Cinerama’s South Seas Adventure, Bradford
In the 1950s, Cinerama was the widest of widescreen cinema formats, requiring three projectors to fill its gigantic 146-degree curved screen. Once it was all the rage, now only a handful of cinemas are equipped to show it. In fact, Bradford is just about the only place outside the US where you can still see relics such as 1958’s South Seas Adventure in all their glory. Narrated by Orson Welles, it’s a tiki-tastic retro time-capsule, with the emphasis on the dynamic thrill-rides and epic landscapes the format demands. Surfing in Hawaii, exotic Maori ceremonies, “land-diving” in Vanuatu – it’s the trip of someone else’s lifetime.
The National Media Museum, Sat
The Best Of The Marx Brothers, London & Edinburgh
It’s pretty much impossible to sit through a Marx brothers movie without smiling like a kid. To see one of their vintage comedies is to see a honed stage troupe let loose with a new toy before they’ve read the instructions – the rules of cinema were still flexible and the Marx brothers bent them to breaking point. Despite the age of some of these films (their debut feature The Cocoanuts is 85 years old), their pace is in tune with modern attention spans, and the nonsensical wisecracking, skilled physical comedy and controlled anarchy is still joyous to behold. Added to which, they smuggled in some serious points – not least in war satire Duck Soup.
BFI Southbank, SE1, Wed to 31 Jan; Edinburgh Filmhouse, Fri to 8 Feb
Testament Of Youth, Nationwide
Vera Brittain’s 1933 memoir has become one of the definitive accounts of the first world war, all the more enduring for its humane, female perspective and a story so excessively harrowing it could only be true. Adapting it into a movie was a precarious proposition, but James Kent’s new movie, led by Alicia Vikander as Brittain, does the author’s work justice – which is to say it’s sensitive, powerful and devastating. There is a special preview event at London’s BFI Southbank this week, which goes the extra distance by giving you not only an early look at the film but also previously unseen behind-the-scenes footage, plus a post-screening Q&A with Kent, cast members and Brittain’s daughter, Baroness Shirley Williams. The event plays live via satellite to 400 cinemas nationwide, and audiences can tweet questions using #TestamentofYouthLive.
Various venues, Mon
Beyond Clueless, Nationwide
Guide columnist Charlie Lyne is your, er, guide through the dense landscape of teen movies in this affectionate documentary; taking us through the familiar tropes, hidden meanings, highs, lows and beer pong tournaments of the genre with the help of a continual flow of clips and the hypnotic narration of Fairuza Balk. It gets a wide release this month but Lyne also presents this series of screenings, including an event at Manchester’s Dancehouse where Summer Camp will perform their score.
Various venues, Tue to 20 Feb
