This June, the IFI has a strong focus on documentary with the release of five superb new films. That Summer, directed by Göran Hugo Olsson, sheds further light on Edith ‘Big Edie’ Bouvier Beale and her daughter, Little Edie, who were captured living in squalor in a dilapidated, once-magnificent Hamptons estate. A prequel of sorts to Grey Gardens, the IFI will also screen that 1975 classic on Sunday, June 3rd.
Also not to be missed is McQueen, an engrossing portrait of the legendary late British fashion designer Alexander McQueen, and Studio 54 which charts the incredible history of one of the world’s most celebrated nightclubs. Music lovers will delight in Coda, a contemplative portrait of the Oscar-winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, while director Ivo Marloh and Irish Jockey Donie Fahy will take part in a post-screening Q&A following the opening night screening of All the Wild Horses, which follows the Mongol Derby, the longest and toughest horse race in the world.
Killer Couples is a new season of films centred on loved-up and lawless couples, running from Wednesday 6th to Saturday 30th. The season’s nine titles include the film noir classic Double Indemnity, Compulsion starring Dean Stockwell and Bradford Dillman, Sam Peckinpah’s The Getaway, Leonard Kastle’s The Honeymoon Killers, and Peter Jackson’s captivating Heavenly Creatures. No crime couple season would be complete without a screening of Oliver Stone’s visceral Natural Born Killers on 35mm, which was famously banned from theatrical screening in Ireland on its release in 1995.
A Woman’s Place, directed by Declan McGrath, is this month’s Irish Focus film on Monday 25th. To celebrate 100 years of women’s suffrage, artist Noel Murphy embarked on a six-month journey to paint the 53 sitting women members of the Houses of the Oireachtas in one single portrait, unveiled on International Women’s Day 2018. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion, moderated by Eamonn Mallie, attended by artist Noel Murphy, director Declan McGrath, and members of the Houses of the Oireachtas who sat for the portrait.
Kasandra O’Connell, Head of IFI Irish Film Archive, will introduce a screening of Dawson City: Frozen Time on Saturday 9th to mark International Archives Day. Bill Morrison’s extraordinary documentary pieces together the true history of 533 films dating from the 1910s to the 1920s, lost for over fifty years, until being discovered buried in a sub-arctic swimming pool in Dawson City, deep in the Yukon Territory.
The IFI is delighted to welcome back director Andrew Kötting on Tuesday 26th for a screening of his new film Lek and the Dogs; Kötting will participate in a post-screening Q&A. The film is the true story of Ivan Mishukov, a four-year-old Russian boy who ran away from his home in Moscow in the mid-1990s to live for two years on the streets in the company of feral dogs.
Celebrate Bloomsday on Saturday 16th with a screening of Sean Walsh’s Bloom on 35mm. A vivid adaptation of Joyce’s celebrated Ulysses, the film is a rich costume drama featuring Stephen Rea as Leopold Bloom, Angeline Ball as his ribald wife Molly, and Hugh O’Conor as the young intellectual Stephen Dedalus.
The IFI continues its commitment to screening the 70mm format whenever possible, and are delighted to show a brand-new 70mm print of The Sound of Music for an exclusive week-long run from Friday 15th. The ultimate summer movie, Jaws, is this month’s Bigger Picture screening on Wednesday 27th and will be introduced by Sinéad Gleeson, writer, editor, broadcaster and journalist.
The IFI’s regular monthly strands, IFI Family, Wild Strawberries, Mystery Matinee, Film Club and Archive at Lunchtime, continue throughout the month, alongside a host of new releases including Ismael’s Ghost, My Friend Dahmer, The Happy Prince, In the Fade and new Irish films in Dave Tynan’s Dublin Oldschool and Aoife McArdle’s Kissing Candice. The 1929 masterpiece Pandora’s Box, starring Louise Brooks as the iconic Lulu, also returns to the big screen in June!
Don’t forget, the IFI Café Bar has a new summer menu and a newly-renovated terrace garden for those looking for a relaxing place to unwind and for those who find just it too hot out outside these days. Full details of the menus can be found at www.ifi.ie/cafebar.
Tickets for all the special events are on sale now from the IFI Box Office on (01) 6793477 and from www.ifi.ie.