The premier of Alfred Hitchcock’s rare silent masterpiece, The Ring, recently restored by the BFI National Archive, will be streamed live for the first time ever from London’s Hackney Empire exclusively on The Space on Friday 13th July at 20.00 (GMT). The premiere will be accompanied by a specially commissioned soundtrack composed and performed by award-winning jazz musician Soweto Kinch.
Marking it as a worthy precursor to Scorsese’s Raging Bull, Hitchcock’s melodrama tells the story of a love-triangle between boxer Bob Corby, his sparring partner Jack Sander and Jack’s beautiful wife Mabel. The bouts in the ring become more than gamely sparring, leading up to the championship fight (famously set in the Albert Hall) between the two men for the love of Mabel.
Since its launch in May, digital arts service The Space has become the online destination for film fans everywhere offering a selection of free and on-demand films, whenever you want it and wherever you happen to be, featuring unmissable live events, rare archive material and interactive collections, with new material added every week.
In the run up to the live stream, The Space will feature Hitchcock documentaries including Hitchcock and cinema in the 20s and Hitchcock and the Evolution of Style. There will also be an interview Hitchcock gave to the BBC programme Late Night Line-Up in 1966.
The Space is currently showcasing a selection of first or early films by major British directors, from the BFI archive, including Ridley Scott, Ken Russell and Shane Meadows. And the BFI collection on The Space also celebrates Britain’s emerging filmmakers with a selection of shorts, from quirky animations, shocking comedies and thrilling genre movies to thought-provoking dramas and moving documentaries.
Coming up in July are short films about some of the great artists of the 20th century including Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore and Francis Bacon, as well as a Peter Greenaway retrospective and films from the GPO film unit also from the BFI National Archive.
Nate, a gay 19-year-old film student, and Margaret, a 52-year-old spinster with a coffee mug addiction, are best friends in an odd, quirky, totally working kind of way…until Nate’s audacious classmate Darla sets him up on a date with James. Nate’s new romance shakes up his friendship with Margaret, who goes off on her own to pursue her lifelong dream of being a stand-up comedian. As Nate and Margaret attempt to navigate their new lives apart, they come to realize just how important true friendship really is.
Starring noted television actor and theater performer Natalie West (“Roseanne”, Bushwhacked), Tyler Ross (The Wise Kids), and Gaby Hoffmann (200 Cigarettes, Now & Then), Nate & Margaret shows that age really does not matter in the grand scheme of life, love, and friendship. Directed and co-written by Nathan Adloff, star of Blackmail Boys, Nate & Margaret is a tale as old as time, but a fresh twist as a 21st century gay Harold and Maude. Roger Ebert called the film “a smart, observant movie about two very particular people.”
Nate & Margaret had its world premiere as the closing night film in the FilmOut San Diego LGBT Film Festival where it took home Best First Narrative and Best Actress Awards, will screen in the Vancouver Queer Film Festival and Philadelphia QFest, and enjoyed theatrical runs at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago and at Brooklyn’s reRun Theater in June.
As you may know, Berlin favourite Electrick Children is out this Friday, 13th July. To celebrate the occasion popular illustrator Sam Gilbey has created a brilliant bespoke poster for the film.
Electrick Children stars Julia Garner, Rory Culkin, Liam Aiken and Billy Zane. It tells of a visceral journey through a young girls discovery of a new world, having grown up in a fundamentalist Mormon community in Utah. Our review is here.
Sam’s unique illustrations have appeared in numerous publications, both on and offline all over the globe, from magazines such as Computer Arts and Wired UK, to several books, exhibitions, comics, and also on television and in a movie test shoot for Working Title. His observational, colourful and distinct painterly style often draws on, and celebrates popular culture, whether that’s movies, video games, and/or the occasional large robot. If for some reason you wanted to sum his style up in two words, ‘painted comics’ might just cover it.
The very notion of an immaculate conception baffles the mind. It’s a concept that is the very foundation of religious beliefs despite its blatant impossibility. It’s also somewhat of a surprisingly rare theme of narrative in movies, well other than in demonic horrors about demon babies.
It’s a strange concept to grasp, then, when portrayed in a real world coming of age tale involving a 15-year-old Mormon girl and the apparent magical impregnating powers of a cassette tape.
Electrick Children is the feature film debut of Rebecca Thomas, she herself raised in the Mormon community, and is very much an extraordinary tale cleverly nuanced within a very ordinary setting. Rachel (Julia Garner) is a 15-year-old girl seemingly content with the simple Mormon life until her curiosity towards a mysterious tape of rock and roll plucks her from the safety of her family’s farm to the neon stained counter culture of Las Vegas. Having listened to the sounds of the cassette, Rachel discovers herself to be pregnant, and sets off with a reluctant Mr Will (Liam Aiken) to find the man singing on the tape; the man she believes to be the father of her immaculately conceived child. On the potentially dangerous yet exciting streets of Vegas, Rachel meets Clyde (Rory Culkin); a rebellious youth who assists her in finding the mystery man while exposing her and Mr Will to a teenage life they never knew existed.
