Lexi Cinema London

To mark the publication of new book Driven, author James Sallis’ sequel to Drive, we invite you to join us for a very special Q&A screening of Nicolas Winding-Refn’s and Ryan Gosling’s adaptation, one of the best films of 2011.

The author will be at the Lexi, in conversation with film critic and editor of the International Film Guide, Ian Haydn-Smith, and there will be opportunity to put your questions to both, find out what happens to Gosling’s character, and to buy a signed copy of the book.

Seasoned noir writer Sallis has published fourteen novels, multiple collections of short stories, essays, and poems, books of musicology, a biography of Chester Himes, and a translation of Raymond Queneau’s novel Saint Glinglin. He has written about books for the L.A. Times, New York Times, and Washington Post, and for some years served as a books columnist for the Boston Globe. In 2007 he received a lifetime achievement award from Bouchercon. In addition to Drive, the six Lew Griffin books are now in development as feature films.

He also looks a lot like -well, quite like – Ryan Gosling. If you like that sort of thing.

Sun 27 May, 17:30

An A Nos Amours screening, with an introduction by Joanna Hogg and Adam Roberts

Continuing their mission to make available rare and potent cinema, A Nos Amours presents a film about - driven by – the music of Bach from directors Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, a duo of filmmakers who made two dozen films between 1963 and 2006. Their films are noted for their rigorous, intellectually stimulating style.

The film is a chronicle of Johann Sebastian Bach’s life, eschewing drama to focus almost entirely on his music. Narrated by his wife Anna in voiceover, it consists largely of static scenes of Bach conducting and/or playing his brilliant compositions.   The film stars renowned harpsichordist and early music pioneer Gustav Leonhardt as Johann Sebastian Bach, whose recent death this screening commemorates.  With an introduction by A Nos Amours founders, film makers Joanna Hogg and Adam Roberts.

“The point of departure for our Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach was the idea of a film in which music would be used – not as accompaniment, nor as commentary – but as raw material. The only real point of reference was the parallel to what Bresson did with a literary text in Diary of a Country Priest… We also wanted to film a love story like no other: a woman talking about her husband who she loved unto his death. That’s the story: no biography can be made without an external point of view, and here it is the consciousness of Anna Magdalena Bach’”Jean-Marie Straub.

Fri 18 May 20:15, + Q&A with Jessica Hynes

Gala Queen’s Park Book Festival opening event

A rule-bound head butler’s (Anthony Hopkins) world of manners and decorum in the post-WWI household he runs is tested by the arrival of a housekeeper (Emma Thompson) who falls in love with him. The possibility of romance, and his master’s cultivation of ties with the Nazi cause, challenge his unquestioning dedication and servitude.

When we asked celeb guest and Queens Park-er Jessica Hynes to nominate her favourite film – preferably from a literary source – The Remains of the Day got her wholesale endorsement.  The original novel by Kazuo Ishiguro won the Booker Prize and it was adapted with great delicacy by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala for filming by the Merchant/Ivory duo in 1994.  Many regard it as their best film in a long and distinguished career, and it was nominated for 8 Academy Awards.  It is surely no coincidence that this subtle and nuanced portrait of archetypal Britishness was filtered through the sensibilities of so many non-English people!  Its themes of misplaced loyalty, dignity, pride, wasted lives and unrequited love are all dealt with gentle good humour, highlighting the poignance of the tragedy.  Julian Fellowes*, eat your heart out…

As both actor (currently, in 2012) and award-winning screenwriter (among many, Spaced with Simon Pegg), we look forward to hearing Hynes’ reasons for singling out this splendid film, just as we are honoured to be kicking off this year’s bountiful Book Fest programme!

* Downton Abbey and Gosford Park, of course!

Mon 7 May, 18:30 + Q&A with producer Dan Demissie

“In an Olympic year, here’s an inspirational reminder of what it’s all about.” Total Film

Town of Runners is an inspiring feature documentary about young runners from Bekoji, an Ethiopian highland town which has produced some of the world’s greatest distance athletes – much to the consternation of athletics coaches world-wide!  For those of you in the know, the village’s prize winning progeny, to date, include Tirunesh Dibaba, Kenenisa Bekele and Derartu Tulu.

“A fantastically cool British documentary…” The Financial Times

The film tells the story of three youngsters as they try to run their way to a different life.  It follows their highs and lows over three years as they try to become professional athletes, passing from childhood to adulthood. Through their struggle the film gives a unique insight into the ambitions of young Ethiopians living between tradition and the modern world.

Wed 30 May 13:30, £5  a Screen Gems screening

Join us for guided discussion afterwards.

This is a user review.  I am using it because I think it is a very balanced impression of this oddball movie from director David Lynch, and because I feel that, in some strange way, the tone of the review reflects the tone of this movie!

“A truly nice story with a moral about brotherly love” describes this odd David Lynch film. This was especially “odd” because it wasn’t the kind of film Lynch had been putting out in the last 15 -20 years. Those were dark and shocking films (Blue Velvet, Wild At Heart, Mulholland Drive) and this is the opposite. I know it disappointed a lot of his fans. Others were delighted by it. Count me as one of the latter, and I own all three of those “dark” films, too.

