Edit: 3 August 2022
A cheering update! While the Film4 Summer Screen is no more, Somerset House have partnered with Everyman Cinema to screen open air films throughout August 2022 as part of the #ThisBrightLand festival. The daytime films are free, evening ones are pay what you can. Full listing here: https://www.everymancinema.com/this-bright-land
As part of #ThisBrightLand, we’ll be screening family-friendly films with @Everymancinema for free throughout August, every weekday at 13:00.
— Somerset House (@SomersetHouse) August 2, 2022
Come join us!
Wed 3 Aug - 101 Dalmatians (PG)
Thu 4 Aug - Mary Poppins (starts at 12.30pm)
Fri 5 Aug - Paddington (PG) pic.twitter.com/JjhoAzd8KW
We are over the moon to announce we partnered with #ThisBrightLand at @SomersetHouse
— Everyman Cinema (@Everymancinema) August 1, 2022
Starting today Monday 1st August we will present 21 days of open-air film entertainment at the festival, providing something for everyone 🌈🎉
🔗https://t.co/C9GWFhZvzR 👀 pic.twitter.com/FocutIrHOy
Original post
I am feeling slightly bereft. Somerset House have announced that they're no longer going to be screening the Film4 series of open air films in their courtyard. This was a huge fixture in my London summers and I've seen so many great films there and always looked forward to seeing what they'd screen while haunting their website for the new listings. With the pandemic it means I've not seen a film there since Summer 2019 as 2020 and 2021 were cancelled. And now no more. Wail!
Lovely to watch #BlackPanther at @SomersetHouse on @TheNorthbankBID :) We had the gentlest of rain making a visit, which was quite pleasant. (Vid taken incredits!) pic.twitter.com/FNXHhErRAm
— Jo Brodie (@JoBrodie) August 9, 2019
Somerset House's outdoor cinema is over for good Time Out (7 June 2022)
So there's going to be a big gap in the London 'season' but Somerset House is doing lots of other cool things and the Courtauld has re-opened.
I nearly always went to these things by myself - the tickets sold out pretty quickly so I didn't want to hang around while others made up their mind! I'm sure I must have seen one or two screenings with friends though.
Big
thanks to Somerset House and Film4 staff for keeping me entertained for
14 of the 15 years the film screenings ran (I didn't hear about it in
the first year). I hope a cinema screen will sneak its way back into
your courtyard one day in the future.
(There are lots of Summer Screen trailers on YouTube)
Below there is a complete listing of all known Somerset House / Film4 summer screenings - over 200 films screened at over 170 events. The last one I attended was The Piano. For a more visually appealing record of all the films (excluding duplicate films) Michael Leader has put together this Letterboxd page with the artwork for each film.
Other things that are much missed
This post is part of a series of me being a bit nostalgic about things, the other posts are as follows
• Somerset House and Film4's Summer Screen series of open air films in the courtyard (9 June 2022) - this post
• The Bankside Frost Fair 2003 - 2008 (24 November 2020)
• Speechification, curated radio documentaries (9 January 2020)
• The National Geographic shop on Regent Street, London (4 January 2020)
• Much missed - MOMI, London's Museum of the Moving Image (2 January 2014)
All Film4 / Somerset House screenings
Google Doc version of the embedded info below. Plain text (for Google and searching etc) at the end.
It's fair to say that the open air cinema screening market in London may well have reached saturation point - last year there were just over 980 screenings in and around the capital and the volume had certainly been trending upwards over the last few years. Currently in 2022 there are already 450 screenings and I'd expect another 150-200 to be listed before the end of the season.
2022 London open air film listings
For the full 2022 listing of open air film events in London (updated every few days) please visit https://bit.ly/OpenAirCinemaLondon2022 for the text listing and https://bit.ly/OpenAirLondon2022MAP for the map.
