Little Stabs At Happiness screens at the ICA on Wednesday, as part of Open City Documentary Festival’s retrospective on the work and lives of Ken and Flo Jacobs, Seeing Through Film.
Monday, LRB/London Reviewed presents E.A. Dupont’s Piccadilly at The Garden Cinema, with Gareth Evans in conversation with musician and writer Emma-Lee Moss (or Emmy the Great, to readers of a certain vintage). At BFI Southbank, there’s another chance to see Hold Me While I’m Naked, George Kuchar!, this time boasting an extended intro by Professor Juan A. Suárez. Peter Bogdanovich’s underrated Saint Jack, starring Ben Gazzara adrift in the Singapore underworld, screens at The Nickel. TV Party, Tonight! returns to The Rio with a featurette special on HR Giger, presenting “two rare documentary insights” into the macabre world of the Swiss artist, scored by Joel Vandroogenbroeck. Sturges’ The Palm Beach Story is the Monday Classic Matinee at Regent Street Cinema.
Tuesday, Open City Documentary Festival opens at the Barbican with Interstitial Cinema: The Films of Artavazd Pelechian, the first of two programmes dedicated to the Armenian filmmaker, “one of cinema’s greatest montage artists,” featuring an introduction by Sona Karapoghosyan. Over at The Nickel, there’s a pairing of CAN-soundtracked films — Jerzy Skolimowski’s Deep End and Tom Toelle’s Das Millionenspiel — with live footage of krautrock supremos during the intermission. Peter Weir’s Witness is at the BFI Southbank, introduced by curator Elena Lazic. My Dinner with Andre screens at The Garden Cinema. True Romance is on 35mm at the Prince Charles Cinema.
Wednesday, at the ICA, a programme of Ken Jacobs’ early collaborations with Jack Smith opens Ken & Flo Jacobs: Seeing Through Film, the festival’s retrospective on the work and lives of the filmmaking couple. At the Barbican, Archivistas Salvajes 1. Cuban Experimental Cinema, presents a programme on the works of Manuel Marzel and Juan Carlos Alom, opening Archivistas Salvajes and Open City’s strand on Cuban amateur filmmakers. BFI Southbank hosts Christian Petzold in conversation following a screening of his latest Miroirs No.3. At The Cinema Museum, Kennington Noir presents Chester Erskine’s Take One False Step on 16mm. John Schlesinger’s Pacific Heights is at The Nickel.
Thursday, at The Garden Cinema, Greek Salad continues with Nico Papatakis’ “hyper-stylised, expressionistic” Les Abysses — described by Simone de Beauvoir as a “magnificent and strange film” — introduced by Savina Petkova. Over in the bar, GP Surgery and Never Watching Movies present Alma’s Rainbow, preceded by Obinna Nwosu’s A Look to Kill from a 16mm print. Sensual Labratories , an Open City programme focusing on the light show as a unqiuely ephemeral genre of live multimedia performance and expanded cinema, featuring works by Barbara Hammer, Mark Boyle and Joan Hills, is at the ICA, followed by a panel dicusson with Jarvis Cocker and John Smith. At the ICA. Cronenberg’s Naked Lunch is presented by Cult Classic Collective at Genesis. An Unmarried Woman is at The Nickel, presented by Discreet Cinema and introduced by programmer Agne Qami. Fleet Street’s MayDay Rooms host a solidarity screening of Mohammad Rasoulof’s The White Meadows, followed by a discussion on contemporary struggles in Iran.
Friday, King Vidor’s The Crowd is at Finch Community Cinema, introduced by programmer Ellen Cleary, with live original accompaniment by Ashley Valentine and preceded by avant-garde short Manhatta. Last Movies, Stanley Schinter’s film “drawing on fragments of archival material, conjecture, and cinematic memory” to chart the last films watched by the great and good, screens at the ICA as part of Open City Documentary Festival, followed by a Q&A with the director. Ken and Flo Jacobs: Seeing Through Film 3, focusing on the directors’ later works, at Close-Up. Some New Kind of Kick presents John Coney’s Sun Ra-starring Afrofuturist classic Space Is the Place at The Cinema Museum. Jules et Jim continues The Garden Cinema’s season celebrating Jeanne Moreau.
Saturday, In Focus: Onyeka Igwe 2 – Accidental Aesthetic Tradition presents a programme of moving-image works reflecting on “the formative influence of late-night television and experimental film culture,” featuring work by Gillian Wearing and William Raban as part of Open City. In Focus: Onyeka Igwe 3 follows, showcasing the artist’s own works — both programmes are followed by a Q&A. Joseph Losey’s Boom! is at The Nickel. The Male Gaze: Heavenly Creatures, a programme of gay short film that explores faith and passion is at The Arzner. At The Garden, Time Capsule: The Films of Jia Zhangke continues with Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue.
Sunday, Kote Mikaberidze’s sublime Soviet silent slapstick My Grandmother is at the Barbican. Silent Dreams Shorts Programme, introduced by filmmaker Gerald Fox, anchored by Maya Deren’s Meshes of the Afternoon and featuring works by Germaine Dulac, Erno Metzner and Dimitri Kirsanoff is at BFI Southbank. Open City Documentary Festival closes out with The Ian White Lecture, delivered this year by Jordan Lord, who’ll give a performative lecture featuring a screening of his new short film Concealed and Denied. William Raban’s Thames Film and Graeme Arnfield’s The Case Against Space follow, all at the ICA. Marlon Riggs’ Black Is… Black Ain’t continues The Horse Hospital’s series of queer cinema screenings, once again preceded by a selection of shorts by video artist Tom Rubnitz. Lexi’s year-long Spotlight series continues with Lina Wertmuller’s The Seduction of Mimi, introduced by Julia Wagner.
Until next time.