Though the cobblestones of the Edmond J. Safra Fountain Court can kill your backside, there is no doubt that Film4 Summer Screen at Somerset House is one of the capital’s premiere outdoor film events.
The season returns this August for 14 nights of the expected classic, cult and contemporary cinema mix, with extras provided by Bryn Williams’ picnic hampers plus a range of food to buy on site from vendors, and there’s a fully-licensed bar and coffee point. There are back-rests and blankets and even a very limited number of seated tickets for those who can’t rough it.
What spices up the film programme though are the double-bill nights and red carpet premieres. In particular the Smoke Screen can recommend THE WIFE, the opening night premiere, for its superb Glenn Close central performance as a wife who has to confront her internalised submission to her husband’s desire for a famous literary career which has in fact been built on her support and sacrifice. If you want to see acting greats like Close and co-star Jonathan Pryce tear chunks off each other in a timely story about wives and the patriarchy, this is for you. Closing the season is heist thriller AMERICAN ANIMALS, based on the true story of four students who mistake their lives for a movie and attempt to pull of one of the most audacious art-thefts in recent US history. It hails from the BAFTA-winning director Bart Layton, who will introduce the premiere.
The Somerset House E-newsletter Subscribers Pre-Sale is open from 10.00 today Wed 16 May. Tickets go on general sale on Friday 18 May at 10.00.