Phil de Semlyen

Just because the London Film Festival has rolled up its red carpet for another year does not mean the London film festivals are over for the year. Far from it – the film fest goodness is just getting started. The next month or so is a conveyor belt of movie shindigs for all tastes, with indie, Asian and Jewish cinema all getting their own dedicated festivals, and offering Londoners a passport to film cultures far beyond these shores. Get along to cinemas across the city for something mind-expanding this autumn. 

It only took about 70 years, but television is finally getting some respect. In the decades leading up to this point, TV was largely considered among the lowest forms of entertainment. It was smeared as ‘the idiot box’, ‘the boob tube’. Edward R Murrow referred to it as ‘the opiate of the masses’, and Bruce Springsteen even wrote a song about the malaise of fruitless channel surfing. Was its poor reputation deserved? Certainly, the ratio of garbage to gold was high, and though it’s hard to quantify if it was worse than any other artistic medium, the fact that it was all being beamed directly into your living room made the dreck much harder to avoid.  That’s all changed. Television is now the dominant medium in basically all of entertainment, to the degree that the only thing separating movies and TV is the screen you’re watching on. The shift in perception is widely credited to the arrival of The Sopranos, which completely reinvented the notion of what a TV show could do, and the advent of streaming has made it so that hundreds of new shows are now continually flipping the script every few years, if not months.  But that doesn’t mean everything before 1999 is pure dross. Far from it: television has been popular since World War II, after all. And while this list is dominated by 21st century programs, there are hundreds of shows that deserve credit for pushing TV forward into its current golden age. Chiselling them down to a neat hundred is tough, so we elected to leave off tal

Some people like to watch scary movies from the safety of their sofa with a cushion in front of their eyes. We prefer the communal experience: sitting in a huge, dark space with loads of fellow thrillseekers, all reacting to every collective gasp and shriek. If you’re with us, then you need to get your brave self to one of these Halloween film screenings. And when we say scary movies, we don’t just mean genuinely terrifying horror classics like ‘The Shining’ and ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’. Many classics of the Halloween movie season range from camp as Christmas (‘Hocus Pocus’ and ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’) to...actually low-key Christmassy (‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’).  Whether you like to be chilled to the bone or raucously entertained while wearing drag, London has a Halloween movie screening for you. Recommended: 🎃 Our guide to Halloween in London👹 The 66 greatest movie monsters of all time

You probably don’t have to be told that there’s a lot of TV out there right now – your monthly streaming budget says it plainly enough. It seems like every few weeks, another must-see show is dropping on some brand new platform, and somehow you get roped into yet another subscription just so you don’t find yourself left out of the cultural loop. And then, inevitably, you never end up watching the new thing, because you’re already watching a half-dozen other shows you’re still trying to finish. Allow us to help you prioritise. To help you figure out how best to focus your telly time, we’re conducting an ongoing ranking of the most elite television series of 2023. Certainly some you’re well aware of, like Succession, Top Boy, The Last of Us and The Bear. Others may have slipped under your radar, such as Amazon’s surreal I’m a Virgo, Fox’s hilarious Colin From Accounts or Jury Duty on [checks notes]... something called FreeVee? All are totally binge-worthy. But binge them fast, because in 2023, the shows never stop coming, and this list is sure to grow.  RECOMMENDED:🔥 The best movies of 2023 (so far)📺 The 100 greatest ever TV shows you need to binge😂 The best comedies of 2023 (so far)🎞️ The best movies to catch at the cinema this month

Emerging from the pink-and-grey phenomenon that was Barbenheimer like a hand emerging from the ground, ace Aussie chiller Talk to Me is the latest in a broad array of horror movies to storm, creep and skulk into our cinemas this year. There have been atmospheric supernatural meditations (Enys Men), slowburn freak-outs (Infinity Pool, Knock at the Cabin), demonic deluges (Evil Dead Rise, The Boogeyman) and meme-worthy horror comedies with tongues in their cheek and menace in their hearts (M3GAN). Even a few of the non-horror films, Beau Is Afraid, Tár and Oppenheimer among them, have lent into the ghostly trappings of the genre. In short, we’ve never been too far from a satisfyingly upsetting night at the pictures so far in 2023. Not everything has landed, admittedly, with Scream VI showing its age, Insidious: The Red Door creaking on its hinges and Winnie the Pooh: Blood And Honey probably causing AA Milne to turn in his grave. But the good has firmly outweighed the bad, and gorehounds, Dead Heads and genre aficionados have had plenty of reasons to celebrate.   RECOMMENDED: 💀 The 100 greatest horror films of all time🔥 The best movies of 2023 (so far)📺 The best TV shows of 2023 you need to stream

Cada uno tiene sus preferencias, así que cualquier debate sobre cuáles son los mejores largometrajes de todos los tiempos se puede alargar horas y horas. ¿Puede haber algún listado que los agrupe todos? Es difícil, pero hemos intentado incorporar desde las revoluciones cinematográficas más clásicas hasta las más modernas, grandes estrenos, todos los géneros, países, épocas... cine para todos los gustos, haciendo equilibrios entre la racionalidad y el sentimentalismo. El reto ha sido enormemente complicado, pero no nos hemos podido resistir a elaborar una buena lista, nuestra lista, de películas que hay que ver, al menos, una vez en la vida. Decidnos hasta qué punto nos hemos equivocado. ¡Y, ah, prohibido repetir directores! RECOMENDADO: Las 50 mejores películas para ver en familia. 

