Cinema in Manchester and the North
Tom Grieve, Cinema EditorThis month’s essential event is without a doubt Bradford’s Widescreen Weekend. Taking place at the National Science and Media Museum‘s Pictureville Cinema, the showpiece festival champions large screen cinema formats such as VistaVision, 70mm and Cinerama, utilising some of the only screens in the country capable of projecting the films correctly. Expect everything from Hitchcock to Indiana Jones to romantic comedies.
At HOME, there’s a centennial celebration of iconic American writer and activist James Baldwin, highlighting his time in Britain. Plus there’s a whole month set out to exploring Women of the West featuring the likes of Barbara Stanwyk, Joan Crawford and Marlene Dietrich — fearsome performers who demand attention in a genre traditionally associated with male stars.
Over in Leeds, we’re loving the sound of the Leeds Cinema Crawl, which involves a day of enthusiastic film fans walking from cinema to cinema, with four fabulous films each themed around the idea of journeys, to catch along the way. Also in Leeds, how about The Spectral Child on Screen: Hyde Park Picture House’s exploration of the motif of the child ghost and its recurrence throughout cinema.
Also on the horizon is Halloween. We don’t want to get too excited yet…but Manchester’s Grimmfest is an early spooky highlight, while Cottage Road Cinema has a 35mm screening of Psycho that looks hard to beat.
