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Each week, we round up the most exciting film events happening in London over the coming week, from pop-ups and one-offs to regular film clubs, outdoor screenings and festivals. Here’s the best of the bunch this week...
Ryan Gosling’s Birthday
Celebrate the thirty-sixth birthday of Canada’s sweetest export since maple syrup with a day of films, quizzes, pizza and cereal (just eat it, Ryan). The three-movie lineup won’t be officially announced until the day, but we can exclusively reveal that one of them – inevitably, but pleasingly – will be ‘Drive’, Nicolas Winding Refn’s self-consciously slick, synth-scored throwback. RyGos plays the unnamed Driver, a mechanic and occasional getaway guy whose life is overturned when he meets Irene (Carey Mulligan), a struggling mum with a husband in the joint.
Genesis Cinema, 93–95 Mile End Rd, E1 4UJ.
Sat Nov 12, 3pm. Free.
‘An American Werewolf in London’ thirty-fifth anniversary
Celebrate 35 years of the greatest werewolf movie ever with this screening, introduced by Paul Davis, director of a doc and author of a book on this remarkable film, one of very few to combine horror with comedy and hit both nails square on the head. John Landis’s film is dry, sly and endlessly quotable (‘a naked American man stole my balloons!’). And as an added bonus, the special effects still look remarkable, even in the age of CGI: there’s something about the look of real latex skin stretching over metal-frame bones that no amount of processing power can possibly replicate.
Prince Charles Cinema, 7 Leicester Place, WC2H 7BP.
Sat Nov 12, 6pm. £10.
Black Star: ‘Stormy Weather’ + Clarke Peters intro
The BFI’s Black Star season celebrates the work of cinema’s finest black actors, from Sidney Poitier to Will Smith. For this special event, actor Clarke Peters (aka Lester Freamon from ‘The Wire’) will introduce a film that influenced him as an up-and-coming performer, all-black musical ‘Stormy Weather’. the wispy plot – one of those up-down romances that span 25 years – serves chiefly to string together a revue collection of items matching the various periods. But with singing stars like Lena Horne, Cab Calloway and Fats, and the Nicholas Brothers providing a stunning tap dancing finale, who’s complaining?
BFI Southbank, Belvedere Rd, SE1 8XT.
Wed Nov 9, 8.45pm. £8.35–£11.75.
SuperHeroHype: ‘X-Men’ + ‘X-Men 2’
The first – and best – two films in the ‘X’-franchise, back to back. In ‘X-Men’ we’re introduced to Dr Xavier, who runs his boarding school as a refuge for mutants with special powers, and as an undercover operation against Magneto, whose mutant forces are plotting warfare on humans in response to proposed legislation against the growing percentage of ‘freaks’ in the population. ‘X2’, meanwhile, is still one of the finest comic-book movies, with nimbly shot action sequences and ideas to spare.
House of Vans, 228-232 Station Approach Rd, SE1 8SW.
Sat Nov 12, 3.30pm. Free.