“This was another supposed-true life story, here detailing an elderly man’s trip in a seated lawnmower from western Iowa all the way to Wisconsin to see his ailing brother who he hasn’t talked to in years but wants to see before the latter dies. Well, I guess that premise – an old man driving a lawn mower 400 miles – still makes this an “odd” film of sorts, so Lynch stays in character with that!

“Richard Farnsworth plays the title role. [Just out of interest, John Hurt and Gregory Peck were also offered the role.] He is the type of guy, face-wise, voice-wise, low-key personality-wise, that just about everyone likes. The wrinkles on his face tell many a story. It was so sad to hear what happened to him in real life a year after this film was released. [He died.]

“The first 25 minutes of this film isn’t much, and not always pleasant as it shows the main character’s adult and mentally-challenged child (Sissy Spacek) and her tragic past, but once Alvin Straight (Farnsworth) begins his trip, the story picks up. I played this for several friends and they thought the film NEVER picked up, but I am more generous with it. I think it’s a hidden gem. To them, it was a sleeping pill.

“I found his trip pretty fascinating but you have to realize in advance this is NOT going to be a suspenseful Lynch crime story. It IS slow and if that’s okay with you, you might like this. Charm enters the picture in some of people Alvin meets along the way, such as a wayward young girl running away and some nice town folks who help the old man out when he gets in trouble. (Henry Cada as “Daniel Riordan, is a standout in that regard.) Harry Dean Stanton gets third billing, but that’s a joke: he’s only in the final few minutes of the movie!

“The Iowa scenery is pleasant. I lived there for several years and can attest to the rolling hills and the rich soil. It’s a nice state with nice people….like this movie.”

Sat 5 May, 11:30 Kids Club

ALICE IN WONDERLAND is an epic fantasy adventure starring JOHNNY DEPP as the Mad Hatter and MIA WASIKOWSKA as 19-year-old Alice, who returns to the whimsical world she first encountered as a young girl, reuniting with her childhood friends: the White Rabbit, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Dormouse, the Caterpillar, the Cheshire Cat, and of course, the Mad Hatter.  From sui generis director Tim Burton, watch the trailer to get a flavour of the richness of this fantasy!

Sat 12 May 11:30, Kids Club

Coraline Jones (Dakota Fanning) is bored in her new home until she finds a secret door and discovers an alternate version of her life on the other side. On the surface, this parallel reality is eerily similar to her real life and the people in it only much better. But when this seemingly perfect world turns dangerous, and her other parents (including her Other Mother voiced by Teri Hatcher) try to trap her forever, Coraline must count on her resourcefulness, determination and bravery to escape this increasingly perilous world and save her family.

From Henry Selick, visionary director of THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, and based on Neil Gaimans international best-selling book, comes a spectacular stop-motion animated adventure!

Sat 19 May 11:30, Kids Club

In a world destroyed in a war between man and machine, a hand-stitched doll with the number 9 written on its back comes to life. The world he has awakened in is frightening, but he quickly learns that he is not alone and that there are others like him, also with a single digit written on their back. The first one he encounters is 2 who tells him something of what happened to the world.  9 soon learns that the mysterious disk he carries and some of the other dolls who are prepared to die for the good of humankind may be the last hope for man’s salvation.

Sat 26 May 11:30, Kids Club

Acclaimed director Tim Burton brings his vividly imaginative style to the beloved Roald Dahl classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, about eccentric candy-maker Willy Wonka and Charlie Bucket, a good-hearted boy from a poor family who lives in the shadow of Wonka’s extraordinary factory.  If Road Dahl had been a film maker, this is the film he would’ve made!

Sun 17 June, 17:30 (Reverse cast, with Benedict Cumberbatch as the Creature, Thur 14 Jun 20:30)

On the eve of Danny Boyle’s Olympic opening ceremony we re-present his radical look at Frankenstein in which Jonny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch alternated roles of Dr Frankenstein and The Creature on the stage of the National Theatre.  Filmed in live performance last year, these Encore screenings offer an opportunity to experience afresh the raw intensity of these productions.

Mary Shelley’s classic gothic novel, in a bravura vision from Danny Boyle and Nick Dear.

“I followed nature into her lair, and stripped her of her secrets! I brought torrents of light to a darkening world! Is that wrong?”

Childlike in his innocence but grotesque in form, Frankenstein’s bewildered creature is cast out into a hostile universe by his horror-struck maker. Meeting with cruelty wherever he goes, the friendless Creature, increasingly desperate and vengeful, determines to track down his creator and strike a terrifying deal.

“All I ask is the possibility of love!”

Urgent concerns of scientific responsibility, parental neglect, cognitive development and the nature of good and evil are embedded within this thrilling and deeply disturbing classic gothic tale.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is adapted for the stage by Nick Dear and realised by Danny Boyle in his return to the theatre after winning the Academy Award for best director for Slumdog Millionaire.

Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller alternate the roles of Victor Frankenstein and the Creature. See one, see both! 

“Slowly I learnt the ways of humans: how to ruin, how to hate, how to debase, how to humiliate. And at the feet of my master I learnt the highest of human skills, the skill no other creature owns: I finally learnt how to lie.”