In July 2023, podcasts turned 20. We know, it sounds weird, but podcasting actually technically began on July 9, 2003, so they haven't really been around all that long. And somehow, in that time, we've been blessed with endless brilliant things to listen to, and new gems are still popping up all the time. New additions to our list include Joe Pera's new sleep podcast and The Ringer's fascinating new look at pop culture's role in the Vietnam War, which has climbed to our top 10.   But wait. We've got more. Here at Time Out, we love a good poddy so much, we made our own, which aired in July this year: ‘Love Thy Neighbourhood’ is a brand-new podcast, hosted by Time Out London's editor Joe Mackertich, where London celebs walk listeners through the best spots in their area. Oh, and it always ends in a pub. You can listen to ‘Love Thy Neighbourhood’ on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and the rest of the gang.  So read on for our full list of the best podcasts going right now, where we've got political podcasts that look behind the news, comedy podcasts with your favourite funny people, and plenty of those all-important investigative whodunnits to keep you up at night. Whatever you’re into, it’s all here. And if you’re looking to dig deeper into one genre, try our specialist lists on for size (you’ll find them below). Happy listening. Contributors: Anna Rahmanan, Eddy Frankel, Andy Kryza, Phil de Semlyen, Alex Plim, Dave Calhoun, Andrzej Lukowski, Alexandra Sims, Matthew Singer, Joe Macke

The cinematic year started off like a train, with Tár, The Fabelmans and EO all staggering into our cinemas laden with awards, and A.I. doll meme-athon M3GAN entertaining the crowds with its irresistibly malicious brand of horror-comedy. March delivered the surprisingly excellent Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves, ace London romcom Rye Lane and a pair of worthy French dramas in The Night Of The 12th and The Beasts. Fast forward to the summer months, and Barbenheimer was the double-bill absolutely no one saw coming, a true 50-year box-office storm of ridiculous proportions ($2.3 billion and counting) and then… nothing. Nada. Zilch. August turned out to be the dampest of post-storm squibs, with only a pair of loveable indies – Theater Camp and Scrapper – to distract from the existential doom of Hollywood’s ongoing civil war. But it takes more than a total shutdown of all Hollywood movie productions to get us down, especially with so much more to come this year. Because despite the current doldrums, this list will continue to grow as we head into awards season. The Venice-winning Poor Things, Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall, Ridley Scott’s supersized Napoleon and our top pick, WWE family drama Iron Claw, all lie ahead. But for now, here are the best movies worth leaving your house for so far in 2023. RECOMMENDED: 📺 The best TV and streaming shows of 2023 (so far)🔥 The 11 scariest horror movies of 2023😂 The best comedies of 2023 (so far)🎥 The 100 greatest movies ev

When it comes to greatness in art, nothing is set in stone. There is no such thing as an objective, definitive canon, no matter the medium, and no matter what a media outlet may tell you when it releases a list of, oh, say, the greatest movies ever made – present company included. Sure, it’s a surefire way to get readers clicking. But we’re not so foolish as to think of ourselves like Moses on the mountain, proclaiming these films as the best of all-time, with no room for debate. Instead, we’re merely hoping to shake up (and in some spots confirm) the conventional wisdom, introduce different perspectives and, maybe most importantly, spark passionate debate. Because the only thing better than watching movies is arguing over them. Don’t get us wrong, though: we feel pretty strongly about movies over here, and we’ll defend  our picks until our throats are raw and our typing fingers worn down to nubs. But we’re not brutes. Really, we’re just trying to help. If you’re a fledgling cinephile looking to solidify your film-buff bona fides, think of this as a handy reference guide. And if you’ve already seen everything, take it as a way to challenge your own canon. Because with all the ground covered here – over 100 years, multiple countries, and just about every genre imaginable – you’re bound to find something you disagree with.   Written by Abbey Bender, Dave Calhoun, Phil de Semlyen, Bilge Ebiri, Ian Freer, Stephen Garrett, Tomris Laffly, Joshua Rothkopf, Anna Smith and Matthew Sin

Cinemagoers love a good scare. That much is evident these days from the commercial and critical success of the horror genre: in 2023 alone, the latest instalments of The Nun, Insidious and Scream franchises are among the highest-grossing movies of the year, while M3GAN and A24’s Talk to Me are legitimate cult and box-office phenoms. And that’s not even to mention leftfield smashes over the last decade, like A Quiet Place, Hereditary and basically everything Jordan Peele has done.   It’s crazy to think, then, that not long ago, horror was thought of as a euphemism for ‘schlock’. If you were alive at the height of the VHS era, you know it wasn’t totally unfounded. Churning out formulaic slashers became a way for hacks and hucksters to make a quick buck, leaving rental store shelves awash in forgettable dreck. It served to overwhelm and obscure the horror genre’s true value – because when done right, no other film experience can conjure more visceral emotions. So let’s correct the record. Here are the 100 greatest horror movies of all-time, drawn from both the current renaissance and those darker days. Written by Tom Huddleston, Cath Clarke, Dave Calhoun, Nigel Floyd, Phil de Semlyen, David Ehrlich, Joshua Rothkopf, Nigel Floyd, Andy Kryza, Alim Kheraj and Matthew Singer Recommended: 🔪 The best new horror movies of 2023 (so far)🔥 The 100 best movies of all time👹 Cinema’s creepiest anthology horror movies🩸 The 15 scariest horror movies based on true stories

