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.

Tues 24 April, 20:00

A Tipping Point Film Fund event – all tickets £7

Four Horsemen is the debut feature from director Ross Ashcroft.  Today’s four horsemen – socially organised violence, debt, iniquity and poverty – govern all of our lives, and the documentary  reveals the fundamental flaws in the economic system which have brought our civilization to the brink of disaster.

Twenty-three leading thinkers (including Noam Chomsky and Joseph Stiglitz) – frustrated at the failure of their respective disciplines – speak out to explain how the world really works.  The film pulls no punches in describing the consequences of continued inaction, but its message is one of hope.  If more people can equip themselves with a better understanding of how the world really works, then the systems and structures that condemn billions to poverty or chronic insecurity can at last be overturned.  Solutions to the multiple crises facing humanity have never been more urgent but, equally, the conditions for change have never been more favourable.

Stay afterwards for a discussion of the issues with the director, Ross Ashcroft.

Presented by A Nos Amours, introduced by Richard Ayoade, followed by discussion.

‘I love Ingmar Bergman and it’s great to get a chance to see these hard-to-find documentaries on a big screen,’ says actor/writer/director Richard Ayoade (IT Crowd, and Submarine).  This month Ayoade will introduce a pair of rare documentaries by Bergman, Faro Dokuments 1969 and 1979, in which he lovingly recorded threats to the way of life on the tiny northern island on which made his home. Typically, Bergman finds universal truths in the personal and particular. 

Both documentaries are feature-length – good value for one ticket! – and there will be a brief interval between them, with the chance to linger afterwards and share thoughts with fellow enthusiasts. 

A Nos Amours is a new pop-up cinema collective founded by film makers Joanna Hogg (Archipelago and Unrelated) and Adam Roberts.  It is dedicated to programming over-looked, under-exposed or especially potent cinema, giving audiences the opportunity to discover rare cinematic gems.  The Lexi is pleased to host their inaugural screenings, with the A Nos Amours season continuing with the following two screenings:

Sun 29 Apr, 17:30    Black God, White Devil, director Glauber Rocha.  To be introduced by director/producer Penny Woolcock (Tina Goes Shopping, Death of Klinghoffer etc). 

Sun 27 May, 17:30   Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach + Une Visite au Louvre, directors Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub.  Programme to be compered by Joanna Hogg/Adam Roberts.

Joanna Hogg says: ‘The films you watch as a film maker are part of a conversation you have with yourself in developing your own work. Quite often it’s surprising, because the connections aren’t obvious. You can find a film maker who makes action films and they might like something slow and meditative. Inspiration is not a straightforward issue of stealing or borrowing. So hearing another film maker introduce and talk about films that have been important for them gives you a different entry into watching that film. And it’s not just for film makers, because the audience now is a very cine literate one.’ 

Adam Roberts says: ‘We noticed how suddenly all the rep cinemas had gone. Yes, it’s easy to get a disc of a film and watch it at home maybe, but we remembered how inspiring and life-changing it was to watch films on a big screen in a crowded auditorium. We decided we should try and do something about that, and so we founded A Nos Amours’.

Sun 18 Mar, 19:30 + Q&A with director Varon Bonicos

The second part of our fashion double bill, A Man’s Story tells the story of “coolest man on earth” Ozwald Boateng, the youngest man and the first black tailor to open a shop on Savile Row when he was only 28 years old.  His modish twist on classic British tailoring characterises his exclusive bespoke range (clients:  Will Smith and Richard Branson), with chic customers clamouring for his twice yearly ready-to-wear collections.  Boateng’s keen interest in film led to the collaboration with documentary film maker Varon Bonicos, an arrangement which saw the film maker shadowing Boateng – undressing the master clothier – for the last 12 years, throughout sometimes turbulent business  and personal developments.  This is a definitive “warts and all” portrait,- covering great ambition, love, heartbreak, glamour and issues of race – of a very likeable, flawed man.

Join us after to find out more about the experience of director Varon Bonicos on his mission to produce this fascinating portrait. 

