London in the movies, again

London's BFI is starting a three-part series LONDON ON FILM in July - roll out all the usual suspects: the models in BLOW-UP (above) - Antonioni's classic is included of course, it may be nice to go back and see it on the big screen again. 
Also favourites of mine like POOL OF LONDON in 1950, SAPPHIRE in 1959 - both of these feature Earl Cameron, one of the first black actors to feature in British films of the 1950s. Another one I have already booked for is THE HEART WITHIN, a B-movie from 1957 which I had not heard of, where Earl is on the run from some drug smugglers,aided by a teenage David Hemmings - it will be interesting to see David here, a decade before BLOW-UP, its interesting now catching his early performances (SOME PEOPLE, TWO LEFT FEET, WEST 11, PLAY IT COOL, THE SYSTEM etc as per Hemmings label.).

The BFI says: 

Young David Hemmings in 
THE HEART WITHIN

London is one of the great cinematic cities. The city that emerges from our 200-film, three-month season, is at once historic and imaginary, deeply familiar and utterly impossible. London is currently transforming before our eyes, so in July we start with a century of film-making that captures changes to the city across the decades. In our first monthly spotlight on one corner of the city, we visit Soho - once the city's vibrant alternative heart, now at risk of losing its edge. In August we meet endlessly diverse Londoners: spivs and city slickers, upper class and underclass, high culture and subculture. In September we visit the reimagined city, a place of song and dance or dystopian nightmare. Welcome to London on Film.

Well, bring it on. July includes screenings of HUE AND CRY, NIGHT AND THE CITY, POOL OF LONDON and SAPPHIRE, BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING, FOUR IN THE MORNING, BLOW-UP, THE LONDON NOBODY KNOWS, PERFORMANCE (with James Fox in discussion with producer Sandy Lieberson); S.W.A.L.K (or MELODY), Hitch's FRENZY, an extended run of THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY (which somehow I never saw), and a SOHO SEX CLUB NIGHT featurng documentaries on the 'West End Jungle" and "Get 'Em Off" on the strip clubs, and "Vanishing Soho", THE SMALL WORLD OF SAMMY LEE and Belinda Lee's 1957 charmer MIRACLE IN SOHO. 

More on these at London label, and see London-A for my main feature on London in The Movies, done back in 2010. 

Lets hope they also get around to more post-war London in THE BLUE LAMP, DANCE HALL and IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY, and the Fifties sleaze of the strip club era in EXPRESSO BONGO, TOO HOT TO HANDLE, PEEPING TOM, PASSPORT TO SHAME as well as Sixties London in SMASHING TIME, THE WORLD TEN TIMES OVER, WEST 11, A PLACE TO GO, SATURDAY NIGHT OUT, , TWO LEFT FEET, BITTER HARVEST, DARLING, MORGAN, and into the '70s London of SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY and more, like those Trash Classics DORIAN GRAY and GOODBYE GEMINI, both 1970, as well as those '70s London thrillers like HENNESSEY, THE SQUEEZE etc - see 1970s label .... 

I am in Soho myself next week, meeting friends for drinks and checking out some shops including that Vintage Magazine Store, hopefully before the developers take over completely!