Cinema is full of monsters, but none is more horrifying than the serial killer, because serial killers cannot easily be wished away by the belief that it’s ‘only a movie’. Sure, they might just be deeply damaged human beings, but there are a lot more of those in the world than skyscraper-sized reptiles or interplanetary demons. Even while watching a work of fiction, there is no quarter from the idea that somebody, somewhere, may want to kill you – and for no other reason than some unknown psychological force compels them to do so.  That begs an obvious question, then: why would anyone want to watch a movie about a serial killer? It’s true that, unlike the general horror canon, films focused on murderers contain less ‘fun scares’ and instead hold a cracked mirror up to society itself – at least, that’s what the good ones do. In putting together this list of the best serial-killer films, we paid particular attention to those that rely less on transgressive shocks and more on observing the conditions that allow serial killers to exist. These movies descend into the darkest parts of humanity, and in doing so reveal some things about ourselves we might not want to admit. They may not be ‘fun’ – although some certainly qualify – but diving into the abyss of the human psyche still has great value. You’re guaranteed to leave shaken. Recommended: 🔪 The best true-crime documentaries on Netflix in the US👹 Cinema’s creepiest anthology horror movies🩸 The 15 scariest horror movies based

What’s better than a stay-cation? A stay-cation involving a spa, of course. If you’re looking for a bit of well-earned R&R to get away from it all, the UK is brimming with top quality spas and wellness centres to help you wind down. Hot tubs to soothe aching muscles? Check. A facial to cleanse tired skin? Yup. A deep-tissue massage to sort out all of that tension from being bent over a computer all day? Sounds good to us.  From glorious country houses to trailblazing eco-spas, lake view hot tubs and city centre hideaways, this country has it all. Don’t know where to start? Our editors have been out and about, trying and testing spas to sort the good from the fantastic. Now, all you need to do is lay out your comfy clothes and hit the road. And… breathe.  Recommended: the best wellbeing and yoga retreats in the UKRecommended: the cosiest cabins and log cabins in the UK

There’s an old joke that cave divers grow their hair long to cover the scar from where their brains were removed. You can probably apply it to big-wave riders too. Like leaping off a multi-storey car park on a dinner tray, these daredevils play chicken with the ocean as they cascade down 60-foot swells, with one misjudgment condemning them to serious injury, or worse. Forever in pursuit of the next colossal, unsurfed break, legendary big-wave surfer Andrew Cotton is a chilled dude ever so slightly on the edge in this free-spirited and quietly touching doc – a kind of west country Bodhi from Point Break (albeit his side hustle is plumbing not bank robbing). Aerial footage of the man riding the epic seas of Nazaré in Portugal offer a reminder of the enduring appeal of dry land. Cotton is one of the two contrasting poles in Mikey Corker’s cleverly constructed, bracingly told story. The other, English sailor and modern adventurer Matt Knight, is his partner on a quixotic mission to find that perfect wave. A journal written by a 19th-century treasure hunter called E F Knight serves as a kind of treasure map to their destination – a handful of rocky atolls in the Atlantic called the Savage Islands – and Charles Dance’s narration of the text is every bit as eloquent and evocative as you’d imagine. (‘The uneventful days passed by and I grew stout on laziness, salt beef and duff,’ recites Dance of a particularly glum moment for the mariner.) The spirit of Robert Louis Stevenson and s

After some fallow years, film lovers in west London are blessed with a sudden wealth of cinema-going options, with the opening of Ealing Picturehouse adding to recent openings for ActOne Cinema and community hub, Ealing Project. And the area has its own short film festival, now in its fourth year and showcasing new talent from around the world. Hosting the meaty line-up of shorts is ActOne and Ealing Project, as well as the grand Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery on Ealing Green. Take a chance on some new names and be rewarded with a warm welcome and maybe even an early glimpse at a star of the future.

After some fallow years, film lovers in west London are blessed with a sudden wealth of cinema-going options, with the opening of Ealing Picturehouse adding to recent openings for ActOne Cinema and community hub, Ealing Project. And the area has its own short film festival, now in its fourth year and showcasing new talent from around the world. Hosting the meaty line-up of shorts is ActOne and Ealing Project, as well as the grand Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery on Ealing Green. Take a chance on some new names and be rewarded with a warm welcome and maybe even an early glimpse at a star of the future.

Stellar films, impressive names and a touch of French je ne sais quoi are the hallmarks of this annual gallic film fest hosted at South Kensington’s cultural hub, Ciné Lumière. This year, director Justine Triet will be there to introduce her gripping Palme d’Or crime mystery ‘Anatomy of a Fall’ in person, Trần Anh Hùng’s enchanting ‘The Taste of Things’ will be casting its culinary spell over audiences and ‘Être et Evoir’s Nicolas Philibert is back with his new documentary ‘On the Adamant’. There are more than 40 screenings, Q&As and premieres in store for fest-goers. Marcher, ne pas courir.

