Friends of Wallasey Central Library are showing the film Waterfront [1950] this Tuesday. The film is set in the slums of Liverpool and stars Robert Newton, Kathleen Harrison and a young Richard Burton. Waterfront is the first of a series of film nights at the library. We'll be regularly showing films with a Merseyside theme. This is a free event! There will be refreshments and a raffle.
It's one of those films that centres on the lives of people living in Liverpool back in the thirties, but somebody should have told its director that here in Merseyside "we speak with an accent exceedingly rare" so the Beetles wrote. You won't hear a single local accent from any of the cast. In fact the late, great, Robert Newton, the definitive Long John Silver, speaks with a posh southern accent. The rest of the players speak with Mancunian accents is the best way to describe them. Maybe the actors found it too difficult to put on scouse accents, or maybe they felt nobody would understand them if they did. No matter, it's a free evening out and the film contains some interesting footage of Liverpool shot in 1950, back when I was only 4 years old living in our little terraced house a stone's throw from the docks. Sigh!
I've just had a look at the film on Youtube. Brilliant ! As Alonso said - not a Liverpool accent anywhere. Great background shots. Good to see and hear the roar of the Overhead, sights and sounds of the trams, ferries, floating stage etc. All swept away in the name of progress of course !
It would be good to see it on the "big screen", but a bit of a hike from here.
Not having the accent is a good thing in my opinion, it is nothing to be proud of at all. Keep English as English i say, not that i talk it very well but scouse is disgusting as far as i am concerned.
Has anybody seen The Magnet?
Thankyou for the heads up touchstone, would love to attend bit unfortunatly i have other arrangements.
Not having the accent is a good thing in my opinion, it is nothing to be proud of at all. Keep English as English i say, not that i talk it very well but scouse is disgusting as far as i am concerned.
Has anybody seen The Magnet?
Thankyou for the heads up touchstone, would love to attend bit unfortunatly i have other arrangements.
Yes Ste, I have a copy of the Magnet on dvd. I knew one of the lads in it who sadly passed away some years ago.
Yes we went,quite enjoyed it ,was good to see location's as they were eg Lime Street ,Pier Head ,G H Lees , there were more over 70's in the group ,so they remembered more, when we had a discussion at the end.....Any one else go ? we were 'looking 'out for WIKI'S lol
Rude & Missy: Glad you had a good time. I wasn't able to go myself as I was working. We raised about £90 for library too. Probably around 40 people, which is a good crowd.
Alonso, Ste & Pinz: We will be showing a few more films in the coming months with a Wirral or Liverpool setting. Some of them will be a little obscure for many people, but will certainly be of interest for those who like local history.
Rude & Missy: Glad you had a good time. I wasn't able to go myself as I was working. We raised about £90 for library too. Probably around 40 people, which is a good crowd.
I Did wonder where you and Mrs TS where? Guessed you would be working, though. The new blinds look good, I thought and new chairs, too?? Great amount of money raised
Yes, the new chairs are great. It was actually the Wallasey Historical Society that secured the funding for the chairs, so well done to them. We got the blinds though. Very useful when it comes to showing films on sunny days. Especially when the sun is so low in the sky.
Our latest Film Night will be next Tuesday. We'll be showing Violent Playground. A 1958 British film directed by Basil Dearden starring Stanley Baker, Peter Cushing and David McCallum. The film, which deals with the genreof juvenile delinquent, has an explicit social agenda. It owes much to U.S. films of a similar genre.
McCallum's character, in particular, references roles played by James Dean, Marlon Brando, and especially Vic Morrow in Blackboard Jungle. Rock 'n' Roll is presented as a negative influence. In a memorable scene, music appears to put the youths into a trance-like state culminating in McCallum leading a menacing advance on Baker's character.
The film is mainly set in the former Liverpool tenement block Gerard Gardens. There are many shots of North Liverpool and the city centre including Ranelagh Street, Lord Nelson Street and School Lane. A climactic car chase takes in several city centre roads and ends in the Mersey Tunnel.
