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Screening from 35mm film tomorrow (Saturday 29th) at 2.30pm at the David Lean Cinema in Croydon: GOSFORD PARK (2001) dir Robert Altman, with Eileen Atkins, Maggie Smith, Derek Jacobi and Helen Mirren. Before Julian Fellowes hit gold with Downton Abbey, he won a screenplay Oscar for this murder mystery. With his customary flair, Robert Altman directs an all-star cast of British acting royalty in a story of a hunting party that goes seriously wrong, offering a wickedly entertaining view of the class system both upstairs and downstairs. Booking & trailer:
www.davidleancinema.org.uk/
Tomorrow (Sunday) at 6pm at The Cinema Museum, Edward Dmytryk's lurid Southern melodrama WALK ON THE WILD SIDE (1962) screening from 35mm film. A man arrives in New Orleans searching for his former girlfriend, an artist who now works in a bo****lo. Plus there will be food and beer! 👍Presented by The Vito project LGBT Film Club. Don't Miss It!
Thankyou to everyone who has supported the Museum over the past couple of uncertain years. We are having FOUR parties for major donors and supporters, and we have five Free Guest +1 tickets available for tomorrow afternoon's event. That's Sat the 23rd. Come and see us at the Museum with bubbles, nibbles, cinema sounds, lots of fun and an update on our future. First five people to email Katharine on
[email protected] will get the lucky tickets.
Big News! At Last, we can Buy Our Home.
After 15 years of campaigning, The Cinema Museum’s future looks brighter, because at last we have a chance to secure a permanent home for the Museum AND save our well-loved, unique heritage building.
We have just signed a four year lease with our landlords, Anthology (part of the Lifestory Group) with an option to purchase the Master’s House buildings for £1 million.
We are grateful to Anthology for giving us the legal certainty we need to save both The Cinema Museum and The Master’s House buildings. We are grateful to the Mayor of London and the GLA who were supportive of the Museum throughout. We are grateful to both officers and politicians at Lambeth Council, who provided over a decade of kind help and support in getting the Museum to this stage. We are grateful to officers and politicians at Southwark Council who also took us under their wing. We are grateful to Art Fund for emergency funding during Covid. Thank you to all our local partners in Lambeth and Southwark for everything you do for us. And - Museum Development London (funded by Arts Council England and Art Fund) who have expertly advised and supported us for over a decade, THANK YOU!
BUT they are organisations, not people, so thank you all, so much, every one of you who has stood up for us, signed our 62,000+ petition and donated to our crowdfunders. Thank you to our visitors, neighbours, friends and most importantly - our amazing, giant-hearted and hard-working volunteers, past and present. Thank you all for your pro bono advice; your work; your time; your money. Thank you for your generosity, kindness, encouragement, trust and belief.
Thank You EVERYONE - this success has got your name written all over it - we will never forget.
For full statement please see our website:
http://www.cinemamuseum.org.uk/2022/at-last-we-can-buy-our-home/
Greetings gentlefolk! We're delighted to say that the Museum reopens for screenings this coming Saturday evening with Ladies They Talk About (1933) starring Barbara Stanwyck, and then on Sunday afternoon we have a Stephen Sondheim musical Gypsy (1962). See our Events page for details of these and all the other shows we have planned for Spring.
Meantime, here is our current favourite advert: Make A Date To Go Bowling. Indoor ten pin bowling was new to Britain in 1960. ABC converted some of their super cinemas into bowling alleys and commissioned British Pathe (they of the Pictorial) to make this breezy promo film to show on their cinema circuit. Look for the ordinary people (bus driver, housewife, overacting businessman) suddenly transfixed by the idea of a night down the bowling. From around 1962.
Here's a suitably vintage festive short produced for ABC (British cinema chain) in 1946. This looks very much like a George Pal Puppetoon animation, and the lovely unfaded colour is dye transfer Technicolor.
We will reopen (COVID permitting) for screenings January 8th, so in the meantime, Seasons Greetings from the Cinema Museum x
Relax! Relax a LOT, and have a Va**um (tm) flavour ice cream, from Midland Counties Ice Cream, ca 1968.
(This cinema ad should probably have a warning before it saying "this advertisement is from a different era").
