A celebration of the most iconic – and much missed – homegrown star of the 21st century, BACK TO BLACK tells the extraordinary tale of Amy Winehouse. Painting a vivid, vibrant picture of the Camden streets she called home and capturing the struggles of global fame, BACK TO BLACK honours Amy’s artistry, wit, and honesty, as well as trying to understand her demons. An unflinching look at the modern celebrity machine and a powerful tribute to a once-in-a-generation talent. Featuring many of Amy’s hit songs recorded and performed in the film by Marisa Abela, BACK TO BLACK is made with the full support of Universal Music Group and SONY Music Publishing.

In his chilling, oblique study of evil, British director Jonathan Glazer situates the viewer at the centre of frighteningly familiar banality. It’s summer in the mid-1940s, and a German family merrily idles by a river. Father Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel) and mother Hedwig (Sandra Hüller fresh from her multi-nominated performance in Anatomy of a Fall) tuck their kids in bed at night. They entertain family and guests in their vast backyard garden on the weekends. In the mornings, she oversees chores with a cadre of housekeepers and cooks; he goes to work as head Commandant of Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Their domestic life is paradisiacal. Yet over the wall abutting their home, we can see smokestacks, and at night we hear screams and occasional gunshots. Loosely inspired by the 2014 novel of the same name by Martin Amis, Glazer has created a singular, unsettlingly timeless representation of inhumanity and our capacity for indifference in the face of atrocity, filmed and edited with aptly cold precision and punctuated with an ominous score by Mica Levi.

Screening as the centre-piece for our retrospective of British filmmaker's, Jonathan Glazer, work this month when we are also screening his other films - Sexy Beast starring Ray Winstone and Ben Kingsley, Birth with Nicola Kidman and Lauren Bacall, and Under the Skin starring Scarlett Johansson.

BAFTA AND OSCAR NOMINATIONS

BAFTA: 9 nominations including Best British Film, Best Film not in the English Language, Best Supporting Actress, Editing, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Sound, Production Design, Cinematography

OSCARS: 5 nominations including Best Film, International Feature, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Sound

Carmen declares that any man she loves should beware. However, even she is unprepared for what will happen when she decides to seduce Don José, an army corporal who initially appears uninterested in her charms. Don José soon abandons his sweetheart Micaëla and his army job for Carmen, and joins her and her smuggler friends in the mountains. But Carmen quickly wearies of Don José's possessiveness. When she turns her attentions to the dashing toreador Escamillo, Don José's jealousy erupts into violence.

Damiano Michieletto's sizzling new production evokes all the passion and heat of Bizet's score, which features Carmen’s sultry Habanera and the rousing Toreador song. Antonello Manacorda and Emmanuelle Villaume conduct an exciting international cast, with Aigul Akhmetshina and Vasilisa Berzhanskaya sharing the title role.

Cast: Aigul Akhmetshina, Piotr Beczala, Kostas Smoriginas, Blaise Malaba, Sarah Dufresne, Olga Kulchynska,  Gabrielė Kupšytė, Pierre Doyen, Vincent Ordonneau, Grisha Martirosyan

Conductor: Antonello Manacorda

Director: Damiano Michieletto