'No Such Place as Bethnal Green' - I Hired a Contract Killer

Event information

This series of film screenings and talks takes a look at how London locations, East London and Bethnal Green more specifically, have been represented, re-staged and re-imagined by different film-makers. We will be screening three East End cinema classics in the nave of the beautiful grade 1 listed church St John on Bethnal Green. The screenings will be accompanied by talks by writer Iain Sinclair, Charlotte Brunsdon (author of London in Cinema) and musician and actor Nick Tesco.

The events of 'I Hired a Contract Killer', directed in 1990 by Aki Kaurismäki, unfold in an oddly flattened and emptied cityscape. Partly East London (where much of the film was shot), partly a stylised type of place recognisable from other Kaurismäki films, this landscape sets the mood throughout the film. Henri (Jean-Pierre Léaud), after a number of failed suicide attempts, takes out a hit on himself - only to then fall in love and find a renewed zeal for life. Now he must negotiate this cold and unforgiving environment to evade his killers.
Nick Tesco, who is perhaps best known for being lead singer of The Members, will be joining us for this last film of our series. Nick, who has acted in three of Kaurismäki's feature films (including Contract Killer), will be discussing these collaborations, telling us about scouting for Contract Killer's show-stealing locations with the director, and sharing some stories about the making of the film.