Time: 7pm Date: Tues 25th March Tickets: FREE
Last edited by Touchstone; 20th Mar 201410:35pm. Reason: Typo
The next film we'll showing at Wallasey Central Library is Beyond This Place [1959]
Based on the novel, of the same name, by A. J. Cronin. It was directed by Jack Cardiff and stars Van Johnson and Vera Miles.
The film tells the story of Paul Mathry, a man who left England for the United States as a child evacuee, and who returns to Liverpool twenty years later. Believing his father, Rees Mathry, had died a war hero, he is shocked to discover he is alive and serving a life sentence in prison for murder. Paul embarks upon his own investigation and finds the true culprit, clearing his father's name.
The film includes many Liverpool location shots including Pier Head, the docks, North Liverpool and the the city centre. The film also includes a visit via a ferry boat to a fictional night club in New Brighton.
The next film we'll be showing is the The Silver Fleet on the 27th May.
Written and directed by Vernon Sewell and Gordon Wellesley and produced by Powell & Pressburger under the banner of The Archers.
In the early years of World War II, the Nazis have overrun the Netherlands and have taken over the shipyard co-owned and run by Jaap van Leyden (Ralph Richardson). The yard was making submarines for the Dutch Navy. The German 'Protector' Von Schiffer (Esmond Knight) demands that they resume making submarines, but for the Nazis. By lowering food rations to starvation point, they induce some of the skilled workers to return to the yard.
The film was shot on location on Merseyside. The shipyard scenes are filmed in Cammell Lairds featuring many of the yard's workers as extras. Port Sunlight Village doubles for the Dutch village.
Friends of Wallasey Central Library Film Club 2014/15 programme:
On Merseyside Season: 30.9.14 These Dangerous Years [1957] 28.10.14 Ferry Cross The Mersey [1965] 25.11.14 Gumshoe [1971] 9.12.14 The Reckoning [1969] 27.1.15 I Thank A Fool [1962] 24.2.15 What's Good For The Goose [1969] 31.3.15 The Clouded Yellow [1951]
Continental Season: 16.9.14 Bicycle Thieves [1948] 14.10.14 Madame De [1953] 11.11.14 World War Film Special: Western Front [1930] 13.1.15 Wages Of Fear [1950] 10.2.15 Pepe Le Moke [1937] 10.3.15 Diary Of A Country Priest [1951] 14.5.15 Tabu [[1931] 12.5.15 Summer With Monika [1953] 9.9.15 Le Plaisir [1952] 13.10.15 Forbidden Games [1952] 10.11.15 La Grande Illusion [1937] 8.12.15 Umberto D [1952]
British Towns & Cities Season: 28.4.15 [Manchester] Hell Is A City [1960] 26.5.15 [Newcastle] Payroll [1961] 29.9.15 [Torbay] The System [1964] 27.10.15 [Rotherham] Tread Softly Stranger [1958] 24.11.15 [London] Night & The City [1950]
Doors open at 7pm. Films start at 7.30pm. All films are FREE!
Our Film Nights resume on the 16th September. We'll be showing the Italian film, Bicycle Thieves [1948]. Doors open at 7pm and film starts at 7.30pm. FREE!
There will be refreshments available, including ice cream and popcorn. All money raised goes back into the library.
The On Merseyside season continues on the 30th September with the Liverpool film These Dangerous Years. The 1957 comedy musical stars Frankie Vaughan, George Baker and Thora Hird. Doors open at 7pm and film starts at 7.30pm. FREE!. There will be refreshments and a raffle.
I came for the first time tonight and watched this and really enjoyed it,I will be coming back. So amazed at how many people were there. Just wanted to ask if you have shown "The Magnet" yet or have I missed it and, if so , will you be showing it again? I hope to be coming to the next showing which is Madame De. Thank You All for this contrbution,and to think I stumbled upon it on this site Awesome !!
joany.. The Magnet has already been shown. Sometime in 2012 at a guess? A brilliant film. Lots of New Brighton, Wallasey and L'pool locations. Filmed early 1950's (?) Sights and sounds of the L'pool Overhead Railway, steam ferry from New Brighton Stage etc.
