The brilliance of Graham Greene’s cinematic writing will be celebrated at four events at the forthcoming Graham Greene International Festival 2010.
(1) The Ministry of Fear (classification: PG) will be screened on the evening of Thursday 30th September at The Rex, Berkhamsted’s beautiful art deco cinema. It will be introduced by Mike Hill, who was director of the Festival from 2005 to 2007. With Jon Wise, he is co-author of a bibliographical and contextual reference book, The Writings of Graham Greene: A Reader’s Guide.
The film is based upon Greene’s 1943 novel of the same name, and it tells the story of a man who, after his release from a mental asylum, finds himself caught up in an international spy ring in London during the Blitz. After guessing the weight of a cake at a fair, he is pursued by foreign agents and incriminated for murder. The film was directed by Fritz Lang, starred Ray Milland and Marjorie Reynolds, and was released in the USA in 1944. It is renowned as a “film noir”, and runs for eighty-six minutes. The original music was composed by Miklos Rozsa and Victor Young.
(2) At the Town Hall, Berkhamsted (Hertfordshire, UK), on the afternoon of Friday 1st October 2010 Mike Hill will give a talk on "Greene and Hitchcock".
The speaker is interested in the superficial biographical dissimilarities between Graham Greene and Alfred Hitchcock, and also a number of similarities, and he sees the parallels between their respective bodies of work. These include their use of autobiographical detail, their willingness to experiment, and their late return to their roots. He considers that their artistic preoccupations were often remarkably similar—an interest in dreams, an involvement with the spy thriller, a recognition of the fragility of civilisation, a serious investigation of matters Catholic, and the development of “ingenious melodramatic situations”. He also sees a cinematic connection between the two and possible influence between their works, and he is aware of Greene’s criticism of Hitchcock’s films in the 1930s and his later lack of admiration for Hitchcock’s work. He regrets the resultant lack of artistic cooperation between the two.
(3) On the evening of Saturday 2nd October 2010 in Deans’ Hall, Berkhamsted School (Hertfordshire, UK) Prof. Thomas O’Connor will give an illustrated talk titled “Double Exposure: Capturing Greene on Film”.
Prof. O'Connor teaches at the School of Media Arts and Design at James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Virginia, USA. He has written and produced over fifty documentaries and teleplays for broadcast, several of which have won major awards. He has travelled widely for his productions — throughout Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean and Mexico. His film Fatima was the first nationwide documentary shown in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989. During a NASA fellowship in 1998, he wrote and produced a documentary on the first manned lunar landing. His feature screenplay titled Fools of Time has been optioned by a Los Angeles production company. Currently he is working on a documentary about Graham Greene. He is pictured above at the author’s grave in Vevey, Switzerland.
(4) Film enthusiasts will also look forward to an illustrated talk by Rowan Joffé, the writer and director of Brighton Rock (2010). On the morning of Sunday 3rd October 2010 in Newcroft Lecture Theatre, Berkhamsted School (Hertfordshire, UK) he will speak about “The Re-imagining of Brighton Rock”, and he will show some clips from his film along with still photography. Rowan Joffé's talk replaces the originally advertised talk by Prof. Neil Sinyard, who is indisposed.
(1) The Ministry of Fear (classification: PG) will be screened on the evening of Thursday 30th September at The Rex, Berkhamsted’s beautiful art deco cinema. It will be introduced by Mike Hill, who was director of the Festival from 2005 to 2007. With Jon Wise, he is co-author of a bibliographical and contextual reference book, The Writings of Graham Greene: A Reader’s Guide.
The film is based upon Greene’s 1943 novel of the same name, and it tells the story of a man who, after his release from a mental asylum, finds himself caught up in an international spy ring in London during the Blitz. After guessing the weight of a cake at a fair, he is pursued by foreign agents and incriminated for murder. The film was directed by Fritz Lang, starred Ray Milland and Marjorie Reynolds, and was released in the USA in 1944. It is renowned as a “film noir”, and runs for eighty-six minutes. The original music was composed by Miklos Rozsa and Victor Young.
(2) At the Town Hall, Berkhamsted (Hertfordshire, UK), on the afternoon of Friday 1st October 2010 Mike Hill will give a talk on "Greene and Hitchcock".
The speaker is interested in the superficial biographical dissimilarities between Graham Greene and Alfred Hitchcock, and also a number of similarities, and he sees the parallels between their respective bodies of work. These include their use of autobiographical detail, their willingness to experiment, and their late return to their roots. He considers that their artistic preoccupations were often remarkably similar—an interest in dreams, an involvement with the spy thriller, a recognition of the fragility of civilisation, a serious investigation of matters Catholic, and the development of “ingenious melodramatic situations”. He also sees a cinematic connection between the two and possible influence between their works, and he is aware of Greene’s criticism of Hitchcock’s films in the 1930s and his later lack of admiration for Hitchcock’s work. He regrets the resultant lack of artistic cooperation between the two.
(3) On the evening of Saturday 2nd October 2010 in Deans’ Hall, Berkhamsted School (Hertfordshire, UK) Prof. Thomas O’Connor will give an illustrated talk titled “Double Exposure: Capturing Greene on Film”.
Prof. O'Connor teaches at the School of Media Arts and Design at James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Virginia, USA. He has written and produced over fifty documentaries and teleplays for broadcast, several of which have won major awards. He has travelled widely for his productions — throughout Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean and Mexico. His film Fatima was the first nationwide documentary shown in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989. During a NASA fellowship in 1998, he wrote and produced a documentary on the first manned lunar landing. His feature screenplay titled Fools of Time has been optioned by a Los Angeles production company. Currently he is working on a documentary about Graham Greene. He is pictured above at the author’s grave in Vevey, Switzerland.
(4) Film enthusiasts will also look forward to an illustrated talk by Rowan Joffé, the writer and director of Brighton Rock (2010). On the morning of Sunday 3rd October 2010 in Newcroft Lecture Theatre, Berkhamsted School (Hertfordshire, UK) he will speak about “The Re-imagining of Brighton Rock”, and he will show some clips from his film along with still photography. Rowan Joffé's talk replaces the originally advertised talk by Prof. Neil Sinyard, who is indisposed.
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