The Cinema Museum - Call Her Savage (1932), Rebecca (1940), Kennington Bioscope, Rare Cinema Europe, Exploding Cinema, French Sundae

 

Call Her Savage (1932) March 19th Rebecca (1940) March 20th Kennington Bioscope March 23rd Rare Cinema Europe March 25th  Exploding Cinema March 26th  French Sundae March 27th Women & Cocaine present; Call Her Savage (1932), Saturday March 19th @ 7:30pm Join us for an exclusive 16MM archive screening of a fascinatingly lurid tale of extra-marital affairs, prostitution and melodrama. In one of her very rare talkies, Clara Bow, at full throttle speed, plays Nasa Springer. Nasa is a ‘half-breed’ Indian girl who marries just to spite her father, leading her down the usual thrilling pre-Code path of illegitimate birth and prostitution. She HAS to understand why she is so ‘Wild and Untamable’. Call Her Savage is also one of the earliest Hollywood films to feature a gay character and a scene in a gay bar. In 1932, Fox Studios lured 26 year old former silent movie queen Clara “It Girl” Bow back for a “comeback” with a two-picture deal, in what would turn out to be the final two films of her career. She later claimed that she returned to Hollywood “for the sole purpose of making enough money to stay out of it.” One of those last two films is Call Her Savage and for your delight this evening we have dusted off a 16mm print from the Museum’s archives. Come join us in this beautifully historic Grade II listed venue for a discussion, then screening of the film and our exclusive raffle! “My father warned me about men & booze, but he never mentioned a word about women & cocaine” – Tallulah Bankhead. Reserved tickets are £9.45 - click below to purchase from Eventbrite. Tickets will also be available on the door on the night. Concessions available on the door with valid ID. Phone bookings for this event cannot be made via the Cinema Museum. Buy Now Vito Project LGBTQ+ Film Club presents; Rebecca (1940), Sunday March 20th @ 6pm The Cinema Museum welcomes the return of The Vito Project LGBTQ+ Film Club, a series of regular screenings providing different generations of LGBTQ+ people and allies an alternative safe space to socialise, watch great films and share ideas. The Vito Project is proud to present its new 2022 Spring season: Re-Opening the Celluloid Closet, a series of screenings exploring the challenging and yet endlessly fascinating ways that classic Hollywood films depicted queer representation under the restraints of the infamous Hays Code. This was a set of self-regulating guidelines dictating what was deemed unacceptable in American movies from 1934-1968 – and homosexuality was on the “highly objectionable” list! Despite this, filmmakers took on the creative challenge to show what couldn’t be shown through veiled subtexts and exploitation. The season season kicks off with a screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 multi–Oscar Winning classic Rebecca (1940), which is being shown on a rare 35mm print! Based on Daphne du Maurier’s novel, this popular classic tells the story of a young woman (Joan Fontaine) who marries the debonair widower Maxim De Winter (Laurence Olivier) only to find out that she must live in the shadow of his former wife, Rebecca, who died mysteriously several years earlier. Not only does the young wife have to come to grips with the terrible secret of her handsome, cold husband, she must also deal with the jealous housekeeper Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson), whose obsession with the late Rebecca provides some of cinema’s most notorious depictions of suppressed queer desire. Despite many remakes for film and TV, this arguably remains the most hauntingly unforgettable return to Mandalay. The film will be followed by a conversation about the context of its production and the content of the movie. Advance tickets are £8 and can either be purchased via Ticketlab or direct from the Museum by calling 020 7840 2200 during office hours. Kennington Bioscope presents; Midnight Molly (1925) & The Primrose Path (1925), Wednesday March 23rd @ 7:30pm Midnight Molly (1925) is directed by Lloyd Ingraham and stars Evelyn Brent, John T. Dillon and Bruce Gordon. ‘Midnight Molly’ (Evelyn Brent) is hit by a car while evading the police, and is mistakenly identified as the wife of John Warren, candidate