE IN

TO OPEN IN THE UK ON 26 AUGUST 2011

Acclaimed Spanish writer/director Pedro Almodóvar returns with his latest film THE SKIN I LIVE IN, reuniting him with three of his previous collaborators: Antonio Banderas (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down), Elena Anaya (Talk to Her) and Marisa Paredes (All About My Mother, Talk to Her, The Flower of My Secret). The film is produced by Agustín Almodóvar (Broken Embraces, Bad Education) and features music by Alberto Iglesias (Broken Embraces, Volver).

Twentieth Century Fox will release THE SKIN I LIVE IN for Pathé in the UK on 26 August 2011, following its world premiere in competition at the 64th Cannes International Film Festival.

Ever since his wife was burned in a car crash, Dr. Robert Ledgard, an eminent plastic surgeon, has been interested in creating a new skin with which he could have saved her. After twelve years, he manages to cultivate a skin that is a real shield against every assault.

In addition to years of study and experimentation, Robert needed a further three things: no scruples, an accomplice and a human guinea pig. Scruples were never a problem. Marilia, the woman who looked after him from the day he was born, is his most faithful accomplice. And as for the human guinea pig...

THE SKIN I LIVE IN is presented by El Deseo.

UK release date: 26 August 2011

Certificate: TBC

Running time: TBC

The American trailer for TEXAS KILLING FIELDS

The American trailer for Ami Canaan Mann's Texas Killing Fields, with Jessica Chastain, Sam Worthington, Chloë Moretz, Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

In an area just outside Texas City 60 bodies were dumped since 1971. This desolate landscape was nicknamed the Texas killing fields by the locals. Judging from the trailer, the film looks like to be in the best tradition of American B-movies (although that differentiation does no longer applies), an atmospheric cinematography, and a perception of life on the edge of society.

Texas Killings Fields is scheduled to be released in the USA on October 17th. No date has been set for a British release yet.

Villain, In A better World, The Guard and other UK releases

A pretty short release schedule for this week, typical of the holiday period. 

Wednesday 17th of August 2011

Cowboys & Aliens (12A) (D)

 

Director: Jon Favreau 

Cast: Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde 

1873. Arizona Territory. A stranger (Craig) with no memory of his past stumbles into the hard desert town of Absolution. The only hint to his history is a mysterious shackle that encircles one wrist. What he discovers is that the people of Absolution don’t welcome strangers, and nobody makes a move on its streets unless ordered to do so by the iron-fisted Colonel Dolarhyde (Ford). It’s a town that lives in fear. But Absolution is about to experience fear it can scarcely comprehend as the desolate city is attacked by marauders from the sky. Screaming down with breathtaking velocity and blinding lights to abduct the helpless one by one, these monsters challenge everything the residents have ever known. Now, the stranger they rejected is their only hope for salvation. As this gunslinger slowly starts to remember who he is and where he’s been, he realizes he holds a secret that could give the town a fighting chance against the alien force. With the help of the elusive traveler Ella (Olivia Wilde), he pulls together a posse comprised of former opponents—townsfolk, Dolarhyde and his boys, outlaws and Apache warriors—all in danger of annihilation. United against a common enemy, they will prepare for an epic showdown for survival.

Distributor: Paramount 

Venue: UK wide 

The Inbetweeners (15) (D)

 

Director: Ben Palmer 

Cast: Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, James Buckley, Blake Harrison 

What’s on the mind of the average sixth-form boy? College, jobs, that whole bright and exciting future thing? Or the humpability of anything female in sight? For Will, Simon, Jay and Neil, it’s humpability all the way. 

Distributor: Entertainment 

Venue: UK wide 

Friday 19th of August 2011 

Villain (15) (D)
 
Director: Lee Sang-il 
Cast: Eri Fukatsu, Satoshi Tsumabuki, Hikari Mitsushima, Masaki Okada 


BASED ON THE AWARD WINNING NOVEL BY SHUICHI YOSHIDA TRANSLATED IN ENGLISH AND OUT IN PAPERBACK ON AUGUST 18TH, 2011 FROM RANDOM HOUSE PUBLISHING 


Yuichi (Satoshi Tsumabuki) is a construction worker who has lived his entire life in a dreary fishing village. With no girlfriend or friends, he spends his days working and looking after his grandparents, with no enjoyment in life other than his car. Meanwhile, Mitsuyo (Eri Fukatsu) also lives a monotonous life pacing between the men’s clothing store where she works and the apartment where she lives with her sister. When the two lonely souls meet using an online dating site, they immediately fall in love with each other. But there’s a secret Yuichi had been keeping from Mitsuyo: Yuichi is the one suspected of killing the woman whose body was found at Mitsue Pass only a few days before... 


