BELL, BOOK AND CANDLE Film Screening (ENG subs)
Friday 26. December at 21:00 - 22:45
FOMO Secret Cinema, Tbilisi
Directed by Richard Quine | USA | 1958 | 1h43m | Presented in the original English with English subtitles.
BELL, BOOK AND CANDLE is a romantic comedy that hides sharp ideas beneath elegance and charm. Set in wintertime New York, the film introduces Gillian, a modern witch living independently, moving through the city on her own terms. When she becomes interested in her new neighbor, she casts a love spell that gets her more than she bargained for.
What follows is not a typical supernatural fantasy. Magic is treated casually, almost mundanely. The real tension lies in what happens when control gives way to genuine feeling. Gillian’s power offers freedom, but it also creates distance. The film quietly asks whether independence and intimacy can coexist without compromise.
Kim Novak plays Gillian with cool restraint, avoiding sentimentality. James Stewart’s performance brings warmth and uncertainty, grounding the fantasy emotionally. Their dynamic feels adult, shaped by hesitation rather than spectacle.
Released in the late 1950s, the film reflects cultural anxieties about conformity, gender roles, and autonomy. Gillian’s magic functions as a metaphor for self-determination, and the cost of giving it up is treated seriously rather than romantically.
Visually, the film is beautiful to take in. I particularly love the scenes set in the Zodiac Jazz Club. Last week I presented it in the afternoon, but it's much more deserving of this Friday late night slot.
Location: FOMO Secret Cinema, Bazari Orbeliani, Tbilisi.
How to find FOMO: Enter via Atoneli St above Carrefour. Take the stairs immediately on your left behind the jewellery stand. The cinema entrance is one flight up in the stairwell.
FOMO Secret Cinema • Bazari Orbeliani, 0105 Tbilisi, Georgia
