Barry Lyndon
(Stanley Kubrick, 15, 1998)

In collaboration with University of Hertfordshire, UHArts and St Albans Museums’ exhibition of Stanley Kubrick’s work (March 2010 – September 2010) we are proud to present a rare big screen celebration of Barry Lyndon, Kubrick’s often thought of as a ‘neglected masterpiece’ of British Cinema. Widely acclaimed as one of the director’s finest, Barry Lyndon is the tale of the eponymous anti-hero, an Irish rogue (Ryan O’Neal) who wins the heart of a rich widow (Marissa Berenson) and assumes the role of her dead husband and his place in 18th Century Aristocracy.

The film is renowned for displaying the directors’ immaculate attention to the visual arts at the time, arguably bringing film closer to painting than any other piece of cinema. Barry Lyndon’s use of classical and baroque music is also astounding and will be celebrated in this widescreen showing.

Cost: £4 / £3 concessions
Venue: The Weston Auditorium, de Havilland Campus, University of Hertfordshire
Runs Approx: 120 mins
Booking: 01707 28 1127 or email:uharts@herts.ac.uk

Film Making/Model Making Workshop
June 26th, 11-4pm

To coincide with the St Albans Museums’ Stanley Kubrick Exhibition, the Hertfordshire Film Consortium and UH are delighted to offer this special model making session for ages 11+ .

Inspired by the directors’ iconic imagery from 2001: A Space Odyssey, students will be invited to remake models and sets as seen in clips from Kubrick’s films and film their own creations up close, before editing their short clips together and having them projected on the big screen. Led by University of Hertfordshire Model Design Undergraduates and the Film Education Coordinator, this is an exciting opportunity for students to understand about alternative career paths in the moving image industry and to learn more about Hertfordshire’s first man of film, Stanley Kubrick.

Led by: Darren Elliott and Linda Diokpa (University of Hertfordshire)
Venue: St Albans Museum, Hatfield Road
Cost: £4 per student
Booking: 01707 28 5949 or email: filmconsortium@herts.ac.uk
Suitable for: 11-16

(Steven Spielberg, 15 1998)
May 4th, 6.30pm

Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece is as searingly powerful an experience as you are ever likely to have in a cinema. The horror and exhilaration of World War II as seen from a disparate band of disillusioned soldiers sent to retrieve one man from within Nazi-occupied France is a film not experienced on the big screen by many since its initial release over a decade ago. The grand scale of a world at war has never been more convincingly shown on screen, from the front-line soldiers fighting every second for their lives and their country, to the personal pain and loss felt by those back at home.

Cost: £4 / £3 concessions
Venue: The Weston Auditorium, de Havilland Campus, University of Hertfordshire
Runs Approx: 120 mins
Booking: 01707 28 1127 or email: uharts@herts.ac.uk

Gothic and the Graphic Novel
with SelfMadeHero part of the UniComics Festival
22nd April, The Weston Auditorium, 3pm - 5pm Cost: £3 per student

This special storyboarding workshop led by acclaimed artist Ian Culbard (SelfMadeHero’s successful Crime Classics series, The Hound of the Baskervilles, A Study in Scarlet) will demonstrate how graphic novels are constructed with specific reference to storyboarding and film, and show how the two visual art forms are interconnected.

Focusing on SelfMadeHero’s adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, the artist will visually illustrate a comparison between the graphic novel and the recently released ‘Dorian Gray’ (Oliver Parker, 2009) in a script to storyboard presentation. Also includes live interactive demonstration of storyboarding with graphics tablet using the cinema screen, a deconstruction of the visual choices in panelling, style and point of view.

Presented by the Hertfordshire Film Consortium.

Booking:uharts@herts.ac.uk or telephone: 01707 28 1127

The Best Comedy vs. The Worst Movies
Megashark vs. Giant Octopus
(Jack Perez, 15 2009)
April 20th, 6.30 pm

Fresh from continued success at the Barbican, London, the cult phenomenon of the Bad Film Club comes to Hertfordshire.

Have you ever been stuck watching a film at the cinema and wanted to laugh out loud at the saccharine sweetness of sappy moments? Wanted to shout, “THAT WOULD NEVER HAPPEN” during any number of films staring Tom Cruise? Well now you can!

This is a place where likeminded folk can gather to celebrate the guilty joy that is a good bad movie. The shackles of polite cinema etiquette are discarded as the audience are encouraged to jeer, heckle and participate with the film creating a unique interactive cinema experience.

