Camp at the Cinema
Camp at the Cinema
Get ready for Camp at the Cinema, a series of funny, engaging and insightful cinema talk and screening events with a difference.
Using the much loved sensibility of camp, Harry Clayton-Wright and Catherine Mugonyi build on their three part video series Camp in the Collection (2021) with this live cinema event that explores iconic moments on the silver screen. Using comedy, lip sync, short entertaining clips, well researched insights into cinema history and costume, the duo will entertain and educate audiences with their quest of curating the campest moments ever captured on film.
What's on
All that Heaven Allows
All that Heaven Allows
Saturday 29 November 2025. Storyhouse, Chester
All That Heaven Allows (1955)
Dir. Douglas Sirk
85 mins | Cert U
Saturday 29 November 2025, Storyhouse, Chester
Our first screening event presents All that Heaven Allows, a resonant critique of 1950’s suburban attitudes to class and conformity, directed by the master of melodrama Douglas Sirk.
Jane Wyman stars as Cary, a well-off widow who falls in love with a younger gardener (Rock Hudson), much to the disgust of her adult children and snobbish country club ‘friends’. Will she follow her heart and risk becoming the focus of small-town gossip? Or will she sacrifice her relationship to follow society’s expectations?
Filmed in rich Technicolor, All that Heaven Allows is a treat for the senses, with sumptuous colouring, dreamy lighting and emphatic orchestral arrangements; but it’s hard to escape the ugly paranoia and vitriolic class snobbery lurking underneath the gloss.
Showgirls
Showgirls
6:30pm, Thursday 11 December 2025. Backlot Cinema, Blackpool
Showgirls (1995)
Dir. Paul Verhoeven | 130 mins | Cert 18
6:30pm, Thursday 11 December 2025, Backlot Cinema, Blackpool
Showgirls directed by Paul Verhoeven (Robocop, Starship Troopers), returns to cinemas for its 30th anniversary in dazzling 4K. Ridiculed on its release in 1995, Showgirls was slated for its over the top performances, wild plot, nudity and ridiculous script. However, this box office flop has since been reclaimed as a LGBTIA+ community to enjoy its rightful status as a campy cult classic and exploration of American excess.
Elizabeth Berkley ditches her preppy Saved by the Bell persona to star as Nomi Malone, a young drifter with a troubled past. She hitches a ride to Las Vegas and sets out to make it big as a showgirl. Using her dancing talent, she soon finds her place in one of the glittering stage shows on the legendary Las Vegas strip, encountering Zack (Kyle MacLachlan), the ambitious entertainment director and Cristal (Gina Gershon), a dazzlingly devious star of the stage show Goddess. But how far will she go to make it to the top?
Come prepared to laugh, quip and be decadently immersed in glittering melodrama. Dazzling showgirl attire is optional but warmly welcomed, but remember… “There’s always someone younger and hungrier coming down the stairs after you.”
Strange Way of Life
6:30pm, Thursday 15 January 2026. The Harris, Preston
Strange Way of Life
Strange Way of Life(2023)
Dir. Pedro Almodóvar
31 mins | Cert 15
6:30pm, Thursday 15 January 2026, The Harris, Preston.
Camp at the Cinema takes a trip to the Wild West with Strange Way of Life, by director and leading light of modern melodrama Pedro Almodóvar.
Melodrama traditionally focuses on women’s inner lives. These ‘women’s pictures’, were created for female audiences with their favourite female stars, featuring characters whose sensationalist struggles carry searing social commentary beneath their glossy veneer. Strange Way of Life is our ‘wild card’, what if it’s Queer male relationships in the spotlight?
Former ‘hired guns’ Jake and Silva (Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal), meet again after 25 years of separation following a brief fiery affair. Jake’s transition to the ‘right side of the law’ has made a sheriff out this former gunslinger. Fate intervenes when a yearning Silva rides into town angling to reminisce and rekindle the romance. Before too long passion resurfaces, but things take a dramatic turn when a murder cover-up muddies the waters.
Stunning cinematography, lush design (Pascal and Hawke are styled to Western perfection in costumes courtesy of YSL) and a clear melodramatic tone will transport you to a sensuous world of lonesome cowboys.
About Us
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About Too Much
Too Much: Melodrama on Film is a major UK-wide season celebrating cinema’s biggest emotions and heightened dramatics from around the world
Too Much: Melodrama on Film is a major UK-wide season celebrating cinema’s biggest emotions and heightened dramatics from around the world.
This new season celebrating the vivid visual language, heightened dramatics and emotional pathos at the heart of film melodrama, inviting film audiences to follow their emotions. United by their emotion driven plots, vivid visual language and self-conscious audience manipulation, these films are designed to make you break down in tears, cause a scene, fall in love, feel something.
Too Much will take place from October to December 2025 via programmes of special events, talks and screenings. Too Much will also be available UK-wide online via a curated collection of films available to stream on demand on BFI Player.
The season will explore the world of melodrama through the ages, with films ranging from cult classics to lesser-known international gems. Melodrama is steeped in contradiction. Swooningly romantic, people fall in love at first sight, sacrifice their lives in acts of devotion, find one another across space and time. Simultaneously they are grounded in the trappings of reality: rigid class boundaries, threat of punishment, and fear of scandal loom at every corner. The characters in these films are culturally diverse, from different generations and social backgrounds, but endlessly human and relatable. Their stories shed light on injustice and oppression.
Camp at the Cinema has been made possible with support from Film Hub North through funds from the National Lottery.