the flicker club film recommendation:
The Incredible Shrinking Man was made in 1957, directed by Jack Arnold with a cast of unfamiliar names. The screenplay is by Richard Matherson, who was the author of some very inventive Pulp / Sci Fi novels and short stories, a great many of which have been adapted, for better or worse, by Hollywood, including Steven Speilberg's excellent 'Duel' and Charlton Houston's 'Omega Man', possibly the best stab at the source novel 'I am Legend' so far.
The Incredible Shrinking Man is really rather incredible. You would be hard pushed to find a movie with a bolder, or more unique, climax. Along the way you are also treated to an extraordinary story of alienation, isolation, a rampaging spider and a fiendlishly clever respite in a doll's house.
What's not to like? It's incredibly incredible.
the flicker club quotation:
"Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret" Ambrose Bierce
the flicker club art exhibition recommendation:
The Surreal House is enchanting, playful and sometimes disquieting – the direct opposite of the rational, functional Modernist house. In an installation by acclaimed young architects Carmody Groarke, the exhibition takes the form of an extraordinary surreal house. You'll walk through a labyrinth of intimate chambers representing different rooms including the bathroom, toilet, bedroom, salon, nursery and cellar. Bringing together more than 150 works, the exhibition reveals the influence that surrealism has had on contemporary artists, architects and filmmakers.
Featured artists include Salvador Dalí, Marcel Duchamp, Alberto Giacometti, Edward Hopper, Louise Bourgeois, Sarah Lucas, Jean Cocteau and Rem Koolhaas. Until 12 Sep
this week flicker club icon:
he's so funny...
the flicker club gift guide:
On a balmy summer evening, what better to adorn your al fresco table than these delightful yet, ever so slightly, macabre embroidered vintage napkins:
Set of four: scorpion beetle, dragonfly, beetle and flies
REVIEWS:
Hay-on-Wye Festival 2010
When I read in my favourite magazine that if the Hay Festival were a poem, it would be an epic like "Paradise Lost" - a tale of towering ambition drawing its references from the four corners of the earth, I thought...Hey up, where do I sign... It's one of the World's biggest book festivals and yet manages to create the ambiance of a friendly, intimate gathering.
The Hay Festival lasts eleven days and is full of writers, comedians and musicians that have the capacity to change our lives, to share new visions of the world and do that incredibly sexy thing...to renew our sense of wonder. If that wasn't enough it takes place in the staggering beauty of the Brecon Beacons National Park, has flushing toilets and food tents with jugs of wild flowers and chandeliers!
It caters for all ages. I saw three, sometimes four generations of the same family sitting on the grass together or enjoying the likes of Philip Pullman, Hilary Mantel, Ross Noble...I could go on... And if you fancy a shoe shuffle til the wee hours there is always 'Sound of the Baskervilles' at Baskerville Hall hosting 'Balkan Beats' in the form of Charo and DJ Kobayashi.
The West Indian Cricketer Michael Holding talking about his book "No Holding Back"
On the Hay Festivals Home page it reads "Lets talk of dreams, of stories and imagination. Lets explore the writer's realm of truths and language and of private, secret worlds..."
It does exactly what it says on the tin...
Daisy for the flicker club
Shunt: The Electric Hotel
The Electric Hotel is a uniquely designed outdoor spectacle created by David Rosenberg (director and co-founder of Shunt), choreographed by Frauke Requardt, designed by Borkur Jonsson and with composition and sound design by Ben and Max Ringham.
As the flicker club arrived, the four-storied, glass fronted Electric Hotel stood before us in semi darkness, outlined against the setting sun of a warm June day. Situated in front of the dramatic and unusual Victorian ironwork Gas Holder behind Kings Cross station, we knew immediately that we were about to witness something out of the ordinary...
We were each given a pair of headphones to wear throughout the piece which guided us through with exaggerated sounds, a little like the soundtrack of a Jacques Tati film and placed us in the position of an isolated voyeur.
The piece was structured on a loop, like a memory repeated and brought to life through the power of dance, light and sound. Sometimes beautiful, sometimes eldritch. Total Theatre.
We followed the lives of seven characters, whose links became clearer with each repetition. A piercing scream stopped each character in their tracks and signified the end of one loop and the beginning of the next...
It reminded me of David Lynch's 'Mulholland Drive'. A dark, sexy, confusing tale that you just have to surrender to...so we did.
Daisy for the flicker club
The Tilt Collective
Off down Shoreditch innit, Crikey, it's only our Shiv exhibiting some of her magic at Tilt 2, which happens to be the second of three pop up exhibitions from The TILT Collective dontcha know. And damn fine it was too.
There were drinks a plenty, some very dodgy Studio54 prints and Hoxtons finest, all turned out in their signature rolled up chinos and buzz cuts,those kids are just too too cool. We bumped drinks with flicker club collaborator Dan Davis and his gloriously pregnant girl Claudia, and to round off the evening we snatched a few words with everyones favourite 'Goldsmiths But is it Art?' star Blue Curry, some people just don't get how exhausting things are for him. Good work Shiv, we have your Best in Show Rosette awaiting your collection.
