RUDE BOY   1980. Directed by Jack Hazan and David Mingay. 133 minutes. In English.

An iconic movie, this is a half-documentary and half-drama about a lost kid by the nickname of "Rude Boy Ray" growing up in London during the late 70s. The country is in upheaval - music, politics (anti-racism demos, pro-fascist marches), and in between it all is our main character walking the streets trying to figure things out. Eventually he gets work as a roadie for a punk band called The Clash.

The story is certainly minimal and wanders wildly at times, but it's a great flick that reveals the mood of London at that time, punctuated by prime concert material of the punk band The Clash at the top of their form. In a way, it can be seen as an updated version of the "angry young men / kitchen sink dramas" of the 50s, with a rough and improvised cinema-vérité feel. It was made with non-actors, and in fact, the main guy is sometimes so drunk that he's just mumbling his lines! But that only gives it a real street-feel and makes it an even more accurate snapshot of those times... a movie that is shot off-the-cuff, with no pretentiousness of fitting into the Hollywood template. And its very form reflects the confusion of England in 1980.

When The Clash saw a rough cut of the film, they wanted to remove everything except their own concert footage, making it into a Clash concert flick. When the directors refused, the band made badges with the statement ‘I don’t want Rude Boy Clash Film’. Today it is a fascinating time capsule of a very special time and place, and the footage of The Clash really shows them at their peak, before they left to become huge in the US of A.

This will be a high-definition screening.