An LRB Screen event, the London Review Bookshop’s long-running film series exploring of the art of literary adaption in partnership with MUBI.

Sam Kinchin-Smith, the LRB’s head of special projects, is joined by Mary Harron (via video link), who co-wrote the screenplay to American Psycho, and began her career as a writer – as one of the punk and post-punk eras’ most brilliant music critics. Her filmography includes striking portraits of major counter-cultural figures – Valerie Solanas, Bettie Page and the Manson family, among others – as well as the Netflix adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace.

American Psycho is the first of this year’s six special screenings: Mary Harron’s elegantly controlled adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis controversial – and bestselling – satirical horror novel, published in 1991. A vividly inventive feminist reading of the voids at the heart of consumerism, corporate capital and late-century metropolitan culture, it stars Christian Bale in his breakthrough role, with a score by John Cale and a supporting cast drawn from the finest US independent actors. The shadow of Donald Trump looms large throughout its prophetic account of American carnage.

Recorded on 26th February 2024 at The Garden Cinema

Giulia Rho, Sophia Satchell-Baeza and Dr Virginie Sélavy discuss The Seashell and The Clergyman (Germaine Dulac, 1928), Meshes of The Afternoon (Maya Deren, 1943), and Psychosynthesis, (Barbara Hammer, 1975).

Giulia Rho is a Teaching Associate at Queen Mary University of London, where she has recently completed her PhD in Film Studies. Her research covers experimental women filmmakers and queer artists, especially those operating within the New York Avant Garde and LA Rebellion. Her work deals with Post-structuralist Feminist Philosophy as well as theories of Queer Time and questions of archival memory and justice. Her writing has appeared in Frames Film Journal and Film-Philosophy.

Dr Sophia Satchell-Baeza is Associate Lecturer at University of the Arts London and a film critic for Sight & Sound. Her research explores histories of underground film, expanded cinema and counterculture, and specialises in British psychedelic films and light shows of the 1960s and ‘70s.

Dr Virginie Sélavy is a lecturer at Ravensbourne University and a freelance film critic. She was the founding editor of Electric Sheep Magazine and co-director of the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies – London. She writes and lectures on horror, fantastique and exploitation cinema and regularly runs a course on surrealism in film. www.feminaridens.com

00:00 // Introduction
00:25 // Dr Virginie Sélavy on The Seashell and the Clergyman
05:11 // Dr Sophia Satchell-Baeza on Meshes of the Afternoon
10:32 // Giulia Rho on Psychosynthesis
14:46 // Where do these films fit into cinema history?
21:29 // Making meaning surrealism in films
25:38 // Surrealsim and psychoanalysis
28:55 // How did the filmmakers frame their films?
33:31 // The early use of special effects
35:08 // Queer readings of surrealist films

Explore the Who is Luis Buñuel? collection of video introductions and discussions on our Youtube Playlist.

Thanks to Professor Rob Stone for his consultation with the season.
Recorded on 8th February 2024 at The Garden Cinema

What were the historical influences for the costumes in the movie Poor Things? From Alice in Wonderland to condoms, this fashion-oriented Q&A unspools the threads that make up costume designer Holly Waddington’s creations.

With Sarah Bailey, editor-at-large at VOGUE Greece and founder of the Fashion Film Club, and Judith Watt, Head of Fashion History at Central Saint Martins and contributor to Vogue, The Guardian, and BBC.

Recorded on 1st February 2024 at The Garden Cinema

Rob Stone, Amparo Martínez Herranz and Pete William Evans discuss ‘Who is Luis Buñuel?’ following our screening of Viridiana.

Rob Stone is Professor of Film Studies at the University of Birmingham. He is the author of Spanish Cinema (Longman, 2001), Julio Medem (Manchester University Press, 2007), co-author of Basque Cinema: A Cultural and Political History (I.B.Tauris, 2015) and co-editor of The Unsilvered Screen: Surrealism on Film (Wallflower, 2007) and The Companion to Luis Buñuel (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013).

Thanks to Professor Rob Stone for his consultation with the season.

Peter William Evans is Emeritus Professor of Film Studies at Queen Mary, University of London. His research and publications are mainly on Spanish cinema and classical Hollywood cinema. He is the author of The Films of Luis Buñuel: Subjectivity and Desire (Oxford University Press, 1995), Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (BFI, 1996) and the editor of Spanish Cinema: The Auteurist Tradition (Oxford University Press, 1999).

Amparo Martínez Herranz is Professor of History of Art and Film in the University of Zaragoza in Spain. Her research focuses on the films of Luis Buñuel, the history of cinema in Aragon and Spain, and the links between cinema, literature and art. She is the author of several studies of the history of cinema in Zaragoza and edited La España de Viridiana (The Spain of Viridiana) (Zaragoza University Press, 2013).

Recorded on 25th January 2024 at The Garden Cinema

Our film curator Erifili Missiou is joined by Andrew Haigh to discuss his film All of Us Strangers.

To mark the release of All of Us Strangers, we are also screening Andrew Haigh’s breakout film Weekend on 5 Feb.

Recorded on 29th January 2024 at The Garden Cinema
39-41 Parker Street London WC2B 5PQ

Documentary filmmakers Marc Isaacs and Lori Yang talk about This Blessed Plot, including navigating the blurring of fact and fiction in hybrid documentary, and how to keep faith in the vision of a documentary project, with its many unknowns and variables. Recorded on 28th January 2024 at The Garden Cinema 39-41 Parker Street London WC2B 5PQ

Michaël Dudok De Wit (The Red Turtle) and Alexandra Sasha Balan (The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse) join our very own Abla to discuss their careers and approaches to animation.

The Garden Cinema membership community is not just made up of cinema enthusiasts, but also covers a large range of film creatives.
For our regular industry panels, we invite speakers to discuss their branch of industry, with plenty of time for questions. After the discussion, we all head into the Garden Bar, so you can mingle with fellow members.

About the speakers:

Alexandra Sasha Balan is a 2D animator & illustrator based in London. She has worked on features and shorts, including Oscar & BAFTA winner The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse. She graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2015 and her influences range from Art Deco to Samurai Jack to Aeon Flux.

Michaël Dudok de Wit grew up in the Netherlands and has lived in London since 1980, directing independent animated films and TV commercials. He specialises in hand-drawn animation and his shorts have won numerous international awards, including an Oscar and a BAFTA award in 2001 for Father and Daughter and a César for The Monk and the Fish (1995). His most recent project The Red Turtle, won the Special Jury Prize, Un Certain Regard, at Cannes Film Festival (2016) and was nominated for an Academy Award in 2017.

Recorded on 23rd Janaury 2025 at The Garden Cinema
39-41 Parker Street London WC2B 5PQ

Writer-director Leo Leigh talks about his debut feature Sweet Sue. Hosted by Curzon’s Jake Garriock. Recorded on 8th January 2024 at The Garden Cinema