An archive of the Film Appreciation Close-Ups that have been held during 2016
CITIES ON SCREEN: LONDON
Explore London on screen from the early days of film to the present day. Meet cockney sparrows, criminals, lovers, toffs and toughs. Clips will include Underground, Once A Jolly Swagman (very early Dirk Bogarde!), The Small World of Sammy Lee, Notting Hill, Sapphire and other rarities and delights!
AN INTRODUCTION TO CHINESE FILM
Stylised performance, stunning spectacle, jaw-dropping stunts: the cinemas of mainland China were largely unknown to mainstream western audiences until introduced to the delights offered by Hero at the turn of the century. There is a lot more to discover as Chinese cinema offers diverse riches from the screen goddesses of 1930s melodrama to the stylistic breakthroughs of the ‘fifth generation’. Along the way, encounter the kitsch glory of the Maoist musical. Martial arts may also feature.
COMMEMORATING SHAKESPEARE ON SCREEN
As we remember the Bard in the 400th year since his death it seems a fitting moment to review screen adaptations of the plays. Come along to this overview of Shakespeare on Screen from the silent era to the present day with insights into the importance of the screen adaptations of Kenneth Branagh, Laurence Olivier and Orson Welles and many more.
DIRECTOR IN FOCUS: FRANCOIS TRUFFAUT
Francois Truffaut was one of the most popular and accessible directors of the French New Wave. His first feature film “Les Quatre Cents Coups” introduced Jean-Pierre Leaud as Antoine Doinel and this fictional character appears in five of Truffaut’s films and acts as his alter-ego. From 1959-1979 we see Antoine maturing on-screen as he searches for his ideal woman. This session focuses on how Truffaut’s life is shown through these films as well as exploring the ethics of autobiography and how Truffaut, innovative Nouvelle Vague pioneer, was also a great commercial success.
CITIES ON SCREEN: BERLIN
A cinematic exploration of post-war Berlin from Rossellini’s controversial “rubble” film Germany, Year Zero to Cold War paranoia in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and The Lives of Others. There’ll be a chance to wallow in “ostalgia” in Good Bye Lenin and Sonnenallee and to marvel at the modernist architecture which pervades the sci-fi action of Aeon Flux.
CARRY ON SCORING:
Eric Rogers and the legacy of light music
Eric Rogers’ love of light music, an overlooked and under appreciated musical genre, led him to define a signature style for the Carry Ons, while keeping the movies close to their music-hall roots.
Explore and enjoy the work of Eric Rogers with writer, teacher, composer and avowed Carry On fan Christopher Budd.
PERVERTS AND HEROES: A BRIEF HISTORY OF QUEERS IN FILM
While the films ‘Pride’ and ‘The Imitation Game’ have at their core the notion of the homosexual as hero, they remain the exception rather than the rule when considered in the context of the movie industry’s entire history. For the majority of that time queer characters were either ignored completely or portrayed in line with the prevailing — negative — stereotypes. ‘Perverts and Heroes’ will look at the historical representations of queers in movies and examine the dynamics behind the transition from negativity to more positive representation. Clips from a number of queer-themed films will be shown to illustrate various elements and participants will also be referred to specific films that had a particular significance in queer film history over the past one hundred years or so.
The evening will be presented by Colin Clews, curator of Queers in Shorts at Cambridge Arts Picturehouse and author of the queer history blog ‘Gay in the 80s’.