Press room

Barbican Cinema’s annual alternative Valentine’s Day offering, My Twisted Valentine, returns with Academy Award winner Jane Campion’s erotic thriller In the Cut (2003). 

This year’s screening is an adaptation of the erotic novel by Susanna Moore, who also co-wrote the screenplay. The story follows academic Frannie Avery (Meg Ryan), who meets and becomes romantically entangled with Detective Giovanni A. Malloy (Mark Ruffalo) during an investigation into the disturbing murder of a young woman in Avery’s neighbourhood. As the affair progresses, so do Frannie suspicions of Malloy’s potential to be the killer. In this suspenseful, erotic thriller, conventional gendered archetypes of the femme fatale and female victim are subverted whilst eroticism and fear are curiously entwined. And over twenty years after its initial release, Barbican Cinema will be offering audiences a chance to see it on the big screen.

Jane Campion is one of contemporary cinema’s most notable filmmakers. She is the first female director to receive the coveted Palme d’Or at Cannes for her film The Piano (1993), and the second female director to win the Academy Award, Best Director for The Power of the Dog (2021). Her work which often forefronts complicated female figures, and has been received well by audiences worldwide.

Following on from last year’s sell-out success of Claire Denis’ carnivorous tale Trouble Every Day, the perennially popular My Twisted Valentine is the one of Barbican Cinema’s most anticipated regular fixtures in the programme. This carefully curated one-off screening offers audiences an opportunity to indulge in unconventional and offbeat romances, as In the Cut has found a new generation of fans.