I spoke at Medfest this week - a celebration of the work of Andy Medhurst on the occasion of his retirement from the University of Sussex. It was a lovely event, where many friends, colleagues and students of Andy's paid tribute to his important contribution to the fields of Film, Media and Cultural studies. In … Continue reading Medfest
Author: Lawrence
I teach Film Studies at King's College London. I'm gonna be posting mainly about film-going in Britain in the early C20th, drawing on my own research activities. Previously I've written on British Cinema and Middlebrow Culture in the Interwar Years (University of Exeter Press, 2009), The Great War and Popular British Cinema in the 1920s (Palgrave, 2015) and Silent Cinema: Before the Pictures Got Small (Wallflower, 2017)
Assaults in the Cinema
I don’t often go to the BFI, and if I’m honest, it’s because I find the audiences there off-putting. Not just the famous NFT2 front row of elderly bag-rustling men, some of whom seem to have forgotten about soap and water, but also because across the whole auditorium there seems to be a barely … Continue reading Assaults in the Cinema
Phantom Rides in the Gymnasium
January is such a ball-ache. I put on half a stone over Christmas. That's on top of the three stone I’ve already acquired since I gave up smoking. This January was the moment to try and tackle that with three self-imposed rules: 1) no booze, 2) no refined sugar, 3) no restaurants. My fourth … Continue reading Phantom Rides in the Gymnasium
British Life on Film: History and the Film Archives
I love the BFI's BRITAIN ON FILM website and all the fab material held in the regional archives which it showcases. So much so that I've organised a little symposium about it, which invites folk who have discovered films there and gone on to do research on the films themselves or the events/people/organisations they depict, … Continue reading British Life on Film: History and the Film Archives
“Projector Fire – Young Operators Avert Panic”: ‘Projectionettes’ and Teenage Projectionists in Wartime
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/45482 Imagine walking down the street past this cinema, minding your own business, when suddenly a flaming reel of nitrate comes flying out of the upstairs window onto the pavement in front of you. This is exactly what could have happened in August 1943 at the Queen's Picture House in Bolton, when a major incident … Continue reading “Projector Fire – Young Operators Avert Panic”: ‘Projectionettes’ and Teenage Projectionists in Wartime
Armistice Day in ‘Art’ and Popular Culture
It is a hundred years since the Armistice Day on 11th November 1918. To mark it, here’s a discussion of how people responded to that day from the opening of my book Before Journey’s End: The Great War in British Popular Cinema of the 1920s [NB cheaper copies can be found second hand]. The final … Continue reading Armistice Day in ‘Art’ and Popular Culture
Armistice Day in the Cinemas
As part of their rather wonderful Making a New World exhibition (running until 31st March 2019) the Imperial War Museum in London have a number of immersive installations which focus on Armistice Day in 1918 and on the nature of the silences ceremoniously incorporated into Armistice Day celebrations since. Their 'Moments of Silence' exhibit introduces … Continue reading Armistice Day in the Cinemas
