Strictly Rivoli

Chris writes:

In the next of the National Trust's London Lates, the Rivoli Ballroom in South London will play host to an immersive film experience inspired by Baz Luhrmann's Strictly Ballroom, presented by the London Project and Hacked Off Films.

For one night only you can live your ballroom dream.  A flamenco guitarist and a dance coach will get you in the mood before ‘Scott’ dances past recalling Strictly Ballroom’s much loved Paso Doble scenes. This is a unique opportunity to waltz beneath the chandeliers, Chinese lanterns and glitter balls in the plush red velvet interiors of the Rivoli.

Hacked Off Films and the London Project will also be presenting a full screening of Strictly Ballroom. Dance yourself silly at the Strictly Ballroom disco with recognisable tracks from the film and more classic dance numbers. There are many more surprises in store on the night at this Strictly Ballroom extravaganza.

Tickets are available from www.nationaltrust.org.uk/london: £26 (£20 for students)

The Number 82 Film Club, at Number 240

Kin Flicks – families on film

The Cinetopia team says:

Cinetopia brings you a third season of fabulously fun film events at the Hill Station Café, Telegraph Hill.
Join us for six culturally diverse films themed around the universal attachments of kinship.

Whether its nuclear, multi-generational, dual heritage, extended or dysfunctional - families have long been a powerful inspiration and rich source material for cinematic drama.

An evening with Cinetopia includes a mystery feature film (you won’t know what it is ‘til its started), a two course delicious dinner from the wonderful Hill Station team and a fun film quiz (points mean prizes).

Starting on Friday 18 October events run every month until March 2014, starting with our first event...

Friday 18 October 2013 The Hill Station Café. Kitto Road SE14
 

The new Cinetopia season kicks off with an exquisitely painful, bittersweet black comedy showing the break up of a marriage, its effects on the children and how we grow up absorbing what is useful about our parents and forgiving what is not. Doors open 7.30pm. Quiz 8.00. Mystery feature film 8.45 

Tickets are now on sale at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/467417 . and include film, quiz and a two course dinner. There is a fully licensed bar. Guests may want to bring a cushion. Book early to avoid disappointment.

For further information contact cinetopia@hotmail.co.uk. 
If you like Cinetopia please say so on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cinetopia/247346505307197

The Bechdel Test Film Club

Lora: You're aiming high. 
Steve: Why not? It doesn't cost anymore. Don't you believe in chasing rainbows?
- Imitation of Life

The Bechdel Test Film Club's founder Lucy Smee writes:

I started a monthly film club recently (first one was in June) and it's going to be every month on the last Wednesday of the month, the next one being 31 July at 7.30pm.  It's free entry and upstairs in the Gallery at The Amersham Arms.  I'd be very grateful if you could bring it to the attention of your readers.

The name of the club is The Bechdel Test Film Club.  We screen films that pass the test:
1. It has to have at least two [named] women in it
2. Who talk to each other
3. About something besides a man

Here's the Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/BechdelTestFilmClub
People can like it to keep up to date with future events and suggestions for films and so on.

And here's the Facebook event page for July's event:
https://www.facebook.com/events/150136791845504/
We're showing Imitation of Life next, so if anyone's planning to come, bring some tissues.

Films that also pass that test include: Aliens, Step Up Revolution and Sharknado. Exciting times lie ahead.

Pop-Up Screens decamps to Hither Green

Jareth: Sarah, beware. I have been generous up 'til now. I can be cruel.
Sarah: Generous? What have you done that's generous?
Jareth: *Everything*! Everything that you wanted I have done. You asked that the child be taken. I took him. You cowered before me, I was frightening. I have reordered time. I have turned the world upside down, and I have done it all for *you*! I am exhausted from living up to your expectations. Isn't that generous?
- Labyrinth

You people sicken us. A company sets up a pop-up cinema in Hilly Fields so that films and delicious popcorn can be enjoyed on your doorstep and you drive them away with your recklessness. Dave, from Pop-Up Screens writes:

Unfortunately we had to move from Hilly Fields this year as the number of non-paying viewers sitting outside our cordon multiplied over the course three nights from an amusing 4 on Friday, to an equally amusing 7 or 8 on Saturday and then to close to 100 on Sunday which was amazing. 

