The Surreal Film House

June 11 - July 22, 2010

at the Barbican

  Terry Gilliam

THE DIRECTORSPECTIVE: TERRY GILLIAM – Friday 11 to Monday 14 June
Terry Gilliam, one of the great maverick directors of both British and American cinema is famous from his strikingly idiosyncratic style.

Friday 11 June
6.00pm – Brazil (15) (UK 1985 Dir. Terry Gilliam 132 min)
Brazil is a surrealistic nightmare vision of a ‘perfect’ future where technology reigns supreme. Co-written by Gilliam with Tom Stoppard and Charles McKeown, and starring Jonathan Pryce and Robert De Niro.

Sunday 13 June
6.00pm – The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (PG) (UK 1988 Dir. Terry Gilliam 126 min). With lavish design and cinematography, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen was critically praised and nominated for four Oscars. Gilliam’s astounding visual imagination runs riot as Baron Munchausen and a young girl travel to the moon, fall into the belching Mt. Etna and are swallowed by a monster fish.

Monday 14 June
6.00pm – Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (18) (US 1998 Dir. Terry Gilliam 119 min)Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Gilliam’s adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson’s 1971 cult book emerges as a brilliant, funny satire about the death of the ‘60s and the very soul of American dementia.

8.45pm – The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus (12A) (France/Canada/UK 2009 Dir. Terry Gilliam 122 min)?Starring Heath Ledger in his last role, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus has all the incomparable quirkiness, dry humour and attention to visual detail of the very finest Gilliam fare.

THE SURREAL FILM HOUSE
Friday 11 June to Thursday 22 July
The Surreal Film House explores the myriad trails of surrealist thought by visionary filmmakers that both preceded and followed the two Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí collaborations of the late 20s/early 30s, Un Chien Andalou and L'âge d'or.

Friday 11 June
8.45pm –L’âge d’or (15) (France/Spain 1930 Dir. Luis Buñuel 63 min)
Scabrous, sinister and strangely poignant, Buñuel and Dali’s second collaboration L’Age d’or remains perhaps the cinema’s greatest ode to surrealism.
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Un Chien Andalou (15) (France 1928 Dir. Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dalí 17 min) Introduced by author and surreal film specialist Elza Adamowicz (2)
Famously opening with a close-up of a girl’s eye with a razor slicing slowly across it, Un Chien Andalou’s dreamlike cine-poem on sex, death and decay has prompted countless readings of its mysteries.

Saturday 12 June
6.00pm – Blood of a Poet (Le Sang d’un Poète) (PG) (France 1930 Dir. Jean Cocteau 55 min)
Cocteau’s enigmatic first feature Blood of a Poet is a fascinatingly surrealist tour-de-force, exploring the ‘inner self’ of the poet within a series of imaginary events.
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Meshes of the Afternoon (PG) (US 1943 Dir. Maya Deren 18 min)
In Maya Deren’s landmark film Meshes of the Afternoon, a woman is caught in a web of dream events.

8 .45pm – Dreams that Money Can Buy (12A) (US 1947 Dir. Hans Richter 99 min)?Dadaist Hans Richter’s experimental film Dreams that Money Can Buy focuses on a man who sees his mind unfolding when looking at himself in a mirror. Each of the seven dream sequences are envisioned by a leading avant-garde artist, including Max Ernst and Marcel Duchamp.

Sunday 13 June
8.45pm – Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bête) (PG) (France 1946 Dir. Jean Cocteau 93 min)
Jean Cocteau’s magical, achingly beautiful fantasy Beauty and the Beast is an enchanting fable and one of the masterpieces of world cinema, enriched by Georges Auric’s gorgeous score. With Jean Marais. In French with English subtitles

Wednesday 16 June
6.00pm – Belle de Jour (18) (France/Italy 1967 Dir. Luis Buñuel 100 min)?Buñuel’s winner of the 1968 Venice Film Festival stars Catherine Deneuve as the eponymous Belle de Jour. In French with English subtitles

8.45pm – The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (15) (France 1972 Dir. Luis Buñuel 105 min) The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie is a hilarious satire on ‘bourgeois’ codes and manners. A group of wealthy middle class friends gather at a country house, but their host is strangely absent, and all their attempts to dine together are mysteriously frustrated. In French and Spanish with English subtitles

Thursday 17 June
6.00pm – The Masque of the Red Death (15) (UK 1963 Dir. Roger Corman 84 min)The Masque of the Red Death is Roger Corman’s stylish adaptation of Poe’s tale about evil Prince Prospero, who plots terror and mayhem as the Plague ravages the countryside. Beautifully photographed by Nicolas Roeg and featuring Vincent Price.

Sunday 18 July
6.15pm – Blue Velvet (18) (US 1986 Dir. David Lynch 120 min)
Earning a second Best Director Academy Award nomination for visionary filmmaker David Lynch, Blue Velvet represents a seminal contribution to the genre of surrealist film. When a man finds a severed ear in a field, his investigations reveal a sinister underworld lurking beneath the respectable surface of his home town. Featuring Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper, Laura Dern and Kyle Machlachlan.

