Unfaithfully Yours: The Comedies Of Preston Surges, London
Few directors wrote their own material in the 1940s, but Preston Sturges was an exception in every way. He sold his script for The Great McGinty for $10 in exchange for the chance to direct it, and he clearly knew what he wanted, which is about the same things audiences today want: polished repartee, energetic screwball comedy, cheese-free romance and sharp social satire. This season showcases his work, from his masterpiece, Sullivan’s Travels – as fine a film about film-making as has ever been made – to those that tested the boundaries of the era audaciously. In The Miracle Of Morgan’s Creek, a woman can’t remember who she’s married (and she’s pregnant). In The Palm Beach Story, a woman marries someone richer in order to bankroll her first husband; and in McGinty itself, a homeless cheat finds himself in political office.
Let All The Children Boogie, Bristol
The title is a little bit Bowie (and there are also three screenings of Labyrinth next weekend), but the focus of this festival is really Bristol, a city that traditionally punches above its weight musically. In conjunction with BBC 6 Music’s Bristol-based festival (Fri to 14 Feb), here’s a chance to catch up with the current wave of music cinema and honour the past. In the first instance, there’s a night of up-to-date Bristol-themed videos, interviews and live music (Wed), and a preview of Couple In A Hole, a strange woodland tale about a couple of kooks, with a score by BEAK> (featuring Portishead’s Geoff Barrow), while the Pop Group’s Mark Stewart introduces a new doc on the Bristol post-punk scene (both Thu). There’s also a Tricky double bill and Fresh 4 in conversation with Gilles Peterson (both 14 Feb), plus DJ sets and new musi docs such as Janis: Little Girl Blue (as in Joplin, Fri) and Mavis! (as in Staples, 13 Feb).
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