It’s not every writer who gets a film made about them, let alone by legendary documentarian Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line). But then, not every novelist has had the cultural impact of bestselling espionage novelist John le Carré – real name David Cornwell – one-time spy and full-time cartographer of the Cold War’s shadowiest nooks and crannies.  Before his death in 2020, the man behind ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’, ‘The Constant Gardener’ and ‘The Night Manager’ – and, indirectly, some of the greatest TV thrillers ever made – subjected himself to a series of interviews by the American filmmaker. On the table is, well, everything, as this formerly elusive man opens up about his disillusionment with the stuffy complacency of the British establishment, childhood abandonment, the cloak-and-dagger business of spycraft, and the imprint left by his roguish conman dad. With le Carré at one end of a grand table in an even grander library and Morris off-camera, there’s a delicious sense of two expert interrogators jousting, occasionally taking pause to explore the very nature of their conversation. Is Morris probing in the right areas? Can he win the trust of a man who knows all the tricks for extracting info from unwilling subjects?  Happily, this subject is here to talk. Like Morris’s The Fog of War, in which former US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara took himself to task for the mistakes of the Vietnam War, The Pigeon Tunnel is a soul-searching confessional as much as a look b

If a mysterious man knocked on your door in the dead of night and told you you’d be selected to leave your partner for an indeterminate length of time to complete an unspecified task ‘for the good of humanity’, the chances are you’d have one or two questions. That’s the scenario faced by Junior (Paul Mescal) and Hen (Saoirse Ronan), a fracturing Midwestern couple in this nearish-future sci-fi from Lion director Garth Davis. The late-night visitor, a corporate functionary with a faintly sinister bedside manner (Underground Railroad’s Aaron Pierre), explains that Junior is on a list to travel into space. The upside is that he’ll be replaced by a fully-functioning A.I. Mescal-bot to keep her company in his absence. Which, of course, is also the downside.Based on Iain Reid’s 2018 novel, Foe is coy in its sci-fi-ness, with cursory world-building and bare-bones context (there’s been a climate catastrophe, everyone’s sweaty). Davis extracts overheated performances and not a lot of chemistry from his ultra-charismatic leads, despite filming enough beefy Mescal bod to give Normal People fans a coronary.  A cannily-executed final-act twist aside, his film is stronger on the psychology of dying relationships, where sex feels less than an act of connection than a final spin of the roulette wheel, than the likely impact A.I. will have on our sense of our own humanity. Then again, 40 years after Blade Runner, this may not be the box-fresh topic many filmmakers seem to think. In UK cinemas

It’s all about gathering together and amplifying diverse, female and LGBTQ+ voices at this boutique west London indie fest – on-screen and in front of it. That ethos extends to the free tickets, and a range of screenings for disabled, deaf and neurodivergent viewers. Look out for ‘Coda’s Oscar-winning star Troy Kotsur intro’ing his autobiographical doc ‘To My Father’ at the Electric Cinema (Oct 24). There’s some cool venues on the cards, too, including an invite-only screening of ‘Scrapper’ in Maida Vale tube station – a first – and an afternoon of Ukrainian films at Little Venice’s 60-seat Canal Cafe Theatre (Oct 22), as well as Paddington’s St Mary Magdalene Church  Curzon Mayfair is the festival hub and hosts an awards night on October 27 in support of the ‘Save the Curzon Mayfair’ campaign. And as a treat for lovers of golden oldies, Basil Dearden’s classic London police drama 'The Blue Lamp' is getting a special screening at Maida Vale’s The Prince Alfred Pub on October 23.

The word ‘defector’ conjures up visions of atomic scientists and Cold War spies waiting for the moment to tiptoe through a border minefield and make a dash for freedom. But as this pulse-raising doc charts, for North Koreans, defection is less a political act than a bid for survival – an escape attempt where the price of failure is often death. American filmmaker Madeleine Gavin follows the stories of two escape bids: one by the five-person Ro family, including two young girls and an elderly grandma, who are hoping to reunite with relatives in Seoul; the other, the young son of a defector called Soyeon Lee, who is also attempting to cross the Yalu River and begin the long journey to join his mum in South Korea.The film’s greatest asset is incredible iPhone and flip-phone shakycam footage of the Ro family’s perilous flight, most of it captured by the so-called ‘brokers’ who run the escape networks for profit. And it is seriously perilous: the so-called ‘underground railroad’ spiriting North Koreans to freedom involves two major river crossings, almost impenetrable jungle, several mountains, and a seriously stealthy journey through China, Vietnam and Laos. Only in Thailand will they be free from the threat of arrest and a forceable return to Pyongyang, where torture and the gulag await.  The more uncertain progress of Soyeon Lee’s son, meanwhile, is captured through the fretful prism of a mum fearing for her boy’s life. Her hope that he’ll join her south of the border slowly cu

Thought the silent movie renaissance began and ended with The Artist? Wordless wonder Pablo Berger is here to make you think again. The Spanish director has dug into Charlie Chaplin’s box of tricks to forge a gorgeous animation about friendship and connection – entirely without dialogue. Based on Sara Varon’s children’s graphic novel, visually as well as narratively, it’s set in the anthropomorphised, graffiti-strewn, Earth, Wind & Fire-fuelled ’80s New York, as if Saturday Night Fever had been invaded by the cast of Zootropolis. Our hero is Dog, a lonely mutt who lives alone, sadly passing the time playing Pong and awaiting the ping of his microwave macaroni.   Enter Robot, a mail-order friendship droid that quickly changes Dog’s life via the power of companionship. The previously baleful pooch comes alive as he rollerskates through Central Park and wolfs hotdogs with his new pal. Then the pair take a Labor Day trip to the beach and find themselves separated by a bad case of rust, a locked fence and a gruff security guard. Suddenly, Dog has a different sort of loneliness to contend with. If the animation style has a touch of the BoJacks, the story plays out a bit like super-loveable British buddy comedy Brian and Charles, where the A.I.-ness of the premise is almost beside the point. Like Charles Petrescu in that film, Robot is more game-for-anything kid than android, experiencing genuine joy and wonder with his new friend.  The visual gags embrace everything from Tati-esque