for mayor, whom she resembles. The real Mrs Warren has run off with another man, George Calvin, and John Warren is happy to recognise Molly as his wife. Evelyn Brent was at the height of her career in silent films, the dark-haired, aquiline Evelyn became a matinee idol with performances as exotic temptresses and vamps, particularly in films by director Josef von Sternberg. She was notable as the gangster’s moll, Feathers, in Underworld (1927) (the proverbial ‘tough broad with the heart of gold’); and as a self-sacrificing Russian girl in love with an exiled Czarist general (Emil Janning) in The Last Command (1928). We are screening a 35mm archive print, courtesy of the BFI. The Primrose Path (1925), directed by Harry O. Hoyt, stars Clara Bow as a cabaret dancer in love with an alcoholic playboy, and features illegal gambling, organised crime, diamond smuggling, and plenty of melodrama. Not considered one of her greatest films, but anything with Clara Bow in is always worth watching. We showed this little-known film on 16mm, courtesy of the Cinema Museum’s own collection, back in 2016, but with MoMA in New York screening it (in Jan/Feb 2022) as part of their To Save and Project series, we thought it’d be a great opportunity to run it again on our side of the pond. Find out more here. Tickets are £7, but eats are limited.  To avoid disappointment, please request an invitation using the email kenbioscope@gmail.com. Rare Cinema Europe presents; Les Perles De La Couronne (The Pearls of The Crown) 1937, Friday March 25th @ 7:30pm A chance to see a selection of rarely screened fine European films. Les Perles de la couronne (The Pearls of the Crown), (France / 1937 /118 mins). Directed by Sacha Guitry and starring Sacha Guitry, Jacqueline Delubac and Lyn Harding. This frothy French concoction finds writer/director Sacha Guitry playing no less than four roles. Tracing the history of seven valuable pearls of the English Crown from the time of Henry VIII of England to the present day (1937), writer Jean Martin (Sacha Guitry) attempts to track down three of the missing pearls by tracing their previous owners, with events seen in flashback, involving Napoleon, King Henry VIII and Elizabeth I of England amongst others. Guitry is supported by a stella cast of international actors who, innovatively, speak their own language. Among the many cameo appearances are Arletty (outrageously blacked up as the Queen of Abyssinia), Jean-Louis Barrault as Young Bonaparte, Jacqueline Delubac as both Mary Queen of Scots and Empress Josephine, Ermete Zacconi as a crafty Pope Clement VII, and Lyn Harding energetically channelling Charles Laughton as Henry VIII. The impressive sets and costumes, photographed by cinematographer Jules Kruger (best known for Abel Gance’s Napoleon), help make The Pearls of the Crown one of Guitry’s finest works. Advance tickets are £8 - click below to purchase from Ticketlab or call 020 7840 2200 during office hours to purchase direct from the Museum. Buy Now Exploding Cinema, Saturday March 26th @ 7:30pm Immerse yourselves in the fantastic minutiae of film, where the past meets the future within a kaleidoscope of imagery. Now in its 30th year, the Exploding Cinema presents for your entertainment, its latest programme of fresh, vital, disease-free independent short films submitted by local & international filmmakers. Advanced tickets are £7 and can be purchased from Ticketlab.  Alternatively, you can also buy on the door or call 020 7840 2200 during office hours to purchase direct from the Museum. French Sundae presents; La Keremesse Heroique (1935), Sunday March 27th @ 2:30pm La Kermesse Héroique (1935), also known as Carnival in Flanders, is one of the great French films of the Thirties. A small town in 17th century Flanders anticipates the invasion of Spanish army. Resist or appease? Their cunning plan proves a surprise to everyone. Jacques Feyder’s award-winning comedy appears here in a newly restored version. More about the film. Each film is accompanied by an introductory illustrated talk by Jon Davies, Tutor in French Cinema at Morley College, who will be talking about the French popular cinema of the Thirties. Advance tickets are £8 - click below to purchase from Ticketlab, or call 020 7840 2200 to purchase direct from the Museum during office hours. Buy Now