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)

“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 →

They Shall Not Grow Old (2): The Abject Archive… The Sacred Archive

The Abject Archive One of the things I find most fascinating about the pre-release advertising for They Shall Not Grow Old, is the way that it seems unable to argue for the project without at the same time rendering the archive footage from which it is constructed abject. To erase, in fact, the role and … Continue reading They Shall Not Grow Old (2): The Abject Archive… The Sacred Archive →