As Yuichi and his new lover try to elude the police, the events that led up to the murder and its aftermath are revealed. We learn the stories of the victim, the murderer, and their families - stories of loneliness, love hotels, violence and desperation, exposing the inner lives of men and woman who are not everything they appear to be. 


Who is the true “villain” here?


Villain was nominated for 15 Japanese Academy Awards (winning 5) as well as winning the Best Actress prize at the Montreal Film Festival and picked by the Kinema Junpo critics organisation as the Best Japanese Film of 2010. It's one of our favourite films in a while and has stellar performances by some of the leading names in Japanese cinema in Eri Fukatsu ('Magic Hour'), Satoshi Tsumabuki ('Tokyo!', 'Villion's Wife'), Masaki Okada ('Confessions'), Hikari Mitsushima ('Love Exposure', 'Sawako Decides'), Kirin Kiki ('Still Walking', 'Kamikaze Girls') and Akira Emoto ('Zatoichi', 'Dr. Akagi') It will have a limited initial run across a few cities in the UK, but if it's popular then it will spread to more cities, so we're asking everyone to go out and see it plus tell all your friends!


For exhibiting cinemas please click HERE  


Distributor: Third Window Films/ICO 
Venue: UK wide 


In A Better World (15) (D)
 
Director: Susanne Bier 
Cast: Mikael Persbrandt, Trine Dyrholm, Ulrich Thomsen, Markus Rygaard, William Johnk Nielsen 


2011 Oscar & Golden Globe Winner for Best Foreign Language Film, IN A BETTER WORLD is a gripping and beautifully constructed human drama about revenge and the power of forgiveness from acclaimed director Susanne Bier (AFTER THE WEDDING). From the confines of a refugee camp in Africa, to the deceptively idyllic suburban life of two families in Denmark, Susanne Bier expertly paints a portrait of two fragile worlds inextricably linked by conflict and violence and the hard choices struggling to be made for life in a better world. Anton is a doctor who commutes between his home in an idyllic town in Denmark, and his work at an African refugee camp.  In these two very different worlds, he and his family are faced with conflicts that lead them to difficult choices between revenge and forgiveness. 


Anton and his wife Marianne, who have two young sons, are separated and struggling with the possibility of divorce.  Their older, ten-year-old son Elias is being bullied at school, until he is defended by Christian, a new boy who has just moved from London with his father, Claus.  Christian’s mother recently lost her battle with cancer, and Christian is greatly troubled by her death. Elias and Christian quickly form a strong bond, but when Christian involves Elias in a dangerous act of revenge with potentially tragic consequences, their friendship is tested and lives are put in danger.  


Ultimately, it is their parents who are left to help them come to terms with the complexity of human emotions, pain and empathy. 


Distributor: Axiom Films 
Venue: Key Cities 


The Guard (15) (D)
 
Director: John Michael McDonagh 
Cast: Brendan Gleeson, Don Cheadle, Liam Cunningham 


THE GUARD is a comedy-thriller set on the west coast of Ireland. Sergeant Gerry Boyle is a small-town cop with a confrontational personality, a subversive sense of humour, a dying mother, a fondness for prostitutes, and absolutely no interest whatsoever in the international cocaine-smuggling ring that has brought FBI agent Wendell Everett to his door. However, despite the fact that Boyle seems more interested in mocking and undermining Everett than in actively working to solve the case, Boyle finds that circumstances keep pulling him back into the thick of it. First his tiresomely enthusiastic new partner disappears, then his favourite hooker attempts to blackmail him into turning a blind eye, and finally the drug-traffickers themselves try to buy him off as they have every other member of the local police force. 