A lot of received pronunciation - "I say father, do I HAVE to go to school today?" etc. Not a L'pool accent to be heard! I "think" it's out on dvd. Well worth trying to obtain a copy if you can.
I came for the first time tonight and watched this and really enjoyed it,I will be coming back. So amazed at how many people were there. Just wanted to ask if you have shown "The Magnet" yet or have I missed it and, if so , will you be showing it again? I hope to be coming to the next showing which is Madame De. Thank You All for this contrbution,and to think I stumbled upon it on this site Awesome !!
Hi Joany. Thanks for coming last night. Glad you enjoyed it. We had a total of 46 people there. Very pleased with the turnout. I'll find out if we can show The Magnet in the near future as a lot of people have requested it. The Light cinema in New Brighton showed it a few years ago. The place was packed out. Our licence at the library only covers certain films, so I'll have to check if it includes The Magnet. Will post here again when I find out.
Our next Film Night at the library will be the classic French film, 'Madame De' [1953] on the 14th October. It is considered a "masterpiece of 1950s French cinema" and has been highly acclaimed by critics from both sides of the Channel. The story involves Louise, the titular Madame De, a spoiled women who has amassed large debts due to her opulent lifestyle. She has to sell her diamond ear rings, a wedding present from her husband, a General called Andre. This results in much drama and emotional turmoil for a number of people. The film starts at 7.30pm with doors opening at 7pm. As usual, there will be refreshments and a raffle.
Thank You to Zipperclub,Pinzgauer and Touchstone for all of your replies. I had a look at the quick clips and also the links, makes very intriguing viewing trying to guess the locations.I wanted to know if this was going to be shown so I could talk about it with other people. My husband always told me that his friend was in the film and when we watched it together many years ago he said he remembered Wallasey was just like that when he was growing up. His friend played Spike in the film and his name is Keith Robinson, but I don't know if he is still with us, maybe someone will?
Unfortunately, due to industrial action, all Wirral libraries will be closed on the 14th October. This means that our next Film Night event will be cancelled. Our next Film Night will now be on the 28th October. See you there!
Due to the strike now having been postponed, the film 'Madame De' may still be shown on the 14th October. Contact the library for more details. Thanks.
Last edited by Touchstone; 10th Oct 201411:08pm. Reason: Typo
Another date for your diary: our Film Nights continue into October with the 1960s film, Ferry Cross The Mersey.
28/10/14 Ferry Cross The Mersey 1965
Directed by Jeremy Summers, is one of the more uncommon artifacts of the Mersey scene, shown very rarely on television and never issued on video. It was the first to be shot on location in Liverpool after the city's emergence into the music mainstream. Gerry and Fred Marsden, Les McGuire, and Les "Chad" Chadwick portray themselves in a romp through the early 1960's Liverpool Beat Scene. Art students by day and musicians by night the boy's big break comes by winning a local talent contest. Marsden wrote nine new songs for the film which also starred Julie Samuels, Cilla Black, and The Fourmost. The film is shot on location in Liverpool featuring clubs, the old Art School, Seacombe Ferry, River Mersey and city centre.
Doors open at 7pm and film starts at 7.30pm. FREE!
I came for the first time tonight and watched this and really enjoyed it,I will be coming back. So amazed at how many people were there. Just wanted to ask if you have shown "The Magnet" yet or have I missed it and, if so , will you be showing it again? I hope to be coming to the next showing which is Madame De. Thank You All for this contrbution,and to think I stumbled upon it on this site Awesome !!
Hi Joany! We've checked our license and we can show The Magnet. We're just looking for a suitable date to slot it in. It will probably be some time in 2015 and will be FREE to anyone. For those who would like to watch it before then, I believe the Queens pub in Liscard is having a private screening on the 27th. Not sure of the full details but it will be on Facebook somewhere.
The celebrated horror writer Ramsey Campbell presents a special showing of 'I Walked with a Zombie' (1943).
