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

Hay-on-Wye, Shunt, Tilt, Urban Starlite, Comedy of Errors, La Bête, Ghost Stories

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 at Barbican Art Gallery                 

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... 

© Wah

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,

Survival International

On Sunday April 18th, friend, treasured reader and patron to the flicker club Mark Rylance hosted an event at the Apollo Theatre, to coincide with the publication of a new book, 'We Are One' and the flicker club were thrilled support him.

The event was a benefit to raise awareness and funds for the work of Survival International, an organization that supports the rights of tribal people across the world. It took place on the magnificent set of Jez Butterworth’s play ‘Jerusalem’ in which Mark played the Wiltshire shaman Jonny ‘Rooster’ Byron, poised on the brink of the final week of its impressive London life. On the stage in front of a tree-surrounded caravan in rural England , Mark and his special guests who included Gillian Anderson, Julie Christie, Mackenzie Crook, Sinead Cusack, Emilia Fox, Derek Jacobi, Danny Sapani, John Sessions, Sarah Moyles, Juliet Stevenson, Zoe Wanamaker , Bruce Dickinson, Jon Lord and Ian Paice gathered for a celebration of indigenous poetry and prose.

© Marc Cowan/Survival

The show begins with a chorus of folk from the Factory Theatre Company exhibiting the inhumane attitudes that exist towards to the ancient peoples of the world. From the tangle of these voices come the Caledonian tones of John Sessions reading the chilling report of the Spanish priest Bartolome de la Casas in 1542, who dared to question the ethics of slaughtering native people in the cause of building a New World.

This prologue generates a concentrated atmosphere into which Mark makes his entrance escorting Julie Christie to reverent silence rather than celebratory applause.

Wearing a T-shirt featuring Native Americans framed by the slogan ‘Homeland Security Fighting Terrorism Since 1492’, Mark lights a furnace centre stage with a blue gas flame lighter then places himself stage left to oversee proceedings. Ms Christie then takes us delicately through the poem ‘Change’ by Kathleen Raine as if carrying a night-light in a breeze.

Mark welcomes the gathering to the afternoon and explains how he has supported the work of Survival International for ten years now. ”As a child, I was enriched and inspired by the lives and stories of the world's tribal peoples. As an adult, I have also been inspired by the ceaseless work of the organization Survival International, and their movement to protect these tribes - from the rainforest of the Amazon to the icy reaches of the Arctic...To celebrate 40 years of Survival's work and enjoy the beauty of the spoken word from such rich oral cultures, I am gathering my friends from the theatre on the set of Jerusalem for a wonderful spring afternoon of eloquent recitals and stunning images”

The baton is passed to his Jerusalem side-kick Mackenzie Crook who shares the words of Davi Yanomami Kopenawa from a piece entitled ‘My home is the Amazon’.

© Marc Cowan/Survival

Of the contributions that followed, those of the elegant, anthropologist and poet, Hugh Brody have a particularly consciousness raising effect. He pronounces Inuit words, which are then followed by a conceptual explanation given by members of the Factory Gang. The myth about Eskimos having 91 words for snow becomes dispelled; they have no single word for snow. They use specific words for precise states of its transition.

Footage of women from a tribe of Kalahari Bushmen is played on the screen suspended above the stage and Mr. Brody highlights that they use nearly 145 different sounds in their speech compared to the 55 or so used in English. It becomes clear that the three key issues facing indigenous peoples today are to do with land rights, the trauma suffered through enforced relocation and the loss of language.

After a few more readings, the first half draws to close with Mark filling in for Kevin Spacey, by reading Laurens Van Der Post’s account of the Gana Bushman’s Fire Dance. This extraordinary ritual account ends with its participants collapsing in exhaustion just as the rains start to fall. It put me in mind of Jonny Byron’s raising of a Romany gypsy curse to invoke a tribe of ancient vengeful giants of Albion. Elemental stuff!

The lights fade leaving the gas flames flickering. In the half darkness, after a few moments silence, Mark raises some laughs when he says “I forgot about the fire when I asked for a blackout"

© Marc Cowan/Survival

During the interval under the quiet air traffic free skies of Shaftesbury avenue, we celebrate Juliet Stevenson’s impassioned reading of “What we went away for” by George Gosnell of the Nisga’a tribe from what is now Canada.

