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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…
Star Trek at 50
Some five-year mission. It’s been five decades since the crew of the Starship Enterprise first blasted off in search of strange new worlds and new civilisations, and they’re still going pretty boldly, albeit in different corporeal bodies. This weekender at the Regent St Cinema collects all six of the Shatner-era Trek features, from the cosmic pomp of ‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture’, via the series-high action antics of ‘The Wrath of Khan’ and the likeable comedy stylings of ‘The Voyage Home’, all the way to the Shakespeare-fuelled post-Cold War smarts of ‘The Undiscovered Country’. There’ll also be a super-secret screening on Saturday night.
Regent Street Cinema, 309 Regent St, W1B 2UW.
Fri Oct 14 to Sat Oct 15.
London Film Festival: ‘The Ghoul’
Lots of the big movies at this year’s London Film Festival are now sold out. But if you’re up for something off the beaten track, there are still plenty of screenings you can get into. This micro-budget British oddity is a case in point: directed by first-timer Gareth Tunley and co-produced by the mighty Ben Wheatley (‘Kill List’), it’s simultaneously a moody London crime drama, a study of depression and a hallucinatory supernatural horror flick. The cast is great, too: perennial supporting player Tom Meeten is a brooding lead, and he’s superbly supported by the likes of Dan Skinner (aka Angelos Epithemiou) and ‘Sightseers’ star Alice Lowe.
Picturehouse Central, 20-24 Shaftesbury Ave, W1D 7DH.
Sun Oct 16, 3pm. £9 - £17.60.
‘Dune’ on 70mm
About as Marmite-y as movies get, David Lynch’s grand, ludicrous take on Frank Herbert’s genre-defining sci-fi epic gets a rare 70mm film screening. We love it for its globe-spanning cast of should-know-better Shakespearian talent; for its twisted wedding of ornate Euro-pudding epic, grotesque experimental horror flick and action blockbuster; for the stunning cinematography, immersive sets and beautiful costumes – even Sting’s black nappy. But most of all we love it for its ambition: how a movie this thematically complex, ridiculously pricey and just downright weird ever got made is impossible to imagine.
Prince Charles Cinema, 7 Leicester Place, WC2H 7BP.
Mon Oct 17, 8.45pm. £12.50.
The Nomad & Time Out present ‘The Life Aquatic’
Outdoor cinema experts The Nomad have paired up with Time Out to present three amazing nature-themed movies in the unique setting of Farmopolis, a tropical garden paradise on the banks of the Thames. First up it’s Wes Anderson’s fussy, funny story of ocean explorer Steve Zissou (Bill Murray), a down-at-heel Cousteau-alike explorer pursuing a filmed revenge mission against the jaguar shark who devoured his best friend. Suffused with lush yet faded primary colours like a 30-year-old Kodak snap and spiced with Henry Selick’s stop-motion animations, ‘The Life Aquatic’ is a beautiful dollhouse by the sea.
Farmopolis, The Jetty, Greenwich Peninsula, SE10 0FL.
Fri Oct 14, 7pm. £15.
Black Star: ‘Carmen Jones’
A precursor to the BFI’s epic tribute to the greats of black cinema. The novella-turned-opera ‘Carmen’, a fine old tale of high passions and low morals, was re-upholstered Hollywood-style in this all-black musical. The cigarette-maker with a rose between her teeth becomes a parachute factory worker (Dorothy Dandridge), whose romance with a GI (Harry Belafonte) is interrupted by Harlem’s equivalent of the bullfighter – a boxer. It can feel a little heavy-handed, but the heartstrings are tugged nonetheless.
Deptford Cinema, 39 Deptford Broadway, SE8 4PQ.
Sat Oct 15, 2pm. £5, £3.50 concs.
For the full list, go to Time Out’s film events page.