From Nicholas Ray’s feverish western of passion and paranoia to Pedro Almodóvar’s riotous farce of love and betrayal, this pairing delivers colourful chaos and volcanic emotion. Both films explode with style, showcasing the cinema of melodrama at its most unrestrained and subversive. Double-feature screening featuring a live music introduction by The August List.

3.15pm – Johnny Guitar (PG)
Directed by Nicholas Ray. USA, 1954. 1h 50m.
On the edge of town, Vienna runs a saloon that attracts a clientele of outcasts and drifters. After a spate of violent robberies, she finds herself fighting for her life and her livelihood when a rival stirs up a lynch mob and frames her for a crime she didn’t commit. Dismissed by American audiences at the time of its release, the film found champions among European critics and has since been hailed as one of the greatest westerns ever made, rich with feminist themes and ripe for Freudian interpretation.

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5.15pm – Intermission

6pm – Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (12A)
Directed by Pedro Almodovar. Spain, 1988. 1h 29m. Spanish w/ English subtitles.
When Pepa’s lover, Iván, vanishes without warning, she sets out on a surreal journey to uncover the reason behind his disappearance. Along the way, she crosses paths with a cast of eccentric figures: Iván’s grown son from an earlier relationship, his jealous fiancée Marissa, and even a group of terrorists who are secretly holding her best friend Candela captive. Pedro Almodóvar’s darkly comic masterpiece blends absurd humour, vivid energy, and bold melodrama. Bursting with colour and chaos, it marked the director’s international breakthrough.

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