We're doing it again! A day of screenings, where each film is no more (approx) than an hour long. Come for the whole day or just pop in for what takes your fancy.
New members very welcome! Just bring £20 cash for a year’s worth of free screenings and 10% off food this Sunday and on all film club nights.
12.30pm - 1.40pm
Berlin: Symphony of a Great City ( Walter Ruttmann, Germany, 1927) - 65 mins
We open with a classic of the ‘city symphony’ genre - and a fascinating companion piece to People on a Sunday, which we screened recently at film club.
INTERMISSION 1.40pm - 2pm
2pm - 3pm Legendary directors
Un Chien Andalou (Luis Buñuel, France, 1929) - 16 mins
Buñuel’s collaboration with Salvador Dali is one of the most groundbreaking and eye-opening films ever made.
Antoine & Collete (Francois Truffaut, France, 1962) - 32 mins
Truffaut’s first stand-alone follow-up to The 400 Blows catches up with Antoine as a solitary 17-year-old who works at Philips manufacturing LPs to support himself.
Two: A Film Fable (Satjayit Ray, India, 1965) - 12 mins
Shot in Mumbai, Ray’s short shows an encounter between a child of a rich family and a street kid, viewed through the wealthy child’s window.
INTERMISSION 3pm - 3.15pm
3.15pm - 3.50pm A type of poetry
Dance in the Sun (Shirley Clarke, USA, 1953) - 6 mins
Indie director Clarke’s first short film captures the sinuous choreography of professional dancer Daniel Nagrin as he performs from an internal to external space accompanied by the music of Ralph Gilbert.
Lay of the Land (The Fall / Michael Clarke, Old Grey Whistle Test, 1983) - 5 mins
When legendary Manchester band, The Fall met legendary ballet dancer Michael Clarke, the results were as bonkers (and brilliant) as you’d expect.
The Big Shave (Martin Scorsese, USA, 1967) - 6 mins
Scorsese mixes music and image to startling effect in one of his early shorts.
Night Mail (Harry Watt & Basil Wright, UK, 1936) - 25 mins
The iconic doc about the London to Glasgow mail train, featuring WH Auden’s ‘verse commentary’ put to a score by Benjamin Britten.
INTERMISSION 3.50pm - 4pm
4pm - 5.30pm Jones & Parsons RIP
Ripping Yarns: Tompkinson’s Schooldays - 30 mins
In tribute to Terry Jones, who co-wrote and co-stars with Michael Palin, the first of the Python pair’s parodies of pre-war schoolboy literature.
The Comic Strip Presents: Mr Jolly Lives Next Door (Stephen Frears, UK, 1987) - 55mins
Both a tribute to Nicholas Parsons and an extension of our Accidental Peter Cook season from the end of last year (and, what the hell, also a mea culpa for not being able to mark the passing of Rik Mayall back in 2014) Mr Jolly Lives Next Door is one of the more successful of the series of Comic Strip films.
INTERMISSION 5.30pm - 6pm
6pm - Myths and Fairytales
Johanes Doktor Faust (Emil Radok, Czechoslovakia, 1958) - 17 mins
This was the first film the great filmmaker Jan Svankmajer ever worked on, Emil Radok acting as a mentor and major influence on his subsequent career. Svankmajer considered Johanes Doktor Faust as one of the best marionette films ever made (and went on to direct his own full-length version of the Faust myth years later).
Little Red Riding Hood (Ray Harryhausen, USA, 1949) - 9 mins
The classic fairy tale is one of the early works of stop-motion legend Harryhausen.
Little Red (Silsoe Mouse, UK, 2012) - 4 mins
Silsoe Mouse is actually duo Pascal Bideau (music) and Ben Turner (direction). Like all good fairy tales Little Red is a short and nasty shock to the system.
Red Hot Riding Hood (Tex Avery, USA, 1943) - 7 mins
Tex Avery’s take on the same is an all-time classic - even if its sexual politics are firmly rooted in 1943.
The Boy with a Camera for Face (Spencer Brown, UK, 2013) - 14 mins
Stephen Berkoff narrates this award-winning short about, you guessed it, a boy with a camera for a face.
INTERMISSION 6.50pm - 7pm
7pm - 7.30pm
Screen tests! - 30 mins
A selection of clips of actors and scenes before they made it (or not) to the silver screen
INTERMISSION 7.30pm - 8pm
8pm - 9pm America! America!
The Immigrant (Charlie Chaplin, USA, 1917) - 30 mins
One of Chaplin’s earliest shorts sees his Little Tramp character as an immigrant arriving in the New World of America.
Tropico (Anthony Mandler, USA, 2013) - 27 mins
Fast forward some hundred years and we arrive at Tropico: Lana Del Ray’s audaciously entertaining take on the American Experience (which incorporates Walt Whitman, Adam & Eve, Jesus, Elvis, John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe. Natch.)
INTERMISSION 9pm - 9.10pm
9.10pm - 10.05pm
Magical Mystery Tour (The Beatles, UK, 1967) - 55 mins
Originally conceived as a Boxing Day treat for Beatles-loving Brits, the Fab Four’s hour-long TV special confounded as many viewers as it delighted. A psychedelic road trip through the English countryside, the music is, of course, glorious (and also briefly features Neil Innes’ Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band.)
Fin
