Film4 Summer Screen at Somerset House

On Friday, Rosie and I had the pleasure of going to London to go to Film4's Summer Screen at Somerset House. To those who don't know what i'm talking about, it's basically an outdoor cinema in a courtyard which every August for the past 10 years has shown a variety of films. The film we saw was Rosemary's Baby (our 51st film, and one of my all time favourites), but the event plays a variety of different films, from classic (The 400 Blows), cult (Mad Max 2), world cinema (The Great Beauty), independent film premières (Two Days, One Night) and teen classics (Spring Breakers). During a speech, it was revealed Rosemary's Baby had been a film Film4 had wanted to show here since it began in 2004.

I am perhaps not the best person to review the film itself as I'm totally biased, it being one of my favourites. It was the fourth time I have seen it (I think) and I enjoyed it just as much as I have before. The film follows Rosemary and Guy, a young couple who move into a new flat. However things get tense when Rosemary becomes pregnant and paranoid that her intruding neighbours want to bring harm to her unborn child. I won't give too much away but the last thing the man from Film4 who gave a speech prior to the film said was 'Hail Satan'. I totally agree that the film deserves its classic status and rave reviews, the performances are amazing, and it is so so tense and scary, yet so subtle and classy without any big obvious scares. 

The day itself was very fun. We arrived at Somerset House early in the afternoon to look around all the exhibitions and galleries (some related to Film4, such as the poster exhibition, others independent of the event). We advise you do this as it was interesting and means when the doors open later on you can just go and find a spot to sit straight away. The building is very beautiful, even in the pouring rain (which became a bit too much towards the end but didn't stop our enjoyment of the film). We took a picnic to eat during the film, with cushions and a rug to create our own little living space for the time we were there. Perhaps the most impressive thing was the light display just as the film began, which was made more magical by the rain. It was very nice watching a film in such a lovely place and seeing planes go over our heads at the same time.

Here are our top tips for Summer Screen:

1. Get there early, look around, then start queueing (from inside the venue, not on the street). People started arriving around 5.30pm when we went.

2. Take blankets and rugs, and lots of them. The floor is concrete and can be uncomfy after a few hours. However don't take too much, as remember you are taking it around London with you (Inflatable pillows are perfect!)

3. Take an umbrella. The film goes on whatever the weather (as we found out) and we would have been soaking and miserable without one. We were promised by other blogs we had read before hand that Film4 give out free ponchos which carry their logo if it rains, sadly this was not the case for us.

4. Get the best spot. We succeeded in getting out desired spot, near the back, in front of the projector, where there was a fence to lean against. We also had a good view of the screen, as being near the front you would have had to crane your neck to see the screen.

5. Be respectful of people around you. People were, mostly, however some people had their umbrellas waving around unaware they were blocking peoples view (aka the people sat in front of us).

It would definitely be something we would both do again, and it has been something I've wanted to do for a long time. I would definitely recommend going, however tickets sell out very quickly (even though they allow lots of people in; we were actually surprised at how many people were in the queue).

Ollie