We didn’t so much mind the fact that they’re weren’t paying but they started to get naughty, interrupting the people that were paying. In the end it became a significant problem, so we're moving over to Manor House Gardens. 

Jaws, The Usual Suspects and Labyrinth will be the good people of Hither Green's reward (August 2-4). Details here.

Curzon exploring cinema bid for Ladywell pool site

Eames:  You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.
- Inception

Sometime BC contributor Max Calo has been lobbying for a Lewisham cinema for years and his efforts have drawn the attention of independent cinema chain Curzon, who approached him about the Ladywell Leisure Centre site he campaigned to turn in to a cinema. With the centre due to shut within weeks, as the new Lewisham pool opens, Curzon has now entered into discussion with the Council. Eastlondonlines reports:

[Calo's] petition was spotted by Curzon Cinemas, who run six arthouse cinemas in the capital and another venue in Cheshire. Calò said Curzon then contacted Hither Green Hall with interest in redeveloping the site as a cinema, and the two parties then held a private meeting with members of Lewisham Council to discuss options.

Cllr Mike Harris also comments:

“If there was a cinema here people would… come out of the cinema, go to a bar, a pub, a restaurant and spend more money here. At the moment that money is being spent in other boroughs. Lewisham is concentrating on housing, but all those people then have nowhere to go in the borough. If there was a cinema here, it then helps the local business, because those local businesses will profit from the extra traffic that is being brought in.”

If the plans do go ahead, Lewisham Council will need to think bigger than just the cinema. At the moment, there is relatively little to tempt the art-house cinema goer to linger. The site is too small and poorly located to build something like Bermondsey Square, but some supporting bars and restaurants would need to be accommodated within the design. Max points out that it’s between two major centres (Lewisham and Catford), but that means that it’s in neither and bus connections between the two are no substitute for a nearby tube station.  But BC has never been a home for people who dream small, so this idea gets our full backing – it just needs the Council to go into this with their eyes open about the scale of commitment required to make this work.

The developers who plan to rebuild Lewisham Shopping Centre are also considering a cinema, albeit one devoted to blockbusters rather than indie film.

The New Cross and Deptford Free Film Festival 2013

The full programme for the 2013 Festival (April 26th - May 5th) is now live. The festival makes great use of the wide range of local venues available and will bring local streets to life with house windows acting as pop-up cinema screens for animation, moving images and self made short films.

The main event will be a homecoming screening for Bond-in-New Cross epic 'Skyfall' in Fordham Park and there are also some crowd-pleasing classics being shown, including Cinema Paradiso (at the London Theatre) and ET (Telegraph Hill Lower Park).

At the more esoteric end of the spectrum, there is some interesting stuff like Made in Lewisham: 100 Years of Cinema and Local Shorts at Goldsmiths, as well as some heavily political programming, courtesy of the Sandford Housing Co-Op, who've dug through their DVD collection to screen environmental agitprop classics like The Power of Community and Land Awakening.

Click here for the full-programme.

Peckham Brainwrap

Brainwrap Comedy is a night of short comedy films at the Bussey Building in Peckham. The next one is tomorrow (Wednesday) from 8pm and they take place approximately every two months. Founder Adam explains:

We like to separate the night into different sections: starters, main courses and desserts. Starters are usually experiments or films with a special something. Main courses is made up of more established work, and for desserts we have a raffle and sometimes a Q&A with an actor or director or comedian who's been involved in the night.

For more details visit http://brainwrapcomedy.com/

The Muppets take Brockley

Kermit us to indulge ourselves with some of our favourite Muppet moments

Time for some Gonzo journalism: The new Muppet movie is being filmed at the Rivoli Ballroom today. Details are Fozzie at this stage, but BCer Scott reports that he has seen director James Bobbit walking the streets of Crofton Park today. If you get a Beaker any of the stars, let us know.