Northwest Film Event Highlights – November 2015

Artist Film Weekender at Home

Both Sides Now 2 (David Blandy and Wong Ping)

Blimey. 2015 is almost over, what happened there, ay? Anyway, no time to get all reflective. There are plenty of movie events to catch before we start wondering where the time went. First up this month has to be HOME’s Artist Film Weekender (27-29 Nov), featuring a selection of moving-image work from the visual artists. Highlights include the relationship-themed compilation Transactions of Desire, David Blandy and Wong Ping’s exploration of identity and nationality, Both Sides Now 2, and the Friedrich Engels-focused The Most Cruel of All Goddesses.

Love All-nighter

Blue Velvet (David Lynch)

HOME also have an all-nighter planned (14-15 Nov) as part of the BFI’s Love season, inviting viewers on an intimate one-night stand to inspect all areas of big-screen romance. David Lynch’s Blue Velvet, Krzysztof Kieślowski’s A Short Film About Love, the controversial In the Realm of the Senses, dark melodrama The Duke of Burgundy, steamy office drama Secretary, David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers, the X-rated Last Tango in Paris and classic Letter from an Unknown Woman round out this night-long love affair. Heartbreakingly good.

Grimm Up North: Celluloid Sex Appeal

Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock)

Grimm Up North get in on the mushy love action too by hosting four screenings at Manchester Central Library, each looking at a very different aspect of celluloid sex appeal. Here you’ll find Vertigo (3 Nov), Fatal Attraction (10 Nov), A Matter of Life and Death (17 Nov) and Rebecca (19 Nov), each introduced by a special guest speaker.

Black History Month double bill

Girlhood (Céline Sciamma)

Also in Manchester, Joshua Brooks welcomes the always ace Cultivate Film Club for a special Black History Season double bill of Andrew Lang’s boxing doc, Sons of Cuba, and Céline Sciamma’s coming-of-age drama, Girlhood (8 Nov).

Manchester Animation Festival

Short animation A Single Life (Joris Oprins, Marieke Blaauw, Job Roggeveen)

Also taking place at HOME is the first Manchester Animation Festival (17-19 Nov), which aims to introduce you to a host of emerging local talent. The event boasts three days of shorts, features and masterclasses showcasing a variety of animation styles, from Lego to stop motion and everything in between.

Italian Horror Double Bill in Liverpool

Blood and Black Lace (Mario Bava)

Meanwhile, in Liverpool, Cheap Thrills and Think Cinema team up for an Italian horror double bill at the Liverpool Small Cinema featuring Mario Bava’s influential proto-slasher Blood and Black Lace and Dario Argento’s supernatural giallo outing Inferno (26 Nov). Too dark for ya? Head to FACT for a selection of favourites back on the big screen including 90s kids classic Matilda (28 Nov), David Lean’s bittersweet Brief Encounter (15 Nov) and Mike Nichols seminal release, The Graduate (8 Nov). I think they’re trying to seduce us.