After a week off spent organising our copious Laserdisc collection, the Repertory Film Round-up is back to sift through the silver screen classics that London offers the discerning cineaste. Thursday: Hot-foot it to Highgate tonight for the You're Gonna Need A Bigger Boat film quiz, which this time is themed around "Blockbusters" - a subject the Rep Film Round-up confesses to being less than au fait with. Entry is two quid, and it begins......

The Bat-Hype has peaked and the Dark Knight is finally with us (if the London Met don’t get him first). The only question left to ask is, does it live up to the insane levels of expectation? The lovers have already voted it the greatest film ever on IMDB and the haters are a gathering cloud. Like their US counterparts the UK critics are fawning over Christopher Nolan’s dark interpretation. The Times (5-star) declares:......

Difficult to avoid the Bat-hype machine this week, as the release of The Dark Knight has prompted calls for a posthumous Oscar for Heath Ledger. Luckily, as always, London provides for those who don't necessarily want the latest marketing churn poured down their throat. For your consideration this week: Thursday: Wong Kar Wai's In The Mood For Love is the next film at Rivington Place, in conjunction with their Oscar Munoz retrospective. After his......

While our Saturday Cinema Summary does an admirable job of rounding up the week's new releases, London's celluloid attractions run deeper than the local multiplex's offerings. From retrospectives of filmmaking greats, to cult classics introduced by obsessive cinephiles, each week we'll offer a preview of the forgotten films and rare screenings worthy of your attention. Wednesday: 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, the stark Romanian film that snatched the Palme d'Or at Cannes last......

The Sex remains the same, but the City was a less familiar one last night as four glamorous ladies and a retinue of A-list stars stepped out on the red carpet, not in New York, but in London's Leicester Square. Sarah Jessica Parker and pals (or not-quite pals, if on set tension rumours were true) rolled up for the worldwide premiere of the Sex and the City movie last night, sporting rictus grins and......

To many of us, physics is as impenetrable as a nun in Fort Knox. But if stranded in 1950's smalltown America with nothing but a modified De Lorean and an anachronistic body warmer, we'd know exactly how many gigawatts to feed into our flux capacitor. Such is the power of the movies. But, like Steven Hawking and the Predator, physics and film are not always comfortable bedfellows. In the interests of telling a good......

The Long Good Friday. That's if you can judge these things on the index of Movie London by Tony Reeves. This updated tome from Titan Books lists the Hoskins flick 21 times, with John Wayne's Brannigan a close second on 20 entries. The locations of over 500 films are revealed in this smart volume of filmic London - from obscure Ealing comedies to the biggest blockbusters. Do you know which bit of Kensington featured......

Thanks to a lousy US box office reception, Grindhouse – the adored bastard sprog double-feature of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez – was hacked in two when it finally came here. Film nerds agog at the prospect of a three-hour neo-exploitationfest had to cough for Planet Terror and Death Proof separately, and miss out entirely on the geekalicious treat of the fake trailers that accompanied them. O cruel fate/boringly cautious distributors. But at last......

Back before there was Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, or Meg Ryan and virtually any other male lead, there was Kate Hepburn and Cary Grant, Kate Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, Kate Hepburn and – well, you get the idea. Never seen the inimitable Ms Hepburn on the silver screen before? Now’s your chance: she and a host of other sharp, witty, irrepressible, and, of course, gorgeous comedic heroines will......

Well, here it is. New Year’s Eve. We’ve told you where to go for fireworks, and where to go dancing, but you may not be feeling up for the whole NYE hullabaloo. If that’s the case, or if you’re feeling very ambitious and hosting your own celebration at home and are in need of background telly, here are a few things you might want to take a peek at. On TV, Londonist likes: New......

Whenever Londonist is feeling a tad glum, we have but to turn to Matt Harding and his amazingly silly website to get all cheered up again. Matt Harding is one big internet sensation, albeit a very unlikely one. The former games programmer has made a new career out of dancing badly in front of some of the world’s most recognisable and iconic buildings, and in some of the planet’s remotest terrains. But Londonist has been......

Okay, first of all, the bad news: both the opening and closing previews at the Barbican's London Korea Film Festival are already sold out. Boo! If you were hoping to check out Park Chan-wook's latest I'm A Cyborg, But That's Okay, or the Cannes-pleasing Breath (pictured left) by Kim Ki-Duk, then you're out of luck. The sell-out is testament to the reputation for excellence that Korean cinema has gathered in the last decade, and......

It’s OK to have foibles and fetishes, especially if you’re a girl. It can be kinda endearing – think Holly Golightly, or SJP and her shoe problem. Trouble is, these don’t wash so well when the public is paying for your little indulgences and you are generally credited with being halfway responsible. Siobhain McDonagh, Labour MP for Mitcham and Mordern, seems to have a stationery fixation – how else can her whopping £49,000.00 stationery bill......

Every now and then, a bit of London-centric news drifts around the Londonist newsroom (which doesn't exist but imagine a bunch of emails flying around in lieu of an actual office) and is not paid that much attention. However, there comes a time when something requires a closer look for what it is really saying, such as this report on a poll for the top ten London film locations. Commissioned by cinema advertising company......

Think Battersea and think Dogs Home. Or Power Station. Well, the Kennel Club and Sky Movies are about to change that by making Battersea Park home of the world's first Dog Walk of Fame. We're not quite sure why. The Kennel Club secretary says that the move "promotes the importance of dogs within our lives" but we think it's more about promoting the annual Discover Dogs show coming up in November and the sponsor/tie-in......

