Deep Focus: 10 — 16 November
Todd Haynes' Safe at the Barbican, The Machine That Kills Bad People returns to the ICA, and Clockwatchers at the Rio.
On Thursday, Jill Sprecher’s Clockwatchers screens at the Rio, opening the season Fruits of her Labour, followed by a discussion with writer Ellen C. Scott.
Monday, marking its 30th anniversary, Todd Haynes’ Safe, an exploration of “disabled women within melodrama” starring an incomparable Julianne Moore, screens at the Barbican, featuring an extended introduction by Stims Collective’s Georgia Kumari Bradburn. George Finlay Ramsay’s diptych, Flex, Wax & Glass pt. I & II, a “journey through mourning, faith, and devotion,” screens next door in Cinema 2, as part of the Jarman Award 2025. Laura Mulvey’s Crystal Gazing is on 16mm at the BFI, introduced by Esther Leslie. There’s an encore screening of Kimia Ipakchi and Orla Smith’s Tube Film at Hackney Wick’s Bath House. The King of Comedy is at the Prince Charles Cinema. The Regent Street Cinema’s Monday Matinee is Sirk’s Shockproof.
Tuesday, the ICA welcomes The Machine That Kills Bad People back with “two films about stripping and striptease”: Mira Nair’s India Cabaret, an study of women, sexuality, and femininity in 80s India, preceded by Gunvor Nelson short Take Off, an incandescent portrait of stripper Ellion Ness, shot with Nelson’s trademark humour and wit. Mulvey’s AMY! + Frida Kahlo & Tina Modotti is at the BFI, followed by Mulvey in conversation with Griselda Pollock and Mandy Merck. At the Barbican, Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom screens as part of Olivia Laing: The Silver Book. Women and Cocaine presents a Louise Brooks double bill of Diary of a Lost Girl followed by G.W. Pabst’s Pandora’s Box at The Nickel.
Wednesday, a body horror double: Tetsuo II: Body Hammer continues Tetsuo and Beyond at the Prince Charles, while up at the Rio, Julia Ducournau’s Alpha has a preview screening followed by a Q&A with the director. I was 19, Konrad Wolf’s “landmark of postwar German cinema,” screens at the Goethe-Institut, introduced by KCL’s Martin Brady. Further up at The Castle Cinema, the sixth iteration of Violet Hour presents Russian silent legend Yevgeni Bauer’s The Dying Swan alongside shorts by Maya Deren and Teo Hernàndez. Kennington Noir returns to The Cinema Museum with The Strange Love of Martha Ivers. King Vidor’s Stella Dallas is in the BFI’s NFT2, introduced by QMUL’s Lucy Bolton.
Thursday, introduced by writer Ellen C. Scott, Clockwatchers, Jill Sprecher’s Gen X portrait of the “monotony of modern office culture” (cleo), opens the curtain on the Rio’s Fruits of Her Labour, a season exploring “representations of women at work.” The ICA’s Theo Angelopoulos season continues with The Beekeeper. Jellied Reels presents L’uomo in più at The Castle Cinema. Waltham Forest Cinema Project presents The Golden Spurtle at Leytonstone’s Good Shepherd Studios. Ephraim Asili’s The Diaspora Suite, a suite of films exploring “the connections and shared histories of Black culture and the African diaspora through jazz,” opens the Barbican’s Jazz on Screen series. Strange Encounters closes at Close-Up with Tsai Ming-liang’s The Hole, introduced by season curator Hope Rangaswami.
Friday, John Smith helms the latest edition of Close-Up’s The Liberated Film Club. The BFI’s Too Much: Melodrama on Film shows Anthony Asquith’s A Cottage on Dartmoor, “a prescient takedown of the proverbial ‘nice guy,’” from a 35mm National Archive print, also featuring live piano accompaniment. The London Korean Film Festival screens YMCA Baseball Team at the ICA.
Saturday, Zodiac Killer Project, Charlie Shackleton’s “wholly original, self-aware cinematic work” on the true crime boom and its conventions, has its London premiere at the ICA, followed by a Q&A with the director. So Watt: Derek Bailey’s On the Edge — Improvisation in Music is at the Barbican as part of its Jazz on Screen season. Jarmusch’s Mystery Train is at The Cinema Museum, presented by Some New Kind of Kick. At the BFI: the London Korean Film Festival 2025 presents Dongju: The Portrait of a Poet, while Melo-dramarama occupies NFT2 for a day-long event, delving into the history of the genre, with speakers including Laura Mulvey, Pamela Hutchinson, Laura Venning, and Simran Hans.
Sunday, Salam Cinema and Directing Actors, a “rare behind-the-scenes glimpse” at Jean Renoir’s process of developing a fictional character, continues In the Realm of Acting: Performance On and Off Screen at the ICA, where With Hasan in Gaza is followed by a Q&A with director Kamal Aljafari as part of London Palestine Film Festival 2025. The London Korean Film Festival presents Break Up the Chain, introduced by Michael Leader at the BFI. In the Rio’s Screen 1, the Varda Film Club presents The Gleaners and I, introduced by filmmaker Bells Kennedy-Compston, which is followed by The Wiz, Sidney Lumet’s infamous all African-American take on the Broadway Wizard of Oz adaptation presented by Never Watching Movies and Scary Claire. Misty Moon presents Party Party at The Cinema Museum, followed by a Q&A with some of the film’s cast. Introduced by Ehsan Khoshbakht, Jazz in Exile - Big Ben: Ben Webster in Europe & Cecil Taylor à Paris closes Jazz on Screen at the Barbican.