Filmspot: 2013

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Filmspot

A great success in Alfriston, and Ghostbusting at Newhaven Fort

Posted: 31 Oct 2013 04:47 AM PDT

We had a fantastic time in Alfriston just over a week ago, with the inaugural ‘Deckchair Cinema’ screening at The Coach House Gallery. For full report and pictures, see later in this post – but first of all, in celebration of Hallowe’en, here are the details of this Saturday’s spooky screening of ‘Ghostbusters‘ at Newhaven Fort!

Saturday 2 November, 2pm: Newhaven Fort GHOSTBUSTERS (1984, PG)

A special screening of classic supernatural comedy for Halloween. Featuring hapless heroes (played by Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis) setting up their ghost-removal service in New York, ‘Ghostbusters’ was the highest grossing comedy film of the 1980s. A brilliantly sharp script, spooky special effects and a heavy dose of nostalgia, this promises to be a great fun event!

Advance tickets will available from Newhaven Fort, priced at £6.00 adults and £4.00 for children. Call 01273 517622 to book. Please note: This screening will be great fun for older children, but does contain some spooky ghosts, which might scare younger visitors!

Here’s, the trailer:

We hope to see you there!

…here’s the report on Deckchair Cinema at The Coach House Gallery

On Sunday 20 October, we, with The Coach House, presented a special screening of German film ‘Goodbye Lenin’…

The Coach House looked very welcoming to all the visitors, on a slightly soggy evening – perfect for settling down to a good film!

There were delicious German-themed canapés for guests, provided by Chestnuts Tea Rooms.

The Director of The Coach House Gallery gave an interesting talk just prior to the film

…and then the screening got underway to a FULL HOUSE!

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Filmspot

German cinema

Posted: 13 Oct 2013 09:51 AM PDT

This week we’ve been thinking about German cinema, in advance of our first ‘deckchair cinema’ screening of Goodbye Lenin! next Sunday (20th October) at the Coach House Gallery, Alfriston. Full details of the event follow at the end of this post. We are anticipating a busy evening, so be sure to purchase your ticket soon!

We’ve been batting around our favourite German films here at Filmspot HQ, and have come up with a few suggestions for those of you who fancy having a warm-up for our German-themed evening. Here’s five of our favourites:

1. Nosferatu (1922)

Germany was pivotal in the early development of cinema – and many of the silent ‘classics’ are from here – The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, Dr Mabuse – The Gambler, Pandora’s Box – just to name a few. We could have picked any of those, as they are all wonderful early films, however, F.W. Murnau‘s version of Stoker’s ‘Dracula’ story (with names altered for copyright reasons) is so iconic and bizarre that we had to include it. Max Schrek’s otherworldly depiction of the ghastly Count Orlok is particularly remarkable and haunting, as are the eerie early special effects, using stop motion animation. Werner Herzog‘s 1979 remake is also worthy of mention (a rare thing for a re-make) however, he is highlighted below for another of his wonderful films. Both the 1922 and 1979 films are included in the BFI Southbank’s current ‘Gothic’ season – screening later this month – so this Halloween is a fantastic time to revisit this masterpiece of gothic cinema.

2. Metropolis (1927)

Another German Expressionist masterpiece very well worth revisiting. Re-released by the BFI in 2010 in the closet cut to that which was presented at the 1927 premiere, Metropolis is regarded as the first feature-length sci-fi film. Set in a dystopian future, director Fritz Lang uses the film to explore class in modern society. Visually, the film is stunning and used pioneering special effects. Lang himself said that ‘The film was born from my first view of skyscrapers in New York in October 1924′.

3. Wings of Desire (1987)

Set in West Germany, Wim Wender’s film is about German trench-coated, invisable angels, who listen to the thoughts of Berlin’s human inhabitants and try to comfort those in need. One angel, Daniel, wishes to become human after falling in love with Marion, a beautiful trapeze artist. Ravishingly shot in black and white, this heartbreakingly romantic fantasy is totally captivating.

