Naked Lunch - The Ultimate Picture Palace

Naked Lunch18

Directed by David Cronenberg | Canada | 1991 | 1h 55m (+ 20min short film) | Starring Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm, Julian Sands, Roy Scheider, Monique Mercure

Bug exterminator Bill Lee discovers that the insecticide he uses has potent hallucinogenic effects. After becoming deeply addicted, Bill descends into the nightmarish Interzone, a bizarre underworld filled with sinister government conspiracies and giant, talking insects. Equal parts darkly humorous and grotesque, cult filmmaker David Cronenberg (The Fly, Videodrome, Crash) brings to life this surreal adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ hallucinatory novel, once considered impossible to film.

Naked Lunch will be preceded by a special presentation of Kōji Yamamura’s short film Franz Kafka’s A Country Doctor (2007).

Kafkaesque Klassics

Reviews

‘Obviously this is not everybody’s cup of weird tea: you must have a taste for the aesthetics of disgust. For those up to the dare, it’s one clammily compelling movie.’
David Ansen, Newsweek

Sorry - you missed it!

We showed Naked Lunch between October 21, 2024 and October 25, 2024.

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What else is on?

Today (Tuesday 2nd December)

17:45

I, the Worst of All 15

£6 for Members

1h 47m | Spanish w/ English subtitles

Season: Cinema Rediscovered 2025

In 17th-century Mexico, brilliant nun-poet Sor Juana defies patriarchal rule and religious persecution. María Luisa Bemberg’s luminous masterpiece, newly restored, depicts a woman’s fight for intellect and autonomy amid the oppressive forces of the Inquisition.

20:30

Anemone 15

HOH Subtitles / £6 for Members

2h 6m

A former soldier in Northern England reunites with his estranged brother, reopening wounds from a violent, shadowed past. Daniel Day-Lewis returns in a gripping, emotionally charged family drama exploring trauma and the inescapable legacies of political and personal violence.

Tomorrow (Wednesday 3rd December)

15:15

Anemone 15

2h 6m

A former soldier in Northern England reunites with his estranged brother, reopening wounds from a violent, shadowed past. Daniel Day-Lewis returns in a gripping, emotionally charged family drama exploring trauma and the inescapable legacies of political and personal violence.

18:00

Belén 15

1h 48m | Spanish w/ English subtitles

After a miscarriage in conservative Argentina, a hospitalised woman is unjustly charged with infanticide. Supported by her attorney and activists, she fights a precedent-setting case that helped ignite Argentina’s feminist movement. A powerful true-story drama, selected as Argentina’s Oscar submission.

20:30

The Holdovers 15

2h 13m

Acclaimed filmmaker Alexander Payne (Sideways) returns with his bittersweet Oscar-winning comedy starring Paul Giamatti as a curmudgeonly prep school teacher who forms a bond with a troubled student during the Christmas holidays.

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Plan your visit

Our beautiful art deco inspired auditorium can be found just off East Oxford's Cowley Road. We are open 7 days a week. We open the cinema and box office 30 minutes before the scheduled start time of each film, and the Box Office then closes 10 minutes after the film starts. We don’t show adverts, just a couple of trailers, so don't be late as the film itself starts very close to the advertised time!