About this Event
The Eras Tour enters a new phase with...
BRITISH DECADES
This term, Magdalen Monday Movies and the Oxford Film Studies Network bring you the best of British cinema, with just one film selected from each decade, from the 1920s to the 2000s.
Britain has produced some of the greatest films ever made. Directors like Alfred Hitchcock, David Lean, Danny Boyle, Michael Powell, Ridley Scott and Christopher Nolan have pushed the boundaries of cinema since its earliest days, and inspired other filmmakers across the globe. Choosing one from each decade was NOT EASY.
The films we're showing this term range from the epicest of all epics to little old ladies having tea-parties; from apocalyptic docudrama to picaresque fantasy; and from shocking urban drama to possibly the greatest war film ever made. And I know I've said this before, but it still holds true: they are united by one feature: we love them - and we think you will too.
Entry is COMPLETELY FREE, and each screening will include one of our by-now-legendary introductory talks.
And if you would like to be pre-warned of potentially distressing material, we recommend the IMDb 'Parents Guide' section for each film, or DoestheDogDie.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
This term we also have an assortment of very special events, including new talks from the OXFORD FILM STUDIES NETWORK. So join us for....
- A special gala screening of the ultimate Magdalen movie, 1962's Lawrence of Arabia (Lawrence was a post-grad at Magdalen), with an introduction by award-winning novelist and screenwriter Sabina Murray. We'll also be displaying one our rare Lawrence artefacts (which also featured in the film itself).
- Desert Island Movies with the UK's number one film critic: broadcaster, author, muscian, and creator of the Wittertainment Cinema Code of Conduct, Mark Kermode.
- Film and culture commentator Lillian Crawford discussing the remarkable Beeban Kidron, and screening her 1994 BBC film Great Moments in Aviation.
- Professor Melanie Williams of UEA, an expert on British cinema, talking about (and screening) the 1945 drama about hypnotism and trauma, The Seventh Veil.
- Dr Kathleen Riley on 'Fred Astaire, Elegant Revolutionary' - and screening his and Cyd Charisse's classic movie The Band Wagon (1953).
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Here is our full programme for the term – with handy IMDB links if you want to dig a little deeper.
Monday 27 April, 7pm
- (Shane Meadows, 2006)
A young boy becomes friends with a gang of skinheads in 1980s Nottingham. Shane Meadows' semi-autobiographical drama confronts racism and bullying head-on, with raw, unrelenting and passionate power. One of Britain's all-time outstanding films. Don't you fucking dare backchat me, or I will slay you now where you fucking stand.
Monday 4 May, 7pm
- (Danny Boyle, 1994)
Trainspotting may have made bigger headlines, but Danny Boyle's debut movie, a classic black comedy, single-handedly reinvigorated the British film industry after the doldrums of the 80s. Chilling, claustrophobic and insanely cool, it also brought us the young Ewan McGregor and Christopher Eccleston. Britpop starts here. I've never seen a dead body before. I saw my grandmother of course, but I don't think that counts. I mean, she was alive at the time.
Sunday 10 May, 7pm - FILM STUDIES SPECIAL
- (Beeban Kidron, 1994) - talk/screening by Lillian Crawford
We are thrilled to welcome Lillian Crawford. Lillian is a prolific programmer and curator, including for the BFI, the Barbican, and the Edinburgh International Film Festival. She also works with the Autism Through Cinema project, and hosts her own podcast and blog on British film and television, Listen to Lillian. She is currently working on the history of the BBC Screen Two strand, and will be discussing one of the leading directors to emerge from it, Beeban (now Baroness) Kidron.
Monday 11 May, 7pm
- (Mick Jackson, 1984)
There have been films about nuclear war before, but there's never been anything as shocking, realistic and sobering as Threads. Mick Jackson's film, based on detailed scientific advice, depicts what would happen to Sheffield in the event of a nuclear strike. It's as much about the social unrest and protests of Thatcher's Britain as it is about a third world war - and it's every bit as searing today as it was in the 80s. Attack warning's for bloody real! - Right, get to your stations!
Sunday 17 May, 7.30pm
- Desert Island Movies with Mark Kermode
He's been the UK's favourite film reviewer for many years, and his best-selling books chronicle a life devoted to cinema. But which films would Mark want to keep forever on his desert island? Join us for the definitive Desert Island Movies.
Monday 18 May, 7pm
- (Lindsay Anderson, 1973)
We always try to include a few films that have undeservedly passed below the radar, and O Lucky Man! is one of my all-time favourites. A surreal fantasy about a coffee salesman, it spirals into being a musical, epic attack on traditional British institutions. It's the second in the so-called 'Mick Travis Trilogy' (after the earlier If...), and it shows the great British director Lindsay Anderson at his entertaining, angry, provocative and majestic best. The dividing line between the House of Lords and Pentonville J*il is very, very thin.