LEAFF wants you to enjoy east and southeast Asian movies in extreme comfort this year, judging by its pick of venues – the two luxy Odeons in Leicester Square and Cinema at Selfridges. There, you’ll find 11 days of premieres, retrospectives, LGBTQI+ films and a halloween horror special from Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, China and across Asia. Look out for a celebration of the ‘Ken Loach of Korea’, Chung Ji-Young.  

This UK-wide festival, a primo showcase of Jewish diaspora storytelling, is full of big hitters next month. Anthony Hopkins stars in the kindertransport drama ‘One Life’, Marco Bellochio’s papal abduction thriller ‘Kidnapped’ won raves at Cannes, and there’s a moving Holocaust-themed animation in ‘My Father’s Secrets. There are also strands dedicated to LGBTQI+ films, documentaries and shorts, and David Baddiel is swinging by.

Every morning, horses and riders from Newmarket’s 50 or so stables charge up and down a stretch of hillside known as ‘the Gallops’ just outside the town – sinews are stretched, muscles worked and sweats worked up. While it’s a tradition in racing circles that’s borderline iconic, when you’re lounging in a hot tub or gently cooking in the steam room across the road, it does seem like a bit of a faff. Part of the charm of Bedford Lodge Hotel and its none-more-zen spa is that proximity to horse racing royalty, but even if horse racing isn’t your thing, this former 19th century hunting lodge and its health club, a cocoon of chill shielded from the outside world by a row of hedges, are well worth travelling for. After a treatment (the 90-minute personalised massage feels like nirvana), the steam room, sauna and hot tub are there to banish any remaining saddle sores of city life. With its elegant dining room restaurant and manicured lawns, the hotel itself puts a modern spin on a Georgian country house. It was once home to Lord Beaverbrook – the newspaper baron’s choice of getaway during racing season – and nowadays offers a toasty-warm welcome to both racegoers and stressed-out urbanites looking to unwind. Bedford Lodge prides itself on friendly, engaged and knowledgeable staff. Who knows? One of them might give you a hot tip on the 3.20.

Back in 2009, the set of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was hit by a terrible accident. During rehearsals, Daniel Radcliffe’s long-time Harry Potter stunt double, David Holmes, sustained a spinal injury that left him paralysed. Nearly 15 years on, that story is getting a unique telling in a documentary that will reunite actor and stuntman.  The HBO doc, The Boy Who Lived, will bring Radcliffe and Holmes together for an emotional reunion, showcasing the latter’s stunt work and interviewing both about life before and since the accident.It’s a coming-of-age tale of sorts, too, telling the story of how Holmes went from a gifted young gymnastic to working as Radcliffe’s stunt double from The Philosopher’s Stone onwards. The pair remain firm friends, with Radcliffe helping Holmes launch his podcast Cunning Stunts back in 2020. The Boy Who Lived will show how the actor and Holmes’s fellow stunt people rallied around him in the wake of his accident. ‘Being a stuntman was my calling in life, and doubling Harry was the best job in the world,’ Holmes wrote on Instagram. ‘This film tells the story of not just my achievements in front of camera, but also the challenges I face every day, and my overall attitude to life after suffering a broken neck,’ said the stuntman of a documentary four years in the making. ‘In the turbulent world we find ourselves living in right now, I would like to quote Harry: “We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.”’ Expect lots of