Somerset House / Film4 listing - plain text
Year Date Day Film(s)
2005 16 August Tuesday Close Encounters of the Third Kind
2005 17 August Wednesday A Matter of Life and Death
2005 18 August Thursday Spirited Away
2005 19 August Friday Flash Gordon
2005 20 August Saturday Shaun of the Dead / Land of the Dead
2006 10 August Thursday North by Northwest
2006 11 August Friday School of Rock & Nacho Libre (Special Screening)
2006 12 August Saturday The Shining
2006 13 August Sunday The Outsiders
2006 15 August Tuesday The Night of the Hunter
2006 16 August Wednesday Howl's Moving Castle
2006 17 August Thursday Brazil
2006 18 August Friday Starship Troopers & Aliens
2006 19 August Saturday The Big Lebowski
2007 2 August Thursday Knocked Up
2007 3 August Friday The Descent / The Thing
2007 4 August Saturday The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
2007 5 August Sunday Rushmore
2007 6 August Monday Rear Window
2007 7 August Tuesday E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
2007 8 August Wednesday Walk the Line
2007 9 August Thursday Chak de India
2007 10 August Friday Hot Fuzz / Point Break
2007 11 August Saturday 2001: A Space Odyssey
2008 31 July Thursday Hellboy II: The Golden Army
2008 1 August Friday Pan's Labyrinth/ The Exorcist with Peter and the Wolf (short)
2008 2 August Saturday Brokeback Mountain
2008 3 August Sunday O Brother, Where Art Thou?
2008 4 August Monday Léon
2008 5 August Tuesday Fellini's 8½
2008 6 August Wednesday Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
2008 7 August Thursday Singin' in the Rain
2008 8 August Friday The Elephant Man / Wild at Heart
2008 9 August Saturday Scarface
2009 30 July Thursday Pedro Almodóvar's Broken Embraces
2009 31 July Friday Alien / Poltergeist
2009 1 August Saturday West Side Story
2009 2 August Sunday Slumdog Millionaire
2009 3 August Monday The Shawshank Redemption
2009 4 August Tuesday Wings of Desire
2009 5 August Wednesday Don't Look Now
2009 6 August Thursday Strangers on a Train
2009 7 August Friday Cool Hand Luke / Road House
2009 8 August Saturday Raiders of the Lost Ark
2010 29 July Thursday Knight and Day
2010 30 July Friday Kill Bill Vol. 1 / Enter the Dragon
2010 31 July Saturday Team America: World Police / A Town Called Panic
2010 1 August Sunday Manhattan
2010 2 August Monday Goldfinger
2010 3 August Tuesday Black Narcissus
2010 4 August Wednesday Paths of Glory
2010 5 August Thursday Cabaret
2010 6 August Friday Mulholland Drive
2010 7 August Saturday Let the Right One In / The Lost Boys
2010 8 August Sunday Master and Commander
2011 27 July Wednesday Pedro Almodovar's the Skin I Live In
2011 28 July Thursday The Spy Who Loved Me
2011 29 July Friday The Big Blue
2011 30 July Saturday Die Hard / Attack the Block
2011 31 July Sunday The Apartment
2011 1 August Monday Thelma and Louise
2011 2 August Tuesday Chinatown
2011 3 August Wednesday In the Mood for Love
2011 4 August Thursday Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
2011 5 August Friday Serpico / Shaft
2011 6 August Saturday Gremlins / Troll Hunter / Tremors
2011 7 August Sunday The Princess Bride
2012 16 August Thursday On the Road
2012 17 August Friday The Birds
2012 18 August Saturday Enter the Void + Chemical Brothers: Don't Think
2012 19 August Sunday The Watch
2012 20 August Monday Apocalypse Now
2012 21 August Tuesday Bicycle Thieves
2012 22 August Wednesday Paris, Texas
2012 23 August Thursday Pretty in Pink
2012 24 August Friday Boogie Nights + Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
2012 25 August Saturday Sexy Beast + Drive
2012 26 August Sunday Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
2012 27 August Monday Lawless
2013 8 August Thursday About Time
2013 9 August Friday What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
2013 10 August Saturday Mean Girls + Carrie + The Loved Ones
2013 11 August Sunday The Untouchables
2013 12 August Monday Guys and Dolls
2013 13 August Tuesday The Way Way Back
2013 14 August Wednesday Kes
2013 15 August Thursday Throne of Blood