Bring on Tilt 3, Your Summer needs You. Did I mention Juliette's shoes? You can see them here but please be aware that she did have to ask if they were F*** Me Pumps...
Then onto The Truman Brewery no less where friends of the flicker club Bakul Patki and Damon Barr were launching Urban Starlite, a Drive In film extravaganza. YIKES..... Why aren't we doing an extravaganza? Patience flickers, Patience. Your time will come. So here's the haps. Urban Starlite took over the parking lot at The Truman on the weekend of 3rd & 4th of July screened that paean to weepy scmultz Dirty Dancing and the groundbreaking neo realism masterpiece Grease. What more could you ask for on a hot summers night. Rollerskating Cocktail Waitresses? You got 'em you greedy little filmies. If the launch party was anything to go by you are in for a treat of a night. Just remember, nobody puts flicker in the corner.
Stephen for the flicker club
Press Night: Comedy of Errors at The Regents Park Open Air
There can be fewer things lovelier than sitting on a balmy summers evening with Ms. Josephine Butler, a glass of bubbles and a big bowl of peanuts with the sweet smell of jasmin drifting through the air and this is what the lucky flicker club had the pleasure of doing on Thursday for the press night of Comedy of Errors at The Regents Park Open Air Theatre.
A packed theatre with the audience spilling onto the grassy banks enjoyed the 1940's Casablanca inspired production with a very strong cast. The bright set was reminiscent of an advent calender with one door closing as another opened, adding to the, well, comedy of errors really.
We were entertained with some delightful comedic moments, cabaret, beautiful verse speaking (a special mention must go to Christopher Ravenscroft & Richard Warrick) and even a surprise appearance by a gorilla, which although I'll have to check my well thumbed Billy Shakespeare, I'm sure didn't appear in the original..
As the night wore on, the fairy lights shone through the trees, looking like firefly's, we drifted towards the after show party, past the bunting and the rose garden towards a laden table of more bubbles and are reminded just how lucky we are to be in London in the Summertime.
Juliette for the flicker club
Press Night: La Bete
So, here we are, all set to watch one of our favourite actors and treasured guest and patron of the flicker club, Mr. Mark Rylance, at the press night of David Hirson's La Bête, directed by Matthew Warchus at The Comedy Theatre.
Mary Rylance & David Hyde Pierce
Alongside Mark was the fabulous and very charismatic David Hyde Pierce and everyones favourite, Ms. Joanna Lumley, who we've all been a little bit in love with since watching her documentary about the Northern Lights a couple of years ago..
From the moment the curtain rises to find a silhouette of a party scene with Greta Lee holding the stage in front, we find every single moment of this play could be frozen and it would make the most beautiful picture, the staging, delivery and imagination behind this production is sublime and the writing, well goodness me, there is on section where Mr. Rylance does not stop talking for 20 pages and it is an absolute pleasure watching this artist at work. Equally brilliant is Mr. Hyde Pierce who holds the stage whilst looking aghast and barely uttering a single word during this time.
Leaving the theatre still reeling from the brilliance of what we had just seen and feeling just a little bit shaky, we tottered off to Cafe De Paris for cocktails and canapes and a hobnob with the cast and crew.
Mary Rylance, Daisy Beaumont & Matthew Warchus
Thank you to Matthew Warchus for allowing us to come and experience such a wonderful piece of theatre, we are so very thrilled to have seen it.
Juliette for the flicker club
Press Night: Ghost Stories
"Why on earth would you deliberately want to scare yourself"? asks the narrator of Ghost Stories, the new play at the Duke of York's Theatre. A question you might want to ask yourself prior to buying a ticket to this hair-raising spook fest.
Andy Nyman, co-writer and co-director of the show may be familiar to some of you from the excellent TV drama, dead Set, in which the guests of Big brother become zombies and go on a flesh eating rampage, or perhaps you will know his work as the long time collaborator with Derren Brown, or from the horror movie Severance.
Andy has now been playing with our heads and trying to make us jump for years now and he has become a master at the art.
As happens at the curtain call of the dear old Mousetrap, the audience are entreated not to give away the plot of Ghost Stories. As tempting as it is, we shall play by the rules.
Let's just sat that, as soon as you enter the theatre and long before you take your seat, an air of eeriness prevails. This is pure Grand Guignol Theatre. It is a well oiled, fiendishly constructed, engine designed solely to scare the willies out of you.
You get three ghost stories within the piece but it is the story that frames these, that encompasses them, that lingers long after the bow, when you're tucked up in bed in the darkness. Then the true horror of the piece begins to prickle.
Were they still with us, M.R. James, H.P. Lovecraft and even the blessed Mr. Poe would be queuing for front row seats.
As you are still alive you have no excuse. So, book now for a deliciously sleepness night.
Clive for the flicker club
Jaws Claws:
A big thanks to Dominic Wells & Kat Brown from The Times for our lovely mention in their '60 Things to do this Summer". The divine Kat is so excited about our next screening of that classic Summer Blockbuster, Jaws, she's had her nails done. And when I say done, I mean, really done...
We're off to Latitude now and will be back next week with more flickering and getting ready for our screening and very special event of Jaws on Sunday July, 25th @ 3.30pm. There are just a few tickets left which you can book here.
Be seeing you.
Lots of love,