 These events unwittingly offend Boyle's murky moral code. He realises that he needs to take matters into his own hands, and the only person he can trust is Everett. And so the scene is set for an explosive finale. 


Distributor: Optimum Releasing 
Venue: Key Cities 


Kind Hearts & Coronets (R/I) (U) (D)
Director: Robert Hamer 
Cast: Dennis Price, Alec Guiness, Joan Greenwood, Valerie Hobson 


Perhaps the most perfect of all the Golden-Age Ealing comedies, Kind Hearts and Coronets famously featured Alec Guinness in eight different roles as the unsuspecting members of the aristocratic D’Ascoyne family – bumped off one by one by the scheming, outcast cousin of the family: Louis Mazzini. Mazzini's mother was a D'Ascoyne by birth, but she ran away with an opera singer and was ostracized by her family as a result. When her dying wish to be buried in the family crypt is refused, Louis vows to get his revenge. As he ascends the social ranks, he is torn between his love for now-married childhood sweetheart, and equally devilish Sibella (Joan Greenwood), and the saintly wife of one of his victims, Edith D’Ascoyne (Valerie Hobson). Dennis Price’s stunning performance as the ambitious Louis has always been somewhat overshadowed by Guinness, so sit back and admire anew the coolly detached relish with which he dispatches the eight relatives standing between himself, the Dukedom, and revenge. The film featured stunning and inventive cinematography by Douglas Slocombe, and a groundbreaking first-person narrative that, legend has it, inspired Scorsese to make use of the same device in Goodfellas. 


Restored and back in cinemas 19th August 2011 
On blu-ray and DVD 5th September 2011 


Distributor: Optimum Releasing/ICO 
Venue: UK wide 


Glee The 3D Concert Movie (PG)
 
Director: Kevin Tancharoen 
Cast: Lea Michele, Cory Monteith, Amber Riley, Chris Colfer 


The smash television sensation GLEE became a record-breaking summer concert phenomenon, selling out instantly. Beginning August 12 – and for a limited engagement – Gleeks everywhere will be able to experience the unique concert experience in the immersive magic of a 3-D theatrical movie event. 


Distributor: 20th Century Fox 
Venue: UK Wide (Opening Vue West End from 12 August) 


Spy Kids 4: All The Time In The World In 4D (PG)  (D)
 
Director: Robert Rodriguez 
Cast: Jessica Alba, Jeremy Piven, Joel McHale, Ricky Gervais


One of the most annoying film websites I have seen for a long time. 


On the surface, Marissa Cortez Wilson (Jessica Alba) has it all...married to a famous spy hunting television reporter, a new baby and intelligent twin step kids. But in reality, trying to mother Rebecca (Rowan Blanchard) and Cecil (Mason Cook), who clearly don't want her around, is her toughest challenge yet. Also, her husband, Wilbur (Joel McHale), wouldn't know a spy if he lived with one which is exactly the case - Marissa's a retired secret agent. Marissa's world is turned upside down when the maniacal Timekeeper (Jeremy Piven) threatens to take over the planet and she's called back into action by the head of OSS, home of the greatest spies and where the now-defunct Spy Kids division was created. With Armageddon quickly approaching, Rebecca and Cecil are thrust into action when they learn their boring stepmom was once a top agent and now the world's most competitive ten year olds are forced to put their bickering aside and rely on their wits. With a little help from a couple of very familiar Spy Kids, Carmen (Alexa Vega) and Juni Cortez (Daryl Sabara), and some mind-blowing gadgets, they just may be able to save the world and possibly bring their family together while they're at it. 


Distributor: Entertainment 
Venue: UK wide 


Trailers and stills © The Distributors

OVERNIGHT, a short on the London riots

Chris Marker's Overnight

First cinematic response to the London riots?

Iron & Blood: The Legend of Taras Bulba

DVD Release date: 22th August 2011 

Running time: 125 minutes Price: £15.99 Certificate: 15

 Forged by many years of battle and bloodshed, Taras Bulba is a hardened warlord determined to wage war against Poland. He has two beloved sons Ostap and Andriy whom he seeks to train as warriors. Although Ostap is just as bloodthirsty and determined as his father, Andriy has dangerously fallen for a daughter of the enemy- a Polish noblewoman. 