2013 16 August Friday Predator + Gremlins 2: The New Batch
2013 17 August Saturday Badlands + Raising Arizona
2013 18 August Sunday Crazy Stupid Love
2013 19 August Monday The Red Shoes
2013 20 August Tuesday Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
2013 21 August Wednesday Prince Avalanche
2014 7 August Thursday Two Days, One Night,
2014 8 August Friday Rosemary's Baby,
2014 9 August Saturday A Fistful of Dollars + Mad Max 2
2014 10 August Sunday Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
2014 11 August Monday Sense and Sensibility
2014 12 August Tuesday Annie Hall
2014 13 August Wednesday 20,000 Days on Earth
2014 14 August Thursday The Great Beauty,
2014 15 August Friday Hairspray + Spring Breakers
2014 16 August Saturday Ghostbusters + Big Trouble in Little China
2014 17 August Sunday The Royal Tenenbaums
2014 18 August Monday The 400 Blows
2014 19 August Tuesday E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
2014 20 August Wednesday What We Do in the Shadows,
2015 6 August Thursday Gemma Bovery
2015 7 August Friday The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
2015 8 August Saturday Withnail & I + An American Werewolf in London
2015 9 August Sunday Princess Mononoke
2015 10 August Monday The Silence of the Lambs
2015 11 August Tuesday The Graduate
2015 12 August Wednesday The Second Mother
2015 13 August Thursday Aguirre, Wrath of God
2015 14 August Friday Do the Right Thing
2015 15 August Saturday True Romance + The Warriors
2015 16 August Sunday Roman Holiday
2015 17 August Monday The Last of the Mohicans
2015 18 August Tuesday West Side Story
2015 19 August Wednesday Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
2016 4 August Thursday Things To Come
2016 5 August Friday Bram Stoker's Dracula
2016 6 August Saturday Ex Machina + Robocop
2016 7 August Sunday Sunset Boulevard
2016 8 August Monday 10 Things I Hate About You
2016 9 August Tuesday Walkabout
2016 10 August Wednesday Julieta
2016 11 August Thursday The Shining
2016 12 August Friday Jackie Brown
2016 13 August Saturday Galaxy Quest + The Final Girls
2016 14 August Sunday Funny Face
2016 15 August Monday Trainspotting
2016 16 August Tuesday Girlhood
2016 17 August Wednesday Captain Fantastic
2017 10 August Thursday An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power
2017 11 August Friday Victoria
2017 12 August Saturday Donnie Darko + The Omen
2017 13 August Sunday The Philadelphia Story
2017 14 August Monday Moonlight
2017 15 August Tuesday All the President's Men
2017 16 August Wednesday The Square
2017 17 August Thursday Bhaji on the Beach
2017 18 August Friday In Bruges
2017 19 August Saturday Jaws + Deliverance [double bill]
2017 20 August Sunday My Neighbour Totoro
2017 21 August Monday Cruel Intentions
2017 22 August Tuesday Blow-Up
2017 23 August Wednesday Patti Cake$
2018 9 August Thursday The Wife
2018 10 August Friday Inception
2018 11 August Saturday Labyrinth + The Wizard of Oz
2018 12 August Sunday Rebecca
2018 13 August Monday Being John Malkovich
2018 14 August Tuesday 20 Feet from Stardom
2018 15 August Wednesday Carol
2018 16 August Thursday Blue Velvet
2018 17 August Friday La Belle et la Bête + Bride of Frankenstein
2018 18 August Saturday Total Recall + A Nightmare on Elm Street
2018 19 August Sunday Sleeping Beauty
2018 20 August Monday Call Me By Your Name
2018 21 August Tuesday Selma
2018 22 August Wednesday American Animals
2019 8 August Thursday Pain and Glory
2019 9 August Friday Black Panther
2019 10 August Saturday Mandy (double bill w Wild at Heart)
2019 11 August Sunday The Princess Bride
2019 12 August Monday The Matrix
2019 13 August Tuesday God's Own Country
2019 14 August Wednesday This is England
2019 15 August Thursday Straight Outta Compton
2019 16 August Friday Before Sunrise (double bill w Before Sunset)
2019 17 August Saturday Get Out (double bill w They Live)
2019 18 August Sunday Clueless
2019 19 August Monday Reservoir Dogs
2019 20 August Tuesday The Piano
2019 21 August Wednesday Inna de Yard
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