私はマイケル・ケインの映画とともに育った。「ズール戦争」「国際諜報用字秘密情報局」「遠すぎた橋」「王になろうとした男」「ハンナとその姉妹」「リタと大学教授」、そして「ミニミニ大作戦」。大学では「狙撃者」をVHSが擦り切れるまで観たものだ。 良い作品も悪い作品も、全て好きである。ケインの作品を前にすると、私の批評能力は冷え切ってしまうほどだ。特に「勝利への脱出」は、素人には出演者全員が演技に不慣れなように見えるかもしれないが、誤解された傑作だと主張したい。あなたの人生にも、そんな俳優がいるのではないだろうか。私にとってそれがケインで、彼が出演した映画の数々だ。 「憧れるヒーローには決して会うな」というが、私は彼に2回ほどインタビューをしたことがある。愉快で、遊び心たっぷり、チャーミングでありながらも自意識過剰であった。そして俳優活動を開始して半世紀がたった今でも、彼の人生がもたらしたものとは何かを、自らに問いかけているようだった。 最初のインタビューはクライムアクション映画「狼たちの処刑台」のプロモーションのためのものだった。その日はちょうどインタビューを行ったホテルで、映画「アントラージュ★オレたちのハリウッド」のプレスが行われていた。 そのことをケインに話すと、「何それ？」と尋ねてくるので、「HBOの番組で新進俳優がハリウッドで仲間たちとつるみながら、モデルたちとデートする話だよ」と説明した。ニヤニヤと思い出にふけりながら「そうそう知ってるよ、若い頃を思い出すなあ」とコメントしたケインの顔が、今でも忘れられない。 小生意気なコックニーとして、または1960年代のスウィンギングの申し子として知られる彼は、オスカーに6回ノミネート。素晴らしい俳優であることは、多くの人が認めている。しかし最新作であり、最後の出演作となった「The Great Escaper（原題）」は、まったくもって不愉快な作品だ。 ケインは、2023年に亡くなったグレンダ・ジャクソン演じるアイリーンの相手役の退役軍人を演じた。荒波を生き抜いた夫婦を題材にした本作は、イギリス映画の一つの時代に幕が下されるのを感じさせるような作品だ。ついにこの時代が終わったと思うと、感慨深いものである。 ここでは時代の終わりを記念して、ケインが登場する私のお気に入りの名シーン（セリフ）を紹介しよう。 「タンジェリンサイズのルビー」／「ダークナイト」（2008年） 彼のキャリア後期の活躍は実に楽しいものだ。イギリス人監督クリストファー・ノーランによる映画「バットマン」3部作で演じたバットマンの執事、アルフレッド・ペニーワースは最高の表現である。 ブルース・ウェイン（クリスチャン・ベール）の敵、ジョーカーの本性を警告する不朽の名ぜりふ「世界が燃えるのを見たいだけの男もいるんだ」。そして、「ある日、子どもがタンジェリンサイズのルビーで遊んでいるのを見た」という台詞の中の 「タンジェリン（ミカン）」 という言葉に込められた重厚な雰囲気は、私にとってはオールタイマーだ。 「もう少し厳しいことをやってみなければならないね」／「ペテン師とサギ師/だまされてリビエラ」（1988年） 「ケインがコメディーをやらない」というのは正確ではない。本作は、スティーヴ・マーティン演じるアメリカ人の詐欺師フレディ・ベンソンと、ケインが演じる地元のサギ師ローレンス・ジェイミソンの2人が、大資産家の女相続人（グレン・ヘッド

London’s newest cinema, Ealing Picturehouse, is throwing open its doors for the first time this weekend and we have a taster of what to expect when you head inside this gleaming new eight-screen complex in W5. Located in the new Filmworks development on Ealing Broadway, the cinema boasts 900 seats, a bar, café and a host of thoughtful touches. It’s situated in the spot occupied by the Forum Cinema from 1934, which went on to become The ABC and later, a UCG. Some of the new cinema’s light fittings are even reclaimed from the Forum.  Photograph: Laura Gallant/Time Out ‘Ealing Picturehouse has been a long time coming,’ says Picturehouse MD Clare Binns, ‘but we’re thrilled that the moment is here and we can open our doors to this wonderful palace of film. To open in Ealing, which has such a rich history of film production, is so exciting.’ That history is reflected inside the cinema, with stills and behind-the-scenes photos of the classic Ealing Comedies that were filmed around the corner back in the post-War years, and plenty of reminders that this was once home turf for Gracie Fields, Googie Withers, Stanley Holloway and the like. There’s even a screening of ‘The Ladykillers’ on Sunday, October 22 to get the ball rolling on a series of older classics. Photograph: Laura Gallant/Time Out Younger moviegoers will be excited to hear that the bathrooms are dedicated to individual filmmakers. Currently Greta Gerwig’s dulcet tones are on the PA, which is handy for anyone keen to pi

Were you scared witless when the T-Rex made his first appearance in Jurassic Park? Candyman director Nia DaCosta was right there with you. Did Michael Rooker’s definitive portrait of a killer stick with you at the end of Henry? It also haunted Luca Guadagnino and that man turned a body into a bramble of crushed bones in Suspiria. The cinema is a place of vulnerability, and great horror films burrow under everyone’s skin, including the coolest filmmakers in the world.  From horror maestros to arthouse auteurs, we asked the honorees of our coolest filmmakers list what cinematic moment scared them most. And they delivered: Cinematic minds such as The Witch’s Robert Eggers and The Babadook mastermind Jennifer Kent told us what gave them nightmares while they were doing the same to us, while Rian Johnson, Edgar Wright, Lynne Ramsay, Sean Baker and others told us what chilled them to the bone. You’ll find serial killers and classic slashers. But you’ll also find more than one Disney film, too. Don’t worry, you're in a safe space here.   Read on: The 50 coolest filmmakers in the world right now Photograph: StudioCanalIrréversible Irréversible – picked by Robert Eggers (The Witch) ‘Gaspar Noé’s Irreversible, Gerald Kargl’s Angst, Michael Haneke’s Piano Teacher and Bruno Dumont’s Twentynine Palms all left me pretty shaken after my first viewing.’’  Photograph: DisneySnow White and the Seven Dwarfs The Evil Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs – picked by Tomm Moore (The Secr

