Event cinema for November 2015

Eyes down for another busy month, including two movies’n’nosh events as part of Afrika Eye, The European Outdoor Film Tour at St. George’s, Elvis appearing (honest) at the Rooms Festival, romantic films in Redcliffe Caves, the premiere of the Ronaldo documentary, the return of the record-breaking CumberHamlet, Ken Branagh and Judi Dench in The Winter’s Tale, the Bristol Bad Film Club’s screening of a hilariously awful rave drama, Man with a Movie Camera with a live score, Of Mice and Men with Bridesmaids star Chris O’Dowd, Spaceballs plus pizza, and a quadruple bill from the Royal Ballet. Oh, and don’t forget that Hot Tub Cinema continues until Sat 7 Nov. For more information and trailers, see our detailed daily film listings starting here.

European Outdoor Film Tour 2015
The 15th annual European Outdoor Film Tour pitches up in Bristol for two shows at St. George’s.
Screening Nov 1 & Nov 11: St. George’s

Afrika Eye: The Price of Love + Meal
An ultra-low-budget Ethiopian drama with a cast of non-professionals, which has won a string of international accolades. It’s the tale of an Addis Ababa cabbie who falls for a prostitute after saving her from her violent pimp. This appetiser for the Afrika Eye film festival is screened in the From Africa with Love strand and your £10 ticket price also gets you a two-course East African meal. Go here for more on Afrika Eye and here for more on this event.
Screening Nov 4: The Baggator

NT Live Encore: Hamlet
Already the biggest event cinema release of the year, having taken a whopping £2m, the CumberHamlet returns for encore screenings. More are likely to be added, so check the film listings for the latest info.
Screening Nov 4 & Nov 11: Curzon

Orion: The Man Who Would Be King
Meet Jimmy Ellis – a bloke who masqueraded as Elvis back from the grave, shortly after the Burger King expired on the toilet. Thanks to his impressive voice, Jimmy was plucked from obscurity, given an outlandish new identity and signed to Sun Records. As the masked and rhinestoned Orion, he quickly became a huge success, single-handedly kicking off the ‘Elvis is Alive’ myth. Alas, his contract stipulated that he was never allowed to remove his mask, which meant that success on his own terms proved elusive.

Jeanie Finlay’s well received documentary is screened as part of The Rooms Festival and is followed by an Elvis House Party for those who can’t get enough of the late gyrator. More information and ticket details are available here.
Screening Nov 6: The Station

Bolshoi Ballet: Jewels
Choreographer George Balanchine’s opulent abstract triptych celebrating the cities and dance schools of Paris, New York and St. Petersburg, each symbolised by its own precious stone. The ballet was recorded live in January 2014.
Screening Nov 8: Orpheus

Ronaldo World Premiere Live
Shot over 14 months with unprecedented access to the footballer’s inner circle, BAFTA-winning director Anthony Wonke’s portrait of Real Madrid and Manchester United player Cristiano Ronaldo is executive produced by Senna and Amy director Asif Kapadia. The film is streamed live from its world premiere, with red carpet coverage and an ‘in conversation with Ronaldo’ featurette.
Screening Nov 9: Vue Cribbs Causeway, Curzon

Bioskop Presents: Caverns of Love
Romance in a cave, anybody? Yup, as their contribution to the BFI Love season, Bioskop get loved-up in Redcliffe Caves. They’re promising to avoid the usual fluffy stuff in favour of a look at what happens after ‘happy ever after’, with films by the likes of Mike Leigh, Natalija Vujosevic, Takahiko Iimura and more. There are two screenings, at 7pm and 9pm. Get your advance tickets here.
Screening Nov 12: Redcliffe Caves

Bristol Bad Film Club: Vibrations
Most bad films date from the ’70s and ’80s, offering us plenty of opportunity to laugh at those decades’ bad fashions and terrible music. But the rave era also excelled in these departments, as this utterly bizarre 1996 ‘triumph of the underdog’ movie demonstrates. James Marshall, who’d previously been in A Few Good Men and the Twin Peaks movie, plays rising rock star TJ Cray, who loses his hands in a car crash. Naturally, dejected TJ becomes a homeless wino. But one day this washed-up bum wakes in an abandoned warehouse where a crazy 90s ‘rave’ is going on. He’s then befriended by ‘computer artist’ Anamika (Christina Applegate), who teams up with some geeky pals to build him a cyber bodysuit, whereupon our handless hero becomes a semi-robotic ravey-davey DJ sensation known as Cyberstorm.

