London Film School
Autumn 2008
Q&A@LFS - your chance to sign up
Sponsored by Skillset
The London Film School's Q@A programme returns next week with a wide-ranging selection of preview and retrospective screenings. Guests include LFS alumni Mike Leigh and critic David Thomson, plus: directors Ulrich Seidl, Suzie Halewood and Patrick Keiller; production designer Christopher Hobbs; editor Mark Solomon; and writer Paul Ryan.
The programme is designed for students on our MA programmes, however we have an allocation of free places for industry guests and those interested in studying at the London Film School. If there is an event you would like to attend, please apply for a place online at www.lfs.org.uk/qa (do not reply to this email). In addition, please do forward this information to anyone you feel may be interested.
Screenings start at 5.45pm, followed by Q&A and networking drinks.
Venue: Cinema A, The London Film School, 24 Shelton Street, London WC2H 9UB. Click here for map. (The entrance is on Langley Street.)
Tuesday 16th September
BEN GIBSON ON BRITISH FILM
Preview screening of upcoming A Matter of Life and Death re-release (dir. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger | 104 mins | 1946) followed by discussion with LFS director Ben Gibson.
"In 1946 this intoxicating cocktail of British wartime mythology and heavenly fantasy was dismissed by 'serious' British critics as a bit of faux-Hollywood fluff. Now its mad Hungarian logic and its joyful harnessing of everything most awe-inspiring in cinema's armory seem so obvious to us -- like many another classic, and every important British film, AMOLAD is a masterwork that took 30 years to get a second look." Ben Gibson
With thanks to the BFI
Wednesday 17th September
PRODUCTION DESIGN WITH CHRISTOPHER HOBBS
Screening of Caravaggio (dir. Derek Jarman | 93 mins | 1986) WINNER of Berlin Silver Bear, followed by Q&A with production designer Christopher Hobbs.
"Jarman's finest movie, a compelling biography of the painter that remains thoroughly lucid while refusing to compromise Jarman's cinematic artfulness" The Guardian
"The chiaroscuro of the period is so well delivered that often the staged scenes appear at first to be Renaissance portraits" BFI
Monday 22nd September
DIRECTING WITH MIKE LEIGH
Screening of Happy-Go-Lucky (118 mins | 2008) WINNER Berlin Silver Bear (Sally Hawkins), followed by Q&A with director and LFS alumnus/chairman Mike Leigh.
"Together with Hawkins, Leigh has created another classic, quote-worthy character in line with Brenda Blethyn's Cynthia in "Secrets And Lies." And this time he'll make you come out with a smile on your face rather than a heavy heart" BBC
Wednesday 24th September
FILM CRITICISM WITH DAVID THOMSON
Screening of Vivre sa vie (dir. Jean-Luc Godard | 83 mins | 1962) followed by "In Conversation" with film critic David Thomson.
"Godard's first great film" David Thomson
"A masterpiece of inventiveness that's as radically mind-blowing today as it was four decades ago" BBC
LFS alumnus David Thomson joins us as we celebrate the launch of his latest book "HAVE YOU SEEN…? A Personal Introduction to 1,000 Films".
Friday 26th September
Directing with Ulrich Seidl
Preview screening of Import/Export (141 mins | 2007 | Austria) NOMINATED Palme d'Or, followed by Q&A with director Ulrich Seidl.
"Every Cannes has its shocker, its scandal, apparently designed to give one and all a fit of the vapours. Ulrich Seidl's "Import/Export" came close to the prize. It is a provocative dual-narrative study of a Ukrainian nurse and an Austrian security guard finding work in each other's countries. Seidl's eye for the grotesque makes him the Diane Arbus of world cinema, and this was often startling, horrible and brilliant" The Guardian
With thanks to TRINITY FILMED ENTERTAINMENT
Tuesday 30th September
EDITING WITH MARK SOLOMON
New LFS acting Head of Editing Mark Solomon presents a focus on editing in animation, featuring clips from films he has worked on including "Chicken Run", "Shrek", "Shark Tale" and the forthcoming "The Tale of Despereaux". Followed by a screening of Chicken Run (dir. Peter Lord & Nick Park | 84 mins | 2000 | UK).
Thursday 2nd October
"NEVER APOLOGISE" WITH PAUL RYAN
Screening of Never Apologise (dir. Mike E. Kaplan | 111 mins | 2007 | UK) followed by Q&A with Paul Ryan, editor of "Never Apologise: The Collected Writings" by Lindsay Anderson.
"Malcolm McDowell offers a reminder of his tremendous onscreen charisma in this film of his one-man stage show about the late British filmmaker Lindsay Anderson. The film is almost entirely McDowell telling tall tales and riveting anecdotes about the director with whom he made such classic pictures as the Palme d'Or winner "If ..." (1968) and "O Lucky Man" (1972). The film will be treasured for its vivid insights into the art and imagination of one of the U.K.'s most influential directors" The Hollywood Reporter
With thanks to VERVE PICTURES
Tuesday 7th October
DIRECTING WITH Suzie Halewood
Preview screening of Bigga Than Ben (85 mins | 2008 | UK) followed by Q&A with director Suzie Halewood.
"A low-budget comedy about two Russian louts on the make in London - think "Eastern Promises" meets Richard Lester's "The Knack". A pair of draft-dodging, chain-smoking, self-described "Moscow scum" arrive in Europe's richest, most bustlingly metropolitan capital. After hitting various tourist sites the aspiring capitalists soon realize that whatever these streets may be covered with, it certainly ain't gold" The Hollywood Reporter
With thanks to SWIPE FILMS
Thursday 9th October
DIRECTING WITH Patrick Keiller
Screening of London (85 mins | 1994 | UK) followed by Q&A with director Patrick Keiller.
"Hypnotic, hilarious, and beguilingly close to redefining what a movie narrative is and isn't… possibly the most telling film made about that national sensibility since Ken Loach's "Family Life" The Village Voice