London film curator Rebel Reel Cine Club (aka Chris McGill) and curator-DJ Vadim Kosmos have teamed up for a new screening series titled Cine Style. Celebrating films where fashion and visual flair take centre stage, the series dives deep into cinema’s most iconic wardrobes and boldest aesthetics. The duo have curated a week-long programme of visually striking, style-driven cinema – from the homoerotic, leather-clad surrealism of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Querelle, dressed by Jean-Paul Gaultier, to the neon-drenched noir romance of Wong Kar-Wai’s Fallen Angels. Expect bold silhouettes, dreamy visuals, and a celebration of cinema where every frame is a moodboard. Here, McGill takes us through his selection.

Saturday Night Fever, dir. John Badham 1977

“Underrated? Darker than you remember? Way deeper and more like social commentary than a celebration of flammable flared polyester nonsense?

Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night, or Saturday Night Fever to give it its film title, began life as a New York Magazine article by Nik Cohen, which went on to be adapted by Serpico screenwriter Norman Wexler. It’s a great dark social commentary with insanely great Cossack moves.

Yes, it revived Disco (oops…), but it was actually born out Cohen’s remembrance of a Mod in Shepherd’s Bush and a gang member from Derry – whatever – the opening sequence is just brilliant and John Travolta was never better: “Would ya just watch the hair. Ya know, I work on my hair a long time and you hit it. He hits my hair!””

Screening at The Old Ivy House on Monday 13th October, 7pm.

Withnail and I, dir. Bruce Robinson 1987

“London . The 1960s. Two unemployed actors – acerbic, elegantly wasted Withnail (Richard E. Grant) and the anxiety-ridden “I” (Paul McGann) – drown their frustrations in booze, pills, and lighter fluid.

Danny: “Has he just been busted?”
Marwood: “No.”
Danny: “Then why’s he wearing that old suit?”
Withnail: “Old suit! This suit was cut by Hawke’s of Savile Row. Just because the best tailoring you’ve ever seen is above your fucking appendix doesn’t mean anything.“

From designer Andrea Galer’s iconic coat (Andrea was the wardrobe assistant on Hail The New Puritan, which we showed at All is Joy earlier this year) to Marwood’s boiled wool jumper, leather coat and matinee idol fedora, the costumes are piss elegant (in an aristocratically moth-eaten way) as Withnail and Marwood are pissed.”

Screening at All Is Joy Soho on Tuesday 14 October, 7pm.

The Eyes of Laura Mars, dir. Irving Kershner 1978

“A photographer who can see through the eyes of a killer. 

Starring Faye Dunaway and Tommy Lee Jones. This also has a killer soundtrack of disco hits and the outfits are as smooth as Halston designed ultrasuede. Quentin Tarantino said that the photography shoots capture the energy and organised chaotic energy of an Annie Leibovitz shoot, and photographers love this film, too.

It’s a thriller with one of the greatest visual twists in cinema…”

Screening at All Is Joy Soho on Wednesday 15 October, 7pm.

Querelle, dir. Rainer Fassbender 1982

“Fassbender’s last film is like a Jean Paul Gautier perfume-soaked fever dream.

Stylistically, it’s like a sex-pulsating ballet set in the port of Brest and bar-cum-brothel Le Feria – the knife fight could have been choreographed for a Matthew Bourne ballet.
The style energy of Querelle is pistol-whip-you-fully-in-the-face-and-grab-you-by-the-balls! Red sky at night (someone’s dead delight) smoking sound stage lighting, a sea wall that features 8ft high phallus-shaped stone sailor leaning totems, costumes so designed and imagery laden that they could be in a Wes Anderson film, and characters that include a leather boy policeman, and a dashing captain narrator.

Brad Davies spends much of the film with his top off and Jeanne Moreau’s dance-hungry bar-owner’s wife is as insatiable as her dice-rolling husband. Querelle is based on Jean Genet’s novel, which itself was an adaptation inspired by Benjamin Britten’s opera, Billy Budd, but with the Homo-erotic dial sweatily turned up to 11. Just don’t play dice with Feria barman and hungry husband Nono.”

Screening at All Is Joy Soho on Friday 17 October, 7pm.

Fallen Angels, dir. Wong Kar Wei 1995

“Released a year after Wong Kar Wai’s beloved film Chungking Express, Fallen Angels has the same energy and another brilliant soundtrack featuring Massive Attack, Marianne Faithfull, Laurie Anderson and an amazing version of Only You!

Wong Kar Wei’s direction and Christopher Doyle’s signature up close and then dreamy but super stylised cinematography lend their films a slick pop video feel (this is by no means an insult) and the stories always feature such complete, engaging characters.”

Screening at All Is Joy Soho on Sunday 19 October, 4pm.

Find info and buy tickets here.