Best film screenings in the North (19-26 Aug)

The best film events happening in Liverpool, Leeds and Manchester this week, including The Passenger at HOME, Suspiria at FACT and Thelma & Louise at Hyde Park Picture House

Thelma & Louise

Dir. Ridley Scott

Speaking at the silver anniversary screening of Thelma & Louise in Cannes, star Susan Sarandon said, “I don’t think the studios have had an epiphany about women in film, because after Thelma & Louise, it didn’t happen. And that movie made a lot of fucking money.” She’s not wrong. Sadly, Ridley Scott's 1991 film remains a feminist milestone with few successors. That would be enough to cement its place in film history, but we’re pleased to report that its story of two gal pals (brilliantly played by Sarandon and Geena Davis) who blow off the shackles of work and home to take to the road for a weekend of adventure is still full of life 25 years on.  

Sat 20 Aug, Hyde Park Picture House, Leeds, 5.30pm

The Passenger + Intro

Dir. Michelangelo Antonioni

If the chilly, abstract storytelling of L'Avventura and The Red Desert have scared you off Michelangelo Antonioni, then please still consider giving The Passenger a go, as it’s a much warmer and more approachable work. Jack Nicholson stars as a down-on-his luck journalist who trades lives with an acquaintance after he finds him dead in the neighbouring room in his hotel, and the new identity gives the burnout journo a newfound vigor. Like all Antonioni films, it’s gorgeous, existential as hell and has a knockout ending.

Sat 20 Aug, HOME, Manchester, 5.50pm

Evil Dead II + Army of Darkness (35mm)

Dir. Sam Raimi

Bruce Campbell returns as Ash to battle demons in these delirious sequels to Sam Raimi's 1983 horror. Part two is actually more of a remake than a sequel, with Raimi upping the comic-book pacing and livewire jokes (there’s an Ernest Hemingway gag that’s a killer). The second – even more insane but not quite as fun – sequel sees Ash, now tooled up with forearm chainsaw and 12-gauge shotgun, flung back through a portal to medieval times for a derring-do adventure battling the living dead.

Sat 20 Aug, AMC, Manchester, 7pm

Suspiria

Dir. Dario Argento

This blast of hallucinatory terror follows a young American ballerina who finds her new dance academy in Germany to be a less than hospitable place. Something is clearly rotten within its baroque, blood red corridors and mirrored dance studios. Director Dario Argento takes his visual style to new heights, with story and character replaced by eye-searing colours and ear-splitting sounds (the latter courtesy of krautrock noise-makers Goblin).

Sat 20 Aug, FACT, Liverpool, 9pm

The Tin Drum

Dir. Volker Schlöndorff

New German Cinema stalwart Volker Schlöndorff delivers one of the movement’s strangest movies, a bizarro comic fairy tale about a three-year-old who elects to stop growing. The film is set in the 1930s during the rise of National Socialism, so you can understand his reluctance to join the adult world. A massive success on its 1979 release, winning the Palme d’Or and best foreign film Oscar, it’s rarely discussed nowadays, so take this chance to check it out on the big screen.

Sun 21 Aug, 1pm; Tue 23 Aug, 8pm; Wed 24 Aug, 1pm; HOME, Manchester

San Soleil

Dir. Chris Marker

Part travelogue, part cine-essay, French filmmaker Chris Marker essentially creates his own genre with this witty and philosophically sophisticated film. Marker himself has called San Soleil “nothing more than a home movie,” but he’s selling himself short. This is film rich with humanity, juxtaposing disparate cultures (from Tokyo to Cape Verde to San Francisco) through poetic edits, hypnotic rhythms and a dreamy narration.

Thu 25 Aug, FACT, Liverpool, 6.30pm