4. Fitzcarraldo (1982)

Werner Herzog is certainly one of the most intriguing and colourful figures in contemporary cinema – and his hugely prolific output is a testament to both his genius and eccentricity. Based on the life of real-life Peruvian rubber baron, Carlos Fitzcarrald, the production famously involved moving a 320ton steamship over a hill, without the use of special effects. Klaus Kinski, who took the title role, also caused enormous tension on set, meaning that the existence of this film at all is an achievement in itself!

5. Run Lola Run (1988)

Tom Tykwer’s film about a woman (Lola) who has 20 minutes to get 100,000 marks to her boyfriend, a small-time crook, before he is boss, Ronnie, will arrive and kill him. The film plays out three different scenarios, each effecting the characters Lola encounters on each of her runs in different ways. Very much influenced by Polish Director, Krzysztof Kieślowski, Tykwer directed Kieślowski’s planned film Heaven (another Filmspot favourite) after his death. Exhilarating and gutsy, this is unpretentious, passionate filmmaking at its best.

Now, back to news of our Goodbye Lenin! screening next Sunday 20 October! Here are the details:

6.00pm (for 6.30pm start)

THE COACH HOUSE GALLERY and FILMSPOT, in association with the SEAFORD GERMAN TWINNING ASSOCIATION

present a DECKCHAIR CINEMA screening of

GOODBYE LENIN [2003]

In original German, with English subtitles

TICKETS MUST BE BOOKED IN ADVANCE: £7 each, including a drink and German canapes. To book, please email deckchaircinema@rocketmail.com with your name and number or call 01323 871402

We can’t wait, and hope to see you all there!

Monday, October 7, 2013

Filmspot

A great weekend in Salisbury – and launching a new community cinema in Alfriston

Posted: 06 Oct 2013 03:52 PM PDT

Phew – We’re just back from a fantastic time in Salisbury, where we ran a screening of ‘The Great White Silence‘ at Salisbury & South Wiltshire Museum on Saturday. More on that below, but first of all, we want to let you all know about our next event. We are very excited to be working with The Coach House Gallery in Alfriston to launch Deckchair Cinema – a new venture bringing art house and world cinema to Alfriston.

Our inaugural Deckchair Cinema event will be on Saturday 20 October, 6pm (for a 6.30pm start). We are presenting GOODBYE LENIN [2003], in association with and supporting the Seaford Twinning Association and the German Conversation Group. We will be showing the film in original German, with English subtitles.

This heart-warming tragicomedy, set in 1989, tells the story of a son who lovingly dupes his socialist mother, recently awoken from a coma, into believing that Lenin really did win after all!

Location: The Coach House, High St. Alfriston BN26 5TD. Parking: Willows Car Park: Free from 6pm

Here’s a clip, to whet your appetite!

TICKETS: £7 each, levied against licensing and including, a seat, a drink and German canapes – non language speakers also welcomed. Advance booking is recommended - please email deckchaircinema@rocketmail.com with your name and number or call 01323 871402

Back to Salisbury!

We had a great time in this picturesque city, and received some great feedback from the audience, including:
‘Very moving, thank you’
‘Excellent – loved the soundtrack’
‘Superb. My eight year old son and 76 year old father were equally entranced’

Thank you to all of you who came along – and also to those of you who noted down some suggestions for future screenings.

Here are some photos:

The beautiful venue: the Lecture Theatre (to the left of the photograph) at Salisbury & South Wiltshire Museum

The audience arriving

Here’s Mr Filmspot’s projectionist’s eye view of the audience during the event, from the balcony!

We are looking forward to being back in Wiltshire again soon!

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Filmspot

ANNOUNCING: AUTUMN!

Posted: 29 Sep 2013 11:20 AM PDT

…. we’re back!

