the flicker club: Edgar Allan Poe

After three month's preparation, we finally let loose our day long tribute to Edgar Allan Poe.

The morning saw the arrival of two large vehicles. In the first was a pop up screen and projector provided by our friends at Nomad for the various films we intended to show during the day and, in the other, a precious cargo of Poe memorabilia provided by The Edgar Allan Poe Society.

The Poe collection and screen were all installed in the lovely Stoke Newington Town Hall. The screen filled the stage and the collection ran the length of the hall. There were film posters, first edition books, original daguerreotypes and all manner of gothic paraphernalia.

We opened for business with a lively, funny and informative panel discussion about the life, work and influence of Edgar Poe.

© Joel Chant

Barry Forshaw was master of ceremonies and we were extremely fortunate to have such literary luminaries as Pat Cadigan, Christopher Fowler, Stephen Jones, Nicholas Royal and Kim Newman as our guest speakers.

© Joel Chant

Never before have we witnessed an hour long discussion about madness, murder and the macabre with so many laughs. Thank you to our delightful panel.

© Joel Chant

Then we screened the great Steven Berkoff's version of 'The Tell Tale Heart'. We had had the enormous pleasure of seeing Steven's one man show many times before but this rare screening of a show he recorded in South Africa was a unique experience. Every subtle nuance of Poe's text, all the horrific and comic potential are captured in this extraordinary performance.

After the screening, Steven stepped on stage to talk about the incredible understanding of psychology at the heart of Poe's work and how it was this aspect of Poe's genius that inspired and fed Steven's portrayal. This was a terrific insight into the imagination and creativity of a unique artist.

© Joel Chant

Steven Berkoff was doing the honours of unveiling our specially commissioned bust of Edgar Allan Poe.

We had planned a street closure at this point but our friends from Hackney Council were nowhere to be seen. Never mind, the hundreds of people gathered claimed the road for themselves and even the delayed motorists entered into the spirit of the occasion, stepping out of their cars and cheering us on. The British public at its best collectively paying homage to an American. Who'd have thought it?

The bust was revealed, white stone glistening in the sunshine and huge applause all round. We all shared a little moment of history. Wouldn't Mr Poe have been delighted?

And then.. an evening screening of Roger Corman's 'The Masque of the Red Death' paid tribute not only to Poe but also to the film's star Vincent Price on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of his birth.

The screening was supported by an eerie collection of wraiths quoting fragments from the works of Edgar Allan Poe amidst the candle light. Thank you to the Carney Ville Players for providing the Spooks.

And a special thank you to Emma Molony for joining us on the night and creating a beautiful bespoke image for the evening, which you can see at the top of this page.

The night was rounded off nicely when our dear friend and supporter, The Right Honourable Sam Bain, agreed to be our treasured Patron. We Are Thrilled.

Special thanks go to:

Our literary panel:

Pat Cadigan, Barry Forshaw, Christopher Fowler, Stephen Jones, Kim Newman and Nicholas Royle

Steven Berkoff

The Carney Ville Players

Creative Partnership:

www.creativepartnership.co.uk

Green Tomato Cars:

www.greentomatocars.com

Stoke Newington Literary Festival

www.stokenewingtonliteraryfestival.com

The Edgar Allan Poe Society

www.edgarapoe.com

Penguin Classics

www.penguinclassics.co.uk

The Lexi presents The Nomad

www.whereisthenomad.com

Clout Communications

www.cloutcom.co.uk

Joel Chant

www.joelchant.com

Eirik Evjen

www.eirikevjen.com

Our treasured poster artist Emma Molony:

www.emmamolony.com

and our new flicker club patron, Mr. Sam Bain

Scrooge

www.emmamolony.com

In spite of the adverse weather conditions our Christmas flicker prevailed and we played to a lovely Lexi full house. Hoorah!

Admittedly, you can't go far wrong with a Christmas classic like 'Scrooge'. So a big, belated, THANK YOU to Alistair Sim. It wouldn't have been the same without you.

The entire nation could have enjoyed the film on Christmas Eve at 4.00pm. But, and it's a big BUT...

Only those intrepid travellers to the Christmas flicker were lucky enough to have the unique opportunity of listening to Mr. Tom Hollander's captivating narration of the opening chapter of Dicken's timeless classic. It was a fifteen minute piece that seemed to pass in half the time. We would have all been more than happy to put the film on hold and listen to Tom read the whole thing.

You know that you've found the perfect reader when you start visualising the narrator playing the central character. (We had that same feeling when Mark Rylance read 'The Night of the Hunter')

Now, we know Mr Hollander is far to young at present to play Mr Scrooge but, to hear him mutter 'Bah! Humbug' with such delicious contempt, it was not hard to imagine him challenging even the great Mr. Sim to a Scrooge Duel.

So, THANK YOU Tom.