Sunday 24 May, 7pm - FILM STUDIES SPECIAL
- (Compton Bennett, 1945) - talk/screening by Melanie Williams
Professor Melanie Williams is no stranger to the Oxford Film Studies Network. She has talked to us before about both David Lean and pioneering producer Muriel Box. Now she's back to show us one of Box's greatest films. The Seventh Veil may not be the most famous British movie, but it won the Oscar for Best Screenplay in 1945, and it is melodrama at its finest. Prof Williams is one of our leading experts on British cinema, and an outstanding speaker. Come, enjoy, discuss!
Monday 25 May, 7pm
- (Anthony Harvey, 1968)
It's 1183 AD, and Henry II is having a very bad Christmas. All his sons want to inherit his throne, and his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, is plotting against him. This acid, comic masterpiece shows how historical dramas really should be made. Everyone involved with it, from writer James Goldman to composer John Barry, and the incredible cast (Peter O'Toole, Katharine Hepburn, and even a debutant Anthony Hopkins) was at the top of their game, and it flies off the screen. I know. You know I know. I know you know I know. We know Henry knows, and Henry knows we know it. We're a knowledgeable family.
Sunday 31 May, 7pm - FILM STUDIES SPECIAL
- (Vincente Minnelli, 1953) - talk/screening with Dr Kathleen Riley
Dr Kathleen Riley is a distinguished classicist with a keen interest in 20th century culture. Lead editor of Oscar Wilde and Classical Antiquity, she is also the author of The Astaires, currently being adapted for screen with Sony/Columbia. This talk is entitled Fred Astaire - elegant revolutionary, and will be accompanied by one of his greatest movies, The Band Wagon.
Monday 1 June, 7pm
- (Alexander Mackendrick, 1955)
The greatest of all the Ealing comedies is a crime caper with a heart of ice. The premise alone is enough to tell you the fun that's in store: five criminals planning a bank robbery rent rooms from an octogenarian widow under the pretext that they are classical musicians. Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom and the incomparable Katie Johnson as Mrs Wilberforce all give stellar performances in a film about the evils that happen in an English cul-de-sac. Sweet little old lady like her, it just don't seem right for her to be working with us on a stick-up caper.
Monday 8 June, 7pm
- (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1943)
When Stephen Fry did his Desert Island Movies interview, this was one of his chosen films. It's also the only World War Two film in our season. And it's absolutely unmissable. Following the career of a British army officer from the Boer War up to the Blitz, it goes right to the heart of what it means, or meant, to be British. Roger Livesey, as the central character, gives the performance of a lifetime. And Deborah Kerr, in three roles, gives the film a backbone that teeters on the edge of fantasy. And on the big screen it's magnificent. War starts at midnight! My dear fellow, that was agreed, wasn't it?
Saturday 13 June, 7pm
- GALA EVENT: (David Lean, 1962)
with talk from Sabina Murray, and display of the Lawrence bust
The Sixties produced such a plethora of wonderful British movies that we're actually going to show you a second one. And this is, arguably, one of the great creations of all cinema. David Lean's masterpiece is both epic and personal in scale, with the vast deserts of Arabia jostling for prominence with the mind of an enigmatic central figure. The scale is awesome, the music majestic, the cinematography mind-boggling - and of course, it's all done without CGI. Along with the film, we are honoured to welcome academic, author and screenwriter Sabina Murray, who is currently writing a bio-fictive novel about T.E. Lawrence himself, one of Magdalen's most famous alumni. Nothing is written.
Monday 15 June, 7pm
- (Alfred Hitchcock, 1938)
Everyone thinks Hitchcock was the Master of Suspense. What they don't realise is, he was at his best when he mingled suspense with comedy. And The Lady Vanishes proves it. Maybe it's the Launder and Gilliat script. Maybe it's the hilarious pair of Englishmen Charters and Caldicott. Maybe it's the tension of a mystery on an enclosed train in Central Europe. Or maybe it's just that this film is short, witty and tight as a nut. Whatever, it's a joy from beginning to end. My father always taught me, never desert a lady in trouble. He even carried that as far as marrying Mother.
Monday 22 June, 7pm
- (Anthony Asquith, 1928)
It wasn't just Berlin that was producing outstanding expressionist cinema in the 1920s. The British were at it too. And this film - which features on Martin Scorsese's list of his favourite British films - is a visual feast. Ostensibly a working-class love-triangle plot, it becomes a bravura display of cinematic imagination, and the scenes on and around the London Underground - shot on location, not in a studio - look so like the tube of today that you can hardly believe this movie is a hundred years old.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Magdalen College, High Street, Oxford, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00