We hope you’ve all had a great Summer, Filmspotters. We did, and we’ve been making some great plans for the upcoming Autumn season. We have five screenings of four different titles coming up over the next couple of months, so hopefully there’s something for everyone. Here’s the programme:

Saturday 5 October, 2.30pm: Salisbury & South Wiltshire Museum
THE GREAT WHITE SILENCE (1924, E)
We screened this fascinating film to a sell-out audience at Newhaven Fort earlier this year, and this is the first of two autumn screenings. Tickets are £6 for museum members, £8 for non-members, and must be booked in advance by contacting the Museum on 01722 332151.

Here’s the trailer:

Sunday 20 October, 6pm (for 6.30pm start): The Coach House Gallery, Alfriston
GOODBYE LENIN! (2003, 15)
This heart-warming tragicomedy, set in 1989, tells the story of a son who lovingly dupes his socialist mother, recently awoken from a coma, into believing that Lenin really did win after all! Here’s a taster:

This is a Deckchair Cinema screening, run by Filmspot and the Coach House Gallery, in association with, and in support of, the Seaford Twinning Association and the German Conversation Group. Deckchair Cinema is a new joint initiative, launching with this event in October. We will be bringing world cinema and art house films to The Coach House Gallery in Alfriston. Contact deckchaircinema@rocketmail.com for updates specifically about this exciting new venture.

Saturday 2 November, 2pm: Newhaven Fort
GHOSTBUSTERS (1984, PG)

A special screening of classic supernatural comedy, Ghostbusters, for Halloween. Featuring hapless heroes (played by Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis) setting up their ghost-removal service in New York. A brilliantly sharp script, spooky special effects and a heavy dose of nostalgia, this promises to be a great fun event! Here’s a clip:

Advance tickets will available from Newhaven Fort from October, priced at £6.00 adults and £4.00 for children
Please note: This screening will be great fun for older children, but does contain some spooky ghosts, which might scare younger visitors!

Friday 22 November, 6.15 for 6.45pm: St Michael’s Church, Brighton
THE GREAT WHITE SILENCE
Our second Autumn screening of this inspiring documentary film – and our first event in the community hall at St Michael’s Church, Brighton. Tickets are £5 in advance, from info@lja.uk.com or 01273 328683 – or £6 on the door.

Sunday 24 November, TIME AND VENUE TO BE CONFIRMED
LES DEMOISELLES DE ROCHEFORT (1967)
This is planned as a fund-raising screening for the Alfriston-Veules les Roses Twinning association. Jacque Demy’s fun, breezy musical follows two sisters, Delphine (Catherine Deneuve) who teaches ballet, and Solange (Francoise Dorléac) who teaches music, over the course of a weekend when the fair is coming to town. Here’s the trailer:

Further details for this screening will be announced here as they become available,

Finally, if you have been following our @filmspotter twitter account, you may be aware that we have mentioned Home Cinema Day, which is TODAY! Here’s the details of the event, there is still time to join in this national event – invite a couple of friends over and enjoy a movie together! We’ve watched the fabulous ‘Girl Walk// All Day’ with some friends interested in dance… and we’re now off to take a vote on what our next title will be! If you do watch a movie tonight, be sure to tweet about it, with the hashtag #HCD2013.

Hope to see you all soon!

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Filmspot

Top Gun at Airbourne in Eastbourne

Posted: 14 Aug 2013 01:35 AM PDT

Hi Filmspotters! Sorry we have been a little quiet – we’ve had a summer break, and we are now gathering everything together for our Autumn season. There will be an announcement on here in the next week with the first news of our upcoming season, and we look forward to seeing you all at events throughout the South soon.

This is just a quick post to let you all know that if you’re feeling ready for some early Filmspotting, we have again supported Eastbourne Borough Council in organising an outdoor screening. This year, there will be a free screening of Top Gun [12], this Saturday, 17 August, at 6.30pm (doors open at 6pm). Full details are on their website: http://www.visiteastbourne.com/airbourne/airbourneattractions.aspx

Here’s the trailer!

See you all soon!

