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Somerset House presents Film4 Summer Screen 2012

Somerset House present Film4 Summer Screen 2012, open 16 – 25 AUGUST 2012. Line-up includes three premieres with two films hot from Cannes Film Festival.


Somerset House

A highlight of the summer calendar, London’s premier open air cinema, Film4 Summer Screen at Somerset House returns in August with another exciting and eclectic line-up of classic, cult and contemporary films, presented in the spectacular setting of Somerset House’s 18th century courtyard on a giant 17 x 8 metre screen with full surround sound.

This year Somerset House present three premieres over the course of the 12-night programme:

Opening night film: UK Premiere, On the Road Thursday 16 August
UK audiences will get their first chance to experience Brazilian director Walter Salles’ vision of the classic novel On the Road, as Jack Kerouac’s book finally reaches the big-screen with stars Kristen Stewart, Sam Riley and Garrett Hedlund. Somerset House hosts the film’s UK Premiere, with the film receiving its World Premiere at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival later this month before being released in the UK on 21 September by Icon and Lionsgate.

People’s Premiere: The Watch Sunday 19 August
Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill and Richard Ayoade star in this outrageous comedy as four guys who come together to form a neighbourhood watch group as an excuse to escape their humdrum lives one night a week. However, they’re forced into action when they discover that their town has been overrun with aliens posing as ordinary suburbanites. The eagerly-anticipated summer blockbuster is released in the UK on 29 August by Twentieth Century Fox.

UK Premiere: Lawless Monday 27 August
The UK Premiere of the tough and stylish crime-drama Lawless makes for a compelling Closing Night. A heavyweight cast including Tom Hardy, Guy Pearce, Shia LaBeouf, Gary Oldman, Jessica Chastain and Mia Wasikowska bring this prohibition bootlegger story set in the 1920s to vivid life for acclaimed director John Hillcoat (‘The Road’). The film receives its World Premiere at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival later this month before being released in the UK on 31 August by Momentum Pictures.

Another highlight from this year’s programme features:

First UK screening of the newly restored digital print of The Birds, introduced by the film’s star Tippi Hedren.

Amongst the other highlights of this year’s programme are three double-bills, which take Film4 Summer Screen into the early hours of the morning. Director Gaspar Noe’s controversial hallucinogenic epic Enter the Void precedes the block-rockin’ concert film Chemical Brothers: Don’t Think, which had audiences dancing in front of the screen at cinemas earlier this year; the swingin’ 60s meets the sleazy ‘70s as Russ Meyer’s Beyond the Valley of the Dolls comes together with director Paul Thomas Anderson’s porn industry drama Boogie Nights; and popular stars Ray Winstone and Ryan Gosling provide cool heads and safe hands in the cracking crime double-bill Sexy Beast and Drive.

Other films gracing the big-screen at Somerset House this year are director Vittorio de Sica’s masterpiece of Italian neorealism Bicycle Thieves; Francis Ford Coppola’s nightmarish war epic Apocalypse Now; Steven Spielberg’s wild, whip-cracking adventure Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom; Molly Ringwald experiencing the pains of high-school romance in the ‘80s classic Pretty in Pink; and Wim Wenders’ haunting drama Paris,Texas, with its heart-stopping secrets and memorable score by Ry Cooder.

Somerset House is a spectacular neo-classical building in the heart of London, sitting between the Strand and the River Thames. Since opening to the public in 2000, Somerset House has produced a distinctive public programme that annually draws over 2 million visitors to the site, providing a stimulating environment for exploration and relaxation. The varied, year-round programme includes an open air film and concert season and ice rink, as well as temporary exhibitions focusing on contemporary fashion, design, art and architecture, family workshops and free guided tours. In September 2009, Somerset House became the new home of London Fashion Week. For more info visit www.somersethouse.org.uk

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