Pub Movie Nights in Glasgow

courtesy of facebook.com/broadcastglasgow

 

Glasgow has a lovely tradition of pub movie nights. These are free evenings of good movies, good people and normally free popcorn or the like. Drink promos are usually also included. Currently at least The Flying Duck and Broadcast have their own movie nights. It is a wonderful way to fill quieter weekdays with activity and further establish pubs as ‘the common livingrooms’ of the Scots. Broadcast, for example, is running a selection of Wes Anderson’s films at the moment.

Paperboy (2012)

courtesy of filmfolia.com

A Friday night in the movies is an old classic, and in Grosvenor Cinema you can do it with even more style. The seats are organized in twos with a little table in between for the drinks and snacks. The twist is that you can have a dinner beforehand in the Grosvenor Cafe and then move on to the movies and take the remains of your bottle of wine with you. A perfect date or just a casual start for the weekend! Last Friday Grosvenor was showing Paperboy (2012), an unconventional thriller: it is lustrous, full of sex without caution and very playful, but at the same time maintaining an element of threat and fear. 

Trashkino – an alternative movie night

Glasgow School of Art’s union bar The Art School hosts a monthly movie night. However, it is not the procrastination type of movie night: trashkino is all about movie cult classics and eclectic short movies for the niche audience. Their latest movie night on 23rd of March  screened the surreal fantasy movie Institute Benjamenta (1995) by the Quay brothers, accompanied with two of their ground-breaking stop motion animations.

Tarantino Tribute Night at Flying Duck

courtesy of fanpop.com

The Flying Duck and Glasgow Film Theatre hosted a tribute night to Quentin Tarantino’s films this Friday. The evening started off with a screening of probably the most classic of Tarantino’s films, Pulp Fiction, in GFT. His second, and arguably best movie, drew a full audience to the cinema who wanted to relive the 90’s classic on screen.

Shell (2012), a new Scottish feature

Shell is the debut feature film of the Scottish director Scott Graham, known for his successful short films.It follows the current trend in Scottish filmmaking, trying to display the Scottish misery and melancholy through minimalism. It tells a story of a 17-year old girl Shell and her father Pete who run an isolated petrol station in the Highlands. 

We are Northern Lights (2013)

We are Northern Lights is a unique collaboration, created as a part of The Year of Creative Scotland. The idea behind this feature-lenght documentary is to show what Scotland is like today. Gathered from footage that everyone could send in, the documentary aims to capture the essence of the Scottish at its most authentic moments.

Mekong Hotel (2012)

The Palme d’or winning Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s newest film Mekong Hotel finally hits the screens in Glasgow, as a part of GFF. Known for his mystical stories, where reality and surreal, traditional myths mix into a dreamlike flow, Weerasethkul’s newest is no exception. In a quiet, peaceful setting the viewer is hardly even shocked to see the main characters feeding on slimy, raw guts.

Mark Millar on superhero movies

Glasgow-based comic book author Mark Millar came down to the GFF to discuss his own work and his views of the film world in general. Originally, Millar has worked solely on comics but after his Kick Ass series were transformed into blockbuster Hollywood films, he has also taken part in the expanding market of superhero films. Between all the witty jokes and the Glasgow banter, Millar does give the audience quite an inside to what the comic-to-film industry is like, no t forgetting the juicy details of lunch with the like of Christopher Nolan.

Stoker (2013) at Glasgow Film Festival

Straight from Sundance Film Festival, known for first screening directors such as Quentin Tarantino, Darren Aronofsky and Paul Thomas Anderson, comes South Korean director Park Chan-wook’s long-awaited English-language debut, Stoker. The film received its UK premiere today at the Glasgow Film Festival. It is a rather disturbing family saga told in a dreamlike, gothic manner. The story sets off when India’s (Mia Wasikowska) father dies in dubious circumstances.

About the Movie Scene in Glasgow

It is a common concern that the golden age of cinema is over, killed by piratism, Sky packages, Netflix and all other sorts of internet applications. It is not just laziness or lack of interest in movies I’m talking about – it’s the astonishing pace of life we have gotten used to and the subsequent inability to sit down for solid two hours and concentrate.  However, it seems that there is still hope, at least in Glasgow.