The news that Michael Caine is retiring from acting has hit me like a tonne of gold bars. I grew up with his films – usually watched on the sofa with my dad – and they’re like old friends: ‘Zulu’, ‘The Ipcress File’, ‘A Bridge Too Far’, ‘The Man Who Would Be King’, ‘Hannah and Her Sisters’, ‘Educating Rita’. ‘The Italian Job’, naturally. At uni, I watched ‘Get Carter’ so often I wore out the VHS. Good, bad or ‘The Swarm’, I love them all. My critical faculties go into cold storage when it comes to his work. I am willing to argue that ‘Escape to Victory’ is a misunderstood masterpiece, even if to the untrained eye it seems that everyone involved is new to acting. You probably have actors like that in your life: they can pitch up in an absolute turkey and it’s basically Christmas. That’s Caine – and his films – to me.  And they say never meet your heroes but I’ve interviewed the man twice and he was a delight on both occasions, playfully self-aware (he told me that daughter had got him to record her voicemail: ‘You’re only supposed to leave a bloody message’) and clearly still having to pinch himself at what his life delivered for him – even half a century on. On the first occasion, he was promoting the ropey vigilante thriller ‘Harry Brown’ (one of the few exceptions to my turkey rule). As it happened, there was a press junket for the ‘Entourage’ movie taking place in the same hotel at the same time. ‘What’s that?’ he asked when I mentioned it. I explained that it was an HBO s

Se acerca cada vez más el terrible día en que Martin Scorsese, de 80 años, colgará definitivamente la claqueta, pero el cineasta no se irá tranquilamente sin hacer ruido. Su último film, absolutamente apasionante, de construcción impecable y cargado de política, quita el polvo de un rincón abandonado de la historia indígena estadounidense –los asesinatos en serie de los nativos americanos osage en el Oklahoma de los años 20– para contar una historia de avaricia, violencia e injusticia sistémica a la altura de sus mejores trabajos. Tres horas y 26 minutos que pasan volando A principios del siglo XX, el pueblo osage encontró petróleo. Esto le enriqueció, pero también atrajo a hordas de charlatanes, extorsionadores y estafadores blancos como abejas a un bote de miel. 'Los asesinos de la luna' recrea este mundo al estilo vérité, un lugar donde la cruda jerarquía racial estadounidense se ha dado la vuelta. Y es entonces cuando los cadáveres comienzan a acumularse. El guion apunta al magnate ganadero William Hale (Robert De Niro) como el hombre detrás de los crímenes. Para acelerar el proceso de obtener los derechos del petróleo, necesita que su sobrino Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) se case con Mollie (Lily Gladstone), heredera osage, pero lo que no se espera es que el sobrino se enamore de ella. Mejorando con la edad, DiCaprio humaniza este hombre irresponsable, pero es Gladstone quien vende la idea de que hay algo en Burkhart que vale la pena amar, y con ello, vende toda un

S’acosta cada cop més el dia terrible en què Martin Scorsese, de 80 anys, penjarà definitivament la claqueta, però el cineasta no se n’anirà tranquil·lament sense fer soroll. El seu últim film, absolutament apassionant, de construcció impecable i carregat de política, treu la pols d’un racó abandonat de la història indígena nord-americana –els assassinats en sèrie dels nadius americans osage a l’Oklahoma dels anys 20– per explicar una història d’avarícia, violència i injustícia sistèmica a l’alçada dels seus millors treballs. Tres hores i 26 minuts que passen volant A principis del segle XX, el poble osage va trobar petroli. Això el va enriquir, però també va atraure hordes de xarlatans, extorsionadors i estafadors blancs com abelles a un pot de mel. 'Los asesinos de la luna' recrea aquest món a l’estil vérité, un lloc on la crua jerarquia racial nord-americana s’ha capgirat. I és llavors quan els cadàvers comencen a acumular-se. El guió apunta al magnat ramader William Hale (Robert De Niro) com l’home al darrere dels crims. Per accelerar el procés d’obtenir els drets del petroli, necessita que el seu nebot Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) es casi amb la Mollie (Lily Gladstone), hereva Osage, però el que no s’espera és que el nebot se n’enamori. Millorant amb l’edat, DiCaprio fa humà aquest home irresponsable, però és Gladstone qui ven la idea que hi ha alguna cosa en Burkhart que val la pena estimar, i amb això, ven tota una pel·lícula de tres hores i 26 minuts que passen

There’s nothing like rugging up and heading for a toasty-warm cinema as autumn sets in and the onset of dusk creeps ever closer to lunchtime. (At least in the cinema it’s supposed to be dark, right?) Happily, October offers a bunch of good excuses to do just that. This month has new releases catering to all tastes, from horror hounds (‘The Exorcist: Believer’), to documentary lovers (‘The Pigeon Tunnel’, ‘20 Days in Mariupol’, ‘Beyond Utopia’), to anyone who couldn’t get tickets for Taylor Swift’s latest tour (concert doc ‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour’). Best of all? There’s a Martin Scorsese period epic that’s up there with the great man’s very best. Photograph: Universal Pictures The Exorcist: Believer  How do you follow up one of the definitive horror movies? Director David Gordon Green will be clutching his rosary and giving it a red-hot go this month with his direct sequel to 1973 classic ‘The Exorcist’ – and he has Ellen Burstyn back in the role of tormented mum Chris MacNeil. And Green, of course, has previous when it comes to rebooting seminal horrors. His ‘Halloween’ trilogy was hit-and-miss, but this one should be genuinely scary. In cinemas Oct 6 Photograph: Courtesy Netflix Fair Play A spiky battle-of-the-sexes thriller set in a ruthless New York hedge fund, Chloe Domont’s relationship study has ’90s throwback vibes – erotic thriller ones, at that – but a very modern message about the male ego’s struggle to cope in a world of greater equality. Here, smug banker