 Forsaking his heritage for the women he loves, the news leaves Taris Bulba determined to fight to the death to defeat his foes and seek revenge on his own son…. 

 Bloody and brutal, with colossal castle sieges and vast action sequences Iron & Blood is a classic tale of honour, love and revenge.

   

 There are no special features included on this disc

The UK Riots and their effect on UK independent film distribution

The following is a press release by Third Window Films:

Recently London and many other cities in the UK were hit by some of the worst riots in history, leaving 5 people dead, shops destroyed, mass-looting and hundreds of thousands of lives affected.

During these riots the Sony warehouse in Enfield was looted and burnt down. This warehouse was the main stockist for the majority of small to medium sized film and music distribution labels (along with some of the majors) in the UK. Third Window Films, along with Terracotta Distribution, Arrow Films, Network, Peccadillo Pictures, Dogwoof, BFI, Eureka and many more had most, if not all of their stock destroyed. We lost nearly 20,000 units of stock.

This is an undoubted tragedy and nobody is sure yet how this will affect the long-term situation for us and many of these companies, though what we can try to explain is that there will be a massive impact on the short term. While our stock was insured, it was only the number of units destroyed and units which will be replaced in terms of stock credit with Sony. Unfortunately with Sony's minimum top up of 500 units (luckily they've changed from the 1000 as previously required) we will need to pay for all the difference in units replicated against credit. For example as we had more than 10 films which had under 500 units of stock in at the time, we need to pay the difference for all stock below 500 to top it up to the minimum number. While this may only equate to around 3,000-4,000 units, it still means paying that amount at a time when we won't have been generating sales, which is another major problem with the situation...

This other major problem is that with this affecting so many companies, and right leading to the main Q4 campaigns, all other companies that are larger (we are one of the smallest in the UK) will have priority in having their titles replicated and put back into circulation. We should get a couple of our larger titles such as Confessions back into circulation quickly, but it may take a couple months before our catalogue titles get back into circulation, and with no units available for sale anywhere (Amazon is nearly sold out of all films across our whole catalogue) we will lose a massive chunk of our earnings over the next few months. Unfortunately as such a small company we don't have business interruption insurance which covers companies in the event of such situations. Ironically the larger companies have such insurance and yet their stock will be replicated first despite the fact they're covered for the eventual losses, so this will really hit the smaller companies the hardest (as is usually the case).

We will endeavor to get through this situation and plan on keeping our release schedule of 2011 on track. 'Sawako Decides' and 'Quirky Guys and Gals' will still be out October 3rd, though 'Underwater Love' has been moved to November 21st. We can't really plan too far into the future as we're really unsure right now as to how bad this will affect us.

What we ask of you, our fans, is to get the word out about us and other small niche labels like Terracotta Distribution, Arrow Films, Network, etc and get people interested in supporting independent cinema through these hard times. We don't have any new stock to send to stores, but there are still a few copies of our films on places like Amazon, Play.com and in high-street stores such as HMV and Fopp, so if there was a title you were thinking about picking up, please go out and buy it now so that we can convince stores that ours are worth restocking sooner rather than later. Alternately, we are trying to make many of our titles available to view online via MUBI so if you want to spread the word through that you can legally watch our titles through your PC or Playstation. 

Thanks for your support and we'll try hard to get through this!

SCALA FOREVER

Bringing Cinema Back for the Future

A season of films reliving the Scala Cinema’s programming history and celebrating the current repertory film scene in London

13th August – 2nd October 2011 at venues across London

This August will see the start of a monster season of film screenings under the title Scala Forever. 

During 80’s and early 90’s The Scala Cinema in Kings Cross was one of the most famous repertory cinemas in London screening a wild mix of Cult, Classic, Arthouse, World cinema and everything inbetween. As John Waters said, “The Scala had magic.”

Nearly twenty years later, over 26 cinemas and film clubs in London are joining forces to highlight the range of repertory or classic film programming taking place over a seven week period.

Festival Director Philip Wood, “Cinema didn’t die when video arrived in the 80’s and now survives despite the perceived threat of downloading and filesharing. Film exhibition is changing, but people still want to come together and enjoy more than just new films at the cinema.”

