If you like watching classic films the way they were meant to be seen, on the big screen with fantastic picture and sound quality, then look no further than the IFI in Dublin’s Temple Bar. This July as there’s a great selection of re-releases including A Hard Day’s Night (from July 4th),
Some Like it Hot (from July 18th), Branded to Kill
(from July 25th), and The Lady from Shanghai (from July 25th).
Capturing the mobbing, sobbing, throbbing craziness of Beatlemania; Richard Lester’s A Hard Day’s Night
(1964) stands as a precious document of the band when they were well on their way to becoming icons. The first film the Fab Four made was a landmark release that reinvented the rock movie. This re-release celebrates the 50th anniversary of the film’s premiere in London.
Billy Wilder’s cross-dressing caper Some Like it Hot (1959) now has a proud claim to being one of Hollywood’s greatest comedies and is one of the most enduringly popular films of the era. Such success might not have been predicted during its troubled gestation: Marilyn Monroe was reportedly pregnant during filming and too distracted to remember her lines. Tony Curtis gave her little sympathy, declaring at one stage that love scenes with Monroe were like “kissing Hitler”.
One of the most inspired genre movies ever made in Japan, Seijun Suzuki’s Branded to Kill
(1967) has been an influential touchstone for American directors such as Scorsese, Jarmusch and Tarantino. Mad, sexy and brilliant; it’s a breathtaking yakuza thriller about a hitman marked for execution having to battle beautiful women and murderous gangsters to try to save his life.
Now considered a bona fide film noir classic The Lady from Shanghai
(1947) was viewed as such a disaster at the time of its release that there was a rumour that it was a vengeful attempt by co-star and director Orson Welles to ruin the career of Rita Hayworth, his (soon-to-be-ex) wife. In fact Hayworth is a coolly seductive femme fatale who lures lonely Irishman Michael O’Hara (Welles) into a murder plot. The Lady from Shanghai‘s
basic storyline suggests a standard template of the genre but an array of narrative tricks and enthralling strangeness mean it’s anything but typical.
Tickets for
A Hard Day’s Night
(released from July 4th) are available now from the IFI Box Office on 01 679 3477 or online at www.ifi.ie. Tickets will be available for
Some Like it Hot
(July 18th), Branded to Kill
(July 25th) and The Lady from Shanghai
(July 25th) on the Monday before their opening date.