Our artist for this event was our new hero Ms. Emma Molony who, not only, perfectly encapsulated the film in her perfect poster but, seized with the Christmas spirit, gave each and every member of the audience a specially designed Christmas gift in the form of a Christmas Tree bauble with Mr. Scrooge himself captured in the little orb as if playing out his tale of Christmas redemption for all of us, forever.

www.emmamolony.com

THANK YOU Emma.

And, as Tiny Tim said:

'God bless Us, Every One!'

Happy New Year xx

RA, Groucho's, Stephen Merchant & Viva the Dandy

the flicker club film recommendation:

La Cabina

Spanish TV movie, made in 1972. English title: The Telephone Box. I caught this on tele years ago as boy and chilled me to the bone but in a good way.. A simple story, a man gets trapped inside a telephone box but the way this simple scenario builds to its shocking conclusion has stayed with me ever since.

the flicker club quotation:

"Imagination is more important than knowledge" 

Einstein

the flicker club art exhibition recommendation:

The Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition is one of London's longest-running art shows, now in its 242nd year! It's also the world's largest open-submission contemporary art exhibition with around 11,000 works submitted annually. It covers painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture and architecture. 14 Jun-22 August. We were thrilled to go along to the private view on Friday night and you can read what we thought of it below... Pimms anyone?

the flicker club gift guide:

Father Day Present

This bespoke book stamp is the most lovely present for anyone who loves their books, but especially those hard-to-buy-for men. It’s a useful way to keep track of books when you lend them to friends too. 

Summer Exhibition 2010

How lucky are we? the flicker club have just returned from the private view of this years 'Summer Exhibition' at the Royal Academy. The 242th year no less..!

As always, there was an eclectic selection of work on display that vary from “I could do that,” ( A canvas with a vertical yellow and white stripe) through to “Why would they want to do that,” (A woman licking a dog) to “How did they do that?” (A silver back gorilla sculpted out of wire coat hangers). The exhibition is always an exhilarating and challenging experience.

I found myself walking dismissively past a David Hockney and then scurrying back to posture appreciatively when I overheard his name from a more informed patron. But it is those little discoveries you make for yourself, those paintings that just call to you from amidst the bombardment of images. “Wolf and Chandeliers” by Emma Molony captivated me. Sadly sold out before I could snap it up. Another striking image was Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” rendered in burnt black by Mark Alexander, so powerful.

In the room, an old canvas book entitled 'How to Understand Sculpture', delicately disemboweled and transformed into sculpture from its own shredded pages. Please go and make your own discoveries, be outraged, be delighted, whilst supping a glass of pimm’s.

For the first time ever I made a few investments. For the child in me, 'Life Under Water', a boy and a girl swimming among aquatic dreams by Quentin Blake, for the adult in me “The Sun Is But A Morning Star”, a lighted window shining out from an impossibly dark house at midnight by Ian Whittlesea and, unexpectedly, “For You” a lovely little etching of a dog by Tracey Emin.

I’m still crushed at missing that wolf though...

QI 2010 Quiz at The Groucho's

the flicker club do love a pub quiz so when we were invited to the QI 2010 Quiz at The Groucho's, well how could we resist?

It was the most ridiculously difficult, frustrating, and incredibly clever quiz wonderfully hosted by John Lloyd, (producer of Not The Nine O'Clock News, Spitting Image and Blackadder).

Snipbits we picked up, that we are just waiting for a opportune moment to drop into conversation include..

1: What unusual facial feature do Mona Lisa and a horse have in common?

No eyebrows..

2: Which country has no hotels?

Vatican City...

and lastly, what did Sir Henry Royce say on his deathbed?

"I wish I'd spent more time in the office".

Talking of which, I must get back to work.

Be seeing you,

Juliette for the flicker club

Stephen Merchant

Exclusive Comedy Gig

Tonight the flicker club found themselves in the front row of a immensely appreciate audience enjoying the one may show of Mr. Stephen Merchant. You know the one, the Stan Laurel to Ricky Gervias' Oliver Hardy. 

The writer and star of Extras and The Office, Merchant has taken to the stage, he says, for the "lucrative DVD sales", which he won't have to share with "you-know-who". His rapport with the audience was engaging, endearing and very clever, his insight into the life and times of a person above average height, (Merchant is 6'7"), set the stage for some wonderfully surreal humour and we particularly liked the Jehovah's Witness sketch and the indignity of a lanky man's life when on New Year in Trafalgar Square, a young woman tells Merchant that she and her boyfriend have arranged "to meet back at you".. 

The highlight for us though, was the encore, where Stephen invited two members of the audience to re-enact a school play he had written as a boy with hysterically earnest social vignettes entitled 'Choices'.

Jacksons Lane Theatre is a lovely little venue, opposite Highgate tube, well worth a trip as they have such a varied program throughout the year.. 

RIP Sebastian Horsley 

Thursday 17th June 2010

'a futile blast of colour in a futile colourless world'. At Damian Barr's literary salon he predicted he'd be dead by 45... Viva the Dandy! 

Soho will not be the same without you.