Originating at Roxy Bar & Screen, a unique bar / cinema in London Bridge, the season includes screenings taking place at the likes of BFI Southbank, Riverside Studios, Prince Charles Cinema, Ritzy Picturehouse, Rio Cinema, The Phoenix Cinema, ICA, Shortwave Cinema and many, many more, including film clubs Midnight Movies, Duke Mitchell Film Club, Close-Up, Cigarette Burns Cinema, Passenger Films, The Amy Grimehouse and Filmbar70 who also produced the magnificent festival trailer (YouTube).

The season will highlight a wide range of films including old Scala titles and newer rep cinema classics crossing genres of Horror to Hollywood, Arthouse to Asian, Musicals to Melodrama, Queer to Comedy and Classic to Cult, screening in double and treble-bills, all-dayers and four special all-nighters, plus panel discussions and several guest speakers introducing the screenings.

Highlights include:

John Waters double-bill of Female Trouble and Desperate Living with a specially recorded introduction from John Waters himself (7:30pm, Sun 14th Aug, Roxy Bar & Screen, £6)

Filmbar70’s Zombie All-nighter (11pm, Sat 20th Aug, Roxy Bar & Screen, £15),

Jeanne Moreau double of Lift to the Scaffold and Jules et Jim (6:30pm, Sun 28th Aug, Riverside £8.50/£7.50),

Filmbar70’s American Monsters All-nighter (11pm, Sat 10th Sep, Roxy Bar & Screen, £15)

Phoenix Cinema and Contemporary Films presents Music Doc Double-Bill of Tonight Let’s All Make Love and Jazz on a Summer’s Day (2pm, Sun 11th Sep, Phoenix Cinema)

CLOSE-UP presents Kieślowski’s Dekalog (20th Sep - 18th Oct, Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club)

Cigarette Burns Cinema presents The Female Convict Pinky Violence All-Night Triple-Bill (11pm, Sat 24th Sep, Rio Cinema)

Midnight Movies present I Could Have Danced All-Nighter (11pm Sat 1st Oct, Roxy Bar & Screen, £15)

The Portobello Pop Up Cinema presents The Colour of Pomegranates (8:30pm, Sat 20th Aug, £4)

Electric Sheep and Strange Attractor present Thundercrack! (Tues 20th Sep, The Horse Hospital, £6)

Panel Discussions on Scala + the future of repertory cinema, followed by a double-bill of Pink Flamingoes and The Bride of Frankenstein (2pm, Sat 17th Sep, Cinema Museum)

Rio Cinema Triple-Bill of Glen or Glenda + Un Chant D’Amour + Kenneth Anger’s Magick Lantern Cycle (1:30pm, Sun 28th Aug, Rio Cinema, £9)

Plus double bills from filmmakers including Russ Meyer, Werner Herzog, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, The Marx Brothers, Dario Argento, Pedro Almodovar, and films from Ken Russell, Martin Scorsese, Sergio Leone, Ed Wood, Alain Resnais, Jean Genet, Kenneth Anger, Stanley Kubrick, Buster Keaton, James Cameron, John Boorman, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Luis Bunuel, Barney Platts-Mills and Powell & Pressburger plus many more!!

To see the full listings and buy tickets visit www.scalaforever.co.uk and join the season on Facebook  or Twitter  for the latest updates, plus see the season trailer and other film trailers on the YouTube channel. 

 Or pick up a special season flyer printed in the style of the original Scala programmes and designed by the original Scala designer Mike Leedham.

All audiences* will also receive a free copy of the Scala Forever Programme, a specially commissioned 36 page booklet including memories of the Scala from the likes of Stephen Woolley and Jane Giles, directors James Marsh, Peter Strickland and John Waters, critics Mark Cousins, Danny Leigh and many others.

