You might have noticed that things have been a bit quieter
around here these days. When I started this blog many years ago I was very
prolific in reviewing new releases but for various reasons that pace has
slowed. I simply don’t have the free time to devote to this blog that I used
to, and while I am still writing for a variety of magazines and websites, this place
has unfortunately fallen by the wayside. I’m hoping to change that over the
coming months and perhaps I’ll use Phil on Film for shorter reviews and
articles rather than attempting to write a full consideration of everything I
see, as I could do once upon a time. It would be nice to kickstart this blog
and hopefully I’ll be able to get back into the groove soon ahead of the
upcoming London Film Festival.
One reason why my free time has been at a premium is because
I’ve added film programming to my part-time activities, hosting events as The
Badlands Collective with my colleagues Ian Mantgani and Craig Williams. Putting
on these screenings and promoting them takes an awful lot of work but we have
had some great events this year – a sold-out 35mm screening of Topsy-Turvy with
a Mike Leigh Q&A and the UK premiere of the extended cut of Once Upon a
Time in America followed by an Elizabeth McGovern Q&A – and we have some
very exciting events coming up soon.
On August 26th we are very proud to be showing
two thrillingly unconventional and ambitious musicals at the lovely new Regent
Street Cinema. In All That Jazz and One From the Heart two Oscar-winning
directors put everything on the line as they experiment with the musical form;
Bob Fosse turns the camera inward and explores his own personal failings with lacerating
honesty and stunning artistry, while Francis Ford Coppola gambled his
reputation, his career and his finances on a studio-bound love story – a gamble
he ultimately lost. These films complement each other in a number of ways and
as both films are too-rarely screened we’re thrilled to be projecting both from
35mm prints. You can find out more information and get tickets for these events
here.
In September we are putting on our most ambitious event yet.
To pay tribute to the legacy of Cannon Films – celebrated earlier this year in
the documentary Electric Boogaloo – we have programmed three thematically linked
double-bills at three cinemas throughout the month. On September 14th
our season begins with a look at Cannon’s relationship with cult authors, and
the Prince Charles Cinema is our location for the wryly humorous and insightful
Barfly, written by Charles Bukowski, and the crazily underrated thriller 52
Pick-Up, which was adapted from his own novel by the great Elmore Leonard.
Then on September 20th we’re back at Regent
Street to focus on the eclectic career of Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky,
who made one of the great action films of the era in 1985 with Runaway Train, a
potentially straightforward genre film that grows into something greater and
deeper with Oscar-nominated performances from Jon Voight and Eric Roberts, and incredible
stuntwork. We’re following that with a real rarity: Konchalovsky’s 1987 drama
Shy People, which won a Best Actress award at Cannes for Barbara Hershey and
looked set to be an Oscar contender before its bungled distribution ensured it
went largely unseen for years. As Roger Ebert wrote, “Of all of the great, lost
films of recent years, Shy People must be the saddest case.” We’re so happy to
be bringing this forgotten gem to a new audience, particularly when it has
never even received a DVD release.
Finally, we’re focusing on Christopher Reeve in our third
double-bill. Having publicly declared that he would never play Superman again
after Superman III, Reeve was determined to do something that
expanded his range and changed public perception of his work, but in order to
get his passion project made at Cannon he was required to step into the blue tights
one last time. As neither film would exist without the other, we’re presenting
both Street Smart and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace at the Brixton Ritzy on September 27th.
Street Smart is a hugely undervalued thriller, which boasts a revelatory performance
from Morgan Freeman, while Superman IV is a fascinating look at how the first
superhero franchise crashed and burned less than a decade after it had begun
(and just two years before Tim Burton’s Batman changed the game again).
All of these films will be projected from original 35mm
release prints and the chances of seeing some of them on the big screen again are very slim. We also have a few ideas to make each of these screenings
memorable events in the true spirit of Cannon Films, so please book your tickets here to make sure you don't miss out.
One last thing. Some of you may have also noticed my absence
from Twitter in recent weeks. I love Twitter for many reasons, not least the
great people it has brought into my life, but I feel I need a break from it for
now. I just don’t think the daily dose of cynicism, outrage and pandering is bringing me much happiness and I am conscious of
the way checking my phone in every idle moment has become an automatic
gesture. I’m using that time instead to read more, to walk around with my head
up, and to focus on tasks in hand instead of checking my feed every five
minutes. I am sure I’ll return to Twitter at some point, perhaps in a reduced capacity,
but for now I’m finding its absence from my life surprisingly liberating.
That’s all for now, and I hope I’ll see some of you at our
events soon.
