Vintage Sundays presents Sci-Fi at FACT, Liverpool

Tom Grieve, Cinema Editor

Vintage Sundays presents Sci-Fi at FACT, City Centre 30 September — 4 November 2018 Tickets from £8 — Book now

The final frontier has proved fertile ground for all manner of filmmakers. Space is vast, lawless and mysterious and so perfect fodder for everything from wide-eyed depictions of mankind’s greatest scientific feats, to scuzzy horror and grand, operatic actioners. This year sees La La Land director Damien Chazelle reteam with Ryan Gosling for a biopic which follows the exploits of astronaut Neil Armstrong. First Man has been receiving positive early notices on the festival circuit and so in anticipation of its release, Picturehouse at FACT present a season of films that go to infinity…and beyond.

Chazelle’s new film is about the space race’s most famous moment — the moon landing — but Philip Kaufman’s 1983 The Right Stuff goes back a little further. Screening on Sunday 31st September, Kaufman’s film is an adaptation of Tom Wolfe’s gripping oral history account of the Mercury Seven — a group of test pilots who would become the first Americans in space. As with another film in FACT’s season — Ron Howard’s Apollo 13 (1995, screening Sunday 28th October) — The Right Stuff has been praised for spinning intelligent, blockbuster entertainment from space race politics and pioneering science.

Philip Kaufman’s The Right Stuff (1983)

Of course, our real-life quest to explore beyond the earth’s atmosphere remains a fascinating subject, but much of what draws fans to science fiction is its speculative nature. FACT present a screening of Duncan Jones’ Moon (2009) on Sunday 7th October. This chilly, brainy thriller stars Sam Rockwell as an astronaut mining lunar gas who makes an ominous discovery as his three-year contract winds towards its conclusion. In an inspired move, FACT have paired Jones’ film with Georges Méliès’ innovative, 1902 short A Trip To The Moon.

According to the tagline for Ridley Scott’s Alien, “In space no one can hear you scream.” Horror and science fiction often overlap and Scott’s iconic 1979 film is arguably the high point of that intersection. Screening on Sunday 14th October, Alien stars Sigourney Weaver as part of a commercial space crew who inadvertently disturb a colony of extraterrestrials that would have been better left alone. Scott mines the quiet isolation of life aboard a spacecraft for all it’s worth, utilising dark corners and confined spaces to craft a supreme spectacle of suspense.

Andrei Tarkovskys Solaris 1976
Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris (1976)

Budgetary restraints often mean that spectacular, large scale films set in space are usually commercially driven and reserved for the multiplex. From Alejandro Jodorowksy’s Dune, to David Fincher’s Rendezvous With Rama, the history of cinema is littered with examples of ambitious works of science fiction that never made it to screen because the numbers didn’t make sense. On occasion, however, visionary filmmakers have succeeded in bringing extravagant, philosophically-minded sci-fi to screen — and the results are pretty special.

With that in mind, FACT balance their season with a couple of arthouse heavyweights in Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris (1976, Sunday 21st October) and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, Sunday 4th November.) The films have had a bit of play recently thanks to recent retrospectives for their respective directors, but cinephiles will welcome the chance to catch these two on the big screen once again. Both Solaris and 2001: A Space Odyssey rank consistently on lists of the greatest films ever made and their brand of cerebral, mind-expanding mystery sits as a nice counter to the fact driven works elsewhere in the season.

Vintage Sundays presents Sci-Fi at FACT, City Centre 30 September — 4 November 2018 Tickets from £8 Book now

What's on at FACT

Two people sitting playing a video game.
Until
ExhibitionsCity Centre
Art Plays Games at FACT

Art Plays Games is a new show at FACT, celebrating games created by digital artists and independent video game developers.

free entry

Where to go near Vintage Sundays presents Sci-Fi at FACT, Liverpool

City Centre
Café or Coffee Shop
Garden Cafe FACT

FACT Liverpool gets back to its coffee-with-creativity roots thanks to a foliage-full new café.

Liverpool
Restaurant
Next to Nowhere Café

Food From Nowhere is a weekly vegan cafe held in the basement space of much-loved radical bookshop News From Nowhere. It’s open every Saturday from midday to 5pm.

library
City Centre
Shop
News from Nowhere

News from Nowhere is a radical community bookshop selling texts on important current issues as well as leading social justice initiatives.

food and drink
City Centre
Restaurant
BAM BOO

BAM BOO delivers a slice of paradise right in Liverpool city centre, with indulgent meals and delicious cocktails.

City Centre
Café or Coffee Shop
Bold Street Coffee

A super cool cafe at the top of Bold Street, Bold Street Coffee in Liverpool serves a range of specialist coffee, cakes and sandwiches.

Liverpool
Restaurant
Maray

Much-loved Liverpool restaurant, specialising in forward-thinking small plate dishes.

City Centre
Café or Coffee Shop
LEAF on Bold Street

Keeping Bold Street a hub of creativity, LEAF is more than a tearoom, it’s also a bar and thriving event space with a packed schedule of upcoming happenings.

City Centre
Music venue
Arts Club Liverpool

Based in Liverpool’s old Royal Institute of Arts and Science building, Liverpool Arts Club is a great spot to catch small touring acts.

food and drink
City Centre
Bar or Pub
Cafe Tabac

Cafe Tabac is the longest running café bar in Liverpool, serving food and drinks to arty locals and curious newcomers.

What's on: Cinema

Wild at Heart - directed by David Lynch
CinemaLeeds
Wild at Heart at HEART

A screening of David Lynch’s Wild at Heart to honour the legacy of the iconic American filmmaker.

from £5.50

Culture Guides

A woman sits in a car with hands holding the steering wheel.
Cinema in the North

Vintage Alfred Hitchcock and a family friendly film festival are amongst our highlights this May.

Image by Jonathan Schofield.
Tours and Activities in the North

We've got many a good time in store this month as we round up the best walking tours, cultural classes and makers markets in the land.

Sextile
Music in the North

The outsiders, the oddities and the outrageous – we’re keeping it weird with a hot new batch of underground gigs about to hit Manchester, Leeds, and Liverpool.

Theatre in Manchester and the North
Theatre in the North

Dynamic dance, party-performance, high-energy stand-up and a site-specific show set in a pub. All this and more in our newest theatre guide.

A large sphere floats in a dark room with an ornate wall pattern, flanked by two arched windows and a checkered floor.
Exhibitions in the North

From precarious ceramics to photography festivals, spring is here and brings with it a breath of fresh air in visual art and exhibitions.

Okechukwu Nzelu
Literature Events in the North

If it's inspiring, inclusive events and avant-garde, experimental afternoons you're after, look no further than live literature this spring – we've got you covered.