The Taqwacores, The Salt of Life, The Devil's Double, Project Nim, Elite Squad: The Enemy Within, and other UK releases

Wednesday 10th of August 2011

 The Smurfs In 3D (U) (D)

Director: Raja Gosnell 

Cast: Hank Azaria, Neil Patrick Harris, and voices of Katy Perry, Kevin James, George Lopez, Alan Cumming 

On the run from evil wizard Gargamel (Hank Azaria) the Smurfs escape through a portal connecting their village with New York city. And, as they wreak havoc in the home of their bemused host (Neil Patrick Harris), they search for a way home before their deadliest foe tracks them down.

Distributor: Sony Pictures 

Venue: UK wide 

The Devil's Double (18) (D)

 

Director: Lee Tamahori 

Cast: Dominic Cooper 

Baghdad 1987, Latif Yahia (Dominic Cooper) is taken to see his former schoolmate Uday (also played by Cooper), eldest son to Saddam Hussein. Latif is told that a great honour had been bestowed upon him: because of the great likeness between them, he has been chosen to be Uday's ‘fiday’ - his body double. Trapped, tortured and fearful for the safety of his family Latif has no choice but to comply. A chilling vision of the House of Saddam Hussein comes to life as Latif is forced to become part of Uday’s world, witness to the horror of his insane life of debauchery, excess and brutality. A world entrenched in betrayal and corruption and an experience for which he almost pays with his life on more than one occasion.

Distributor: Icon Film Distribution 

Venue: UK wide 

Thursday 11th of August 2011 

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (12A) (D)

 

Director: Rupert Wyatt 

Cast: James Franco, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow, Brian Cox, Andy Serkis, Tom Felton 

An origin story in the true sense of the word, RISE OF THE APES is set in present day San Francisco. The film is a reality-based cautionary tale -- a science fiction/science-fact blend where mankind’s hubris leads to the development of intelligence in apes and the onset of a war for supremacy. Oscar®-winning visual effects house WETA Digital – employing certain of the groundbreaking technologies developed for “Avatar” – will render, for the first time ever in the film series, photo-realistic apes rather than costumed actors.

Distributor: 20th Century Fox 

Venue: UK wide 

Friday 12th of August 2011 

The Taqwacores (15) (D)

Director: Eyad Zahra 

Cast: Bobby Naderi, Dominic Rains, Noureen DeWulf 

The Taqwacores documents a visceral clash between the desire to live, to sing, to rock, to be wild, with the stern face of a closed ideology, an interpretation of the Qu'ran intents in shackling the flow of life. Pious recitations versus loud punk songs coming out of the guts. A clash which lays wide open, all the bloodied metaphorical entrails hanging out,the deep divisions within American Muslim youth.

 Read my review HERE 

Distributor: Network Releasing 

Venue: Key Cities 

The Salt of Life (12A) (D)

 

Film Trailers by Filmtrailer.com 

Director: Gianni Di Gregorio 

Cast: Gianni Di Gregorio

Gianni, a recently retired house husband has many things to worry about but romance is not one of them. He lives with his wife and daughter in a small apartment in Rome. His days slip by walking his and his gorgeous neighbour’s dogs, picking up cleaning and groceries, paying the bills under his wife’s strict instructions, and being taken for granted by his daughter and her lazy, unemployed boyfriend, who seems to have moved in. 

His ancient mother, the aristocratically coiffed Valeria, a relic from a more glamorous era, lives with her pretty careworker Cristina in a huge villa. From her crumbling HQ, Valeria is swiftly draining Gianni’s resources on poker, repairs and expensive champagne, and thinks nothing of making him cross town to fix the reception on her television.

One morning, his good friend Alfonso tells an astonished Gianni about his most recent sexual escapades. Somehow Gianni has completely failed to notice that his contemporaries are all taking a second bite of the cherry! Even old Maurizio who always wears a tracksuit has a younger lover. Alfonso decides Gianni should take action, reinvigorate his life and get himself a girlfriend. But, despite his best efforts with some old female acquaintances interrupted by an endless stream of calls from his demanding mother and a dose of Viagra, poor old Gianni is like a rusty old motor.

The spark is ignited but it is going to take a long time to get him back on the road to romance...

View exhibiting cinemas HERE 

Distributor: Artificial Eye 

Venue: Key Cities 

Project Nim (12A) (D)  
Director: James Marsh 
Cast: Nim Chimpsky 


Written and Directed by James March (Man On Wire, Red Riding: In The Year of Our Lord 1980), Produced By Simon Chinn (Man On Wire) & John Battseck (One Day In September, In The Shadow of The Moon). 


