The Rio’s monthly Classic Matinees take place on the first or second Wednesday of the month. There is an interval for every film, and extra seating is provided in the foyer. We are delighted that thanks to funding from the City Bridge Trust we are able to offer free admission. We are also able to offer free tea and cake! Please come along and enjoy a film and a chat!

These screenings are also open to everyone else at normal weekday matinee ticket prices.

• WED 13 Oct 2.30

THE GHOST (15)

(France/Germany/UK 2010) dir. Roman Polanski 128m. Digital.
Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan, Kim Cattrall, Olivia Williams, Tom Wilkinson, Timothy Hutton, James Belushi.

An engrossing, spine-tingling adaptation of Robert Harris' best selling conspiracy thriller. Pierce Brosnan stars as former British prime minister Adam Lang, now living in America with his formidable wife Ruth (Olivia Williams) and facing prosecution for war crimes. The ghostwriter working on his memoirs has been found mysteriously drowned, so enter cynical, boozy journalist Ewan McGregor to take on the job only to soon find himself in a nightmarish web of intrigue and suspense.

• WED 20 Oct 2.30

Special Black History Month presentation

BLACK ORPHEUS (PG)

(France/Italy/Brazil 1958) dir. Marcel Camus 107m.
Breno Mello, Marpessa Dawn, Lea Garcia, Lourdes De Oliveira, Adhemar Da Silva.

Winner of both an Academy Award and the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or, BLACK ORPHEUS transforms the ancient Greek myth of doomed lovers Orpheus and Eurydice into the twentieth-century explosion of movement, colour and excitement that is Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. With its eye-popping photography and glorious soundtrack, this was also the movie that kicked off a worldwide bossa nova craze.

+ introduction by Dominika Widlak-Manka from the BFI Education team

• WED 10 Nov 2.30

PAL JOEY (PG)

(US 1957) dir. George Sidney 111m. Digital.
Frank Sinatra, Rita Hayworth, Kim Novak, Barbara Nichols, Bobby Sherwod, Hank Henry.

A dream cast of Frank Sinatra, Rita Hayworth and Kim Novak light up Rodger's and Hart's classic musical tale of nightclub singer Joey Evans – charming, handsome, funny, talented according to some (and doesn't he just know it!); to others he's a womanizing, fast talking, con-man who goes from town to town, leaving debts and broken hearts behind. Finally he has to choose between the two women in his life : a rich widow and a struggling showgirl. Along the way definitive performances of such songs as "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", "I Could Write a Book," "My Funny Valentine" and "The Lady Is a Tramp" ensure that PAL JOEY is vintage Hollywood at its entertaining best.