When it comes to Valentine’s Day films, Katy Sharp-Watson sees that not all shades are grey.
If you’re looking for that perfect film for a Valentine’s Day date, you’ll find this year’s mainstream offerings fairly limited. Almost every picture house in London is screening Fifty Shades of Grey, a film that will undoubtedly have wide appeal – but it’s not to everyone’s taste. So what else is there?
There are alternatives, and not all of them are schmaltzy romantic comedies. The Barbican has programmed four films under the title My Twisted Valentine, starting with Leonard Kastle’s 1969 dark comedy The Honeymoon Killers. The film tells the true story of a couple who posed as brother and sister in order to rob and murder a series of singletons.
If that’s too sinister for you and your date, on the 14th there will be a screening of the delightfully morbid Harold and Maude (1971), a comedy based on shared appreciation of funerals!
The late evening slot is occupied by Jess Franco’s 1969 love story Venus in Furs, the tale of a trumpet player in Istanbul who witnesses the murder of a beautiful woman, and later becomes obsessed with her double. The film also features a truly remarkable jazz soundtrack – which is to be introduced by composer Stephen Thrower. Also at the Barbican on the 15th you can catch Sofia Coppola’s tale of adolescent love and death, The Virgin Suicides.
At Hackney Picturehouse this weekend, you can find the documentary Love is All: 100 Years of Love & Courtship, directed by renowned feminist filmmaker Kim Longinotto. The film takes a historical look at the depiction of love in cinema, with clips from all over the globe. Films range from as far back as 1898, right up to the present day. This is definitely one for cinephiles and fans of nostalgic romance and courtship.
For those seeking something a bit different, why not step out of the conventional cinema set-up and take the line to a disused railway station (how romantic!)? ‘Pillow Cinema’ is a pop up screening space in the old Shoreditch station. The room is filled with giant pillows so you can comfortably lay back and snuggle up with your friends or loved one. Choose between three films: Lars and The Real Girl starring ladies-favourite Ryan Gosling, classic romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally, and the brilliant Swedish horror Let The Right One In.
Down river at the BFI Southbank, you can catch George Cukor’s ahead-of-its-time romantic comedy The Philadelphia Story starring Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart and Cary Grant. Adapted from a stage play, it is the story of socialite Tracy Lord whose grand wedding plans are disturbed by the arrival of a journalist (played by James Stewart), who is keen to report on the wedding. A love triangle ensues as Tracy struggles to choose between the two men.
But no film embodies Hollywood romance quite like the beloved Casablanca from 1942, starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. Even the most hard-hearted can hardly resist this tale of love and regret in the Second World War. Featuring eminently quotable lines such as ‘I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship’, and ‘of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine’, Casablanca makes the perfect Valentine’s night film. Catch the late screening at the beautiful old Rio Cinema in Dalston.
For more information on all of the above screenings, visit the links below:
http://www.barbican.org.uk/film/series.asp?id=1411
https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/Online/
http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/cinema/Hackney_Picturehouse/
Katy Sharp-Watson is Rising East’s Film and Cinema Editor https://twitter.com/ksharpwatson