Photo courtesy of The Sizemore McCabe Project It's not difficult to spend money in London as just leaving the house seems to remove a fair amount of cash from the average wallet. But for those with a less than average wallet, it can be a bit of a challenge to spend in a less than average manner. Silly money deserves silly spending after all. Introducing... The Cinema Suite at the newly refurbished InterContinental Hotel, one......

Every day this month the Londonist team will be pointing you in the direction of a Christmas present that (with a bit of luck) you won't already have on your list. Climb up onto our collective lap and we'll see what we can move from our sack to your stockings... For the friends and family members who seem to always be busy with art exhibitions, arthouse films, dance, theatre and music of a more......

The Tiger Eye Firecracker Showcase continues tonight with Ram Gopal Varma's crime thriller Ab Tak Chhappan - a sizzling look at one police division's take no prisoners approach to law enforcement in Mumbai. Nana Patekar plays Sadhu Agashe, top cop on the beat with a double figure score of criminals he's dispatched. His second in command is envious both of his superior position and the media frenzy that surrounds him. The team's routine is......

The Tiger Eye Firecracker Showcase kicks off tomorrow night with an opening night preview of Kekexili (Mountain Patrol). There's free Tiger beer before hand and a Q&A session afterwards. Thanks to the kind folks at Firecracker Magazine and Tiger Beer, Londonist readers have the chance to win one of four double passes for tomorrow night's event at The Curzon Mayfair (6.45pm). Read on and then answer the simple question for a chance to win.......

There's a Firecracker screening of Yasuzo Masumura's Blind Beast tonight at the Curzon Mayfair: A blind sculptor kidnaps an artist's model and imprisons her in his warehouse studio - a shadowland of perverse monuments to the female form. Here a deranged passion play of sensual and sexual obsession is acted out in a world where sight is replaced by touch... An intense exploration of perversion, art and sado-masochism, this incredible, visually inventive tale of......

The line up for the 2006 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival has been announced. This year from the 15th to the 25th of March you'll be able to see a host of worthy cinema across some of London's better arty venues, namely the Ritzy, the ICA, the Gate as well as the Greenwich and Clapham Picture Houses. The benefit gala though kicks off at the Curzon Mayfair with Ralph Fiennes stroke Donald Sutherland......

A quick rundown of some incoming cinema events. First up the generous folks over at Firecracker have organised a free screening of Ashura this evening at the Curzon Mayfair: Ichikawa Somegoro stars as Isumo, a retired demon killer who now passes his time as a kabuki actor in 19th century Tokyo. After accidentally killing a child, Izumo swore never to draw his sword again, but evil is afoot and a conspiracy is in full......

It's been a real pleasure previewing the films on offer at this years Firecracker Showcase and movies like Pattaya Maniac are one of the reasons why. Thai cinema has been sadly overshadowed until very recently with a few runaway arthouse hits, but with a little luck more films like this slacker comedy will make a western audience hungry for more of the same. It's a hard film to describe, featuring as it does a......

The Firecracker Showcase opens tonight with a bittersweet romance from mainland China. Nuan tells the story of one man's return to the village he grew up in and the people he left behind, most notably the title character, Nuan, his first love. The film follows the few days he is back home coupled with flashbacks explaining how it was he came to leave and how the life of the headstrong Nuan took a very......

If you're a fan of Eastern cinema then try and read this post with a defibrillator handy because the Firecracker film festival lineup is one of artery exploding brilliance. We'll try and ease you into it gently by simply stating that it runs from the 8th to the 18th of September and makes its home at the Curzon Soho, Curzon Mayfair, Genesis Whitechapel and Gate Notting Hill. The festival will also... oh fuck it.......