"The most elegant of Val Lewton's low budget horrors for RKO, an imaginative updating of Jane Eyre which anticipates Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea by transposing the action to the Caribbean, with Rochester's first wife not mad but the victim of a voodoo spell.
The script, weaving a delicately intricate web of local superstition around a litany of oblique references to the relativity of good and evil, does wonders in creating an ambiguously unsettling atmosphere. But it is Tourneur's caressingly evocative direction, superbly backed by Roy Hunt's chiaroscuro images, that makes sheer magic of the film's brooding journey into fear by way of voodoo drums, gleaming moonlight, somnambulistic ladies in fluttering white, and dark, silent, undead sentries." (Timeout)
Doors open 2.00pm Film starts 2.15pm Date: 8th Nov Tickets: FREE
The film will be preceded by a short introduction by Ramsey Campbell.
Tonight's Film Night was our most popular yet. We had almost 70 people for 'Ferry Cross The Mersey'. The Film Nights really do seem to be gaining in popularity. We are now looking at the possibility of running regular Saturday Matinees. We will also be screening 'The Magnet' in the near future. We've had so many requests to show this classic Wallasey film. We'll post more details here soon.
Our next film is this Tuesday. We'll be screening the film 'Westfront 1918' [1930]. This is a German film, set mostly in the trenches of the Western Front during World War I. It was directed in 1930 by Georg Wilhelm Pabst, from the novel Vier von der Infanterie by Ernst Johannsen, and deals with the impact of the war on a group of infantrymen. It featured an ensemble cast led by screen veterans Fritz Kampers and Gustav Diessl; Diessl had been a prisoner of war for a year during the war.
Date: 11th November Time: 7.30pm [doors open at 7pm] Tickets: FREE!
Time: 7.30pm [doors open at 7pm] Date: 9th December Tickets: FREE!
"A contemporary and penetrating social drama about a ruthless business executive who returns home to his Liverpudlian roots to investigate his father’s death. Nicol Williamson produces an intense and compelling performance as the reprehensible hero conflicted by his old and new lifestyles – the high-powered London business world he has entered with his middle class life and the working class streets of Liverpool where he came from and which draws him back. This brutal drama about class in Britain was a contemporary production with Up The Junction and Room At The Top and it also preceded Get Carter, but it was in many ways more original and credible."
Film Nights resume at the library with the classic French film, 'Madame De' [1953]. It is considered a "masterpiece of 1950s French cinema" and has been highly acclaimed by critics from both sides of the Channel. The story involves Louise, the titular Madame De, a spoiled women who has amassed large debts due to her opulent lifestyle. She has to sell her diamond ear rings, a wedding present from her husband, a General called Andre. This results in much drama and emotional turmoil for a number of people. The film starts at 7.30pm with doors opening at 7pm. As usual, there will be refreshments and a raffle.
I Thank A Fool is a 1962 British crime film made by Eaton (De Grunwald Productions) and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed by Robert Stevens and produced by Anatole de Grunwald from a screenplay by Karl Tunberg based on the novel by Audrey Erskine Lindop. The film stars Susan Hayward and Peter Finch with Diane Cilento and Cyril Cusack. Also in the cast are Kieron Moore, Richard Wattis, Athene Seyler, Miriam Karlin, Laurence Naismith, J. G. Devlin, Clive Morton, Richard Leech and Brenda De Banzie.
It was filmed in places including New Brighton and Liverpool.
Our next Film Night is the neo-realist Italian film, Umberto D [1952]. Most of the actors were non-professional, including Carlo Battisti, who plays the title role of Umberto Domenico Ferrari, a poor old man in Rome desperately trying to keep his room. His landlady (Lina Gennari) is evicting him, and his only true friends, the housemaid (Maria-Pia Casilio) and his dog Flike (called 'Flag' in some subtitled versions of the film) are of no help. The movie was included in "Time Magazine's All-Time 100 Movies" in 2005.
It is a wonderful film, Chris. Everyone who came really enjoyed it. Not the most upbeat of pictures though. The scene at end in which Umberto almost kills himself and his dog had most of the audience flinching.
