Watch….Berberian Sound Studio….a strange but haunting film with a homage to Italian horror giallo films. Set in the 70s, Toby Jones plays Gilderoy, an audio engineer who usually makes films about nature. Suddenly he is in Rome working on a cheap, sordid horror film. There is more drama going on in the studio than on the film and Gilderoy’s sense of reality and distance between the film and his own life disappears. The film is so strange that it is hard to work out what is happening and how it is going to end. The soundtrack is by Uk band Broadcast and during the film we are transported back to Gilderoys’ home, a pastoral scene, and the music of Vaughan Williams. It has got to be one of the most original films this year.
Read….The Milkman in the Night by Andrey Kurkov…set in Kiev where several residents are suffering from sleepwalking. We are in the world of post-Soviet gangsterism, where alcohol is the solution to daily and nightly life. There are many nods to Michael Bulgakov’s Moscow as a cat plays the role of avenger against the gangsters. Absurdism runs riot as cases of strange drugs appear, wives refuse to bury their dead husbands and there is a trade in human milk which leads back to the local oligarchs. This is Kurkov’s seventh novel and he is also a journalist and commentator on Ukranian politics. Buy from News from Nowhere
Visit…3 Minute Theatre…..based in a shop unit in Affleck’s Palace in Manchester. The only non-public funded theatre in the city run by genial hosts Gina and John, who say ” we are dedicated to the development of emerging local talent and premiering the best new work Manchester has to offer.” See website for next week’s productions.
Learn…….. about global warming in Library Theatre’s new production of the Heretic. this is a a comedy about a scientist who goes public with her doubts about the science of global warming. It won London’s Evening Standard award for best new play in 2011 and looks to be one of the more interesting and controversial plays that we will see in the established local theatres this year. It is on at the Lowry theatre from 27 Sept-13 October book here
Book for…….TUC demo on 20 October in London. Say no to the Government and its cuts agenda and book your transport at
Demonstrate….Action on Abortion demo on 29 September, the International Day for the Decriminalisation of Abortion. Sadly, once again in London , for more information see
lipstick socialist 
Hi Bernadette
you should get yourself along to the Grimm Up North Horror Festival which launches on 3rd October at the fabulous Plaza Super Cinema in Stockport and then continues at the Dance House
Jo
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