Book here for runway companion, Bill Cunningham New York.

Sat 3 Mar 18:30 + live Director Q&A

On Saturday 3rd March – just days before the elections in Russia –  director Cyril Tuschi will be showing his incendiary documentary at the Lexi.  The film is about Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the Russian billionaire petrocrat who was stripped of wealth and liberty when he set up an opposition political party.  Last seen:  Siberia.

Documentary film maker Cyril Tuschi has spent 5 years making this account – including an unprecedented interview with Khodorkovsky from his confinement – which has just premiered this week, to much excitement, at the Berlin Film Festival.  But it nearly didn’t happen when the final cut was stolen from the director’s cutting room just days before the premiere – for the second time in 2 weeks.  In these days of modern Russia, just because you are paranoid, it doesn’t mean they aren’t to get you.  Cut to this news report from the Guardian:

The final edit of a documentary about jailed Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been stolen from the director’s office in Berlin, just days before its world premiere.  In what police described as a “very professional break-in”, four computers containing the last cut of the film, titled simply Khodorkovsky, were removed from Cyril Tuschi’s premises. The documentary was due to be premiered at the Berlin film festival next week. Khodorkovsky, a fierce critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin, was once his country’s richest man but has been in jail on fraud charges since 2005 after falling foul of the Kremlin.

Although police have no leads in the case, there is suspicion that the theft is politically motivated and forms part of a Russian campaign against its critics.  “It’s like being in a bad thriller,” Tuschi told the Süddeutschezeitung. “Someone is trying to scare me and I must admit that they are succeeding.”

This is the second time the film has been stolen. A few weeks ago, when Tuschi went to work on the final edit in Bali, his hotel room was broken into and his computer hard drive taken, according to his PR agency.  Now Tuschi has moved out of his Berlin flat and is staying with friends after being warned that he should seek protection.

Tuschi said he had been threatened in Russia when he was making the film: “When I started the project, the journalist Anna Politkovskaya had just been murdered. I drove through Russia and realised that I had to fear the Russian police. I have nothing to worry about with German police, but in Russia it’s a different story,” he told the Berliner Zeitung. “Once we were quite openly threatened. We were in Siberia on a train between Novosibirsk and Chita, where Khodorkovsky was in jail. Three young men attacked us. They were the regional representatives of the KGB. They knew exactly who we were and what we were doing there. It was very scary.”

For the Russians who spoke to him on camera, the consequences could be severe. The Russian daily Kommersant printed a front page story about the film which suggested those who took part may live to regret it. Khodorkovsky’s ex-wife Elena, who appears in the documentary, allegedly sent Tuschi an email on Sunday telling him he had made a mistake by giving an interview to a Russian journalist, the Süddeutschezeitung reported.

German-born Tuschi, whose parents are from Russia, has been working on the film for the last five years. The final 111-minute edit condensed 180 hours of interviews conducted all over the world. As well as speaking to Khodorkovsky’s ex-wife, Tuschi interviewed his mother and son, who is exiled in New York. But perhaps his biggest coup was a 10-minute interview with the inmate himself.

A spokeswoman for Berlin police said they were investigating the break-in but could give out no further information. There have been no arrests.

More information and buy tickets

Tue 27 March, 18:15 with live satellite Q&A

Subtitle:  A Tale of Death, A Tale of Life

The incomparable Werner Herzog chooses to investigate Capital Punishment, still legal in 7 states in the US, through the case of two men in Texas State Penitentiary, teenage co-conspirators in a car theft with fatal consequences.  The film profiles Michael Burkett, including a Death Row interview 8 days before his execution as well as interviews with numerous people affected by the original crime.  With uncharactistic detachment Herzog builds up a tragic picture of great deprivation, in which drink and drug dependence are the norm and fathers are often away, in prison themselves.

