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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 this week’s top five…
Sci-Fi London & Science Fiction Theatre: ‘Fantastic Voyage’ + talk
The annual Sci-Fi London film festival offers a wealth of new sci-fi movies plus quizzes, talks and even a space-themed dog show. This year, our eye was caught by a rare screening of this gorgeously designed 1960s adventure, complete with a talk on the history of shrinking in SF movies. When a top scientist defecting to the West suffers brain damage in an assassination attempt, the only answer is to inject a miniaturised submarine and medical team through his bloodstream to deal with the clot on his brain. The voyage through the fantastic landscapes of the body is brilliantly imagined.
The Victoria, 451 Queensbridge Road, E8 3AS. Mon May 2, 8pm. £5.
Haringey Independent Cinema: ‘McLibel’
With McDonald’s back in the news, it’s a grand time to revisit this terrific docudrama about a court case brought by the fast food giant against a London couple. When activists Helen Steel and Dave Morris decided to fight the libel charge levelled against them in 1990 for leaflet allegations they had made, nobody expected it would take 15 years before their victory at the European Court of Human Rights. Independent filmmaker Franny Armstrong charted their progress, and her doc also includes courtroom reconstructions directed by Ken Loach.
Park View School, Langham Rd, N15 3RB. Thu Apr 28, 7pm. £4, £3 concs.
Temple Cinema: ‘Don’t Look Now’
Another screening in the stunning Masonic Temple on Liverpool Street – and a perfect choice of film for the occasion. Voted the best British film of all time by an expert Time Out panel some years back, it’s a superbly chilling essay in the supernatural, adapted from Daphne du Maurier's short story about a couple, shattered by the death of their small daughter, who go to Venice to forget. There they are approached by a blind woman with a message of warning from the dead child; and half-hoping, half-resisting, they are sucked into a terrifying vortex of time where disaster may be foretold but not forestalled.
Andaz Hotel, 40 Liverpool St, EC2M 7QN. Tue Apr 26, 7.30pm. £15.
The Lord of the Rings Extended Trilogy
The epically longer, infinitely better extended cuts of Peter Jackson’s trilogy get a rare big-screen outing this bank holiday Monday. You know the plot already, but just in case you’ve been living in a cave for the better part of the century: young hobbit Frodo Baggins comes into possession of the ring of power – a talisman of evil so potent it corrupts everyone who touches it. Under the guidance of the wizard Gandalf, Frodo escapes the clutches of the fearsome ringwraiths and heads for the kingdom of the elves, where they hope to thwart the encroaching forces of doom.
Prince Charles Cinema, 7 Leicester Place, WC2H 7BP. Mon May 2, 11am. £22.50.
Captain America triple bill
Another monumental triple bill, culminating in the brand-new (and really rather good) instalment in the Marvel soap opera, ‘Captain America: Civil War’. The first film is an enjoyable superhero romp, but it’s with part two, ‘The Winter Soldier’, that things get interesting, as Steve Rogers stumbles across the site of a massive military build-up: three huge ‘helicarriers’ stored beneath Washington, primed to pry into people’s privacy. A classy action blockbuster, ‘The Winter Soldier’ nods to ’70s classics ‘The Parallax View’ and ‘Three Days of the Condor’.
Genesis Cinema, 93–95 Mile End Rd, E1 4UJ.Thu Apr 28, 6.55pm. £14, £9 concs.
For the full list, go to Time Out’s film events page.