Armed only with their wit and their laser pointers the duo take you on a journey through bad plot lines, terrible dialogue, awful acting and some of the worst special effects known to man.

Price: £4 full price (£3 concessions)
Venue: The Weston Auditorium
Suitability: 15+

Visionary Indie-film director Wes Anderson’s first animated film, utilises classic handmade stop motion techniques, the voices of George Clooney and Meryl Streep and his recognisable odd-ball style to tell the story of the best selling children’s book by Road Dahl.

Stop Motion Animation Workshop:

Learn how film-makers use the painstaking animation process using digital camera, models and film editing software.

Film: £4 / £ 3 concessions
Led by: Darren Elliott/Linda Diokpa (Hertfordshire Film Consortium)
Workshop: £3 per student
Suitability: 7+
Venue: The Weston Auditorium
Booking: 01707 28 1127 or Email: uharts@herts.ac.uk

Join us for this special event celebrating the cinematic world of gangsters, shadows, dangerous men and even more dangerous women. Preceding our special presentation of Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder US 1944) indulge with cocktails in the foyer while relaxing to the exclusive smooth and smoky jazz set provided by our live musicians, including Michael Parkinson favourite, singer songwriter Katie Buckhaven.

Wilder’s film noir classic tells a tale of ‘lust, larceny and lethal injections’, as a married woman, Phyllis (Barbara Stanwyck) propositions her lover Walter (Fred MacMurray), a down at heel insurance car salesman, with a plot to kill her husband, making his death seem a mere accident. Claimed by many to be among the best of the genre, Double Indemnity has all of its typical hallmarks, with cool, hard-boiled dialogue (written by Wilder and Chandler) alongside iconic performances by Stanwyck and MacMurray.

Coincides with a special Film Noir Weekend Film Studies course run by the Hertfordshire Film Consortium (more information in Courses).

Cost: £6 / £ 5 concessions
Suitability: 15+
Venue: The Weston Auditorium
Booking: 01707 28 1127
or Email: uharts@herts.ac.uk

From the director of Wanted comes two sci-fi epics that have to be seen to be believed. Timur Bekmambetov’s stunning visual feast centres around a centuries-long war between the Dark Others and the Light, between whom an uneasy truce has held sway, a truce that is about to come to an end.

Cue a war of witches and wizards, vampires and werewolves, and creatures too unspeakable to name. A pulse-pounding and gloriously cinematic Russian blend of ancient myth and modern-day Moscow, Nightwatch and Daywatch deliver more stunning entertainment than any number of Hollywood action blockbusters.

Date: March 9th 6.30pm
Cost: £4 / £3 concessions
Suitability: 18+
Venue: The Weston Auditorium
Booking: 01707 28 1127
or Email: uharts@herts.ac.uk

March 8th 11am

BBFC Examiners will present a clip based study of censorship and regulation in the moving image.

Including an introduction to the work of the BBFC examiners and a general discussion of the issues surrounding certification and censorship, before introducing suitable controversial examples that have previously provoked debate among audiences and BBFC examiners themselves.

Cost:FREE
Date: March 8th 11.00 am
Led by: Emily Fussell, BBFC
Suitability: 15+ (Students of Film and Media Studies)
Venue: The Weston Auditorium
Suitable for: 12+

Baz Luhrmann’s dazzling Moulin Rouge! is a colourfully diverse assault on the senses that is not to be missed! The story follows young and penniless writer Christian (McGregor), who finds himself thrown into the glamorous underworld of Paris’ most scandalously famous nightclub, while falling in love with Nicole Kidman in the process.

There he discovers a young group of Bohemians who believe only in living by their four proverbs: freedom, truth, beauty and love. A visual and musical masterpiece of colour, spectacle and sound that deserves to be seen on the big screen by all.

The ‘Reel Choice’ film season has been partly programmed in collaboration with students from the University of Hertfordshire, giving them the opportunity to design and present a themed series of screenings at the Weston Auditorium. This pilot season focuses on the grandeur of cinema on a large scale. Preceding each of the screenings student programmers will demonstrate why each film should be seen on the big screen.

Adapted from John Ajvide Lindqvist’s book of the same name, the critically acclaimed Let the Right One In is a Swedish re-imagining of the vampire film, and yet so much more.

On the verge of adolescence, Oskar is a bullied, lonely young boy who meets pale and mysterious girl, Eli and an awkward romance blossoms, despite the fact that Eli hides a monstrous secret. Set in deep winter, the film dissolves in between the beautiful but bleak Scandinavian icy urban landscapes, and a series of dark, bloody murders. As Eli encourages Oskar to stand up to his tormentors, he discovers more about his new friend than he bargains for. Let the Right One In is an intelligent, haunting and poetic rendering of the vampire myth that is not to be missed on the big screen.

