Film / Previews
Event Cinema for March 2016
Plenty of highbrow stuff this month, including the NT’s much-acclaimed Hangmen, the Met Opera’s Manon Lescaut, the Royal Opera’s Boris Godunov and the return of the Bolshoi’s Spartacus. For nippers, there’s a special Easter screening of the Olivier Award-winning production of The Railway Children from the National Railway Museum in Yorkshire. Local filmmaking is celebrated at CineMe’s South West Shorts evening, complete with director intros. As ever, you can find more info and trailers in our detailed daily film listings starting here.
Imagine Dragons: Smoke + Mirrors Live
Unless you’re especially tuned in to the world of bland, Coldplay-style stadium pop, this lot might have passed you by. The US band’s new album Smoke + Mirrors topped the charts in America and the UK and this concert was recorded live in Toronto.
is needed now More than ever
Screening March 2: Showcase Cinema De Lux
National Theatre Live: Hangmen
The Royal Court Theatre’s production of Olivier and Academy Award-winner Martin McDonagh’s first new play in more than 10 years is broadcast live from the West End. On the day that hanging is finally abolished, Britain’s second-best hangman, Harry (David Morrissey), repairs to an authentically fug-filled small Oldham pub to consider his options. Among the regulars and hacks who’ve gathered to hear his views are Harry’s former assistant Syd (Andy Nyman) and the rather odd Mooney (Johnny Flynn), who each have very different reasons for being present. Matthew Dunster’s production has been acclaimed as a comic masterpiece and the best new play of the year.
Screening March 3: Cineworld, Showcase Cinema De Lux, Odeon, Curzon, Orpheus, Vue Cribbs Causeway, Vue Longwell Green
Metropolitan Opera: Manon Lescaut
Teenager Manon (Kristine Opolais) is on her way to a convent when she encounters hunky young student Des Grieux (Roberto Alagna). He persuades her to abandon her plans and scarper to Paris with him instead. But randy old goat Geronte (Brindley Sherratt) subsequently turns her head with the promise of a life of wealth and luxury – with tragic consequences. Hey – it wouldn’t be opera without tragic consequences, would it? Richard Eyre’s production of Puccini’s first major critical and popular success transposes the setting to a film noir-ish occupied France.
Screening March 5: Showcase Cinema De Lux, Vue Cribbs Causeway, Vue Longwell Green
NT Live Encore: Les Liaisons Dangereuses
Directed by Josie Rourke, the Donmar Warehouse’s 30th anniversary production of Christopher Hampton’s Olivier Award-winning stage adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos’ 1782 novel, boasts a cast that includes Adjoa Andoh, Theo Barklem-Biggs, Morfydd Clark, Elaine Cassidy, Edward Holcroft, Janet McTeer, Jennifer Saayeng, Una Stubbs and Dominic West. West plays the sneering Valmont, while McTeer is cast as the manipulative Marquise in this evergreen tale of debauched aristos playing games of sex and power.
Screening March 8: Vue Cribbs Causeway, Vue Longwell Green
English National Opera Encore: Carmen
Horny solider Jose is so crazed with lust for for gypsy temptress Carmen (Justina Gringyte) that he deserts the army. Alas, the fickle, sultry minx falls for subsequently falls for dashing toreador Escamillo. Catalan director Calixto Bieito’s much-acclaimed production of Bizet’s fiery opera updates the setting to the dying days of Franco’s Spain, playing out this battle of the sexes in a bullring. It was recorded live at the London Coliseum.
Screening March 9: Curzon
CineMe: South West Shorts + Intros
CineMe celebrates its eighth anniversary with a selection of nine of the best recent locally made independent short films. The filmmakers will also be in attendance to talk about their work and there will be an audience award for the best film screened on the night. Highlights include Beneath The Tides from BAFTA-winning sound recordist Rupert Miles, who has worked on a number of feature films with acclaimed British director Michael Winterbottom; Oliver Park’s multi-festival award winning horror Vicious; Keith Wilhelm Kopp’s western Gage; Bristol writing and directing duo Shunk Films‘ A Girl and Her Gun; and the offbeat comedy/drama Conversations With Strangers by James Sampson.