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Filmspot

The Great White Silence at Newhaven Fort

Posted: 19 Jun 2013 06:28 AM PDT

We had a great time, and a fantastic turn out, at Newhaven Fort on Saturday evening, with our special screening of The Great White Silence. We had some interesting discussions with many members of the audience after the event – we were so pleased that everybody found the film so engaging!

Here are some photographs…

We projected a stock footage video of Antarctica at the entrance of Newhaven Fort

Here are some of our visitors arriving at the Fort.

Here’s a family group arriving at the Romney Hut, for the Screening

The audience start taking to their seats!

…and here’s an ‘audience eye view’ of the film underway! We nearly had a full house, with only a couple of tickets to spare, and a few house seats at the back!

This weekend, on 22 June, there will be a special screening of one of Team Filmspot’s favourite films, A Canterbury Tale in Veules Les Roses, France, to mark their twinning with the picturesque Sussex village, Alfriston. We have helped to organise the film and licencing for this event, which we hope will be a success. Sadly we can’t make it over ourselves, but we look forward to posting about it soon. In the Autumn, we will present a French film, as suggested by the film club in Veules Les Roses – more news about this will appear over the summer.

We’re also looking forward to screening The Great White Silenceat Salisbury & South Wiltshire Museum (in honour of Salisbury0born Herbert Ponting, the Director of the film) in October – more details will appear on here and the Filmspot website later in the Summer.

Our next event at Newhaven Fort will be in the Autumn, when there will be all sorts of ghoulish fun for our screening of Ghostbusters on 2 November.

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Filmspot

Dam Busters and Explorers at Newhaven Fort

Posted: 01 Jun 2013 03:50 AM PDT

We had a fantastic time at Newhaven Fort on 16 May, celebrating 70 years since the Dam Busters raid. We’re now looking forward to 15 June, our next event, where we shall show the fascinating and beautiful ‘Great White Silence‘, but more on that later – first off, here are the pictures from our ‘Dam Busters 70′ event! Thanks to everyone who came along…

…Filmspot have arrived at The Fort!

Newhaven Fort's resident 17 Squadron expert, created some fantastic artwork for the screening, including this great poster!...

Newhaven Fort’s resident 617 Squadron expert, created some fantastic artwork for the screening, including this great poster!…

…and this very accurate cut out of the rather unfortunately named dog!

Our thanks to Ed, who gave an evocative and exciting introduction to the film, just prior to the screening.

We had a full house – and even had to bring in more seats! Photo: Lukas Rohulan

It was a great way to mark a very special anniversary – it was wonderful to see so many people at the Fort for this special ‘Museums at Night’ occasion. Photo: Lukas Rohulan

We’re now looking to the future, where we go even further back in time! on 15 June, we are screening ‘The Great White Silence’ – the fascinating eye witness account of Captain Scott‘s doomed Terra Nova expedition. The film was beautifully captured by photographer Herbert Ponting, whose remarkable eye for composition gives the film some truly breathtaking scenes. The antarctic seems to be an icy wonderland, as beautiful as it is treacherous. There is footage of Scott and his team preparing for the long walk to the pole. Although he didn’t join the team on the push to the South Pole, Ponting also filmed the team manhauling the sledge and cooking and sleeping in their tent, just as they were to do for real on the way to and from the Pole. Recently fully restored by the BFI, this version includes a haunting new score by composer Simon Fisher Turner, and is colour tinted, from the original notes by Ponting, to convey different lighting effects.

I’ve posted it before, but here’s the trailer:

Doors open 7.00 pm (film starts 7.30 pm). Tickets are £6.00 (£5.00 concessions) and are available from Newhaven Fort on 01273 517622.

A breath-taking film, in atmospheric surroundings, this promises to be a memorable evening. Hope to see you there!

