Paul MacDonald-Taylor, Eden Court’s Head of Film + Visual Art, introduces our new cinema programme for July.
It is the season to be jolly! No, it’s not Christmas yet, but it is the Christmas of cinema – Summer Blockbuster Season! When big budgets flex their muscles and gives us some big screen sensations and enjoyment. This year it is the best summer for a very long time. We kick off July by continuing to screen Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City and the return of everyone’s favourite historic adventurer (well, I might prefer the Nicolas Cage National Treasure films – I wish they’d make a third installment) with the return of Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
Following that, we have the double bill of the century, the movie version of the ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ – Barbie vs Oppenheimer. Greta Gerwig vs Christopher Nolan. It’s the equivalent of Blur vs Oasis, which one will you go to (I’ll definitely be going to both). Two of the most anticipated films of the year, on very opposite ends of the spectrum. It’s honestly the most excited I’ve been for US films in a very long time – it should be a lot of fun. We’ll hopefully be having some Oppenheimer screenings on 35mm, but not until September. Watch this space.
The summer blockbusters don’t stop there as we’ll also be screening Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One in early August. I love this series of films, they are so exciting and, as the stunts are all real, the films feel organic and exhilarating in a way that CGI films cannot get near.
For the Highland Pride event in July we will be screening new Canadian drama You Can Live Forever, about two young woman finding love in a Jehovah’s Witness community, and Young Soul Rebels which is one of the greatest British films of the 1990s and really deserves to be discovered by a big audience.
Away, far away, from Hollywood we have some great films in July. We’re celebrating the great Bruce Lee – 50 years after his death in July 1973 – with two of his Hong Kong kung-fu classics; The Way of the Dragon (his best film) and Fist of Fury. You need to see on the big screen what made Bruce Lee such an iconic star.
We’re also delighted to bring back Local Hero for a couple of 40th anniversary screenings, after our sold out show at the Inverness Film Festival back in November. Without Local Hero there might not be a cinema at Eden Court – after it’s successful run in 1983 the Riverside Screen became a permanent fixture – so it’s an extremely special film for us.
I hope you enjoy some wonderful films at the cinema this summer.
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