As we enter May and what we’re officially calling summer, everyone at Cornerhouse is So Excited (geddit?) about the opening of Pedro Almodóvar’s new film this Friday. I’m So Excited! brings Almodóvar regulars Antonio Banderas and Penélope Cruz together with some of the top talent in Spanish cinema, for a light-hearted look at the passengers and crew on a plane heading into nose-dive.
A descent of another kind is the focus of Baz Luhrmann’s eagerly awaited The Great Gatsby, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan. It opens on Thu 16 May, and promises to be a visually stunning take on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic American novel. From a very different place on the film spectrum, May will also see a whole programme of film activities relating to the post-revolutionary themes of our current visual arts exhibition: Anguish and Enthusiasm.
On Sat 18 May our second Anguish and Enthusiasm Artist Film Forum includes Bühne, Daniel Kötter’s examination of a moment of fundamental change in post-communist Bulgaria, Incident Urbain, directed by John Lalor, who’ll be here for a post-screening Q&A, and Zbynek Baladrán’s Minus ten anarcho-communist minutes. And during the month we’ll also be screening the feature films 12:08 East of Bucharest, The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceauşescu and Tsar to Lenin.
If you’ve seen US art collective Trust Your Struggle’s striking mural on the outside of Cinema 1 you’ll know that the exhibition itself is in full swing, with all three galleries showcasing contemporary art’s responses to post-revolutionary periods and events. Anguish and Enthusiasm considers developments in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Asia and beyond, and includes new commissions by Sarah Pierce, Andreas Bunte and Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnec as well as existing work by the likes of Eoghan McTigue and Jun Yang.
Our latest NTLive screening, of James Graham’s This House, takes place on Thu 16 May, though it may feel a lot like 1974. As the parties in Britain’s hung parliament battle it out to steer the nation’s future, the corridors of Westminster will be ringing with the sound of in-fighting and back-biting. With a cast including erstwhile Eastender and screen mod Phil Daniels, we can’t wait to see who’ll win the day.
Now that the evenings are so long and light, why not make the most of them by enrolling on one of our two exciting new courses? The Other Dimension: Sound on Film, which starts on Wed 15 May, will focus on listening to films, rather than watching them; while Art Against Authority: Inciting the Revolution ties in with our exhibition’s theme by considering revolutionary art in all its forms from Tue 28 May.
If the technological revolution is more your thing, though, round up the month by joining us on our latest Digital Skills Workshop. In Understanding Creative Commons on Thu 30 May writer and intellectual property expert Steve Kuncewicz will demystify licensed information – and resource-sharing online – it could open up a whole new world! And throughout May look out for Aurélien Froment’s intriguing multi-episode film 9 Intervals, one episode of which will be shown each week before a selected film in our regular programme, starting with White Elephant.