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Showing This Week
Friday 22 November: The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
In the early 1970s, Fassbinder discovered the American melodramas of Douglas Sirk and was inspired by them to begin working in a new, more intensely emotional register. One of the first and best-loved films of this period in his career is The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, which balances a realistic depiction of tormented romance with staging that remains true to the director’s roots in experimental theater.
23 - 24 November: Berlin Alexanderplatz
Restored in 2006, Berlin Alexanderplatz is the summa of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's art, and the culmination of his lifelong relationship to Alfred Döblin's monumental novel of Berlin in the 1920s-a book the filmmaker said was “embedded in my mind, my flesh, my body as a whole, and my soul.” Please note: Berlin Alexanderplatz has a runtime of just over 15-hours and is screened over two days with intervals, please see the full schedule below.
23 November: Germany in Autumn
The kidnapping of prominent ex-Nazi and Mercedes-Benz executive Hans-Martin Schleyer, the hijacking and rescue of a Lufthansa airliner, the suspicious deaths of the leaders of the Baader-Meinhof gang in Germany's highest security prison, and the threat of government crackdowns against left-wing intellectuals during the Fall of 1977 are the political background to this important collective work.
24 November: The State I Am In
With The State I Am In, Petzold definitively emerged as one of contemporary German cinema’s masters – and one of the preeminent chroniclers of the nation’s recent history. What at first seems a normal bourgeois European family on vacation is soon revealed to be something far more complex: the couple are former Red Army Faction operatives, on the run since the 1970s.
Showing Next Week
Surrealism in Cinema Course, Week 4 – Contemporary cinema
We've released a limited number of tickets for the individual sessions of Dr Virginie Sélavy's four week course exploring the influence of Surrealism on cinema. This session covers surrealism in contemporary cinema, looking at the films of Jan Švankmajer, Brothers Quay, Terry Gilliam, Guy Maddin, Yorgos Lanthimos, and David Lynch.
Tuesday 26 November: Simon Payne: Systems Cinema
Simon Payne's videos are predominantly orientated around bold graphic forms and highly structured sequences that produce unexpected colour combinations and conflicting planes. This programme, originally commissioned by Lightcone (Paris), also includes 16mm films by three friends and colleagues: Nicky Hamlyn, Neil Henderson and Jennifer Nightingale.
Wednesday 27 November: Chinese Roulette
Forever experimenting with form and tone, Fassbinder ventures into Edward-Albee-meets-Gothic-thriller territory with this account of the Christs (Alexander Allerson and Margit Carstensen), an affluent Munich couple whose polio-stricken daughter, Angela (Andrea Schober), brings them together at a country house with their respective lovers. Brilliantly shot by Michael Ballhaus with a constantly roving camera, the film keeps shifting the POV to establish the subjectivity of experience.
Sunday 1 December: Heimat is a Space in Time
Stretching from the dawn of World War I to the present day, Thomas Heise’s monumental essay film reflects on the fraught evolution of Germany’s national identity through the prism of one family’s history. As he visualizes his ancestors’ forced displacement across East and West Germany, Heise achieves a moving meditation on the relationship between home and heritage.
Coming Soon
26 November 2019 - 15 February 2020: A Worm’s Tail View is Often the True One: Films by Pere Portabella
The most ambitious, creative and complete retrospective of works by "the most important living director you’ve never heard of" – Pere Portabella – will tour London’s most engaged cultural institutions from November 2019 until February 2020. Organised by Winstanley Schtinter at Close-Up, ICA, Whitechapel Gallery, Cafe Oto, Brixton Prison and University of Cambridge.
6 December 2019: World on a Wire
World on a Wire is a gloriously paranoid, boundlessly inventive take on the future from German wunderkind Rainer Werner Fassbinder. With dashes of Stanley Kubrick, Kurt Vonnegut, and Philip K. Dick, and originally made for German television, this three-and-a-half-hour labyrinth is a satiric and surreal look at the world of tomorrow from one of cinema’s kinkiest geniuses.
7 - 8 December 2019: Edge of Frame at LIAF 2019
We're thrilled to welcome Edge of Frame back for four programmes of experimental animation as part of the London International Animation Festival (LIAF).
Calendar
Fri 22 Nov 8:15pm
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
Sat 23 Nov 11:00am
Berlin Alexanderplatz
Berlin Alexanderplatz
Sat 23 Nov 8:30pm
Germany in Autumn
Germany in Autumn
Sun 24 Nov 8:30pm
The State I Am In
The State I Am In
Mon 25 Nov 7:00pm
Surrealism Course - Week 4
Surrealism Course - Week 4
Tue 26 Nov 8:30pm
Simon Payne: Systems Cinema
Simon Payne: Systems Cinema
Wed 27 Nov 9:00pm
Chinese Roulette
Chinese Roulette
Sun 01 Dec 6:00pm
Heimat is a Space in Time
Heimat is a Space in Time
Fri 06 Dec 7:00pm
World on a Wire
World on a Wire
Sat 07 Dec 5:00pm
Don't Count on Your Fingers
Don't Count on Your Fingers
Sat 07 Dec 6:00pm
Edge of Frame: Brushwork
Edge of Frame: Brushwork
Sat 07 Dec 8:30pm
Edge of Frame: Memento Stella
Edge of Frame: Memento Stella
Sun 08 Dec 6:00pm
Edge of Frame: Surface Memory
Edge of Frame: Surface Memory
Sun 08 Dec 8:30pm
Edge of Frame: Potamkin
Edge of Frame: Potamkin
Sat 14 Dec 6:00pm
Pont De Varsòvia
Pont De Varsòvia
Sat 14 Dec 8:00pm
Silence Before Bach
Silence Before Bach
Sun 15 Dec 5:00pm
Informe General
Informe General
Sun 15 Dec 8:00pm
General Report II
General Report II