Herzog’s earliest film idea, in his teens, was to make a film about life in prison.  He is insistent that he has no political objectives with this, although the release was brought forward when Capital Punishment became a defining subject in the Republican presidential primaries last autumn.   Providing little focus on guilt or innocence and minimal narration, this mesmerising film unfolds like an episode of “Law & Order,” exposing a side to America which most of the world – and much of the US – is unfamliar with.  With only 8 hours of material to make the 90 minute film from, pressure in the editing room was so intense that Herzog and his editor both took up smoking again.

In Herzog terms, this is perhaps more mainstream than his usual documentary subjects (the remarkable Cave of Dreams and Grizzly Man being more typical); nonetheless this careful and intelligent inquisition builds a sense of moral indignation, benefiting from being less led by the film maker, more by society’s witnesses.  For the magic of the man, join us for the live satellite Q&A after this preview screening.

Wed 1 Feb, 18:30 + live Q&A with Doug Fishbone and cast

What’s a white Jewish New Yorker doing appearing as a Ghanaian in an all Ghanaian film?  When you understand that he is Doug Fishbone, London-based artist who is known for his satirical investigations into culture and the media, it begins to make sense.  Just!  Set in the town of Elmina – the first West African port to be settled and explored by Europeans, this is a tale of greed and corruption with lies and infidelity at every turn, wherein the town chief trys to persuade the townsfolk to sell their land to a Chinese oil company so he can make a killing and retire to Europe.

Fishbone himself provides more of an explanation as how – and why – he is to be found  not only appearing in an African film, but why this film has also been showing at the Tate.

“The initial idea for Elmina was to insert myself into a low-budget Ghanaian film as the lead, without ever clarifying my racial identity, and see what that triggered – to see whether my absorption into an African film could be taken at face value, as it were. For that to work properly, I felt that I needed a film that would be received by a domestic Ghanaian audience according to the conventions and expectations that people might have there, and that would, of course, also challenge those conventions.

Tue 17 Jan, 20:45 + Q&A; also Mon 16 Jan, 11:00 and Wed 18 Jan, 18:30

Q&A guests:  director Carol Morley + actor Zawe Ashton

Nobody noticed when Joyce Vincent died in her bedsit above a shopping mall in North London in 2003; her body wasn’t discovered for three years. Who was she? And how could this happen to someone in our day and age? Award-winning director Carol Morley set out to find out. She placed adverts in newspapers, online, and on the side of a London taxi, and what she discovered is extraordinary. A range of people that once knew Joyce help to piece together a portrait of the woman who became so forgotten. Dreams of a Life is also a portrait of London, and how we are all different things to different people. It is about how little we may ever know each other but, nevertheless, how much we can love.  We are very pleased that Carol Morley will be joining us afterwards for a Q&A, and a chance to learn more about the background to this film.

Dreams of a Life has been warmly received!  For just a sample of the treat in store, check out below:

• “A very, very special movie… Film of the week” – Danny Leigh, Film 2011
• “This is a sad and intriguing story, told with imagination and care.” – London Film Festival Sandra Hebron
• “Hauntingly unforgettable” – Screen
• “An Authentically Moving Portrait of a forgotten life” – IndieWIRE
• “Nothing at the London film festival has lingered in my mind like this” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
• “Riveting to watch and revealing to ponder long after it ends” – Philip French, The Observer
• “Haunting, compassionate and inventive” ***** – Time Out
• “A bold, complex approach to documentary filmmaking” ***** – Little White Lies
• “Carol Morley has given Joyce Vincent, in a bizarre, compelling, even loving way, a second life. ” – The Financial Times
• “Dreams of a Life leaves its mark simply by making us wonder what really happened and why” **** – Derek Malcolm, The Evening Standard
• “A potent, achingly sad film” **** – The Times
• “A compelling, compassionate mix, Dreams speaks volumes about the mysteries of other people’s lives” **** – Total Film
• “Fascinating and haunting… will stay with you for weeks, months, maybe more”**** – Anna Smith, Virgin Media
• “This barely conceivable story of neglect and loneliness is given heartbreaking new life by Morley” **** – Empire Magazine