Almost time for the London Film Festival again! This year the event is opened by David Cronenberg's London-set Eastern Promises - Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen following up A History of Violence with this violent tale of Russian organised crime, penned by Steve Dirty Pretty Things Knight. One to watch for sure. Closing the festival is the new Wes Anderson movie, The Darjeeling Limited. In between there are some 180+ feature films and 133 shorts,......

Film maker extraordinaire Quentin Tarantino has arrived in the UK to promote the DVD release of his latest film, Death Proof. Nothing newsworthy in that per se. But the whens, whos and wherefores of this publicity event are nothing short of astonishing. Londonist has learnt that the movie icon snucked (or was dragged) along to Wimbledon Dog Stadium on Monday evening where he watched the likes of Shayne Ward, Charlie Simpson (from Busted) and a......

Having appeared as the Velvet Underground in I Shot Andy Warhol as well as frequently contributing to indie film soundtracks, Yo La Tengo is no stranger to the dark of the cinema aisles. The contrast between spacious noise drone and gentle melodies that dominates their songs sometimes evokes a mood reminiscent of days spent indoors watching old movies flicker across even older screens. The feeling that the next frame might just be the one......

Londonist was awfully tickled to learn of the launch of London’s very own ‘Starmap’. From this day forward, for the price of £5.95, eager tourists and starry-eyed Londoners will be able to follow in the footsteps of their fave ‘A’ list celebrities. Not only can they stalk them at home, but they can hang out, paparazzi style at the right bars and restaurants to star spot, and even re-enact bestest bits from London movies on......

Chicagoist is gearing up for this weekend's annual Air & Water Show along the lakefront. In what's becoming an annual tradition around there, staff member Todd McClamroch even got to fly with one of the participants. Chicagoist's decidedly opinionated readership was also appalled that one of their staffers found a popular local brewpub to be a great place to bring a kid. They also think that an unlikely activist for immigration rights should just take......

Part 2: "Let's all go down the strand"...Music Hall. "The music hall is dying, and with it, a significant part of England. some of the heart of England has gone; something that once belonged to everyone, for this was truly a folk art." John Osbourne - 1957. Music Hall helped to shape the entertainment scene in London. It's even had a bit of a revival of late, with music and supper clubs like the......

Part 1: Introduction Mods. Rockers. Teds. Punks. Ravers. Swingers. Skinheads. Suedeheads. Hippies. Yuppies. Rudeboys. Indie kids. Emo kids. Beats. Glam kids. Tribes. Subcultures. Neo-tribes. Groups. Bands. Movements. All of the above, and more, have - despite their points of origin - been magnetically attracted to the capital. To attempt to cover all of the ages of London’s youth might seem an exhausting task worthy of Peter Ackroyd who wrote of his biography of London......

With grey skies, low temperatures and ever-present rain comprising the key features of our lovely non-summer, it may seem unwise to choose to see a film anywhere lacking the protection of a roof and four walls. You certainly could choose to stay inside the confines your local multiplex, but then you'd miss out on the return of Film4's fabulous Summer Screen tradition at Somerset House. For ten nights from 2 August until 11 August,......

Rockabaret is fabulous. Dress up. Be crazy, silly, decadent, beautiful. And then dance the night away to your favourite songs! Londonist had a chat with Nikkie Amouyal, director of Rockabaret, who runs the night with Tony Maggs. The next night is on Saturday 21st July at the Cobden club: Viva La Revolution! What is so different about your club night? It's glamorous, extravagant, elegant and what a rock star party should be! We have......

Unless you've been hiding under a very large rock, you'll be aware that July is the month of Harry Potter. Not only is the seventh and final book released on Saturday, but the film version of the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order Of The Phoenix, opened in London on 12 July. There are no less than thirty cinemas showing the film in London, so you certainly have plenty of viewing options. Londonist......

Banner week for SFist as the site's new editor introduced himself -- hooray for Brock! While the NY Times weighed in on SF's mayoral race, only SFist had the (insert tongue firmly into cheek) hard-hitting latest on candidate/activist Josh Wolf. Coverage of a protest vs. gentrification spawned a fantastic debate amongst SFist's readers. Finally, from the sublime to the ridiculous: video of a man that confused a Board of Supes meeting with "open mic......

It's been a weekend of high sporting drama and noticeably less rain, but for drama of a smaller, more traditional scale, here's a bit of old-school street theatre to start the week... Punch and Judy is unarguably formulaic and predictable - Punch will beat his wife Judy with a stick, an alligator will make a cameo appearance, a policeman will be tricked and a comedic string of sausages will be a key prop throughout.......

What with Paris Hilton's release earlier this week and the upcoming celebration of American Independence (sorry, Londonist!), we've been thinking a lot about freedom. Freedom to vote, freedom to choose, and most importantly, freedom to blog. Here are a few things we're happy we've been free to blog about this week. Being the nation's capital, DCist felt especially proud to let freedom ring this week by exposing the really important issues, like how sad they......

When we finally get around to learning about life from the movies then perhaps the residents of Osterly wouldn't be so much scared, as they are now, as utterly shitting themselves. Somewhere down in a secluded part of Osterley Park men in ski masks and combat clothing have been spotted watching the locals who like to indulge in a little in-car nookie. We don't know exactly where or we might have been able to......

We know how much you guys love free beer and film screenings. Almost as much as we do! So, when we got an email alerting us to an event combining both of these things, we felt duty bound to pass on the information. With the imminent release of Rodriguez/Tarantino double-feature Grindhouse, Tiger Beer and Firecracker have teemed up to remind us of the joy and wonder that the double-feature brought to audiences in the......