© Marc Cowan/Survival

It was something of a privilege to experience established figures of the British theatre donating their time and voices to the quiet but desperate plight of indigenous people. I was particularly taken by Edward Fox lending his artistry and mastery of the spoken word to the account of The Bushmen Relocated by the Kgagagadi Bushman, Mogetese Kaboikanyo. When the initial impact of a familiar figure made way for the simplicity of hearing words in a room, he became a channel for the intelligence and sensitivity of a human being living in threatened conditions whose situation might otherwise go unheard.

© Lewis Davids/Survival

As I report this I am aware of being a bit name-droppy but I think part of Mark’s achievement that afternoon was to use perceived celebrity to raise awareness of a cause that he has a deep commitment to. I think there is sometimes a suspicion of actors when they come out from behind their masks of comedy or tragedy. When popular artists adopt an extra-personal cause, they are often accused of being flakey ill-informed goody goodies. However the gesture of Marlon Brando sending Sacheen Littlefeather to collect his Oscar in protest of how Native Americans are treated by the film industry or Sting appearing with the leader of a tribe from the Amazonian Rain Forest on Wogan has the effect of raising consciousness. If it irritates, that is interesting and if it inspires, how wonderful to be inspired! The tradition of the actor as political activist is much stronger in America than in the UK. Maybe the frustration at politicised actors is an aspect of that disease, which particularly afflicts the English, of expecting people to know their place. Actors are subjects of their patrons who should not step out of line. But when someone who has a respect for tradition is given a popular platform in a democracy, why shouldn’t they raise questions that preoccupy their hearts and consciences? Mark’s calling as an artist is a far cry from that of the careerist who does not wish to upset the status quo. He has a love of words and a profound connection to the imaginative life of the human spirit that is nothing short of miraculous. He also has a talent for bringing communities together and throwing a great do.

After the Factory’s opening rendition of The Bastards by Barbara Nicholson of the Aboriginal Wadi Wadi tribe, the mood shifts to that of the village hall for a raffle draw. Imelda Staunton becomes an impromptu auctioneer when the man who is in possession of both winning tickets suggests raising more money by auctioning off the prizes. 

© Marc Cowan/Survival

There is a feeling of folk sitting around the camp-fire sharing intimate stories and revelations when a quartet of Emilia Fox, Juliet Stevenson, Gillian Anderson, Imelda Staunton continue the second half with the words of Orlando of the Makuxi tribe;

‘One day we saw a beetle flying over the top of our house. It was a very big beetle carrying a lot of people. But they were not like us, they were a different people. It was a very big beetle which had arrived to dominate us’

 © Lewis Davids/Survival

Derek Jacobi’s reading of that account of the ritual initiation in which Lame Deer becomes a man, prompts a round of applause which seems to mark a shift in the nature of the audience’s appreciation. This carries through the rest of the afternoon in the reaction to the wonderful vitality of James Wilby embodiment of the Gana Bushman !Ngate, inviting two cast members to complete his hunting party and celebrating how Tracking is like dancing and the audible humanity expressed at Zoe Wanamaker’s admission to losing her place whilst reading Arrivals by David Whyte, a beautiful reading…

As proceedings draw to their conclusion, Mark expresses gratitude to the audience for their attention, thanks the donor of the raffle prizes for his good nature and welcomes Mackenzie Crook back as ‘Davi’. After the reading of “In my Yanomami Land’ the stage is clear for a musical finale.

A group of musicians sporting acoustic instruments strike up a Celtic sounding refrain and are joined by a capering figure who comes bouncing on banging his ring finger on an elaborately carved log. This turns out to be Iron Maiden front man and commercial pilot Bruce Dickinson. His scorching arrangement of William Blake’s Jerusalem leads to a few audience members shooting to their feet, key amongst them are Daisy and Juliette, unwilling to restrain their inner rock chicks. As we make our way out on we all agree that the last number and indeed the whole afternoon has been a reflection of what theatre is all about; the finding of an expression of pure joy despite the human struggle with opposing forces. Sunday evening life on the streets of London seemed more vivid and more alive than it had earlier that day. And it felt good !

www.survivalinternational.org/weareone

Alan Cox for the flicker club, thank you Alan x

© Marc Cowan/Survival