Out 1 at The Prince Charles Cinema

Alfred Hitchcock might have felt that “The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder”, but I've always loved a marathon cinema experience. The opportunity to immerse myself in a single work of art that stretches far beyond the conventional boundaries of cinema is one I'll always try to take advantage of, and some of my most memorable film experiences of recent years have been epics. I'll never forget the experience of seeing Béla Tarr's Sátántangó on the big screen, spending a weekend with Fassbinder's Berlin Alexanderplatz on a beautiful 35mm print, marvelling at the scale of Bondarchuk's War & Peace, and watching a significant portion (though not, alas, the full 24 hours) of Christian Marclay's The Clock.

Over the years there has been one title that I've particularly yearned to see in a cinema, but which has proven to be extremely elusive. Jacques Rivette's legendary Out 1, noli me tangere runs for 773 minutes and has rarely been shown in its entirety since it was made in 1971, though not for the want of trying; our friends at A Nos Amours have tried in vain to track down a print on a number of occasions. When we heard about the film's recent 2k restoration and the forthcoming blu-ray set, we decided this was probably the only opportunity we'd ever get to give Out 1 a big screen outing, and so The Badlands Collective has joined forces with A Nos Amours and Arrow Films to present what we feel confident in describing as the repertory cinema event of the decade.

Out 1 will be shown at the Prince Charles Cinema across two days – November 28th and 29th – and with similar events taking place in France and across the United States in November, it feels like we are part of a long-overdue international tribute to Rivette, a filmmaker frequently overlooked and forgotten. The idea of watching a 13-hour film may be an intimidating one, but Rivette's style is playful, beautiful and engaging, and the cast is populated by some of the key figures in French cinema of the era – Jean-Pierre Léaud, Juliet Berto, Michael Lonsdale, Eric Rohmer, to name a few. Out 1 on the big screen is pretty much a once-in-a-lifetime experience and we want to share it with as many people as possible, so please help us spread the word. To ensure this event goes ahead we need to sell enough tickets to cover the cinema's running costs for the weekend, so if you are attending we'd appreciate it if you booked your tickets as soon as possible. Join us for what will surely be an unforgettable celebration of unique, challenging and magical cinema. (And for those who share Alfred's bladder concerns: yes, there will be toilet breaks.)

Tickets for Out 1 at The Prince Charles Cinema can be purchased here.

If you have any more questions about Out 1, they may be answered in the FAQ article that we have compiled for the event.

I really hope we see you at the movies!