The Eclectic Cinema

Synopsis

Man with a Movie Camera U

USSR | 1929 68 minutes

DIRECTED BY

Dziga Vertov

STARRING

Mikhail Kaufman | Elizaveta Svilova

Vertov directs a silent classic documenting the lives of residents and workers in a typical day from dawn till dusk. Made shortly before the dead hand of control curbed the imagination of Soviet cinema, this ‘city symphony’ takes the format to a new level with its use of cinematic trickery and montage techniques. The city in this case is a composite that includes footage from Kyiv and Odessa as well as Moscow. Prepare to be amazed as the man with his movie camera roams the streets, railways and workplaces of the city.

Additional Info

Location

Man with a Movie Camera, Cheltenham Playhouse, Bath Road, Cheltenham, GL53 7HG

Synopsis

Another man with a movie camera, but with murderous intent! Michael Powell is best known for his collaboration with Emeric Pressburger in making such films as The Red Shoes (1948). Peeping Tom is much darker, but also features Moira Shearer who had donned the red shoes twelve years earlier. Mark works as a focus-puller at a film studio, but has a side-hustle in pornography and ‘snuff-movies’. Abused as a child, he has become a serial killer, obsessed with capturing images of fear and death. Highly controversial on release, it all but ended Powell’s career, but is now considered to be among the very best of horror films.

Additional Info

Location

Peeping Tom, Cheltenham Playhouse, Bath Road, Cheltenham, GL53 7HG

Synopsis

Another highly controversial film - even banned by its own director, shortly after release, only to re-emerge after Kubrick’s death in 1999. Adapted from the 1962 novel by Anthony Burgess, it chronicles the lives of Alex (Malcolm McDowell) and his ‘droogs’, who commit violence and intimidation in a dystopian vision of 1960s Britain. After the ‘ultra-violence’ reaches murderous proportions, Alex is deserted by his gang and receives a long prison sentence. But an experimental treatment is proposed, and Alex becomes the subject of aversion therapy. While invasive and painful, this seems to work, and Alex is released. No spoilers about how the story ends!

Additional Info

Location

A Clockwork Orange, Cheltenham Playhouse, Bath Road, Cheltenham, GL53 7HG

Synopsis

No need to recap the Dracula story, but this is the original with Bela Lugosi in the title role. Released by Universal in 1931, its commercial success led the studio to greenlight Frankenstein, which was released later the same year. These two films firmly established Universal as the home of horror movies. Dracula’s Daughter picks up the narrative where the first film left off. Dracula is dead, but his daughter lives on. Played by Gloria Holden, it’s said her absolute disdain for the genre in which she was contracted to act greatly enhanced her performance in the role, which received much acclaim at the time.

Additional Info

Location

Dracula Double Bill, Cheltenham Playhouse, Bath Road, Cheltenham, GL53 7HG