Our next Film Night is Tuesday 24th February. We'll be showing a Norman Wisdom picture called 'What's Good For The Goose' [1969]. This film is quite a curiosity as it's quite different to a usual Norman Wisdom film. He plays a 50-something assistant bank manager called Timothy Bartlett whose marriage has become lacklustre. When he goes to a banker's conference in a coastal town he meets a fun-loving female student called Nikki (Sally Geeson) with whom he has a brief affair and abandons his work responsibilities to have a perfect day with her having fun taking in all the seaside attractions and recapturing his youthful energy. It is one of the few films set in Southport and includes some fascinating shots of the resort in the 1960s. It also includes a few scenes of a more adult nature. Although a curiosity, it's also a good film in its own right. It will make for a very enjoyable evening. This also concludes our 'On Merseyside' season.
Our next Film Night is tomorrow. We'll be showing the classic French film 'Diary Of A Country Priest' [1951]. Diary of a Country Priest (original French title: Journal d'un curé de campagne) is a 1951 French film written and directed by Robert Bresson, and starring Claude Laydu. It was closely based on the novel of the same name by Georges Bernanos. Published in 1936, the novel received the Grand prix du roman de l'Académie française. It tells the story of a young, sickly priest, who has been assigned to his first parish, a village in northern France. The film was lauded for the debut performance by Laydu, called one of the greatest in the history of film. It won numerous awards, including the Grand Prize at the Venice International Film Festival, and the Prix Louis Delluc.
Our next Film Night is tomorrow. We'll be showing the 1960s film 'Catch Us If You Can' [1965]. It was the feature-film debut of director John Boorman. It was designed as a vehicle for pop band The Dave Clark Five, whose popularity at the time almost rivaled that of The Beatles, and named after their hit song "Catch Us If You Can".
Our next film is The 400 Blows (French: Les Quatre Cents Coups) is a 1959 French drama film, the debut by director François Truffaut; it stars Jean-Pierre Léaud, Albert Rémy, and Claire Maurier. One of the defining films of the French New Wave, it displays many of the characteristic traits of the movement. Filmed on location in Paris and Honfleur, it is the first in a series of five films in which Léaud plays the semi-autobiographical character.
13-year-old Antoine (Jean-Pierre Léaud) can't seem to do anything right. His dysfunctional parents yell at him, his spiteful schoolteacher picks on him and luck just never goes his way. Despite his efforts at patience, one day it all becomes too much and Antoine throws in the towel, choosing to take his chances on the Paris streets.
'Hell Is a City' is a 1960 film based on the novel by Maurice Procter. It was made by British studio Hammer Film Productions filmed in Manchester it was also written and directed by Val Guest. It was partly inspired by the British New Wave films. Committed but seen-it-all police Inspector Martineau [Stanley Baker] rightly guesses that after a violent jailbreak a local criminal will head home to Manchester to pick up the spoils from his last job. Martineau is soon investigating a murder during a street robbery which seems to lead back to the same villain. Concentrating on the case and using his local contacts to try to track the gang down, he is aware he is not keeping his own personal life together as well as he might.
Date: Tues 28th April Time: 7.30pm Tickets: FREE![i][/i]
Breathless (French: À bout de souffle; "out of breath") is a 1960 French film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard about a wandering criminal (Jean-Paul Belmondo) and his American girlfriend (Jean Seberg). It was Godard's first feature-length work and represented Belmondo's breakthrough as an actor.
Breathless was one of the earliest, most influential examples of the French New Wave (nouvelle vague). Together with François Truffaut's The 400 Blows and Alain Resnais's Hiroshima, Mon Amour, both released a year earlier, it brought international acclaim to this new style of French filmmaking. At the time, the film attracted much attention for its bold visual style and the innovative use of jump cuts.
Date: 12th May Time: 7.30pm FREE!
There will be a raffle and there will also be wine available.
Tomorrow's Film Night is the 1961 North East thriller 'Payroll'. The film was shot in around Newcastle and Gateshead and stars Michael Craig and Francoise Prevost.
