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Screening as part of our Art of Action BFI-funded season, see this absolutely riveting thriller.An American-French co-production, with a great cast, well-written plot and script - and great stunt work. As with all of John Frankenheimer's work, it's an instantly classic masterpiece and was the prototype for many contemporary films featuring stunts with trains!
Burt Lancaster is Labiche, a French station manager who becomes entangled in efforts to prevent German Colonel Von Waldheim (Scofield) from shipping hundreds of classic pieces of artwork out of Paris before the Allies re-take the city.
Burt Lancaster performed all his own stunts in this movie. Albert Rémy also got into the act by performing the stunt of uncoupling the engine from the paintings train on a real moving train. However, Lancaster is the linchpin who holds this long, smoky dash across France together. It’s a classic movie star turn, with gravitas and sparkling flashes of his acrobatic past. He manhandles heavy machine parts, casting brakelines to fix a sabotaged engine as if he’s done it all his life. He clambers through windows, over walls and up roofs, and in his most memorable bit of business, slides down a long switching station ladder to the tracks like a guy who’s worked the rails since childhood.
Screening as part of Art of Action, a UK-wide film season supported by National Lottery and BFI Film Audience Network.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
39A High Street, TN34 3ER Hastings, United Kingdom, 39a High Street, Hastings, TN34 3, United Kingdom,Hastings, East Sussex
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