Wednesday 10th April 5.30pm-8pm Arts B274:
Thomas Houlton (School of English) presents Christian Faure's A Love To Hide (Un amour à taire) (2005) [102 mins]
In Nazi-occupied Paris, 1942, a young Jewish girl Sara goes into hiding with her school friend Jean. Jean, trying to keep his family's business afloat, is also hiding his relationship with Philippe, who has dangerous connections with forgery artists. The pressures on the trio rapidaly escalate until they become confronted with the full consequences of betrayal, their lives spinning out of their hands. This is one of the finest recent portrayals of the paranoia and violence at the heart of the Nazi occupation, as well as a bleak exploration of the horrors of the camps and the persecutions suffered by homosexual and Jewish prisoners alike. Jeremy Renier gives a brilliant central performance as Jean.
Wednesday 6th March 5.30pm-8pm Arts B274:
Dr. Rachel O'Connell (School of English) presents Robert Aldrich's The Killing of Sister George (1968) [138 mins]
Based on the comic play by Frank Marcus, this was one of the most controversial X-Rated films of the 1960s, which many British councils banned outright from distribution. "Sister George" is a beloved character in a popular TV series, played by June Buckridge, who in real life is the antithesis of the sweet character she plays. When Buckridge discovers that "Sister George" is to be killed off, she becomes increasingly impossible to live and work with. Mercy Croft, an executive at the radio station, intercedes in George's professional and personal life, supposedly to help, but she actually has an agenda of her own. This is a chance to see this rarely screened classic of 1960s cinema. Actresses Coral Browne and Susannah York provide great support to Beryl Reid's Golden Globe nominated performance as Sister George.
Wednesday 6th February:
Dr. Michael Lawrence (School of Media, Film & Music) presents Tom Kalin's Swoon (1992) [80 mins]
Considered part of the New Queer Cinema movement, Swoon explores the true story of gay lovers, Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold Jr. who kidnapped and murdered a boy in the early 1920s to undertake a "perfect crime". The plot covers the months before the murder, the investigation, trial and final fate of the two men. This work forms the last of a trio of films that have been directly influenced by the Loeb-Leopold murder and trials, starting with Alfred Hitchcock's Rope (1948) and Richard Fleischer's Compulsion (1959).