"Four crooks (Johnny Mellors, Monty, Blackie and Bert) plan and execute a robbery on a payroll van, using the inside knowledge of Dennis Pearson, who works as an accountant at the firm concerned. Pearson is under pressure to support his wife Katie (Françoise Prévost) who demands a higher standard of living. However, the van driver, Harry Parker, is killed during the heist, whilst Bert is fatally wounded by Parker's colleague Frank Moore. Nevertheless, the gang manage to get away with £100,000."
Here is our Film Night programme for 2015/16. All films start at 7.30pm and are FREE!
8/9/15 Continental Season: Summer With Monika (1953) 29/9/15 British Seaside Season: The Magnet (1950) 6/10/15 French Season: A Toute de Suite (2004) 27/10/15 London Season: West 11 (1961) 10/11/15 French Season: La Grande Illusion (1937) 24/10/15 British Seaside Season: The System (1964) 8/12/15 French Season: Le Mepris (1963) 12/1/16 London Season: Night & The City (1950) 26/1/16 British Seaside Season: The Entertainer (1960) 9/2//16 French Season: Last Year In Marienbad (1960) 23/2/16 London Season: Small World Of Sammy Lee (1963) 8/3/16 British Seaside Season: The Punch & Judy Man (1963) 29/3/16 French Season: Cite des Enfants Perdus (1995) 12/4/16 London Season: It Always Rains On Sundays (1947) 26/4/16 British Seaside Season: Quadrophenia (1979) 10/5/16 French Season: Angel-A (2005) 24/5/16 London Season: Nothing But The Best (1963) 8/9/16 British Seaside Season: The Fruit Machine (1988) 27/9/16 French Season: Buffet Froid (1979) 11/10/16 London Season: Blow-Up (1966) 25/10/16 French Season: Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) 8/11/16 British Seaside Season: Oh! What A Lovely War (1969) 29/11/16 London Season: Frenzy (1972) 8/12/16 French Season: Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
Our Film Nights return tomorrow [Tuesday] with the Swedish classic, Summer With Monika [1953]. The film, directed by Ingmar Bergman, sparked controversy abroad for its frank description of nudity. Along with 'One Summer Of Happiness' the year before it helped to create the reputation of Sweden as a sexually liberated place. The film made a star of the leading actress, Harriet Andersson. Bergman had been intimately involved with Anderson at the time and conceived the film as a vehicle for her. The two of them would continue to work together, even after their romantic relationship had ended.
For our next Film Club show, we will be showing by popular request The Magnet 1950 as part of a British Seaside season of films
The Magnet is a 1950 Ealing Studios comedy film, and gave James Fox his first starring role. The story revolves around a young Wallasey boy, Johnny Brent (Fox), whose deceptive obtaining of a magnet leads to confusion and ultimately him being hailed as a hero, but feeling guilt at his slyness.
The Magnet was filmed on location in and around New Brighton, Wirral, Cheshire and Liverpool, and at Ealing Studios, London, in black and white.
Please note that we will be showing a recent digitally restored version of the film. If you haven't seen this film before then you are in for a treat seeing Merseyside in 1950. If you know the film then it is worth seeing again for the newly restored version which has much better print quality than previous versions on DVD, VHS video and TV.
Our Film Night tonight is the 2004 French thriller, A Toute De Suite. "In 1975, a young bourgeois woman falls in love with a bank robber. She follows him and his partner on the run after a bank heist resulted in a death and hostage taking. Using fake IDs, they leave Paris and travel to Spain, Morocco, and Greece."
Our next Film Night is the 1961 Michael Winner crime thriller 'West 11'. The film features Alfred Lynch, Kathleen Breck, Eric Portman, Diana Dors, and Kathleen Harrison. Set in West London, the title is taken from the postcode W11, and it was filmed on location in Notting Hill.
Please note the new start time of 6pm. There will be a raffle and teas and coffees available. All money raised goes back into the library. Everyone is welcome!