8.30pm – Eraserhead (15) (US 1976 Dir. David Lynch 90 min)
David Lynch's entrancing first feature Eraserhead is a grainy surrealist fantasy that mixes horror and science fiction in the bizarre story of a social misfit (John Nance) who finds himself the father of a half-human monster. Lynch’s visually arresting work has continued to simultaneously seduce and repel audiences since its release.

Monday 19 July
8.45pm – Pan’s Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno) (15) (Mexico/Spain/US 2006 Dir. Guillermo del Toro 119 min)
Weaving together a fantastical labyrinthine world and the harsh reality of Franco’s regime, Pan’s Labyrinth is a potent Spanish myth depicting the horror of fascism. Having moved to a remote hamlet, Ofelia discovers a dark labyrinth in her new garden. Starring Mirabel Verdú (Y tu mamá también), Sergi Lopez (Dirty Pretty Things) and Ivana Baquero (Fragile). In Spanish with English subtitles

Thursday 22 July
6pm – Alice in Wonderland 3D (PG) (US 2010 Dir. Tim Burton 108 min)
In Alice in Wonderland, Tim Burton works his own brand of surrealist magic on Lewis Carroll’s classic books - this time it’s a 19-year-old Alice who follows the white rabbit into Wonderland again. Burton’s new trip into the world of the Red Queen, Tweedledee and Tweedledum and the Cheshire Cat is an imaginative, visionary adventure. With Helena Bonham Carter, Johnny Depp, Alan Rickman, Christopher Lee and Ann Hathaway.

THE SURREAL SILENT FILM HOUSE – Saturday 12 to Sunday 13 June
Saturday 12 June
11.00am – Playing House with Buster Keaton (U) (US 1920-21 Dirs. Edward F. Cline & Buster Keaton, 60 min.) with live piano accompaniment by John Sweeney
Surreal House for kids includes Keaton classics One Week, The Scarecrow and The Haunted House.

Part of Family Film Club, no unaccompanied adults or children. Movie Trolley activities from 10:30am

2.00pm – The Mysteries of the Chateaux of Dice (12A) (France 1929 Dir. Man Ray 29 min) with live piano accompaniment by Stephen Horne

The Mysteries of the Chateaux of Dice , the most well known of surrealist artist Man Ray’s film works, is an evocative poem exploring the meaning of chance.
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Architectures d’Aujourd’hui (France 1930 Dir. Pierre Chenal / Le Corbusier
11 min)

Architectures d’Aujourd’hui explores the themes that emerged in New French architecture.
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Entr’acte (France 1924 Dir. René Clair 16 min) Clair’s celebration of motion

Entr’acte is a who’s who of the Dada movement in Paris at the time.

4.00pm – The Smiling Madame Beudet (La Souriante Madame Beudet) (PG) (France 1922 Dir. Germaine Dulac 35 min) with live piano accompaniment by Lola Perrin

The Smiling Madame Beudet is the first explicitly feminist film, about a woman, crushed by an oppressive marriage, finding momentary freedom in fantasy.
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The Seashell and the Clergyman (La Coquille et le Clergyman) (France 1928 Dir. Germaine Dulac 41 min)
The story of a clergyman who struggles against his lustful visions, The Seashell and the Clergyman is Germaine Dulac’s most renowned work, and it is regarded as the first surrealist film.

Sunday 13 June
4.00pm – The Fall of the House of Usher (La Chute de la Maison Usher) (PG) (France 1928 Dir. Jean Epstein 63 min) with live piano accompaniment by the Southwell Collective

The Fall of the House of Usher is Jean Epstein’s mesmerising adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s famous story. Assisted by a young Luis Buñuel, Epstein used a variety of techniques to create a dreamy, chilling, surreal masterpiece.
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Ghosts Before Breakfast (Vormittagsspuk) (Germany 1928 Dir. Hans Richter 6 min)

Painter and avant-garde filmmaker Hans Richter uses household objects to tell a funny story of rebellion against the daily routine. The cast includes composers Paul Hindemith and Darius Milhaud, and Richter himself.

FREUD’S FILM HOUSE: FREUD MUSEUM – Tuesday 6 & Wednesday 7 July
7.00pm – Rebecca (UK 1940 Dir. Alfred Hitchcock 132 min) introduced by psychoanalyst and author Dr Andrea Sabbadini (Tuesday) and Justine Picardie, fashion editor and author of Daphne (Wednesday)
Barbican Film presents a special off-site screening at Freud's House as part of Surreal House. A dark secret lurks down the road to Manderley for troubled lovers Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine, in Hitchcock's Oscar-winning adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's classic thriller.

