Film4 Summer Screen

London’s best-loved open-air cinema is back this August with an extended programme of films over 14 nights. Presented in the magnificent 18th century courtyard on a giant screen with full surround sound, Film4 Summer Screen at Somerset House features comedy, romance, musicals, thrillers and much loved classics.

With early evening DJ sessions, providing the ideal soundtrack to your picnic, Film4 Summer Screen at Somerset House is the ultimate cinema experience and the highlight of the summer calendar.

Films showing are:

World Premiere: About Time (cert TBC)
Thursday 8 August
A magical new comedy from Richard Curtis in which Tim (Domhnall Gleeson) is able to relive every moment of his life until he gets it right. Rachel McAdams and Bill Nighy also star in this delightful film about life’s unexpected twists and turns as the course of true love proves hilariously difficult. (119 mins)

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (12A)
Friday 9 August
Sibling rivalry is pushed to the extreme as aging sisters Bette Davis and Joan Crawford - playing former stars of the silver-screen - torment and torture one another in this slice of Hollywood Gothic. There’s plenty of suspense as the mutual loathing mounts, as well as a blackly comic sensibility that’s helped turn this chiller into something of a ‘camp’ classic. (134 mins)

Mean Girls, plus Carrie, plus The Loved Ones (18)
Saturday 10 August
A late-night triple-bill of high-school comedy and horror that gets darker the longer it lasts. Lindsay Lohan turns the tables on the ‘popular’ girls in the Tina Fey-scripted Mean Girls, while it’s Stephen King who’s setting the stage for Sissy Spacek’s ultimate revenge in Carrie. Nothing can prepare you for where this all ends though, with an invitation to Australian prom-horror The Loved Ones that you’d be foolish to refuse. (97, 98 and 84 mins)

The Untouchables (15)
Sunday 11 August
Thrilling action in a classical style – Brian De Palma’s tale of G-men versus gangsters in Prohibition-era Chicago reinvents the mobster movie while retaining plenty of old-school elegance. Robert De Niro, Kevin Costner and an Oscar-winning Sean Connery provide the acting muscle, with Ennio Morricone’s score propelling us through to that memorable final showdown on the train station steps. (119 mins)

Guys and Dolls (U)
Monday 12 August
A big, bright and romantic musical classic, which splashes sensational Broadway style and swagger across the screen as it makes its way from a stylised New York to the swirling, seductive backdrop of Havana. Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando and Jean Simmons are the stars of this streetwise favourite, with the singalong setpieces ranging from show-stopping group numbers to intimate torch songs. (150 mins)

UK Premiere: The Way Way Back (12A)
Tuesday 13 August
Join us for the UK premiere of this wonderfully warm and nostalgic comedy that, despite its coming-of-age perspective, doesn’t shy away from more adult emotions. An awkward fourteen-year-old learns some important life-lessons during a summer vacation with mum Toni Collette and her new boyfriend Steve Carell, although he does his real growing up at the local waterpark under the watchful eye of a supremely laidback Sam Rockwell. A real charmer. (103 mins)

Kes (PG)
Wednesday 14 August
Director Ken Loach’s highly emotive yet down-to-earth debut from 1969 follows the story of a young Barnsley boy who secretly keeps and trains a kestrel, the bird’s flight providing an inspiring symbol of escape amidst oppressive surroundings. Considered a classic of British cinema, this is an intimate, human-scale film that will really soar on a big-screen under the stars. (110 mins)

Throne of Blood (12A)
Thursday 15 August
Director Akira Kurosawa’s spectacular and haunting version of Macbeth is one of the most powerful Shakespeare films ever made, still unrivalled after more than 50 years. The filmmaker’s force-of-nature leading man Toshiro Mifune plays a samurai warrior whose murderous plots bring darkness down upon both himself and his scheming wife. The climax may provide one of cinema’s defining images but, this being Kurosawa, every frame of the film proves unforgettable. (110 mins)

Predator plus Gremlins 2: The New Batch (18)
Friday 16 August
All creatures great and small, Summer Screen-style! Schwarzenegger kicks off this monstrous double-bill, leading a band of mad, bad mercenaries on a jungle mission that brings them face-to-ugly face with an enormous alien-beast in the relentless sci-fi adventure Predator. Then we get smaller - but no less lethal - as Gizmo gets wet and Gremlins run riot in New York, creating a madcap sequel that’s crazier and creepier than the original. (107 and 106 mins)

Badlands plus Raising Arizona (15)
Saturday 17 August
The American outlaw spirit is alive and well in this double-bill of great directors. Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek are young lovers on the run in visionary director Terrence Malick’s poetic and highly influential debut Badlands, while Nicolas Cage just can’t make himself go straight – despite being married to cop Holly Hunter – in the Coen Brothers’ wildly wacky and hugely heartfelt Raising Arizona. (both 94 mins)

Crazy Stupid Love (12A)
Sunday 18 August
Contemporary rom-coms may not always get it right but here’s one that does (having a cast that includes Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Steve Carell, Julianne Moore AND Kevin Bacon certainly helps!). The love-lives of a number of characters interlink in this sweet, sexy comedy that looks at modern romance from every angle, with Gosling on top form as the experienced player who finally meets his match. (118 mins)

The Red Shoes (U)
Monday 19 August
Blazing colour, vivid emotion and swoon-inducing style, all offset by shades of darkness – it can only be legendary British filmmaking duo Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s classic about a prima ballerina whose success comes at a high price. Stars Moira Shearer and Anton Walbrook are electrifying, but the whole film - from mundane backstage business to fairytale performance setpieces - casts a magic spell. A big-screen experience not to be missed. (135 mins)

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (PG)
Tuesday 20 August
If ever there was a vote to determine ‘the most entertaining film ever made’, then surely this high-spirited cross between the Western and the buddy-comedy would come somewhere near the top. Made in 1969, with effortlessly charismatic stars Paul Newman and Robert Redford cracking wise while running for their lives, it’s literally got everything you need to have a great time at the movies. (110 mins)

UK Premiere: Prince Avalanche (cert TBC)
Wednesday 21 August
The UK premiere of this funny and lyrical odd-couple comedy from the supremely talented and always unpredictable David Gordon Green brings Summer Screen to a close. Serious-minded Paul Rudd and irresponsible Emile Hirsch may have a tenuous family connection but they couldn’t be more different, meaning their summer together painting road-markings in the middle of nowhere threatens to be a long one. A gentle but richly resonant treat, graced by sublime landscape photography and two very memorable characters. (94 mins)