"If Mel Brooks has a masterpiece it’s this homage to the Universal horror movies of the 1930s and 40s." - Josh Larsen, Filmspotting
We are delighted to be part of this year’s LOCO London Comedy Film Festival, which lightens up the capital during the most miserable month of the year. The week before the main festival kicks off at the BFI and other London cinemas, we’re showing Mel Brooks’ affectionate parody of classic Hollywood horror, Young Frankenstein, as the film celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2014.
Gene Wilder, who co-wrote the script with Brooks, plays Dr Frederick Frankenstein, who after years of living down the family reputation, inherits his grandfather's castle and repeats the infamous experiments.
The film winks and nods to the Boris Karloff classics of the 1930s but overflows with all the silliness you’d expect from an A-grade Mel Brooks movie.
A superb supporting cast includes Peter Boyle playing the Monster and Marty Feldman as a bug-eyed servant; Teri Garr is the doctor’s lovely assistant while Madeline Kahn plays Wilder’s uptight fiance - all of whom are upstaged by a magnificent cameo from Gene Hackman.
Young Frankenstein is a must-see and quite rightly appears regularly on lists of the funniest movies ever made.
“A notably well-executed, very funny and very well-acted movie: a quirky, sardonic take on '50s faddishness, fame, power, friendship, character and ethics”. - Geoff Andrews, Time Out
It’s A Wonderful Life may have been the obvious choice for our Christmas film; instead we give you the Coen brothers’ loving parody of a Capra-esque feel-good festive flick, complete with New York in the snow and an angel.
A throwback to the fast-talking comedies of the 1940s and bursting with wonderful production design the film follows the unlikely adventures of Norville Barnes (Tim Robbins), a college graduate who secures a job in the postroom at Hudsucker Industries just as its chairman is jumping 50 floors to his death.
The chairman's scheming aide, Mussburger (Paul Newman, blues still a-twinklin'), decides to hire Norville as chairman, presuming he is a dunce whose new position will frighten the stockholders into selling all their stock cheaply, thus allowing him to consolidate his hold on the company.
Jennifer Jason Leigh channels Katherine Hepburn as cynical undercover reporter who Norville falls for at the office Christmas party.
The plot hinges on Robbins’ character producing the smash hit toy of the season, and in the end isn’t that who Christmas is for? You know, for kids?
"It is a creepy film and a crawly film, and a film filled with things that go bump in the night. It is very good." - Roger Ebert
The Greatest Horror Film Ever Made? Very possibly. 1960s Uptown New York as a haven for cosmopolitan witches intent on bringing the child of Satan into the world.
A classic of paranoia and creeping dread. Ruth ‘Harold & Maude’ Gordon rightly won Best-Supporting Actress Oscar for her unforgettably creepy performance as Mia Farrow’s elderly neighbour who might not be as kindly as she initially seems.
"The blend of Schrader's script, Scorsese's direction and De Niro's performance is both riveting and unnerving. A film that will stay with you forever." - Empire
As part of their prize the winners of our first quiz, The Rain Men, picked one of our
If you've never seen the film you have no excuse not to attend. Those that are familar with it should relish the chance to see it on a bigger screen with an audience.
Robert De Niro stars as the Vietnam vet tuned nocturnal cabbie who "just won't take it anymore". The excellent supporting cast includes Cybill Shepherd, Jodie Foster, Harvey Kietel, Albert Brooks and Peter Boyle.
“This masterpiece still packs a wallop, though nothing in it is as simple as it may first appear.” - Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
Early Kubrick – and one of his best (which is saying something.) Kirk Douglas stars as the commanding officer of a unit of soldiers during this First World War who are court martialed and tried for cowardice after they refuse orders and retreat from a suicidal attack. As haunting as it is thought-provoking.
As a modest tribute we are showing his best-loved film Jason and the Argonauts as an additional screening.
The mythical tale of Jason's quest for Golden Fleece is well known but the film version is elevated to greatness by Ray Harryhausen's special effects. These include the giant Talos, two-headed Hydra and most memorably an small army of skeletons.
If you've seen the film before this is a chance for a nostalgic re-viewing. If you're new to film, prepare to be charmed and amazed by some ground-breaking special effects.
"A movie that combines lurid melodrama with vast improbabilities, sexy soap opera with heartfelt romance, and cheerful satire with heedless raunch." - Roger Ebert
An additional screening in tribute to Spanish director Bigas Luna who died on on 6 April.
In a small town in Spain's arid Monegros region, young underwear factory executive Jose Luis (Jordi Molla) falls in love with the beautiful Silvia (Penelope Cruz), a worker on the shop floor.
When Silvia becomes pregnant, Jose Luis wants to marry her, but his mother Conchita (Stefania Sandrelli), the factory owner, is appalled by the thought of her son marrying a working-class girl, especially one who is the daughter of a prostitute, Carmen (Anna Galiena).
So Conchita hatches a scheme to woo Silvia away from her son by hiring handsome model Raul (Javier Bardem) to seduce the girl. A ham factory employee with aspirations to become a bullfighter, Raul's charms work their magic on both Silvia and Conchita, much to the dismay of Jose Luis, who seeks comfort in the arms of his sometime lover, Carmen.
"A miraculously literate script whose every line deservedly became a quotable classic and the film boasts a once-in-a-lifetime combination of perfect performances from Paul McGann and Richard E. Grant". - Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
As a tribute to Richard Griffiths, who sadly died on Friday 29 March, we are showing the great British comedy in which he so memorably starred.
London 1969 - two out-of-work actors, fed up with the damp, the bad drugs, and the terminal state of their careers, decide to leave their squalid Camden flat for some much needed r & r in the countryside.
A hilariously poignant look at the nature of friendship and failure, Withnail & I is quite simply one of the finest British films ever made - with career-defining performances from Richard E Grant, Paul McCann &, of course, Richard Griffith - absolutely unforgettable as the predatory Uncle Monty.
