Shot on the streets of Algiers documentary style, Gillo Pontecorvo’s pulsating drama tells the story of the Algerian Front de Liberation Nationale’s struggle to gain freedom from French colonial rule.
The Battle of Algiers
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Classic Season: Vive La Resistance
With the brand new restoration of Rossellini’s neorealist masterpiece Rome. Open City back in theatres, we’ve curated a season of classic films themed around wartime resistance and political revolution.
From the incendiary representation of the Algerian fight against French colonisers in Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers, to Jean-Pierre Melville’s portrayal of his personal experience as a member of the French Resistance in the incredibly tense Army Of Shadows. We have also scheduled a couple of 60th-anniversary screenings of Mikheil Kalatozishvili’s implausibly beautiful celebration of revolution, I Am Cuba.
Screening schedule is as follows:
The Battle of Algiers (1965)
Sunday 26 May 2.45pm
Wednesday 29 May 8.30pm
Rome, Open City (1945)
Sunday 2 June 2.45pm
Monday 3 June 6pm
Thursday 6 June 3.15pm
I Am Cuba (1964)
Sunday 9 June 3pm
Wednesday 12 June 6pm
Army of Shadows (1969)
Sunday 16 June 2.30pm
Monday 17 June 6pm
To book tickets and for more information, click on the film links below.
Rome, Open City
Shot in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, Roberto Rossellini’s neorealist masterpiece follows a resistance leader seeking help from a local priest to avoid the grip of the Gestapo.
I Am Cuba
One of the most extravagantly beautiful films ever shot, Mikheil Kalatozishvili’s expression of highly stylised and highly politicised cinema shows how the desire for radical change swept across Cuba in the 1950s.
Army of Shadows
A group of French resistance fighters battle against the Nazis in German-controlled Marseilles as well as suspicion amongst their own ranks in Jean-Pierre Melville’s gripping wartime thriller.
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!