The latest true-crime series to hit our tellies is ITV’s new dramatisation of the five-year hunt for 1970s serial killer Peter Sutcliffe. A name that still induces a shudder in any Brit who remembers the dark days of the ’70s, and a killing spree that continues to haunt the country where it took place, the so-called ‘Yorkshire Ripper’ will reportedly fade into the background in a drama that focus on the women who fell victim to him. ‘The Long Shadow’ follows the BBC’s ‘The Sixth Commandment’ in promising a sensitive, unsensationalised examination of the circumstances that surrounded the horrifying crimes, sparing us the violence in favour of showing how poverty and lives of struggle put these women in Sutcliffe’s crosshairs, and how the police botched the investigation, duped by a hoaxer.   Is The Long Shadow based on a true story?  Yes, the drama cleaves very closely to real events, following Sutcliffe’s murder of 13 women and attacks on a further seven between 1975 and 1981. It’s based on ‘Wicked Beyond Belief: The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper’, an account of the biggest criminal manhunt in British history by investigative journalist Michael Bilton. That forensic reporting has been augmented by additional research and interviews with family members of the victims in Hijack writer George Kay’s adaptation.  Series director Lewis Arnold has some experience in bringing abhorrent criminals to our tellies: he directed ‘Des’, ITV’s serialised account of north London serial killer

It isn’t just about the films at the BFI London Film Festival. Starting on October 5, this year’s programme has a tonne of films to watch, sure, but there’s also a veritable feast of things to see and do over the fest’s 12 days – and many of them won’t cost you a penny. This year’s ‘LFF For Free’ programme has been announced and the programme of events, parties, screenings, live podcasts, Q&As, industry seminars and other assorted South Bank shindags is now available to book.  ‘We can't wait to invite film fans across London to dive into these fantastic events that explore so many facets of moving image culture,’ says festival director Kristy Matheson, ‘and allow audiences to meet the makers and even make their own robot! Our LFF Free programme has events for all ages from family workshops, screenings, club nights and fascinating talks, so mark your calendars and make some time to pop by and celebrate LFF with us.’ Bear in mind that LFF For Free events are occasionally oversubscribed so it’s always best to rock up a little early to avoid disappointment.  Here’s the line-up in full:   LFF Expanded The festival is offering free access to some of its XR work at Bargehouse at Oxo Tower Wharf, in the OXO Tower itself and on your mobile. Head here for the lowdown. Little White Lies 100 Exhibition Film magazine Little White Lies is celebrating 100 issues with a special exhibition at the OXO Tower and hosting a talk on creating the mag’s special 100th issue at 8pm on October 4.  Shor

This year’s BFI London Film Festival is only a few sleeps away, with more than 230 movies, shorts and XR works on the programme. But there’s also another side to the fest – and it’s tailormade for a cost of living crisis. LFF for Free is a whole schedule of talks, live podcasts, exhibitions, parties and industry pow-wows. Money can’t buy them – and it doesn’t have to. Whether you’re interested in looking to get into the filmmaking business, want to check out the next generation of talent, or just fancy throwing some shapes in a hip hop class, it’s all there – and totally free. LFF For Free events are mainly taking place over the fest’s two weekends, although there are a few weekday events too. Here are a few picks to look out for. Tickets are up for grabs now, though, so don’t hang about.  1. Celebrate exciting Black British filmmakers Hosted by The British Blacklist and We Are Parable, ‘Dynamic Storytelling’ is a brilliant opportunity to hear from brings three fast-rising directors with films at the fest – Adura Onashile (‘Girl’), Jeymes Samuel (‘The Book of Clarence’) and Savannah Leaf (‘Earth Mama’) – and listen to their stories. Photograph: Gareth Gatrell/MARVEL 2. Get an early look at the latest Marvel series The first two episodes of season 2 of Marvel’s Disney+ series ‘Loki’ is getting a special preview screening at the festival, with director and exec-producer there to introduce them. It’s a homecoming of sorts, as the season was partly filmed in London and Tom Hidd

This year’s BFI London Film Festival is just around the corner, with a wealth of new movies, shorts, talks, Q&As and other shindigs for film-loving Londoners to get stuck into over 11 days. And not just Londoners, because the LFF takes in cities across the country, too, with simultaneous screenings at UK-wide cinemas like the Broadway in Nottingham, Watershed in Bristol and Queen’s Film Theatre in Belfast.  But – and we’re allowed to say this – it’s mostly about London. It’s not often we get to smugly enjoy the sight of the city we know and love on the big screen in quite so many exciting, explosive, dramatic ways. And this year there’s a host of options to do exactly that, from Daniel Kaluuya’s urban dystopia in ‘The Kitchen’ to the kooky Victoriana of Yorgos Lanthimos’s ‘Poor Things’. Here’s 11 hometown heroes to check out the fest. Photograph: BFI London Film Festival 1. Hoard  This award-winning, exuberantly strange coming-of-age drama set in south east London feels like it runs off some kind of extraterrestrial energy source, such is its alien intensity and syncopated rhythms. It’s the work of brilliant newcomer Luna Carmoon and it’s a girlhood memoir that takes real-life inspiration and twists its into a jittery, urgent tale of a troubled teenager, her mum and a mysterious young man (‘Stranger Things’ Joseph Quinn). 8.30pm, Mon Oct 93.20pm, Sun Oct 15 Photograph: BFI London Film Festival 2. Scala!!! Co-directors Jane Giles and Ali Catterall celebrate a legendary Lon