From the Oscar-winning team behind Man on Wire comes the story of Nim, the chimpanzee who in the 1970s became the focus of a landmark experiment which aimed to show that an ape could learn to communicate with language if raised and nurtured like a human child. Following Nim’s extraordinary journey through human society, and the enduring impact he makes on the people he meets along the way, the film is an unflinching and unsentimental biography of an animal we tried to make human. 


Distributor: Icon Film Distribution 
Venue: Key Cities 


The Interrupters (D)
 
Director: Steve James 


THE INTERRUPTERS tells the moving and surprising story of three dedicated individuals who try to protect their Chicago communities from the violence they, themselves once employed. These “violence interrupters” (their job title) – who have credibility on the street because of their own personal histories – intervene in conflicts before the incidents explode into violence. Their work and their insights are informed by their own journeys, which, as each of them point out, defy easy characterisation. Shot over the course of a year out of Kartemquin Films, THE INTERRUPTERS captures a period in Chicago when it became a national symbol for the violence in our cities. 
During that period, the city was besieged by high-profile incidents, most notably the brutal beating death of Derrion Albert, a Chicago High School student whose death was caught on videotape. The “violence interrupters” work for an innovative organization, CeaseFire, which is the brainchild of epidemiologist Gary Slutkin who for ten years battled the spread of cholera and AIDS in Africa. Slutkin believes that the spread of violence mimics that of infectious diseases, and so the treatment should be similar: go after the most infected, and stop the infection at its source. Their work is fraught with moral quandaries. They have to step between adversaries, often people they know. They need to acknowledge people’s grievances while simultaneously pulling them back from acting on them. And on occasion, they find themselves using the very threat of violence to defuse an altercation. 
As they venture into their communities, they confront the importance of family, the noxious nature of poverty, and the place of race. And they do it with incredible candour and directness. 


Distributor: Dogwoof 
Venue: Key Cities 




Beautiful Lies (D)
 
Director: Pierre Salvadori
Cast: Audrey Tautou, Natalie Baye, Sami Bouajila 


Emilie (Audrey Tautou) puts all her heart into running her busy hairdressing salon in sunny South of France. Meanwhile, her mother (Nathalie Baye), has had her heart broken, and needs love. When Emilie starts receiving anonymous love letters, she decides to send them on to her mother, sparking confusion, complications and dilemmas when the secret admirer (Sami Bouajila) is revealed. 


A refreshing comedy of errors from the director of PRICELESS and the star of AMELIE and COCO BEFORE CHANEL.
 
Distributor: Trinity Filmed Entertainment 
Venue: Key Cities 




Elite Squad: The Enemy Within (D)
 
Director: Jose Padilha 
Cast: Wagner Moura, Irandhir Santos, Andre Ramiro


Looks like the original Elite Squad is becoming a franchise. 


The biggest film in South American cinema history, Elite Squad: The Enemy Within sees revered Lieutenant-Colonel Roberto Nascimento and his second in command André Matias facing battles both on the streets and within the corrupt political system of Rio de Janeiro. Following the bloody aftermath of a disastrously handled prison riot, Nascimento gets caught in a bloody political dispute that involves not only government officials, but also the deadly paramillitary groups known as the milicias. Adding to this are his troubles at home, as his ex-wife is now married to the newly elected State Representative and his thirteen year old son is becoming increasingly estranged from his intense and emotionally distant father. 


Featuring scenes of breathtaking action and compelling drama, José Padilha's critically acclaimed blockbuster is based on a blend of intense research and real events, presenting a devastating vision of modern Rio and one man's fight against the system. 


Distributor: Revolver Entertainment 
Venue: Key Cities 




Aarakshan (D) 

An Indian  film centring on the social tensions of the caste system, this quality drama plays out these prejudices against the tangled loyalties of a respected college. Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan plays the influential principal, as the ambitions of a new generation find their ideals at odds with outdated tradition. 


Distributor: Reliance Entertainment 
Venue: UK wide 


Trailers and stills @ The Distributors