It’s all here: awful acting, dire plot, dreadful music and a cameo by Utah Saints (remember them?). Tickets for this Bristol Bad Film Club screening are £5 each, with all profits going to The Harbour. Bag ’em in advance here.
Screening Nov 12: Thekla

Royal Ballet Quadruple Programme
Carlos Acosta adapts Bizet’s fiery Carmen for dance in his new work for the Royal Ballet, in which he also dances the lead role. This mixed programme also includes Liam Scarlett’s dark and brooding Viscera, Jerome Robbins’ Afternoon of a Faun and George Balanchine’s Tchaikovsky pas de deux.
Screening Nov 12: Showcase Cinema De Lux, Odeon, Orpheus, Vue Cribbs Causeway, Vue Longwell Green.
Encore Screening Nov 15: Showcase Cinema De Lux

Cannoli & Gun: Spaceballs
Movies’n’nosh specialists Cannoli & Gun present Mel Brooks’s rather laboured Star Wars parody from 1987, in which Darth Vader becomes Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis), the Force becomes The Schwartz, and Luke Skywalker becomes slobby Lone Star (Bill Pullman), who’s accompanied by his trusty hound Barf (John Candy). Who’d have guessed the same bloke gave us the magnificent Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles? Still, it might be just about palatable with a raucous audience and a margherita pizza. Tickets are £13 in advance here, or £15 on the door.
Screening Nov 18: Crofters Rights

NT Live: Of Mice and Men
The much-acclaimed hit Broadway production of the classic John Steinbeck Depression-era novella, filmed on stage in New York by National Theatre Live.

Bridesmaids star Chris O’Dowd plays Lennie opposite James Franco as George.
Screening Nov 19: Showcase Cinema De Lux, Orpheus, Odeon, Vue Cribbs Causeway, Vue Longwell Green, Cineworld, Curzon
Encore Screening Nov 24: Orpheus

Afrika Eye: Cairo Station + Meal
In Cairo’s busting central station, a maimed street vendor (director Youssef Chahine) lusts after a beautiful yet totally uninterested lemonade seller, his crush eventually crossing the line into dangerous obsession. Screened in the Afrika Eye festival’s From Africa with Love strand, this suspenseful 1958 melodrama put Chahine on the international map as Egypt’s Hitchcock. Your ticket price of £10 also gets you a two-course North African meal. The event starts at 7.30pm. Go here for more on Afrika Eye. To book for this event, visit the Afrika Eye website.
Screening Nov 20: The Lansdown

Met Opera: Lulu
William Kentridge, of The Nose fame, stages a new production of Alban Berg’s once scandalous drama about an amoral femme fatale who works her way through a small army of willing victims, both male and female. Soprano Marlis Petersen takes the title role. The conductor is Met Music Director James Levene.
Screening Nov 21: Vue Cribbs Causeway, Vue Longwell Green

Planetary + Q&A
A blend of Koyaanisqatsi-style meditation and polemic about how mankind is affecting the planet, with talking head contributions from a variety of experts.

It’s directed by Guy Reid, who gave us the environmental short film Overview, which has clocked up online viewing figures approaching seven million. The Watershed’s screening is organised in partnership with the Festival of Ideas and will be followed by a discussion about the issues raised.
Screening Nov 22: Watershed

Man with a Movie Camera
Avant-garde 1929 silent classic in which Dziga Vertov uses all the cinematic techniques at his disposal – dissolves, split screen, slow motion, freeze frames – to create a montage of urban Russian life.

The Watershed’s screening includes live accompaniment by the HarmonieBand playing a new score composed by Paul Robinson.
Screening Nov 23: Watershed

Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter’s Tale
The first in a series of plays broadcast to cinemas live from the Garrick under the Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company Live banner.

In the wake of their great success with Macbeth, Kenneth Branagh and Rob Ashford reunite to co-direct this reimagining of the Bard’s tragicomedy of obsession and redemption. Having famously doubled the roles of Hermione and Perdita for Trevor Nunn, Judi Dench returns to The Winter’s Tale as noblewoman Paulina. Ken bags himself the role of King Leontes. The play is broadcast live on Nov 26, with encore screenings on Dec 24.
Screening Nov 26: Showcase Cinema De Lux, Vue Cribbs Causeway, Vue Longwell Green, Odeon, Orpheus, Curzon, Cineworld