This screening will include an introduction to the modern vampire by special guest, Dr. Stacey Abbott

(Roehampton University, Celluloid Vampires, Reading Angel)

With FREE pre-screening mulled wine, BRING A BLANKET into the screening and fight the winter chills

Cost: £4.00 (£3 concessions)
Date: 9th February, 6.30pm
Booking: 01707 28 1127 or Email: uharts@herts.ac.uk
Suitable for: 15+ A Level Film/Media Studies

In 2010 the Film Education Consortium is delighted to announce more frequent film screenings to the Weston Auditorium with UH Arts. Our Film Fortnight season of cinema will offer the best in classic, British and international cinema to the big screen alongside exciting events and will be partly programmed in collaboration with students from the University of Hertfordshire’s Humanities Department.

December 20th 2009
1pm The Weston Auditorium
Our successful family film club continues with this special screening of swashbuckling adventure classic The Golden Voyage of Sinbad. Featuring the groundbreaking stop motion (Dynarama) techniques of special effects wizard Ray Harryhausen, Sinbad (John Phillip Law) sets sail to stop evil sorcerer Koura (Tom Baker) from using a mysterious golden talisman which promises untold riches, youth and magical powers. Accompanied by beautiful slave girl, Marginana (Caroline Munro) Sinbad and his band of pirates battle griffins, flying demons and one-eyed centaurs in far off lands.

This special screening will be introduced by one of film’s stars Caroline Munro (The Spy Who Loved Me, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter) TBC.

Join us before the screening for our FREE ‘Make Your Own Monster’ session where you can use your imagination to design a creature with modeling clay to rival those seen on the big screen!

Make Your Own Monster Workshop: 30 mins (40 places)
Film Running Time: 105 mins
COST: £5 full price (£4 concessions)
Suitable for: Universal (U)
Included: Intro to film by Darren Elliott (University of Hertfordshire)

This special double bill screening of the silent German Expressionist film classics, Das Cabinet Des Dr. Caligari (Wiene, GE 1920) and Nosferatu (Murnau, GE 1921) will be accompanied by a rousing live music score provided by world renowned pianist Neil Brand.

These groundbreaking and genre-defining films present a coming together of two distinct art forms: live classical music and influential silent film and are a must for all lovers of music and film alike. Caligari’s nightmarish dreamscapes and startling sets and the ever-sleepwalking fiend Cesare, complement Murnau’s variation on the vampire myth with Max Shrek who is both blood-curdling and sympathetic as the inimitable Count Orloff.

This event began with an introduction to the German Expressionist film movement with examples from Carl Theodore Dreyer’s Der Golem and Alfred Hitchcock’s Blackmail made at Elstree Studios, Hertfordshire.

In collaboration with St. Albans Book Group and UH Arts, this special event begins with a FREE 3D screening of Neil Gaiman’s critically acclaimed fantasy Coraline (Henry Selick, PG 2009) where a young girl walks through a secret door in her new home to discover an alternate version on her life which is eerily similar. Coraline must display bravery and courage in order to escape from her Other Parents who want to keep her forever. This event will be followed by a choice of three FREE workshops ranging from practical stop motion animation, clip-led fantasy film genre study and illustration workshops.

Screening:Commences 9.45pm (runs 2hrs approx)
Stop Motion Animation Workshop: Learn how directors like Selick and Nick Park (Aardman Animations) make use of the painstaking animation process, using digital cameras, clay models and film editing software. Runs 90 mins.
Illustrator Workshop: Learn how children’s illustrators design and create believable characters from the author’s text and how those visualisations can influence those seen in big screen adaptations. Runs 60-90 mins.
Cost: FREE!

Focusing on critically acclaimed adaptations of Gothic Literature classics in the Cinema, this FREE clip-led workshop considers the Gothic Genre, its conventions, literary and visual style, narrative, themes and motifs via a visual study of dark and brooding television and film versions.

The session will include discussion of Wuthering Heights, Dr. Faustus, Frankenstein, Northanger Abbey amongst others and will include a feature length screening of The Company of Wolves (Neil Jordan, UK 1984) an adaptation of Angela Carter’s ‘The Bloody Chamber’.

Led by: Darren Elliott (University of Hertfordshire)
Includes: Comprehensive student notes and teaching resources pack.
Suitable for: A-Level A\S /A2