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Filmspot

Magnificent Motors and Amazing Aircraft…

Posted: 12 May 2013 03:14 AM PDT

A big thank you to all of you who came out to the Western Lawns in Eastbourne to support the Magnificent Motors drive-in on Bank Holiday Saturday last week. We helped facilitate the screening of The Italian Job, which was run by the Eastbourne Borough Council Events Team. It was great to see you all – including some of the classic cars that came and really added to the atmosphere. We have another great event coming up this week, do see the end of this post for details!

Here are a few photographs from the evening:

Cars of all shapes and sizes came out to enjoy this classic British film.

We were pleased to see so many people brave the blustery wind, which fortunately calmed down by halfway through the film.

As the sun went down, we were very pleased to see a ‘red sky at night’! We were also very pleased to be parked next door to this charming vintage Ford Anglia!

As darkness descended, the seaside lights gave a very atmospheric glow!

Thanks to everyone who came along – we hope you enjoyed the event!

Don’t forget we have our FREE screening of The Dam Busters at Newhaven Fort this week – it’s on Thursday, as part of Museums at Night. Doors open at 6.30pm, with the programme starting at 7.30pm, and we are expecting a crowd, so do make sure you book your ticket in advance. To book, contact Newhaven Fort on 01273 517622.

A classic British war film, The Dam Busters stars MIchael Redgrave as Barnes Willis, the inventor of the bouncing bomb. The first section of the film focuses on the background of Willis’s work on the bomb, and solving the problem of how to attack the Ruhr Valley dams from the air. The second section of the film focuses on the ‘Dam Busters’ raid itself, with some riveting flight sequences featuring specially modified Lancaster Bombers. Here’s a great clip from the film with an unusual bit of problem solving:

We hope to see you all at Newhaven Fort!

Friday, April 12, 2013

Filmspot

A very glamorous weekend… in Eastbourne!

Posted: 11 Apr 2013 04:02 PM PDT

Team Filmspot had a brilliant time last weekend at the International Lawn Tennis Centre in Eastbourne. Thank you to all who came along – we hope you enjoyed the events!

We kicked off our weekend with a walk on the noir side, with Billy Wilder’s classic Sunset Boulevard.

Filmspot helpers, Angie and Kathleen, with Rachel, Co-Director, and Oscar

The audience, gripped by William Holden in ‘Sunset Boulevard’!

…Rob and Rachel, Co-Directors of Filmspot, getting into the Hollywood spirit!

On Saturday afternoon, we all had a great time, bringing a bit of technicolor fun to the Tennis Centre, with ‘Singin’ in the Rain’! (all photographs of our ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ event are by our wonderful roving photographer, Lukas Rohulan!)

Rachel and Angie, all set and ready for ‘Singin’ in the Rain’!

Lukas (L), our roving photographer for the occasion, and Rob made a rather sophisticated looking double act…

Luckily, there was no rain to sing in… but that didn’t stop us donning our rain macs and grabbing our brollies!

Carmen, from the Lewes Junior Film Club, helped us out. ushering for the afternoon.

Angie, gave all the visitors a warm welcome to the Tennis Centre…

The audience settling in for the beginning of ‘Singin’ in the Rain’

and… action!

What a whirl!!

It was great fun, it was lovely to meet so many film fans of all ages. We look forward to coming back, soon!

For all of you in Eastbourne who are looking for some more cinematic shenanigans, we have helped facilitate a drive in screening of ‘The Italian Job’ on Saturday 4th May, on Eastbourne seafront. Details can be found on the Eastbourne Borough Council website here

For our next full Filmspot event, we are returning to Newhaven Fort for a screening of ‘Dam Busters’ on 16 May. This is a free screening as part of Museums at Night, and it celebrates the 70th anniversary of the famous raid. More details on that soon!

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Thursday, October 31, 2013

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Sunday, October 13, 2013

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Monday, October 7, 2013

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Sunday, September 29, 2013

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Wednesday, August 14, 2013

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Wednesday, June 19, 2013

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Saturday, June 1, 2013

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Sunday, May 12, 2013

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Friday, April 12, 2013

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