Barbican Box Office: 0845 120 7527

Ticket prices:

Book online and save up to £2 off every ticket! Standard: £7.50 online (£9.50 full price)
Barbican Members: £6.50 online (£7.50 full price)
Concessions : £7.50
Under 15: £4.50
Monday Madness: all tickets £5.50

erasing david



credit: Jack Barner

Presented by Green Lions Films and The Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation

where to see it:

Nationwide (UK) Theatrical release:

Opening: April 29, 2010
Erasing David is showing in: Aberdeen - The Belmont Picturehouse, Bath - Little Theatre Cinema, Brighton - Duke Of Yorks, Cambridge - Cambridge Picturehouse, Edinburgh - Cameo Picturehouse, Exeter - Picturehouse, Henley-On-Thames - Regal Picturehouse, Islington - Screen on The Green, Lancaster - The Dukes Cinema, Liverpool - FACT, London - Brixton Ritzy Picturehouse, London - The Lexi Cinema Kensal Rise, London - Greenwich Picturehouse, London - Stratford Picturehouse, London - Notting Hill Gate, Newcastle - Tyneside Cinema, Norwich - Cinema City, Oxford - Phoenix Pitcturehouse, Prestatyn - The Scala, Southampton - Harbour Lights Picturehouse, Stamford - Arts Centre, Straford-upon-Avon - Stratford Picturehouse, Winchester - The Screen, York - Picturehouse

UK TV Broadcast: Channel 4 (More4), Tuesday 4th May 2010, 10pm

Self-imposed exile is a strange choice for anyone – but a particularly odd decision for a family man with a young daughter and a pregnant wife.

Despite what might seem an apparent conflict of interest, David Bond decided to abandon his family and go on the run for a period of a month to make a point:  Could he disappear and stay invisible for a period of time without being found by a couple of very amiable private investigators from Cerberus Investigations.

Bond did all the sensible things as he set out to face the challenge. He did his best to remove himself from social networking sites (can you ever really do that?); rarely used his mobile phone when he was on the run; and paid cash.   Ultimately the investigators tracked him down when the NHS disclosed some information about an appointment that his wife was attending at a maternity clinic; but the amateur Bond had proved something of a challenge for the experts.

Although some might see the whole process as a series of ‘bad timing’ choices, David Bond seemed obsessively motivated to expose this ‘new media, full disclosure, high-tech society’ that we live in as a threat to our privacy - despite family commitments.

Erasing David develops into a ‘road movie’ thriller with an increasingly paranoid protagonist fearing that he might be caught as he filmed himself on the run. 

The private investigators took this unpaid movie gig as a serious challenge and armed with just the name of their target, “Bond. David Bond”, they eventually tracked him down by accessing what some might believe to be secure and/or private personal information.

This is an entertaining thriller in a drama/doc format; although perhaps an obvious weakness is that he knows he is being chased and that the worst thing that can happen is that is caught and happily returns to his family life.

What Erasing David does is highlight the many risks that can occur in our information-driven society.  Curiously, the Q&A with the film-makers after the screening clearly illustrated that the response from the invited audience varied across the  spectrum - from the fearful, to the fearless and indifferent.  Give up your personal information and you may run the risk of becoming a target.  Bond did it; but then the original Bond always survived at the end of this movies and came up smelling of roses…… as did our hero, David!

Erasing David is entertaining and fun and shows the darker side of a world of data ‘espionage' that can only increase in today’s society.  A sequel is the obvious ending for this film and I look forward to seeing Bond’s identity stolen and how he manages to extricate himself from the world of digital crime.

Invictus may not be a great movie but it does share a very powerful message:  Sport can unify a community as well as a nation.

In the nineteen-nineties Nelson Mandela seized the opportunity to unify black and white South Africa through the 'power' of sport.  At the time, little did he realize just how influential sport could be!

After attending a game of the Springboks, the country's rugby union team, it became clear that sport was a voice for the disunited as well as the united; and as blacks in the stadium cheered against their home squad, Mandela recognized while that sport was not a level playing in South Africa it had the potential to be a united force.

While the Springboks represented prejudice and apartheid, South Africa's unification seemed like a lost cause.   Mandela chose  the 1995 Rugby World Cup as his vehicle to bring together a divided nation and Invictus tells the story of the role of sport as a 'role model'.

In one year Mandela not only convinced the South African Rugby Board to keep the Springbok team, name and colours; he also meet with the Springboks' captain.  And although Mandela never articulated the true substance of the meeting to François Pienaar (Matt Damon), Pienaar understood its meaning: to challenge the Springboks to gain the support of black South Africans and win the upcoming World Cup.

Mandela also shared with Pienaar a poem, Invictus, that had been his inspiration during his time in prison, helping him to "stand when all he wanted to do was lie down".

The Springboks team captain,and his team - all white with one exception - Chester Williams - were persuaded by Mandela to endeavour to represent a post-apartheid South Africa; and in so doing they took the championship in the most unexpected, and yet heroic fashion, winning 15-12 in the final against the expected firm favorites, the All Blacks.

Supported by a crowd of 62,000, Morgan Freeman plays a convincing Mandela.  And while many of his scenes are inspirational and in the spirit of organizations such as Fifa and the IOC; the rugby action is often unconvincing and the movie would have been better served by actual footage.

Despite its shortcomings, Invictus is a worthy illustration of how sports unifies the world and that message is worth its weight in gold medals.