Cool Cafe Cats’ Monthly Film Club in Camberwell
The lovely Cool Cafe Cats in Camberwell offers a monthly Film Club presenting free films in its low key and intimate cafe/bar/restaurant setting.. With two large screens each simultaneously screening the film, you get a great view from every seat in the house and food and drink is served throughout.
The next screening is on Friday May 10th presenting two very contrasting films by musicians, but both directed by distinctive British directors. First up we have Tommy with music by The Who and directed by Ken Russell, followed by Straight to Hell directed by Alex Cox with music by The Pogues, Pray for Rain and Joe Strummer. Films start at 8pm, so be there early, and wind up around midnight.
Tommy needs very little introduction. He’s the deaf, dumb and blind kid who sure plays a mean pinball. This is an incredible film – where else do you get The Who, Eric Clapton, Tina Turner, Elton John, Oliver Reed, Jack Nicholson and Ann Margret all in one place? And Ann Margret comes covered in baked beans. And Arthur Brown (temporarily out of his crazy world but in someone else’s), Paul Nicholas before he was Just Good Friends as sadistic cousin Kevin and Robert Powell before he was Jesus. For those who don’t know the story, er, it doesn’t matter, the music is great and the story involves a critique of organised religion (probably) as told through the medium of stack heels, baked beans, pinball and sleazy uncles. And an Acid Queen. We challenge viewers not to smile.
Straight To Hell probably does need an introduction. The story goes a bunch of musicians were booked for a benefit gig in Nicaragua that fell through so they all headed over to Spaghetti Western country, Almeira in Spain (where Sergio Leone was no stranger) and made a film. The Pogues play the coffee-addicted McMahon clan (the Pogues were originally the Pogue Mahones by the way – it sounds rude in Irish), Elvis Costello is their butler, Grace Jones and Dennis Hopper appear, as does Lambeth-born arch-punk Edward Tudor-Pole. Joe Strummer, Sy Richardson and Dick Rude are the protagonists and Courtney Love, the femme fatale. There is a plot loosely concerning black-clad hitmen hiding out in a desert. There is also a message in this film (possibly about corporate globalism) but we won’t get hung up on that. All together now: Let’s make that Weiner Kid sing his song… Wanna?
Where? Cool Cafe Cats, 149 Southampton Way, Camberwell, London, SE5 7EW
When? Friday 10th of May at 8pm