Mogadon Ripple, anyone? 😴🍦🍧
Two weeks ago we asked for your help with the 'Save The Cinema Museum' petition - you were wonderful - you got us from 57,200 to 59,250. We are just chasing the last 750 supporters before we deliver the petition. We intend smashing our target of 60,000 signatures, and we are close to doing that but there is still a little way to go yet. Please do what you can to help us over the line on this last shove by signing and sharing on social media and sharing the link. If half of you can find just one other person to sign then we'll be over the line by suppertime!
Here is the link, just click on and it will take you to the petition:
https://www.change.org/p/love-cinema-save-the-cinema-museum
Dear Friends, despite the accolade of our co-founders Ronald and Martin receiving a prestigious award at the Pordenone Festival, Italy last week, The Cinema Museum remains in immediate danger of losing its home and closing forever.
We intend delivering our online petition to our landlords and the Mayor of London, but in order to do that we will need to bring the petition to a close. We want to have hit 60,00 signatures - we're currently approaching 57,500 - so please help if you can by signing and sharing across your social media networks. This is likely to be everyone's last chance. So please do all you can to help us out of this jam.
Here is the link to the petition:
https://tinyurl.com/y9jgubrv
Thank You! And have an ice cream on us (see attached vintage advert).
The Museum's Directors have won an International Film Award ......
Martin Humphries and Ronald Grant, directors and co-founders of The Cinema Museum, have won a prestigious international "Jean Mitry Award" for their work in creating and running The Cinema Museum – home to silent film screenings in London. This annual prize, since 1989, has been awarded to "individuals and institutions, distinguished for their contribution to the reclamation and appreciation of silent cinema".
The award was presented this weekend at the Silent Film Festival (Le Giornate del Cinema Muto) in Pordenone, Italy. Pordenone is the world’s largest and most important international festival dedicated to silent film and its annual award is amongst the sector's most valued achievements.
Our photos show Ronald Grant, the co-founder of the Museum (est. 1984), on stage at the film festival giving a short speech as the award was presented. We're all thrilled to hear the news 😃
WE ARE REOPENING OCTOBER 19th!!
Finally! After 18 months closure we're back open for events starting Oct 19th. Details of all events will be posted here and on our website. Come and see us!
Tours will recommence in 2022, COVID permitting.
During our 18 month closure due to COVID we have been sorting out and cataloguing some of our film holdings and here's a rather splendid discovery: this cartoon was spliced on the end of a reel and we didn't know it was there. Anson Dyer (1876-1962) was a major figure in British animation for over thirty years, from the First World War to the late 1940s. Here's an advertising film he made for Kelloggs called "Behind The Clock", showing you the benefits of having a good breakfast every day. You'll note that you're not told you're watching an advert until the very last minute. The lovely unfaded colour is dye transfer Technicolor. From 1943.
REOPENING DATE SOON ... We hope to be open again in mid/late October. More news on this when we have it. Meanwhile, settle in with a nice box of chocolates. This promotional film for Cadburys, scanned from our collection, is from the pre-Quality Street era when chocolate assortments were still the preserve of the wealthier purchaser .... and when cinema audiences had the patience for six minute adverts. From around 1930.
Here's a quirky promotional film from the Fifties. Make sure to watch past the introduction and then you'll see the benefits of varied electric lighting, but demonstrated via the medium of dance (yes, really).
The irascible commentator is Gilbert Harding, a popular TV face of the time, whose Waldo Lydecker-esque demeanour earned him the description "The Bilious Bachelor of Broadcasting" 😄 From ca. 1953.
DO YOU HAVE A HEADACHE?? Does your head often THROB? If so then that could be due to the SHOUTY announcer on this CINEMA ADVERTISING FILM from 1942. He wants to tell YOU in NO UNCERTAIN TERMS about the NEW WONDER HEALTH PRODUCT called EMBEX. We don't know what's in it, but BY JOVE, EMBEX CURES ALL ILLS!! Buy some TODAY!! 💊💊😊
Yes! At last! The wonder of SKIFFLE HEAT will cook your dinner auto-magically whilst you're out shopping in your gloves and high heels.
Scanned from a delightful 1950s British cinema ad.
(Musical purists might question whether this is really skiffle - where's me washboard?)
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