Film Club
John Wischmeyer
Event Hours(1)
Film Club, Tuesdays 12.30 – 2.30 on Zoom
This course is being delivered online via Zoom. John will start by giving a short lecture, then you will view film extracts and discuss them together or just sit back and relax. There is no homework!
12 Jan – 23 Feb 2021
Contemporary Cinema: the best films of the year
What are the best or most interesting films of the past year? With cinemas closed, what did we miss? This course is a timely mosaic of the past year in film as we share viewing experiences (in any format), catch-up on films missed and compile a Top Ten class list after illustrated lectures. It will also be a daring combination of the most recent films as compared to classics of film history (e.g. David Fincher’s Mank contrasted to Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane; or Spielberg’s The Post as ‘prequel’ to Alan J. Pakula’s All the President’s Men). What managed to get released? What did we manage to see? Will cinemas manage to survive?
2nd -30th March 2021
Hitchcock’s Spy Thrillers
Hitchcock made his name as the master of suspense with five spy films. In fact, they saved his career and created a new genre. This 5-week course explains the development of the Hitchcock style and the spy genre as a whole. Why is this course exciting? Because these films are thrillers!
You will need: Internet connection and a computer with microphone and camera (e.g. a PC/laptop/iMac/MacBook), or a tablet/iPad/smart phone/iPhone.
For details of how to join, please contact the Avenue Club Office on 020 8948 8807 or e-mail avenueclub@kewcommunitytrust.org.uk
Future courses – dates TBC
Political Conspiracy Thrillers: Fake News. Thrillers suddenly took on political and corporate coverups: The Conversation, The Parallax View, Network, Three Days of the Condor, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Trust no one! Dark Waters in 2019 is the latest conspiracy thriller to capture a unique moment in the political world of cover-up and denial, from Ex-President Trump to All the President’s Men. Just imagine a President caught on tape. No, they’ll never believe it!
The Coen Brothers: love letters to Hollywood
The Coen brothers reflect reality through Hollywood genres: Blood Simple film noir, Raising Arizona as a screwball comedy, the westerns True Grit and Buster Scruggs, and the Hollywood musicals celebrated in Hail, Caesar! Expect the unexpected—the Coens always add something exhilarating to the mix.
About the instructor
John Wischmeyer teaches courses on cinema at City Literary Institute in Covent Garden and at the BFI South Bank. He ran his own cinema in West London, treating it as part of the community and showing new and independent work where possible. He has been teaching since 1999. His first course was about Hitchcock’s centenary year. He continues to teach on a wide variety of subjects including Southern Gothic, Contemporary and Current Cinema, Film Noir and Neorealism, Masters of Cinema (David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, the Coen Brothers) and French New Wave.
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