On Saturday at 20.30, we welcome BIFF patron and writer/director Alex Cox to the museum for a Q&A session after the UK premiere of Repo Chick—another anarchic adventure from the iconoclast who brought us Repo Man—in which society heiress Pixie De La Chasse (Jaclyn Jonet) is disinherited by her family and stripped of her $77 million fortune. Ordered to get a job, Pixie becomes a repo chick for repossession agent Arizona Gray, before joining a band of environmental terrorists with one aim in mind: to criminalise golf!
Also on Saturday at 13.15, we will be screening Blue Sky (1991), the final film from Shipley-born director and local hero Tony Richardson. It stars Tommy Lee Jones, Powers Boothe and Jessica Lange (who won an Oscar for her flamboyant performance in this role). Jones is Hank Marshall, a radiation expert whose work problems become embroiled with those created by his sexy wife, Carly (Lange). The screening includes an extended introduction and talk by local film expert Keith Withall.
Greenberg is the new film from director Noah Baumbach, who brought us The Squid and the Whale (2005) and is the writing talent behind some of Wes Anderson’s finest films. Ben Stiller plays New Yorker Roger Greenberg, who moves to Los Angeles to figure out his life and housesit for his brother, Philip. An eccentric connection with the family’s PA, Florence, keeps him from doing nothing, and soon they begin to see their zoned lives in a more connected way. Baumbach’s latest comedy drama will be showing at 18.00 on Sunday.
Finally, one of the special events we are proud to present at this year’s festival is a unique screening of The Phantom of the Opera (1925). The film will be accompanied on the Wurlitzer cinema organ by international concert organist Donald MacKenzie, who specialises in the accompaniment of silent films and has over 20 feature films at his fingertips, including Carmen and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He has appeared on BBC Radio 2, 3 and 4, the World Service, and played for Her Majesty the Queen at several royal film performances. Don’t miss this timeless classic and live performance on Sunday at 19.00.