Filmspot

Posted: 03 Jul 2014 04:39 PM PDT

Hi Filmspotters -

I hope you’re all having as enjoyable a summer as we are here at Filmspot HQ. We’ve just completed our the first leg of our summer screenings, and we’re now looking forward to a quick regroup before our August events kick off!

We ran our first Deaf Community Cinema Night, in support of the Brighton Deaf Diaspora on 21 June. We screened the short film, ‘Retreat’ by deaf filmmaker, Ted Evans, followed by a screening of ‘Gravity’ – both films featured subtitles for the hard of hearing. We feel it was a great success, with some great feedback from attendees, including:

Nice valance with deaf film andHollywood – next time I way to watch a long deaf film!”

“I enjoyed very much and [am] looking for more!”

“An excellent idea to create a community event”

Both films were very popular, but judging from the positive response we got regarding Ted Evans riveting film, I think we will be on the look out for more works by deaf filmmakers in the future.

Nadia Nadarajah from the Deaf Diaspora group gave an introduction to the event.

Everybody in the audience really responded well to Ted Evans atmospheric short film, ‘Retreat’

Last Saturday evening, we tagged our latest CMPCA Pop Up Cinema Club event, with a screening of Ealing’s wonderfully dark Kind Hearts and Coronets. Again, the feedback from the event was great, including many people who admitted to never having seen the film before!

The audience settling in to watch ‘Kind Hearts and Coronets’

In honour of last weekend’s new Ealing comedy fans, we thought we would give you Filmspot’s top 5 Ealing Comedies, to get your collection started! Here goes…

5. Whisky Galore! [1949]
Alexander Mackendrick’s wonderfully subversive comedy based on the true story of the SS Politician which was wrecked in near the Hebrides. Boats from the nearby islands soon set upon the wreck, rescuing some 7,000 cases of Scotch from a watery end! This was filmed in the same year as Kind Hearts and includes the same rather dark, biting humour.

4. Hue and Cry [1947]
The first of the post-war Ealing Comedies, Hue and Cry takes its inspiration from the children’s story, Emil and the Detectives. The story follows a group of East End children who foil a gang of robbers, and director Charles Crichton uses the chaos of the bombed streets of London after the Blitz for fascinating backdrops.

3. The Ladykillers [1955]
Perhaps the best known of the Ealing comedies (unfortunately in part to the completely unnecessary and baffling 2004 remake), The Ladykillers boasts a brilliant cast, led by the ever-charismatic Alec Guinness, and a splendidly twisted sense of humour.

2. The Man in The White Suit [1951]
Mackendrick’s deliciously cynical The Man in The White Suit appears simple on the surface, but the film gives real pause for thought. Alec Guinness is at his understated best as an idealistic young inventor who creates an indestructible, dirt-repelling fabric the threatens to overturn the entire textiles industry. Mackendrick said of the film, “Each character in the story was intended as a caricature of a separate political attitude, covering the entire range from Communist, through official Trades Unionism, Romantic Individualism, Liberalism, Enlightened and Unenlightened Capitalism to Strong-arm Reaction. Even the central character was intended as a comic picture of Disinterested Science.”

1. Kind Hearts and Coronets
Of course, Kind Hearts had to feature – this black comedy started a run of what we now see as the ‘classic’ Ealing Comedies. Remembered for Alec Guinness’s incredible performance as all eight doomed members of the D’Ascoyne family, it is Dennis Price, who plays Louis Mazzini – the murderous, yet extremely elegant lead character, who holds the film together.

If we haven’t convinced you yet, here is the wonderful John Landis, singing its praises as only he can!