Tomorrow night's Film Night is the British-Italian 1966 film Blow Up, directed by Michelangelo Antonioni about a fashion photographer, played by David Hemmings, who believes he has unwittingly captured a murder on film. It was Antonioni's first entirely English-language film.
The film also stars Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles, John Castle, Jane Birkin, Tsai Chin and Gillian Hills as well as sixties model Veruschka.
It's Film Night again tomorrow. We'll be showing 1964 British film, The System. It was called the Girl-Getters in the US. The film stars Oliver Reed, Jane Merrow and was directed by Michael Winner. "A handsome, jaded photographer tutors his friends in fine points of seducing and abandoning beautiful young women in this cynical British comedy. These lessons come back to haunt him when one of his friends, overcome with jealousy, uses the same techniques to plot the photographer's downfall."
Our Film Nights resume for 2016 tonight. We'll be showing the underated British thriller, Night & The City [1950] "Night & The City is a 1950 British film noir directed by Jules Dassin and starring Richard Widmark, Gene Tierney and Googie Withers. It is based on the novel of the same name by Gerald Kersh. Shot on location in London and at Shepperton Studios, the plot revolves around an ambitious hustler whose plans keep going wrong."
Our next Film Night is tomorrow evening. We'll be showing 'The Entertainer'. Filmed on location in Morecambe, this 1960 drama was directed by Tony Richardson, based on the stage play of the same name by John Osborne. It stars Laurence Olivier as a failing third-rate music-hall stage performer who tries to keep his career going even as the music -hall tradition fades into history and his personal life falls apart. The theme is considered to be an allegory for the decay of Great Britain in the 1950's. Olivier, reprising his mesmerising stage performance in the same role, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
This 1962 comedy has been chosen for National Libraries Day because it's set in a library! Based on the novel 'That Uncertain Feeling' by Kingsley Amis, the film is directed by Sidney Gilliat from Bryan Forbes' screenplay. Peter Sellers stars as a bored, hen-pecked library worker. When he seeks promotion, Liz, wife of a local councillor [Mai Zetterling] sets her sights on him. But this is risky stuff in a Welsh valleys town - if they manage to consummate their affair, that is!
Saturday 6th February 2.30pm FREE!
There will also be a coffee morning 10-12 to raise money for the library. We'll have lots of homemade cakes to buy. Come along and meet some of the Friends. There'll be lots of books for sale too.[i][/i]
L'Année dernière à Marienbad (released in the US as Last Year at Marienbad and in the UK as Last Year in Marienbad) is a 1961 French film directed by Alain Resnais from a screenplay by Alain Robbe-Grillet.
Last Year at Marienbad is famous for its enigmatic narrative structure, in which truth and fiction are difficult to distinguish, and the temporal and spatial relationship of the events is open to question. The film's dreamlike nature has both fascinated and baffled viewers; many have hailed the work as a masterpiece, while others consider it incomprehensible.
The next film in our London series is the excellent and little known Small World Of Sammy Lee - a 1963 British crime film directed by Ken Hughes and starring Anthony Newley, Julia Foster and Robert Stephens. A peep-show compere is hunted across the seedy underworld of London by debt collectors. A relentlessly paced film with some great acting shot on location in Soho and Whitechapel.
Tuesday 23rd February. Doors open at 5.45pm - film starts 6.00pm.
We will be showing a Saturday matinee this weekend. It's part of our short Matinee Season. If it's popular, we may look to extend the number of films we show on a Saturday.
'I'm All Right Jack' [1959] British comedy film directed and produced by John and Roy Boulting. The film is a sequel to the Boultings' 1956 film Private's Progress and Ian Carmichael, Dennis Price, Richard Attenborough, Terry-Thomas and Miles Malleson reprise their characters. Peter Sellers played one of his best-known roles, as the trades union shop steward Fred Kite and won a Bafta Best Actor Award. The film is a satire on British industrial life in the 1950s. The trade unions, workers and bosses are all seen to be incompetent or corrupt to varying degrees. The film is one of a number of satires made by the Boulting Brothers between 1956 and 1963.'