Screening March 10: Orpheus
BEEF + 20th Century Flicks: Time, Race, Lawes
Bristol Experimental and Expanded Film and 20th Century Flicks present three British films responding to social and political events, from anti-racist demonstrations to the Queen’s Jubilee Thames pageant. The filmmakers will be present to discuss their work after the screening.
Screening March 12: BEEF
Principal dancer Mikhail Lobukhin gets to do the gladiatorial thing in this 2013 production of the Bolshoi’s signature ballet, which was originally choreographed by Yuri Grigorovich back in 1968. It’s something of a showcase for the Bolshoi’s virile chaps, with a memorable Khachaturian score.
Screening March 13: Orpheus, Vue Longwell Green
NT Live Encore: As You Like It
With her Duke dad in exile, Rosalind (Rosalie Craig) and her cousin Celia scarper into the Forest of Arden. This being Shakespearian comedy, she naturally disguises herself as a boy and falls in love. Cross-dressing shenanigans ensue. Polly Findlay’s production of what has been described as the earliest sketch show – and is certainly one of the Bard’s weirdest plays – has been hailed by critics as something of a triumph. It’s the first staging of As You Like It at the National Theatre in 36 years.
Screening March 15: Vue Cribbs Causeway, Vue Longwell Green
Inspired by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett’s acclaimed book The Spirit Level, this new documentary explores the ever-expanding gap between rich and poor through the individual stories of seven people in the US and UK, where the top 0.1% cling on to the same amount of wealth as the bottom 90%. The Watershed’s Festival of Ideas preview on March 19 is followed by a discussion with Kate Pickett.
Screening March 19: Watershed
To mark the end of British Science Week, the first-ever Bristol Science Film Festival screens the shortlisted entries to its competition for science-themed short films of less than ten minutes in duration. Prizes will also be dished out on the night.
Screening March 20: Cube
Royal Opera House Live: Boris Godunov
Naughty Boris Godunov comes to power by bumping off nine-year-old Dmitry, heir to the throne. Realising that he was born on the same day as the slain nipper, young monk Grigory decides to pose as the risen Dmitry in a bid to become Tsar. This new production of Modest Mussorgsky’s only completed opera is conducted by Antonio Pappano and directed by Richard Jones. Shouldering the burden of one of the greatest bass-baritone roles in the canon is Bryn Terfel.
Screening March 21: Showcase Cinema De Lux, Orpheus, Odeon, Vue Cribbs Causeway, Vue Longwell Green
Screening March 27: Showcase Cinema De Lux
It’s Always Right Now, Until It’s Later
Comedian Daniel Kitson introduces this live recording of his It’s Always Right Now, Until It’s Later show, which was recorded in real time towards the end of its run in Manchester.
Screening March 24: Cube
Alfred Hitchcock’s last silent film before he moved on to sound with Blackmail is adapted from the 1896 romantic novel by Sir Hall Caine. It’s about two boyhood chums who fall for the same woman with – you guessed it! – tragic consequences. Despite the title, the film was shot almost entirely on location in Polperro, Cornwall. This screening includes the world premiere of a new live score by harpist Elizabeth-Jane Baldry.
Screening March 27: Curzon
York Theatre Royal: The Railway Children
Filmed in the appropriate surroundings of the National Railway Museum in Yorkshire, York Theatre Royal’s Olivier award-winning production of the E. Nesbit children’s classic features the original locomotive from the much-loved 1970 film. The director is Emmy award-winning Ross MacGibbon, who brought the David Suchet The Importance of Being Earnest and Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake to the screen.
Screening March 28: Cineworld, Showcase Cinema De Lux, Orpheus, Vue Cribbs Causeway, Vue Longwell Green, Curzon
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