The concept is most certainly a strange one considering it’s contemporary and real-world setting but it’s also a bold one. Challenging an audience to fully accept an immaculate conception as a feasible plot point, Rebecca Thomas confidently lays out the idea and weaves a delightful coming of age tale around it. The film itself is utterly charming throughout. Never dismissing or belittling the Mormon faith, the first-time writer/director clearly shows a certain respect towards such an upbringing, without every pandering to it. There is simply no “villain” of the piece, be that the Mormon way of life itself or Rachel’s authoritarian father (played with subtlety by Billy Zane). He is simply an honest man who is just trying to do right by his family, and his God. There is never a question of who is right and wrong in how to live their life, merely the idea that one should at least have a choice. And despite the increasing scrutiny on religion in society as a whole, the film could’ve easily fallen into a snipe on strict American faiths. Instead, Electrick Children just acknowledges it’s existence, and for this fact, I think it’s commendable that Rebecca Thomas sits on the fence as a diplomat rather than using the medium to attack a life bound by rules in the name of God.
Julia Garner is wonderful as the pregnant Rachel
As the film progresses, Rachel’s pregnancy unfortunately becomes somewhat insignificant. Instead, the origin of Rachel herself slowly emerges to the forefront of the story leaving the Immaculate Conception plot point lost aimlessly in the first act. It feels a bit unsatisfying, then, that there is never any real closure to a part of the story that initially feels so important. Having shown such gusto in laying out such a theme for an audience to grasp, it feels like a bit of a cop out to throw it on the backburner and hope the audience don’t notice but maybe it’s intentionally left up to the viewer to draw their own conclusions.
Electrick Children feels very much like a product of the Terrence Malick school of cinema; shots of the American countryside painted with the orange hue of the magic hour, subtle dream like sequences wrapped around focused pieces of narration (that often become wholly pretentious) and performances that just feel genuine. Julia Garner is stunning as Rachel. Impossible to dislike at any point of the film, she shines in the lead role. Naïve yet passionately curious, she brings a perfect balance of vulnerability and warmth to her role as the young girl who truly believes she is part of a miracle. A similar array of superlatives can also be said for Rory Culkin; as charming as we’ve grown accustomed to from a Culkin, his rebellious teen schlock as Clyde is the perfect foil for Garner’s oblivious innocence. As a result, the on screen chemistry between the two is a constant delight to behold and is most definitely a highlight of the film. The two are also supported well throughout; more so by Liam Aiken, who is a constant source of understated sympathy. And while he’s supposed to be the voice of reason in contrast to Clyde’s “live free” outlook on life, you feel compelled to will him on to break the shackles of his suppressed youth.
With it’s curiously bold subject matter, understatedly brilliant performances and a soundtrack that constantly yet softly sings “America”, Electrick Children is very much cut from the cloth of an older generation of American Indie rather than sharing similarities with the modern tales of quirkiness in the genre. It isn’t particularly edgy, it isn’t gritty or hard-hitting, but merely a tale of a teenage girl breaking free from a childhood bound by rules. It’s a simple fable told with an extraordinary twist and Rebecca Thomas has crafted a film that is honest, humorous, inoffensive and completely charming. I for one emerged from the screening beaming, with a warm feeling in my stomach…good job I’m a bloke though, or else I would’ve been convinced I was pregnant too.
Need an Expendables fix quick and fast? Missing Prison Break? Well, it is with sheer testosterone-fuelled joy that I can show you the trailer for the Randy “Expendables” Couture and Dominic “Prison Break” Purcell -starring ‘Hijacked” – coming out on DVD and Blu-ray from Anchor Bay on 30th July.
What, Vinnie Jones?! No, that’s where you’re wrong. It’s not just ‘ard man Vinnie Jones. It’s SUPER hi-altitude ‘ard man Vinnie Jones, complete with a tuxedo joining forces with Couture to manically combat fellow Brit tough guy, Craig Fairbrass, only bloody 30,000 FEET IN THE AIR!. Sounds a little James Bond, right? Wait until you see Jones sipping the cocktails…
Think “Con Air”, “Passenger 57” and “Air Force One”, and then smack yourself hard in the face because you’re wrong! This is much, MUCH more of a muscle-slapped action terror that’s sure to get your fix of an unashamed, Expendables-styled adrenaline rush.