Sat 27th Feb 2.30pm FREE!
12/3/2016 'The Rebel' (Tony Hancock)
19/3/2016 'The Man Who Fell To Earth' (David Bowie) please note will have to start at 2.15 as 137 minutes in length.
Next film up at Wallasey Central Library is something special! We are showing the digitally restored version of Roeg's The Man Who Fell to Earth. The Man Who Fell to Earth is a 1976 British science fiction drama film directed by Nicolas Roeg and written by Paul Mayersberg, based on Walter Tevis' 1963 novel of the same name, about an extraterrestrial who crash lands on Earth seeking a way to ship water to his planet, which is suffering from a severe drought.The film maintains a strong cult following for its use of surreal imagery and its performances by David Bowie (in his first starring film role), Candy Clark, and Hollywood veteran Rip Torn.
The next film up in the French Season at our regular Tuesday night Film Club is the wonderful La cité des enfants perdus ( The City of Lost Children).
A 1995 French-German-Spanish science fantasy drama film directed by Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet and starring Ron Perlman. The film is stylistically related to the previous and subsequent Jeunet films, Delicatessen and Amélie. Tuesday March 29th 2016 Film starts at 6.00pm, Doors open at 5.45pm Refreshments and raffle.
Bit short notice this but here's tonight's Film Night.
Next film up is something special for our British Seaside season - the director's cut of Quadrophenia. A 1979 film, loosely based on the 1973 rock opera of the same name by The Who. The film stars Phil Daniels as Jimmy, a young 1960s London-based Mod who escapes from his dead-end job as a mailroom boy by dancing, partying, taking amphetamines, riding his scooter and brawling with the motorcycle-riding Rockers. After he and his friends participate in a huge brawl with the Rockers at the seaside town of Brighton, he is arrested and his life starts to spiral out of control; he loses his girlfriend (Leslie Ash) and discovers that his idol, the popular mod nicknamed "Ace Face" (Sting) is actually a bell boy at a hotel. Please note that the film has an 18 certificate and has adult themes.
Film Starts at 5.45 (due to 120 mins length) Tuesday 26th April 2016 FREE
This Saturday see the start of our regular Film Club Matinees for the Winter. We will be showing 10 classic British films from the 1950s/1960s.
The first film in the season is Taste of Honey (1961) directed by Tony Richardson. The film is an example of a gritty genre of British film that has come to be called kitchen sink realism.
5th November Doors open 2.15pm Film starts 2.30pm FREE!
Below is a list of the films in the Matinee season:
12/11/2016 A Kind of Loving 1962 19/11/2016 The Third Man 1949 26/11/2016 Kes 1969 3/12/2016 Whisky Galore 1949 10/12/2016 Far From The Madding Crowd 1967 14/1/2017 Billy Liar 1963 21/1/2017 School For Scoundrels 1960 28/1/12017 The Lady Killers 1955 4/2/2017 This Sporting Life 1963[/i][i][i][/i]
Next film in our Tuesday night season is Oh! What A Lovely War (1969). The film summarises and comments on the events of the First World War using popular songs of the time, many of which were parodies of older popular songs, and using allegorical settings such as Brighton's West Pier to criticise the manner in which the eventual victory was won.
Directed by Richard Attenborough with an ensemble cast including Maggie Smith, Dirk Bogarde, John Gielgud, John Mills, Kenneth More, Laurence Olivier, Jack Hawkins, Corin Redgrave, Michael Redgrave, Vanessa Redgrave, Ralph Richardson etc
Tuesday 8th November 2016 Doors open 5.45pm Film starts 6.00pm Admission FREE!
Our next Saturday Matinee is the 1962 British drama A Kind Of Loving, directed by John Schlesinger. It stars Alan Bates and June Ritchie as two lovers in 1960s Lancashire. Filming locations included the towns of Preston, Blackburn, Bolton, Salford, Manchester, Radcliffe and St Anne's-on-sea in the north-west of England.
The film belongs to the British New Wave movement in film, and the related genre commonly known as "kitchen sink drama".
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